A Summer Of Fun

Summer 2012 Bucket List: Complete

I've always grown up as a person who hated summer. But before you judge me, I should make myself clear and say that summers for me while growing up involved near 50°C temperatures on a daily basis with unpleasantly hot and sticky weather, so naturally, I hated the sight of summer.

Of course, now, summer seems like a pleasant thing after all. I've just put my first Canadian summer behind me and while the joy of returning to school may haunt me in a few months, the summer most definitely will not. I've heard about the rage that barbecues create in this country and now that I am the proud owner of one myself, I'm not sure if I fall under the category of enthusiast or bandwagoner. Perhaps someone would like to clarify.

Jokes aside, I really looked forward to my first taste at a 'Canadian summer.' I was excited, naturally, and the suspense would kill me each passing day while I was holidaying back home in India: golf, baseball, barbecues, the possibility of meeting Corey Perry,  all of this was indeed in the cards back in April. And then it so happened that the London Knights won the OHL title and there I was, probably the only guy in India who was actually celebrating, which made me realize how out of place I really was. "Keep cricket to India and hockey to Canada," is what I told myself.

Fast forward a month and my dreams of becoming the next superstar on the PGA tour took a backseat. It seems like everyone in Canada, from businessmen to the biggest NHL superstars, all fancy their hand at golf, but alas, I've yet to discover why. Perhaps next summer, eh?

London has been great to me, it really has. It's been my home from over a year now and was also the place where I watched my first hockey, baseball and football games. But there is something that beats all of that combined: meeting Corey Perry at Labatt Park during Drew Doughty's charity softball tournament. I know some of you might despise Perry, but for a kid from well beyond the pond, I'd call that a pretty awesome and nerveracking moment; a moment that sort of makes up for the disappointment of being told that not being Canadian was the reason why I couldn't apply for a summer work study position at Fanshawe. I can now only imagine how much different life might have been if I had I been working at 106.9 TheX or for the Interrobang, but that's not something that really matters now that summer is gone and winter draws ever so near.

Summer 2012 is almost complete, and since it was my first Canadian summer, I can safely say that it will always remain special to me. It's interesting to see how people do things here in Canada, and yes, they are different than things we did back home. Studying abroad is a great learning experience, I'm glad I could do it. It's great to be writing for the Interrobang again, and I can't wait to meet new people in the halls of Fanshawe.

Originally Written for the Interrobang: http://www.fsu.ca/interrobang_article.php?storyID=8602&sectionID=3&issueID=206
Image Credit: Spencer Gowan

Remembering Rusty...

RIP Rusty. Heaven has a new defennder

I always grew up as a sports lover. In fact, sports’ broadcasting is what I want to get into in future. Hailing from India, football (or soccer, depends where you’re from) was always my main sport so to speak. I grew up as a forward, moving to goalkeeper in grade seven, which I consider, to this day, as the best decision I ever made in my short life so far.

Now, being a fan of soccer didn’t stop me from following other sports – baseball, basketball, ice hockey, rugby and motorsport. Yes, I was quite the sports junkie, but I’ll save that for another article. Growing up, in 2002 as I turned ten, I chanced upon EA Sports NHL 2002. Intrigued, I bought it, paying a hefty sum back then, which was money well spent in my opinion (that is if you can count the opinion of a ten year old.) Naturally, a sports game means pick our favourite team and I was still quite the rookie at hockey and hockey teams. I picked the Ducks, I don’t know why and to this day, I’m still a Ducks fan, always will be a Ducks fan.

Anyway, I’ve deflected enough away from the idea of penning down my thoughts here. That 2002 Ducks roster is something I still cherish almost a decade later. The players, Paul Kariya, Steve Rucchin, Vitaly Vishnevsky, Oleg Tverdovsky, Jean-Sebastien Gigure and one Ruslan Salei were all name I grew up with as a rookie to the hockey world. What was added to the mix was this friend of mine, who randomly, just like how I did, began to follow the Buffalo Sabres and lo, a rivalry was formed. A rivalry between two ten year olds thousands of miles away from America.

Fast forward a decade and my passion for hockey has grown. I’ve even moved to Canada for college, a decision that brings me into the country that is hockey crazy! It’s like paradise. But, this piece is not about my joyous days in Paradise, it’s about another tragic event that occurred days after I reached Canada. I’m referring to the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl plane crash that is fast approaching the two month anniversary (November 7^th, 2011.) Amongst those players killed was one of my childhood favourites – Ruslan Salei. I was gutted, much like the hockey world was. Ruslan Salei gone in the blink of an eye. The ‘Paradise’ I was referring to, gone instantly. “Former Kings forward Pavol Demitra and former Ducks defenseman Ruslan Salei were among 43 people killed when a plane carrying a Russian hockey league team crashed shortly after takeoff on Wednesday, Russian officials have confirmed.” This was the headline I saw in the afternoon of September 7^th. You could imagine what went through me as I saw this. Many of the players killed, I later discovered, were young and raring to give professional hockey a shot. “Nipped in the bud”, nothing else really describes this tragedy better. “Salei, 36, was selected ninth overall by the Ducks in the 1996 draft and played the first nine seasons of his NHL career in Anaheim. The Belarus native played with the Detroit Red Wings last year. Video footage from the site of the crash showed a disfigured and burning bulk of the plane cabin towering from the shallow waters of the Volga close to the shore. Rescue workers were seen cautiously approaching the still-burning wreckage by boat.”

"They were both special in their own way," Red Wings defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom said of Salei and head coach Brad McCrimmon, (who was also killed in the crash). "Rusty was a team player and played well for us." To be honest with you, I’m at a loss of words here and I really don’t want to drag this piece on. I’ll leave you with a video I found on YouTube which I feel will substantially summarize my thoughts and my feelings at this moment.

Salei finished his NHL career with 45 goals, 204 points and 1,065 penalty minutes in 917 regular-season games. He added 7 goals, 16 points and 52 penalty minutes in 62 playoff games, along with a plus-15 rating.

“Rest In Peace Rusty”

Image Credit: http://2.cdn.nhle.com/ducks/images/upload/gallery/2011/09/56396536_std.jpg
Quotes Credit: http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=587852

Video Credit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6FVQ70X4Sg

PS: Wade Belak, Derek Boogard and Rick Rypien featured in the tribute video were not killed in the accident, but tragically passed away in the summer of 2011. Rest In Peace.