The Law of the Airport

If flying to anyplace involves one of the 6 metro aiports at any side of the
travel - then the probablity of not meeting someone you know is as about as low
as the chances of Venkatesh Prasad bowling 100mph delivery.

"Warne"ing Bells Toll

Logically if you did drugs as a sportsman – you would be a disgrace. Logically if you were banned from the game for a year – you would be an untouchable. Logically if you were caught exchanging smses with hookers and your ruined your private life – you would be hated. It is possibly a tribute to arguably the best bowler in the world ever that in spite of all indiscretions he remains one of the game’s best loved and respected players. But then again if you have the charm and the guile of Shane Warne, it’s hardly a surprise.

Logically if you made your debut against Indians in Sydney and had just a wicket to your name for 150 odd runs, you would be demoralised. But if you are Shane Warne your next 142 tests will fetch you 698 more scalps. If you were a bowler coming in after the likes of McGrath and Gillespie and Lee had done their spells, you would hardly have any wickets to take but if you are Shane Warne you end up as the world’s highest wicket taker.

Shane Warne. As an Indian cricket fan, I haven’t followed Aussie cricket too often. So I can have only read about some of his famous spells. Having watched Warne bowl in patches, this tribute to him will always be a little hollow. But for an Indian fan to write a tribute about Shane goes to say a lot about his lovability and greatness as a bowler. The fact that people all over the world will be disappointed about his retirement decision – at age 37 at that – speaks a lot about what Warne was to the game.

Very few bowlers possess the ability to bring crowds to the stadium just to seem them bowl – the chances of that bowler being a spinner even more remote. However Warne holds that ability easily. The thrills of watching him fool a batsman – not just through that one wicket taking delivery but the whole set of deliveries before that crucial one slips in. Apart from being the master bowler – he is also one of the biggest showmen of the game. Guile, talent and histrionics – the whole package.


The unbelievable look of shock and surprise on the face of a batsman when what he thought was a well left ball pitching way outside leg stump has actually spun wickedly and crashed into an unsuspecting off-stump while the batsman was shouldering arms expecting the ball to go down for 4 byes.
For the life of me I can never erase the image of a shocked MSK Prasad on that ill fated tour of Australia in 1999 (The 3-0 loss for India). For a minute MSK did not move from his spot – he couldn’t believe that it was legal or allowed for a ball to turn that much from behind his legs. He was convinced that the keeper was up to some mischief. There was mischief indeed but only in the eyes of Warne after he had delivered that ripper.

For me personally, it was Ashes 2005 that made me an unreserved fan of his. Australia lost but for Warne it was a personal triumph. Not just with the ball where he threatened to win near un-winnable matches on his own with very little backup but also with the bat where again he threatened to win near un-winnable matches with his bat in this case he had the company of the trusty Aussie tail. It’s not often that one supports Australia for any match but purely for that one man – you would want Australia to pull it off. They did not and in weird way it seems good as otherwise Warne would have retired then but he stayed on to fight back and earn the little urn back.

Shane Warne has been a supreme magician in the game. He will be remembered for his umpteen well thought out wickets. For an Indian, he will be remembered for being the easy meat he was for Sachin and VVS and Sidhu. The humility of Warne though shone through when he stood in line to take Sachin’s autograph after the Sharjah assault.

Before the start of the current series and even before the retirement announcement, I would have hated to see Aussie win 5-0. But if there is ever a sendoff that a guy of Warne’s calibre deserves – it is a thumping 5-0 win to see him off into retirement.

In your face

I think thats the official term. As i write this Team India are a wicket away from scripting a glorious victory in Dakshin Afrika. To all the critics - this is as fitting a reply as any could be to those critics who wrote them off.

A south african cricket website apparently has a poll to predict the score line. It has the options 1-0; 2-0; 3-0 all in favour of SA. Again the technical term is "In your face"

Ofcourse this win has also meant that i am now the proud winner of a dairy milk chocolate. It pays to always bet on the Indian team. With their extremes - the odds will always be against them and in the long run you would always make more money.

But this article is not about the money. Its about a victory. Its about a victory which qualifies as a brilliant team effort. Its about a victory which had some brilliant individual moments. Its about a victory that had drama, comedy, suspense and twists and turns. Damnit! We have won our first match in SA. It is HUGE. As huge as it gets. Congratulations to the super performance.

I had mentioned earlier that we were probably just one good knock or match away from turning the tables. In this case - the fightback probably started when we lasted the full 50 in the final ODI and then going on to win the match v/s the Rest of Dakshin Afrika. The SA strategy of playing the Indians on bouncy fast bowler friendly pitches to ensure that the batsmen couldnt get in probably backfired with the bowlers gaining confidence. And which fool actually decides to underestimate an Indian batting lineup that includes Sachin, Rahul, Sehwag, Saurav and VVS? Really which fool does that ???

Apparently the South Africans did. What was immediately concluded as a feeble show on day1 when we were 156/5 was actually an exercise in application and patience by Sach, Rahul, Dada and VVS. But what really brought India back was 2 innings - one a fighting for life one by Dada and second - a more funny slam bam thank u ma'am by VRV. That knock had the whole dressing room laughing and in a positive mood. And it showed.

My moment of the match though has to be Sreesanths riposte to Nel. Singularly the most funny moment in cricket that I have seen to date. Again the technical term "In your face"

The Indian team was never bad - just out of form. When they do get back to form they can be devastating. The South Africans now know.

Let me end with the joke of the match. After day 1; Kallis "I dont think there is much wrong with the pitch, We are only disappointed that the bounce is a little less than usual. I think we will wrap them up tomm and put a huge score on the board and put them under pressure in the 2nd Inning"

Some big score. Some pressure!

Dhoom Dvitiya

They had a limited budget. They spent on the actor salaries and the stunts and the locations. They couldnt afford a storywriter. They couldnt afford a good music composer. Hence the only good song in the movie was adapted from last time.

Learnings for the day -

1. You can be a sitting duck for 10 henchmen to shoot you but if you are the hero you can travel to the henchmen in a straight line and ur charisma is enuff to cast a magnetic field to deflect the bullets. Atleast that seems to be the only explanation for so many bullets missing their target.
2. You thank your stars that you watched the movie at Innovative as opposed to Inox. 130 bucks saved can go a long way.

Front Foot Defensive

It was one slower ball that probably changed the course of our fortunes. Dwayne Bravo to a Yuvraj in form and what looked like a brilliantly fought for victory turned into the narrowest of defeats. It was one of those moments. These moments count for a lot in cricket. But that was probably the moment where India slipped - a moment that started to weigh heavy on their confidence and their intent. A 17 match streak ended and doubts crept in. Since then its been downhill.

But before we get into a "abuse-overpaid-players-and-experimenting-coach" mode -lets just for a moment consider what was a purple patch. We had Yuvraj playing the best that he ever had. Dravid was his usual consistent self. Sachin made injury-free guest appearances where he played well. Sehwag fired from time to time, Pathan rocked both with the ball and the bat and Dhoni was well Dhoni.

Now its the same set of players really - almost all out of form and ofcourse out of form players dont win matches. Out of form players with their confidences dented by what seemed to be only a slower ball really dont get around to winning matches easily. Who do we have on the bench? Raina, Mongia and a host of no name no performance players. Lets just accept the fact that wehave no backups - we have no one to bat if any one of our frontline guys go. The option is probably going back to tried and tested old guys. But thats for another day.

However the core set is still the same. In cricket usually if the core set fires, the fringe players derive confidence from the form of the core guys and start supporting the core in-form guys. So perhaps when the moment comes when Sachin Dravid Sehwag Dhoni fire - atleast 2 of them in a match, you got to betthat the fringe guys might chip in with a crucial 20 and maybe we might getback to winning. However we are just that one match away from turningconfidence and forms for the better. Atleast in that case the short term is better.

But the long term is really grim. Even if we do go back to VVS and Dada to bolster the middle order - what next? All these guys are in their 30s and lets face it they wont be playing for long. Do we really have any quality batsmen tore place them?

Supporting India is always an exhiliarating experience. Its more fun if you stick through the thick and thin for no other team with the prominent exception of Pakistan can give the variety of highs and lows of Indian cricket. You win 17 in a row chasing - you lose many on a trot. Indian Cricket for me will always be the rollercoaster ride i look forward to in an entertainment park.

Champions Tumble

Its disappointing that we lose. More disappointing that we lose and cant make it to the finals of a tournament I can get free tickets for. Life is tough at times!

However the media will be out with its knives and villans will be created readily. It would be funny if I was not so crazy about the sport. Questions will be asked about captaincy coach and players and the advts they do. We do everything but accept the downside with the upside that our team gives us. Life is tough at times!

I know I am boring - hence will leave this post to be picked up in a better way later. I have to rant about the umpires and the ICC. But thats for later.

Anonymous Defenders

Some 4 months after my post on Quota System (http://pushkarsblog.blogspot.com/2006/04/quota-system.html), somebody actually responded to it. Ofcourse this person being the anonymous nameless faceless thing he/she is, commented on one of the trivial points in the post - that of Gagan Khoda being a entry into the cricket team due to the zonal quota.

I quote the comment verbatim

"Gagan Khoda, a right-hand opening batsman from Rajasthan, enjoyed an outstanding junior career before making a century on debut in the Ranji Trophy in 1991-92. A score of 237 in the Ranji quarter-final in 1994-95 further established him as a promising youngster. He represented India in two one-day internationals and scored a wonderful 89 against Kenya. He scored 26 in the other match. He was probably the best of the new openers which India had tried out. He also played in the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Malaysia, without much impact.

Dear Pushkar he is the only player to have scored 300 Runs in Dileep trophy and not played test matches for india that too against South Zone consisting of Srinath Kumble Venkatesh Prasad attack.

hope you do your home work properly"

Now this comment left me in a difficult position. I hate to be in a place where I have a thousand retorts forming at the back of my head and then no one to direct them at - such are the challenges a anonymous faceless (lets get dramatic and call it wajood-less (WL) shall we?) comment presents. So I chose to answer it with another post in the hope that this WL character might come back to my blog and read.

So first things first - the first para is a straight lift from cricinfo - the players page which has a brief description about the player. Hmmm so Mr. Khoda distinguished himself with a well made 89 against Kenya. Yeah major resume point that. Highlight of my career - a brilliant 89 against the fearsome gruesome looking Kenyan attack (yeah black can be a scary colour under lights - damn i hope i dont get sued for racism for this) and then followed it up with a solid 26 against Bangladesh who have had their glorious moments against past world champions. Aah such heart warming accomplishments these! Ofcourse i screwed up in the Commonwealth games but then those matches werent official and hence i dint put in my best - So bloody what if i was representing the country huh?

Being somewhat of a cricket fan and being one who can use the internet a bit - i obviously went to the cricinfo page to turn in my homework late. Ah the price one pays for writing by gut as opposed to actual stats. So then I ran the stats guru for our man Khoda
Here is what turned up.


M I no Runs HS Average 100 50
First Class 114 194 7 7324 300* 39.16 16 37
List A 119 119 7 4487 166* 40.06 10 27

Call me crazy but really i remain to be impressed. This is domestic cricket we are talking about - Indian pitches that arent a bowlers paradise least of all a fast bowlers paradise and an opener generally faces the quicker guys. An average of 39.16 might not be bad but it hardly distinguishes anyone

On the other hand a lad named Amol Mujumdar who plays for Mumbai and never got a lookin for India carries the following averages

First Class 51.17
List A 41.57

Life isnt fair really is it ?

The point is that one really cant look at a players at a stand alone basis. Well Khoda might have been good but was he better than others who did not get that chance to play for India. I love the dramatic but really wearing the blue and the India Cap is an honour which shouldnt be distributed unless that person is the most deserving of the lot.
Getting 95% in an exam is good but if its a qualifying exam for 10 seats - it may not be good enough if 15 others have 98%.

So Khoda hit a triple hundred - awesome stuff. But does that mean a place in the side for him automatically? Do i hear people rooting to get Dizzy Gillespie as a permanent number 3 batsman because he hit a double - in a test match too no less!

Well the fact is that at that point there were players better than Khoda who dint get a look in. It doesnt make Khoda good or bad but the system disallowed better performers to be in the team.

So my dear Anonymous poster (yeah i am using your writing style here), please feel free to comment to the contrary but this time do have the balls to mention your name. I welcome a debate on cricket anytime of the year unless ofcourse I am watching a Sachin special.

Pleasant Surprises

It was 20th Oct and I was back home. Out in the market - this time not visiting retailers on HLL duty but doing the same on Mom duty, buying some chicken to be eaten for lunch.
Dad calls up and asks - I have 2 pavillion passes for the NZ-SL Champions trophy match - u wanna go?
Hmmm i say, would i sit at home and fart or would i rather go watch a day and night international match?
Tough decision but then what is life if it isnt even this challenging huh?

So predictably i said YES - all who thought otherwise and read this blog please put your hands up. Fine maybe i shouldnt be using the "read this blog" condition - not the best way to retain the already rare readers of my blog.

But anyway i rush out from my home just as the match is about to start with believe it or not NO company with me - my friends are either working or out of mumbai that day. Such is Life!
But nevertheless i manage to make it to the stadium (after collecting tickets) only to realise that these arent pavillion tickets. One should have been really disappointed with that but really one cant argue with free tickets that seat you right over the sightscreen opposite the pavillion.

So that was it - NZ were 60/3 in the 17th over or so and they crawled and they crawled and they crawled. The bright point was one Murali who bowled a splendid spell and regaled the crowd with wickets. How the crowd found wickets more intersting than runs is beyond me but then to each his own i guess. It was 118/9 and death for NZ till Patel and Vet played sensibly
Vettori finally blew some life into the stadium with an assault on Vaas - 19 runs in an over is always good to watch unless you are Vaas in this case.

The second inning was more entertaining with Jaya(s) and Tharanga playing well. The Jaya(s) include both of the Jayas. Also with Muthu joining in there was some company to see the match with.

The interesting part was when in the second inning not much was happening - so obviously it being an Indian stadium ppl were entertaining themselves by making some noise with the whistle. Here then was a lady dressed in attrocious red pants (no it wasnt spunky - not this one atleast) who thought the sound was maddening especially when nothing was happening. "whats the point in proving ur foolishness" i believe were her exact words. I wish i had a whistle to blow into her ears then but then such is life! If you want to clap politely for a 6 - you are better off at the Lords in 1970. Let Indian Grounds be the celebration of life that they are.

It was a slightly boring match. But a day-night international watched from over the sight screen on a free ticket is a day night international watched from over the sight screen on a free ticket.

Sales Stint Learnings. ed.1

1. They said that the fun is not in the destination but in the journey. They obviously havent been on bad country roads in ST buses.

2. You dont need to know a language to know that the shopkeeper is abusing you.

3. Stomach upsets can drive you to wait for 15minutes to get into a veggie restaurant alone.

4. TV is a basic necessity, right up there with roti, kapda, makaan, bijli aur internet

5. CUG connections rock - they make std calls really cheap

6. Never underestimate the importance of home food and someone doing your laundry for free. Never!!

141*

He should retire they said
Ha!

Campus Sarcasm

This post is meant purely for those in the know (read IIMB students). I hope you have fun reading it. Cross Posted from BRacket

-----------------------------------------------
Dear Sir,This is in regard to the tradition of L2 parties which has been in vogue in IIMB over the past many years. I write this letter strongly imploring you to ban this evil tradition with immediate effect as i have learnt that it has far reaching impacts on our lives.Let me use my own example to illustrate. I was very happily a teetotaler before joining IIMB. However these evil L2 parties which have alcohol very easily available and horror of horrors on some occasions even free - led me to try alcohol. This led into a pattern wherein i was used to loud deafening music and alcohol almost every week. Life then was happy still but with a new entrant into my life thanks (or so i thought) to L2

But after college, work life started and transferred me to Gujarat - a state that is dry on alcohol. Now the only way to get alcohol here is to break the law and IIMB very conveniently got me on to alcohol but did not train me to break the law. So I am now in a situation where i cant get any alcohol - the loud music can be arranged though. Now this has led to considerable amount of discomfort and has taken me to a point where my thoughts drift to those days of L2. This obviously has led to drop in productivity during my work hours and hence a lot of uncomfortable questions from my superiors. The amount of trauma is unbelievable.

I have also attached an excel sheet of people who i believe are facing the same fate as me. Notable amongst those is Mihir Saxena (aka EthanHunt) who made a 2 day visit to Ahmedabad and had to go without alcohol for that period - longest he has been without it. All this thanks to the evil L2s.As a responsible senior, i cant see my juniors and their generations undergo the same levels of trauma and in this light i implore you to take strict action against L2 - if possible launch a qualitative investigation against it and ban it for ever. We have to make the earth safer for our following generations.

Comeback

Given that i am posting after one and a half months, this would probably count as my comeback post. However given that there is a far more important comeback in the offing, i would only be deluding myself. Yes SRT is back and this probably will be his last comeback ever, any further injury will probably signal the end of a glittering career. So this makes me look forward to this one even more.

This one is in Srilanka where Sachin scored his first ODI century - i hope its more than a happy coincidence. Lets just hope that this last lap will be his most glorious one yet and boy that will take some doing.

*Quote for the day*

My favourite one ofcourse is the one by Michael Kasprovich after the 1998 season where he had gotten the beating of his life in India and Sharjah- "I am tired of that little motherf****r"

Close Encounters

They probably change the dynamics of an equation. Miandad's last ball six off Chetan Sharma led to a prolonged period of Pakistani superiority over India - especially at Sharjah. It probably took a 5 over 55 run blast in South Africa by Sachin and Sehwag to overturn that equation.

The 326 chase at Lords was probably the basis for the great Indian run at the 2003 WC before Ponting washed us out (If you ask me, it was that first over from Zaheer that probably sealed the match). India went to the Windies looking to rout them 5-0 in the ODIs, we won the first - lost the second by a run and then failed to fire. Again a close encounter that changed the dynamics.

Its the close encounters that leave one shattered or on top of the world. Its one thing losing by a fair margin - its quite another when you have put in your all to win it and then fall short at the post - you probably start thinking that well if i cant win inspite of coming thus close - then life is a fight. The winner thinks - ah! if I could pull that off - then well i an pull anything off. And thats where the whole dynamics take a turn.

Champions however are created in that moment. Its when the team/person on the losing side of a closing encounter shrugs it off and looks at it as an abberation which deserves to be forgotten rather than a huge event, its that moment that the champion is created. Its the belief that matters and its the ability to face the low that counts.

I am hoping that the 4-1 loss against Windies will be treated just that way by the Indians and we will be on our winning cartwagon soon enough.

As for close encounters - i guess they build character

Generalisations

This Post is a wild generalisation based on my experience with gujjus in gujjuland. Ofcourse this is where you insert standard disclaimers.

Almost all people here consume some form of tobbacco - take your pick from gutkha, paan, maava, beedis or cigs and you are sure to find one form at the very least with any gujju worth his salt. Ofcourse, the first three varieties are more popular - which ensures that everyone gets enough and more opportunities to spit on the road. This then makes, watching ur step very important as you never know when an unintended spit missile may just land on a clean pair of trousers. This event becomes even more plausible when you are getting out of a shuttle-auto (which incidentally runs on kerosene - 20 bucks cheaper a litre as opposed to petrol). Both the shuttle stopping at the side of the road and the spitting are sudden acts and one never knows when the clean trouser and missile might just collide. Thankfully i havent been at the wrong end of this episode, but i have come close. Anyway with my company saying "Daag Acche Hain na" - I shouldnt really be fretting.

So while tobacco is one business that thrives in here - also pan shops as an effect of the same - the other one that is rocking equally is the hair colouring business. Again almost every person here, regardless of age has his hair coloured. The most popular colour is burgundy it seems. While you would argue that older people would have mehndi to cover their white hair - even they seem to favor burgundy. This hair coloring also cuts across all social barriers - thereby making it a equally likely phenomenon for a pseud dude riding an expensive bike and the dude driving the shuttle auto across the city.

This is fast becoming a boring post - so this is where it will have to end!

The Laundry Dilemma

At the outset let me assure everyone that i am a very hygienic person - i bathe once a day (twice now thanks to rajkot market visits), i brush my teeth and the like. I am generally clean and like wearing nice clean washed clothes. Which brings me to my dilemma.

I currently stay in a hotel that charges Rs.5 for washing a pair of socks. The other rates can be extrapolated. For the uninitiated, I am generally a stingy guy - well with best friends who are Marwadi and Sindhi and having spent 4 yrs in a Sindhi college, not much else can really be expected from me.

I am also lazy - refer a post below for confirmation - which means i wont really wash my clothes myself. Aw come one - after a 6 day week on veggie food - u hardly expect me to spend my Sunday washing clothes, even if I was not lazy.

So the deal is - clothes need to be washed - laundry too expensive - clothes belong to cheap guy - who is too lazy to wash them himself - clothes still need to be washed.

The Laundry Dilemma!

Such is Life

Yes! I am alive and kicking, inspite of the fact that my world has officially collapsed. Read on to know how....
For the uninitiated, I am now in Rajkot trying hard to meet sales targets for HLL - yes work has begun...
Yesterday i strode confidently to an ICICI bank ATM and found that my account had indeed received a fairly decent sum from the HLL accounts. I was obviously happy and quickly decided that this was to be celebrated - however it being a Sturday and hence a working day meant that any plans of immediate celebration had to be shelved. They were merely postponed to what promised to be a very lazy Sunday. So you ask - why not celebrate on a lovely Saturday evening? Fair Question! Simple Answer - This is Gujarat - Dry as ever. No fridge in Hotel room means no bootlegged beer could be arranged for a private celebration....
Well one decided that alcohol can be abandoned for the next 6 months (yeah! mighty resolve and all). So one decided that one would go out to the best hotel in Rajkot - mind you HOTEL and not restaurant. One thought that atleast the best hotel in Rajkot would have a number of good restaurants where one could feast to ones hearts delight and enjoy. But horror of horrors!!! This BEST hotel in Rajkot does not serve non-veggie food. My world has officially collapsed for the next 6 months.... There are only 2 known restaurants in Rajkot - one of which i have frequented and one which believes that a Chicken Schezwan Fried Rice is a orange coloured rice with huge chunks of chicken in it which suspiciously resemble Chicken Tikka - but then such is life! Bhaagte Bhoot ki langoti hi sahi!

Then one thought - one should go out and see a movie in one of Rajkot's theatres. Apart from the fact that the theatre smelt of amonia perrenially - one should avoid watching Tom Dick and Harry, even if one is alone with no one to talk to. Seriously sitting alone in a hotel room that is hotter than the ambient temperature outside is a MUCH better option. On the other hand, one could have waited patiently and watched the Monaco GP instead....but then such is life!

Arrival at the friendly neighbourhood Reliance Web World has treated me to a mail from my tutor that includes a project brief of 7 pages that promises to squeeze out all remnants of life from me. Its scary - really scary but then such is life!

Anyway enough blabbered. Apart from all the sarcasm - Rajkot is really a decent place save the scarce availability of good chicken. The only problem with being alone is that anytime i wish to speak to someone, it has to be an STD call. But the people here are fairly good and helpful. Oh btw i have come to the conclusion that all Gujjus consume some form of tobacco - gutkha and paan and supari being most prominent - hence the existence of more spitoons than ashtrays here. The best part of the town though is the availability of shuttle autos, which mean that you can travel across the length of the city in 5rs.

So this is it till i feel inspired enough to post again

Heroes

Imola '06 - MS in an inferior car blocks young Alonso for the whole damn race and proceeds to win it. 85th race win for the ace. I started following F1 when Ferrari was a lousy car and struggled to beat its rivals and was only competetive cause of Schumi's skills. It was fun watching him battle and it was the most logical conclusion for me to be a Schumi and Ferrari fan and will them to win all the time. They did. They won a lot. Till Last year. They lost. They lost a lot. Till 23rd April - Schumi won displaying the same fighting attitude that i loved, after what was a hopeless season last year. It lead people to comment that probably Schumi was over the hill and that maybe he should retire. Laughable. Imola was probably what they call "In ya face!"

24th April 1973 is part of history. It was almost poetic that one of my sporting heroes - one the critics thought was over the hill - fought back in the style of his greatest past races, on the eve of the God's bday. Its only foolish to write off Sachin Tendulkar. He was written off before WC 2003. He was the player of the tournament. Shoaib laughed him off before *that* match, he bowled only 1 over at the start of the inning before coming back much later ~ the match was over in 5 overs. You write off Sachin at your own peril. No doubt he aint the Sachin of 1998 - hell no, he will never be that again. No doubt he aint the best player in the team anymore - hell no, thats Dravid. But over the hill he isnt. He still is capable of playing supremely skillful innings and winning us matches (Pakistani series). Ofcourse his scores in tests arent great, but he isnt struggling to middle the ball - and it doesnt take long for a class act to start making it count.

Happy Birthday Sachin - get fit and blast the leather out of that ball again

Laziness...

...is a virtue. There cant be two ways about that! For starters, if you are vela at home for a long period of time, being lazy solves the perennial problem of "What to do all day". A lazy man will zimbly sleep through 12 or more hours of the day thereby reducing the what-to-do problem by half anyway. Add to that the general lethargy to do anything that can be remotely called as active, leads to taking pleasures in the small things of life - like stealing a 10 minute nap an hour after u woke up and 10 minutes before lunch, yawning without any hindrance and the general feeling of not having naything to do. Moral: Laziness enables enjoyed velapanti

Ofcourse the fact that all inventors were lazy people cant be argued! Who the hell do you think invented the remote control? An overactive person who wanted to do something new? or a lazy couch potato who needed a way out to avoid seeing those commercials and switch channels in the meantime without moving (please watch all HLL commercials please and oh ofcourse buy the products too :) )
Laziness and not necessity is the mother of all invention - i mean just look at it all, one doesnt want to walk - get a horse driven chariot; one doesnt want to ride - get a car; one doesnt want to drive - get a driver (ok thats not an invention but still!); dont want to change gears - get a car with auto transmission.
Elevators, Escalators, piped gas, washing machines, u name it and it is a lazy man's boon!
If it werent for our breed of lazy guys - this world would be without most of its conveniences. So the key to a more technologically advanced future is getting more lazy people - for in their creative laziness lies the future of the country (and the world)

Long live Garfield! May his tribe increase!


P.S:- this is my first full post without the mention of cricket!

Things i miss...

In no particular order:
Sarkari Chai at 2am, The pool table (what with bumps and slopes and obstacle courses), the h-mezz cricket especially with the tas ball, the staying awake till odd hours and it being normal, the long chats about nothing, the niteouts to finish projects, the aaloo paratha at the nc, sitting at L2 - mostly doing nothing, the birthday celebrations (of friends, your own bday is fairly painful), the pub team meetings, watchin cricket in mess, arbit debates on sports folder, the campus, the life, the freedom
Such is life.............

Of Underdogs

There is always a certain pleasure in seeing an underdog fight against the favourites (unless ofcourse the favourites are your home team or the underdog is an English team)

Its fun to see Australia struggle against Bangladesh - its almost romantic to see the impossible happen. It was an unbelievable match the other day when South Africa actually chased 435 in 50 overs - teams struggle to chase 300 odd in test matches.

What makes the underdog fight romantic is the fact that no one really expects it to happen. The war against the impossible is always fascinating.
It probably brings out hidden desires in everyone's mind. Almost everyone is an underdog in some way or the other, in something or the other. The head of a family watching a match might be an underdog at work, it would be his innermost desire to outshine his brilliant rival and then impress his boss to get that one promotion which hangs in balance. But reality probably dictates otherwise. For those brief moments when you see that underdog launch a fight that threatens to overturn reality, one starts believing - one imagines the what if scenario and for that one brief moment, one actually entertains the possibility of doing that impossible thing. "If they could do that, why cant i try to do this"

Thats why people watch films - to indulge in a fantasy, to see heros with qualities that they would want to possess, to live that dream for a fleeting few minutes

Quota System

It exists in loads of places. Even in cricket. Star players like Gagan Khoda( Khoda who u ask? a 'dashing' opener from Rajasthan who wouldnt have seen the doorsteps of the Indian team had it not been for one Kishen Rungta), Noel David (The then captain had asked "Noel Who?" - we then are only mere spectators) and hazaar other players who made it to the Indian team purely because a selector representing their zone wanted a player from his zone. They came, they shat, they went away. An Ashish Kapur would change sides every 2 years because thats when the selection panel would be filled with new/different faces. He would shift to the zone where a selector he knew was present and then nurture hopes of getting into the Indian team.

So where am i getting with this? Just a coupla days back respected mr. arjun singh decided that 22.5% seats being reserved was just too low and really disgraceful and promptly decided to increase it to a more respectable 49.5%, probably muttering a curse under his breath for the stupid Supreme Court of India which actually has the audacity to cap reservations at 50% (canys believe that? The Supreme court actually prevents our politicians from bringing in reservations for HALF of the total seats. As Obelix would put it *tap*tap*tap* These Supreme Courts are crazy!)

If it aint obvious, i belong to the underprivileged general merit category and that is probably what most middle class ppl like me are. We unfortunately go unrepresented by any politician/party to look after our needs. Was wondering why.....
As it turns out, there are probably only 2 ways to get politicians to guard your interests - either be a moneybank or be a votebank. Moneybanks contribute generous amounts to election funds and more and hence demand that their interests be safeguarded - a compelling argument that no politician can (more like doesnt want to) fight. The votebanks ofcourse get these buggers elected - yet again another compelling argument that wont see violent protests from the netas.
The vast majority of the population that does not vote is the middle class. How then do we expect our interests to be safeguarded? For we the middle class, Huge section of the population aint the ones with the votes nor the money to actually make us a segment worth noticing.

So how do we begin to solve the problem? Middle Class being the moneybank is just not on in the short term (there's a reason why we are the middle class right?)
So the only other way we can probably start to change things is to go out there and VOTE in large numbers such that our vote really starts to count - and it is this vote which will make or break (breaks in politics are only temporary but still....) a neta's career.

Lets see them ignoring us once they cant get elected without appeasing us..........

Getting off the mark

So there it is - another one succumbs to the charms of Blogville. In person you generally would find me in either of 2 modes - rambling (more often than not) or studied silence (read sleeping)
This blog is likely to end up in either of these two states. That i am lazy is an understatement - that i love to blabber is another. So this blog then is a match between laziness and the urge to put my thoughts down. Invariably laziness would come up winner (much like the 4-0 washout we gave England) but in some cases the scoreline might just read 6-1 (as Sri Lanka did)
This post and the start of the blog is then that one match which went the other way - How long will it last is anyone's guess. Infact i am willing to take bets on how many posts this blog will last for. (Cash wonly please)

What then would i blog about? Most likely cricket - infact i will probably talk about cricket even when its not the subject i am discussing. No surprise then that this post is titled "getting off the mark"

Standard Disclaimer:- This blog has high risk of being a boring and a sporadically updated blog. Thou shalt read at one's own risk - me shall not be held responsible for anything that can be deemed a waste of thy precious time