The Start

So when the opening batsmen walk out to face the first ball of their inning, they have a set preparation in mind. 'Play out the monster fast bowler'; 'Dont play wide outside the offstump' ; 'Defend the first few overs'

Typically they must be mentally preparing to face specific bowlers - to be prepared for their special balls. They must be expecting the bowler to bowl them a bouncer and keeping the hook shot ready.

So then their shock and surprise is only to be understood when they find that instead of the monster paceman, its the wily spinner opening the bowling. And that all their best laid plans are gone to waste. And thats when the wily spinner bowls that googly -which, mind you, comes in completely unexpected - the batsman finds himself getting bowled all over.

And now pan to my boss - playing chaperone to senior management, taking them around the western markets. Prepared with data in hand to answer all comers about the big ticket items - bristling with confidence on the performance on the aforementioned big ticket items. And then out comes the spinner and throws up a question on Rexona. REXONA ??? The bosss' mind screeches loud - That tiny little thing? Really? Out go all the planned big shots and out comes the defensive stroke.

History they say is kind to the one who wrote it. Or in this case the one who told it. We are told that the defensive shot met the ball right in the middle of the bat and the googly was thwarted. But then History is the story teller's right

And then the boss takes around a even bigger boss to another western market. Yet another morning. Yet another inning with the mental preparation to play the big shots. And this time its not even a googly - its one of those tricky ones that stay low. How is Salt doing ?? The boss is spell bounded. We were told that this one too was played out from the centre of the defensive bat. But yet again History is kind to the ....

Chennai Redux

As it was clear that the day was going to be a total waste, the match had started and Australia had already raised visions of a humongous score. And so it was - 350 on the board. Whenever Australia scores 350, the only match that comes to mind is the World Cup 2003 final. I always wondered what it would have been like if Sachin hadnt fallen in the first over and instead stayed on to fulfill his advice to the team "If we score a boundary an over, we only have to get 158 off 250 balls"

But that wish came true today and unfortunately it did not quite end the way it has played out so many times in my head.

When Murphy decides that its his day - things are destined to go wrong. So the flight out of Baroda was delayed. The flight landed and taxied to the farthest possible parking bay. The bus did not show up for 15 minutes. The bus took 17 minutes to the terminal. The luggage had not shown up. The luggage came only 20 minutes later.

When the flight landed - Sachin was on 112. By the time the bag came through he was on 162. Never before has the temptation for vandalism been so severe - God knows what saved the airport from having a few broken glasses! Naresh Goyal - may your pilots strike again and again!

The taxi had a radio and the match was on and by then both Raina and Bhajji had been lost. Oh the excitement of cheering Sachin on to scale 350 and atleast avenge 2003 WC.

But the ghosts of Chennai have never been too far behind. If it was Joshi, Srinath and Prasad there - It was Jadeja, Nehra, Munaf and Praveen here. Sachin cried then and it took him 9 years to wipe those scars off.

It is unlikely he has 9 years more to wipe this one off

Buddhadeb Sengupta

Buddhadeb Sengupta is a very interesting character. The first thing that comes to your mind when you see him is - why is this little boy running around without his mummy?

And then just when you worriedly start looking around for the mother, just so the little KID would not be lost, you are told that he isnt quite the little boy but is a 26 year old 'man'

You look at him incredulously, shocked that he could indeed be TWENTY SIX. Then you chuckle to yourself and suddenly think that this little guy would never ever be able to sing the song "Jab mai chotta baccha tha..."

Like all Bengalis, Buddhadeb has a misplaced sense of his own strength. So it doesnt take much for him to tell a 6Foot 110 Kg guy that he (Buddha ) would pick him up and throw him away. Sigh so much for his bravado. But then once you factor in the fact that Buddhadeb is a KKR supporter in the IPL - suddenly it all starts to make sense.

Buddhadeb -in line with his other many eccentricities - has this unique way of sleeping as well. As a KID (as in when his real age also equated to kid status), he was mightily impressed by stories of how the Ostrich would bury its head in the sand to try and put away all its problems. So he decided that the Ostrich would indeed be his mascot and what better way to emulate the mascot than to sleep the way it does. See the attached photo. (The model in the photo is only for representation purposes and does not neccessarily imply any link to Buddhadeb).




Ofcourse the sleeping with the pillow under the head is not Buddha's only way to shake off reality. He, being a quintessential Bengali, has to be connected to fish. The only problem? He does not like eating the fish (a fact that almost got Mamatadi to launch an agitation to get him ripped off his Bengali status). So he makes up for it - by drinking like a fish.

His exploits under the influence are folklore in many parts of the world. The late Michael Jackson could learn a trick or two about dancing from BDUI (Buddhadev Dancing Under Influence). Oh those moves he could pull off (and then spend the next week wondering why his back hurts so much!). And then the stories about drinking - proceeding to the loo - and then not coming out of it for the entire night because he mistook it for his bed.

Aah Buddhadeb is indeed a character. It is likely that some of you who read this might have met Buddhadeb sometime in your lives. And you might know more such stories about Buddhadeb - please do contribute generously!