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I first read a hope from GreatBong well before the start of Twenty20 cricket:

If Dhoni can do a Tunbridge Wells, if Yuvraj steps into Mohinder Amarnath’s shoes, if Sreesanth can shake his ass like the generously endowed Roger Binny, if Rohit Sharma becomes a Yashpal Sharma, if Hayden leaves an outswinger that then swings in and takes off stump, if Gilchrist top-edges a pull to midwicket, if Pathan can regain his mo-jo and Sehwag can blast the ball past his beer gut then who knows—-those who have come to scoff may very well remain to pray.

Indian fans (the ones that actually care to follow the tournament) can take comfort in the fact that 24 years ago, another such inexperienced motley crew of bits-and-pieces no-hopers went to foreign shores sans any hype and expectations.

if GB wasn’t GB, he would have claimed to have known all things before hand due to his supreme powers and due to the placement of stars !

Not to forget, his post wasn’t just a wishful one , he had then went on to analyze what was missing and what was required very well.

He then followed it with another excellent post after India had reached certain stage:

And one of the reasons for these small miracles has been, no doubt, what I had referred to as the only positive for Dhoni’s men—-they had gone to South Africa unheralded, with no expectations and no accompanying hoopla. This was in sharp contrast to the team that went to West Indies earlier this year amidst the “Cup jeetke lao” and the “Blue Billion” corporate-fuelled hype and got hopelessly eliminated in the first round. While Dravid’s men played like zombies with the weight of expectations of the entire country weighing on their shoulders, looking increasingly forlorn, disconsolate and on the edge after each setback , the new Team India, no doubt because nothing was expected from them, has been free-spirited, uncluttered and fearless even when faced with enemy ships that have outsized and outgunned them.

in the glories of the last few days of cricket—-Yuvraj Singh with supreme arrogance flicking an express delivery from Lee for a 119 meter six, Rohit Sharma running out Kemp with an amazing diving throw, Kartik’s airborne catch to get rid of Smith, Stuart Broad’s red embarrassed “teenager with his first dirty magazine” expression as Yuvraj gets stuck into him, Sreesanth slapping the pitch with his hands like Hannibal Lecter in front of a fresh corpse as Hayden’s stumps lie in disarray and Dhoni’s simple nod of affirmation to Harbhajan after Bhajji rattles Symond’s Michael Clarke’s timber.

It has really been the most fun one can have with their clothes on.

And after the win again, he wrote an outstanding post:

Mr Dhoni we understand. It is not easy wicket keeping, strategizing, blasting deliveries to all corners of the park, praying that Joginder Sharma does not get hit for a six , hoping that Sreesanth does not slice a batsman with a pocket knife, while all the time carrying on your shoulders the weight of a million expectations.

See the smiling Pathan brothers there—-one of whom strangled your team’s progress in the middle overs and the other led a rousing charge on your opening bowler. Tell you what, they also belong to the “Muslims of the world” and yet are deliriously happy at your defeat . Why wouldn’t they be ? They caused it.

And whole of other things he has said over there ( Dear Flintoff, Dear Aussies, Dear Lankans,Kiwis and South Aftricans) is delightful to read !

**
Sidin’s open letter to Flintoff was another delight :

nce again proved without doubt that England should restrict itself to inventing games but not actually expect to win any of them. This is a small selection of such sports and games for your perusal:

- Football
- Cricket
- Tennis
- Hockey
- Rugby
- Badminton
- Anything that involves running (except running industry to ground), throwing (except throwing up outside pub) and jumping (except jumping on head of supporter of rival football team).

I know some Singhs who have two washing machines at home: one for washing clothes and the other for making Lassi.

Mr. Sidhu once had a minor tiff with another individual in a traffic-related situation. Now I am aware that Englishmen also get into traffic tiffs and then resolve it by hurling abuse at each other or a little pushing and shoving.

Mr. Sidhu, after due thought and introspection, killed the other man. Kaput. Khallas. Phineesh.

**
Gaurav feels bowlers will love Twenty20

Which is why, at the end of 2 weeks of cricket of quality and thrill levels not seen in the last 4 ODI world cups, it was the bowlers who made the difference. It was a bowler who got the man of the match in the final. It was a bowler (though the wrong bowler) who won the player of the series. Go through every match (except for, possibe the SA-WI run-fest) and it was bowling that tilted the scales.

**
Amit Varma thought it through :

Speaking of new stars, a big reason why this World Cup was so important for us was that it gave us a snapshot of the future. The decision by the Dravid-Tendulkar-Ganguly trio to withdraw from the tournament was a magnificent one for Indian cricket, as it gave us a chance to see what a young Indian team, without the baggage of the past, would look like. MS Dhoni’s team looked united, confident, devoid of politics and happy together.

That does not mean that we should discard the older players, for we need them in the season ahead, and should persist with them as long as they merit their place. But it does invalidate the argument that we should stick with our legends because the newcomers aren’t good enough. This tournament showed that we have eager, hungry young players waiting their turn, and any seniors who underperform should be shown the door—respectfully, but without regret.

***

Finally my few words about it. I saw some part of semis and nothing much of earlier matches (Sleep always dominated!). I followed the results keenly though.

I was stuck with work in office when all other cricket enthusiasts were glued to the TV for the finals. While coming by road, the road was empty and free flowing like no other day. Very frequently there were many groups in front of a showrooms which put the screen for the passing by crowd to watch There were loud cheers - for both dropping a catch and for taking a wicket - so it was very confusing for me as to which side the match was tilting. The cab driver got some updates on phone and by which I could guess it was a seesaw match. I came home just after it finished.

**
The fact is the trio-Dravid,Sachin,Ganguly- haven’t won the world cup for India despite having a strong team, despite being talented. The fact is the young team did it. But leave it at that. The conclusion based on these two facts can NOT be: the seniour players caused the team to loose or that their re-entry is not called for.

I am one of those few fellows, who despite had had disappointment over the way some players failed over and again, who would have been even more happier if the trio were part of the WorldCup winning team. I do not think their presence would have failed the team in any way. This Ponting talk of - it is unfortunate the winning team members should make way for seniours is CRAP. Now the failure would be tagged to the presence of seniours and the victory would be tagged to the world cup winning team’s “momentum”. Now I feel Rahul’s decision’s timing was very right, much before Dhoni’s team won the cup - if he had taken later/or if he had not resigned he would have had to face several other criticisms !

**
Despite the takl of “Chak De” movie reforming the game for the masses and media, after the Asia Cup win, not many covered it in bold. And this was to be highlighted and protested against at that very time. Now that saying “You are giving them and not giving us” sounds sad. Hope the media, govt and other companies (yesterday ToI carried an ad by Oil PSUs congratulating the heroes for winning the Asia Cup - is akin to giving a chocolate to a crying baby) will not repeat such bias in the future. I don’t accept that Asia Cup was smaller than cricket world cup - Asia Cup too had 11 playing teams and India did superlatively well - remaining unbeaten, defeated tough teams and setting few records.

**
Last few weeks Indian sports is doing better in almost all outings - billiards, chess,cricket, hockey, tennis. Here is a wishing and hope that the dream run continues.

# Watched “Heyy Babyy”. What a waste of money - Rex has increased its price overnight. I noted that the comedy scenes were all shown in the promotional videos. Rest is all emotional crap. This is the first movie where I feel, trailer is the only best part in the entire movie. What a cheating. Grrrr….

There is one totally entertaining scene in which I almost died laughing - the scene of slow-driving the car.

Also observed those who apparently hadn’t watched trailers were enjoying movie to the core. Especially two girls in front of us. Even in the scenes I barely managed to smile, they rolled on the floor (laughing). Only reason to forgive someone who actually believed he could extend the toilet jokes that he cracks on a TV hosted show to a movie and can call that movie a comedy, Sajid Khan, but you are forgiven - you managed to make some people laugh.

I so wished SRK married Balan. They should give choices of which climax I would want to see and I should be able to select them.

To console myself, I say that there was one single compensation for going to theater - 2 scenes of Vidya Balan. One throwing flowers in the introductory song sequence and entire song sequence is watchable just because of her (or that I did not see anything else). And another in red saree, I for a second felt I was seeing Kajol. Go Balan go, just for this one reason, I am ready to forgive small things about you which I don’t enjoy - oversmiling for one.

Given the box office earnings for this movie, we are in for films like this in the future.

Finished reading “To kill a mocking bird”. It was one of the few books which did not take off. For first few days again and again I was in initial pages and used to get lost in thoughts/ to go to sleep and I repeated same sentences. I knew not the reason, was it suddenly jumping into terminologies I did not understand. Or was it because it probably did not feel like the beginning itself. After hearing similar experience by SK, I was bit relieved. But I was determined to read this and it slowly picked up speed.

There were lot, a lot of things I wanted to note and make a mention in this post but I carried no marker while reading. There is an element of suspense through out and yet it did not make me impatient or hurry through the pages. I swallowed each and every sentence and moved slowly.

I liked the English. I liked the very small observations done, which could only be done by small children, from whose eyes the novel is seen. I think the writer maintained a diary and some things were picked up from that. The childhood stuff was good fun, at times a bit nostalgic too. How I wished it continued like that !

It gets complex and touches upon various aspects in a totally detailed way that I was doubting if it was on track (Same experience I am having now with Kane and Abel - the detailing part).

Mrs Dubose’s plot was moving.

In the cover it is mentioned, the author still maintains it was “a simple love story”. For most of the initial part I kept looking for that thread - was it between Scout and Dill ? Or was it b/n Scout and the hidden boy next door ?  But now after reading the novel, I am disappointed. Not that I was looking for a love story but I was misguided. Don’t tell me that it was about a “love for human kind” in general, I am not immature not to get that but that certainly does not deserve the claim that it was a “simple love story”.

There were some surprisingly thrilling moments like when the daughter sends back the people who had come to attack her father.

Tom Robinson’s death was totally unexpected and I felt the void suddenly.

After having gone into so much detail, perhaps it required a better treatment. And after the death, the plot moves irritatingly slow.

Since I knew this was made into a movie, I kept thinking how would a particular scene appear in the movie. Must watch it sometime.

I went to watch this play for the sole reason being - it was a thriller/suspence play. Been sometime since I opted for anything but comedy. The story in brief is like this: There is a couple who plan in detail to cheat the law and become rich, by ( perhaps very common in the stories) cheating the insurance company. There is an inspector who sees through their plot and tries to take advantage of the situation. And then there is a final twist.

The set and lighting arrangements were detailed and good. The performances were okay but for one or two scenes in which they manage to excel. I could never approve of the third person’s acting - probably it was meant to be like that !  The lady often said wrong numbers - like she mentioned 8 months since marriage once and next time 6 months and like 50 thousand for 50 lakh - when the audience loudly murmured in a way of correcting her that it was Lakhs and not thousands. Lack of preparation or nervousness might have caused which was strange because she did some scenes convincingly - the one where she explains her interview with Inspector. 

The final “twists” have become quite predictable nowadays and I always look for the inconsistency it causes with the whole previous happenings. And whenever I find some I disprove/dislike the final twists. In particular in this play, if the final twist was true, many things looked like redundant. ( There is a small justification though - the entire play was played out for the third person - I know this is not explaining correctly, but those who’d seen would get it).

The play is originally of Marathi by Yogesh Soman, translated to Hindi by Prashant Kirwadkar , which is translated to Kannada by Dr Tippeswamy. Directed by Anoop Joshi and the group was Rangayana. 

What an experience it was to watch “Chak De”. I have always loved a sports theme based movie - Iqbal, Lagaan, Million Dollar Baby, so it was almost a given that I would like this movie and add to that there were positive reviews. However the experience was something even better - the crowd, the shouts, the whistles. When I had been to watch Rajini I could not get so involved and wondered what was it. Or rather when was the last time for me - involvment and celebration together ? Was it Lagaan ? Was it a laugh riot like Hungama ? Was it Swades ? When was the last time ?

Now I can say, Chak De. I admit, it was surprising for me at few points, but overall it was cliched and predictable, yet it was totally entertaining. For which half the credit might go to the highest paid screen writer in Bollywood.  

It could have got a little more detailed, at least a cursory look, into what went into those 7 years. And why “7″.

I wouldn’t rate SRK’s performance higher than his in Swades.

Most importantly, the movie was more dearer for it was based on a real story of Mir Ranjan Negi. Got to know more details like he took active part in the movie and coached the movie’s hockey team. 

I knew few dialogues ( from reviews ) but my favorite is the one where SRK says, “Kisi gore ko pehli baar tiranga lehrate hue dekh ke maza aa raha hai”. Priceless ! I enjoyed many other moments.

There were few other points I wanted to make, not recollecting now. What a loss !

Part 2:

# I had been to Flower Show at Lalbagh - solely for the reason of photographing flowers. I am not sure if I am too happy with my photos, however here are they for your viewing pleasure. Why do “Macro” mode results in photos that look as though they are painted in water colour ?

# Went to PESIT college for Independence Day, attended flag hoisting and sang National Anthem. Now, how many of you did/can do that ? DJ’s speech was not very original, he just read out a speech by Narayana Murthy. Though it made me look for it on the net link, it was not in usual DJ’s style. “I always look for what is in it for me” he said, “and if one person among this audience becomes like one of the visionaries mentioned in the inspiring speech, that is enough for me”. Like any dreamy eyed teenager, some of us thought he was referring to us itself ( I still have to get the feeling that I am not a teenager any longer, sigh !) . The article deserves a read.

# There were lot of flowers in the garden and I regret not having carried the camera with me.

# Another best thing done on the Independence Day was to watch “Chak De”. Some detailed thoughts will follow in next post. 

# Also watched Checkmate play at RS on Independence Day. Some comments will follow after Chak De review.

# RBoTaH will continue after those posts

# Despite being in the company for more than 3 months, I had spoken only to 3 or 4 people and this occasion was helpful to know the team and to know what others are doing. I also enjoyed the activities/games. I wanted to write a long write-up in my usual style and was sure I could impress and surprise everyone in the team - it has happened quite often that I am not boasting - but I could never manage time. Something or the other came up. When it comes actual life - watching movies and meeting friends and meeting dentist - I never allow my self interest - like getting praises and impressing others - to take a higher priority which was why I could never sit down to write a decent write-up. However I had jotted down some stuff which I had sent to a friend, let me reproduce that here :

From office we had been to team building… had good fun. Will try ( I’m dead tired and it takes hell lot of time to write) to write a Minutes of Meeting and if done will send it to you.
Otherwise important highlights are :
1. We built a raft and we did rafting on it. It was a quiet lake, nevertheless, I was instrumental in our team’s race winning. Proud of myself
2. I could crack few funny stuff and impressed few people.
3. Snipped [Rant]
4. Did a boring bonfire. No music. People sang and some had real good singing talents. Oriya, Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil , Konkani, Bengali, Kannada & English songs were sung !
5. Got to know who are in our team. The team was only 30 but even after 3 months of joining I knew only 3 ppl in our team. It looks like the company environment problem and every other person was frustrated and they were also disappointed with this.
6. I climbed and got down a wall which was more than 10 ft high. I still don’t believe that I did that. Of course lot of support was there on both sides. Remember we were in pitch dark jungle.
7. We went on a sort of night trekking but it was just a walk. I noticed lot of people are too scared with forest and nature but I was very brave until I faced that human made 10 ft high wall.
8. I was smart in many games where I gave nice suggestions, and where I got the idea very fast, co-ordinated well etc. But in one game I did very bad.

# Looking back, if there were two things that stand out, two is less and difficult number, it should be climbing the wall. I had never climbed and never wanted to do and would never want to. But when life offers only two choices and rule out one choice, I had to agree to climb the wall. It must be my most horrific moment in my recent life. That tells what a luxurious life I lead. A good photo of me looking as if it was all over for me, would be posted soon. The second event that could stand out was building the raft and I almost single handedly winning the rafting race for my team. *&^%@ to those who made fun of my weight.

# To do: upload few pics and link to them. Especially of climbing the wall and of the rafting.

Part 1:

# Alert : Might turn out to be a loong post. Feel free to skip if you want to miss out on my thoughts and happenings in my life, but anyways if you expect anything greater than that on this blog, you are bound to be disappointed. So read on

# I guess I have to yet again resort to Random Bursts of Thoughts and Happenings ( RBoTaH ) format solely for not having enough time immediately to update. Also I want to update everything in the same chronological order that they happen and which is why sometimes even though there is enough urge to write, I procrastinate till I write about the previous event. Let me say, I don’t enjoy myself this style of mixing too many things in a single post, but I want to record everything for posterity purposes - when I become rich and famous, writing a separate biography would be a burden, no ?

# On the other hand, it is good, I tell myself, that I have been so occupied ( and doing bloggable stuff ) that I delay doing something - something that I enjoy - blogging / updating for my well wishers ( thats you! ). See, I don’t always talk about me.

# Again, this post would be just an index for forthcoming posts, if time and mood permits.

# So where was I last time ? After that, I had been on a 2 day team building from company to a nearby place called Wonder Valley. It was a true “team building” - because we had lot of activities and learning. It was superbly handled by a firm called “Navgati”. Will put up a post next. RBoTaH will continue after the break!

This bowl out in Twenty20 is so stupid and childish! Wonder who got that stupid idea and suggested and wonder how other people accepted it ?! First of all, by run rate/ number of wickets fallen, ( Duckworth-Lewis or something like that ) easily a side could be declared winner.

But understanding that you want to make it thrilling in the last minute and all, even then this bowl out looks so disgraceful to cricket. It is not equivalent to penalty shoot out in football/hockey, it is roughly equal to kicking at the goal post without the goal keeper.

Why is it being reduced to only bowling accuracy ? Kicking a goal and defending was what they did it all the time in a football game but in cricket it is more than that. Why not consider batting accuracy and let the batsman hit a ball by tossing it himself in the air ?

Also it is quite simple to bowl at the stumps. Just bowl plain dead slow ball ! I am sure just after few tie-breakers, one will see all the bowls hitting the stumps, then what ?! I think they will be asked to bowl at single stump ?! When that also does not break a tie, they should do it with eyes closed. Wah !

If a tie breaker had to be played, then an extra over each team of normal cricket is most perfect. ( And again, not in an empty field without fielders! ).

In advance wishing you all a very happy Ganesh Chaturthi.

Ps: Some posts coming soon. Also sharing lot of things on link blog
Pps: What do you think of new theme ? Click on those tiny pics on top to change the look.