Holiday atlast

Phew! One week into the second term, and what a week it has been! Considered to be a “chill” term (wonder who made that classification), I was looking for a nice term ahead with an opportunity to do all the non-boring (read everything other than studies) stuff that I generally enjoy doing. But so far, there are no signs of the same.

Start with the best thing that has happened to Indian cricket in the recent times…the T-20 world cup. I can safely say I didn’t miss even one match of the tournament, what with term break coinciding with the schedule. And what a way to announce your entry to the world of Indian cricket captains…way to go Mahi! As the popular joke goes,

“Abdul Kalam’s dreams have finally been realised – India becomes a super power in 2020”. J

And poor Sachin – A world cup victory was the one thing that would complete a fantastic CV (Why the word CV? Long story…hang on for a bit). And just when he decided to skip one tournament, India goes on to win that one. Now all he can do is sit in his room and “congratulate the boys”. Destiny can be so cruel.

I for one had an awesome time watching the tournament, specially the way India managed to make every match interesting (old habits die hard), and contrary to popular script, managed to eke out wins. It only adds to excitement, one would say. Whatever. But it was reminiscent of the 2003 world cup played in the very same grounds, and history was repeating itself. I was actually glad we ran into the Aussies in the semi-finals itself, which was always a better place to kick their butts. After extracting the “South African Badla”, it set a mouth watering Indo-Pak world cup final. Every organiser’s dream come true (prolly why Carribean world cup sucked big time). I remember the last time (2003) where I followed every match with 150 other first year SVNITians (my engineering college) in the smallish Bhabha Bhavan TV room, and the agony felt when we lost miserably in the finals. The excitement of watching India win with 100 other fanatics in the same room is exhilarating, and I thought I will never get to see India win a world cup final in such an atmosphere. And lo-behold, thanks to one smart ECB official who had a flash of brilliance over his shot of Brandy, the opportunity presented itself again, and this time India went all the way. The team nicely adores my desktop now.

As for CV thing, well talk to any IIM A fachcha over the last one week, and it would be the only thing in his mind. I told my father the other day that I would need to spend atleast 25-30 hrs on my CV, and dad went “Itna kya likhega!”. Gee…I only people knew that these CVs are the sole basis of one getting jobs. Can’t blame the companies, there is hardly much to choose between most of us. This is something called Mayonnaise effect that we learnt last term. The good are good, the bad are bad, but the rest are all the same. Let me tell you, the process of making CV can be a real pain. I have always lauded English for being such a versatile language, but this makes ur life hell when making the CV. There are 100s of ways of putting across the same point, the pain is finding the best one. There is a world of difference between my first draft and the final thing that I submitted after rounds and rounds of modification by tuchchas. As of now, I am just glad that it has all ended.

Lastly, Happy Birthday O father of Nation. If it were not for you, this desperately required and rarely available holiday would not have been possible.

Here’s to a great man…

oops, it’s a dry state and a dry day, or is it? ;)

P.S.: Hey Chimp, time to put me back on that blog roll.

My LOC (Love O' Cricket)

Meet MELLO...the official mascot of the 2007 cricket World cup.

Oh yeah…its world cup time again. The greatest cricket carnival has its stop at the Caribbean station this time around. And as before, Indian cricket team (oops! Make that Team India, else it may be considered blasphemy) is expected to come back home with the title. The great Indian fan has come to expect nothing less, specially after the team’s performance in the last world cup, and even the recently concluded twin series’ against WI & SL. I am one such fan too. And like everyone else, I have my own opinion on various matters.

First of all, it is sad what happened to Bob Woolmer. Though it is still not clear whether it was due to natural causes or homicide, cricket lost a great champion. I am a big fan of Hansie Cronje & Woolmer, for the way they made South Africa such a force to reckon with, without being nasty. (Sunny bhai, I am with you on the Aussie thing. Nice guys need not always finish last, as Roger Federer would demonstrate.) Its pains me that neither of them is alive today. May they rest in peace.

India’s loss to Bangladesh has come as a rude shock to the Indian cricket fan. The extreme reactions that it invoked were totally unwarranted. People say, “With all the experience we had, it’s a shame we lost.” I say, we had one bad day. Absolutely nothing went right for us that day (except for Zaheer and Munaf’s batting “exploits”) and such days are not uncommon for us. Also, give some credit to the Bangladesh team. They played superb cricket in all three departments and they displayed superb spirit too. Its not that it was totally out of blue. They defeated the mighty Aussies not so long ago, and begin the world cup by beating New Zealand. Kudos to their coach Dave Whatmore, who is once again showing his magic after SL’s ’96 triumph. Another testimony to what a good coach can do.

It took a world record thrashing of Bermuda to cool the tempers back home. Indians are good at accumulating these records. India always likes to be in the record books, it doesn’t care which end though. I am sure there are as many records made against the Indians, as there are those made by them.

It has all boiled down to the crucial India vs Sri Lanka match now. There are numerous permutations and combinations being discussed on TV channels and TOI. But the bottom line is, India HAS to beat Sri Lanka. And the implications of this results are mind boggling. If India fails to make it to the super 8, 150 million dollars worth of advertising revenue is at stake. There was a banner during the Bangladesh match that aptly summed up the kind of reactions Indians can expect if they return home soon. It said, “Go to Barbados (venue for our super 8 matches, if we qualify) or stay in Trinidad (Our current base)”. And Greg Chappell would definitely face the axe.

Personally I have something at stake too. My long time judaii from the idiot box was supposed to end come the world cup. But the Bangladesh defeat has put things in perspective. Dipayan says, “If India doesn’t qualify, then why bother”. I just hope India does a repeat of the ’99 world cup, where they thrashed SL under similar circumstances. Else, this picture might actually turn out to be true. (I dont want this road to the Indo-Pak peace process)

So, in chorus with the Pepsi Blue Billion, I go “Uh Ah India, Ah yeah India” (Whatever that is supposed to mean!)