The name of the game is Cricket

We are merely one day away from the final cricket match between England and India for the NATWEST trophy. Irrespective of what the outcome is, this one-day Cricket series has been the most fascinating and entertaining one I have seen in a long long time.

I am from the dying breed of cricket aficionados though I have only ever followed and played one sport religiously; Cricket. But for the last one year or so I have consciously contributed to the fast declining viewership of this sport. I would not want to get into the factors that have contributed to this change but instead talk here about the beauty of this on-going series, slated for a beautiful end.

For starters, it has finally been a battle of the ‘equals’. And this I say with all the pun intended. The two cricket teams have matched each other equally in this series. In terms of spirit, exuberance and performances. Both teams have come back to win the game from an almost lost ground and have also been supremely on the top for an arguably even number of times. A million nails have been sacrificed to the anxious heart across the oceans. A million lips have received that rare full stretch. And of course, thousands have been witness to the toothpaste deprived individuals; or should I say Gentlemen ;)

I don’t remember having seen so many runs scored behind the wickets in one series. And I have also not seen Tendulkar exude this kind of confidence and aggression in a fairly long time. He, for me, has been the second highlight of this series. It’s been a comeback of dominance. Period.

I heard crackers punctuating the end of a cricket game again. The night sky was alive with the radiant smiles from people beneath. I saw so many strangers on the road, huddle together outside a TV shop once again; making enough to room every time to accommodate that one extra joinee to their private mini stadium where all you need to enter is not a ticket, but simply the desire and passion for the game. On a regular day or should I say on a cricket-less moment, the same junta would have jumped at the opportunity to beat up the very guy they made that extra room for; and that too for a trifle. That’s what this sport does to the country. Unites us like nothing else does. Its like the Indian DNA.

But just when I thought that we were losing this sole binding force to reckon with in India, other than a world war may be, this series has made me think again. And for this I am indebted to it.

A walk back home

I feel torn on my walk back home,

Disturbingly comfortable being alone,

A thought suddenly crosses my trampled mind,

Have I exchanged my soul for the corporate find?

The leaves on the trees receive no stares,

The pouring rain has none to care.

Did the birds fly back to their nests today?

Or was I too busy making my day???

The shadow of death has fallen on me,

My cold face not even glaring at me!

Was I not breathing a moment ago?

Then how have I fallen to be remembered no more?

The zipping traffic has crowded my mind,

It’s black, it’s gray, it’s not my way.

But if everyone is walking I must walk too,

For the end must be near and in this direction too.

The pied piper has done it again,

Look at us merry, look at us unaware!

The gleeful faces will soon be a memory,

Of the sedan days and corporate glory!

The shroud has fallen on the face of life,

The priest is reciting in his pious voice.

The requiem is humming through the blaring horns,

The world seems like the Trojan horse

Jobless Worker

Man, boredom is such a difficult thing to deal with. I would rather deal with a wailing baby than this state of joblessness. Since my boss is working out of office today and I have, for a change, completed my work for the day, I am feeling chokingly bored. I feel like I could suffocate to death any moment if not assigned on to some occupation other than random thinking. Aaaaaaargh!!!

Let me see what attempts have I made so far to free my soul from this curse of working under someone. I have gone through all the pretty faces I have ever seen in my life. I couldn’t have missed a single one man. From my first sub-conscious crush to my first conscious crush; from that truly eternal (read-ungettable) beauties to the ones who make you rethink your want for the status of ‘committed’; I have gone through them all. And not just faces, mind you!

But it only left me feeling more irritable - and bored - and frustrated!

Suddenly then, I thought I must log on to the internet and chat up with a few friends. So I logged on to Gmail and was delighted at seeing so many of them online. I quickly messaged a couple of them and patiently waited for their reply. A minute passed. Then another…and then another minute passed followed by another minute. I was red in face, with ire. I had already pinged 10 people. 6 chose not to reply at all. 2 logged out. And the remaining two politely wrote – “busy at work dude”.

Any guesses what I would have felt like at that moment???

A Loser! A god-damn worm dying to get into any crack on the ground!

Disappointed, I went back to my excel sheet that I have been preparing for 3 months now. I would come to office everyday and dedicate myself to preparing this sheet. And now that I have finally prepared it there is no one to look at it. Otherwise, everyday at least a couple of unwanted people passing by my cubicle would drop in and take a look at the work I was doing and give me that corporate smirk. Today I wonder where they have all disappeared. Grrr…

So, left in solitude I started playing a game, which should preferably be played between two people. But given my circumstances I changed the rules to suit my needs. It’s a game that my other jobless friend and I had concocted on our collective jobless days.

Now you see, if at least you have company on such occasions it doesn’t feel so bad.

So I was talking about the game. Well, it is not a very intelligent game. I know that’s anyone’s guess considering the people who invented it. But it is great entertainment.

This is how it is played.

Two people take turns to reach the end of an excel sheet by any means you can choose. The person getting to the end of it in a lesser time is the winner. And to accommodate our individual emotions we would never stop till both of us had won an equal number of times. Look, now we obviously din’t want to lose each other to the results of this highly competitive game. Our company was all we got for killing boredom. More often than not the scores were always 0-0

Now my current task was to get the second player. So I decided to use both my hands as two different players. Right was me and left was my friend. After a minute I realized I was betraying my friend by giving him the weaker hand. So I swapped players and went on with the game. I loved the way the virtual lines on the sheet disappeared like fading memories. It is a sight that never ceases to hypnotize me. I loved my new found job. In excitement I used both my hands and when I realized it I was disappointed at having wasted so much time.

At this moment, I went back to my dejection.

What you are reading is a result of my final and successful attempt. Its time I packed up for the day

Adios!

Cricket and Powar

The first innings of the fourth one day international cricket match of NATWEST series between England and India has just got over and a couple of things that caught my eye in the game have forced me to ditch television for a while and get down to writing this piece. Without much ado, I have to mention the most entertaining part of the match so far. It is none other than Ramesh Powar. For the ones out of sync with the game (you are the blessed ones!), Powar claims to be a right hand batsman and a right arm spinner and he represents the controversially great Indian cricket team on the international front.
Well, full points to that man for squeezing his way into the Indian cricket team. If you are wondering why I am applauding him for this great feat, all you need to do is look at the man once. You will instantly know how difficult a process like squeezing can be for him. And this despite the constant hue and cry in cricket and media circles and some fatal debates about how much talent in India is going waste due to the biased selection committee. Well, I am wondering what kind of waste or bias are they talking about. Because, if he is any example of the talent pool that is going waste (for he entered the team only recently), we have realllllly redefined talent.
He is into a game which he should have probably never ever given the first thought to. For the wondering minds, he is somebody who has been diligently working to get the portion of his body, neck under, into a perfect circle. Last I saw him on television; he was somewhat oval; by the most lenient description. His hard work has finally begun to show and our man is in perfect shape now. Come on, it doesn’t get more perfect a shape than a circle! Get it??!!!
Seeing him run between the wickets it felt that the moment he was into his third stride he was wondering why running as a concept ever existed. Why weren’t humans just naturally and biologically impaired to run? This inner profound thought of his was so evident that not only me but even the commentators read his mind. While Gavaskar tried to be euphemistic about it, the other gentleman was brutal. He remarked, “Powar needs power breaks”.
But one place where the man scores the highest is his entertainment value. He is so much fun to watch and make of. To add to his no-room-for-any-weight body, he has also decided to don tresses oblivious how even that much weight will weigh on his total perceived weight.
But the next thought that struck me was the absence of the concept of athleticism in Indian sports. It is very unfortunate that our sportspersons, especially cricketers give such little importance to being athletic. Barring a couple, who can be called more than just fit and may be also border on being athletic, the rest simply qualify as fit; whatever it means in India!
Shades of the same can be seen throughout the sub-continent, especially in Pakistan. For defense sake it can also be traced back to history and proved how we are a less athletic race on a comparative scale. But what is disheartening is the lack of initiative at the sportsperson’s end. Look at the Sri Lankan cricket team. They have reformed themselves beautifully to be one of the more competitive fielding outfits in the world and look at Powar who is a clear example of someone who is waiting for some Jeanie to help him lose weight. No one cares a hoot about your obesity as long as you don’t represent the nation on a global platform in Sports! But if you do, the least you can do is realize that fact.
I think the BCCI, and now the ICL too, should have some rules, and stricter ones please, to filter cricketers on the salient feature of any sport - Physical Fitness (by international standards, and not the local akhaada standards).

Burp n' Fart

There are no written checks to test the comfort you have with your partner. You never know how close you are to him or her, but you always want to believe that you reside in their heart and vice versa.

I think it is a fairly good idea to come out of such illusions once in a while and do a reality check. And for this very momentary occupation (for all of us love the dream world), there are a few checks, according to me, that can help you know exactly how comfortable you are with your partner. I call them Barriers. That’s because a love relationship is all about crossing barriers. I mean, all you do from the moment you start off to the time you end (the speed of this process has contemporarily become really fast), is grapple with such teeny weeny issues, that are made to loom large by the virtue of simply being in a relationship. Love relationship breeds complications. That’s a fact that our most Herculean Romeos, who have sailed through the rough waters (and I bet they would have rather not), silently lost a slice of their once round arse, would also never deny.

The BURP barrier – This is the first frontier. Have you dropped the veil of I-never-burp- in-my-life yet? Or are you guys still left embarrassed after one of that momentary lapse of control to the mighty speed of gaseous travel? If you are very new to the relationship, say first 3 months, chances are its going to take some more time to cross this barrier but it should be just around the corner. 3 months is just about the right time for this level of comfort. After all you would have ventured into much more by now ;)

This level of ease speaks a lot about the chord you have struck with each other and just close you think you are to the other person.

The FART barrier – Now this is the mother of all barriers. I know couples who have spent 4 years and still not reached this comfort level. I feel its very important to reach this level of ease with each other. Its like salvation. It speaks a lot about how uninhibited the two people are in a relationship. No special attempts to keep a well carved image; not that farting out loud does any damage to it. But unfortunately it is perceived to. I feel you should just let it go. Everybody does it. Doesn’t matter if it’s the silent extinguisher or the blaring catastrophe. Just open the door to the hurricane, and back it up with a smile. That’s it!

I suggest you should have burp and fart competitions between each other. Its good fun! Try it out.

On a serious note, it will bring a smile and more than that on your faces. Break barriers of pretence. Allow you to be yourself. You will suddenly find yourself more comfortable around your mate. It would be like being all alone, away from any scanners.

And for all those women wondering why most men are more comfortable around men, and boast of that special manly bond. Well, I guess you must now be able to guess why. No barriers between men. None!

Mani-to-BanG

That beauty in a charcoal black veil, walks the sky in most elegant trail,

The halo, the mystique; it has charmed the night,

The clouds are flirting to their black delight.

The crickets are stumped by the naked sight,

The erotica, the entrance, the desire for flight!!!

The moment just stopped to catch a glimpse,

To make it so long, to long to sin.

To that instant, somewhere in the distance,

Few raised a toast in blissful ignorance.

The shadow of the night had none in fright,

Such was the aura, so captivating was the sight.

The lurking Satan hid in bewitched state,

He wept in silence at his ugly fate,

Was he not him but the beautiful wind,

He would whisk away the beauty forever for him.

The treacherous dawn awaits its turn,

“How can there be a bigger beauty than sun?”

“Out I will come and burn those eyes, in my most bedazzling might”.

But the ignorant night continued to kill, before the dawn would have his fill,

It sundered all wisdom; all that was me,

Enslaved all mortals in the momentary lapse of reason.

The dreadful death was never so easy, the sinful soul was never more free,

If life knocks once more, let it wait,

Let me be in this most divine state...