Archive for the ‘Me’ Category
A Proud Parent
..declares with much happiness that her blog baby has turned one today.
And on this special occassion, dear Silly M(a)id-on would like to say a few words to you all…
Ga!!
Ok, that was just a word..but she’s just one..what did ya expect?
On a serious note though, a few special mentions are in order-
Samir Bhaiya and his entire blogroll – all that reading got me started in the first place.
©hinaman and Gaurav – for the opportunities to go beyond Silly M(a)id-on.
Homer – for the kind words on and off the record (I mean on the blog and on gtalk ) 
Leela – for letting out the fangirl in me to the world!
Thanks to everyone who has read/commented/advised/inspired over the last one year. It has been a lot of fun. Don’t let it stop.
Dravid, ACLT20 and the Aussie Series
So my whole theory of “Of course Dravid can play in the 2011 World Cup” went down the drain. (Thanks to Cheeka and his bunch of monkeys…BURN IN HELL you lot!!)
For purely selfish reasons, I think Dravid should call it quits on the one day side of things. He might be a tough guy, and might survive another one of these jokes at his expense, but my poor heart, which isn’t getting any younger might not survive another heartbreak.
Anyways, the Champions League was a lot of fun. First the Deccan Chargers crashed out. Then Banglaore failed at the next hurdle. And then they decided that if they are not going to qualify for the semis, no Indian team should and promptly spoilt Delhi’s party. Such petty thinking I tell you! Ham to doobenge sanam, sang tumhe bhi le doobenge….
Meanwhile, the Cape Cobras had their own problems. They were winning all their matches and looking good to win the tournament. But thankfully, they were reminded of the reputation they were expected to live up to. And then they promptly choked in the Semifinals. And all was well with the Universe again. We know for sure now that these South Africans are taught to choke right from the 1st class level.
Moving on, the much-awaited, just-the-right-number-of-matches, not-pointless-at-all Ind vs Aus 7 ODI series is here. Just out of curiosity, does anyone know who the vice captain is for India?
ODI 1 – India managed to make a match of it, after all. Jet-lagged me didn’t start watching the match until India were 6 down and then I gave up once Bhajji and PK were on the crease. But, there were persistent cheering sounds coming from the house across mine and I realised that India wasn’t going down tamely after all. Good on them! (The batsmen in them i.e. ..not so much the bowlers)
ODI 2 today was a different story. India batted big, riding high on Dhoni’s century. Dhoni batted like his days of yore, leading one Rishi Bubna to say on cricinfo “The Old Dhoni – He’s BACK! Its Raining Sixes!” and I went into a Rakhi-esque mode “Main janti thi…mera purana Dhoni aayega…Dharti cheer kar aayega…aasman ka seena phadkar aayega…mera purana Dhoni aayega..“
(Don’t worry..I have an appointment with my psychiatrist next week. I’ll be fine.)
So after this match, I now predict a 4-3 win.
For Australia..
No, India
No..Australia
No..India
Uh..ok..India.
Finally, before I sign off, I missed out on quite a few Blog-a-versaries and Happy Bored Days of fellow bloggers. My best wishes to all of them. Leela, SP, Prafs, Bhaskar. (and anyone else I missed out..sorry) Hope you all had a good one and here’s to many more.
The Real Force Behind Silly M(a)id-on
..is the one person who got me addicted to Cricket in the first place. He was mentioned briefly in my very first post. And now you can read some more about him through this wonderful post by Samir Bhaiya.
And while we are on the subject of family, may I also point you towards a post that describes my mom’s evolution as a cricket fan. She is the Type 1 fan, just to clarify
A Bit Of Self Indulgence
So the other day I was talking cricket with NC and he asked me if I have ever played cricket myself. I recalled the following stuff -
1. Improvised cricket – the gear, a ping pong “bat” and ball. The location, my aunt’s living room. The rules, only legitimate delivery is a full toss. Once you score 75, you retire. If you hit the wall below the tube light, it’s a 4. If you hit above it, it’s a 6. And if you hit the tubelight…you run away as fast as you can!!
I never reached the retiring score in that one.
2. Book Cricket – That does not need much explanation, does it?
3. Leg Cricket – Don’t know if anyone else has ever played this one. My PT instructor used to say it was his invention. So basically, it was played with a volleyball. The bowler rolled it to the batter, ten pin bowling style. And the batter(kicker?) kicked it away for runs.
The acceptable modes of dismissal were bowled, run out and caught (yeah, no lbw’s here 
). If a fielder caught the ball on one bounce with one hand, that was out too.
I did rock this one!
4. Cricket on top of Rala Mandal hill – OK. This one was a lot of fun. A bunch of us college friends hiked up the Rala Mandal Hill near Indore. Playing area was very limited (think of a badminton court). Due to lack of space, the rules were
- if you managed to put bat on ball you scored a run..unless of course, you were caught.
- You were out caught if the fielder caught the ball after one bounce.
- You could get bowled out.
- Nothing like a run out ‘coz you are not actually scoring by running. You just switched strike at the end of the over.
- It was important not the slash hard at the ball, coz if a fielder could not stop it, it would defo go down the hill and that would be the end of the game! And then you would have to treat everyone to Ghamandi’s Lassi (a popular place in Indore)
“Ok…this is fine” , I hear you say. “We’ve all done that or something similar…but have you ever played real cricket? The 11-players a side, being played on a field, with the normal rules applying?”
Ladies and gentlemen, I have…and here is the story of The Day I Played Cricket
2 Simple Rules
…to maximise your fantasy team’s score.
1. Check which players Megha has selected for her team. Don’t pick them.
2. If possible, check with Megha which players she chose initally, but changed her mind at the last moment. Definitely pick those.
As they say, Apna to bad luck hi kharab hai! 
Is Baar Nahin
Update – This is a touching poem written by Adman and lyricist Prasoon Joshi that appeared on the news site Rediff today. Apologies to those who don’t know Hindi. I am not the best person for translation. So if anyone can translate the above lines in English please let me know and I will link up their post to this one.
Terror Strikes…Same Old Story Repeats
Hours after celebrating a resounding Indian win in Cuttack, I heard the news of Mumbai being under seige..Following the news, it seems as if the city has turned into a warzone. A Fidayeen style attack for the first time…
It is the same old story and yet it is not. Ministers and Prime Minister will say the same words they have said before. I guess they know their lines by heart now. (The Home Minister has been MIA though, from what I hear) In the course of the next few days, people will go back to doing whatever they do, and all will hail the spirit of Mumbai and forced normalcy will return. Those who lost their dear ones will move on with a void in their hearts for the rest of their lives and those who didn’t will thank the heavens that it wasn’t them this time.
I am one of those.
My mother was supposed to travel to Mumbai on Wednesday. To the very train station where one of the attacks took place. But her plan got cancelled on Tuesday itself for some reason. I shudder to think what would have happened had she gone as planned. But it is ok. We all will get over it in a few days.
Or will we?
How many such attacks have to take place before anything concrete is done?
Why does India seem to lack the will to do something about this?
Does the fact that there are more than a billion of us make the value of human life cheap in this country?
What can we as responsible citizens of the country do? (I really need the answer to this one)
More importantly, what makes young educated people take up this violent path? Is there something wrong with the social fabric of India?
Humble Beginnings
Cricket for me is more than just sport. It has acted as a backdrop for fun times spent with friends and family. I have turned to it for inspiration when feeling bogged down by circumstances. Lately, I have also found it to be a sensible way of letting off steam. Curse that damned fielder who dropped the catch instead of yelling at your boss and getting fired . And of course, it has given me ample opportunites to celebrate the numerous hard earned triumphs. This game is one of those things that can evoke high passions in me. A smooth cover drive, a straight six over the bowler’s head, the sound of stumps being flattened by fiery pace, the almost-nicked deliveries, batsmen foxed by awesome googlies and dusras. What is not to like about this wonderful game?
So where did it all start? It’s all in the family dude!! My dad and a lot of my cousins are ardent followers of the game. One of them runs a popular blog. Cricket and I flirted for a bit for the first time in ’92. The backdrop was the one day series in South Africa in December that year. Schools were shut down because of the unfortunate riots that had broken out in India. So, since I could stay up late, the best thing to do was to follow cricket with my dad, me with my endless questions about the game and my dad only too happy to pass on the knowledge. Slowly I picked up the finer nuances of the game and began relishing Test contests too. During family gatherings I found myself sitting with dad, uncles and “bhaiyas” more interested in heated debates related to the game rather than spending time with my (girl)friends, who would inevitably get bored and leave. And by the time the ’96 WC began, I was hooked. The rise of Rahul Dravid later that year only increased my love for…err..the game .
This blog is a space for my thoughts about the goings-on in the world of cricket. As long as you don’t expect hardcore intelligent analysis, we should be fine .
Uh, one confession before I end this post. Even after almost 16 years of following this game I..er…still don’t quiet understand how the whole lbw thing works. I have tried, but somehow I can never tell. There, I said it. You can shoot me now.
