It must have been love, but is it over now??

When I read SwB's post about sports, my mind raced back to when I was young. Maybe like 7 or 8 years. When sports was nothing but pure passion.

When the walls had posters (courtesy Sportstar) of Roberto Baggio, Valderrama, Careca, Canniggia and Enzo Scifo! When I did not talk to mom and skipped breakfast after she did not wake me up to watch Argentina play Romania in the 1990 World Cup! When Argentina's losing to Germany in the 1990 WC Finals and seeing Maradona's tears made me want to thrash Mathhaeus and Voeller.

There was a time when waking up at 4 am to watch Srikkanth and Shastri take on McDermott and Reid and Marshall and Patterson in Australia was routine. When the only one who used to watch cricket in my 3rd standard class was a guy called Chetan.

There was a time when each time Sabatini lost to Graf, the hurt was so much that tears would fill up and flow much to my embarassment! When watching the semis and finals of the French Open and Wimbledon was always accompanied by the sound of pouring rain and when any sport that was shown live on Doordarshan was devoured compulsorily.

When the highlight of Saturday was World of Sports at 3.30 in the afternoon and when sports like billiards and golf and equestrian were watched with zeal just because they were sports and were on TV. And when watching the Rovers Cup finals live on Doordarshan meant less marks in the midterm Dictation exam the next day. There was a time when the sole ambition in life was to play doubles with Leander Paes in the Davis Cup.

That same magic is not there anymore. Maybe Cristiano Ronaldo can never be Diego Maradona. And the joy of watching Kapil Dev and Manoj Prabakhar bowl to Kepler Wessels and Andrew Hudson is not the same as watching Manish Pandey's heroics in the IPL. But maybe its gone. That love for the game that came above everything else. Maybe I am a spoiled fan now. Because now, at the click of a button, I can check the cricket scores and the football scores and the tennis scores in less than a minute. Keeping track of sports across channels robs the charm and the thrill of watching a sport as though your future depended on the result. Watching sports on DD meant undivided attention. Nothing else came in the way, No meal times or phone calls or fights for the remote or the guilty feeling of not having prepared for the exams. It was a simple uncomplicated world where nothing else came before sports on TV.

Times have changed. Now I see kids in Man U jerseys rattle off the names in the EPL at the drop of a hat. They know who Paul Conchesky is and which club he is playing for and what position. And I make a mental note of googling Paul Conchesky because I am too embarassed to say I have no idea who the guy is. When I was their age, no one in my class was as crazy as I was. No one cared about Maradona and no one knew who Sabatini was. In the 6th standard, I was asked to frame a set of questions for the class on sports. It was raining, so PE class meant doing something indoors like a sports quiz where all the 5 rows were seperate teams was and I asked what I thought would be easy questions. Much to my amazement, not many knew what was going on. The tables have turned now. When friends discuss sports, I am forced to pretend that I know who the men's singles number 1 is, which team Ryan Harris plays for, and who is the captain of the men's hockey team. When everyone discusses Formula One, I have to keep quiet because I dont know the F of Formula One.

The lesson is, I guess, this - When you love something with all you have, never lose touch with it. Else, its a hard long road to get back to where you once were. The same passion, the same magic and the same nothing else matters attitude. Its gone and I dont know whether I will get it back.

P. S. -> I miss blogging. I miss the world of the blogs. I have missed out on all the blogs I once used to religiously read everyday. I am getting a hang of what all I have missed out as I read the posts on Swb's blog. Its a lesson for me to never lose track of the blog world. Because sometimes when you can relate and identify with bloggers and have no contact with them except through their blogs, its a pain once you stop checking your Google Reader feeds and you realise you have lost touch with those people. So now on, no more ignoring Google Reader. My favourite blogs which I have missed the most - Swb, Mizohican, Katchucrap, India Uncut and many many more. I have missed you. Also, I will post here more often. With all my willpower and might. I will try to.

Some random and (very) stray observations

So many reality shows on TV. MTV Splitsvilla is great if you love to check out fights on the street between two random people. MTV Roadies is great if you are an adult but your brain is still 8 years old. If you are into dance and you get kicks by watching people dance in outrageous costumes, then I suggest you don’t sleep for more than 3 hours a day because there are reality dance shows all the time. There is something called In Your Fest. Do check it out. It is extreme crap. Next thing, cookery shows on music channels. Presenting VJ Juhi’s culinary delights on Channel V’s Red Hot Chilli Peppers every Saturday at 11.30 a.m. By the time it boils, you check out this cool track – The latest bollywood movie song played for the ten thousandth time. Launchpad is the only saving grace right now, but I dread the day when Launchpad will have to hunt for bands. Good bands take years to develop, and a launchpad every year will mean bad bands and crap music that will be polished and decorated for television.


Elections, the biggest reality show, are hitting the house this month. Channel V is running a campaign called “Vote ya Vaat”. The idea is simple, you vote or else you will be in a very bad shape because this very cruel, evil government will be elected and you will be persecuted and left deformed and malfunctioning beyond any hope of repair. There was a time when the campaigns would go “VOTE FOR ME” and now they take the easy way out and just about everyone says “GO VOTE”. Politicians come on Channel V – self proclaimed youth icons – and ask you to vote. I suspect they cut the part where they say “For Me” and just show the first part where they say “Vote”. Times of India – that great epitome of freedom, justice and equality – have gotten into the act with some Lead India type campaign. I have made up my mind. I will vote. Hence, we will get a clean, honest and efficient government this time. Obviously. Don’t vote for change, and don’t vote for an upset, just go and vote.


My favourite sporting nation has always been Argentina, thanks to Maradona and Sabatini. Now, Argentina lost to Bolivia 1-6 on April fool’s Day. It was soccer (not tennis) but then besides the inauspicious day (any astrologer would agree), I feel it was the altitude that got to the Argentineans. Playing in La Paz is no joke, and although Bolivia is ranked 50 places below Argentina in the FIFA rankings, they are the number one team when you play in La Paz. Teach the Bolivians to hold a bat, and they will give the Indian team a run for their money in cricket atop La Paz.


Maneka Gandhi has been in the news lately, thanks to Varun Gandhi and Mayawati. I used to get moved by the tales of cruelty towards animals narrated by Maneka Gandhi on TV in the series called “Heads and Tails”. It was touching, but it did not change my life (or my non-veg diet) and I did not fall in love with animals. At home, we never had pets when I was small. Maybe that’s why I was and I still am, indifferent to the two pets we have right now – a dog and a cat. My sis is into pets big time and hence the pets exist. The cat is no problem. We have had a pet cat for quite some time now. When one cat would die, my sister would get another. Almost like recycling. Cats don’t bark. Dogs do. And the one pet dog we have, does bark loud and for no reason. That is one reason I am not very appreciative of the pet dog. For some reason, he starts howling and screaming in the middle of nothing. It’s not like he has seen a stranger or something unfamiliar. Maybe it’s his innate desire to get some attention in this world where everyone is so focussed on avoiding pink slips amidst the economic meltdown. But I don’t get it. Why does the dog make dumb, loud, crazy noises when everything else around is still? One more reason the cat scores is the fact that she does not come near you sniffing your feet in anticipation of an egg coming out of your toes any moment. The dog does. Now I love my pet dog as long as he stays away from me. I have this ‘you live and let me live’ policy. It can be also interpreted as a ‘you leave me alone and I leave you alone’ policy. The dog does not get it.


And yeah, the good old lady Madonna has been stopped from adopting another baby from Malawi. I don’t think she is doing the right thing by adopting a second baby from the same country. Just for kicks, she should be asked to adopt from some other country. There is Djibouti, Chad, Niger, Cameroon, Lesotho and many countries to choose from. Madonna is a funny one. If you are a young woman, Madonna will smooch you. If you are older, she probably wants you as a nanny. If you are a child, Madonna will adopt you. And if you are a guy, she might marry you. Okay, if you are a young guy, she might be looking at just a brief fling. But still wherever you go, Madonna may get you. She always is in the papers or somewhere near you. Omnipresent, I say.


Remember Jack and the beanstalk? If you ever make a movie on the story, remember to cast Dev Patel as the beanstalk. By the way, the beanstalk is dating the 4th sexiest woman in the world. Wow! Imagine the fate of Frieda Pinto’s classmates at St. Xavier’s. I’m sure some of them were thinking of Megan Fox and Angelina Jolie when the 4th sexiest woman in the world was sitting next to them in class. The most important lesson from it all – never ignore any girls in your vicinity, you never know when they might climb up on the sexy rating scale (whatever that is!)


It will be time to bid adieu to Goa soon. Just when I am getting into the groove, its Mumbai calling... bah!!!

Back....

You can’t revive a blog whenever you want to. It either happens or it doesn’t. And right now, I am having one of those moments when you have stuff to say and you think it would be great if you could post a.k.a. vomit it on to your blog. I know it’s been ages since I last posted, but I haven’t been that busy really. Life has been interesting in the past year and a half or so when I’ve been away from the blog. So that means the only reason I haven’t posted is b’coz I am a lazy bum. We all are lazy bums, no? Now that I am home with almost nothing to do and I have stuff to say, I think it’s a good time to bring the blog back to life.


So you drag yourself out of bed at 5 am hoping to see New Zealand like 380/8 and you switch on the TV and you see 410/4 and you realise the difference between dreams and reality is as wide as it can ever be. There has been some criticism of Sehwag’s captaincy when it comes to field placements and bowling changes. It’s unfair to the guy, b’coz he never uses his brain when he bats and he cant be expected to use it when he fields. And when Yuvraj drops a dolly and someone as boring as Franklin hits 52 and a number of edges go thru the slip and gully region, its not really Sehwag’s fault. The real blame should be on Dhoni and Dhoni alone because if he was playing, things may have been different. The best part of the day’s cricket (if you are a sadist) is watching Charu Sharma and Arun Lal discuss the day’s play after stumps. I pity them. Poor guys have no clue what is happening and they are expected to discuss it for I think, like an hour, or maybe more. It’s like Atal Behari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh discussing Salsa and Tango. Watching it for like 5 minutes proved to be too much for me, and I am glad someone invented the remote control and I am glad we have other TV Channels.


I finished the book ‘You are here’. It’s a funny name for a book. You are here. I’m sure the sequel will be called ‘You are there’ or ‘You have moved’ or better still ‘You are now here’. The author’s name is Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan. Seriously, that is the name. From the name, it sounds like she is either a Kathak danseuse or the author of some research paper titled ‘The study of the effects of algae on water purity in Lake Chihuamuhua’. I just realised that the book title “You are here” has 10 letters and the authors name has 22 letters. The book has Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan on all the pages. I do hope she has a shorter version of that name in real life. Imagine saying “Are you okay, Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan?” or “Would you like coffee or tea, Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan?” or hearing “Hello, Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan here”. But seriously, what’s in a name? I just found it funny that a book called You Are Here would have Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan on all its pages.The book is cool. It is not about all the women liberation and all the feminist gasbag talk. The best part about the book is that it is honest. There are parts of it I can identify with and a lot of it makes sense to me. Now if I can identify with something, it really must be something no? It’s not autobiographical or anything of that sort, and it’s not some story that goes on and on and ultimately ends, sometimes very abruptly. I used to read her blog once upon a time, back in the days when I would religiously read everything in my Google reader, and the book is just an extension of her blog. Her blog is a great read, and the book although a toned down and fictionalised version, is also easy reading. It does get boring at times, but then everything does. Happy I finished the book. It’s one of the few books I have started and finished lately. The same goes for movies. I have never been a movie person. I start to watch a movie at home and I always end up not finishing it either because something more interesting comes up, or its gets so boring that I have to make something more interesting to please come up. The only movies I finish are ones that are watched in the movie hall.


I saw this band called Faridkot on Channel V Launchpad and I loved them. Check them out, the lead singer Inderpreet Singh is cool ...


P.S. As I type this, Arun Lal and Charu Sharma are back on TV. What happened to superheroes? Paging for Superman or Batman or Spiderman, someone needs to be rescued guys... help!!