Wishing all of you a fantabulous new year 2011

Cricket World cup 2011

I am excited about the new year being round the corner...

Because it brings along the Cricketing Extravaganza to the sub continent in the month of February. 49 matches spread across one and a half months with India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh playing host to the world over. A contest am sure all cricketing nations and fans are keenly follow. Many will have sleepless nights, office excuses and sick leaves will be on a high, TV channels fighting it over broadcasting rights, Movie theatres transforming into cricket stadiums, broadcasting the live telecast and at last stupid bollywood movies getting a well deserved break. Fans breaking their TV sets on teams losing, break ups following accusations by spouses on being taken for granted and on devoting more time to live matches, betting and bookies, pujas and havans for the favourite teams will all catch headlines. Hotels and restaurants will be smoking hot with guests and tourists, security will be at a high, and stadiums filled to the limit.

Those extravagant pulls & hooks, elegant cover drives and square drives, lofted shots coming down the pitch, stumpings, run outs, catches taken on full length dive, LBW appeals, dropped catches and ofcourse sixes soaring into thin air will all make us miss a heartbeat and close matches, nailbiting finishes will have us sitting on the edge of sofas without winking the eyes even for a second...

Indian team as always will have over a billion fans following the contests closely and cricketing pundits will be ready with their statistics and predictions. Players will be under immense pressure following the early exit of the team in the last world cup. But this Indian team is different. It is a blend of youth and seniors. If players like Sachin, Sehwag, Dravid, Dhoni, Yuvi, Zak and Bhajji form the core of the indian team with much needed wisdom of playing along all these years, then Raina, Yusuf, Ishant, Sree and Gauti can be a handful for the opposition on their given days. The team is brimming with confidence of being the numero uno at test cricket and being ranked 2nd in the one dayers and on the verge of toppling Australia in the shorter version as well. Infact this year with Australia being out of form teams like South Africa, Sri Lanka and England are also hot favourites.

I will back India for sure and am hopeful of seeing India through to glory on my LG TV set. Fingers crossed...:)

Introduction

Hi,

Let me introduce you to the characters in my blog through their school time pics. They may not be very clear as i tried to crop it from the school group photo when we were studying in 8th standard.

This is me... Seems to have descended from Mars. Infact i remember that we were playing football moments before the group photo was taken and were sweating like pigs. 

Gopa Kumar... The champ. You wont recognise him with the help of this pic as he looks so different now.

Umesh Kumar... My friend in all mischiefs. He was good at studies as well as athletics. His athletic genious got him selected in the Indian Air force. He used to complete 800 mtrs run on the school sports meet with great ease.

Anil Nair - My brother and my classmate. We hated being in the same class as there were not many brothers studying in the same grade. He was a better student than me, ateast he was good at scorin better marks than me in the exams...

Sangeetha - Nick named as Geethu. My long time girlfriend and wife. Was studious and a bit reserved then. She hardly spoke to boys...

Parvathy - Nick named as Deepa. Anil - my brother's long time girlfriend and wife. Yes, me, my brother and our wives studied in the same grade. If you compare her pic to what she currently looks like, you might say that she used to be malnutritioned and underfed... :)

A love story...

This is about Gopa, my friend and school mate and this story also dates back to those days. It was a time when just to have girlfriends meant a lot to boys. A guy going around with a girl would carry an image nothing short of Elvis Presley and Gopa wanted to be one. I am not sure if it was love or just infatuation on Gopa's part and neither was he sure of it. Anyways, that was of least importance. He chose one of the beautiful girls in the class named Remya and since it was his first ever attempt at proposing he was a lot very frustrated but his desperation ensured that he did not back out. In came a lot of assistance and help in the form of suggestions on how to approach Remya and Gopa took Anil as his trainer at it. Anil, though not a pro, was good at cooking stories and had helped Sujith in making up with his love.

The trainer prepared the script and Gopa just mugged it up. Had he shown the same interest in his studies he might have beaten Nisha – ‘the oh so studious’ hands down.

The whole class was excited, not because they wanted the love story to work out, but because there was entertainment guaranteed. The proposal was scheduled at the school playground and the Games period was considered as the right time.

As the time arrived, tension mounted on Gopa’s face and was like a volcano about to erupt. His mind was full of questions and was afraid of rejection but backing out was not an option as that would be a bigger embarrassment as by now all the boys were aware of it.

Ultimately he went to Remya and called her out of her group of friends for chitchat. Remya also grew a bit tensed at seeing Gopa tensed.

Finally Gopa blurted out “I think I love you… What about You”. Remya was taken aback as she did not expect such a thing coming and in the shock of things she said “No”. By this time Gopa had reached a stage where he wanted to run away from the situation and Remya’s reply did not matter much. We as friends were not astonished at Remya’s reply but what happened next is what we talk about till this date. Remya was just half way through her reply when poor Gopa interferes “Ok then, let’s be friends”. Even remya would not have expected Gopa to accept defeat so tamely, but this was the way he chose to come of the situation. By now he was a bit relaxed. Both of them shook hands and moved apart. The love story crash landed even before it took off.

By the way, for the records, as on date Gopa is a very matured and level headed person who has made his critics change their views about him. Very different from his school days, he is a smart worker and i have a lot of respect for him, the way he took charge of his life and family after the sudden demise of his father, whom he was very fond of...

Balls to get balls to school

This dates back to the days when I was a prefect in school and represented the student’s council and along with me was my dear friend Umesh, entrusted with the same kind of duty of ensuring discipline in the school.

Cricket, as we all know is more than just passion for Indians, and the game was nothing less than a religion at our school as well. There were around 10 trees, all in a row near the boundary wall of the school and each one would be occupied by a cricket team at all times and these trees would double up as stumps. Who knows there could have been a few sachin tendulkars amongst them?

As per the rules and regulations of the school we were not supposed to get any kind of sports kits from home and had to use whatever kits were provided by the school authorities. But, as we know rules are made for only those who are interested in following them, there were students who always found ways to mock on the rule makers by floundering them. Soon the footrest of the school furniture transformed into bats and cosco balls started finding their way to school in school bags. The school chose to seek assistance of the prefects to keep a check at this and this gave us the license…

Umesh and I would venture into the playground during lunch breaks and catch hold of all those who got balls from home… We would confiscate them and threaten the boys of harsh repercussions if they repeated this. Poor kids…, they would run away to escape punishment. This way we would atleast get 2-3 balls a day, which were never submitted to the school authorities, but were used to improve our own skills in the game of cricket. Yes, we along with our classmates would play with them during breaks.

Don’t know how many tendulkars got lost in that crowd of enthusiasts because of our behaviour. Sorry guys…. But believe me, I cant stop smiling when I think of those days…

When the whole class chose to become doctors...

We were in class ninth and it was the Hindi class which was about to start in no time and the bell had already gone by. Some girls in one corner of the class room were busy copying notes from the 'Oh! so studious... lot'*. And the boys as usual were at their mischevious best...

In walks our Hindi teacher, Mrs.Goel in her usual style - limping and swaying sideways like a clock's pendulam. It takes a couple of seconds for the girls to gather their senses and get to their seats and a couple of minutes for the boys to do so. Mrs Goel asks everybody to take out the essay passage on 'Meri Abhilasha'^ given as homework. Everybody was supposed to pen down their ambition in no less than 300 words. Boys are shocked as if 240KW of electric current was passed through them. Some were even found asking 'When was this task given?'. Hardly a few had done it.

Thankfully that day the teacher chose not to inspect each notebook for the essay... Rather she asked each one of us to read out our essay's aloud. There goes our first 'oh! so studious...' with her essay. (am translating the summary of the essay in english for better and larger understanding)

"One day i was sitting in my room and through my window, i saw in the slums nearby, played malnutritioned children who were scantily dressed and poverty written all over their face... That day i realised that the society needs my services and hence i decided to become a doctor and serve the poor... Blah.. Blah Blah..." The 'Oh so....' sat and next was one of the copycats who had been busy copying notes from 'Oh So...' and delivered exactly the same passage. The teacher had by now lost interest in the proceeding of the class and was dreaming about something best known to her with her eyes open. Then the third and the fourth delivered the same stuff when their turn came. Soon it was Gopa's turn and everybody was expecting some caning as we were quite sure that he is not one of them to complete his homework. Even Mrs.Goel never expected him to come prepared with his notes. But Alas!, he stood up and started "One day i was sitting in my room and through my window, i saw in the slums nearby, played malnutritioned children who were scantily dressed and poverty written all over their face... Blah Blah..." I was sitting next to him and saw that his notebook was blank a second before, then where was he reading it out from. Infact after listening to the same passage being repeatedly delivered by every student, he delivered the same message with his own interpretation and wordings, while giving an impression that whatever he said was what was written in his notes. He sat after delivering his essay. Now it was my turn and i just followed Gopa like a dedicated disciple. Soon the whole class followed us and that day no one got punished.

It seemed as if all our houses had a slum facing view with grief stricken malnutritioned kids playing around and all of us dreamt of becoming a doctor some day but what was even more heartening was that a couple of years later almost all the students were busy attending lectures on Commerce and Economics. So much so that even the 'Oh so studious' topper Nisha was also amongst us. Maybe the slums got removed by then and we did not feel the need for Doctors in the society anymore...



*
Oh so studious lot is referred to those students who came to school just to study and they ate, slept and dremt books. They always did their homework at home.
^
Meri Abhilasha means My Ambition in life

Masti ki Paathshaala - school days

It was a new initiative by the Times of India group, called the 'Newspaper in Education' and our school had subscribed the services to inculcate the reading habits in students. Good thought; but the students in our class had different plans. Class XI - C, was known for all wrong reasons and there was another in the reackoning...

Myself and Umesh, were entrusted with the task of getting the newspapers from the staff room on a daily basis and distribute it among the classmates. For a few initial days, everything went smoothly and the guys were more interested in the sexologists Q & A section. Soon something more interesting struck them and Gopa Kumar led the movement. Students would get into the staff room stealthily or on the pretext of taking papers for the class for distribution and take huge stock of papers and on the way back home, sell it at the Kabaadiwala (where old newspapers and other rags were bought and sent for recycling) for Rs 5/- per Kilogram. It was a good deal for a student from middle class background and for any student who had strong shoulders and enough space in his schoolbag to carry around 6-7 kgs. With around Rs.30/- being generated each day, we felt content and rich. Yes, by now i had also joined the league. My brother, 1 year younger to me was also my classmate and was among the top earners in the newsprint business, so much so that he opted to keep his books in my bag and used his for transporting the much sought after newspapers to the Kabaadiwala. Once he was caught by the vice principle carrying a copy of the newspaper in his hand, to which he said that since the books were so much that he could not accomodate his subscription of the paper in the bag.

But then the golden era was to come to an end. One day Satish stayed back from going to the morning assembly by giving some lame excuse to get his share of the newspapers and when he got into the staff room, juniors were stacking the papers as per the number of subscribers in each section (class). Satish just picked some newspapers from the old papers stack and walked off. When the juniors questioned him, he started to curse them. Soon the Vice principal came to know of the incident and about the newspaper trade. She came to our class and asked all the boys to stand up. She started asking each one of us whether if involved in the scam. She started with the back benchers. The first three including Umesh accepted their involvement and kept standing. The fourth was Anurag, who was actually not involved in any wrong doing and was a true saint. He sat down. The next was the highest grosser - Gopa Kumar, and for the surprise of many he denied his involvement and sat down. Infront of us was the most scandalous person sitting down in the most dignified manner. Soon all started following Gopa and pleaded innocense. Vice principal left the room asking the three culprits for their parents the coming friday.

The three felt decieved by the rest of us but like true gentlemen kept the truth to themselves and decided to go for the gallows without coming out with the names of the fellow wrong doers. At this we, the so called rest, felt ashamed and like true friends decided to approach the Vice principal and accept our involvement and that we repented for our actions. The Vice Principal was wise enough to decide in our favour because else she would have spent the whole friday meeting parents of each one of us.

Even today, when we classmates meet, we have a good and hearty laugh remembering those good old days... Good old school days.