CRICKET-ThE InStAnT HIGH

What fragnance is to a rose, that is exactly what cricket is to India.

I remember the days when I started playing this amazing sport.We were a team of five boys and one girl and my area of expertise was ‘running between the wickets’ as I was not fond of bowling much and when it came to batting the guys never bowled well(esp. for me). They used to deliver sluggish underarm balls, which I could hit even with my eyes closed. Then I would yell at them-“Seriously! Shut up and give me a fast ball.”

What happened there after is beyond the scope of this blog and should only be discussed with experts! :-P

From newspapers to T.V. channels, from social networking sites to tea-time discussions cricket seems to be ubiquitous. And the smell of the victory in the air when the crackers burn, the brouhaha after every wicket that falls, the smiles on the faces and the pride every Indian feels when Men in Blue trounce the rival team is just priceless!

The most incredible aspect about this sport is that I’ve witnessed people from every section of the society playing it and loving it.

The India-Pakistan semi final was a high profile match with Bollywood stars and politicians reveling in the victory of a team whose majority of players come from modest families and slogged hard to make a place in playing eleven.

That’s the beauty of the bat and the ball-you can find it in slums of Mumbai lightening up the impoverished faces and also in a high profile match at Wankhede stadium.

With all the madness building around with every upcoming match it is impossible to say that cricket is not the national game of India!

People bunking their offices, house wives finishing up fast with house-hold chores, students bunking classes and exams, those traveling on the D-day taking a flight instead of a bus or a train, guys and girls painting their faces in tri colours - gosh! the vivacity gets so much better when people from different cultures and religions unite under just one name-INDIA !

P.S.-Cricket is not our national game but it is definitely the national mood!

Cricket is one religion that every Indian believes in. KUDOS to team INDIA!

My rendezvous with 'The Stranger'

Have you ever thought that movies like Jab We Met,Anjaana Anjaani,Hum Tum,Serendipity are based on beautiful accidents in life that involves two completely different people totally new to each other in strange circumstances but strings attached!
Year 2007:
Scene 1:
It was Manipal Entrance Test. My test centre was Lucknow.
I was just in time for the test and reached my alloted class for the test. My eyes searching for my allocated seat .and there it was-beside a fair guy .I settled on to my seat, held out a pen and was going through the instructions in my answer sheet when the stranger poked his nose.
Stranger: hey you can't use a pen you have to do with pencil. Take my pencil I've got one extra.
I looked at him with disgust and he just smiled .
Me: No thanks.I read the instrutions and I've one for my own.
Still he kept his pencil on my part of table...cAn YoU beLieVe tHat?!!
For next 10 minutes I was engrossed in my Form.
Stranger: Don't you think your name is weird?...and long too!
Tumhare Dad ka naam to thek hai.
He was going through my admit card....cAn YoU beLieVe tHat??!!!!!
I felt like pushing him down from the Qutub Minar....
what a scene that would have been seeing his nose thrashing into the ground.
I was fuming with anger from inside, yelling- what are you fat ass ?? some Name Inspector..huh??
Me: Oh really?....whats yours?
Stranger: (smiling) Akshay Kapoor
Me: Whats that like..a desperate attempt to sound like Akshay Kumar and Shahid Kapoor....coz from any angle you don’t look like any of the two.

And my face was lit up by a diabolic smile......the devilish grin!

Stranger: hey relax yaar.....sorry if I was offensive. Actually your name is weird but in a nice way..... infact Ananya sounds great!
Me: Now that’s called damage control.
Stranger: (Smiling again).....You are pretty smart...arent you?
Anyway you have got to tolerate me for next 2 hours and it's 4 hours if you are giving the MBBS entrance too!
'Nahiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii' was my instant feeling!
Me: (thinking) then thank your stars and I am already cursing mine.
Scene 2:
After the first paper was over...we had a break of 30 minutes before the next paper to commence. We discussed how bad the paper was, cursed the institute for setting tough paper and for the first time our frequencies matched!
Me: Did you notice the girl sitting diagonal to you is giving you frequent looks?
Akshay: See Ananya.. every girl likes me but not you.
Me: I never said I hate you (Jhooth bole kawa kate) ….anyways she kinda hot you can try!
Akshay: I’m not fond of hot girls(Jhooth bole kawa kate ).. I like girls to be simple….. So you are not from Lucknow.....right? I guessed that!
Me: That’s obvious after you inspected my admit card
Akshay: Well since you did not inspect mine I let you know about me. I am from Lucknow and I've a rich dad. He said son you at least give the exams and don't worry I'll get you through.
That was one those few moments when I smiled !
No wonder his dad had the same opinion as mine.... the child is wasted!
But not every man is man enough to say that in front of a girl!
Akshay: I don’t want his business so this probably is my escape plan!
His facial expression changed, he looked disturbed so I tried to change the subject.
Me: Howcome you said you knew I am not from Lucknow?
Akshay: You didn't put makeup and is definitely not trying to seek attention. I hope gals here knew that they would look beautiful in a simple blue patiala, white kurti and blue dupatta!
Now that was exactly what I was wearing and I managed to smile without letting him notice.
But then I thought he must have tried this line on many girls and I’m not buying it!
It was the first time I looked at him properly, he smiled and I had to smile back.
For some time I couldn't take my eyes off his dimpled chin and innocent eyes and I thought he definitely doesn't look like Shahid or Akshay....but he did got something girl ..actually he did look like Aftab Shivdasani.
Me: Well everyone has got their own style and dressing sense you should not compare.
(Now I was definitely being modest ,people do it everytime but I couldn't come up with a better response, damn!)
Akshay: So did you see anything in Lucknow?
Me: Not much
Akshay: What are you doing this evening?
(Actually he popped the question in hindi: Aaj shaam mai kya kar rahi ho?....and I gave him a skeptic look)
Me: why do you ask?
Akshay: I've two tickets for Mika's concert....you want to come with me?
That was the first time a guy had asked me out!...Before that none had
mustered up enough courage to do that and it was also the first time I wanted a guy
to ask me out!
I could make out from his face that he had practiced that line in his mind like ‘n’ times before asking me but that was undoubtedly the cutest thing about him-trying to act like ultra cool and ‘I-really-don’t-care-what-you-think-about-me’ in front of the girl.
But like all the female leads in Suraj Barjataya’s movies –‘comely and homely’,
I refused to go saying that I already had plans with my family!
Then there was pin-drop silence for 20 seconds.
He said that my plan for evening was more awesome than his and I should go out with my family which I already said I was going to.
He left the class before I did without saying a word after the paper got over.
That really sucked because though we didn’t start talking on a friendly note we did talk as if we were good friends.
Then when I was about to leave my place I found this scribbled on his desk-
‘NTYA take care bye’
I racked my brain for an hour to decode NTYA and I ended up with this- ‘Not Talking to You Again’…..it pissed me off like anything.
I was packing my stuff before leaving Lucknow and I came across my admit card and his face flashed before my eyes.To my surprise I found something written on it-
‘Nice Talking to You,Ananya’….my instant reaction was- what an asshole he is ! kept me thinking about it for 2 days!
The probability of falling in love with a stranger is one in a million but after all you need just one and moments like these you cherish for years, can make you smile and sometimes motivate you to blog!

A letter to Santa

Dear Santa,

Hope you must be having an experience of a lifetime this Christmas.

Last few months have been really eventful for the earth family and I guess you have an inkling about it if at all you read newspapers apart from nurturing your tummy at the Noth pole.

It seems by end of 2010 everyone has gone crazy either in a good or a bad way.

I prefer to call the year 2010 as 'The Year of Great Leaks and Great Records'.

The Wikileaks has gone wicked beyond the purview of wickedness.

I wonder what gift Julian Assange had asked you for last Christmas and according to my calculation it must have been a book called 'How to get wicked in 365 days'.

(see even his name says that he is an ‘Ass’)

There exists a class of people who cannot make things better around them but are always in search of an opportunity to ruin others. Wikileaks is nothing but a manifestation of such class of people.

When it comes to leaks how could I not mention the radioactive ‘Radia tapes’.

I call it radioactive because of its inappropriate proliferation all over the media and hence the country. I tell you santa, Nira Radia must be featured in top 10 most influential women in the country owning to her expertise in public relations and her conversations with Mr.Tata, Miss Barkha Dutt & co. which has gone highly public. Seems that the whole 2G scam revolves around a woman.

It has been acknowledged by all that women who make men talk better than they are accustomed to are always popular and so is Nira Radia.

Well coming to great records you must gift something special to Sachin Tendulkar as he reached another milestone of 50th test century and also to Saina Nehwal for trouncing every player in opposition.

Mission 'Common wealth games' was accomplished although soaked with controversies and scams.

Hey Santa, I was wondering what sorts of gifts you offer on Christmas?

The world is going to dogs and so I've thought of some presents which if you could give can make this world a better place to live.

They are as follows:

1. Mr.Obama not turning out to be a disastrous choice of US citizens.

2. India deciding what to do with Kasab before it is too late to avoid the egg on the face.

3. India takes a stand on 2G scam so that we can concentrate on 3G before the entire world switches to 4G technology.

4. Tolerance and patience for people to withstand further leaks.

5. Munni badnam hogayi and Sheela jawan hogayi so tell them to take care and bestow some relief on men.

I hope the coming year brings hope, success and happiness to all, enemies become friends and friends become closer. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

With love

Trish

OnE hAt TwO FaCeS

I had something bitter today,

My taste buds had a tough time

But people say it keeps problems at bay

I prefer to have sweet,

I find it delicious

But people say, your health, it can cheat

What you think something done to you as a favour,

May actually handicap you for sometime if not forever

All that glitters is not the gold

People fake warmth despite being cold

Those days are gone

When times are hard

& you pause to see how many helping hands reach you

Now it’s incredible to watch how many will bitch you

That which is 'bold and beautiful', has always been attention prone

Why the 'beauty of the soul' remains unknown

Tales of truth may remain untold

But the reality may eventually unfold

Being Cool....

Being Cool

Ask people what is cool to them & then be ready to get the whackiest & weirdest of all responses.
Yeah 'cool hai yaar'.....is the buzzword everywhere.

Last month when i was at home & my younger sis was helping me unpack my bags she came across my black old shabby travel kit & her reaction was-"di this is so very ID-PD(stands for Izzat Down,Prestige Down) let me get you something cool".Soon my my travel kit was replaced by a flashy pink,'made in USA' ,irritatingly girlish bag.
The next day a bunch of her friends enriched my brain with the universal truth that HANNAH MONTANNA aka MILEY CIRUS is the ultimate style icon & that she is unparalleld.
Watching Hannah Montana,putting her posters all over the room & having Miley Cyrus music collection was their idea of being cool!!

Its not just the bachcha party who are going crazy on being cool infact theirs idea of being cool is reasonable but grown ups have many unreasonable ideas.
for instance updating your 'facebook' status now & then from 'zzzz....' to 'i'm back' ,constantly changing your profile pics & counting your comments(the number of comments you score on each status or pic indicates your market value & your gender too)
If you dont have a FB account that is equivalent to a social stigma & you are tagged 'so uncool'.
what they call in FB as 'mutual friends' is actually a grammatical abberation of 'common friends'.But who cares.Everyone is doing it & so do I.I guess thats all about being cool now a days.

Being in relationship(sometimes in more than one) is so cool for some.
There was this friend of mine who used to get pissed off whenever her friends used to say-"you dont have a bf??thats so uncool yaar..."
& she smacked them saying-"i dont have the fear of being alone.Its so cool to find out that you dont need a bf to be happy".

Not to mention crazy fans of 'Twilight'.Since the movie got on everyone's nerves ,every girl fancies for a -greek god looking like, blood sucking boy friend.If that happens dat would be really cool & bloody!
It appears to me that this word supports all sorts of tomfoolery.

Activities like boozing,smoking,drugs,using slang terms will surely give you an edge on the 'cool-o-meter'.
"you know wot ..we had a booze party....& we got sloshed!!" -I guess sometime in life we all must have heard someone saying this.
But whats the big deal?..."totally nothing..just trying to be cool man".
Outcome:1)when you were sloshed you aired your dirty laundry in public(i.e. a private life stuff was made public)
2)you had disprins or other aspirins for next 3 days to get rid of your headache.

I guess thats not cool buddy.There's no harm is trying out stuff like that but you must have a check on yourself because one never knows when does a thing done for pleasure becomes a habit.We people have a tendency to blend in & not a real propensity to stand out.
When guys & girls are trying to be 'cool' they generally blend in,trying to do something whole world is doing.So its rather kinda epidemic and systemic.
Being cool should be 'be yourself' but excluding your ignorance & arrogance.It should be about getting rid of your mental barriers.
Who gives a damn what others do or follow.Every tom,dick & harry will be doing it.what everyone is doing is not always right(conditions applied).
Instead of squandering your energy on being cool ,be smart & sensible.