about "test" and "oneday"...

Lying on my bed(read mattress), watching the bowler churn out overs after overs and the batsman ducking under it or leaving it altogether as if it was never coming and the scorers finding peace from work, I thought what it was all about in test match cricket....?...and I had to find the answer from myself as I always had stood by it and felt for it....was it really boring, mundane, grim...? what about the excitement of a closely contested one dayer....the blitzekreig, the flsahy strokeplay...but as it was, it was just the beginning of the test and it had my eyes glued on the final day as one team tried to save the match while other one was desperate for 1 single breakthrough...and it did not come....through application of a few batsmen and the grace of rain-gods...so what about the prospect of all the men inside the inner ring...all circumventing the batsman as starved sharks waiting for a ship to sink...(bad one ..?)...anyway...and the prospect of throwing in your best bowler for an endless spell and hence increased pressure on the batsman for a long duration...what about the sheer duration of time...the focus..the concentration...the committment...and the resolution...thats the depth and width of test cricket which one dayers cant match....obviously, ill contested and dead tests can be very irritating...but if there is at all a contest,its pure delight...

pilgrimage...

initially we were 6...finally we were 3 left to start our journey...so we boarded the cab from noida to the new delhi railway station...i was carrying a "razai", that of my fello passanger and friend deependra..and both my co-voyagers were having a good time laughing on me for my carrying that object in mid of march anticipating cold weather...but i thot i knew better....thinking that we had some time to spare, we retraced out path from the platform (number 5 if i am not mistaken) to the main gate from the pahad-ganj side...to have a cup of tea each...not bad!...and after a while the train left the station...it was not too much fun thinking that we cud have been 6...the whole of the compartment was ours ...but 3 of the berths were to be vacant i thot...we were cracking jokes and reminiscent of past memories frm college...had our dinner expectedly and then some ice -cream unexpectedly....without much adventure, we decided to put our sleeping bags on...if only we had one ...:)...by this time, my friends had started eating their words...it was rather cold...as it always is in a train in north india at night in march...!!!...my friends needed no convincing that I had some experience of travel on train....it was a nice night's sleep and I was not the happiest soul to be persuaded to pack my bags to disembark at jammu-tavi.....outside the station we went...ques ...that of buses and people buying tickets...soon after, we were on our way to katra...after another hour or two, and a bumpy ride, we reached katra, the foothill or rather the valley where the pilgrimage starts on foot...nice sun overhead, we had to hunt for an ATM, for we had all relied on each other at the start of the journey...there was the UTI ATM smiling on us...i did the honors and regret for I feel the guys made miscalculations of our expenses later and I did not get what I had spent on them..anyways, its a pilgrimage..:)...breakfast..and then we had to hunt for a room...after much persuation and wait, we landed a room in the "Niharika Lodging", a govt. venture...it was great arrangement..it was cheaper than the regular hotel-lodging and the facilities, hygiene was far superior...only thing, get it booked online if u gotta get it before-hand..we were lucky however (or rather my smart work in tackling the manager)...coffee, bath, again coffee...basked in the sun for a while on the terrace and all set to start the "foot-work"....we reached the bottom of the hill, started the outing...there were shops all along the initial pathway...security checks were abound...had bisleri, and a bag on my back..(rather trademark of mine)..we were cheerful by now and craking jokes all-along, taking snaps, started the climb rather quick.....after the initial 2-3 kms, I volunteered for tea...it was there that the "food-fest" started...yes it was one !!!...climbing up the slope, we felt hungry every second moment..and we could not have asked for better arrangements...shops were abundant...i relived the hill-experiences...tea,bread-butter,bun-butter,rajma-chawal..parathe...it was proving to be a gala time...we exchanged a million stories in the time...it was a festive atmosphere..colors all around, pilgrims chanting 'jai mata di"..."main nai suniya..' and the likes...horses and mules carrying the old and not-so-old folks...the enthusiasm carried by the old man or rather "carrying" the old man to the top...alike in the little kid trudging through...it was great time!!!...after 3-4 hrs of ascent, and 12 kms of picnic, there were signs of reaching the destination which we started to feel....it was getting cold as the sun set beyond the clouds...and then it grew dark and the bulbs and lighting shone...we also reached the darbar meanwhile...bought the prasad, chanting and shouting the hyms, we started to move briskly...inside the campus, we had the bath which sent us shivering to the core and reminding me the winters which I had forgotton of, living in bangalore for a couple of years.....(just a snack break guys..resume the post in a while)....back frm the break.. well, i completed the post, did not save the latter part and boom it was lost...really tired now...rest of it later...

book review - the nice guy who finished first...

how about a book review...? lets see..

so this is a book about rahul dravid, the india cricket team captain and a quintessential gentleman..i read this one a few days back..or rather am still reading it..this is the second one on the same subject i have read in the last one year...i reckon reading biographies, autobiographies or even authorised biographies for that matter is a very enriching experience for one can get into the mind of the subject and take a different perspective on matters...and was this not an enriching experience..you bet..the guy was not gifted skill in abundance as a sachintendulkar or a brian lara...but he has been able to make a place of his own among such greats...as the author aptly writes in the preface about this...gordon greenidge was a great west indian opener of the 70s and 80s..but he was always overshadowed by sir viv......wally-hammond always trudged behind sir don in matters related to cricket...similar cases with gavaskar and gundappa vishwanath..but rahul has managed to come on his own even in the presence of the prodigy that be-sachin...
i think the success story of rahul has been a case of conviction .. of belief in one's abilities and one's own style..which may be unfashionable...when quizzed by harsha bhogale about the 30 hours he had to spend on the english wickets to score 600+ runs in India's tour in 2003, he aptly replied that this was the length of time he needed to get in his own as he was not a sehwag or a sachin...one must appreciate that this was when he was accepting the ceat cricketer of the year award...he acknowledges that he is a different kind of a batsman and plays to his strength..and guys what a skill-set he possesses...awesome..a cricketer being adjudged by his test record, rahul shall always be remembered for his grace, elegance and strokefullness...

then there is another book by one mr. vedam jaishanker...this one deals more on this life as a whole than just the cricketing feats....another must read...he recalls how rahul was very nervous as a school team captain and how he was superistitious..also about his early aquaintaince with the "possibility-theory" as propounded in the book "tough times......"..the guy read the book when he was 14 and tucked it below his pillow before sleeping...then, he symbolises intelligence, humility and grace even outside the field..he doesen't carry any airs around him and knows that he is looked up-to and conducts himself in a praise-worthy fashion...then he is brave enough, and has a perspective over things as he acknowledges while writing for a leading english daily that cricket was just a sport and did not need a mention on the front covers of news papers..there were other things that beget the nation and needed attention ahead of it...also, he took the blame on the chin and did not make any excuses about the ball tempering issue...he walked-off the pitch in his debut test @ 95 even when the umpire had not still raised his finger after he nick-ed a ball from lewis...well...i realise its a long post already...but given that i had read two books on the topic, this was not unwarranted...infact there is much more to share on the topic still..and yes....apologies for the mess-of-a-post with regards to the punctuations and other stuff...if you read my apology, thanks, for reading this one till the very end...

synopsys of a movie- spiderman 3

3 weekends back i watched this one...well i had to..coz it was long due and also that i had liked the earlier 2 versions...and its any-way a cozy feeling sitting in a theatre with your loved one(s)....well, my good friends that is...rajesh, deep, brij and abhishek.....:)i decided not to buy any cold drinks (i avoid them generally) and snack....given the health-crisis i want to avoid in lieu of my already skewed and messed-up lifestyle...well, this is one of the bizzare decisions i often take.....dont be moved unnecessarily, for i gulped galons of them only today...so after the chintu-candy adds., the show started...the familiar peter-parker and his mistress MJ adorned the screen and amused me....i was watching in anticipation as to how the screenplay would unfold...then the villains started to pour-in.....the theme this time round was about the evil-within...peter was hit on his bad notes by some extra-terrestrial being and started to loose his own....he although gathered himself in time....it was how one is very productive and invigorating....it was also some bollywood masala... can make the right decision even in most trying of circumstances..it was about how one had a choice always....about fighting the lesser being within....this line of thinking killing one of the gous in volved in a love-triangle..or rather his sacrifice...good that these guys are finally learning from us..:)..but then it felt like it was being overdone at the end of it all...the villains were far too many for a decent script...the action sequence was decent and the high levels of decibel even threw my heart pounding on a couple of occassions....in the intermission, i went to have a fruit-bowl...and returned after a good length of time to be dismayed to see the ads still being run...these guys have now figured out the tv mantra...show it in the middle of the innings(program)..everybody will have to watch...earlier, the gatekeeper had stopped me to inspect my bag...it contained all the real-juices of the world and other eatables whcih we had gathered for the week ahead...he seemed to be a bihari and sensed the good-boy in me :) and allowed me to carry them inside on the condition that i would not eat them inside...."hamari class laga denge agar dekh liya aapko khate hue"....he exclaimed..and i said "koi ni yar...nahin khayenge.."..it was so heartening to see trust and friendliness in a fellow-being ..hehe... :)....and ya..about the movie..it finally got over and we got back home..without rallying for long on the roads...