Wonders of privatisation

Recently, I converted from Airtel pre-paid to corporate post-paid and the airtel guy had promised me that the conversion would take only a day. I had to call for almost 4 days to get my SMS and caller ID activated. Finally, I lost my cool and threatened the Airtel guy that I would switch the service provider, if these weren't activated soon. Ahhh, one of the wonders of privatisation of the telecom industry!!

Sunday Evening at IIT

It's a moderate Sunday and I am trying to immerse myself into "Blue Horizon"(incidentally, the first novel I bought out of my own money) which I had already finished earlier. Out of the blue, my phone rings and it is nandhi. Surprised to see his name displayed on the caller ID. Atlast, my Airtel service has been properly restored! Nandhi says he's gonna meet dopan and asks if I would join too. I said I'd be glad to....coz I am desperately starved of friends!!
Dopan informed that he is at IIT attending "Shastra 2004". Myself and nandhi set off for IIT with the "unlicensed and uninsured" nandhi driving. Very surprised to see the "usually cluttered" madhya kailash junction being devoid of traffic on a Sunday afternoon.
The moment we entered IIT campus, the temperature visibly dropped 3-4 Celsius. To help matters, the roads were wet due to rain. Interestingly, there was no rain outside IIT campus as evidenced by dry roads. It was a very sylvan setting, with deers and lot of green shrubs and vegetation. Kinda like college, but with a lot more greenery. We met Dopan at the auditorium. There was a documentary on Prof. Feynman(A Nobel prize winner in Quantum Physics and one of the inventors of Atom bomb) running. It was very informative one. He gives few anecdotes that are witty and interesting coz it made a lot of sense. He keeps talking of his father's positive influence on his life.
At the end of Feynman's documentary, the the much-awaited quiz finals began. Surprised to see that even in the hallowed institute such as IITM, our guys don't keep their time. The programme finally took off, about 45mins behind schedule. There were about 8 teams, mostly from IITM, IIMB and one from Anna University. Surprised to see the quiz participants lying spreadeagled on the dais. No chairs, tables or anything. As expected from a technical institute, most of the questions were technical stuff....ranging from physics, chemistry etc. In the entire quiz, I knew answers only to 2 questions - one about FedEx and the other abt Google. The quiz programme seemed to go on endlessly. After 2 hours, we thought enough was enough and we needed a breath of fresh air. We hit the stalls to satiate our hunger. I don't know about Dopan, but myself and srini were really relieved to take this break. We discussed mundane matters, while we munched on the snacks.
I had reason to believe that the quiz programme would have ended, by the time we stepped in to the auditorium, a good 45 minutes since we left for the stalls. Alas, that was not to be! And we sat through the quiz programme for another 45 mins or so. It was not my day. I had high hopes of doing some bird-watching....thinking it would be something like the ex-Mardi Gras or Saarang(as it is called now). Unfortunately for me, it turned out to be a damp squib. Other than those in the trees, I could find absolutely no birds.
Finally, it was time to say good-bye to Dopan and his wife and in-laws(who had come to pick him up). I thought that was the end of our IIT experience. But, old Nandhi dog had more tricks up his sleeve... showing off his stunts with his bike, whenever we encountered the speed breakers(and believe it, there were a lot of them) The bike was flying in the air on these speed-breakers. On one of these speed breakers, I got a feeling that I was flying in the air....a.k.a Kate Winslett in the movie Titanic!!

First Test

Ind vs Aus Bangalore Test 5th Day's Play

Another one of those boring weekends, it was, and the damn telly tube wasn't working properly. India had already capitulated on Saturday to Australia. But, it was very heart-warming to see delightful strokes played by Pathan and Harbhajan against Shane Warne. Pathan's compact defence and a straight bat made me wonder why Dravid was shielding Pathan in the morning by not taking singles at all. Harbhajan and Pathan toyed with Shane Warne, as if he were a gully bowler. Heart-warming to see that the greatest spinner's figures were completely obliterated by these two wanna-be batsmen. Maybe, Warne was going after the world-record figure for total wickets and he was a little dazed. But one thing stood out: Dean Jones at the commentary repeatedly referred to Pathan as the next superstar of the world cricket initially. Once Pathan got to this fifty, he started referring to Pathan as the next genuine all-rounder superstar in the world of cricket. Whether Pathan realizes his immense talent(with bat) or not, we would have to wait and see. Almost a decade ago in the Titan Cup, it was another similar combination of batsmen(a fast bowler and a spinner) who had won a ODI for India against the Aussies. Alas, Sri didn't develop his innate batting capabilities. But there is something very polished about the way Pathan defends and goes about playing his strokes. He bats more like a batsman, rather than a tail-ender. One of his strokes that made India's day was the lofted six over mid-wicket of Darren Lehmann's slow left-arm spin. That ball reached the upper-most stands of the stadium, much to the delight of the Sunday crowd gathered at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Even Harbhajan joined the party by hitting a huge six off Warne. This was a classic stroke. I remember watching Steve Waugh playing exactly the same kind of stroke against Harbhajan during the unforgettable 2001 series. Bhaji went one knee down and played it cleanly across by sweep-pulled it over the long-on boundary. At the end of the day, Warne's figures were badly mauled by these two batsmen. During the "Fair and Lovely Fourth Umpire" show at lunch break, Cheeka had interestingly mentioned that Warne is yet to bowl as well as he could, in the Indian conditions. He still has got 3 more Tests to show off his wares in India. In the end, it was Aussies who had the last laugh, continuing the notion that Bangalore is not India's happy hunting ground. Due to the batting exploits of Bhaji and Pathan, India managed to reach a respectable score of 239. I, for one, am very optimistic about India's chances in the Chennai Test for a reason. Bhaji bowling was simply fantastic in his 2nd Innings. Interestingly, his tally of 10 wickets in both innings was the 4th consecutive time that he had taken 10 wickets against Aussies at home. The batsmen can't bat any worse than they have in the 1st Test. Keeping my fingers crossed for a positive outcome for India in the Chennai Test.

Nostalgia

Here I was....Going thro' yet another back-breaking journey through the so-called "IT Expressway" on my way to work. The 2 - 2.5 hours commute is never short of thrills...especially of the hair-rising kind!! I really admire our bus driver for his dexterous way of tackling the maddening traffic; not to mention the darting people and the grazing cows in the middle of the road.

I strike up a conversation with an acquaintance from my previous morning ride to work. Beginning with the bad roads and traffic conditions, we move on to our backgrounds. And that's where we strike up a connection...He studied in Asan and he knows my buddy, as well as my buddy's friends and his brother. This took me back to the school and college days when we used to play cricket on the road....that's when nostalgia struck me...when we used to break the neighbor's pots and windows...the times when we used to have bet matches at Somasundaram ground (and I still remember, we never won any match to-date and in the process lost a small fortune!!)...the times we spent on the terrace overlooking the city and the traffic. Those were really heady days!!

To top it, my acquaintance knew a lot about my college....right from the presence of the TEAM factory across the road and the presence of a residential school to the presence of swimming pool within the college campus. Was very surprised to hear this from him....Later came to know that he had several colleagues from my college. All those pleasant college memories started flooding my thoughts...those that had been deeply hidden within the confines of my neurons!!!

All these pleasant and nostalgic memories made my morning sojourn a walk in the park!! And then reality strikes back rudely...when I see the office building in front of my eyes. But this was one really enjoyable ride to work.