Exhausted!

No... I'm not running tired. I've just exhausted all the praise that I could possibly have for the Indian cricket team! After all the speculation ('QOTD - Can India lift the World Cup? SMS Your answer to some-blessed-number-which-will-give-our-channel-tons-of-money'), strategising and whatnot, India is out of the Cricket World Cup 2007. (At this juncture, a fervent follower of cricket might point out that India CAN still get into the Super 8s if Bermuda beats Bangladesh. To which I reply, yes, just as pigs CAN fly to Mars and back in an our in their underwear!)
It's funny really. I've waited four years for this tourney. (Okay, three-and-a-half, maybe. It took a good six months for the shock of the previous WC final to wear off.) Initially, I thought that the worst thing about this WC was the fact that the timings wouldn't suit us Indian viewers. Now, however, that is the thing I've come to appreciate the most. Because I can avoid the whole thing much easier this way. There's this sad air that hangs over the tournament now. Think about it. Starting (and moving in ascending order of sadness) straight from Brett Lee's injury (which upset me a little), India getting belted by Bangladesh, Inzy's low profile retirement, India getting belted by Sri Lanka, Australia belting competition in all their matches and Bob Woolmer's death (which now increasingly looks like Bob Woolmer's murder). And adding to the really sad things are these annoyances. Like ads showing products being endorsed by cricketers (which are not all that bad usually, but can irritate me to no end when the cricketers in question play the way they did), Charu Sharma's wannabe Harsha Bhogle act, Mandira Bedi's... heck, everything about Mandira Bedi and SET's horrible tendency to chop off the telecast before the commentators finish their sentences and put in three ads per break.
That's the horrible thing about cricket. The Indian team is fairly good at it. (Before you stone me, rewind two weeks and read the papers.) They give us a hope and then drop our hopes down from a mile-high window. It's so much better to watch hockey, where either (a) The tournament is international, and India has no hope anyway, or (b) the tournament is an in-country league, and you can rest assured that an Indian team can win at least that way! Or football. Here, I can completely eliminate the tension to be suffered while supporting the national team, since I'm not entirely aware of the existence of one. Or, even better, tennis. You know that the furthest Sania is going is the second round in any given tournament. Also, out of the 20 or so people that stand a decent chance of winning any tournament, I support about 18. Or maybe I should just be like my sister and switch loyalties throughout the match in all sports, supporting whoever has the instantaneous upper hand.
As my blog entry probably suggests, this is the closest I've been to depression. And, my dad reminds me, it's all Indira Gandhi's fault. How, you ask? Well, she created Bangladesh!

Hats Off!

I know there are going to be plenty of articles/blog entries popping up worldwide about India's brilliant performance yesterday, so I'll just cut out the stuff about how much India sucked and how fantastic Bangladesh was and all. You can read about that elsewhere.
I've always been a glass half full type, so I'll throw in a little tribute to the Indian cricket team. For all those who didn't see the Ireland vs. Pakistan match, you really missed something. And that's where my story starts.
Disgusted with Team India's performance, I began to see the Pak vs. Irl match. (A little note here - us Indians are so self centred as far as cricket is concerned that we actually had two whole channels telecasting the same horrible match in which India got belted, and needed a third channel for the second match!) That match gave me a great feeling 'cause not only had Pakistan put up a lower score than India, but also had done it against a lower ranked, non-test-playing nation! As I was watching, I realised that Umar Gul was giving the poor little Irish batsman a mouthful every follow through. As more and more Pakistani bowlers came up to bowl, I realised that, in an Andre Nel-esque manner, most were either sledging or giving these really filthy stares or spitting in front of the batsmen or something of the sort. And I kept switching channels to see our match, and to the best of my knowledge, no Indian bowler did that. (This might also be due to the fact that I see all Indian cricketers through rose tinted glasses, but I really didn't notice anything of the sort.) And then I felt very warmed.
Our bowlers are not only more experienced than the Bangladeshi batsman, but also older (and I think this makes a huge difference). We could easily have made them feel unhinged by sledging and made our job a lot easier. But we didn't. In a very similar situation, the Pakistani bowlers just lost all control. Which got me thinking.
You win some, you lose some. Some days, you'll belt a team ranked way above you, others you'll lose to teams ranked way below you. It's all a part of sport. And life. Some days you're the windshield, others, you're the insect. The important thing being that you don't lose your dignity no matter what. India might've lost the match yesterday, but our players walked out with our dignity firmly intact. And for that, hats off to them!

Another One Bites The Dust!

Another set of tests, that is. I think I've barely had time to post since college started again. Second sem, is therefore only one post old. (Yikes, I know that ain't saying much, it's MY blog!) And the first set of internals is already done. And I feel kinda good because last sem, I slogged my behind off for the first internals, but pretty much loafed this sem. That is obviously taking a toll on my marks, but for some reason I'm not too bothered. Perhaps it's because I've realised that no matter how well I do in internals, VTU is going to make my life miserable with the externals anyway!
Amongst other activities - renaming and organising some 500 new mp3s, reading a little bit of Wodehouse, seeing the World Cup (Hoo Haa India! Aa-yaa India!!!), following American Idol, babying my little niece.
And that, my friends, is the sum total of all that is blog-worthy in my life.