A Few Thoughts

India lose by 95 runs to Australia. 

Once, we've over all the 'ooh's and 'aah's, let's just see what happened today. 

Sydney Cricket Ground, with a capacity of 42,000 people, is empty. As Harsha Bhogle interviews Shane Warne and Rahul Dravid on what should be the best approach for Australians and Indians today, you can see, the Indian Cricket Team practicing it out behind. The gates open and people start coming in like swarms of bees. Blue and yellow. The only two colors that you can identify. There's this excitement and immense amount of nervousness. Is it the crowd unanimously screaming or is it the sound of the heart thumping hard? 

Well, I'm not much of a cricket expert here. I'm not particularly sure if I can really differentiate between a cover drive and a pull shot(wait, I think I can do this one!). But, here are a few things about today's game. Smith performed brilliantly. That was a wonderful knock. Not something that we, Indians, will be particularly happy about, but, yes, there's no denying that that knock was wonderfully executed. India bowled well. They could've done better during the death overs. The support in the field was amazing. The Indians had transformed the SCG into Wankhede completely. The atmosphere was electrifying. Well, after playing 50 overs and with some wonderful contributions, Australia posted a total of 328 runs. That's a really huge target for a world cup semi final. HUGE! I could feel the pressure over our guys. A hell lot of pressure, for sure. 

They come out to bat. Initially things looked good. With Dhawan hitting the runs and inching closer to a half century and Rohit, slowly rotating the strike, it seemed like a winnable match. But, Dhawan soon lost his wicket. And then we lost a few more. All of a sudden, we were 4 wickets down, required run rate climbing up, Australian bowlers getting more and more confident with each ball they bowled and yes, the hearts of a billion (minus a few thousand) Indians slowing down. By the end of the batting powerplay, we knew we had let the match slip out of our hands. Painfully so. And we did lose. And by a huge margin, let's admit that. 

(Funny how a few terms like "execution" and "contribution" coupled with a few statements borrowed from the post-innings shows, can make you sound like a Sunil Gavaskar in a post match press meet.)

We lost. Am I heartbroken? Yes. Am I sad? Hell, yeah! 

Am I disappointed? Yes, here's why:

Remember how I mentioned a billion minus a few thousand hearts in the last paragraph? Let me explain that. Open your facebook account. Go through your news feed. So, you'll find a bunch of excited Indians posting in erratic grammar about how much they love the Indian team and how "hashtag-we-won't-give-it-back", "hashtag-we'll-win", "hashtag this" and "hashtag that". Support for the team with erratic grammar, accepted. But, bullshitting about the Indian team and it's members? "Hashtag" not accepted! 

You're Indians, remember? I'm not asking you to go sacrifice your life at the border. But, you can support your guys out there, it's really not that "un-cool". You should! And do you really think a single person can make all the difference in a match? Why is cricket a team sport then? And what's with the whole thing behind Anushka Sharma turning up for the match? Isn't Virat Kohli, and Virat Kohli alone, to be blamed for his performance (or rather, the lack of it)? 

A few more things. A presenter, "I-don't-even-bother-to-remember-the-name-of" and who was nicknamed a**hole (rightly so) by my mum (oh, yeah, she's expanding her 'vocabulary'), asks Dhoni if this was his last World Cup. Haha! That man was out his mind! And what a fitting reply was given by Michael Clarke. Respect, man! You earned it. You've gotta give some amount of appreciation to them, they performed wonderfully. There was some tension (polite word for sledging) in the field. But, that part, where they come rushing to see if Yadav wasn't hurt too bad, was bliss! That's what true cricket's about. Or any sport, for that matter. 

We took a lot of things from this particular match. I wish we could've taken a victory too. Well. 

Mammoth bottle diaries

Have I ever written a post on just one person? Maybe not. I did write about my friends exactly two years back. About how I will miss them and how much they mean to me. And yes, I do miss them and yes, they still do mean the world to me. But, coming back to the point where I started, I've never written about one specific person. Today I will. I met this person about a year ago in summer. And since then, I've been in love. To my beloved family, before you start jumping to conclusions, let me tell you that this post's about Aayesha(She's a girl and she's a baby)! ;)

I'm sitting in my school bus. It's been an exhausting, uneventful day. Exhaustingly uneventful. There's no one in my bus of my age. But, it's filled with little children. Cute, little, children. And they're all a little too excited for 12.30 pm. Well, they always are. So, I'm sitting on one of the last seats (because that's where the 'seniors' belong). And in front of me, there are two kids, one of them is Aayesha. I'm not particularly sure about how her name's spelled. But, I am using two 'A's just so you get the pronounciation right. I've 'suffered' a lot because of the absence of another A in my name. Anyways, coming back to Aayesha, I'm not even sure of her surname. But, what's in a name, right? Let me give you a little description. She's tiny but quite tall for her age. She's got these two large brown eyes on her round, cute, chubby little face. She's pretty thin, all the fat's stored up in her cheeks. Her hands are small, very small. I wonder how does she hold her oversized bottle in her tiny, little palms! And she's beautiful. She used to have long brown hair tied up in a messy ponytail(that diva!). But, now, she's chopped off her locks. But, she's still very pretty! 

She's sitting next to a boy, much smaller in height. I think his name is Rudraksh. I asked him his name and he muttered something that my mind couldn't register. But, I think it was Rudraksh. And they're upto no good. Here's what these toddlers are doing: Emptying the water of their mammoth bottles into tiny cups that fit over them and then throwing it all around. These kids! Also, these bus rides can teach you a thing or two about bus conductors. There are two kinds of them. The first kind, who love kids. The second kind, who don't. The one in my bus probably doesn't. He's sitting on the first seat and grunting every time he hears these kids giggling away to glory. 

Kids laugh so much. And their laughter's so loud and clear, without any hesitance or restraint. Plain, honest, hearty laughter. And they'll laugh at almost anything. Oh, a kid tripped, let's laugh! Oh, the bus halted, laugh! Oh, he's laughing, I'll join him! 

Some of the kids have dozed off on their seats. The bus stops near the house of one of them with a 'slight' jerk. But, these tiny inertia lacking organisms start falling hither thither, holding on to each other's hands for dear life!!!

Aayesha gets scolded by the conductor for being too mischevious. I feel bad for her and give her a don't-worry-he's-just-an-idiot smile when she turns around to look at me. She shies away and whispers something in Rudraksh's ear. These kids whisper in a peculiar manner. Almost attempting to bite the ear of the other person! 

I can hear a kid singing a song out loud. And he very flamboyantly says at the end of that song, "Yo yo honey singh-a". I know what you're thinking. That man's everywhere, ain't he? 

Well, we reach her house. And she gets down the bus and waves her tiny hands to say good-bye! We'll meet tomorrow again with a new set of mischiefs and the mammoth bottle. 

Mum calling!! Got to go!

Uh, what's the weather exactly like?

"What's the weather like?" 

"It's nice and sunny". The moment you hear Siri say anything like that, be prepared for some good amount of rainfall before the day comes to an end.

Two weeks ago, we were all cribbing about how cold it is. I used to be completely curled up in my blanket. Mom used to sit in front of the good-for-nothing heater and warm her hands and make an unsuccessful attempt to warm mine. And we used to crib, yes of course. We thought about the good old days in the eastern part of the country where one could hardly differentiate between summer and winter. It always seemed hot. It is perpetually summer all through the year there. I don't have a thing against winter. In fact, I kind of like it. But, it's only good when you can stay rolled up in your bed, blanket over your head, all day long. That doesn't happen in real life, so, my fondness for winter is limited(obviously!).

Two days back, I was having a tough time trying to sleep. I went to bed at about 12 and then I remember not getting any sleep at all. I checked the time, it was 12.44 am. I think I slept thirty minutes later. The reason behind my troubled sleep: It was not hot enough to turn on the fan, and not cold enough to use the blanket. So, I switched on the fan on a really low speed. Put the blanket over me, one leg sticking out. And slept. I woke up again, in the morning. Around dawn. Why? Because, suddenly I felt cold. So, I switched off the fan, blanket over my head, and dozed off. 

What do you think the weather is like right now? 

Well, it's been raining since yesterday. And not the drizzle-kind-of-rain, it's the rain-kind-of-rain! Wind's blowing wild, and it's pretty chilly outside. It's chilly inside too! The clouds have covered the sky. The sun's playing peek-a-boo. And we're all confused about the weather. 

Siri's prediction though for the next few days? Warm and sunny. ;)

P.S. We love you Siri, we do (even though you kind of declined my polite request to be my valentine, because you lacked a corporeal form!) ;)