47 at 32

47 runs off 37 balls including 1 six and five fours. Not bad after being sent one down since no body else wanted to go up. I reached the crease in the first over itself with the ball swinging around off. I was struggling to even connect the ball leave alone get off the mark. It took me a tedious 6 balls. This is almost an eon in a twenty over match. But I hung in. I realized that I as I play more, I think more and that has actually helped improve my game. Now days my mantra is simple if it comes in play straight and if any ball is wide, hit hard. That works well in the start when you are not sighting the ball too much and the ball is swinging around a bit. I hung in there, a couple of fours and a few singles and twos and I was well on course. After I played my self in the runs began to come in much better. Keep the head down and concentrate on the ball. Then I realized another thing that guruji Arun spoke about – bat speed. I concentrated bit on that as we need to accelerate the scoring and well the shots began flowing. Every season I learn something new. The must be learning good as the scores as definitely improving!

How the hell did humans invent this game with such a hard ball? One shot took an inside edge and whacked into my inner thigh. Wow. That hurt. Right now it’s a red blue, purple patch that is so bloody scary to look at. I have also learnt not to show too much pain on the field. Take that in your stride and face the next ball. I was also lucky to get a run off that ball so that I could relax a bit before I took strike again. I remember Arun telling me not to show pain. I also remember Sachin getting hit by Brett Lee and not even flinching. So that’s that. I can only tell you that the ball is really hard and it hurts like hell.

I am filing this from Indian School of Business campus, where I am here for a training program. Leading teams for high performance. I am generally a cynic of this but I guess like any good book, if I can learn one good thing, just one, then it’s well worth the effort. This is the first three day training that I am attending. The one day ones have been quite boring so far, quite useless as well. Will let you guys know if it was worth it!

Wilderness in the city

My daughter is going to be demented and I am sure it’s my fault. We have a lot of fun everyday in the morning while dropping her off to work. We have made friends with two dogs already. One is called two biscuits but does not eat any biscuits; the other one is called bingo. Bingo is the name of any dog that we see. We keep saying ‘hi bingo’ to every dog we see and ‘hi jojo’ for every bovine creature. This started in Jaisalmer where there were tons of them around, lots and lots of all kinds of cows. Now also on the way to the bus stop we take a short cut through a not so happening area. On one corner there is a garbage dump. So we can see tons of jojos, bingos and absolutely fantastic kites. In fact just yesterday I saw a kite swoop down and pick up what looked like a rat in its claws and fly away. Really brilliant. Garbage in the city is the only way we can see wild life I guess. We also enjoyed seeing these kite fly around in Jaisalmer from the roof tops. Such magnificent birds.

Well in any case here is she imitating me in the morning. I first put it on my head since she was reluctant to wear it, then she decided to do it herself. I tell you Jispa, if you someday wonder where you get your irreverence from – the answer is definitely not your mom.

It was nice playing the intra dividision tournament on Sunday at Matunga Gym. Man I feel like a demi-god in fitness. I run faster than any one else and I definitely play better than most others. And thanks to the boss Arun Solanki, I understand the game better than any one else. One idiot tried to sledge me and said stuff after I got out. I mean what’s the point of sledging after someone is out. You sledge to get me out and after mission is accomplished its end of the story. You shut up. So this idiot was fielding after wards and he misfielded and let a few go. I let him hear a few comments. It made him look such an idiot. Sledge smart you idiot. Never lose sight of your brains. NEVER.

Its the love of the game

It’s getting a little difficult to get inspiration to update the blog. I really don’t want to write crap though arguably my entire blog could one big pile of junk. I just picked up ‘the motorcycle diaries’ written by Che Guevara before he was CHE Guevara. His achievements in his life post the motorcycle diaries make the motorcycle diaries what it is today. I have no such delusions about my blog but I still like to think of it a little like that. A little romanticism never hurt anybody.
I try and play Squash regularly and realize what age does to instincts. It’s quite tough to play that hard and fast. Playing the coach is sure fun. He does play a power game and tries to ensure that the game is good fun for both. I am sure he can finish the game in 20 seconds. But three games with him last half an hour at the minimum. The third game is sheer murder for me. He does play a single power shot but just keeps the ball in play and places it across the court. Woa! Its complete murder running cross court.
Yesterday he was not in and I tried playing and practicing on my own for some time till two gentlemen came in. One fat guy and the other an old man. I find it extremely annoying to see in that matunga gym has very few patrons who actually smile. I mean the guys there are playing sports for god sake. Smile, acknowledge the people, the competitor, have fun. I think they see any one as one more guy trying to use up the limited resources. It’s such a fucking pain. But hell, I think that’s the psychographic profile of the guys who go to gymkhanas. I have become big, I am a rich and I have a club membership. This Sunday there is the inter department cricket tournament and I am playing cricket for the squash team. Lets see how people compete and how they make friends.
But coming back to the point, the fat man and the other man wait outside. I call them in for the game. They obviously want to play only with each other, but since I am in they have to play two matches with me before they shoo me off. They cant move for shit, but hit the ball very hard and very fast. Only fore hand no back hand. The serves are so fast I can’t see them. I now realize that I have a long way to go. A really looooong way to go before I see the ball. The coach has been feeding me soft balls. Hehehehehhehe. He is just giving me a workout I guess. But I am much better than I was before and I am definitely going to get there. God and knee willing! Amen.

vacations

Just back from a fantastical vacation of Jodhpur and Jaislamer. A lovely magical place and truly the best part of Rajasthan. The lonely planet has been a valuable guide for us wherever we go. It has helped me in every country and city that I have been as a tourist. Even here it told of the bets place to visit and eat. I fell that the lonely planet must be given the Nobel peace prize for ensuring peace and sanity for tourists while traveling. I wonder why Indians don’t read so much and carry enough material while traveling. I think we just bloody want to leave the trip to the holiday tour organizers whose headache it is to figure the entire thing. And of course ensure that you get good gujju fried food everywhere.
Jaisalmer is one place where I got to eat the most amazing authentic pizzas and some delicious soup. I will remember Jaisalmer and Leh as the two places to go and eat pizzas!

Vacationing with Jispa is quite fun. She is quite a decent traveler and is a generally happy kid. She plays on her own a lot is quite content to be fooling around with her activity books, colors and a white piece of paper. But she also gets to you when she wants you to play. We put her to sleep in the middle bunker and I sleep on the top one. Early morning she woke up and climbed onto my bunker and whacked me on my bum. ‘Wake Up Papa’. Huh!. ‘I got up and I saw its morning so I got up’ ya, its morning alright. Go to sleep. ‘nooooo’. Bloody hell. No one wakes up at 7 in the morning in a train, man. But all said and done train journeys are brilliant with family. Though I sometimes miss the travel in normal sleeper that we did as kids. Now it’s a minimum of three tier A/C. it’s easier to travel without carrying all the bedding. Also the normal sleepers have become really really dirty dusty and ugly. I guess in a trade up mode economy, the people have to seemed to have all moved up but the sanitation seems to have remained bad. I don’t mind traveling with friends in a rag tag sleeper but with family it’s a nice stress free environment that one prefers. Also as one travels northward the trains get dirtier and the crowd quite sad. Lets see how the train journeys to down south might be?

When one goes visiting historical places one realizes the value of reading the Amar Chitra Katha’s when pone was young. Thanks to those I still remember and recollect a lot of the stories that I read. It’s an invaluable learning experience. I have to go and get all the possible ACK’s that were ever printed. Let me try and see how I get my hinds on the entire collection. I have already bought the entire ACK’s Mahabharata. Forget Jispa, I will enjoy reading them all over again.