staying.cool

how the fuck is india supposed to win with umpires who refer decisions to the captain of the opposing team? in exact sequence: delivery is nicked by batsman, balls hits ground before entering fielders hand (who is, incidentally, ponting clarke), who then grounds the ball while catching it. the appeal is referred to the umpire. who then asks ponting whether it was out.
who obviously agreed it was, and hence another indian wicket fell. of course, this had to be the wicket of ganguly, who had barely set a foot wrong since he had walked out in the middle.

jesus fucking christ.

then of course, dravid’s pad is nicked… the appeal seems doubtful, but is given out anyway.

chanderpaul made a very true statement in saying australia probably gets most doubtful decisions in their favour. add to these three decisions the decisions in favour of australia through the remaining innings.. and one wonders whether the match was the umpires vs. india, or australia vs. india.

india didn’t help matters though, with sickly fielding, and very very uninspired batting. the indian attitude is summarized by ishan sharma. who should be lauded. the final wicket, 7 deliveries to go, it’s obvious australia will appeal for every delivery. first ball up, huge appeal, celebration, the umpire is unmoved… and ishan sharma walks.
thats right. he walked. he has no idea which end of the bat he’s holding… and he walked.

winning in australia is hard as is, india is not performing in a manner that points towards winning either, the umpires have pretty much managed to make this less a match, and more a farce.

and we have last men who walk.

cricket? gah.

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According to the consumer action handbook, it is hard to get cheap flights to Australia during the test county. Finding New York flights as well as flights to Boston has never been this hard. This is why people take connecting flights to Amsterdam instead.

as of 30 seconds ago, i have been convinced to get the ‘learn english at home in 30 days’ course from either TVS or star networks. i don’t know which, but watching the quandary of the little boy who knows no english as compared to his compatriot.. or even the stuttering sales talk of the UP-bhaiyya salesmen in an office; really makes one think. it may have been the stuttering apology of the waiter that slowly brings a smile to the face of his customer. who obviously lets him go with a big tip. then, of course, there is the most convincing “skit” of all. the geeky college kid that kept silent, and was called ‘bhaiyya’ by the girls, by his own admission. of course, the issue was that he could not speak ‘ingliss’. people thought he was a serious boy, who was studious… which he wasn’t - by his own admission, again. such is the hard life of college today.

all these people benefited by this unique cd and book combo (with an ayurvedic medicine bottle for free!), which uses proven scientific techniques of concentrating brain power to specific areas, and indeed.. uses no reading, writing, or anything else to teach you english. i’m guessing somewhere in all this there is a wire on a spike, a la the matrix, and stuff is piped right into the “concentrated” part of your brain.

of course, one cannot forget the advanced dictionary that you get as well.

and finally the in-chorus final endorsement by the people i spoke about earlier. “get de lurn ingliss en tirty das, todayyyy !”

i so need this.

this post was meant to be posted on the 25th of december, but can only be put up now.

for whatever reasons, this was written on monday (25th dec), was supposed to have been “published” on tuesday (26th dec), and is finally being put up nearly a week later. sometimes, its hard to differentiate between late and procrastinate. call me what you will.

i call me excited. happy. relieved.

i’m going home. again. after the longest gap that i’ve spent away from it. there was a chance this gap would have been even longer, but i’m glad that didn’t happen. i didn’t realize just how important, how epochal this trip was for me until i actually got into the plane and strapped on that seatbelt.

there are so many things that you end up missing about home. first, there is the chance to see the most important people in my life. its been a long, long time, and every passing photo only serves to remind me how much older people are getting while i am away. seeing these people was a fact of life that took some reminding. that a time could come when i would see them no more was never a question. and now i miss seeing them grow and age.