SparklingRiver’s Weblog

IPL has become too painful for me. The two teams whose staunch supporter I have remained throughout the series seem to be bailing out on me. So much so that every time Dhoni pops up on TV, brandishing his bat to “Chennai Super Kings. Support your team,” I am forced to retort “I do! But you dont seem to be proving its worth.” Adding salt to my injury is a jittery Mumbai Indians team who have washed their hands off three close, nail-biting matches to frazzled nerves. My heart aches too much so I have renounced IPL till the semi’s.

I decided to put the free-time made available to good use and made a list of goals that I will set to achieve before I turn the ripe-old age of 25. This list excludes the usual Master’s degree, MBA, top-notch, highly-paying job, goals that would probably feature on everyone’s list. This is a list of deep desires, of simmering passion for knowledge and of the thrills of an adrenalin-rush. In no particular order:

• Watch all three extended edition installments of the LOTR trilogy in one setting permitting only toilet breaks
• Dye my hair red and then blue
• Trek the Hampta Pass, Rohtang Pass and the Chandertal Lake up North in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, India
• Learn Kalaripayattu, the ancient martial art form of India considered to be the forbearer of all other forms of martial arts
• Climb a tree
• Join/Start a secret society
• Take a dip in the Ganges
• Learn Spanish & Chinese
• Buy a Range Rover
• Read every book written by P.G.Wodehouse
• Be part of a political rally
• Play gully cricket
• Buy a Wii game station

Will review this 5 years hence and it will prove to be an interesting examination

I’m off to find a tree.

I’ve been quite blog-inactive for the past couple of weeks .The reason being I was in Mumbai with only a Blackberry to access the world of internet. Advanced though it may be, mobile web-service is extremely irritating when it comes to managing a blog. For starters mobiles have a miniscule screen and then there is the issue of unavailable softwares, applets etc.etc. Even Facebooking became a chore and the dismal speed left me on the brink of insanity. So I was left to fend for myself. My morning would begin with a hot cup of Red- Label All Spices tea, while I browsed through a crisp copy of The Times of India. Breakfast would follow along with my daily dose of “Breakfast News” on NDTV. I would then be forced and coerced by my mom to take a shower . Some more TV and random reading would ensue. Hot lunch and a quick nap would make -up the afternoon. Evenings would be spent on the balcony along with my grandmom observing passers-by and the innumerable birds that inhabit the trees in the compound. My 4 year old cousin would come by sometimes and provide a bit of unintentional amusement. Come 8 o’clock I would rush in great anticipation to the TV for a new round of DLF IPL match. I would be glued to the TV till it finished, which was usually around 12am, just in time for a trip to the Land- of -Nod.

That sums- up my indolent days at my grandparents’ place it . However, the past two weeks bore witness to a lot of events that I would have liked to mention on my blog but I dindt get to . So here is list that encapsulates some of the queer happenings that caught my eye.

• Raj Thackeray and his clan of “prescient” sycophants played the State patriotism card once again and proposed( through their trademark hooliganism) that institutions bearing the name Bombay must have it changed to Mumbai. Bombay Stock Exchange should become MSE, the prestigious Bombay Scottish School and textile power-house Bombay -Dyeing too would have to lose their brand name. Even the famous dish Bombay -Duck should not be spared. The reasoning- making Mumbai more Maharashtrian. They clearly have their hearts in the right place. A name- change will prove to be a panacea for a city that is plagued by rising crime rates, housing -shortages, power-cuts,decrepit roads and regular monsoon-flooding!
• Star Plus’s Jo Jeeta Wohi Superstar aired a sobby Mother’s Special episode on, come on, take a guess, Mother’s Day!!!! I love my mother but Im just bit too balanced to call her on stage, sing a song and then get so emotional only because its dedicated to my mom. If anything, I would be happy and so would she. I dont understand the tears. It was all a bit overdone for a show that is usually very realistic. The singing was good but I couldn’t watch beyond the second act due to the deluge of tears and switched to Sony. And boy was that a good idea.
• I discovered Comedy Circus. A brilliant reality show that brings India’s leading TV artistes to team up with Stand-up comedians in a fight for the top spot. The judges are Archana ( aha) Singh, Satish Shah and Shekhar Suman. Its already into its second season which means I missed a whole season of great wit! A must watch it airs every Saturday at 10pm.
• Radio Mirchi 98.3FM is conducting their own cricket league called the Mirchi Phaltu League (MPL) in answer to the DLF Indian Premiere League. Each RJ has a team selected on criterias that a national selector would find appalling . Jeeturaaj’s 983 has players who don’t know how to play cricket but just to crack jokes while Sana ke Sena is full of TV stars and singers. Anmol ke Mawaali has a state level player, Sunset Samosa ke Aloo team comprises of heavy weight members weighing over 100 kgs along with their brand ambassador ‘Chaalu Prasad Yadow’ and their slogan is “Jeetega bhai Jeetega Sunset Samosa Ka Aloo jeetega” while the NightroGen Rockstars has the coolest dudes in town. The excitement can be caught live everyday on-air between 6 and 10 pm and from what I remember the finale is on June 5.
• A month back Sprite countered Pepsi’s much-publicised Ranbir-Deepika Youngistaan ad with a clever, witty and very straight forward ad that was very true to its slogan “seedhi baat no bakwas.”In a similar bid, Pepsi has hit out against coca -cola franchise thums up whose trademark logo is a red “thumbs-up” sign Even Channel V has taken inspiration from IPl’s slogan “Manoranjan Ka Baap” and tagged its latest season Get Gorgeous 5 “Manoranjan Ki Ma Ki”. I guess, mimicry is the best form of flattery.
• Kolkatta KnightRiders made the lowest score in the IPL series, 68 all out!!! Balaji took the first hat-rick of the series, Mumbai have 6 straight wins, a calmer sreesanth has taken 13 wickets,Gambhir crossed the 500 run-mark and Rajasthan Royals, the underdogs, are into the semi -finals. The IPL is turning out to be a rollercoaster ride.

Oh well, I can’t recollect any more interesting episodes.Im off to watch Kings XI vs Mumbai Indians

Last night, for the first time, I was able to relate to the heightened emotions experienced by football fanatics.There were times when I wanted to shovel Sehwag down a manhole and whack Mc Grath on his head for playing so well. I cried, I sulked and I abused.The Delhi Daredevils, well they came, they played and they conquered. My sunshine squad was left dumbfounded.

Dhoni’s side lost Hayden, Oram and Hussey to country duty and this seems to have taken its toll. Oram’s bowling was well missed but having said that they did played good cricket. It was just not enough to beat the Daredevils.

The homeside (Chennai) won the toss and elected to bat. The opening pair of Parthiv Patel and Stephen Fleming seemed a solid one to crack until Yomahesh walked in. His first over was an exciting one to watch. He duped Fleming into a catch with some brilliant pace attack only to discover it was a no-ball.To add insult to injury Fleming knocked a boundary off the free hit. One more free hit and a boundary later Yomahesh was thrilled to watch the stumps fly off into the air for a change and Fleming returned to the pavillion. Then came in a warrior in the disguise of S.Vidyut and he carried the match on his shoulders. However, wickets kept falling at regular intervals. Even Mc Grath returning hurt to the pavillion didnot benefit the Super Kings much. His niggardly bowling had done enough damage. Morkel added a few mighty boundaries at the very end of the innings and the Super Kings finished at 169 at the end of 20 overs.

Chennai                                                                                        R B 4’s 6’s SR

Out came the Delhiities. 6 overs later with all wickets intact and a calm and composed innings from Sehwag I was sure this match would be won by the visitors. My TV was in great danger of being hit by one of my mom’s prized sculptures from Kochin, so I switched over to Star Plus instead. As predicted, Sehwag’s team did go on to win with 8 wickets intact. None of the Chennai bowlers could weave much magic save for Gony and Murli, but that too was not enough.

This is the story of how the reigning kings were toppled . They will strike back,oh yes, they will.

Delhi                                                                  R B 4’s 6’s SR

Yes,you read right, 2 BILLION DOLLARS. While most of us can only literally dream of our “dream home” Mukesh Ambani has gone ahead and built himself a $2 billion mansion at the plush Altamount Road in Mumbai. This makes it the world’s richest, according to Forbes. A distant second on the list is the penthouse at Pierre Hotel ,New York, worth a what now seems a mere $70 million. Of course, the money being spent by Mukesh is a drop in the ocean compared to his $43 bn net-worth. He is the richest Indian resident and he clearly is leaving no stone unturned in living up to that title.

The end-product will stand tall at 550 feet(equivalent of a 60-storeyed building). The interiors, an approximate 4,00,000 sq ft, will be custom made to the utmost top quality.Each of the 27-floors will have its own distinct decoration and style. Repetition, apparently, was something Mukesh’s wife Nita was strictly averse to. Atop 6 floors of parking sits a grand lobby with 9 lifts. The skyscraper named Antilla, will feature a grand ballroom, cinema a four-storeyed landscaped garden, three-storeyed gymnasium,two floors of glass fronted apartments for guests and an air space floor which will act as a control room for helicopters landing on the helipad above. Phew.That is indeed a lot. To add to all that ,the top floor will be a relaxation space for friends and family with a panaromic view of the Arabian Sea. Now this is what I call living the “High” life.

I see no point in getting jealous,when I cant even afford a house 1/1000th its value. The only person who can probably afford to go green with envy is Mukesh’s brother Anil who is worth a whopping, but very close, 42 billion dollars