One short!

before random thoughts run out, here i go - slip in a slog and sweeping points:

1. Who else thinks that this champion trophy is more absorbing than any other set of ODi(ou)s before ? For a change, the batsmen are struggling to make runs. The chasing team has less than 200 to make and we aren't sure if they would. Makes me watch the match on the tube, even if 11 out of the billion blue isn't on the field.
2. If the pitches of this champion trophy is a pre-cursor to what is to come in the WC, good. I hear the pitches in Windies are slow and will aid the bowlers - good, very good.
   
3. Who else is shedding copious, patriotic tears when SRK (for a fat fee, ofcourse) yearns for India and Blah !! Seems he has carried his histrionic hangover from the "K*!^@%#" series right into this. With Mandira and SRK, sharing adjacent frames, I wonder if KaranJ has an idea for the next blackbuster. I'm going, wth - This isn't even "Indian" team, its the team from "BCCI"
4. One learning for me. Never go for a health-check just before Deepavali. The numbers from the check-up just dont add up to the tempatations of the taste-bud that emerges around this time. Now I've a resolution that I'll start behaving after all the sweets get over! A combination of cricket matches, sitting in front of TV, with a knowledge that there is a cache of loaded triglycerides at your hand's reach is not good. Not good at all. Writing these, I resolve harder - about getting by tongue to behave.
5. Heard Chappel's dressing down of the team; reminded of what I heard from my dad, when I was in the 8th standard. The team's performance dramatically improved against WI after that. India actually managed to cross 200.
6. Dravid ran himself out yet again. Whats with him - someone with such a cool thinking head, with sound brain and temperament, cant judge a run ?! Btw, did anyone else see Dravid's face while Agarkar bowled his standard a-wide-per-over overs at the death?
7. Chappel seems to have uncorked a genie that he is now finding it difficult to get it to go back in the bottle ("Symmo, no not you"). Seems to have compounded by loss of form by the Indian batsmen - all at once. Its bit painful to see at the same time, they have been hit by bereft-of-ideas disease; and sticking to 'we are one game away in rediscovering form'
8. I wish the motor-mouth Charu Sharma (a poor poor Harsha Bogle wannabe) and Mandira Bedi actually shut up and let Ian Chappel, Geoff Boycott and other experts speak. The comical and farcical aspect of the show get exacerbated with Sidhu's comments. Actually, in a morbid way, I listen to Sidhu with resigned fascination - you never know what he will come up with; its like I cannot make an omelette without breaking an egg.
9. Finally, not sure if any one's noticed - the ad breaks are much bearable. We dont go to an adbreak as soon as the batsman plays the last ball of an over and comeback, when we see the batsman follow-through after playing the first ball of the next over, with 7 ads packed in between - That technique is patented by DD, I guess

Whats with a list of 10 points to talk about - why is it top 10? Who is the one who talked about human beings, mediocrity and top-10?

Life - Could be short, could be fun !

I got a rude rude shock this weekend. Shock of magnitude, as its said metaphorically, as if one is hit with several bolts of lightning. Around 6AM Saturday morning; I was asleep, but slowly waking up and in the kind of not very conscious mode. I got a call from someone I know – it was my friend’s (lets call him X) mom – I also know his mom fairly well. I knew that his dad was not keeping well and he has had severe problems. As soon as I heard X’s mom talking to me, I thought it was about X’s dad. As his mom was talking to me, I almost missed it the first time; nn the 2nd parse, I heard it correctly - it was not X’s dad, but it was X itself.

This X, a friend of mine for nearly 15years, who barely crossed 40, had a heart attack.

Apparently, the previous night at 7PM he had suffered a major heart attack; fortunately, his (doctor) mom told me that he had suffered it in the right ventricular part of the heart, where his artery was 90% blocked. His mother said if the attack was on the left side, it would have been much much serious, almost a goner. Fortunately, he was taken to the hospital on time, got the right medical attention and had an angioplasty done, sticking in a stent through him and removed the block. He is well.

A bit of background about him. He is a guy who is quite funny – he is a repository of jokes, funny stories about himself and people around him, anecdotes and past incidents. I suspect that some of the stories are imaginary. Since I’ve known him for many years, I’ve heard him repeat stories, with a different (real) personalities involved with different locales and settings – replete with inconsistencies with his previous version. When, I once pointed this out to him, he countered – whether I want to laugh or want to dwell in detail. I got the point. In a party or a crowd, one can easily locate him; just look for a largest group, where the most noise comes from and where the loudest laughter comes from – he probably would be in the center of the group, telling one of his story (albeit with a different person, I bet); due to this prowess, he once was named the "Goran" (the jungle story teller in the Phantom comics).

Such is this guy. This morning when I talked to his mom, she told me that he is fine and will be out of CCU and into general ward. Doctors have given him a schedule that he needs to maintain – it includes exercise (which he does not do), diet (which he does not care) and quit smoking (that he does not even try). His mom also told me that its better that we do not call him or visit him, since she wanted him to take rest and not talk much (which is kind of tough for him). I had heeded to her and refrained from either seeing him or talking to him.

Today, as I was returning from work, I had heard a familiar ring tone – from the movie Pulp Fiction, Misirlou - it was X. I had assumed that it was his brother using his phone; as I picked up the phone, I heard his booming voice on the other side… With that typical laughter, he set out to explain what happened between 7PM and 10Pm that day; including the masala’esque details and how he found the whole thing funny – ‘at 7PM, I was this close to death, but fully conscious, with a weight of 5000 kilos on my chest and by 10PM, I’m done – back to normal… My heart had stopped, they used the iron thing ... … Since I knew the Cardiologist, I asked him where did they pull you out from?...”

The Goran is back - with a great new plot for his future stories, all woven around his heart-attack and heart-arrest; I'm sure retold a several times over; and I'm very sure with a discerning but very interesting differences.

Back to normal, all is well. Life could be fun!!!

Dark Sides of the Moon

Dark Side

I had many a simple dream…
...to feel the grass beneath my feet,
And for my dad to lead me across the street
I'd have taken root, me in his finger-hold
Root enough, someday I'd climb a hill
I was looking for warmth in mothers fold
Clinging to her, time I bide,
To end up as a count++ in female foeticide.

The Other side

I too, had many a dream…
But now, to live my life, I walk an uphill mile
I brave upstream to get to a smile
Living on with the half that makes hell mild,
I’m not as fortunate as you were, my child.
I live on, and on and on -
A count++ of suffering woman.
_____________________________________________________

ps: http://www.indiafemalefoeticide.org/
pps: saw an advert that triggered this