OLD IS GOOD!!!

Was seeing one of my favorite movies "Chhoti Si Baat" a few days earlier... There are more than one reasons why this movie is one of my favorites... Firstly, this was the first movie which my parents saw together... Sweet story... Nice acting by Amol Palekar, Vidya Sinha, Ashok Kumar and Asrani... Melodious songs...

But this blog is not about the movie... This movie is about one thing which i noticed in this movie... Some supporting characters were glued to the radio listening to the live cricket commentary... they were continuously hooked to the small machine as if nothing else mattered... It left me wondering for a moment, before I concentrated back on the movie... But those thoughts came back to me today again...

My old cricket club's website mentioned that live commentary for the cricket match between England and India at Lord's is available now on BBC website... I had not heard any live commentary for years now... But I had a few minutes off during lunch and thought of giving it a shot...

I grabbed a headset and started listening to the live commentary on the website... What followed in the next 10-15 minutes was simply mesmerizing...

Gavaskar and Christopher Martins-Jenkins were on the microphone... Ganguly and Jaffer were on the crease (alas!!! sachin was back in the tent sipping tea) and Panesar and Ryan Sidebottom were bowling...

Whenever I closed my eyes and concentrated on the words flowing in the broadcast -- I could really visualize the possible plays at Lord's... Sentences like ---

"Glorious Silken Front Foot Drive from Ganguly"...
"Long shadows from the gallery now cast on the green lawn of Lord's"...
"Sun coming brightly on the ground now"...
"Elegant Back Foot Stroke from Jaffer"...
"Nice smooth action from Sidebottom"...
"Game is nicely poised at the moment"...
"Pitched on middle and leg, straightened a bit and beats Jaffer's stoic defence"...
"Jaffer arches his back and lets the cherry pass and stands tall again"...
"ooh!!! that's the perfume ball again"...
"Cracking shot that one!!! The willow gets even with the cherry"...

Sentences like these bring back the old romance of Test Cricket... It enhances one's imagination and visualization skills and sends one back to the era when cricket was more of a game than a media commodity...

I really enjoyed those 10 minutes and felt pretty fresh... and then the messenger window popped up... it said "Hey... could u look into test case #10 quickly... its kind of urgent"...

I was back to my bread and butter work, with a sweet after taste of the cherry and willow... You guys should try it too...