HUMDINGER


After losing 3 games in a row, our morales were at an all time low... The last thing we needed at this time was another loss which all but eliminates any chance of our team making it to the playoffs...

It was 3 weeks since the last game and all the time was spent in introspection and we had realized one thing in these 3 weeks -- fortune favors the brave... Play hard cricket and leave the rest to lady luck...

So, after 3 weeks of waiting and motivating ourselves, we reached the ground all geared up for the game... A hot and humid day awaited us with mercury promising to reach upper 90s... The other team had taken the victory for granted and for them, it was a not a matter of "will we win", it was a matter of "by how much will we win"...

We lost the toss, and the other team decided to bat first... Their plan was to bat us out of the game... Hit us hard when we are down... They sent 2 attacking openers first up...

First ball -- six... Next ball, single... Again six... Then four... One hard hit ball, saved by a fielder... Last ball -- OUT!!! The first over could not have been more dramatic... One down batsman had smelt blood already and came in ringing sixes and fours... Within 12 overs, they were 112 for 1...

We grouped during the break... We had 2 options -- go down or fight back... We knew what to do... First ball after the break, excellent catch... Next 5-6 overs, we played out of our skins and got ourselves back into the game... We didnt get any wickets but we had the batsmen frustrated with the lack of runs... Gradually, they buckled under the pressure and we had our wickets... One very good runout, 2 hard hit catches... Next 21 overs, they had scored only 110 runs with 4 wickets lost... The match was really up...

But, by then, heat had taken its toll... One of their batsman was dropped while on 0 and carnage ensued... He hit us for 47 runs in the last 2 overs... All our hard work in the last 20 overs was undone in these 2 overs... They reached a massive 268 in the allotted 35 overs...

We were devastated... No one felt like drinking even a drop of water in the break... We had hit the rock bottom of our season...

Thats when our captain's father came to us and said -- "Guys, when the going gets tough, the tough gets going... Its like the Gatorade ad... Do you have it in you?"

We got the push we needed... We went in the game with the intention of "not going down without a fight" and got the worst possible start... One opener run-out in the 2nd over for a duck... But we did not give up...

The other opener and 1-down blazed their way to glory... Within 10 overs, we were 100 odd... Then we changed our gears... Now it was a matter of taking it - one over at a time... Within 15 overs, we were 150 odd for 3 and the asking run rate was now just 6... All that was required was just common sense...

We could see it coming and it was just a matter of not cracking under pressure... The opener fought valiantly at one end and the others were giving him the support... At one time it was 36 runs needed of 36 balls with 5 wickets in hand...

Soon, a couple of bad umpiring decisions followed and the opposing team had their tails up... It was a matter of who blinks first... One fellow played sensibly and it was up to 25 of 24 balls... A good over and it changed to 10 of 18 balls with 3 wickets in hand...

A good catch made it 10 of 16 in 2 wickets... Another six... Now, 4 needed of 14 balls... 2 wickets in hand... We should have won it hands down...

Thats when we cracked... The fellow who had just hit a six, went for glory and hit a high ball which was caught well...

4 needed of 10 balls with 1 wicket in hand... One fellow was playing very sensibly and took a safe 2... 2 runs needed of 8 balls, 1 wicket in hand... if wicket falls, we lose... 1 run, its a tie... 2 runs and we win... Anything was possible...

The bowler bowled a wide... It was a tie now... We could not lose from this point forward... So, now it was a Q of whether we win or not... But, #11 was on strike and he played the 2 balls safely... Now, the set batsman had to score 1 run of 6 balls and we would have completed a memorable victory...

Thats when hell broke lose... The batsman just blanked out, swung out wildly and the ball went miles in the air... We prayed that the fielder drops it, but it was not to be our day... The fielder held his composure and took the catch... They celebrated and our shoulders drooped...

After chasing almost 8 runs an over, we flinched at the last step... It doesnt hit harder than this... No one slept that night... This nightmare will haunt us forever...

It was an humdinger alright, we almost won... we almost defeated them... But, you never "almost defeat" anyone... You never "almost win"... You either win or you do not win... and we did not...

TRUST VOTE?

Have been trying to catch the proceedings going on in the Lok Sabha for the past 2 days under the name of "trust vote"... It was surely a big shameful episode...

I am not talking about the whole "invention" of the cash-for-vote scandal... This really is not a "invention", it is a "discovery"... (By definition, invention is finding something which no-one thought existed and discovery is finding something which was thought to be existed but was never found till now)... Everyone knows that horse-trading is omnipresent, the only difference being, this time the frustration and helplessness in the opposition spilled over and it came out in the open...

The real shame is how fingers were pointed at one another... How someone of the stature of the PM was degraded... Manmohan Singh was taunted as a "Nikamma" (useless) and the weakest PM until now... He is such a respected economist all over the world and someone of the stature (?) of Advani stooping to such a low level was really shameful...

No one, except Lalu, was allowed to speak un-interrupted... Lalu was spared because he had the presence of mind to use humor as a weapon to hit where it hurts the most... Everyone else, talking for the government or against the government, were interrupted...

I had a chance to see a small clip of Rahul Gandhi's speech and his humility and the concern in his speech made me admire him... I am not saying that he deserves to be the next PM or whatever... I am not even suggesting that he should be given a chance... I am just saying that he conducted himself today in a way which should be set as an example for the rest...

Seeing the whole horse-trading episode, I feel that the following laws should be brought into rule ASAP --
1 - India should be a 2 alliance democracy... These alliances should be formed before the election and the alliances cannot be tweaked... If some party wants to break the alliance, then all the MPs from that party should resign and get reelected...

2 - For every seat, there has to be an option of "None-Of-the-candidates-standing-for-the-election"... If a voter is not happy with any of the candidates standing for the election, then he/she can vote for the "none" option... If more than 33% votes go to the "none" option, then the election should be declared null and void... All the candidates should be debarred from contesting an election for next 5 years... Even their immediate family members (brothers, sisters, wives, kids, in-laws) should be debarred from contesting...

3 - If during the election in a constituency, less than 50% voting happens, then the election should be declared null and void... There has to be a re-election... The 50% voting can include the "none" option because, clause 2 above can take care...

Unless such stringent laws are made, such school-classroom episodes will continue... And as it happened today, someone will win the vote, but trust will be lost, once again...
SARKAAR RAJ
After a long wait of almost 3 years (I saw the original flick in 2005), RGV released Sarkaar Raj on 6th June... The local movie theater made sure that the anticipation had peaked well before June and the theater was almost full for the F-D-L-S (First-Day-Last-Show)... Wifey would stress on the word "almost" because (according to her) this crowd was not even comparable to the crowd on F-D-L-S of Om Shanti Om... Even if this adds to the current cold war between the Bachchans and SRK, wifey does not care a bit about it... Await a blog reply by Big-B once he reads mine :-p

But the best part of the movie was that it met the high expectations (atleast mine)... It would be unfair to compare this to the first one because the first one had the surprise element whereas this one had the bar already set to match... This one had the additional burden of reviving RGV from the disaster of "RGV ki Aag"... This one was the first flick starring Abhi and Ash after the wedding and everyone wanted to check out their chemistry...

The movie was pretty much on expected lines and expected (high) standards... Abhishek cruised through his role with a lot of intensity... Amitabh showed the same "Angry Old Man", the glimpse of which was seen in Agneepath...

But, I was disappointed by the film in a few aspects... Biggest disappointment, not to mention shock, was to see Abhishek die and Amitabh take over... I would have rather loved seeing Amitabh die and Abhishek pounce back in revenge... Adds more melodrama to the plot... But, then this way, RGV can bring all the 3 characters back in the next flick...

Also, what was mrs bachchan nee rai doing in the whole movie? why have 3 comedians-cum-villains when only 1 was enough? And what with the stupid assassin with gloves? Had all these unnecessary characters been cut off, the movie would have been more hard-hitting... Intense movies like these need to be relentlessly numbing the brain... A minute of an irrelevant subplot can kill the momentum...

Lots of similarities with the original movie... The real villain was pulling the strings from behind the curtain and its entirely different puppets on the screen... The real villain is not killed in the climax, but is defeated and defeated badly enough to not be able to rise again... The end of the movie leaves enough room for the next episode... Abhi get 2 divas in both the movies...
The movie completely enthralled the 500 odd ppl in the theater that day (including me)...

Eagerly awaiting the announcement of part 3...