Random

One has finally realised that one's true purpose behind writing a blog is to take a break from all the self-pitying and self-loathing that one does all by oneself and to dish out the general air of gloom and doom in copious spoonfuls to anybody who dares to venture hither. It comes naturally to one. Well, to be honest, its an easy thing to do. Talking about inane philosophical abstractions , where one couldn't possibly go wrong or where the number of interpretations of the theme is exactly equal to the number of people who read it and where one could quickly hide one's stupidity under utterly ridiculous statements like 'Understanding the futility of everything makes everything worthwhile', is easy. For e.g "Kafka-esque" has come to be used to qualify almost all the actions of men from taking a shit to filling an application form to taking a ride in the PMT bus. Ofcourse who chooses what under this most abused theme varies greatly with ones nationality, marital status, job profile and not least of all, sexual orientation.

Welcome back

Finally got to watch some cricket over the week-end. Some traditional seam bowling from Chris Broad vs some swashbuckling batting from the calypso-est of them all - Ramnaresh Sarwan on a now-cloudy-then-bright good ol' english summers day.

Picture this. Ramnaresh Sarwan batting ( and how!!) on 96. With a short leg and a couple of fielders on the boundary line on the leg side, Chris Broad fires one bouncer after another at him in what was ultimately the day's most fascinating over. The first one, Sarwan ducks . On the second, he unleashes an almighty pull, actually a part-hook part-pull, which bisects with almost surgical precision, the two people on the boundary line and takes him to his much deserved 100. The third gets him on the helmet. The fourth and fifth, he just about manages to play it down under his feet. Predictable he may have been, but Broad bowls a sixth one on the trot, but this time a flat-out unplayable one and Sarwan, far more concerned about saving his neck, baloons it straight to the first slip.

And the whole while, one had Michael Holding talking one through the minutiae of good old seam bowling. He then goes on to tell you that one of the most fascinating aspects of the game is the the slowly but steadily developing contest between a batsman and a bowler who knows his bunny, when he sees one. Both of them are acutely aware of each other's rapidly ticking cricket brain and what follows is a fantastic cat-and-mouse game where each tries to out-think the other. The intensity is maintained for only about 4-5 overs, and may not even feature a single boundary or an appeal.

But what suspense! What drama!

Cricket is dead! Long live cricket!