Thursday, May 26, 2011

School Cricket

Mumbai, what better place to learn and play cricket. It was not the first time I played cricket, but the land of Sachin Tendulkar made it special to play it in the streets of Mumbai. The years were 1996-2000, I was totally new to underarm cricket. Born and brought up in south India where we played over arm throw cricket.

Throwing the ball not bowling it. Simple terms it is chucking. I was new to both over arm and under arm cricket. The streets were full of cricketers some very good , some beginners like me. It was difficult for me to adjust to playing this kind of demanding cricket. All I needed was practice, and practice is what I got. Moved along the reins and finally could become captain of some team.

Improved my underarm bowling, though my overarm blowing was a shame. I never got the line correct with over arm cricket. So I mastered my slow leg spinners and offies which turned appreciably. Got a lot of wickets using my offies, than my leg spinners. It was totally awesome feeling just making a mark. My batting was overshadowed by my bowling. It was okay, not very consistent. I used to come to party once in a while and blow the opponent away.

Keeping all aside, I kept chipping in with some great reflex catches. It was more anticipation and hand eye coordination that made me a better fielder. I used to dive on those thar roads and injure myself almost everyday. My mom was really unhappy by the way I used to come up with some new starch or cut every now and then.

School cricket, I played was a totally different batch of individuals. Even though a lot of people were from south India and settled here in Mumbai, they were more of mumbaikars than south Indians. I used to play with my own bunch of people at school, guys who were average at their grades. There was this scholars gang were everyone had good grades and they used to play separately. I always dreamed to play with those scholars and mingle with them and being in their conversation would increase my grades too.

One fine day, I did ask them if I could play with them. They did like me and said yes. I thought it was a break threw. I got into a better bunch of individuals and so I thought. I had to leave my old gang to join them. Ofcourse my old gang guys did not like this move.

One fine day, I was running a single and accidentally ball watching banged into one of the fielders. The guy I hit fell and his head banged on ground. A sharp pebble caused a small cut. It resulted in blood , which made the scene ugly. I was new to their gang. Though they did not abuse me or something, but finally sent a guy who told me exactly where I stand. Thats it I was out of the group. I could not longer play cricket with them.

My old gang were willing to take me again. Yes, its all in being friends. I realized my mistake of being caught in greed for higher grades. That day I started to realize, I am not very great at my grades, I am not a scholar. My brain is not like those super kids, its an average brain. I tried to study harder and try to outscore these scholars. I was successful in most of attempts. Just that my language subjects used to give me a harder time and keep me behind. 

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

I am hungry!!

Like everyday, today was also very busy day in the morning before going to office. My mom had a new problem as we had a new servant to clean house coming today. She was very apprehensive about her. I had been to my gym and had been back, now it was time to get ready for office.

It was a very tough time for my mom as she had to be behind the servant just to check how she works, and also had to cook for me. In all this she had forgotten her breakfast. Not to forget before the servant it was my dad's turn to leave home. He does pooja, so requires some materials to be ready, like preparing for the deepa and aarthi and also flowers. She had to prepare all that.

She was telling me I am feeling hungry while cooking for me. I saw my mom working very hard to her limit. Usually I am very lazy and don't do anything. Today, I prepared my drink and let her look after the servant. Then I asked her to take her time in cooking for me. As she was partly cooking and partly watching over the servant, I thought of doing something for her.

So I went slowly inside the kitchen and took a banana and gave it to her. Then after some time, cut an apple into small pieces and placed it in a plate and placed it in front of the stove were she was cooking. She said thanks. Well, listening to her saying "I am hungry", I just did what I could. :) :)

She does so much for me, it was nothing compared to that, but I felt great after doing it. You see love is all-round.. :) :) 

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Landscape painting

Took some time off to paint this .... Lot of colour in this one.. I like the finish... better than the last one..


Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Building muscles

I joined a gym and have been working out since the first of Jan. New year resolution or not, so far it is good. Being a vegetarian, it is difficult to get those muscles. I joined on a muscle gain program. Not many of my ancestors have had muscles. Some thought triggered my mind, when my dad commented that we have been pundits and only form of muscles gain exercise we used to perform is ringing the big bell for the Lord. So then muscle building is just not in the genes.

Black smiths, building constructors and people with utmost physical activity were the guys who had muscles. Interesting but true. They are the people with the genes for a fab body. Others just don't have it in their genes. Owing to the fact that cross culture, or cross caste marriage were not acceptable in our orthodox past, it could be true to say the fab body guys today have the genes of these black smiths and building constructors from the past.

May be may be not. Even though, I try to build some muscles, I kind of feel may be I am not built for it from within. Is it that I am asking my body to do something totally different from its actual use. Are is it that I am just doing something it is not used to and asking it to perform. Will it perform? Only time will tell.


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