Last Friday evening, after coming back from office, I was browsing my bookshelf and this book caught my eye. I bought it from a bookshop sale sometimes in June and never got an opportunity to read it. The book I am talking about is - The Farm The Story of One Family and the English Countryside by Richard Benson.
It brought back some of my childhood memories when I started reading it. The working life in Yorkshire countryside and countryside in Western Maharashtra isn't much different after all. The book itself is witty, at times tragic and makes you emotional. I spent first 15 years of my life growing up in the countryside and witnessing quite a few things written in this book. I used to spent lot of time after school and in summer vacation helping my Father run his Agro-service center. Like Richard I was inept at many things (and I was too lazy to do anything). One could never trust me in doing any DIY work or any job with tools. My elder brother, like Guy in the book, was good at everything. I abhorred any housework and instead enjoyed playing Cricket for hours.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Lords to Oval and a Win
I looked at my last blog and thought of writing one more on the topic. What a change? Honestly, Indian team did play like a Team. In hindsight, the jelly bean incident was helpful (one of the many factors). There were lots of positives and I am not sure about Dravid's follow-on decision. We can go on and on that decision. The positives were Anil Kumble, Dhoni (and his wicket-keeping), Zaheer, RP Singh...for England I though Sidebottom was brilliant and Tremlett had a good start as well. I hope we continue the same in One day series.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Rain rain come again...
Surely England players wanted to say "Rain rain go away, Come again some other...". Another dismal performance by so called Indian star batsmen. What an impressive batting line up we have got - Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid, Laxman, Karthik and Dhoni that against England's relatively inexperienced bowlers (I give them a full credit, tremendous efforts by them).
What annoyed me was the scene after the test was declared drawn. Indian camp had a 'mini-celebration' as if we have a won the match. They should be ashamed instead, weather saved us in time. I have seen our team playing for some time and the world cup memories are still afresh. My personal opinion is - some players are doing 9 to 5 job. There is no passion, no desire to win. I have not seen the team putting their heart and soul in the game. They are pretty content with their lives and Cricket is just one part they have to play. It's high time we clean up our act and show the much needed performance because rain is not going to save us at Trent Bridge. Dhoni with some luck was definitely a star today but his performance is not consistent either. In fact, our bowlers did a great job. There was a consistency and IMHO they deserve full praise.
I stopped watching Cricket in between just because of the frustration. You spend whole day watching (or keeping track via whatever media you have got) the game only to find that we have lost due to dismal performance of players. I started again from the world cup only to find myself in a similar situation. There are whole lot of other issues viz., politics, team selection procedure, lack of proper system to replace ageing players and so on. Given the popularity of the game and kind of sponsorships we get its high time that we review the whole system and improve our ranking in both test and one day cricket.
What annoyed me was the scene after the test was declared drawn. Indian camp had a 'mini-celebration' as if we have a won the match. They should be ashamed instead, weather saved us in time. I have seen our team playing for some time and the world cup memories are still afresh. My personal opinion is - some players are doing 9 to 5 job. There is no passion, no desire to win. I have not seen the team putting their heart and soul in the game. They are pretty content with their lives and Cricket is just one part they have to play. It's high time we clean up our act and show the much needed performance because rain is not going to save us at Trent Bridge. Dhoni with some luck was definitely a star today but his performance is not consistent either. In fact, our bowlers did a great job. There was a consistency and IMHO they deserve full praise.
I stopped watching Cricket in between just because of the frustration. You spend whole day watching (or keeping track via whatever media you have got) the game only to find that we have lost due to dismal performance of players. I started again from the world cup only to find myself in a similar situation. There are whole lot of other issues viz., politics, team selection procedure, lack of proper system to replace ageing players and so on. Given the popularity of the game and kind of sponsorships we get its high time that we review the whole system and improve our ranking in both test and one day cricket.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Threesome, awesome...
Threesome, awesome...Our little princess arrived on 03 July 2007 and life has changed, for good, ever since. I am towards the end of my Paternity leave and just did not realise that time flew by just like that.
It is such a pleasure watching her. The babies in first month do not do anything apart from feeding, sleeping and crying. They do not respond to your gestures so one would think it is 'boring' that way which actually isn't. I feel so proud when she stretches herself and yawns. Her blank stares are worth looking at.
Wednesday the 25 July would be back to work for me and I just can't imagine what life is going to be like.
It is such a pleasure watching her. The babies in first month do not do anything apart from feeding, sleeping and crying. They do not respond to your gestures so one would think it is 'boring' that way which actually isn't. I feel so proud when she stretches herself and yawns. Her blank stares are worth looking at.
Wednesday the 25 July would be back to work for me and I just can't imagine what life is going to be like.
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