Thursday, May 15, 2008

Cheery Moments with a Cheerleader



Finally, I manage to get a place in the 'M' block of Chinawaswamy staduim, Bangalore. It was the best possible seat that one could ever get, and Shenaz had used her PR relations quite well to get the coveted seat. I had thanked her saying that if I ever possibly get married, i'ld make my son get wedded to her girl. She was reluctant to even that a guy like me can make such decisions. But than that's another story. we are here to discuss cricket and so lets stick to it.

The crowd has started to build up in numbers. It was the 3rd finals (best of 3) and Royal Challengers Banagalore was up with Kolkata Knight riders. Dr. Mallya had painted the whole stadium with colors of UB and it faced a competition cause it was Shahrukh Khan, the Bollywood superstar. Sharukh was there with his whole bollywood clan of Karan Johar, Arjun Rampal, Riya sen and whole bunch. By the way, preity's mohali kings had lost so she was there with her beau Ness Wadia to support Mr. Khan.

Ok, so lot of commotion and in this hustle bustle, I caught them. Certain youngsters whose eyes were glued to one thing--skiny cheerleaders. I watched them-- oh! i have only seen them in NBA games and in movies. and here they were, short dressed up in lacy skirts who anyday can give run to the adrenalin spring.


I couldn't believe my eyes. These beautiful awesome buxom beauties dancing to the swirls of every ball. they were dancing, cheering and clapping at every stroke the team played. It didn't matter which teams were cheering for, so long as they managed to catch us with our attention.

Suddenly, I could hear some folks saying "i wish these girls were our friends" and some one said "let's talk to them".. I was like 'talk to them". How was it possible? with so many cops around them it was a next to impossible job. But,then I wanted to. Come on guys! 4 beautiful women dancing in front of you cheering you up and you can't stand by just not appreciating them. But, what if Shenaz THOUGHT abt it?

Shenaz was glued to the match and possibly like most of the girls had "ignore' status for me. I quickly went across and followed those bunch of dudes getting down in front of the seat. Driving towards the ailes of invaders in strong lathis and rifles, we made to the battlefields.




Folks! let me confess here. I am in mid-thrity's and these teenagers are dudes-- spiky hairs, rings in all places and wat not. So, their chances of drawing attention was more rather than me. I looked like an uncle in front of them and jobless as some dear friend once called me.

So, I watched as some youngster finally managed to scream "hey babes, you look hot!" to one of those cheerleader. And, instanly she figured out gave a smile, closed her lipsa and questiond ..no not the right word teased me "do I?" oh man! i was like oh God 'Mena Suvari' . Folks! pls understand it was the most decisive moment. These were girls I dreamt of going out and dating. Infact, in my wildest moment I had always thought when I land in Big Apple, I would go out with chicks.

I stealthely crept in..oh thats another SIX! Sourav has Kallis for a big one and it disappeared in the crowd. What a good time it was. Those cheerleaders sparng into action. 1..2...3 and they swirvled. Tccch Tvjjjjjjjjj..ding dong ---- aaj ki raat hona hai kya ... paana hai kya...hona hai kya? there was her' right in front of me. I wanted to creep close to her and watch that beautiful maiden stealthily walked upto me podium and took a dig at it. He knew there was noone to
I woke up to find the brimness and sulkness of human emotions tanged in ..Get up son! it's time to move gto office...A beautiful dream

Shenaz looked at me and said Raj watch the game. She had caught me red-handed and had that mischievous smile

Sunday, May 11, 2008

'Indian' Premier Leauge- A Thought



There couldn't be a better topic to discuss this days in India than Indian Premier League (IPL). But than so much has already been spoken and written about this game than I am left with hardly any subject to touch upon. So, what do I write on this league.

Firstly, let me congratulate the entire team right from the BCCI strategy group to the players and to the franchise. The show is a huge success and the upcoming days would testify its dividends. Also, it is pretty nice to witness the IPL is celebrated by the entire Indian household. So, good for the game.

So, I thought since everyone spoke and wrote so much about the game I would touch own the Regional factor. The other day during the post-match interview Shaun Pollock, captain of the Mumbai Indians mentioned we thank the Wankhede crowd for their local support. Let's change the picture to a Virendar Sehwag swashbuckling 100 and the stupefied silence of the Rajiv Gandhi stadium, Hyderabad. Sehwag rose his bat to the crowd and waved to say "hey, I am an Indian".

I looked back and analyzed and said this is strange isn't it. We are Indians and when our local teams plays why do we chose to become so emotional or Sreesanthal (an synonym for emotional). No wonder the local team support the game and they came large numbers to watch and support their teams. Good for the game, but in what modern context.

I am a bengali- yes, I love payasam, khicuri, aloo seedho, mach etc...I am a bongali babu. Yes, I idolized Sourav, Kishore da..I would go and scream for kolkata knight riders, but than if Sachin plays a glorious stropke i'ld applaud that also. Could you say now Sachin is from Mumbai and so a Bengali shouldn't applaud. Now way!



Just take Chennai Super Kings for the case. Chennai has a history of anti-hindism. They have had people who don't seem to come out of their mother tongue bar (though things have started changing a lot now), they have a Bihari captain MS Dhoni. In the TV ad Dhoni could be seen dressing up in lungi and saying 'Mind it'. Here, is to the game.

A game is supposed to unite everyone and IPL franchise cannot withstand that. The objective of every product sponsoring the game is to see that their products are used by every Indian. Will it than say- no since we are representing Royal Challengers Bangalore, only the people of Karnataka can claim to use it? No right!

My point is support your region but dont forget to applaud the other teams. In the end it's our country-India that we are supporting. Let us showcase the world that we are not only a superpower nation in terms of our IT Services and Energy but also in Cricket.

By the way to end the note in a jocular tone--which of the cheerleaders are you dancing with? You got MY point, didn't you?

Watch out this space for my '5 minutes with a cheerleader'

Saturday, May 03, 2008

Adventure of Demented Minds @ Pondy in April '08



Obviously, the sun never sets in the holiest of the places in southern India, the capital state for Tamil Naidu, Chennai. After a prolonged conversation with my best friend, where she allowed me to contemplate: do we have such characters? I decided to set off for Pondicherry. My colleague at Infosys Manish Nema couldn’t be better relief to come out of that jail where he is currently doing a project. We decided to take an ECR bus to pondy.

It was hot and I swear Chennai always leaves me speechless with its humidity factor. Everything is at extremes. So when we purchased the tickets and asked the driver “will you get a volvo for pondy?” he said we should wait there. we waited and waited . after half an hour we asked him again, he looked at me as if he had seen us for the first time..(I cannot use those words here)

Anyway, a steaming bus with more than its capacity was started with more than 70 odd people. Everywhere there was commotion, everything was in a mess. The bus started and whole throughout the journey manish and I were singing, jumping and checking out some birds. I was also lost in someone’s thought.

We reached Pondy and as usual manish and I decided to do the best we always do- select the best hotel and have some good food. After finishing the rituals...oh by the way, the hotel that we entered for food was called the 'BEST' and if it means, you'll only get Masala Dosa there and nothing else, GOD knows what it means. anyway, we took some rest and straight off went to the beach.




Now, folks please understand this is my first visit to pondy and as usual we were cluless about the directions. So, when we asked a gentelman (who would in any day give a run to the great Bollywood comedian 'Keshto Mukherjee"..go starrrrrright. That straight would have lead us to a graveyard. I am 26 now and assume that I can wait for some more time to go that place.

So, a straight walk lead us to the ROCKY beach. As the name suggests, its a place filled with rocks. Manish and I had a gala time taking snaps of each other in different angles...we were the only person in the world without a girlfriend and things really get bad when we see couples everywhere...By the way, readers we are very much staright persons. Soon, we thought we would have some food again.

Manish was screaming for some drinks too. Let me tell you something, when you are on a project in a place like Chennai and have a manager who doesn't care a damn soul, you need drinks.

So, heard a lot about it. Hotel Rendezvous take a bow! The place is marvelous both in its food and scenic food. we had awesome time out there getting floored in all directions. The entire evening was filled with sher-o-shayari, anecdotes, bashing of everyone. Manish didn't leave me also. He called me names and after that he said sorry. Anyway, we took a long walk to the hotel again and we don't know what

happened next because the last thing that I remember was someone screaming....

The following day we went to Aurobindo Ashram..we had a gala time..I saw people praying, meditating and all. Good! I will come here in my late 50's. I bought some stuffs from my friends and if they are reading it guys its time you buy me something. At 1 we took a bus ride back to Chennai.

An awesome trip that was filled with fun and amazing comradeship. Keep watching this space for more trips of mine. Till then Sayonara!