the man, the legend.

Way back in 1992, for the first time that day, when a cricket match was being broadcast, I did not switch off the TV. Before that day, I could never understand the game. So many men clad in white, complex rules of the game, it was not as simple as kicking a ball into a goal post. And, the inset view in which two people seemed that they wanted to meet each other but never did, and instead, crossed over.

But that day I thought I would give it a shot and try to understand the game. Not that the day was special. But it was this person's feat which really inspired me to do so. And the person was Sachin Tendulkar, the legend himself. No, as many would guess, it was not his batting that caught my attention but a catch, he took. Catching a ball miles high and with such ease, he made it look so simple. That day I became a member of the cricket fan club. From catches to matches, my passion grew, about cricket and about the man's batting.

From that day till today, the reason I watch cricket is Sachin. Not me alone, he is the reason lakhs of people watch cricket today. He is God. For without him and his elegant style, I would have quit watching cricket long back. Every time I think 'This is it, we would get no more from this man', he comes back strong to prove his Numero Uno position. No man can equal his skill. Batsmen may come, batsmen may go. But Sachin is class apart.

A tribute to this cricket God on his birthday.
Thank You Sachin, for all the cricket.


Happy Birthday.

a trip - then and now

"Children, we are all going to the zoological park tomorrow."

"Get dressed in your best clothes and don't forget to take a note of all the animals there, for, you may have to write an essay about your trip later. Most importantly, don't eat junk food near the zoo.", said the teacher to the third grade students.

"Yesssssssss, teacher" said all the students in unison.

And the day after, i.e., the day the students were to write the essay, one of the students pulled out his piece of paper which had the names of the animals he saw at the zoo and started writing his essay. He figured he had to sharpen his pencil. Not having a sharpener, he decided to use the wall for the purpose and started his essay. 'A Trip to the Zoo' was the title and he continued writing .. "Yesterday all the students of our class went to the Zooological Park along with our class teacher. The zoo was very big. We stood in a line and went one after the other. The zoo has many animals. We saw the tortoises first. Two were there. They were very big. Teacher said they can live for hundred years. Then we saw the monkeys, chimpangees, orang-uttan and white monkeys with hair. We saw many tigers also. Four white tigers were sitting there behind the cage. There was one cheetah. Hippopotomus was swimming in water. It was looking like rock. Rhinocerous also was there. We got frightened when cheetah got up and roared at us. It has long, sharp tooths. There were jackals and with stripes on their body. Then we went to the safari in a bus. We saw lions, bears and deers also...".

And the student was awarded 3.5/5 as he could not fare as well as the others, especially at the spellings and as he missed the scientific names.

Poor fellow, he neglected them as unnecessary.

Fifteen years later, he thought he would re-visit the place, this time with full freedom, not needing to stand in line, more importantly not requiring to write an essay about it. But his blog, devoid of posts since long, yelled at him "If you don't have anything to write, why don't you write about your trip to the zoo" in the voice of his teacher. So he decided, he would go for it. But laziness got the better of him and instead of writing the whole thing again, he reproduced part of his childhood essay. If he had to write it now, he would be awarded a 5/5, now that he had access to spell-checkers and search engines to get the scientific names.

Obviously, the 'he' mentioned is me.

Life has changed. From pencil to keyboard, from a notebook to the web. It sure did.