Interesting!

After a forced hiatus of about a month, it feels good to have a few moments to pen some thoughts. What has been happening in this time?

• The baby is due in about 6 weeks. That's scary! I've been hard at work. It seems to be an unending list of things that need to get done before the baby is born. And an unending list of things to do after the baby is born. I've got all kinds of emotions. The sheer anticipation of the event is really exciting but I'm secretly nursing fears that she may end up being more like me. One of me is bad enough. Another thing I have discovered is I am not as much Virgo as I believed I was. Virgos are supposed to be meticulous planners and worry about everything. Atleast half of that is not true about me I have found. I have been winging it so far and feel rather underprepared. But then how can anyone really be prepared for parenthood?? Finding a name for our baby girl is a lot tougher than I imagined as well. I think I will leave this task to the wife.

• My whirlwind trip to India was a very interesting experience. India has changed a lot since I visited there abour 3 years ago. Flyovers everywhere. Even the guy who picks up trash has a cell phone. The gap between the rich and poor has widened. Heck, the gap between the rich and super rich has perhaps wided even further. As a case in point, Diamler Chrysler is going to roll out the Maybach at a cost of Rs. 5 Crores (Rs. 50,000,000) per car and its first production run of about 20 cars are sold out. They are launching the Audi A6 for Rs. 6,000,000 and they have estimated fairly strong first year sales figures. Imagine that. The food scene has changed as well. The restaurants that were 'cool' in my time are not even heard of by today's 25 year old. My 60 year old tailor (who does a heck of a job by the way) has a website. There's capitalism for you. But somethings never change. Air India. I don't believe I need to say more.
  

• I have decided I will boycott Indian Cricket until Saurav Ganguly voluntarily steps down and we completely revamp the entire governance of this sport in India. Our high powered committee, in response to one of the most serious issue to face the sport, suggested that the best solution to the current rot is that the captain and the coach needs to work together. Huh?? Now I realize why we have been playing so pathetic all these years. There was never a clear directive to make the coach and the captain work together. If I were Greg Chappell, I would quit and leave the decay. One of Arun Shourie's title comes to mind - Can the iron fence protect the tree that is infested with termites? Hence, folks, I am doing the next best thing - I am refusing to watch the Indian team in any of their matches until things improve. Can someone explain to me why the Bengali junta still support Saurav? Sougata? I can't understand it. He's way past his prime. Looks like a nervous wreck while he bats. Has prevented good players who are in good form from getting a spot on the side.. is doing whatever he can to ensure that he has a place in the team. For an interesting commentary on the situation, read Prem Panicker's column in Rediff. Looks like everyone worth their names in Indian cricket today think that the 'solution' reached by the committee was a 'sensible' one. So here we are, paying through our behinds for pay-per-frigging-view programming to see India play and all this while there wasn't even a team?? They were not working together?? You know - this confirms something I have been thinking about for a while now. Until 1947, there really was nothing called India. All we had were empires. No India. Hence I guess we now really have or are going to have an Indian team, or so the committee would like us to believe.. till now there have only been Empires - Gavaskar's, Kapil Dev's, Ganguly's..
  

Until next time..