Monday, April 18, 2011

Grinch Goes Easter

Its that time of the year again where the chocolates suddenly start multiplying like rabbits and for an odd reason you may find them in that very shape too. Yes, there are also egg shaped chocolates and you become a kid looking in nooks and corners to find one to enjoy it. Oh yeah, Easter is round the corner and for someone like me its all about chocolates really. But wait, as for every Christmas there's a grinch, it seems the grinch has found his way to Easter too. "What in the world are you rambling about dude?" you may ask and I will gladly of assistance to sort the ignorant streak out of you......or try.....and give up. I am certainly not dying on lost causes....no way! Any how coming back to the grinch of Easter, an academic from the University of Melbourne has gone around making claims the innocent Easter Bunny of making kids fat. Preposterous is the first word that comes to the mind, for in the world of McDonalds (sorry Ronald, you know I love your burgers yet the public demands you be quoted when we talk about fat people), KFC (you probably had it coming Col. Sanders with that new no bread burger!) and Subway....wait that last one is supposed to be healthy if you take the sauces and the bread and the cheese and the salt n pepper and just leave.....the salads/veggies in all its blandness..surprise surprise!
The same dude to come up with this "allegation" was responsible for insinuating that Santa Clause promotes obesity, yes that very same Santa who brings gifts for the nice and well we never know what happens to the naughty......may be they just grow up and become Simon Cowell and annoy everyone around them. This guy probably also comes in the later category and the missing milk and cookie along with the missing gift probably justifies his actions, at least in his eyes. He could have been forgiven and everything forgotten about his absurd accusation had he not supported the idea of replacing the chocolate egg hunt with brussel sprouts hunt!! I can probably predict the outcome of that hunt, withering brussel sprouts in places no one ever tried looking and went to the bakery to buy the chocolate hot cross buns, which sounds like a might fine idea right now. So, while you sit cursing and writing hate mails (hopefully not to me) I shall go and scoff down some of those choc hot cross buns!
Have a Happy Easter and break and drive safe! :)

Thursday, April 7, 2011

A-D-Dictionary

In the last couple of weeks with the gala festival otherwise known as the Cricket World Cup, I noticed that most of us missed a few things which could change the course of history....or well may be not so much history as literature. Yes, the English language has had a few additions in that forgotten book (now available on web and electronic formats) called the Dictionary. Before "Google" became a verb and pretty much a way of life, the common literate folks used to refer to "the dictionary" to actually validate that the word existed. Good old Oxford and Webster were the ones who created, maintained and pretty much monopolised this market and Oxford still believes it has the complete authority (which it does) to accept what or what not is a legitimate word. The one role of the dictionary among many others was to ensure that scrabble players did not end up killing each other for if you ever played with Mike (name not changed for any reason other than to take out your grudge) you would have developed a murderous tendency too, but lets not delve into that.
Oxford recently recognised the following words as being an actual word and no more just a human uttering silly noises, the words are - LoL (no I am serious...stop laughing), OMG (I am sure there was a F in there somewhere but we shall be content with this) and FYI (can't believe all the corporates were actually using a bogus word on official communications). FYI, OMG what a joke. LoL! And the scrabble war gets that bit more nastier. I really wonder if WTF (or for the mild ones WTH) is experiencing right now? Does it not feel like the snub of the decade for it has been there as long as OMG and lets be honest has been better used if not extensively flashed at very critical junctions of the twisted turn of events we call life. So here's my vote going out to WTF to be included in the next batch for how else would TGIF be TGIF if the previous days were not WTF!

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Chak De Dhoni

I can keep watching this over n over for quite sometime.....



चक दे धोनी!! जय हिंद!!! :)

We are the Champions.....

It has been an amazing amazing last ten days in the world of cricket and in the life of a Team India fan. The cynicism, the doubts and the criticism that the naysayer harped on, all came crashing down last night when the team held that cup. The excitement levels matched with the lack of sleep ever since the quarter final game with Australia has given a delirious feeling of high which can't be matched by anything in the world. The media, social networking sites and sms'es had gone viral with the hopes, aspirations and belief of the impending victory. The comparison to the 1983 final were made and the fact that the dates were exactly the same brought in more hope, aspirations and belief. The comparisons did in fact have a bit in them after Sri Lanka pushed the Indians on the back foot with a very good score and two quick wickets had us up against the wall. That Dhoni replicated Kapil Dev would not be an understatement and the victory cemented that equation if there were any doubts.
The epic question, "Where were you when India won the World Cup after 28 years?" is going to be asked for years to come and there would be a smile, a smile that comes straight from the heart, when we answer that question for most of us we were there with family, with good...no make that great friends and with the players themselves. The clapping on every run scored, the high fives on every boundaries and, as a friend put it very aptly, a mini heart attack on every ball all turned into jubilation when the winning runs were smashed over the boundary for a massive six and an even massive celebrations! The Nile had been parted again, the water turned into wine again and India had won the World Cup once again. The team who had vowed to bring in the most prized reward of the game to offer it to the "God" of cricket had not disappointed.
The game had turned in a lot of heroes and the way the youngsters showed the resilience and the maturity when the most experience pair of Indian batting were sent back for hardly any score on the board shows that we have finally started to believe that nothing is impossible. No one piece of article would be complete without mentioning the likes of Gautam Gambhir who came close to that century in the WC final, Kohli who did well to apply himself in and not give in his wicket, Yuvraj for contributing as much with the ball as with the bat, Zak for that brilliant first spell and last but not the least M S Dhoni who has really does absorb the tension and remains icy cool in the hottest of the conditions. He had led India to the famous victory at the T20 World Cup and there was a slight hope, a little wish and huge expectations that this may be the man who brings in the big one and last night that hope saw the light, the wish was fulfilled and the expectation bore fruit. The look in his eyes when he hit the winning runs for a six showed the intent and the determination of the man with a purpose.
Then there was the post match interviews and the one that will be remembered for years to come was from the young Virat Kohli who uttered with great maturity the following lines - "He's carried the burden of our nation for 21 years, it was time to carry him on our shoulders today."
If the way he contributed with the bat and this maturity continues who knows there would be a day where we would be getting carried on the shoulders and with the talent he's shown and this level of maturity, here's hoping he does.