Not the usual format, right? Well, I have started writing a column for our office newsletter and the above was my second article.

And, this was my first attempt :

PS : Couldn’t update V-Tunes regularly this year, because of the series of electronic disasters I went through. But, I have no intentions to spare you all in 2012. No, seriously !!!

This isn’t the actual launch of the video; it has already (or only ) garnered 108 hits as I write this, and has been showcased to only a few of my relatives and extremely close friends. I wanted to share the video in FB, for a wider audience, but definitely not before I upload it in V-Lokam, because this is where I started it all.

Guess what, I had sent the video to a few non-malayalam speaking junta too (Northies, actually), and it looks like the video and its ‘underlying theme’, is understandable!! Anyway, let me know how it is!

Here’s the youtube link -  Chotta mudhal chudala varey , in case, the video uploaded here isnt working!

Oh btw, if you are planning to watch it during work, make sure you have a headset or an earphone plugged in; ‘cuz on mute this video would make absolutely no sense

And, for people who are wondering how the women folk reacted after watching the video, well, ‘they all took it in the right spirit’. The fact that I am still alive is the best evidence for that tall claim!

Well, as you know, this is not one of those regular film duets but it was fun doing something different and I consider it as an honor to have sung this song along with Shruthi.

Ok, ok, enough of my yapping; listen to the song and, this time, please let ‘us’ know how the song is And, also please read Shruthi’s post here.

Yeah, Don 1 song on the eve of Don 2 release! Now that’s what I call timing!! Well, actually no, both of us have been planning to publish this ever since we completed the song, more than a year that is! We wanted publish the song in both the blogs at the same time, but then, like all the late comers say, everything has got its own time and better late than never!! Oh, there is another reason for posting this now; Shruthi is supposedly leaving the Indian soil in a couple of days and I am sure, with her new role, “Shruthi ko pakaddna mushkil hi nahi, naa mumkkin hoga” !!!

PS : I actually had a huge anti-SRK write up here; almost a page and a half, you know, trying to provide some negative publicity for Don 2. But, decided to delete the whole part since this is Shruthi’s first song over here and I didn’t want all the attention to shift towards that loser SRK. Also because, being a huugge Ex fan of SRK, all those remarks against him would make me sound like I am bashing an ex-girlfriend !!! Not worth it, seriously !! But you know what, I feel much better now; I have managed to reduce Mr. SRK to a mere ‘PS’

((The V-mphony page is also updated with the song))

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The escalation was of no use; the damage to my image was already done!!! Apparently, there weren’t any male staffs for cleaning up the restroom yesterday and they had no other choice. But the least they could have done was to send some male representative inside to check if anybody was inside the restroom before barging in!!!

Well, this isn’t something which I am actually proud of and would easily feature in the list of the most embarrassing moments of my life, if at all I prepare one someday. I happened to narrate this to a few of my colleagues and now there are different versions of the story; one of them even mentions that I was being MMS-ed !!!

*For the uninitiated, Bathroom Kumaaran is one of my nicknames in the Blog world, after having gone through similar bathroom escapades in the past.

Don’t know what was the problem, but my name, during my school days, was a tad longer and weirder than many of you. Vimal isn’t that bad a name, is it ? Or, is it that my name’s too difficult to pronounce? Because, I was known only as ‘Vinoj Vijayan’s brother” for the 15 years I spent in school and I doubt if the teachers actually knew that I had a shorter name! Hmm… Can’t blame them totally! My brother was this Mr.Perfect in school; topper right from nursery to his 12^th (he was even UAE topper in his 12^th), quiet, behaves extremely well and so, was easily the apple of everyone’s eye. And me, just the opposite; average in studies, extremely talkative, picks fight with everyone in the class, and was always the sand in everybody’s eye! Each time I do something silly in school, the teachers call ‘Vinoj Vijayan’ to the classroom to decide what should be done, and I would be standing in front of the whole class, as if in a court room waiting for the ‘judgement’! Being a man of principles, my brother had this special quality of not keeping anything to his heart and would vomit whatever happened in school, to my mother. Well, he still does it! All hell breaks loose when my mother starts questioning me. I try justifying my actions, create loud scenes, get beaten up, and cry while my brother would’ve already sat with his books to study, as if nothing happened!!! To top it all, my mother would send me to him for maths lessons on those days!!

On various occasions, I was asked why am I not like my brother for which I always had the same reply for everyone – Oru thenggiley, randu thengaa, orikkalum orey poley aavilla (In a coconut tree, two coconuts, never ever alike). My brother has this some kind of aura around him, that makes most of my relatives and family friends, old and young, to still look upto him for his suggestions and opinion. Some of my cousins, who came before and after me, were also subjected to comparisons with the phenomenon that my brother is. The quality benchmark that my brother set is still too high for any of our standards Nobody really cares what I speak and that’s because I don’t think I ever say anything sane to my relatives. Even if I do, by mistake, they just stare at my face for a few minutes and then, change the topic. For them, I am and will always be “ohh, you are never like your brother” !!!

All this would’ve have definitely made a great story for a 80’s potboiler, you know, sibling rivalry born out of jealousy and frustration. But, that’s the funniest part, I have always enjoyed the situations being this way. Since, I don’t have this ‘good boy’ image, the expectations are always low and every year, I ensure to bring down the expectation meter to a new level, so that people can always say the next time “oh, we have seen worse from him” . I had the liberty to be in my own sweet world whenever I wanted to and never had to get myself involved in any of the major family discussions. My brother took the role of the responsible chap quite early in his life, while I just had to go with the rules that he had already set.

At school, being ‘Vinoj Vijayan’s brother’ was actually an advantage; saved me a lot of times from getting into escalations. There was this one instance, when my friends and I jumped out of the classroom window and to our bad luck, we landed right in front of the headmaster! We were asked to meet the headmaster immediately; a powerful pinch and a few heart piercing punch dialogues, was his mode of punishment. My friends were called in first and I was asked to wait. After a few minutes, they came out; two of them rubbing their arms and one, in tears. I went in, warming up my arms and wished I had ear buds to escape from all his infamous punch dialogues. But to my surprise, nothing of that sort happened. As soon as I entered his room, he asked me to sit down; yeah, I am not kidding, nobody gets that privilege. I was in my 10^th back then, and hence, my session with him was more about the importance of board exam and concentration on studies. I cared little about it, for I used to get the same advice from my parents those days and still waited for him to turn violent. That’s when he brought up my brother’s name, who had left school by then to join college. See, I didn’t have to even tell anybody who I am. Mr.Headmaster said I should be learn to be like my brother, make everybody say good things about me and that I should score more than my brother in the board exams and blah blah. The Headmaster being a malayali, my great coconut philosophy would have probably worked on him, but I didn’t want to take the risk. After 15 mins. of free lecture, he let me out wishing me even ‘a best of luck’. As I said earlier, nobody gets this privilege guys, except ‘Vinoj Vijayan’s brother’ !!!  I still can’t forget the smirk he had on his face when I went to collect my conduct certificate, later that year

Situations are more or less the same even now and I am not exaggerating. The last time I visited my school was in 2006, and the moment I met the old tutors, their first question was “How is your brother, where is he?” instead of “How are you?” !!!! Actually, it was a recent incident that inspired me to write this. A couple of days back, I happened to see one of my school teacher in my brother’s FB profile. I got excited seeing him and sent a friendship request immediately. Pat came the reply, “Do I know you?”!! Hmmpphh !!! This person taught me mathematics at school for two years and I also went for private tuitions to his residence. But, I realized where the problem was; it’s the name. I simply wrote back, “Hi, I am Vinoj Vijayan’s brother” ; yeah, just that one line would do for him to accept me now ! duh !!

‘What’s in a name’, so said Shakespeare ! As if he ever had to go through any of this !

Jeevida Bhaaram

Njan : Owwwwwchhhh
Amma : Endhu patttee?
Njan : Kaii onnu …aaaahhhh …ulukki…deivameyyy !
Amma : Nalla vedana undennu thonnu; idu enganey sambhavichu?
Njan (sahadharminiye nokkiyum kondu) : Endu chayyaanaa, ‘chumalil jeevida bhaaram’, ennalley? Aaaahhh… Appo kaiyum naduvumokke idakku idupole ulukkiyennu varum !! oowwww !

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Below is the literal translation of the above 55-er; the whole ‘burden’ part is part of a popular Malayalam song and so the translation isn’t going to make as much sense as the original. But, for the benefit of my readers, here it is : (Oh, btw, the translation is also in 55 words  )

Burden* of life

Me : Owwwwwchhhh
Mom : Oh, what happened?
Me : My hand…..aaahhhh…its sprained…oh godd !
Mom : It’s paining badly, I guess; how did this happen?
Me (looking at the Missus) : What to do! They say, ‘The burden* of life is often taken on the shoulders’, right? Aaahhh..So,  at times, the hand and back would sprain;  just like this! Owwwww !

*Burden here refers to responsibilities only and so, please don’t come up with your own interpretations

Have you all ever seen something like this anywhere before? In a way it’s nice; loving our neighbouring country and recognizing their ‘faloodas’ is not something which every nation does. See, I told you, Trivandrum is different!

Somewhere in Jan 2011

If you all remember, the above picture was published here, in this post on Trivandrum!!

Exactly 6 months later – June 2011

The strategic change in its position would not be because of my post, but I am going to take credit for it !   

Oh, that reminds me, for the same reason, I am also going to take credit for Trivandrum’s second Condom shop. And, guess where the new branch is; in the Technopark campus, where we all work!! Now that I am no longer there in Trivandrum, to promote their rubber business through my blog, I just hope they don’t shut them down and open branches here in Kochi!!

Well, in my case, I didn’t take a break from blogging because I didn’t have anything to write. Infact, I had a few posts lined up and had also written and saved them. But then, one fine morning, actually evening, after getting back from school, my laptop refused to switch on. After repeated attempts of trying to make it work (I even tried the traditional banging-the-laptop technique), I took it to its authorized service center. The guy over there mumbled something in ‘technology’ and all I understood was ‘corrupted OS’. I begged, pleaded and must have also shed some tears asking him to save all my data – I had two photo albums, a couple of videos which I was working on, those blog entries, and a couple of my recordings which were left to edit, all in my desktop and with no backup ! But the bugger said ‘no’ with a sadistic smile! On the same day my bike, for some reason, didn’t want to take me along with it and I had to leave that also for service.

I still had my wifi connection at home though and kept accessing the net through my mobile; that’s when I was active in FB. Something happened to our phone lines and two days later, I lost that luxury too. For almost a week, it remained that way, with absolutely no sign of getting fixed. There was just two more weeks for me to shift to Kochi (yeah, even that happened!) and I decided to cancel the connection, rather than calling the customer service as an everyday routine. My bike was still in the service center and didn’t hear from those laptop guys too (couldn’t call them and enquire the status because the number in the bill was incorrect). No bike, no laptop, no internet; totally stuck ! The day I received my bike, I went straightaway to check the status of my laptop and those idiots, apparently, had fixed it long ago and forgot to call me. The laptop was more like a vegetable, it just had a trial version of the OS and it required an online connection to get activated and not to forget, I also had to download the drivers. The relocation to Kochi was to happen anyway in a few days, so didn’t bother to get a data card for internet.

My adventure with the service centers continued in Kochi as well. A week after reaching Kochi, my phone was the first to give me trouble. The moment I switch it on, the stupid thing gets stuck with no display or sound. According to the mobile service fellas, the one of the board’s parent, mother or father, passed away and I would have to pay 75% of the mobile’s cost to get bring that parent back to life; yeah, like I am crazy to pay that much!! Next in line was the bike – oh yeah, again. Those TVS guys in Trivandrum totally destroyed my bike which was once upon a time happily riding in Chennai. After receiving my bike, it was my laptop’s turn to drive me nuts. It crashed once again and carried it once again to an authorized service center. And, it was only then I realized that those Trivandrum HP guys had replaced my monitor; I used to have a monitor with a built in webcam and now I don’t!! Yeah, so much for authorized service centers!! Anyway, the day I brought the laptop back home, my external hard disk crashed!  The hard disk was the only source of backup I ever had. I would’ve gone to depression if anything happened to all those data and so was ready to go any extent to get it fixed.  After a three week long struggle with the service center, I got my external hard disk and just when I thought that the good days were about to return, my bike came up with a new problem. Petrol was leaking from the tank like water pouring out of an overflowing tank; again, something which the Trivandrum TVS guys were responsible for. I just left it at a nearby workshop this morning and I am expecting to receive it sometime this week.

Exciting, isn’t it? If reading the above two paragraphs was confusing enough, just imagine what I would’ve gone through. There were times when I had this strange feeling that somebody, somewhere is playing that supposedly funny game ‘Axe your Ex’ with me  Sigh! I am eagerly looking forward to the next stuff that is going to enter the ‘give-poor-vimal-a-headache’ bandwagon!

Ok now, to answer the question, what am I doing in Kochi ? Nobody asked, eh? But you know what, I don’t care. This is my blog and I will write whatever I want; so there !!!

What attitude, no? Blame it on my school, folks!! Attitude – the trait that I hate the most in people, and a subject which my school is interested in teaching me these days. The other important subject is politics. There is something about keralites and politics, guess it runs in our blood; we can see our people playing ‘political’ games in school, college, office and at times, even in our house. Honestly, I am least interested in it because I don’t understand these subjects and try my best to stay away from all such classes. I am not kidding, but the students in my school are also graded based on their attitude and performance in politics. Obviously, my grades are low because of the poor attendance and the ever increasing arrears in both  the subjects! Oh, forgot to mention, I am still in the same school with the same students and teachers around; just that I got a voluntary transfer to another branch.

Kochi , as they say, is a happening place and a lot better than Trivandrum in terms of the amenities, but certainly, way behind Trivandrum in terms of the roads and cleanliness.  And oh, atlast, I got to see a shopping mall that is not Big Bazaar! The most important aspect for me in a city is its people and I must say I have had some real bad experiences with the people in Trivandrum; I am glad that people are a lot lot civil here. A Trivandrum fanatic would disagree, but having stayed in various parts of Kerala, I can easily make out the difference. Probably, I am wrong, but that is how I feel. Kochi is overcrowded, I agree, and the traffic, sometimes, gets onto my nerves. And guess what, the city is blessed with a lot of swimming pools which we need to dodge and drive while we are on the roads. Not that I love this place so much, but Kochi happens to be just three hours from where my parents live. Moreover, this is also the Missus’ native, and now that she has friends and relatives around, I don’t have to give her all my attention and time. As it is, I had only a few hours left in my life after my hectic school schedules and so, you can imagine!! Speaking of friends, remember this ?

“It was my first day in Trivandrum. Srijith had come to pick me up at the station. After helping me with the luggage, and before even getting into the car, he said, “Daaa, theres a bad news, I am moving out of Trivandrum in 15 days. I got a good offer in Cochin” !!! The weather was already so damn gloomy and it was like a perfect movie situation; I could actually feel a cool breeze of air caressing my skin and touching my scalp. In a few hours, it started raining cats and dogs which continued for days, flooding certain areas of Trivandrum for the first time.”

And so, my best friend is also here. The poor guy has been a helping hand ever since I arrived and is literally trapped !!! Buhahahahaha ! On a different note, it rained like crazy for almost a week when I reached Kochi too and like always when I reach a new city, people said “ooohhh, you know, it hasn’t rained like this ever !”. Don’t know why it happens all the time, but the moment I relocate to a new city, it pours and pours and pours and…. The same happened when I first set my foot in Chennai, way back in 2001, that too during the month of June !!

Anyway, if you think any of the ‘aforementioned’ are the only reasons that made me move to Kochi, then, naaaahhh! The missus’ parents have a house here that’s been unoccupied for a while, and when you get a rent free accommodation in the city’s prime location, isn’t that deal a steal or what!! I have been receiving comments on this decision of mine, but I really don’t care because I still haven’t given those people the mantle of my life.

And guess what, these days, I am very careful with my anti-marriage comments because all it requires for her to shut my mouth is a “Get outta my house”!!! Who am I kidding, eh? Will a lion ever stop roaring just because it caught cold once? Buhahahhahaha!!  Oh wait, IHM, you should mention about this in one of your ‘Joru ka Ghulam’ posts and ensure that V-Lokam get some extra hits !

That’s it from me; let me go and reply to the comments for my previous post; the one I published 3 months ago

You all must be aware of who Maamukkoya is, right? Well, the look alike in the picture is some Johnny and it seems, like Maamukkoya, this Johnny guy has also ‘acted’ in a few movies and was even seen in the latest installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean series.

and I am dedicating this post to………………..should I even mention that ??

Also check :

Spot the difference -1

Spot the difference -2

Oh, I wanted to write this post soon after watching the finals of the ICC World Cup. But these days, it’s just not possible to blog whenever I wish to. Sigh !

What is with me and sports? I really don’t have an answer. Is it because I don’t understand it just like the rest of you or is it because I am simply not interested. Many of my friends have asked me this question. And you should see the expression on their faces when I tell them that I hate sports and I don’t even follow cricket; its priceless.

Honestly, I find cricket to be very boring and watching that on TV is laborious. There have been days when I was forced to watch cricket and all that I cared for was the frequent commercial ads. Any which ways, it’s always been more ads on TV and very less of the game And oh, those test matches, they are like black and white parallel cinema for me – ultra boring.

But there was a time when even I used to play cricket. Ok, how many of you fainted? Yeah, it’s true and cricket has been the only sport for which I had been associated with on a frequent basis. I have played badminton a few times with my cousins, which, I believe, is very common among Indian families during a get together. And also football, twice or thrice during school days, but I was always asked to be the goalie because of my size back then. Our team was great, I guess, for I don’t remember doing anything near the goal post other than humming and kicking stones out of my way. Hmmpphh!

My interest has always been in music and movies and during childhood, I was so damn busy with my sticker collection and video games. My bro was just the opposite (well, he still is) and went out to play cricket with his friends every weekend. When my parents started getting concerned about my increasing weight, they compelled my brother to take me with him whenever he went out to play. My brother used to curse me each time he had to do that because he knew very well about my cricket skills; I still can’t catch a ball properly to save my life!

What my parents didn’t realize was that all his friends are of his age group, about four years elder to me, and they were pretty huge in size, vertically. I could get easily hurt if I was the batsman and they, for sure, were not going to let me handle the ball. My brother, probably, knew this and so, asked me to stay as far as possible in the field. While they played, I simply stood in the sand either looking at the skies, or singing or even talking to myself. According to a small kid’s brain, I am in my brother’s team and I am playing cricket; I am a fielder, you see! The ball rarely reached my corner and instead of throwing it to ‘my team’, I used to run towards them like an obedient child, place it in their hands and get back to my position!!! Eventually, I got bored; there weren’t enough avenues in the ground to display my ‘creative skills’ and I got fed up talking and listening to myself. I remember asking my mom a couple of times not to send me with my brother, but she turned a deaf ear towards all my requests. Poor woman, she wanted me to have some kind of physical activity!

In a few days, one of my brother’s friends brought his brother along with him. This chap was younger than me by a year or so and his position in the team was just like mine; a useless fielder at some corner. For a change, the like poles didn’t repel. Both of us clicked instantly and decided to stay away from the boring ‘big boys’ game. We sat together in the sand and started making use of our ‘creative skills’; you know, like sand castles and stuffs, and also performed role plays from the movies that released back then. This continued for a while and I was beginning to enjoy my weekends.

And, now comes the twist in the tale. My new found friend somehow developed his cricket skills, while I chose to remain the same. He got promoted and started actually playing with the ‘big boys’; yeah, traitor !!! and I got stuck to my corner; once again, all alone. One such day, I saw this chap facing a ball and running along with his brother in the pitch. That’s when I realized the embarrassment I must have caused to my brother all those days. Neither did I show an interest nor did I bother to learn the game. The other reason why I didn’t want to play was because I always used to feel inferior with my abnormal fat accumulation. I was teased and bullied in my class for being fat and I was afraid of being treated similarly by my brother’s friends. I put my little foot down and told my mom that I won’t go to play anymore. Moreover, my brother and his friends switched from tennis ball to cork ball and that came as a blessing in disguise. My parents had to find new methods of weight reduction like jogging and karate and I bid farewell to cricket, in spite of my brother trying to hone my cricket skills through indoor cricket.

That didn’t give you guys a picture of me as a player, did it? Well, it was during 1995-1996, after my brother left to India for higher studies, that I actually played the game. We had shifted to another city by then and the only friends I had initially were a few Pakistani guys of my age. I used to cycle like crazy during those days as part of my weight reduction strategy and that’s how I befriended them. These guys played cricket every evening outside our apartment and one evening, the leader of that group, asked me if I was interested in joining them. I told them honestly about how I played, but to my surprise, they were ok with it and gave me free coaching. I guess, they didn’t understand the ‘hindi’ I spoke I am not kidding folks, it is from them I learnt how to hold the bat, how to hold my fingers while bowling, and how to position my palms while catching a ball. They first tried ‘understanding’ my batting skills and found out that I really suck in it. Apparently, I had issues with my calculations and could face only 5 out of 10 balls. I was taught bowling next and that’s where I showed some potential. They tried teaching me the techniques of fielding, but since I was beyond repair, they had to give up. I was advised to work on my bowling and that’s exactly what I did. In due course, I became a part of their team and was one of their main bowlers, delivering even (only out of fluke) spins and googlys. Apart from playing a few matches within the team, I was also given an opportunity to be a part of an important match played against another team, more like a inter-apartment match. Oh, we lost, but I simply can’t forget that day; I took a wicket and being the last batsman, I also managed to take a few runs. Even though the results weren’t favourable for our team, I was more than happy for being part of a cricket match, for being recognized, and for not letting down the team. That was the last match I played with those guys; I was in my 10^th and had to concentrate on my board exams. Mr. Shehzaad and Mr. Tariq – wherever you guys are, thanks a lot for all those coaching and also for not giving up on me!

After my 10^th, we relocated to India and I realized that my brother had passed on his cricket ‘legacy’ to all the cousins there. Since I was the eldest among the kids (after my brother, of course, and a cousin who used to visit us only during study holidays), I was looked upon as a hero and a great cricketer who could also provide background scores during the game But guess what, whenever my brother made a visit during his holidays, I would be reduced to a zero who was only capable of bowling. The moment he leaves, I am their hero, again!

I also got an opportunity once to play a match in my college. The team had a shortage of one player and they asked me if I could join. I had an injury on my forehead that day and tried my best to avoid using that as a reason. But since my best friends were a part of the team, I couldn’t handle their pressure. I went last for batting, as usual, and got out without taking even a single run. Teeeeheee. When it was time for our team to bowl, I wasn’t confident enough and to avoid giving any further embarrassment to my friends, I decided to take advantage of my forehead injury. I told the team that I have a bad headache and that I would stay back for fielding. But during the match, a ball was hit high up in the air that came towards me. Idiots; they just can’t let me live in peace or what! I could listen to everybody screaming “Vimal, vimal, catch the ball, cattttccchhh the…..”. I remembered my Cricket Gurus words while the ball was dropping down……brought my arms closer….opened my palms…focused my eyes on the ball and concentrated on my fingers……fixed my position….and…..

I couldn’t believe my luck; I caught the ball!!! That was the first time I ever caught a ball during a crucial moment. I stood there for sometime not knowing what to do. The team came towards me and expressed their excitement. I was in a trance state; so much so that, I still don’t remember if we won or lost the match

During my graduation days, my maternal uncle and his family had a habit of visiting us every summer, especially when I was in my study holidays. My brother worked in Bangalore back then and whenever he came down to see my uncle, both of them made sure that they ‘played some good cricket’ ! They used to invite me for the game which I guess was only because they wanted a ball boy and, to be honest, I sucked at that too. But even if it was otherwise, I wasn’t interested. I always used ‘exams’ as a reason to stay away from the game, the embarrassment and their happiness. But thanks to my loving sister, there were times when I couldn’t escape; she would squeeze out whatever self esteem I had by saying that our dog could play better cricket than me, and that used to wake up the lion inside me! That ‘waking up’ never made any difference to the way I played though

We played inside the compound of our home, on a concrete floor and since it was on the road side, people could easily watch us play. Shorts and Bermudas weren’t popular in our place back then and there were these girls who giggled each time they passed by our home. For them, watching three grown-up men running around in shorts, was a rare sight. No, we didn’t bother to wear long pants; my uncle somehow seemed to enjoy all those giggles ! These army men, I tell you !

Then came the summer of 2002, when my roomie and I surprised my brother by visiting him at Bangalore on a weekend. I really don’t know why he did it, but my bro invited us for a game of cricket along with his roomies. He took us to a huge crowded ground and it took us some time to get a pitch. When it was my turn to bat, as usual, I got out, facing a few balls and without taking runs I took my oldddd strategy of going far when it came to fielding. After a few overs, quite surprisingly, my brother called me for bowling. There was this guy who had been batting for long and nobody could get him out. Yeah, like those predictable sports movies, it took an underdog like me to end his batting reign. I had my cricket gurus in mind……I positioned myself in the field….my brother was looking at me…. I don’t remember where my roomie was, but that’s not important here anyway…..strategically placed my fingers on the ball with the intention of delivering a spin….ran…. and….. voila….I ‘middle stumped’ him….and that too in my first ball!  I remember everybody congratulating me, but I went to that trance mode once again and I don’t remember if we won or lost that day. This proud moment, with my brother beside me, is etched in my memory and so, I decided to never be a part of serious cricket again.

My next adventure with cricket was not in an open field or at home, but inside my previous office. That’s right; that same old office which knew the meaning of ‘fun at work’. The free area between the cubicles was our pitch, a spare chair became our wicket and a sponge ball was used as our ball. However, we managed to get a real cricket bat     Once again, I flaunted my infamous fielding skills and was known only for my background music before batting or bowling. But this time, my main intention of playing was only to escape from work   We played for almost 3 months until our office moved to another location. The new place was good, but with the pillars and the glass walled cabins, it was not cricket friendly.

After a year long search, we finally discovered our perfect pitch; right next to the COO’s glass cabin We waited for the biggies in our office to leave, to start the match. There were more players this time because of the increase in the team size and things started getting serious. But it was different this time; small time arguments and yelling arose during the game because of one rotten apple who took all these matches to his heart. The fun element was lost and the game which started as a stress buster started giving more stress than work. I gradually moved out of the game and utilized this time for blogging while the rest of them kept shouting and arguing in the background! How else do you think I was so regular in all your blogs, eh?

And, that office cricket was the last thing I ever played in the name of sports. But then, to be honest, not many opportunities came my way for me to reject. Again, what is with me and sports? I really don’t know; unfortunately, I cannot blame this on my genes like how I usually do. My father hates cricket to the core, but he loves football. My bro was a cricket fan once upon a time, but these days, like my dad, he is more of a football guy and is an ardent follower of the European club football. My mom, on the other hand, used to watch whenever India played and it was with her that I watched the most number of matches, especially the ‘96 World Cup. Now that my dad is retired and is around all the time, I believe, she has no access to cricket   And guess what, my grannie (mom’s mother), till about a few years ago, was also following the game and even knew the bio-data of all the players!!! She would discuss with me about the players and I would shy away from the topic because of my ‘knowledge’ in it

But I am happy this way and I have zero regrets for being sports ignorant. If I was into sports, I wouldn’t have had enough time for music; I would’ve bunked college and office to watch important matches; I wouldn’t have let anybody else take control of the TV remote at home; I would’ve been busy staring at the TV in the restaurant during world cup, instead of having food, I wouldn’t have spared even in the restroom to initiate sports discussions; and for crying out loud, I would’ve ended up being just another sports loving guy!

By the way, is ‘Hide and Seek’ recognized as a sport? No ? Hmmm…..