I was at the Chalkewadi wind farms over the weekend to see the huge windmills. We stopped on the way to take some photographs of the beautiful scenery around. There was no soul as far as the eyes could see (or so i thought). So, i stepped out of the car and was enjoying the nature when….
Moral of the story: Look before you pose!
If the above photo rings a bell, then you would have probably seen Shah Rukh’s Swades. This movie was shot (at least many parts of it) in a remote village in Maharashtra (around 100 kms from Pune) called Wai. The central section in the above photo is where the final “Kushti” scene was shot. This photo has been taken from the spot where the Ramayana play was portrayed in the movie.
Wai is a beautiful village (especially in the monsoon season) and is worth a half-day visit if you are in Pune or Mumbai. You see more photos from my visit on my Pune Blog.
It is just 7 am and a cricket match is on at the Margappata grounds. While many fielders are just ambling around still trying to wake up from their sleep, there is one soul shouting, clapping his hands and trying to motivate his team. He is one of the best fielders in his team and has been strategically posted at deep mid-on for stopping the quick singles as well as to take those sky-high catches when the batsmen slog towards long-on.
Suddenly, his ever alert eyes catch the ball rushing towards the boundary to his right. He runs towards the ball with a spring in his step, does a full-scale dive, catches the ball, does a perfect roll-over (He prides himself on having watched hundreds of cricket videos to learn the perfect dive-and-stop) and throws the ball at the non-striker’s end. It is a flat, hard throw and the aim was perfect. The ball hits the top of the leg stump, sending it into a cartwheel. He is delighted! He shouts in exhilaration and runs towards the pitch punching his fists in the air.But…..
But, no one else from his team is running towards him. He reaches the non-striker end, picks up the ball. Everyone else is looking towards the third-man and the batsmen are nonchalantly taking the second run! He then hears the dreaded words…
“BALL PLEASE”
Welcome to the world of cricket, in India! A world, where it is not enough if your fielding skills are good enough to stop the ball and throw them back, but good enough to stop the “correct” ball, the one your group is playing with!
Usually before a match, teams huddle together and discuss strategy. But, in matches in India, the teams huddle together and pray, because they need all the luck that they can have. Luck, that will ensure that the balls hit by their batsmen reach the boundary avoiding the dozens of other people standing in the ground and luck, that will ensure that ever-so-willing fielders from other games would stop the balls hit by their opponents!
It is not only for luck that they have to pray for. They also have to pray for their safety as they not only have to fear the fast bowlers in the opponent team but also the hard hitters in the match going on few feet away from them.Cricket, and not Hinduism, Islam or Christianity encourages so many prayers. No wonder cricket is considered the number one religion in India!
Americans don’t need a reason to get scared. Being paranoid is one of the qualities that Americans are proud of and they would go to any lengths to ensure that every generation inherits this “feature”.
The Swine Flu is yet another invention of the americans to ensure that the average joe is aware that americans are supposed to wake up every morning fearing that the world would collapse around them and that they have to take extreme steps to prevent that from happening.
So, what can happen because of this swine flu scare?
Having been out of India for almost 8 years, i have yearned for all the junk stuff that one could gorge on in the various food stalls in India. So, after returning to India, that is precisely what i have been doing. It has been alomst a month since i have been in Pune now and it has become a ritual for me to stop over at the local chaat shop every time i step out of the house. So, you can guess what is on my mind most of the time!
Today morning, when i opened the rediff.com website, the first headline read:
Chat: Best investment plans for 2009!
The moment i saw this, i started wondering: “What, is rediff advising people to invest in Chaat items!”. I am at work, but my thoughts are elsewhere!
I noticed this only today. Is this happening for quite some time now ?
What is the current listing status for travels.ndtv.com?
Site is listed as suspicious - visiting this web site may harm your computer.
Part of this site was listed for suspicious activity 1 time(s) over the past 90 days.
What happened when Google visited this site?
Of the 4 pages we tested on the site over the past 90 days, 3 page(s) resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent. The last time Google visited this site was on 2009-03-03, and the last time suspicious content was found on this site was on 2009-03-03.Malicious software includes 4 scripting exploit(s). Successful infection resulted in an average of 9 new processes on the target machine.
Malicious software is hosted on 1 domain(s), including 893500.cn/.
1 domain(s) appear to be functioning as intermediaries for distributing malware to visitors of this site, including deabak.com/.
This site was hosted on 2 network(s) including AS20940 (AKAMAI), AS209 (QWEST).
The day is not far away when you walk into a Hindu-bar and the menu will look like this:
Drinks:
Main Course:
God help these guys. Actually, God help us from these guys!
