Jayan’s weblog

Saturday - IPL:

I had been to the Rajasthan Royals Vs Chennai Super Kings match @ the Chepauk stadium this saturday. Friend Nandha called me up promptly when he got an extra ticket. The last time when I had been to a stadium to watch a cricket match was the 3rd and 4th day of an India-Australia Test match in October 2004. It ended in a draw because of rain on the final day. Though not a great follower of the IPL matches, getting a taste of live T20 cricket on a saturday without spending a rupee was not something to let go. We entered the stadium an hour before the match. It started with a couple of songs by Shankar Mahadevan. Sivamani set the crowd dancing to his drum beats. Baring the sun was the toughest part. The cheerleaders (especially that of the Jaipur team) added color. We found a place close enough to keep an eye on them.  As the Rajasthan Royals were tearing apart the Chennai Team’s bowing, a section of the crowd started throwing bottles and paper balls at the Jaipur Cheerleaders.  Crazy people. The cheerleaders stopped dancing from then on except for rare hip shakes to Sivamani’s beats. Sigh! Overall, it was an electrifying atmosphere. More than 400 runs in less than 3 hours. The crowd was crazy to dance, sing and shout for every single ball. I enjoyed every moment of it except the ones when

• The guy in front started smoking.
• The 15 rupees 7′UP that we bought from the stadium counter tasted like plain soda . Infact it was.

Sunday - Mamallapuram:

Here are a few snaps from the trip with my sister, cousins and aunt to Mahabalipuram.

After reading this bit of news, I was reminded of a poll that Ajay created long ago. Here is the poll question - “How safe is your drinking water? How much importance do you give to find out purity of water that you consume daily?

Here are the poll results:

Among the 175 netizens who voted,
39.43 % believe that any packed water is mineral water and safe to drink
21.14 % prefer water from purifiers or boiled water.
17.14 % seem to suspect duplicacy though they trust brand names
11.42 % have other work to do

This poll was by no means a perfect attempt to guage public opinion on this issue. 175 is too small a number to reflect the whole of Chennai. But even then, this statistic does have some meaning. It reflects the importance level that we attach to quality of water. As the news article suggests, number of people affected by water borne diseases in the city is high and increasing. Avoid drinking water from roadside hotels and shops. Even from the vendors on the beach. Do not assume that the water is clean. Watch out for fake brands. Dont forget that the unknown ‘XYZ’ water bottle that you buy in a hurry at a railway station / bus stand might well take you to the hospital. I would suggest to use boiled water always.

Apr 10, Kuttipuram, Kerala. I entered the railway station at 6 in the evening. I was returning back to Chennai after attending my cousin’s marriage. Thanks to Sarath - a cousin of mine, I got a sleeper class ticket in the Mangalore Express. My backup plan was to take a bus to Coimbatore & board the Nilgiri Express. Luckily I didnt have to do that. My train which was scheduled to depart at 6:48 was running late by 20 minutes. It was a lazy, almost empty station. The train chugged in at 7:15 PM. I waved my cousin and uncle goodbye and got in.

My Seat No was 71. I found it already occupied by a elderly lady. She was dressed in a simple, neatly pressed saree, had silvery white hair and strikingly clear eyes. It turned out that her Seat Number was 72 which was the upper berth. I readily agreed to switch seats.

I tucked the luggage in the berth and settled down near the window beside her. We got introduced to each other. I told her about where I work & live in Chennai, why I was here etc.. She also told about herself. She was a retired teacher from a school in Tirur. She was travelling to Chennai to meet her brother. Her trip too was unplanned and felt lucky to get tickets on the day of travel.

We talked on a lot of things. She taught English and Social Science in school. She talked with pride about her students who’re now working in top companies throughout the world. She told me about her students who have been to the IITS, IIMS and other top universities. Her eyes were gleaming when she recalled instances when students called her up and shared moments of their successes. We even talked about the current education system, how the teacher-student relationship has changed, school drop-outs which she had witnessed in her career. We talked about our families. We talked about the books we read. She is a regular reader of Reader’s Digest for the last 26 years which is a year and a half more than my age :D.

Over the conversation, we discovered that our homes were very near. Only about a kilometre apart. She was able to name even our neighbour’s house name. The train crossed the Palakkad Station. We wished each other good night and went to sleep. She woke me up when the train reach the Central Station in Chennai. I helped her out of the station with her luggage. She thanked me all the way. So humble, I thought. I then wished her bye and left. It felt good to have made a friend. Hope our lives cross again.

Very much !! It has been over a month now since I blogged last. Here are a few things that I did in the last 30 days:

• Created a website for my college alumni. It’ll be up soon.
• Attended the RIA Architect Summit in Bangalore. Met up with a couple of friends. Got a small treat from Priyanka for the new car she has bought.
• Went to my home place in Kerala and attended a cousin’s wedding. Met my grandma, cousins & relatives. While returning back, I got a new friend in the Mangalore Mail Express. More about it in the next post. It deserves one ;).
• Broke fast, lunched, dined & slept every single day. Not once did I skip

Mom called me in the morning and reminded that today is Vishu. Being away from home today means missing VishuKani, good food & some investment. Sigh!!

Update: One more thing that I did was missing my mobile.  My Sony Ericsson k700i slipped off my pocket while alighting from an auto.  I noted it only after a couple of minutes and returned to the place where I got down.  A search for nearly half an hour didnt result in anything useful.  It served me for more than two years.  To make things clear and leave no space for rumour, let me say again that I lost nothing else except my mobile :).

Hopes broken :(, the Indian Hockey Team failed to qualify to the Beijing Olympics. This is the first time since 1928 that India did not qualify for the Olympics. Britain beat India 2-0. Britain scored both goals in the initial ten minutes - one of a smart pass and the other from a penalty corner. The defence of the British team was too good for the Indian attack. There were very few instances where India was close to scoring a goal except for a few penalty corners which were not converted.

I expected the match to be a lot more closer.  It started at 2:30 am IST.  I did make a sincere attempt to go back to sleep,  but didnt get any. So, here I am back on my desk ‘blogging’.

Match commentary archive on the Olympic Qualifiers website.