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.

The Indian Hockey Team has beaten Austria 7-3 at Santiago.  Earlier they thrashed Russia 8-0.  Good signs.  It’s the same Indian team which played and won the Asian Games in Chennai.  I had been to the matches then and loved to watch them play.  I know that India is a strong team and want to see them playing at Beijing.  

3 of the 12 teams for the Beijing Olympics are selected through these Olympic qualifier matches.   New Zealand has already qualified in group-1.  India is in group-2 and has  3 matches left against Mexico, Chile and Great Britain.  The third and final qualifier group matches happen in the first week of April.   More on the tournament format here.

SCHEDULE
#	Time	Teams			Score
Saturday 1 March
1	14:30	Great Britain	:	Mexico	11:0 (2:0)
2	16:30	India	:	Russia	8:0 (4:0)
3	19:00	Chile	:	Austria	3:4 (1:2)
Sunday 2 March
4	16:00	Great Britain	:	Russia	8:0 (4:0)
5	18:00	Mexico	:	Chile	0:4 (0:1)
6	20:00	Austria	:	India	3:7 (2:2)
Monday 3 March
Rest Day
Tuesday 4 March
7	15:30	Mexico	:	India	1:18 (0:
8	17:30	Austria	:	Russia	5:4 (1:2)
9	19:30	Chile	:	Great Britain	1:4 (0:0)
Wednesday 5 March
Rest Day
Thursday 6 March
10	14:00	India	:	Great Britain	2:3 (1:1)
11	17:30	Austria	:	Mexico	3:1 (1:1)
12	19:30	Russia	:	Chile	2:1 (0:0)
Friday 7 March
Rest Day
Saturday 8 March
13	15:00	Great Britain	:	Austria
14	17:00	Russia	:	Mexico
15	19:00	Chile	:	India
Sunday 9 March
16	13:00	5th	:	6th
17	15:30	3rd	:	4th
18	18:00	1st	:	2nd

[Chart and Images from http://www.olympicqualifiermenchile.sportcentric.com]

I watched Jodhaa Akbar a couple of days back.  The movie was visually very grand and colorful.   Hrithik and Aish seemed to fit in their roles reasonably well.  It was a very very long movie.  The film lasted nearly three and a half hours.  The intermission was after 2 hrs and 20 mins.  Movies in other screens were over and people were leaving :).   

Overall,  I liked it and might watch once more.  And yeah, the song ’Khwaja mera Khwaja..‘  is mesmerising. 

Here is a photograph that I clicked @ the Sholinganallur bus stop in Chennai.  The kiddo sitting on the road belongs to a family of construction workers for the IT Highway coming up here.  Most of the workers are non-localites and live in cramped tents by the road side.  I even heard news of a couple of people who were runover by a bus when they were sleeping in a nearby bus stand.

Lot of accidents happen on this road.  Our company alone lost 3 employees in road accidents. Another colleague had a bus run over his hip. We used to play table tennis together.  He can barely walk without a support stick now. And worst of them all,  read this incident.

Now, I’ve been sitting for a while wondering what to write.  Let me stop it and write of a few little things that happened this week.  Here goes..

• It has been a year since I started blogging regularly.  I wrote at http://webtrot.blogspot.com till December 2007.  Then, I moved here because I found wordpress better and easier to use.
• I passed the SCWCD Examination.  It is a technical certification which my job wants me to complete.   I treated myself for it with a sumptuous lunch here.
• Switched to the Tarski theme.
• Site statistics indicate my blog crossing 1000 hits since December. Crossing the 4 figure mark isnt the point.  The fact that there are a few people who read what I write keeps me going.  

I ll keep writing and I hope to write them asap (as sane as possible) for your sake ;).  Stay tuned !!

So far:
After the flag hoist, celebrations and a match of cricket at Anna University in the morning, I am back in office. On entering, the security guard pinned a tricolor on my shirt and handed me a mysore pak. Thanks Buddy!! Bothered to read this, this and this. Got enough gyaan and inspiration for the day.

Now on:
Eat, sleep, rest. Then, find company and go for Saarang in the evening.