So much for Deutsch

The language column in my CV reads:

"Fluent in English, Hindi & Marathi. Basic knowledge of German"

Now I've never had too much faith in the first sentence, especially when it comes to my Hindi and Marathi. But when I come to think of it, the second sentence seems to be a great exaggeration to say the least. Despite my knowledge of German I consistently fail to answer quiz questions which feature German words. Or understand what the text stand for when I play 'Moorhun Jagd'. But all this while I thought that all this was just a coincidence - that I just happened to not know the German words mentioned in the question and that the creator of Moorhun Jagd possibly had a Ph.D in German as well. Unfortunately that doesn't seem to be the case.
My new neighbour in Nashik happens to be a retire German journalist called Helmut. So I decided to meet him and chat with him for a while, just to brush up my German. This is how far I went:
Hallo!
Ich heise Aniket (I'm Aniket)
Ich bin dein Nachbarn (I'm your neighbour)
After this I just pointed towards my house and said "I live there". That was all the German I spoke with Helmut that night. Imagine, one year of learning German and at the end of it, all I'm good enough for is a couple of sentences. That really shows how basic my knowledge of German actually is. And makes me wonder what I was actually doing for the whole year when I was supposedly learning German. And if I can get my money back now.

Waiting for the 31st

January hasn't been very kind to me. I've been broke for almost the whole month. The new semester has started and I have no idea of what I'm supposed to be studying. I've been hit by people. I had an accident on my bike. Somebody actually cut off the fuel pipe in my bike. As a result of which I had to push my bike for a distance of about 3-4 km. Something which I had to do again today because I ran out of petrol. And it has been bloody cold.
So I'm really looking forward to the 31st of January. I have a lot of good stuff scheduled for February. Just can't wait for this month to end. And in order to avoid further catastrophes I'm staying in college all day tomorrow. January sucks!

Goodbye Gilchrist

You might be wondering why I haven't written anything about Adam Gilchrist's retirement from cricket, considering that he's one of my favourite cricketers. It's just that I have been in a state of total shock following his announcement and am yet to come to terms with the fact that I have seen him bat for the last time in Tests. And I also cannot forgive myself for having missed his last test innings. I was greatly saddened by Shane Warne's retirement but at least in his case I knew that the end was coming and hence had time to prepare myself. However, this came totally out of the blue and has caught me unprepared. Which explains why I did not want to talk about it till now.
So I'd like to take this chance to sincerely thank Adam Gilchrist for the unbounded joy that he gave me everytime he batted. And I wish him good luck for whatever he does further in life. We'll miss you a lot Adam :(

The place to be

If you're in Pune and its winter, especially the chilly winter that we are experiencing now, the best place to be at 0230 hrs is the top of Sinhagad fort. The view is amazing, the weather is great - in fact its not even chilly up there and there's total freedom to do whatever you want. All you need is a gang of friends and a few bikes. Recommended for all those who are fed up of the daily routine.

Now how did I miss that one?

The Australian Open Women's Singles Finals 2008 might well be the most viewed match ever in WTA history. After all, it featured two of Tennis' best pin-up girls - Maria Sharapova & Ana Ivanovic. Sharapova is my all-time favourite female tennis player, I have been following her since before her maiden Wimbledon triumph and even have had dreams featuring her. And Ana Ivanovic is another recent favourite. So you would expect me to be one of the millions who were watching the match on TV. However, I wasn't. I was too busy watching Hayden & Jaques hammering the Indian bowlers. Even the mere thought of switching over to Star Sports and watching the Tennis never occurred to me. Sigh! I guess some things never change..

Speed Demons

Here's my latest for isport.in It's about India's newly discovered pace attack. Let's hope the same attack bowls out the Aussies tomo..

Mr. Vengsarkar, how could you?

I agree that Indian cricket needs to plan for the future. And for this, young players need to be given a chance. But does that justify dropping the guy who was probably your best ODI player last year (he scored 1240 runs @44.28)? Come on!

A change in generation, but the same old advice

I recently read an article by Charles Kortwright, the England fast bowler who played from 1893-1907 (he also claims to have bowled a delivery which pitched mid-wicket and went out of the ground on the first bounce thus conceding 6 byes), which was published in the 1948 edition of the Wisden Almanac. Now I wont give a link to the article here because I know none of you would be interested in reading it and even fewer would actually know who Charles Kortwright was. The article was very well written and consisted of some great advice for budding fast bowlers. However some parts of it immediately caught my attention for a completely different reason. Here are a few excerpts from the article -

"I have little patience with modern bowlers who condemn these shirt-front wickets and ask how can they be expected to get men out when the pitch will not help."

"I do not feel that young cricketers today are always prepared to take the trouble over their game that they should, possibly because there are so many counter attractions."

"Another encouragement which I would mention to bowlers and those aspiring to success with the ball is that they enjoy many advantages compared with those of the old days."

What is to be noted here is that the "old days" are the late 1800s and the early 1900s, while the "modern bowlers" are those who were bowling in the 1940s and 50s (or in short the people who nowadays crib about how good the old days were). So we can make the following observations:

a) Whenever you compare a modern player to an older one, the modern one is no good. Irrespective of what period either of them belongs to.

b) The next generation always has greater distractions and is always less keen to work hard (I really wonder what distractions the people in the 40s had).

c) The modern generation enjoys various advantages as compared to the older ones but yet they do not make full advantage of it.

d) The old times were hard. Much harder than today. Again, this statement is valid irrespective of the time-period.

So what this basically means is that everyone loves to hold on to his own time-period and to claim that people back then were much better, life was harder but people were still happier. And all this is irrespective of what time-period they belonged to. So I guess Nostalgia seems to be the defining human quality.

This also means that I shall keep all this in mind whenever I listen to an elderly person when he talks about the "old days" and hence think twice before taking his word for granted. And more importantly, it means that in all probability, sometime in 2060 I will be telling anybody who's willing to listen, "Ah the 2000s, those were the days!"

What to expect this year..

You have GOT to read this! Unless of course you are either of Ramdev Baba, Rakhi Sawant or Shashi Tharoor.

Symonds ki Maa-ki..

This is my second article for iSport. It is a bit more controversial than the first one and is kind of derogatory with respect to a certain chap whom I shall not name. As usual feel free to comment.

Happy New Year

Here's wishing you all a very happy and prosperous new year. I tried calling all of you but the networks were jammed and hence couldn't get through. I promise to come up with a new excuse next year.

I shall now write no more about this topic since it has become too much of a cliche (actually I am just bugged and need to sleep).

Mood Indigo

I have decided not to write about the quizzes, the concerts or in fact any other events at Mood Indigo 2007. That task is best left to others. My first Mood I was in 2005. And that one really rocked thanks to the live performances by Indian Ocean & Vayu. There were also a hundred other reasons why I loved that Mood I and I remember roaming around for days after the event, telling everyone I meet about how cool the whole event was. Two years on I am more subdued and hence I'm not jumping around and telling everyone about Mood I. However that is not the main difference between the two Mood Indigos for me. MI 2005 was about the events, while MI 2007 was more about the people. Especially a certain special girl. So irrespective of what others felt, I definitely had a blast at Mood I and can't wait for it next year.

What's in a name? Everything!

This is my first article for isport.in . Writing about cricket seems to be a good way of putting to some use all the seemingly useless knowledge about the game that I have amassed in the last 11 years and also a good excuse to watch some more cricket. Hence I hope to write some more in the future.
Do give me your feedback about the article and while you are at it also go through the site. It's a great site for all sports lovers.