Write a letter & send it through the post office!!

Copied from "Today's Highlights from Answers.com"

"Read a book. Do a crossword puzzle. Play an hours-long game of Monopoly. Plant a vegetable garden. Take a walk. Have a chat with your mom or dad. Sight-see. Put the pictures into the photo albums. Start to tackle the list of projects that has been getting longer. Take a child to the zoo. Write a letter, put it in an envelope and send it through the post office. Cook a gourmet dinner. Help your daughter with her homework. Get into a pickup game of basketball. Repaint your living room. Give your dog a bath. It's National TV Turnoff Week, April 20-26. Also referred to as Mental Detox Week, it's a good excuse to turn off the TV, the computer and all the other digital toys that keep us inside and focused on a screen."

PS: Was reminded of all the snail mails that wrote to susi from 2001 to 2004

IPL 2.0

I hope the IPL this season  will provide qualtiy cricket compared to 2008's slambang version. Thoroughly enjoyed first two matches(Sachin and Rahul's innings in particular). Rahul emphasizing  the need to be play proper cricket was tongue-in-cheek reply to the current one day squad which mostly consist of guys who want to take the left foot out of the line and go for a huge swing. Was glad that he took a dig at them. The sight of Mandira Bedi was enough to send a shrill up my spine. I think I am yet to come to terms with the horrendous 2003 WC broadcasting experience. 

One thing that I thought will change this time around was the commentators' uninhibited worship of the sponsors. How wrong was I. Every six, boundary or stunning catch was one of DLF maximum, Citi moment of sucess,.. . And to top it all, there was atleast 3 instances in every match where the IPL team was thanking the huge list of sponsors(at toss, at the presentation and one at the innings break). Not sure if there is any noble gesture that would provoke such appreciation. May be they are right when they say IPL has something for everybody. I am in for the game. But the crap that accompanies it becomes too much to stand at times.

The Chennai urge, resolutions & other musings

• In recent times, I have got this great urge to go to chennai to just idle my time there. After I joined the firm, I visited chennai either to attend friends' marriage or send-off/visit friends. And the schedules in most of these trips were tight and may be I missed the Chennai I am used to. Idling away time either chatting with someone on the phone in the middle of the day or listening to those FM channels or an evening spent in besant nagar beach doing nothing but to just stare at the sea and the horizon or to read a book in half a day to one day. Think a  weekend trip to chennai is long due now. 
• I'd love to start reading books again. The last one I read was "Almost  Single"  by Advaita Kala, about a month back. Turned out to be a bit girly book. Was good in general. Had read "Catcher in the Rye" before that. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Have been doing a lot of reading lately -  the article types mainly and I can say with good amount of certainity that almost all of them were in one way or the other related to finance industry. I never thought I would crib on this because wanting to know about the finance industry was the major reason for me to join this job. Also, I am pretty much sure that I would have got bored out within 6 months if I had joined in some other industry.  If you know some good books, do drop me a mail. 
• Not into running for the past two weeks. The runners' club has got a 24 km run tomorrow. Think am going to skip that. I should pretty soon get into the groove if I need to do get  anywhere near the 2 hours mark  in the Hyderabad half marathon coming up in August.
• The itch to buy a good mountain bike is increasing with every passing day. But I am not really sure whether a guy like me who wakes up at 9/10 in the morning and reaches to work at 11 is ever going to go in a bicycle. Still the temptation is irresistible.
• I had a look at the resolutions that I took at the start of the year to assess where I am at the end of Q1. On the half-marathon front, I think I am on schedule. Most marathons are scheduled in winter.  Dropped the CFA thing because of logistic problems. Though I am not blogging once in a week, I would like to believe I am more of a regular now than before. Planning to take the 4 -wheeler license sometime in july/august(Planning to enroll for training after may/june). And the *task* still awaits. And I am for sure to lay that to rest by the end of this year, either way.

That's it for now. BFN.

PS: Couple of good articles that I read can be found here and here.

11 hours and 72 overs!!

Could you imagine someone like Gambhir playing for around 11 hours and more than 72 overs to score a meagre 137. I certainly didn't till the second test match. Most of us( and that includes me!!) were expecting him to play a really aggresive innings after the way in which he got out to Patel in the first innings.  But to swallow his pride and get his head down to complete the job at hand, was immaculate. I was always a fan of Dravid, Hussey and the likes because of the professionalism they bring into the game. One can always expect 100% application from them irrespective of whether they are in good form or going through a slump. Dravid, for one, was never smooth in this series. And still to average over 60, you got to give it to the guy's disciplined approach.

No one ever could have associated such traits with Gambhir till this innings. May be that's what a gifted player requires to be a great one. Guess this might well the watershed innings for him. Take a bow, Gautam.