From Chennai with love

He was 'Nawab of Najafgarh' in the beginning, he hit the Ranji circuit and became 'Delhi Dasher'. The 309 in Multan made him 'Sultan of Multan' and today, on 28th of March 08, he became 'Chennai's Champ' with another milestone in his kitty, the fastest triple century in the history of test cricket. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present you all, the ever unpredictable, maverick indian batsman Virender Sehwag, whose charismatic, unorthodox hard-hitting showed him the highest of highs and lowest of lows. Today, I followed him ball by ball (not exactly, might have missed a lot in between) and his majestic, supremely sublime touch saw him through 200 first and then 300 with quite an ease and in process, made statisticians and cricket historians busy, breaking several of records, viz, highest individual score by an indian, highest individual score by an indian in India, fastest triple ton, two 200+ consecutive partnerships, only person after legendary Sir Donald Bradman and Brian Charles Lara to go past 300 twice. The list goes on. At the end of the day's play, he was unbeaten on 309, with 41 fours and 5 sixes, that too with an strike-rate of more than 100. Wow! that's quite a record ! I can't say he looks as fluent as a Sachin Tendulkar on song, or as classy as Brian Lara, and today too he played some risky shots by the test cricket's standards, but then again, it's Virender Sehwag we are talking about, who attacks from the word go. Out of all the attacking batsmen I've watched playing, I regard him only behind Gilly (Adam Gilchrist), and that's not because Sehwag lacks on hard-hitting, it's because the way Gilly plays his shots, with an elan, with a majestic authority and quite frankly I never saw Gilly out of form. What a pity, now I wont be able to see him in international arena.
Anyways, Sehwag's still there to provide the firecracking effects. After today's play, what I desperately wanted to see was the reaction in AajTak. One thing about AajTak I like is the way they project the news to the viewers. Well, you need to see it to believe it.(Headlines Today too is not far behind these days. May be that's called competition.)
So I came back home, tuned in Aajtak(that's what I do most of the days), as expected, the host was present with a panel of experts talking about Viru's innings. Same Breaking News was flashing at the bottom of the TV screen, 'Viru's 309*, will it be a 400 tomorrow?'. I specially liked the way that host put it, here is how: Sehwag ne aaj naabaad tin sau nau run banaaye, jisme ekchaalis karaare chauke aur paanch gaganbhedi chhakke shaamil thhe'(Sehwag today made unbeaten 309 runs which included, 41 cracking fours and five sky-piercing? sixes) The discussion went on and on. They discussed about absolutely everything that had Sehwag to relate with, from his family to he getting dropped in the past to will he score a 400 tomorrow and break the record. But I thought of only one thing, paanch gaganbhedi chhakke.

PS: I sincerely wish that he scores that 400 and goes past to post even higher score.And I also wish to come up with an exclusive blog on Aajtak, so watch out for this column, and dont forget to tune in to Aajtak.

My first go at carting

When we reached Patel's Inn, everything was calm and silent, so boring I thought while getting down from the vehicle. A few, countable people were here and there, a medium sized car park area and a few coconut trees overlooking it, what a waste, I thought again. After the heavy lunch at The Beach, I had already started feeling sleepy and ambience of the place was so grasping, I nearly somnambulated. :)
But when I turned to the right, the asphalt was calling. A topsy-turvy, serpentine, black asphalt, guarded by colorful tyres on both the sides, looked quite exciting. The call was undeniable, excitement unstoppable.
The same adrenaline rush that Schumacher, Alonso and Hamilton feel, though not of same degree, but yet, I felt this afternoon. Man, this was my first encounter with the go-carting and of course first time behind the four-wheels. Felt great, at first I was a bit hesitant but the way it was zipping past us, it surely made me ready to have a go. So my turn came, my first seven laps behind the wheels, in driver's seat. My lap started after I handed the ticket to the instructor/coordinator. First curve came, I conquered it with ease, second came, third came, then came fourth, fifth curves, I managed them, but when the sixth curve came, I lost the balance, the car skidded and slam! it hit the pile of old tyres and got stuck. The person who was roaming around the track came, leaping the track boundaries created by the old tyres, pulled my car and helped me to be back on the track. I raced away, again the same adrenaline rush, the heat of the gen-set behind my seat, screeching of tyres, everything added to the excitement. Completed one lap, again the same curves, I crossed, again I hit the same place(sixth turning) and got stuck, same guy came and pulled me(along with my car) from the pile of disarrayed tyres, I raced again. I lost the measure of time and the number of laps and the race was over, the person flagged a stop sign and my race of excitement was over. Poor me!
Liked the experience, and I remember I hit the same pile of tyres four times in total during my seven laps of happiness. :)
When I came out of track, my friend asked, were u drunk? how many times did you hit the same pile of tyres? I simply smiled! :)
Everybody completed their share of race/laps and we were happily back in the vehicle, all of the reckless drivers. While coming back I fell asleep, woke up only when the destination had arrived. But the experience was unbeatable, I wish to visit the place some other day and soon.

An artificial hope

About the picture: One of the most boring days of my life, and click! this photo makes it to my camera's memory card, and makes a journey from memory card to PC to internet to this very blog. Now a days, I've started appreciating the boredom, for it brings along the moments when I think, examine the surrounding, the every object I throw my sight upon. And in process gives me a heck lot of subjects to experiment with my photography. So, it looks like boredom is vital for me to evolve as a photographer. And so far, I'm setting my foot on right direction! :)

The waterboy

About the picture: Have you ever wondered how life can become so very utterly boring sometimes? - are the exact words I have written in my journal. The 3 days off came as a wasting-curse for me, only I know how boring were those three days. Nevertheless I watched two good movies during these three days, Ocean's eleven and Ocean's twelve, good movies, the first one ever better.
And only thing I did during this weekend was watched movies or slept, as the weather pulled it's uncertain curtains upon itself, calling off my brave plans to go out. I stayed put at home except for going to the nearest shop for a puff or two and occasionally clicking the surroundings when the sun-god offered some light.
This picture was taken during the evening. People come at that very place for filling up the water. Old, young, men, women, everybody comes there with their containers. I was trying to capture the shot from long time ago but, there are few cables(electrical) which were obstructing my view, but on saturday I found out another angle to capture this shot sans electrical cables.