THANKS TO THE MEN IN BLUE

I did not even in the wildest of my dreams thought Dhoni & his men will come back to India with the Twenty20 cup ! Well, should thank the ‘seniors’ for not being part – I’m not talking on their batting – they are maestros and could have done anything. But, the difference with this young Indian team was their fielding and it mattered very much in bringing the trophy.

Well, I don’t know what was going through in the minds of ICC when they scheduled the final on a Monday – may be it was a holiday in South Africa. But millions of supporters like me in India had to suffer. I was sitting in office when the Indian captain won the toss and elected to bat… Gambhir and Yusuf Pathan went to bat at 5.30 p.m. IST. For those 20 overs, I was glued to the monitor only and the only program in my computer was cricinfo.com… The Indian batting finished at around 7 p.m., by when I thought I should leave home… Asked Indu to update me every 5 overs of Pakistani innings.. But there was heavy rain outside and it forced me to go back to office and restart cricinfo. Paki openers Imran Nazir and Mohd. Hafeez were in the middle.. In the fifth ball, Hafeez went to RP Singh. I thought of going to the guest house and watch the final overs. By then, rain had also stopped.

Took a cab and started my journey. It takes minimum 90 minutes to reach by which Indians would have bowled their quota as by the time I took the taxi they had bowled 2 overs. If a Dacia Solenza was a “katara gaadi”, what to talk of Premier Padmini taxis in Mumbai !! I lesson for me to measure my words !!!

After 5 overs, I got a message saying Pakistanis are 53-3. By then, Kajol came before me and told, what are you doing man.. switch to Tata Indicom plug to serve. I remembered that I can use the facility similar to 3G and see cricinfo. I was totally on it – did not know how the traffic was.. By the time the taxi reached Mulund, Pakistanis required 20 runs in 2 overs.. When I peeked through the window, saw a group of people standing before a wine shop and watching cricket. Asked the taxi to stop, settled him and I was among the hundred guys there. It was totally crowded and my be I would have been in the 10th row or so.. Advertisement was going on. A gentleman standing next to me was so courteous to tell me 17 runs were required off 7 balls with just one wicket in hand. When I asked him whether Misbah-ul-Haq is there, he said, I can see two Pakistanis – that’s it.. Don’t know who is out?

After the advertisement, I saw Mohd Asif being introduced and the replay of the ball in which RP Singh bowled a Pakistani player. All I could see was only cricket, but not the score board or who the player is. Asif scored a four off the last ball of RP Singh’s over and when the batsmen met in the middle, I could see the read Misbah in the shirt worn by him.

The crowd was very tense than Dhoni. Another 50 more people joined by that time. All I could hear was “ek over mein thera run chahiye”. One was updating the new comer. When we saw the ball was tossed to Joginder Sharma, crowd started saying bowl like you did against Australia… When Joginder Sharma bowled the wide, people were all very silent. When the next was a dot ball, there was some happiness. Trouble started when Misbah hit the second legitimate ball for a six.. Crowd became totally silent. The gentleman, who updated me on the score when I went in, said he could not stand the pressure and is leaving. When Misbah scooped Joginder and the ball was in the air, it was mixed reactions – but when the camera panned towards Sreesanth and the moment he took it, the crowd went berserk.. There were claps all around.. Almost everybody – though strangers hugged each other – no caste, religion came in between.. Now I realized I’m in India…

Took a auto rickshaw and went to the guest house just in time for the presentation ceremony.. The words of Shoaib Malik hurt me very much – he is sorry to Muslims all over the world – we had two Muslim players in the Indian team. South Africa, Netherlands, England, Scotland, Canada have or had Muslim players. Bangladesh is another Muslim country playing Cricket. His remarks were totally uncalled for, but nothing could take away the thrilling finishes this Twenty20 has produced.. I stand my word – had India had Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid in the team, we could have leaked about 15 runs in the field.. Whether they would have scored more or not is a question which can be debated for years… We would not have got to see Rohit Sharma, for sure…

Again I dont support the State Govt's for giving in tax payer's money.. BCCI is their governing body and they are paying them - why should you.. Who was Joginder Sharma two weeks back - we could not even identify him if we crossed each other - but today, he is richer by a Crore - BCCI giving him Rs. 80 lakhs and then the Haryana Govt. giving him Rs. 21 lakhs.. Don't pour money when they win or pour kerosene when they lose !!!

Bucharest to London

It’s a while since I blogged.. .It is time for me to write something on our trip to London & Paris. Before, proceeding to the details on the trip, it would be better if I could touch upon our journey from Galati to London. It has lot of adventures in it.. We started by around 6 p.m. on 22nd July from Galati after winding up. It was a sort of farewell for us – do not know when we would be back. Anupreet, Rajat, Chandra and Vishal were at Rachita to see us off. We reached the Bucharest Guesthouse (Villa) at around 9.30 p.m.

23rd August was slated for our journeys – we started from Villa at around 5.15 a.m. and was at the airport at around 5.40 a.m. We checked in ourselves and thanks to Pranav’s pram, we were screened at the big sized baggage x-ray and were about to board the flight. Once in the flight, I remembered to message Surekha. Sent a message to her and the flight was off. We landed in Paris at around 0905 hrs (local time). The trouble period was now – baggage did not come – I mean, a delay in arrival of baggage. It took almost an hour and at 1000 hrs, baggage was received. We had to run to catch the train to Gare du Nord as our plan was to take Eurostar and be in London to receive my parents.

The distance from the air terminal to the railway platform was almost a kilometer. We had to walk for almost 15 minutes before we reached the platform. We had to buy tickets. There was a machine where you can drop coins and buy tickets – unfortunately, we did not have coins for Eur 16 with us readily. So, I had to stand in a queue for almost 15 minutes before we could proceed to the train. While standing in the queue, spoke to Sriram as there was a missed call from him and confirmed of our arrival in Paris.

We had to go one level down to reach the platform from the ticket counter. No trolleys allowed in the platform – no elevator to go. We had to punch our tickets and the wicked gate opens of us to proceed. Indu punched her tickets, but due to some problem the wicked gate did not open. She had to bend herself down and come through the small gap in the wicked gate. We had to carry all the baggages through the stairs (elevator was there only to go up). Indu could not carry Pranav and his pram. She left the pram behind but carried the suitcase and a bag with her. I took other luggages. Once I saw that Indu did not carry the pram, I took the elevator went up, took the pram and reached the train. The train was at 1048 hrs and we were there exactly on time. Seconds after we reached the platform, train started.

Train reached Gare du Nord at around 1125 hrs. Again the problem of trolley availability haunted us. With the heavy baggage, we had to run around and find the Eurostar terminal. After walking for about 12 minutes, we reached the terminal. We are yet to collect the tickets and the train to London is at 1216 hrs. I was tensed and stood in the queue to collect tickets. There were about half a dozen people before me and there were 3 counters. I thought my number would come soon… But, I had to wait for more than half an hour thanks to the speed in which the guys in the counter worked – Parisian way as the English would say..

Once I was in the counter, the gentleman told me that the system showed our tickets were to London Ashford instead of Waterloo. He said our seats are confirmed and he has to issue manual tickets.. I thought that’s it.. We are going to miss the train.. The speed in which the guy worked gave some confidence to me – he was so slow which made me feel that they would hold the train if they have issued the tickets. By 1207 hrs, he issued me the tickets.

Indu was desperately waiting and somehow managing Pranav. She was taking some photographs to keep herself busy. We had to further check in ourselves and screen the baggages. We reached the UK immigration counter. The gentleman in the counter asked me the landing form. I told him, I’m not aware of any such form and I could have filled it while waiting in the queue. After enquiring my train details, he was kind enough to exempt me filling the form. He just asked my return details, stamped our passports and asked us to proceed.

It was almost 1213 hrs and the train was at 1216. If there was something good, then it was that there was a conveyer belt to the platform instead of an escalator and we managed to take the baggage fast. It was a blessing in disguise that the carriage was also very near to the foot of the conveyer belt. Once I had put our baggage in, the train started to move proving my earlier notion of train waiting wrong…

The journey was quite ok. We reached London in 2 hrs and 40 minutes. It was not a great experience I was relishing. I thought we could feel going below the water. But the train passed through the tunnel for about 15 minutes. We reached London at around 1359 hrs.. Another problem was awaiting us on taking the trolley. The trolleys accept either 1 GBP or 1 Euro. Unfortunately, I did not have GBP coins and all I had was a 2 Euro coin. The cleaning staff did not have change and could not help me. There was another passenger who was trying to find her coins. Finally she gave me one pound for exchange of 2 euros.. Euro had the value of a dollar at that time, but saved me from moving my luggage throughout..

Found our way out of Waterloo station. I had a copy of the tube map with me and also read about oyster cards. Bought two oyster cards and went to the northern line platform. Had to do a bit of porter’s job - as trolleys could not be taken beyond a point. But reached the platform, loaded the luggage on to the tube. The map of YMCA, where we were going to stay indicated that we can get down either at Goodge Street or Warren Street. As Goodge Street was the first station, I decided to get down there. That decision proved good as it had an elevator – we could just put our luggage in the elevator. With esacaltor, carry the entire luggage in addition to holding Pranav is always difficult.

Once we were out of the Goodge Street station, Indu said nothing like carrying the luggage on our own. She preferred a taxi – enquired with the guys in the station. We called a taxi, showed him the map and he took us to YMCA. The taxis were quite different. Not like the BMWs or Mercedes which one sees in other countries in Europe. No seat next to the driver – seats opposite to each other like Omni and only four people to sit in the back. Somehow put our luggage in and squeezed. He reached near YMCA and told it should be somewhere in this road. Indu identified YMCA and there we were finally after some tense moments.

We checked in at YMCA. We had booked one double room and one single with extra bed as we could not get another double. The gentleman in the reception gave us keys of both the rooms. The double room (room no. 331) was in the new building and the single one (room no. 217) was in the old building. Room 217 had a common bath – however we did not have any problem as we planned to use the one in 331.

After taking rest for a while, I started my way to the airport to pick up my parents. It had rained briefly while we were in the room. So, I took an umbrella with me and proceeded. The tube map is user-friendly and hence I did not have any problem in reaching the airport. The flight was to land at 1840 hrs. I reached the airport at 1900 hrs and the flight had already landed by then. I was waiting in the arrival hall. It was 2000 hrs and still no sight of parents coming out. I was wondering whether they came out very early. Made two rounds in the Arrival hall and could not find them. But, there were passengers from Emirates coming out every now and then. Finally, they came out at 2015 hrs. I was told that there was a huge delay in immigration formalities – though it is Europe, it is not like Mumbai I thought!!

Appa was asking whether I saw my cousin, Ganesh. Ganesh was supposed to come to airport to pick them up – he was coming to the arrival hall when we were proceeding to the station – Lucky he! I was waiting for hours…. We took a train back to YMCA. Ganesh also accompanied us. Indu had her dinner in YMCA. We had our dinner in an Indian restaurant nearby and from there our holiday in London started.