Marine Drive

It is one of those phases in life when you get numb as a result of monotony , become slave of routine and end up being at boring best . I wanted to change this so ,i decided to get back to my first love, cycling!It never failed to enthuse and clear my clogged thought process.

So here i embarked on my 3 month old cycle , with my fancy headset on , started off around 4 am . As soon as i ventured out , was greeted by howls and incessant barkings of a pack of rowdy dogs .Quite peculiar is their behavior , during mornings they play "Jerry" , At the stroke of midnight they guard their territories like Afghan warlords and treat me like i am one English man in their Indian lands. Best way deal with them is to keep your head at one distant point and march ahead , despite their war-cries , i did the same . At a turning i took a rough census ,good god , around twenty of them .Was glad to escape their wrath.

After the unsavoury encounter ,Started cruising down the lanes , whizzing past early birds of the day, some had queer expressions when i met their eye , May be they don't understand my quest , or they would have wondered what on earth does this young man cycling for at this unearthly hour?Well, i answered them with similar queer looks.

Twisted , turned , rode with mad rage when i hit those roads which i normally would be waiting endlessly along with co-chennaittes cursing the signals and people who breach the yellow lakshman rekhas . There is some pleasure when you ride a bicycle , especially when you have the liberty to travel bothways , in a oneway, park in a noparkings, using the bell repeatedly indicating your grand arrival in every other turn and narrow alleys , But i didn't give specific attention to these pleasure giving details, which gave me immense pleasures during my school days.

The journey swallowed half-an hour and while Chennai still sleeping i entered the beach road , parked my suzuki carelessy and went towards the shore . The beach didn't look any different from 8 pm , the difference is, you can see sea of humanity sleeping on the sands at this hour ,which is normally occupied by sooth-sayers, forlorn singles , lovelorn Couples and other assorted groups in the society . It is actually bad to see those homeless people sleeping under their roofless bedrooms . But dare not ask them , during these hot hmonths ,Chennaites are put to greatest amounts of discomforts , they would do anything for a waft of fresh breeze .Considering the adjacent areas of the beach are congested , these people could be from those localities . Siphoning off with the aforesaid conclusion, i waited for Mr. Sungod to bath the sea with light.

It was around 5:30 am ,i realised that my wait is going to be wasted, for the sun hid behind the massive clouds for a long time .So, Headed home from the place which is a solace for every troubled human, the wonderful Marina bathed in morning light , faded faraway from my sight .

Reached home around 6:20 am , discounting the amount of time i spent relishing the tender coconut , it took 35 minutes to reach home and covered around 28 Kms .It was a refreshing ride and it did clear my clogged mind and am now well prepared for the adversities of life

Success after 28 years

Wow moment for the team had come at the right moment . The events preceding tthis moment, over a year and half were overwhelming. There were plenty of hurdles , expectations, hopes prayers .With those prayers ,answered , hopes fulfilled ,niggles, gently managed, team India arrived at a place where every other cricket team would dream of.

Dhoni's captaincy has been the talk of the tournament .He was always been questioned about his moves and choices , luckily , he got all of them right! He couldn't have been more categorical to his naysayers , when he explained the possible questions that might arise if the team ended up in the losing side .This shows how the captain is not overwhelmed by the triumph , but also looks into what ifs and what nots ( like 12 bmovie huh? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12B ).Dhoni the man is lauded here, a true leader. With all the passion running high , only god knows what would have happened , if the team had lost. My fullest respects to our captain .

Sachin ! is the unifying factor in the team, it was very good of the young boys to dedicate this victory to the master. Sachin couldn't have asked for more . More than the cup the dedication and respect shown by his team mates is one worthy thing none can get that easily. HE is one true god of cricket !

Now what , the the team is having a windfall from this world cup.There are some people questioning the volume of gifts being given to the players. It should be understood that, half of the present players in the team had chosen this profession during their early days of childhood just for the passion of the game rather than for earning money ,unlike the present MBAs, ( MLAs too ??) , Software engineers , bankers etc. The distinction here is very clear, it is passion vs money. If the cricketers are to be questioned for their windfalls, then the entire society is to be questioned.

1983 winners were paid some meagre amount when compared to the professions of that time, but still they played on, enthralled the spectators with their athleticism .The momentum gained then ,had now ended as one phenomenon . So here, instead of getting into this issue of why cricketers being more ,the topic should be shifted to get into the details of what takes for any sport to get to the stature and the following cricket had got in India.