This is for my readers... thanks for making me happy!!!

I dont know what it is about 6pm of the day.It does something to me.I know it makes a strange reading,but then,its a fact.Anyways,decided to devote this time in blogging instead of surfing meaninglessly through innumerable profiles on orkut or chattng to so called friends who're online all the time and dont have anything to ask other than"hey,how're you?What's up at your end?"

Had a full day in college today,that is,lab from 9am to 12am,then had to submit an assignment which I had not even done and it hardly gave me any time to eat.Then,I was in class again,from 2 to 4pm.And wait,that's not all,after that we had to see our papers of the recently concluded first sessional tests,which were pathetic,as has become the norm with me all these years!Without discussing the marks,it'd be fair to say that I need a drastic change in my time table,else I'll be facing a new kind of trouble,academic,to add to my endless list of personal problems,which I've been wanting to kick out of my head,without much success,of course..

Anyways,changing the subject,its that time of the day when you actually sit down and think-think about a lot of things.The thought going through my mind now is,"Why the hell do I have to be sad all the time?"
Well,my acquaintances here might raise eyebrows about it,as you can never really make out what mood I'm in.Still,I'm the best person to know it,right??

What is the best idea of happiness?Is it hanging around with friends all the time?Is it scoring astronomical marks in your tests?Is it watching your favourite cricket/football team win?or is it just lying leisurely in you bed and thinking about the people you want to think?Ahem.... the last choice isn't there for me,at least,as it makes me feel sick,neglected,idiotic.....but at the end of it all...Lucky!!!

Anyways,my idea of happiness for the last two days has been the fact that people from Philippines and spain are actually reading my blog and giving their ideas about it.I can't express the happiness you feel when you see a comment on your blog,or when you see the rise in the counter that you've posted in your blog,for keeping track of the no of times its been visited.Obviously,the bad thing about counters is that they keep increasing even if you visit your own blog many times.But,even excluding that,I'm glad to see that every time I visit my blog,I find a decent enough increase in it.

Before I bug you people too much,would like to end on a happy note,and here's a message for my readers.."Thanks a lot!You people have given me the zest to let my imagination free and keep on writing.I'll try my best not to disappoing you,but even if you are disappointed,forgive me!"

Hail The Champions.....

September 24,2007,8:45p.m.IST.What a day for Indian Cricket!!!We are the inaugural ICC World Twenty 20 Champions.What adds to the pleasure is that it was a dream final played at the Wanderers,Johannesburg,a thrilling match between India and Pakistan and,like they did ten days ago,India held their nerves again in the final moments to win the trophy.

The match started with a bad news for us,that sehwag wasn't playing due to a thigh straigh suffered during the last match,and,what added to the surprise was that it wasn't Dinesh Karthik who made it into the side,but it was Younus Pathan,who was making his international debut.India won the toss and opted to bat and then came another surprise..Yousuf Pathan was going to open with Gambhir.And,he just showed us why he was chosen, lofting Asif over long on on the 4th ball of the match, his second delivery in international cricket!However,he couldnt carry on and lost his wicket going for another similar shot.Then Uthappa followed him back after a while and India were looking for recovery.It never really came,as the two key batsmen,Yuvraj and Dhoni both departing in a hurry,but Gambhir was holding fort from the other end.India got some sort of momentum in the final overs,thanks to a brilliant 16 ball 30 not out from Rohit Sharma.This is one of the many players who's impressed everyone through the limited opportunities that he's got.I just hope he doesnt get targeted by the internal politics of the team/board and plays for a long,long time for us.However,despite Gambhir's 75,India's total did look about 5-20 runs short.
Pakistan's chase of a target of 158 got of to an undesired start,with R P Singh removing the opener Hafeez off the 3rd ball of the innings.Then came the counter attack from Nazir,in which he carted Sreesanth for 21 runs in the second over of the innings.It was a shift in momentum and he looked to be carrying the match away when R.P. Singh cleaned up Kamran Akmal's off stick in the third over itself.It was followed up by a maiden from Sreesanth,which started to shift the momentum back from Pakistan.However,Imran Nazir was in for something special as he kept carting boundaries.Pakistan's score:53 for 3 in 5.3 overs,with Nazir 33* off 14 balls and hitting everything at will.That was the time when my friend Piyush went out of the t.v. room saying,"let me go and eat something,the match is gone".I didn't stop him,as I wanted to sit in my favourite seat,which was occupied by him till then.And,then Uthappa at mid off produced a moment of magic...securing a direct hit form there to the striker's end to catch the danger man,Nazir,short of his creaes.The momentum was back with India.Pathan snared up Younis Khan shortly and it looked to be all over for pakistan,with their score reading 65 for 4 from 8.3,with Hafeez,Nazir,Akmal and Younis Khan all back in the hut.All eyes were on Shoaib Malik,Afridi and Misbah ul haq to deliver.Shoaib Malik,their captain,was accountd for by Pathan and then,Afridi came.Even though the asking rate was over 9,one knows very well what he can do.He tried for the heroics off the second ball that he faced,a slower one from pathan,which was taken neatly by Sreesanth.Pakistan were well and truly out of the contest at that stage,their score reading 77 for 6 off 11.4.Then Misbah and Arafat seemingly crawled towards the target,scoring at nearly a run a ball,pushing the required rate up all the time.Arafat too departed,the score reading 104 for 7 off 16 overs.But,as has been the norm over the years,Ind v Pak matches always do have this moment of brilliance which swings a match in a particular direction.Misbah,who was now joined by the youngster Sohail Tanvir who was facing his first ball in international cricket,and he smashes it for six!All of a sudden it started raining sixes as now Pakistan needed 28 off 17 balls!Sreesanth acounted for Tanvir.It went down to 20 off 12 and then,R.P. Singh accounted for Umar Gul to leave Pakistan needing 13 off the last over.

Joginder Sharma bowls the first one wide,then Misbah smashes one for a six and Pakistan now need 6 off 4,a perfectly gettable target,but Misbah tried the fancy chip over short fine leg,landing the ball in sreesanth's hands to give India the first ICC World Twenty 20 cup.

This augurs very well for Indian cricket.The first trophy consisting of more than 2 teams since Natwest,2002,and the team which brings it home doesn't consist of Sachin,Sourav,Dravid(the three mainstays of Indian batting) and Zaheer,the best bowler by a distance.This team has won all the matches through team efforts,aided by two mercurial innings from Yuvi.Given the average age of this side is much below 25 and the way the youngsters have been led by Dhoni,the future's really looking bright for us.

Even Shah Rukh Khan was there in South Africa to congratulate the team for their truly amazint performance.Really,a deserved victory for India's young side.Do feel sorry for Pakistan but there can only be one winner.However,they don't have to feel disappointed as they can keep their heads high.
Well done boys,keep it up!!!

Arrogant Aussies sent home... !!!

Its 1:34am of 23rd of September,hardly an ideal time to be writing blogs,but then it was that kind of a day,or rather,night.Well,am referring to the India vs Australia semi final of the inaugural Twenty 20 World cup,which concluded half an hour ago,with India hunting down the kangaroos in a roller coaster of a game.

Sports is a great unifier and its evident when it comes to cricket in India.The match started with somewhat subdued start from Sehwag and Gambhir,the former getting out rather cheaply,folowed by Gambhir and then it was Yuvraj's turn to take centrestage.He carried on from where he left against his six-sixes-in-an-over act against England just three days ago,and changed the entire momentum of the game,aided later by the skipper for the tournament,M.S. Dhoni.
Then started the Aussie chase of 188,and as expected,we didnt get an easy win.They kept coming at us and at the end,it was thanks to an excellent 17th over from Harbhajan followed by two more from R.P. n the villian till then.. Joginder Sharma,with Aus needing 22 off the last over,which he wrapped up giving six runs n bagging two wickets.

This indeed is a very special phase for Indian cricket and as a fan you can't help but ask for more.The final is still to come in 48 hrs time and no one could have written the script better..its India vs Pakistan at Johannesburg!!!
The last three days at Durban have seen India beat England,South Africa and Australia and the rank outsiders Indians have excelled in every department.Durban seems to be a venue where we can just not lose.

Apart from that,there's not much happening in life,except the poor sessionals papers in which I skipped two papers and would get under ten in three of the four papers I wrote.All the friends seem to be too busy with their own lives and that's what I'm trying to do,with a lot of success,I must say.As for the studies,now its the time to alter my lifestyle a bit so as to get more involved with work and keep myself busy.Let's see how much I succeed.
And yes... today I somehow managed to download the song I'd been searching for,"Beautiful Soul" by Jesse McCartney.Not that I'm too much into these foreign singers but then,some songs just take your heart away,and this is one of them..

Sorry South Africa!We love you but we can't let you win...

Well,the title should say it all,regarding what the content of this post is going to be like.Still,if you're looking forward to reading it,let me warn you that this one's going to boast of three things,cricket,CRICKET and ONLY CRICKET...

The past week has been nothing short of amazing for Indian cricket.First,a win against Pakistan,coming back from a nothing situation to squeeze out the match in a bowl out,that was on 14th of Sept.Then, a run feast against England on Wednesday which marked the return of Virender Sehwag...have to applaud the man for the way he came back to answer his critics.
And then,last night,it was the turn of the Proteas to feel the music!It was the most special victory as it came thrugh channels which haven't been the forte of any of the Indian sides till now...Fielding!The openers started decently,fell early and then India were reeling at 31 for 3.In comes the debutant who's been waiting on the frignes for ages-Rohit Sharma and,together with the not so fluent Dhoni,took us to a total of 153,completing his half century in style,hitting a six off the last ball of the innings.I always felt a total above 150 could get tricky for them as was apparent from the bounce of the Durban pitch.That was the reason I overcame Sagar's taunt(kya dekhne jaayega?over me 25-25 runs jaayenge)to catch their reply from the very first ball itself.R P Singh's sensational second over of the innings produced two wickets,the second of them accounting for Greame Smith with an airborne Dinesh Karthick diving full length to his left at second slip to take a blinder.Rohit Sharma produced another sensational run out to put India firmly on the course and later, as it turned out to be,South Africa couldnt even qualify for the semi finals and they deserved it too,given the over confidence their captain exuded before the start of the match..

We've got a bigger hurdle to cross tomorrow,Australia,at Durban itself and India'll need all the departements to click simultaneously,which hasn't been done in this tournament so far..but yesterday's match has given us a million hopes.I'm not counting them out as our batting has been in fine form.Fielding and bowling were problem areas but barring Sreesanth,both the areas came good yesterday.May be tomorrow all the things......
Chak de India!!!

F.R.I.E.N.D.S...... really???

This topic had been lingering for far too long in my mind.I was in a dilemma whether to actually publish this in my blog or not but when someone tells you that,"Jayant,you shouldn't be sharing each and everything about your life with me,it's your life.Live it as you want to."If that wasnt provoking enough,picture this dialogue,delivered a few months ago by the same person,"Jayant,its enough yaar.Now i can't bear it any more.Plz mujhe maaf kar do tum log."

I can't exaggerate how much I cried,what I felt,the desire to live was slowly being overcome by that to...........u can guess.Its not everyday that you feel disappointment,rejection,anger,guilt and countless such not so good emotions simultaneously.Your mind tells you to grow up,to let those people go to hell,not to waste your emotions upon somone who'll not even bother knowing how you are!But still,there's a voice that still urges me to keep faith,to forgive everything,put those things down to badly timed chain of events....probably it's left a scar beyond cure.


During my last semester vacations one of my family memebers told me something that I diamissed as rubbish at that time but now I can't overstate the importance of that sentence.

It was,"Friends are good enough only for college/school time.Once you get into your own lives, these people will not help you out.You have to face this world on their own, without expecting anything from anyone."

It has only been around one and a half months since these words were spoken(and neglected by me) and now I truly realise how true they were.I would rather like to modify it to....the word "Friend" has lost its meaning nowadays.All through my school life and even till now,I believed you make friends to interact,to share your moments,to rejoice in joyous times,to have a shoulder to cry on in not so happy times or simply to roam around,chat senselessly or do whatever that doesnt make you realise how time passes with them.This provoked another thought,"When you start counting the moments you are spending with your so called friends,when you dont know what to speak to them,when you say a "hi" or pass a reluctant smile just for the sake of it,when time just refuses to pass in his/her company and you still call the person a friend,there's something seriously wrong.
Now the word "friend" has become synonymous to parasite.



From some of my experiences over the past six months or so,I've started realising the value that sentence holds in my case.I've been known for getting too much involved in friends,sacrificing everything for them(including my grades) but that never bothered me.All these years of changing schools,cities and colleges,one is bound to have a laaaarge friend circle,so to say.But how many of them will really be there is a question I'm in the best position to answer.Without taking any names,all I can say is that I can count them easily on my fingers..............of one hand!!!


I have a principle about this whole thing:Make a lot of friends,but dont get yourself addicted to anyone as ultimately it'll be me who'll end up as an emotional fool.They tell you to wait for dinner,only to later say that they've had it somewhere.They'll tell you how much they care for you,but the truth is even if I were to die now,it'll take them a few months at least(if not years)to realise.You study with someone for a decade,spending each and ever moment from 8am to 12.40 together and now they'll not have the time to scrap/mail/sms/call you.Not that communication has been an important criteria in my friendship as it is somewhat an expensive business,but the desire should be there to make the most of it when life presents such an opportunity.Never really blamed anyone for this,but when you're shunned constantly,you're bound to consider all the possibilities..their placements,their own friend groups(of which I once used to be a part) and on top of all that,their SELFISHNESS.Frankly its reached a point where the word "hurt" has lost its meaning.Still, I'm grateful that I realised all this soon enough.


Emotions shouldn't have any place in one's life,as they consatnly initiate those clashes between your mind and heart which take up so much of your time and the funny thing is that the person concerned doesn't even realise this!!!

Hellooo...hang one,seems I've just been awoken from a sleep.What am I doing?Since when did I become sensitive to all these things?Who in the world has mattered that much to me that I start cribbing and crying??The answer is: NO ONE.

I might have sounded akin a depressed soul not willing to live any longer.hahaha..I can get overboard with emotions sometimes!
Just wanted to get this mess cleared of my mind before I start studying for my upcoming tests.
However,I'm confident of rising through,as depicted by the bird in the picture."How long" is probably a question no one can answer,maybe a lifetime would be enough!

Don't dare try pulling cricket down in India...!!!

Mr. Shimit Amin(the director of chak-de-India),Sania Mirza,Leander Paes,Narain Karthikayen,Mahesh Bhupathi the Indian football and hockey teams(men's of coruse!)I've got some BAD news for all of you and many others whom I've not mentioned here.

YOU CANNOT MATCH THE PUBLICITY AND ATTENTION OUR DEAR CRICKETERS GET.

It's simple as that.No matter how much we criticise them for failing to get past Bangladesh in the World Cup,how much we curse them for concentrating more upon shooting ads rather than on their game,however much we hate every batsman(and bowler) for not scoring a hundred(taking 5 wickets) in each innings,the fact remains that we follow every move of our cricketers,that's why we find so many points for/against them.

Today was that kind of day when you couldnt have written the script better for a cricket match involving India.Settings of The Oval,Indian bowlers drawing first blood by knocking back their top order for nothing,then the recovery,a few run outs and a late cameo by Mascarenhas which saw Yuvi carted for five consecutive sixes off the last five balls of the England innings....
....and then the counter attack by the tried and tested(and also criticised) duo of Sachin and Sourav,both falling in quick succession,then the departure of Dravid and Yuvraj(who took with them our hopes of winning),the cameo by Uthappa and INDIA winning a close match!!!

You'll never realise the emotions attached with this until you've been a part of the celebrations in our hostel t.v. rooms,on the streets,on the famous "chaiwallah's shops" and countless such places.The most introverts of audience were dancing and swirling their shirts above their heads,people hugging each other,Rahul Dravid,the perfect gentleman,pumping up his fists and jumping up and down like a 20-yr old,Yuvraj singh running onto the field and hugging Uthappa for so long that it might have given dirty minds so much "other things" to think...........these scenes underline what cricket means to us.It's religion and it'll always be.
Our heart still misses a beat when an appeal goes up against Sachin......
We still engage in debates regarding where the Indian captain went wrong tactically..
We still turn up the second last pages of newspapers before going through the details of the first page...
We become more nervous than Sachin himself in the nervous ninties...
..
..
..
.. and we'll continue to be like that.Some things will just never change.
Once again..sorry to the people mentioned in the first paragraph.period.

That Kind of Day for India...!!!

As usual,I've delayed this post but for a change, this time the delay is only for a day.However, this doesnt de-mean the importance of the day for my country.Yesterday was a great day for India.Most of the people's thoughts would be inclined towards the brilliant performance of our cricketers in yesterday's match but hang on, I'm pointing at an event which holds far greater importance than Sourav Ganguly winning the man of the match award to keep India alive in the 7 match Natwest one day series against England.

India launched Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle(GSLV-F04) into space yesterday, from Sriharikota, 100 km from Chennai. Seventeen minutes after its launch, it placed successfully INSAT4CR into orbit and just imagine, it had covered a distance of about 5000 kms in that time!!!
Given the weight of the vehicle was more than 2100 kgs, it would have been quite a task providing it a thrust so that it attains a velcity of 10.2 km per second.
One feels good for the scientists of ISRO, given that their last attempt, on July 10, 2006 failed miserably seconds after the lift off and the vehicle had to be plunged into the Indian Ocean just 56 seconds after its propulsion.
Just to give you an idea of how mammoth this entire task would have been,here's an image of the vehicle, straight from ISRO's site.

ISRO's next challenge is a mission to moon planned in March next year( I'm sure not too many Indians know about it now,sadly) and it's eagerly awaited.

Anyways, the day was made further special by by a senior of mine,who kept her promise of treating me, which was made online some months back.Considering I'd never met her personally till yesterday's treat, it was quite a surprise to find the seriousness with which she kept her words.The details of the meeting/person would be better kept with me so...that's about it.

Today was a gloomy day, in total contrast to yesterday.Bunked all the four first half classes and then the second half got cancelled, giving me more time to kill, starve, chat and yes,am glad to add, study!!!