To hell with the world cup

Finals Cricket World Cup 2011: India vs (who cares), India need 4 runs from 3 balls, and its a four, India wins the world cup first time after 1983, entire India is celebrating ...

Thousands of Indians whole over India is dreaming about hearing the above on 2nd April 2011, well can't blame them, In India cricket is a obsession, nothing is India more passionate about, not Bollywood, not politics, not football, but Cricket. Its said cricket is religion in India, and Sachin is GOD.  Not for me, Mind it...

When ever I tell anyone that I don't watch cricket (to that matter, I don't watch any sports), I get a look from them asking me if I am a Indian, My goodness, whats wrong if I don't like cricket?

Whats there to like in cricket? A person throws a ball to another person who hits it with a wooden stick, 10 other people (fielders) run to collect the ball and throw it back before the person who hits the ball can run to the end from where the ball was thrown from.

Call that a sport? I call it a lazy mans game, Look at football, teniss, basketball or even kabadi, those are sports, Games in which if you have a 36inch waist you will lose. Cricket if you read about it, was developed by the english men to catch some sun. Indians don't need it, we are just too lazy to play anything else.

I really wonder how come such a game can take the fancy of Indian's where majority are poor, Cricket needs a bat, ball, stumps etc, how come the poor kids spend money on all these? Isn't it much easier and cheaper to just buy 1 ball and play football?

Coming back to the World Cup, Every 4 years from when I can remember, I hear the same statement, This time the world cup is ours, Ours is the best team. Every time India is knocked out at various stages, Where does the best team on paper disappear when it comes to the field? But perhaps this is expected of a country that is good at pretending. Mumbai is going to become Shanghai, India is more developed than China, Deception comes to us naturally.

Sachin Tendulkar, the man every Indian loves, The man I guess after Gandhi has united India the most, he hitting a six, India rises as one, he getting out, India cries as one. People consider this guy GOD, If you say anything against him, God only knows what the reaction will be.
My friend retold this incident. Someone put a Facebook status "Sachin is not GOD". Within 30 mins his status had some 30 comments and he was forced to write, "Sachin might be God", so that people will calm down.

In the Indian team there might be only 11 players, but every second Indian is a cricket pundit, every third Indian is a walking historian of the sport, every fourth Indian thinks he is a replacement to Sachin Tendulkar and sitting in his couch before the TV, the Indian knows exactly where Tendulkar is going wrong: the high back lift; faulty follow-on! But for all this expertise, India has won the World Cup just once.

Hockey, our National game, (yes believe it, Hockey is our national game and not cricket) is down in the dumbs. Even in Hockey we have won the world cup only once, in 1975 (did you know that?) But India has won the Olympics gold 8 times, Hockey is a Olympics sport, while Cricket is played by just a few countries. Whats so great about being best in a sport not even played by half the world?

If this was a football worldcup and India is in it, I will be watching every match and cheering India, not because I love football, but cause India will be against the best in the world, and not just a handful of teams like in the Cricket World Cup.

If the money in IPL is pored into any other sport in India, I know a world beater team can grow in India. But the money is just going into 1 lazy sport - Cricket. I feel so sad about this wastage of money.

Even after putting in so much money, India has won the world cup only once, shame on you!

I waiting for April 2nd, when this madness ends, IF India wins or not, I don't know. I know I just don't care.

Tour de Mumbai 2011: Amateur Cyclothon

28Km cycling, and that too over the Bandra-Worli Sea Link, I word to describe it. FUN!

Few days ago when my Project Manager: Jimmy Shroff told me that he is participating in the Mumbai Cyclothon, I was like "There is something like that being organized in our city?" Well I reached home and signed up at once for Tour de Mumbai 2011:Mumbai Cyclothon, Amateur ride . (Not to mention I had brought my own cycle a few days back and was pretty excited).

After completing the Mumbai Half Marathon I was pretty sure I will be able to complete this 28Km cycling without any problem, Only thing that worried me a bit was that I would have to cycle from my house to Bandra and back, before and after the event, so I would be straining myself a bit more. (Now I feel I was needlessly worried)

Anyway coming back to today, got up at 5A.M freashend up and cycled to Bandra, On route I saw 2-3 cyclist cycling in front on me, they too going for the Cyclothon, I tried to catch up, but couldn't (Majority of cyclist had geared cycles, and mine is a normal one {thats the excuse I am going to use}).

So I reached Bandra MET college grounds at 6:15 much before either of my other two friends (Jimmy & Shashank) reached, but got to say that even if I had not expected the organization as good as which had been done by the Marathon guys, but it felt as if the organizers had done nothing, it was a absolute mess before the start of the race, the holding area, the crowd control all were bad. ["Burn Fat, Not Fuel" was the tag line for the cyclothon, but so many people brought their cycles to the grounds by private cars, I wonder If there was any savings for the environment]

The race started about half an hour late, at 7:30. They were still letting people in at 7:15 when officially the race should have started at 7:00 A.M. But 1 thing I have to say, I was surprised at the rented cycles they were giving out, (I had taken my own cycle) the few who were hiring cycles there got dam new bikes, Bikes on which the plastic wasn't even taken out. Pretty neat I say!

So the race starts at 7:30 and as we were at the back of the entire group, we started off even more later, but all the wait was made up in the sea-link, wow man! I enjoyed the sea-link before during the marathon, but cycling over it was even more fun. I got to mention here that am amazed at how fit my project manager is, Jimmy hats off to you, He zoomed ahead at the start itself, I tried a bit to catch up with him, then I said forget it and enjoyed the ride. :)

The Sea-Link, the police holding back the traffic for you were pretty cool, not sights you can see everyday. On normal days you feel as if all drivers want to kill any cyclists on the road, but today the police were giving you, the cyclists preference, It was neat!

Hey I forgot to mention, cycling along the Bandra Band stand also was cool!! :) My 2nd favorite part after the sea link. :)

Anyway I finished the race at about 9:30, took two hours for 28Km, I know its a bit long, but i wasn't really speeding (not that I didn't try) I was more enjoying the ride. Memorable sights on the race, 1 old man riding a cycle on which he had written messages about how to stop polluting the world, another man in a superman suit, a kid with a juggler type of hat, the red bikini cheerleaders (I saw them only in the 1st lap, they weren't there during the second lap :( ).

Like I mentioned before, much more was desired from the organizers, The traffic was allowed in the route before everyone had completed (my 2nd Lap), Still controlled traffic, but the traffic was there. Also at the finish apart from a banana and water there were no organizers there doing anything else. Pretty bad, I feel the entire cyclothon should have got more publicity (like how the marathon gets) and should have been better organized too.

In all, it was a real fun ride, I enjoyed it, waiting to participate again next time. I would like to say thanks to Jimmy for telling me about the cyclothon.

P.S We (Jimmy, Shashank & me) had break-fast at some restaurant at Pali-Hill (we cycled again till Pali-Hill after the race) before leaving for home. The cycling back at 12:00 Noon with the sun high up in the sky and no cops to control the traffic wasn't fun. :(

P.S.S It said about 6000 people were there participating, If there are so many people with cycles in Mumbai, I wonder why more people stop driving there car and cycle more?