On being really shameless..

The Mohali test started on the 1st of October. So we decided to go and see it live - most of my friends being the typical "True Indians", the kind that wouldn't miss such an opportunity for pool of the hottest girls in town (incase you are clueless about what i'm referring to, convince yourself that this write-up is not meant for you). It often strikes the people here as absurd - and a sign of unsound mental health - that despite being from Mumbai, I have NEVER seen a movie star - let alone watching the idols in action of this sacred religion of India. But that's how it is, i have never been to Wankhede or Brabourne, and i've never been purturbed by it.

We rose early after a late night on the 2nd, and reached the stadium at 7.30 in the morning, since we were going to buy the tickets at the stadium. What we discovered there was that though the day opens at 9.30, the ticket window doesn't open until 11.30. And nobody there actually knew where the tickets are sold out of the 14-odd gates. After roaming around for sometime trying to find out how to get in, we discovered that getting out was easy - run into the stadium security. We were literally pushed out of the stadium vicinity. The stadium security personnel behave with a grandeur that only befits kings - amused i checked their name tags, discovered that they were all Singhs! (there was one guy who was a Kumar, but there wasn't anything grand about him, really). With great effort we managed to get the tickets. Finally we got to watch the match!

There was pure cricket going on on the field, bowling, batting, fielding. But what really stole the show was the sense of humor of the stadium officials. The people of the stadium appear to derive considerable pleasure from locking away the gents' lavatory in the chair block of the stadium. But they are not unmindful of the fact that "nature calls to everyone". So they advise all men faced with the call to rest assured and freely use the Ladies' room, which is all really applaudable about them.

But all in all, the stadium is actually great: if you are a player (if you're not, rather stay at home and have a gin and tonic - a glass of barley water incase you are a teetotaler).



N.B. You would also find the stadium great if you were really shameless, as in the kind that would use the Ladies' room..

Interpreting A Wordswoth Poem...

I Travelled Among Unknown Men

I TRAVELLED among unknown men,

In lands beyond the sea;

Nor, England! did I know till then

What love I bore to thee.

'Tis past, that melancholy dream!

Nor will I quit thy shore

A second time; for still I seem

To love thee more and more.

Among thy mountains did I feel

The joy of my desire;

And she I cherished turned her wheel

Beside an English fire.

Thy mornings showed, thy nights concealed,

The bowers where Lucy played;

And thine too is the last green field

That Lucy's eyes surveyed.

William Wordsworth

Much is said and debated with regards to the Lucy poems. Whether she was a real person; whether she was combination of many personalities that Wordsworth knew; or just a fictitious character he used as a literary device.

Personally, I'd rather not get into this debate, I prefer to consider her as a simple English girl whose is very much real.

This is one of my favourite poems. The imagery and picturesque descriptions are just too good. And the rhyme and the jingle only add an icing to it.

The poem quite effectively portrays Wordsworth's abilities. It shows that he was an efficient swindler and a marvellous cheater and that he could make a mickey of anybody.

How so? Allow me to elaborate.

The first half of the sonnet talks about his love for his motherland. And when he says,

'Tis past, that melancholy dream!

Nor will I quit thy shore

A second time; for still I seem

To love thee more and more.

We feel the spirit of pure patriotism in it. The love he bears for his country and his promise to never leave its shores ever again. However, we are only being led astray for he suddenly springs it upon us that:

Among thy mountains did I feel

The joy of my desire;

And she I cherished turned her wheel

Beside an English fire.

We thus come to realise that the love for his motherland is not as pure as he makes us believe in the first two stanzas. Rather, it is driven by other motives: The simple English girl who is the object of his affection. It was here in England that he felt joy and happiness in his desire for his beloved and it was here in England where She lived and turned her wheel, he says. His patriotism is, thus, infiltrated by his worldly desires, something that true patriot shall never approve of.

The last part is almost like an "I-made-a-mickey-of-you" thing.

Thy mornings showed, thy nights concealed,

The bowers where Lucy played;

And thine too is the last green field

That Lucy's eyes surveyed.

Here he makes it absolutely clear that it not England after all that matters, but Lucy. It's been about her all the time. England, he says, I love you because you keep alive in me the memories of my Lucy and it is for the sake of this memory that I shall never leave you. Being here I can visit and witness all the place which she would visit, and feel her in the wind.

P.S. In this manner one easily sees the fraudulence of Wordsworth.

Predicaments in the Mist...

Two Words. One moment. That's all it takes: to make someone a complete stranger; to fell the bridge between the two banks, making the waters impossible to ford.

It's peculiar how these things happen. That it should take thousands of words & hundreds of promises to build; and even countless more to mend, But just two to break!

It's like a castle made from playing cards, beautiful yet delicate & fragile. Why, I often wonder? Why does it have to be cards? Why can't it be stones: strong & solid? But no, it has to be cards all the time. Forsooth!

It's always like that with cards: it's inevitable that the castle should tumble, and we should know that when we build it with all the effort and concentration. But the crux is, we never know, with what we have built the castle, until the tempest: cards or stones.