The Gift of the Maggi

Maggi has been voted has India's most memorable brands. Well my association with Maggi is quite old. My earliest memories is of coming home after school and being rewarded with a maggi treat. But that's not the only memory I have in fact I learnt one of the biggest lessons in life indirectly through this iconic brand

In school we used to have the Maggi quiz. Me and my team mate Abhay were the runners up in class IV and had prepared really hard (but as we found out later not very smart) the following year. We had mugged up only countries, capitals and currencies but were quite a big zero in other things like world affairs. eg we did not know who was heading the Palestine Liberation Organisation..(for the uninitiated it was Yasser Araffat..)I think I had already announced to the world (my neighbours, colony friends, my mommy) that we are going to win and get gift hampers which would include school bags with maggi imprinted on them, watches and lots of ....guess what of course..... maggi..:)..So to cut a long story short we were quite overconfident that we will win the quiz.

Obviously we didn't win it. I think we came third and did not qualify for the next round. It was a long walk back home especially when you stay in one of the highest points in Simla. I did not know what to do. That evening I could not face anybody...

But I think I had learnt my lesson....

The Only---Right Arm Fast

This is something that happened about a year back. And I can claim royalty from Vodafone as they have made an advertisement out of that wow moment (the lift add in which the girl sees a movie star besides her)

Well in our case, I was with my team mates Kapil, Payal and Rahul and gone to Hilton to meet the newly set up MS team. It was a good meeting and we were very excited after meeting such senior people who had loads of investment banking experience. In our excitement we took the wrong lift and instead of going down we went up for a couple of floors. And then the DOOR opened...

First two huge bodyguards marched inside. We were curious to see who was behind them. Then after a split second we saw a familiar face come inside. All of us looked at him and felt we had seen him somewhere and after a split second realised who he was......It was yes the only tear away fast bowler of our time ( I am sure this will invite criticism/ debate..but will ensure some traffic and comments on my blog which are most welcome.

Anyways enough of marketing, coming back to the lift in which there are 4 of us,two giant bodyguard and Rawalpindi express. When the lift began its downward journey me and rahul had exchanged glances to confirm that it was indeed the man himself. It was a divine moment for us probably like when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu or Tulsidas had seen god himself ( I am sure again this might upset some BJP supporters as I am calling a Pakistani fast bowler as God...OK then put your comments)..

For the 1st 5 seconds we were smitten we could not utter a word. I think Shoaib sensed the silence or maybe he was at his charming best or maybe he got distracted by Payal...:). He broke the ice and asked us "aap log kahaan se hain". After telling him that we are from Bombay only (No i didnt give him gyaan about Shimla and the fact that I had come to bombay for my rozi roti). Again there was silence as the lift was going further down. There was this tension building up inside me as I wanted to say something to him. Suddenly out of the blue I said to him. Congratulations ( it was for the fact that he had got a huge sum of money to join the Calcutta team for IPL). He acknowledged that and said "shukriya". He said he was happy to join Shahrukh's team and then he said quite unassumingly.."Bombay kyaa kar raha thaa..App logo ne kya team banayee hai.. All of us had a big laugh on that.

While we were warming up and getting ready to hurl some more questions (I am sure we could have carried on for hours) the lift came to a halt. We knew it was time to say bye bye. Shoaib walked into the lobby of the hotel and disappeared slowly into the crowd of elite businessman, travellers, corporate honchos etc etc...And we kept looking at each other. The purpose for which we had gone there was for the time being kept in the background.

It was a time to sit back and savour the moment...

IPL- Indian Political League

Last year when the Indian Premier League started with a lot of fanfare, Lalit Modi was the toast of the nation. He was destiny's child who could do nothing wrong. He was rubbing his shoulders and god knows what else with the creme-de-la-creme of India's business and glamour circles.

The League which had started after a lot of politics and a knee jerk reaction to Subhash Chandra's ICL. While the IPL turned out to be a success due to the heady combination of cricket, glamour and power, ICL did not achieve much success due to lack of the above three ingredients. BCCI also has tried to kill competition by banning players involved with ICL and barring them from playing any form of official cricket.

But the tables have turned in less than 12 months. The UPA government is not confident that they can have such a big event at the time of the elections. My friends say the government is scared that if the Indian junta is watching 20-20 cricket then who will listen to their election manifestos. Crazy as they may be, the politicians still need drive their points, pointless as they may be.

The BJP accuses that the congress is targeting the IPL. They say that "a government, which cannot provide protection to 11 players, cannot be entrusted with the task of country’s security". My question is that if the congress had actually allowed the IPL to happen at this time then the same people would have alleged that the Congress is ignoring the security of the citizens of the country and compromising national security for commercial reasons. It is definitely a Catch-22 situation. But I am not defending anybody...Its just that we as a country have just got used to criticise others for everything, for any initiative or maybe politicising anything and everything. When the government can claim the success of Slumdog as their then Danny will definitely "Boil".

As of now when I am writing this article there is speculation that South Africa or England might be the alternative venues for this year. Whatever happens from here, one thing is for sure ...renaming IPL to the Indian Political League would not be such a bad idea..:)

Slapstick-1

Bhoot- Knock Knock...

Man- Abey Kaun Hai...Raat ko is time...Kal Aana

Bhoot- Abey saale roz bolta hai kal aane ko...aaj to main tera khoon pee ke hee jaaonga..

Man- Khoon to bhool jaa...fridge mein thanda doodh hai..chocos daal ke pee le...

Bhoot- Yeh accha idea has waise bhi kaafi garmee ho gayee hai..waise saath mein kuch khaane ko mil jaaye to fir maza aaaa jaaye..

(After the Bhoot finishes his milk)

Man- Yaar too roz idhar apnee marwaane kyon aa jaata hai..aur fir same dialogue maarta hai..."main tujhe khaa jaaonga.." jaa peehle kapil ka tiffin khatam kar..usme kaafi khaana rehta hai..

Bhoot- Yaar tum log meri izzat hee naheen karte..kyaa zamana aa gaya hai..hey bhagwaaan mujhe apne paas bula le....

Man-- Acha jaa rahe ho..ek kaam karna bahar se darwaaza band kar dena..warna tumhaare papa betaal ji naa aa jayeein..waise tum bhooton ke paas aajkal kuch kaam to naheen hai...jaake koi naukri kyon naheen kar lete..

Bhoot- Yeh lo mera cv...NAUKRI dhoondte dhoondte main MONSTER ban gaya hoon..yeh bhi koi zindagi hai...MONSTER pe bhi cv daala hai..woh to mere rishtedaar kee site hee hai..soch raha hoon entrepreneur ban jaaon...

Man- accha idea hai...Kya karoge...waise jab tuk kuch kaam naheen milta mere ghar kee safai kar do..waise bhi kaam waalee bai chutti pe hai..

Bhoot- thank u mere dost..tum ne mujhe sahara diya...ab main chalta hoon...Thank u for chocos and food...


To be continued....only on encouragement from readers..:)

TEAMing with Champions

At the time of writing this article the Indian team would be probably comfortably ensconced in their hotel in Hamilton....... The whole cricketing world is waiting eagerly to see whether India can actually take their forms in the shorter form of the game to the five day version. Even though on paper the teams are not matched at all but green turfs and India's dismal record evens up things ever so slightly..

The last one dayer exposed our team's weaknesses against the swinging deliveries. And if the New Zealanders stop their warm hospitality then tomorrow could be a hostile day for us. But then if NZ wins the toss and decides to bat then Zaheer and Ishant are themselves capable of routing NZ's in a session or two. Not to forget Bhajji who would be eager to fox the Kiwis not only with his doosra's and teesra's but also the new maa..ki's and behen..kis he would have added to his repertoire

If we are batting and Sehwag manages to bat for about 20-30 overs..it might just take the Kiwi's breath away for not just the day but maybe the series..And if he and Gambhir can actually stay till lunch then we all know only one team would be having their lunch..:)

If Sachin can overcome his injury and add another century or double to his overflowing account, it would be money well spent for the spectators in the ground and a good trade off for people in India who get up at 3 to watch the match.

If Dravid scores a Dravidesque century then he would have answered a lot of unnecessary questions which "We the Unforgiving People"....(sorry Barkha) have asked him in the last year. It would also tell the Kiwis that they need to climb the WALL to actually think of beating the Indians.

At this point of time I am actually thinking I have already counted so many match winners in the team. That's not enough...Yes because Yuvraj in any situation can murder a bowling attack and Kiwis would be hoping that he doesn't carry his dream form into the series. Yuvraj could be just dealing in 6s keeping in mind the size of the grounds..

And that brings me to the one man who I have consciously kept in the end...Its not an insult to him but its like the icing on the pudding..Whether you say luck, skill, charisma, leadership skills..MS Dhoni has everything in plenty..And if he gets his act together the Indian team could well climb to the #1 spot by the end of the series. What ever we say India just keeps winning under the guy and nobody can deny that. Ok he has a great team but then Ponting lost the ashes in 2005 when he had Mcgrath and Warne. So there is definitely some magic which Dhoni comes up with everytime we are in a spot of bother...

Lets hope Dhoni never runs out of his magic potion.........Cheers !!

Creak Cat

Sugar Free and Hot Chocolate Fudge

Well don't be confused by the above title. This just shows the economics of convenience which people like me have started practicing. While having coffee or I would insist on a sachet of sugar free but insist on the dollop of chocolate sauce or crazily have an ice cream for dessert. It just shows that most decisions in life these days we take as per our "convenience". While its ok to give some money to the beggar, we do not have the time to actually go and work at the grass root level and not even for a day..we say that we are keen sports lovers but the only physical sport we indulge in is switching channels between Star Cricket/ Sport/ ESPN and Neo..This was further proved yesterday when most of us celebrated a Diwali of 4s and 6s by Sehwag inside our living rooms when the whole world outside was with their Holy Guns..:) (yes the pun is definitely intended)

Most of us feel have actually started taking the maxim, "the pen is mightier than the sword" way too seriously. People feel by blogging and becoming social commentators they are going to change the world. And before anyone says look who's talking....I confess...am also stuck in the same rut. and I want to do something but dont know how..Any suggestions are welcome...

I want to write more but some other time..some slides to fill...wish they were beer mugs..:)Damn the weight watchers...