Udit’s World

We can go on and on about who is better? Lara or Tendulkar. I will not dwell too much into that. Both are class players and I have had the fortune of seeing both of them play live.

The first time I saw a live cricket match was at Guaracara Park in Trinidad. My family had just moved to Trinidad and my father being an avid cricket fan himself, got our whole family passes to see Trinidad play the visiting Australian side(17th Match 1991..I hunted down the scorecard for that match!).

I remember sitting in the players balcony and we had a fantastic view of the pitch. Australia batted first and scored 222/8 with Mark Taylor topscoring with 38. A very much gettable target with a relatively unknown Brian Lara at that time.

The only thing I remember about the Trinidadian innings was Brian Lara bat. He was just awesome. I was just amazed at the way he batted. He cut,drove,pulled,hooked elegantly..all his shots along the ground to a breathtaking 91 before he was controversely given out ‘bowled’. The wicket keeper seemed to be appealing for a stumping, bowler for a bowled..the umpire had no clue what was going on and did not give a decision. Brian Lara turned around to the keeper, had a quiet word with him and then started walking towards the pavilion. He was 91 at that time, and had he continued batting, Trinidad would have won.

He got a standing ovation that day for his brillian innings. The aussies had no answer for him and he almost single handedly took his team to victory.

I’ve watched him play many times after that, but that innings of 91 at Guaracara Park lingers on in memory for an exceptional display of batsmanship and sportmanship.

So like the millions of the jobless americans on Tuesday night, I watched American IDOL. We Indians have a habit of penetrating every nook and corner of the US…and yes folks..we have the first INDIAN contenstant on American Idol. Sundeep (something)..An accountant by proffession..He sounded BAAAD. The funny thing about all the bad singers on American Idol is that they actually think they are good.I mean they seem so shocked and surprised when Simon tells them “That was rubbish” ..Anyways, our man Sundeep was more humble about his singing talent and excused himself claiming that the nerves took over at the wrong time.

Good try though Sundeep!

umm..haven’t blogged in a while so thought why not..

I was sitting at work today waiting for some code to run and guess what I was thinking of..Being an avid cricket watcher(and player!) , you tend to remember these cliche’s that commentators like to use ..Here are some I jotted down on .

“That ball went to the fence like a tracer bullet” - A ravi shastri favorite.

One of my favorites in the early nineties when Geff Boycott used to pick on Carl Hooper.
“Here’s comes carl to bowl his lollipops”

Here’s one when a batsman just leaves the ball outside offstump
“Arms shouldered..well left outside off stump”

“He dances down the wicket to the off spinner and smacks that over long-0ff, easily clearing the man on the boundary”

“That was a snorter..” - A Michael Holding favorite..

What else is happening with me? Had a chilled weekend. Was able to get some good sleep time. Attended a birthday party for one of my uncles..good food..open bar… what else do you want?

The Eagles are going to the Superbowl. Finally!!

The northeast is going to get hit by a massive snow storm this weekend. I am in charlotte,NC and I am getting jealous.. I miss the snow from my northeast(Delaware) days. I wish we get hit by a big big storm also. That way, I get my snow and a day off!

Can you believe Hema Malini is 56?

Imagine if we start getting taxed on our tax returns…

A friend said over chat..and I quote.

“find the ones that only empty your time and not your wallets…..”

Of late, my computer has been suddenly shutting down. Not the proper shut down. Shut down as if someone pulled the plug on it. I am at a loss as to what could be causing it. First I thought it might be the installation of Windows 2000 on my computer. Having the luxury of dual booting into Windows 2000 Server, I did that and that too suffered the same fate.

Next, did a virus scan. No problems. Spyware Scan. No problems. The shutdowns occur randomly.

I am thinking its an overheating thing, as I noticed the power supply to be quite hot. Well, for now, I opened up the side panel of my computer and stuck a table fan right next to it. Hopefully, if it was overheating, then the fan will be a quick and dirty fix. We’ll see!

I just bought a ticket to Florida for $5 . I finally had enough miles on US Airways so I redeemed them. This is the first time I ever did that and it feels especially nice since the airline might be shutting down pretty soon (Hopefully after I fly!)

Here is a classic picture of Ramnaresh Sarwan diving full stretch to pluck a catch during West Indies vs. Australia A match.

Mr Lara ensured that we won, which augurs well for the upcoming VB Series and the Tsunami relief match which I am very excited to watch on Willow TV

I am on hold with Travelocity for the past 20 minutes and I swear to god this music will put a person on caffeine to sleep. Its worse than elevator music!
Here’s my proposal to alleviate this problem. Before putting us on hold, we(the customers) should get some options.

Press 1 for RAP
Press 2 for HIP HOP
Press 3 for INDIAN

…so on and so forth. In this day and age of customer service, thats the least you can do to keep a person entertained while on hold!