Counting crows

Back in hostel, we girls would sun ourselves on the rooftop terrace. Weak sunlight would filter through wispy clouds as we shivered in the chilly Shillong winter. On the pretext of studying for exams, we would sit there with our books, munching on stolen unripe pears, wiping the bittersweet juices on sweater sleeves and counting crows in the sky.
One for sorrow
Two for joy
Three for letters
Four for boys.

We would determinedly look away if we see a lone crow. If two came flying, we would squeal with joy, the very sight of two crows becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. Seeing three crows was the best deal.

The poor postman was bombarded every other day with hordes of excited girls asking, "Letter for us?" God forbid that he should come with just a bill for the wardens. Then all he would get would be a sea of glum faces, all staring at him mournfully. But on the days he would arrive with a good load, there would be masses of excited, happy faces all beaming at him, as if he were personally responsible for our happiness. And should his arrival coincide with that of the sweet-man's, then he had his face stuffed with sticky jalebis, rosagullas and gulab jamuns. Funny thing is, for such an important man, none of us knew what our postman looked like.

'Four for boys' did not have much of an impact in our lives. We could go out of the hostel only one Saturday a month. Sundays we could go to our various churches, but our warden made it a point to know how long our church services lasted, so there was no opportunity for larking around after services ended. So even if a suitable boy turned up, there was never any opportunity to meet him. Having Church crushes that we never dared to talk to anyway were the height of our romantic escapades.

If only life was as simple as we made it then.  
One for sorrow.    
Two for joy.
Three for letters.
Four for boys.
And should there be more, than we would just start all over again.

A different ball-game altogether

Lets start off with a question - Which country won the last World Cup? I can see a few eager hands - Spain you say? Wrong answer, Guess again. Italy? No, Idiots! It was Australia who won the CRICKET World Cup the last time it was played in 2007. Yes you ignoramuses, its natural to think that when one says "World Cup" everyone thinks about the Football World Cup but wonder of wonders, there is a Cricket World Cup and its being played again this year in India. Wowee So Exciting. No. Not Really!

 Cricket must be one of the most boring games ever invented and I wouldn't have a thought to spare about it except for the fact that once in a while you get to see some pretty handsome lads from the various cricketing nations. I used to semi drool thinking about Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, Hansie Cronje :( and er.. uh.. Kapil Dev? Or maybe its because its the only "worldwide" game that India seemingly excels in (apart from Kabaddi) and once in a while its nice to be able to subconsciously root for your own nation in a tournament which they actually have a decent chance of winning. 

I don't think I've ever watched a cricket game in its entirety. Forget entirety, I can't remember the last time I spent more than one minute watching any form of Cricket. To begin with, apparently there are numerous formats - Test matches, (Probably tested the patience of the players themselves since it must've been sooo boring!), One Day cricket (yeah ONE WHOLE DAY spent playing with balls and suchlike!), 20-20 format (can't be bothered to google what 20-20 cricket is.) Cricket fans actually spend FIVE whole days watching a Test match. No wonder the economy of India sucks and files move at such a slow pace in government offices. Even assuming that India plays a minimum of 10 test matches a year thats like fifty days of no work. And you can add the 30 to 40 one day games that India plays in a year to the list of "unofficial holidays"!! 

The only time I even read about cricket is when cricketing issues assume diplomatic proportions between countries such as when Harbhajan Singh called an Australian player a monkey or when I read about the bad boy of Indian cricket Yuvraj Singh's various romances. Apart from that it seems like every self respecting cricket player is in every second ad on TV. The other day I saw Yuvraj Singh endorsing some kind of energy drink (I'm not surprised he needs "energy" drinks..), Sachin endorsing some tyre brand and then that Dhoni fellow insisting how simple it is to go online on facebook using the Aircel network. At this rate they'll run out of things to endorse and the only thing left to endorse would be sanitary pads. I can only imagine how that would go down - "Sachin: Stayfree Sanitary Pads - So comfortable  that I wear them instead of normal batting pads for protection against fast bowlers!" 

My research on this topic also introduced me to various cricketing terms - 
silly point [I agree its pointless to play cricket], 
no ball [Is it because they forgot to bring a cricket ball to the game?], 
third man, [..but no first man or second man? What happened to them?], 
bouncer [Do these "bouncers" stop underage kids from watching a game?], 
leg break [Ooh sounds painful, careful fellas!],
maiden over [Did Yuvraj Singh bring a maiden over to his flat after the game?] 
Straight Bat [ Cricket bats have sexual tendencies? Poor homosexual bats :(] 
and so on and so forth..

Anyway back to this Cricket World Cup. It will be played in India/Bangladesh/Sri Lanka during the months of February and March with the grand final in Mumbai. If India does well and wins it then I'll probably say a tiny yay or something but apart from that, I won't be really paying attention to the goings on of Sachin Tendulkar and Co. To conclude this "testing" blogpost lemme add this explanation of cricket I found on some website -

The game of 'Cricket' VERY simply explained ......

• You have two sides of eleven men, (not including the twelfth man). 
• One side is out in the field and one side is in. 
• Each man that's in the side that's in goes out, and when he's out, he comes in and the next man goes in until he's out. 
• When they are all out, the side that's out, comes in, and the side that's been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out. 
• Sometimes you get men still in and not out. 
• When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in. 
• There are two men called umpires who stay all out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out. 
• After five days or so, when both sides have been in and all the men have been out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game!    

Any questions? No, I didn't think so!!  :D