finally

After a whole day's effort, I could download the midi files from my synth.

I was so eager to post them that I haven't really bothered to correct them. Don't mind the odd keystroke here or there :D

parineeta 1

parineeta 2

Here is the full version added. (Had to record it using a mic as my laptop has no line-in port and line-in port of a PC refused to work)

piyu bole

सखाराम गटणे

(ही कथा पूर्णपणे काल्पनिक असून त्यातील पात्रांचा खऱ्या आयुष्यातील घटना अथवा पात्रांशी काहीही संबंध नाही. ही कथा पूर्णपणे original असून (लेखक इतरांचे लेखन वाचतच नाही हो) यापूर्वी इतर लेखकांनी लिहीलेल्या एखाद्या कथेशी याचे साम्य आढळल्यास तो निव्वळ योगायोग समजावा).

"३४१ तुम्हीच का?" ३४१ हा course number नसून कैदी नंबर आहे अशा अविर्भावात मला विचारत सखाराम गटणे माझ्या हपिसात आला.
"ये बस बाळ, बोल तुला काय doubt आहे?" ब्रह्मदेव असल्याच्या थाटात मी ज्याकिटाची वर केलेली कॉलर तशीच ताठ ठेवत भेदरलेल्या सखारामाला धीर दिला.
"परवा submit करायचाय आणि आज compile होत नाहीये" रडवेला चेहरा करत सखारामाने आपली दिनवाणी कहाणी मला सांगितली.
"काही नाही होत हो, मी आहे ना" g++ compiler मीच लिहिला आहे अशा अविर्भावात मी उत्तर दिले.(आता या कथेमध्ये जर मी एक पात्र म्हणून असलो तर तो मी वर दिलेल्या काल्पनिक पात्रांच्या नोटीशीचा भंग होईल आणि समीक्षक लगेच मला "कारणे दाखवा" म्हणून नोटीस बजावेल, त्यामुळे यापुढे मी माझा उल्लेख ब्रम्हदेव म्हणून करेन, OK?)


जाड भिंगाचा चष्मा, तोंडावरती केविलवाणे भाव, लॉगिन करताना थरथरणारे हात, आणि C++ चे अगाध ज्ञान यावरून आपल्याकडे आलेला विद्यार्थी हा सखाराम असावा हा अंदाज कुठलाही ब्रम्हदेव लगेच बांधेल. त्या थरथरणाऱ्या हातांनीच त्याने लॉगिन केलं - sakharamgatane@appasahebbirnale.edu आणि ब्रम्हदेवाची ट्यूब पेटली. ब्रम्हदेवाने विचार केला, मागच्या semester मध्ये आपण हाच course शिकवत होतो तेंव्हा तपासायला सगळ्यात सोपा असणारा पेपर ज्या मुलाचा असायचा त्याचं नाव सुद्धा असंच काहीसं होतं ना! ४०-४० पेपर तपासता तपासता बिचाऱ्या ब्रम्ह्देवाच्या नाकी नऊ यायचे. पण मग सखारामच काय ती थोडी फ़ार दया दाखवायचा. आपल्या लाडक्या TA ला त्रास होऊ नये म्हणून सख्या काही लिहायचाच नाही. त्यामुळे सख्याच्या पेपरावर मोठा भोपळा काढून ब्रम्हदेवाला लगेच पुढचा पेपर बघता यायचा.

"इथे error येतेय" सख्याच्या त्या south east asian accent मधल्या तोडक्या मोडक्या english मधल्या बोलांनी आदली रात्रं chatting करत जागल्यामुळे बसल्याबसल्या पेंगणारा ब्रम्हदेव जागा झाला.
"कुठे म्हणालास?" ब्रम्हदेवाने झोप झटकत विचारलं.
"हे इथे, class not found म्हणतोय वेडा कुठला." "च्यांव च्यांव SS, प्यांव प्यांव SS, " सख्याच्या शुद्धं उच्चारांनी ब्रम्हदेवाच्या सदाशिव पेठी english ची (खरं तर कृष्णाकाठी english ची म्हणायला हवं, पण कृष्णाकाठी english हे थोडं छत्रपतींच्या राज्यातलं वाटतं, ब्रम्हदेवाचं english हे जास्ती पेशव्यांच्या राज्यातलं असल्यानं ते कृष्णाकाठी पेक्षा सदाशिवपेठी वाटतं, असो.) चांगलीच परीक्षा घेतली.
आता या सख्याला कसं समजावं की याने तो class कुठे शोधायचा ते त्या वेड्याला सांगितलंच नाहीये, तर तो वेडा तरी काय करणार! हे समजवण्यसाठी सख्याला आधी class काय असतो ते समजावं लागेल. खाल्ल्या मिठाला जागून कर्तव्यभावनेने ब्रम्हदेव जीवाचा आटापीटा करू लागला. आजपर्यंत "चेहऱ्यावरची माशी सुद्धा नं हलणे" ही म्हण फ़क्त slip मध्ये शांत उभा राहून captainship करणाऱ्या किंवा match मध्ये सपाटून मार खाल्ल्यावर presentation ceremony मध्ये काहीही उत्तरं देणाऱ्या मोहम्मद अझरुद्दीनलाच लागू पडते असा ब्रम्हदेवाचा भ्रम होता. आपल्या explanation ला निर्विकारपणे प्रतिसाद देणाऱ्या (निर्विकारपणे प्रतिसाद देता येतो का? जाऊदे, लेखकाचे limitation म्हणून सोडून द्या.) सख्याच्या चेहऱ्यावर माशी येऊन बसली नसल्यामुळे सख्या सुद्धा अझरुद्दीनच्याच category मध्ये येतो का ते काही ब्रम्हदेवाला पडताळून बघता आलं नाही. तास दीड तास गेला, ब्रम्हदेवाने सगळे मार्ग वापरून बघितले. आधीच रुंदावत चाललेला ब्रम्हदेवाचा भालप्रदेश या जोरदार लढाईत गळालेल्या २-३ केसांमुळे अजूनच निस्तेज दिसू लागला.

पण ब्रम्हदेव करणार तरी काय! ओरडावं म्हंटलं तर सख्याची सशासारखी भेदरट मूर्ती बघून ब्रम्हदेवाचा राग पाघळून जातो. शेवटी पाटा पिचवर test match चे सलग २ दिवस bowling करायला लागल्यावर bowling team जी युक्ती वापरते ती युक्ती ब्रम्हदेवाला सुचली- वेळकाढूपणा. आपली स्वर्गातल्या duty ची शेवटची १० मिनिटं राहिली आहेत हे लक्षात येताच, सख्याच्या वडिलांचं खरंच आप्पा बळवंत चौकात signboard painting चं दुकान आहे का बघूया म्हणून ब्रम्हदेवाने त्याची इकडची तिकडची चौकशी सुरू केली. पण कुठलं काय! आप्पा बळवंत चौकात तर सोडाच सख्याच्या खानदानातल्या कोणीही पुण्याला सुद्धा भेट दिलेली नाही हे त्यानेच ब्रम्हदेवाला सांगितलं. कसे देतील म्हणा, visa कुठे आहे त्यांच्याकडे! अशा गप्पा मारता मारता सख्या आपले doubtsचे दु:ख विसरून गेला आणि ती १० मिनिटं संपली. आजकाल course number 341 ला call center सारखं 24 X 7 coverage असतं. त्यामुळे ब्रम्हदेवाची duty संपल्यावर लगेच विष्णू आला, आणि सख्याला त्याच्याकडे सुपूर्त करून ब्रम्हदेवाने काढता पाय घेतला.

Posting a comment on -

http://salilb.blogspot.com/2006/02/sachin-and-his-last-25-tests-time-has.html
The million dollar question to ask is - can his replacement average 47-dot-something over a period of 24 tests - playing against minnows or no minnows?
It's very clear and is there for everyone to see that he's a less effective batsman than he was 5 years ago, but still he isn't crap. Everyone would love to replace Sachin at 33 with Sachin at 28, but is Mohd. Kaif at 25 good enough to replace Sachin at 33?
The answer is we will not know unless we see it. I still would think that the answer is no. We have 2 options - drop Sachin at 33 and try Kaif at 25, or keep on trying Sachin at 33 and see who can get closer to Sachin at 28. Currently they are trying the latter option with some justification. Let's see where it leads for some more time. The decision they have to make is what should this time be. I would say World Cup 2007.
And I really don't see any point, getting into Sachin's shoes, that he should play any ODIs after he returns from the Caribbean in 2007. He has got nothing left to achieve in ODIs.

कंटाळा आला की मी असं काहीतरी करतो!

माझ्या innovative chords for पसायदान. किमान मला तरी त्या innovative वाटतात.
बी टी डब्ल्यू, मराठीचा माज असणाऱ्या माझ्या समीक्षकाने मला छातीठोकपणे सांगितलं की पसायदानात दोनच कडवी आहेत. म्हणून मी इथे दोनच लिहीली आहेत, पण आत्ताच मला "चन्द्रमेचे अलांछन" वालं तिसरं कडवं आठवलं, त्यामुळे मी जरा समीक्षकाची लाज काढून येतो.
तोपर्यंत, presenting पसायदान
(माफ़ करा ज्ञानदेवा copyright laws धाब्यावर बसवल्याबद्दल)

C#m आता विश्वात्मके देवे
E येणे वाग्यद्ने
C#m तोषावे
Bm तोषोनि मज द्यावे
D पसायदान
C#m हे
C#m जे खळांची व्यंकटी सांडो
A तया सत्कर्मी रती वाढो
F#m भूतापरस्परे पडो
D मैत्र जीवां
C#m चे
A दुरितांचे तिमीर जावो
F#m विश्वस्व धर्म सुर्ये
C#m पाहो
E जो जे वांछील तो ते
F#m लाहो
D प्राणिजा
C#m त
C#m वर्षतसकळमंडळी
E ईश्वरनिष्ठांची
C#m मांदीयाळी
Bm अन्वर्तभूमंडळी
D भेटतू भूता
C#m आणिग्रंथोपजिवीये
A विशेषीलोकिये
F#m द्रुष्टाद्रुष्टविजये
D होवावे
C#m जी
C#m येथ म्हणे श्रीविश्वेश्वरा
E हो
E आवो
C#m इलदानपसाओ
F#m येणे वरे ज्ञानदेवो
D सुखिया झा
C#m ला
D सुखिया झा
C#m ला
D सुखिया झा
C#m ला

This is why Laxman isn't in the ODI team

The Ausralians who are often baffled by the fact that Laxman isn't in the ODI team, should see the last few overs of current session (Day 3, pre lunch Ind-Pak test 2). All those who want to see what is meant by lack of street smartness should also see this as a nice example.

Scenario - Dravid on 97, obviously a bit nervous to get to 3 figures and lunch approaching, a dilemma that batsmen hate facing, whether to go for it or not. Generally they like to get the monkey of the back before heading to the pavilion.

So what does Laxman do? Out of around 6 overs before the session close, he takes singles on at least 5 occasions off the last ball of the over, constantly denying strike to his skipper. Of course he isn't doing this on purpose, but this is where he lacks a sense of the moment, this is where he lacks the street smartness to manufacture a single, this is where he lacks the agility to steal a single. You could feel the frustration in Anand Vasu's cricinfo commentary when he had to repeat "And still Laxman keeps the strike!".

Not that this is a big issue and Dravid possesses too great a temperament to get affected by it, however some other batsman can easily get desperate in such situation and throw it away.
Laxman could have been such an authoritative figure if he could have exchanged some of his artistry for this kind of smartness!

If I were Inzamam

What a shame of pitch! I haven't seen in even 1 ball bowled in this test, but I can feel how hard it must have been to go out and bowl on it, in particular to people with big blades and powerful muscles. Such pitches must be nipped in the bud. People have been suggesting ways to preserve the art and the skill in cricket which really merit an attention from the ICC. Spectators who don't want to watch this art and are interested in slam-bang stuff should go and watch baseball.

Coming to the point of the post, Pakistan have gotten a headache. There is no doubt that India have gotten an equal share of it, but the one that Pakistan are facing is a dangerously recurring one. I have not seen how they countered Sehwag in this game, but I presume that they tried their unsuccessful ways once too often against him. Of course, it's easier said than done, but if I were one of Inzamam or Bob Woolmer, I would totally give a revamp to my plan A against him. The thing that I would do before that is not call him a slogger who hits the bulls eye once in a while. To be able to smack the likes of Lee and Shoaib and Kaneria and Hoggard, that too with immaculate consistency and break a long standing Donald Bradman record of crossing 150 six times in a row after crossing 100, you need serious ability. So what if he doesn't move his feet, he doesn't need to. He has gotten such a great eye and hands that he can attain balance without moving feet, and that's what you need to move your feet for- to balance yourself for playing the shot - right? So it'a a divine gift, if you can balance without feet movement.

Talking about revamping the plan, I confirmed this from one of my Pune pals, that Pakistan hardly ever had a short leg in place for him. True, as the "on the ball" http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/ci/content/story/233300.html would tell that he patiently left all the bouncers hurled at him. But then, they bowled only 10 of those at him, which was appalling.

Going ahead, I would go in with something like this in my plan A, and I am talking about the 1st over of Indian innings.
On the off side (you don't need to know rocket science to predict he loves them there) - 1 slip, 2 gullies (as he is more likely to get thick edges than thin), 3rd man (my most attacking position and a must on any pitch for Sehwag), deep point (may be I can cut down on at least 10 of those 38 boundaries and frustrate him a bit), extra cover.
On the on side- a forward short leg, a deepish backward shortleg and a conventional midwicket.

Unless really necessary, don't bowl a single ball in his half and take out the straight boundaries, remember you haven't gotten mid-off and mid-on. Consistently try to angle in or cut into his ribs of shortish length. You need quite a bit of ability though as a bowler to execute this and be accurate enough. With the dose that has been given to the Paki bowlers, I doubt how they can manage this.

If he resorts to the pull against the short ball and does that well, then I might bring in my subsequent plans, by putting some more protection on the on side, but I won't take out my deep point and 3rd man unless I give up hope.

Having said all this and given the whacking to the curators, I can only clap for the mental makeup of the man. He just doesn't care a damn about who he is facing, what the score is or what the situation is. As much as you will criticise his irresposible play had he gotten out while attempting his 1st boundary itself, you have to salute his self-belief for daring to try and execute 47 of those.

I hope Inzamam isn't in my fans' list and doesn't know enough English to be able to read my blogs. For I can never have enough of "Sehwag against Pakistan", makes me feel like he is the one who will repay Ijaz, Afridi and Anwar along with the interest of so many years.

I still fear...

Within 6 hours from now, the annual (I don't know if it will continue to be that way) India-Pak summit clash is about to get under way at Lahore and heaps of free time has made me read on every scrap on the reams of (web) pages expended by various pundits in anticipation of the event. That's what I am filled with, anticipation.

On paper, I would say that both teams start neck and neck. Riding on the high of their recent home bashings, there is no shortage of winning habit. For all the might of Inzamam, Afridi (note that he is number 2 on my list), Shoaib, Kaneria and Yousuf whatever, India have gotten Dravid, Kumble, Sehwag, Dhoni and Pathan (excuse me for some notable absentees) in their ranks. And as my cricketing knowledge tells me (unlike that of some, on some pathetic websites, who can write with enormous aplomb about how Yuvraj Singh will beat the hell out of Pakistan one day and the very next day can come up with a masterpiece of immature writing about how Mohammed Asif will win it for Pakistan), it's hard to predict anything about the outcome. One thing seems certain though, whoever wins the 1st test, with due consideration for the 2 coaches who have brought in fighting spirits in their teams, will have to lose the series from there rather than being beaten. Which is exactly why teams have to be at their ruthless best right here tonight (my time).

Having been a follower of the match-fixing era of Sharjah and the post-Javed-Miandad-last-ball-six-time, I still have some apprehensions about India playing Pakistan, especially when the neighbors are close to their best. And hence my list of Indians to watch out for contains those names that I mentioned. Dravid, I think he will experience an Inzamam Ul Huq effect on his batting with the captaincy coming his way, if at all he can bat better. Kumble, the tiniest smell of blood and he will be there running in over after over after over. Probably the best ever to have bowled on subcontinental pitches (his offset away from subcontinent to that in subcontinent makes me weigh in his favor rather than Murali's), he will not be kept out of the match at any stage. The other 3 are young, talented and thankfully never been a part of the apprehension against Pakistan times. They will believe that they are better than their opponents and hence are pivotal to Team India's success.

Talk about subplots for India, and Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman come to the mind. Still formidable mind you, Sachin is past his dominating best, which is not a cause of concern at all. He will score runs, just based on his willpower and reputation, but I believe that gone are the days when he could be termed as the deadliest Indian weapon who, within a couple of sessions, would set up the test match for his side. He is in more of a stock batsman role, the role that Shaun Pollock plays for South African bowling. Laxman, well he is an enigma, and you better not predict about him. But I get the feeling that he will also play the supporting cast.

On the other hand, how dearly would Pakistan love their captain to play the way he has been doing for the last couple of years? I hope that the law of averages in deed catches on him and at least 30% of the battle will be won for India. I also hope that Greg Chappell has devised a strategy for Shahid Afridi and it works out in the middle, for it is this man who can remind the Indians of their butchering days with Ijaz Ahmed and Saeed Anwar. It's this sense of fear that made even a bowler as pathetic as Arshad Khan (only Rameez Raja, the Pakistani counterpart of somebody like Maninder Singh, has the wherewithal to spit into the mic heaps of praise for this gentleman) to eat them away during that shameful 2nd innings of Bangalore test and Afridi is well capable of pushing India into that mode. Danish Kaneria, it's a challenge for him but so far he has done extremely well against the Indians, mostly because he has gotten a reputation against them. I don't know where it sets in, but there are some players (quite a few of them Pakistanis, on another thought quite a few of them southpaws) who just fail to do badly against the Indians. The Haydens, the Andy Flowers, the Saqlain Mushtaqs, the Saeed Anwars, the Aquib Javeds, the Shivanarine Chanderpauls... I don't know why the same Indians, who make Brian Lara and Shane Warne look ordinary, take a bow to these guys. Kaneria seems to be following Afridi up that ladder.

Time to think about the most unpredictable factor of the series, Shoaib Akhtar. He could finally be a telling difference between the 2 sides. If he gets a hammering from Sehwag and co. (Sehwag is the lead), advantage India. If Sehwag doesn't last his 1st session with the new ball, advantage Pakistan. However, if Dravid and Tendulkar cannot blunt out his spell with the old one, it could just be game-set-match Pakistan.

I am a pessimistic writer, ain't I?

gareebee

I don't know who pays them to throw in such heaps of bullshit -
http://cricket.indiatimes.com/quickiearticleshow/1293710.cms

मी म्हणतो ती पूर्व दिशा

बरेच दिवस मी अधून मधून विचार करायचो की आपलं इथलं घर नक्की उत्तराभिमुख आहे की दक्षिणाभिमुख! माझं ताऱ्यांचं ज्ञान अगाध असल्यामुळे (सप्तर्षि बनवायला मला आकाशातले कुठलेही सात तारे चालतात)दिशा ओळखायला मला सूर्यच जास्ती भरवश्याचा वाटतो. शेवटी काल बऱ्याच दिवसांनी सूर्य ढगांबाहेर आला आणि माझ्या लक्षात आलं की आपलं घर पूर्वाभिमुख आहे (सध्या सूर्य बराच दक्षिणेकडे असल्याने आणि मला तो भर दुपारी १२ च्या सुमारास दिसल्यामुळे हा निष्कर्ष चुकण्याचीच जास्ती शक्यता आहे). तसा माझा direction sense काही येरा-गबाळा नाही. "बबन 'अ' बिंदूपासून निघून ४ पावलं पूर्वेकडे जाऊन १३ अंशातून उत्तरेकडे वळून १९ पावले दक्षिणेला गेला तर तो आता कुठे आहे" असल्या निरुपयोगी प्रश्नांच्या ४ पर्यायांपैकी मी जो ठोकायचो तो सहसा बरोबर यायचा (आणि दर वेळी याचं कारण योगायोग कसं असेल?), त्यामुळे मी हे म्हणू शकतो. पण याचा उपयोग नेहमीच रस्ते किंवा दिशा ओळखण्यात होतो असं नाही.

विशेषतः हे पुण्यात जाणवतं. तिथे सगळे चौक हे चौक नसून छक्के आहेत (उगाच काहीतरी अर्थ काढू नका, मला असं म्हणायचंय की अशी जागा जिथे ४-४ नाही तर ६-६ रस्ते एकत्र येतात). त्यामुळे नक्की कुमठेकरांकडे जायला ३३ अंशातून वळायचं की भांडारकरांकडे जायला ५७ अंशातून, असा विचार करता करता मी बऱ्याचदा ७९.५ अंशातून वळून ढोल्या पाटलांकडे पोहोचलोय. पण पुण्यात हे सगळं चालतं, कारण की तिथले बगळे हे सांगलीतल्या बगळ्यांपेक्षाही निरुपद्रवी आहेत, तुम्ही No entry मधून उलटे आला तरी ते गोड मानून घेतात. No entry कसलं One way मधून! ("विकेटकीपर नही गोलकीपर, गोलकीपर बेवकूफ़" मोड मधे वाचणे ).

इथे बाल्टी-मोरीत मात्र सगळी तऱ्हाच वेगळी आहे. मोरीतून बाहेर पडायला २-३ फ़्री-वेज आहेत. कुठेही जायचं झालं तरी त्यापैकी १ वापरायचा. आणि मला नाही वाटत की वर दिलेलं बबन्याचं गणित इथे कोणाला सोडवता येईल. काहीही हवं असलं की लगेच ते mapquest किंवा google चा आधार घेतात. त्यांचंही बरोबर आहे म्हणा, रस्तेच इतके मोठे आहेत की स्वतःचं डोकं लावून काही झेपायचंच नाही.

मधे एकदा रात्रीच्या वेळी एका अक्राळ-विक्राळ दिसणाऱ्या टॅक्सी ड्रायव्हरने आम्हाला असंच गंडवलं. त्याला exit 12A घ्यायला सांगितलेलं असताना सुद्धा त्याने स्वतःचं नसलेलं डोकं चालवलं आणि आम्हाला अंधारात होवार्ड कौंटी फ़िरवून आणली. शेवटी अगदी आम्ही जीवावर उदार झालेलो असताना एकदाचं exit 12A दिसलं. आणि ड्रायव्हरसकट कोणालाही कळलं नाही की नक्की कुठल्या दिशेला वळल्यामुळे ते आलं. एकंदरीत काय, तर (ब्लॉगच्या) नावात काय आहे? mapquest किंवा google म्हणतं ती पूर्व दिशा!

Pathetic pundit

Many times people with zero knowledge get into event reporting or journalism. Here is one classic example from rediff.com that I came across. Even "dainik puDhArI" might not make such a preliminary mistake I guess.

Context - India vs Srilanka, 2nd ODI at Mohali.
The writer says - "India could have well opted to use Agarkar for his spell of ten overs and then had him replaced by Super sub Sreesanth, who could have exploited the helpful conditions, but they chose not to." http://us.rediff.com/cricket/2005/oct/28india.htm?q=np&file=.htm

The guy who has written this (seems to be an official rediff correspondent, not just someone from readers' comments), seems to have never read what the substitution rule says - "Once you replace a player, the substitute is allowed to bowl only the overs that were not bowled by the player he substituted out of his quota of 10 (i.e. if the player has already bowled 5, then the supersub can only bowl 5) and bat only if the player he substituted had his wicket in tact." You don't need to know rocket science to figure out why it is so. If he replaces a player who has already lost his wicket and is allowed to bat, then the opposition will have to get 11 wickets and not 10 (or else leave 2 batsmen not out at the end). (This 1 is for the pundit himself).

I don't know why I still read those pathetic rediff.com and indiatimes.com cricket articles, may be because they feed me for my blogs.

I wish...

I wish I could write like this -
http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/india/content/story/222744.html

माझी मराठी भाषेला देणगी...

काल माझ्या रूम पार्टनरला दिवसा अभ्यास करताना पाहून मी तिथल्या तिथे एक नवीन म्हण पाडली ... माझ्या सर्वात मोठ्या समीक्षकाने (मला समीक्षक आहे असा दावा करून मी स्वत:ला लेखकाचे अधिष्ठान प्राप्त करून घेतोय.. ब्लॉग लिहायचा म्हंटल्यावर तेवढं चालतं) "मुकर्रर..." असा प्रतिसाद दिल्याने ती मी इथे मांडतोय ...

"रात्र घालवली चॅटाचॅटी आणि दिवसा बसून पोळ्या लाटी"

पण तेवढ्यात समीक्षक काकांनी दुसरी गोष्टं लक्षात आणून दिली की वेळेअभावी आपण इथे पोळ्या लाटत नाही, टॉर्टीला वगैरे आणून खातो.. समीक्षक ही खरंच वाईट गोष्टं असते. मुक्तछंदाला मारण्याचं काम करतात मेले.. आणि भाषेचा तोटा करतात फ़क्त (त्या हिशेबाने मी याच पानावर क्रिकेटचा खूप तोटा केलाय, ब्लॉग लिहायचा म्हंटल्यावर तेवढं चालतं). तर अशा या समीक्षक काकांची सूचना शिरसावंद्य मानून मी थोडा बदल करतोय..


"रात्र घालवली चॅटाचॅटी आणि दिवसा बसून होमवर्क रेटी"

एक पाचकळ जोक...

सौरव गांगुलीच्या कर्णधारपदाच्या कारकीर्दीला समर्पक शिर्षक काय असेल? ....
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कयामत से कयामत तक...

हा लेख वाचा. मला पुरेपूर पटला ..
http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/india/content/story/220186.html

Time to leave sir

If you believe in cricinfo's inside story on the Ganguly- Chappell rift (stories can be cruelly biased), then only you should read on. It's learnt that an honest suggestion by the coach was made public by the captain. And all it can lead to is debacle. I stated in one of my previous posts about how KPS Gill obliterated Indian Hockey circuit through some startling decision making and extreme egos. And we have witnessed in the past that when an individual becomes more important than the entity that he is a part of, then it destructs the whole entity. Needless to give examples, you can take Hitler's, who sank Germany along with himself, Ganguly seems adamant to do the same for Indian cricket.

It's very difficult for some individuals to accept bad things about themselves. They can't pass an unbiased judgement for themselves. Ganguly seems to be one of those. He still believes that he can fight back. But with this latest episode, I think he will be questioned even for his successful moves, forget about the ones that will fail and hence be cruelly carnaged by the media. It's difficult to imagine his future, unless Jagmohan Dalmiya also believes that he is above the goodwill of Indian cricket and pulls a rabbit out of the hat.

A coach has the power to give an honest advice, something that Ganguly himself demanded from Chappell. And his advice of stepping down from captaincy was not wrong at all. This is the problem with headstrong people. As much as their qualities can benefit when channeled properly, so can they destruct you when they go wrong. A sachin tendulkar would not have needed the coach to tell him to step down, if struck by such wretched form (mind you he has never got into such a low scoring rut ever). But then his lack of headstrongness was the one that kept denying him his choice of playing eleven, something that he believed contributed in a big way to his failed tenure at the helm. Ganguly's obstinancy has helped Team India in the past when he demanded Yuvraj, Kaif, Harbhajan, Sehwag and many others despite their failures and later converted them into a successful unit. But it was logical to support that move as one could see him having some sort of a thought about how he wanted the team to look like in the forthcoming days (and his picture of a good team was inline with most experts' opinion from what was available then). And all of these people were young enough and had shown glimpses of promise that their zeniths lied ahead. By the same hypothesis, if you try to judge his current support for himself (believing that he has an argument like - "if I supported people with constant failures, why should I not get something back when I am struggling?" - oh I am being so supportive to Ganguly, trying desparately to be in his shoes), you still can't sympathise with him. He has failed more consistently than all these blokes combinedly had and doesn't seem to know what vision he has for the team, apart from sinking it with himself.

I can't help myself reiterating the exceptional example of Nasser Hussain. During his reign, he was not too dissimilar in his approach to Ganguly, supporting his team, mentoring his youngsters, judging talents of the likes of Flintoff and Harmison and taking on his oppositions. But when he realised that his time had come, he decided to hang up his boots to make way for more deserving youngsters. He left with full dignity and left imprints of his own on English cricket. I am not sure that history will be so kind to Ganguly, although he, arguably, deserves it to some extent.

And then you have a VVS Laxman (excuse me for the topic change), who hits out at his critics after a feast against Zimbabwe. How can people think that they have the moral high grounds to lambaste people after such performances? I have no doubt about Laxman's BATTING (I have ample doubts about lots of his other aspects necessary to be a good cricketer, including his fitness) ability, but come on man, you have given better performances than this in our domestic cricket. I would have accepted your comments had they come even after a performance against the Mumbai team, not against a joke called Zimbabwe. Laxman, you still are precious to Indian TEST side, you are not agile enough to be in the ODI team (there are quite a few, Ashish Nehra to name one, who fall in this category, but then it's your bad luck that we don't have fitter replacements for them and we have quite a few for you. Don't whin about it, try to be fitter, if you can at all). You have taken a good step ahead, but that has been your problem man, everytime you take a step ahead, you think you have reached the pinnacle and rather than focussing, you start airing your views about how they have been doing injustice to you. Learn something from a man called Anil Kumble, you don't need your favorite opponents, the Aussies, to learn from. See how he fights his omissions from the team.

Back on the issue, I believe it's better to look at a problem from the solution end. We have to first think what if Sourav has to leave. Whom do we have to replace him with? Probably we have a better answer (or the only answer that can be better justified) now than we had in the John Wright days. With Greg Chappell there to enforce the cockiness and provide the flamboyance and the instinctiveness, the Ganguly part of the Ganguly- Wright combination, Dravid can sit back and do the strategic thinking, the Wright part of it, something that he is better off doing. He can pretty much leave it to Chappell to take on opposition captains and stuff like that & you can rest assured that there are few competitors to him in that department, even in his bald days in cricket.

It has been sad for an admirer of Sourav like me to watch the way he has faded over a large period of time. I don't know how we are going to address a rift between two most important persons of the touring party, when it is known to all and sundry. It must be difficult enough to be a member of the team at present, particularly if you are a newcomer. I can't think of a reconcilation here. A senior member of the team could help may be. But then there is no point in trying that out. It's very clear that the combination can't work and it will take just one more failure for the cracks to open up again. The BCCI simply has to make a decision about what they are committed to, Sourav's future or Team India's. That will decide if it's send-off time for Sourav or Chappell, after a marriage that got over even before the honeymoon.

कशासाठी... बाण्यासाठी...

इथे अभ्यास झेपत नाहीये ॥ ध्रु. ॥ आणि मी मराठीत ब्लॉगायचे धन्दे करतोय... ॥ ध्रु. ॥
इथे भराभर टायपिंग सुद्धा जमत नाहिये आणि मी मराठीत ब्लॉगायचे धन्दे करतोय...
इथे स्वयंपाक करता येत नाहीये आणि मी मराठीत ब्लॉगायचे धन्दे करतोय...
इथे खायला काही नाहीये आणि मी मराठीत ब्लॉगायचे धंदे करतोय...
इथे खिशात दमडी, माफ़ करा पेनी, सुद्धा नाहीये आणि मी मराठीत ब्लॉगायचे धंदे करतोय..
इथे झोपायला गादी नाहीये (सध्या फ़क्त sleeping bag आहे) आणि मी मराठीत ब्लॉगायचे धंदे करतोय...
इथे फ़िरायला 2-wheeler नाहीये आणि मी मराठीत ब्लॉगायचे धंदे करतोय...


वा... सुरुवात तरी झाली...

A tale of sour grapes

A hungry fox noticed a juicy bunch of grapes growing high on a grapevine. He leaped. He snapped. Drooling, he jumped to reach them, but try as he might, he could not obtain the tasty prize. Disappointed by the fruitless efforts he'd made to get the grapes that day, he said, with a shrug, to comfort himself, "Oh, they were probably sour anyway!"

No prizes for guessing who the hungry fox is in this story. Ricky Ponting's comments after the Trentbridge test and an interview with Melbourne Radio has been nothing but a great example of this story. His stand on the England's substitute fielders usage, coupled with his blatant reaction after getting ran out at Trentbridge and his media talk later on have been shameful to say the least. But then he has never been put in such situations before which is why he isn't matured enough to handle them.

Ponting's claims about England's unfair use of substitutes may be justified. But what England is doing is strictly within the laws and Australia should be the last team talking about spirit of the game which they have so often violated while in the middle. His allegations could not have been more mistimed as his concerns were not arising from the current match, but over the whole series. Then why was he not whinning about it earlier? Or was he waiting for one of the substitutes to actually get him ran out?

Duncan Fletcher asked a very good question "If one of our bowlers is unfit, why will we bring someone on who doesn't have fleet feet?" And is it England's fault that Garry Pratt was the one who managed to hit the stumps when Damien Martyn and Ponting planned a suicide for themselves? I would like to ask another question. Would Ponting have been as outrageous if he had not gotten out to a substitute fielder's throw? I guess that wicket did not increase the severity of the issue of England's use of substitutes. And no one can claim that the run out was the cause of Australia's defeat. I don't know why they can not wholeheartedly accept that they were outplayed by a team that was far more spirited, if not necessarily superior.

Remember what Ponting did when the Aussies could not chase a paltry target of 107 at Mumbai? Instead of accepting the inability of his men while playing on dust bowls, he kept shouting all the way in the press conference about the dust bowl itself. Agreed the wicket there had many devils in it. But even Indians in the past have shown more maturity when they were made to play and were subsequently mauled on the cattle-grazing fields in New Zealand. The way Ponting acts and the arguments he makes in such situations, suits a child cricketer owning the only kit being used to play in gullies of a small town, not the skipper of the 1 st ranked team in the world.

If he really had a case and wanted to take it up, he should have taken it up right after the Old Trafford test, which the Aussies saved despite English dominance. But then it's hard for an Aussie captain to accept such defeats. Perhaps the last (and one of the very few) Aussie captain who would have reacted in a more amenable way was Mark Taylor. Ponting should have used the example of the Don himself, who complained about the balls being whirled at Aussie batsmen more to kill them than to get them out, right after the 2nd test at MCG which the Aussies WON and not after losing a test, during the defamed body line series. And that was an issue of far more magnitude than the trivial use of more agile substitutes. That's when yours appears as a valid case and not as just an excuse to a mediocre performance that costs you the game (not that this is an attempt to call the Aussie performance at Trentbridge mediocre). Otherwise the statements that you make will always be perceived as nothing but a tale of sour grapes.

I wasn’t following it!!!

How could I be so cruel? I wasn’t there pressing my favorite F5 when the (de)famed Indian batting line-up was being 007ed by Bond … Shane Bond. I have been made up of a true Indian cricket fan’s irrepressible ability, hope. Even when they were 8 down for 44 (yes only India, of course apart from the Windies and the Zimbabweans can manage such a plight against the kiwis, Bond or no Bond), you would have found me banging the F5 hoping a rare crack from Harbhajan or Pathan, or whosoever it is. And yet even after knowing that India were due to play there 1st game against the kiwis today, I lost track of it, and entered cricinfo to get some ashes bites with the breakfast tea, only to discover “Bond Blitz floors India”.

I, for one, have been an ardent supporter of the men in blue, and their super leader, Sourav Dada and also the real dada, Jaggu Dada. I believed these people -for all the things they were accused of doing for themselves – did some serious things for Team India taking it in the right direction. But hope has its own limits. I was one of the few who did not lose patience when the crowd attacked Mohd. Kaif’s house in UP after India lost to the Aussies in the league match of 2003 world cup. Hope did not betray me then, as it had a firm basis to be alive. I could see them coming back in the groove, based on the CONSISTENCY they had maintained throughout the year preceding that tournament in the limited overs game. But as age is starting to show up on the Aussie team, so is impatience starting to show on me. I don’t know where India go from here. And I believe that now is the time to drop dada. He isn’t getting any younger, neither can I say any hungrier, nor any better. And Team India is going from bad to worse. Justine Langer once told Glenn McGrath that you got to hit the rock bottom to come back up again. But rock bottom standards for McGrath were quite high by Ganguly measurement scheme. All McGrath had done was missing one season due to an ankle surgery, and not picking up noticeable amount of wickets in around half a dozen appearances on return. Ganguly over the last two seasons has seen a considerable amount of drop in his average from 44 to 40 in ODIs, which is quite significant and I am not even dissecting his test form which has been, barring the sole Brisbane hundred touted as a tiger’s knock, abysmal.

There has been a lot of pondering done on India’s losing cause in the recent time. A point has been missed time and again though, which I believe lies in their dreadful ODI bowling. It’s there for every one to see that they have lost an important man in their world cup mission, namely Zaheer Khan. The man needs to rediscover himself somehow, if he has to fill in the shoes of even Javagal Srinath, forget Kapil Dev. Same can be said about Harbhajan Singh. I have to really stress my memory to recall when Harbhajan took his last 3 wicket haul, an achievement which should not be far beyond an Indian ace spinner’s capability. But he has literally looked incapable of picking up wickets recently and if he keeps going on the track he is now, we might need to force him to retire alongside Anil Kumble. Have I lost my marbles? Remember what came Saqlain Mushtaq’s or Mushtaq Ahmed’s way? And when they were kicked out, they were bowling at least a notch above the supremely straight stuff that Harbhajan bowls these days. I mean even Kumble spins it more than Bhajji these days. Is it not the worst abuse ever for a spinner?

Was it just a purple patch for a bunch of mediocre batsmen who would look potent of chasing any total against most attacks, if not all, that took them to the world cup finals 2 years ago? Yuvraj Singh, for a long enough period of time, has been ugly; bad could be a complement for him. And they still hope that he will get runs CONSISTENTLY. I don’t care about a solitary hundred that he strikes against a futile West Indies attack. When time demands him to bat, he’s either foxed by a spinner, or if he avoids it then he sweeps him into the hands of deep mid-wicket, or else he edges a quicky to the slip cordon. Virender Sehwag is the replica Sourav Ganguly of the early years of the millennium. While Sourav was prolific in ODIs and dismal in Tests, Sehwag’s the opposite.

They now realize the value of their batting champion Sachin Tendulkar. As his critics shout, he may not play a Brian Lara or a Steve Waugh or an Inzamam Ul Huq for his team, but I have seen him score hundreds on days when he hasn’t timed a single delivery and has been completely out of form, still at a reasonable strike rate, through some thoughtful and soulful stuff. Those knocks may not win matches for his team, but they never let his team be embarrassed to the extent of 8 for 44, that too against a soul Shane Bond, I don’t count Andre Adams a bowler.

That brings us to the question of where to start the cleansing job. I guess it starts at the top with an axe on the skipper. England can afford a non performing skipper, India cannot. The man to wear the hat should be the only permanent member of the team, Rahul Dravid. Or if they are prepared for the tough decision, then they should go with different men for the two versions, Dravid with the test squad and Kaif with the ODIs. Have I lost my marbles now? If Ganguly is to go and Dravid is not a long term option, then the only person that stands a chance is Kaif. He has batted more consistently in ODIs than anybody else apart from Dravid himself and, although at a junior level, has previously led a world winning team. The next axe falls on Yuvraj, who must be asked to win a place back in the team by doing some notable stuff at the domestic level. And for god’s sake I hope they don’t bring back an ever unfit VVS Laxman as a replacement. If Sachin manages to come back sooner rather than later, then they must think about whether Sehwag deserves a place in the playing eleven. I believe it’s better to lose by trying out young blokes like Suresh Raina, than by chancing continuous failures like Yuvraj.

And what about the bowlers? It has to be made clear to Ashish Nehra and Zaheer Khan, that the BCCI has wasted enough money on their fitness and travel tickets. It’s time they do something about it or accept that they were never made for the highest level, a sad realization that came very late in case of Ajit Agarkar. But giving it a second thought, is there an option? I fear that the answer is no. If strike-rate-wise the best ODI bowler to immerge from a nation happens to be called Ajit Agarkar (believe it or not he still holds the best strike rate for an Indian taking more than 100 ODI wickets), then god save that country. And if you drop Harbhajan, the only bowler who has averaged less than 4.5 runs per over since the 2003 world cup, is it not a suicide?

So do you really count it as the captain’s failure? Or is it the impotency of his men that’s responsible for the debacle? That brings me back to the original question, was it just the coinciding purple patch of a few ordinary people that gave us hope of a CONSISTENTLY high performing team? Well only time and (maybe) Greg Chappel could tell. For the time being, my breakfast menu has changed to English style to avoid tummy-aches like 8 for 44.

Lost in Baltimore (I hate mess II)

I complained and complained again about the kind of food that I would get in all my messes in Pune. But I will be extremely grateful to anybody who can bring Nana’s “Swami Samartha” or “Harikrupa” to Baltimore, let alone “SP’s Biryani House” or “Mahesh Lunch Home” or “Swarajya” (near Nilayam talkies), some of my hot favorites from Pune. The food here can be described in 1 word, amm… no I can’t think of one word. Let me describe it in 2 words, it sucks.

It all started when I boarded a British Airways plane from Mumbai. For all the good things it offered us, an ontime flight amidst deluging rains of Mumbai, a nice 5 hours halt at the busiest airport Heathrow and some good movies onboard and of course, no lost luggage, the food was a true test of one’s character. We were served some orange juice, which tasted like anything but oranges (and wasn’t even sweet), a horrible tasting pack of butter, and the contents that we had to use to make our coffee from, were extra-ordinarily different in taste for us to make a good one. To add to the woes, the London-Baltimore flight had a vividly smiling Jennifer Anniston look-alike attendant saying to us “Sorry, chicken is finished, we only have beef and salami”, thereby rendering us vegetarian (No, I have still not gone on with the red meat, apart from my favorite pet lamb). And by vegetarian, they literally meant vegetarian as the food had plenty of green plants and leaves. I don’t know what the hell it was that they served us as it was extremely painful to eat. I had to manage on the cakes that were on offer.

Down here in our School Campus, as currently summer is going on here and hence there are very low crowds on campus, there is only 1 place where we get some food. And that place only serves Pizzas. I could find the reason of the fact why the biggest human beings I have ever seen are after I came to the US, hidden right there in the cheese of those pizzas. It’s all bread poured in cheese, which these people can eat day in and day out and not consume the fat that it accumulates on their bodies. Ok, topic changed, I am not here to do some social work by doing research on the obesity problem of the US. But how can one serve every chicken dish made with a lot of sugar in it? I don’t ask you to consider the Indians who are going to eat it, but do some justice to the chicken at least by giving it a taste of some spices.

Yesterday, I had gone to a Chinese restaurant here and could testify an old saying, Chinese eat any crawling living being (probably apart from kids). They served us with hot and sour soup which was neither hot nor sour. There were some unidentifiable items, which we dared not try.

After seeing all this, I know that however I avoid it; I have to accept that I have to cook, and be really good at it. Not for Amit, not for Anubhav, not for Ajay, not for the new students who are temporarily staying with us, but for my own hunger. There is no other solution to soothe your taste buds when you come here. You got to bite the bullet and lift the pan and cut the onions and put the spices. Otherwise, you will end up spending all your money and eat pizzas and bulge your bodies like lot of the natives here, or you simply die of hunger.

An expert’s take

Just a couple of days ago did the ICC come up with its new recommendations for one day cricket and left the experts analyzing its after-effects. The Cricket Committee of ICC had suggested many ways to revamp the game, 2 of which were approved by the Chief Executives’ Committee of ICC. One day cricket did need some resurrections, particularly the slam bang stuff that is played in the subcontinent, with scores of 300+ not being secure. I, as a knowledgeable spectator, would have liked to see the battleground between bat and ball more flattened, rather than bowlers left in an open field to get bulleted by batsmen with no place to hide. I would have also liked to see it in a less predictable form, with teams needing to think at all stages of the match, rather than having big burley openers (read Adam Gilchrist) clatter their way through hapless and “boundary protection-less” bowlers (read Zahir Khan, or better Javagal Srinath, still better Venkatesh Prasad) during the 1st 15 overs, then swift runners (read Paul Collingwood) setting it up for the mighty sloggers (read Abdur Razzaq) to put their teeth deep into the flesh of the already bruised fielding side. But where do the new rules lead us?

The ICC has approved a rule for introduction of a substitute during the course of an ODI. Purists have dismissed the case saying it’s not cricket, but soccer. Revolutionists have welcomed it saying ODI cricket needed a change. But what the situation demands is an analysis of its effect on the experts front, while an ability to think dynamically and react to the situation to best exploit the rule on team management front. As I am leading the former, I will try to analyze it.

The rule says that a team can call upon a substitute during any stage of the match and the player substituted cannot take further part in the game. But it hasn’t made clear when the team has to be announced. There needs to be a clear guideline saying when you have to declare the final 12 men and the starting 11. As of now, the final 11 have to be named before the toss. Going by this theory, if a team has to announce their final 12 and starting 11 both before the toss, then the rule leads to nothing but a gamble. With this rule, the most obvious use case is to use an extra batsman while batting and replace him with a bowler while taking the field. But if they have to name their starting 11 before the toss, they will not know whether they are batting 1st or not. So they don’t know whether to include an extra batsman or bowler in the starting lineup. Suppose a team names 6 batsmen, a keeper and 4 bowlers in the starting lineup and has to field 1st, then the 1 bowler left on the bench is rendered ineffective. In case the team replaces the extra batsman with their bowler, to make up for the 5th bowler then the replaced batsman is gone for a toss. If the rule actually allows you to announce your starting 11 after the toss, then it undermines the whole purpose of the rule change that is to reduce the predictability of ODI. In most cases the substitutions will come at obvious stage of the match, the innings break.

The other regulation introduced is a good thing to have, as it will actually help make the game more unpredictable and has a scope for more shrewd tacticians. I don’t quite agree with the increase in number of overs for fielding restrictions from 15 to 20. The game is already loaded in favor of the bat and this probably will add to that. Probably the ICC has increased number of field restriction overs to maintain the effect of the current number. A 15 over fixed restriction will be as helpful to the batting side, as a 20 over restriction with only the 1st 10 being fixed, the other 10 coming at the fielding side’s discretion. 3 slots of 5 overs, with the 1st being mandatory at the start of the innings would have made it more favorable for the poor old bowlers. But then the rule will surely make the teams re-devise their strategies.

What I would have liked to see is a reduction in the effect of toss on the predictability factor. At many venues, particularly those hosting flood lit games with the dew factor coming in late at night and also those hosting it with the morning dew, the result is driven by the toss outcome. I liked a Sanjay Jha solution to this, where he proposed to split the 50 over innings into two 25 over slots. The 1st team bats their 25 overs, followed by the 2nd team’s first 25. Then the 1st team resumes its innings for the remaining 25 and then the 2nd team completes the rest. The idea was to have a single innings per team (not 2 different innings), split in 2 parts. This would have made both sides bat and bowl in all kinds of comparable surrounding conditions.

There is another good step that ICC has taken, that is to ask the MCC to review the restrictions on the size and material of a cricket bat. The last thing we want is heavyweight boxers hitting crafty spinners out of the ground after actually getting beaten in flight, yet using the edges of their mighty bat blades. Some limitations on the willow could do well to preserve the skill and art in batting in the long run.

Looking from the Indian perspective, the substitution rule could be a blessing in disguise. It’s a well known fact, that India’s best ODI all-rounder in the last 10 years has been Ajit Agarkar (if you don’t count Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid with wicket-keeping gloves on), which is a shame in itself. This rule could serve as their filler for an all-rounder, with the ability to use their 5th bowler only for bowling purposes (with the kind of bowling they have in ODIs, they will probably do well to have 391 of them). With a lucid thinker like Greg Chappell at the helm, we can relax a little, that the Indian camp is sound in terms of thinking caps. What we have to hope though that the rule change doesn’t do an Indian Hockey (remember what we got when they moved from grass to mat and then marred the dribbling skills by canceling the offside rule), although it took a K.P.S. Gill to complete that debacle and a Jagmohan Dalmiya is all the more acceptable.

i hate mess

When I first came to Pune for my studies four and a half years ago, all everyone back home was worried about, was my food. I was always very particular about the things that I liked when it came to choosing cuisines. And this set had a limited cardinality. In fact very limited, which is why I could never adjust to a thing called mess. I can bear a mess in just about everything else, but this mess was beyond all tolerance levels. And as I had a roomi who was ever ready to eat outside, the hotels in Pune were browsed one by one. Not that I am the most hefty eater of them all, but a connoisseur for good food for sure. I like quality rather than quantity and the quantity that I eat is always decided by the quality of the food, something very peculiar about my hunger.

I could never last at one single mess for more than a month. And mine was always a good deal for the owner of the mess , as even in that one month I used to needlessly pay him for the 10 odd days that I used to eat outside and not in the mess. The only respectable exception was our college canteen where I lasted for about 1 year (not consecutive of course). This was a tribute not to the quality of the food they served, but to the coupon system that they employed. This system allowed us to buy a fixed number of coupons and use them anytime. So we could consume the coupons whenever we were bored of eating outside in hotels.

Not that all messes were bad. There were some good ones, but I used to get bored a bit too early as the food used to get monotonous (or that was the excuse I used to discontinue from a mess). And probably there was another reason. I disliked a thing called regularity, a quality required to continue with this messy business. You have to always go to the mess on time. Otherwise there is no food left for you. I could hardly ever manage this.

I passed out and joined the industry and nothing much has changed. At the start of each month I pledge that I will join a mess or get a tiffin from somewhere, but that just turns out to be a new month resolution, something that's always pushed to the next month. The hotels here are so enticing and the messes are so dull (or my mindset in this case is so rigid) that I just can't resist the temptation of choosing the former, day after day after day. And there are other advantages as well. For instance it's 11 in the night and I have been browsing and blogging for the last 3 hours with the assurance that there will be hotels waiting for me. If it was a mess, I would have had to follow their timing and could not have posted this mess here.