"Arun, where are you...."

'Can Cricket & Marriage ever co-habitate?'

I always wanted to write a review on a cricket match. Having played a lot of cricket myself I had always thought that I would be as-able as the so-called experts who ramble all-day-long on the Idiot box. Also, this would be a great exercise to gauge my knowledge of the game. The far I had got with this venture, till this saturday, was the thought. So, when India was to ‘lock horns’ (Don’t you already see, I love clichés) with Pakistan at Kochi, I decided that I will put down my review of the match on the blog.

You always need to prepare for a task and having being in the IT industry for the last 5 years, that is something like second nature to me. So, I prepared a to-do list of all the morning chores that I need to get done so that I am there for the first ball. I had made a mental map of all things that I need to get done, right from the time I need to get out of bad to having my breakfast. With the satisfaction of having charted out my plan, I went to bed.

I woke up the next morning from a dreamless night (oh!! boy, I have lots of them. Some good, little bad & the rest down right ugly). As always it was my instincts, rather than my alarm which I regularly fail to switch on, that woke me up. My wife once taunted me, ‘Arun, how is that you wake up on the dot even at 2am in the night (Psst!! This came during the horrible 2003 India’s tour of New Zealand) without an alarm when you find it difficult to pull apart your eye-lids otherwise’. I thought, ‘Lady, that is a gift from god.’ but as anyone, who has tasted the ‘shaadi ka laddoo’ would vouch its better to be quiet when the lady of the house talks.

I had stuck to my plan and done all the things that I had charted out. It was close to 9am when the first incident that unstuck my dream happened…….