Cricketing Whites...

Happy New Year!!

And yes, this is part of a resolution to quit being lazy and get the blog rolling again.

And considering its only the 3rd of January, I am still firm on (most of) my resolutions.

Now, there's a large backlog of topics to write about. I mean, the last post was over four months ago! And so many things have got me thinking 'Ah, I've got to write about this!'

So here goes...

One thing that has really been a part of almost daily conversations in the intervening period has given me innumerable and deep insights into the human mind, its motivations, its thinking processes, its uncertainties, its fears, its highs, its lows. In my non-blog life, this topic has been an overarching presence in the last few months. From the moment the door bell rings in the morning to when sleep overtakes, this, or related thoughts have remained in my mind.

However, writing about the domestic helps, quite frankly, is not the most exciting way to start the new year. 

So I shall skip this huge and essential facet of life and move on to other things. However, this topic is not retired, it is merely on a sabbatical and will certainly be written about later.

Lets talk about some other things that have given me joy over the last few months. In one word, sports. I have been playing a lot more and it is great. Though it has led to a disappointment which lends this post its title.

As you may remember, when I moved into this new apartment the main draw, apart from this being close to AVs place of work, was an emeraldine, lustrous, beautiful tennis court (I may embellishing here a bit. The court is there, but its quite old with cracks running through it). A few months went by without getting a partner to play with but in the last 2-3 months a couple of guys and I have started playing regularly (stopped for the last two weeks - that's the next resolution to address) in the morning. 

But apart from tennis, cricket also made an entry back into my life. Not the tennis ball variety, but the real leather ball game that I used to like so much in school. And weekends at the nets or playing an occasional match with other company/club teams is really good, after all these years. Its also good to see that all those years of bugging the hell out of neighbours by bouncing a ball off the wall and batting on the rebound (yeah, yeah haven't we all done it? Atleast in India) has still left some skills.

So we played a couple of matches as a company team. Great fun. The sound of the bat stroking the ball, the running on the boundary to cut off a four, the catch in the throat when the ball bounces out of your hand and you catch it on the second chance, the sigh of relief when the batsman misses a dolly you'd sent down. 

Ah, the joys.

Afterword:

This for DB, DC, AB and all the others who still remember my cover drive in the match we played in class nine (or was it tenth?). And the same people who don't let me forget what I did on the next ball (clean bowled trying to hit a six):

In a match against a club, after hitting a beautiful (if I might say so myself) cover drive to the boundary, I gingerly defended the next ball.

Redeemed... after 15 years. Eh, DB, DC and AB?