Monday, July 26, 2004

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| | Phir bhi dil hai hindustani!

The weekend was nice, had good thai food followed by bourne supremacy on friday night. Its a nice movie with great effects but still doesnt beat bourne identity. It shows Matt living in apna Goa for some time at the start :) and has a fundoo car chase in the end.

Most of saturday was spent in lazing around and playing a lot of cricket. Saturday night was the big one, India - Pak in the asia cup and we guys had a uname/pword for the cricket joy website which was showing live streaming video. The match was supposed to start 4 30 in the morning our time, and we were all worked up and excited, but around 11 ish we figured that they wont be showing it anymore. Then started the struggle to figure out a way to see the match - any which way! Rao called up some 10 customer service numbers, avi made some phone calls too, but to no avail.

Hrishi, sapna and sandeep were in the same kind of situation in NJ, trying to figure out a way to see the match. Someone mentioned that a particular ARY Gold chanel on dish was showing the matches live, we confirmed it and tried to find someone who had a dish at home. The search narrowed down to madan, we tried calling him but couldnt get through and it seemed like this would be another one of the "refresh webpage for latest score" type scene. But around 12 30 madan called back and confirmed that ARY was indeed showing the match.

Without a second thought, those guys just left home and drove down to DC all the way from NJ, at 1 am on saturday night(to see the match and be with us). 3.5 hours and about a 200 mile drive later, we were sitting in front of the tv screen with the indian flag in hand, cheering "Team India" .The result of the match apart, those were a good 9 hours spent at madans place. Cricket enthusiasts in the real sense i realise that we have done all kinds of stunts (not even counting waking up at odd hours at which the matches are telecast) to see matches - in the last couple of years.

I guess even tho india lost, it was worth the pain. The classic commentary by ranatunga, manjrekar and rameej raja, the non stop crap that we were dishing out, the odd moments when India DID dominate the match, GOD's allround performance, the final over of the match when even tho india lost by 60 runs - it seemed as if pak had lost due to the bonus point thingie, and yes sitting and watching cricket with close friends !!!


JaI. | 11:30 AM