PCB : Another epic in making

Get over the twists and turns and mind-boggling plots of 'Ramayana', 'Mahabharata' and 'Bible' or the 'Lord of the rings'(LOTR) and 'Harry Potters'(HP). They might be considered the greatest epics but there is something much more thrilling, edgy, clumsy and confusing brewing in our neighbourhood.

Pakistan 'Circus' Board ... urrr ... sorry ... I meant the Pakistan Cricket Board has the potential of being one of the greatest story never told.

Intertwined with truth, lies and betrayal, PCB has been the centre of attention (if not attraction) among the cricketing world for quite sometime now.

Now, who can beat this?

Qadir, Sohail resign, while Altaf was sacked -- all within three months -- and now Butt is in line. None is spared, if some players are dope-tainted, officials are corruption-tainted.

Younis, Intikhab, Shahid, Asif, Akhtar -- everyday throws a new face, a new story, a new twist in the tale which never cease to surprise you.

Well, that was for the general information but here comes the scoop.

According to surveys/research and data received here LOTR and HP directors are planning to make a movie on this potential-to-be-the-greatest epic.

Well, rumours are also ripe that Khushwant Singh is fed up of dyeing his hair and before dying, he is dying to write the greatest epic of his lifetime and with his 'Train to Pakistan' connection, he can well come out with a masterpiece.

But here also an Indian will have to fight it out with JK Rowling, who is according to sources is not too happy with her Harry Potter series and wants to write a masterpiece before she dies.

Meanwhile, Shashi Tharoor has also decided to come out of the 'Shadows across the playing field' and join the field instead and might partner one of the protagonist of the would-be book.

Well, I don't want to sound too ambitious but who knows I myself could be the next Valmiki or JRR Tolkien. So, WATCH THIS SPACE!!!

Gauti's day out

Clad in a red t-shirt with a coca-cola tag, Gautam Gambhir rushed to a city food joint where an army of photographers and fans were awaiting him. Among the zillion faces there was he standing, sitting, grinning and 'gambhir-ing' almost in regular intervals.

While, the guy adjacent to him, donning a blue-white strip shirt, was blabbering about his company and its association with Gambhir, the left-handed 'coke' boy was trying to keep his fans away by an appealing smile, which to me looked quite confusing as if he doesn't know why he was doing it.

Soon the mamoth speech abridged and fans, winners of a contest (don't know when and why it was organised), started pouring over him -- all dying to have autographs of the chocolate-faced cricketer as he signed with ultimate panache. He stood up for photos and again sat down to sign. It started happening with such regularity that it seemed as if it was a capital punishment meted out to him. Poor soul! I pity him!

Amid the legion of fans, there was this girl, completely floored by Gauti as she just couldn't stop showing her 32 teeths and almost threatened to sabotage the show as she insisted of having exclusive pics with the Delhi/Harayana dasher. The damsel wearing a black top also went on to ask the photographers to shun all other pics and have her pic on the front page of the newspapers next day.

Among all this pandemonium, there was this poor me, who cooled his heels waiting for the cricket to be free. As soon as Gauti was liberated by the dreamy damsel, I sprang into action and posed a question:

"May I speak to u Gautam for 2 minutes?"

Well, the two minutes noodles was not cooked and Gauti gave a royal snub, moving his head to and fro like a pendullum and after turning back rushed out of the restuarant. Well, all things doesnt have a happy ending, U see.

Glimpses from Gachibowli

One of the entrace gates guarded by security officials



A security personnel on guard on the eve of Independence day.

Glimpses from Gachibowli

The entrance gate of the World Badminton Championship



Chinese students studying in Osmania University wait outside the Gate to watch Lin Dan play.





Indian men's doubles pair of Akshay Dewalkar (L) and Jishnu Sanyal (R) at the World badminton championship.



World number one Lee Chong Wei stretches before his first round match

Ploys for Aussie Boys!!!

Battered and bruised in the Lord Test, Australia is still licking its wounds. While the tongue is busy lapping over its injuries caused by England, the eyes and ears are working as a radar to catch any (however trivial it may sound) news that can help them to save their skins. According to highly dis-placed sources, Australian players have taken it as a mission to teach the Englishmen a lesson and are employing some logic-defying and head-spinning ploys. Here are few of them:

1. Squirming from the wrath and curse of his mother, Mitch-es has decided to get over the glitches by brokering a cordial relation between his karateka girl-friend and his melodramatic mother and has contacted the king-of-melodrama Karan Johar, who has advised Mitch-es a twin dose: Watch K-3-G in the morning and K-A-N-K in the night and if that doesn't cure the sore, watch Sooraj R. Barjatya's H-S-S-H.

2. To get over the nightmare of Lords and seek divine intervention, skipper Ricky Ponting has rushed to the ghats of Vanarasi in the disguise of sadhus and stared awe-struck at the God's eye and sources say he also clicked a photo which he plans to keep in his left pocket like former skipper Steve Waugh during the rest of the Ashes series.

3. With arch-rivals Australia and New Zealand coming closer , a divine-struck Punter is convinced it is yet another call of the Almighty and so he has asked Cricket Australia to approach New Zealand Cricket Board to sent born-again Shane Bond to Edgbaston in place of a injury-struck Bret Lee.

4. Shane Watson's divine truth about Australia has set the players in a soul-searching mode and Punter has decided to leave all practice session in the backburner and look for some innovation in sledging and coach and players are idea-ting all day long to come up with some camouflaged version of sledging.

Sporto-nama

Bemused Dhoni struck his foot on the axe
T20 coach caught for alleged sex

Frustrated Bob Hoghton spit venom on Gill
waiting for a Dubai and Barca drill

Ashish Nehra exhumed, Abhishek Nayar zoom
Ojha, Jadeja will groom, but for Irfan no room

kid Somdev gears up to fight uncle Bhupathi
Federer billed second, unfazed Nadal busy with Knee

Saina gives a sail to her Super series dream
Arvind, Chetan dwindle with hope too slim

Hockey India brings Gill back in limelight
Roy sees for himself an end of the light

He walked out

He walked out of the jail
his face worn and frail
Now he stood there silent
watching the slideshow unveil

He pondered over his life
ruminating about things found and lost
A doctor turned traitor, he thought
As his eyes got smeared with moist

He freed people off fears
now he fears for his own life
He fought for peoples' rights
until law stripped his own civil rights

Today as he stands outside the gate
amidst cheering people of his own land
he knows all is not lost yet and
this is surely not the end.




Photo Credit