Cricket fever

I have spent a lot of hours this week watching cricket.
How could I not?
India playing in the cricket world cup final against Sri Lanka on home turf--that's just huge!

So yeah, I watched the game. Nothing else happened in the entire country for those eight and a half hours.

And it really was good game, beautifully won at the end with a ball into the stands.
A billion dreams come true for India's cricket-mad citizens.
The streets around India Gate went crazy with celebration.


And I tell you, I'm so relieved that pressure is over. If they'd lost...oh I can only imagine the disappointment.
Instead, the euphoria in the air today is palpable.
As I walked out this morning there was a guy wearing the jersey of one of the cricket players. Everyone he passed stopped to shake his hand.
The Indian girl I talked with this morning had half a dozen videos she'd taken on her phone of the celebrating that she wanted to show me, she was that excited about it--just a couple weeks ago she didn't care about cricket at all (I relate :) ).

Ah cricket.
It can unite this country like nothing else.

Cricket brush up

Are you ready for tomorrow's game?
India vs. Sri Lanka.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, maybe this video can help you...



Seriously, though. I'm still confused about the over. How do you know when it's over?

Cricket semi-finals

Okay, so it's an epic game, right? Or as the commentator called it" "the number one cricket clash".
India vs. Pakistan.

If winning the quarter finals elicits fireworks and midnight cheering, what does playing Pakistan in the semi-finals mean? I do know that for schools and government offices, it was only a half day.

So yeah, I am watching the game.
And I have no idea what these sports commentators are talking about:
"Running on the wicket" which apparently is "a very, very dry wicket".
Somebody is having "trouble with the line". There's a bunch of lines...
Overs. When does one begin...and when is it...over?
"Straight drives" and "boundaries".
It's a foreign language to me.

I admit that I fell asleep for an hour, but when I woke up again Sachin Tendulkar was still batting--so did I really miss anything?
Don't think so...

Still waiting to find out who gets to go to the finals...

Things not allowed

Have you tried durian?
If you have, then you probably know how it smells.

I must say that the first time I tried durian, I didn't notice the smell at all. We were out on the streets of Thailand in a rather pungent market area and everything smelled somewhat unpleasant. My friend and I had been walking down the street and she would buy one fruit after another and give me some to try. She is a fruit-lover and was in heaven in Thailand where sweet, ripe and colorful fruit is abundant.
So we were walking down the street and I tried all kinds of things I'd never seen before.
Yes, there was a bit of mischief in her look when she handed me the durian, but I'd never before heard of the stinky fruit. I trusted her and bit into it.
I know it's odd that I didn't notice the smell. But what I did notice was it's similarity to muskmelon, which I don't care for. The others with us were disappointed with my reaction--or lack thereof.

Here in the hotel where I am staying, durian is not allowed. It's too smelly for this professional, clean establishment.


Speaking of things not allowed, I have a tangent:
On a recent flight, there was a girl who sat near to me. During the flight she got up and went to the back. After only a few moments she returned and whispered to one of the flight attendants. "No," he loudly replied, "This is a non-smoking flight. There is no where for you to smoke."
"Where are you from?" asked another attendant.
"Russia."
"Ahhh," the flight attendants nodded and looked at one another, "Most flights throughout the world are now non-smoking. It is banned internationally."
I didn't know Russians were unaware of this. Or that they could smoke on their airplanes.
Huh.

4th of July

I went to the Fourth of July celebration at the embassy.
Interesting. American, yet still India.
For one thing, the very tall "Uncle Sam", was an Indian circus performer hired for the evening.
The marines brought out the flag and the national anthem was sung. There were fireworks and hamburgers (very odd for India) and apple pie and the very rare A&W root beer (wish there had been Dr.Pepper).
Something that could have been scheduled better were the fireworks that happened before dark and the picnic games that happened after dark.
There was a watermelon eating contest, three-legged races, pie eating contest, and tug of war. One of the tug-of-war battles was between the very few (seven) marines and several dozen children. The marines lost.

Visiting

Since there were no strict curfews or strikes today, I visited some friends. They offered me some chai and then asked me to take some pictures in the garden. They had a lot of different poses for me capture.

The kids have had weeks of no school because of the unrest. This was the first day for many of them to go back. Now the teachers are piling on the homework to make up for all the missed time. Poor kids.

This one just turned five last month (or "completed his fifth year", as they say here), and he was doing his homework: writing the numbers 1 to 100 in his notebook. Very neatly, too. He had three other books of penmanship in English and Urdu to do before tomorrow also.

What we do

This is how I've been spending a lot of my time:

Taking pictures

Playing cards.

Playing with new friends.

Playing legos.

We go to the playground.

And just hang around.