My experiments with drowning

I have been thinking about writing this piece for quite some time. I will recount few(to be pricise two) of my adventures in Caribbean. The idea of the title came from Duh who had the pleasure of actually watching me in action in the sea.

Before we start, I don't know how to swim.

Event 1: I am into extreme sports like ..bogey boarding. (If you guys doubt it ask golu..not about me being into extreme sports but if bogey boarding is an extreme sport)

I saw few people little deep into the sea where the waves don't push you to the shore but you just float on them. It seemed pretty cool so I tried it. It was fun. After some time (may be 10 mins or so) when I thought I have had enough of it I wanted to get back to the shore. But no waves would push me towards the right side and no matter how hard I try I could not swim (while being on the board) towards the shore. And also what I did not realize is that in such case the water keeps pushing you back little when the wave retreats and so I had reached enough deep water where I can drown.

I had read somewhere that most people drown coz they panic so my reaction was to look for Duh and wave towards him. But Duh to my not so surprise could not see me. Then I see this black dude(BD) swimming little far from me.

Me: Hey!
BD: Hey Maan!
Me: Nice weather!!
BD(clearly not interested): yeah!
me: how deep is the water?
BD(will you please shut up expression): Not much..
Me: The thing is, I do not know how to swim.
BD(with an expression of "what the fuck"): Hang on.

He pulled me out towards the beach. I realized how difficult it is to pull some one. That strong dude also took quite a long time (so it seemed!) to pull me by just 15ft or so.


Event 2: I go snorkeling. The crew had planned two sessions, and before the second one duly ask all persons who are not competent swimmers to stay out as the currents were very strong. Ofcourse, I am not one to be stopped by such silly things and decide to get down with the life jacket. :)

Soon after we get into water they realize the currents are too strong which were taking everyone away from our catamaran and the crew asked everyone to stop snorkeling and get on board. One of them started pulling me towards the catamaran. He took me very near the catamaran and then asked me to get on it, forgetting the minor detail that I just cant swim, not even the 10 ft he wanted me to swim. And he just leaves me there. I wanted to convey the same to him but the snorkeling equipment wouldn't allow me to. And just then my life jacket decides it had had enough and decides to shrink. (I remembered the line "If you really desire something the the whole universe conspires to get you there. Somehow it seemed the universe had got mis-communicated about my drowning desires!!) I somehow catch one of the ropes coming out of the catamaran and hang there( again without panicking or at least not showing any signs of it) After getting few more people into the catamaran, he sees me still in water and asks me what am I doing there. Of course I could not reply him again due to the snorkeling equipment which still covered my mouth. So I just stayed there shaking my head - which somewhere rang a bell in him and he goes - oh shit!! You dont know how to swim ..

story of WC 2007

“We prepared for super eights better than the Indian cricket team. We are here they are not!”

This banner more or less sums up the frustration of Indian supporters in carribean. Even with India not qualifying, and after approximately 70% cancellations there were still so many Indians out there. But there was another set of people who were not as much but a lot disappointed – The Bajans.

We were talking to one of the owner of a small shop who after learning that we are Indians, was very sympathetic towards us.

“Its sad that India did not qualify man. What happened to your team?”

“Yeah, it’s not great but to think of it, it is good for cricket right - Small teams like Bangladesh defeating India and coming into super eights.”

“Nothing is good about it. Bangladeshis are poor people! They don’t come here and spend money. Man so many Indians would be watching the games in bars and pubs in India. They would have been here spending money if India had qualified.”

“But when small teams like Bangladesh and Ireland qualify then it will make cricket more global.”

“Oh yes, Ireland is a nice team. Man, Irish people spend so much money. I hope the final is between Ireland and Australia.”

He does not care about cricket, how it can globalize, how these very matches make it interesting – he only cares about how to make money out of it. This incidence reminded me of a line I read in motorcycle diaries

“Man can think of lot of things, from the loftiest of meditations on philosophy to the most desperate longing for a bowl of soup – in total accord with the state of his stomach.”

Things that could have been!

During the India-SL match, when the outcome had become pretty much obvious me and my friends were discussing about what all could be done to salvage Indian pride at the last moment.

The unimaginative me came up with the solution that we all should contribute little to a fund which should be offered to the bangladeshi team for throwing away their match against bermuda.

Another one said maybe the Indian team should train the bermuda team for some time. We all dismissed it saying that they themselves could not beat Bangladesh - how can they teach the Bermudans to do the same?

Maybe India should send some players they had not selected to bermuda to play for their team. But this is not feasible.

And then when we thought we have exhausted all options, the genius in one of my friends , Muthu, awoke.

"India should attack and capture Bangladesh tonite. No matter what happens India would be playing in the super 8 then."

March Madness

I hate March. It always makes me mad and sad!

This month was supposed to be exciting. World cup will start. I was thinking of how to get time off work to be able to watch matches. I am sure there were millions around the world who had made plans to have all nighters to watch the games and somehow still be productive the next day at work.

The "Men in Blue" made it all too simple for all of us. They got out in the first round itself so that Indians wont lose that much sleep and continue to work with as much zeal and enthusiasm as possible.

It is not that they lost but the way in which they surrendered which dissapointed me. I recently read an article about how in a match that was all but lost Brett Lee gave it all into his feilding making englishmen work for runs in a match which they had almost won. And this makes you feel Australia is not just number 1 for no reason. Those guys try that much harder to be where they are. I always feel a team's dedication is shown in the field. Indians fielded like zombies and the team spirit was clearly missing. I am not a big Ganguly fan but one thing that is clearly missing in this team and that of the team when Ganguly initially took over is this zeal. Seeing Dravid field at long on in the 48th over was torture when he gave up a chase where two runs were there for saving. He did not even try. He had cramps - yeah then go to pavalion and sit it out man or field in the inner circle but please dont be fielding in logon in the death overs.

The less said about our batting the better it is. I am just so tired of listening to the cliched line that this is the most powerful batting line up after Australia. No it is not. Tendulkar is not what he used to be. He is a great player for what he has already achieved but not because of the way he is playing. There are so many other player who on current form are better than Tendulkar. Sehwag is lottery - I think Dravid's decision to back him up when he has shown so less potential in 2 years was a bad bad thing for india. Dravid is a good player but not destructive. Ganguly played well but never looked assured or dominating. The only hope in the batting order was Yuvi getting into the form of last year which made him so dangerous. He was there but got run out against SL. Dhoni, I dont know where to put him yet. He looks like Sehwag. The day he loses his form he most probably cant come back.

I was slowly losing my enthusiam in cricket and I should thank this performance on Indian team which has definitely pushed me over the line and I dont think I will an as avid follower of cricket as I was.

Also before ending I would like to express my pitty for Barbados which was supposed to get a lot of revenue coz of the exciting India matches being played there. I still dont know whether its worth it to go to carribean and watch bangladesh vs ireland for which I have tickets.

This much for the mad month of March.

life adapts

While in school I remember answering one question, in different forms, in many science exams - list the five things necessary for orgination of life , List the features of earth that make life possible etc. I always answered it rightly clearly noting down the temperature, distance from sun, water, the right amount of gravity as different reasons but always inside me there used to be this excitement about what if this is not true and living things very different from us dependent on very different elements existed somewhere else and by chance someday we get to interact with them.

Science has now changed its views regarding this subject (either this or my school books always taught me the wrong thing!) and now scientists are starting to believe that it is not that earth has conditions suitable for life but that life somehow originated and then adapted itself to this environment. This view has gained more support after discovery of some very weird species on earth itself - like one discovered in the vents near the ocean bed which has a temperature gradient of over 100 degrees over its body.

While discussing this with a collegue of mine, he told me a fascinating thing. He said it did not come as a surprise to him and he always thought so. And as part of his reasoning asked me why do I think are air and water colorless, odourless and tasteless - because we have got used their color, odour and taste and cant sense them anymore. So if earth would have been full of ammonia instead we would not have smelled it and normal air would have been stinking as hell!