An Indian cricket fan's memoirs

An Indian cricket fan's memoirs

Inspired by this very emotional and nostalgic article on Cricinfo today, I decided to try my hand at writing a similar account of my memories of Cricket and the Fab five.

Born 27 summers ago, The earliest memory of mine, watching a cricket match, was when my Chithappa took me to one of the India-West Indies test matches held at Chennai during 1983-84. I was just 2.5 years old then and my younger brother was around 6 months old, so I alone had the privilege of watching the match at the ground with my Chithappa, I think, I slept for most of the match. However, I can recollect two West Indies bowlers (Marshall and Holding?) bowling from either sides of the pavilion. I couldn't much about the game then, However I was very much excited about the new cap that I was given at the stadium and also the placard reading 4/6!! I was fond of these very much that I remember treasuring them for few days after the match.

In 1986 we moved on to a new house at Kasturba Nagar, Adayar and this is where I remember playing the first game of Cricket. I can't say it is a game really, because as in all Gully Cricket, the owner of the bat is the captain, umpire and match refree of the game!! Since I didn't have a bat, the only thing I remember doing was bowling under-arms to a boy from a the neighbourhood (as you would have rightly inferred, he owned the bat). I remember my dad watching me bowl underarms and reprimanded me for doing so. He said when you bowl under-arm, its not cricket. I don't recollect much of watching cricket at that time.

I have very vague memories of the 1987 World Cup. We were in Bangalore then and I remember my dad and Grandpa discussing India's fortunes in the matches and how every one in the house would get disappointed as soon as Srikanth got out. I hardly knew any of the cricketer's names then, Srikanth, Kapil and Gavaskar were the names that usually cropped up in their discussions, but majority of the discussion at home was on Srikanth. He being from Tamil Nadu and also being an Iyengar, quite a few people at my home liked him (apart from him stroke play of course!). By this time, I did have a bat as well as quite a number of playmates (including my younger brother, who was 4 years old then) to play cricket.

I seriously started following cricket since 1988 Sharjah cup. We were visiting my uncle at Kanchipuram then. My cousin, brother and I watched the first match of the Sharjah cup, India vs West Indies. West Indies was a formidable team back then and my cousin was saying that India would have a tough time lasting their entire quota of overs. This was the first match and one of the very few matches that I remember seeing Srikanth bat. I think he scored a century that day and managed to win that game with Hirwani taking few wickets at the end. My cousin was virtually jumping on his sofa when India won. Although India went on to lose that series due to consecutive defeats against both West Indies and Pakistan, my interest in Cricket had grown. It was definitely my favourite sport and probably the only sport that I understood completely then.

Fast forward another year, I was introduced to "Sachin Tendulkar" and I as many of my age then went crazy!!! He spoilt us, We were rooted to our televisions, refused to do our schoolwork when he played. Hell, we refused even to go to schools when there was a match!! I don't remember seeing any of India's matches in Sachin's debut series at Pakistan, however I do remember the many Sharjah Cups that India featured in.

Year 1991 - The elation of watching India steamroll themselves to the final and then dejection of seeing Aaqib Javed destroying India in the finals . Many of this generation do not understand or feel the pressure of India-Pakistan encounters, Even as a child you could feel it then, the streets were deserted during any India Pakistan match then and given that we never had a media that hyped such games then, you can certainly appreciate the importance of such matches. Winning against Pakistan then was treasured by all the Indian fans given that it didn't happen that frequently then. (I pity the state of Pakistan cricket now, its really unfortunate that we don't get to see the mother of all encounters these days....). I vividly remember that all India Pakistan matches were scheduled on a Friday and India were routinely on the losing side whenever this happened, this led to many weird discussions in class rooms.

(to be continued)................

Investment in Mutual Funds - A teaching from Karl Marx??

Marxism is a concept that all of us have learnt in school. As many would know, one of the most important ideals or principles of a marxists is that they are totally against materialism and capitalism. Communists Part of India (Marxists) better known as CPI(M) base their ideals and principles on Marxism. So you would expect them to be totally against anything that are against their ideals. But Surprise, Surprise...... The CPI (M) has invested a lot of its money on Mutual Funds in order to increase their returns!! Don't believe me, read this article for proof.


How can a party that is fundamentally against capitalism, invest money on something that is distinctly a symbol of capitalism (The Stock market)?? Either there is something fundamentally wrong with the world's understanding of Marxism or the CPI(M) are the sickest of hypocrites on Earth! During the Nuclear deal issue, many CPI leaders such as D. Raja, AB Bardhan, Sitaram Yechury were quoted in media that they cared a damn towards falls in Sensex! AB Bardhan specifically said "Baad me jaaye SENSEX!!". Why then invest on the same sensex?? The commies have yet again shown that they are masters of doublespeak and hypocrisy....Well so much for their ideals. Afterall, this party has always opposed to any policy that has later on gone on to be beneficial for the Nation.

Deja Vu!!!

Another Saturday, a bomb blast at Delhi, the following Monday another blog from me. Seems like routine now isn't it? Nothing has changed since the last strike by the cowards!!! (I've decided to call those responsible for such bomb blasts as COWARDS rather than Terrorists, Cowardliness is the apt word to describe these acts of insanity!), probably only one thing, there wasn't a mail from Indian Mujahideen this time. Probably because all unsecure Wi-Fi networks in Mumbai have been secured(?) and Tauqeer is afraid to send out an email and get caught.

Over the past two weeks Our PM has kept himself busy trying to secure the nuclear deal and addressing the UN on "terror" awareness and how to stand united against terror (Shouldn't he be first following these before preaching others??) . UPA chair person has been acting the Just and SE(I?)C(K?)ULAR person that she is by ordering Orissa and Karnataka Government to punish people attacking Churches (Where was she when the entire Congress party was man handling and killing Sikhs during the Anit Sikh riots??? - scars of which are still seen on many Sikhs of the UK). She obviously is least bothered about the killers of Swami Laxmanananda at Kandhamal (Of course he was killed by Naxalites Wasn't it Sonia??) or the publication of "Satyadarshini" by few Christian Missionaries in Karnataka containing derogatory text on various Hindu deitys. This link contains the scanned copy of the book (in Kannada) of these derogatory texts (This again is scandal by BJP, to incite the hatred of Bajrang Dal towards Christians. Isn't it Sonia?? )!! After the bomb blast she has issued statements that she would root out terrorism out of India (Why was terrorism allowed to grow into such big menace in first place?)

The Home minister has changed his attire twice everyday and kept himself very hygenic that he decided to even avoid the camera this time, lest the lighting etc might affect his complexion! The UPA is so confused now with the roles of each of their ministers that now the Home minister is taking advise from the Foreign minister for an in-house problem (Is dealing with Terrorism inside India related to India's Foreign policy???) Why is the External Affairs minister assuring the nation during a bomb blast, have the ministers too lost faith in Patil? From time to time all of the spokespersons (or should I said crap speakers?) of UPA issue contradictory statements on how to tackle terror, whether we need a stronger law? So good for calling themselves United Progressive Alliance. Can as well rename themselves as Ugly and Pathetic at Administration!!

Arjun Singh (I feel its beneath us to even address him as a minister!!) has been busy defending the terrorists involved in the Delhi Blast. You would think that the Union Human Resource Department minister's duty is to take care of the human resources (read lawful citizens) of our Country. But know Arjun Singh thinks otherwise, he feels its his duty to defend the terrorists! I guess, he actually works for Terrorist (read COWARDS) Resources Ministry. You ask why? because, the Jamia Mia University had decided earlier to name one of its buildings after Arjun Singh for his noble work towards the University. God knows how much of the tax payers money was swindled to help out the university and these Cowards! Its a pity that we are currently in this state of affairs. A Government which is supposed to protect the lawful citizens is using the tax payers money to protect the cowards!!!!

The pseudo secular Indian media (read CNN-IBN, NDTV, The Hindu etc..) were busy coming up with views on how the police have been unjust in the encounter. How people (read Hindus) have been victimising a community and a place (Azamgarh) for all terror attacks. They even went to the extent of questioning how come there are more terror strikes in India when police claim to have nabbed all the major people involved in the previous blast??? Does the media mean that the only terrorists involved are the Indian Mujahideen cowards who are currently in Jail?? Terrorism would never be wiped out as long as there more people are brainwashed in each of the Madrassas with distorted views on a religion. Islamic Terrorism can only be controled by teaching religious tolerance to all gullible youths who are being tutored in various madrassas. Media needs to play a more responsible role in the fight against terror. Doesn't any of the channels understand by reporting whatever they are at present, they are inciting further anger and division amongst an already fragile religious harmony. In Country's like US and UK after every terrorist attack, the media has played a very responsible role by reporting correct facts and never ever sympathising with the terrorists, but India alone can we see the media equating SIMI/ IM with Bajrang Dal. (Yes, Bajrang Dal is run by hooligans who don't have the correct way of expressing their dislike for conversion. I do not agree to their views, but then that doesn't equate them to SIMI or IM). The media has not even bothered to report the publications of Satyadarshini and the role of Christian Missionaries.

Javed Akhtar during the weekend edition with Rajdeep Sardesai on CNN-IBN wanted a ban on Bajrang Dal and all other Hindu organizations which supported or shared the views of Bajrang Dal. I am sure that nearly 90% of Hindu's are against forced conversions hence they share the views of Bajrang Dal. So lets ban Hinduism itself!! I wonder if he, Shabana Azmi, Teesta Setalvad, Arundhati Roy and other such social activists have ever been critical of the hooligans who manhandled (woman handled?) Taslima Nasreen. Manhandling of Taslima Nasreen isn't an incorrect act, because she was being derogatory against Muslims and that in this Secular Country is a crime. But Hindu and Hinduism bashing is past time for all Secular Politicians in our Country. The "Self Respect" group in Tamil Nadu does not believe in God, but Karunanidhi would take time from his busy schedule to attend Iftaars, but he would never ever share a stage with a Hindu priest (Sai Ram being an exception here, because then Karunanithi very badly needed the money)! This doesn't make him communal. He is just being helpful to the minority and taking care of them. But when a person from the majority community speaks up for the discriminations against his/her religion he gets branded as COMMUNAL!!!

It is time for some action, radical change. Its time for another Wednesday.....

PS: As I was publishing this blog, there was news of another two blasts at Gujarat and Maharastra. We've got to do something before these cowards wipe us out. It doesn't matter what it takes to bring justice...because "The Nation is always bigger than the Individual" as pointed by APJ Abdul Kalam.

Kapil Sibal and his mindless rantings.....

Karan Thapar has every now then brought out how pathetic our politicians really are...The latest among his list is Kapil Sibal. The following is the text of Devli's Advocate interview with Kapil Sibal. Where the minister claims that the UPA govt has been more successful in combating terror than any of the previous governments!!! The aam aadmi might be wondering how can a minister claim such blatant lies in front of the media, when every citizen of India knows the truth. Guess what the minister had as a proof of his claim.

Quote

"Quite frankly, if you look at facts and numbers, the record of the UPA Government“"in terms of terror“"has been much better than the previous governments. There were more civilian deaths in the previous government: between 1999 and 2003 there were over 4,000 deaths - Kapil Sibal"

Unquote

I now wonder, how could such an a$£$£%le even become a minister. As per Kapil's statement, as long as the number of people to have died during the UPA's rule is considerably lower than the number of people to die during the previous Government, their performance in the battle against terror is great. Its a real shame, is this a Cricket Match??? are we keeping scores on the number of people to have died to measure the performance of the Govt??? This is ridiculous!!!!

The minister is least bothered about the number of innocent people being killed, how could he possibily think of giveing such a reason. Its a serious insult to the people who have lost their lives to such cowardly acts by the Cowards!!!! And politicians like Kapil Sibal are making use of the number people to have died to claim their position as a minister. Kapil Sibal should have felt apologetic and someone within the UPA must have owned up responsibility.

To all families who have lost a kith of kin in any of the terrorists attacks over the past years, I can assure you that there are many nationalists like me in our Country whose heart reaches out to you. We nationalists apologise to you for the these mindless rantings by our SICKULAR Govt. UPA ministers have long lost any credibility in representing the aam aadmi or for that matter any citizen of India. God save our Motherland from the cowards (aka terrorists) and these SICK politicians!!!

Operation BAD ?? or Management BAD !!!

Saturday was the 3rd time in 2 months that the Indian Mujahideen has managed to bomb another of India's cities and god knows how many times have in the past 4 years. Everytime a these A£$%$%^ strike, the Union minister goes on air saying that everything is being done to nab the culprits and justice will be done. But apart from Gujarat police nabbing few terrorists last month nothing has occurred and none of the others culprits have been brought to justice.

While the government is still contemplating on punishing the terrorists already tried for the 2001 parliamentary attack, scores of new terrorists are being recruited everyday. I read an article the other day on some website which says Nagori (The SIMI head who is at present in Indore jail) wanted 2 new recruits for every person from SIMI who is nabbed by the police. Nagori was also instrumental in formation of the Shaheen force, which another front of the SIMI recruitment division consisting of women (mostly elderely) who brainwash young minds and convince them to take up terrorism.

There was another report that suggested that India is only behind Afghanistan and Iraq in the number of civilians killed in terrorists incidents. With all such incidents, we as citizens would think that the government would become more responsible and proactive in preventing terrorist attacks. Its clearly seen that the existing laws against terrorism is a clear joke and we do require something more stringent and strong that would discourage these would-be terrorists in becoming one. All countries have very strict terrorists laws and these laws are occassionally misused everywhere, but that does not stop them repealing the law and bring in a "joke". The pseudo-secular media is very instantaneous in pointing out that POTA had been misused, but what is the solution then. How long are we gonna take to realize that the existing law is not enough. The UPA says that POTA is extreme, the pseudo-secular media supports it, but clearly the number of terrorists incidents show that the existing law is not enough. How many more people need to die for the Govt to come to an agreement that the current law is just not quite enough. DAMMIT! no need of POTA, but something far more stricter than the existing law.

The UPA has for long now been suffering from Stockholm syndrome, their ministers have gone to the extent of visiting the terrorists and providing them consolation, but these people rarely care about the innocent people who are losing the lives regularly during these acts of cowardice by the terrorists!!! Its a real shame that today we are in a situation that terrorists have the audacity to mail all tv channels ahead of the blasts making a complete mock our security and intelligence. Lets face it there has been a complete intelligence failure during all of these blasts and the investigations by the police department has been totally pathetic and lets not even talk about the Govt!!! I've heard that hospitals in Delhi are having a torried time taking care of the security measures for the visiting ministers that they have started to ignore the patients who require the actual attention.

Time and again we have seen the (dis) functioning of these elected representatives, the rule makers and protecters, why should we citizens suffer for the mis-management of the administration. I believe its time we citizens take up the responsibility of National Security. If one tech savvy terrorist has managed to cause so much havoc, just imagine how much can we patriotic and tech savvy/educated/responsible citizens can be helpful towards national security. I think its time for Citizen Intelligence Movement of India (CIMI) because we have lost trust in the UPA govt and our Intelligence agencies require a lot of help from us citizens. CIMI must be an umbrella organization of all responsible citizens of India, who want to fight this menace of terrorism. Being responsible citizens, all of us have an important duty towards our Country and that's in helping towards national security. All of us can keep constant vigilance and be on the look out for various would-be terrorists and suspsicious behaviour on the Internet or in our neighbourhood. Any such behaviour must be immediately brought to the attention of the Police. You've would have heard of Friends of Police organization that available in numerous cities, this new organization can work in coordination with such groups. There is no substitute for People/Citizen power. If all of us take up an oath to weed out terrorism from India, we surely can. It is the responsibility of every citizen of India, we cant trust the politicians to this for us. its upto us now to weed out these cowards!!!

We have numerous NGO like Fifth Pillar etc which are very helpful in fighting corruption, why can't we have such an NGO to gather Intelligence and fight terror. I am sure, there would be numerous citizens like me who would want to help out our Country in this regard. This is a thought I've had for a long time, I know its too early and might sound stupid to a few, but this is just the begining of a long journey that we all responsible citizens have towards achieving a terrorists or a terrorism free India!! and I am sure if we do get some where with such a plan, CIMI along with the help of other Indian Intelligence agencies and the police department can fight and defeat SIMI, Indian Mujahideen and all such terrorists outfits.

PS:

As you would have already known by now, that all of the mails sent by Indian Mujahideen were done through unsecured Wi-Fi connections. Wi-Fi is relatively new technology in India and there aren't many people who actually take up the security of Wi-Fi connection as a serious business. Even in developed countries like the UK and US, you would find numeorus Wi-Fi un-secure networks. There are numerous sites that provide information on how to secure your Wi-Fi connection. Rediff has recently come up with an article on how to achieve this, you can read about it here. Although the details provided here are not completely foolproof, its a good starting point. All wirless networks must be regularly monitored to ensure there are no misuse for the same.

For people who think that what can an ordinary citizen do when our very own Intelligence agencies are not being successful. I would like to point you people Simon Wiesenthal, the world famous Holocaust survivor, who main aim/mission in life was to bring all Nazi war criminals to justice and he single handedly collected enough information on all Nazi war criminals who had escaped/disappeared after Germany's surrender. Its said that Simon Wiesenthal's data was used by Mossad (although they don't openly admit it) to capture various Nazi war criminals.

Kendriya Vidyalaya - The next target of UPA

I was about to blog about my second day trip to Cotswold, but then this news article on the web caught my eye and I was instantly enraged!!! How low can the UPA stoop?? This is pathetic!!! Ever since that a$$&$£$%^ of a guy Arjun Singh became the HRD minister he has been wrecking havoc to an esteemed institution called Kendriya Vidyalaya my almamater, and so would it be for numerous others throughout India and the World.

Talking about all his illogical and disgraceful decisions would require more than a blog and lots of time. I could as well write a novel about it. But this time its quite outrageous. I am sure everyother Kendriya Vidyalayaite like me would have been proud of our Logo, Song, Motto and every other thing attached to this institution. Why the hell are these politicians hell bent on tarnishing and changing this unique culture of ours???

So what if the logo contains a Lotus, does this make any of students or staff of these schools a BJP spokes person??? Lotus is our nation flower Goddamitt!!! Why dont you change that as well and change it to some flower that is unique only in Italy!!! I am sure you would stoop to any level to please your masters at 10 Janpath!!! Ever since the UPA government has come to power they have divided and continued to divide people based on religion, caste etc etc... They even replaced that Indian Map that appeared on numerous Rs 2 coins with something that looks like a Cross!!!! Before 2009 I believe they would have changed whatever had anything to do with India and we might no longer feel proud to call ourselves Indian.


It pains a lot to see even educated people recognizing themselves first with their state/area rather than being called an Indian. Thanks to the UPA we are all divided and the adage "Unit in diversity" no longer is applicable to India. UPA and the INC have been encouraging divisive forces to breed in our nation. They are encouraging parties and groups like MNS (Raj Thackeray), JMM (Shibu Soren), Naxalites, JKLF, PDP, Hurriyat...etc. In my opinion any party which does not consider itself to be National but rather identifies itself to a state or an area must be banned and thats the only way we can achieve nationalism in our country today. But how can we expect to achieve this when the Government thats ruling us is changing everything that we identify to be unique to India and Indian culture. Whats next on your list Mr. Arjun Singh?? Changing the Ashok Chakra of the Indian Flag because the Wheel would remoind everyone of Janata Dal???????

I leave you all with this favourite song of mine to ponder on what we have done to this wonderful nation of ours by electing such an awful and disgracefule Government and what must be our responsibility in ensuring that we dont lose something that dear to all of us.

Trip to Cotswold (Day 1)


Its been nearly month we've been in UK and had already missed out on two Indian holidays. So when we came to know that August 25th is a bank holiday in UK, we decided visit some good place for the long weekend (In UK 25th of May and 25th of August are two national holidays even though there are no festivals associated with these days). During a casual conversation with our colleagues here, one of them suggested to visit "The Cotswold" instead of any other major tourists attractions in UK as they would be too crowded and expensive during the August bank holiday weekend.(Edinburgh, Scotland celebrates a famous carnival during the month of August, hence almost all major cities in Scotland are crowded in the month of August, Cardiff again is a major tourist attraction during this month as this was the start of the Summer vacation in UK).

We hadn't heard anything about Cotswold(This place was never mentioned in any of the conversation with our colleagues during a our last visit to the UK). So we really didn't know what to expect of the place and what to plan. On some analysis that my wife did on the Internet, we came to know that Cotswold is a range of hills in West-Central England. This area has been designated by UK Government as an "Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty". The place is also unique for a kind of oolitic limestone known as Cotswold stone which is quarried in many places in the Cotswold hills. This stone is used to build most of the houses around the Cotswold area. They have a unique "honey" or "golden" colour. Almost all buildings in Oxford, Cheltenham etc have houses built with stones of this colour.

After many days of confusing over the places to visit within Cotswold and the place to stay, we finally came to the conclusion of staying at Cheltenham which was easily the centre for all places to visit within The Cotswold. Not having prior driving experience on English roads forced us to travel by train(Although one of our colleagues forewarned us, that we might find it difficult seeing places without our own car). Being an Indian and having drived around in India for more than a year, We've always feared that our Indian instincts would take over when we drive in UK as well. Just for the note, 99% of the drivers in UK are very disciplined, they give preference to pedestrians, so if you are standing on the edge of the road in order to cross it, they would stop their car and allow to you to pass through (unlike in India, where you would be sweared at using un-parlimentary words!!). At all turns and round-abouts, the approaching vehicles are given preference before they turn (The generic rule is first to give way!), in India, there would have been a race to see who turns first by ensuring to block the other. Use of horn ins UK is considered to be derogatory (Don't even think about this in India!!!). People hardly use horns even at various traffic jams. All of them follow lane discipline and very rarely can you see anyone overtaking the other on a narrow road.

We had booked our accommodation at Holiday Express Inn at Cheltenham, which was reasonably priced and had good facilities. We had to take a train from Slough to Cheltenham Spa (One way ticket costs £34 per ticket, while a return ticket costs £35 pounds :-) with a validity of 1 month for the return journey). On checking the Nationalrail website (In UK there are numerous private railway companies that operate services on various routes), we came to know that a through train to Cheltenham Spa from Slough (which is about 10 miles from Loudwater) was at 8:07 am. We were targeting to catch this train on Saturday morning so that we have sufficient time for sight seeing on Saturday itself. The approximate journey time is 2:16 minutes. My wife had plans to prepare Chappathis for the journey(being pure vegetarians, we weren't convinced of finding any pure veg restaurants at Cheltenham), we decided to carry the bread toaster as well so that we can prepare our own food in case we didn't find any at Cheltenham. After an early start and some hiccups on the way, we finally did manage to board the 8:07 train, we had to changeover at Reading station to reach Cheltenham Spa. We checked hotel reservation to confirm our accommodation and enquired if we can handover our luggage under their custody (Since the check-in time was 3 pm) prior to check-in time. The hotel guys said that shouldn't be a problem. We reached Cheltenham at around 10:45 am and took a cab to the hotel( cost us £5). And surprisingly, we were allowed to check-in ahead of time at no extra cost (Since the hotel was not fully occupied). We then had our lunch of bread toasts that my wife had prepared that morning and decided to start off with sight seeing.

We first enquired the reception of the Hotel, if they can provide us with details on which are the easily accessible locations on a Saturday and to which places do we have buses on Sunday. But the blasted fellows couldn't provide us any information. He was googling from his desk and providing us information that we had already gathered on the Internet. That fool didn't even know where "Bourton-on-the-water" (one of a local attractions near Cheltenham) was. Had it been India, the guys at the reception would have provided a detailed history and geography on the local attractions!!! Frustrated we asked him to provide us directions to the Tourist Information Centre, which he thankfully did. We then tracked down the tourist information centre and queried the staff there on what would be the best to places to visit. The staff there were quiet helpful and they provided us with various pamphlets on the places to visit and even marked out few of them for us to visit, citing the days on which there is public transport to those places. By this time, it was nearly 2 pm and our next bus to the attraction "Bourton-on-the-water" was only 2:30 pm. Bourton-on-the-water, Stow-on-the-wold and Moreton-in-marsh are three classic Victorian villages (Villages by English standard!) which have numerous picturesque views. There is a bus that operates from Cheltenham which caters to all three of these villages, the frequency of this service is 1 bus every 2 hours on a weekday, there is considerably reduced service on weekends. Although these villages are a good 10 miles away from Cheltenham, they charge only £1.80 per ticket to reach Bourton, £1.90 to reach Stow and £2 to reach Moreton. There are no return tickets available on these buses ie you have to buy one-way tickets because the fares are anyway considerably lower, however these buses are not in anyway upto English standard, They seem more like their Indian counterparts, so you got to be ready for a bumpy ride on an English road :). The journey time to reach Moreton-in-marsh was nearly 1 hr, since that would reduce the time we had at our disposal for sight seeing, we decided to alight at Bourton-on-the-water and see around, which turned out to be a good decision. Bourton-on-the-water is a small village along the banks of the so called river Windrush (pictured). I call it "the so called river" because its hardly as wide as the sewage line that you cross to reach Sasi Nagar at Velachery (The velachery lake would seem like a huge sea, when compared to this river!!!). God knows what these Britishers would call one of the Indian rivers, The English rivers are tiny when compared to even the smallest of the Indian rivers!!

The entire village is located just adjacent to this and the place looks beautiful. Looks more a kind of set from some old English play. This place is used a picnic spot and is frequented by numerous people during the summer. We could see a lot of Indians too here. All of them were squatting along the banks of the river on their travel easy chairs or on the ground, with their children and pets playing on the water (The river is hardly deep, with the water reaching only till your ankles at most of the areas). Children and dogs all of them were fooling around in the water. Boys were running around, while the girls were playing with their plastic boats. There were others who were training their canine companions to retrieve sticks and balls thrown in to the water. There was also a reasonable duck population on the water, which fed on whatever was thrown in to the water by these picnickers. Here again we visited the tourist information centre to get an idea of the places to see before our last bus back to Cheltenham (at 5:15 pm). The lady there marked out the places for us. the places to visit there were

• The model village
• The Birdland
• The Auto Musuem
• The Maze
• The Perfurmery

Due to shortage of time, we restricted ourselves to three of the above places. We first visited the model village, all the while I kept wondering, why the hell does one require a model village of a village that already looks one!! The irony of this is, that within the model village, the have a model of the model village itself (So basically it goes in to an indefinite loop........). Although the model of the model village did not look too convincing. But to the credit of the craftsmen, the model village was desgined good ("Not-too-bad" would be the term if I have to sound English). They charged as nearly £3.50 for a ticket to view the model village.



The next place on the list the Birdland centre. This place boasted of a collection of a number of unique and rare birds and it also had a family of Penguins (Yes I mean it!). Apparently there are quiet a few zoos around the world which breed penguins, although this list is not complete, it still means that you dont have to go to the South pole in order to see a penguin. This got us excited and it was really nice to see these wonderful creatures. They looked pretty clean but smelled awfully bad. I guess all the pain they took in keeping themselves clean made their surroundings stink :). Jokes apart, the Birdland centre had two species of Penguins and apart from these it did have quiet unique collections of rare birds. We found numerous huge Owls as well (reminded me a lot of Harry potter's Hedgewick).



After the Birdland, we visited the maze. This basically was constructed similar to the maze shown in the final task of "Harry Potter and Goblet of fire". We were asked to look for 14 clues across a maze constructed from wooden fences thickly populated with dense creepers and using these clues we are to find out the location of a dragon fly. Getting around the maze was a real challenge, we lost our way on numerous occassions and had to tread back. We managed to locate 12 of the 14 clues available, but by the time we reached the position where we had to act upon these clues, there was a group already there who managed to track down the dragon fly. With this maze also done, we had very little time to look at the other places. So we rushed back to the bus stop lest we miss the bus. On the way back, we treated ourselves to ice creams and took a few snaps of the environment around us.




We managed to reach the bus stop before the last bus arrived, we boarded the bus and headed towards Cheltenham. We reached Cheltenham around 6 pm and then went in search of any Indian Vegetarian restaurants. As expected we couldn't find any, so we diverted our attention to look for cookies, bread, apple and tomato ketchup from Tesco. These would keep us alive the next day in case the breakfast at the Hotel was not good.


In London all shops close by 7 pm, you can hardly find anything other than large supermarkets and pubs are open beyond 7 pm. We thought of shopping but this scenario was far worse at Cheltenham, this being a small city everything shutdown by 6 pm. We were planning to rent a car for the next two days thanks to the experience with the public transport, but we were in for a big disappointment, all car rental shops were closed and they remained closed for the entire weekend. Little did we know what was in store for us the remaining two days!! Anyway having faced the disappointment and with not anything else to do, we headed back to the Hotel and watched TV for sometime. The SKY network at the Hotel was able to pick one Tamil radio channel as well. We ate the chappathis that my wife had prepared that morning for dinner and went to bed early so as the start of with our second days journey of exploring the Cotswold...

to be continued....