April 2008

Mumbai Indians: A Story of Hope and Despair

Mumbai Indians Official LogoMumbai Indians lost horribly by 10 wickets against the Deccan Chargers yesterday. Gilchrist struck a mammoth 9 sixes for the Chargers scoring the fastest hundred of the tournament in 42 balls to blow the Indians away. This makes Mumbai Indians the only team to have lost all their 4 encounters in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Being a true blue Mumbaikar, I support Mumbai Indians whole heartedly although my loyalties are wearing thin after the successive losses and the Harbhajan controversy which is the saddest thing to happen in Indian sports. On the other hand the team doesn’t seem to be gelling together and there seems to be a complete lack of strategy and decision making. The openers Ronchi (pronounced ‘Ronki’) and Jayasuriya are waltzing to different tunes. Ronchi in particular got out to a wide R P Singh delivery yesterday trying to hit it over the slips. As for Jayasuriya, in the 90s he along with Romesh Kaluwitharana were the dashing Sri Lankan opening pair who instilled fear in the opposition with their explosive batting style in the first 15 overs. The match was normally won during that period as well. At present he seems to lack a good batting partner at the other end and looks over burdened by the huge responsibility and expectations of scoring big runs. Everyone is aware that if he gets going with Sachin, there will be enough runs on the board to demoralize any opposition of the day. I believe Sachin’s recovery would coincide with that of the team’s as well and that’s the best that I can hope for.

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The Intriguing World of Spam

I wouldn’t be misplaced if I say the internet is like my first home, since I spend more time there than on real earth. It’s a virtual place where I love exploring its alleys and partake the various benefits almost all free of cost — reference websites, address books, social bookmarking, email clients, et al. In short while I am surfing, I have a global passport of visiting any place without worrying too much about safety unless I download something that’s detrimental to my system. During my office hours, I am advised (rather compelled) to curb my sojourns across the information superhighway to protect the internal network where thousands like me are traveling on business purpose. Every morning though I check my mailbox for any new communication which I might have received during the course of the night. And while doing so I cannot resist the temptation of visiting the spam folder (or bulk email folder depending upon the client you prefer), to see and be intrigued at what the underground world has offered me today.

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