Sweet Surprise of Downpour!!

This sunday morning was very hot as usual. I cursed the sun as I played badminton. But in the afternoon as I was having my lunch, came the familiar smell of rain. But it didnt rain on sunday. It was the precursor to a lovely downpour which would start on Monday morning. On Monday morning at 10 in the morning, it started raining. And It continued raining. Was it a divine intervention? Was the god remorseful of the extreme heat we had suffered in the past weeks? I wondered if the skies were crying for a divine soul one Mr. Karol Wyolota popularly know as PJP II who had passed away the previous night. Or was it because I had resolved to start dieting.Whatever the reason was, it was definitely a sweet surprise for me and the chennaiites. We had been tolerating the extreme heat for about 2.5 months and we needed the grace of rain god. The rain suddenly reminded me of the famous description of rain by Forrest Gump...

"One day it started raining, and it didn't quit for four months. We've been through every kind of rain there is: little bit of stinging rain, and big old fat rain, rain that flew in sideways, and sometimes rain even seemed to come strait up from underneath. It even rained at night."

I hope it rains like that for days.....:)

An evening at the SCG!!

SCG= Somasundaram Cricket Ground . Venue : T.Nagar. A moderately big ground where you find it tough to find even 1 sq cm of land to play on weekends. Frequented by kids(mostly from PSBB,VenkataSubbaRao), college kids (mostly SVCE,Loyola) and teams which call themselves mambalam mannavars and so on. Fame: Featured in the "Boys" movie. I heard that it is the home ground of mambalam mosquitoes.:).

Well walk into this ground on any weekend. And you will get lost in a crowd of cricketing maniacs. I am just quoting one ground as an example. Others would prefer quoting the MRC,the huge IDPL ground frequented by software engineers, the Adyar Kozhi Pannai Ground, the besant nagar beach, the MCG - Madras Corporation ground and so on. There is one thing which goes on all these places - non stop CRICKET.

A view of the MCG - Madras corporation ground behind the Tennis stadium where Tata Open takes place Unusually empty..:)

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/incorrigiblix/detail?.dir=/c2b9&.dnm=2812.jpg&.src=ph

Well SCG doesnot offer promising pitches. Basically you play where ever you get a pitch. And often you find yourself fielding the ball for some other match going on there. Your sixes will be thwarted by some guy in the field diving and catching the wrong ball. Or you would hitting it on the vehicles selling water melon or cucumber. Whatever it may be, it is complete fun at these grounds. Y ou can see the most amazing catches and fielding attempts in cricket. You can see youngsters emulating their cricketing heroes. And cricket unites the rich and poor at this lovely ground.

Yesterday evening when I played at the SCG, I took a tour of the ground by walk before my match. I found a couple of my old school friends at play .I saw a father trying to teach his son to play the legspin. I saw a few more familiar faces in the crowd. Even if it would look so chaotic with about 3 teams playing at overlapping pitches it still is interesting to play at the SCG. The toughest part of the game would be fielding in the deep with the full brunt of the sun on your face. You should be very alert when pursuing skiers while being blinded by the sun.

Typically teams play 12 over matches. A score of 100 would be sufficient to defend. There is no room for technique out here. People start going for the ball right from the first over and matches are quick paced. Misfieldings are frequent and often you see a string of bad words in Tamil/English being poured on the guilty party. Bad words and scores are the most freuqently uttered words. People here play with extreme dedication and energy and it is a real pleasure to be in the crowd. Often discussions of performance follow matches which lead to analysis of popular cricket matches.

It is a real treat to find a huge crowd coming together to play a game so enthusiastically. SCG might not be as great as the real "SCG" but it is definitely the GABBA of "chennai"ites who want to display their cricketing skills and show their utmost dedication to the game.