You asked for it-Now make sense of this one

Yes , I know. Its been an age since the last one. Much to my pleasure, quite a few people have been asking for an update. The heart is glad.

I always have an answer ready to explain my laziness away. "I wait for inspiration to write." I do. Sometimes when it comes, I look the other way because I am watching Desperate Housewives.

One much criticised but religiously read tabloid said everyone tends to write about themselves too much in their blogs. I agree. Why else would there be seven 'I' s in this one so far?Okay now that I have laid suitable ground for focussing only on me, lets get down to it.

Its my last nine days in the country starting today.Have been thinking about what the most prominent ones are in the memories I take.

One of the earlier ones- Watching Saturday evening Kannada movies with the whole neighbourhood gathered in my house ( only TV around) Living room filled with people. No one needed an invite. No one asked if they were troubling us or anything. It was a wonderful feeling. Being taken for granted means a lot sometimes. No sarcasm. I mean just that.

Forgetting that I had taken my bicycle to school, riding back in the school bus. Gnanodayam at home. Driven in the car to school to get the bicycle and riding the bicycle back home.

Lagori in the rain with a pack of monkey cousins and an uncle younger than his years. For those of you who dont know what lagori is, all I can say is, I pity your souls which will forever walk the earth wondering what fun is.

Inspired by cousins who said they used to read Mills and Boon novels under their blankets with a torch! Tried the same at home. Caught by mom who asked why the hell I was bothering to read it that way when I was allowed to read it in the open!!

Watching this couple from the car. The road parellel to the railway tracks. Pavement is lined by a slum. The lady is learning to ride a bicycle.One of the busiest roads of Bangalore and the guy is supporting the bicycle and running alongside. Nothing could have been more beautiful.

Agassi-ng away

No more Agassi at Wimbledon. He gracefully flying kiss-cum-bowed out of his way today losing in the third round to Nadal. Its the end of an era. The last of the Emotional Ones gone from the most emotional of Grand Slams.

As the now bald and seemingly sober Agassi thanked the crowd at Wimbledon for embracing him over all these years, the memories that come back are not of his great wins at Wimbledon, but of his great chemistry with the people there. Who can forget him lifting up his shirt and asking a ball girl to wipe with a towel?And why was not anyone astonished when the girl obliged?His wild hair and ways will live on as memories of an era where tennis was not all surgical precision as it is now. It was a game. People had fun watching it, playing it.

It seems that the new players have very little emotional appeal.I am not saying they are not great players. Far from it , some of them are brilliant. But why cant I remember anyone's style or distinguish between them ? Why don't they express their personality on court? Maybe its because the game has become so competetive that players cannot afford emotions. It would be a waste of energy in a world where winning is everything.

Today I saw a rare sight. I saw the normally 'dignified' spectaors at Wimbledon cheer at the top of their voices, whistle, even catcall to Agassi. I saw an always stoic Steffi Graf hide her emotion behind her sunglasses at the way the Wimbledon crowd expressed their affection towards him.

I suddenly realized that everyone had forgotten the man who won- Nadal. And then I realized that there is some truth to the cliche. Winning is not everything.

Chutou toco da Inglaterra!

Writing this as I watch the hot girlfriends of English Players cry their eyes out. Call me a sadist. I is the liking this!! Finally, finally a match has had the result I wanted.

Penalty shoot-outs are scary. Good scary. Its the most unjust thing in the world if you are on the losing side(that happened yesterday,boo-hoo) and the most wildly exhilerating stuff to be on the winning side. The look in the striker's eyes and that in the goal keeper's is worth staying awake all night, I think.

This is not going to be about football. I don't know enough and anyway, it has been written about ad nauseum. If by some freak chance you want to know what I think about any game of football being played, just listen to the Indian guy in the ESPN studio with the french-beard. My opinions are the opposite. Period.

So what is this going to be? Nothing in particular.Nothing happening which can support a whole blog.

Got MMR and Hepatitis-B shots the other day with a vague plan of going abroad. Minor disaster happened. Ended up getting a subcutaneous injection of distilled water thanks to carelessness on the part of everyone involved.One word. Painful. It was this weird pain going in waves. Never felt such a thing before. Never want to again. Anyway, the upshot of it was, I had to get another shot.Why me, God?

Ok now they have blogthings-what a specific name!! One of them is a quiz called 'How normal are you?' Come again? How normal am I? Isn't normal an all or none phenomenon?You are normal or you aren't. What's with the 'how' normal? Jobless being my first name these days, I took the test. I am 55% normal , if you please. I should have known, Taking the test means you are half gone. Me being me, the extra five percent.

Ok, if you got through till here, you have earned it. The title means ' Kicked England's butt'
Ok, I am breaking my promise and getting back to God's own game. Brazil v/s France.Time to go.By the way, I learned that "joga Bonito" means 'The beautiful game'. Thats what the nike ad says, to jog your memory.

P. S. For people wanting to prove their joblessness- check this out
http://www.blogthings.com/hownormalareyouquiz/