Cricket - How life has changed over the years

Been years since I wrote anything in this webspace ...Uff... Hello folks... its me back once again into the bloggers world . Shall try my best to keep posting something often.

Cricket, few term it as a religion, few term it as a sport which has the largest fans around and the most watched sport especially in India. I from my childhood days have been playing cricket and been a part of many teams and have got medals as well as certificates. I still remember the days where I represented the teams during my school and college days and to tell you the fact it brings in a lot of cherished moments back.

With the family grown and work keeping the daily life on a tighter side has made me stay away from the sport for years now. But I still have the urge to get back to the ground early in the morning and brush my cricketing skills and start playing for the teams which I used to.. Provided they take me back..J.

Now coming to one good event which made me not only start blogging again, but also brought in a huge smile over my face was a cricket tournament organised by my few old cricketing pals who still play even now. Playing cricket had not only improved my skills but also made me acquire a lot of friends.

During my initial IT life, I used to ask my colleagues whether they play and how about forming a cricket team. Loads of positive and negative views and with a lot of years waiting I managed to get a team formed and called it "Trendsetters". Initially the team had very few players who knew how to play but as we grew the team started performing tremendously. We were known as a team which was really hard to beat and we even started performing well in tournaments and bringing in laurels back. During those days we encountered a small team which was also in its growing stages. Those were people whom we got introduced via a common friend in R.A.puram ground and started playing with them. They were a bunch of youngsters who were in full josh to win matches but were failing to do with us and as days progressed we started to have a good relationship with them wherein we mingled our teams and started playing.

Over the years, few colleagues who were my team players started leaving the company and the team slowly started dissolving and at one final stage it was the end of the team Trendsetters. But one good thing which happened was since we formed a good rapport with the folks playing in R.A.Puram few used to go and play with them. Now after about 4 to 5 years the team has grown bigger in size and skills and now hey are called as Team "Cocktails". They started their own FB group posting pics and updating weekly on the cricket played as well as wishing players on Bday's and other stuffs.

Recently they had a tournament organised and to my surprise it was a tournament organised within their own team players and to top it all I was called upon to grace the occasion. Initially I felt whether I need to go but then decided I have to be a part of it cos it is basically a team which I was a part of formation and it is my guys who are playing. Making my presence out their bought in a smile to almost all players who knew me and welcomed me since they are meeting/seeing me after close to 2 to 3 yrs. It was such a bliss seeing such young talents the way they have come up over the years and how well they are playing now.

I made sure I stayed their the entire day to see the matches and I was also called upon by the organizers to give away medals and the trophies to the players and teams who won the tournament. Looking back now as to how the cricket started and how the teams were formed and how the players whom we introduced now are playing brings in that happiness within me that Cricket has always been an integral part of my life and it has made me gain a lot of friends and contacts whom I can depend and have fun anytime I want too. Thanks a lot to my old Team "Trendsetters" as well as all players of "Cocktail XI"

Trip to Coimbatore.......

Phew..!!!. Chaos again.
Had been to Coimbatore last weekend (15th & 16th March'08) to attend my ex-colleague Prakash's wedding. Had booked up the tickets a month ago. Me and my colleague Yuvi had planned to fly down to Coimbatore and then return by train. All done and here we get prepared to fly down to Coimbatore on a bit cloudy Saturday morning (15th). We planned and got to meet up at the Chennai airport at around 9.30 am for our 10.15am flight. We were to board the Paramount Airways and guys I say the service was great.

We managed to take up few snaps on our way to the flight which was actually not allowed but dint bother about things. After about 10 mins of getting the boarding passes and waiting for the bus to take us to the flight, finally I see the first airhostess of the flight and she says.. Vanakkam Sir..(meaning welcome)..and makes us comfortable on boarding the flight. To my surprise I see an kollywood actor sitting next to me in the bus waiting to board the same flight. It was none other than Karthik (Paruthiveeran hero)..or you can say it also as Suryas Brother. Great start I said to yuvi(who was enjoying his first flight experience).

(sorry for the photo clarity)

All set and the flight starts with the routine stuffs like the airhostess asking us fasten our seat belts and serving us refreshments. We both were enjoying taking good snaps and having few chit chats in between. Our flight lands sharp at 11.00 am in Coimbatore airport and we get down and again start our usual business of taking snaps next to the flight. Managed to take a snap with karthik also in the meanwhile.
The wedding went well, good food and happened to meet few friends of Coimbatore who had some plans also of taking us to few good places in and around Coimbatore. We visited the temple in Marudhamalai( abt 15 kms from Coimbatore) and had a good dharshan with the help of few counselors were over there who took us directly inside the temple without making us stand up in the que.

The fun begins here... Must be wondering why is the hurry all about... hmm.. we were suppose to catch up our train which was scheduled up at 2.10 (which was written in our e-ticket) on Sunday afternoon(16th). We finished up our visits and had to rush up to the room to pack our bags and board the train as it was already about 1.30 pm. Luckily the room was next to the station where we had stayed up. We said all the bye bye stuffs and started running to the station to board the train. We had booked up the AC compartment(B1 Coach) and to our surprise we had covered the train 4 times by running to both the ends of the train and were unable to find the compartment. Tired and sweating and the train starts moving and we had to get on to some AC compartment so that we could ask the TTR where is our coach. And the TTR says cooly, this train which you guys have booked up is at 2.10 am. Whattttttttttt..( we both r blank)... after few arguments me and Yuvi finally get down from the moving train.

We were damn tired of running up and down and finally managed to walk up to the same room were we had stayed up. I told Yuvi..give me a moment and lemme check with this guy who is sitting in the May I Help you counter.. and there comes the best part. I showed up the ticket to the guy and he says the train has already left in the morning 2.10 am i.e 16th early morning. Ohh God.. what have we got into this time..(Yuvi watches me and says sooper..you have booked the tickets great.)

As yuvi was not comfortable in traveling by bus, we had no other option than booking up another flight to Chennai and this time it was Spice Jet. The flight was scheduled at 8.00 pm and we stayed up at the room for about 2 hrs and finally reached the airport. As soon as we reached the airport it started raining heavily and we were again confused as the flight had been delayed for about an hr and we had to wait. Finally at about 9.30pm the announcement comes to board the flight. We both again started taking snaps next to flight and all of a sudden a police fella comes and says " don't you know you are not allowed to take photos here???".. me and yuvi see each other and say "no" and walk up to the flight. The police fellow had no other words to say rather than watching us both board the flight. After a lot of running , confusions and miscalculations we managed to board the flight which dint even provide us refreshments. But we weren't much concerned .. Just wanted to reach Home Sweet Home...

PEACE AT LAST!!!!!