Tuesday, July 31, 2007

What is life without some magic?

I noticed that I haven’t typed anything for little over a month now, and therefore it is my responsibility towards the one person who constantly comes back to the blog site to read and re-read my articles; the one person who never fails to see the logic behind my actions and has always understood and appreciated my sense of humor. It is for that person, me, and his sanity, here goes.

Summer is almost over now and things have started to gain speed.

After my newly developed interest in the Mr. Potter’s adventures, I was looking forward to the last book. Of course, I wasn’t going to buy the book, (As a policy, I never buy a book that costs more than 5$!!) so I eagerly waited for the day when it arrives at the college library. By the time I laid my hands on it, the urge to know had already eclipsed my will to wait and therefore I had already made sneak at the story’s climax on the internet. But that did not lessen a drop of pleasure that J.K. Rowling had delivered in her last 6 books and in fact managed exceed herself in bringing the engaging story before our eyes, with mere words. The book, as the potter fans have come to expect from the author, takes its readers in a magical ride that involves all the human feelings that form the integral part of our lives with the right proportion of, well, magic. Like we wanted, Voldemort dies, Ron and Hermione get together and everyone lives happily ever after, except the death eaters who are sent to Azkaban. But as the curtains were drawn, the inescapable feeling of stillness occupies the mind, where previously the numerous possible options of Harry’s destiny resided. Suddenly, it is clear. Never again will quidditch be played with Harry chasing the snitch; never again will the silver petronases chase off dementors and for certainty, no more Voldemort and his killing curses. Since Rowling hasn’t given any indications on whether the magical trio of Harry-Ron-Hermione will return, we can assume that they are done for good. Well, at least there are still 2 movies left.

As I type this blog I am really happy due to the ecstatic victory of Indian cricket team over England couple of days ago. This is only the fifth time this has happened in the English soil since India started playing test cricket and this comes as a huge boost to the team’s world-cup-failure recovery program. The bowling was superb, the middle order performed well and for once Rahul Dravid did not have to rescue the team from another collapse. Sachin Tendulkar once again provided a good knock in demanding conditions and was denied three figure mark due to poor umpire decision, and once again cricket gurus complain that he took too much time to score those runs and that it shows he is old. Of course he is old. But, hey, we, the fans, don’t care if he is 50, as long as he is making scores. The important thing about the match, though, was the performance of various younger players who came to the fore. One guy, Dinesh Karthik, certainly proved the logic behind his selection to the team by consistently producing some good action both with the bat and in the field. His attitude towards the game and well handling of pressure, a trait rare among Indian cricketers, has certainly proved to be a valuable asset to the team. The job is not yet done though. Although the team has been performing with certain consistency overseas lately, the Series victory in foreign soil remains an illusion. The English team seems to have picked sledging as their additional skill along side batting and bowling. All the more reasons to shut them up at the Oval for good and bring that overseas test series home.

I think roaches are actual alien creatures. They may seem like small creepy looking bugs with long whiskers, but they appear to have extra- sensory capabilities. The house we lived in until last week had a huge roach problem. A few months ago one of my roommate said that he spotted a single alien creature staring at him from under the kitchen sink, but he decided not to kill it due karma related reasons. Just after a few weeks, karma was kicking our rears. They were in huge armies now trying to capture any area with supplies. We did everything to exterminate them but simply failed. It seems like they steal food all night and then reproduce all day. We wondered if they were in any way related to President Bush, due to their affinity towards non-renewable resources (in alien world). If you analyze closely, you can see the resemblances between them minus some whiskers. Well, we could not live there anymore so we decided to move. As if they had sensed our final strategy, they staged one final stand. By the time it all ended, there were dead aliens strewn all over the field ( the living room) and we escaped with minor losses (cookies, chips and some yucky stains on the walls). Since it was upto the duo of me and my roommate to move all the stuff, it took almost 2 days to move all our belongings and clean the apartment. By the time we finished the work, we realized that we had done more work in those 2 days than the entire summer.

As I finish up arranging the stuff and go to bed in my new and clean apartment, tired, I only hope never to have another encounter with the third kind with whiskers, for, the only solution I can think of is to destroy them using Avada Kedavra with the Elder wand.