Men will be Men

Stretch! Yawn!
"McGrath is awesome...this is where all the experience kicks in." I comment after watching an almost maiden over bowled by the Delhi Daredevils fast-medium pace bowler.
Kushal and Sahil nod in agreement.

There it was on the idiot box, the Delhi Daredevils Vs. Rajasthan Royals. IPL at one of its best.

I stretch more. Relaxed and getting back to the match.
This is how I spent my evening yesterday with the "guys", i.e - My old school friends Kushal and Sahil. It was all the old memories coming back, when we used to be glued to the TV watching an ODI and cheering for India(or sometimes the winning side!) and then during the breaks we used to play 'handy' cricket with a sponge ball in the living room. These were the 'get-togethers' we had pre-high school days.

We met after a few 'months' yesterday, yet the best thing(or thats what I see it as) is that we don't go into all the tight hugging and "Man! its been so long!"...I enter with a casual 'Hey!Watsup?' and the next moment we're discussing about the current match. That is the awesome part with these guys in a way, we never had to tell each other any intimate stuff, share secrets or lament on how screwed things were. It's all about the time that we meet. Let the past be the past, which is really relaxing in a lotta ways.

So here we were, lying on the sofa. Jumping on boundaries being hit, cursing the fielders, giving pieces of advice to the bowlers...hey! as long as we aren't in the match there's no pressure on us, right? So whats wrong in some harmless criticism.

[By the way I had lost complete faith and interest in Cricket when I was around 16-17, and stopped following it completely. But that's when I hooked on to F1, Soccer and Tennis matches. With the current IPL trend taking over, I have been a victim of this new format of the so called 'Gentleman's Game'. Amen to that!]

Its when I got an sms which said "Men! Men! Men!" from Dagny, on updating her with my then-current state that I realized this is how 'Men!' are always pictured to be. Being with a group and watching a sport(we also kept on switching to the English Premiere League once in a while!) and cheering, shouting n what not. Being Lazy was another perspective, but I refrain from acknowledging that point of view. Yet somehow I felt all 'Manly' about myself in weird ways, which I don't usually.

This was rarely the way I spend my time with my other friends. I never felt all that masculine and testosterone driven in any way. Thats why yesterday it felt all different but new. I still couldn't calculate my thoughts in my head and come to any conclusion on that.

Anyways we had 'hum-pum' paneer(muchos splendido!) and lotsa garlic bread which was great and a bit of green apple vodka(thank you Russia!) for that manly touch. And had a great time reuniting and feeling a bit nostalgic.

Wish I had taken a pic with all three of us yesterday, we dont even have one such photo. But sometimes leaving it to the memory can be more fun. :)

Cheers!