The Monsoons have arrived...

... and they haven't forgotten what they did last year. It has been raining all weekend. And all of Sunday night. Which means when I start off for office on Monday morning, the roads will be much different from what I left on Friday.

... and there'll be enough dumb drivers on the roads who think that the car in front of them has slowed down not because of the fresh potholes, but perhaps because they just have nothing better to do. So these dumb drivers will continue at the same speed, spoil their suspensions and come close to causing accidents.

... and these incredible new road-dividers that have sprung up during the summer will cause more water logging in hitherto safer places. The way they've designed these dividers (walls, even), you'd think the whole purpose was to foster rain-water harvesting in the first place.

... and managers will arrive later than usual at work, meaning everyone else has to stay at work till later than usual.

... but all this rain makes the grass green even outside our company's manicured campus. Having said that it always has been greener over here.

... and in this climate, even our canteen's kaandaa bhajjis taste good. Although they actually aren't any good at all. And they still fall into the UFO category (unidentified fried objects).

... and I just remembered that I had used this UFO gag back in school when I'd written an essay on "A Rainy Day" or some such thing. I'd written in it that because of the rain, I bunked school and went climbing a nearby hillock with my friends instead.

... and bunking and going hillocking is suddenly a very good idea indeed. I would've bunked work and done the same. But the hillock is now covered with apartment complexes.

... and driving in the rain on an empty highway listening to Metallica is still a good experience, definitely one that beats finding a path between these buildings.

But once I complete my drive, I end up finding that contrary to the hillock, there's too many empty spaces here. Spaces that were filled up previously and have now been replaced by grass that may seem greener to those on the outside. To us here, even this monsoon can't make this grass any green...

Weekend Scores

For those who've been heaving long sighs of relief at not having to read new drivel here, well, time to take a pause. Distractions kept me away from my blog during the weekend. Quite understandable, really. A young red-blooded male has plenty of distractions, and this weekend has been a particularly sporty one, with some scoring, and others not...

Those who scored, well, my favorites England were not amongst them, but my second favorites France were, and that too over Brazil! That was unexpected and felt so good! Argentina scored but still lost to Germany, while Ukraine were positively disposed off by the Italians, leaving an all-European semi-final line-up for the first time since I started watching the FIFA World Cup. That was back as a six-year old, and although I have no recollection of Maradona summoning the Hand of God, I do remember watching the albiceleste defeating the West Germans in the final. I hope it will be a Germany-France final next Sunday...

Another of my favorites, Andre Agassi, bowed out of Wimbledon for the last time in his career. He went in straight sets to Rafael Nadal. With Andre's wife already having retired a few years ago, I guess I will not be watching tennis any more...

Yet another of my favorites is on pole-position for the United States Grand Prix later tonight. I have been following Formula 1 since 1995, and have been an unwavering supporter of Michael Schumacher who was the defending champion that year, and as far as I am concerned, he's the only champion ever. And he has a score to settle with his detractors, what with last time's US GP being an absolute fiasco, although Schumi won, which, once again, is all that matters...

And then, there's cricket. When our team started their tour of the West Indies, they were expected to make a killing. Two months on, we've lost the one-day series 4-1 and failed to win any of the first three tests, all of which ended in tight draws, but draws nonetheless. And so, when the batting lineup collapsed for only 200 on friday night, we were in trouble. But, the West Indies haven't been at the bottom of the acknowledged test playing nations' list for the past decade for nothing. Their extremely naive batting display still managed to give the Indians a 97-run lead. I don't think I've ever seen a test-match side getting dismissed in just 33 overs against our team. We're not the best bowling/fielding side in the world. And our batting is powerful only on blog. They were six-down again in the second innings. But, we are 225 ahead, which is already a dozen more than the highest successfully chased score at the Sabina Park in Kingston...

While it has been as interesting a tour as the Indians have made in the past few years (the ones to Australia and Pakistan stand out in memory), this last test match has had its moments. It certainly promises ot be the first time in this series that either of the teams has the chance to capture a score of wickets. That, of course, is what it takes to win a test match. I have a feeling that today will be the last day of the series, two days ahead of schedule...

That's about all the scoring that happened this weekend in the life of your typical red-blooded youngster in India. More to come, with plenty more experiences to be gained. You'll have to keep praying...