180 not out

I was never a sportsman in the true sense of the word. But, I was (and still am) a hardcore sports enthusiast with keen interest in a multitude of sports. As such, most of my trysts with sporting glory have been as a witness sitting opposite the television screen. I too have felt my heart beat at a worrying pace as Misbah-ul-Haq went for that audacious shot in the T20 World Cup final last summer. I too have felt a chill run down my spine as Zidane...

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Bat and Baal

Cricket, they say, is no longer a mere sport in India. In a manner of speaking it is a religion - with its own legion of faithfuls, followers and fanatics. From a quite different viewpoint, it is also a business - a money-spinning machine of mammoth proportions. And the truth of this hit me a few days ago under the most astonishing of circumstances. Given that I had spent the previous two months under a mode of rigorous study for the then-forthcoming 1st MBBS University Examinations, my hair had grown fairly beyond the accepted bounds of civilized...

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The Champion and the Challenger

Centre Court - Gentlemen's Singles - Finals Roger Federer SUI (1)44777107 Rafael Nadal ESP (2)6665689There are days and times when you hope contests don't end in victories and defeats. But then, there are defeats which are just as sweet as victories. In the world of tennis, Sunday - the 6th of July, 2008 will be remembered as one such day. The Wimbledon Men's singles title, arguably the most sought-after title in tennis was at stake and the two...

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Nostalgia - Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan's, Baroda

Its difficult not to feel nostalgic about a place where you have spent the best parts of the best years of your life. And that difficulty borders onto an improbable impossibility when that place happens to be Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan's V.M Public School, Baroda. Apart from my family and my biological antecedents, quite frankly, the biggest contribution in my life so far has been from my school. The fourteen years that I spent in Bhavans as a student...

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