Some things in life...

Some days back I read in a friend's blog that sometimes when you hear a song after a long time, it takes you back to those times, with those friends with whom you heard it for the first time. Well, I think it is not just songs, it is the same with movies, cricket matches and football matches too.

Here I get to see a lot of Chinese channels and Malay channels other than the usual suspects – the movie channels, the sports channels and news channels. I get two Indian channels – Sun TV and Astro Vaanavil. Now these are basically catering to the south Indian population of Malaysia, basically the Tamil section of them. Astro Vaanavil shows their own content, other than some programs from Surya TV (Malayalam) and Gemini TV (Telugu) and Jaya TV (Tami again). So my consumption of Tamil programs and movies has increased by many folds.

Now coming to the point of writing this blog. Yesterday I was watching Sun and they showed a little-old movie – Kadhalikku Maryaadhai. It was a super-hit remake of a super-hit Malayalam movie, Aniyathi pravu. The movie stars Vijay and Shalini. It was a different movie in the sense that though it was a love affair going sour due to family pressures, the way the movie climaxes was a refreshing change. The original Malayalam movie was released in 97, when I was in XIIth and the Tamil one was released when I was in 1st year engineering, the following year. The movie was a runaway hit in Tamilnadu and I remember in Trichy there were huge cutouts of the stars and the songs were playing all over the place. The movie took me back to some memories of Trichy. The last movie I watched in Trichy was Minnale (RHTDM original in Tamil), with many sets of friends. Though Dil Tho Pagal Hai will remain the movie where we had the most fun, with the theatre filled with Rectians it was a completely different experience, with us dancing on the aisles during songs, how stupid were we guys!!!

Have you ever watched a cricket or a football match in the hostel TV rooms? Well if you have then you will understand the emotions in the rest of this post. Else you can read and try to imagine how it would have been.

The year was 1998. Brazil was playing France for the World Cup. Well what hype, Brazil in great form, with Ronaldo in terrific touch and France having a sleeping genius, Zidane who had not yet awakened to his true form. We were in 2nd year and the TV room was divided into two, those who support the sambas and those who don’t. The story was short as Zidane scored for the first time in the tournament, that too twice to put it well ahead of Brazil. The non-Brazilian supporters, in blues, had a field day at our expense. When it is a 0-3 verdict, you don’t have much to talk about you see. That was some nite!!!

1999 and it was Sharjah and cricket this time. India was playing Australia for a place in the final to again play Australia. And our man was Tendulkar. Some people still believe that this particular innings of Sachin is the only aggressive innings that he has played to take India to victory. With the huge total that was posted by Australia, few in the TV room gave India a chance. That was the time when the TV rooms across India would be vacated as Sachin got out. Some say that the ad rates in the sports channels also dropped due to this strange phenomenon. Sachin did not get out, but the scoring rate was not all that great. Slowly as India looked like achieving the impossible, fellow hostelites, vacated their own rooms and crowded the TV room. It was hot and humid and rather than Kasprowic feeling the heat of Sachin’s batting, it was we who were feeling the heat. India did not win that match, but that was a match, which made India believe in herself, or maybe in Sachin to do the impossible. We reached the final and Sachin hit another century and we won the tournament. I am sure each and everyone in the TV room that day will remember these two matches for the rest of their life. They will remember the shouts and abuses, the sixes and the quick singles. The Tamilians and the North Indians has different styles of celebration and abusing. There was something like “o” podu, a typical Tamil way of cheering.

Come 2002 and I was in Calcutta. The world cup football was going on when the admissions started and we moved into the hostels. The TV rooms were filled, but these were better TV rooms. Being Calcutta, another football crazy city, the college authorities decided to show the match in the big screen in the lecture halls. So we were all there, me as usual, supporting Brazil. I don’t think there were many who wanted to support the Germans. Well it was a very comfortable environment and Brazil romped through.

The two memories that are etched in my memory of the Calcutta hostel are the epic Natwest final match and the India – Pak world cup cricket match.

It was another final, another chance to be a team of underachievers for the team under Ganguly. And when England scored in excess of 300 (325 I think), half the country had given up hope. And when you do not have a Sachin Tendulkar in a team, you have already started with a disadvantage, at least which is what half the country thought. The TV room was full, expected, when you have somebody like Sehwag doing the opening honours. But after Ganguly and then Sehwag departed, the TV room just emptied. There were some of us who wanted to just see the whole match, as we did not have much to do that day. Slowly Kaif and Yuvraj, moved the score past the 200s and then 250s. Smses were sent to people in classes, guys who were browsing from the rooms, rushed in to see it live. The room was stuffed like crazy. Every run was cheered and abuses hurled at the English. High fives were flying, clapping and cheering made sure that the commentary of the match in the last 10-15 minutes was lost. Well that should go down as the most memorable match, were you watching that from home or hostel!

The other one was the world cup match, which India won, thanks once again to Sachin. But the whole setting was different. We had a huge screen made in a hostel quadrangle, people were watching it from all levels of the hostel and booze was flowing like runs from Sachin’s bat. It was like a party match, with everyone shouting and howling for India. Well that was some atmosphere.

In fact when you are watching a cricket match in a hostel which has presence of students from different states of India, you have some really funny scenes. Like suppose Rahul Dravid is not playing well, then there are abuses and bumps happening to guys from Karnataka. And there are some favorite and lucky positions for some of us who are watching it, so that India just score runs and not lose a wicket. Suppose one guy is just getting into the TV room and India lose a wicket, well then the poor soul is termed unlucky and earns the brunt of the whole room for the rest of the match. And the small tea-breaks we have during the intervals were discussion time for the strategies for the team and speculation on what’s going to happen in the second half.

But what I miss most now are the TV room battles I had with my fellow hostelites during the EPL matches. My close friends were Man U fans and me an ardent Arsenal fan. Well couple of years back, there was no Chelsea, so it was Arsenal v/s Man U for the premiership. The EPL weekends and the Champions League atmosphere in the TV room were more relaxing times, as the room won’t be as crowded as any India cricket match. The EPL passion continued to my Mumbai roomies, who supported Chelsea and any non-Arsenal team. But those were the days when Arsenal was playing good football.

There would be good crowds in the TV room for the F1 too. The McLarens and the Ferraris. The Raikonnen fans and the Schumacher fans used to battle it out in the TV rooms. I was not into F1 like I was into football. But some of my friends were into it and I used to sometimes see the start and end of the races.

Parting shot - Any guesses on what the picture below is about???