IPL Fanatics 3: Let's talk about the presenters!

• Starting with the rejuvenated team of Extraa Innings, where Samir Kochar has become a reely experienced analyzer and a smooth talker deserving the right spot at the air conditioned studios for now.

• Of the other members of the squad, Ayushman (MTV VJ), Gaurav (x-VJ) and Angad Bedi (of our very own Emotional Atyachaar fame Bishan ji da laadla), I liked Ayushmaan the best, ladka heera hai, first MTV, then India’s Got Talent and tht never ending weird music show and now IPL.

• Gaurav is also on the spot, though he looks so thin, that it seems a blow of wind might take him away along with his mic. But, the real disappointment was Angad Bedi, all he could ask cricketers, audiences as well as the team owners was their “feelings” as if they have been suspected on having extra marital. Whether a batsman scores a 50, or he takes some wickets, or the owners of the team is happy due to the victory, his point of conversation is, “How are you feeling”! I’m sure he needs to take classes to learn the art of tackling LIVE telecast, else he will have to pass a loyalty test in da next season.

• Another thing which we all should celebrate is “The return of Siddhu and his Siddhuisms” in season 3 of IPL. He has his own amazing way of analysis filled with it his never-to-be-clichéd one liners which many of us love. I love the post-match-show on Times Now called as Summer Slam with Siddhu and Boria Majumdar…they do quite a gripping analysis with a lot of gripping excitement.

• Rest, I’m sure many of us r missing Mandira Bedi this season, though she was looking pathetic in da last season with her skinned look and weird hairdo, but IPL waale could have replaced her with some other eye candy, coz I know we men like gals who can talk some sense about cricket :-)

IPL fanatics 2: Let's talk about The Advertisements!

• Well, though the return of Zoozoos which were a rage in IPL2 definitely deserves a warm welcome with Zoozoos going a little colorful with usage of greens and yellows this time. I think the creation of zoozoos and their world is much more revolutionary than what James Cameron created in Avatar…and if this was movie, it could have reely won the Oscar just for the heck of imagination and creativity. (zyada ho gaya kya! ;)…khair, till now, I loved the WANTED ad the most of all of the recently featured ones. Which one did you like the most?

• Other ads which definitely catch the eye is that of Akshay Kumar’s weird n funny laugh “ha ha ha” promoting Micromax mobiles well. Well, “ha ha ha” was never funnier than this, everyone who watches it, at least tries it once…great concept! Post Sachin’s 200 in Micromax sponsored series, I think of all the new mobile companies like Karbonnn, Maxx mobiles, etc. etc., these guys r right on track…at least with their marketing…”ha ha ha”!

• I personally hated each n every Ungli Cricket ad by Idea. Even if a few of those ads are ok, the entire concept of Ungli Cricket somehow doesn’t connect with me. But, it’s possible that they might be minting some revenues from our SMS crazy nation.

• Also, SRK’s just doing fine with his typical Coach finding ads.

• Havells fans hav come up yet again with those pathetic ads saying koi aur bachaye na bachaye…ye zaroor bachayega…wat da hell!!!

• Rest, thrs no ad which is even worth a mention. U can add any in case it has caught ur attention…let the world know n realize :-)

Not for IPL fans, but for IPL fanatics!

However vella/busy my life was, I was desperately waiting for the IPL 2010 extravaganza to begin from March 12th and believe u me, I hav been glued to watch all the matches to the max possible. And hence, for me and m sure for many of u, the IPL fever is on…n tht too BIGTIME! :-)…so if u count urself among not just IPL fans, but IPL fanatics…then here’s an attempt 2 start a nice IPL get together place for all u cricket followers…

Now, as we know IPL has been associated with a lot of upsets in every season, the teams coming last in season 1 (BRC and DC) fight in the final of season 2. The team running worst in season 2 (KKR) wins their match against the last year winner (DC). I don’t know how much Lalit Modi or IPL organizers ‘plan’ all of this, but none of us deny that we all love the 20-20 game to the core and enjoy the fun n hoopla associated with it all-the-more…:-)

In this series, I would like to bullet some salient points which many of us might have been noticing in this IPL/which catch our eyes…and for those who don’t see them, we'll try bringing them to the fore, so that we all can have some fun while the extravaganza is ON in our living rooms. And, at the end of it, for all u know, we might b giving some improvement suggestions to Mr. Modi ;-). Nevertheless, the idea is to hav some fun and share some of our thoughts with the larger world, in the times of the day when we r not glued to the idiot-box (before 4 & after 11 PM) almost every day.

Here, we will talk about advertisements during IPL 3, teams strategies, records, commentators, extra innings, cheerleaders, our favorite performances, our favorite teams and many more such things which will keep unfolding in these 45 days…

So, to begin with, like last year, the rivalry @ my home at least has begin yet again with the season, where we all of us have selected our Top 2 teams and have started betting watevr we cud to let the other down…or to feel let down in the end. The top two teams of all house-mates have been put up on the wall with the IPL schedule chart next to the TV and the winners of the day contribute for a small icecream/paan treat at the end of the day...n that's just for starters :-)

Though I know, many of you might have started with a favorite which is ruling at the bottom right now, but still, heart loves what the heart loves, isn’t it? So, with 1 week in IPL, why don’t you also come up with your Top 2 teams so that this small group of real IPL fanatics can cheer ur wins and support u during the tough times of losses :-|…

So, next thing which u should do after reading this, is to quickly show your buy-in with your top 2 teams. Also, do come up wid ur suggestions and thoughts to spice up this FB/Blog space…till my next post, happy reading, happy watching, happy contributing and definitely, wish u gud luck at the field…!

Why I stopped blogging!

Well, as many of you know, I was so happy when I joined the world of bloggers! It was one of my “agendas of life” to have a blog of my own. And yeah, it went well for some months (courtesy u) and I used to think about my next post n all… Afteral some of u even used to wait for the next post. Things were so hunky-dory…lovey-dovey on the blogosphere…and then…

Came October’09, the annual IMT alumni party. Met a lot of my friends after almost an year and what I heard mainly was that they have been reading my blogs regularly which made me think, “ki ladka sahi line pe jaa raha hai…the blogging dream has finally worked out well…!!!” BALLS!!! Coz their next comment was that “Dude, we know what’s happening in your life…after all we read your blogs regularly…!” Nothing had struck me till then and I came home happy thinking about my next blog :-).

I was awe-struck the first time when I went to attend a wedding of one of my engineering friend’s in Ajmer sometime arnd November end. It was like we frens were meeting after almost 3 years and the first statement I got when I entered the small hotel room with 4 of my friends in there was that, “Sai hai yaar, gud body, gymming regularly n all!”. Again I was happy saying, “Haa yaar, its fun…u see!” But when I found out that the comment was not because of my visible biceps covered under a sweat-shirt and a jacket, rather it was coz of one of my random Facebook updates!!!...I was surely AGHAST!!! In fact, again I found out that all of them almost knew what’s mainly happening in my life through my blogs/Facebook updates…while their life had a mysterious touch in itself which I wanted to unfold. I was completely unaware of what kind of lives these friends of mine are leading after 4 years post the idiotic engineering days!!!

Usually I keep my family members away on social networks as per policy. But friends to friend’s yeh kahaniya family tak b pohoch chuki thi…I was in Agra to attend another wedding, this time of one of my cousin’s in December’09. I met my elder bro thr after almost 2 years as he’s settled in Mumbai, but he was somehow not talking to me. The moment we met, pop came his leg-pulling statement, “where is your camera crew???”…I couldn’t gauge that for once. The next pick was, “so which channel are you associated with these days” and the third one was “hows page3 column going on?” When I was still clueless about the whole point, I had to dig deeper and I found out that, in him too, there resided one avid follower of my blog ;-). But then again, I found out that he was more aware of how am doing rather than me having any clue about hows his life is going on. Believe you me, this gives an eerie feeling!


And so finally, the moral of the story is that, I’m taking a small sabbatical from the blog-o-world. I knw bohoto ke dil tootenge, bohot apne gharo me tezi se “Nahiiiiii!” bolenege…par kya kare…as I always say, “Its all part of life!”

Wo kya na, we scorpions always rather like to unfold secrets and keep ours very close instead of being an open book kinds. But on hindsight, these are not secrets anyway, this is just a way of living life. And so, for some time now, I am planning to live the other way round!!! But mind you, keep watching this space for more!!! :-)