Jai Hind

We won! We won! We won.. after so many years.. finally we have done it.

What a game it was! The second we settle down and think that India is going to win, the Paki’s turns it right back! And finally the tension ended. I think both the teams deserve great applause and even this time I wouldn’t have minded if our boys had lost to the Paki’s. It was fantastic cricket.

Hope you caught the Pathans piggy riding, Dhoni shirtless, Bhaji with his moustache turned up and his dance! And what were they digging on the ground? Each of our boys gave their best shot.

And then comes the comments from the veterans. 20-20 is not THE cricket. It is test cricket that tests a cricketer and after that the 50 overs one-day. They talk about “Temperament” . My dictionary says temperament is quality of mind. So did our boys lack it? Dint they continue playing smartly without buckling under pressure? Even when they lost the mighty Yuvraj and their captain dint they take the score to a decent level. But then for them to prove themselves they should be allowed to play for the coming series. Then let us judge them. But for now let us enjoy this moment.. dint we wait too long and to a point where most of were disgusted with Cricket.

Dhoni is a good study material for a "Leader". I loved the way he came running whenever one of his boy's faced a tough situation. I also hear that after the win with Aussies, he let the boys celebrate instead of continuing with practicing. For a team that went as underdogs, each win was a victory.

As Kapil Dev pointed out, it is good to remind ourselves that this in only a game. Maybe we shall have to wait again but until then we should stop throwing stones at those players even if they lose. Can we? Dhoni's house under contruction was razed to the ground and now he has collected enough and more money to build a complete steel structure! Oh.. it is cricket and neither the players nor their fans are going to change!

I still remember the year we lifted the world cup and also the Sharjah cup. And once Ravi Shastri visited Trivandrum for a match while I was in college. I forgot the year. But some of our girls visited him in his hotel room and that was a scandal! I still remember the bickering and snickering behind their backs. How dare they visit a hotel to see a cricketer!

I think the whole country and the Indians all over the world are celebrating. Yesterday we watched on TV the crowd in front of a shop at Calicut. It could have been half a stadium!

Blood Diamond

Finally finished watching Blood Diamond yesterday. A superb movie! Wonderful acting and great originality.

I don’t know if this had any impact on all the movie goers but I am sure only the hard hearted can get out of the theatres without any difference.

Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea on the north and Liberia on the south, with the Atlantic Ocean on the west. The name Sierra Leone was adapted from the Portuguese name for the country: Serra Leoa, literally "Lion Mountain Range". During the 18th century Sierra Leone was an important center of the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans.

The movie portrays the Diamond smuggling amid the civil war during the period 1991 to 2002.

In one scene when Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou enters a village strewn with dead bodies they meet a guy who still seems concerned. He asks them if they are lost and then rambles on. He wonders if diamonds could do this to a country, what if oil is ever discovered!

It also brings one point through Solomon. He says he can understand the outsiders doing thus to the country but not their own people. And another fact, if one has no unity within one’s own country then it is sure to be trampled upon by greedy blood suckers.

I guess Africa still has child soldiers which happens to be the worst part. Even a matured person cannot live a normal life after a war so imagine a child! So does Sri Lanka among the Tamil Tigers. This is the worst crime against humanity.

Now there is peace in Sierra Leone.... let us pray that it continues...