Stratergies of the teams in DLF Cup

West Indies with two wins in the series are already through to the final. Australia did not field their key players stating a rotation policy and lost to West Indies so that they could play them in the final. That’s the Australian Strategy.
At the start of 5th ODI, West Indies vs. India, Lara sits down for a quick team strategy with his Coach.
Lara : These idiotic Ausies lost to us hoping that they will play us in the finals instead of India.
Coach: This is where we need to cash in. What if we lose to India today and India comes to the final.
Lara : Cool.. That is a nice plan and if India somehow wins against Ausies then we can beat them in the final as they never will win a final. Whole world knows this.
Coach : Excellent.
The coach instructs the bowlers to give away lots of runs so that they can lose. To everyone’s surprise, Indians keep losing wickets and get all out for a paltry 161 runs.
In the dressing room Lara and the Coach were completely shocked and do not know what to do now. Gayle comes up to them and says we still have some hope. Let me not go on and open the innings, in that case we will win the game in the first 15 overs. Let us get all out and lose the game.
Lara is very relieved with the plan and sends his guys into bat. To his disappointment, the first time opening pair puts up 40 without any loss of wickets.
At the session break, Chanderpaul tells Lara lets all get out irrespective of what the Indians do, the Indians does not even know to act as if they are putting up a brilliant fight back. As agreed the West Indian batsmen gets out one by one and both Lara and Gayle decide to sit back so that this time the Indians do not screw up their plans. Finally, the Indians manage to win the game by 16 runs.
At the end of the game, Lara gets a chance to speak with Dravid without being noticed by anyone.
Lara: aree Valu…… you guys should have beaten us with a bonus point. Why did you guys mess up with the chance…
(Dravid very upset with Lara explains)
Dravid : You guys have screwed all my happiness. Before this game, Chappell and I came up with a team strategy. Chappell said let us make it plain and simple. We are losing against the West Indies so that we will not make it to the finals. Otherwise, we have to fight hard in the next game against Australia, which by default we are going to lose. I readily agreed and the meeting lasted for about 30 seconds. And you guys lost and have put us in a horrible position. Now we have to act and fight in the next game as if we are putting in all our efforts to win the game. You know how hard we tried not to make your team all out for 129 so that we wont have the bonus point..
(Lara is stunned with the Indian team strategy)

Laghe Raho Lalu Bhai....

Lalu Prasad Yadav. The first thing that comes to mind when you hear this name is the Fodder scam. This is a scam on the funds meant for cattle fodder. He was one of the most corrupt politicians and one of the main reasons for setback in the development of Bihar. He was sent to jail about 5 times on this case and the biggest mockery of all, he installed his wife who never even had proper education as the Chief Minister of Bihar. Thats Lalu in the past.
Today he stands tall in his achievement for the financial turaround of the Indian Railways. When he took over as the Minister from Nitish Kumar every news paper in the country had written him off and said that Indian Railways will bite the dust soon. Even I was puzzled when the Government gave in to his demands and handed over the deperatment to Lalu. According to reports Indian Railways was set to hit Rs. 61,000 by 2015. But after Lalu took over as the Railway Minister recent reports suggest that it has made a revenue of 110 Billion Rs for the financial year. He did not raise any of the fares but rather reduced the AC fares and concentrated on Freight which contributed in bulk to the revenue. He brought in loads of new trains and stations to Bihar but also introduced new trains in other parts of India. Revoked some tenders(food and book stalls) that never changed hands after the British left India. Now has come up with the suggestion of bringing in Vegetable outlets at the station which would directly benefit the farmers. Promoted E-Ticketing which is very convenient. I guess there was a plan to introduce booking through SMS.
One can argue all these things did not take place over night and Lalu is not solely responsible for all these turnarounds. But he made some important administrative decisions that caused the Railways to make profit when it was making huge loss all along. From being in the bussiness of corruption for all these years and bringing in some nice initiative is heart warming. I am not saying that he did not do any corruption after he took over the ministry. For a political system such as in India it is not entirely possible to be devoid of corruption when you are at such a level. That day is still far far ahead. But it is alright to take the commission but do some thing good for the people. That is much better than flundering all the money without doing any good.
The biggest surprise of all is that Lalu gave a lecture at IIM-A, the most prestigious and sought after Institute in India. This itself speaks for the achievement of this man. So we cant say that politicians are always destined to be corrupt and do no good for the country. They can take lead from Lalu by staying a little less corrupt and doing a little more good for the Country!!!!!!

Ear Ring..

Tonight is the night on which I am gonna fly for the first time. Going for an official trip to Denmark. Not feeling much of the tension as I was very much occupied for the past two or three days with a lot of work mainly shopping. You wont beleive if I say that I had to go for a quick shopping today evening. Hardly had spent any time thinking about my travel. Dad and Mom along with my friends have come to give me a warm sendoff. But soon it turned out to be little damp as Mom turned emotional and I convinced her saying that I will take proper care of myself and will call them often. I left my Blazer and Jacket with my parents and said will collect it after check-in. My comedy of errors started right at check-in. Got the boarding passes after checking in and walked towards the immigration department. There was a strong urge that something is missing and as I am looking around I felt that the people at check-in were looking at my direction. Oh my God how stupid I am to leave my Passport in the trolly at the check-in counter. Got my breath back only after I was able to find the trolly that I used and there is my passport, assuring that I am taking the flight.
After a huge sigh of relief, filled in the form and approached the immigration officer. He had a brief look and then on stamping my Passport he asked me to board the flight. Wait a minute. I still have more than an hour to board my flight. I need to bid my parents and friends and more than that have to get my blazer and jacket back. But the opicer tells me dont you know that once you have the immigration done you are not permitted to go out. Oh man I am screwing things up at the last moment. After pleading him for some time the opicer directs towards another senior opicer who is in a cabin at some distance. After a short melodrama saying that its my first fliying experience and I am not aware of the rules the kind enough old man lets me to go get my things back. Oooof.... why me.. why me... After some final words boarded the flight.
Am quiet thrilled as I approach my seat. There is a pretty young girl sitting in the centre of the three seat side and by her side is her Mom. Here is the first indication that I am travelling abroad. No Indian mother will sit at the side leaving her young girl to sit near a Guy. What if the guy rapes her while travelling!!! I always get annoyed when I go for a movie and as I take my seat the couple interchage their seats. Never will their mindsets change. As the flight gets ready to take off Aunty said Hi to me. That is the time I had a good look at the girl by my side and she must be in her high school and looked pretty pretty. Helped them to put their baggage on top and closed the shutters. The little man in me said this is the time to cash in and start making good friends. Have had a lot of similar oppurtunities when I travel back home from college but never made friends with the girl sitting opposite to me. My superstitious mind also said that this time things will be different as the girl is sitting by my side . Aunty said that they are travelling to Germany. Smiled at the girl as I was speaking to the aunty but she did not notice as she was feeling very anxious.
The little man kept encouraging me saying its all in the game. He nudged me saying you are just gonna have a chat with her during the flight and what makes you feel so apprehensive about that. Then I said to him after some time aunty will be sleeping and then I can try making some progress with the girl. I took some snaps through the glass window at the beautiful sight of the city below and the twinkling stars in the dark sky. After some time I turned towards the twinkling star by my side, OMG she had dozed off. Then the little man scolded me for sometime and then said dont give up they will be serving dinner in sometime and she will wake up for it.
I was feeling very sleepy after a long day but the guy kept me awake for a shot at speaking to the girl. Finally they started serving Dinner and my happiness was screwed when the girl told her Mom that she will skip dinner as she is not feeling hungry and slept again. Had dinner without much interest. Kept myself awake for a long time but only in vain as the cutie kept sleeping on n on.. Finally she woke up in the morning and then I still had some hope of making friends with her. Waited for sometime to make a move and suddenly noticed her wearing her headset and then only I noticed they were screening a movie. What on earth she is going to do with a earphone for a tamil movie. Ya they were screening Sandaikozhi movie and I was totally wondering what is she trying to listen. My patience was getting to the limits and every vein of mine urged me to pluck the head set from her and wanted to pluck and throw away the headset. Tried watching the movie but dozed off after some time.
Woke up after some time and the announcement was made that the flight will be landing in about an hour. Lost all the hope and was looking at the clouds through the window and then I noticed the girl doing something with her watch. Then I realised and adjusted the time in my watch to match the current time zone. The girl was working on her watch for quiet sometime now and then I realised that this is the time for me to cash in. Just when I was about to ask her whether I can help her she gave her watch to me and requested me to set the appropriate time. It was pretty obvious from the way she spoke that she was not fluent in English and from her accent anyone can find out that she is french. It was a digital watch and had a few buttons. I thought that it would be easy for me to work it out as I am an expert with electronic gadgets. Tried a few combinations with the buttons and nothing seemed to work out. Realised that she was peeping into find out what I am doing. That drove me mad as it is obvious now that I could not figure out how to adjust the time. Even tried to press all the buttons in the watch and nothing seemed to work. Had a deep breadth and starred at the watch for a moment then my instinct said I can do it as this is the right moment and then I pressed something and Alas the time changed. A bit more struggle and I set the appropriate time and gave back the watch to her with a wide grin. She thanked me and said her Mom something. She must be explaining her mom about my heroics. Felt as if I had captured a terrorist who was planning to hijack the plane. Was literally flying on the Clouds :).
After rehearsing for a couple of times on what to speak to the girl, and when I was about to make my move the girl became restless and started searching frantically for something. She then asked me whether I had seen one of her ear rings. She also showed me the other one and then her mom was very upset. That ear ring looked very normal and I was wondering what was all this fuss about the ear ring. Looked for the missing one all around and took off the seats but only in vain. Then the air hostess came in for assistance and they searched for the missing one all over the plane. She grew so upset and then never spoke a work with her Mom and not to mention me. All my plans blew into pieces... And all For want of an Ear ring :(