As the world turns

While I have been missing from this blog, a lot has happened and at the same time nothing much has happened:

The Indian ODI cricket team is coasting along while 4 of the players who will walk in blindfolded into the team - SRT, GG, Plaha, and ZAK - are nursing their wounds or, in the case of the Golden One - enjoying a vacation with his family. So, with only 7/11ths of the team in play (and even among the 7 folks like Yuvraj are living off of potential than performance), the Indian team is displaying the schizophrenic nature that is typical of teams that are about average, which is what the ODI team is.

By the way, losing just before the World Cup is good for the Indian team. Trust me. If you don't, think 2003.

Roger Federer comes into the Fall of 2010 in an eerily similar state to where he was in 2008 - Rafael Nadal had just completed the summer double - he had been losing to everyone and their grandmother and his tennis obituary was printed and posted. In 2008, he mowed down Andy Murray to win the title. Will 2010 be a similar story? If it happens, what will people remember of 2010 - that Federer lost his stranglehold on Wimbledon and appeared mortal or that he won as many Grand Slams in this year as Nadal did?

A new batch of students have come to my College and the excitement on campus is one that I have not felt in a few years. There's a buzz in the air and classes have been a lot of fun so far, even when on the first day the computer refused to cooperate and I resorted to the old-fashioned style of lecturing.

After an inauspicious start to the cricket season (our team was bundled out for 83 in the first match), we have now won 6 of the last 8 games and are beginning to resemble the juggernaut that we were expected to be based on our dominance of the past two years. Strangely, though, it has coincided with a series of single-digit scores by me even as my wicket-keeping has improved by leaps and bounds, especially down the leg-side. As long as we win, I can deal with that, I think.

After weeks of resembling a tropical island, it has finally stopped thunderstorming and raining in Nebraska. However, the temperature has also started dropping to more manageable proportions. Maybe there's a connection between the two. Who knows which butterflies are not flapping their wings in Nicaragua to cause this to happen?!

Will we ever go back to such innocent times again, where two characters could cavort this way and no one raised eyebrows, least of all their girlfriends?