The frog comes out of its well

The age old story of the frog staying back in its well and considering it to be the entire world is known to most of us. And I almost enacted the frog in its behaviour for the past 30 days or so.

But today was a deviation from the story - a welcome one at that. Thanks to the ever changing schedules at my MBA course some of the students had a "field" trip today, and I was among the fortunate few. Well, fortunate in terms of getting out of college and getting to see a new place, not so much in terms of what one had to endure to do that.

The trip was divided into two parts, first we had to go to SATS - Singapore Air Terminal Services; and the second was a visit to one of the NTUC contact centers. One was left to wonder the utility of such a trip to future MBAs (our group is specializing in IT) - and everyone had her/his own views about it at the end of the day. While the presentations were as dry and dull as they could possibly be, for me it was a welcome change from the same old routine on campus - though this meant I would miss out on my daily dose of chatting with my girl-friend (she is almost my fiancee, nay, my wife).

Learning or no learning, the day was damp in most parts, with a cool breeze of air giving us the respite. The SATS personnel ended up talking about their company in general and HR practices in particular. One was amused at their novel way of defining an "in-house" IT project - they meant no development or support (that was to be done by the vendors), but since they "owned" this particular product with business users providing all the know-how of the system, they had all the legitimate rights to call it an "in-house" project!!

The mid-trip break took us to Century Square Mall, or thereabouts. A swift search for easing up our taste buds meant we spread out in little groups to find what was suitable. The vegetarians had a rough time in getting a decent meal, and the rest of us tried out the chicken and sea food with utmost delight. We were joined by some other students from the college as we left for the NTUC contact center.

Again, although the personnel in the contact center did their best in explaining the nitty-gritty's of their operations, very few of us seemed interested in their prophesies!! A pizza bite before we left back for the campus meant that I had spent the most in a single day on food after I landed in Singapore. Relax folks, history and my burgeoning waist line tells me I can break such records easily :-).

The frog finally decided to pop back to its well, but hey - isn't it cool for a frog to croak out its thoughts in the middle of the night for everyone out there? You bet it is!!

Cricket is still a funny game

This statement was reiterated all over again the past weekend in the Indo-SA test series. Indians have had a terrible time in the ODI leg of the South African tour - they have returned back to their hopeless ways of playing cricket, meaningless and without application. With a 4-0 thrashing that they received from the South Aricans in the ODI series, one feels even the best of Indian supporters gave them no chance what-so-ever to give a real fight to the opponents, let alone winning a test match in foreign soil.

History was against them (they had not won a single test match in South African soil), and so was the formbook. With a certain Saurav Ganguly returning back to add some meat (if not matter) to the middle order, one realized that the Indian cupboard is bare - with no fresh talent to grab a position in the team. Those youngsters who had been given chances were disappointing. The bowlers were performing decently, but was it enough?

Come the D-day and India decided to grit it out in their performance on field. A determined batting approach ensured a respectable total on the scoreboard with Ganguly top scoring with a patient 51 not out. But the South Africans had not anticipated what was coming at them. Awesome bowling from the Indians, primarily from Sreesanth, meant the South Africans were shot out for 84, playing out a mere 25.1 overs in all.

From then on, the Indians had to play out to the set theme - and they emerged victorious with more than 5 sessions to spare in the game. On a different part of the globe, the Australians continued their English route, and duly captured back the Ashes. But the Indians had entered a new territory, they have test victories in all the test playing nations now. And they achieved this in a period which was full of turmoils and uncertainities.

The South Africans were given a rude awakening. The roles had reversed, the hunters became the hunted...and man of the match Sreesanth saw the funnier side of it as evident here.