When I saw Raj Thackeray..........

Raj Thackeray, being Idol for Youth, naturally I am also his follower. His work for Marathi people, his 'to-the-point' speeches attract me a lot. I was really searching for the event where, at least, I can get the glimpses of Raj.

One such event was scheduled on Monday 19th July.2010 @ Sinhgad road, opening of Marathi/ English school.

It was Monday morning, I came from the Gym and was thinking about whether should I attend Raj's programe or not , who was coming for school opening @ Sinhgad road.

Actually I was reminding myself about this event since last two days, I had put reminder for this event too.I was not firm on whether to go or not, but then I decided and started getting ready.

The program was scheduled @ 11:00am but I reached there @ 11:15am.When I reached the spot, on main road Police were doing the job of checking and controlling the traffic. Still Raj (Saheb) was yet to come. (I think Politician have habit of 'not to start the program on time'.) The personal security was placed in the lane, in which the school building was located. All personal security guards were dressed in Back color T-shirts and Black-colored Jeans, all were Young chaps with proper Muscular built. Felt great to see this kind Security.

I had to wait there for 10min or so and the people started shouting as the Vehicles started entering into the lane, I started searching for the Raj's vehicle. And then I noticed a Huge LAND CRUISER coming into the lane, Yes that was The Raj Thackeray, on the co-driver seat. The Cruiser stopped at the entrance of the school building and I ran towards it. The Body guards cleared the area around and then Raj got out of it.OH god, Raj was just a couple meters from me, I could see him, face to face. Since so many months I was eager to see him, to hear his speech live and yes I was doing that. Got the glimpses of him. He was in White Salwar-Kurta, Black goggle ( A 'Typical' Politician :~) ). People were grabbing every inch of the space in that area to take a look at this person.They were shouting,firework was on, school children were playing Dhol-Tasha, Lazim was on too, everybody was with full of enthusiasm when they saw Raj. What a PERSON !

What a personality, What a popularity this man has gain. What position he has achieved in short span of time. AMAZING !!!!! I was stunned. It feels great when you see your hero in front of you. AWESOME !!!!!!!!

Raj went upstairs, did the formalities to announce the opening of the school, shared his thoughts with the crowd, had tea and finished the program. When he came downstairs, he gave some time for his fans to click the snaps, who were very much eager to capture this moment through the lenses, so that they could cherish it.

While getting into the Cruiser, he stood on the footstep and Waved towards the crowd, OH ! a perfect Balasaheb Thackeray style and crowd was screaming and Raj left the venue.

For those 20-25 min that area was with full of energy. What "Karizma" a person can do on the people around him, I got the experience of it, which I don't want forget.

WORTH spending the TIME !!!!!

T20 Performance......need to give a thought.....

As expected.........INDIA knocked down in West Indies........out of T20 world cup in Super8.

In last match, even after loosing two matches back to back, we had some hope of entering into Semis. We had good start too,but could not capitalize on it and SriLanka as expected threw us out of the tourney.

The short bouncer was the weapon used against us which we could not defend. Australia and West-Indies used that weapon at right time and got rid of our batsmen at right intervals, which costs us the tournament.

There was a factor of IPL too behind this defeat. Recently finished IPL might have taken energy out of the player. Even, most the pitches on which IPL matches were played were helping batsman to score freely. Because this reason, even the score 200+ was also chased easily.

Another reason, which has resulted into pathetic performance of the Indian team, might be the after-match-parties which players were enjoying. There are some "so -called" gr8 players in the team who have enjoyed these kind of parties even after the defeat. Isn't this strange?? How serious are these players @ the Team, their place in National team and their performance?

I don't want to blame the players only because we lost the tournament,but I must say players should be aware of their responsibilities. All the young players should not get carried away with the couple wins in the series.

Young players should look at the characters, performances of the Players like Sachin, Dravid,Kumble,Ganguly. These 4 players have got tremendous success in their Cricketing life,still these players are Down-to-Earth. They are successful, but modest. They are enjoying, but on the ground and not off the field. They are making news by performing on the field but not behaving rudely/shamelessly off the field.I suggest, if our young players pick few qualities of these 4 players then also we can build a strong and solid team.

IPL match.....from stadium

20^th March 2010..…Saturday..….IPL Match No.14….RCB v/s MI…….unforgettable experience in my life, as I watched the match LIVE @ Brabourne stadium, Mumbai.

Being a Fan of cricket and also die Hard Fan of Rahul Dravid, D Wall, this time I had decided to watch the match LIVE, and that too, if possible, of RCB.

My younger brother, Pranav, is also a Huge fan of Jammy and my cousins follow Sachin, the Little master, badly. When all of us decided to go for IPL match and were going through the schedule, unanimously we decided to watch the encounter-RCB v/s MI……….reason as you know……we would be able to see our Heroes playing live, in front of us.

Once this decision was done, we started of with ticket booking. And thanks to Online ticket booking through which we got our seats booked in just few clicks. So, half of the work, of ticket booking, was done by my cousins, Mandar and Madan. The remaining work, of logistics, was pending, which I completed couple of days prior to the match. So we all (8 people) were set to go for the match.

Now we started doing some more preparations for the match. And here was a surprise for me. My wife, Anagha, gifted me the Jersey of RCB. That’s great! With Jersey for myself I was done from my side. The next day, Pranav purchased RCB jersey for himself. Saturday morning, the match day, my cousins went for hunt for MI jersey and mission was successful for them. Even Bhargav, my nephew, got MI jersey. Pranav did the placards for the match. One for Sachin and One for D Wall.

On Saturday, since morning I was eawaiting for 2’o clock, because that was the time given for our driver.

We started @ around 2:30pm. Since I was very much worried about the roads and the flyovers of Mumbai, I got detail route to the stadium and landmarks en route. Thanks to Google maps! Till Vashi, route was familiar but then we started taking help of taxivallas for confirming the route. Surprisingly, all taxivalls answered us in HINDI; we were asking them in MARATHI though. :~( As we came near to stadium everybody got charged up. It was great feeling. We searched for the parking slot, parked the vehicle, gave some instructions to driver and went off for Pet-Puja.

Having fuelled ourselves sufficiently, quickly we went to the entrance of the stadium. Going through the security checks, we entered the stadium. OH DEAR, that was amazing atmosphere I had ever experienced. We got our faces painted and quickly got seated on our seats. Lush green outfield, stadium full of spectators, everybody cheering for Sachin………WOW....…it was awesome. (And to our surprise, RCB cheerleaders were right in front of us….oh la la la le o……). What an atmosphere. On that day, I experienced the meaning of “Atmosphere is electrifying”

MI won the toss and batted first and put modest total on board.Finally Kallis, Uthappa made the win easy for RCB. Dravid couldn't get the chance for batting, but we witnessed the stunning catch taken by him @ Mid-wicket.

As the match finished and we were going out of the stadium, at that time Madan noticed that the door to the stadium was opened. We walked on the outfield, felt the dew on it. when we were @ MI's dug-out we could get the snaps of Dhaval Kulkarni.And then we were stunned when we took Jonty Rhodes autograph.

Finally we came out of the stadium and went to Marine Drive.Had some Pet-puja there. even @ 1AM there was traffic on road and lot of people were out on marine drive. "This City never sleeps"....Really true........

Then it was a journey back home with most of the members sleeping and we had to keep ourself awake for the sake of driver .... It was @ 4:30 in the morning when we returned.

Overall it was Fantastic experience of IPL. And I must say, every cricket FAN must have this kind of experience in his pocket.........at least Once.