IPL-5 Fever

Disappointment writ large on the faces of our cricket aficionados as Team Mumbai crashed out of the Indian Premier League (IPL) yesterday. Before the exercises Bapu Rane, Srichand Arora, Bhaswati Bose, Yusuf Rassiwala and above all, Vijay Bhatt (bottom right) mulled over what could have gone wrong for their favourite team. While everyone conceded that the better team had won, Rane insisted that Tendulkar and Co had “eaten money” to throw away their wickets. Yusuf was all praise for the hurricane knock of Team Chennai skipper, M.S.Dhoni. “They deserved to win,” he opined.
The IPL fever will continue for another three days – till the final, this Sunday. Yesterday’s semi-final fixture lasted till late in the night and had its inevitable fallout at the Garden this morning. But despite the mass absenteeism, the crazy capers and tomfoolery which accompany our exercises were not lacking. Nahid Khan had to issue a stern warning to Shekhawat, “Do not disturb!”, but to little effect.
Shekhawat was in an incredibly buoyant mood as he went around announcing that he had hit the magic figure of 30 for the Kashmir trip. The last booking was yesterday, for his daughter, Kiran Rathore. Much as Mumtaz Jahan urged him to carry on the good work, he said the list had been frozen because any further railway booking would get into the Waiting List. Besides, air fares have shot up to prohibitive levels. He handed Mumtaz Rs20,000 as advance for blocking 15 rooms in Hotel Paradise at Srinagar for our group.
Subsequently, Arora read out the text of a Declaration every Kashmir-bound member will have to sign. It states inter-alia that the members are going at their own volition, risk and expense and nobody shall be held responsible for any mishap or untoward incident; that necessary precautions including fitness check-up and medication would be taken individually; that everyone would be morally bound to take care of one another, etc. etc.
Today also happened to be the birthday of Hem Chand Jain (above left). He turned 83. Although he did not show up, this is wishing him many more years of good health, peace and prosperity. Many happy returns of the day to you, Jain-sa’ab!