Cricket Mania

Vijay Bhai

With India’s spirited 76-run victory over arch rivals Pakistan in the World Cup opener at Adelaide yesterday, cricket mania has seized us nice and proper. Vijay Bhai, the face of Indian cricket in the Garden, showed up early morning with a triumphant grin, congratulating all and sundry, as though we had already won the Cup!
Srichand Arora was however, a little guarded while returning the congratulations, knowing well that the next match could well turn the odds against India. But that is what the cricket craze is all about. And there are enough crazy fans in the Garden to keep the pot on the boil for the next six weeks.

Picnic pictures on the laptop

Thereafter, we shall have the IPL fixtures. So today was just the beginning of the madness that would extend to several months.
This is not to say that the Gorai picnic last week-end has been forgotten and done with. The day-long excitement spilled over to this morning with everyone having little stories and anecdotes to narrate for those who could not join the excursion.

Harbans Kaur

And to rub in the sense of having ‘missed all the fun’, Bhaswati Bose, as usual, had her laptop full of the picnic pictures to display in the Garden. The pictures would soon be mounted in the slide-show alongside. But till then, the laptop slideshow served its desired purpose at rekindling happy memories.
Monthi Serrao looked to be particularly contrite for not joining her friends to Gorai. But she could not help it as she had received news of her father-in-law being critically indisposed and hospitalised. She opted out. Later, she was to learn that he had recovered and is fortunately better now.
But that was not to be with Harbans Kaur. She went ahead with the picnic – probably because she was the one to have initiated it. On Saturday she returned home to learn that her elder sister in Ludhiana had passed away. Tomorrow she would leave with her husband to attend her sister’s last rites. Our condolences are with her.
Lt Col Angad Singh (retd):
Cricket mania is certainly going to keep many of us glued to TV even at the cost of sleep. It is time to enjoy although we are past the age of playing cricket. It was nice of Mrs Harbans Kaur to join the picnic without revealing her grief.