Semi Pics

Yesterday's match was epic. EPIC. I was falling asleep in the middle of the second innings after one too many beers, but then Chamara Silva, for reasons known only to him, confused a real match with batting practice and provided us with a real nail-biter. The crowd went from happily celebrating, to quiet, to worried, to enraged during his short stint at the crease. It got to the point where we were on our feet screaming every time he got one measly run with the greatest difficulty. I can't remember the last time I was that stressed out. You have to give it to the crowd though; even while they were furious, yelling for Silva to play or get out, both literally and figuratively, they were still behind the team, trying to rejuvenate Silva with cheers and build up the energy.

In the end though, it all turned out ok, thanks to some smart playing by Mathews. Watching Murali bowl his last over in epic style with that final wicket, and Malinga clean-bowling Guptil, and Sanga playing a superb knock and finally, watching the team celebrate and walk their victory lap around the grounds was well worth the hassle and crappy non-seats we had. We were basically sitting right behind a column that split the pitch in half. So we'd lean to the right to watch the bowler, then left to watch the shot. LOL. But all's well that end's well.

I hope today's India-Pak semi will be as epic. I was initially rooting for Pakistan to go through to the finals but after some thought, given their erratic and unpredictable performance and that manic gleam in Afridi's eye, I think it might be safer to play India in the final. (If you haven't read this espn article, read it now) All I do know is that if our middle order slows down like it did yesterday, either team will be merciless in capitalizing on it in the finals. Do I think we have what it takes to win the final? Maybe. We sure want it enough.

 Murali's last over

 Legend

 eerie skies

 The win!

 

Victory lap

a standing ovation

celebrations on the street

of Reading- update

I have just got to the interesting part of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the part you all were talking about, that you can't put down. In fact, I am 1.5 hours late to work because I couldn't stop reading. But here's the freaky bit. So I get to [spoiler alert] the part about the bible verses, and my room goes nuts. The windows were open and out of nowhere this freaky wind gushes in and my curtains start flapping and the door bangs and the skies darken.. and I'm sitting in bed shivering. It was right out of a horror movie. 

I'm always nervous when reading/watching anything to do with the Bible. I've never actually read it so it's probably because it's always featured in horror movies. All the blood and the killing and the persecution and evil chills me. I watched The Exorcist in the middle of the afternoon and still freaked out. Don't even get me started on The Omen.

So. I hereby pledge not to read this book unless it's broad daylight and there is at least one other person in the house.

World Cup Fever

On the eve of the semi-final match against NZ, I thought I'd write a quick post on the matches so far. I wouldn't call myself a cricket fan, but I know a slip and a cover drive when I see one so I get by. I am, however, a big Sri Lankan cricket fan so I have, of course, been religiously following our matches, and to my surprise, quite a few of the other matches as well; this world cup has had quite a few thrillers.

Through no foresight of my own, and thanks largely to my cricket-loving uncles and aunts who purchased tickets months ago, I and by extension the boyfriend, have managed to attend quite a few matches for free. That's us rocking the blue and yellow.

The matches themselves have been tons of fun. There's beer, giant hotdogs, music, annoying horns and plastic things you bang together (the creator of which should be tied up and made to listen to a soundtrack of a small child banging those damn things together for 8 hours non-stop) and other assorted funnery. We ran into old 'zeez abusing his media pass pretending to take pictures and colleagues and friends. There were wigs and face paint and drunk guys and silly posters. The atmosphere really is quite the experience; the lack of which I sadly experienced, having accompanied my father to the corporate box for the SL-Aus game, which got rained on, and having to watch Upper A erupt into some kind of rain-street-dance party from my forlorn existence in an ac'd, soundproof box. The free beer and dinner buffet barely made up for it. :B

Some negatives however:

• I'm not sure what's going on with the papare bands. Are they allowed in or not? During the Pak game we had one in our stand; but yesterday's match didn't have one. I couldn't tell if they were there in any other stands. In my previous experiences, there's been a band in every stand. What I do know is that the 30 seconds of music they randomly blare over the loudspeakers throughout the match is supremely uncool. If they think that is any substitute for a real, live papare band, they are sadly mistaken. All that happens during that 30 seconds is that the drunk guys and the teenagers stand up, shake their booty and then awkwardly flop back into their seat when the music ends mid-shake. Rinse and repeat over a 100 overs.

• The plastic bands they now make us wear after our tickets have been checked. Peeps, that's a lot of plastic. 35,000+ bands per every match at Kettarama, plus however many thousands in Bangladesh and India if it's carried out there too. All un-reusable once it has been cut off. An easy alternative is paper, the kind they use in clubs that can't be torn off. Make the change!

• The black marketing of the tickets. Capitalism at it's finest, ensuring that all the fans who can't afford exorbitant prices are left crowding around tvs on the street. I would understand, kinda, if it were just the people on the street doing it. You wake up early and stand in line for a couple hours, it's understandable that you sell it to a stranger for a couple extra bucks for your time and effort. But black marketing from within the board is such a blatant violation of all that is fair and right. For shame. I hope they catch, fine and fire all you dastardly dogs. 
 

With all that said though, it is exciting that we've made it this far.  We didn't really look like champions in the initial stages, but Saturday's match may (I hope) have been a turning point. I must say I was surprised to see so many cheering for India over the Aussies, given that playing the Indians on their home turf will probably be much harder than playing the Aussies. My cheering, you see, is very strategic. Of course the next semi is the hardest choice. I detest the Pakistanis, but I don't want us playing India in the final. So I will be a silent spectator.  I leave you with pictures.

How often do you see that?

WMC Women's Photography Exhibition

Do come. I'm told quite a few of our resident bloggers will be showcasing their work.

127 Hours

 In a bid to increase my writing reflexes which are quite rusty at the mo, I am trying to write up short posts as and when they happen. I watched 127 Hours yesterday, and after baring witness to a slew of horrifyingly bad movies, (re: the Green Hornet, Gnomeo and Juliet) it was a relief to find myself completely and utterly captivated for 90 minutes.

I won't call spoiler alert on this review because the story of Aron Ralston is already pretty famous. Ralston, a mountaineer, gets trapped under a boulder in a canyon in Utah. To save himself he cuts off his arm which is trapped under the boulder. These are the facts, and you might think it makes for a pretty boring one-man show, but Danny Boyle, with some masterful cinematography and James Franco's gaunt face, turns it into a fantastic retelling, both beautiful and gruesome at the same time.

After Franco's pitiful performance at the Oscars and then seeing him in Green Hornet, I was not keen on seeing something he had acted in. But I read this review months ago and was curious. Suffice to say, he really proved his acting chops. As you watched his chapped lips and desperate eyes, it was easy to feel his quiet panic, his despairing attempts to not completely lose it.

Switching between memories, hallucinations and reality, Boyle keeps us on the edge for what we know is coming, yet don't really want to believe, only to end in an exhilarating 20 minute climax. At one point, both my sister and I were peeking through our fingers and screaming at the sheer grossness of what we were witnessing. At the end, when you stumble out of the canyons with Franco, your nerves are in shreds and you feel as if you endured every second of the ordeal with him; you were there, in his head, watching from outside. At the end, when it cuts to a shot of the real Ralston with his family, you want to quietly sob with relief. And you are left, finally, with the question: what would you have done?

A gem of a movie. A feast for the eyes and the psyche. 4.75 stars.

What will your verse be?

We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. 

 Professor Keating in 'Dead Poet's Society

A short post to mark World Poetry Day.  It is one of my  loves; I read it, I quote it, I dabble in it.  During some of the darkest days of last year, a book of poems kept me sane. Currently I'm on a quest to find The Essential Rumi; if you know where I can get it, do tell.

I always find that I keep gravitating towards love poems. Maybe it's because I read the same poets over and over again, maybe it's because I'm secretly an incurable romantic. Regardless, some of my faves, in no particular order:

one of my favorite poets, e.e. cummings

i carry your heart with me

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart) 

since feeling is first

since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you; 

wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world 

my blood approves,
and kisses are a better fate
than wisdom
lady i swear by all flowers. Don't cry
- the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids' flutter which says 

we are for each other; then
laugh, leaning back in my arms
for life's not a paragraph 

And death i think is no parenthesis

~~~

 

A poem about longing. At a time when I was missing someone so much it seemed like a physical pain, Shakespeare knew what I was on about.

Sonnet 97

How like a winter hath my absence been
From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!
What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen!
What old December's bareness every where!
And yet this time removed was summer's time,
The teeming autumn, big with rich increase,
Bearing the wanton burden of the prime,
Like widow'd wombs after their lords' decease:
Yet this abundant issue seem'd to me
But hope of orphans and unfather'd fruit;
For summer and his pleasures wait on thee,
And, thou away, the very birds are mute;
   Or, if they sing, 'tis with so dull a cheer
   That leaves look pale, dreading the winter's near. 

~~~

One of my favorite poems by one of our very own blogger cum poets :) Check out more gems here, like this, which was too long to post here. 

muse abuse

you are my muse

my tormentor, yes you

with every bad news

you bring

i will reproduce

in verse. recycle, reuse

the trash you pile so freely

into a crown of lilies

or a song in

jazz and blues.

so go on and wound

me. i'll lick them

and salt them too

pain to pen to paper

in poetry i will gain

my losses to you.

~~~

There's obviously a million more, including all the wonderful spoken word poets. But don't take my word for it; do yourself a favour and go read a poem :)

of reading

I have woefully fallen out of the habit of reading. Even when I do read, I mostly just re-read old faves. Currently I'm recycling Round the Clock Stories by Enid Blyton  and Anne of Green Gables like nobody's business. But what I'm valiantly trying to read is Girl with a Dragon Tattoo, the one with the rave reviews. Thus far it's slow going. Some of the paragraphs are awkward and the characters seem out of joint, which I suspect is due to the translation. But I'm soldiering on. I have even set aside an hour in the morning, during which I do not turn my computer on, and instead get a cup of tea and read in bed. It is actually a great way to start the day.

To further my reading habit, I have set up a small challenge for myself on Goodreads, 30 books by the end of the year. G, supportive as always, says I'll never do it, but I'm 2.5 books in so we'll just see about that! 

Vincibility

Being caught in a tsunami is one of my recurring nightmares; so watching videos, looking at pictures of a real, live one gives me immense jitters. Since Friday, all I've been reading about is the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Last Friday G was in town on one of his rare visits and we were shopping and watching movies and having dinner and just enjoying our Friday evening, while a few thousand miles away, nature was wreaking havoc. Watch this video for  live footage or go here and here for pictures of the horrendous destruction in the aftermath.

It reminds you of how tiny and insignificant we are in the midst of such power. When the 2004 tsunami hit the east coast, there were no pictures, no live coverage like this. I remember visiting Galle about a month after it happened and seeing the houses, the debris and wreckage. How do we protect ourselves from something like this? If Japan, with all its technology and years of planning and engineering looks like this now, how would we, with nothing more than a tsunami warning system, look like if this happened to us. Again. Because really, what defenses are there for a giant wall of water, for the earth shifting?

It's just all very surreal, the unknown. We think we're invincible but, in the words of Kelso, the truth is, we are totally vincible.

Academia

Just wanted to jot down two interesting presentations that happened at work over the last few days.

The first was a presentation of the work done by local women's groups towards increasing women's representation in local government. The current statistics are pretty shocking:

• There are only 1.8% women in local government, which are the lower tiers of government excluding Provincial councils and Parliament. 
• Some districts like Trincomalee have a high of 16% representation, while others like Hambantota have 0%!
• The 5 major political parties and the independent parties collectively have 65 Sinhala, 13 Tamil and ONE Muslim woman in local government.

Activists are currently trying to secure a 30% quota for women in nomination lists but are facing strong opposition. The fact is, in a country with roughly 52% women, all our decisions are being made for us by men. Something to think about when voting. (More info here and here)

The second is a study being done on the fishing industry in the Jaffna peninsula and the problems faced by them: everything ranging from lack of infrastructure, reluctance of private insurance companies to cover rural class workers, extortion by large business owners, the presence of the military and high security zones, the increasing politicisation of the economy, encroachment of SL waters by Indian fishermen and the resulting dwindling of resources, competition between Northern and 'Southern' fishermen and the varied government responses to the problems faced by the two, ethnic and caste issues. The study, when it is completed, should be fascinating for anyone who's interested, since it is currently an extremely topical issue.

On a side note, it's discussions and research like this that remind me why I would never be happy in the corporate world. Fascinating work discussions ftw.

Happy Women's Day!