IPL, protests and a rib-tickler

Its back! Its that time of the year again when sixes stop being sixes and become DLF Maximums. When in a 3 hour cricket match, there are 150 minutes of advertisements, 22 minutes of Lalit Modi on his Blackberry, 6 minutes of dancing celebrity team owners and 2 minutes of cricket. It is the time when Ravi Shastri considers it his personal mission to be heard over 100000 fans at the Eden Gardens (not when Sachin's had his stumps uprooted, but preferably when Dada has lifted one onto the top tier). Its IPL time again! And as we kick off today between the Knight Riders and the Chargers, I cannot help noticing the sea change in attitude of KKR as promised by King Khan. For starters, to make sure that his knights will be up there at the end celebrating, SRK has cunningly collected all the confetti from the past 2 editions and stitched them up as purple and gold uniforms for his team. Presumably this will also ensure protection against their floodlight failure issues. Meanwhile just to whet people's appetites, the ICC scheduled 3 series to wean people off normal cricket and make them crave for the IPL. So we have West Indies playing Zimbabwe, England playing Bangladesh and Australia playing New Zealand. The last mentioned of which might have been more interesting had the Kiwis managed to put 11 Daniel Vettoris on the field. But nevertheless, the English ensured that there would be quality even in the most meaningless of matches. So we witnessed pie chucking of the highest order when Alistair Cook went for 111 runs in 5 overs and Michael Carberry went for 78 in 4. Now that's class (more so when you consider it was Bangladesh A doing the hitting)!
In events far removed from cricket though, the Women's Reservation Bill was finally passed in the Upper House. Amidst claims of a few more quotas, I am now pitching for my own quota- 'the quota for people with no quota'. As a sole crusader for the cause, I shall uproot railway tracks, shout slogans against nobody in particular while smiling at TV cameras and appear in a chat show alongside Barkha Dutt. Maybe that will make me a reality TV star at the least!
And in football, the Porto defence showed how bad they actually are. I mean if Nicklas Bendtner (who has difficulty putting the ball into an empty net from 2 yards out), scores a hat-trick against you, you know you can sink no lower. The vindictive person in me, though frankly enjoyed the sight of Cristiano Ronaldo leaving the Santiago Bernabeau in tears on Wednesday night. After spending money like it was going out of fashion on the triumvirate of Ronaldo, Kaka and Benzema, the Madrid Madmen failed to reach the quarters of the Champions League yet again.Oh what joy!
And finally AIESEC in MU's predilection for rib tickling names continued. And after a longish wait, along came the first TN raise. From Mr. Bhola Surender Kamath. You can snicker, you can laugh, but I can bet my Turkish kebab you cannot beat it. Congrats fellas!
So on that note, dim the lights, do not turn up the sound (unless you are in the mood for permanent hearing damage courtesy Ravi Shastri), lie back and let it rain DLF Maximums!

Amen!