Cricket

I have always been a big fan of Indian Cricket. But I also spent a couple of years in the caribbean, where I saw that the sport had a small fraction of the money Indian Cricket boasts of. I saw first hand that the players played the game for the passion of it, at around the same time when the matchfixing scandal was unfolding in India. Plus, there was the Brian Lara factor (he is undoubtedly the most elegant batter I have seen in my life). Naturally, I started liking the West Indian team as well from those years in late 90's.

My two favorite teams took on the two biggies in Cricket in their respective Boxing day tests. I was very disappointed with the performance of the Indian team. But I kinda expected it. It is very rare that our team rises up to the expectations. I guess I still had hopes in some corner of my mind. And more were kindled by Kumble's performance on day one. But the team flattered only to deceive. We lost very badly, and I do not expect us to turn it around in this series. On the other hand, The Windies played like they were possessed! They defeated South Africa in under four days, turning in a better performance than the proteas pretty much in every session of the match. That was really nice to read about. The bowlers did their job and the batters did theirs. They kept it simple, and it seemed like they had turned a corner. I hope they really continue from this start. It is good not only for the caribbean criket, but also for the world of cricket.

Lazy Week

December is the best month of the year, just to see all the festive lights, colors and to hear the Christmas carols. I'm kinda sad that the season is pretty much over already. I was too busy till the 21st to be able to enjoy it as much as I would have liked to. I did not get a chance to visit the Rockefeller Center this year to see the tree :-(

The last week has been expectedly slow, but for a hecitc Friday this past week. I have just taken it easy over the last week. I have been quietly planning and preparing for some of the upcoming work over the next couple of weeks. Other than that, I have been spending time with my friends and family, watching movies (I have seen Cars a few dozen times) and catching up on all the sleep I lost over the course of the year! I still have a couple of slow days to go before things heat up all over again. And I plan to laze around as long as I can. I do have a lot of phone calls to make over the next couple of days to wish my friends a Happy New Year!

Winter!

It wasn't until late in January last winter, that we got to see some real snow. It is just the second week of December this season, and we have seen quite a bit already. The temperatures are in teens or less, and my wife's 4WD SUV has already got stuck in snow/ice on our driveway thrice. While I have no complaints with the weather, others around me can't stop blaming it for all the problems under the sun (whom we haven't seem much of, recently). I have only one complaint. I tried to flex my muscles over the weekend, trying to shovel all of 1.5 ft of snow that had accumulated on my deck. And my back really hurts! I never knew my deck was that big!

Mitchell Report

Everyone knew that the use of performance enhancing drugs was rampant in MLB. So, what does MLB do? It goes and hires an attorney (and former senator) who is on the board of Red Sox to investigate the issue. And what a surprise does he deliver! He frames a bunch of former Yankees in his report. Are there any prominent Red Sox players in the list? Hell, No! Half of Boston expected Manny to be on the list, but no, Mitchell could not find even a single big Red Sox name to put on the list. He based his entire list off two people who confessed. One of them was a fitness coordinator with the Yankees and the other one was in a similar position with the Mets. Makes me wonder if he really tried to investigate non-NYC teams at all. Yes, I am a big Yankees fan. But I am a baseball fan first. And I really appreciated the way Red Sox played this year, and honestly tipped my hat to them. Somehow, I just cannot buy that Mitchell was unbiased in his investigation/report.

Mastercard Moment!

Daytrip to Indy: $547
Excellent Thai dinner: $20
Waking up to see my son jumping all over me: Priceless!

Couldn't help but think along those lines this morning!

Indy

I had never visited the state of Indiana. Two days ago, I had to plan a day-trip to Indianapolis for business. I was very surprised to see that NWA had direct flights between Hartford and Indy. My flight was at 7:00 AM, and I had planned to wake up at 4:00 AM. But as usual, I woke up at 1:00 AM, worked a bit and got to the airport well in time.

Indy had received a good amount of snow over the last couple of days. The white blanket seemed like a continuation of the clouds from up above. The pilot announced that the temperature was 12 degrees. The elderly gentleman sitting next to me, could not help but grin and remind me that he was on his way to FL, where it was 81 degrees. I told him politely that I was not very greedy, and that I would be content with 12, while he could enjoy all of his 80+ degrees. Oh, Indy 500 racetrack was visible just before landing.

The roads were a little messy. Speed limit was just 55, which kinda irritated me. Cops were all over the highway, making it difficult to ignore the limit. Anyway, I had a good day with the prospective client. Just when I was planning to have a good meal before getting to the airport, my cell phone got an SMS from Orbitz. The flight was delayed by a couple of hours. I took my time to google for a good Thai restaurant. I found something about 30 miles away. Since I had time to kill, I went all the way there. I had had some bad Thai food in Cali, NYC and in Vegas over the last month. And it was nice to taste some good Thai food after all that. By the time I finished my dinner, my phone buzzed again. The flight was delayed till 11:24 PM.

I am at the airport gate right now, hoping that there are no more delays. I may get home by 2:00 AM, if I am lucky.

Yawn, yawn... zzzzzzzz....

Car Rentals

I used to rent cars very frequently up to about 4 years ago, given how much I used to travel on business. Then I cut down my travel and rarely needed a rental car. But over the last month or so, I have rented a few times and the recent experiences have been totally different compared to what they used to be, earlier this decade.

First of all, the rental car companies aggressively market their "low prices" on their website and on other sites like Hotwire and Priceline. You end up feeling happy about the deals. But when you get to the rental car counter, you will notice that the rental car company reps are very aggressive in trying to make you spend money on additional insurance, a tank of gas and such things. Earlier, they used to ask "Would you like any insurance coverage, sir?". The straightforward question used to usually get a straightforward answer, "No, thanks". Now, they ask "What type of coverage would you like, sir - Basic or Comprehensive?". They make you feel as if those are the only two options available. Now, if you do not realize how they are trying to fool you, you end up spending 20-30 bucks a day, easily. When I mentioned this morning that I did not want any coverage (since I already have my insurance), the guy started talking about how I would be responsible for damages. He tried his best to scare me about the potential damages. The tone of speech makes you feel as if you are committing a big mistake. And I had heard the same spiel at least four other times over the last month, from different rental companies in different cities. I told him to just give me what I wanted.

Then he wanted me to buy a tank of gas. If I bought it from them, I could return the car with any amount of gas. If not, they would charge me at $6 a gallon. The fineprint is that if you buy a full tank of gas from them, and if you return the car with any amount of gas in it, you do not get any credit. I am yet to see an airport car rental return center, which is far from a gas station. Why would anyone buy a full tank from these morons?

My point is not really about the money that I saved by not accepting any of those options, but the way in which these companies are trying to take advantage of innocent customers. I see that people do not understand these traps, more often than not. It seems like customers have to be very careful to just hold on to their money!