world is ..... a football!!

It is almost 12-30am. About half an hour to go to the next World Cup match. However hard you try to get work done in these "in-between" times, it almost never gets done. Having yawned through the opening matches today (astoundingly pathetic games between Spain and the Saudis and Ukraine-Tunisia) the prospect of watching the nonstarting and aged French without Zinidine Zidane, does not look too good. But it is the world cup, and a part of national duty is to ensure that we Indians remain the most passionate non-participating country ever.

A word or two about the pros and cons of watching the world's biggest festival on TV in Allahabad. ESPN which is beaming the matches live hardly seems to be on the priority list of the cable distributors here. "Brajil ka hya babu? E to UP hai!!" We in the institute atleast were getting a stolen espn channel (with pictures good enough to earn you glasses if you didnot have them) for the first few days from the local operator. Then a proper ESPN (along with Star Sports) came along and our joy knew no bounds. But wait! I have not told you about the icing on the cake. These channels come along with their own brand of Hindi commentary which runs together with the English one! It is fantastic... If you happen to pass allahabad, drop into our institute. The commentary is worth the visit!!!

(p.s.- The hin-lish now seems to restricted to Starsports only. Strange!!)