AND THATS ME.....

A "specialist" in love at first sight, the Aries man falls in love immediately and does not take no for an answer, nor he accepts tarrying. He fancies thousands of plans including the chosen of the moment and he does it with sincerity.

It’s an adventure to date an Aries man. The chosen one can have all the joy she wants and sometimes even more. Her satisfactions with an Aries man are numerous, although living by his side can sometimes look like a bowling game with grenades instead of balls. Caught in a bustle in which everything happens by one hundred km per hour, the Aries man’s partner can feel overwhelmed and she has to be very fit not to feel exhausted.

Nagpur:
A dream debut. A fairytale ending.
Sadly, it didn’t exactly turn out that way. Sourav Ganguly was just 15 runs away from a perfect ending to his gripping but tumultuous career when a thin edge came along and stole his thunder.
But then isn’t that how the Sourav story has unfolded over the last 17 years? How could it end without a touch of bitter-sweet irony? The irony, like it has always been in his case, doesn’t end here though; in fact, it might not really be all over yet.
Yes, the virgin track here at the new VCA stadium, true to form, has already swayed from one extreme mood to the other: after being all lovey-dovey towards batsmen on the first day, she showered her affection on spinners just after lunch.
By the evening, though, she went back to her first love; so now you can’t be sure who she will eventually grant her favours too. It is, therefore, quite possible that Ganguly would get another shot at completing his fairytale. After all, isn’t he the original destiny’s child?
Indeed, right from the beginning, Ganguly has been a man of second chances. He made his international debut in 1992 but was immediately sent back to his palace: there was no place for the Maharaja among the commoners.
Four years later, though, he came back and made his dream debut in Tests; his magical timing and divine drives catapulted him into the elite class straightaway. But then, equally quickly, bowlers noted his hate-hate relationship with bouncers.
Even as vicious rumours were spreading, Ganguly was carving a place for himself elsewhere: in Onedayers. With severe restrictions on the use of short-pitched deliveries here, he used his hand-eye superiority to reinvent himself. Soon, he became the other part of a formidable opening pair with Tendulkar.
By 2000, Indian cricket had been through a catharsis. Shortly after Tendulkar’s misadventure with captaincy, Azharuddin came back to the helm; but then, the match-fixing scourge emerged from its dark alleys.
Tendulkar, then, had another torrid affair with the crown before he gave it away.
Dravid was in the race too but then Ganguly, really, is the man with all the chances. He took over and breathed a new life, and a new fighting spirit, into the team. Steadily, he created a mean machine and India were winning matches abroad too; almost inevitably, he became the country’s most successful captain.
The black clouds were, however, gathering again. Entrapped in a destructive cocoon created by himself, he was soon scampering for runs, form and friends. As irony would have it, the one man who he thought would help him, turned against him.
As the fight with Greg Chappell spilled over, Ganguly found himself in the black corner: alone, bitter and exposed. Eventually, he was haunted out of the team, and seemingly, there was no way back. Only that nobody realized the power of his second chance.
As the Indian run-machine sputtered in South Africa, the selectors turned to him again. After a dramatic, and not so welcome return, he rediscovered his form, friends and appetite for short-pitched bowling.
It wasn’t easy but he braved through this tough phase with grit and steadfastness.
On Friday, as he battled for his fairytale finish, he displayed the same grit and determination all over again. He took his time to re-gauge the pitch and recover the middle of his bat; once that was achieved he went about looking for his elegance and beautiful shots.
As the day progressed, he found most of them: a delicate breeze through the covers, a soaring six over long on, delicate flicks, glances and a couple of late cuts too. In the end it was a virtuoso display, nearly reminiscent of the old Ganguly.

It’s just so ironic that the fairytale ending eluded him; maybe, it is just the beginning of something equally beautiful...............

From TOI

Nagpur:

At exactly 3.45 pm, with 22 overs still to go, the languid partnership between Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman came to an abrupt end. By now, the VCA stadium, looking like a colossal but haunted spacecraft, had already yielded half of its light to shadows.
As the drinks trolley ambled towards the pitch, the yawns stopped midway and gave in to excited murmurs; but the stands, awash in their brand new blues, reds, greens and oranges, were depressingly empty. Maybe, cities don’t travel to their outskirts for Test cricket anymore.
Eventually, Sourav Ganguly stepped out of the players’ enclosure: he was fashionably late again. Luckily, it was the mandatory break and the clock was not ticking away; anyway, neither Steve Waugh was waiting nor Ricky Ponting frothing yet to spark up the moment.
Ganguly took a couple of slow and calculated steps and, like always, looked up towards the skies; he hunted out the sun, made eye contact. And blinked. Who knows this could be his last innings as India’s batsman; after all, there is no guarantee that there would be a second chance on this comatose pitch.
Suddenly, his walk picked up pace. Even from behind, he looked perkier than he has ever done; the muscles rippled in his half-sleeved shirt; the red bandana, symbolizing his fighting spirit, peeped out of his helmet. Clearly, he hasn’t stopped waking up early or working on his fitness yet. The empty stands miraculously found a voice and rah-rahed him.
Ganguly walked up to Tendulkar and exchanged a partners-in-crime smile. The little master-blaster, already into his nineties, was trying his best to gift another debutant his wicket. Luckily, he failed in both his attempts, and after a painfully long battle with himself, made it to his 40th Test century.
In the meantime, like always, Sourav tested the patience of the Aussies: he took his own time to study the pitch and to take guard. A slip, a silly-point and a forward shortleg surfaced in response. Luckily, it was the debutant spinner (Jason Krejza) on attack. Full ball, near his feet. No worries.
Next over, Mitchell Johnson attacked his leg side. But the track had already shown that it had neither pace nor bounce to lose any appetite for runs. Ganguly flicked it gingerly towards mid-wicket. Single. It wasn’t going to be the secondmost famous last match duck (assuming there is no second chance).
Three overs later, he flicks a full toss wide of mid-on. He makes a mad dash for a single, even though an easy one was there for the taking; well, he has never been a great judge between the wickets. Eventually, he punched one through covers, thumped the new ball to the squareleg boundary and lofted the spinners high into the air.
There was, however, no sign really of the divine drive, or magical timing. But as the shadows lengthened, serenity descended over him; he looked at peace with his batting and the footwork seemed sublime too. He stayed unbeaten on 27 at stumps, with India well poised at 311 for five.
Tomorrow is, of course, another day. We will surely see all the strokes, through the off and on, that made him so special over the years. He has this uncanny ability to convert a wonderful platform into a grand occasion too; so don’t be surprised if he does exactly that and makes his farewell Test truly memorable.