Cricket, beatles and other insects

This morning while shaving, I'm looking at myself in the mirror and pretending to be Annu Malik! No, I'm not imagining myself with a receding hairline and donning a Himachali cap! But I'm making up Hindi lyrics to go with Peter Sarstedt's "Where do you go to my lovely" !

I'm humming, "Tu kittheyyyy jaandi payi hai, oye Bubbly" and thinking about Peter who was born in New Delhi of all places! And that set me off on another chain of thought. I used to research famous people, especially Englishmen, who were born in India. It was quite an interesting & ragged collection of people actually. So I would read up about them.

Now one morning I'm driving to the office listening to the fm, and there's some phone-in contest. At stake is a home theatre system for anyone who can answer 3 random question correctly. Of all the people, I'm the one who gets through to the DJ who starts asking me questions. The first question is easy (Capital of West Germany before unification). The second one (What was the age of the Queen Mother when she died?) belongs to History 101. And then the third and final question.

"Where was Colin Cowdrey, once England's captain, born?"

My mind goes completely blank. All I can think of is that divine Home Theatre system waiting for me. After an eternity of numbed thoughts swirling away in my mind, I manage to stammer,"Wales?"

The DJ with great relish (I think!) tells me that he was born in Bangalore, India. And then it strikes me with great force that I knew the damn answer! Not only knew, I had actually done some reading on MCC (Michael Colin C)!

I am still kicking myself.

Talking of MCC, he was a real character. He was recalled from retirement in the mid-70s against the Aussies when the England team fell suddenly short of a batsman, due to the ferocious deadly pace attack of Lillee and Thommo. Now picture this! This dapper propah English gentleman walks to the crease to bat and introduces himself to Thomson: "I don't believe we've met. My name's Cowdrey".

What a moment!

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This evening, on telly there's a feature on the release of the complete James Dean film collection on DVD. Considering that he worked in just 3 films....

Anyways, the feature is talking about the release for the very first time of "East of Eden" on DVD. Now that's a classic book! Steinbeck is an awesome author. Really great stuff. Don't know about the film though.

Most people feel that books made into movies lose something in translation. I know myself that I was much disappointed recently by the movie treatment of "About a Boy", especially the kid that portrayed Marcus. Somehow I never thought of Marcus having such a dorky hairstyle and with vaguely satanish eyebrows! Read the book if you get hold of it. A delightful read! So is Nick Hornby's first book, "High Fidelity". Men be warned though. Never let your girlfriends/wives get hold of this book. It will tell them just too much of the truth about you!

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Why was I reminded of the Beatles this afternoon? Must have been something I caught last night about their first ever US tour....40 years ago today....

So their late manager turned out to have a crush on Paul?!

All this time, we had been led to believe that John was it, but in the end, "the walrus was Paul", eh? Hmmm.......

Anyways, ending here for the day.

Today's MindPOD refrain:
"...No more lonely nights, you're my guiding light
Day or night I'm always there..."