Vantage point




Sunday, January 29, 2006

Those Damn Messages

Today was a rare working Sunday for me, due to an event that had been organised in Matunga. I was sitting in a small glass cabin, in a vital meeting, with my phone in the 'meeting' mode.

At what I later noted to be 10:36 a.m, I get a message from Friend1 - Batsmen have forgotten that the ball can swing.

Ah, the slight pang of jealousy at missing the action at Karachi. Wonder what the friend is alluding to, I think to myself.

Friend2 sends a text message at 10:38 a.m. - Awesome

What? What is awesome? Someone please tell me, I silently scream, even as I nod at whatever is going on in the meeting that I am supposed to be a part of.

The phone buzzes silently again. Now it's Friend3 with an even more frustrating message - Wooooohoooo!!!!

Wooooohoooo??? You $#%%^^^#@#. Couldn't you describe what happened and add such exclamations? As I am about to text this reply to some friend, begging for an answer, my dad is calling me up. Obviously, it is to talk about whatever is happening. And obviously, I almost fight back tears, I can't take the call and end the suspense.

In addition I get three more messages which go - "They haven't killed test cricket completely", "Hope you're watching" and "Ah! Now that's satisfying".

This is my finest moment, since I did not know I had it in myself to exercise so much control over myself, nodding along whatever is happening, even making a relevant comment or two, and just glancing at the phone once in a while. I would have expected myself to just jump up, storm out of the meeting and call someone up to ask them what the hell is going on at Karachi.

Fifteen long and agonising minutes later, the meeting ends.

I run out, and a friend who spots me yells - "Pathan took a hat-trick in the first over!!!!"