That was a very very tiring day in the office.I returned home at 10:30 pm.. and directly sat for my dinner....few chapaatis,meshed bhindi-alu and one bowl of extra salty tuar daal-result of Kaakaji's erring memory while cooking food... I had the TV remote in one hand as usual....switching between several channels serving mindless entertainment...finally I stopped on to see NDTV's UEFA Euro 2008 discussion..."Is this the best Euro ever??" NDTV's sports editor was asking to soccer expert Novy Kapadia ...He was reluctant to hail it the greatest Euro ever,but was quick to add that he almost keeps it equivalent to the 1984 Euro..which he thought was,when they used to play the best aggresive football.Okay-fair enough...after all,everybody thinks the times in his heyday was the best of times...!!!
I washed my hands,asked Manu about newspaper and sat on my COT ..comfortably..to take the daily dose of Newspaper reading....Inflation and its future ramifications were all around TOI...The top page showed prime minister's caricature dazed by blows on his head...one blow of the Nuclear Deal,the other one,more significant(for his political career),of Inflation-the 'Aam Aadmi' issue.what an irony...Inflation was again in double digits to haunt him after a span of 13 years...Then he was the finance minister,who after miraculously resurrecting the doomed Indian economy,somehow managed to get the inflation figures sky rocket to double digits,exactly before the polls..and now he headed the government which came to power by wooing the 'Aam Aadmi',showed excellent Economic growth figures of around 9% for four consecutive years only managing finally to get itself into trouble at the cost of increasing global crude prices-again,just few months before the general elections...and yeah.. he was already loosing on the bargaining power too,to get the Nuke Deal done-allegedly offering his resignation over the deal with nobody even giving heed to it...Timing my friend timing!!! only a few days back,the possibility of early elections was doing the rounds....The inflation was under check,hardly at 6 %,growth rates were stupendous and the international crude prices were lesser by quite a few dollars...He should have opted for an early election..Will the history repeat itself?? For me:Congress's fate looked inevitable for the next general elections..What a bad timing this....i said to myself.
"Arrey yaar chaay banaa de-doodh pada hai aaj"...a desparate cry from Ankit brought me back from my thoughtful thought.Wat da F dude!!!..tu kyon nahi banaata chaay...I asked him with a fake venom in my words..I was a little irritated though..the least
I wanted now was to get up from the bed and proceed towards kitchen.But the thought of having to swallow tea prepared by Ankit made me think it was worth taking the pain.After all...Normally,he wouldn't do any kitchen work..and if by any chance
he goes on to make tea(u can hardly call it tea),it would be quite inconsumable for sure.No way... I told him ,I have plans to make tea in few minutes,which was enough for him to get dissolved in his bed again with the third Chetan Bhagat Novel....
I plugged in my Lappy's power chord for the day's -final online session...or rather call it day's first online session...the clock read 12:05 am...Ankit had already tuned in for Euro Quarter-Finals.The formidible Croatia taking on Turkey @Vienna,Austria -in the second QF match of the tournament.Clearly,Turkey were underdogs for the match."Abey aaja match shuru ho gaya"..he shouted from the far end of our Hall...surely, the tournament was gripping and we had made it as our daily habit to watch UEFA before going to bed from the day it started.I assured him,from inside my room,that i 'll be joining in 5 minutes..and will also go ahead to prepare tea..he again,was back to his lethargic self after my response.
After a few minutes of useless browsing,i finally shut down my Laptop,pulled the power cable and came out of my room to discover that the game was progressing at snail's pace...78 minutes of game time had passed without a goal and there didn't
seem a possibility of any team hitting it either...sure chance of game moving into Extra time...I thought, it would be the best thing to get some tea now,as we had started feeling a little sleepy.
Sipping on hot tea,watching Soccer at 1:10 am in night....the moment took away all my exhaustion of the days's work...the match had predictably slipped into the extra time and still we saw no hopes of a goal from either side.The forwards from both
teams juggled hard with football only to find the opposing defenders.Suddenly i saw a surge in the croatian attack and goal !!! Thr it was ....Ivan Klasnic headed in Luka Modric's cross with a minute of the overtime period to play..that was it!!
The excited commentator announced .."Klasnic has certainly booked croatia's place in Euro 2008 Semis"...Croatian supporters were already celebrating...moment of glory for croats finally....But guess what?? before anybody could hold their breaths
back...the sensational kick off a deflection from 'Senturk' drove into Croatia's goal-post.Unbelievable!!! Turkey then went on to nail croatia 3-1 in penalties.Thrilling!!! Turkey - 3rd time in a row had managed to pull off a last minute victory..Senturk's kick was apparently the last kick of the extra-time.Timing again....so crucial!!! Who could have imagined this result when Klasnic had hit that goal in the very last minute for Croatia...
"Its all about Timing !!!" I announced in my worldly wise manner after soaking myself again into the thoughtful thought."Hmmm..abey so ja saale,its time to sleep..." was Ankit's response.."fir tu uthega nahi subah"....He was absolutely
right,time was well past 2:00 and I should sleep now at any cost...after all- it was all about time and timing..i murmured, before pulling the blanket over myself,lying on my bed!!!
