Cricket

As most of you know have stopped following cricket for years. In fact don't even watch TV anymore.. News from Google, Youtube videos and the occasional movie at the local theater during holidays or on blockbuster. That is pretty much the sum total of entertainment outside what the kids provide (which is plenty)!

It has not been a loss. Friends tell me this was a good move considering Indian cricket is at an all time low..

There was a recent joke where folks were saying

"pretty soon Australia will be the first team to declare their first innings for a score of 0/0 and still beat India in three days.."

If such humiliation is even comprehensible as a joke things must be pretty bad!

Went and checked Cricket news just now.. Looks like the Indian team is finishing 5 day matches in 4 and is now going towards 3 day completions. Will come and check back in two more years and see how it goes...

For now, back to the crickbernation..

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Remoteless control

Today every TV comes with a remote. It is the default. Our three year old does NOT know that there is a power button on the TV which can be used as err.. "backup"!

Last week she was watching a kids DVD while eating dinner and when she finished her food, I told her to stop watching. She promptly took the remote and ran away. "how will you off it now?!" said the little tease and her face shrank when daddy casually walked past the TV on the wall, pressed a button on the side (she did not even see me press it) and the TV went "blink".. poor thing was devastated that she could not one up daddy.

Now, as usual this post is somehow steering to a remote when it should be going the other way..

The old TV in that photoblog, which seems to have stirred so many memories, has some appendages. A small box with a needle that keeps moving around 220V, called the voltage stablizer and an antenna on the terrace. A three pronged antenna mounted on the little parapet wall two floors above, connected to the TV below by a flat 1/2 inch black vinyl covered umbilical cord.

The TV had a rotary dial that went from 1 to 30 (if I remember right) and why 30 we do not know for there were only two channels! But you got the two channels to alternate in many of the 30 channels by moving the rotary switch in combination with the antenna position. In other words, there were 600 ways to get the two channels!

In those days, monkeys and I-spy playing kids would roam the terraces quite freely and once in a while, pull the cord or rotate the antenna by mistake and that would send the adults cursing.

The men would blame the kids when they saw Sunil Gavaskar launch into what could have been a "glorious cover drive" only to be suddenly replaced by millions of teeming black and white insects on the screen matched by a bzzzzzzzzzzzz sound!

"indha pasangalaaaa..."(these boyyyyys...) would come a menacing scream from the menfolk, only to be nullified by "nethu mandhi korangu mottai maadikku vandudhu nna! adhu dhan antennava thirupi irukkum" (yesterday a big male monkey came to the terrace with his harem. he must have moved the antenna) from the ladies concerned for their kids back!

The elders would quickly quiet down, because in their hearts, they knew!

They knew that getting that picture back in time to see the action replay of that shot and determining if the ball made it to cover or the slip cordon, was a two person job. A kid willing to swing the antenna on the terrace and a person twiddling the dial on the ground. So the little one(usually me) would be dispatched to the top.

Konjam left..

Konjam right..

go back..

and the directions would be relayed through an open window and like a sailor navigating a boat on a rocky sea to 1/2 degree precision, the antenna would be returned to its rightful position. The smarter kids who knew that this nuisance would haunt them for years, what with real monkeys roaming the terrace and all, would leave pencil or chalk marks to align the pole to the parapet wall, only to realize that it really didn't matter.

Gavaskar, was out! and bringing back that picture was as good as bringing in a telegram into the house that read "Gavaskar Dead. Stop. Mourn Immediately. Stop. Gory action replay to follow. Stop."

The antenna saga went on for almost a decade before the now ubiquitous remote even appeared on the scene.

Now, we just take it for granted!

Just for the fun of it, I should send Jr. and the little one to climb on the roof of our house every now and then and adjust a fake antenna.. Just for the fun of it, Gavaskar or otherwise.

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Deja vu vu vu vu vu vu vu

One of the things that has made it to our daily weekday routine is PBS Kids. We wake up, dress the kids, feed them and they watch PBS kids, before we cart them off to school or daycare.

The kids automatically know that if Caillou is over, it means they are late and dad and mom are going to get worried and will probably drive like maniacs. Their time sense is infact derived by the end of Caillou and the beginning of Curious George! Jr. is just learning to tell time and the little one has no idea about clocks, but still declares "ees eight ooooooooclock!" when she sees the publice support ad!

San and me were very tired on thursday with work, trying to get tax documents in order, cranky kids... in short, a slightly out of control day. We went to bed late and the entire family woke up half an hour late on Friday morning. It was also dark and gloomy outside with a slight drizzle. The kids were still sleepy and tired when we put them on the couch in front of the TV.

For some strange reason, PBS had a re-run of the previous day's episode. (Must have been!).

Jr.'s eyes suddenly lit up when I switched on the TV and she said

"Daddy, we are back in Thursday morning!"

I did not understand what was going on and said "It is friday already. Eat your cheerios"

Then her surprise turned to fear and she said "Look around daddy! we are back into thursday".

Apparently, we were all wearing the same clothes we wore the previous morning as well.(except for Jr. herself who had changed) and the TV was playing the same thing, so naturally Jr. was worried! Apparently, PBS not only defines 8 o'clock, it also defines day of the week!

I spent a full five minutes on a busy weekday morning convincing my daughter that we had moved into Friday.

Never thought the monotony of our daily lives would cause "day of the week" confusions for our five year old.

Explained to her that PBS is probably playing off a DVD player or a laptop! Had to compare it to her watching the same episode of Toddworld a few hundred times on DVD, or their watching youtube videos every evening. Jr. finally understands the concept of Re-runs on TV!

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