Entertainment Level: Japanese Game Show and the IPL

Hey Golden Boy,

So, let’s start with the fact that I got my 2^nd year grades, and I am now officially in my final year of college. That too, in the honours class, woot woot!

You must be chuffed about Arsenal’s win against Reading! That was great news! Sam and I got together and watched the Chelsea vs. United match while munching on pizza. It was good fun, because although we lost, it was a good match. Also, living in hostel, I don’t get to watch a lot of matches, so I enjoyed it.

Lately I’ve been watching a show called ‘I Survived a Japanese Game Show’. It is very entertaining. As the name suggests, it is a game show. It basically involves ten Americans who compete against each other in the show, in order to win 250,000 dollars. They have to participate in some really whacked out Japanese games, and while the winners of each round get VIP treatment for the day, the losers face a day of menial labour around Tokyo. It’s quite funny, and I have a good laugh every time I watch it. The host of the show is quite mean about the contestants, but he says it all in Japanese so they don’t understand; only the audience does. The Americans define the Japanese as “bananas”, and the game as a “clown show”, because of the level of crazy it takes to come up with the games they play.

So, the IPL is on, and KKR seems to be doing pretty well. Sad thing is, the only person I go watch matches with, is you. Since you’re not around, no chance of watching any of the matches live this year.

The Indian Premier League, or the IPL, is a T20 cricket tournament that has been taking place annually since 2008. There are currently eight teams in the IPL, and the teams have players from all over the world, who are attained through an auction. The IPL is the most widely watched Twenty20 tournament in the world. What’s great about the IPL is that it acts as a platform for a lot of Indian youngsters to showcase their talents, as well as certain greats who have otherwise retired from the sport. We also get to see amazing sportsmanship and camaraderie between players of varying nationalities who play together in the IPL while otherwise battling it out against each other the rest of the year.   

The defending champions are Kolkata Knight Riders, who have won the IPL twice since its conception. As of now, the League table leaders are Rajasthan Royals (RR) with 10 points, followed by Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) with 6 points each. At this point, though, RR’s have played 5 matches while CSK and KKR have played 4. The team with the lowest rank is Royal Challenger’s Bangalore (RCB) with only 2 points. However, they’ve only played 3 matches till now, so there is still hope for them.

The teams I support, as you should know, are KKR, RCB, and KXIP. KKR comes first, obviously, because I am a Calcuttan through and through. RCB, because Bangalore is my second home. KXIP, I support for a number of reasons. For one, because of my Panju-ness, but also because when they started out, KXIP had Adam Gilchrist and Brett Lee, two of my favourite cricketers.

With this, I come to the end of this week’s article. And as per the tradition I wish to start, since most of this article is based on something desi like the IPL, I thought I’d share with you something by a desi poet, Kamala Das.

My Grandmother’s House

There is a house now far away where once
I received love……. That woman died,
The house withdrew into silence, snakes moved
Among books, I was then too young
To read, and my blood turned cold like the moon
How often I think of going
There, to peer through blind eyes of windows or
Just listen to the frozen air,
Or in wild despair, pick an armful of
Darkness to bring it here to lie
Behind my bedroom door like a brooding
Dog…you cannot believe, darling,
Can you, that I lived in such a house and
Was proud, and loved…. I who have lost
My way and beg now at strangers' doors to
Receive love, at least in small change? 

Until next week, Dods.

Love, Zee.