Cricket Craziness

Today is the last regular season game of India's professional cricket league, known as the IPL (Indian Premier League). I ended up following quite a bit of the two-month season for many reasons - my friends and coworkers here love cricket; I want to be current on the pop culture topics; I was in bed for five days with food poisoning and there was nothing else on TV; and the teams stay in my hotel when they're playing in Bangalore and I wanted to know what all the fuss was about.

In the lounge at my first cricket game

Watching all this cricket has made me realize how unique the IPL is; in fact, the IPL is the only league that I know of where:

• The pitch, the target, and an out are all called the same thing - a wicket.
• The team names are so long - instead of the Panthers or the Yankees, there's the Royal Challengers, Rising Supergiants, Knight Riders, and Super Kings.
• There are so...many...rules.
• If the game is cancelled due to weather or other reasons, the teams split the points automatically.
• If the game is delayed due to weather, the number of overs ("at bats") get reduced.
• Two franchises have been suspended for two years for game fixing.
• The games are played literally every night of the week.
• The top four of eight teams make the playoffs - then there are THREE games before the final. #1 plays #2 (game 1) and #3 plays #4 (game 2). The winner of game 1 automatically makes the playoffs, and the winner of game 2 plays the looser of game 1 to determine the other finalist.
• The cheerleaders for the teams are all foreigners (mostly Russians and South Africans).
• The cheerleaders from both teams dance together in the studio during breaks.

Note that these observations apply to the T20 format, which lasts about 3 hours. There's a longer - much longer - five day format that is played internationally, along with the T20 format and a one-day format.

Tim Cook (Apple CEO) was in India this week promoting Apple's growth plans for the Indian market, and the commissioner of the IPL took Tim Cook to a cricket game. Tim commented that he could really tell how much cricket meant to Indians by the passion of the crowd, and having been to one game in Bangalore, I can agree. The passion rivals audiences at a major concert, or celebratory crowds at New Year's Eve celebrations.

Royal Challengers Bangalore fans - pic credit

This passion for cricket has been somewhat demonized by local media for the detrimental impact the league has on the country-wide drought. Some games have even been moved to other regions to appease the public cries for water conservation and blasts of league commercialization.

I'm not sure what the right answer is, if there is one, but I do know one thing - Indians sure do love their cricket and after experiencing the excitement first-hand, I can see why.

Goa Trip Reflections

Last week, I spent a long weekend in Goa, and since I returned from the trip, I've had trouble summarizing my thoughts on this famed beach destination.

Goa has a reputation as being a hippy-centric party spot. I pictured long, sun-filled days with raging parties on silky-sand beaches. While I did see some parties and a few hippies, Goa, in particular Baga Beach, reminded me of Myrtle Beach.

Delicious rose water

When you land at Dabolim Airport, you taxi through rows upon rows of military planes and are greeted with an announcement from the captain that "photography at the airport is strictly prohibited." The co-location of the military and civilian airbases to me is a stark reminder of the number of conflicts the state of Goa, like much of India, has experienced.

The State of Goa gained independence from its colonizer, Portugal, 14 years after the rest of India gained independence from England. The sources I consulted said that the Indian army finally decided to take back Goa from Portugal in 1961 "with little resistance."

To me, that sums up Goa. I get the sense that the people have given up the fight to preserve their legacy and historical status and try to go through life with as little conflict as possible. Why do I say this?

Beautiful buildings in the picturesque downtown Panjim are in disrepair.

The river flowing through the city, once a revered trade route, is mired in trash.

Tour boat operators, shop keepers, and casino promoters seemed to be just going through the motions.

Weather-worn facade in the capital of Goa

Drunk driving is embraced by many as part of the Goan life.

It was almost as if there was a "take us or leave us, this is what it is" attitude among many of the Goans I encountered, which differs to me dramatically from the attitudes I've encountered from the people I've met in Bangalore and Kerala.

(Note, the hotel staff at the Marriott really did seem to care and provide excellent service, although many of them confessed to me that they were looking for transfers to other places far away from Goa.)

I recognize that we went towards the end of the typical tourist season, so a general fatigue may have settled across the region that was waiting for the crowds to dissipate and refreshing from the monsoons to come. But the indifferent attitude I encountered among many Goans confused me because I heard from a number of them that tourist traffic was down and "they couldn't understand why not as many tourists were coming to Goa."

I did enjoy my visit and I do want to return to experience the Monsoon season (I heard it was beautiful), tour the less-crowded and picturesque Southern beaches, and escape to the scenic Northern beaches. Perhaps I'll escape when, like the Portuguese in 1961, I feel the need to surrender from the stresses of holding on to daily life and I need to kick back and relax for a few days.

Faded umbrella dot the Baga Beach strand

Because that is the great part about Goa - it doesn't care if you wake up early or stay out all night partying. If you want to wear a string bikini or a full-body bathing suit, go for it. You're not really questioned as you are in other states; they're used to seeing it all. A friend compared it to being in Las Vegas.

So maybe that's the beauty of it - beyond the parties, beyond the beaches, Goa is a place whose indifference is refreshing in what otherwise can be an overbearing and intrusive country.