Things are as they are, not as they should be!

I is for… IPL and I

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IPL is back again and with a bang in India and in our home.

My interest in IPL T20 matches is as much as an atheist would idolize God, but the husband is a big fan. Apart from watching the matches with great seriousness and dedication, he believes in giving expert comments and instructions to the playing team with equal gusto, which are heard only by the inhabitants of the TV room.ipl-2013-image

While I loved and watched IPL 1 with great zeal, somehow my enthusiasm for the game waned with each passing year and has hit an all time low, this year.

I watch the IPL matches passively on TV, after all one can’t mute the human ears and though the eyes are focused on the laptop or a book, the eyes somehow like to wander and get transfixed for a while on TV.

This periodic gluing of eyes to the television during IPL is to watch things which has got nothing to do with the game of cricket.

What is holding my interest on the telly this season of IPL are:

  • The VIP stands where celebrities, actors, wannabes are waving or exulting with enthusiasm on a sixer or a run out.
  • The advertisements… I love watching ads and some new and creative ads are telecast during this time. I simply love the Idea telephone exchange ad and Aamir’s Godrej Interiors. Ranbir’s Pepsi ad is a good one too.
  • Farah Khan’s “Jumping Jepang Jampak Jampak”. All the versions of the promo campaign are so very fascinating and entertaining. My personal favourite is where Farah teaches a family of 3 and the husband is a bad dancer!
  • The cheer leaders and their dance moves are interesting to watch too. This reminds me of a tweet from @GabbarSingh “Pune Warriors cheerleaders have been selected after a rigorous talent hunt conducted at Pimple Chindwad & Bhosari”.
  • The crowds who simply act weirdly when they realize that the camera is focused on them and then there are some who try too hard to act nonchalant.

Are you a cricket buff? Which is your favourite team this IPL 6?

77 Responses

  1. Ha ha…good observations…I would agree with you on liking all the pointers you mentioned 🙂
    This Jumping Jhapak is catchy but they are actually rotting it by overplaying it again & again 🙁
    And he is not a bad dancer….he is a very bad dancer 😀

    1. Yes, Gwen, IPL is Indian Premier League, Twenty20 cricket championship in India. While for cricket fans ad breaks are irritating and for entertainment seeing audience like us, ads are fun while cricket is a pain 😀

  2. There used to be a time when we watched Five Day matches enthusiastically. Now there is no patience to watch twenty overs match. You have correctly said that a cursory glance here and there is inevitable when the TV is on. Just interested in the final resuits.

  3. all the things you mentioned are so much an anti on my list… I hate the cheer girls, commercials, the celebrities, the dances… we don’t need them all is what I always keep saying…but then this post of yours tells me why the IPL fellows have all that … its precisely for audiences like you ! 😀

    1. I was waiting for your comment, Dhiren 😀
      Now you are an ardent cricket enthusiast while we are simple entertainment seeking folks who have outgrown our love for cricket vriket!! So we mere mortals seek pleasure in dance and songs 😀

  4. Cricket abandoned my house the day my brother left to Mumbai for his job. There is no fun watching the match alone, atleast for me, esp when all my favourite players have retired. Used to watch IPL first couple of seasons. Not now. Liked the account and the Farah ad is cool 🙂

  5. For a moment , I thought this was about cricket which really doesn’t interest me and now with the “No TV policy” at , I am missing those brilliant ads 🙂

  6. give me a hi-fi! even i catch only the commercials. I find them more interesting than IPL. And yes like you the celebrities also sometimes. This time i caught sania, saina and diana hayden(could’nt place diana though, until newspapers reported). Oh but once upon a time i was a huge cricket fan….crazy enough to bunk school and watch the 1983 world cup. Even recently went on Sachin’s 31st b’day to watch the match live with family but that was too accompany my family and watch the people around than the match.

    Let anybody win… all money and glory are theirs. time loss is ours:)

    1. These husbands are a different breed… I dont know how they can watch the live match then its highlights and then the expert comments too and again the highlights… 😐
      Glad you enjoyed reading this post, Laxmi. Thanks 🙂

  7. I for IPL…what else could be apt’er'(if there is indeed such a word!)? In a house where there are 3 boys( my hubby and 2 sons..) I hardly have a say when they gherao the TV and confiscate the remote! my only option is to either watch or not to watch…!

  8. Just yesterday our 16 mths old toddler was dancing to the ‘Jampak Jampak’. He was sitting on the bed and whenever the music comes he would stand up and hold his little bums and shake, don’t know from where he learnt that step. I have taken a video of that. 🙂
    I was a cricket buff but my interest in cricket died even before IPL started. But I do watch the last two overs of a match,if each ball changes the chance of a team winning or losing. But IPL season or any other cricket series for that matter means more work for me as the husband is glued to the TV and I cannot get any help from him on the household chores or baby care 🙁
    Seena

  9. I love your atheist analogy. Cricket is one of those sports I can’t wrap my mind around. How can a sport last for days? And I have to question the actual athleticism of the players when they they are fat. So no I’m not a fan, perhaps if I could take a five day course about how the game is played I’d appreciate it more. The things that you watch during the game sound more exciting than the game itself.

  10. I used to love cricket before many years, but after the match-fixing scandals were uncovered, I am not able to get back to my first love. So, I don’t watch any cricket these days, but I did see the finals of last year’s IPL where SRK came and danced in the hot humid weather.

    Destination Infinity

  11. Reply to this post in tomaros post by me 😛 LOL!
    Anyway keeping aside the phamous jumping japak I too am never interested in IPL
    ACTUALLY BINGO as my tomaro post looks much more like urs !!!
    NO PLAGIARISM involved 🙂
    I watch IPL only to see glamour + sports blending with each other effortlessly and also for ads
    good post shilpa

  12. I do not watch the cricket match, but I did enjoy reading this post on IPL, You have good sense of humour, and I do hear the farah khan’s add, its my daughter’s favourite, she will keep imitating farah. You made me smile ! thanks for sharing !

  13. Shilpa, I just realized last evening why my 85 year old mom is not calling me every evening like she usually does. I call her in the morning and in the evening she calls and rehashes the morning’s conversation. Now she doesn’t need to do that as the IPL is on ‘her’ Dhoni is playing! 😉

  14. Just like you, I followed the IPL 1 with much gusto, 2 with lesser enthusiasm and now with pretty much none! Ads are something that catch my attention too, maybe because it is my bread & butter. I’m not too fond of Farah Khan’s antics, however I discovered that my kids have learnt those weird steps in no time, so whatever she did seems to have worked!

  15. I’m not a cricket buff but I love watching IPL matches as they are short. However, this month I’ve not been watching it seriously as blogging is taking up all my time. Being from Bangalore I’m a supporter of RCB. I like Kolkata Knight riders too.

  16. I so don’t like jumping jhapak ! IPL is simply commercialization of Cricket IMHO. And I can handle cricket for a week but not more than that .. SO IPL is not going to be pleasant for me !

  17. I think I miss the ads the most…Some of them were just brilliant! I hate IPL; it’s like a circus show to me with cheerleaders and stars buying cricketers!

  18. Hmmm been there done that 🙂 I remember exactly 2 years back, when I was stll expecting I watched every second of even the bidding. And I found that exciting too. IPL is a glamorous game. But now that we don’t watch TV, consequently no IPL.
    I have always favoured MS Dhoni’s team (Chennai Super Kings) despite the fact that Pune also got its team. I am MSD fan, he is from Jharkhand after all (like me).
    LOL to the cheerleaders of Pune 😉

    1. Same here, for the first 2, I was very much into the game, knew all the teams and the players, orange/purple caps, score card…but now I am just not interested!
      Rajasthan Royals is our team… our state! LOL 😀
      That tweet is too funny! 😀

  19. Shilpa, as far as IPL goes, I’m just like you and Mom is just like your husband. God save us all when the team she doesn’t support wins, the food is either burned or non-existent. I know how I can be a good Mom in future, don’t ever get addicted to cricket or football, yes.

  20. No , very less IPL for me…esp since we have to pay separately for cricket channels which are pretty expensive…We dont subscribe, just stick to the internet for you tube pod casts!

  21. The general public at present can determine precisely what it desires for entertainment, definitely not the main studios and distributors. If you add to that distribution on the web, press, internet sites, from rumor to whole films. This is a brand new environment. Much of it fantastic, some not.

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