Fourth umpire

My good friend VinodG, actually not so much good friend as distant acquaintance and better quizzer, but good friend sounds much nicer, has been trashing "fair & lovely fourth umpire" on a regular basis in his blog (which btw totally rocks). I think he is not being fair to the show. I also think he spends way too much time watching the show and is clearly fascinated by it and who knows possibly even Roshni Chopra. He is merely attempting to hide all this with his energetic trashing of the show at every opportunity. But this is purely an aside.

Coming back to what I was saying, I have watched it from time to time and I was so jobless the last weekend that I watched it pre and post match, not to mention at lunch and tea break. It is so bad that it is quite compelling. Something like "Gigli". Seriously, it has provided some memorable moments for me. The start of the show when they show umpire-by-umpire, first, second, third and then fourth is hilarious, no matter how many times I see it.

It is not just all laughter though. I have been a life long fan of the thrills generated by the horror genre. But no book so far, no film, provided me with a moment of horror as did this fascinating piece of television. No, it has nothing to do with Roshni Chopra’s wardrobe. It happened when I was watching the match wrap up subsequent to the Kolkata test win. Jimmy Amarnath was asked for his views on the situation.

I watched as Jimmy slowly started to sing "sare jahan se accha...". That was bad enough. But, it was truly the finest moment of horror I experienced at the point that I had thought he had finished with "hindustan hamara". Jimmy, clearly, is not a man to that can be stopped easily. He went so far as "hum bul bul hain iski, yeh gulistan hamara". I watched with bated breath, will he go further? And more importantly, is there anything further? Mercifully, it stopped there. But, I look forward to more of fourth umpire fun during the coverage of the ODIs.