IPL Season 4
Day 20 – 23th April – 38 Sleeps to go
Well there seems to be quite a gap between some of the home games for some teams. The structure of the tournament has it that teams go on the road for a few games and then have a few games at home. This is the away time for the team where I am based so I have had a few days to chill. My next match is on the 25th in Chennai.
The team seem to be settling in to their roles well and the images keep coming. We have a total of 8000 captioned images on line so far and we are only a third of the way through. In comparison during IPL 2 that we covered in SA we only uploaded 9000 images in total. This is the most extensive photographic coverage of any IPL season. The archive we are building for BCCI over all forms of the game stands at about 50000 images. All captioned and available as high res downloads from their online archive.
So three days in Chennai and apart from picture desk duty in the evening and trying to organise the head shots for players who have been drafted in as injury replacements my time was my own.
This morning I went to visit St George’s Cathedral. It is a funny building, not like a church at all. Inside it was lovely to experience the peace and quite. To be left alone and have no one asking you form money.
Today by coincidence is St George’s day so it was quite appropriate really.
After an hour or so I decided to walk to Marina beach. The walk is about 3km and so I put the headset on and set off. Chennai has a lovely feature. Many of the walls along the roadside are painted with murals. There is very little graffiti and the art is really very good. So my walk was very pleasant watching the people of the city rushing along all seemingly in a hurry to get somewhere. Then I met my first Auto driver. I really never knew I had so many Indian friends. “Hello my friend, which country? You want to go to the beach, temple, sightseeing, only 1 hour. Come I take you” Only Rs10. One even claimed he would do it for free. Nothing is ever free. Especially not in India. After a while I got bored with the banter and so I turned the headphones up and just ignored them. Next time I may pretend not to speak English and claim I am from China. Wonder if they will notice.
Chennai boasts the longest beach in Asia, some say the world. The water is warm and the beach is soft sand. Ideal to relax and enjoy. The current is strong and it is said that only the best swimmers should venture out. I had briefly visited the beach last year and this morning I went back for another look. One end is quiet and you can walk alone. The other end is packed. There are thousands of people of all ages playing in the sand, eating lunch, swimming and jumping the waves. There are also hundreds of stalls and stands. These stands sell everything you can think of, fast food, clothing, seashells, drinks, plastic wares, shoes. The list goes on. There are also fun stands, like you find at the fair, where you can pop balloons to win prizes or stand and have your picture taken with a cardboard cut-out of your favourite Bollywood star. All in all it’s a fun place to go. It’s just a shame about the rubbish. The popular end is just full of rubbish. It seems that it is perfectly acceptable to simply throw your rubbish on the floor. People do it all the time everywhere. It is the norm. It is also such a shame. This is a beautiful country. There are some incredible sights and yet everywhere you go there is trash. I don’t see it changing. It must be almost impossible to change the mindset of over a billion people.
After my long walk and some time on the beach I headed back to the hotel. Had a shower and some lunch. The heat and humidity here mean that I seem to spend most of my time in wet clothes. It reminds me of summer in Durban.
In the early evening I went for a walk down a road that is almost opposite my hotel. I was driven down it earlier by my Auto driver on the way back and wanted to go on foot.
The road is a mini slum. On one side there are work sheds where people repair Auto’s and two wheelers etc. The other side is small dwellings and shacks. It seems that the people that live here have absolutely nothing. They exist on the street. Their lives are public in every way. I have to admit that I was a little concerned when taking my camera out. I would be the obvious target. I had no need to worry. The people welcomed me. They posed for pictures and they invited me into their homes. The all smiled, even the ones without teeth. It truly is amazing that people that live like this can be so happy. I get fed up about little things and allow it to affect my day. It’s ridiculous really when put into context.
Back to the hotel, yes I know a nice cosy hotel with aircon and a TV and beer and food a phone call away. Anyway, it was evening time so a match to work on pics from. As it turned out a fantastic match the highest opening partnership of IPL, the two highest scores of IPL and some fantastic batting action. The Daredevils finally came good and beat the Kings XI
Tomorrow is Easter Sunday
Cities Visited: Chennai
Tried anything new? Experiencing the welcoming nature of people that outwardly have nothing
Total flights so far: 12
