Wickets and Idols

Life in India really isn't all that different from life back at home.

Yesterday, two stories dominated the news: Sports (India's advancement to the finals of the Twenty20 Cricket World Cup) and Entertainment (the grand finale of Indian Idol).

Tonight India takes on its political rival, Pakistan, in the Twenty20 finals and it's all anyone can talk about it. It will be the first-ever final between these two nations and a very emotional ones (for the right or wrong reasons). Since I've learned more about cricket during my time in India than I ever thought imaginable, I'll probably be in front of the TV, just like everyone else here, cheering for India this evening.

And last night, a young man from Darjeeling won the hearts of India and was crowned the newest Indian Idol. The finale was much like those in the US, with minimal singing from the contestants, appearances from random artists and even the same theme song. It was the third installment here of the world-wide phenomenon where, I read in the paper today, 70 million votes were cast.

If it weren't for the heat, dust, power outages and water shortages, I might forget where I was.

The Joys of Cable TV

For the past few weeks, I’ve been suffering from cable TV withdrawal. I don’t really watch that much TV here, but it’s so nice to flip it on and watch an episode of Friends every now and then. Or watch CNN. Or anything in English. But since January 1st, I’ve only been able to view a couple of free-to-air channels, which were all in Hindi, except for the Hallmark Channel. And there are so many Hallmark movies one can watch (none).

A new mandate went into affect the first of the year that requires the installation of cable boxes and most regular cable channels were dark. Like most things in India, the installation of my cable box took awhile. But on yesterday, I was rescued. My cable box by was installed. Now I can watch endless episodes of Friends, Seinfeld, ER, and Will & Grace.

Oh, and I have digital cable. Apparently this isn’t as common as it is at home, because my landlord gave me a 10 minute lesson on how to operate the TV, the remote and the cable box. Not exactly rocket science, but I guess it is to him.