A quick guide for MCA entrance exam preparations
Hi,
I am pursuing my MCA from NBN Sinhgad School of Computer Studies (Affiliated to Pune University) and have been tracking about various MCA entrance exams for past 2-3 years so thought as well put up a blog post to help MCA aspirants to plan their preparation well in advance.
About MCA
MCA is a post graduation course offered across various institutes and universities in India to train and impart necessary skills and knowledge required IT industry. It’s a professional course and is approved by AICTE. The course is equivalent to BE/BTech and you can also apply for MTech (and Ph.D too in some universities) after completion of your MCA degree if you are still enthusiastic enough to study. MCA programmes offered by Pune University, Delhi University, IIT, NIT are quite famous and preferred during Campus placements because of their course structure.
Eligibility
You can do MCA if
- You have a Bachelors degree in any discipline
- Had Maths at 10+2 level
The above mentioned criteria is the basic eligibility requirement for almost all MCA courses. If you have done BCA, the condition of having Maths at 10+2 might be waived off in SOME cases (This rule is followed by Maharashtra DTE).
Entrance Exams
There are various entrance exams held across India through which one can take admission to a MCA programme. The most famous ones are
- JAM for admission for MCA at IIT-Roorkee and Delhi University
- JNU’s MCA Entrance exam
- Indraprastha University’s entrance exams for MCA programmes affiliated to IP University
- BIT-Mesra’s Entrance Test for admission for MCA in Birla Institute of Technology
- NIMCET for admissions at NITs across India offering MCA courses
- University of Pune’s entrance exam for MCA/MCS at Dept of Computer Science, Pune University
- MH-MCA CET by DTE Maharashtra for admissions across Maharashtra
- CST by C-DAC for NMIMS MCA programme
- PGCET and KMAT for admissions in MCA colleges in Karnataka
- TANCET for admissions in MCA colleges in Tamilnadu etc.
There are more tests but the above mentioned tests are widely taken and sought for.
Entrance Exam Pattern
The pattern varies according to entrance examination you are taking but most of them involve General Aptitude, Verbal Reasoning, Mathematics Concepts (upto +2 level and in some cases, upto graduation level). Some tests also have another component in the paper ie Computer Concepts in which the candidate’s knowledge in Computers is tested. This includes Code tracings in C, Basic Logic Gates, Number System Conversion, Concepts from Computer Organisation, Operating Systems, Networking etc.
So basically there is no escape from Maths and if you think you are weak in it, start improving your concepts from now itself because even in MCA syllabus, each semester would contain at least one paper of Maths (like Discrete Maths, Probability, Statistics etc.)
Stratergy
Frankly speaking, there is no generalized strategy and it depends upon which entrances you are answering. My suggestion would be answer 3-4 entrance exams which are of similar in natures. Don’t answer beyond 4 because alongside entrance preparations, you also have to study for you bachelor’s finals and your project. Select entrances which have similar syllabus to be covered so that you don’t have to study separately for each entrance exam.
If you are planning to answer JAM or NIMCET, you will have to start your preparations well in advance, at least one year before. If you are hell bent on getting into IIT or NIT for MCA, you could as well think of taking a year off and studying for them.
Once you have finalized the entrances which you will be answering, jot down the timeline (ie Date of examination) and make a study plan. Firstly select common topics and start solving as many questions as you can. Some topics which are specific to some entrance exams can be studied and revised as the exam date approaches.
If you are required to travel to other city/state, reach a day before the exam and visit the centre that day. Also book your tickets well in advance.
Resources
I have tried to put up various web resources which would help you to prepare for the entrance exams.
Indiabix- Take various types of test online
Gyan Pitara-A dedicated portal for MCA aspirants
Gyan Pitara Exam Watch Notifications-For knowing about dates of MCA entrance examinations
There are various reference books available too and it would be a better tool to strengthen your preparations. I referred this book by Arihant Publications and would recommend it to others.
PS: The information shared above is best to my knowledge. But I DO NOT hold any responsibility of any misinterpretations by the reader. If you find any errors in above post or have any queries, kindly comment below and let me know. I will be more than happy to help you. Best of Luck and may you get the college/institute you desire 
I-RIX again!
We left off on a very happy note and high spirits last year. The first edition of I-RIX was an unbelievable success. More so because we had put it up from scratch in just 20 days. And nothing went smooth right from the first day of preparations. Yet we managed to make I-RIX happen!
So here I was travelling back to Goa from Pune irritated by bed bugs on the bus but that didn’t seem to bother much as compared to thought of being in Goa for I-RIX. Not even a year past and I-RIX had grown to be a brand which was evident from the response which the sponsorship team got. There was a point when the team felt actually there is no need of college supporting the event financially and we could do on our own. Meanwhile when I had come down to Goa while the event preparations were in progress, I caught up with Ankur, Allister, Mohsin, Meenal, Anusha and Amit who were spearheading the proceedings. Only thing which was left for me to say is “Do it like it will not happen again!”
I reached home and later at the venue. For a moment, I just couldn’t believe that it was the same event which me and Parnaksh had conceptualized at a Coffee shop a year ago. Grand was the word!
For next two days, everyone had lot of fun. I was being introduced as “Father of I-RIX” and not to mention, I quite enjoyed the attention! Along with the events of last year, newest edition in Gaming section was Angry Birds championship. Also treasure hunt, stamp your authority were newly added events and Blogging was replaced with Microblogging this year which turned out to be a hit.
Participation went beyond expectation and we did worry about the food. Last year’s food was the worst thing that happened during I-RIX. This year care was taken that it won’t be repeated again and henceforth. Result of which was seen the way people were hogging Gulab Jamuns on Day 1!
One thing Parnaksh had said back in the Coffee store while deciding the cash prizes last year that “Chowgule standard has to be maintained!” Actually there is no such Chowgule standard but it is known as a wealthy college and we just prove it by giving away. No other event would give away 4 GB pendrives as a spot prize unless you are at I-RIX!
Everyone had lot of fun, the team as well as participants! Kudos to Ankur for keeping the audience intrigued with his notepad interaction. I tried my hand in entertaining people with spot events. The #irix was flowing with tweets and made the event live. One participant, while on his way to venue, met with a minor accident. He tweeted the same and appending “I am fine” to the tweet. We also celebrated a participant’s birthday and gave him an event t-shirt and Cadbury Silk. Prajyot’s talk on Android was well received so did the speech by none other than Ramrao Wagh where he addressed the currently hot topic in the interwebz ie Social Media censorship!
I am seriously lost for words to appreciate the work done by the entire team, especially Ankur, Allister, Meenal, Anusha, Vineet, Mohsin, Pranav, Clive, Urvi, Allisa etc. alongwith others to put up this event and to scale it up to this level. Amit did a fantastic job with the event site. And it wouldn’t have been possible without the inputs from our utter calm HoD Ian sir and super awesome Kumaresh sir!
Sadly, only four of us (ie Me, Pravin, Trisha & Akshata) from our batch were present while rest of the batchmates who started I-RIX last year were answering their exams in their respective colleges in Bangalore and Mumbai. We really missed everyone who couldn’t be here. At the end of the day, everyone had the feeling “We rocked it once again!” in their eyes. Me, Pravin, Trisha were happy parents and I bet everyone from our batch would be one if they had to witness the awesomeness that happened during these two days.
I personally dislike the “Father of I-RIX” title which was conferred on me. In my opinion, everyone has equally parented I-RIX as something of their own and very special to them. Pravin gave his workers two days break so that he could attend I-RIX, someone missed a family wedding and the list of sacrifices that people have made for the event is endless.
And there was post party where 35 volunteers had a hell lot of fun which included friendly ragging of junior batch. Thus yet another iteration of I-RIX came to an end and everyone was back on their daily routine partly happy and proud for having organised an awesome two day event and partly sad because it ended within no time.
Read about the first edition of I-RIX here
The inevitable “Post-Sem 1″ rant!
First I thought would blog about it on First day but I never liked writing the first day at School essays. Then I postponed writing it till First week, then first month and then finally here I am writing about it after one bloody semester.
I moved my ass to Pune as decided/ expected for my masters. One semester has passed and I am still confused about whether I’ve made a right decision or not. Being in Pune was the aim but studying more 4 semesters in a college called NBN-Sinhgad is what I am still contemplating. It has its good points (which requires one to be visionary) and worst (not even bad) points which one realises on day to day basis. I mean where on earth you have a faculty telling you that “What I have taught in class may be wrong so you should learn on your own and verify the same?” What the firetruck, right?
Hostels are awesome. Mess is not! Me and my goan roommate Abhinay have boycotted mess food during last whole month. But it doesn’t make a difference for them. We spend our own cash and go out to eat. One fucking rule about this institute is Mess is compulsory for hostel residents. You can’t opt out. There goes our 16k just like that. And if they are serving Masala Rice in the name of Biryani, you know you shouldn’t be eating either.
After the sem exam was over, students were pressurized to attend the Soft Skills workshop. Since we being outstation candidates, we weren’t forced and allowed to go home. I wouldn’t have attended anyways. I demand soft skills workshop for teachers first! Their English is horrible and I can see it is affecting mine too which is dangerous.
Academically I was never a star performer. But I must say I’ve studied for this semester like never before. The backlog is inevitable though and I don’t care what will happen during placement. The company which will not hire me doesn’t know what they will be missing. And I have enough requests from fellow friends to join their exciting start-ups where I can actually work and not be a Multi-national corporate chutiya updating Excel files.
So this is my story of first sem. Onset of 2012 would drag the timeline to semester 2 and I am not even eagerly waiting to see what’s in the store. Because I know! The story won’t be any different from 1st Sem where while the teachers teach, we will be wondering “What exactly am I doing here in NBN-Sinhgad?” which can be also translated as “Why this kolaveri kolaveri di?”
Ok, not really!
TechSparks 2011
Among the usual clutter and gibberish on my FB timeline, something that caught my attention was really surprising. It was a FB page of Goa Information Technology Innovation Centre, an incubation centre for IT product entrepreneurs being setup in Goa, more surprisingly by Goa Govt. While the incubation centre is still in nascent stages, the first step of setting up such facilities for upcoming product start-ups is surely a good sign.
Off lately, the product startup scene in Goa and overall startup scene has seen a surprising boost with many Goans coming back to their homeland and setting up products and services. Much of this credit should go to institutes like Goa Institute of Management, Goa College of Engineering and BITS-Pilani Goa Campus which are premier institutes based in Goa who are fostering development of startup culture here.
So while the seeds of product entrepreneurship in Goa are just sprouting out, yourstory.in is organizing TechSparks 2011. TechSparks is an national level event executed by YourStory.in, India’s leading online platform for startups & entrepreneurs. It was started in 2010 to serve as a launch pad for startups creating highly innovative technology products and to enable their journey to national scale.
The 2011 edition is being held on a bigger and multi-track scale this year. It’s objective was to benefit the participating tech start-ups with helping them to reach a national scale audience, link with potential clients and investors. The 2011 edition of TechSparks had its regional rounds at Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad and New Delhi. Along with the regional rounds, they are having App4India contest in collaboration with Intel. App4India is an initiative undertaken by YourStory.in under the TechSparks™ umbrella to spot and showcase the best mobile/netbook apps being built out of India. The App4India segment during the TechSparks™ grand finale will see the 10 most interesting apps being featured and the winning app will be awarded the Rs.50,000/- App4India prize.
And there is the Grand Finale! Grand Finale of TechSparks shall happen on 19th August 2011 at IIM Bangalore showcasing top 20 product start-ups in India and the top 10 Apps selected from App4India Contest. This event will be attended by top technology corporates, leading investors (VCs & angels), national media and delegates from US, Europe and China. If you’re interested in startups, technology, innovation, investments, business networking, hiring and local & global trends, you need to be at the TechSparks™ Grand Finale this year.
For Finale Details, Schedule and Registration, head here and do the needful. See you in Bangalore!
Hogwartz for Geeks!
It’s difficult to survive as a geek while you are surrounded by non techie (or pseudo techie) people. People expect you to do almost anything and everything for them which involve computers and it’s always a favour. For past few days, I have been asked to do following things
• File IT returns online for mom.
• Install a unicode font so that dad can read his transcript of his play.
• Repair a CPU.
• Advice people to buy phones and laptops and teach them to use it.
• Create a FB group/page for business.
• Write DVDs and CDs.
• Convert TIFF to JPEG.
I am not as assertive as I wish to be and always end up saying yes to all of these above but I hate their justification to assign me this work. The traditional phrase “You are the computer guy, we aren’t” is surely an insult in such cases. Often when I denied to do this work, I was told “It takes a freaking double click to do that! Why are you being so lazy?” Oh yeah! You know it takes a double click and YOU are not ready to do that…who is lazy now?
Sometimes I wish there was Hogwartz for Geeks, somewhere far away from these non techie muggles.
Internship
While this vacation was turning out to be unproductive more than I was expecting it to be, Swapneel confirmed my Summer Internship at Eth1 Network Solutions and now atleast I have something more to look forward to other than sleeping, eating costly mangoes, waiting to eat Jackfruits, and waiting for some concrete plans to visit Pune.
Though Eth1 is based in Belgaum, I will be working from home and I am really worried about one thing that is BSNL Fraudband connection. It drops more frequently than Pakistani players dropped Sachin in WC semi-final with their big hearts. Apparently there was a cut in our telephone line which now has been fixed but the connection drop won’t stop. To add to the misery, my newly bought wifi router loses connection more often compared to older modem. Worst part is my sister somehow found this out and every now and then while I am enjoying(?) internet over wifi in my bedroom, just because she wants she would disconnect the WLAN modem and connect the older one. The internet usage at home is increasing with dad getting addicted to Facebook and crictime.com as sis has kidnapped the TV and won’t let us get it out of her bedroom! The point is I am stuck with illogical internet users who don’t give a damn about my internship. And to speak of Tata Photon, I have no cash to recharge the Tata photon to a limit which I will be able to use without any guilt for a month at least.
The fun part of this internship is I will get to learn real time development for clients, unlike the college projects. I am given freedom to choose whichever development platform (ie PHP+MySQL, Ruby on Rails or Python+Django) for developing applications. Also, there is git awesomeness involved! I have chosen RoR stack now and learning it with help of this awesome course material Rails For Zombies and some books. “Rails for Zombies” is awesome, right from their theme song! Also I am thinking of starting to blog about my Rails learning experience through a newbie perspective so that it might help others also who are just starting with rails. Only thing I am confused is whether to include it in this blog or start a new one under a subdomain on blogspot. I don’t want it to get mixed up with other rant I do here but also managing two blogs becomes boring over the time (It’s very ironic for me to say that since I managed three blogs at a time in past).
LG Optimus P500 Review
So finally I sit down to write a review for my phone. It’s really essential to spend some time with the phone (infact any gadget) before reviewing it. I have spent as long as a month now and I think this is enough time to learn and share insights about the phone.
It’s a LG Optimus One (P500) phone which runs Android 2.2 (and soon expected to get a 2.3 upgrade!). It’s a mid-range budget phone which comes with a 600 MHz processor. Mid-range smartphones come with limitations. There is always a “but” factor in its hardware configuration. While the Optimus is a value for money phone, its major drawback is 600 MHz processor. The performance gets sluggish after bit of use but nevertheless you get adapted to kill your unwanted applications frequently.
Since it’s a 600 MHz processor, it cannot run flash in browser because the new flash version needs 800 MHz+ capacity processors but if you need flash only to play youtube videos, you need not worry. The official Youtube app plays it perfectly fine (though I don’t know how!). Also if you are a TED talk buff, instead of playing a ted talk video, it would allow you to download and watch it.
It has a nice capacitive touchscreen with considerably enough dimensioned screensize so that you don’t tap the wrong button. Also the screen resolution is pretty good compared to its competitors such as Samasung Galaxy Fit/Pop etc. Actually screen resolution was the main reason I chose Optimus over any of the other Galaxy family phones.
It has a standard 3.5 mm audio jack and comes with a pair of in-ear headphones. The sound through the phone speakers is not very impressive but the speakers work just fine. If you really need a Sony Walkman experience, buy new headphones. (Update: Sony is launching Android for Walkman series!). The voice quality on call is very poor sometimes and you would need to practice your “pardon please” ethics but the voice is ok if heard through headphones.
Nothing impressive about the camera as it’s a 3MP camera. Enough said! The camera in this phone is LG’s way of saying “Itna Paisa Mein Itnahich Milenga!”
Battery performance is subjective to the usage. I have not activated 3g yet and also Vodafone tells me that I can’t have GPRS working on my phone through bonus cards because its Android (and can run it either subscribing to 199/month rental or VF live) so haven’t tested the battery performance on either of these network mode. Prolonged use of Wifi and/or GPS would heat up the phone so avoid it. For normal use ie only for texting/calling/listening to music would give you a backup of 40+ hours before it discharges completely.
On the software side, it runs Android 2.2 pretty neatly. The only part I seriously hate about Optimus is the pre-installed crapware android apps which cannont be uninstalled! *sigh* Seriously it has some crappy software collection like Bollywoodji which would start everytime you boot the phone, Infant Vaccine Tracker(What did they think before adding this app? Everyone who buys it will be parent to newly born child..as it is Polio dose ads are doing their job regularly with Amitabh Bacchan), Photofunia (another Orkutiya applikayson). More than these applications, the fact that we cannot remove the ones which don’t want is more pissing.
The applications which I frequently use are
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Twitter for Android
It’s a pretty neat and clean app if you are using twitter in and out. Has great UI, comes without ads but still no support for multiple accounts. Also it lacks a jump to top control which is quite handy (available in Plume) if you need to jump directly to the top after going through your entire long timeline.
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Facebook for Android
90% of my facebook access is through this app as it filters out craps like apps and other spam on the timeline. Initially it would not load news feed, photos properly after I had updated it first so I rolled back to earlier version and it seemed to work fine. After much bitching about this fact, I realised that the problem was not with the app but the wifi connection. I use connectify to create a wifi hotspot for phone and its only when I am connected through connectify I cant seem invoke some api calls on the fb server. It worked perfectly fine when I connected it through the wifi router.
Location based Services (Foursquare/Facebook Check-In/Google Maps,Places,Navigation)
I rarely use it and most of the times screwed by the GPS infinitely trying to get the location co-ordinates. But I guess things would improve once migrated to 3g and these applications are life saver. Helps in many ways if you are a lone traveller.
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Google Reader
Said Hi to google reader and bye bye to unproductive bus travels! When connected to internet, it syncs the reader account, caches the feeds (without images) and allows you to read them offline. I can now not miss the awesome Smashing Magazine feeds!
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Mashable/Engadget
It’s sometimes better to use the dedicated app by the site instead of subscribing it in a feed for sites which update regularly like Mashabale. Also it offers navigating the posts by categories so that I can read only what I want and skip which I am not interested in.
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Games
Had installed Angry birds but was sluggish so uninstalled it. I madly play CricketFever (Post World Cup victory disorder) and sometimes Pool Master Pro. Nothing beyond these games but would love to explore more.
Recently I have installed WordPress for Android, OMGUbuntu, Times of India and app list is evolving.
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Final note(this is not an app btw!)
Always go for a bigger fish, in this case, a phone with a better h/w config, but if you are a starter with low budget constraints, you can consider Optimus as one of the option. These smartphones in general have a culture built around them and such phones are a great tool to adapt to them and then switch to a better and costlier phone. Its strong points are its screen resolution compared to its competitors from Galaxy family and it is officially confirmed that it would be getting a 2.3 update while some of the other devices are still speculated to get one. I might have not addicted to Optimus but it does its job considerably well and it’s been a so far so good journey with it.
Test post from android for wordpress
Hi this is a test post. Take care.
Geekblues.in gets a new home page!
Hi,
Sorry for not posting much since the world cup final victory (yeah we still are world champions!). My theory exams got over on 13th so theoretically, I am done with college but practically the practicals would go till 25th. Thanks to the Bus strike or it would have ended on 23rd April.
No I am not having a writers block, instead I am having writers overload. I feel like writing on any damn issue these days and end up with half written blog posts which are waiting to be completed and posted here. Nevertheless that shall happen soon.
Geekblues gets a new face!
Geekblues.in/index.html got a new face this morning. No nothing special about this day other than my random itch of experimenting with Google Web Fonts API. Woke up at 4 am today and fired up Aptana and started writing html/css code from scratch. This was happening after quite a long time actually and wanted to brush up especially CSS in which I used to fumble in first year. The skills are still intact though need to update myself with info about more tags and options.
The initial version of that page was done in Photoshop, slicing a big image into pieces, arranging them in Table (PS did that for me) and linking them. So no searchable text, and it was a battery of images attached together. I knew I would change it one day and today was it. First I thought of using @font-face but chose Google Web Fonts instead. They are very easy to implement with just one stylesheet reference per font that is used and a reference of that font in css. Done! Also tried out rounded corners. I actually started with buttons but couldn’t get the color scheme right. Now next hack will be to optimize this page for mobile browsers!
Entrance Test Results
Yeah! By far I have answered two MCA entrance exams ie CST 2011 and MAH-MCA-CET 2011 and the scores of both have been very nice. In CST, I scored GA-61, CC-90 and Overall-87 percentile and in MAH-MCA-CET scored 96.91 percentile overall. Now the problem with Goa University is that they don’t consider CC or Overall score for MCA admissions and with a score like 61 in GA this year, its very tough to get in. Also, though MAH-MCA score looks nice, its a very tough competition for OMS candidates to get into a good college in either Pune or Mumbai. I am almost sure of moving to Pune in August for MCA though the things will be clear once the merit list is out.
Theory Exams
Went well! Not expected though since I started preparing very late, on 3rd April to be precise. Except for Simulation and Modelling paper (which I and most of the students don’t know why it exists in the syllabus) was the only relatively shitty paper. Others were breeze.
Android/LG Optimus review still pending I know but as I am using it more and more, I feel like adding more and more stuff in that post and it becomes cluttered. Instead I was wondering of starting a dedicated blog but dropped the idea since there are too many such whose activity damps after a while. It will happen soon. Mostly after pracs! Till than see you guys on the other side!
The Day my generation will never forget
Day 2nd April 2011
I am in the midst of preparing for my last semester examination. India has just won against Pakistan in the semifinal of the world cup two days back. India has reached finals and playing against Sri Lanka. Somehow I was not excited about this match. Me n my friend were quite certain that whoever wins the Ind vs Pak match would lift the world cup. For me, Ind vs Pak was finals and we had won it. Now I was solely focusing on preparing for the exam and not giving too much attention to the final match or its verdict.
Just to note that I have started watching cricket after almost five six years. I was a huge huge cricket fan in my childhood and used to play endless cricket. It was the time when having a Kingfisher bat made me feel like I was Sourav Ganguly. I played almost everywhere, in the courtyard, home, ground near the school and wherever I could find the place. Like almost every other growing up Indian kid, even I wanted to be a cricketer..err..Ganguly! *sigh* Than came the first set back. Azhar, Mongia, Jadeja were banned from cricket for match fixing. It hurt my tender mind very much and I gave up following cricket. I started playing badminton, basketball but not cricket. The shock remained with me throughout my early days of schooling. I began to mature (as they said) and I really started not caring about cricket. If India won, it was just another day for me and if they lose, I used to make “See I told you” kind of face. Then came John Wright and Sourav Ganguly, men who changed the face of Indian cricket. We were in world cup finals in 2003 and lost badly to Australia in that match. Australia’s super bowling where they constantly bowled outside the off stump was too difficult for Indian batsmen. Sehwag somewhat tried to fight back but nothing came true. Dada had changed Indian cricket team but was not able to put a deserving fullstop. Arrives Greg Chappell, and almost like an secret Australian agent who was here to disrupt the Indian cricket team. He did that. 2007 world cup was a nightmare. I don’t even remember me watching that world cup. Nor do I remember watching any matches after that. Not even that, I didn’t watch initial matches of India playing in 2011. We still were winning.
Now fast forward to April 2, 2011.I returned home in the noon from college. Still no enthusiasm about the match. After lunch, sis had already started watching the match. I joined and promised myself that I would not watch above first 10 overs. India bowled superbly in the first 10 overs with Zak performing his best again. SL’s run rate was around 3 and that made me feel so comfortable. A thought crossed my mind, what if jayasurya was playing today? Never mind I said. As I promised, came out the sis’ room after first 10 overs. We were gripping the match with our bowling and fielding, nothing to worry about.
I came out and wanted to browse through internet quickly. Twitter told me that Sreesanth got hit badly in his over. Deserved. This guy is so ‘odd man out’ from that team. But the run rate was still low for Sri Lanka. Jayawardhane was just playing the way I saw him playing back some six seven years ago. Not an offensive body language yet firm on the ground. Sri Lanka has come a long way and it took me 2011 to realise that they were the finalists of last world cup. SL was never a threat to this extent if I recall. There were days when in almost any tri-series, if Ind was playing SL I would happily say that India is winning and most of the time they won. Cricket was so simple back then. A score of 250+ was enough to put pressure on chasing team. 300 was a rare occasion.
Last 10-15 overs, India was still in the game but the body language of the fielders looked kind of lose. Zak got hit very badly in his last spell. What looked like a 250 target, reached to 275 suddenly in the powerplay. The worries were back. On top of that India’s over rate was slow and I thought we might have less overs to face and chase the target, until dad told me that it wont happen since that rule was no more applicable. I realised that I had sat through the entire innings. No study. I wouldn’t have been able to study.
India’s innings began. Malinga was an obvious threat and he lived upto that expectation. I was just expecting Sehwag to ravish his bowling but worst happened. Sehwag was out on duck on the second ball of first over. Ind was on 0-1. I got up in despair. Even sis had no guts to see through the match now. But Sachin still in the field made me to stay back. Malinga struck again with Sachin getting out very early in the game. It looked all over. Sis drove us out of her room. She sunked into studying. I came in my room, tried to study. Head was throbbing with a un-ignorable headache. On top of that thoughts of the match were frightening. I couldn’t study either. Every now and then would refresh my twitter timeline on my android and see if things are working fine. They looked so. I came out in the living room to see even Dad was feeling bit uneasy. I have never seen him like that. He has played cricket a lot more than me and was a school team opening batsmen and an superb off break bowler. Every match he would have neutral feelings but today something was different. I started the livestream on my desktop instead. Things looked good. Gambhir was crafting an awesome innings and Virat was happily accompanying him. Superb running between the wickets. Gambhir did play some shots he shouldn’t have but got saved twice. Dilshan was called in to bowl and he got Virat. Superb catch but that wasn’t the time I would appreciate how well the opponent team is playing. It was war and it was on.
Dhoni came to bat from nowhere when the world was expecting Yuvraj to come. I didn’t care who came to bat, I wouldn’t have even cared if Munaf came until n unless he would throw a wicket early. Dhoni looked firm, and as cool as mountain. If anything this world cup has taught me is that Dhoni’s calmness and moreover, entire team’s calmness throughout the series. That is why Sreesanth is so unfit to be in this team. He loses it instantly. The pain of Virat getting out was heeled by Gauti-Dhoni partnership. Everything was going smooth. Gauti suddenly looked bit defensive when he crossed 90s. Now that he was just 3 runs short to have a century that he would remember for lifetime, a totally unwanted shot he tried to play ended an awesome innings that had brought back India’s hopes of winning the world cup. Next was Yuvi and I didn’t want to him to get bowled right on first ball which he didn’t. What followed after that was an example of master cricket. Dhoni ftw! From run a ball situation, the difference between the runs required and balls in hand (no pun intended!) was reducing with occasional boundaries. Sangakara had lost his calculation about using his bowlers. Moreover towards the end, his fielding placement also was not effective. That worked in favour of India.
Dhoni ended the world cup final royally with that six straight down the ground. We had won the world cup and emerged as a superpower in ODI cricket too. Dhoni calm as ever, even when he knew that six has done it for him, his team and entire nation he stayed on the ground as firm as he was throughout the series. No bending to knees, no fierce expressions and running towards pavilion with the wickets, nothing of that sort. Just a smile that spread even faster than butterfly effect to every corner of world where Indian cricket is followed more as a religion.
I gave a huge roar which woke up my lil cousin bro was about to fall asleep but retaliating just to see India win. What a proud moment. I hugged my mom, a tight hug which is only given at rare emotional occasions. Mother India had won the world cup. The closest I could get to celebrate was in my mom’s arms. My eyes did turn moist, so did Bhajjis n Yuvis and almost everybody’s. My generation had seen India lift the world cup and all that crazy love for cricket was justified at this very moment. I sat through entire presentation ceremony, listening to what each one said about winning. Congratulations was throwing through twitter. Streets got jam packed with rallies. Fireworks all around. It was a dream that came true after 28 years.
This world cup made a bold statement that India is no more about Sachin playing. Though he has shown us what world class cricket is (since I couldn’t see Don Bradman) and what beauty of cricket is, today was about India winning. Everyone would have loved to see him score that 100th 100 in game of such scale but it wasn’t his day today. I was never a die hard Sachin fan but watching him play is a lifetime experience. Especially those straight drives, square drives and who can forget those sixes at Sharjah to Henry Olonga. Noone plays those shots with beauty and ease which Sachin has in him. Just marvellous.
Thank You Team INDIA for this moment which will live with my generation forever. It came after 28 long years. Things have changed a lot since 1983. The game has evolved a lot too. But the spirit remains undiluted. Craziness continues. I was there when India won the T-20 world cup but the joy was short-lived, just as the form of that game. This was something special. May we win next world cup, but that wont come as special as this one. Apart from the goosebumps from the matches we played, watching this tournament was a learning experience. The hangover shall persist for years to come. I was there in 2011 when India won the world cup. I am soon getting that printed on t-shirt.
PS:- I shouldn’t be blogging at this hour when my exam is 3 days away but the thoughts running in my mind wouldn’t have me rest in peace until I let them out. Also, out of nowhere, I got an Android!