Pass me that bottle of aspirin… please

I was fetching a bottle of water from the water dispenser at work and couldn’t help overhearing this conversation between two associates I didn’t know.

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Mr. X: [leaning against the wall, absently dipping the tea bag into his cup of milk with total disappointment on his face] Oh no! Now what will happen of their future?

Mr. Y: [holding a cup of coffee in his hand, suddenly all interested and perky eared] Who’s future?

Mr. X: Indian cricket team’s.

Mr. Y: Ooh! We’re talking about the Indian cricket team, are we? [with a smirk]

Mr. Y now recalls how Mr. X and his friends spent a few extra bucks on the Indian team t-shirt (something that he'd would'nt ordinarily do) and wore it the whole day at work just a few days ago.

Mr. X: Yeah! Who would’ve thought that they would lose so disgracefully?

Mr. Y: Are you saying you didn’t expect this? [barely hiding his smile now]

Mr. X: Well! * sigh * Now the BCCI are going to convene again and are going to take some grave decisions that may affect the current team strongly.

Mr. Y: hmm. [trying to look all thoughtful now]

Mr. X: what do you think will happen?

Mr. Y: Me? [taken aback by the sudden interrogation] I don’t think there’s any need to think about them.

Mr. X [openly offended] What do you mean?

Mr. Y lets a few seconds pass before he answers.

Mr. Y: umm. Did you know that we tested the Astra air missile successfully a coupla days ago?

Mr. X: huh? What does that got to do with the Indian cricket team?

By now, Mr. Y was getting a little impatient.

Mr. Y: Well? Did you, or didn’t you?

Mr. X gives him a sheepish no for an answer.

Mr. X: But I still don’t understand what you’re getting at.

Mr. Y: Not that sport is any less important, but did you know that India is growing dramatically in the Science & Technology and IT sectors among others? Have you ever wondered how bright India’s future is in those sectors?

Mr. X baffled, doesn’t know how to defend himself.

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The way I look at it, at least if India did a fairly good job at the world cup, Mr. X would've had something to back his argument with! Tch tch tch...

Do our boys have the faintest idea how many poor Mr. X’s are fumbling with words out there?

Another piece of conversation; I was involved in this one! :)

Four gloomy faces (my team members) walk out of one of the conference rooms. They’ve just taken a test for one of the certification programmes our company is offering. All of them said that they hadn’t performed well, except one; this one said that he’d nearly pass. (Psst: the pass score for this test is 70%). One needs to take a series of tests before one can appear for the final exam for this particular programme, and their percentile scores are added up as well.

When I asked the other guys why they couldn’t perform as well as this one did, one of them retorted proudly: “He’s like the Indian cricket team. They perform well during the warm up matches, but fail miserably during the finals. And WE, we’re like the Australians, we perform badly during the initial matches, and then miraculously take the trophy home!” [all the while having that jubilant grin on his face].

To think our cricket team has become the butt of all jokes is very sad.

But I can’t take this any longer! I’m done listening to jokes and reading forwarded emails and sms’ on the cricket team. Pass me that bottle of aspirin… please. Thank you!