Too much of a good thing!!

To say that India is a cricket crazy country is clichéd. That statement has been around ever since I was born (or even earlier) and people have always agreed with that. And the coverage cricket gets each time India plays – whether in Test matches, One Day Internationals, T20s or even the IPL, is unimaginable. All this coverage is sponsored by ads and there are several hundred advertisers in each series. Now, if you are an Indian, none of this would be news for you.

However, one thing I realized while watching today’s match – In fact, I’m writing this article from in front of the TV – is that we have too much of this good thing – of ads. Normally, we have ads coming in between overs and during drink breaks and ball changes. However, in the recent months, each time the ball goes over the boundary, there are ads, and even if there are little gaps like the bowler speaking to his captain before he bowls, there are ads!! In today’s match especially, I’ve hardly seen a replay! There is hardly any commentary of value that I’ve heard – all of that has gone prey to commercial breaks. The ball crosses the boundary and we see the same ads coming up again and again.

Now, there is another side to this – especially for the advertisers. In almost every break, there are ads that are left incomplete. The people manning the consoles have either gone crazy or their bosses have suddenly become greedier! But for advertisers, what fun is it to have their commercial begin and then stop midway because the bowler is on his run up?? It not only spoils the fun of the match, but it also effectively gives a negative perception of the company in the mind of the viewer, as it is eating into cricket time.

And I found one more thing – during the last test match – the one in which we were all praying that Hashim Amla gets out before the last 4 overs are up – we were watching cricket on the internet at the office, and the webcast was of Neo Cricket from the UAE. What was so strange is that there was hardly one or two ads during the over breaks and nothing in between. Of course, there were banners coming up asking new advertisers to contact a particular number to advertise, but as a viewer and a cricket fan, it was so refreshing to watch cricket instead of all these repetitive ads!!

Ok, since this is the first ODI, companies probably are advertising more aggressively today – there one more between the over break has just begun!! But if this also continues in the next One Days, I guess I’ll watch cricket on the internet – of UAE or some other country where there are not as many commercials – instead of on regular Indian TV!

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Ford County Stories - My Review

Once we get used to Grisham's style of writing courtroom sagas, it is quite difficult to actually like other kind of books he writes! So this review is obviously prejudiced!!

But still, there were other books like 'The Innocent Man', and 'Skipping Christmas', that were real good! Especially the latter, which is totally away from his usual gripping courtroom dramas, but still managed to warm hearts.

Right on the blurb, Ford County Stories says that it is a book which puts together plots that Grisham never got to exploring deeper - and for good reason! The collection of stories actually is not much, except for the fact that the reader really appreciates Grisham's sense of judgement in not making these into regular novel sized books.

Now, that does not mean none of these stories are good. There are a couple which really have the potential, and could have made into decent bestsellers - like the story titled 'Quiet Haven' - the story of a truly delightful rascal, who has an entirely different style of making money. That one seriously could have become a wonderful addition to Grisham's list. Then there is the one titled 'Casino' that immediately reminds us of someone like a Jeffrey Archer. That one also is quite delightful. But most of the other stories are just mediocre. What probably has happened here is that the publishers wanted to bring something from the Grisham stable onto the shelves and over the last few years, Grisham has moved away from writing brilliant courtroom sagas. To get the readers back into the Southern Mississippi mould - and Ford County in particular, they just put together a few stories and since it has the name of the master on them, they'll anyway hit the bestseller list.

But then, I've never really enjoyed reading short stories - even books like Twelve Red Herrings; and that is probably another prejudice with which I started reading this one. You can get this from your local library if you'd like to read it!