Tuk Tuk Rally-2 Saturdays ago

I know this is long overdue, but here it is...

Two Saturdays ago, the Canadian High Commission sponsored a Tuk Tuk Rally.  Tuk-Tuk is more commonly called auto rickshaw or "auto" for short (Sandip wants me to make sure to get that point in.  He often corrects people).  It is basically a three wheeled motorcycle that can take riders.  you will see pictures below.

So 50 teams of 2-3 showed up and were sent on a scavenger hunt around the city.  (one team even had the Canadian High Commissioner, equivalent of Ambassador).  Some tasks were to take pictures of things, which was nice because it forced you to take pictures of things you take advantage of over time.  Others were to get business cards of sponsors, count steps, find foods popular in India (like Mangostein), etc.  Our team was Sandip, my friend Anna from the office, and me.  We were all about chill, having fun, and definitely finding a way for a beer break.

We had a GREAT time, and despite several cutthroat teams, we came in SECOND.  We got awesome "medals" and some jewelry since one of the sponsors was a jeweler.  All in all it was a great time as you can see from the pictures below.

These are the two people who organized the whole thing.  This is before we started the race.   Gordon is reading a poem and at the the line was "take my picture and you win the race!"  Sandip took this picture and we got 25 bonus points.

One of the team members had to do "hard labor"

We also had to play cricket with a locals in a cricket match. 

Take a picture outside of the India Gate.

Take a picture with a train.

Take a photo inside Jantar Mantar.  You might remember this from one of my first blogs.

Buy something from someone who approaches your auto AND get the proof of purchase on film.

Go to a specific bakery and get pastries for less than 80Rs (about $2).  Most teams didn't actually eat the pastries but we did.  Yum.

Be a "Chai Walla" (tea seller) and sell a cup to a random person.

Get your name on a piece of rice.

All three people get mendhi.

Ride a propane delivery bike

Ride a public bus

Get a picture of a team member and a cow.

get 4 people on a scooter.  Extra points for 5 people (which I have seen often) and even more for 6 people (which I have never seen).

Get a picture of a duck.  We happened to know of this family of ducks at a gas station.  We stopped WAY back when we took an auto home from the Commonwealth games, the driver needed gas and all of a sudden this random group of ducks walked through the gas station.  Most people went to a park.

Get a picture of a monkey.

Us and our driver 

Last thing-take a picture of all team members drinking Kingfisher beer!

These were some of the other American contestants,

The winners (minus Anna) with our "medals"

India wins Cricket World Cup

Last Saturday (April 2) Saturday, India won the International Cricket World Cup, the first time since 1983.

Is this a big deal?

Well, cricket is to India what football is to Texas, soccer is to most of the world.  It is basically the world series and Superbowl except international. It is HUGE.  I can't even express how huge it is.

Cricket is kind of like baseball, and once you get the basic rules it is actually quite easy to follow.  The "catcher" equivalent is called the "wicket keeper."  How cool is that?  The match started at 2:30pm and ended at around 10:30. It is an all day event-like Sunday football-but there is only one match for the entire time.

India played the final against Sri Lanka in Mumbai (aka Bombay) so they definitely had the hometown advantage. Surprisingly not many Americans here were totally into it, even though we are typically sports fanatics.  We did get to a bar/restaurant to watch on a big screen with some friends.  The game was really good.  India bowled first (Pitching basically.  Quick cricket lesson: One team does all the bowling at once, then switches and does all the batting.  As a batter, you stay up until you are "out" which in cricket terms is called the bowler/bowling team getting a "wicket." The batter is not "wicket."  Each team bowls a certain number of what are called overs-basically innings.  There are 6 pitches/over, and 50 overs in World Cup rules.  So as a team you bat until are your players are out OR you get to the end of 50 overs.  Goal: score a lot.  End Cricket lesson.) 

India did really well until the end of Sri Lanka's turn where they gave up a lot of runs.  India came up with some big bats, but Sri Lanka got several good batters out early, and it looked like it would swing Sri Lanka's way, but India pulled it out.  The captain no less.  Hitting the equivalent of a home run to with the game with only like 5 pitches left in the game.  It was awesome.

Check out the gallery at WashingtonPost: http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/india-wins-cricket-world-cup-for-1st-time-in-28-years/2011/04/02/AFOBNdQC_gallery.html

So huge deal to win.  For my upstate NY blog followers, it was even more HUGE than Fuccillo.  We took part in celebrations on drive home. There were some sights on the drive home we didn't manage to capture in photo because the camera was too slow: a kid dancing on the roof of the car, and a Sikh stripped down to underwear and turban running on the side of the road.  We also didn't get photos of India gate-the roads were too jammed to get there.  Was a HUGE party there too.

 Below are the pictures we did get:

This is a picture of the "sixer" that won the game.  Cricket's equivalent to a homerun.

This is in the street on the way home. 

Literally dancing in the street.

And of course what is a celebration without fireworks?

Every single car is cheering and going nuts shouting "India India!"