Sai's Blog

   I ndia’s victory in the second Test against England on the 2025 tour stands out as both remarkable and deeply satisfying. For purists, Test cricket remains the highest form of the game—a true examination of skill, temperament, and endurance. Even a modern icon like Virat Kohli, raised amidst the glitz of T20 cricket, has always reserved his best for the five-day format.      Why is Test cricket so revered? Because it restores the balance. Unlike the limited-overs formats, which heavily favor batsmen with free hits and arbitrary fielding restrictions, Test cricket gives bowlers room to breathe—and strike. Growing up my uncles would tell me tales of fearsome fast bowlers like Dennis Lille, Jeff Thompson, Andy Roberts, Malcolm Marshall, and Michael Holding who would terrorize the batsmen. Ever heard of such a thing in T20 cricket? The red ball, with its hard seam, swings more in the morning, and grips the surface better on lively pitches. This tilts the game bac...

The book tells a semi-biographical story that author's Jewish grandfather likely experienced during the Second World War, specifically during the siege of Leningrad. I liked the book so much I finished it in less than a week in about 4-5 sittings. Obviously, it was easy to read. The author prioritizes telling the story and conveying the emotions in simple words rather than indulge in esoteric language. The prose flows easily from paragraph to paragraph, chapter to chapter. Set in the backdrop of Leningrad Siege it educates the reader about the extremely harsh realities of the war and the siege without rendering itself into a documentary. The two main characters Lev and Kolya one a Jew and the other a Cossack end up unlikely partners in a very strange quest finding a dozen eggs for a Colonel's daughter's wedding in exchange for their freedom. They develop a wonderful friendship over a short span of a week, each entertaining the other with their talents, exploits and latent i...