And while I'm on the topic of earning my stripes toward the full Indian experience, I have another I can now check off my list: my first cricket match! And not just any match, either -- India vs. Pakistan in the last day of the third test match (kinda like the playoffs)!

So what are my first impressions? Well, the first two hours in the morning were fun and lively, but come on -- 8 hours a day for five days for just one match?! You've got to be kidding me. India's target score for the day (what they needed to win) was 383 runs. Even this guy had trouble keeping up his steam for the whole day. But if there's one thing that the people here have, it's patience.

Also, I noticed that I was the only person around with a beer (and I bought that because I thought it would be part of the experience). Turns out that they usually don't sell alcohol within the premises, but Vijay Mallya (owner of United Breweries, the world's second largest beverage company based in Bangalore) had strong-armed the govt. into allowing it.

I was also surprised to see that there were no vendors selling anything within the regular part of the stadium -- no tzotchkes, no memorabilia, no food, nothing. Our section was like the upper deck in baseball, so we had a catered lunch and the one Kingfisher stand, but that’s it. So much for my Sachin Tendulkar jersey.

Speaking of Sachin, the game was especially noteworthy because he became India’s highest run-scorer in Test cricket after scoring run number 10,123, which I got on video! Hmmmm. I was there when Barry Bonds hit his 72nd & 73rd homeruns in the same season (he’s at 703 for a career total) but they seem to sort of pale in comparison to numbers that cross the 10,000 mark :-)