My theory is that men watch sports so that they can participate in sports discussions at work, and social gatherings. Usually I am the only woman at lunch with coworkers and dinner with friends. Most of the times men are discussing sports; not only popular sports like American football and baseball, but Sumo wrestling, and car racing too. I have nothing to contribute to these conversations. That’s when I think of stuff I want to write here, and then I get accused of spacing out.

When I was living with male roommates, they had stupid rules like live sports are higher priority than anything else on TV. Personally I don't enjoy watching sports, especially American football. It's too violent for me. I do watch the occasional cricket game. I tend to become nationalistic while watching India-Pakistan cricket games. During the India’s tour of Pakistan cricket series, I stayed up many nights and watched almost all games. I made the dumbest comment of my life while watching those games. When the camera focused on the audience, I blurted - "Oh, they look just like us." That got me thinking about my anti-Pakistani feelings and made me realize how wrong they were.

I was chatting with a friend recently. I said I remember how disappointed he was last time Bush won and asked how he felt this time. He replied, “Well, I voted for the first time in my life yesterday for Kerry, but I would still get more upset if Oakland A’s lose.”

It was amazing to me how sports were so important during the days leading up to Election Day. The Red Sox’s winning was a good omen for Kerry's campaign. The big headline on Nov 6th was that the Redskins lost so Kerry would win. Supposedly whenever Redskins lose, the incumbent party loses. On Election Day, a channel showed Kerry's supporters in Boston who were hopeful even though the numbers were against them. Their belief was that Kerry is like their Red Sox team, in the end he will win against all odds. How I wish that were true!