prodigal musings of a spoilt brat

Warming up to the big day

2011-04-02T10:52:00.003+05:30

I couldn't help but sympathise with my grandfather yesterday night when he tried watching all of 6 news bulletins yesterday in the hope that he would get some updates around elections in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal, but all he got instead was a Shankar Mahadevan bellowing out "De Ghumake", Nikhil Chopra, Arun Lal, and Murali Karthik talking about batting, bowling, and preparing for a big game in that order, and Poonam Pandey extolling her patriotic virtues by promising to strip for a national cause.

In the background, his grandson, rather discreetly was leaving no stone unturned either in preparing himself for the big game. We all know how die-hard cricket fans in India consider it no less a responsibility to win games for India by indulging in a series of superstitions. With me, I always try to replicate all my practices whenever India win a game in all future matches till we lose one. It could involve one or a combination of wearing the same T-Shirt the day of the match, the day before, or two days before the game, or in going to bed at a particular time and facing a particular direction, or even in the kind of food that I have. Not to mention talking to and messaging only a certain set of people and ignoring everybody else. So, this time around it has been wearing the Team India Sahara jersey the day before the India game (I had to spend a good three hours in the bathroom to ensure that the aforementioned T-Shirt dried out before I could wear it yesterday. No wonder teams have been cursing the ICC's scheduling); going to sleep dot at midnight facing the west (I had to turn the bed a good 90 degrees much to the consternation of my parents); drinking coffee without sugar in the morning and having ice-cream after lunch which had to contain just fried rice, sambhar, and pappadam. I hope Nikhil John Kurien and Tony Sebastian don't ditch me today during the course of the match for we have sacrificed an enormous lot (exams included) in getting India here. And yes, if my sister is reading, I haven't talked to you over the last week in the fear that it might jinx the Indian run.

And a final serious word on the game proper. I just hope that Dhoni sets his personal vendetta aside and gives the enigmatic Sreesanth a game. India wouldn't stand a chance playing two offies against the Lankans who will keep milking them all day. Somehow, I believe the key to this game aren't the Sachins, Sehwags and Yuvrajs of this world (Lanka have an exceptional track record when it comes to nipping out the opposition's star players in a big game), but rather the more motley Dhonis, Gambhirs and Kohlis. Playing a totally unfit Murali has to backfire on them and the lack of big-match experience in certain departments might choke them like it did to Pakistan.

Personally, I want India to win for my testosterone-starved self of late is keen to find out what transpires around the promised striptease. The Sainiks might ensure that all this running in buff turns out to be a bluff but I am sure it will provide for some serious newsreel once the World Cup euphoria dies down. And yeah, it is noon which tells me that it is time to take a bath with Mysore Sandal Soap and Himalayas shampoo, and sport my Royal Challengers Bangalore T-Shirt. Nuts, I say!

Welcome, says the MBA

2010-05-23T10:14:00.003+05:30

Readers of this blog would know that I am about to embark on a new phase in my life. I need not stress much on how out-of-the-box I have been in making my career choices. Hailing from that ubiquitous SIMCF (South Indian Middle Class Family), I tried to gain some expertise in a musical instrument which nearly ended up costing me my admission; studied hard in school; went to engineering college; got placed in a leading MNC, and am now heading to a B-School. Innovative indeed!

I was headed to a meet organised by this B-School bringing together all alumni and students currently based out of Mumbai. The venue was a posh multi-star hotel near the International Airport. As is the case with most such meets where you are not likely to be knowing more than two individuals beforehand and where you are likely to be using all your energy in doing an "Oh My God! Where have you been all these years?" when coming across an acquaintance from school, college, neighbourhood, street, city or state by chance, the crowd resembled one you would find at a funeral.

Sensing the eerie silence, the 'alumni' did its bit by going through a perfunctory round of introductions in which nobody seemed one bit interested. I always get the jitters before such introductions for you are invariably asked to do one of the following: a)sing b)dance c) crack a joke d) Answer some weird question e) Talk of your love/crush/would-be crush/could-be crush. Needless to say, I am poor at a), b) and e) and only average at c) and I couldn't thank my lucky stars enough when all I was subject to was d).

And then the "party" began. Now it needs little emphasis that there is little space at such parties for a person like me who has lived one heck of a boring life so far by sticking to vegetarian solid and non-alcoholic liquid. My interest in such events is limited to careful observation so that it gives me sufficient content for a blog post like this which in turn helps me with my Google Talk status message for a week. It has always intrigued me how any person in his/her senses is able to hold on to a peg of vodka for well over an hour without finishing it. In the best interest of etiquette, I gulped a litre of fruit juice and another couple of litres of mineral water. However, my hands started complaining from having to hold on to empty glasses/bottles and I decided that etiquette could go to bed for the day.

Besides the observation part, I also take great interest in whatever little vegetarian food that is on offer. It always fascinates me how the proportion of non-meat starters on offer decreases exponentially with time so much so that you are forced to barge into the kitchen to enquire whether there was any impending vegetable crisis. Frustrated at having to wait for so long, I dived into the main course and after eating to the content of my stomach, had water out of necessity for the first time.

The last bit of such parties is the one I enjoy the most. I am not talking about the desserts which were so sumptuous that I am skipping both breakfast and lunch today. Everybody is so thoroughly sloshed that they start to rail against the system. When you are inebriated, you seem to get one of these 'Eureka' moments when you realise that you have lived a life of very little substance and instruct all and sundry not to repeat the mistakes you have committed. One common rant was against three particular institutes known to have a canny resemblance with three consecutive letters of the English alphabet.

So I came back with the usual gyaan on networking, studies and stuff. From my side, I am thoroughly looking back to getting back to hostel life which I believe is the greatest education that you can receive in life in a thoroughly mesmerising campus (I have been there before) getting back to doing all that I enjoy doing. I have never looked forward to a break so much so far.

IPL III- Initial Impressions

2010-03-22T09:32:00.003+05:30

A fortnight of T-20 tamasha is behind us and as always, it has left all, purists included, craving for more. A look at how the various teams stack up at the end of the first quarter:

Chennai Super Kings- The men in yellow started off rustily only for immediate course correction. Hayden and Morkel don't look like being as consistent and destructive as they have been in the past; the bowling is a definite area of concern and they have once again brought aesthetically unappealing cheerleaders to the tournament. However, with the tournament's most astute captain-coach combination at the helm, CSK are favourites to reach the semis. Injuries to Kemp, Flintoff and Oram will deprive them of that second quality all-rounder and hence further progress. Watch out for the emergence of Ashwin and Vijay during the course of this tournament

Delhi Daredevils - Undoubtedly, the most thrilling batting unit in the IPL but a bowling unit that leaves a lot to be desired. Delhi have epitomised lacklusterness and have been particularly hurt by the approach of arguably two of the finest T-20 batsmen in the game: De Villiers and Dilshan. Gambhir and Nehra returning from injury will be of paramount importance and Dan Vettori joining them will lend much needed teeth to their bowling. Hard to see Delhi not entering the semis with a Warner, Sehwag, Gambhir, De Villiers batting lineup

Kolkata Knight Riders - They are everybody's favourite team to watch because of one man who is unfortunately proving to be the wrench in the works again. Kolkata's best chance lies in Ganguly spending as little time at the batting crease as possible for his T-20 record in terms of strike-rates is abysmal for somebody batting at the top of the order. Gayle and McCullum will add lots of muscle to the KKR batting, but expect them to be shackled by the extensive use of spin by the opposition. Undoubtedly, Ganguly has done a good job in getting a potent squad together, but KKR don't bat, bowl and field well enough for this format. Will not end up with the wooden spoon but that is about as good as it will get.

Rajasthan Royals- Everybody's second favourite team but you just sense that their magic is a thing of the past. Warne's tactical acumen, one just feels, has taken this team as far as they could have gone and the lack of quality in the squad is hurting them. Warne's propensity to get on board former Australian cricketers has to be criticised and you reckon that even if Shane Watson turns up, they will still have to be content with the Wooden Spoon. Have been unfortunate with injuries and bans as well.

Deccan Chargers - The Chargers are on a roll just like last year and seem to have this knack to close out tight games. Once again, their bull run has been powered by its foreign contingent and the lack of quality in the squad is bound to hurt them. Expect a lot of spin to be used against the Chargers as the wickets start to aid slow bowling but backed by a good start, and the presence of Andrew Symonds, my T-20 MVP, they will be there and thereabouts. Will just miss out on the semis.

Mumbai Indians - With a new coaching staff at the helm, Mumbai have re-structured their team much to the envy of all other teams and have started playing fearless cricket. Pollard and Rayudu have been excellent additions and with the tournaments's best 1-2 punch in Zaheer and Malinga, they will be tough to stop especially if Jayasuriya starts firing at the top. However, Tendulkar's propensity of being a little bit too cheeky with the batting order could come back and hurt them. Last year, it was Harbhajan Singh and this year it seems to be the turn of wicket-keeper Tare. MI will be difficult to beat if they keep it simple and face no injury concerns. They should finally break that semi-final jinx

Royal Challengers Bangalore - My sentimental favourites because of the presence of timeless legends like Dravid and Kumble. RCB have done a phenomenal job in turning the franchise around with some astute strategy in the bidding and transfer market. It all looks hunky-dory right now but RCB have never been good at setting totals and all their wins so far have come chasing. The batting with Pandey and Uthappa firing looks formidable but the bowling, though aggressive, can come unstuck against good batsmen. Will also face selection issues once Pietersen and Taylor join the squad. Will be in a shoot-out with the Kings XI for the final semifinal spot.

Kings XI Punjab - They are once again a team built around some very skilful T-20 cricketers most of whom are missing. They have had a bad start but expect them to go on a run once Brett Lee, Shaun Marsh, Katich and James Hopes return. They might regret having made Sangakkara the captain for he seems to have very little batting form but they will still be encouraged by Irfan Pathan's spunk. Yuvraj has by and large disappointed in the IPL, and with questions being raise about his training methods, he has a few critics to respond to. Will stake a claim for the final semi-final berth but the poor start might just come back to haunt them.

My name is Woods and I am not a sinner

2010-02-21T07:06:00.002+05:30

After Tiger Woods' apology on national television late Friday night, the media is abuzz with reports of how the FBI and the US Government seem to have come up with a new plan of action to nab Osama Bin Laden - the 9/11 mastermind still at large. The mission to be led by Woods himself has been codenamed 'Operation Hole in One' on insistence from the Tiger on the basis of all the success he has had on and off the golf course with the aforementioned mission in mind.

Operation Hole in One, which would not have any military involvement, is said to be the brainchild of George.W. Bush -the previous president of the United States of America. Bush, it is rumoured, seems to have been inspired by the Bollywood flick My Name is Khan, running to packed audiences in the US. Mr. Bush-with a penchant for out-of-the-box thinking as was evidenced during his tenure when he decided to attack Iraq to wipe out terrorists in Afghanistan- is said to have been touched and deeply influenced by the ability of the human mind to transcend all barriers in the face of love as portrayed in the movie . This particular scheme seems to have struck Mr. Bush in the middle of a scene when the lead protagonist of the movie finally seeks out the President of the USA as demanded by his wife and screams out, "My name is Khan and I am not a terrorist" . Conspiracy theories however suggest that Bush has not been one bit enamoured by the decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to his successor and wants to have a shot at himself and hence this ploy.

The FBI, it is believed, has already colluded with Elin Nordegren, Woods' wife after approval from Barack Obama, who it is suggested, sees this as a great opportunity to cut down on military spends and thus enhance spendings on bonuses of Wall Street executives who are still struggling to get back to their feet in the aftermath of the recession. The pact would have Elin accepting Tiger back into the house only after seeking out Bin Laden and conveying the message, "My name is Woods and I am not a sinner" which would help the US track down Bin Laden at the same time.

It is also rumoured that Tiger was reaching out to the global community when he said, "I have a problem and I need help" as part of his telecast 'apology'. The FBI is also supposed to be working behind the scenes on this and is in the process of building up a grand coalition. The U.K Government is said to be working hard on the wives of John Terry, the England football captain and Ashley Cole, the Chelsea left-back in their efforts to launch another parallel operation code-named 'Operation Ball on Goal'. Bill Clinton has also thrown all his weight behind Tiger Woods and has promised to help him out given his experience in international diplomacy and sexual escapades. Back home, the Ministry of External affairs has solicited the help of disgruntled politician Amar Singh (now without a party) and disgraced Andhra Governor N.D. Tiwari given their proven track record. The Shiv Sena/MNS combine is apparently regretting the protest that they had launched at the launch of the movie as it has boomeranged badly on them in the absence of a Marathi Manoos in the Indian contingent.

Sponsors who had ditched Tiger in the aftermath of all the controversies are said to be keen to get the Tiger back on board and are willing to offer revised deals to help Tiger support this noble cause. The Al-Qaeda is said to be in a state of panic over the Tiger's video-taped recording, something which had been their trademark till now. Bin Laden, reports Al-Jazeera has also posted a series of advertisements in various Matrimonial columns under various monikers to keep ahead of the Tiger in the numbers game. However, there is little doubt about the fact that the Tiger on the prowl has managed to unnerve the Al-Qaeda more than the army action by the US over all these years.

In hope does this community live

2010-02-14T21:31:00.004+05:30

22:00 hrs, Saturday, 13th February - Depressed as I am, I decide to head to my friend's place (a male) to get over it. Both of us are very excited about the upcoming day though neither of us have an idea as to the reason why.

00:00 hrs, Sunday, 14th February - Frantic calls are made to the community of all "single and ready to mingle" friends wishing them luck and happiness on Valentine's Day. The irony of prefixing a happy to all disgruntled and lovelorn individuals is not lost on me when all that is likely to happen during the course of the day is a series of "where are you taking her" questions over gtalk, the her referring to an individual who could have been referenced sometime during a drinking session or a one-time infatuation. It also strikes me that Valentine's Day has become more of an occasion for the community of 'singletons' (pun unintended) as it always feels embarrassing to wish somebody who is going around with another somebody. Probably, they do keep the Valentine's flag aloft amongst the community of "committed" individuals. Fingers crossed and touching wood, I go to sleep.

09:30 hrs, Sunday, 14th February - I wake up and grab my phone in anticipation of some SMS from some old flame. I see two missed calls and one SMS from home. Cursing my luck, I head back to sleep again.

10:00 hrs, Sunday, 14th February - I wake up and open up my Google account much to my friend's dismay. By all accounts, he seems to have planned for a long morning in front of his laptop wishing all his female friends but since I am his guest, he has little option but to grin and bear. He starts watching Mohabattein as a mark of protest.

11:00 hrs, Sunday, 14th February - I am well into my chatting session as I partake in the sorrow of most of my friends. I get depressed again and get a customary ticking-off from a friend whom I am convinced must have been a statue in a previous avatar. Of course, Valentine's Day gets discussed in great detail

12:00 hrs, Sunday, 14th February - I am dragged by my friend to an up-market departmental store for he wants to get some gift. I am not supposed to ask about the intended recipient and I chug along. As is often the case, we spend a good hour without able to finalise on anything. I spend most of the time near the sports accessories section and proudly claim to another friend over phone about how I was helping somebody get a gift for a "special one". I get a strong "usko aur koi nahi mila kya gift dhoondne mein help karne ke liye" retort. I disconnect the call immediately. Seeing me drooling over a football, my friend offers to gift it to me. I am forced to refuse as accepting a gift on this day would be seen as acceptance of defeat in the pursuit of that special one especially with the better half of the day remaining. We give up on gifts and ogle at a giant body-builder as we move out

15:00 hrs, Sunday, 14th February -So, as much of the day gets spent discussing and debating the best way to go about spending time on Valentine's day, the best we manage to come up with is My Name is Khan. Opinions are sought, reviews read and bargain prices searched for. The problem with SRK and AK movies is that you invariably end up getting completely divergent viewpoints. This one is no different. "If you want to retain your faith in Bollywood, stay away from this one" , says one whereas another is all praise for SRK's performance. We decide to watch the movie all the same as some more frustrated individuals join us.

16:00 hrs, Sunday, 14th February - The one thing I don't want to happen with me on this day is getting beaten up. Having read about all the Sena disruptions, I decide to play patriot as I put on my Team India jersey just in case some Sainik happens to create a ruffle. What that Sainik is unlikely to have noticed are my sunglasses neatly tucked in my T-shirt and all the fairness cream smeared on my face. Human beings are indeed an optimistic lot!

19:00 hrs, Sunday, 14th February - The movie ends. We have a quarrel as to which was the more tolerable half. Opinion is divided right down the middle but there is consensus over the fact that the Sena might have been doing a noble deed for once.

21:00 hrs, Sunday, 14th February - I sit down to write this post. And just to add credence to the fact that some individuals never seem to lose hope, here is what my friend just pinged me:

Friend: dude..

what the hell are u doing at home

its valentines day man

get a move

21:50 me: lol

writing a post on all of this

Friend: on what?

bloody u.

21:51 wasting ur time on valentines

call ur girl and go out man

dont be such a bore

Is this Bengal's moment of awakening?

2010-01-28T23:13:00.003+05:30

The brick apartment with a red-grill facade near Lake Gardens would have been in mourning; the 'mishti dahi' counter would have shut shop; the tanawaala by the milk booth would have refused his services, and the hijdas by the Central Park would have ignored their social ostracization. As someone who had grown up in a political milieu which revolved only around Jyoti Basu, I couldn't but help feel a tinge of regret in the passing away of the Communist stalwart.

For a family with a vocal Centrist ideology - which in recent times has shifted to being moderately right of centre - my grandfather had been an exception. Bengal society was probably to blame for it. In the late 80s and the early part of the 90s when I had a smattering of Bengali words in my arsenal, you were either a Communist or didn't possess even a passing interest in politics. The best part of my childhood was spent in a household which belonged to the former category- a household which I have come to understand since was frequented by the likes of Somnathda.

In many ways, the Communists have come to represent all that is good and bad about the Indian polity. For all the hoopla about coalition formations when Morarji Desai managed to cobble together an anti-Congress formation, "marriages of convenience" became a reality once that "farmer from Hasan" assumed the highest mantle thanks in no small measure to the Communists. Basu might have called it a historic blunder but in actuality, it is probably the only reason why the Communists still have a standing in Indian politics. So, while they have evolved to help in putting together the numbers for successive governments, they have also come to symbolise all that is wrong with coalition governments: ideological bickering and creation of narrow-minded interest groups making governments operate on the maxim - no change is the best change.

As much as I respect the Communists for they were the only formation- at least till the late part of the previous decade- who could take a moral high ground when it came to corruption and discipline, they are second to none when it comes to hypocrisy. Communists have always talked about public healthcare and the oft-used proletariat's dominance of the bourgeoisie, yet it remains that there is probably no single formation in the whole of India that has contributed to the neglect of education and healthcare institutions in the public domain as much as the Left has in Kerala and West Bengal. Jyoti Basu's sojourns abroad have always been well documented and so have his posturings for the sake of his son.

For all the pragmatism that the Indian Left has come to stand for, Basu will probably have to be placed right up there with the likes of Castro, Chavez etc for the control that he has wielded over West Bengal for such a period of time; it is only the passionate anti-imperialist (read anti-USA) , anti-free market pleas that have enabled them to stand the test of time. Basu was also different because world history is replete with instances of democracy having collapsed under the weight of communism whereas he managed to legitimize leftist ideology. The election machinery that the Left managed to build up had been the cynosure of many eyes until a woman with her group of activists managed to expose it all through Singur and Nandigram. Basu shall and should be remembered for his land-reforms and reforms of the village level administration but he should also be remembered for having driven industry, art and science out of what was not long back considered the intellectual capital of India. Rasogallas and Mishti Dahi are still their favourites; the metro rail network wears the same paint; the Hooghly bridge and the Victoria Terminal are still the only objects of envy; and Alimuddin Street still houses the blocks of power. Take out the trams and the tanas, you would hardly realise that the world has moved forward twenty years in time.

But in death, all faults have to be conveniently forgotten. It is a pity that it took the unusual concoction of India's tallest corporate magnate and the "wronged daughter" from Bengal to bring them into public conscience. The fact that the Communists have lost their identity all of a sudden will probably be Jyoti Basu's legacy in Indian politics if a dispassionate obituary were to be written.

Meanwhile, I wonder what the next generation discusses over lunch on Sunday afternoons in that brick apartment near Lake Gardens. Basuda is no more; Dada is history in a different way; however, politics is as much about the lady in the white saree and her cloth jhola as it is about Buddha Babu. Is this West Bengal's moment of awakening?

A breath of fresh air!

2010-01-14T13:56:00.002+05:30

I am downcast, depressed, and in mourning. The city that I have taken to has just prevailed over my adopted cricketing city. Mumbai might have won the Ranji Trophy for a record 39th time by beating Karnataka, but I have never been so excited after watching a Ranji game.

We have just seen the future of Indian cricket though I am sure that Akku would already be shaking his head in disapproval. Even while admitting to my habit of using hyperboles liberally, I am convinced that Abhimanyu Mithun and Manish Pandey represent the future of Indian cricket in the bowling and batting departments. And much to the chagrin of all my friends, I am also convinced that the Bangalore Royal Challengers are going to be very difficult to beat in the next edition of the IPL.

Coming back to the game, the ground was jam-packed; there were people on top of tress, lamp-posts, electric towers and every other conceivable vantage point. Just goes to show you that the longer format of the game is still the most captivating provided you have a good playing deck. The tussles in Australia and South Africa have definitely provided for more interesting viewing than all the mindless lopsided one day internationals that have panned out in the sub-continent.

A toast to test match cricket indeed!

P.S: Special mention of Akku, Vaibhav and Abhishek who found nothing better to do on New Year's than solve my crossword.

The year that was!

2009-12-30T23:22:00.002+05:30

Difficulty Level: Very Easy

E-mail your solutions to varun.adidas@gmail.com. All completed entries to get treated! :P

Double click the images if you are having difficulty viewing it. Luck with it!

India 2010

2009-12-11T20:49:00.001+05:30

What's in a name?

2009-12-08T21:01:00.005+05:30

Namesake:

It is final and binding. If you are a resident of America, you cannot have first names that are more than six characters long just like you cannot have passwords that are more than twelve characters long. I came this conclusion thanks in no small part to the organisation that I work for. Being a part of the great Indian software and 'foren' dream, I came across quite a few NRIs (Non-Resident Indians), RIRAs (Resident Indians Residing in America) and INRIs (Indians Never Resided in India) who had made a fortune for themselves abroad. Something that did puzzle me then was the abridgement of the first names in proportion to the weight of his/her bank balance. I have heard of three different persons by the names of Sri, Vats and Son, all originally Srivatson and observed that there was a pattern to it. Basically, all first names are of the form ABCDEF where one and only one of B,C,D and E must be a vowel and at most just one of A and E can be a vowel. To put it simply, all first names must be less than or equal to six characters comprising just two vowels and that too only if one of the first or the last letters is a vowel. The preferred methodology is pretty simple: take out the first two syllables from your actual name and append a vowel if your name sounds very cheesy otherwise. Thus, Venkataraman becomes Venky, Kashiram becomes Kash and Samrath becomes Sam. I do feel for all those Fakruddins and Khsitijs who are in the U.S.A . I am also indebted to my parents for having shown tremendous foresight in this matter.

The question is popped:

Recently, I had one of those nightmarish visits to one of those very distant relatives. One of the problems with visiting such folks (accentuated in Tam Bram families) is that the host professes to have known you all his/her life so much so that you would almost think that he/she had been living with you all along. To make matters worse, you have no option but to nod with a sheepish grin knowing only too well that even the slightest revolt would invite censure. This was a visit to one of those X'S Y's Z where X could stand for any one of uncle, aunt, grandfather or grandmother, where Y could for one of nephew or niece and where Z, for the sake of simplicity, is always brother or sister. I must confess that I remember just the X in this case and that is probably due to the fact that X was accompanying me that day. Being the closely knit unit that we are, I had to repeat the sheepish grin with nod ritual in front of all of Z1, Z2, Z3....Zn, where Zi belonged to the immediate family of Z. One of thos Zs, say Ze, had to embarass me with this peach, "kalyanam kazhinjittu ethra samayamayachu" (How long have you been married?). Now, folks who know me well would already be in splits at the very thought of somebody even contemplating the idea of yours truly being married.For the information of others, I am odd-on favourite at 59:1 to get married last when it comes to my colege batch, and only a marginally better 1:3 when it comes to getting married at all. However, that question did bring me to life and make me sit up straight and my facial expression at that point of time must have made for a good tableau for Ze tried to make peace by admitting that the subject in question looked too young to be married. Mention of my vitality made me smile wryly as I helped myself to some halwa with filter coffee in hand. Another problem with visiting these Zs is that they invariably invoke some other distant relative of theirs who might have had a very vague facial resemblance to yours and do a very thorough juxtaposition. To copound the misery, all Zs but for Zi have to support Zi's observation. I felt that the halwa was too sweet and that the coffee had little sugar and restored both to their rightful positions.

CAT chaos -I

2009-11-28T14:06:00.004+05:30

The CAT kicked off amidst great excitement at various centres across India. However, major chaos has broken out with reports of servers crashing and students unable to take their exam.

Preliminary reports indicate the handiwork of some MNS youth appearing for the exam. It appears that the trigger for their action was a question in the Data Interpretaion set which had information about the different languages that 500 students studying in four different schools in Maharashtra spoke. Apparently, one of the questions corresponding to that set went along the lines of, "At least how many students speak Marathi?" with none of the answer choices reading 500. To make matters worse, the question had 0 as one of the options.

Incensed, these youth seem to have gone on a rampage damaging all examination servers they could lay their hands on. On being asked to comment, the Chairman of the CAT had this to say, "Aise bade exam mein aise chote chote cheezein hoti hai". A Cabinet Meeting has been called to address the issue and it seems that as a conciliatory tactic, Marathi in the question will be replaced by Tamil. The DMK is said to be monitoring the situation closely. More information as soon as more news breaks out......

Cul-de-sac

2009-11-21T09:48:00.001+05:30

The horizon was begiining to blur as he gazed at the distance in the dark of the night. He had been given 12 months to put it all together but he had failed miserably. Unlike in the past, he was running away from reality and ducking challenges. He was feeling lonely and had started questioning the purpose of existence.

He had stopped playing the beautiful game; he hadn't bowled full throttle the way he used to love doing in college for over four months; he had quit newspapers too, something he hadn't done all his life. His food habbits had become wayward and he had taken recourse to torturing his body. He had shed 4 kilograms over the last week.

All of this wasn't new to him. He had been through all this and much more a couple of years ago but then he had known the cause all along and where the salvation was, just that he had become too weary to make that effort. This time around, he knew that there wasn't going to be any salvation.

He had tried reasoning out with many people but all the counsel had left his mind muddled.

Maybe, he was just going through a bad phase. His soul-mate had fallen seriously ill; he had had one of the nastiest tiffs in his life with his punching bag for all seasons; one of the nicest persons he had ever come across had left him to build his own canvas; Liverpool were having one of their worst seasons ever and India were contriving to lose cricket matches.

It had to change quickly for his sake. He realised that he needed a change in his environs. He packed his bags and....

Cul

What a city!

2009-09-05T18:57:00.006+05:30

It has been little over a year since I started residing in this city and in the midst of a very monotonous routine, I must confess to having taken great interest in the various little intricacies that go about defining life here and how this magnificent city always seems to leave you feeling inadequate

Swine flu was no different.

It started off being the butt of all jokes around the cafetaria table. I was having a tough time at work being forced to abandon travel back home in order to slog those extra couple of hours . Hitherto, all my adventures in the Mumbai suburbans had been late night ones. I must admit to having freaked out once when a group of Sainiks stormed into a bogie which had been occupied by just yours' truly at one in the morning. I have great sympathy for eunuchs as a class, but catching them in compromising positions on another occasion well after midnight- to put it mildly- was distasteful. So here I was, wating at the station at five in the morning, eager to catch some fresh air, which I hadn't done for a couple of days, having been caged in the stifling air-conditioned environs of my workplace.

I was to be taken aback as the train arrived

Initially, it seemed as if a certain religious sect whose extreme adherents cover their mouths was celebrating some auspicious day. Besides, there was hardly any space to step into. Once I regained my wits about myself, I was telling myself, "Dude, this is Mumbai for you". I came to understand that there had been "two fatal cases of swine-flu" in the city over the past twenty-four hours. I resisted taking my handkerchief's assistance, at the same time berating my fellow passengers for resorting to such unwarranted, panic-driving measures. I shuffled uncomfortably next to an elderly person, who by all conservative estimates was over seventy and lo and behold, out came his handkerchief to cover his face with a look of disgust and extreme disapproval to boot.

"F*** me. What does that **** think of himself?" was all I could mutter. Contempt for fellow passengers soared. I took in the morning air with great aplomb for the rest of the journey

The 'nose and mouth' (N&M) disease had spread to hawkers on the platforms when I took the train back to work. I was in this exalted state which one attains when he/she believes in being a cut above the rest. My parents' narration of swine -flu incidents across Mumbai had done very little to dent my ego. After a couple of stations, a couple of my colleagues joined me with masks in place. Inhalation became more measured all of a sudden.

After another thoroughly exhausting and boring day at work, I hired an auto to get to the rail station. No sooner had I boarded the auto than the driver took out his handkerchief and put it in place (N&M). I was stumped and muttered the very same lines under my breath, but this time in Hindi.

The scene at the rail station resembled one out of a cancer hospital. My dad has a sense for calling me when you least want him to, and unsurprisingly, he was on the line giving me details about cases of swine-flu reported. My hand reached out to my pocket in a flash, and N&M had its latest victim. I ensured that my hands stayed inside my laptop bag for the remainder of the journey not wanting to catch a strain of the virus that may have been 'flying over my head or resting on the window sill'. The state of elation that I had been in seemed a distant dream. My head started spinning; my body was shivering a tad and there were a couple of sneezes, all of which did great good in contributing to my general sense of well-being. I just wanted to get back home safe. I also remembered the old man and the auto driver and started apologising to them.

Once I reached the station, I dashed to the nearest pharmacist and was relieved when he gave me a couple of N-95 swine-flu masks. I was sweating now and heaved a sigh of relief when I got home.

I woke up the next morning and washed my hands with all the different hand-washes that I had bought the previous day. I popped in a couple of Vitamin tablets and also some almonds as confidence building measures. With a clean handkerchief in pocket and mask in place (N&M), I stepped out of my house, still feeling mighty impressed about myself.

I was to be taken aback again.

It was a sight that had to be witnessed. N&M had vanished and the 'Aam Junta' was celebrating Janmashtami in full splendour. People were no longer suspicious about the person next to him/her and it was an outpouring that forced the 24*7 Nonsensical & Endlessly Weird Speculating (NEWS) channels to tone down their coverage of swine-flu. I was humbled and at the same time felt dwarfed as I deposited my mask in the waste-bin nearby

I was telling myself again, "Dude, this is Mumbai for you".

(A special word of thanks to Rahul for inviting me home and then going on a 'personal errand' forcing me to write to kill my boredom)

Is this guy the greatest ever?

2009-07-06T23:00:00.005+05:30

One debate ended only for another to start. No sooner had Federer out-aced Andy Roddick on the hallowed SW 19 Centre Court than questions started floating about the greatest contemporary sportsperson. Poor A-Rod! The Nebraskan with the never-say-die attitude who had been anointed Pistol Pete's heir had outplayed and outwitted the one who was trying to stake claim to being the greatest ever tennis player only to be knocked out in a manner nobody had foreseen.

15 Grand Slams, 20 Grand Slam finals, 21 Grand Slam semifinals...The list might be fascinating compilation for a statistics buff. Just to put things in perspective, it is like staying the top batsman in T-20, Test and ODI cricket or being the FIFA World Footballer of the Year or winning over 90% of Formula 1 races not once but over the course of five years. Tiger Woods might point to his reign atop the Golf rankings; Lance Armstrong could point to all his Tour De France yellow jerseys; Haile Gebrsellasie would point to all the long distance records he has broken but...

Irrelevant!

Nobody amongst them has done it with so much ease, so much class, so little effort, so little difficulty and so much consistency. Rafael Nadal will always spring up when Federer critics speak but, lest we forget, tennis is probably the only sport which tests the versatility of an individual to the extent where fundamentals that apply to one surface don't necessarily hold on another.

So, is it a given that we are watching the greatest contemporary athlete? Michael Schumacher won five F1 Championships on the trot but Lewis' struggles this season have highlighted the importance of the machine in that sport. Besides, Michael didn't exactly cover himself in glory when a certain Fernando Alonso came along. Tiger Woods' will break all possible golfing records, but he will do that over a longer timeframe because of the nature of his sport. Yes, Woods has to take on the entire field all at once unlike Federer who has just one adversary at a time and just has to ensure that he is better than his opponent on the given day. Well, that is what pressure is about! Tiger Woods' disastrous Matchplay record (golfing equivalent of a tennis match) will bear testimony. Tendulkar, Ronaldo (Brazilian forward), Steve Redgrave (British rower), Lance Armstrong (American cyclist), Garry Kasparov etc. come to mind when reaching the pinnacle of one's profession gets talked about, but honestly, they have never overshadowed the sport like Federer has currently.

And, before you jump out accusing me of being elitist or sexist, I do admit that the above is just a list of male champions from sports which are not exactly nondescript.

No wonder, the act of coronation was so special. Hardly ever before have we witnessed such a power-packed celebrity gathering for a sporting event. It was as if greater powers had set it all up. By the time, Roger wins a few more Grand Slams, it might well be time to ask, "Is this guy the greatest ever?"

Back to Square Twenty?

2009-06-16T14:26:00.004+05:30

So, we are no good against ENT balls; we crumble under pressure; we need to stop playing the IPL; and we need to find a new skeeper to replace Moody Selfish Dhoni.This depressing media diagnosis- bearing a striking resemblance to the one about a certain neighbouring country a couple of days back- after failure to perform well in a tournament that has been likened to WWF, desserts and foreplay smacks of a convenient ignorance on part of the ever hypocritical media.

It is probably time to take a step back and dispel a few myths:

Myth 1: T-20 cricket is made for India

Individuals growing up playing a form of cricket colloquially referred to as gully cricket don't necessarily represent a perfect T-20 fit. Traditionally, Indian cricketers have never been athletic, innovative, powerful or tactful- qualities that are a must for the T-20 format. However,they have always been bestowed with talent and a sense of timing. With a fielding side that is bound to concede ten runs per game on an average and a bowling unit containing no mystery bowlers or bowlers of extreme pace, India were bound to struggle once T-20 started to be viewed as a science by other teams. As a good T-20 team, you need to have most of the above attributes or be ruthlessly efficient like South Africa are. India don't tick most boxes and that has been borne out by India's T-20 record since that World Cup victory. You can still win it all in this format if you have huge doses of fortune along the way and that in itself should be the biggest commentary about T-20 cricket.

Myth 2: Dhoni is Mr.Cool

M.S.Dhoni wouldn't even make the shortlist of the 100 most gifted players in the country. For a player with such limited gifts, he has to keep working on his game consistently and inventing himself. Add to this, the pressures of captaincy, wicketkeeping, girlfriends and advertisements (kiddology attached to the last two), it is no wonder that he has started getting very grumpy of late. Being critical of teammates, selectors and the Board in full media glare doesn't sit well with his Mr. Cool image. If anything, the game of cricket has once again proved to be the great equalizer.

Myth 3: Dhoni is Mr. Fool

Dhoni has been regarded as being selfish because of his approach to ODI and T-20 cricket of late. There is no doubt that he has made a conscious transition from the slam-bang approach when he first played international cricket to a more measured one. People tend to forget that most of those runs scored as a result of that carefree approach were made against bowling attacks that read Sami, Razzaq, Fernando,Vaas, Naved on the flat tracks back home. Dhoni, like most hitters, has a hitting zone which international bowlers have sussed out and stay away from. It is not Dhoni's fault that he is no longer able to create so many scoring opportunities. Rather, it is to his credit that he has managed to evolve an alternate batting methodology and managed to stay in the hunt and not become another of those one-year castaways. Sachin Tendulkar too made a not too dissimilar transition not long back. However, where Dhoni needs to buck up is in his belief that he can comfortably chase down 10 runs on an average over a period of time. Some of the greatest individuals in the game who have worked with Dhoni have called him the smartest cricketer around and when he has a few off-days, we would be better served with a "it's time to move on" on our part rather than have a go at him. Equalizer or not, expect Dhoni to be back trying to get one up on others. He has got that cheek that has rarely been seen in Indian cricket.

Myth 4: India are going to leave the rest of world cricket behind

Individual work ethic has never been India's strength. For a team to stake claim to being the best in the world, it has to be together for some time and then be able to make the transition to the next level. Talent and that surprise element will only get you a certain distance .There is something about the Indian psyche that has prevented this from happening, thus far anyhow. We know what happened when Greg Chappell brought in some tough training routines; we see how Yuvraj has gone from being one of the best fielders in the world to possibly the worst in the Indian team and we have also seen the stagnation in all our fast (read medium) bowlers but one. We are still going to have phases when we take world cricket by storm (ala Pakistan) when we get a team of young, talented individuals. But, as word goes around about their weaknesses,a process likely to be expedited by the IPL, we will also get Indian teams that dabble in mediocrity for a while.

Myth 5: India need to look for another captain

Dhoni has been India's shrewdest captain over the last decade and should be in the saddle for the foreseeable future just by virtue of the fact that he is the only certainty in the playing eleven. The other two contenders, Sehwag and Yuvraj, have never displayed any consistency in all forms of the game over a period of time and have always been found wanting when it comes to work ethic.

So, the prognosis, in reality, shouldn't be all that depressing. India, just by virtue of the exposure that its talent pool gets should be amongst the best in the world which in itself represents a far cry from the past, but unless a team of individuals with the drive of an Anil Kumble or a Sachin Tendulkar come along, it is difficult to see a group of youngsters- pampered and built up by the media without having proven their mettle - take the next step. Till then, it is time to tone down expectations of an invincible Indian side but at the same time cherish the fact that every defeat is not going to get us back to Square One as was the case in the past. Considering the format, Square Twenty would be appropriate, right?

The malaise -I

2008-12-03T23:57:00.002+05:30

So, here goes another of those pseudo-intellectuals ranting about the Mumbai blasts and all that is supposedly negative about India- its politicians; its society; its neighbours;its people et al. The Mumbai attacks will go down as a landmark event in awakening the collective conscience of the 'common man'. If the anger is palpable and bursting at the seams, it has probably got less to do with the inevitability of these attacks and helplessness when one does happen but more to do with the fact that this was the first time that the upper echelons (read affluent upper strata) of society was targeted.

In its aftermath, we are already witnessing the customary recriminations. There have been questions raised about insufficient infrastructure; the security and even the media. No other country in the world is faced with such a multitude of difficulties when tackling any issue. Our secular and pluralistic credentials always seem to come in way. The USA had to stand up to a barrage of criticism once the interrogation for 9/11 commenced for the way minorities (read bearded individuals) were isolated and targeted. The American society by and large, however was unaffected. Contrast the situation with India where the killing of every individual in any 'encounter' has political repurcussions.

I suspect that we have carried too much baggage ever since Independence because of the word 'secular' in the Preamble to the Constitution. For all things that the endearing Mahatma was able to obtain, his methods have ensured that we will forever be burdened by minority appeasement that will always prevent us from taking decisive action as a society.

The Indo-Pakistan conflict has been allowed to linger on for so long that it would put the Middle East conflict to shame. We have reached such a dead end where a round of talks is said to be successful if a consensus has been arrived at to meet again. Successful resolution of the Kashmir crisis would require a major compromise on the part of one of the sides which cannot be foreseen in the near future.

The less said about the leadership vacuum at the centre, the better. Manmohan is honest but soft; Advani and Modi are tough but communal; Mayawati and Pawar are shrewd but regionalists; Sonia is probably downright incompetent. Voting has suddenly become an exercise in trying to pick out the lesser of the evils- an elimination as compared to positive support. Is it realistic to expect decisive and fair action from this motley crowd?

Threats of controlled military action constitute mere hollow rhetoric since the reality of the situation is something else. Pakistan is a nuclear state where worryingly the controls are in the hands of rogue elements. India cannot afford to be reckless as a result of the actions of its political forefathers and its best hope lies in a sustained international diplomatic effort backed by concrete pressure tactics.

India probably needs a decisive political mandate in the next parliamentary elections. Right-wing or centrist, the ruling formation should have the mandate to carry out reforms and govern without the pulls of a coalition government.

The country as a whole could benefit if:

1) Regional parties are banned. The political system can simply survive with so many stakeholders who have a parochial outlook. Regional parties should be given space only in the assembly elections and there should be no more than three entities fighting it out at the national level.All states should be guranteed a budget amount commensurate to its size so that the respective State Governments can pursue policies that suit the interests of the state best.

2) Press censorship is imposed along the lines of the Red Kingdom. The media has to play a responsible role as it does in the USA (at least from an American perspective) or has to be forced to play one if it doesn't toe the line. As praiseworthy as the coverage in the print media has been, some of the news broadcasts have been horrendously lopsided. Most of the Hindi news channels are a disgrace especially when a crisis is at hand and the only sane and balanced coverage is not surprisingly on Doordarshan. Leaving the choice of what to watch to the audiences works fine when we talk about an educated society but in a society like ours, the media should bear in mind the fact that it has a responsibility to educate and not just trivialise and sensationalise. The barrage of criticism directed at our politicians by our media has left everybody disillusioned. Does Cuba or Venezuela have better leaders in Fidel Castro or Hugo Chavez? Did America have a better President in Dubyaman? But why are they still endeared?

3) The dignity of the administrative services is restored in terms of work profile and compensations. We could definitely stretch our subsidy bill to have more motivated policemen, bureaucrats and defence staff. It could also reduce if not wipe out corruption which has been the perennial bane of our society.

4) Indiscriminate entry of foreign nationals into this country is stopped. All consulates should be alerted as the importance of screening individuals thoroughly something the US has been able to achieve post 9/11. The borders should be sealed and if it means army deployment throughout the year, so be the case. The Navy, Coast Guard and Coastal Police should have an integrated command at the top so that a unified policy can be arrived at. India could also follow the Homeland Security model to traffic its skies effectively. These attacks cannot be prevented by having a more sophisticated police force but only through a more co-ordinated intelligence effort.

Oh captain, my captain!

2008-11-02T16:34:00.004+05:30

It could have ended no other way! As the champion motored in from the top of his bowling run with that trademark hop, skip and jump for one final time in international cricket, and thus relieve himself of all the burdens that he has had to face over the last year, Mathew Hayden backed out because of disturbances in front of the sightscreen. It was a false start! And now he had to go through that whole process again to attain that "bliss in solitude" which every individual encounters once during his/her lifetime. And he got hit for a boundary!

Nothing could have epitomised Kumble' s career better than those final moments at the Kotla.Here was a cricketer who had gone through 18 years of toil but had never had time to sit back and savour his achievements (of which there were innumerable). He had to start all over and prove himself again at evry point of time in his career. Anil Kumble knew nothe word joy because he wasn't ordained as a cricketer and the joy of playing sport comes only to amateurs and those professionals who are supremely gifted. Anil Kumble was neither. After all, he was a misfit, wasn't he? An engineer by education; a bespectacled young man whose looks would have done an academic proud; a leg-spinner who delivered the ball from the vertical and one who spun his spun his googly more and the most inelegant of batsmen to watch. For him, every morning was a question of sustainabilty, reinventing himself so as not to get found out and proving all and sundry wrong over and over again. He couldn't have afforded to let his guard drop for that would have meant that batsmen would have devoured him up in that moment of complacency. He courted immortality all through the latter half of his career but they always proved to be false dawns for every period of exultation in his career was accompanied by disappointment just like that Matty Hayden boundary

Amidst the legion of greats, Anil Kumble was the greatest match-winner. Sachin Tendulkar had some fine batsmen in the middle order but recall an Indian bowler of class and conviction barring Javagal Srinath over the last 15 years. He turned India into a cricketing fortress and made it a formidable test match unit for the first time in its history. Mohammed Azharuddin will still tell you how much more important Kumble was when compared to Sachin from India's perspective. But one again suspects that the word match-winner will never sit well on Kumble's shoulders. He was neither flamboyant nor charismatic as all match-winners are.

It is very rare for a successful sportsperson to be adored all over the world as a great gentleman as well. Anil Kumble was just that. No cricketer has made a comment that has created as many flutters as when Anil Kumble said,"There was only one team playing in the proper spirit of the game" after the Sydney test. That spoke as much about the man's aggression as about the respect that he commands. It was a comment that ruffles Adam Gilchrist and Roy Symonds to this day. That he was the only stakeholder to come out unscathed also speaks much for the integrity and values that he has upheld and cherished throughout his career.

He makes for a great role model for lesser mortals as Rahul Dravid will gladly confess. He put into practice the maxim that anything could be attained through sheer hard-work, determination and perseverance. We might all try to emulate a Sachin Tendulkar but we must not lose sight of the fact that Sachin was supremely talented when he started off and that such a gem comes through only once in a generation. Kumble represents the common individual, one who has to give his all for any bit of success or recognition and one who has to improve all the time in order to progress.

Sport won't see a greater competitor than Anil Kumble. I haven't revelled in any Indian victory as much as I have seeing Anil Kumble bowl with a fractured jaw and plastered skull but still toiling with great skill against two of the greatest exponents of batsmanship in modern times: Carl Hooper and Brian Lara. Jumbo might have grimaced more with every over as it became excruciatingly painful and his plaster might have kept coming off, but not for once did he waver. It made for poignant viewing because even the Indian players on the field had been stunned to silence. I can also not imagine any cricketer who would have come out to bowl after having been administered 10 stitches in a game that was destined for a tame end. I somehow suspect that events like these will be etched in my mind more than a Tendulkar hundred or a Yuvraj blitzkrieg.

All the wickets that he picked up will be crucial in building up Kumble, the spin-legend for the sake of posterity. Just for pure effort and commitment, he deserves a place in the exalted company of Warne and Murali. The sheer weight of wickets will ensure just that. After all, we measure the greatness of past players by sheer numbers, don't we? Contemporaries won't grant Kumble similar leeway because for all his wickets, he was a limited operator. Maybe, he had to retire to derive that joy out of his achievements.

It could have ended no other way! If ever there was a snapshot of a career, this was it. It was surreally ironic! He scored valuable runs in a manner only Anil Kumble can; he got injured off the bowling of his heir apparent trying to pull off an impossible chance; he came back to compete with a single hand but was unable to bowl out Australia for there was not enough assistance in the track. It could have ended no other way!

Is there a way out?

2008-10-14T23:00:00.004+05:30

It has been a fortnight of tremendous torture! Terrorist attacks all these years had represented mere newsreel for me; a timely reminder to our Government and the world at large that Kashmir was an issue that needed to be resolved. Most people might have been shaken by 9/11, but once again to this author- who by the way confessed to be a Chomsky fan- it was an action with an objective to grab attention.

However, life has taken a turn for worse over the last two months. Paul Krugman might have won a Nobel in predicting the global meltdown but there hardly seems to be any degree of uncertainty in forecasting terror strikes. And suddenly, as I travel in the sub-urban network day in and day out, there is this chilling realisation that I am at the very centre of it, wholly exposed and vulnerable.

There are some questions that have been bothering me ever since as we all try and rack our heads in finding a solution to this. Should India give up on Kashmir and pursue the problem of Bangla immigrants aggressively so that we can live in peace once and for all? Would that be a sign of weakness and more importantly would that ensure stability given the imperialistic designs of nation-states so beautifully captured by Adam Smith? And how do we tackle this menace of communalism, something that is undoubtedly just an irritant in most eyes but one threatening to take on dangerously extreme proportions all the time? Should religious teachings be banned or should all measures be taken to preserve our heritage rich in religion and culture? Do we claim to be secular in the first place? Why should a pseudo-secular country like ours witness so much bloodbath in the name of religion?

India's greatest failing is ironically its greatest strength- its claim to being the world's richest and most inclusive democracy. It is only here that we try to understand communalism and terrorism; and it is only India that can celebrate the canonisation of Sister Alphonsa when there are questions being asked about relationships vis-a-vis the Christian community. Ironically, it is these secular and democratic credentials have given a free rein to all extremist groups and what we are witnessing these days is the culmination point where a battered ego guided by a primitive mindset vents its anger. Be it the Danish cartoon, Hussain's paintings or Tibet, India seems to be a pivot for all manifestations of hurt. If people thought that education was the solution, we all now know that the threat now comes from the most sophisticated computer engineers in the world as well.

These are all seriously disturbing questions! How do we ensure that every individual has a societal orientation? Maybe, it is just time to chuck that artificial fabric that we seem to have so conveniently woven and rid ourselves of all delusions. But, again we are a peace-loving nation! Huh!

A letter to the honourable Prime Minister of India

2008-08-31T18:00:00.004+05:30

Dear Prime Minister,

It is with great anguish that I record these thoughts of mine in a year that was supposed to be your signature one. During the last two months, the Indian political space has witnessed an upheaval of sorts that could have significant consequences in the next parliamentary elections, and as a result prove significant in this country's future.

Over the last six months, I have witnessed, first with admiration, your evolution as a politician from a suave academic and economist and then with trepidation and alarm, the denigration of one supposedly honest and one who supposedly stood for values and ethos into just one of those politicos.

Even when Indian parliamentary democracy reached its nadir through the cash-for-vote scandal on the 22nd of July, here was a citizen silently cheering you on in the belief that it was all for a noble cause. When you, honourable PM, took on the Left single-handedly much against the whims of all the powers at the Centre, an entire nation rejoiced, undoubtedly surprised. For a country with an aspiring middle class which had been let down by the regressive policies of the Left, here was their messiah- their saviour in times of a distress. Your mass appeal reached such heights that Sonia Gandhi was forced to ask "why not" to a question on whether Manmohan Singh would lead the UPA in the next General Elections; Akshay Kumar suddenly found a competitor vying for space for the tag of 'Singh is King' and the Congress was suddenly looking upto you for direction. As one noted television anchor put it, "Manmohan Singh would go down in the annals of Indian history for having changed the economic landscape though reforms as Finance Minister and now for having changed the Foreign Policy map through the Indo-US Nuclear Deal". India Inc. rejoiced at the prospect of the derailed reforms process being put back on track with the Left no longer existent to change track. And an aspirational India- for long on the cusp of becoming a global force- rejoiced at the prospect of being a recognised global power at last.

But the reality, Mr. Prime Minister, would put most to shame. We have seen the worst game of political one-upmanship since then and what really pains me is that you, Mr. Prime Minister have been at its forefront. Bihar has been ravaged by floods over the last fortnight, and Mr. Prime Minister, you felt that your relationship with Lalu Yadav was so sacrosanct that you didn't find time to discuss things over with CM Nitish Kumar! Ratan Tata- the epitome of corporate value and responsibility not only in India but all over the world has been hit hard by protests from some nondescript individuals in Singur and Mr. Prime Minister, your Government prefers to turn a blind eye because it could do with a few seats from the Trinamool National Congress in the next elections! The Nano project was going to be India's claim to fame in the global manufacturing industry and now it has become an object of scorn! What is more despicable is that Mr. Tata took up the project in West Bengal to put it on the path of industrialisation and look at what we have got into! When that Commerce Minister par excellence, Mr. Kamal Nath tried to put in a word for Mr. Tata, he was shouted down by powers at the centre. And we thought you were pro-reforms!

Nothing in recent Indian history has been as cataclysmic as the abject internal security scenario. First, the Gurjar agitations that paralysed life in North India; the spate of bombings in Ahmedabad; the never-before witnessed pleas for separation on Indian soil in Kashmir and all the violence as a result of the Amarnath Land Dispute and now communal riots in Orissa between the Hindu and Christian community. It just goes to show the nature of the spineless opposition that your most inept Home Minister, Mr. Shivraj Patil continues to be at the helm with the task of sorting out all these disputes being left to that troubleshooter for all times- Mr. Pranab Mukherjee and your fabulous team of bureaucrats. Heads would have been rolling in any other country.

And now to your forte: economics and reforms. Ever since that trust vote, your team has been fighting fire trying to curtail inflation which has reached record heights. Thoughts of reforms look very far-fetched at this point of time. The FM has suddenly become invisible and the reality of the matter is that there are so many other issues facing us at this point of time that inflation doesn't necessarily seem to be a concern. That is the way, we Indians are, aren't we? We just have this freakish ability to absorb anything that is thrown at us.

And finally your record on education! The discriminatory minority policies on education have invited the ire of faculty of the leading institutes in the country at last. First, it was student reservation, then it was relaxing the cut-offs even further to fill seats that were still vacant, then came faculty reservation and finally, the extremely laughable proposition of an All-Women's IIT, a proposal so ridiculous that it was shot down by the Chairman of the Planning Commission, even though it came from the honourable President.

Mr. Prime Minister, can you still maintain a clean conscience and honourable silence even through all of this? When in North America, a certain Democrat is capturing the imagination of the masses talking of change and invoking the spirit of that legend, Martin Luther King Jr. through that famous "I have a dream" speech, are we wrong in expecting a brighter future? Are we wrong in wanting the Dream Team to rekindle our dreams and ambitions and spark our quest for supremacy? Mr Prime Minister, please uncover your cloak for it is too repulsive for us. We would rather not have you as a politician. Or Mr. Prime Minister, are the next Lok Sabha elections your way of being recorded in the history books? Mr. Prime Minister, history doesn't create leaders; leaders create history!

The week that wasn't

2008-07-27T19:18:00.003+05:30

A chronological account of a few 'very interesting' days:

July 24th -
The time is 0001 hrs. I look forward to my Hyderabad trip and have an early morning flight to catch courtesy Go-Air. The trip is an official one as part of our induction process and there are around 50 of us making the trip from Mumbai to Hyderabad. Much to my dismay, I find out that I have been booked on IC (Indian Airlines) for the return leg. My dismay turns into anguish when I realise that I am amongst the 'fortunate few' who wasn't to get an opportunity to fly on Kingfisher during the round trip. One of my friends calls on me to rub it in at this late hour.

My dad is out of station and hence I place three alarms along the sides of my head and manage to wake up when the first rings. I am on top of the world when I leave my house and get abused by a taxi-driver when I attempt to wake him up. I sombre down and finally get a cab to reach the airport. My friends already start taunting me at this early hour and I rub salt into my own wound by complaining. My friends, X & Y, who incidentally are on Kingfisher are a big pain. Two stewards welcome me on board and there is no breakfast on offer- facts not missed by X & Y. If only they had been this alert every morning of their lives, they would have already gone a long way. I sleep well all my flight and make a naively unconvincing attempt to force upon the point that Go-Air is a better flight to travel on when you are looking for sleep.

My attire at this point of time is a mix of what a wacky Yankee and a hippie Indian would wear at night. I am in shorts which pass off as three-fourths as we reach the spanking hotel. I am led by the hostel staff to a place which I presume to be my room and much to my consternation, I find that I am in an auditorium with one of the heads of the organization I work for addressing us. I have half an urge to turn back and run for cover (literally), but I realise that most eyes are already fixed on this 'interesting guy' and sensibly, take a seat. I try to make my legs conspicuous by their absence and cover them with as many chairs as possible. People who know me well would concur with me when I say that there are more sightings of the blue moon than my getting angry, but at that point of time, I was seething. Being a GreenPeace activist, I feel compelled to attend the call of nature in between and slowly my inhibitions disappear and legs start to appear.

I don't think I have anticipated any moment in life as much as I did lunch that day for it gave me an opportunity to change. Kidding aside, it isn't a lot of fun turning up wearing beach attire at a plenary with the top executives of your organisation- which prides itself on etiquette- addressing you. I spend the rest of the day responding to various queries regarding my dressing sense. I feel like a celebrity addressing the media regarding a fashion faux-pas, the likes of which haven't been heard of since Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction at the Superbowl a couple of years back.

I liberate myself at the late-night party though I still find myself justifying why a three-fourths extends only till your knee.

July 25th:
The time is 0001 hrs. Am pool-side when a foreigner comes up and pulls his weight around. "I guess the sun has gone down and it is not a great time to get a tan. Better off indoors", he tells me. I feel like boxing him on his ears but realise that am thoroughly outnumbered and take recourse to keeping calm. Retire to my room where my roommate tries to do his best impersonation of the Titanic 'hands on misty glass inside the car scene'. I wouldn't have minded it but the only problem is that he is inside the bathroom and makes some some weird sounds to boot.

I am woken up by the same sounds, the same window-panes and the same hands. Things are not helped when I realise that my mate seems to be deriving great pleasure out of his actions . I get an urge to check out quickly but still manage to reach my session late. As punishment, I am asked to do a duet with another sinner where I go down on my knees and feel thoroughly miffed. I don't leave the room during any of the breaks for fear of being late. A day for gayish pursuits indeed!

I start feeling more upbeat towards the end of the day and feel that my luck has changed for better. Take a good nap on the journey back to the airport. X & Y who are still my friends - and are on the IC flight- get themselves checked in and ask me to take a seat near theirs. Unsurprisingly, my request gets turned down and in keeping with times, I get a seat near the wash-room- an euphemism for a stinking toilet. I suspect that it is another prank on the part of X & Y.

Being hungry, I search for something to eat but I find the only thing costing less than a dollar to be pizza toppings. After much investigation, I buy a pizza at a cost that doesn't hurt my conscience much. I can't find a place to sit and my obsession for savouring the pizza lands me near X & Y, who are still my friends. And lo behold! I can only convey my sense of hunger after the pizza was devoured and leave the rest to the imagination of the reader, if at all there is one.

I sleep well again and get the shock of my life when I hear the pilot announce that we were 50 miles from Mumbai but were to keep circling for the next 90 minutes because of landing permissions. I am convinced that the plane would run out of fuel by then and rush down to the front just to confirm with my friends that what I had just heard wasn't just a figment of my imagination. My friends tell me that I wasn't dreaming but that is hardly relief and I go to sleep half-expecting not to wake up.

The flight lands thankfully at its destination but we are forced to wait another half an hour before descending from the plane and another 15 minutes before the bus arrives at the 'bus-stop'. The journey in the IC bus turns out to be marginally better than a ride on BEST and everybody is so mentally exhausted that nobody bothers taunting me again. I reach home uneventfully and say Amen!

Trust or Mistrust!

2008-07-22T15:41:00.002+05:30

A presumptive look at tomorrow's morning newspapers:

Initial Impressions!

2008-07-13T22:13:00.004+05:30

A week that started on a rotten note ended with me " putting my feet up" as Ricky Ponting would put it. Though it has been a couple of weeks with my first employers, my weeks still run from Monday to Sunday (for the uninitiated, weeks in office run from.....Oops! I forgot what they told me during my induction. Good riddance!).

Roger lost; India lost and worst of all, I had to wake up at 7 in the morning after spending a weekend with customary rainy-season blues. Though Indian cricket has ceased to captivate me ever since the Dravid-Chappell era, my jingoism and misplaced sense of national duty make me want India to win every time they play. But I would still take an Indian defeat for a Federer slam! How can somebody not like Roger? His equanimity, confidence, humility and class have meant that my support for him has always been unequivocal. Besides, I have always found Nadal's physique repulsive and obnoxious.

Getting sacked by your first firm within two weeks of joining wouldn't necessarily constitute a "peak in your career" and being a firm believer in journalistic propriety, I shall stay away from that. So what about India's greatest paradox, Mumbai? The standard organizational answer for that seems to be the "place where the slum-dwellers and the millionaire co-exist". I have found Mumbai to be a pathetic city to be honest with deplorable representation in the IPL. I am still to comprehend the fascination for this city that seems to be omnipresent amongst creed of our kind. I bet that there would be no other city in the world where you would require a train, a two-wheeler, a four-wheeler and a boat to really feel comfortable about moving around.

It is a city with messy traffic jams; gargantuan property valuations and uncomfortable pollution levels so much so that I reckon it won't be long before slums start constituting a reasonable bedroom, hall and kitchen integrated 1 BHK. The positives would be the pubs, the malls and of course the ubiquitous opposite sex. I wonder if girls have a similar priority list too! The only thing that has really elicited a chuckle out of me would have to be the cops. All cops look eerily similar; have greying moustaches the length of which would have given Veerappan a run for his money; have those big tummies with a book in hand and an Enfield for support and keep chewing something or the other. They would indeed make good brand ambassadors for the pan/ghutka firms though I may be naive in assuming that they have not yet shifted to friendlier confectioneries.

All these inconvenient truths about Mumbai reminded me about the 'trinity of books' that V.S. Naipaul -guess I have to call him Sir but again I am in an organisation which is extremely flat and discourages such practices; just to prove I wasn't sleeping all along during my induction- wrote about India which I unsuccessfully tried to complete during my vacations. The innate pessimism and inherent negativity about India made me give up finally. Vidya Naipaul might have praised by the sycophantic Indian media for the positive specks that he might have thrown out but I find it hard to reason why we seem to be ever so keen to embrace him as Indian. I consider him to be as much of an Indian as I consider Shobaa De to stand for the whole of humanity. Her penchant for female chauvinism would come a close second to the Left's China posturing as far as cliches go in Indian society.

Talking of which, I am really starting to get worried about the high rates of inflation and the economic recession for the first time in my life. I have got a pay coming up and have got a decent list of necessities, comforts and luxuries to procure. Most of my friends have already felt the pinch after a couple of dinners with their girlfriends - one of my luxuries by the way- and have already started anticipating their next pay. Some of my friends are also in the pursuit of trying to figure out which job would suit them best and are in the process of shifting already. Choosing the best place to work has all of of a sudden become as complex as solving Schrodinger's wave equation or understanding with certainty, Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. You can carefully examine all options at hand and get confused; you can pick one out of those at random and still get confused after you start working or you can pick the one that pays you most and still get confused about the intricacies of the pay package. Maybe one of those IITians working should think of doing some research on how to solve this conundrum and come up with a mathematical equation . The very words 'higher studies' should only serve to add to his confusion.

Thus passes an uneventful life! Got to sleep now or I might well end up emptying the coffee-vending machine at office in my attempts to stay awake.

Vivam Joga Bonito

2008-06-14T10:15:00.004+05:30

The football aficionado had given up on Euro '08. Without the ebullient energy of the Africans-so beautifully exemplified by that Senegalese midfielder, Papa Bouba Diop at the World Cup a few years back-and the creative and technical brilliance of the South Americans, he had forecast a bland, insipid tournament with the inherent fear- so much a characteristic of European sides-making for tedious viewing. It was a prognosis which had a background to it as Otto Rehagel had so efficiently but boringly illustrated with his Greek outfit four years back.

But just a week into the tournament, we have already seen some of the most exhilarating football on display at the international level in recent memory. European football has been given a whiff of fresh air by five sides playing some of the most pleasing (read audacious) football: Portugal, Germany, Spain, Russia and the Dutch.

The Oranje have undoubtedly been the story of the tournament. Renowned for introducing the concept of total football by that brilliant Rinus Michels and epitomised so brilliantly by the legendary triumvate of Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard and Marco Van Basten at the '88 Euro Championships, the Dutch performance has indeed been a pleasant surprise. Notorious for internal bickering and attitude problems, Van Basten has made them communicate effectively through the medium of football. Their free-flowing style has been given impetus by the adventurous Van Basten and it is not difficult to see why Real Madrid want to get Ronaldo to complement Van Nistelrooy, Robben and Schneider. Now that would be quite a combination!

But let us not forget Portugal who have looked invincible albeit in an easy group. Very few coaches have achieved consistency at the international level in the manner Big Phil has and he continues to reap rich rewards with that system of a single forward, a playmaker and two defensive midfielders backed by - the now-to-be-certain World Footballer of the year- Christiano Ronaldo.

Spain are also flourishing by gambling with Elnino and the Mestalla favourite- David Villa- up front. But there are fears that Aragones' penchant for Xavi over Fabregas might cost them dear in the later stages at which Spain have been notoriously succeptible. Germany have just carried off from where they left in the last World Cup playing a brand of football that is so distantly German. For all the talk, Klinsmann has indeed been able to leave behind a legacy and inspite of that loss to Croatia, the presence of that talisman Michael Ballack must still make them contenders. Few footballers turn up for the big occasion as frequently as Ballack does and with the best 1-2 strike partnership in the tournament, they will be there at the business end of the tournament.

Guus Hiddink might have branded his team 'naive' after the loss to Spain, but there was a distinct Hiddink stamp in the way Russia played. The miracle conjurer- as Hiddink is known for his exploits with South Korea and Australia- has his task cut out, but there is unmistakable promise in this young Russian unit.

The most positive aspect about the tournament is that England haven't been missed and that is testimony to the football that has been on display. All the football aficionado can now say is Vivam Joga Bonito.

The IPL review

2008-06-02T12:37:00.003+05:30

So,time to set aside egotism and make a few candid admissions:

1) The teams with the two best captains in the tournament entered the final. If the franchises are watching, this should lead to a paradigm shift in the way teams are constructed next season. From this point on, the author shall never question M.S. Dhoni's intentions as a cricketer. He has throughout this tournament shown his versatility as a batsman and the final loss only enhanced his reputation as a captain. At least this phlegmatic character will no longer carry the mridiculous tag of a lucky captain. He led his team with great composure to win the Fair Play award by a distance; he was tactically excellent throughout the tournament and the way he rallied his troops after the loss was for me the moment of the tournament.

2) The best team in the tournament won. PERIOD Mr.Hollywood won the battle hands down against Kollywood. The battle lived up to its billing but finally it was the colourful and enigmatic but inspirational champion, Shane Warne who had the last laugh. Though the author whinged at the fact that he was allowed to get away with pathetically poor over rates, Warnie was spot on with his tactical nous. Emerging Media- the laughing stock befor the tournament displayed all its cricketing acumen acquired from years of T-20 success at Leicestershire. The only outstanding choice they made was that of Shane Warne outside of Yusuf Pathan. But the champion leg-spinner tweaked it all together as only he can.

3) India's most revered cricketers were exposed as very poor captains. Ganguly, unsurprisingly, made some very smart moves as captain at the auction but had to suffer as a result of the no-show of Shoaib and Gayle as well as his own poor form. Laxman was let down by a set of non-performing assets including R.P.Singh and his injury and the collective tactical naivete didn't help. Tendulkar's choices were questionable and it was not until that PR man for all times, Harsha Bhogle brought in Bravo and Smith that Mumbai got going. Tendulkar was poor tactically in the close games but undoubtedly had a presence about himself. Dravid had nothing but his runs to crow about.

4) DC and RCB had awesome cheerleaders. RCB would have won the style quotient award any day with that leggy lass Katrina Kaif hogging more camera time than the team itself when she was present. The closing ceremony paled in comparison to the opening one as well.

5) The IPL was a bumper-hit in India. For an idea whose lead time was barely 7 months, the IPL was brilliantly packaged and executed. The gala and glamour was truly world-class; the organisation was brilliant and for once even the controversies were handled profesionally by the BCCI.

What I wrote about the IPL months back!

2008-05-29T15:56:00.003+05:30

Lalit Modi is considered to be amongst the 30 most powerful Indians today. Heir to the Modi business empire; Vice-President of the BCCI; Commissioner of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and already it is a pretty heady list. And this canny businessman from Rajasthan deserves every bit of the accolades coming his way. A 7 fold increase in BCCI revenues over 2 years and a brainwave, the IPL that has sent the ICC and other member nations scurrying for cover and holding emergency meetings. The question that will inevitably rise once the pandemonium prevailing calms down would invariably be: Is the IPL here to stay?

Modi himself called the IPL India’s answer to the EPL (England’s club football championship for the less initiated) – the ubiquitous fad amongst today’s generation fed on an overdose of cable television. To the average sport enthusiast, this might sound perfectly reasonable and exciting. But the devil lies in the details.

Club football had its genesis in the later half of the 19^th century; a good half a century before international soccer kicked off. The Arsenals and the Liverpools of the world were well established by the time international football really kicked off with the first World Cup in the colonial era. Similar is the case with English county cricket which has its own history and hence is the most revered domestic competition. The IPL on the other hand is forced to do it the other way around. International cricket is already the established product and through the IPL we are initiating ourselves to the franchisee/club model.\

Here are a few numbers to digest first!

Going entirely unnoticed last year was a successful bid by ESPN to the tune of 1.1 billion USD for 18 ICC tournaments including the next two cricket world cups (one of which will be held in India) and a few T-20 WCs. Reconcile that with a SONY/WSG bid of 1 billion USD for the IPL over a period of 10 years. If you are left flabbergasted, it is with good reason. ESPN which had broadcast rights to the recent T-20 WC got advertisers to shell out 16,500 USD for a 30 second slot for primetime games like India-Australia and India- Pakistan. Even accounting for the same rates holding for the entire duration of the IPL (which is a fascinating assumption to put it mildly), Sony/WSG makes around 60 million USD annually which still represents a considerable loss. ESPN’s net advertising revenues during the hugely controversial and entertaining series of Australia was just 81 million USD. Whether the IPL is going to get as many people hooked on is anybody’s guess.

Now for the franchises!

The fascinating aspect about the franchise bidding was the valuations of some of the cities. While Mumbai, Bangalore and like were valued at sums in excess of a 100 million USD, cricket crazy Kolkata, Mohali and the rest were valued for sums sub 80 million USD. This is the clearest indication that the bids had more to do than pure business sense. Such wide differences would have been acceptable with a Delhi or a Jaipur which are not considered to be amongst the glamour capitals but what about Kolkata and Mohali?

The terms of the IPL say that almost four-fifth of the amount the IPL gets from media rights, sponsorship rights and television rights is shared amongst the franchises adding upto 10 million USD per year per franchise. CEOs of most franchises admit that local stadium rights, ticket revenues, merchandising and corporate hospitality could gain franchises a maximum of 8 million USD per year. This is assuming jam packed stadiums with ticket pricing at the levels of current international matches. Reconcile annual revenues of 18 million USD to annual operational expenses of around 8-9 million USD including player salaries and the initial investment that has been made to acquire the rights to the franchise to the tune of 7-10 million USD per year. For a logical accountant, the business sense doesn’t quite kick in. The franchises have been given the option to get listed on the Stock Exchange, but the detail lies in the fact that franchises and Sony/WSG, the two major investors stand to make losses for a considerable part of the 10 year period even considering a bumper-hit IPL.

And the lesson from the EPL is that clubs running losses generally sink in no time unless you are Mr. Roman Abrahamovich running Chelsea to get a foot into the glamour pie. Even if Mr. Ambani and Co. have similar intentions, it is certainly not a viable business model for a format very much untested.

This brings us to the question whether the IPL will take off from a cricketing perspective. If past flirtations with the franchisee model in India are anything to go by, the IPL is in for disaster. The hugely hyped Premier Hockey League is hardly in the news these days after a very successful first season. Similar is the case with the ICL. Rationalists will immediately point out to the viewership gap that exists between the two sports in case of the former and the ICL not really taking off with the latter. As cricket expert Harsha Bhogle points out, “The endurability of the IPL will depend on whether people will come out and support two teams at the same time: the national team and the respective franchise”. Critics feel that the IPL couldn’t have got its timing any worse with India threatening at long last to be a world power on the field of play. At this point in time, it seems too much to ask the average supporter to set aside nationalist jingoism for regional parochialism which would be required. This is unlike the EPL where years of national mediocrity have made supporters take refuge in the solace that the local club provides. Besides, there would also be a large chunk of uncommitted viewership in the Hindi heartlands, players from where have been largely responsible for India’s renewed strength. It is going to be difficult for a Mumbaikar to root against Agarkar playing for Kolkata bowling to Tendulkar. Similarly, the youth brigade would find it extremely hurting to root against Mohali which threw up some of the performers of the Australian tour.

Truthfully speaking, the IPL will provide a lesser spectacle in terms of the best in the world competing against each other when compared to the ICL. On careful analysis, most franchises wouldn’t be left with more than two mainstream international stars when the IPL reaches its climax due to international commitments. That leaves us with nothing but a jacked-up version of a regional T-20 tournament which was held last year, not surprisingly in empty stadiums. Most ICL teams on the other hand, have at least 4 international stars, albeit a few recent retirees.

The biggest obstacle that the IPL faces could very well have to do with the BCCI’s pretensions to help youngsters through this venture. The ICL which would be categorized as a damp squib for all practical purposes has however managed to send the BCCI into a corner over the state of domestic cricket in India; hence the move to have players from the franchise territory and U-22 players. It is undoubtedly going to cut little ice with anybody, least of all the cricket enthusiast who would rather have a full fledged ensemble of cricket stars. Astronomical salary packages would then be an exception rather than the norm and the issue of defections to the ICL would no longer arise.

Besides, it would make more sense if an Ishant Sharma turns out for a Delhi and a Harbhajan Singh turns up for Mohali because that could at least bring in some semblance of a franchise base. I expect the regional imbalances to correct themselves once transfers are allowed after the first season

If the IPL is espoused as the success of the free market, it should be allowed to operate in such a manner for it to be successful. Restrictions on the number of foreign players per team have only resulted in a few Indian players being over-valued. If reversed, the IPL would then be a star studded event even in the midst of international cricket as it would give the franchises options of buying based on the international calendar and huge salary differentials between international cricket and the IPL- the crux of most problems would be non-existent. .

Comment: In terms of a pure cricketing spectacle, the IPL might struggle to reach the heights that are being hoped for. It will be down to the hype-creators to package it as a commercial spectacle. But as in life, when your core product doesn’t have a very strong foundation there is only so much your marketing men will be able to do. The bitter truth is that T-20 is still not considered to be a serious enough form of cricket internationally and players very rarely bring in the same sort of intensity unless there is a significant prize at stake. Also bring to the table the fact that players are being bound just monetarily to these franchises and it is hard to see from where the competitive juices are going to flow in. It will be an entertainer because there is always a prospect of a Sreesanth staring at a Symonds and the Dada captaining at the Eden Gardens. But whether it will arouse the same passion that Sreesanth’s catching out Misbah did or the Dada ripping off his shirt after the Natwest Trophy triumph did is highly doubtful. It is moments like these that bring a cricket fan to the ground and make us follow sport. But when the stakes are considerably lesser, can the mere spectacle of a contest between bat and ball sustain itself to the audience? The IPL will certainly have to rewrite the rules of history for it to be successful.

Meanwhile, I shall enjoy the exciting climax to the EPL season.

Can we give champions their due?

2008-05-24T11:17:00.011+05:30

A word on the 'corporatisation' of cricket. T-20 has been till now more of an exercise in fun and frolic. Some of the reactions from the owners have been immature and childish to say the least. A Mallya questioning the cricketing acumen of a Dravid and a SRK doing the same with Dada is untenable. This format has been popular just because it is so unpredictable. To expect captains to bring in consistency when this format is at such a nascent stage is foolhardy and cynical. The fact of the matter is that we are almost through the IPL and there are still no definitive patterns emerging about what constitutes the winnability quotient. The Rajasthan Royals still have the two cricketers reviled the most in the first week of the tournament- Munaf and Kaif; the Kings XI Punjab have two cricketers who have become the laughing stock of the nation- Sree and V.R.V Singh; the Deccan Chargers, most people's favourites at the start are competing for the Wooden Spoon and the Delhi Daredevils, favourites midway through the tournament are in all likelihood not going to make the semifinals. While the Kings XI are succeeding through their power-packed batting, the Royals have their bowling strength to thank.

The only deduction that can be drawn is that the successful teams have good captains and backroom staff. But, again, Kolkata have though I hate to say it, the most successful Indian captain, the most successful coach and towards the start, the most successful international captain. Rahul Dravid has been mocked for picking a 'test side' but his reasoning behind that was fundamentally sound. One-day cricket when it started was dominated by the West Indies, the best test match side then and Australia have been the best T-20 side putting aside the WC aberration. Ironically, Dravid's two biggest flops have been Misbah and White, heralded T-20 specialists and his biggest hit, Wasim Jaffer, who unfortunately got injured.

The way forward maybe lies in scouting for the best available Indian talent, something the RCB and DC teams haven't done. But there is no way that you could have forecasted that at the start of the IPL. It is a fact that wouldn't have escaped The Wall's attention.Just give Jammy another chance, Mallya! He has led a side with under-performing foreigners with great dignity all through the IPL in face of all this criticism and the fierce determination and passion of his mate from yore, Kumble and his could be felt in their last game. He has re-invented himself all through his career much to the surprise and delight of supporters and consternation of opponents and I wouldn't be surprised if the man has the final laugh next year. Anybody waging bets on a RCB final next year? Meanwhile, I get back to supporting Sree and his Kings XI side this year.

Sydney Test- Po(i)nting speak

2008-01-07T22:02:00.000+05:30

What Punter Ponting's newspaper column would look like:

We were delighted to win the Sydney test match and get on level terms with Tugga's 16 match record streak. Though a part of that particular squad myself, I must admit that it is a special thrill when you are captain of the side and the record is something we are looking forward to obliterate in Perth.

I do understand that a lot of friction has been created courtesy events during the last 5 days and a lot of it has been blown out by proportion by the ever-discerning media. Admittedly, the umpiring was not of the highest standard but it isn't the first time that it has happened nor will it be the last. To suggest that we won the test match because of the officiating is unfair because this team has showcased over Melbourne and Sydney why it is the best in the world. I have also read players writing about how decisions seem to favour us in Australia all the time. I would like to remind them that we have been at the receiving end of some very ordinary decision-making in the sub-continent which we have always taken in the right spirit. Even in the recent ODI series, there were instances when Tendulkar had the "rub of the green" more than once.

There is no doubt about the fact that India are a very fine side led by an excellent and a widely respected skipper. We have been part of some gripping contests in recent times which players from both sides have cherished and played in excellent spirit. It is therefore indeed a pity that the gamesmanship has taken such a plunge as it did in India and in Sydney. I do back Roy Symonds fully and it seems to be interesting that the Indian management's complaint seems to be aimed more at the evidence on which Match referee Mike Proctor acted and not the decision itself.

Finally, there have been accusations that we have not upheld the spirit of the game. The Australian cricket team firmly believes that the umpires are there to take decisions which ought to be respected. There are hardly any international cricketers who walk these days which is understandable given the pressures of the modern game. We don't expect other cricketers to walk and we expect to be judged against the same benchmark. As far as the incidents of excessive appealing go, we all know which team has been pulled up most for the same. I have been extremely disappointed with comments from respected commentators about us cheating. I still reckon that there was no way that the ball touched the ground when I grasped it and Pup Clarke's case was similar too. Video technology according to most cricketers has been misleading when it comes to contentious catches and to go by that might not be very judicious.

We do like to play our cricket hard and party harder when we do win. It is very rarely that you have the opportunity to be part of such gripping contests and to come out better off is indeed very special. The victory was made all the more special considering that we had our backs to the wall on Day 1 at 134/6. It was undoubtedly a terrific performance by the guys and the 10 day break is indeed most welcome after the grind. We are already looking forward to the test at Perth and are keen to keep up our highest standards and etch our names in the record books.

This is utter nonsense according to the jingoistic author and you are most welcome to spew venom at Ponting and his men in the Comments section.

joie de vivre

2007-11-09T10:40:00.000+05:30

In keeping with the theme of my tryst with destiny...oops, diseases every 15 months, here is the story of what can be euphemestically termed as "an experience which has made me mentally stronger". It started off with typhoid one fine March morning in the year of 2005; a severe bout of jaundice followed last year and then some disease last month too long (Say X) to be committed to memory. In hindsight, I don't know what afflicted me . Not to speak of the various bouts of fever, cold (common and not so common), amoebiosis and you will begin to get the picture of quite an exhaustive list.

Each one has been an 'enriching' and enjoyable period of time where I have had to do nothing sans eat, sleep and of course watch Liverpool get beaten. They have been ominous too for if jaundice struck me on my 20th birthday, my first surgery courtesy Mr. X happened "at the stroke of midnight" of my sister's 16th birthday as Nehru would put it. It has also enhanced my respect for the healthcare facilities in Varanasi. If jaundice made the docs feel that I was having a viral, Mr.X was diagnosed as a petty insect bite. If I were Sir Sunderlal, I wouldn't be visiting Sir Sunderlal Hospital any longer for personal healthcare.

Mr. X was the result of months of perseverance and sweat literally. It was some strange sort of fluid accumulation near my spine which didn't grant me the luxury of sitting, standing or sleeping. Life can be quite interesting in such situations when you spend considerable amount of time trying to optimize posture and pain. When the pain made me wonder whether it was an insect bite or an insect, I made the trivial mistake of visiting some King Edwards Memorial hospital in Mumbai during my Dussehra hols, a hospital which made me wonder whether we still lived in the days of colonialism. I have often believed that Government hospitals are hybrids between jails and asylums. You are held captive and finally you go insane. Much the same happened with me as I was operated upon without getting myself mentally prepared nor knowing about the status of the Liverpool game that night. Needless to say, the operation was an unqualified disaster and all it left me with was an ellipse with major axis far greater than the minor axis with a depth of 5 cms near the bottom of my spine. (I have been reading Geometry of late for CAT).

After two unsuccessful attempts in getting me to sit, my parents decided that home had to be the remedy for this. I didn't mind it too much for this meant that I was going to be able to fly business class at last though I was quite miffed at the choice of airlines.

I am still to fly by Kingfisher.

The flight was the most torturous two hours I had had. I wriggled myself into a ball on the seat and had at least 5 protective cushions. The menu was quite exotic but all I was supposed to have was 'cut fruits'. I tried hard to convince my parents that eating nothing constituted a significant drain of resources, but when pain becomes considerably greater than greed, you are forced to optimize better.

Trivandrum was funny because the doc felt that I didn't require any anaesthasia for my second surgery and I was smiling after my operation much to the dismay of my parents. I bet I woke up everyone in the hospital during that operation. Now this left me with a cuboid with length considerably greater than breadth and roundabout the same depth. Another week passed off in hospital in which I counted 103 injections when I was awake. Worse, the doc kept pulling my leg asking me to quantify my pain. My yells grew progressively shriller as a consequence.

Now, back to campus and the problems are much the same. Attendance, tests and assignments give me a feeling of deja vu. India and Liverpool continue to play poorly; Dravid continues to be treated badly and I am still lazy. But being able to stand, sit and sleep I guess is a considerable improvement. CAT has become an acronym for Come Another Time and I quite fancy my chances of becoming a medico if denied an engineering degree. My senses have dulled; my verbatim is just a fraction of my old self as you would have noticed throughout this post but I still for some inexplicable reason am back to my cheerful best. A word of thanks to all my friends who were with me through what was undoubtedly the toughest 20 days of my life. Meanwhile, I await my next tryst with destiny.

Getting Tagged!

2007-10-10T11:39:00.000+05:30

This post was overdue for long courtesy my prodigal namesake (sorry for the cliche, mate) who was desperate to know me better as a person inspite of having spent the best part of 7 years together and had the gumption to tag me. So here are the rules of the tag:

1) Players start with 8 random facts about themselves.
2) Players tagged should post these rules and the 8 facts.
3) Players should tag 8 other people and notify them about it.

So, here is an attempt at convincing everybody that I am as weird as it can get. If you didn't know already that is!

1. I am a person who likes to seek everybody's attention though I do put on a deliberate 'fabricated' air of modesty and humility. I hate to be photographed or caught on video. I guess I am not the first 'celeb' nor will I be the last one to have a similar approach.

2. My favourite pastime would be watching Tiger Woods playing golf. I follow all outdoor sport and my friends will second my claims to being a great sports analyst. My recent predictions include India winning the F-50 World Cup and bowing out in the first round of the T-20 World Cup :-) My dream job would be being a sports journalist and going by past record, would make a good fist of it.

3. The only species I hate giving me company are mosquitoes and ants. I don't mind cockroaches, lizards and even snakes and have a fetish towards stray dogs. A tradionalist who believes in the adage "Live and let live", I believe I would have taken to the Stone Age just like a hippo takes to water.

4. I am a bit of a chauvinist in that I do believe that I am right in all my thoughts and actions. Though a good listener, I do get worked up very quickly when there are some thoughts brandished about which are very much against my central beliefs.

5. I am very poor in handling relationships and social networks. My parents consider me to be the worst introvert in the household though my friends will tell you otherwise. I do form conclusive opinions about people quickly and am very shy when it comes to dealing with a peer group of the opposite sex, something I would attribute to my background of hailing from a boy's school :-( However, it has given me a committed friends group whose company I cherish a lot.

6. I take my reading very seriously and feel very uneasy if I have spent an entire day without learning something new or significant. This reading includes anything but my academic text-books which I shun religiously.

7. I try and enjoy every moment of the life I live and feel very bad if somebody is wronged even if I ain't remotely involved. I consent to most requests made to me and have this annoyingly irritating characteristic trait of being unable to say 'no' to anybody.

8. I like to stay lazy and hence rate myself as being very poor at executing. I generally conceptualise and strategise pretty well and have a pretty good idea about how things should be done. I can give a flawless lecture on how to bowl leg-spin but if you want to see how it is done, look elsewhere!

Vikalp, Ravi, Paddy, Rai, Gopal, Anish, Akshay and Anand...You are at the receiving end of the misfortune!

Democracy or Hypocrisy?

2007-09-28T22:06:00.000+05:30

In a couple of days, India's finest sportsperson till date and its only undisputed World Champion will add another feather to his already well-celebrated hat and it won't occupy anything but a passing mention in the remotest corner of the print media.

Viswanathan Anand has done more to Indian chess than Sachin Tendulkar has done to Indian cricket. For a sport that had been the pastime of the intellectual elite in India, chess has gone from being a no-hoper to India's most realistic medal prospect at the Olympics whenever it does get included.

India were already World Champions before Sachin started playing competitive school cricket.

Vishy has been the epitome of anti-Indianism when it comes to sport. Consistency, big-match temperament and an unique humility that has never caught the eye of the millions who lined up Mumbai a couple of days back or the State Governments and the Private Sector whose actions bore greater resemblance to a bidding house than institutions responsible for social development.

One can't grudge the plaudits that have come the T-20 team's way. Sreesanth might have been compelled to go back to his dancing roots had he dropped that catch after an insipid bowling performance. With such stakes and pressure, the rewards have to be commensurate. But rewarding individuals in a team sport? Australia didn't reward Warne even after 700 test wickets. It is quite sad that this idol worship takes place just in India and Pakistan and it is reflected in the fact that neither team has never ever had a truly outstanding year in international cricket. How can there be camaraderie in the team when certain individuals are being openly favoured?

This game of one-upmanship between the State Governments in favour of individuals was anything but in the spirit of democracy. My esteem for Narendra Modi grew when he refused to reward the Pathan brothers, but our cursed democratic fabric allowed the Congress to attach ridiculous communal undertones that forced Mr. Modi to budge. It is a democracy where failed international cricketers become pundits and pour vitriol at the cricketers thus incensing the non-intellectual masses whose memory is shorter than the 'Gobbits'. Koneru Humpy, Sania Nehwal and the shooters take loans to fund their foreign travels and the babudom sees no travesty in this. Even the Marxists don't talk of an egalitarian society and the rights of the 'underprivileged' when it comes to cricketers.

The future of all this? Expect friction to grow between Yuvraj and Dhoni and see India plunge back to its mediocre depths (Read 1-6 against Australia) interspersed by individual brilliance. Sportspersons of the 'OBC ' (others but cricket) category are likely to go on more hunger strikes and we will be celebrating the democracy in all this since our society allows such individuals to have a platform to ask for other rights.

Meanwhile, far off in Madrid, Spain, a mild-mannered champion would be taking off his glasses and telling Aruna Anand, "What a hypocritic country!".

Interview Travails-II

2007-08-06T17:04:00.000+05:30

Life of a dummy

Interview Bloopers

Interview Travails-I

2007-08-05T22:37:00.000+05:30

Note: The above cartoon has been reproduced from other sources and is not original work.

2007-07-31T13:05:00.001+05:30

Spoilt for Choice!

2007-07-21T22:51:00.000+05:30

It is one of those phases in life where you are called upon to make one of those decisions which everybody; family, friends and even the guy you meet on the street insists will make or break your life. Rings a familiar echo? Choices were supposed to be made after school and college but in most of our case, deliberately ignored.

Physics states that flow happens from a region of higher potential to one of lower potential. It might have been the flow trajectory that carried us after our higher secondary through our engineering dreams and the inevitable coaching institutes and deposited us as sediment in this beloved abode. Physics also states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. This inherent contradiction seems to be too far beyond our grasp; or are we letting things drift by choice?

The greatest civilizations were borne out of these sediments.

The point is are we still not mature enough to make that choice. My time back in the institute has been a far cry from what it used to be. Pay packages, eligibilities, interviews and current affairs have taken over from the uninhibitted joy and gay abundance that used to be available in unlimited quantities. Be it the girl on the street or a batting debacle, discussuions these days have veered towards the intellectual with etiquette given prime importance. There is an uneasy eeriness prevailing just like the calm before a storm.

My experience in HUL was a real eye-opener in more ways than one. It impressed upon me the importance of doing what I wanted and not to be carried by the current. I didn't quite enjoy my time over there and even though I ended up completing my project better than expected and ended up with a fair pay, I didn't leave the place all smiles. I might have delivered but I sure hadn't enjoyed the process. I did drop hints that I wasn't interested in one of the funniest interviews that I will ever come across. I don't think that I would have stood a miniscule of a chance even if I had been interested. Companies' recruitment mantras are simply incomprehensible though this is not intended to be a slight against anybody.

I am delighted with the end result and am proud of my choice even though I don't have the slightest idea as to what comes next. Uncertainty about other options is surely not a good enough reason to opt for superficial fulfilment.

With the placements coming up, here are a few aspects that I felt needed to be shared in making that 'choice':
1) Never shy away from taking decisions. You are the best judge of your abilities and if you can't take a decision about your life, you are going to be doing no better with decisions on wind turbines and distillation columns. Company standing is important but you always have better growth prospects in companies that aren't exactly the toast of the world. There is lots of work to be done in such organisations and it could just provide your pathway to glory.
2) One of the major problems faced by all industries is the attrition rate involved. People are less likely to do well what they don't enjoy doing. You might develop a thick skin now and talk about adapting and developing cross-cultural relations but performance has always been related to satisfaction and external pressure. Pressure might have got us through the initial years but at this stage, satisfaction will supercede pressure with all individuals.
3) Salary packages are exactly that- mere packages. Understand the work profile, development prospects economically and mentally besides compatibility. Company X might be offering you a few lacs less at this point of time but you might be earning more in a year's time. As my friend remarked, "Look at the larger picture. You will get to know the finer details".
4) Start exploring what you would want to do in life. We have been guided by fixed targets thus far like a JEE exam or a four year B.Tech. but now......? The very purpose of existence will cease to exist without those definitive targets.

The above might seem a load of the most sensible crap ever brandished but a year down the line, this could top the charts with most people. After all it is a question of 'to be or not to be'.

T-Raining Jobs

2007-05-13T19:19:00.000+05:30

As I embark on one of the more significant assignments of my self-proclaimed professional career, here is wishing everyone good luck in all his/her training assignments. For some strange reason, the melancholy associated with parting has already befallen me after bidding all my seniors an emotional farewell. I have been through all this before in school but since 'we' were entering an exciting phase of our careers with the parting of a more temporary nature, it wasn't something that kept me down for long. I still keep in touch with all my classmates!

The reason why I am doing all this crap is because this is probably the most significant year in our lives (Haven't we heard that before? ). There must admittedly be some nervy people around wanting to crack a CAT, score well in a GRE, get a dream placement and some goddamnit who would just want to get placed. But in all their inner selfs, they would be wishing that college life could go on for ever with the little challenges that life throws up. I just wish all of them good luck especially the ones who have a chance of getting themselves placed by the end of these two months- the ones over at Ashok Leyland, Reliance, GE and Tata Steel. I have had some of my most rewarding moments and some real eye-openers in my life over the last three years and would honestly be the second person to be heart-broken if somebody's plans didn't fructify. I guess it is futile deliberating for 'as you sow so shall you reap'. But sentiments override sensible thoughts and despite all the heated exchanges I have had courtesy a bloated ego, my sense of importance or plain immaturity all I can conjure up is, "All the best, guys. You simply are the very best".

My first crush

2007-04-20T21:41:00.000+05:30

2007-04-08T17:31:00.000+05:30

2007-04-08T15:52:00.000+05:30

Why India needs Greg Chappell..

2007-04-02T15:29:00.000+05:30

A visionary without peers; an objective analyst without a semblance of a bias; a radical mind with an innovative approach...Greg Chappell in an honest appraisal in a soliloquy days before India left. Wouldn't India be better off with such clarity of thought???

Excerpts:

What makes a Cup-winning team?

It basically boils down to the fact that through my 50 or so years of experience of watching, playing, commentating, selecting, talking, living cricket, I have learnt that there are certain things that work, and certain things that don't work, and so we better focus on the things that do work.

So then that was the focus: we said if we wanted to build a team that had a chance at the World Cup, there were certain things that we had to do well - batting bowling and fielding being the basic components of the game.

But there also had to be belief - belief is very important. One of the things that the support staff and the coaching staff and the team management was very much focussed on over the last 20-odd months was that we had to build that belief.

"We didn't have a lot of time to waste"

You know, going back to whatever World Cup it was that Germany won in soccer, where they had this total football, Australia has worked towards total cricket and I think most teams have to build the flexibility, build the depth, have replacements for key players in place.

When we took over -- I talked about where we began -- Ian Frazer has been a very important part of what we have been doing here in India, and one of the reasons why, one of the... from the start is that his training and his bent, if you like, is in how can you train better, how can you develop more quickly... How can you change from doing it one way to doing it another way in the shortest possible time to get the most benefit. And with only 21 months from the time we started to this point, we didn't have a lot of time to waste.

"The best lessons have been when we've done badly"

So we sat down with Rahul Dravid when he took over as captain around July 2005 and we looked at what would the team that won the World Cup look like?

And so we looked at a whole range of things, all of the facets of fielding, batting and bowling. The team that wins the WC will be a good fielding team. The team that wins the WC will have flexibility and depth in batting, and it will have bowling that will also have flexibility and depth, and more than flexibility, you know, the mental creativity to be able to adjust.

So, with Kiran More as chairman, with Rahul Dravid as captain, and with the support staff, particularly Ian Frazer and myself, we sat down and we looked at the components. And each step along the way, we had to review - before each series, after each series, we sat down and said how are we going in regard to this blueprint. And funnily enough, laugh if you like, the best lessons have been when we've done badly.

"We've made mistakes..."

Following the West Indies tour last year was a great time to review where we were at. The Champions Trophy, the Malaysian series before that, they have all had good lessons for us, some of them quite painful lessons, but lessons we had to learn if we were going to get to the point to do well at the WC.

We had fixed views on the qualities that were necessary, but there was no fixed view that we had to have this player, we had to have that player. And we've made mistakes - again, you have to make mistakes to learn some lessons. None of this is a perfect science, development of people generally is not a perfect science. It is a combination of experiences that all come together to develop the individual.

We've had to take risks, we've had to put players under pressure, we've had to give them challenges that they have never had before, you know, if they only think the way they have thought before, then they'll do the things they've done before and they will get the results they got before.

Now in the West Indies, we saw things we hadn't seen prior to that. You know, we had that run of 20-odd games where we won 18 of 22 or whatever it was, including a world record of 17 chases. That didn't teach us as much as failing in the West Indies. We realized that we were in danger of going down the wrong path here, we need to rethink this and change direction.

"We couldn't afford to have fixed views..."

A cricket team is a work in progress at any stage. At no point can you say, right, this is it. We can't go to the World Cup and say, right, this is it, we've got the format to win us the World Cup. We will have to be flexible enough to change our attitude and our thinking on certain things at various stages during the World Cup. So we, the coaching staff had to be flexible enough to do that, the players had to be flexible enough to cope with.

And I think one of the big things, one of the big challenges for the coaching staff in the time that I've been here is that you know, I think certain players and certain segments of the media had fixed views about the roles for certain players. We couldn't afford to have those fixed views because otherwise, the team wasn't going to progress.

If you only look at wins and losses, and this is something we have had to do along the way, we have had to take the risk of losing a few games to gain some advancement, to be a better chance for when we came to the World Cup.

We threw the batting lineup around, because we had to find out which players had the capacity to cope with pressure, which players had the capacity to perform well in this role, you know, was he better placed to do a role in this position in the batting order or in this position? Was he better placed to bat early in the innings, later in the innings, or in the middle of the innings?

So if we didn't try the different combinations, we wouldn't know what we had got. We have had to risk losing games to get some answers, because you can't get those answers in the nets, you can't develop players in the nets.

You can do a lot towards developing them, but if they can't take those lessons from the nets to the middle, then you haven't advanced them at all. You know, some of the players haven't been happy at times, because it is not the roles that they felt they were best suited to, or that was best suited for them, but we had to find the best roles for the team for each of those individuals, and I think we are as close as we can get to having worked that out.

If two bowlers are best bowling at this period of the game against this type of opposition because they've got a lot of left handers, or they've got a lot of players who play spin well, or they've got players who are susceptible to pace, then we have to change the format of our bowling attack for that particular game.

If we go in and say that this guy is going to bowl at this particular stage of the game in every game, we won't do as well as if we prepare to change that depending on the conditions. And what we have tried to do is give ourselves back ups for key players.

"When we lost Yuvraj, it exposed us..."

And it was nothing to do with - probably the best example of how important players can be and their role in the team can be was when we lost Yuvraj. He was probably one of the best one day batsmen in the world at the point when he got injured. And he was a key component in that successful run of 18 wins. When we lost Yuvraj, it exposed us to what problems we really had.

On Rahul Dravid

So all of a sudden - no, not all of a sudden because we were already planning down that path, and Rahul Dravid has been heavily involved in this from day one; I mean, Rahul Dravid is the captain, we haven't done anything that Rahul hasn't supported, and rightly so because he is the captain, he is the man who has to go out there in the middle. And there have been times when he has said no, I don't think that is the best way to go, this is the best way to go, and that is fine, because again, he is the guy that takes the team out on the field, and as much as he has been criticized at various stages for not being his own man, he has been very strong at various points along the way, because if he is unhappy with the team that he has got, that is going to impact on his ability to lead that team.

But, you know, we've pushed him as well, from a captaincy point of view, you know -- he came into the captaincy without a great deal of experience, I mean, he captained India on a few occasions but it is different being the real captain to the stand-in captain - it's been a huge adjustment for him and I think he has done a fabulous job, to be honest.

His captaincy during that period of 18 wins had a big bearing on us winning those games. And he is learning all the time, he is trusting his instincts better and better all the time, you know, he has had a strong input - for instance, when we came back from the West Indies, one of the areas that we had to change, tackle, was we realized that those overs 20-40, maybe even 15-40 but particularly 20-40, are critical overs in the one day game as it stands today, with the three power plays, and particularly playing on wickets that are less true.

"Sehwag had been struggling at the top of the order"

So we looked at the personnel that we had. It didn't work very well for us in the West Indies, we didn't feel we had the right balance in the middle order for those middle overs, so we looked at who were the best personnel to do it.

We felt that there were overs where you needed power to go through the field rather than just going over the field, you had to have creativity; the one player that we identified during that stage was Virender Sewhag, as one guy who had that power, had that creativity. Sehwag had been struggling at the top of the order, so here was an opportunity to give him a new challenge and learn something about, from two aspects, learn something about batting in the middle overs because for most of his life he had been batting at the top of the order, but also understanding some of the difficulties of the guys batting in the middle order, so that even if he didn't eventually finish up being the man batting there, he would have a different perspective as an opener of how difficult it is for these guys in the middle overs, as the ball gets softer, as the field spreads - you know, it does become harder, and for him to have a proper understanding of that will make him a better opener...

It didn't quite work out because the one series where we wanted him to try out was the in Sri LankaWest Indies. Where we made the mistake was in going to Malaysia and deciding that ah hell, we are running out of time, we'll try it here. We tried Sehwag in the middle order in Malaysia. It wasn't the right type of wickets, it didn't work very well and we had to rethink it. I think maybe the Champions Trophy might have been a better time to have tried it but again, you know, it is difficult, we came into the Champions Trophy, we saw it as an important stepping stone for the world cup, and we perhaps missed an opportunity to keep our development process going. and that series got washed out. They were wickets that replicated a number of wickets we played on in the

We thought we'll go with what we've got, and we didn't do very well. Again, it was probably a good lesson for us. South Africa on top of that, South Africa was always going to be a tough tour

Without Yuvraj again, we were exposed in the middle order so again, it caused us to stop and rethink. And to Rahul's credit, I mean he has been fantastic through all of this, I mean he has been willing to be the one to go to the top of the order, go down the order, go wherever he has had to go for us to find out different things. I mean if leadership is not about leading by example then I don't know what it is, and Rahul's been very good in that respect.

So coming back from South Africa, we weren't sure still at that stage whether Yuvraj would be fit for the World Cup. So the one thing that we've been working the hardest on, we being the playing group and the coaching group, is to find a solution to our middle order if Yuvraj isn't fit.

Sehwag probably wasn't that comfortable with the idea of batting in the middle order; so we talked to Sachin about it. By this stage Sourav had come back, so that had given us another opening option and a very good opening option, because he has had a good record as an opener.

So we asked Sachin to try it. I think it is fair to say that he wasn't, you know, that he preferred to bat at the top of the order, but when we explained to him the reasons and the need from the team point of view, he was prepared to try it and I think he has done a wonderful job with it so far.

A lot of people look at Suresh Raina as a failure. I don't see it as a failure at all, in fact, the kid's got a lot of talent, and if you have a look at the stats on Cricinfo of the last couple of years in one day cricket, his record in partnerships, in different areas, has been fantastic. He has been a good cricketer for India in the past, unfortunately for him there wasn't room in the 15 for this World Cup.

The good news is that he was forced out by others that brought things to the group that we could use. You know, Robin Uthappa has been a godsend, that's not probably the word I would like to use, he's been a blessing for us anyway, you know, he's a good field, he's a good thinker, he's an impact player that we can use at the top of the order, so he gives us backup.

"Yuvraj is on the way back and ready"

So we were looking for backups for key players, Sachin has provided us some back up for Yuvraj. Thankfully, it looks like Yuvraj is on the way back and ready. Rahul coming down the order also gives us some flexibility in that middle order

At this stage, we've had the bonus - Yuvraj is back and he is looking good. Dinesh Karthik has been sort of misunderstood, the flexibility he brings to the group is slightly misunderstood. We - and I use the royal we, Rahul Dravid, Ian Frazer, the selection panel, myself and others are involved in it - we played a couple of trial games in Chennai before we went to Malaysia and Dinesh played in the opposition team and opened the batting and played a couple of brilliant innings.

So all of a sudden we saw him in a different light. We saw him as an obvious backup for Dhoni in the sense that we've got a wicket keeper, a designated wicket keeper, not having to again cast Dravid into the sort of role to give us the balance, and he has the flexibility to bat up the order or low down the order, and as we saw in Cape Town, he has a great temperament, and he can fit into the fielding side very well, so he is an all rounder.

"We put a lot of faith into Irfan"

You know we put a lot of faith into Irfan because of his all round status. The potential that he has to make a big difference to our group - and again, the flexibility; if we want to go with five bowlers, five specialist bowlers, he is the only one that gives us that flexibility because he can bat. And again he can bat at the top of the order, he can bat down the order.

You know, I think he is best suited as an impact player at the top of the order and that is how we've used him, and with some success. Nobody factored in that he would lose confidence and form with his bowling, but he's been through that before and he's come out of it, and who's to say that something on the lines of the World Cup isn't going to bring the best out of him, because one thing we've found with him is he's got an amazing temperament -- we threw him into roles in batting that challenged him enormously, and he came through nearly every time.

It's been a challenge; it's been an important part of the development process of the group to get them to understand. I mean, we broke them up into small groups, because leadership in the field is critical to the development of a team, and what we found was that in the meetings, the senior players spoke and no one else spoke, because of the hierarchical nature of India and all of that stuff.

Munaf's been a very important part of that development; Zaheer coming back in the form and the mindset that he has had has been fantastic. Harbhajan has done a wonderful job for us in the middle overs; we are getting better at bowling at the death though we can always get better with that - again, you know, we've tried different combinations and for different situations and different conditions we've got a bit more flexibility. If we could get more flexibility it would be great, and Irfan coming back into form would be an important part of that; it would give us a bit more flexibility.

But we've got Sehwag and we've got Sachin and Yuvraj and we've got three pretty useful, you know, Sourav is medium pace and we have got three useful spinning options, I mean, Sachin can bowl seam up if he needs to or he can bowl off spinners or he can bowl leg spinners or a combination - very clever. So I think again, we have the flexibility to allow us to play to our strengths, and that is all we can ask for.

The End

The carnival has begun!

2007-03-17T09:52:00.000+05:30

A week in which I had the party of my life at The Ramada; a week in which Muckshay (Mr.Shell) complimented me twice for the content on my blog and then linked all this crap on his blog; a week in which my academic output touched a nadir and then the icing on the cake-The commencement of the IXth Cricket World Cup.

Even though the Opening Ceremony lacked the pomp and colour of the previous one in South Africa, the way of life in the Caribbean was captured impressively and as is the case with everything else associated with this World Cup, people were willing to accommodate all the little glitches for this is the place where the Calypso style took its roots.

The tournament got off to a cracking start with two evenly matched sides on one of the finest one-day wickets I have seen. West Indies outplayed and outclassed Pakistan courtesy the 'Dwaynes'. The performance convinced me even more that Brian Lara is the most under-rated captain in World Cricket and that the West Indies will go a long way as predicted in http://adidasaddict.blogspot.com/2007/03/world-cup-swat-west-indies.html

This is a side that understands its limitations and Lara demoting himself was not a defensive move as suggested but an aggressive one giving sufficient leeway to the prodigal Samuels and attractive Sarwan to dominate. Gayle's sudden propensity to get himself out within the first couple of overs should be rectified with the minnows up next. Even though the bowling is considered to be their achilles' heel, what one saw was nothing short of world-class. Powell, Taylor and Colleymore constitute a high quality combination of pace combined with swing and accuracy. They have options and variety in the form of Bravo, Smith, Gayle and Samuels and an astute captain. If West Indies are able to hold back Smith as effectively as they were able to do while batting against Pakistan, expect some carnage.

Pakistan surprised nobody with their performance and tactical ineptitude. They continue experimenting with their openers thus depriving themselves of some well needed depth in their cricket. Inzy batting down the order is a decision taken out of fear for he is one of the finest players of fast bowling going around. Younis Khan needs to open the innings along with the talented Hafeez who should be told to curb that rush of blood. That would mean Shoaib Malik doesn't always fight out a lost cause as has become the case. Azhar Mahmood could add some tooth to an attack short on penetration. Their bowling is at best disciplined with the outstanding Gul their only real wicket taker. Naved's selection is bemusing to say the least. Akmal bats as if he needs to head to the loo real quick and the less said about Pakistan and its fielding, the better.

India needs to take in some lessons from the Pak. match for its side is structurally very similar to the Pakistan one, admittedly with more spine in the batting department. The way West Indies were able to wriggle their way out of trouble against Kaneria and Hafeez (read Harbhajan and Sehwag) should serve a reminder to Dravid about the need to play Pathan be it as opener. Spinners the world over are no longer a major wicket taking force and Pathan bowling cutters and opening the innings would not be a very bad idea against Bermuda and Bangladesh. The Bangladesh game will be a close one and will be watched with great interest. India struggled against Samuels and Gayle the last time they were here and coupled with India's inability to deal with left arm spin of late, it will be interesting to see whether Tendulkar and Sehwag in the middle order can deal with the impressive left arm trio of Rafique, Razzak and Saqibul. Aftab and Ashraful are the two match winners with the bat and Harbhajan and co. will have a contest on hand. India should win a close encounter.

England continue to be nothing but an over hyped side with its contingent of coat and tie commentators inculcated in the MCG manuals and their defeat against New Zealand highlighted the lack of depth and quality in their cricket. Kenya will trouble them on a slow track as will Ireland trouble Pakistan on a quick Sabina Park track.

Snapshots of something by the name of Opulence

2007-03-05T14:23:00.000+05:30

The stage is set (literally) !!

n
Short Nap Underway!

Hehe! Food up for grabs (FOR FREE)!!

We ain't too far behind!!

Mother of Big Arguments

"........with engineers let us have sex".

Does Kota get a quota here too??

MBA or not, too young to be marrying........

And the perception is that 4th yearites are a lazy lot!!

And some most photogenic faces !!

Leveraging the 'spotLIGHT' !

The magnum opus!!

And I thought Opulence was the Annual National Management blablabla

MANAGING with bare minimum necessities??

A house packed! Or shall we call it 'Kakared'??

Some are a bit hard to please.....

In NAPt attention!!

Even Prahlad Kakar goes around with 'Black Cats'!!

Czar of the War finalists
Prisoners of War???

Star-gazing for 50,000 in cash...

Czar of the War finals in progress

The Czar of the War
Anwesh (IBMT, Bangalore)

Brimming or rather Grinning with cash

Winding up....(yawn)

The Opulence report by co-convener Ravi Bansal

P.S. All characters appearing in the above work of art are partly fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living,dead or sleeping, is not entirely coincidental. The author disclaims any responsibility in case of copyright infringements or violations and has hence deliberately not included himself in any of the snapshots inspite of being the chief protagonist, planner, schemer and executionist par excellence of Opulence 2007.

The above was just a snapshot of Opulence 2007. In case you want the complete collection of Opulence 2007 photographs for free, mail the author at varun.adidas@gmail.com

* Shipping charges and service tax rates apply

The World Cup Swat- West Indies

2007-03-03T02:48:00.000+05:30

WEST INDIES

Strengths: On paper, possess all the virtues of a good one-day unit: a free flowing top order; a stylish middle order; a dangerous lower order; a fine fielding unit and some attacking fast bowlers. Sarwan's return will supplement Lara, Samuels and Bravo. In Powell, Taylor, Colleymore and Bradshaw, the Caribbeans possess an attack that is penetrating but at the same time accurate.

Weaknesses: A long tail and an erratic wicketkeeper prone to rushes of blood. Inconsistency has been the bane of West Indies cricket with collapses having become routine. Very suspect temperament of the younger lot. Gayle, Sarwan and Samuels are not success stories against the best in the world.

Opportunities: Playing hosts. West Indies is unique for the conditions you get across the various grounds during different months of the year. First time international cricket is being played here so early in the season. With the spotlight on them, there is very little opportunity for players to wander into forbidden pastimes. Brian Charles Lara is in his last ODI series and he is special! An easy opener against a depleted Pakistan

Threats: Pressure of being hosts. A very demanding population. Likely to win their group emphatically and so complacency could creep in which is so typical of them. The curse on the host nation!

Counsel: Be ralaxed and enjoy the experience. Use Sarwan lower down the order and Ramdin higher up. Play just one of Taylor and Powell. Lara should come in no higher than 5.

Verdict: Their brand of cricket plus their familiarity should find them a spot in the semis. The pressure of the big situation will get to them after that. Expect Taylor and Samuels to establish themselves.

The World Cup Swat- Sri Lanka

2007-03-03T02:22:00.000+05:30

SRI LANKA

Strengths: The islanders arrive into this tournament with a formidable top order, a solid middle order and an effective lower middle order. Jayasuriya, Tharanga and Sangakkara are in scintillating form. Murali makes Sri Lanka the only side in the tournament which can attack in the middle overs. A pair of promising quickies to boot. Can compete with the best in the field.

Weaknesses: Overseas record; the form of Attapattu and Jayawardene; a longish tail; a waning Chaminda Vaas and a couple of profligate fast bowlers.

Opportunities: The venue for the Group Matches, Trinidad resembles the Premadasa as far as nature of the pitch is concerned and should ease them into the tournament. Haven't locked horns with the major powers for some time which gives them scope to surprise.

Threats: India in the Group Stages who have had the Mickey on them of late. Their three major role players still nostalgic and overcome by the '96 experience. A good finish would please most.

Counsel: Assign roles to batsmen. Too many similar batsmen seeking identity in the middle order. Be selective with the bat. Attack with the ball and use Fernando and Malinga. Lay emphasis on wickets with Murali. Don't be the usual defensive self on the field.

Verdict: Will push hard but just miss out on the semis. Lack of ambition amongst many members of the team and a general easy going nature of team evident in India. A star will be born in the form of Upul Tharanga. Vaas, Atapattu and Jayasuriya will quit in unspectacular fashion.

The World Cup Swat- South Africa

2007-03-03T01:58:00.000+05:30

SOUTH AFRICA

Strengths: A well oiled machinery and an impeccable fielding unit. Great depth in batting with effective finishers like Kemp, Boucher and Pollock to supplement the flair of Kallis, Gibbs and Smith. Fiery fast bowling unit.

Weaknesses: Suspect mental temperament and an unnerring ability to choke. Bowling attack one dimensional with negligible slow bowling options and a batting line-up that is vulnerable to high quality fast or spin bowling. A captain who loses his cool when the going gets tough.

Opportunities: The game against Australia could be the springboard for a great campaign. Have the best record in the Caribbean of all the teams. With boundaries likely to be at a premium, their fielding could shut teams out. Teams will be wary of the numero uno.

Threats: Sense of complacency. Their run in recent times has been at home where they are pretty much invincible. Seamer friendly conditions back home have blinded them of the lack of variety in their attack. A single defeat and it could all unravel.

Counsel: Hit the ground hard and aggressive. Try and dominate the opposition thus leveraging your opposition. Make others fear you and therein lies your best chance. Use Andrew Hall and Pollock judiciously with the old and new ball respectively. Kallis should bat at 3 and told to play aggressively.

Verdict: See them losing to Australia in the Group Stages and things going badly thereafter. Too much sameness in the bowling attack will see them clobbered by good batsmen. Top sides will sort their top order out. No semifinal berth.

The World Cup Swat- Pakistan

2007-03-03T01:38:00.000+05:30

PAKISTAN

Strengths: A vastly experienced middle order with Younis, Yousuf and Inzamam besides Mr. Bang Bang, Afridi. Exciting young fast bowlers and a high quality leg-spin bowler in Kaneria.

Weaknesses: A top-order that excites none but the opposition; a prodigal wicket-keeper; a highly immobile fielding unit; a long tail and a bowling attack high on quality but very low on form. Akthar and Asif were touted to be the remedy for their ills but without them and that wily customer, Abdur Razzaq, their attack is pretty uni-dimensional.

Opportunities: Pakistan's cricketing history is replete with heroics when least expected and to call the current situation a crisis would be an understatement. Inzamam and Woolmer will find the squad easier to handle without Akthar. Inzy and Yousuf in the twilights of their career. Complacent opposition.

Threats: A tough opener against West Indies especially without Afridi. It could all go wrong from there. Expect some interesting comments by Akthar, Imran and Miandad to fuel the situation.

Counsel: Stick together and be aggressive with the bat but very disciplined with the ball. Cut out the flair play. Maintain a low profile.

Verdict: Difficult to see them make much of an impact. Just too many things weighed up against them. Super Eights is as far as they will get.

The World Cup Swat- New Zealand

2007-03-03T01:11:00.000+05:30

NEW ZEALAND

Strengths: The most lethal fast bowler in the world, Shane Bond; a most consistent and effective lower middle order; the best spin bowler in world cricket; an astute captain; a great backroom staff but most importantly something quite foreign to New Zealand cricket- some top order batting of note. Like the Proteas, the Black Caps are quite out of this world when it comes to fielding and in Ross Taylor, they seem to have unearthed a gem. Watch out for the old firm in the form of McMillan and Styris.

Weaknesses: Abyssmal history of fitness. Shane Bond is odds on to break down and Jacob Oram might not be the same force irrespective of the number of fingers that he decides to bring along. Lack a central inspirational figure like Chris Cairns; have a poor record on slow tracks; and have very little ammunition in their bowling but for 007. A suspect top order and Kyle Mills' absence might hurt.

Opportunities: With England in the group, an opportunity to coast to the Super Eights. Unknown exciting commodities in the top order and with very few sides having depth in their bowling in one-day cricket, a batting line-up that runs deeper than the Pacific could drown a few teams.

Threats: Very few stand out batsmen or bowlers which could send them burying for cover in the face of quality. They don't go into this tournament as the 'usual' dark horses but as one of the leading contenders and hence, teams are unlikely to be complacent.

Counsel: You have got most things in order, but it wouldn't be a bad idea to play Patel, the off-spinner too, for very few teams do so. Don't play Bond against the minnows and build your campaign around Oram. Make more use of the power plays while batting.

Verdict: Would be a shock if they don't reach the semis and might just creep into the finals but shouldn't win. Rely too much on McCullum and Oram who aren't very effective against spin. Quality teams will take note.

The World Cup Swat- India

2007-03-03T00:25:00.000+05:30

INDIA

Strengths: Possess the form batting order heading into the tournament. An assortment of contemporary greats, useful fast bowlers with the ability to strike early and high quality spinners; on paper, India look to be a major threat. Dravid, Tendulkar, Yuvraj and Dhoni in the middle will supplement a dangerous top order; Munaf and co. will form a probing seam attack and Harbhajan will keep batsmen honest with his tweakers.

Weaknesses: An aged side coupled with Harbhajan's inability to bowl batsmen out means India will struggle in the middle overs. This will be the worst fielding side in the competition with only Pakistan and England for company; bowling at the death has also been an area of concern besides an unsettled opening combination. Question marks persist over Sehwag and Pathan.

Opportunities: The toughest group in tough batting conditions might prove to blessing in disguise. India's record over Sri Lanka has been exemplary and individuals desperate to prove their mettle might just make India an irresistable combination.

Threats: Individuals in the dusk of their career with a weight of achievements behind them. Side too pedigreed and succeptible to major shifts in form & performance. No major expectations within the squad.

Counsel: Forget Sehwag and Uthappa; think of Pathan to partner Ganguly and bowl cutters on the slow tracks. Think of Dhoni as an option in the top order while batting first. Get Kumble playing as second spinner as his intensity would be welcome in the middle overs when India get insipid.

Verdict: This is more of a gut feeling which cannot be rationalised. India look odds on favourite to reach the semi-finals after which individual masterclasses are going to win them the competition. A fitting riposte by Greg Chappell!!!

The World Cup Swat- England

2007-03-03T00:01:00.000+05:30

ENGLAND

Strengths: For the first time in its history, England goes into a competition on the back of its batting. Bell, Pietersen, Collingwood and Flintoff represent a potent middle order. Flintoff is probably the best third seamer heading into the competition and Panesar has already established himself as an effective spinning option.

Weaknesses: A bowling attack comprising Lewis, Plunkett, Tremlett and Anderson shouldn't make many batsmen lose sleep especially on some of the placid tracks. A below par fielding unit and a succeptible top order plus a captain whose chances of turning up twice in a row is only slightly better tha England's chances of winning the tournament.

Opportunities: The easiest group in the tournament. Have traditionally done well against the Kiwis in one-day cricket and a victory could give them a directional impulse. Opponents might take England a bit too lightly.

Threats: The innate feeling in the side that test match cricket is more challenging. England's team is nothing but a motley crew whose primary idea of a World Cup is a good time in the Caribbean.

Counsel: Keep the beer cans out of bounds and have Michael Vaughan as non- playing captain.

Verdict: The Barmy Army will create more of a flutter than this English team. Will cause an upset or two courtesy Flintoff and Pietersen but the beaches are where you will find the English cricketers during the semi-finals. Duncan Fletcher will bow out with ignomity.

The World Cup Swat- Australia

2007-03-02T22:34:00.000+05:30

AUSTRALIA

Strengths: The most versatile batting line-up in world cricket; an opportunistic fielding cordon and mental fortitude without parallels. With Ponting, Hussey, Symonds and Clarke, Australia can attack, slaughter and decimate. A bowling attack that can leave out the two best test match bowlers in the world speaks volumes of their depth. There is no evident weakness in this unit.

Weaknesses: The bowling attack wears a non-penetrative look in the absence of Brett Lee; Andrew Symonds is the most valuable one day cricketer in the world and question marks over him aren't bound to fill them with confidence. Lack of wicket taking slow options in the middle overs have seen Australia struggle to defend totals. Brad Hogg is short of match practice and Johnson and Bracken have petered away after impressive starts. They are no longer an intimidating force.

Opportunities: A victory against South Africa and Australia would be on its way. The format of the tournament gives Australia time to set its house in order. Australia don't particularly like losing and canalizing this anger could imply dire consequences for other teams. Ask England.

Threats: A difficult clash against South Africa in the Group Stages who have had the better of Australia in recent times. A loss there and teams are going to relish the challenge thereafter. Australia's big three rivals have had the better of them in recent times and they don't possess the aura about themselves any longer.

Counsel: Since bowling is your grey area, go in with the extra bowler which means that Shane Watson gets the nod for opening the innings ahead of Mattie Hayden. Bank on Tait and Hogg for Carribbean wickets are conducive to wrist spin and reverse swing. Chase when you win the toss and give the new cherry back to the 'Pigeon'- Glenn McGrath. Your most important match in the competition is South Africa in the Group Stages.

Verdict: Nobody is going to stop the Kangaroos from getting to the 'Last Four' but the absence of Brett Lee means that this won't be a third consecutive World Cup victory. Hussey, Ponting & McGrath will have huge tournaments whereas it is going to be no fairytale ending for Gilchrist and Hayden. Expect the next generation of cricketers to leave their stamp.

Building up to the World Cup

2007-03-02T13:23:00.000+05:30

This promises to be the most intensely fought World Cup ever. The Pontings, Flemings, Dravids, Jayawardenes, Vaughans, Inzamams, Smiths and Laras of this world will their teams to do battle in this cricketing extravaganza. Will Ponting and company emulate the Windies and make it a hat-trick of World Cups or is the Australian supremacy a thing of the past?

Next up, a SWOT analysis of all the major pretenders.

My 15 BLUES

2007-01-27T12:52:00.001+05:30

I suspect that when the 'Colonel' & company sit together to decide the 15 who would take the flight out to the Caribbean, there would be billions wanting to be a fly on that wall. Every four years, this major upheaval in our mindset is ample reflection of an entire nation's conscience possessed. If 2003 was all about Laxman or not, 2007 has a few more intricate issues attached. A look at who will make the cut for the WC starting in two months time.

The safest bets would be on the wicketkeeping and spinning department. India have come a long way since 2003 when Rahul Dravid did a Gianlugi Buffon. Rahul might have looked more like a football goalkeeper in his efforts, but he did a mighty fine job ala the Italian custodian. Mahendra Dhoni has captivated international audiences ever since he set foot on the international stage and though he still has his critics, there is no doubt that his dismantling of international attacks has been consistent and effective and that he is a safe bet behind too. Dinesh Karthick has shown lot of spunk and fight and he is a mighty good fielder too. India will need Karthick in the middle order as a specialist batsman to rotate the strike.

India will struggle with their fast bowling department. Agarkar and Zaheer will lead the pack but that is again a step back from 2003 when Zaheer, Nehra and Srinath were at the peak of their prowesses and represented India's most potent fast bowling attack. Sreesanth has been India's revelation in 2006 but except for a 6 wicket haul against England in the early part of the year, his performances in the one-day format have been built more around passion and aggression rather than consistency. I would have to put Pathan in this category even though I am sure he will end up playing just the Group stages in the World Cup. India's success in the one-day format, when it happened, was due to Pathan's new ball bowling and his presence allowing India to play five bowlers. At the World Cup, that would mean playing Kumble and Harbhajan together, a combination that would take some stopping in slow, low Caribbean conditions. Kumble's bowling over the last 24 months has been right alongside the likes of Warne and Murali whereas Harbhajan was the best slow bowler in one-day cricket in the year 2006 with an economy rate of around 3.7 .

Without Pathan, five bowlers would mean too long a tail and with 20 over powerplays, it would take a very brave team management to play two spinners in an Indian setup with four bowlers. Hence, to say that Pathan would be crucial to India's chances would be a gross understatement. India will risk Munaf as their fifth seam bowling option inspite of his fickle fitness for prior to South Africa, he was head and shoulders above the rest when it came to the fast bowling stakes. His height and ability to hit the deck gives the attack some variety as well. People might consider Ramesh Powar unlucky to miss out but facts will suggest that his best bowling performances have come against shoddy opposition. Brian Lara and Sarwan consistently found him out on India's last trip there. His will be a career in the shadows- a large shadow that.

India's travails in the batting department have been well documented and with six spots up for grabs, there is bound to be some serious thought there. Yuvraj, Sachin, Rahul and Sourav are sure to take up four of those spots. His lengthy layoff not withstanding, Yuvraj is India's best middle order batsman as he showcased in 2005 and early 2006; Sachin is still indispensable for he offers flexiblity in the batting department with the array of strokes he possesses and his bowling has always come up trumps in pressure cooker scenarios; Dravid continues scaling new heights and Sourav has made too 'impressive' a comeback, and is probably odds on favourite to open.

I feel the selectors should have given Ganguly an extended run before coming to a conclusion. A 98 on a flat pancake against a travel weary bowling attack is not exactly my idea of returning to form. The signs were there: balls smoted out of the ground, the quick dab and runs and of course a run-out. Yes, Ganguly ended up being India's top run getter in the test match series but the selectors seem to be losing sight of the fact that Ganguly's performances in the test match arena had been 'passable' leading upto the time he got dropped. It was his one-day efforts that had taken a more drastic dip, averaging under 20 against test playing nations over a two year period. I hope that the "Prince" is back for good but my gut feeling is that his selection will go down as one made in haste. Sourav will disappoint.

That leaves us with two more spots. Sehwag, inspite of all his miseries is too serious a matchwinner to be ignored. His bowling will also be valued and towards the end of the South African series, there was a certain commitment that didn't reflect on the scorecards. The last spot will be a tussle between Robin Uthappa and Suresh Raina depending on their performances over the next few matches. My call would be Robin for he is a good top order one-day player and Greg and Rahul seem convinced that they need a specialist opening bat.

That would leave Laxman with the strange honour of never having been in a World Cup Squad; Kaif would be desperately unlucky to miss out despite having scored three fifties in the West Indies, unfortunate for a honest tryer who has somehow been always typecast as villain whenever India has lost in recent times. Raina's time will definitely come.

My call on what the World Cup squad would be:

Rahul Dravid (c), Sachin Tendulkar (vc), Virendra Sehwag, Sourav Ganguly, Robin Uthappa, Yuvraj Singh, M.S. Dhoni (wk), Dinesh Karthick, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Ajit Agarkar, Irfan Pathan, Munaf Patel, Zaheer Khan, S. Sreesanth

Expecetd Duds: Irfan, Sourav
Expected Hits: Sachin, Karthick

And since I am sticking my neck out, a chocolate on my part for every error that I make and spotted by you. So chocolate-crazy people, the comments section is all yours!

Solitude, CAT and more arbitrariness

2007-01-25T15:30:00.000+05:30

Solitude borne out of laziness has been the theme of the last week, so much so that this shall be my 4th post in a week- one less than than the number I have managed to put together in a year's time.

Even semesters mean festivity in IT-BHU and four-day weeks. Over here, a working day is a relative term as all 'nerds' and 'geeks' in this 'elite' institute will happily testify. Technex-The Annual National Technical Festival (sounds cliched) came and went. Technex has taken gargantuan leaps since I have been here and this year's event appealed even to the author-a person with esoteric tastes.

It is also nice to see the Men in Blue get back to winning ways. They have had a baptism by fire of late and it pains you when the nice men in this world (read Tendulkar and Dravid) come under stick. Another couple of victories and the entire nation is going to go nuts about India's chances at the World Cup. India's time at the world stage will come only when they unearth good wrist spinners, death bowlers and at least a few bricks in the middle order to supplement the 'Wall'. Fielding and youth was the number one priority not long back, and today, only Pakistan can pose a stiff challenge for the tag of the most inept fielding unit.

Logic can be ludicrous in cricket!

In between, I managed to enroll myself, technically speaking, for CAT classes. I don't particularly fancy the odds there but in hindsight, I feel that I have let myself be dragged into that whirlpool which tries to engulf you at the start of a year where every self-respecting third year student has to become career conscious. I think the entire rat race has resulted in absurdity and wierdness unparalleled. However, I must admit that I had fun. Attendance compulsions in my department have meant that I have not sat in a class with single digit strength for a long time. The change was refreshing!

Besides, to hear an 'eccentric Bong' extolling the virtues of my name was enlightening. Coming from a typical middle-class Tamil background, it was embarassing having to own up my ineptitude at the Vedas. I will remain a novice in this field all my life.

There are a couple of people cursing their offspring at this point of time somewhere in this world!

He demeanour was comical to say the least. His gait wouldn't give you the impression of an entertainer but there was something about his demure approach and his tendency to refer to the world of sports in case any clarification was required that fascinated me and had me awestruck. References to Owens, Navratilova, Aldrich, Gower and Boycott are not necessarily the worst way in the world to keep me interested. I fancy that I have an enjoyable year ahead there.

Our comparison with the IITs holds no basis when it comes to the number of selections to IIMs and the reasons are not too difficult to behold. I cannot refrain from taking a jibe at the general intellectual milieu pervading here- a matter of no little concern, but something that will be brushed under the carpet along with the relevance of acads in a year where compensation packages have reached unprecedented heights. The number of quizzes, debates and other intellectual activities are constantly on the wane. Technex didn't even bother with a Quiz this time around. The comparison with IITs is so very obviously being done by short-sighted people.

Is anybody looking at the larger picture? I can only hope that India's economic boom is for ever!

The enigma that is Dada

2007-01-23T09:59:00.000+05:30

So, after a couple of sentimental outpourings it is back to my core competency. If you reckon that a decent grade score (on the donward spiral all the time) makes me a talented or even an interested 'Mechaniche', nothing could be farther from the truth. It is back to my comfort zone and back to a person who has probably intrigued me the most, myself apart.

The ephemeral Yorkshirean still calls him the "Bengal Tiger" or the "Prince who could smash spinners out of the park with my grandma's broomstick". Shane Warne and Steve Waugh remember him as "an irritant" who had the audacity to look the Aussies into the eye and keep people waiting at the toss. Freddie Flintoff calls him a "royal" who never practised and took cricket as a pastime but would still celebrate (showing off a muscular frame) as if he had won matches on his own. In the eastern parts of India, he is God and held on the same pedestal as Durga. In any dressing room, he is called Dada with a mixture of respect, envy and intrigue.

Fascinating!

No person has captivated the public conscience in recent times for his methods and actions as much as Sourav Chandidas Ganguly has. Not even Shane Warne. When you do a personality check with Warney, you wonder about this fuss. This guy doesn't smoke, neither does he get watered down and create trouble at places, nor does he get hooked up with all handsome looking females that he comes across. But the cynosure of all eyes nevertheless!

His roll of honour includes over 15000 international runs, 150 international wickets and100 international catches. But one suspects that Sourav Ganguly will be remembered more for his bare-chested celebrations, his verbal ding-dongs with the Aussies, his ability to infuriate the opposition, his perceived 'rudeness' to the Srinaths (At a crucial moment in the Trinidad test, he was caught by cameras gesticulating to Srinath besides abusing him), for thinking that Kumble was a good option as 12th man, for his candidness but at the same time his remarkable ability in not getting bogged down even under the extremest of situations.

His trademark punches through the off-side (which had Dravid claiming , ''through the off-side, first there is God, then there is Sourav") will be missed, his characteristic jig down the track at the first sight of a spinner will be missed and his dismantling of the quickest bowlers in the world in manners never seen before will be missed as well. So will his fielding with only one serious competitor- Inzamam.

He will be remembered for introducing Sehwag Yuvraj, Harbhajan, Dhoni and Pathan to world cricket. He will also be remembered as the captain who got his bowlers to bowl straight by instating Rahul Dravi as wicketkeeper, for prolonging Jumbo's career but at the same time cutting down that of the Mysore Express. He defied logic by getting Sehwag to open in Test cricket; having specialist batsmen to bat at No.8 in one-day cricket; preferring Dinesh Mongia and Sanjay Bangar to Laxman in a World Cup squad; winning test matches in Australia, England and the West Indies and reaching a World Cup final with a side not having an all-rounder, a specialist fast bowler, a wicket-keeper or a wrist spinner.

My take on Dada doesn't match up to the intrigue of the man. A middle class Bengali with a beatiful celeb wife plus a comfortable livelihood, I beleive has got more to do with his downfall than anything else. At the end of it all, Sourav will look back at his career with the greatest tinge of regret. Greatness was always just a step away but for some strange reason, he always shunned that step trying to get the entire team there. I feel that there came a point in time when Dada got so engrossed about how his 'Men in Blue' were doing that he lost sight of the fact that he was a batsman blessed with great talent but weaknesses manifold and that the opposition would always come hard at him.

To crucify him for that would be unfair, for Sourav I thought, always looked at ways to get the most a bunch which was very limited in talent. Greg offered him a way out by offering him a way out of the captaincy and back to the nets but the proud middle class Bengali in him surfaced and he took it as a personal affront. Over the last few years, one couldn't but help get the feeling that Ganguly started overestimating his abilities as a batsman. His best efforts, be it in England or in the West Indies had been exercises in dogmatism, perseverance and determination more than the brutesque power, timing and lazy elegance that had always been his trademarks. When in the late 90's he was the most realiable outfielder and slipsman, here he was- an embarassment to modern day athleticism. When he was a safe bet as third seamer in the late 90's with match-winning spells in the longer format, here he was, trying to match Kumble on the speed gun.

Ganguly, for me, will have to go down in history books, as the captain who transformed the way India played cricket and how the world looked at India as a cricketing nation; the finest Indian left-hand batsman; the best all rounder India has seen in one day cricket after Kapil and Sachin; a fierce competitor who hated losing and instilled pride, aggression and respect in Indian cricket. Gone were the quota systems and the laidback approach that had been the bane of Indian cricket.

On a global stage, I beleive, Dada will be put in the bracket of the Flemings and Gowers in terms of batsmanship, undoubted ability with brilliance in spurts whenever one doubted, lazy elegance and a blessed sense of timing. I do beleive that Sourav had more weaknesses than the other two; both were fine players of the short-pitched stuff and equally comfortable off their legs, but just the fact that Sourav got there is a tribute to his mental strength and dogmatism.

As for the World Cup, my call is that Dada will have a pretty barren spell. A string of low scores with a gem or two interspersed in between might not be the best way for 'The Prince' to bid adieu to 'his' stage, but it would be so unlike the man and his career if he went out as per his whims. Sourav has had his opportunities but he has never been able to chart his own course or destiny.

That is how history will define him- a great captain and a damn good cricketer.

Ode to Team Opulence

2007-01-19T14:03:00.000+05:30

"All the world's a stage and........." - William Shakespeare

The wonderful thing about life is that it compels man to be content with just a bit part in this global theatre. The more you try and do it all yourself, the more lonely and cornered you become.

Opulence 2007 was probably one such story. The story of a failed division of labour where everything which encompassed the crux of the fest- celebrities, marketing, design, event management and even putting up of publicity paraphernalia was handled by a very limited group of quality-oriented workaholics.

"Quality in everything" had been our motto right from day one. It might have just proved to be our undoing, for by the end, there was nobody managing the fest; all were working for it.

The team that worked for us was an interesting one. A mix of some of the nicest guys and girls you could ever come across (I just cannot beleive how a group could have so many like-minded individuals). Be it boozing out two days before the fest or attending classes on the morning of the fest or even behaving like a set of the most irresponsible brats, I beleive there was never a word spoken to them in anger. There were pleas, requests, orders and so on.... but never anything derogatory. All negative sentiments would be would be wonderfully suppressed and the only avenue for giving vent to all the pent up emotion would invariably be within the confines of our room. In hindsight, that was wonderfully orchestrated.

How frustrating can it get than being forced to go to the booking office when Prahlad Kakar was sending the house in raptures or to go to see off celebrities when somebody else for whom you had worked your ass off was holding centrestage. It is a pity when you work hard all year to put something in place and you don't get to see even a tiny part of it sans the valedictory! I am not the only one awaiting the Opulence videos to see how it all went. Justice can sometimes be cruel in its ways of implementation!

Digressing as I am, it is probably because I am just a bit overcome with emotion. The strange thing about our team is that we somehow were never able to muster up enough and tell the co-ordinators, "the fest is all yours", and leave it all to them.

I still recall how we used to go and put up posters for we thought that the team under us might be too tired. Mistaken priorities!

As careless, irresponsible and 'mischievous' as they have been all along, I still envy some of the IInd yearites for the talent and potential that exists there. 'Tactitude' and 'Brand Aid' were two events whose conceptualization was first-class and as an impassive novice, feel, challenged the thought process no ends. The amount of quality, passion and desire that the Ankits, Parikshits, Vigneshs, Rahuls, Gauravs and Chagganis of this world possess is tremendous. But the issue all along was whether they were able to buy into our vision and commitment?

I am also grateful to all my event team members. Vineet & Anshul surprised me pleasantly with the push that they had to get more participation for Manthan; Nimit & Deepak in Cognoscenti were no less enterprising; so were the Vibhores, Amits & Anshumans in Ventura. Saurabh, Kshitij and Prativesh were the go to guys whenever a need arose.

Adiosyncrasy has been the soul of Opulence in all its three editions for we have never failed in getting the best ad-makers. I could never quite gauge the Bhoopendras, Paliwals, Sonis and Sonals but one incident that happened during the course of Opulence would suffice for them.

Prahlad Kakar kept gazing at the wall mags and admired its beauty. That from the greatest. Kudos to you!

It is a bit strange that only the convenor gets an opportunity to become emotional during the valedictory. Opulence 2007 has been all the more richer for all these wonderful people and all I can say is .....Thanks a ton!!

P.S. The number of exclamation marks are suggestive.

Thanks a Ton!!!

2007-01-18T12:26:00.000+05:30

I feel tired, exhausted, worn out and whatever else you could associate with a state of mind where you just want to sit all day reminiscing with a sense of nostalgia at all good things past. January 15th had to arrive one day and even though I had been looking forward to the weekend with considerable eagerness for over a year, I couldn't help but feel that pang of disappointment when it finally came and went.

Opulence 2007 was the result of a year's work and though that might sound immodest, it was precisely a year back that Mr. Con (Vik) called me into his room and introduced me to two handsome hunks- Mr. Cool (Ash) and Mr. Smart ( Ravs). For a second, I was left wondering whether there was an audition of some sort taking place and it left me flabbergasted when I was told that Mr. Cool and Mr. Smart would be part of the core team for Opulence 2007. Here were two guys, admittedly handsome, but what were they doing in a fest core committee? Two guys who were not necessarily amongst the spotlight in IT (my skewed viewpoint about things) and whom I didn't even know inspite of having worked together in the last edition.

I have had no illusions since that second.

Mr. Smart has intrigued me right from Day One. Here, I thought was a brain to be picked with just the right mix of pragmatism and vision for a none too flamboyant person like me. Here was somebody in whom I could see a bit of myself. Searching for an identity initially, Ravs left me stumped with his observations, insights and plans ....His professionalism and efficiency was unmatched at any point of time throughout the whole team and his handling of resources (something I think of as one of my few strengths) was exemplary. His schedules were the only ones that were adhered to during the entire period and towards the end his dedication, single-mindedness and commitment to meet deadlines was something to be wondered at. He sometimes frustrated you with an inhuman stoniness once a marketing deal was clinched or a celeb was confirmed but talk of girls...and entertainment....there was that all too familiar blush and energy. Opulence, I believe took the greatest toll on him for towards the end you could see him giving it his all with his mind wandering somewhere else ( I wonder...). Mr. Smart grew in stature the most during Opulence. His confidence in testing unchartered waters was striking but he never seemed to lose focus about his career and the larger picture throughout. His sense of helplessness towards the end at some very lethargic work being done by those under him was something that only amused me. Maybe, he could get involved in the dynamics of the rest of the team but Mr. Smart, I believe is very versatile and fairly talented and I wouldn't be surprised if our courses meet.

Now talk of commitment, work ethic and sacrifice, Mr. Cool would win any contest hands down. From marketing co-ordinator to celebrities, logistics to hospitality and anything else that would make anybody despair, Mr. Cool was there for you. The thing that stood out about Ash was the extravagance, pomp and fun that he brought to the table with anything that he did. Over the course of a year, I can not recall Ash losing his cool. Yes, there were the occasional "F*** Yaar"s but they were outnumbered comprehensively by the "Mast Kaam"s and "Phodu Bandha" s. I have been trying hard to convince him that he could make a great entertainer with the general poise and panache that he possesses. I felt sorry for Ash towards the end for he had put in his all for a year and he had been forced to put in more during the three days which mattered. If anybody deserved to take the first row during the Kakar workshop with feet up and at the end of it all say "Kya Phodu Bandha Hai Yaar", it was Mr. Ash. But true to form, he would be at the station or the airport awaiting some team or celebrity without any sense of time. If I were to be asked about Mr. Ash, doing what he enjoys doing is the way forward for him. Any assignment involving travel, adventure and quality and I sort of know who is going to do best. Mr. Cool could do with a bit more confidence but his commitment and dedication is going to make him the loved one.

And finally Mr. Con. I would rather be critical of him for that would save my time and give my blog some space to put up something more interesting. If I were to be part of an oganisation that was on the lookout for a leader, I would have a very easy task of telling them where to look for. Energy, Vision, Principles, Fundamentals, Articulation, Tech-Saviness, Aesthetic Appeal, Commitment, Dedication, Passion were some of the very few qualities that I could find in him. But, the two things that really stood apart about him were his abilities to think on his feet and the efficiency that was part of his 16-hour work days. His mind never seemed to get exhausted even if his body did and his brain which kept churning constantly was responsible for most of what was put together during Opulence 2007. Be it H.R, marketing, micro-management and creating 'hypes', his clock was always ticking. We might have staged a hugely successful 'Big Fight' with the MBA issue being hotly debated but through Mr. Con, I can see why the course was designed in the first place. Mr. Con made it a point to relax everybody whenever the team was at its lowest ebb. He did this so passionately and unerringly that I often got the impression that he had noted this down somewhere.
The only issue that I had with Mr. Con was that he gave his gut feeling too much importance. Sometimes, the entire world was scheming against him as well as Opulence and on other occassions it was the usual "no money, no participation and no celebrities" refrain. Yes, there were incidents to justify the approach but maybe such things could take a backseat when the quality of your fest is at stake. We live in an all embracing world and maybe, just maybe, there are larger things in life. Towards the end, I sympathised with him for I got the feeling that he had beem trying to use the best principles of corporate management in whatever he had been trying to do. Whether these need to be used in a college festival is a totally different question altogether. There are some people who like to perform routine and demeaning jobs, some have to be kicked on the back all the time and very few 1st yearites can feel good about sticking posters.

And here I am doing what I am best at. Calling myself a part of the core committee; not having done a thing through the fest and the passing judgement about how everybody worked. That is the adidas addict for you! How the festival went and how well we worked I guess is upto posterity but if there was one thing that I would carry back from Opulence 2007, it is the mates that I have made- Mr. Smart and Mr. Cool. I thought that my friends from school would never be rivalled but I can say without an iota of a doubt that I have been mistaken. How I wish that we could spend our entire lives the way we have spent the last year! Thanks a lot, guys! Thanks a ton!

LIVER 'pool' ed

2006-09-24T14:41:00.000+05:30

What a month that was? Oft used to describe a month that passed by rapidly, I could come across nothing else to capture the worst month of my life in a nutshell. I have often heard about ups and downs being a part of life and experienced it too, but it has always struck me as being something too trivial. It was a month I had been looking forward to for a year because birthdays come just once a year and I was to finally get rid of the immaturity associated with teenhood. The start of the English Premier League season and the prospect of getting back behind Liverpool after a bland World cup besides the prospect of some challenging work associated with my management fest kept me buzzing. This is how the next few days actually turned out.

August 1: My uncle comes to Varanasi along with aunt and grandma on a spiritual tour for a day. I accompany them thus missing my first classes of the semester. Forced to accept the rustic beauty of Varanasi for the first time. An agnostic, I 'visit' around 10 temples, grumble at why people get so 'religious' and am an exhausted lot by evening. Pause for a moment wondering about the number of temples present here. With 60 odd ghats and each having its share, this place should easily make its way to the record books. My estimate is around 300 temples. And I spent a day covering 1/30th of that! A spiritual behemoth indeed! But some things never change. The Ganges is still brownish-black and I am too lazy to see them off to the station. I get treated at the 'Diamond' by one of the greatest misers in IT history and am forced to think of visiting temples most often. Am satisfied at having missed 4 classes.

August 2-16: Life passes off as usual with time passing off quickly even with my doing nothing. Classes, sleeping and browsing take up most of the time. Have numerous meetings to give our management festival 'OPULENCE' some shape. Put the final touches to a pretty lousy brochure but am still satisfied. At least some work done. Behave like a stupid 'professional' politician in refusing to give up my post of TPR. Feel gung-ho about it. Try in vain to get some other TPRs elected to assist me in this crucial month. Miss another 3 classes due to general laziness.

August 17: Get my training set up. Am quite happy for that is a major headache out of the way and I get paid as well. Miss 7 classes having to involve myself in what was supposed to be a tough selection procedure but in the end turns out to be quite biased. My classmates exercise their legs and try desperately to get some leather off their slippers when I return with promises to repeat the process over the next few days. What a weird world! My body pains as I go to sleep.

August 19: Opulence general body meeting takes place. Am excited at the way the meeting proceeds and also at the response. Eat heavily in the afternoon as a consequence. Wake up at night feeling uneasy. Decide to take a fast at night despite having been a very profitable Saturday. Liverpool draw 1-1 to Sheffield United.

August 21: It is my birthday and my classmates repeat the entire exercising process very extensively for around an hour just as the day dawns. Go to sleep once again with pain, wondering. Bathe for the second time in the morning this semester before going to class. Sport a new T-shirt and get back in the afternoon buzzing. Plans have already been set up by my classmates on my treating them at the TAJ that night. Withdraw money after sending my parents unconscious. Feel uneasy in the evening but still drag myself to the temple. Get a fever and dinner is off. I thus save some money or so I think.

Read on below….

LIVER 'pool' ed contd......

2006-09-24T11:56:00.000+05:30

A prosperous month continues....

August 22: Wake up feeling terrible. Think it might be the after effects of deficient sleep over the past week. Go to class. One of my friends detects a tinge of yellow in my eyes which no one else can. Ridicule him with a tinge of fear within. Go to the doctor after class who assures me that it isn't a case of jaundice but still asks me to test for it. Get tested and go back relieved. Feel weak the whole day. Go to collect the results wearing shorts. The results reveal that I have substantial jaundice. The bilirubin levels are 3.6 with the normal limit being 0.8 and SGPT levels are 15000 with the normal levels being 50. I abuse for the 5th time during the day and change into lowers. Call my parents up who want me to leave immediately for my uncle's house in Delhi. (My parents being in Trivandrum, it would have probably taken me the rest of the month to get there). Board the Rajdhani that night courtesy the real wonderful friends I have got who display admirable selflesness. Am forced to run the entire station to catch the train, not advisable for a jaundice patient.

The next month is spent without oil, fat, salt, spices, sweets.....the list is too long. Mineral water, papayas, coconut water, glucose and a very very restricted diet has left me shrivelled and completely worn out mentally and physically. How do you spend a month with no books and television for they strain your eyes just lying on a cot thinking of life's glorious uncertainities? My bilirubin levels still conspired to rise till 14 which sent my doctor getting me to scan my liver in search of stones or cysts. Besides, my fitness conscious classmates had ensured a bent tailbone with appreciable swelling. What worse for a person needing bedrest than be unable to lie down upright or sit down? Things got to such a state that I was pretty much willing the levels down. All my shirts bore a familiar look of yellow. To make matters worse, my friends were reminding me about my attendance, missed tests, missed classes,missed whatever; Liverpool lost to Everton, Chelsea and only managed to draw with PSV; India finished 11th at the hockey World cup; Sania lost in the 2nd round at the US Open; India's cricket team was losing; the management fest was losing (so the convener says though I refuse to believe that my absence can affect anything) and all the plans that I had with regards to training remained just that. I had lost count of the number of classes missed when I returned on September 20th though I reckon my current attendance is around 55%. My Professors have already asked me to get it to 70% if I need to have a shot at writing the exams. How very assuring for a person who is mentally and physiaclly worn out, whose last checked bilirubin levels were 4.1 a week back, who no longer wants to take tests for there might be insufficient blood and who has been forced to return and attend classes just because of the attendance mess! I have forgotten how buttter tastes; the tastiest thing I have is mineral water and being still confined to bed in the hostel unsure as to whether I will be able to write the end semester exams and pass this year can't necessarily be described as the best state of mind to get into. The academic backlog of a month in what is supposed to be our toughest semester not withstanding, things are looking up. Liverpool have won against Newcastle and Tottenham; Sania Mirza won 3 matches in a row; India won a cricket match; Opulence work is proceeding; a fresh set of plans have been hatched to improve the training scenario courtesy 3 more TPRs to accompany me; and I am attending classes. Do reckon that I am due for a bit of luck and good fortune and a few comments for my posts would not be a bad way to start. But I still need to do something like 140 consecutive classes to get my attendance back on track, I am still agnostic and all the jaundice expenses have eaten into all that money that I had .....

Delusion that is…..Contd.

2006-06-27T20:46:00.000+05:30

So, why this rather strange title to go for this blog ? After all, what is so delusory about the Brazilians ? Aren’t they the innocent group of individuals who believe in the philosophy of ‘Joga Bonito?’ It is this issue of perceptions that I would like to deal with in this post. Personally, I am not one who used to believe in using stats and numbers to my advantage. I was at best a very hesitant follower of history, something my quizzing credentials would not quite stand testimony to. In fact, I loathed statistics and believed it was a creation of the media to bore people. This was until I got across this book, Freakonomics by a ‘mad’ economist as Stephen .D. Levitt describes himself. A book that I would instantly recommend to everybody, Stephen did a damn good job of convincing me about the power of statistics and numbers. From someone who had the ‘bikini’ approach (as the MP Sardar would put it) towards numbers, I have started believing in using Levitt’s simple philosophy of asking the most ridiculous questions to challenge the age-old perceptions. If Levitt could ask whether a gun is actually more dangerous than a swimming pool or whether money does win elections as is perception and prove them to be convincingly wrong; surely there is scope for this question to put forward: ‘Are Brazil an attacking side after all ?’ In retrospective, are Brazil not the most boring side to play the game over the last decade ?

It would be only fair to say that till the 1980’s Brazil played some of the most dazzling football that this world has seen. With attacking talent that may never be matched let alone surpassed BrazilBrazil’s reputation has more to do with heritage than reason- Levitt’s theory of perception to fulfill our beliefs exemplified here. used to put it across teams with consummate ease. But come 1990, it is evident that

For sake of comparison, let us put in the Azzuri and the Nazis (oops 50$ down the drain)- perceived to be the two most boring sides in football with tactics based more on strength and unity than technicality and flair. Brazil came to the 90’ WC with what is widely accepted as its worst side in modern times- another of those conspiracy theories for they said that about their teams in ’94,’98 and’02. This is a classical case of ‘conventional wisdom’ and perception not quite in collusion as John Kenneth Galbraith would put it for if you were the worst side, how could you be the most entertaining one? And mind you, in all these tournaments Brazil were considered dodgy because of their leak proof defence; not due to absence of thrust in the attacking half.

Put in arguably the easiest group in’90 along with Costa Rica, Sweden and the Scots, Brazil managed to tally just 4 goals despite the attacking talent of Careca and having Romario and Bebeto in the wings. Managing to score just four goals and conceding 1 Brazil, surprisingly topped the group but were unsurprisingly put out in the next round by a Claudio Cannigia inspired Argentina 0-1. West Germany meanwhile scored 12 conceding 3 whereas Italy scored 6 conceding none in the same number of matches. Yes, Brazil conceded more number of goals against Italy but if you score 4 goals in 4 matches, it doesn’t necessarily take a great mathematician to figure out that your probability of qualifying isn’t all that great.

Fast forward to ’94, Brazil possessed great attacking strength in the form of firing players like Bebeto, Romario and Zinha. Brazil lived up to its billing in the group stages scoring 6 and conceding 1 in the group stages to finish top of the group. Germany and Italy had 5-3 and 2-2 records respectively at the same stage. At the end of the tournament, Brazil had a 11-3 record from 7 matches including the goalless final they won on penalties; Italy after their disappointing start recovered to finish with a 10-5 record in the same number of matches; Germany went out in the quarters with a 9-7 record. More number of goals in more matches is no surprise but just one more than Italy and an average of just more than 1.5 goals per game doesn’t befit the most ‘attacking’ side in the world. To illustrate the point further, in the knockout stages when it becomes considerably more difficult to score because of more quality opposition, Brazil managed to score just 5 times to Italy’s 6.

Now to ’98 when Ronaldo and Rivaldo graced the WC stage for the first time joining the still potent Bebeto alongside the ‘magic’ Denilson. Brazil just managed to net 6 times during the group stages conceding 3. Spain, Italy, France and the Dutch managed to score more goals with Germany notching 6 as well. However, by the end of the tournament, the supposedly misfiring stars had managed to gather a head of steam to score an impressive 14 goals in all but their defence couldn’t sustain pressure from the Les Blues as they succumbed 0-3 in the finals; their defence was breached 10 times in all in the finals. France finished with 15 goals. Italy and Germany found goals difficult to come by in the later stages and went out in the quarterfinal stages tallying 8 goals in all. Brazil averaged 2 goals per match but their opposition along the way comprised Chile and Denmark- 2 teams that haven’t qualified since.

Finally to ’02 when all the speculation was surrounding Ronaldo who after the mystery final in ’98, was making an appearance in a WC after a season plagued by injury. Brazil finished with an impressive 11 goals- the same tally as Germany. Brazil managed to add a further 7 goals en route to the final to Germany’s 3. 18 goals in 7 matches is truly impressive but again this was a World Cup which was mired in medioicrity and opposition like Costa Rica, China and Belgium are not the top of everyone’s list as far as contenders are concerned. Their defence was the stingiest in the competition conceding just 4 times- the same as Germany. Italy, for the stake of statistics scored 5 times to go out in the round of 16.

’06, Germany has been similar in the sense that they have progressively got better scoring 7 goals in all ( as of now) in the group stages conceding just once. Germany have scored 8 times whereas Italy have managed five. Robinho and Adriano have joined ranks as Brazil are playing with their most attacking combination taking the past decade into consideration.

So, where does this leave us with? The tally, skeptics might argue is certainly impressive. It certainly is. But the point that has been missed is that Brazil, in all these competitions has possessed one of the better defensive records, if not the best. The conclusion that has to be drawn and one which was concurred to by their current coach, Carlos Alberto Parreira is that Brazil are a counter attacking side whose game is based on a strong defensive foundation. Surprise, Surprise! And that for a side with a very suspect defence. Their record at every tournament, defensively has been better than Italy and Germany despite having put up greater numbers in the matches column. They play with an attacking formation, but in essence their game is based on the quality of their defensive midfielders. Dunga, Emerson and Gilberto Silva are all unsung heroes but are amongst the best in the tournament. There might be a line of thought that an attacking side might not always be best represented in the goals column if they are not the most efficient. But, here we are talking about the likes of Ronaldo, Romario, Adriano and Rivaldo- amongst the best in the business year in and year out for their clubs. Another argument can of course be that Brazil’s attacking prowess might force coaches into playing defensive formations thus negating their own attacking game, thus accounting for Brazil’s defensive record. Roberto Carlos, Cafu and Lucio have stayed on in the team for years but Brazilian forwards but for Ronaldo have been like revolving doors- their longevity always in question. Thus, opposition coaches too seem to be sucked into the great whirlpool of perception for if Brazil are a counter attacking side, it means that they are not likely to be in possession of the ball for long and you rather well do something about it. Averaging way under 2 goals a game, Brazil are nowhere near the attacking side they once were. They have got a bunch of individuals with great pace and positional sense which makes them deadly as a counter attacking team.

It is this same aura of invincibility surrounding their defence that seems to be existing within the team that I believe will prove to be the undoing of the Samba boys. Cafu and Robert Carlos are not in the same league anymore and Brazil would be better served by the likes of Cicinho and Silvinho. Emerson looks a spent force in the defensive midfield position and the omission of the immense Gilberto Silva cannot be overlooked. But there seems to be a false sense of aura which I believe could make Brazilian meet their waterloo at the hands of the technical and speedy Ghana side provided they manage to keep their tempers in control. What good are a counter attacking side if they are dominated offensively and not given the ball. Brazil would then be reduced to a bunch of tricksters without getting anywhere. As Levitt would say ‘conventional wisdom’ and ‘perception’ can be both proved wrong.

Delusion that is the Samba Boys

2006-06-27T14:26:00.000+05:30

If you were to hear about Brazil there would probably be three things that register instantly in your mind – its beautiful beaches, scantily clad beauties and of course ‘Joga Bonito’. The beautiful game has come to be synonymous with Brazil over the years and has become ingrained in the common man’s psyche. The three ‘divine pleasures’ have become intertwined for Brazil’s football starts at the beaches and erudite pleasures are part of the package.

Life does come to a standstill literally. Government timings have been changed, television sets have been installed in prisons for fear of riots and special channels have been established to provide the most in-depth coverage to its citizens. But for them it is only the World Cup matters. Defeat in the final is considered to be a national catastrophe as the 0-3 defeat to France at the Stad de France in ’98 proved; inquests as to the cause continue till this day.

The primary reason that the Samba Boys enjoy such backing throughout the globe is because of the attacking flair they have possessed over the years. No other nation has captivated and left audiences spellbound with their riveting style of play as much as Brazil have. But very little is known about the true Brazilian legends- the Leonidas’, Vavas, Didis…the list is endless. A peek into the Brazilian teams of the past:

1930,Uruguay

The first World Cup resembled a carnival in that all those who wished could play at the finals. This was probably the only Brazilian squad that went to a WC finals without any stars. Characterized by regional imbalance- all but one member of the squad hailed from Rio de Janeiro.

The team (line-up in the first match, againstYugoslavia): Joel; Brilhante and Itália; Hermógenes, Fausto and Fernando; Poly, Nilo, Araken, Preguinho (C) and Teóphilo.
Reserves: Velloso (G), Zé Luiz, Oscarino, Benevenuto, Ivan Mariz, Fortes, Pamplona, Benedito, Russinho, Carvalho Leite, Doca and Moderato.
Coach: Píndaro de Carvalho.

Going into the sub zero temperatures of Montevideo, the Brazilian side finished sixth with a loss to Yugoslavia and a thrashing of Bolivia. In the mid-match time out, the Brazilians used blankets and hot tea to try to warm themselves. Preguinho, their captain became the first Brazilian to score in a WC. A disappointment nevertheless but Sao Paulo wasn’t complaining.

1934, Italy

The team: Pedrosa, Sylvio Hoffman, Luiz Luz; Tinoco, Martim (C), Canalli; Luisinho, Waldemar de Brito, Armandinho, Leônidas, Patesko.

Bureaucratic hassles ensured that Brazil took an understrength squad once again to a WC. Played on a knockout basis, Brazil lost their first and consequently their only match of the tournament to Spain, 1-3. However the match would turn out to be the precursor to the rise of the first Brazilian great, Leonidas da Silva, who scored their only goal.

1938, France

The team (line-up in the first match, against Poland): Batatais; Domingos and Machado; Zezé Procópio, Martim and Afonsinho; Lopes, Romeu, Leônidas (C), Perácio and Hércules.

1938 represented the first time that Brazil took a full strength squad to a WC. The journey to France took 15 days by ship and by the time the Brazilian squad got there most of the players reported sick. However, that couldn’t prevent Brazil from defeating Poland 6-5, a record for the most goals scored in a single WC match. A loss to Italy dampened victories over Czhechoslovakia and Sweden. Domingos da Guia, the "Divine", recognized until today as one of the most talented Brazilian defenders of all time, says that he was kicked by Italian Piola; when he kicked back, the Swiss referee took it as a foul, and awarded a penalty to Italy from which they scored to proceed to the final.

Leônidas was one of the best Brazilian players of all time. He was the inventor of that difficult movement called bicycle. Leônidas was the main striker of the 1938 Cup, with seven goals. Because of his talent and the fact that he was one of the first black men to bright in a World Cup, French media called him "Diamant Noir", or "Black Diamond" in English, or "Diamante Negro", as he became known in Brazil. Leônidas knew how to use his color. There are records that, when he scored the last goal against Poland, Leônidas was shoe-less, and this would be grounds for the referee to invalidate the goal. Cleverly, Leônidas splashed his feet into the dark mud; the referee could not tell Leonidas' black socks from his black legs and from the (non-existent) black shoes.

1950, Brazil

The team (line-up in the first match, against Mexico): Barbosa; Augusto (C) and Juvenal; Eli, Danilo and Bigode; Maneca, Ademir, Baltazar, Jair and Friaça.

World Cup football returned after the war enforced break and the Brazilians came into the tournament as favourites. Da Silva was 12 years older but was still playing professionally. The backbone of the Brazilian team comprised of Barbosa (considered, along with Gilmar, who was champion in 1958 and 1962, one of the best Brazilian goalkeepers of all time), the captain Augusto and the forward Ademir de Menezes, who would score nine goals to become the striker of the Cup. Besides, Brazil still had Jair da Rosa Pinto, skin and refined, and Zizinho, who happens to be the declared idol of Pelé, when the King was young (Zizinho did not play the first two matches in the Cup only because he was recovering from an injury). Brazil lived up to its reputation hammering Sweden 7-1 and a strong Spanish team 6-1. Needing a draw in the final group game at the historic Maracana (WC 1950 didn’t have a final) which was watched by over 200,000 people Brazil went down 1-2 to Uruguay who thus won the Jules Rimet Trophy for the second time.

Ademir de Menezes, Barbosa, Zizinho

1954, Switzerland

Line-up in the match against Mexico:
Djalma Santos, Brandãozinho, Nilton Santos, Pinheiro,
Mario Américo (masseur), Castilho and Bauer;
Julinho, Didi, Baltazar, Pinga and Rodrigues.

This was a tournament of firsts for Brazil- forced to qualify and travel by air. After the 1950 debacle came the predictable sacking of the coach but the loss had such far reaching consequences that the white jersey was retired as white was considered to be associated with cowardice. The yellow sunshine outfit coupled with a youthful outfit did little to reverse Brazil’s performances on the field as a disappointing draw with Yugoslavia followed by a thrashing by Puskas’ ‘Magic Magyars’ ensured that Brazil faltered at the first hurdle. The WC introduced the world to Didi and Julinho Botelho.

Known as the man who shut up Maracana after 1954, Julinho moved to Fiorentina, Italy, and was fundamental for the team to conquer their first scudetto, in 1955/56; Julinho was invited to play the 1958 Cup, but refused, honestly saying that someone playing in Brazil deserved the chance; he came back to Palmeiras -and the Brazilian team - in 1959; in a match in Maracanã, Julinho was announced as substitute of Garrincha; 150,000 people booed Julinho as he entered the field; Julinho scored the first Brazilian goal in five minutes; he served for the second goal, as was the player of the match; in the end, the entire Maracanã stood up to applaud Julinho.

1958, Sweden

The line-up in the first match, against Austria:
De Sordi, Dino Sani, Bellini, Nilton Santos, Orlando and Gilmar;
M. Américo, Joel, Didi, Mazzola, Vavá and Zagallo.

Reserves: Castilho (G), Djalma Santos, Mauro, Zózimo, Oreco, Zito, Pelé, Dino Sani, Moacir, Dida and Pepe.
Coach: Vicente Feola.

In the build up to the tournament it was widely believed that Brazil possessed the skill, speed, strength and stamina but not the emotional maturity to win the tournament. From the team of 1954, few remained; from the principals, only two: Nilton Santos and Didi. On May 29th, Brazil played against Fiorentina; in a given moment, Garrincha takes the ball and dribbles the entire defense; before kicking to the open goal, he awaits another defender to arrive; he dribbles the adversary again and only then does he score the goal. The psychologist said that such a player had no conditions to play in the Brazilian team. In the next match, on June 1st, against Internazionale in Milan, Joel had replaced Garrincha. After a disappointing draw against England it was believed that the team needed a bit of unpredictability for the match against USSR and in came Zito, Pele and Garrincha. The legend of Pele was born. The ‘Black Pearl’ opened his WC account against Wales. He went on to score a hat-trick against Just Fontaine’s France and also scored in the demolition act in the final against Sweden. The world had seen glimpses of the king. Brazil deservingly won the World Cup for the first time.

Why was Pele given # 10? In 1958, the numbers in the uniforms would be defined by the respective comissions, and would remain unchanged through the tournament. The Brazilian Comission, however, overlooked this norm. The Swedish comissioner, rushed before the first Brazilian match, decided to assign numbers by himself.
Pelé, the youngest and probably least known of all players, was given the #10. This is one of the mystical stories which surround the career of Pelé.

Chappellway here to stay

2006-02-18T05:31:00.000+05:30

When Greg Chappell took over as coach of the Indian cricket team after India's disastrous home series against Pakistan in the early part of 2005, the general consensus was that a new era was being ushered in. With philosophies like 'commitment to excellence', 'spirit of endeavour' and 'lateral thinking' which were beyond the grasp of most, this visionary Aussie built an aura around himself. What had initially looked like an extended honeymoon period turned sour with the now well documented spat between Ganguly and Chappell. India's losses in Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe led to the inevitable questioning of Chappell's methods and his obstinacies..Chappell's quest to invigorate a clearly sagging side led to the axing of many senior players, Kumble, Zaheer and Laxman, prominent among them.But when Chappell raised questions about the then Indian skipper, all hell seemed to break loose. Clearly, if changes had to be made it had to start from the worst fielder in the side, a specialist batsman averaging less than 25 in the ODIS over the last two years and somebody who was on the decline.Why the same hue and cry was not raised when performing assets like Kumble and Laxman were dropped smacks of a certain in built hypocrisy.
The recent test series in Pakistan only served to highlight the frailties in our bowling attack. Without a genuine fast bowler and a wrist spinner worth mention, India will continue to struggle to win test matches but on turners where Kumble and Harbhajan can trouble sides. Even though the stats of the spin twins might stack up well even in overseas conditions, the reality is that neither of them have managed to run through the opposition even once on foreign soil and that in itself is a telling indictment. In this day and age, when all international teams bat deep, it is no surprise that that India's bowling attack has rarely managed to bowl out opposition teams (barring Zimbabwe and Bangladesh in overseas conditions) for less than 300. It is a testimony to India's batting prowess that we don't lose a lot of test matches inspite of being under such pressure.
Cricket has become so much of a national obsession that we just can't seem to come to grips with the fact that our nation's cricket team isn't good enough.Undoubtedly, our batsmen are amongst the best in the world, but if we look at our bowling unit we are probably the only prominent test playing unit along with the West Indies without a single match winning bowler.It is precisely the reason why we weren't able to win a test match series in Australia inspite of what Peter Roebuck described as one of the 'best batting exhibitions' ever seen in Australia and also the reason why we conceded 368 runs on a flat Wanderers wicket in the World Cup final thus rendering our batting impotent. This is where a good fielding side can cover up especially in the one day format. New Zealand, South Africa and Zimbabwe have at some stage or the other over the last ten years achieved great success in the shorter format purely due to brilliance in the field.. None of these sides possessed the so called deadly bowlers, Shane Bond being a recent phenomenon and Donald; one well past his prime. This bowling inadequacy has also been the reason why the above mentioned teams have never won the World Cup and why India won't win it in a year's time. There is only so much even a great fielding unit can do for you are always going to stumble across greatness as South Africa did in the form of Lara in '96 and Waugh in '99. When faced with such mediocre bowling units these cricketing gods ensure that you end up playing for a lost cause. Even Chappell has implied that repeatedly stressing upon the improvement not necessarily being a gaurantee to World Cup success. It is in this light that Chappell's changes have to be seen and received. With an offside cordon comprising Raina, Kaif and Yuvraj, India will end up saving more singles, translating into more pressure converting into more desperate shots from batsmen culminating in more wicket taking opportunities; more important than the runs 'The Prince' might score ( a big 'might' considering his present form). It is no mere coincidence that a side completely outplayed by the same opponents not long back is giving it back in no less measure. The thought process behind incorporating young leggie Piyush Chawla and the strapping fast bowler V.R.V Singh in the squad is indicative of a long term vision to make India a test match powerhouse.The new found flexibility is not just a gimmick meant to keep the opposition on its toes but important steps in the process of the deveopment of the likes of Dhoni and Pathan as reliable lower order batsmen, already evident in the test match scenario thus eradicating another of India's achilles heel.
To even think of castigating a person with such foresight is unpardonable and the behaviour of the Kolkata crowd not long back was totally beyond comprehension. A support staff including a biomechanist and a full time software analyst might have been alien to Indian cricket but Chappell, in the company of Ian Frazer and 'Ramki has revolutionised the basic approach to the game. It is no longer just a question of batting, bowling and fielding any longer but a persistent effort at improving reflexes, optimise the use of G-forces, simulating situations and stretching comfort zones. Theories like the 'Del Bono' seven hat system might have fallen flat but Chappell's message and its graveness hasn't been missed out; " perform or perish". There will always be a method to the Chappell madness for he is just one of the few who can be called upon as being the ultimate authority on the game of cricket, the others being Barry Richards, Bob Simpson and Bob Woolmer.Doubts and aspersions regarding his integrity and method of functioning can be cast aside.Chappell can only take Indian cricket forward.