Watch Out

As the year draws to close, I have to admit it has been one of the most fulfilling year for an Indian cricket nut! It is strange that although there has not been a single big win but a set of confident victories (yes, I did call the Aussie bashing series win in India not a single big win). Many a time in the past Indian teams have achieved some big wins but they proved to be flash in the pan and the manner of the team was more of the underdog winning against the odds. Dhoni's men seem to truly understand that they have it in them to be the best team in the world. On this note I think it is a good opportunity to list the set of people (yet to prove themselves) who will contribute to making this team the best and also the set of people who will fight to ensure this does not happen, Watch out for:
Batters:

Rohit Sharma --- The next big thing after Sachin from Mumbai? His temparament is often under question but talent wise he is in line to be a master batsman.

Shaun Marsh ---- This Aussie guy has cricket in his blood and he can hit the ball as far as anybody has ever done, ask the IPL watchers! With the emergence of attacking batsmen like Sehwag as central performers in test cricket, Shaun Marsh is an ideal Test batsman in the new era.

J.P. Duminy --- This guy is a proven ODI performer who has come of age with a gutsy performance in one of the most demanding places to play cricket. He seems to ooze with confidence that stems from having played international cricket for a while. South Africa's middle order is secure in such hands.

Bowlers:

Ishant Sharma: The find of the year for India, what can one say, finally India have a true fast bowler who is also ready to slog it out irrespective of the conditions. As some believe this may be his greatest advantage and possibly a factor that can burn him out. Well, forget what happens later, let us relish him as long as he lasts!

Amit Mishra: This guy is a proven performer at the domestic level and shone against the Aussies. He is a gutsy old fashioned leggie who can turn the ball. He has to take a leaf out of the accuracy book that was the domain of his erstwhile captain, Jumbo.

Dale Steyn: He has proven himself at the international level, but South Africa's future is tied to whether he can be consistent like Donald & co.

Paul Harris: Again a spinner who does not mind tossing it up. He has to come to the party to make South Africa a worthy successor to Aus and a regular challenger for India.

Mitchell Johnson: He, along with Zaheer Khan, has effectively made sure that Wasim Akram will not be the last left arm great to grace the game. His discipline and craft promises a long successful career.

Australian Spinner: What? Aussie spinner? I think I will have to leave this blank but I will fill this place with another spinner who can single handedly take his country to the top, Ajantha Mendis. This guy is a freak in the true sense of the word, if things go right he could be the most unconventional success cricket has ever produced.

All in all, the next decade is going to be a great one for cricket watchers and I hope twenty twenty does not eat up test cricket!

Decembers in Madras

As I listen to MMI's rendition of Rangapuravihara, I am flooded by memories of many a December night of sleeping in the balcony where the gentle breeze put me to sleep. Mornings would dawn before the sun came out, MSS's version of the same song gently wafting in from the speakers of the nearby temple, coupled with the blissful aroma of fresh coffee from the kitchen. Evenings would be spent on more music from the 'season'. Madras in December is closest to heaven on earth :)

Jumbo!

Thankyou Anil Kumble for showing the world that the only indispensable quality to achieve greatness is the willingness to toil for it. If there was any cricketer whose commitment has never been under the scanner even for a passing moment, it has to be Jumbo. Time and again he has won matches for India single handedly and brought joy to the entire nation. He will continue to inspire a lot of cricketers and common men alike!

A conversation

Bum:(piss drunk and also smoking) Hello, can I get time.
me: what?
b: time(pointing at his wrist)
me:oh sorry, I dont have a watch!
b: you Indian/Pakistani? Pakistani?
me: (stunned, looking at that guy, looks not caucasian, a bit brown but very mediterranean!) No
I am Indian!
b: Brahmachari! Shashi Kapoor? do you know?
me: heard of it but I am not sure! I have not watched many old hindi movies, sorry!
b: You Indians have everything! music, cinema what not!
me: hmm! yes you are right( confused.... :))
b: (some incoherent stuff!)
me: sorry I dont get you. (oh man this guy is crazy!)
b: (says something, I figure out he is speaking french!)
me: i am sorry, I cant understand french! I speak english.
b: (slightly angry and flustered, probably thinks I am an pro-English crazy guy) You english very small! (puts his cigarette butt down and rubs it on the pavement and says) French do this to English!
me: OK! (this guy is getting on my nerves)
b: you know Nehru? he was in Paris, he was English (wtf? Nehru english?) he was small! Paris
me: alright I dont get you!
b: (loses interest walks away and sits on a dust bin!)

Dr. 'Meesai' I.S. Murugesh

Did you know that Meesai Murugesh played with Shakti band? I am bowled over by this discovery on the web. Basically I was listening to this old Shakti concert
At some point in the concert, John McLaughlin introduced a percussionist Murugesh as one of the greatest living percussionists. I was puzzled and a little bit of googling revealed that this guy was none other than our own Meesai Murgesh, who I knew was a crazy innovator who could make a zillion sounds and also play the thavil. His flair for comedy was showcased in a couple of Balachander movies but this new info just blows my mind!
Another Shakti concert where Murugesh played

Women

Its evening
Has been a day where I barely speak a word.
Lonely it was, then comes along this whiff of fresh air
I go crazy, saying stuff that I don't mean, will that make me special?
Thinking instead of existing, speak one too many, words they suck!
It ends on a happy note, so do I think. Until I realise,
I was pathetic, for she said less than me :)
Life falls flat

German Humour

The United Nations initiated a poll with the order "Please tell us your honest opinion about the lack of food in the rest of the world." The poll was a total failure. The Russians did not understand "Please". The Italians did not know the word "honest". The Chinese did not know what an "opinion" was. The Europeans did not know "lack", while the Africans did not know "food". Finally, the US Americans didn't know anything about the "rest of the world"!!

Source::http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_humour

He and She

She was a bitch
so said every sane lady
She said things that were true
She was truth, of our lives and theirs
I loved her.
-------------------------------------------------------------
He laughed, that was his signature
A laugh that can send your roof flying
He spoke as if he owned the world
And you paid him taxes,
He loved people
He said so when he was drunk!

The Death Of Free Television Media in India

With the acquiring of stakes in NDTV by NBC added to the association of IBN with CNN, two of the most daring and free spirited journalists who launched the Indian TV media revolution have fallen prey to trashy American media. This marks the beginning of the end of professional and sincere TV journalism in India!
To Hell with Rajdeep Sardesai and Prannoy Roy!

Taare Zameen Par

Every Indian parent must see this movie! Aamir Khan-- the director has arrived!

Ponniyin Celvan

Over 14 months ! I have finally completed Kalki's magnum opus Ponniyin Celvan, a five part novel in Tamil. Its amazing how I have been so ignorant about the rich literature of Kalki Krishnamurthy for large parts of my life.
I can immediately conjure up a few reasons,
I went to an English medium school and did not even formally learn Tamil for more than 3 years of my entire schooling!
Literature has little or no place in popular Tamil culture which has come to be defined and dominated by cinema and stupid politics.
Its been a while since Kalki wrote his books?
Kalki was a Brahmin and a forward thinking one at that! He was exactly the kind of Brahmin Karunanidhi and other dravidian ideologues refused to acknowledge the existence of! (As an aside I have to describe this scene in the movie Periyar, when Gandhi asks EVR whether there are no good people amongst Brahmins at all and cites Gokhale as an example! To this EVR in his characteristic wit and sharpness retorts, " If a Mahatma like you can see only one good brahmin , how can normal people like us see any good in them", I doubt if Periyar ever gave a thought about Kalki)

All said and done I am extremely satisfied that I have finally managed to read a full length novel and a classic at that. I have now become fairly familiar with the Kalki genre of Literature having read a couple of his shorter novels and non-fiction writing. Most notable among these is the book called "Sangita Vizhakkal". This work talks about how Carnatic Musicians in TN started accepting Tamil sahityams and giving them equal importance in comparison to other compositions predominantly in Telugu or Sanskrit! Here Kalki's love for Tamil shines through but he also shows how love for one language need not mean hating other languages( the message for linguistic fundamentalists!) I think it is now time for me to look beyond Kalki and read more modern writers like Jayakanthan. This marks the end for a conscious choice that I made two years ago. I promised to myself that I will read more Tamil literature than English for a couple of years. I have done that and from now on I hope to balance my time between English and Tamil. I got to know about sensible science fiction from Dr.Sitabhra Sinha's(IMSc) webpage and would like to try that genre since I seem to have done very little SF genre after Michael Crichton in high school!

Taslima Nasreen

As an young 10th grade student with naive thoughts about religion, fundamentalism and life in general I discovered this book called "Lajja" which was supposed to be a banned book. It was not a profound piece of literature, considering I have come to read better works in English, but it had an honesty and helplessness about it that nobody has managed to replicate. It was dubbed anti-Islamic but in reality it was anti-fundamentalism at its best and feminism portrayed with rare poignance. Even as a 15 year old I could understand this, but it got widespread condemnation from the Islamic world. I have come to know since then that Taslima had various things to say on Islam some of which were derogatory. I dont have exact knowledge of everything she said but the general import of her statements is that she was trying to voice the concerns of women in Islamic societies.

In 2007 December Taslima is in news again caught in a web of fascist/communist politics and pseudo secularism that has come to play a defining role in Indian social life. The central government must be smiling ear to ear watching the CPI in Bengal behave like the Nazis in Nandigram and then trying desperately to divert attention away from that to Taslima. But the Congress refuses to condemn CPI's conduct of Taslima fearing repercussions from its muslim vote banks! It is crazy how Pranab Mukherjee gave this stupid caveat after promising protection for Taslima::
"Those given shelter in India have always undertaken to eschew political activities in India or any actions which may harm India’s relations with friendly countries. It is also expected that the guests will refrain from activities and expressions that may hurt the sentiments of our people."
As Arundhati Roy pointed out in a IBN program this is like sentencing Taslima to a life time of good behaviour as judged by the skewed political figures that have come to rule us! What does he mean when he says not to hurt sentiments? There are parties like the BJP which hurt minority sentiments every day, his own party which hurts Hindu sentiments by treating them like second class citizens in a country where they are a majority and finally he is in power precisely because of the great old man from TN, Karunanidhi, whose main political platform has been hate Brahmin, Hindi and Hindu(order dictated by current situation). This kind hate politics has been the hallmark of 2o th century India and when such things can happen why gag a poor lady?

Tch!

One moment of indiscretion and stupidity can cost so much! I have discovered it!
It can screw a carefully constructed image of self and shock friends!
But am I my image or the image shattering reality?
Are my friends those who accept me or my image!
Can somebody help put an end to this agony?????????????????????????

Gandhi My Father-----Mahatma Unravelled

There are very few films that move me since I think I have "grown" now to appreciate the fact that often times film makers in general and Indian masala ones tend to be deliberate and conceited in their attempts to move audiences! Rarely do you see such gems as "Gandhi-My Father", which by the very nature of the story and story telling captures the undivided attention of the audience and moves them completely!
This movie is based on a Gujrati novel by Dinkar Joshi and was originally a play(Gandhi vs Mahatma) by the guy who directed the movie, the famous playwright Feroz Abbas Khan. (side note:The role of Gandhi in the original play was done by none other than Munna Bhai fame Bomman Irani). Darshan Jariwala as Gandhi,the immensely under rated but super talented Akshaye Khanna (a.k.a. the Sanjeev Kumar of our times) as Harilal Gandhi,Shefali Shah as Kastur Ba, Bhumika Chawla as Gulab Harilal Gandhi have lived in their roles and have done justice to the script in more ways than one!
The subject is the troubled relationship between Gandhi and his son Harilal. Gandhi due to his active political life neglects basic education of his first son Harilal Gandhi and this one mistake in some sense sets the tone for most things that follow! At every step in Harilal's life he takes a path his father envisages for himself until he finds that his calling and his father's calling are not the same! Gandhi who has decided to dedicate his entire life happily to the service of his people expects his dear son to follow suit, but his son sadly wants a simple successful life as a barrister and a good family man. His lack of scholastic ability and Gandhi's own expectations thwart his attempts to succeed in this. As the movie develops one starts to understand that even though Gandhi has a fair share in his son's failure,which he and Kastur Ba acknowledge in two of the most moving scenes ever to have been shot, Harilal as a person is largely unable to come to terms with the reality of his life. He falls prey to one thing that his father despised,alcoholism,and finally meets his ailing mother drunk! His business attempts fail miserably and his bad company lands him in a ditch and tarnishes Gandhiji's image as well! The first scene opens with Harilal as a drunk tramp in a Mumbai hospital, penniless! When asked for his father's name he says Mahatma Gandhi but people obviously think he is just endearing himself to the father of the nation! This scene is beautiful and in a nut shell describes Harilal's predicament, to quote the tag line, Gandhi was the father Harilal never had!!
There are many remarkable things in the movie. The camera work by David McDonald(multiple golden lion winner at Venice) is so beautiful and spell binding yet completely non intrusive. One of the most moving images are Gandhi and his son sitting on a mountain slope silhouetted against the morning sky,awesome! The sound recording and background score are as supportive and complementary as Mani Iyer and TN Krishnan to a carnatic concert!
One must give it to the director Feroz Khan for such a complete and beautiful movie. More often than not, theatre directors do not make the switch this well. They tend to be verbose(e.g. K.Balachander in his initial days) and dont show proper understanding of the fact that Cinema as a medium is very different. I suspect from what ever little I have read of Feroz Khan that he has done very unconventional theatre which must have stood him in good stead! One example of his brilliance is the scene when Harilal enraged by his wife's cribbing about their lack of income goes out on the street shouting to every body "Mein Gandhi Ka Nalayak Beta hoon"while a Mahabharat drama troupe on the background looks on in astounded silence, acknowledging probably the fact that real life incidents may sometimes be more shocking than fantasy tales. As far as performances go Akshaye Khanna has done once in a life time job of it and I hope he gets the National Award for the best actor. Shefali Shah is an actress I love personaly and I have seen her excel even in smaller roles and finally she has got a role that justifies her stature and talent! Darshan Jariwala is a familiar face in the Parallel Circuit and he plays the role of the repentant,loving and strict father with panache! Another revelation is Bhumika who plays the role of Harilal's wife with such conviction and lack of melodrama. I have seen a movie called Missiama in Telugu where she is the hero of the movie and I was convinced she can act but here I feel sad that the Indian film industry is not using her full potential.
This is a film that in some sense begs for a global audience because of its theme and brilliant performances and direction. I only hope this film will be sent as the official Indian entry to the Oscars(I bet this will win one if sent) instead of some stupid Sanjay Leela Bhansali movie that is going to release soon. With people like Feroz Abbas Khan and Nagesh Kukunoor around Indian cinema is in safe hands! Hip Hip Hurray to the cast and crew of Gandhi, My Father!

kanne, nee pirandha naeram
yen Marupiravi
naan kanmoodum varai
kannukul nee iruppai endraen
kan imaikkum naerathil
kaalan unnai parithu vittan
kan irukku
kannil eeram irukku
en kannan enge?

Sensitisation by Personal Exposure---Way to go?

How many times have you shouted at a Customer service rep/tele marketing guy calling you? I think twice before doing that. My sister heads a Voice based unit of a BPO in Madras, some where down there, deep in my heart, I know I may be shouting at somebody I know :)

Kallil illai Kadavul :)

Natta Kallai Theivam endru,
Naalu pushpam satriyae

Sutri Nindru mona mona endru, sollum mantram ethada

Natta Kallum Paesumo,
Nathan ulliruckayil!!
----------------Sithar Vaaku

Sachin, Dinesh Karthik and magic breakthroughs!!

I have seen this familiar script rolled out many a time in my cricket watching and every single time I have felt the urge to do what Karthik does in this picture, go hug THE MAN!
Its redundant to talk about Sachin and his batting if you are an Indian or for that matter any sort of cricket follower but another interesting and well documented side of this man's genius is his magic arm that has got many a wicket at crucial moments! He has this uncanny knack of picking up wickets that few part time bowlers have and the chief reason for this comes from the fact that Tendulkar is the best student the game has ever produced! You can have issues with his technique, his match winning ability, his (now often abused) aging aggression but one thing that no one can deny is that he has an understanding of the game that is innate. I say innate because one can also be a Rahul Dravid or Steve Waugh, people who work hard to hone their understanding of the game and then you have Sachin, he understands the game in a very instinctive and unparalleled fashion. I guess his understanding cant be taught to others or used as a tool to lead which partly explains why he was a bad captain. His genius is purely for us to savour!!!

All Hail Tendlya!!

Humor in Cooking!!

I made some lentils(moong dal ka sabji) today! When I sat down for dinner I got to know that they were not cooked properly! I ate the stuff but wanted to cook the sabji (I generally take the same sabji to lunch next morn) that was left! SO I added some water and left it to boil on the stove! And as you might have guessed I forgot entirely about it! When I went back it was burnt mostly in the lowest layer! I started saving what was left! As I did that I had three distinctly burnt components::
First Order Burn Sabji:: Eatable not very different from well(or rather extremely well) cooked curry! Saved up to be taken for lunch!!
Second Order Burn Sabji:: Eatable only if you like roast curry or if you are a grad student suffering random pangs of hunger! Saved up reluctantly expecting a hunger pang soon!!
Third Order Sabji:: As black as Konkana Sen Sharma's hair. Sent to the bin!!

LOL!!!

Montreal Diaries 1!

It would be a crime not to write something on a beautiful city and a beautiful fest that you get a chance to visit! Here is my not so short diary entry for Montreal!
We started last friday! Started is the wrong word! I basically got up and waited for MA to call! I had no clue how we were going to get to Montreal! All that I knew was that Friday was National Action Day in Canada, aboriginal people mark that day to bring their plight to the doors of the common Canadian! They were blocking highways( India vaasam adikkudhe!!!) and I was like that is cool, finally I can see some confrontation in this damned country after 10 months you miss India even for its confrontations!! Sadly we could not take a carpool lift as planned and we were on a safe Canada Coach bus but I got my share of excitement when I had to buy lunch for me, Eugenie(MAs gf) and the Falafel guy in TO was so slow that I had jaywalk/run back to the bus! Anyways in 6 hours I was in Montreal!
The first night in Montreal I did two new things! Had a crazy dosa type western food called Crepe! Basic a wheat dosa + some masala (mild western masala that is) = Crepe, followed it up with expresso in creamy milk, yum! And the second new thing was paying a tip! (Aah why do french waitresses look so hot!!) Dinner with Zhenia (my baby sitter for the first night at Montreal) was followed by Jazz fest. The first concert of the day was some arbit guy singing conventional Jazz/blues! Stuff I dint like but yet I clicked a photo for the heck of it!
The next concert I attended was that of an Afro American lady singing typical jazz and she also said her father worked with the great Louis Armstrong! Her voice range was amazing but at times I thought the effort she put in mite kill her or something! Here is the concert pic::
With that done the first day had almost come to an end! We met Eugenie's sister Liah and her friends Swapna,Youshan and Julian all from Hannover. We walked to a pub to have one beer for the night and had a nice relaxing time after the long day! Here I got a a couple of logic questions from the group, one that I answered that day and the other that stayed with me for a couple of days!! The one that tortured me was this:
You have a prison with N prisoners. Allowed to meet once. The condition on their release is that they will have no contact after the first meeting and each night one among them (nobody knows who) will be taken to a room with a bulb and switch(nobody can see the room). The Jailer can call anybody,even repeat people night after night! For them to be releases one of them must announce to the jailer after realising that all the prisoners have been to the room atleast once and if he is right they are released else they go to the gallows! The question what is a fool proof strategy to achieve this! A pretty simple problem but I did not solve it immediately, shoot!
End of Day1, Day 2 to follow!