Spin, bounce and turn

Another attempt ...

2009-11-14T10:18:00.000-05:00

It's been well over a year and a half since my last post. Well, nearly 22 months in fact. Not good at this at all.

The few of you who followed loyally and kept dropping comments and feedback, thank you. I hope to see you back here again. Simran, thats means you.

Well, as you know there are just two things I can really talk about at length: cricket and movies. So let me begin with the former, for now.

It's Tendulkar's 20th year at the top, and I remember January 19, 1989 pretty well. I was a week shy of my eighth birthday and my father took me along to interview what he said was the next big thing in cricket, a guy who was going to shake up the sport. I wasn't in to cricket at the time, but was made to believe this was a going to be something big. I tagged along.

It was at the Hindu Gymkhana ground on Marine Drive. It wasn't a very hot day, I recall. We got there, my dad and I, and there was a small camera crew. Just two people, I think. There was chit-chat between people, we stood around and watched players knocking it about at the nets. My dad wandered off with the camera person to speak to a man in dark shades. I would learn later that this was Dilip Vengsarkar. He wasn't too animated. Years later I saw the interview on Doordarshan and what struck me most were the Raybans.

Then up comes this little kid, with a big mop of curly hair. He looked shy, and apprehensive. Not that I was majorly perceptive back there, but this kid looked a bit uncomfortable. He wasn't much taller than me. The interview began and he spoke in this squeaky voice. This is the next big thing, I remember thinking?

It didn't last long. I didn't pay much attention. I stood near my father most of the time. I remember trying to stand under the shade of a small hedge. The interview over, they requested the kid to give a parting shot where he's supposed to grab his kit bag and hop over a ledge onto the sidewalk. He did it one take.

I forgot about that day. Later i got started watching more cricket, started reading. I got to fully understand what Tendulkar was.

Cut to 1993-94. I remember him pulling up to the driveway of our middle school building in Bombay, which was owned by his to-be in laws. He drove a swanky black sports car. Now he wore dark shades. The hair wasn't as much of a fro. People crowded about. But he was a kid still, waiting for his girlfriend to come down from upstairs. He still seemed a bit awkward, apprehensive. He waited for her to come down, he signed autographs in the meantime; then they drove off.

The next time we met was in Delhi, I think it was the same year. Tendulkar, Gavaskar, my father and I had tea at a hotel. He didn't speak much. The interview came up. He remembered it well. He was a superstar, and still awkward and apprehensive. The reasons to him were probably the same as when he was a kid in 1989.

Now that kid is a day shy of completing 20 years of international cricket. Time flies.

Pathan promises in Perth

2008-01-18T09:34:00.000-05:00

Wow.

Has there been a better advertisement for Test cricket in recent times than day three in Perth? Even West Indies' most endearing win over South Africa at the end of 2007 didn't come close.

India pushed Australia into the ground today, thanks to VVS Laxman, RP Singh, and the hero of the day, Irfan Pathan. With five players over the age of 33, India will be heartened to see the performance of Pathan, with 74 runs and four wickets so far.

And he's shown how much he's learned about the new ball, nipping out Chris Rogers and Phil Jaques before stumps. He's no means the finished article but he's a step closer to stamping his place in the side. He's seen the highs and lows already in a short career, and Pathan is better for it.

Australia are battling to prevent their worst defeat since the 2005 Ashes and when India pull off this sweet win, it will be right up there with the best ever.

Test cricket is the best

2008-01-17T08:16:00.000-05:00

The Perth Test just keeps getting more exciting. If day one was an interesting one, day two was exceptional. Fifteen wickets in a day! Ten of them Australian! Who'd a thunk it?

All this proves is that India is the only team in recent times to get under Australia's skins. India have Australia pinned down and this time they are not going to get away. It seems the incidents of the last ten days has got to them, not to India. It must've come as shock to the Australian team to see their own public and press going against them.

This is going to end a fascinating Test.

And what about Anil Kumble reaching 600 Test wickets? Has this man got his due yet? Untiring, unflappable. Hats off, AK.

Perth musings

2008-01-16T22:17:00.000-05:00

A 50/50 day of cricket in Perth and India have three stupid shots that may have cost them the game ... Ganguly, Dravid and Laxman .... all needless and the score could have been 315 for three or four instead .. what were Laxman and Dravid thinking? Sachin wasn't out, but thats the game, and Dravid was dropped on 11 too, so ...

Pathan and Dhoni can get the total up near 400, if not a little more, and there's Kumble too.

This Shaun Tait was thoroughly disappointing. All the hype for his inclusion in Perth, and then he bowls very average. The pitch wasn't the hellish track it was tipped to be. Interesting to see how India bowl. Zaheer and Sreesanth would've been a major lift.

Yuvraj has gone and injured his troublesome left knee playing football during practice. Do you need to play football, volleyball and kabbadi to stay a fit cricketer?

Sehwag? No dilemma

2008-01-12T04:54:00.000-05:00

Virender Sehwag should play in Perth. There's no point picking him for the tour of Australia - after he wasn't even included in the probables - and relegating him to tourist guide duty. Sehwag was presumably included for his success in Australia and the undoubtable X factor. He's not going to offer that sitting on the bench, as a 73-ball hundred against an ACT XI in Canberra indicated.

First things first, it wasn't a good bowling attack. But time spent in the middle is a good indicator of what a batsman can bring, and judging by his strokeplay, Sehwag can currently offer more than Wasim Jaffer and Yuvraj Singh. Jaffer has failed in two Tests and though he did score 92 in the first innings of this tour match, he's under pressure from Sehwag and Dinesh Karthik, who scored 97 and added 158 for the opening stand with Sehwag. Karthik won't usurp Jaffer as opener, but Sehwag will fit in smoothly to the line-up. And Sehwag says he's hungry for Perth. Take his word for it.

Sehwag opening means Rahul Dravid can leave that position, one at which he has looked uneasy. He's even said he doesn't want to open. But India would be wary of shifting VVS Laxman back down from No. 3.

This presents another scenario. A relaid Perth track is reportedly fast as hell, so Indid are unlikely to play Harbhajan Singh. Irfan Pathan is the man to come in, and he's a solid bat. Opening with him, and Sehwag, is not an altogether unforseeable option.

Yuvraj is a far better batsman than his scores in the two Tests against Australia suggest but he's looked like an utter rookie at the crease. Especially against spin. He needs to seriously sort himself out against spin. Its all fine in a one-day match, where there are no fielders around the bat and edges can run to third man, but in a Test, with three men hovering around the bat, Yuvraj is a sitting duck. You can argue that he bat higher up the order to get more strike against the fast bowlers, but who will you replace him with? Laxman has took to the No.3 spot like its rightfully his and Dravid has an excellent record at the same position.

India have selection dilemmas ahead of the third Test, and playing safe won't do them any good. Play Sehwag, and Pathan.

Taare Zameen Par

2008-01-11T02:24:00.000-05:00

A brief sidestep from cricket.

Watched Taare Zameen Par last week. Everyone had raved about it, which can often influence how you go into a movie. I expected a good film, and wasn't disappointed. Aamir the director trumped Aamir the actor by some distance. He's clearly been handed a fine script - credit goes to Amol Gupte here - and he handles it so magically. Its not without stereotype - the staff at the boarding school are dripping in cliches and the father breaks into hives at the drop of a hat - but Aamir's shepherding of young Darsheel Safary and the camera is superb. He shows he can narrate a story very, very well and does so without any glam, thankfully. Its a touching movie, expertly handled and I hope it does plenty to make people aware of children with dyslexia.

Safary is wonderful. TZP is about him, not Aamir, thankfully, and this kid does full justice to the role. Hindi movies have never had good child actors - the girl in Black was exceptional - but Safary has set the benchmark brilliantly. A real find.

Before the movie, I was crossing the road to the theater and two young girls, probably six and ten, stuck in the mayhem of a jam-packed Cunningham Road, asked me to help them across the street. There's no connection to the movie, but it set the tone for it.

After the movie, I went to Crossroads to a book reading by former students of the Rishi Valley School. It was a collection of poems and the students, now in their early and mid-20s, spoke so fondly of the visiting teacher who had inspired them to put pen their thoughts and think outside the box. and the evening, including a thoughful discussion afterwards, fit with my day.

A failure to communicate

2008-01-08T02:03:00.000-05:00

"But who is Ricky Ponting anyway?"

The question, from a very naive instructor at the gym, had me slow down the speed on the treadmill.

We'd been discussing the whole Harbhajan-Symonds racism controversy for a few minutes, and I'd fielded his questions comfortably. This guy followed cricket but wasn't a big fan and didn't know a lot about the game, evident from his questions, but this one came out so innocently and simple.

I wanted to reply, "he's a f**** cheat" but that would've confused this guy further. So I explained the scenario to him, as I saw it, that the laws of cricket had been sidelined, that there was clear-cut evidence showing Ponting was wrong with his "I play fair" claims on international television, and that Australian cricketers have gotten away with close to murder in the past, while subcontinental players received fines and bans and what not.

Clearly, this Sydneygate has gripped India like nothing else matters.

And what we have here is a failure to communicate. The umpires failed to communicate between themselves on Sourav Ganguly's 'catch' by Michael Clarke, a decision which swung the final session on day five Australia's way, and at the root of Harbhajan v Symonds we have communication.

By not consulting Steve Bucknor at square leg, and asking Ricky Ponting if Clarke took the catch, Mark Benson erred grossly. He turned a blind eye to the laws, to technology, and to the spirit of the game. This was the same Clarke who only a month earlier claimed the most blatant of bump catches, at square leg, in a Chappell-Hadlee Trophy match. On that occasion replays repeatedly showed the ball hit grass before his fingers, and the on-air commentators questioned Clarke's credibility.

And Benson asked the same Ponting, who didn't walk when he edged Ganguly, and who claimed a catch at silly point that replays showed clearly hit the ground, if HE though Clarke took it? Why didn't he ask his umpiring colleague? Why didn't he go upstairs? It baffles the mind.

The same Ponting then had the audacity to tell senior Indian journalist G Rajaraman, in a post-match presser, that there was no way in the world he grassed the catch. Ponting said, and I quote: "Sorry, I think you got something wrong there. There is no way I grounded the ball! If you are actually questioning my integrity in the game, you should not even be standing...."

Did he not see what millions saw on TV? How in the world can that man look himself in the mirror every morning? REPLAYS SHOWED HE GRASSED THE CHANCE. He lied on international TV. Nothing more to it. Clarke's attempted catch was not as evident, but there was enough doubt there to merit a referral to the third umpire. If you have technology, why not use it?

Australian cricketers have gotten away with plenty over the years. The same Michael Slater, who sat alongside Sunil Gavaskar and Harsha Bhogle in the Star Cricket booth at the SCG and spoke of being fair on the field, committed arguably the most offensive act back in 2001 during the Bombay Test. Arguing that he had taken a catch at midwicket cleanly - the third umpire ruled it not out - Slater walked up to umpire Venkat and furiously wagged his finger in his face. It was appalling. Given that the code of conduct forbids you from questioning a decision, how could Slater argue with the umpire? The third umpire had made his ruling. Final word. Done. Slater even followed Rahul Dravid back to his crease, telling him just what he felt. And the most disgusting? Steve Waugh, the revered Australian captain, stood on and did nothing as Slater shouted at Venkat. Only Jason Gillespie, far from captain or vice-captain, walked up and pulled Slater away. So much for Waugh and his damn fine spirit.

Even Ponting, in an ODI between Australia and Bangladesh in early 2006, told a batsman (it was either Aftab Ahmed or Rajin Saleh) that he was out and should carry on back to the pavilion despite waiting for the third umpire. When the batsman was given not out, Ponting had strong words with the on-field umpires. How can this man get away with this?

Clive Lloyd, the former West Indian captain and ICC Match Referee, told The Wisden Cricketer recently that he had very little tolerance for players who stretch the laws. "Anyone who is punished during the game shouldn't be able to take any further part in it," he said. "When you get a red card in football, you don't keep tackling and passing, you're off. We should have sin bins at international games. Then we could do away with all this stuff of waiting until the end of the game ad handing a guy a piece of paper."

Lloyd makes a vital point. If Harbhajan did really make a racist remark to Symonds, or Brad Hogg called someone a bastard or whatever, and if the stump microphones heard it, then the match referee should be able to say look mate, you've been reported, we heard it, and you're going to miss a session, half a day, match, whatever.

But without hardcore evidence, how can you hand someone a three-Test ban? You're going to take the word of five Australians to that of two Indians? Come on.

"It is a shame that this issue has come to dominate the Test because from my point of view I believe that overall both the Melbourne and Sydney Tests were played in terrific spirit," said Ponting. Hah. The man who cries every time Australia are pushed on the field, the man who doesn't walk, the man who claims bump catches. If you've ever played cricket, even in the office, back yard or gully, you know when you've taken a catch. Sorry, Ponting, you have no argument.

But he goes on: "Since I took over from Steve I have taken it on myself to personally ensure that each new member of the team is fully aware of his responsibilities to the game."

Clarke, supposedly the heir apparent to Ponting, obviously wasn't listening. Adam Gilchrist is supposed to be Australia's hallmark of integrity. Hang on, wasn't he involved in the utterly incorrect and influential decision against Dravid on day five?

The Australian's Mike Coward wrote that the Australian cricketers regarded themselves as hard-nosed and aggressive but failed to understand that many in their own country and beyond found their antics "boorish, arrogant and ungracious". Correct. Australia's long-standing proclivity for sledging has indeed helped introduce such aggression into the game. Which is incorrect. Australia's on-field behaviour has been extremely unsportsmanlike.

And what about this race angle? Cricketers, all sports persons, have a duty to inculcate the right attitude in people. Like Lloyd said, provocation is not an excuse ... you don't see colour in sport.

Is the Courier-Mail, an Australian daily, putting Symonds' head on a picture of Hanuman not racist? Is Navjot Singh Sidhu, the former Indian batsman turned commentator/analyst, terming Symonds a "savage barbarian" in 2006 not racist? Its the same as Darren Lehmann calling Sri Lankan fans "dirty black c****".

Where are the yardsticks to measure and respond to racism?

I think the Deccan Herald's R Kaushik has got it right: "[ICC Match Referee] Mike Procter has set a dangerous precedent with his logic-defying verdict. Having admitted that umpires Benson and Bucknor had told him they had heard nothing, the South African has probably unwittingly pioneered a trend that could become infectious if personal scores are to be settled by using the race card."

India’s anger and dismay is not unsurprising. What is, however, is the ICC's first reaction. Why should the ICC remove Bucknor or bow to India's threats to return home? Yes, India is the richest cricketing nation but they do not run the game? I firmly disagree with India flexing its financial muscle with a threat to boycott the tour unless Harbhajan's suspension is reversed. Instead of disputing Harbhajan's punishment, India should condemn racism.

This whole mess has escalated into a complete sham. Its gone beyond 61-year-old Bucknor's gaffes or racist comments.

Thankfully India had Anil Kumble as captain during this controversy. A weaker man would have had it much rougher. Dravid would have probably broken down, Dhoni would have wilted and said something stupid, Ganguly would have been furious and said something in vain, and Sachin Tendulkar ... well, he would have gone straight to Gavaskar. Kumble kept his composure and acted like a true ambassador for Indian cricket.

Cricket has been relegated in the middle of all this. What happens in Perth remains to be seen.

movie talk

2007-10-15T03:22:00.000-05:00

Vidhu Vinod Chopra seems to have lost it. After all this Eklayva nonsense, he's just shooting his mouth off. And Sajid Khan hasn't taken kindly to some of his rants. Read Khan's 'open letter' to Chopra.

And going back, here's an interesting interviewChopra did with Tehelka back in June.

"Last rites of a pianful career," surmised a friend at the office.

Snippets cont'd ...

2007-10-14T04:08:00.000-05:00

I was flying back to India after watching the two semi-finals of the 1999 cricket World Cup and the line for check-in at Heathrow was, as expected, full with plenty of Indians.

This particular line included a sizeable Punjabi contingent, ranging from crying infants to bow-legged grandparents. This distinguished family, joint and double-jointed (okay, bad pun), was clearly too overwhelming for the pretty young British lady behind the counter, evident by her flustered look at having to handle a dozen tickets at one time and struggling to understand the different accents.

I noticed quickly that each of those Punjabis, from toddler to aged, had a British passport. What seemed to compound the young lady’s hassles was the fact that the elderly, dressed in typical Indian attire, couldn’t speak great English despite being in the UK for a long time. I watched, amused and admired, by the way she handled the situation. After checking all the passports and tickets, she let them all pass and took a brief second to take a deep breath and collect herself.

As she looked up and saw me standing there, she put on her best smile and did the whole hi-how-are-we-today routine, extending her hand to take my passport and ticket. I could’ve been wrong, but her look suggested that she was relieved to see a white dude who looked like he was just heading over to India as a tourist.

But that evaporated into shock when I smiled back and handed her an Indian passport.

“Oh my…” was her reaction. “Now that’s a first!”

A dozen Punjabis, both naturalized and born Brits, chattering between themselves in boisterous Punjabi, followed by a white dude with an Indian passport. I think she’d seen it all that day.

She checked me through in about three seconds.

"India is great!"

2007-10-12T00:55:00.000-05:00

It was the night India beat Pakistan to win the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 in South Africa. After wrapping up my ball-by-ball duties I headed out with a friend to pick up something to drink on the way to a colleague’s house.

It was getting close to 10.30 and we were worried the liquor shops would be shutting. We found a place on some seedy back lane and stopped the office car. My friend goes up to the hole in the wall and quickly places the order. There were a few chaps standing around the counter and I stood on the pavement.

Suddenly an old man stumbled out and faced me. Oh great, I thought. He sizes me up and stepped forward.

“India is great!” he cheers, reeking of the good stuff. "India won match!"

I have no option but to agree with him, but his next line is classic, after looking at me somewhat pitifully and extending his hand to shake mine.

“America … America also good ... but India is great!”

My friend hears this and turns around and grins goofily. He’s seen me confronted by legends before, curious to know where I’m from.

“India is great,” I say. “Fantastic victory tonight.”

The man comes closer, stooping over, and raises a crooked finger in my face.

“India ... very good win … World Cup … twenty year … last time India won match … Kapil Dev captain … now Dhoni … best … India is best …”

I try my best not to disrespect what he’s saying but my friend has completely lost it behind the old drunk.

“Yes, Dhoni is great,” I offer.

My friend gets his change and signals that we get out of here as a gang of motorcyclists, waving the Indian flag and honking their horns, screech past us on the almost deserted street. But the old man won’t let me go. I finally turn my back and force myself into the office car even as the old man tries jogging behind it.

“India is great!” he cries out as we pull off.

Yes, India really is great.

Another snippet ...

2007-10-09T21:29:00.000-05:00

I commuted from home to work and for a year in Bombay before moving to Bangalore. That included a five-minute walk to the station, a wait of anywhere between two and ten minutes for the fast train, an 18 to 30-minute travel thereafter, if all went well, and anywhere from 15 to 25 minutes in an auto rickshaw from my stop to the office.

As you can imagine, a white guy in a compartment of a local train will draw attention. I won't go into the gory details of what it was like on a packed evening, or the foul stuff I would hear from the obligatory loafers, but there were some funny incidents during that year of traveling on the Bombay trains.

I was coming home one evening, from Andheri to Bombay Central, and met a friendly sardarji. Now I’m totally used to being gawked at when I step – or leap, as often the case was – into a first-class compartment and this time was no different. Except that said paape, in designer jeans and snazzy white and black t-shirt and carrying a couple large shopping bags with salwar-kameezes and silk, was looking over quizzically at me. He was standing against the wall and I made my way past him and took a seat on one of the corner benches.

He watched for a few minutes and then sidled up and plunked himself down next to me. I’ve often cranked up the volume on my trusty iPod to avoid random conversation, and I attempted the same this time, looking out the paan-stained window.

“Hello, friend!”

I heard him, but didn’t acknowledge.

“Hello…” and a tap on the shoulder.

I nod.

“Which country?”

I put on my best annoyed face and remove my earphones, asking him to repeat the question. He does, all too eagerly, and I go with India.

He makes a face. “No, which country you from?”

Again, India, I say.

He’s not buying it. “Where do you live?”

“Bombay.”

Now he smiles. “Oh ho, but which country your family from?”

I tell him I was born in India and I work in Bombay.

“Very good, very good.”

I look back at suburban Bombay whizzing past. I can feel his eyes on me.

After a few minutes he chirps up again. “I’m from Canada.”

It sounds like Kan-e-daa. I smile.

“I am here on holiday.”

‘That’s nice,” I say. He’s not going to let me get away that easily.

“You from America?”

I decide to go wide. “No, I’m from France. But have lived in India for many years.”

“Oh good, good.” Pause. “I live in Canada.” Now he’s slipped seamlessly into an American accent.

I smile, again.

“I have business there. Been there 18 years.”

“Wow, that’s good.” All I want to do is listen to my music and try an unwind after a busy day. Now everyone sitting near us has tuned in. Some enthu-cutlets have leaned forward to hear what I have to say. I don’t want to be rude. Where is the next stop?

He looks at me and continues smiling, fascinated by this creature sitting next to him. Have I suddenly sprung antlers, I wonder?

“I live near Niagara Falls. You’ve been there?”

“Never heard of it.”

Now he’s stunned. But it works. Up he gets, grasping the sidebar and making his way near the exit. Within seconds the train reaches Dadar station and he alights.

A few people continue to stare, but its back to me and my iPod again.

Snippets from my life, part 1

2007-10-08T05:30:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I hear there's some interest in these pages. Apologies for not regularly updating them. Been travelling for work and had other stuff to sort out.

I've had to answer a lot of questions recently, while covering games in Delhi, Bangalore and Cochin, as to where I'm actually from, how I came to India, how I learnt Hindi, yadda yadda yadda ... but the most interesting one I got was 'whats the funniest incident you've had in India?'

Now there have been many, too many to recall even at the ripe old age of 26, but I'll try and sort out a few classics. Today on the way to work I caught an auto inside the Manipal Hospital compound as always (you never know what sort of autowala youre going to have to deal with each day here in Bangalore) and the chap who acknowledged my wish to go to MG Road with some sort of grunt looked normal enough. Except his auto chugged along at about 15 kilometres an hour down Airport Road as the rest of the world, cyclists included, whizzed past. Now I had actually left the house earlier than I needed to, so at first I just cranked up the iPod and said chalo, lets not let this bother you.

After about five minutes though I said boss, can we please step on it a bit, to which he turns his head slightly and mumbles something about having just put in new "borings" and that he'd had trouble last evening at 7pm when the auto gave him trouble, and that he had to drive slowly to test the "borings" out and that he couldnt have more than two passengers at one time. I didnt really get all of it but just said okay, thats fine.

Two minutes later the inevitable, but with a twist. Not how or when did you learn to speak Hindi, but why do you speak Hindi?

Now I've answered this question in a few ways in the past - and I've had more fun answering where I'm from, because based on the person's intellectual level and probability of running into them you can really have go wild - but today I said I'd been in Bombay and picked it up there.

No reaction. "You speak Kannada as well?"

"No, I dont."

"You do one thing. You get this book, from the shop, which teaches you Hindi and Kannada. Get this book. It costs thirty rupees. Buy it from the shop. You will learn in one year. Excellent Kannada and Hindi."

"Uh huh."

"You buy this book today."

"Okay, I'll will."

A brief moment of silence. I'm itching to hit play on the iPod.

"What are your office hours?"

Again, I just keep it simple, not going into the different shifts we have. "I go at around 9.30."

"When do you come home?"

"7.30."

"Thats good. You read that book for two hours a day, every evening, and in six months you will speak very good Kanndada."

"I see."

And now, another common question asked by autowalas, I've learnt.

"Are you married?"

"No."

"Why?"

"Too early. There's time."

"How much time?"

"Two years."

A grunt. "And your brothers and sisters are married?"

"No." I dont bother to say my sister is just 21 and still in college.

"I've seen this with your type. Get someone, have fun, leave them and go to someone else. Why is this?"

"I have no idea." Whats my type anyways?

"No tell me, I've seen this plenty. Taking someone, having timepass, leaving them."

"I really dont know. Does it happen that much?"

"Yes, I've seen. Plenty. You should get married, have one person. Wife is life."

I start to chuckle but think better of it.

"You see .. whats your name by the way?"

"Jamie."

"Huh?"

"JAY-MEEE".

"Jimmy? Okay okay."

"So you see, Im married, I have one wife."

"Well, thats just great."

"I dont need to go running around anywhere. Im set. If you go elsewhere you can get AIDS and then life is screwed."

"Yes, totally."

Another pause as we come to a traffic light. "Where are you from?"

"America."

"Whats your jaat?"

"My jaat?"

Now he turns around and faces me. "Are you Muslim?"

"No..."

"Chinese?"

Now I cant hold back a laugh. I collect myself. I just say the first thing that comes to mind. "Christian."

"Okay."

I'm glad he approves. The light turns green and we purr along towards my office.

"You get that book, okay? Buy it today."

"Yes, I'll do that."

Another pause, for a few moments.

"Theres more of your type out in Yellahanka."

"I see."

"Yes, some 500 houses have been built out there. There's plenty of your type."

I nod and tell him to stop just ahead near the office gate. I pay him. He takes the money and puts it in his shirt pocket. Then he looks up.

"What did I tell you? Get that book."

And with that, he putters up the street.

Kumble!

2007-08-10T14:56:00.000-05:00

Who'd a thunk it? Anil Kumble scored his maiden Test hundred today. And it confirmed India's first series win in England for close to 22 years. It was a fighting, assured innings, dotted with predominantly off-side boundaries. Seriously, he frustrated the heck out of England, adding 97 for the second wicket with Dhoni, and 62 and 73 for the eighth and tenth wickets. Well played, Jumbo.

Notice the difference in batting averages of the two sides so far (up to day two of the final Test) - England's batting order: Strauss 35.80, Cook 32.75, Vaughan 60.50, Pietersen 50.75, Collingwood 23.75, Bell 15.00, and Prior 15.25. India's batting order: Jaffer 37.00, Karthik 51.00, Dravid 28.50, Tendulkar 45.40, Ganguly 48.00, Laxman 39.75, and Dhoni 57.66. The key difference? The last three of each. Thats made all the difference.

Spare a thought for Prior, who dropped a couple of catches and let through 33 byes, which is the second-highest in a single Test innings.

Remembering Azhar

2007-08-07T04:48:00.000-05:00

Helping a friend and colleague form a Sachin Tendulkar quiz, I popped the question: "Sachin Tendulkar was the first player to score 10,000 runs in one-day internationals. Whose record did he break?" The answer, of course, is Mohammad Azharuddin. I wanted to see how many ODI runs Azhar finished with, so I went to his player page, and soon found myself looking through images of him. It brought back memories of a batsmen I used to love to watch. Forget Tendulkar, on his day, Azhar was the man to watch.

I didn't watch cricket when he scored those hundreds at Auckland, Lord's and Old Trafford (England couldn't stop him from the moment he made his debut) early in his career, but how can I forget that century against South Africa at Eden Gardens, off just 74 balls? India up against it, 119 for 6, and then bang! Lance Klusener is hit for five successive fours as he tries to pepper Azhar with the short stuff. Or the hundred in partnership with Tendulkar at Cape Town? Or that 108 on a seaming, first-day Wellington pitch in 1998. Alas, these hundreds all came in losses.

COPYRIGHT: GETTY IMAGES

Time and again, the way he would make you think he was going to fall over, but then like some oriental master, placed, not flicked, the ball between square leg and midwicket with a delecate roll of the wrists. More times than not, the ball sped away to the boundary from the impact of those magical wrists.

Then there was his assurance, the way he strutted to the middle, collar up and taveez hanging out from his unbottuned shirt, looked around at the field, and refused to get bogged down by a crisis. I have memories of Azhar putting wrong back to right, or atleast a score defendable by the bowlers, who invariably cocked up. The way he would build an innings, sweetly adding single by single, boundary by boundary. He wasn't a great runner between the wickets, nor was he a natural lofter of the cricket ball. His forte was playing along the ground, the purer, safer way. Yes, he would some big sixes to send the crowd into raptures, but I liked Azhar when he flicked it along the ground, or drove, front foot moving forward just slightly, with his tongue protruding. That was an artist at work.

He had his issues against pace, especially the rising delivery, but he did dismantle Klusener, a tearaway on debut, and Shoaib Akhtar in the height of his pace, in the 1999 World Cup, making room and thumping the ball through the off side. Against spin, he would take it from out in front of his pad and turn it away, finding the gaps with ease.

I remember two one-day innings of 81 in the Asia Cup of '97, when he forced his way back into the side after being dropped. The was a hunger in the way he batted, but the elegance masked the anger, thankfully.

These memories crashed down when the match-fixing scandal broke and Azhar was banned for life. Someone who appeared so decent and dignified had fallen from grace. I was numbed and still am.

But I wouldn't mind seeing that flick to leg just one more time.

Slow Barracks Forever!

2007-07-29T08:34:00.000-05:00

After Aap Ka Surroor and Partner, I watched Anjan Dutt's Bow Barracks Forever! and was thoroughly frustrated. After two masala movies, with cliched dialogues, insane situations, lavish sets and dollops of thumkas, I suppose I wanted a film more in touch with reality. The premise of this picture promised as much, seeing as it's based on an Anglo-Indian community in a ramshackle, claustrophobic paada (dwelling)in Kolkata.

But it was not to be so. Kudos to Dutt for tackling a community-specific topic, and as a director he's in good touch, but its Dutt the screenwriter that lets the story down. He's chosen to depict people whose livelihoods are under threat if their building is taken over by real estate sharks. But Dutt doesnt etch out the characters well enough. Yes, he has a lot of them bus still, they're not meaty enough. We don't know why a few of them are the way they are. They're zombie shadows, either lolling in the background of a bustling city and the issues plaguing the tenants of this run down colonioal building, or they stumble through the odd cracks of positive cinema without giving their characters soul.

And, above all else, the characters are so, so stereotypical. The use of the word "man" becomes immensely irritating three minutes into the film. "What you doing, man?" "Eh what, man? Dont say that, man?" "Eh bugger, man!" Enough.

Some of the families depicted have been living in barracks - once a US army mess - for more than five generations. But they're stuck in some timewarp, depressingly pessimistic and decidedly schizophrenic. You'd be tempted to say thats because they're neither fully Indian nor white, but thats not the case. Its the plot and acting that makes it so.

Its a suffocating, claustrophobic piece of cinema. The scene where Bradley (an awful newbie, Clayton Rodgers) sings some hackneyed version of The Beatles' "I Saw Her Standing There" as a vague subplot emerges in the background, is annoying beyond reason. Why is the abusive Tom so horrible? And what about the pesky real estate sharks? Why are they dismissed as incompetents?

Dutt had at his disposal such veteran Bengali actors as Victor Banerjee, Moon Moon Sen and Rupa Ganguly, as well as Lillete and Neha Dubey, and the talented Sabyasachi Chakrabarty. But they are all let down, especially Sen and Chakrabarty, by poor narratives and hence they churn out poor performances.

As I sat through the film, I thought about all the English-language Indian movies I've seen. And I couldnt name one that I liked. Call me biased towards Hindi films if you like, but I havent been convinced by many English-language movie made in India. I'm not including Mira Nair, because she comes from a different background, Harvard-educated and what not. I did like Being Cyrus, and Deepa Mehta's 1947:Earth, though the latter had plenty of Hindi and Urdu in it. Nagesh Kukunoor's Hyderabad Blues was patchy, and his Rockford was too ambitious for its own liking. Rahul Bose sleepwalked through English, August. White Noise was terrible.

No matter how well Indians converse in English today, it looks awkward on screen. I dont think its just the actors; its more the poor writing. Everyone thinks in English nowadays, but the writing isn't up to standard.

Bow Barracks Forever! is another disappointing example of this. Sad.

Cricket banter

2007-07-28T12:55:00.000-05:00

Sachin Tendulkar went past 11,000 Test runs on day two at Trent Bridge. He looked sluggish, but finished the day unbeaten on 57. He needs a big hundred.

Anyways, enough of that. There should be a season for cricket. Not the scattered, ICC-drawn calendar we follow now.

Its not next to impossible, as we're made to believe, given the international teams that play, split by hemispheres and climates.

Look at sports in the United States. There are spring, fall and winters sports. One ends, another begins. Some run simultaneously.

In that sense, there's a certain charm to the English county season. Games begin when the snow has thawed, the greens have been cleared. Thats the romance missing in the international calendar.

Sample this para written by Ed Gammons, one of the best baseball analysts and writers, in the fall of 1975 after the Boston Red Sox lost the race for the World Series.

"We have postponed autumn long enough now. There are storm windows to put in, wood to chop for the whistling months ahead. The floorboards are getting awfully cold in the morning, the cider sweet. Where Lynn dove and El Tiante stood will be frozen soon, and while it is now 43 years for Thomas A. Yawkey and 57 for New England, the fugue that was the 1975 baseball season will play in our heads until next we meet at the Fens again."

Wow. Where do cricket writers get to pen romance like that? We have a jam-packed international calendar; there's just no time for a season to set in. There's too much cricket so you cant absord all of it. Or enjoy it.

Cricket should shut shop for the winter, then slowly stretch and yawn and open up in the spring. The game needs a gap so fans can start missing it. You need that pitter pat of the heart, that slight elevation of blood pressure as the excitement of a new season kicks in. Its a vortex you want to get sucked into.

Himesh bhai nu

2007-07-25T00:25:00.000-05:00

Okay, I’m back. A lot has happened since I last got on this page. India elected its first female President in a muckraking political poll, Tony Blair left office, Australia won its third consecutive World Cup, and Paris Hilton went to jail, and the seventh and final Harry Potter book came out.

But yeah, I’m not here to discuss all that. Saw Himesh Reshammiya’s debut film, Aap Ka Suroor – The Real Luv Story yesterday. Sold-out show at 11.00 a.m. in Bangalore, of all places. And get this, there was an auto rickshaw parked on the second to last floor of the mall, smack between an SUV and one of those fancy little cars.

I can just see the rick driver, collar up, taking the morning off and driving through the gate, telling the security guard that he was a paying customer here to watch a film, and that like all the other customers, it was his right to park his vehicle in the space allotted. Awesome!

But yeah, back to the film. You don’t expect much walking into a picture like this, right? I mean, its Himesh Reshammiya, he of the nasal twang, the long coats, the rough stubble, and of course, the colorful caps. He never smiles, he croons about loss and pain, he sleepwalks through so many of his music videos. I didn’t read too much of what the critics wrote, but 99% of what I did come across was trade gurus panning his acting and the entire movie.

I was pleasantly surprised. This is no award-winning performance, the emotions are but scarce, and the dialogues are pretty lame. But surprise, he’s not bad at all. He doesn’t overact, thankfully, and he sticks to what he’s given, or written, with out trying too hard at all. Its because he doesn’t go over the top that he actually works. Check out the scene where his best friend and manager requests him to just drink with him once in life, and the ensuing scene where he does a superb imitation of Mithun Chakravarthy, jig et al! Or the way he agrees to let the investigative reporter Nadia into his house, after he’s totally sizzled. Comic timing is spot on.

For a first effort, it’s commendable.

Is it a pretentious film? Yes. Not just because its about Himesh fulfilling some sort of fantasy or ego trip – he romances a young nubile thing, he sells out entire shows in front of a German audience chanting his name, he has his own jet, foreign bodyguards, fleet of expensive black cars, palatial mansion, he gets to wield a gun, look tough, crack one-liners and hello, Mallika Sherawat drools and throws herself at him! – but because the scriptwriters try to pull

The screenplay is very loose, very convenient. It’s almost as if the screenwriters thought that viewers of this kind of film, Himesh’s fans, wouldn’t be able to grasp something taught and gripping. I think they really misjudged the fans. It’s a shoddy script.

But people can point to ticket sales and say that the exuberant Himesh and the film’s writers and director got big mileage out of a simple approach. The film has been accepted by those same underestimated fans, and is selling out well enough to further Himesh’s stature as a pop culture phenomenon. Caps off….err, or not.

Just shoot it

2007-04-30T05:14:00.000-05:00

Just shot for my second short film, after Shadows in the Andamans back in January. This was a little different, being a zero-budget student film shot on a campus here in Bangalore, but interesting nevertheless. It took two all-night shifts and a third, six-hour night. Lots of mosquitoes, time spent waiting for lights to be adjusted and other glitches, but I’m glad I did it.

Its just a short student project, not more than seven or eight minutes and revolves around three characters in a cafe shack in Goa. A young girl, waiting for her boyfriend to join her, shares a table with an older hippie-type, who's been in Goa for a few years and has certain issues in life.

The director, Bharti, has a good head on her shoulders and I wish her all the best. The others too were dedicated and its encouraging to see the passion that kids in their early twenties have for cinema in India. They’re trying to be different, thinking out of the box.

And here’s a small write-up on me and others that sort of fall in the same category, published in the Hindustan Times on Sunday, April 29th. They got the age wrong, its 26, but whatever.

MLB round-up

2007-04-13T23:06:00.000-05:00

Tim Wakefield and Doug Mirabelli made a great combo once again, and the Red Sox enjoyed a six-run eighth inning in a 10-1 win over the Angels at Fenway. Barry Bonds continued his march towards Hank Aaron with the 736th and 737th homers of his career as San Francisco beat the Pirates 8-5. The dinosaur Julio Franco pinch-hit a single to carry the Mets past the Nationals. Toronto's Roy Halladay pitched a beauty to do one over the Detroit Tigers. The Yankees are third in the AL East. And oh, the Arizona Diamondbacks lead the NL West 7-3. Wow.

A foray into something new...

2007-04-13T08:45:00.000-05:00

Rugby Dirt, the other website I write for, is now live. Under 'Featured Articles' all the international, non-US collegiate news articles are mine. Enjoy!

Click here to go the site.

2007-04-13T02:02:00.000-05:00

अरे वह! क्या बात है, बॉस। तीख है, शायद मैंने यह हाई-फुन्दा टेक्नोलॉजी के बारे में काफी देर में सुनह, लेकिन मज़ा टोह आ गया। अगर तुम यह नहीं पद सकते होह, टोह माफ कीजीये । प्रणाम।

UP, UP and away

2007-04-13T01:40:00.000-05:00

The fate of 881 candidates in Uttar Pradesh rests in the hands of 1.60 crore voters, including 75 lakh women. The second phase of elections is on.

Security has been tight in the 58 constituencies spread over ten districts of western UP. There's a reported 8, 479 polling centres being used, plus central observers, micro-observers, and some 65,000 personnel of paramilitary force deploted. Much fun will be had.

Flop acts

2007-04-11T04:33:00.000-05:00

The Super Eights are getting pretty interesting. New Zealand lead the points table, Australia are surefire semi-finalists, and Sri Lanka - hit hard by the injury to Lasith Malinga - will also sail through. Its at the bottom that it gets interesting. South Africa have two wins, and England and Bangladesh each have one. The West Indies are virtually out of the tournament, having failed to win a game in the second phase.

While we've seen some success stories, there have also been some big flops in this World Cup.

1. Justin Kemp - Looks a decimal point of the hard-hitting batsman he is. His bowling is useless, so he plays as a specialist batsman in the lower middle order. Still cant buy a run. Looks so out of play when he comes in and early, and if he's there to have a swing, he's a waste in the XI. South Africa have the likes of Shaun Pollock, Mark Boucher and Andrew Hall to do that.

2. Habibul Bashar - Six games, five innings, 57 runs, a best of 24, and an average of 11.40. Throw in a strike rate of 42.85 and you have a captain struggling to make an impact. True, Bangladesh have stunned many by making the Super Eights, and beating India and South Africa, but Bashar's contribution has been absolutely minimal. His slowness in the rain-reduced smashathon against Australia ate up valuable time and deliveries. With games against England, New Zealand and West Indies lined up, his side could sure do with a handy score from him.

3. Michael Vaughan - He's never looked like a one-day batsman, but this is ridiculous. Back as captain after a long time on the sidelines through injury, Vaughan's captaincy has been jaded, but its inability to get bat on ball that's hit England the most. He hasn't even lasted long enough to see off the new ball, as 83 runs at 13.83 indicate. Years ago, another England captain, Mike Brearley, also an opener, famously struggled in the 1979 World Cup. Vaughan would do well to atleast emulate Brearley's ability to get the best out of his star allrounder (a certain Ian Botham)and get Andrew Flintoff out of the water and onto the park. A failure to qualify for the semi-finals could spell the end of Vaughan's one-day career.

4. Flintoff - Speaking of the big lad, his batting contributions have been, to put it in the words of Lawrence Booth, much like a curate's egg. 49 runs in five matches, of which 43 came against Ireland, is not what you expect from your best player. In the Super Eights, Flintoff has failed against New Zealand (0), Sri Lanka (2) and Australia (4). England next play Bangladesh today - a match they must win to retain any realistic hope of reaching the semi-finals - and Flintoff could well do with some runs.

5. Michael Hussey - Six matches into Australia's campaign, and Hussey has still not got into any semblance of form. He hasn't even gotten to double figures. True, he hasn't had many overs to bat when he's come in - the longest he's had is 15 overs - but he's failed to replicate his phenomenal form of late. Australia’s batting strength is such that Hussey’s place in the side has not been seriously questioned. Still, runs are missing.

6. Chris Gayle - The way Gayle plays, blow hot blow cold, you can expect him to fail a fair bit. But his World Cup form has been alarming. The stage was set for him: home conditions, small grounds, Powerplays, and the fact that he was such a success in West Indies' recent exploits. But his bat hasn't uttered a word, and his tidy offspin has been somewhat pedestrian. Much was expected of Gayle, but he's had a tournament he'd like to forget.

Bond. Shane Bond.

2007-04-09T08:49:00.000-05:00

A good piece on my man Shane Bond.

Tracking the UP polls

2007-04-09T08:22:00.000-05:00

This year's Uttar Pradesh polls look poised to be interesting, even though my affinity for the state has lessened with each trip through it on the way to Mussoorie. I'm glad Mussoorie is a part of Uttarakhand. Not that there's a helluva difference between the two states, but all this ruckus about minorities, an overwhelming population and new legislature doesnt seem to have gotten all the way up there yet.

I noticed that the UP government has moved a special appeal against the Allahabad High Court ruling that Muslims could not be considered minorities in the state. The message coming out is clearly, "Muslims are not entitled to be recognised as a religious minority." Thats all well and done, but UP has a history of making statements and then failing to follow through.

And then we have the Congress Party's young [half-white] Indian hope, Rahul Gandhi, heir of India's greatest political dynasty. Yes, he's drawing crowds ahead of the elections, but does he have the clout to pull in votes? UP - which elects a state assembly in seven stages - has traditionally been a bastion for the Gandhi family, but analysts have said that Rahul's charm isn't enough to win votes. The rise of regional political parties playing on local aspirations and caste and communal divides have seen Congress steadily lose support over the last two decades. Some reports, from direct communication with locals in UP, say that Rahul's focus on development seems to have touched a chord among people who say they are fed up of caste and religion-based politics. It's going to be an interesting voting process to follow.

Millions voted on Saturday in UP at the start of staggered polls, as the ruling Congress party suffered a crushing election defeat in New Delhi. Reports say that 46% of 16 million voters came out to vote in 62 of the state's 403 assembly seats in the first leg of the seven-phase elections.

Apart from keeping tabs on the news channels, I read this interesting article on the BBC. Doesnt make for pleasant reading.