My Diorama in August-Sep 2011

I pen down this post as I wander and saunter in the world of movies and books this week. Also navigate through the misty Malnad hiils with my folks. For last few months have not had the opportunity to see quality movies but was able to sneak through couple of good hindi movies. So I chanced upon Rocket Singh and Chalo Dilli.

Rocket Singh though is a good movie, but definitely to get the plot going the movie has many flaws. Directed by Shimit Amin who is known for his earlier works , gritty Ab Tak Chappan and masterful Chak De India. The theme is very good and I don’t think any movie has been made on Salesmanship earlier in bollywood. The movie harbors around the protagonist Harpreet Singh (Ranbeer Kapoor) and his endurance to make name in salesmanship .After getting in, he comprehends the world of salesmanship and gets to know about the dirty things which prevail there. Demolished and insulted by his peers and his boss this movie depicts how he stamps his foot in the world of salesmanship. Well made movie punctuated with some apt acting by Ranbir Kapoor, but the plot loses its pragmatism and hovers around the unreal tactics.

I followed that movie with Chalo Dilli. This movie for sure has been inspired by the 1989 classic ‘Train ,planes and Automobiles’ and the recent Robert Downy Jr. starrer ‘Due date’. I would say the director could fathom the sense of a road movie and at the end created a good one.Vinay Pathak as always is a very good actor and ascribes his part with élan and panache. But I would say he is being now stereotyped in these kinds of roles. Lara dutta played her part well and all in all a nice movie to watch with the family.

Last but not the least I was able to complete Dante club. A marvelleous book and a hat off effort by  Mathew Pearl to pull out this classic book. Intermingled with Dante Aligheri’s poetry. Pearl has a written a masterful thriller. Some real life characters coupled with a maven plot this book is a must read for thriller fans who also relish a twang of history. I have already conjured up my mind to read his latest book ‘The Last Dickens’ which is again based on the mysterious death of legendary Charles Dickens.

To accentuate the week I finished the week with a trip to Chickmanglur with my folks. It was a trip to remember although it had the tint of spoiling rain. But nice is the way to spend quality time with your folks nestled in the hills.

As I now move on to my daily life, I surely enjoyed the last week where I could muster up some splendid things and ended it with a good seal.

Glory brought to the shores

Neither Nationalism culminated in a day nor was fighting against the British the only mean to exercise it. In 1911, setting was in Bengal; Nationalist movement was on all time high after Khudiram’s martyrdom was causing ripples in the hearts of people. People were fed up by the vile British and with their way of governance. The unfair rules and regulations had started to take toll on the natives. Leaders like Gokhale and Tilak were able to inculcate and imbibe the roots of nationalist thinking in the heads and minds of people. Roots of rebel had been planted all over the country and were flowing like a stream. They were craving for change and something fresh was asked for.

Sport has always been one of the means to unite the segregated mass, it is a harmonious language which binds together everyone. In Bengal football had taken the same seat and it was becoming the undying passion. Somehow get a round ball and start hitting it. You need a field where the ball can roll and turn, hence a pretty inexpensive and popular means of entertainment. So football as a sport in Bengal became one of the foremost sports to be exercised. Football as they say is also one of the most violent sports. It has killed people more than any other sport has.

Now to juxtapose all the earlier discreet points together we head back to 1911 and glance towards the IFA shield. Mohun Bagan club of Kolkata had started plundering English clubs like rangers and Middlesex regiment. They stormed through the finals of the shield subsequently. The bare footed players were locking their horns with the mighty British. What eventually comprehended out was that in football they used to get the chance to hit the British and plunder them.

The very same emotions and feelings are arrested through the lens in the Bengali movie Egaro (The immortal eleven). It tells you the true saga of the eleven players who took the field in IFA shield final for Mohun Bagan against East Yorkshire. Caught immaculately through the lens of the cinematographer this movie is worth a watch. Well surely there are some melodramatic moments to magnify the effect of the movie, otherwise I felt the movie was flawless and was able to establish the crux of the subject. After seeing this I was kind of perplexed that how could no movie till date has been featured on this subject. Some may argue Lagaan was made on the same lines, but this football story is a true one.

This movie clearly depicts how the players had to face different kind of hardships. Most of them were deprived of any friends and family support because some of their folks thought it’s a risk which you bring to home if you take challenge with British while some of them did not see playing football a virtuous thing enough. Even some leaders of the nationalist movement foresaw football as a mere luxury and something which does not have a value of penny in the context of Nationalism.

Well eventually everything turned upside down as the match day progressed. People started taking this match as a mean and an opportunity to take revenge against the British. The footballers started to receive best wishes and compliments from all over the country. Media started to take note of this match. Shibdas Bhaduri (captian of the team) was hailed and talked about all and sundry. All had same mission that was to defeat British even the owners of other Indian club also started to hoot for Mohun Bagan.It became simple point blank fight between Indian resistance and English might.Government had to operate many more trains and buses before the match day, because people started to flock over to Calcutta from all parts of eastern India to see this much talked match. People as far as away from Benaras, Dhaka, Guwahati came to witness this historical event. As it happened Mohun Bagan was able to defeat East Yorkshire in a thrilling encounter.

Well this still looms large in the memory of all historians and soccer lovers; this thing has percolated down to our veins. This game was no lesser an effort to subsidize the british., these eleven were as sacred sons of soil as other revolutionaries were.

Fear of leather - Part 1

Anything which moves fast is quite a difficult thing to foresee and tackle with .Consider an object in air which moves along quickly also starts to sway away, keep imagining how difficult it would be to anticipate where that thing would be finally(Hiesenberg's Uncertainty huh ?) .Imagining a bulltet fired from a gun ?.

Well here I draw the analogy with a cricket ball .Similarly as it happens in the game of cricket. A fast moving ball can be very unconformable for any batsman to handle and to score run against. I have always thought a pace bowler running up in rhythm on a lush green field with the wind blowing behind him and then his delivery uprooting the timber is one of the best sight in the game of cricket.

A fast inswinger or a pacy bouncer can make a good batsman look like tottering kid.From time to time fast bowlers have become the nemesis of the batsman. Even the best bastman would get some jitters when facing a true fast bowler.

In this post I will divulge myself in discussing and sharing about the 10 best fast bowlers of last 2 decades (basically the time from which I am following the game).It will be a two part post as it is quite difficult to capture all the aspects in one post.I also start it by paying tribute to the infamous pace quatret of West Indies in the late seventies and early eighties.(in the picture from left Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Colin Croft and Joel Garner) They actually showed how menacing and fearsome pace bowling can be.To properly envision what it mean check the 'Fire in Babylon' documentary.

So here is my list of fast bowlers.

10. Shane Bond: I say very less people have as good an action as Bond had. Bond’s toe breaking Yorkers coupled with his express pace made him a menacing bowler. Also coming from a country where there has been no pedigree of fast bowlers apart from Sir Richard Hadlee.I consider him to take in the Top 10.

9. Courtney Walsh: A bowler who had bowled the least number of extras during his bowling tenure. Discipline and Dilligence were synonymous with Walsh. He successfully carried the legacy of great West Indian bowlers forward. I can recall that he was one of the few fast bowler captains the game has ever witnessed.

8. Chaminda Vaas: Claimed as Sultan of swing. He loyally held the citadel of Sri lankan seam attack for years. He became better and better as he aged on and his potent swings were literally unplayable. Coming from the pitches where there was little assistance to a pace bowler, Vaas’s credentials as a bowler accentuate more.

7. Jason Gilespie: May not be one of the elegant bowlers or as charismatic as his contemporaries. Some may argue with me about his inclusion in the top ten lists but for me Jason Gilespie was a toiler, was a hard worker. He was always there to provide support to the main strike bowlers like McGrath and Lee. Most of the times because of his endurance the strike bowlers used to reap rewards .A special mention must go to his batting where he used to hang in however the condition was. His grittiness was exemplary and to me he was a great character the game has ever seen.

6. Waqar Younis : One of the genuine swingers of the ball, both with the new and older ball. He showed an extra-ordinary mastery over the reverse swing .In fact I can say he was one of the pioneers of reverse swinging. One of the Double W’s of Pakistan pace attack Waqar had troubled and subjugated almost all the best batters of his generation.

Dont miss to check the next and the final concluding part of this blog where i reveal the top five of the list .And also wait and watch for the inglorious list of fast bowlers who they say were fast and furious.

The Masinagudi Trails

It’s good to experience good and it’s even better to experience which is better. My Masinagudi travel experience was awesome to say the least. Last weekend I set to visit Masinagudi with my in laws and J.As Budhha once said ‘It is better to travel than to arrive’ .

The voyage from Bangalore to Mysore and then crossing Bandipur and eventually reaching Masinagudi was a spellbound feeling for me. Most of the times I have seen the hills from top, this time it was a novel experience to have the view from foot. Its get accentuated when the mysterious jungle looms over you


Masinagudi is nestled in The Madhumali Tiger reserve and surrounded by the lush green forests. I found the whole tiger reserve and the forests to be very well maintained .The serene and scenic beauty of these forests can catch anyone on his toes. We took our shelter in the resort of Nawab Shafath Ali Khan who is a well know man-animal conflict expert and was recently in news for hunting down a Man eater in Faizabad. We were completely impressed by the facilities of the resort and more importantly the wonderful behavior of the owners there.

The most superlative part came when Nawab sahab’s son extended us an offer to join them in a jeep ride in the forest. It was already dusk and it was supposed to be the time when the animals would start leering and loitering around. The thrill of the jeep ride still excites me, it was just an open jeep with around 10 people in it and a sense of safari scattering around. We were fortunate enough to sight Bears and and a Panther along with the other usual suspects like Deer and wild buffaloes.

Hustling the jeep into the forest and chasing the animals like hunters to fetch a glimpse of these exquisite animals was an enchanting and unforgettable experience for us. Less to say that it was unreal and an illusory occurrence of events for me.

If It was not enough, me and J were offered a night stay in the exotic Tree house in the resort by the Jo (Daughter-in-law of Nawab sahib).Special thanks to her who was generous and kind to us during the whole visit. And well the night stay at the tree house again was one of the most resplendent experiences I have seen.

The next day started with again a safari rides amongst the dense and impenetrable forests of Madhumalai.This time we were gifted by the glimpse of the famous Tuskers of Madhumalai.When the ride ended it was like waves of satisfaction sailing over the shores like faces of everyone. After breakfast we headed back to the high risings of cities leaving behind the mystery and aura of Madhumalai.Still when I recall the experiences which I had back there I want to scuttle back and immersed myself again in the puddle of that majestic flora and fauna.

When red and blue started bleeding together

I thought I should capture these emotions as soon as possible after the Tango and Rumba of 2^nd april ended. My prolonged wait and agony has now ended, the always elusive trophy have been retained by us. Nation’s hope and trust was restored by this team following a dismal performance in the Caribbean four years ago. Dhoni has always been different; I had always felt that his serenity actually brings the pacifying tint to this pressurized and hyped game.

The Indian operation in this world cup has been nearly smooth and silky. This world cup truly marks the example of stars living up to their expectations and the other players filling the gap wherever needed. Tournament kicked off with Sehwag’s swashbuckling century against Bangladesh. India stumbled little in the middle of the tournament by conceding the tied match to England and losing the already captured match to SA. Then how they came back strongly by beating WIndies in group stages and defeating Aussies,Pakistan and SLankans in the knockouts for the WC glory. I would take this as peaking at the right time and hitting the iron when it was hottest.

Batting had clicked in the first two games, then I from the WIndies match bowling and fielding also rose and joined the Jamboree. Raina’s inclusion from the QFs brought sharpness to the field. Sachin scored most of the runs along with Mercurial Yuvraj with both bat and bowl leading the batting attack. I felt seam bowling has been of supreme quality as spin department was always expected to fare better on the Indian pitches. Zak ‘Scotch ‘Khan, as they say Zaheer is like a wine or scotch whisky.He is getting finer as he ages on. He has mastered the art of bowling with potent reverse swings, well directed bouncers and those compelling in swingers. With Munaf his close companion bowling well, even Nehra they ensured that Seam bowling pulls the right chords.

2007 had been a tragic performance, losing to Bangladesh in the opening match and they crashed out of the world cup. Even before we could settle in our seats to watch the world cup, we were out from this prestigious moment. Those were the times we felt very low and the most sorrowful moments. Bouncing back from that is an exemplary redemption.

A special mention must go to coach Gary Kirsten. He helped the team to phase out of the shoddy Greg Chappell era to the fresh air of this new breed of free flowing cricket. Now we have got good, confident young players backed up by ever supporting senior players. Job has not finished yet, the team needs to be invincible and champions in all terms and all sense. They must show the same domination in the upcoming tours of England and Australia.

Celebrations began on every nook and corner of India right after the match ended, with people coming out of their homes, bursting crackers, waving flags and dancing throughout the night.I imagine this cricket is not a game, its a religion, its a force that unites the nation.Well done India, I am going to cherish this moment for long and hope I get this feeling very soon again.

Honey and Hills

Life takes it own turn and mine took a big turn. It turned me into the voyage of married life and eventually we celebrated it by sailing out for the Honeymoon.

Hills had always enticed me, the vastness of hills for eternity have pulled the strings of my guitar. So I decided to spent one of my memorable days of life being cuddled and hugged in the valleys of Uttarkhand.Though I have spent my early days in Delhi, apart from a short visit to Nainital I never could feel the hills of Uttarkhand.

We took the flight from Netaji Subash international airport to Delhi.The flight arrived late and then punctuated with rains pouring heavily on the way, we reached the charming Nainital at 11 o clock night. We missed most of the picturesque ride from Haldwani to Nainital as rains and night blocked the view.We travelled from Delhi-Moradabad-Rampur-Pantnagar-Haldwani-Nainital .Our stay was arranged at Dynasty resorts in Khuraptal.Other than being pretty far from main Nainital, the resort was magnificent. Nestled in the valleys of Khuraptal the view from the loggia of the hotel room was celestial.

Next day morning after having breakfast we started our journey towards the petite Himalayan town of Kausauni.Its a 5 hrs drive from Nainital to Kausauni.Enroute we passed over the picturesque Ranikhet.Then the time for lunch arrived and we had one of the best experiences of our voyage. We stopped by a very small and cute Homestay and café for lunch. Reaching there we learnt that, the café was closed for some time for some renovation work. But then the café owner was kind enough to fix some sandwiches and coffee for us. Interior of the café was mesmerizing and well decorated that my camera rolled itself on to capture the scenics.A must recommendation for the travelers who like something new.

Then as it happened we had a tyre puncture and after that we reached Kausuani at around 5-30 p.m.It was freezing cold .My wife started feeling little nauseatic after experiencing whirl winding rides in the hills and hence we decided to call the day off.

Next day we woke up leisurely and headed for some local sightseeing in Kausauni.Kausauni is situated in the Kumaon region of the Uttarkhand and native people speak Kumaoni here. Gandhiji once came to Kausauni and hence it has a Gandhi anasakhti ashram here .It boasts magnificent views of Himalaya which is sure to enthrall many hearts.We did a small trek here and roamed around the Ashram.

Then we headed towards the Tea gardens of Kumaon.There was also a shawl factory nearby.We went into the factory and the local boy explained us how wool is being made and processed.The factory was churning out shawls,stowls,tweeds,mufflers and yes we chose some of them from there.

I have always felt food and wine is one of the important and defining parts of any travel.As being once explained ‘A romantic traveller is not one who walks is one who dawdles and imbibes the local culture ’.

If you havent experienced the local cuisine you haven t felt  and smelt that place actually .This was part was certainly missing till now.Then I stumbled over a small local joint near the tea garden and the owner mentioned he is one of the few people here who serves local food here.My gourmet self woke up and I ordered few local specialities.

Bhatt ki Chutkani (Local cereal), Aloo Mooli ka chetuah (Sabzi preparation made of Potato and raddish) and Kumaoni Rice were my lunch for that day .The food was scrumptious and we enjoyed eating every tiny bit of it. After finishing the day’s work we returned back to the hotel room and savored the evening tea under the drooping sun.The temperature reached below 4 in the evening, so vibes of chill was superflous.

(Dairy version starts here)Lying inside the woods of Kumaoun and snow peaks view with the flip of my eyes as I keep typing these lines. It’s definitely the best travelling experience I have for long time and romanticism of travelling reaches to the pinnacle here. The hotel room was comfortably made up of wood, fireplace keeping the room warm,water in copper glasses turned into nectar ,a cozy room  and sonata of chirping of birds, with all these I couldn’t have asked more than this. Coming to Binsar has made up my trip and a pat on my back as I decided to come to Binsar. It is one of the offbeat destinations of Uttarkhand and it boasts of a wildlife sanctuary which has a varied range of Flora and Fauna. Our resort ‘Binsar retreat’ was well juxtaposed inside the sanctuary and the Himalayan peaks.

Listening to the howling of animals outside, we both hugged each other and enjoyed the romantic serene settings. Plus I got those Kumaoun specialties on my plate. As I write this I have to leave this place and we will be starting heading towards Nainital.

(End of Dairy version)

Cold welcomed us into Nainital again. Nainital Lake was worth looking into as it was ornamented with lights and mist spraying over it. At last my wife got some opportunity here to delve into shopping. Nainital is famous for its Wax candles. From a beer mug shaped candle to lantern, the shop possessed it all.

Next day was our turn to descend from the hills to the plains of Delhi. Coming back it took mere 7 hrs. Then we took the flight back from Delhi to Kolkata. It seemed like a six days full of tranquility and harmony in the hills had finished and we transcended to day to day life of mortal plains. The enormity of Himalayas still alive is in my hearts and as start planning my next explore into the hills.