Champions again...

It is not a national sport, and yet it is equated to religion. It has not brought us any gold medals, but it still remains the national pastime. Cricket!

My dear friend, Saumitra Bhaumik, has jotten down his experience of watching the finals. Read it to get a feel of what it meant for Indians! Of course, only those who love the sport madly!!

Here goes...

Only thing I still remember about the year 1983 (I was 12 years then) is one date - 25^th June. For two reasons.

My elder brother’s 10^th standard board exam results were announced on that day. Late afternoon on that hot summer day at Udaipur, a small, sleepy town in a very small and lesser known north-eastern state, Tripura (many of you may have only heard of Agartala which is its state capital), when the board exam results were announced in the evening (& also read out during the News in a local Bengali Radio Channel), we were over the moon. My big brother had secured a place among the top ten students in the state.

The same night, another important event took place that changed the history of Indian sports – Kapil’s devils beat the mighty West Indies to win the ODI World-Cup. Again, live commentary (in Hindi & English, alternately) in radio was the only source of information & updates for us. At about 12 (mid-night), we heard a loud noise from the radio set (an old model from Philips, which was almost as big as a modern-day 14” TV) followed by a high pitched scream from the commentator: “: … and India are now the World Champions ….”.

That one event and the publicity Indian cricket & its cricketers got following that historical win changed many a lives, especially of young Indian kids (like me) growing up in various parts of this country searching for real life heroes and their great success stories. We had found a sport where we could be world beaters and a bunch of sporting heroes.

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Two years later, in 1985 (don’t remember the exact date), India won the B&H Mini World Cup in Australia. This time me & my big brother watched the match live in TV. We had to go to our aunty’s house. Their tenant (a professor; those days along with Central Govt. employees, professors were among the more affluent professionals, in the absence of IT which didn’t exist in 80s) had a B&W TV.

Many Indians, who watched that Final match, played between India & Pakistan, would still remember:

• That great opening spell from Kapildev (took 3 wickets)
• A great middle-of-the-innings bowling spell from the magical leggie L. Sivaramakrishnan (took 3 wickets)
• That great direct-throw-to-one-stamp run-out effected by Gavaskar to send Imran Khan back to the pavilion
• The contrasting yet effective opening innings from Srikanth & Shastri
• And most of all the entire Indian team trying to get inside the Audi car that was presented to Shastri, who was adjudged ‘Champion of Champions’ (same as ‘Player of the Tournament’).

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Twenty two years later, another piece of history was created, by another young Indian team on 24^th September, 2007. This time I watched the match in my place (Knightsbridge, Bangalore). Some of my very special friends (Vineet, Paresh, Ravi Gaur, Subhadip, Vivek, Tahir-uncle) from the same apartment complex where I now live, joined me for the last few overs of the match. India had the upper hand then, with Pakis down with 6 wickets and needing more than 11 runs per over to win the match. But the match almost turned on its head when Bhajji was hit for 19 runs in the 16^th over. Pakis kept losing wickets (one wicket each in 17^th, 18^th & 19^th over, bowled by Sreesanth, Pathan and RP Singh), but kept scoring enough runs to keep their hope alive till the last over. They needed 13 off the last 6 balls with just one wicket in hand. Joginder Sharma bowled that all important last over. 1^st ball was a wide (equation: 12 needed off 6 balls), next one was almost a wide but a dot ball (equation: 12 off 5), next one a full toss hit for a six by Misbah (equation: only 6 needed off 4 balls). All 7 of us watching the final moments of the Final, gave up hope. We all thought we had lost. Except one guy (Vineet). As Pakis kept losing wickets and still kept hitting sixes after sixes, the rest of us were screaming on top of our voice in one moment – clapping, jumping up and down, cheering after every wicket and every dot ball; and cursing the Indian bowlers the next moment. Vineet kept shouting – ‘Chak De India’ after almost every ball (irrespective of whether it was hit for six or got a wicket). After that Six in the final over, we all had fallen silent, but Vineet still managed to continue shouting the same ‘Chak De India’.

And ‘Chak De’ (I believe it means ‘Show them’/ ‘Surprise them’) India did … In the very next ball, Misbah, trying to play that intelligent scoop behind the stumps to beat the fine leg (stationed inside the 30-yard circle), gave his wicket away and … after 22 long years, we were the World Champions, again!

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For the statistically inclined, below is the statistics for the last 5 overs, no. of balls remaining versus no. of runs required (for Pakistan to win the World Cup, which was ours from the moment we beat them in the bowl-out in the 1^st round match) at the beginning of each over till the last one.

30 – 59

24 – 54

18 – 35

12 – 20

6 – 13

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While India had a brilliant run between 1983 and 1985, winning almost every international ODI tournaments and quite a few ODI series, the period between 1985 and 2007 was a mixed bag. Our team flattered to deceive in most of the important matches. We had a few good wins, but many heart-breaking losses. Five ODI world cups took place during this period – 1987 (India & Pakistan), 1992 (Australia), 1996 (India, Pakistan & Srilanka), 1999 (England) & 2003 (South Africa). We made only one appearance in a World Cup Final during this period, in 2003 (incidentally that was also in SA) and were massacred (can’t think of a better word to describe that loss) by Australia. We reached two semi-finals, in 1987 and in 1996 (both times at home) world cups, lost both badly. While we did win a few not-so-big tournaments (Hero Cup, Asia Cup, NatWest trophy in 2002-03, ..) during the same period, we had also lost many a final (losing to New Zealand in the ICC Champions trophy final was the most notable & disappointing one among all those) plus a few very important matches in world cups. I still remember the match against the Australians in the 1992 world cup - we had to score 3 runs in the last ball of the match with Srinath on strike and failed. After the last ball loss, I couldn’t control my emotions/disappointment and had hit the window glass inside the hostel’s TV room (in REC/NIT, Trichy) with my fist. Only a few minutes later I had realized how badly I had hurt myself. I needed stitches. But those didn’t pain as much as the last ball loss did.

When we were thrown out of this year’s World Cup in West Indies in the 1^st round itself, after losing to Bangladesh (& Srilanka), Indian cricket appeared to be headed towards the same down-slide as our National Hockey team.

Many of my friends, colleagues and class mates, most of them die-hard cricket fans like me, had actually stopped watching cricket regularly after that shameful world cup exit early this year.

But that was till 22^nd September. Once Dhoni’s boys beat the mighty Australians in the T20 semi-final on that night, everything was back to how it was 22 years back – India playing a world cup final against Pakistan (again) and playing as favourites to win the world championship.

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Many of our parents/elders remember the partition in 1947 (& the riots that followed after that) as a very painful event. You now have people, who speak the same language (Bengali) but live across the (India-Bangladesh) border with different nationalities (and indulge in activities that harm each other’s country). The same must be true with Punjabis & Kashmiris. When we were small kids, we used to wonder how nice it would have been if we had Imran, Sunny, Kapil, Akram playing for the same team. When Bangladesh started beating us and the Pakistanis and the Australians – we had wondered, how nice it would have been to have Sachin and Ganguly and Ashraful and Aftab and Afridi and Yuvraj and and Shewag and Yousuf - along with – Shoaib and Zaheer and RP and Asif and Mortaza and Gul – playing for the same team – and giving a good fight to the mighty Australians, who looked almost unbeatable (till the T20 world cup).

After the T20 world cup (where all 4 sub-continental teams reached the 2^nd round and two of them made it a sub-continental clash in the Final), we now think – it is good to have 4 teams from the Indian sub-continent. Some day, it is possible, at least theoretically, to have all 4 of them completing the semis line up in a world cup ….

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Coming back to India’s T20 victory, there were too many stars in this ‘world-beater’ young Indian team to be able to single out just one or two. Yuvraj & Gambhir & Dhoni & Shewag & Utthappa & Rohit Sharma – all of them have played at least one match winning knock. RP Singh, Sreesanth, Pathan, Bhajji & (last but not the least) Joginder Sharma – all of them have bowled at least one match winning spell. In this tournament.

Watching so many real life heroes representing India and winning the world cup, you tend to acknowledge – 22 years for a world cup victory, it was worth the wait.

Some of these young players will go on to play for India and become superstars, while some may fade away. We may soon see India winning another World Cup (with three titles - Test, ODI & T20 up for grab, it is not very unlikely). Or we may not ever get to see another such world cup victory in our lifetime. It does not matter, at least for now.

After having lived through these 22 long years and watching India lose those important matches in last 6 world cups and after almost having given up all hope of witnessing another great Indian show in a cricket world cup, we consider ourselves lucky to have survived to witness another world cup victory. In one lifetime, one World Cup Victory is good enough – to cherish, to gossip, to feel good about. And most of us have already witnessed more than one. We don’t mind living (and waiting for) another 22 years though … to witness another ‘Chak De India’ … LIVE …

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Unlike most other long stories and articles this one doesn’t really have a moral, it is all about history (and events) of a particular period (1983 to 2007), and how those have impacted our lives; all around one stupid game, that remains the most popular sport in our country even after so many heart-breaking losses (and a few spectacular wins, like the one we saw yesterday).

Or maybe there is a moral, even in this long history.

Youth with bravery/ passion/ determination/ fearlessness never lose.

That is the feeling every cricket lover got while watching two very young sides fighting it out in yesterday’s Final. Pakistan (& Misbah-ul-Haq, a Paki youngster making a comeback to the national team, replacing Yousuf Youhana) did not lose yesterday. It’s just that only one team could win and this time it was India. Maybe the Pakistanis’ will also have to wait for 22 years since their last world cup victory (that came in 1992) to win another world cup final. But despite not being a big fan of Pakistan (the country), one had to feel for the Pakistanis yesterday. They came so close. And they probably were the best bowling side in this tournament. If you can restrict Dhonis and Yuvrajs and Utthappas from hitting fours and sixes, you must be a great bowling side. Even the Australians would agree. We (Indians) also agree. But we may want to add – we were the best all-round team and the deserving winners.

Big Apple beckoning...

Next week, this time, I would be in NJ. Official assignment. With Sujatha and Gauri. Air France flight from Bangalore to Newark via Paris. Landing at Newark (EWR) on Sep 29, 3:40PM. Office in Middletown. Residence likely to be in Parlin or Sayreville. Looking forward to it.


Pic courtesy: Google Maps

And it is madenningly hectic now. Just don't have even 2 mins to sit and relax! Phew!!

Stiff upper lip peeved about nose studs?

Read today morning in Indian Express about yet another incident. Was not shocked reading yet another report of racist discrimination that is so rampant in the UK these days. But was more shocked at the reason. A tiny nose stud.

When a so called celebrity does it, people say it is style. And when a common person does it, it becomes a bone of contention, even leading to sacking? Ridiculous.

Diana King, Christina Aguilera, Liz Hurley, Pink - all of them sport their nose studs/earrings. Even Madonna at sometime was sporting a nose stud. Am not counting Indians because it is a very common thing here. Nevertheless, why this differential treatment? Is there not a freedom for choice? Atleast, it is not so garrulous as many other forms of body art are.

In Hindu tradition, the nose ring/stud has a relevance. So, we would not know for sure why Lalji chose to pierce her nose - it may be for style alone. But it is still none of any official business.

Three Time Lucky at Guruvayur

I must say this trip was quite an experience. I managed to do only some parts of my plan and not the whole thing. But that by itself was more satisfying. In one of earlier blog posts, I had listed down the itinerary. A somewhat extensive one - but I had not considered the biggest constraint - fatigue and timings of the temple. Some lessons came forth that I will bear in mind whenever I visit Kerala next. And I surely will!

Something that struck me first was the warmth in the air. It was not the stiffling heat, but a balmy one. It was not so sticky as it usually gets in Chennai or Mumbai. I take it that it is because of the dust and pollution that humidity makes you feel sticky in the aforementioned cities. Thrissur and Guruvayur, in contrast, did not have mad levels of pollution. The air rather makes you feel healthy. No wonder you see all that greenery there. It is the warmth that helps them grow as well.

My next observation is about the water in the land. It may be location specific. But from what I could see, in the places surrounding Palakkad, Thrissur and Guruvayur, every now and then you can see a stream or a canal. Streams have clear waters. Near Palakkad, there are really tall mountains from where the rivers and streams might originate. It was quite refreshing to see that the land is not as parched as you normally expect to see on the other side of the mountains, i.e. in Tamil Nadu.

The white veshti and angavastram is THE best attire for the Kerala climate. No other garb can give you as much comfort as the seemingly unassuming cotton cloth. Wow! People can just about do anything wearing the veshti. From climbing trees to riding the Bullet and driving cars. I know, we have seen people in lungis climb coconut trees and seen Kamal Hassan in madisaaru style saree riding a bullet. But what beats real experience?

The food... wow again! I know of some friends who can't stand the sight of Kerala food. I am quite the opposite. I quite love their diet, including the par boiled rice which is hand pounded. You somehow get the feeling that you get to eat a lot and yet it does not load your stomach too much. For a foodie like me, that is such a nice thing! :-)

The temple comes next. A very typical architecture graces the temples of this state. You can see similar architecture in Mangalore, Udupi and Kollur as well. I take it that it is because of the Malabar influence on those temples and their cultural history. There are somethings that I do have my own questions on... I will come to them.

We took a train from Bangalore (2677 Ernakulam Exp). We reached Thrissur at 4:30PM on Saturday Sep 8th and were in Guruvayur by 5:45PM. I had reserved accomodation at the Guruvayur Devaswom Accomodation facility in advance. You can do that by sending them a DD for the appropriate amount. Call them at the contact numbers provided here. We were able to enter the queue by 6:45PM for the evening darshan. We finished the darshan by 8:45PM. After a nice dinner (we packed some food from home), we went to bed early.

We woke up at 12AM, took bath and went to stand in the queue for Nirmalya Darshanam (from 3AM to 3:20AM, said to be the most auspicious darshanam) at 1:10AM. At that time, there were probably a 100 people standing in front of us in the queue. Can you believe that? As time progressed, the queue only lengthened. There was a separate ladies queue, which was much shorter in length. But Sujatha and Gauri stayed with me.

At about 2:15AM, you could hear ladies singing songs in praise of Lord Guruvayurappan. This went on, on and off, till almost 2:50AM. After that, the police came asked people to form a proper queue. The length shortened. Only now I realised after seeing how long the queue had progressed that - there might have been atleast 500 more people standing in the queue for the Nirmalya Darshanam. Come to think of it, would 600 people manage to get darshan within 20 minutes. I started doing my math. I told Sujatha that we might be lucky to get darshan in the 3:15AM to 3:20AM time window. After that, it was all the abhishekams and neivedyam darshanams.

The temple doors finally opened only at 3:05AM and the queue started moving quickly. As calculated, we got our darshan at about 3:15-3:17AM. A very beautiful sight, it is indeed, to behold the Lord devoid of all material alankaarams. There might have been some 30-40 more people who would have got the Nirmalya Darshanam. The rest would have gotten to see the abhishekams and other puja. After the darshan, we went to collect the prasadam and realised that there were not open until 4AM. The most cherised item, Nei Payasam, was not going to be available until 5AM. We decided to come back later for the prasadam. We went to our room and slept for a few hours.

After we woke at about 10AM, we decided that we did not have enough time to undertake the journey till Thriprayar to visit the Lord Rama temple. So, we went to Punnathoorkotta. The Elephant Sanctuary is located here. I think there were atleast some 70 elephants who were housed in this sanctuary. It is nice to see the way these pachyderms are taken care of. And it certainly looks like it is the "rut" season for these gentle giants. For those who know to read the signs, there were enough of them to realise that. We saw the young ones and the old ones, the oldest being Padmanabhan bull elephant and Gajarani Lakshmi among the cow elephants. There was one who looked similar to the famous "Gajarajan Kesavan" and was named Keshavan. But the locals did not regard him as the same. I asked one of them, and he told "Ah! That great one was blessed by the Lord". Such is the regard for Gajarajan Kesavan. His statue stands in front of the Administrator's office in Guruvayur. A tall and imposing one that.

We returned to Guruvayur and did some shopping. Things are pretty cheap around here, but don't expect them to last as well. I was surprised to see many shops selling "Made in China" stuff compared to local stuff. That was a sad realisation.

We did not manage to get prasadam in the morning. So, I made a last attempt for that. Went to room, changed to traditional attire and went back to the temple by the rear entrance. I was able to directly access the prasadam counters, and collect the Paal Payasam which was the prasadam for the day. While returning from the prasadam counter, I decided to go in pradakshanam direction. When I reached the dwaja-sthambam, I found that the last batch of people were being let in before the temple closed for the afternoon. I stood along with them and got third time lucky. Fully satisfied with the Lord's darshan, I walked back to our room. I had lunch and went to sleep for some 30 minutes.

We left Guruvayur at about 3:40PM and arrived at Thrissur at 4:45PM. We were under the impression that we can stove away our luggage in the cloak room and go for a darshan at Vadakkumnathar Temple. We had not locked our bags because they only contained food or clothes. The cloak room officer would not take our bags without locks as a matter of policy. Either I could lock the bags and give them to the cloak room or I could take them with me - which was a near impossibility. Next, the officer informed us that we cannot go to the temple in the attire that we were in (I was in Jeans and T shirt, Wife was wearing Salwar Kameez). With no feasible option to change attire, we dropped the idea of going to the temple. This would have to wait for another trip down to Guruvayur.

We boarded the train back to Bangalore (2683 Bangalore Express). We had a somewhat uncomfortable journey back home as the seats in Sleeping class are narrower than the 3rd AC ones. We reached K R Puram at 4:00AM and reached home at 4:15AM. After some small work, we went to bed again at 5AM. The fatigue of the journey was showing up only then. It took almost a day to get back to normal energy levels.

Gauri loved the train journey as it was her first. She loved watching the elephants at the sanctuary. Overall, I think she enjoyed as well.

I will be uploading the pics to Picasaweb and provide a link to the albums here as an update. Come back for this one.

Adios!