Am I back or what???

Over the period that I have been absent from this space, I have been dead and re-born so many number of times that I have absolutely lost count. I never thought that I will be writing about all this but given the amount of time that I have at my disposal and given the fact that I can't make better use of this time at office, here I am, ready to recount what has been the most memorable episode of my small life so far.

It all started with one of my friends' mother having passed away and my decision to visit him and his family in this bad time and offer whatever solace I could. After much dilly-dallying between the 6AM and 11AM flight, I finally booked the tickets for the early morning flight. Since it would have been too early to sleep and get up again, I just decided to give the good old bed a miss. It must have been the lack of sleep that convinced me that taking my car along would be a bad idea since I would have to pay a heavy parking fee. After much deliberation, I decided to take my flatmate's brother along on my bike so that he could get it back once I got off at the airport.

So far, the idea seemed to be pretty okay at the face of it but it soon turned into a nightmare. As I climbed up the long, curved South Extension flyover, I had no idea what waited for me at the other end of the flyover. As it turned out, it was a car standing right in the middle of the flyover without any lights or idicator, apparently doing nothing else but waiting for disaster to happen...and happen it did!

Since I couldn't possibly see the car before I had very closely approached its rear, I went ahead and did what anyone would have been forced to do, that is, dashed into the bloody car with applomb. A few hours later, I was lying on the bed at AIIMS Trauma Center with a borken hip and a broken shoulder, having been refused admission to AIIMS General Hospital, since mine was a special trauma case. Sounds big, doesn't it?

It was big, and it has been four and a half months since that fateful day, with two of those months spent in an unrelenting zero-movement posture on the hospital bed and another two and a half spent under the loving care of my parents at home. I managed to join work just day before yesterday and though still walking on crutches, things are looking up for me, finally. All the while I was at home recuperating, I had been thinking of writing a blog on the many things that had been going through my mind in the hospital. I had even thought of a number of titles for the post, the most kinky of them being "43 days of nakedness".

Somehow, with some complications like Peroneal Nerve Palsy and Avascular Necrosis (look them up on the net if you want, pretty scary things) creeping up, I could never get started on the post. It is only now that things are somewhat rosier and I have sat down for this writeup. I don't know when the next post is going to come because I am wiser now, having made one too many unrealized promises.

Outclassed, outperformed, and outplayed

Gaurav XI 168/9 (Anas 47*) beat Kotak Wealth 90 (Manmohan 13)

Inspired by a relatively superlative performance by a couple of players, Gaurav XI rode all the way to the lunch table in style, and in the process, comprehensively beat Kotak Wealth by 78 runs.

In what promised to be a warm and sunny debut match for most of their players, Kotak Wealth suffered the ignominy of one of the most disappointing defeats that a 20 over match could have seen. Muffing up a run-chase on a pitch posing no real worries and much before that, giving away one-too-many extras for a chaseable target, things could certainly have been better.

The toss was, in fact, a good omen for Kotak Wealth as the not-one-of-the-fittest-teams got to choose what they wanted to do and not surprisingly, they chose not to field in the wee hours of the afternoon and instead use the tiring opposition in the hot and humid conditions of the noon to meet whatever target was posed to them. At Modern School Vasant Vihar grounds, a relatively wet, green top in the morning which dried up into a relatively batter-friendly track with the day's passing meant that the decision to field first had all the promise of turning out to be the right one, for more reasons than one.

In retrospect, too, it wasn't as one-sided a contest as the scorecard suggests, at least not in the first half when some good ground fielding by Suveer and company and one particular blinder of a catch by Mukund had the batting team struggling to convert their ones into twos and twos into threes. Even the initial damage done by the 23 run spectra wide over by Nishith and some more off-the-track efforts by Mohit and Shankar seemed to have been redeemed by some fantastic run with the ball from Gaurav Bhalla and to some extent, Saket's first spell.

Wickets were falling at regular intervals and the run rate had come down from a disturbing 12 an over till the 3rd over to a more manageable 7 per over in the 11th. That was when Amas came on to bat and things started changing for Kotak Wealth. With a string of boundaries getting unwound from the 12th over (2 in Saket's and 3 in Mohit's next), matters started looking ominous. Even Gaurav Bhalla, easily the pick of Kotak Wealth's bowlers, could not do much in his return spell, except maintain a tight leash on the run rate with his good line bowling.

Coming into the bowling attack by starting with almost a wicket maiden, Saket came in for quite a hitting when he replaced Bhalla after his 4th and last over. Before Saket could take his revenge in getting the batsman bowled, he had been hit for two sixes and a boundary, and sounds of the lid thudding onto the Kotak Wealth team's coffin could already be heard.

The pair on crease did much to raise Gaurav XI's score from what was looking like a 125 kind-of-a-score by the middle of the innings to well over 150. Amas with his fantastic stroke selection and some really clean hits was, beyond doubt, the best of the batsmen and it was actually a pity that he remained unbeaten on 47 and could not complete his half century. Last 5 overs going for 60 runs was an indicator not just of the supreme ease with which Amas and company could see, hit, time, and place the ball but also spoke a lot about the ease with which the wicket was playing now.

Kotak Wealth team was upbeat even after the beating in the final few overs and though there was that uneasiness over some 30 odd runs that could have been removed from the opposition's score, things did not look that gloomy and as Sunit said, it was all a question of the ball finding the bat and the rest will follow.

What turned out to be not so prophetic was the fact that the ball did only that, find the bat and there was fairly little that the bat could do from there on. With a good line and length maintained by the opening bowlers and the number of extras not really overshadowing everything else, it was left to Kotak Wealth's batsmen to make a match of it. They had to work hard for their runs and except a few good hits by Manmohan Tiwari (who, incidentally, was given the signal to bat after much discussion and dispute) and later by Nishith, Shankar, and Bhalla fighting for a lost cause, there was hardly any application seen by the rest of the batsmen.

Adding to the misery was the absolute lack of match fitness and practice of many players that resulted in a number of unfortunate mix ups on the pitch, getting as many as 3 run out decisions for the fielding side. With a salvageable midway score of 53/5 as against the opposition's 73/3, Kotak Wealth slumped to 90 all out in the 17th over. A bunch of tired and despondent cricketers were back to the pavilion with the promise of more regular practice and game sessions before asking for a re-match. Analysis of the scores and the game may continue for another day or two but whether it actually results in the team getting fitter, leaner, and more competitive, remains a thing to be seen.

Bowling Analysis for Kotak Wealth:

Gaurav Bhalla: 4-0-11-1 (02.75 runs per over)
Saket Khosla  : 4-0-34-2 (08.50 runs per over)
Mohit Sharma : 4-0-35-3 (08.75 runs per over)
Suveer Modi   : 1-0-10-0 (10.00 runs per over)
Nishith Kumar : 4-0-44-3 (11.00 runs per over)
Shankar Saini : 3-0-34-0 (11.33 runs per over)

Batting Analysis for Kotak Wealth:

Kapil Manchanda : 09 (caught in the deep)
Rahul Sharma     : 05 (LBW to yorker length ball)
Suveer Modi       : 04 (clean bowled)
Mohit Sharma     : 02 (clean bowled)
Manmohan Tiwari: 13 (run out after no reply from Sunit)
Sunit Jain           : 07 (runner Saket run out, taking a cheeky one)
Mukund Raichur  : 02 (caught in the covers)
Saket Khosla      : 03 (went to a brilliant catch in the slips)
Nishith Kumar     : 08 (run out after no reply from Bhalla)
Gaurav Bhalla     : 02 (caught behind)
Shankar Saini     : 10 (not out)

Tip tip barsa paani

Some good news to give you company, adding perfectly to bitter sweet memories of what could have been, a spot of bother about a dear friend and his life, complemented by drops of rain making a tingling sound on the car's bonnet, droplets condensing on the front windshield, joined with some soulful music playing at a loud volume...what else could one ask for? It has been quite some time since I bought my car but today was the first time that I was able to take it for a spin in the rain, and I simply loved it.

The heart was already gladdened by the news that Ranjana Didi is, for want of a better word, hitched. My would-be jeeju is a manager, working for CRY and does a host of other things (including writing some really nice prose) that supplement the ordinary and mundane affairs at work place. The engagement is real soon, as soon as the 5th of February, and the wedding is going to happen in frontier mail mode, as well. Most probably the third week of this month is going to see Ranjana Didi all set to enter a new life. She seems ready for it and I just hope that she makes the most of her new innings.

Also, from what I heard in the evening, Pallavi has finally managed to get her affair sorted out and that Abhishek and finally proved his commitment beyond doubt to Bua and Fufaji. What this means for Pallavi is, of course, respite from a world of worries and promise of her being able to finally achieve what she has been yearning for.

Amongst things other than the fact that the marriage keeda is fast (and rather scarily) crawling its way up to the family, things at work have not really been rolling smoothly. Holidays and promotional events, along with product sales targets do add to the pressure but are definitely no excuse for the relative underperformance that I and others of the so called IIM batch have managed so far. When will the patience run out, when will they finally realize that what they had been hoping for has not really paid off so far, at least not in the short term, seems to be anyone's guess.

For the next few days, I am going to be a little occupied with arranging for Ranjana Didi's engagement and even though that will not help my chances at work in the remotest of positive ways, it is still something I would love to do to the best of my ability and capacity.

Overdrive

I hope that no one from my family is reading this because if they get to know that I had been driving my Alto at 142 kilometres per hour, they will be scandalized, to say the least. It definitely was a scandal, as far as I, as a driver, am concerned. Having really learned driving about four months back, it was quite a stretch, by any extent of imagination, to try and literally stand on the pedal and gleefully look at the speedometer break all previous levels.

Once Aditya and I decided to while away time on a lazy Republic Day evening by going to Greater Noida and experiencing the Express Way and its much talked-about speeds, I got thinking about what my little baby could do. The frustration of not having been able to go to India Gate and watch the proceedings of Republic Day festivities live was already on my mind, but that is another story that deserves a separate paragraph so before I get into the high speed adventures of mine, let me delve a little into what could have been.

It was while coming back from a meeting with some HNI or the other that I started discussing with Rohit, a colleague, about what fun could be had if one gets the opportunity to watch live action on the 26th of Jan. Before we could even start discussing it any further, the cabbie, who was our escort for the day, butted in with a comment of his own. He promised us two VVIP passes, each one admitting three, and the confidence with which he promised the same, raised my hopes no end. He told us that he had worked for quite a number of days at the residence of Ram Bilas Paswan, the minister, and that he was quite capable of arranging two passes or even more.

Of course, what happened after he had promised that and after he had given me his number to contact him and collect the passes is anybody's guess, and that anybody would have been right. I called him so many times that I lost the very count of it and the last time I called him was from a pub in CP, in the vicinity of which, he had promised to meet me and hand over the passes to me. The fact that it did not happen, despite two rounds of snacks and drinks between JC, Dada, and myself, just added to what was going to happen the next day.

What happened the next day was of course, what I had started illustrating when I began this post. The Express way from Noida to Greater Noida, for those who are unaware, is a driver's dream and so it turned out for me. Starting off at about 100 kmph as soon as I entered the beauty of a stretch that the road was, I soon started testing what I could do. For family member(s) who haven't yet been able to kill the urge and have gone on till here, I did look at both sides of the road before pushing the pedal real hard. Initially 125 kmph seemed all that the Maruti offering could offer, but as I literally stood on the accelerator pedal, even if it was a slope, Alto LXi (3 months and 5000 kms old) managed top speed of 142 kmph.

After all the exhilaration and all the adrenaline rush, we moved on to Dilli Haat to spend the evening, planning to look at some good roadside stores and eat some good street food. However, it was not to happen as the damn place was closed because of the 26th Jan holiday. The next destination could have been NFC (New Friends' Colony for the uninitiated) but ever since I had taken Aditya and his brother there on a rather cold and bland and lonely night, Aditya has gone dead against the very idea of that place. The next mutually agreed-upon destination turned out to be the Chinese food area next to Chanakya theatre and that proved to be quite an experience, right from driving along Shanti Path, trying to find the suddenly elusive Pakistani High Commission (or Embassy, whatever it is), to having the Chinese sizzler and soup that started from smelling bad and ended at tasting surprisingly delicious.

The weekend has been a long one and as normally happens on such long and unplanned weekends, the rest of the days were not really remarkable, except, of course, a movie and some hopefully positive event at the family end, about the both of which, I will try to talk in further posts.

Gurubhai Gurubhai aavya che...

tha nahi hai...mera naam Gurukant Desai tha...hai...aur aage bhi rahega

 

 

As Mani Ratnam's Guru carries his swagger to the microphone and smirks at hearing of competition's efforts at undermining him, the audience does not know whether to empathize with him for the background that he has risen from, or to protest the absolute lack of respect the rich industrialist has shown for the law of the land.

 

Despite the dropped (once-too-often) hints of the movie's story being based on the life of Dhirubhai Ambani and of course, the several sequences of the movie mirroring memorable instances of the life of Reliance's founder, there is still quite a lot of originality of idea. Mani Ratnam makes sure that he does not fall prey to the biographical conundrum, but at the same time, he makes optimum use of the sheer magnetism of Dhirubhai's story.

 

From the protagonist venturing out to Turkey, learning new ideas and getting his self-confidence going, to his coming back and setting up his own business and earning for himself, the story of Guru is a journey across people who ditched him, people he ditched in return, and of course, the several innovative ideas that are used in both the processes. But to limit the scope of this movie to just that would be injustice to the little nuances that the director and the actor are able to bring to the story, refining it beyond just another dramatic rendition of an interesting sequence of events.

 

Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Madhavan, Vidya Balan, the indomitable Mithunda and of course, the talented support cast have made the life and times of Gurukant Desai stand out, almost to perfection. Most of the actors, Abhishek clearly towering above the others, have given a unique twist to the characters they play, infusing life into them and making sure that the viewer is clearly able to see the mental makeup of each of them.

 

Aishwarya is not just looking drop dead gorgeous (perhaps more than any of her previous performances, if that is humanly possible) but also manages to bring the right expressions on her face at the right time, and that, I am sure would be a welcome change for fanatics like me. Madhavan manages to portray a sincere and intelligent image, just right for the character he portrays, never trying to overshadow the chief protagonists of the movie and yet managing to make his presence felt.

 

And then there is Abhishek, the dynamite of this package. If Amitabh is to be believed, his performance has actually brought him to tears. Even if you can not be so superlative, you will nevertheless realize that this one has been one of Abhishek's (or any other actor's, for that matter) lifetime performances. Before moving on to the technical aspects of the movie, one must mention the one and only Mithunda, who keeps showing now and again why he is rated as one of the better actors  of the Indian movie industry and why he has all these acting awards in his kitty. From the mentor that he is to the young Guru, to the person who encourages his muse to take on the successful Gurubhai, to the aged guardian of an unwell Guru, he manages the transitions with characteristic ease and elan.

 

What does one say about the director of such a movie, except perhaps salute his genius and marvel at his knack of identifying the audience's nerve and hitting on it like no one has ever done before? Mani Ratnam, with this movie, has moved on from a mere story teller to someone who is much wiser to the needs of the industry. And industry it is that he is working in, which is apparent from the various interviews Mani gave to the media as a part of the movie's publicity. Clearly mentioning that the movie is not a biography and yet discussing the story's stark similarities to Dhirubhai's life (right to the episode of bribing a highly placed minister), Mani has proved his intellect beyond doubt.

 

Audiences across the country have enjoyed watching this movie and once they are done with drawing the parallels between Dhirubhai, Reliance, and the movie's story, they have praised the director/actors no end. The movie's credits notwithstanding, the important thing that has come to the forefront from this movie is the very idea that people have been talking about it. In addition to being a good omen for the fortunes of this movie and its stakeholders, it also augurs well for the Indian movie industry which can now consider another door open as far as finding ideas for making movies are concerned.

Adieu to my childhood, adieu to the child in me

As I left for the railway station, Pappumama's words kept ringing in my head (however melodramatic the ringing idea may seem), "kewal itna kahenge ki jis hak se nana nani ke samay aate the, usi hak se aate rehna" (all I will say is that keep coming with the same feeling of right as you used to during Nana-Nani's times). Will it ever be the same, I kept asking myself and despite the assurances I gave to a crying pappumama, I could not bring myself to believe that it will ever be anything close to what it was.

What it was, had been my childhood, the entirety of it. From the age of 4 when things had just started registering themselves till the age of 16 when I was just about ready to spread my wings and soar into the sky, my life was centered around Nana and Nani, or should I be saying that their lives were centered around me? The simplest and most complex of my wishes were commands for the two, who had taken up the responsibility of raising me, their grandson.

With Buxar not providing the best of facilities and institutions in terms of education, they (and of course Maa and Papa) believed that I would have a better chance at succeeding in life if I get a good start. And what a start it turned out to be! Right from making sure that I get the best of schooling to trying to inculcate the best of traits in me, Nana and Nani had not left any stone unturned. If I have reached any stage in life, I owe most, if not all of it to Nana and Nani.

When Nana passed away three years ago, I was working at Infy and it was about the time when I had started writing this blog. I still remember what I wrote here and the condition in which I was when I wrote it. It was the first death that I had seen up close and that too, of someone who was probably the dearest to me. All the same, things soon changed from the feeling of utter loss that I had started to feel to the absolute need of keeping up the facade for the sake of Nani. The facade soon turned into a notion of sanity and truth from the farce that it had been during its inception.

It was very clear, not just to me but to the entire family, that Nani deserved much more than a life tormented by memories alone. For me, in particular, it meant all the more to make sure that I was able to express to her all the love that I missed out on when Nana was still alive, having taken things for granted. Someone who used to cook snacks for me and keep it in the fridge everyday, long after I had left Patna for good, deserved all the expressions of love that I could manage and even more.

And so I was, still a child for her, reveling in sitting close to her, snuggling up to the warmth of her blessings, and generally chatting away with her as I probably wouldn't have done otherwise. Today, thus, seems an end of all that childishness. As I think back on the events of the past week, I know now that it is not going to be the same. I can no longer treat myself as the youngest son of the family. The relations will change, sooner or later, since the facade is no longer there and since reality, in its whole self, seems an illusion after all.