In the era of Warne, McGrath and Langer

As I read about the adieu of two fine bowlers and one wall-like batsman, I can’t but feel the pinch.

It was wonderful watching these men play for their baggy-green. Everytime they took to field, you expect nothing but the best out of them. Without taking too much to statistics, I’d honour and respect these men for what they contributed to the game of cricket- spirit, competition, class, discipline, friendliness, skill and roaring crowds.

It doesn’t take much more for any game to become popular than what these Ozzies gave. Their greatness makes me proud too, for I can tell about the cricketing greats to the following generations. Just like how I hear of Sunny Gavaskar, Malcom Marshall, Jeff Thompsom and Dennis L.

Thanks for playing your hearts out; mates. Every ball bowled spun us dreams and every run scored put us on the edge.

Try pronouncing it; coz you can’t be playing it!

In the morning today, I hoped to catch some news, like always, before I headed for office. Didn’t realise that I was in for something crazier.

You just try pronouncing this ‘Sepaktakraw’ because I bet you can’t play this game. Instead of watching news I watched this game in amazement for some 20 minutes;Thailand versus Vietnam; ladies match of Sepaktakraw. It is an incredibly amazing game of agility, flexibility and deception that requires skills of a Gymnast, the control of a footballer and probably the sight of badminton player.

The game is played with 3 a side and the court has similar dimensions as a badminton court. It can essentially be called foot volleyball since the ball is controlled by foot with a maximum 3 chances to put it in the opponents court, across the net.

Below you see a picture of a match from mens sepaktakraw, where one of the players is defending the smash by the opponent player.

Incredibly, this game ages back to the 15th century and is played with a cane ball weighing about 250 gms. It is quite popular in South-east Asia. I also remember watching this game in the final scenes of this animation movie… “The Road to El Dorado” !

Couldn’t have asked for a more interesting beginning to the day!
“SEPAKTAKRAW”, I just can’t get enough of trying to say it again and again and again….

Theatre: I am serious

When yesterday, Sarangi enacted a scene where she cried her heart out, everyone watched in amazement. I cannot deny a heavy-hearted feeling that I dealt with then, and even a few moments after; when her wails seemed to linger on.

We were sitting in a garden at Matunga, 5 of us. It was my first introduction to serious theatre genre. With only humour as a theme to act upon, I had always been on the lighter side of theatre. Even during college days my contribution to serious, glum, intense and non-humourous theatre was only limited to applauding as an audience.

The one thing that I learnt yesterday was that both humour and non-humour enactments were only ways of channeling our thoughts through a medium. The initial ‘hesitant me’ was soon taken over by an ‘involved me’. Soon I became the character and my dialogues became a way of my life for those 3 hours.

I still believe in the importance of ‘element of humour’ (because I’m a tough nut to crack) but how much I appreciate those intense moments when the chirping birds, the rustling leaves, the lovers sitting arms-in-arms, the begging young lads and the four of us stood silent momenatrily as all things came to a halt.

Yes, Sarangi was too good as she lay crying in the lap of serious theatre.

Cycling on…

My first bicycle may have been a tri-cycle but it has been a long journey from then on. I remember bicycling in the most odd conditions- in 101 degrees fever, pedalling to my school following the school rickshaw, going for my first ever vegetables shopping on it, riding the fast and pacy hawk during college days…..

And today, at 25, I’m still fond of bicycles. I own two of them and they’ve been good associates over a period of time.

From the ealrier Classic semi-circle handled Hero Cycles (and they’re still very popular) to the technologically advanced ones in the present day, there has been a quantum leap. I can still picture olden (or golden) days at Chandigarh, when the beautiful streets made for a lovable ride. The good thing is that such riding pleasures are still possible today in that town, courtsey good roads. I used to ride to school because of two things:
1. It gave me a lot of independence even at the age of 7
2. I could avoid some torture of sitting pillion to my mom who was still honing her two-wheeler driving skills

In the present times, Chandigarh has seen some of bicycling events. A file picture from one such fest in Nov 2006:

At present, biking for me has been a mix of pleasure and endurance. At a recent Mountain Biking event in Himachal Pradesh, I managed to finish the approx 700 kms race in 9 days. Not only this lead to soaring confidence but also an expanded view of the world.

Besides that, the Himalayas looked beautiful and I’m vying to go back. Kaaren, a doctor and a social worker from New-Zealand, who finished at the top in the women’s category has sent me this picture. It is from the same place which about 2 months ago was the mountain that was raided by some 60 riders from around the world. We bicycled on this now snow clad mountain. It is at an approximate height of 3200 meters above the sea level.

Bicycles are a wonderful gift of man; to man. In their softness lies a whole untouched world; which only its rider can explore.

The moot question is, “Are you ready”?

Cricket: crazy kiya re…

Played cricket in the morning today from 7 a.m. onwards. Cricket, it used to be life for me, not that it isn’t even now, but those were the days….

When everyone at home in the afternoon slept and up until my father was snoring, I’d sneak out into the sunny afternoon. Then it would be spending thought on the way I bowl, the way I bat and so on till everyone was let out of house by their respective parents, grundgingly ofcourse!

Cricket in those days for me could be played anywhere, just about anywhere. Be it tarmac hard surface or the muddy loosened soil, the game drew everyone out in the open. Today most of the stars from those times are gone. My personal favourites being, Mhd Azharuddin, Hansie Cronje, Allan Donald, Javagal Srinath and there’s a tall list. Today there are a lot of youngsters in the game especially in the Indian side. So who do children imitate these days?

In the Indian team I don’t find too many names that would find such a place. After all, imitation is a form of flattery, and for any player who is imitated he must be really motivating to watch.

I know of a young guy of 13 years age who would imitate a lot of pace-bowlers of the current times. He even does a right-handed Irfan Pathan stop-loop-deliver action. But then his favourites still remain the Brett Lees and the McGraths. These cricketers help ignite that passion which go a long way in shaping the mind of the young guns.

This is also the age of opportunities. You show what mettle you are made of and there are a thousand doors knocking for you. I certainly sometimes feel the guilt of having missed my opportunities with cricket. Donning the Indian colours is a dream that I was distantly seeing when I was 13 years. So when my coach prompted me to stay and keep my coaching going, I decided otherwise. When he asked me to get in touch with his big time friend Chetan Sharma (of the last-ball-six fame), I was taking it easy and prefered studies. When he certified me and asked me to show his letter of appreciation to Kapil Dev, I ducked just because of self-doubt (and the scary stories I’d heard of politics in cricket selections then).

Don’t quite know if things have seen a positive drift; favouring young courageous boys to shape up like men. I for one now just sit and enjoy the game with an occasional outing on a saturday, when I am reminded of - ‘those were the days….’