The Best captains we never had !

In Nirmals Shekhar's article here
Shekhar talks about the "Sheikh of Tweak" the best captain that Australia never had.


In this year's edition of IPL, we saw the bottom 2 of the table from last year's IPL, face each other in the final, a gala event which had the showdown of the captains of the respective teams.

The End

This is the end
Beautiful friend
This is the end
My only friend, the end

Of our elaborate plans, the end
Of everything that stands, the end
No safety or surprise, the end
I'll never look into your eyes...again

Can you picture what will be
So limitless and free
Desperately in need...of some...stranger's hand
In a...desperate land

Lost in a Roman...wilderness of pain
And all the children are insane
All the children are insane
Waiting for the summer rain, yeah

There's danger on the edge of town
Ride the King's highway, baby
Weird scenes inside the gold mine
Ride the highway west, baby

Ride the snake, ride the snake
To the lake, the ancient lake, baby
The snake is long, seven miles
Ride the snake...he's old, and his skin is cold

The west is the best
The west is the best
Get here, and we'll do the rest

The blue bus is callin' us
The blue bus is callin' us
Driver, where you taken' us

The killer awoke before dawn, he put his boots on
He took a face from the ancient gallery
And he walked on down the hall
He went into the room where his sister lived, and...then he
Paid a visit to his brother, and then he
He walked on down the hall, and
And he came to a door...and he looked inside
Father, yes son, I want to kill you
Mother...I want to...f**k you

C'mon baby, take a chance with us
C'mon baby, take a chance with us
C'mon baby, take a chance with us
And meet me at the back of the blue bus
Doin' a blue rock
On a blue bus
Doin' a blue rock
C'mon, yeah

Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill

This is the end
Beautiful friend
This is the end
My only friend, the end

It hurts to set you free
But you'll never follow me
The end of laughter and soft lies
The end of nights we tried to die

This is the end

Splash!

We the people...

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/lankan-army-releases-image-of-prabhakarans-corpse/462412/

12:01 PM me: http://bancomicsans.com/statistics.html
12:07 PM bedabrata.das: pffft bloody americans !
12:08 PM have you noticed they arent good at any sport other than the ones invented by themselves?
12:22 PM me: :)
12:25 PM bedabrata.das: and i also get the feeling Prabhakaran was killed a week ago
but they held the news back just because of the elections
me: in India ?
bedabrata.das: yeh
me: dont think so but possible
12:26 PM bedabrata.das: its actually a good thing DMK won.
me: the Sri lankan govt would do anything to claim THAT
bedabrata.das: they wouldnt have taken the news too well had they lost
me: why later
after all it finally vindicates 26 years of fighting
bedabrata.das: well once they've achieved it few days wouldn't hurt
12:27 PM i wonder how
me: at least this onslaught
bedabrata.das: today their president says the war is against the LTTE and not Tamils
me: yeah sure
the history behind the LTTE somehow doesnt agree
12:28 PM bedabrata.das: i think Muralitharan is the only Tamilian having it a little easy in Sri Lanka at the moment
me: the sinhalese are to tamils there what the Paki's were to Bangladesh, are to us
bedabrata.das: yeah
me: they cant but opress them
12:29 PM but then that certainly doesnt justify the means used
bedabrata.das: yeah
the ideology is never the problem
me: its like a punjab only it'll be internalised sooner
bedabrata.das: the method is
me: cos the fights been on for 25 odd years
12:30 PM bedabrata.das: except for maybe Jihad
me: most ppl just want it to end
bedabrata.das: all bias apart
yeah
come to think of it the LTTE has exploited the Tamils far more than the Sinhalese in the last 2 decades at least
12:31 PM me: true
but again its like jihad, the ideology is so drilled in that the pain inflicted is looked at as sacrifice or heroism
bedabrata.das: yeah
12:32 PM but Lankan Tamils are very different to the ones in our country
they're far more fierce and gutsy too actually
i had one in my class
Rajiv his name was
12:33 PM and he considered himself a first among equals
back in Chennai
me: yeah i guess u can say that of those muslims who fled to pakisatn
or remined
remained
bedabrata.das: nah with Muslims
you see
its their country in Pakistan
so obviously they'll act smart
12:34 PM here they do anything like that they have a Bombay or a Godhra
me: yeah but that the hindu's start :)
12:35 PM in any case if the way hindus in pak are treated is a benchmark
we are more than a democratic country
bedabrata.das: of course
i think 'tolerant' and not 'secular' should be the word!
12:36 PM Diya-Doel's dad once told us this story about a Hindu woman who lives in Bangladesh
12:37 PM she is a relative of a friend of his
me: fundamentalism in any form is no way forward
bedabrata.das: its difficult to draw the line with fundamentalism
12:38 PM i think its an inappropriate word to connote such a meaning
me: unfortunately for us indoctrination is always easier to fall prey to
12:39 PM than being liberal humanists or "tolerant" as u said
bedabrata.das: yeah
12:40 PM so as I was saying
this woman's son has Muslim friends
they get beef from the market and ask the woman to cook it...
12:41 PM saying that she is a really good cook and her beef preparations taste very good
and she does it out of fear
12:42 PM me: thats the way it is
bedabrata.das: and thats the way it shall be
:P
12:45 PM me: yeah as long as we (read I) sit in AC cubicles and discuss world politics and its dynamics minutes before i go to a swank cafeteria and have lunch :-|
12:46 PM bedabrata.das: and before i realize i've spent a perfectly good hour being a Bong taking into account how much I have to study
so ok!
i shall run along
me: :) ATB
12:47 PM bedabrata.das: and try to memorise the Companies Act
because thats what they give you marks for
your memory
me: keep at it, thats the way to go
bedabrata.das: and its ability to store exceedingly mundane material
12:48 PM me: no wonder then the % of ppl who clear it :)
:P
bedabrata.das: yeah
12:49 PM only reason i'm going to pass is because i cant bring myself to do this again
haha
me: keep taxing your grey cells
bedabrata.das: okk
12:50 PM me: its the ONLY time so say bom bhole and just do the frind
grind
bedabrata.das: yeh
good day!
me: yeah tc

A discussion i had with my cousin who grew up in Chennai and has pretty strong opinions on things.
Amongst other things he was preparing for his CA finals when we had this chat and i was just finding my feet in my new job ...
Talk about Bongs liking a good "adda"....

Ponder.

Silence it seems !

Nicely written !

Have started reading Cricinfo blogs oftener

Must be high drama really.

Finally my first IPL post

Disclaimer: All nicknames taken from fakeiplplayer whose nomenclature i loved.

Better late than never seems to be the phrase which suits the first thread of thought that comes to mind.
Okay here goes, this IPL was always being played on a sticky wicket what with the IPL Vs Elections 2009, Modi Vs RCB, Modi Vs Chidambaram. Modi and Modi. Never mind ...

Anyways, once the din had faded, we found ourselves in Safrica which was the best solution available. And it proves, so far to be a great venue per se for the competition. Now to the games, the first game saw Mumbai tame Chennai somehow, and the Bevdaas beat the Champions. As expected with a team which would fail to beat China's U-16 cricket team, KKR, to whom my natural loyalty is pledged proved all and sundry right. What with 4 captain theories, and "Dada is the team" statements and unpleasant press conferences (which always seems to happen to Sourav:)); the team lands in Safrica plays practice games where the Lordie's XI defeats Skippers XI. And lo! the next day Lordie is sacked from captaincy yet again and McCullum appointed captain. Which makes abs sense for the franchise looking forward, but could have been managed differently like the Bevdaas or my now home team DC handled it. But thats how it always happens for Lordie. In any case, the focus (mine ie) shifted from the KKR matches to the DD and DC matches.

In fact my semi line up would be DD, DC, MI, CSK. They seem to have the players and the belief to make it there. Not that the Shiekh of Tweak has fallen short of tricks. The WSOP finalist shows with every passing game that he does have Aces up his sleeve, neatly hidden.

The Chargers make up for the disappointment of KKR, as also did to some extent the infamous or famous Fake IPL Player blog which made some sense out of the charade that KKR puts up.

In any case this is just the general diary, The formal FIR should follow soon. As i speak though the Knights have folded for 139, viz as good as giving a walkover. What with Peter ka beta getting Skipper first ball! This is as good a roller coaster that we would have had had it been in played in India. There's just one question i want to ask Bhookha Naan, why pay millions to Mortaza if you intend to play Laxmi Ratan Shukla for all games.

Never mind, no point seeking sense from the insane and inane, asinine and the fatuous.

Catch you with more soon...

The auto driver

It was probably the Navami night last year (2008 ie). The 9th day of Navratri, and the penultimate for the Durga Puja celebrations. We(Buns, ganguly and moi ) had gone to the puja, we generally go to; The Hyderabad Bangali Samitee. Anyways, it was a pleasant evening/night and my cousin was singing, so that made it all the more fun to be there!

In due course the evening panned and the events that happened were more or less as predicted, only we ended up staying back a li'l longer than we generally do, thanks to Bagchida. Ganguly however retired a li'l after midnight feigning work the next day. Bagchida is a "walking talking bongophile" one of the most entertaining people at least here in hyderabad; An array of anecdotes and loads of imagination along with a strong command over almost everything bangla, sums him up. And that to his credit makes him great company. So we "adda marofied" till around three, and left just about the time the place started looking deserted.

Since it had been raining in the evening and due to various other permutations and combinations, i hadn't come in my bike as usual. (We had set off as 3, and taking the bike was out of the question)
At this point both Bagchida and me were ruing the fact that we would miss the opportunity to drive back home at that time in night/morning. And also fearing the auto drivers' demands, which could touch the sky given the time. Besides Taranaka is not quite a favoured destination for autos in hyd (though i fail to see why). Well after talking to a few auto drivers whose reactions ranged from: simply looked away in reprimand, glared back, thundered 300 bucks, and finally please sit.
So we sat.
We lit cigarettes out of compulsion and went back to chatting, when i first heard the auto driver croon MLTR's "Paint my Love", intrigued we gradually lulled into silence, and as if in understanding of our appreciation the auto driver raised his pitch, and began belting Bryan Adams and Dire Straits (if my memory doesnt fail me). As we asked him about his love for english songs (auto drivers seldom listen to english music leave aside singing it) and he explained that he had a passion for all kinds of music and the silence of the night helped him remeber the english lyrics.

The guy talked about politics: local, national and global, he talked about world peace and as we entered the tranquility of Osmania University asked us to sing a song which he was sure we would know, we agreed to oblige and he asked us to sing "Krishna" by Colonial Cousins. We obliged as promised and came to a halt by the time we had drifted to some other song. The guy took the standard fare: half return as it is called here viz 1and a half times the reading on the metre. As we asked him why he drove an auto when he appeared educated and informed and could easily get a job. He gave us an answer that will perhaps stay forever.
He said "I graduated from Osmania University in 1978 (suggesting that he could have easily had a job as graduates were hard to find then), but i'm a Leo by birth and cannot work under anybody. I own the auto and drive at my free will when i feel like. That way everything i need is more or less fulfilled. He also read newspapers in 3 languages everyday !"

I was amazed at the plain spoken gentleman who spoke the words. It was not rehearsed; it sounded as impromptu as anything else and he left us all thinking about ourselves.
Guess he gave dignity of labour a whole new dimension for me.