DarthVader’s blog

Last Sunday was Friends day. I had goone out to buy some icecream, when I saw this full bunch of kids celebreating Friends day. My mind suddenly took a detour, going back by almost 15 years, recollecting my college life. THose small things , long discussions in the canteen, the leg pulling.... especially during my post graduation years. We were  17 guys and there were 8-9 girls in our class . For the first 6 months there was hardly any communication between us, but when the seminars came up, then there was some initial conversation, and then all of us got together like a house fire. Kalyani - she was a drama and dance specialist, Shilpa, the studious kind, Sandeep the guy with BRAINS( since all of us were in  MCM, and we would get atleast 60-70%, all had brains, but he and Shilpa would hit the 80's consistently). Then came Poonam cute face, hardworking, but confused ... lost lost kind. Tanuja - The singer .. she had a drop dead smile and was one of the most talkative girls in the lot. Shobha, she used to put in a lot of effort in her studies but the results were not in keeping with her efforts. Always needed help in some of the topics like QT, programming, Sarita, the studious girl with a dash of humour. Among the other blokes, Rajesh Shastri- he was a fundu character. If ever Rajesh told a joke, then we would laugh twice - once for the joke and once for the seriousness in which he used to say it. Rajesh Pillai, TDH kind of guy, charming as always, Shivasubramanium Iyer, the genius, Raman, the chocolate hero ..... Even as I'm writing about each of them, thier faces keep flashing in my mind .. all those times .. when probably Friends day was not celebrate ... but then for us every day was Friendship day .. every moment was a special moment ..... moments that I cherish even today ..... How much I wish I could get back with them .... however our lives have taken us apart from each other ....

 My friends ....  this post is dedicated  for you wherever you are in this wide world ... Happy Friendship Day ......

These days, when you talk of cricket, IPL is the first event that comes into ones mind. The Indian Premier League - the one event which is supposed to revamp domestic cricket and take it a few steps higher. Whether that is actually the way it turns out, will be known once the tournament is over. But one thing cannot be denied, that the IPL has allowed youngsters - the Jadeja's, the Raina's the Kohli's, the Srivastava's (and many others), an opportunity to rub shoulders with, and learn from the best of world cricket. Something that their predecessors did not have, at their age. Yet there are some in the now famous Class of the 90's who are there in the IPL, fighting it out with kids who are younger, agile , fitter than them. For me that is the charm of IPL. It is remix cricket, with the charm of the old world.

Im talking about Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, VVS Laxman and Saurav Ganguly. Icons in Indian cricket, demigods in the test team, who find themselves out of the fast food version of the game for various reasons. Kumble for one will be lthe least affected of this quartet because he has already retired from ODI's. But Laxman, Ganguly, Dravid have thier own reasons to be there. For one, the trio are a purists delight. Patience, temperament are Dravid's weapons ( besides his technically correct batting); timing, and placement are Laxmans, while style and artistry is Ganguly's forte. It gladdens one when Virendra Sehwag blasts a length ball for a boundary, but doesnt quite give you the same kind of feeling, as when you watch Dravid executing a cover drive, or Laxman whipping one from outside off to squareleg, or say Ganguly essaying his silken touch square drives.

In this final installment, you will find some people who I have come across as a result of playing cricket matches ( official/unofficial). Most of the people mentioned in this post have been members of Team Ensim.

Ritesh Dhore - Tall wiry and dark, he has a lot of strength in his forearms. Those bowlers whome he has carted around, will be testimony to this. He played for Ensim in a firendly match against HP ( incidentally my first match as well). With his first ball, Ritesh hit the stumps. Then when he played for Ensim, against Indus , he hit the stumps with his first ball. In 2006, he took a break from cricket for his marriage. Guess what , when he returned for a match against Etechbooks, he hit the stumps with the first ball he bowled. I guess in five years I have yet to see another coincidence as this. A fine fielder at gully and point, Ritesh did not live up to the earlier promise he showed,as a batsman. The way he batted, I thought he could tear a bowling attack apart with the shots he played. Apart from the odd quickfire innings, he never reached his potential as a batsman. 26 in his first match ( against Indus), then a blitzing 28 not out off only 17 balls ( his first 5 scoring shots were 4,4,4,4,6). In between he had a blinder of a knock against Amdocs in another friendly match, where he belted 58 not out off 38 balls. From a seemingly hopeless position, he took Team Ensim to within 8 runs of victory. The opposing team accepted defeat, and their coach and support staff made a mention of the fact that the 14 fielded by Team Ensim that day were too much for their (Amdoc's) 22.

Rahul Deshpande - The wicketkeeper for Team Ensim, he is equally handy with the bat.Though not as efficient a batsman as he was when I started turning up for Team Ensim, Rahul is still very effective with the bat. Against Indus he was the batsman who lead a recovery from 24/5 to 125 all out. Rahul used the flick and the glance effectively then, and got to 31. It remains his highest score till date, but he has played some small and sweet innings over the last 5 seasons. Just last Saturday he got an unbeaten 25 against BrainVisa, and helped Team Ensim win by 14 runs. He has batted as an opener, as number 3,4,5,6, and even as a number 11.  He had to his credit a record number of stumpings , for an Ensim keeper in a match when he picked 5 stumpings against Patni in 2004. We went on to win that match. His record was subsequently bettered by Bimalesh a couple of years later when he picked 5 stumpings and effected 2 runouts against Kenati.

Prashant Bhide - Prashant became a member of team Ensim in 2005-2006, but he never got to play till Dec 2006. A medium pacer with a sling arm action, Prashant is also a handy middle order batsman. He made his debut against Zensar in the Ankur Jogalekar Memorial InterIT tournament ( though he should have played in the team much earlier than that ... in the MKM league the previous summer). In his second match he had a lovely partnership with Navid of 55 runs off only 37 balls. From 74/7 they took the score to 129, and almost won the match against HDFC. From then on, there has been no looking back. Time and again he has bowled some inspiring spells in the matches, only to go wicketless. Invariably if a catch is dropped, its off his bowling. I am the first on that list - 1 drop against Etech, one agsainst CapGemini, and one against BrainVisa. Someday I hope to set the record straight. Prashant is too good a bolwer to go wicketless for a long time. Some day a batsman will be fooled into playing an airy drive , and I hope I am at the other end to take the catch. Nothing will please me more than him getting his due as a bowler. He is one of the few bowlers to have consistently troubled Manoj, and sent his stuimps flying all over the park on numerous occasions. Not only his bowling, he is a good batmsan as well. And he scores pretty consistently.And to top it he has a safe pair of hands.

Venkatesh Yogeswaran - Venky's first over in an internal match resulted in a wicket - Me , caught by Manoj. After that he turned to spin, and played for Ensim from 2006 onwards. He made his debut in the match against Zensar ( just like Prashant did). He got 4 wickets , 2 in his first over, 2 in his last. In between these wickets, he was literally blasted all over the place. In the next match, HDFC needed 21 to win off 2 overs, and Manoj thrust the ball in Venky's hands. Poor chap crumbled under pressure, as the batsman Prashant Jadhav blasted 6,4,4,2,1,1,1 in the over, and virtually finished the match. From then on his bowling was not what it used to be. In betweeb he tried bowling medium pace, then switched back to spin. The following season he played against Infy and Capgemini and kept getting picked to the fence or over it. Till about a couple of matches back , he remained a fringe player - lots of potential, lots of commitment, but very little application. Over the last one month, we have played 3 matches, and Venky played very well. He scored runs sensibly when required, and fast when asked to, and also took wickets at important junctures. It was in the match against Capgemini, where Venky went in to bat with about 3 overs remaining , but didnt go for his shots till the last over.While bowling he wiped out the tail, and finished the match off. Then, in the match against BrainVisa, he played on one end, not losing his wicket, and getting the odd single to rotate the strike. His strike rate would have been in the 50's but that innings was equally important. And when he came on to bowl, the third wicket partnership was threatening to take the match away from us. That was when Venky came up with two sizzlers, whoch trapped both batsmen leg before. with figures of 4-0-19-3, he had bowled better than he ever had. He will rate this higher than the other two 3+ wicket hauls  he has got, but I tell you, there is more to come from this Chennai Veeran. Watch out this space.

Jivan Madtha - Jeeves , Baby Arnold as he is called by all of us is a smiling brute. He can hit the ball a long way off. Like Venky he has been coming into his own, over the last few matches. Jeeva doesnt need to clobber the ball, even if he just connects, thats curtains for the bowler. He has the ability to use the bat like a golf iron. Initially he used to go out and try to blast the bolwer from the very first ball, but off late he has been  very selective in his approach while batting. In the match with INCAT he clubbed two monstrous boundaries. the bowler would have been shaking all over, seeing those two strokes. Some day he is going to make a bowling attack cry on the ground. I just hope it happens soon.

Unnikrishnan Namboodiri -  If  I can write a whole laughathon on  Guru's antics, I can write a full book on Unnikrishnans batting. For now I will suffice with just a few lines. He has so much time to play his shots .. its almost as if he is bored while batting. Its fun to see him in full flow , when you are sitting in the pavillion. Its even better when you are at the nonstrikers end.When in touch Unni is like an A R rehman concert in its full flow, but when he is out of touch , or going though a lean patch, then he is worse than a cat on a hot tin roof. Im one of the few who have batted with him, when he was in nick.  For his timing and elegance (at that point) Unni would have got a perfect 10. A couple of seasons later though, he has lost his touch. Every batsman goes through it. Add to that , a knee injury which prevents him from running fast , and an Unni out of form looks like a disaster on two legs. I have seen him knocking the daylights out of  INCAT/TTIL once. Only Manoj can match that kind of powerful and effortless hitting. Here is praying for an encore from the touch artist. Mr.Elegance .. Team Ensim is waiting for a dash of your elegance. Hope you dont disappoint.

Madhavrao Nagahalla -  I knew Madhavrao from the time I was in CTS  ( on deputation from CMS). The first thing that strikes you about this tall man is his smile. The next thing that strikes you, is his absolutely friendly behaviour. Within 2 minutes you will be at ease when you are in a conversation with Madhavrao. What you dont realise is that this gentleman, all of 40 years generates more pace on lifeless cricket tracks at AFK and Deccan ( way back in 2004-2005), than the twenty something year olds in his team. I remember him bowling on a dull AFK track in 2003 December, and I asked him, How do you generate so much pace on such a dead track ?. His answer was - 'Bending my back. He was 36 then , and he could make the ball come up to waist height, where other bowlers could barely manage to get the ball upto knee level. Fortunately he has never clicked as a batsman against Team Ensim. But even his batting is as uncomplicated as his smile.

Anthony Francis -  My first impression, when I met Francis was almost the same as it was for say Manoj, and Madhavrao. Tall huge, awe-inspiring characters all of them .. and of them, if Manoj could impose his presence on anyone, so could this gentleman named Anthony Francis. Like Manoj he is a hard hitting batsman, and a medium pacer ( atleast he was .. till this season). The first time we met in a friendly cricket match between 5 Ensimites, 5 youngsters from Tata motors, and a full fledged TTIL team. He and Sreejith made an awesome opening pair for bowling. I still remember, when I went in to bat there were about 11 overs left for the game to complete. Soon enough this gentleman was thudding off toecrushers at me, which I could barely manage to keep out. A couple of them got me on the toes, but since I stood outside the legstump, the umpire did not give me out leg before. But it was tough facing this guy on his home track ( Telco Grounds). What took the pressure off me was the fact that Unni was playing 'the innings' of his life. He clubbed all the bolwers he could lay his hands on, while I just deadbatted everything that came to me. We remained unbeaten till the end, and added 81, but the value add for me was more than those 81 runs, or even the 7 runs that I scored that day. Never after that day was I overawed by any bowler, because I always felt, if I had taken care of Francis for a decent part of 11 overs, then I could handle anyone else. The next time we met, Frances blew us apart with his batting (37) and his bowling which saw us lose by 99 runs. We played, aftger that about a month or so back, and Francis the batsman was at his destructive best. 64 runs at a strike rate of close to 170 sealed our fate. A couple of weeks back we played again, and this time Manoj repaid him back in kind - 68 off 44 balls. I dont know why he has stopped bowling though. Tell you what - Manoj, Francis, Madhavrao the three of them would make fearsome trio of batsmen or bowlers, if they played in the same team. God help the opposition then.

A - Anirban Sarkar. No discussion can be complete without this powerhouse of energy. With all his shortcomings this bloke has bowled by far one of the most stingy and effective spells in Ensim cricket history. Figures of 3-0-7-0 , will please any bowler , especially if you have not given away any extras, nor have you been hit for a single boundary. On that day he was unplayable. He did bowl some more effective spells ( in terms of wickets) both before and after this one spell against Cognizant Technologies. This was way back in 2005-2006, when Team Ensim had reached the semi finals of this tournament, and Anirban was one of the stars of the match. As a person, a bit volatile, could be easily provoked, though I must say he did take the effort to mellow down later on. But the bloke had a lot of aggression in him .... if only ..... Anirban ended up as the leading wicket taker in the following tournament, and in the last match against Indus, he bowled another of his wonderful spells. The problem with the guy was, when he bowled his heart out, he never got wickets against his name, and when he invariably got wickets, he got plastered by all and sundry (atleast most of the times). A hard hitting batsman, he did show some glimpses of his power hitting in the nets, but that was it. I still remember, he had hit a six, and a four, of successive balls, and then blasted one in my direction - long off. One of the better catches I have taken in the nets, running forward, but my word, my hands hurt...He followed that up by getting out 5 more times, and of that on atleast 3 occasions he had deposited the ball over the ropes, before getting out, the very next ball. Lots of potoential, but not channelised properly.

B - Bimalesh Jha. Bimaleshda ... one word would suffice for him, Mr. Cool. A splendid wicket keeper, and a dependable middle order batsman, who could change gears almost at will. And he invariably scored at a strike rate of more than 100 almost everytime he batted. Let's see, 25(24b 1X4) , 59(40b 7X4, 1X6),11*(9b 2X4), 14(12b 2X4), 5(9b) , 28(26b 4X4), 26(24b 3X4), 24(18b 1X6, 1X4), 5(11b),16(21b 2X4). So on only 4 occasions(out of 10) has he scored at a strike rate of less than 100, which is fairly good for a middle order batsman, often entrusted with holding the innings together. I will remember him not only for his quicksilver wicketkeeping, or Formula 1 batting, but also for the genial and amicable person that he was. No hangups, no attitude, and he could tell the bluntest possible thing to a person in the politest manner. I rememer, a match against Kenati, where I was at deep squareleg, and Sameer Prabhune ( you will get him too in my list), at deep midwicket, and we saw about 3 boundaries go past us  through the gap. Next thing we know, Bimaleshda walking up to the bowler and telling him in chaste Bengali  - your field is set to Off , and you land up bowling on middle-legstump line - obviously its your funeral. Actually he had had a word to the bowler before the over, and also while he was being carted all over Deccan. When the guy refused to see the point, Bims gave it to him nice and proper, but in his mother tongue. As a keeper, Bims had the knack of pulling off stumpings which would leave even the bowler zapped ( and happy of course). I havent seen him drop many ( actually any) behind the stumps, and to add to that he has also taken a catch in the outfield, in one match. Bims has to his credit stumpings off Manodeep, Manoj(both bowling fast-medium/ fast ,mind you) besides some off Gary (slow medium), and some off spinners. As a keeper ( and as a cricketer), he was always alert in the field.Someone who had a shrewd head on his shoulders . If it had not been for the fact that he had to leave Ensim, Bimaleshda would have been the ideal choice for captaincy of the cricket team.

G - Girish Mujumdar. Also known as Gary to us. My first meeting with him was in the frist cricket meeting I attended for Ensim, barely a month or so after I had joined. Didnt know that he was the captan of the team, at that time. This guy is a living example of adaptibility, and the motto - Team before self. Not afraid to take responsibility, Gary won my respect when the team required an opener, and he volunteered for the job. This after he had failed to open his account in the 2 matches we played that season. His reasoning when I asked him, was pretty simple. 'I dont have anything to lose you see'. Not that he scored runs the next match, he was out to a lucky catch taken at mid off, but when he hit his first boundary the next match, everyone was applauding. He started out as a medium fast bowler, in the league of Venkatesh Prasad. If there was anyone who could bowl 6 slow balls in an over with varying speed, it had to be good ole Gary. Couple of seasons ago, he had to keep wickets against HDFC , when Bims took a hit above his eye. Gary pulled off a stumping and a catch down the legside. Since then he is the reserve wicket keeper for Team Ensim.

M - Manoj Phadke. Anyone who watches him bat will have the feeling that he uses a railway sleeper instead of a bat. He's hit some huge sixes (actually 21 of them so far). Ask him though, and he will tell you that nothing gladdens him more than the sight of a batsman's stump sent cartwheeling by one of his thunderbolts. He has a knack of getting early wickets ( 60-70% of the times he does pick up the first wicket to fall). And if he lands up taking more than one, then God help the batting team. The same holds true with his batting - if he is on song, then the only thing the fielding team has to think of is how soon the match will get over, so that they are spared the hammering. He used to bat in the middle order, till he decided to open the innnings and since then he has gone on from strength to strength.

           Cricket for him is a passion. But besides that, Manoj is a nice person, understanding friend, always ready to pull someones legs. Only one person has successfully manage to give him a dose of his own medicine at times , and that is Guru. He gives people a long rope, not only in the cricket team, but also in work. Its up to the person to understand that he is being given a chance, and make the most of it. I still remember, that in a friendly match against Amdocs, I had asked him ' Kya Big B ... 11 number pe daal diya idhar bhi ?", whne he was drawing the batting lineup. His response shocked me .... "Open karegaa ... chal jaa open kar". Well not only me , it would have shocked any number 11. I had expected him to send me at say number 8,9,10 .. and here I was .. opening the innings. We lost the match by 8 runs, and all through the evening I was down because Ritesh had played such a blinder (58* off 38 balls) that he deserved to finish the game on the winning side. I took it on me , becuase I scored 4 runs from 20 odd balls, and the first 8 overs yielded only 9 runs. I decided to quit, till he called me up  later and said that Amdocs accepted defeat (since they had fielded 2 full fledged teams, where as we had only 14 players who had knocked the daylights out of them. The rules of the match were such that all the batsmen bat, and all the bolwers bowl. Since Amdocs had come with 2 different teams, they had ther regular bowlers bolwing all the overs, and all their regular batsmen batting.). The following week when I told him I wanted to quit because I was not doing the team any good either as a batsman or as a fielder or as a bowler, Manoj's response was You were not sent to make runs, but to prevent early wickets. You did your job. Who cares a damn about how much you scored. The first 10 overs saw only 1 wicket fall ... that provided the others a platform to hammer... so thats it".

              A very good reader of people, and their abilities, its impossible to ever take him for a ride. And if someone does, then God help him. He has more faith in my abilities than me, and at times I am surprised at how I manage to do every task that he assigns to me. I was good at numbers, so I got a task related to mathematical calculations and percentages, when I first came into QA. Then I was asked to write a technical paper, because I was good at writitng. Pretty soon I was organizing events etc .... all of which, I was  doing for the first time and the end result was fantastic. He has helped me in regaining my self confidence, which is why there will always be a special amount of respect for this gentleman. He is probably the elder brother who I had always wanted, but never had. I do now. And most of us blokes in the cricket team, and in Ensim feel the same amount of respect for him. The Almighty doesnt make people like him frequently.

A - For Aniket Samudra ( For Voxians , our good ole Dunken Monkey). Guys is extremely talented. Ace fotographer, a blabber mouth ( he's absolutely enjoyable though I must say.) He can talk on almost any topic, but if you want to hear him speak, then just trigger his F button - The F1 circuit and watch this guy go off like a bazooka .....
B - Bhushan Joshi - He's a smart chappie, soft spoken ( but he can give it back to anyone with interest if needled).. always smiling. A decent cricketer, a friend to have. Good with the camera, still better when it comes to dealing with verbal fusillades, and a decent sense of humor.
K - Kapil Kurlekar - His tongue has more barbs than a barbed wire fence, and he knows it, we know it, but stil hes another one of those blokes you would want around you, if only for his whacky ( and at times outright rude ) sense of humor. He lightens up the atmosphere around with his comments. Hes a good cricketer, the captain of the Ensim cricket team. The combination of  hard rum with a dash of lime, whisky, and tequila thrown in .. ON the Rocks .....
M - M for MadMax - aka M Kumaraguru, the superstar of a blockbuster called Team Ensim. He can pull the carpet from under any feet, including the Darth Vader himself. No party or gathering, or even a discussion can be complete without him throwing his weight around - literally and vocally. Fun guy to be around. Re-entered into the Ensim cricket team ( if I say made a comeback, I'll become Dart Boarder instead of Darth Vader). Guys hits sixes as easliy as Tiger Woods would have a swing with his golf iron. Friend to have, no hangups, absolute professional, and a kewl team man. A combination of Antiquity with the effect of a McDowells. Mad Max .. u Rock....
Thats as far as the first set of my friends circle goes ..... many more diamonds in this lot ..... watch this space for more.........

       Finally after 7 matches of effort, Team Ensim won the 8th match of the season. Actually speaking, all the hard work put in the last 3 matches paid off  - and how spectacularly.....

        Manoj and Guru played their part in the beginning. I guess with the two of them around, Team Ensim's opening woes have been resolved to a large extent. Over this season they have  had partnerships of 68,8,9,7,44,61,12,48. By far the most stable of opening pairs over the last 5 seasons. This time round both  were in awesome form clubbing 48 in just 25 balls. Better still was the rearguard action effected  first by Vijay and  Jeevan, and then by Sameer, Rahul and Venky. I guess that got us to a defendable total given the state of the wicket. If those 50 odd runs would not have been there, the match was gone.

            Another commendable fact was that all bowlers bowled to get the opposition out, and not just restrict them ..... Vijay bowled quite a few deliveries which were wicket taking, same with Kapil in his first spell, as was also the case with Prashant and Manoj. Venky gave his deliveries a bit of extra loop, which had me and Unni sitting in the pavillion scared a bit. If any of the batsmen had got stuck into him, the poor chap would have been a sitting duck . But fortunately, his confidence while batting rubbed off, and he bowled a pretty bamboozling spell. The best part of the bowling attack was that Manoj, Kapil, Vijay and Venky all got a couple of wickets in one over , and that laid CapGemini low.

          Over the last year I have seen this team rise from the ashes .. literally like the Phoenix. After the first tournament our morale was hit .. and all of us, the bench included had to do some serious thinking about how to go  about this tournament. We began badly, but then if you give 43 runs to the opposition, then you only have yourself to blame. We lost that match, but atleast crossed the psychological barrier of 100, which some gent had mentioned in no polite terms - ' This team cannot score 100 runs ... cannot last out 25 overs ... I think we should play a 15 over competition'.

          That statement to me was like a slap on my face, and I guess it would have been the same for everyone else in the team. Maybe ... a fairly distant maybe ..... that galvanized the team to action. If you ask me, I would say No ... and a big vociferous NO it will be.  Team Ensim did well to pick itself up, because the boys believed in themselves. They knew they had it in them to compete and then win .... We came close to  victory in our second league match( that too against the title holders), but an umpiring glitch robbed us. So when this victory came , all of us knew what it had taken. Furthermore, there was a sentimental angle. Some of us would not be around when the next tournament began, so it was only fitting that we won this match, for them, for us, for all involved.

      Basically it involved ownership, and that was what it took for this win. If in the earlier matches Prashant ( against Ideas), and Vijay & Sameer (against Incat) took responsibility to see the team through, in this match everyone contributed - if not with the bat with the ball, if not with the ball, then through their fielding. Everyone put 120% to ensure this win. And it had been some time coming. The gent who made the statement of the team not being able to last out 25 overs, or score 100 runs would now be wiping the egg off his face ( and there would be too much of egg to wash off incidentally).

            For a team which struggled to bowl out the opposition in earlier matches, this tournament has been a revelation of sorts. 9 against Syntel , 10 against Idea Cellular, 6 against Incat, and 10 against CapGemini.Comparative figures in the previous tournament 6 against CapGemini, 4 against BMC, 2 against Zensar and 5 against Infosys. So the wicket count doubled, and not only that, the fielding went up by a few notches, the batting became more responsible and so on. Compare scores of 103/10, 125/6, 81/10 and 73/10 , with 118/10, 142/10,167/9, 126/10 and you will know the difference. Some outstanding slip catches, some fine catches by PRashant in the outfield, a few direct hits, some fine returns causing run outs .. al this has not come in a jiffy. People have put in effort at the nets, the commmitments, the dedication was all there, it was only a matterv of channelling the potential to fulfill a cause. And that has been done .. in style and panache.

          I stand vindicated today(not only as a member of the team, but also an employee of the company). This team could do it. It was only a matter of time before this happen, and all doubting thomases can take a walk to which ever hell hole they wish to. For now .... I wish to bask in the glory, and sheen of this victory. Till the next one  comes that is ... and knowing this team, it cannot be far off. And of course ... then .... some team( make that teams) shall face the wrath of Darth Vader's light saber ...... AMEN....... not only his .. but the wrath of Team Ensim as a whole ..... the Darth Vaders of this world may come and go, the game goes on.... the Team lives on ..... so till next time .... May the Force be with the Team .... This is Darth Vader signing off .....

Thats the advice, Graeme Hick, Mathew Hayden, Younis Khan, and now Misbah-ul-haq will be giving to all batsmen who are having an extended loss of form.If we look at it as a statistic, then what they are saying is true. Over the years, these very batsmen are testament to this fact. Matthew Hayden made his ODI debut in 1993 ( when ODI cricket was still in whites). He made his test debut a year later against South Africa. Somewhere down the line he disappeared in the Australian assembly lines, after a few failures. Next  heard, he was on the plane to India in 2001. without a major score to his credit. He came up trumps when along with Adam Gilchrist he not only resurrected the Australian innings but took them to an eventually victorious score. That he managed to get to 119 was another thing, but the innings was a typical lull before the storm he woud raise. 97 and 69 followed in Calcutta, followed by 203 and 35 in Chennai, sa him hit 549 runs in 3 tests. Originally a part of the test squad, Hayden was asked to stay back for the one dayers, and he did not manage badly in them either, starting off with a 99 in the first ODI in Kotla. From then on there was no looking back for this burly opener as he went on to demolish many more bowling attacks for tons of runs. Misbah Ul Haq is the newst to join this 'elite' group. Out of favour with the PCB selectors this batsman found himself on the sidelines after a couple of series. IN spite of scoring runs in the domestic circuit, others were preferred over him. Till a few months back, when his T20 exploits caught the selectors eye. Drafted into the test side,  for the series against India, this gentleman grabbed the opportunity(and the Indian bowling) with both hands getting scores of 82,45, and as I write this blog , a collossal 161 not out.

The first time I was buying batting gloves for myself. Felt nice. Myself and Aniket, he decided to come in at the last moment. I said , better two than one, and both of us ventured off. Little did we realise what was in store for us.

We took off on my bike. It was about a 15 minute ride to Deccan, Sunny Sports, where we decided to buy my gloves from. Till we reached there the sky was generally clear. By the time we reached, the sky had become alamrmingly dark and cloudy. With not a shred of waterproof clothing over us, both were scared with the prospect of getting caught in a thundershower. Sooner than later, the rain started coming down, as we scampered to Tilak Sports ( a contingency plan) , instead of going across to Champion sports, which was just across the road, but by the time we would have reached the store, both of us would have been as wet as Bollywood heroines do, in a rain song - not that either of us was the traditional hunk/stud. Not even any of the aunties would have cast a second look on two drenched roly poly gentlemen ,looking like lost lambs in a jungle.Well we went into the store and rain started pounding down on the streets with a fury hitherto unknown. A quick 15 minutes later we walked out, as I was not satisfied with the gloves shown to me by the vendor. The rain showed no signs of abating. So we had to wait for some time ( in the process of which both got a bit of treatment from the Rain Gods), and then cross over to Champion Sports. It took me about 15 mniutes to select a pair of batting gloves, and then we started on our journey back, hoping that the rains do not lash us in their fury.Therein lay the first twist in the tale.

On our return back we were passing through Karve Road. I was driving the bike, and we jumped a red light. Coincidentally on our way to Deccan, Aniket was driving the bike and, I had advised him not to jump the same signal). Actually the bloke in front of us, started off, and then nearly crashed onto another lady driving a Kinetic. His initial action convinced me that there were no cops, but I was wrong. After about 10 minutes, they confiscated my driving license, and asked me to deposit the fine at Police Ground (Shivajinagar). By now the rain was coming at a decent force, and needless to say both Aniket and me were drenched. The drive to Shivajinagar was no less discomforting , thanks to the rain. All this time though Aniket and me were busy feating our eyes on all the raindrenched beauties who were passing by.  According to Aniket ( and me too) , a girl looks absolutely stunning in the rainy season, more so if she is a bit drenched. As far as I am concerned, a girl looks very fresh if she is drenched, especially with long black hair, which is wet. Mosoons not only provide the a fresh new look to nature, but even typically plane Janes even look absolute stunners when given an artistic makeover by the rains. So the actual PYTs (pretty young things) look smouldering hot, to say the least.

          We reached Police Ground, and by a stroke of luck managed to contact the concerned inspector, just as he was leaving for his next round. Collecting the reciept, we went back to Deccan Police Chowky ( instead of  Prabhat Police Chowky). By then the rain had stopped , and our clothes looked drier than they actually were.Correcting our mistake we visited the traffic inspector in Prabhat Police Chowky and he returned my license. Heaving a sigh of relief, we started our journey back to office. We had said in office, that we would be back in an hour, but it had been two hours since we had started. So we drove back to office as fast as we could under the given situation. On the way, another bloke who was driving by happened to ask us a question  - Aaho hey tumcha shirt waterproof aahe kaa .. and we replied - "Naahiye ... tey paavsaane bhijlay"

      Reaching Nal Stop, we had to wait at the signal, firstly because of the rush of vehicles, and secondly because our experience with the cops had left me a lot wiser ( poorer in the pocket though).I was busy looking around, for cops, when Aniket whisperedto me, to check out the girl in front of us. Not that I had not noticed her, but she was travelling with her 'boyfriend' , so I had disregarded. Now that Aniket asked me to, I checked her out, and I must say  the situation was absolutely smashing. The girl was wearing a red T-shirt, under a doctors overcoat. It was wet, so we could see the  red Tshirt under the coat. The T shirt itself had wrapped itself around her curvaceous body like a sheath of flowers. And she was sitting in such a way ( the bike was one of the snazzy sports bikes which have a slighlty raised rear end)bending forward, that the Tshirt moved above her jeans a mite bit, to expose her waist. I dont know what aniket was thinking , but at that moment I ( and I guess Aniket too, though he may not admit so ) had a fervent wish to transform into that T-shirt she was wearing. Her skin was fair, damp due to the rains, slightly brownish tresses, left free, also touched up by the rain, making her smouldering hot.......We kept looking at her for quite some time. The traffic moved on, and we kept up pace with the girl (without her boyfriend realising it). As we passed her across the overbridge, we had a quick glimpse at her face, and by Jove was she beautiful. She was awesome ....... I would have had a fever for 365 days a year if only to be treated by her. Aniket echoed my sentiments, as we drove by.

   We reached office in another fifteen minutes, and in the parking lot we just went over all the events that had taken place over the last two hours. In the end, if we hadnt been caught by the cops, we would have been in office by about 4:30 , in which case we would have definitely missed all that Nature had to offer to us in the extra one hour. Those 7 minutes at the Nal Stop signal made our evening, and all that we went through earlier seemed worth it.

India v/s England series will always remain special for me. Whatever interest I have in the game of cricket was initiated by one of the series played by the two teams way back in the 1970's (1974 if I remember). Those days we stayed in a chawl in a place called Raviwar Peth, and since it was a 2 room shanty we had no access to television, which in those days was more of a luxury item. However my mother used to take us ( me and my brother Ramesh) to our cousin's place in Rasta Peth. They were cricket freaks, and we used to spend the whole day watching the matches of that series. About 8 years later , we had seperated from the joint family, and were living in a remote place called Vadgaon Sheri. Well, we had a television there, and one of the first series watched was the England India series in 1982. This time round I had my dad for company. If it was my mother who initiated me into the game ( of course unknowingly), it was my father who actually encouraged me to play it.

        Coming back to the main story, India in England has always been a story of trials and tribulation for our batsmen. Invariably in most of the series ( except for the 1986 one), starting from 1982, the tests have followed a familiar pattern - India beaten black and blue in the first test, somehow managing to stay alive in the second, and coming close to winning the third ( or atleast accquiting themselves well ). If there was a fourth test match, then it would invariably turn out to be a draw. In 1982 the Indian team led by Sunil Gavaskar was dismissed for a paltry 128 runs at Lords. Of these 48 came of Gavaskar's bat, and 41 from Kapil Dev, who was to stamp his authority on the series, as an allrounder. This after England had amassed a small matter of 433 runs. Following on, India fared much better with Dilip Vengsarkar (157) hitting his second century in Lords and Kapil Dev clobbering a blistering 89 of just 55 balls. India got 369 in their second innings leaving England to get 65 to win, which the hosts achived without much ado.

History repeated itself when India visited England in 1990, and Graham Gooch made most of a life on 36, in the first test at Birmingham. He went on to score 333, and England won the match inspite of brave innigs from Ravi Shastri (100), Azhar(121), Kapil Dev( 77 inclusive of four succesive sixes off Eddie Hemmings)

           I watched Cheeni Kum yesterday, with a very good friend. To say the movie is awesome is an understatment. Its simply tooo good to be missed. In fact Im planning to watch it again. The plot is fairly simple - A 60 something chef, Budhadev Gupta (Amitabh Bacchan) runs an authentic Indian food restaurant in London. He is as meticulous as he is passionate  about his profession. According to him a dish prepared, is a work of art. He takes the minutest of pains ( and also makes sure that his staff does that too) to ensure that his customers are satisfied to the brim when they visit his restaurant. From proper pronunciation of Indian dishes, to their preparation, he pulls up his staff for all their lapses, in a set of hillarious sequences. In Buddha's life there are only two emotional anchors, his nagging mother (the chemistry between the on screen mother-son duo is fantastic), and 10 year old 'sexy' his neighbour ( the chemistry between these two characters  is by far the best.), suffering from blood cancer.

           One day one of his customers, 34 year old Neena(Tabu) visits his restaurant and returns a dish - Hyderabadi Zaafraani Pulao , with a complaint that it tastes sweet. Buddha, who treats his work even more seriously than his own life,  takes as an affront to this. He confronts Neena and challenges her to get the recipe of  real Hyderabadi Zafraani Pulao. A few days later Neena prepares the pulao and sends it across to him. After tasting it Buddha realises the goof-up ( again another fantastic sequence where he reprimands the culprit). He rehearses apologising to Neena, and ends up bumping into her on his way to work, on a rainy day ( This conversation is too good mannnn... kudos to the writer). Gradually they keep meeting regularly in a sequence of interesting coincidences. Both develop a deep bonding and even though they don't admit it, they fall in love. He proposes to Neena, and takes her home to introduce her to his mother.

     Just as they reach home, Budha sees 'sexy' being taken away to hospital as her condition is critical. Buddha leaves for the hospital, and Neena visits his mother. They are just starting a conversation, when Neena gets a call from India that her father( Paresh Rawal) has been hospitalised after complaining of chest pain. What happens next .. ? Does 'sexy' survive ?  Can Buddha and Neena get married ? Will Neena's father who is a full 6 years younger to Buddha agreee to the marriage ?  Im not going to give any spoilers. Watch the movie foks... its worth it.