Back to the Future: India's 20-20 team selection.

With the probables list out, the selectors' message is clear. The modus operandi is to let the cubs become lions. Also it helped that the three big guns namely Sachin, Rahul and saurav decided to let this event and therefore this form of cricket pass. Given the schedule that the men in blue are to endure, it would augur well for a few more names to voluntarily step down. What with the english tour, Aussies and Pakistan touring India before India go down under to try and regain the Gavaskar-Border trophy. If my memory serves me faithfully, the Proteas tour India sometime in March. There are a few bowlers who are very vulnerable to injuries like Zaheer, Patel and Sreeshant. Also there are a few cricketers who are just not suited for this form of the game like VVS ,Powar and Jaffer. There are others who may find the most abbreviated form compatible to their brand of cricket like Dinesh Mongia and Suresh Raina but i feel these cricketers have been guilty for not capitalising on the opportunities given to them.
so here's my 15 for the 20-20 world championships:
Yuvraj Singh(captain)
Virender Sehwag(VC)
Mohammad Kaif
MS Dhoni
Dinesh Karthik
Irfan Pathan
Yusuf Pathan
Manoj Tiwary
Ajit Agarkar
Ishant Sharma
Cheteshwar Pujara
Harbhajan Singh
Robin Uthappa
Rohit Sharma
R P Singh

Now Piyush chawla does merit a place in this team, but then I somehow feel he's too young and still needs some time to work on the nuances of leg spin. Expectations are really high and the 18 year old looks like he is made of sterner stuff. But he does need to be protected from 20-20. It may prove to be a blunder if he's taken for a few runs as it inevitably is in a 20-20 game, and if it affects his psyche as an attacking bowler. We've seen Bhajji going thro those phases but he's overcome those phases because he's a more experienced pro. And this tournament may just give him and other discards like Pathan and Kaif a shot in the arm.

I have a dream...

My sincere apologies to Martin Luther King Jr., but I have a new dream every night. As a matter of fact, I enjoy a variegated buffet of dreams. For starters, I dream of becoming a movie critic for MAD magazine or a caption writer for Maxims. Moving on to the main course, I dream of finding an artist who is willing to collaborate with yours truly on a graphic novel that I have been working on. Finally the desserts, a few years of pedagogy in the quaint surroundings of a boarding school in the hills, far from the madding crowd. When I feel like it, I offer myself the luxuries of getting inebriated with a toast of vacations; wine tasting all over Europe, skiing in the alps, rafting in the Himalayas, scuba diving in the great barrier reef, an African safari, kayaking in the Amazon, cruising in the Caribbean with a Cuban cigar in one hand and cocktail in another ….
And then suddenly I wake up and wish I could simply invent a pill for the indigestion that is reality…

Blogoholics anonymous!

Sums up my day!

Matilda: Dahl at his best.

" It's a funny thing about mothers and fathers. Even when their own child is the most disgusting little blister you could ever imagine, they still think that he or she is wonderful"
I was so mesmerised by the first lines that I could'nt put the book down. What followed was a fascinating adventure of Matilda, easily the most endearing five year old you'll ever find in literature. The story unfolds with the readers being introduced to the Wormwood household who are queer folks.
"Occasionally one comes across parents who show no interest at all in their children, and these of course are far worse than the doting ones". Words that seem to be spoken by one very experienced school teacher. The Wormwoods' indifference towards their five year old daughter turns to plain old underestimation when she starts showing signs of being a precocious child. As an act of defiance, Matilda enrols as a member at the public library, and despite being forbidden and even admonished for reading books, she finds solace in the literary works of Charles Dickens, John Steinbeck, Earnest Hemingway and George Orwell to name a few. These books had a profound effect on the child as she is magically teleported to different lands where she meets new people and discovers new cultures.
By the time she is admitted to school, She's quite in a league of her own. But her extraordinary abilities do not get her into the good books of the head mistress, Miss Trunchbull.
"The Trunchbull," as she is known, is a vicious evil monster.She punishes students who give incorrect answers in class or who talk back to her by forcing them to undergo some form of physical torture. The old-school pedagogue, literally and figuratively speaking will go to any extent of intimidation to enforce discipline. Often the head mistress crosses the acceptable line of punishment.
However Matilda finds an ally in Miss Honey, her kind and soft spoken teacher.Dahl successfully adds interesting twists to this simple tale and unveils a supernatural facet of the protagonist towards the end of the story. Though one may find his excesses with his character sketches too difficult to accept, what I admire is the way he addressed some very serious issues like child abuse and domestic violence and its effect on the psyche of a child without ever compromising on humour. Easily one of his best works and most certainly worth its money, this one ought to grace your bookshelves even if you remotely have an affinity for childrens literature.
Having read this book cover to cover, I've decided that if I ever venture out to become a writer, I'll author a childrens book. And it'll be nothing like the works of Mr.CS Lewis or Mr. Tolkein, who with all due respects are great writers. Their works in Matildas opinion have one failing, in that they lack sufficient "funny bits".
So my book will be full of funny limericks like this one,
" An epicure dining at Crewe,
Found a rather large mouse in his stew,
Cried the waiter," Dont shout
And Wave it about
Or the rest will be wanting one too."

Home Improvement

The latest acquisition happens to be a digicam. Been fiddling around with it eversince.Just a couple of shots i clicked from our living room. Do check out all the paintings on the walls. Mom's masterpieces, all of them. Many more to follow.

New Kid on the Blog !

Its been a year since i wrote my first blog entry in livejournal, which incidently was my first attempt at blogging. I run four blogs now, and will probably contribute to a couple more blogs, but i still remain the infant i was a year back as far as blogging is concerned. As a writer( or a person who makes an attempt at writing...bleh!), me still clinging on to my brainchildren protectively, so hardly made any progress in this one year.My first entry remains one of my personal favourites, and here it is...

As I write this entry, I shred the last vestiges of trepidation. i finally overcome my inhibitions, without shame or remorse.Contrary to what the name of the blog would blatantly suggest( the name of the blog being "writers blog"), I am not much of a writer but if you probably decipher the pun, you'd figure out that I do have my sympathies for the someone who claims to be a writer.

I think Benjamin Franklin said something to the effect that an individual should always attempt to do something that'll get people to write about his endeavours, or write something about what he does. Well, I never really found this quote inspiring( which is self explanatory given the fact that I could'nt quote Franklin verbatim), though my years in Manipal (what I believe was my creative playground) taught me that the second half of Franklin's quote was the better half…err, more attainable.

Coming now to my engineering years, my exploits in Manipal are what legends are made of (note the sarcasm!). Till date the only test I've taken whose results bear an A+ is my blood test. Also the faculty of E&C in MIT Manipal are known to preserve my answer scripts for the sheer entertainment it provides them. So I am somehow convinced that my memoirs should make an interesting reading.

Sometimes, situations in life leave me at a complete loss for words. Adjectives, alliterations, exclamations, superlatives et al, all absconding me and leaving me vocally challenged. It would take a wizard to conjure a few words within my comprehension to facilitate the description of my thoughts but owing to my feeble powers of narrative, I’d still imagine the accounts of my experiences to be grossly inadequate in terms of closeness to reality. Given my shortcomings, I endeavour to entice the reader with experiences that totally changed my outlook towards life. If however, my entries turnout to be very sporadic, I implore the readers to decipher the pun in the name of the blog.

Welcome to my world !

Chura liya....

27th June 2007 happens to be the 68th birth anniversary of the late R.D Burman or Pancham da as he was affectionally called by his collegues and friends.The title for this entry shares it name with what remains my favourite Bollywood number. The title, however is also apt because of what I discovered a few months back. Today may not be the best day for an expose, it being his birth anniversary. What prompted me to post this entry today was this tribute in the newspaper.
When Bhumikak wrote "bringing world music to our ears through hindi films, words are'nt enough to describe what burman did", I interpreted it literally.I do realise that a statement like this would be nothing short of blasphamy. Afterall, Pancham da occupies a sacroscant space in the heart of every hindi-movie lover.I am not trying to question the talents of the maestro,I only doubt his creativity as a music composer. It turns out some of his best numbers were "inspired" from the works of artists whose background varied from the Americas to the far east.
I turned out to be a huge RD Burman fan after the release of what is now remembered as his swansong - "1942,A Love Story". It piqued my curiosity as it did for many who had had the better fortune of growing up to his melodious tunes in the 70's and in the following decades.I followed his works after his unfortunate demise in 1994 and was forced to listen to his works in the reverse order of chronology.His works were path breaking compared to all his contemporaries. But as I was exposed to western pop in my adolescent years, I realised Burman owed much to the likes of ABBA, Chubby Checker, Elvis, The Carpenters, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Cliff Richards and Frank Sinatra to name a few. My own inclination towards jazz music more recently however led me to this serendipitous discovery, which really blew my mind away. Readers please check out Demis Roussos’ "Say you love me" and you'll know what I mean.Roussos' third album, released in 1974, inspired Sholay's "Mehbooba Mehbooba", which was released the following year. Till I discovered this fact, I'd listed down this song as my favourite bollywood track as it was so ahead of its times. I'd imagined that it as a song inspired many a musician to explore new realms of creativity. Suddenly I felt a little betrayed.
Now as I look at it dispassionately and objectively, it did probably spawn a breed of pseudos with great musical tastes to try out a hand at composing music.Afterall, We must remember "Akele Hum Akele Tum", Anu Malik's magnum opus till then as probably bollywoods best tribute to Wham,Deep Purple and the Godfather. Burman however should be remembered as an individual who revolutionised the Indian music industry by his sheer talents.By featuring in Jose Flores' Pantera, he did put India on the world music map. Creativity or the lack of it notwithstanding, I'd still list down the folling as my favourites:
1. Monica, oh my darling (caravan)
2. Hare Krishna Hare Ram ( movie of the same name)
3. Chingari koi badkhe ( amar prem)
4. Kati patang ( movie of the same name)
5. Chura liya ( yaadon ki baarat)
6. Tere bina zindagi se koi ( andhi)
7. Tumse naraz nahi ( masoom)
If any of these have been "inspired", i'd just overlook any such info and say "Ignorance is bliss".