T20 World Cup: New Zealand Crush India As If Fulfilling The Hot Favorites’ Death Wish!

For the second time in a row India captain Virat Kohli lost the toss, this time to New Zealand captain Kane Williamson and the latter unhesitatingly decided bowl first. In Dubai, the venue of this crucial encounter, in all the six matches played so far the chasing teams have won all the time. If that was not enough Kohli took Ishan Kishan in place of a supposedly injured Suryakumar Yadav and allowed him to open which was somewhat justified as left-right combination. But the biggest shocker came when Rohit Sharma, one of the most successful openers for India in all the formats of cricket, did not come in to open. As I mentioned in an earlier post the dropping of a sound opener Shikhar Dhawan who performed very well in the IPL-2021 was a huge mistake and his absence is now felt at every moment apart from disturbing the right-left combination. Then, the non-bowling, the supposedly non-fit Hardik Pandya still remained in the team. The team lost its balance completely and that effectively ended the match for India, now almost out of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup-2021.

 

Ishan failed after hitting a four; KL Rahul, relentlessly being promoted as an opener while he ideally remains India’s best No.3 batsman in all formats, failed again; Rohit Sharma, probably unable to adjust to his first-time-in-life No.3 position, failed to push on after hitting a few lovely shots; and captain Virat Kohli added to the drama created by him and his advisers by failing too, reducing the hot favorites of the tournament to 48/4 in the 11^th over. It was now up to Pant and Pandya to do all the repair work. Pandya fully vindicated his captain’s faith in him by becoming the second highest scorer of the innings at 23 off only 24 balls and the highest scorer being Ravindra Jadeja at 26 in only 19 balls, and thanks to them India brilliantly managed to cross the daunting 100-run mark, setting an equally impeccable target of 111 to get for New Zealand. Wow! What an achievement! Earlier, Kohli took in Shardul Thakur too in place of Bhuvaneshwar Kumar to strengthen India’s bowling attack, apparently unable to understand the fact that India actually needed at least 10 bowlers to get New Zealand all out, if the wicket-keeper could be spared the trouble.

 

However, the Kiwis were in a merciless mood to fulfill India’s death wish, because they fully realized and were sympathetic that their beloved fellow cricketers have been suffering from IPL-fatigue, bubble-fatigue and all the fatigues imposed on them by an equally merciless cricket board. Therefore, they did not tire the Indians much by sparing the labor of more than 5 overs at 111/2 , winning by  8 wickets. Now the ideal moves would be for Kohli to prepone his stepping down from T20 captaincy, for Ravi Shastri to resign and for the mentor-Dhoni to mentor the team to a healthy mindset of returning home sooner than later.  Anyway, fans need not be discouraged, because the Blues though in the blues can still make it by defeating Afghanistan, Scotland and Namibia along with scoring tons of runs to improve their net run-rate and Afghanistan beating New Zealand. Even otherwise, fans can still watch their superstars in the flowing commercials without minding their absence in the field.

 

In other matches South Africa managed to beat Sri Lanka at the death yesterday to keep them in contention for a semi-final berth in Group-1. England, the bulldozer in Group-1, kept on their act by crushing Australia in the other match yesterday amassing 6 points from 3 matches and almost sealing their semi-final berth. Tomorrow's match of England Vs Sri Lanka and the and the double header on November 2 including the match of South Africa Vs Bangladesh are set to clear up the Group-1 prospects a lot. Earlier today, Afghanistan registered their second huge victory by routing Namibia by 62 runs rising to the second position with 4 points and a very healthy net run-rate.

Movie Dybbuk: A Standard Indian Horror Flick With An Interesting Plot!

The latest Hindi movie to premier on Amazon Prime Video, on 29^th October 2021 to be exact, is titled Dybbuk directed by Jay K who also directed the original Malayalam movie Ezra(2017) and started shooting this Hindi remake in 2019 and due to the pandemic could not plan a theatrical release, selling the rights to Amazon and premiered as an Amazon Original Movie. It is a horror movie with some elements of suspense and an interesting plot. Perhaps for photographic reasons the shooting was done in Mauritius apart from a little scene in Mumbai. The leads are Emraan Hashmi and Nikita Dutta. The film has all the elements of a horror flick like an overly loud background score, jump-cut scares, moving figures behind your back, an ugly face in the mirror or in the almirah and quite a few scary scenes that turn to be humorous inadvertently. However, the movie a bit better fare than the traditional Ramsay Brothers type or the Vikram Bhatt kind of horror thanks to its interesting plot involving a Jewish community in Mauritius and their folklore, faiths and occult practices.

 

The movie begins with a death of a Jewish dignitary whose house was full of antique pieces, and then to a murder of the assistant of an antique shop while being attracted to a mysterious-looking box that was procured from the dignitary’s house. As he opens the box a poltergeist kind of shaking happens all around inside the closed shop and he was supposedly tossed against the walls and killed. The police began investigations, but the process stopped abruptly as the focus shifted to the lead couple who had to move bag and baggage from Mumbai to Mauritius as the husband was transferred to handle a sensitive nuclear-waste factory there for two years. They were given a huge bungalow by the company. The bored wife who was thinking of taking up interior designing of the bungalow visited the same antique shop and was fascinated by the antique box. She brings it home, opens it and things begin to happen. As is usual in all supernatural films the husband refuses to believe till he starts experiencing the strange happenings himself.

 

The plot is interesting because, at least for me personally, I never remember a Jewish community being the focus of a Hindi movie along with hearing Hebrew or Yiddish dialogues, mercifully with subtitles, and knowing about their folklore. The word ‘dybbuk’ in Hebrew or in Yiddish means a devil or an evil spirit, and the Jews had an occult practice of imprisoning such spirits in boxes for various reasons and objectives. That the antique box had something evil inside was obvious from the beginning, and so the element of suspense about it was missing. Yet, the plot still had a lot to build a scary atmosphere, suspense and tension.

 

The movie’s screenplay made a mess of the potential despite the director having the first-hand experience of creating a tense atmosphere in the original Malayalam film that he himself directed. It is unknown if had to compromise with the demands of a Hindi filmy formula apart from shifting the sets to picturesque Mauritius. The making of the movie looks like an assembled computer as if the all the parts, that is to say, scenes were created separately and then assembled together due to which the natural flow of storytelling is missing that miserably failed to make the scares and tension effective. Normally an able hero with a sexy image Emraan Hashmi looks exactly like a hired actor who just goes on doing the chores assigned to him for his pay package. Almost the same applies to the heroine Nikita Dutta, although she is not in the same bracket of celebrities like Emraan.

 

The police investigation could’ve been continued in the proper manner to link it to the happenings with the couple in a parallel treatment which would surely have added to the build-up of suspense and tension. As we have hinted all the characters, except perhaps the roles of the Father and the Rabbi, have just been pieces to be joined together by an editor, not the director. Superficial scares are also unnecessarily built like the stiff-faced housemaid who finally turned to be just an ordinary human being. There are indeed some scary moments, but they just end then and there letting the film meander aimlessly for some time till the time of creating more scares comes. When the final twist in the tale comes it is too late, because all the previous connecting scenes are not shown fully, hiding the crucial signs or signals which amounts to a case of cheating the audience. Cheating is a part of filmmaking for various reasons, but it should not be too obvious and deliberately motivated.

 

A flashback is imposed to explain or justify the spirit and that turns out to be a clichéd romantic story ending in gore and horror. I feel it is an opportunity lost to make a positive addition to create a ‘different’ horror genre in India. On the positive side the movie is technically sound in photography, the frames and the camera movements. The performances cannot be called powerful, because the screenplay did not allow it. Still, the movie does not bore you to leave it midway, it compels you to go through the entire length expecting something more, and finally you’d feel it was okay for a one-time view. The reviews seem to be too harsh, perhaps because most of the critics had seen the original film and felt utterly disappointed as the same director let them down in this remake. As is the general rule one cannot ever expect sequels or prequels or remakes to match the originals, barring a few rare exceptions in world cinema. So then, the horror genre remains mostly where it has always been in India. Alas!

T20 World Cup: Who Will Be The Top Two Teams In Group-2?

Pakistan have almost sealed their berth in the semi-finals as probably the top team in Group-2 winning three out of three matches and notching up 6 points so far. What is more significant is the fact that Pakistan have crossed the main hurdles by defeating the toughest opponents in the group, namely India, New Zealand and Afghanistan. Now they have only two teams to overcome, considered to be weaker rivals. Of course, Namibia, creating another historic chapter by winning their first ever Super-stage match against Scotland, and Scotland are not pushovers. However, considering the roaring form Pakistan are in now winning against those two teams is not likely to be very tough, and in that scenario they will have 10 points—the maximum any team can manage in the group. The Pakistan team has arguably the best bowling attack of the tournament—combining pace and spin—and a very balanced team with someone up or down the line to finish the game. Captain Babar and wicket-keeper batsman Rizwan have shown consistency among quite a few others.

 

Afghanistan earlier trounced Scotland in the way of a champion and gave a tremendous fight against Pakistan taking their 5 wickets with 24 needed from the last two overs. But for finisher Asif Ali’s four sixes in the penultimate over the match could have gone in any direction. Their decision to bat first after winning the toss was probably due to Rashid and Nabi, but they could’ve done better by putting Pakistan in as the latter has not been tested so far in their ability in setting a target in the sluggish pitches. Unfortunately, Afghanistan could not manage to preserve one of their best strike bowlers for the death. The team has arguably the best spinners of the tournament in Rashid Khan and Nabi with the latter almost taking the game away from Pakistan in the 18^th over. Rashid Khan is in the seventh heaven capturing his 100^th scalp in 53 T20I matches. Already with 2 points Afghanistan have at the moment two tough opponents in the form of India and New Zealand apart from Namibia. With their spirit and talent they can really hope to get to 6 points to remain in contention. Their thundering six-hitting prowess has also become an important factor in their favor.

 

For India it is a must-win situation tomorrow against New Zealand; they have to win at least three out of the four remaining matches to get to 6 points to be in contention for a semi-final berth. The depth of their batting is yet to be tested, and Rohit, Rahul and Virat must fire against New Zealand—a very tough opponent with quality fast bowlers and super fieldsmen. As per the first match against Pakistan the Indian bowling attack seems the weakest in the group and there are several niggles in the team selection. Bhuvaneshwar Kumar has not shown his strike-bowler abilities either in the IPL-2021 or in the crucial match against Pakistan and he is a prime candidate for being replaced by Shardul Thakur who can also bat. Captain Virat Kohli’s obsession with Hardik Pandya is another hassle, because Pandya has not been bowling at all in the previous matches and his batting of late is also not promising. That puts the team in a crisis of not being able to find a sixth bowler in need. Ideally, Pandya should be replaced by Ravichandran Ashwin who has shown his prowess as a genuine all-rounder recently. But reports suggest that the same eleven will be fielded tomorrow. If India manage to beat New Zealand the future course would be relatively easy, at least to get 6 points.

 

New Zealand must be boiling hot and gearing up for a much-needed win after losing narrowly to Pakistan. If they manage to beat India with their ferocious pace attack then the future course would also be easier for them to notch up the minimum of 6 points to remain in contention. They would hope to overpower Scotland and Namibia, and even Afghanistan if they handle their spin attack successfully. New Zealand beat India in the famous World Cup-2019 semi-final and lost the final against England under controversial circumstances. Their super fielding is an additional asset for all their rivals concerned.

 

Therefore, we can imagine a situation of three teams of Group-2 ending up with 6 points each where the net run-rate would come into consideration to decide the second top team from the group, provided Namibia and Scotland do not cause any upsets. Tomorrow’s India Vs New Zealand encounter is perfectly setup with both teams facing a desperate must-win situation. As per the pitch behavior in UAE we can possibly expect a low-scoring cliffhanger or a one-sided affair if the Indian batting potential gets real with their spinners finding the deadly turn or if New Zealand fast bowlers manage to destroy Indian batting. As usual, the toss would be crucial as the dew factor would come into operation later in the night. For commercial reasons India figure in the second slot in all matches, but the toss and the dew factor may finish off commerce totally if India are unable to make it to the semi-finals.

 

Interestingly, in any world cricket tournament the India Vs Pakistan match is always of tremendous importance for the Indian fans. If India beat Pakistan in the round-robin then the fans feel as if the final has been won and if the opposite happens like in this tournament, although it was for the first time in one-day and T20 World Cups, most of the fans stop caring who goes on to win the final and the Cup. Nevertheless, if India manage to get to the semi-final stage the fans, barring the bigots, are expected to come roaring back to support their team.

Fight Racism Unitedly, No Knee-Jerk Kockish Controversy Please!

It is very unfortunate that the enlivening ICC Men’s T20 World Cup-2021 should get affected by a largely unnecessary controversy. Did any team ever in international tournaments object to singing their national anthem or any team object to their rivals singing their national anthems? Definitely not, it’s being a celebrated customs in almost all such tournaments across various fields of sports. Therefore, the ‘personal choice’ syndrome never comes up here. Then, why this syndrome has to come up in ‘taking the knee’ for a most noble cause? In our school days our teachers ordered us to kneel down on innumerable occasions, obviously to correct our faults, which is why we are better human beings today. Did we even think of exercising our democratic choice on those occasions? The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, started in 2013 ‘as a decentralized political and social movement protesting against incidents of police brutality and all racially motivated violence against black people’ the world over is fully justified. The movement had its ups and downs, but after the brutal police killing of a black protester George Floyd in the US in 2020 it has gained international prominence, and Michael Holding, ex-cricketer of the West Indies, took painstaking efforts to bring it in the cricket arena—unfortunately this gentleman’s game had seen the ugly expressions of racism on quite a few occasions in international cricket, not only involving the blacks, but also the so-called ‘colored’ players.

 

We have seen in most of the matches played so far in this World Cup teams taking the knee before the start to express their solidarity against the evil of racism. The ICC had not issued any official directive for this gesture, but made it voluntary for the teams. Cricket South Africa (CSA), the country that was boycotted by the international community for years for their notorious policy of the Apartheid, has been exemplary in making the gesture compulsory for their team before the start. So, what’s wrong in following that noble gesture and how does the question of personal choice come in such internationally relevant issues? Team India had also taken the gesture as per instructions from their cricket board, and England also expressed the gesture in their match against the West Indies like most other teams.

 

The noble gesture was also made during South Africa’s starter match against Australia; of course, not involving all the players. But suddenly and most significantly as the encounter was against the West Indies, South Africa’s key opener and wicket-keeper Quinton de Kock made an issue out it, calling his refusal to bend his knee due to personal reasons. Not only did he refuse to make the gesture, but also withdrew from the match in the last minutes which was confirmed by the CSA. This is extremely disturbing, because de Kock has also been a key cricketer in the Indian Premiere League (IPL) for years, playing for the Mumbai Indians (the franchise may release him soon due to the impact) that included a lot of black and ‘colored’ players; in fact, India is a country of colored people only. So then, why de Kock never objected to playing continuously with them, as an integral team member? If his ‘personal choice’ is not to support the BLM movement then it stinks of racism, or else de Kock is perhaps a staunch supporter of the ‘white supremacy’ theory so bullishly propounded by the ex-President of USA, Donald Trump. We condemn his action in the World Cup which may ultimately adversely impact his entire cricket career, and South Africa, obviously, would never want to lose such a key player. The CSA has to give the final verdict on the future of Quinton de Kock even as some media reports suggest the player has withdrawn from the entire tournament while others fear that this must the last time we had seen de Kock on the field.

 

We hope for an amicable solution for all the stakeholders concerned holding the noble cause high, respecting the ideals and the movement of Nelson Mandela and suitable punishment for anyone guilty of being a racist. The ICC, in fact, should take this opportunity to make ‘taking the knee’ gesture mandatory for all participating teams. The Council righteously bans any kind of political or religious gestures, but in upholding this noble cause there cannot be any hesitation or the principles of democratic choices.

 

In the match against the struggling West Indies where the controversy had erupted South Africa won easily, without de Kock. In other matches Afghanistan in Group-2 registered a huge victory over the topper of the qualifying Group-B Scotland, even bigger than that of Pakistan's over India. Pakistan continue their exciting run of victories by defeating New Zealand, although they had to struggle to chase a low target of 135 runs. England in Group-1 also have kept their ominous bulldozing act in continuation by routing Bangladesh. Both Pakistan and England are apparently enjoying their toss-luck so far as per the behaviour of the slow pitches and the dew factor later for the bowling side. After creating history by making it to the Super-12 stage for the first time, defeating a well-placed Ireland, Namibia won their first match of the World Cup against Scotland with relative comfort in Group-2.

Pakistan Seem Better Prepared For This Rare Encounter As They Rout India By 10 Wickets!

A determined and aggressive Pakistan registered their first ever win against India in the ICC one-day and T20 World Cups after 12 losses suffered in consecutive tournaments. The first match Super-12 in Group-2 that promised to be a super Sunday thriller turned out to be a one-sided dampener with a listless Indian attack on the field as Pakistan beat India by 10 wickets. They overhauled India’s rather tricky target of 152 quite easily with all wickets standing and more than two overs remaining. However, the story of the encounter did have a very different beginning to which India could not reciprocate in the most fitting way.

 

In the midst of the syndrome of ‘chasing is the key for victory’ India captain Virat Kohli lost the toss to Pakistan captain Babar Azam and was put into bat as expected. Then the drama just began on the field: the fury of young leftie fast bowler Shaheen Afridi devouring Rohit Sharma in his first over and KL Rahul in his second over; the Indian captain mixing anchoring with selective aggression to prevent this team collapsing like the West Indies the previous day; the extra efforts being put in by the Pakistan fielders, normally considered a weaker fielding side; the explosive innings of Rishabh Pant (39) including two consecutive one-handed sixes off pacer Hasan Ali; with six wickets in hand in the 17^th over the third Pakistan pacer Rauf holding Kohli and Jadeja back; Kohli notching up a precious half century; a still-charged Afridi capturing Virat (57) in his last and the match’s penultimate over; and the visibly palpable tension both in the players out on the field and among the fans of the two sides thronging the stadium in Dubai. It was perhaps apparent that any total above 100 should be enough to put pressure on the opponents. However, in a typical and a rare-variety-now India Vs Pakistan encounter anything was possible. And of course, living through the glorious elements of the game and the taut excitement is more than enough for the viewers out there or before the television/computer/mobile screens, whoever happens to win.

 

Shaheen Afridi 3/31

Finally, India achieved the total of 150 runs in the penultimate ball of the last over and one run in the last ball with Bhuvaneshwar Kumar taking the charge of batting out the over. As if achieving 150 runs were a milestone it was now up to Pakistan to handle the tension and pressure of the classic encounter. Their bowlers and fielders did a fair job and not a single catch was dropped, and now the focus was on the Pak batsmen. Would Virat’s team be able to reciprocate with an equally charged-up performance on the field was the question in the minds of all spectators, commentators and others. India have opted for Bhuvi in place of spinner R Ashwin which meant India had two spinners, Jadeja and Chakravarthy, as against Pakistan’s three spinners. How would this decision turn out to be was another question. However, in the Indian innings Pakistan’s three pacers captured 6 out of the 7 Indian wickets to fall.

 

Bhuvaneshwar Kumar opened the Indian innings and Pak openers Rizwan-Babar notched up 10 runs and then 9 runs in the second over bowled by Mohammed Shami. Why Jasprit Bumrah was not preferred to open the attack came out as another question the answer to which would obviously come later. Bumrah did indeed bowl the third over of the Pak innings, but somewhat the expected Indian aggression got affected a little adversely perhaps. And the Pakistan openers succeeded in crafting a sound start as against India’s laborious one which had the potential of becoming the turning point of the match. After 10 overs Pakistan were nicely placed at 71/0 while India were in a precarious situation at 60/3. Pakistan seemed to be better prepared for this typically rare encounter much better than India, despite the former’s absence in the IPL-2021.

 

And yes indeed, it turned out to be much more than a turning point with the Pakistan openers going on undaunted crossing the 100-run partnership mark. Surprisingly, all the elements we talked about in the beginning went missing in the Indian attack. Not a single India bowler being able to apply enough pressure on the openers as the desperation for a wicket grew overpowering. We can say India missed a third spinner, but the two spinners available also failed to impress. The ‘dew factor’ also seemed to disadvantage India bowlers. The question of continuing with the non-bowling Pandya would be an important question, because technically R Ashwin is a better batsman too. Then the somewhat lesser aggression demonstrated by the Indians on the field, as we mentioned earlier, is another crucial territory to ponder upon. The only palpable tension combined with growing frustration was now visible only in the Indian supporters and fans. Anyway, as we again mentioned in the beginning, it was a treat to all cricket lovers, and the Indian supporters should not feel depressed as to which team finally won, we must give credit to the incredible performances of Rizwan (79 not out) and Babar (68 not out). This is Pakistan’s first ever 10-wicket win in ICC tournament matches. However, the fact remains that the apparently very easy roller-coaster 10-wicket victory for Pakistan turned out to be an anti-climax.

 

In other Super-12 Group-1 matches Australia labored to a win in the last over in a low-scoring match against South Africa; in the second, one of the lowest-scoring matches, the West Indies demonstrated one of their uniquely unpredictable collapses folding up for just 54 runs all-out against England, and the latter obviously won it comfortably enough; and Sri Lanka launched a glorious chase of 172 runs to beat Bangladesh. So far, in all the four Super-12 matches the chasing side won. Sluggish pitches and the dew factor later in the night combined with this trend is becoming a big concern for the World Cup tournament—winning the toss seemingly becoming the ‘winning’ factor.

ICC Cricket T20 World Cup-2021: The Big One Tomorrow As Super-12 Rivalries Start!

The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup-2021 started in Oman and UAE with an upset in Group-B qualifiers when Scotland delivered a shock defeat to Bangladesh on 17^th October and the qualifier stage concluded on 22^nd October with another history-making upset as Namibia edged out the test-playing nation Ireland and entered the Super-12 stage for the first time. So, we have now qualifiers: from Group-A—the topper Sri Lanka enters the Group-1 and runners-up Namibia in Group-2 of the Super-12 while the Group-B topper Scotland enters Group-2 and the runners-up Bangladesh in Group-1 of the Super-12 stage. The six teams in each group will play matches between themselves on a round-robin basis and the two top teams of each group will sail into the semi-finals. The highly competitive and tough rivalries of the Super-12 stage starts today with Australia meeting South Africa in the first match in Abu Dhabi and England facing defending champions the West Indies in the second match in Dubai. Notwithstanding the slower pitches of UAE we can expect class cricket and absolute thrillers even though some matches may turn out to be low-scoring with the spinners dominating the proceedings.

 

All attention in the subcontinent is naturally focused of the big encounter tomorrow, Sunday the 24^thOctober, between archrivals India and Pakistan—the kind of encounters that have become rare as the bilateral ties between the two countries have been going through continuous tension since the Mumbai terror attack in 2008 and later the terror attack on the Sri Lanka team in Pakistan in 2009 after which all international cricket matches stopped to be staged in Pakistan and the country was rejected as a co-host with India in the ICC Cricket World Cup-2011. Since then all bilateral cricket is no longer there except for a brief tour when the BCCI invited Pakistan to play three ODIs and two T20Is in India in 2012. Pakistan players were also not allowed to participate in the IPL bonanza.

 

It is natural for most of the Indians to have reservations against Pakistan playing cricket with India due to the former’s endless duplicity and repeated terror attacks on the Indian soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir. However, we must take this in the spirit of inclusive sports in the form of World Cricket tournaments like in other international events like the Olympics. For their consolation the bilateral cricket has been completely suspended since 2012 even as genuine cricket lovers are really missing the classic encounters on the field. Therefore, the World Cricket tournaments offer us rare opportunities to have the privilege of watching the archrivals in full display. For that matter, Afghanistan, a participant, too was taken over by a terrorist group and that cannot lead to the team’s rejection in the same spirit of sports. Personally speaking human beings in all the countries are similar in sentiments and affection while the policies are made by only a few of the strategic rulers. For example, when the Taliban took over Afghanistan my first thought was about the safety of the lovely and sweet-behaved popular players like Rashid Khan in cricket and many others.

 

Coming back to the India-Pakistan encounter tomorrow evening India seem to have the advantage as they have won all of 12 matches in the one-day and T20 ICC World Cups so far, and lost only in the Champions Trophy with 2 wins for India against 3 by Pakistan. In Asia Cup cricket ODIs and T20Ia India won 7 against Pakistan’s 2 while the Asian Test Championship was won by the latter. Besides, India have been in ominous form in terms of both batting and bowling, gaining from the IPL-2021, the warm-up match wins and the recent victories over Australia and England in away-matches. In the last two years Pakistan won cricket series against Zimbabwe and South Africa while losing to New Zealand and England, and they lost the warm-up game against South Africa in this tournament. However, records don’t matter as far as the performances on the field in that particular day and that three and half hours are concerned. Pakistan has a balanced team with Captain Babar Azam as a dominant batsman joined by Shadab Khan and Fakhar Zaman, bowling all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez who can turn matches in his team’s favor anytime and Pakistan’s always-celebrated pacers and class spinners. All these factors only make the coming encounter in Dubai tomorrow a mouth-watering prospect.

 

The T20 is the shortest format of the game of cricket and arguably the most unpredictable as everything happens within the three and half hours like a movie. Therefore, it is indeed a very difficult question about who is going to win the tournament. India is one of the strongest favorites for the title while World Champions in the ODI World Cup-2019 England has also been on top in recent times followed closely by Australia and a very tough team of New Zealand. Defending champions West Indies and Pakistan can pull off anything on a particular day while the poor show of Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in the qualifying stage should not make any team complacent. India will also have to contend with new rivalries from a very able Scotland and a spirited Namibia, apart from Pakistan, New Zealand and Afghanistan—the latter no less tough an opponent against any team on their day. The suspense promises to be nail-biting as well as delightful starting today, with double-headers almost every day till the semi-final stage that’d start from 10^th November 2021.

Movie Sardar Udham: The Horrors Of Jallianwala Bagh Massacre Shown Unsparingly!

One more biopic on the life of the Indian revolutionary freedom fighter Shaheed Udham Singh, Sardar Udham, which differs refreshingly from the other biopics, perhaps three movies already made over the decades, in terms of narration and storytelling. The film is directed by Shoojit Sircar (or Sarkar), an Indian filmmaker very well known for several movies, particularly the lovely and critically acclaimed Vicky Donor(2012), Piku (2015) and Pink (2016).  The film was slated for theatrical release on the day of Gandhi Jayanti, October 2, 2020, but had to be postponed indefinitely due to the raging COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, Amazon bought the distribution rights and premiered it on Prime Video on 16^th October, 2021. Over the last few days the movie has earned tremendous appreciation from the viewers, and of course mixed reviews. The fact of the audience lapping up the movie is a very healthy trend, because it is made without the present-day loud patriotism with dramatized high-sounding dialogues, jingoism and hatred for any particular community. The director, instead, wants to delve into the personality of Udham Singh, played very sincerely by actor Vickey Kaushal of Raman Raghav 2.0 (2016), Sanju (2018) and Uri (2019) fame, and builds up a very human character who regrets the waste of his lovely youth, but carries on the fight to free his country from the shackles of the British imperialism which he considers an evil and has to be destroyed, but without spreading hate or even hating the British themselves. Structurally, the film is in a non-linear format, with intermittent flashbacks or parallel storytelling which perhaps hurt the narration a little as far as the viewers are concerned. But we’ll return to his point later.

For the first time on the screen, at least for this writer personally, the horrors of the incredibly barbarous Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar on 13^th April, 1919, were shown unsparingly, brutally and in graphic details for nearly thirty minutes which, surprisingly, come only in the last hour of the two hours and forty minutes long movie. Although some critics object to such lengthy display of gore, the immensity of the tragedy that happened during the Indian freedom movement justifies this—both for a realistic treatment and that it formed the determined resolve in the mind of a young Udham and changed his life. This massacre was planned by Michael O’Dwyer (played by Shaun Scott), the then Lieutenant Governor of Punjab, who believed in his own ‘fear is the key’ philosophy to crush the movement by instilling a mortal fear in the minds of all the freedom fighters in India. To give effect to this he assigned a like-minded commander Reginald Dyer (played by Andrew Havill). In between 6000 to 20000 people, including women and children, gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh garden on that fateful day in a form of peaceful democratic protest, not knowing the demonic plans of the British Raj.

 

General Dyer selected the military regiments, considered to be the most loyal to the British, and entered the garden around 5.30 in the evening through the main gate with soldiers ready with loaded rifles. It was said that he wanted to bring in the armored vehicles with machine guns, but due to the narrow gate it was not possible. The Jallianwala garden was surrounded by buildings and walls on all sides and the other four gates were permanently closed, leaving only the main gate for a possible escape that was blocked by Dyer’s forces. Curfew was already sounded in the city of Amritsar. The people gathered there looked at this unexpected intrusion standing up murmuring to each other. General Dyer, without issuing any warning to disperse, ordered the forces to open fire. The hail of bullets continued for ten minutes till the ammunition was reportedly finished. People ran hither and tither desperately trying to escape, but there was no exit. Even the people climbing the walls to get out were brought down with bullets. Many of them jumped into the well there, now called Martyrs' Well, in a bid to avoid the relentless hail, and later it was reported that more than 120 dead bodies had been recovered from the bottom of the well. The ruthlessly inhumane General and his forces left the premises leaving the injured also to die as there was curfew in force and no medical facilities were arranged.

 

Young Udham planned to sleep that day which he told to his sweetheart Reshma the previous day, but Reshma said she would definitely be going to participate in the protest. Indeed he was sleeping the whole day when fleeing people told him about the horrific incident. He jumped up immediately and ran to the site of the tragedy, initially calling out for Reshma. Then he heard the pitiful sounds of groaning and painful cries coming from the injured in the vast array of the blood-soaked lying bodies, and engaged himself instantly in rescue work: first he carried the injured on his shoulders running to the hospital and coming back again. To make the rescue work faster he arranged a hand-pulled wooden cart to carry the bodies and asked a few of his pals to join. Their constant calls ‘koyi zinda hain?’(‘anybody alive out there?’) in discovering the still alive people were heart-wrenching. The rescue work continued till Udham nearly collapsed out of exhaustion and some of the injured survived while some others succumbed in the hospital. This 30-minute long scene is one of the most powerful depictions of a historical event in world cinema. During that time a subordinate asked a relaxing stern-faced Dyer if the curfew were to be lifted. Dyer ordered him to lift it only after 8 in the morning so that the dead could be cremated or buried. This makes it clear that both O’Dwyer and Dyer wanted everybody assembled there to be killed in pursuance of the ‘fear is the key’ policy.

 

Udham never found his Reshma, and the tragedy made him a revolutionary joining Shaheed Bhagat Singh who deeply influenced his thinking and life. The film opens with a scene in 1931when Udham was released from a jail and the local police keeping a constant watch over him afterward. However, a determined Udham escapes to a remote village and then through a series of journeys covering USSR and Germany in various aliases of Sher Singh or Frank Brazil or Udham Singh or the like and with forged passports, finally arriving in London. He was possessed with only one objective—to end the evil imperialism in the form of Michael O’Dwyer. The story is told like a modern-day thriller and we should not spoil by saying more.

 

As we said the format of the movie is non-linear, shunting between the past and the present very often, and this, though effective in narrating a story in an engaging style of treatment, it in some places does hurt the viewers in terms of understanding the happenings clearly. For example, his journeys are never explained in details—only showing his trudging, sometime through jungles and sometime through the snow super where the super of ‘USSR’ appears and then a Russian lady curing him of exhaustion in a private place. Perhaps the actual details of his travels are not available. He arrives in London, his passport showing the name of Sher Singh and is allowed to clear immigration which is a little perplexing as the movie shows a scene where a cable was sent from Punjab to the Scotland Yard about a suspicious freedom fighter in the same name.

 

The assassination of Michael O’Dwyer happens in the first 30 minutes of the movie, and we come to know of Udham’s character—his aim, his obsession and determination— only during the investigation by the Scotland Yard with barbaric physical torture, about his operational strategy in London with some Indian and even British associates. We also come to know only during the investigation by a rather sympathetic detective and a chat with a symbolic defense lawyer that he got himself familiarized with Michael O’Dwyer and even worked in his household as a domestic cum drive where he had numerous opportunities to kill him after knowing that the old officer still did not regret the massacre and justified the action of both Dyer and himself in the realization of his policy of ‘fear is the key’ to crush the movement. I feel the storytelling should’ve been linear at least after his arrival in London, creating a taut build-up to the final assassination on 13^thMarch, 1940 in Caxton Hall, London. Further, reference to his several visits to England is left unexplained. The freedom movement in India and the leaders are not shown in details except for some stray scenes with Bhagat Singh. The movie could also have been trimmed a little by avoiding some of the graphic scenes of torture which were only to be expected in their own kingdom of England when an outsider kills a top British commander.

 

The film made a brief reference at the end to the Hunter Commission that actually condemned the action by Dyer making him ineligible for further posting in India. Dyer got ill soon afterward and died in 1927—the movie has a scene earlier where Udham looks at the tomb of Dyer remorsefully. In all, the film is very engrossing despite its length even as the viewers can well bear with the treatment in a non-linear way, and the recreation of the places in those days, particularly Punjab and London was immaculate and powerful performances all around. In the very brief court scene Udham Singh made a speech highlighting his fight against an unjust imperialistic domination of his country and his fight, as per the ideals of Bhagat Singh, is hate-free, not aimed at any community or caste or religion including the British people—he is only a freedom fighter trying to free his country and the people. That brief speech, without dramatics, sealed the case with his hanging ordered. As we said earlier this is highly relevant for the present times. And, only after that the scene of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre came, as described by Udham Singh in his death cell to the sympathetic detective. During investigations to the repeated questions about his real name finally Udham Singh gives the name as ‘Ram Mohammed Singh Azad’ which is and remains to be extremely significant. A must for theatrical release, sooner or later. 

The Jallianwala Bagh massacre that killed around 1500 people including women and children and hundreds of wounded still remains a raw wound for India as after more than hundred years the United Kingdom is yet to render an official apology for the barbarous act. Further, notwithstanding the justified policy of ‘fear is the key’ the ghastly incident only strengthened India’s freedom movement leading to the non-cooperation movement in 1921-22 led by Gandhji and even the otherwise appreciating or loyal Indian citizens of that time turned against the British. Finally, as we all know, the British empire had to ensure India’s freedom on 15^th August, 1947.

The Horribly Logged-In Kotak Experience Of My Life!

The calls started coming since more than year before my superannuation offering me part-time employment with a monthly salary. I was, naturally, elated getting job offers even before my retirement. The executives always told me I’d have to attend office only 3-4 days a week for only 4-5 hours a day in a managerial capacity, and my job would be to manage a team of young guys. It sounded good, but I told them that with my present employment I cannot have another job or income and so they’ll have to contact me after my retirement. As the month of superannuation neared the calls multiplied including calls from different other companies. I was a little surprised that most of the times the calls were from private life insurance companies—the Kotak Life Insurance (KLI) being the most consistent one. This fact put me a bit off, because I’d been having some kind of loathing all my life for life insurance companies from which you stand to benefit only after you die. However, that was not the case as was revealed to me later.

 

Within a month of retirement I’d been attending interviews in various companies. I rejected some that required me to sit at home and continue giving them references of prospective candidates who can cut life insurance policies with them, and I’ll get a measly monthly amount for that and some commission of the successful policies that occur from my references. One particular company nearly got me in, but I escaped in the last moment finding the company very unprofessional and even unethical. In all, my experience was not good as all of them wanted me to be a life insurance agent, and earn regular income from commissions. As I mentioned my loathing above I never had even an ounce of aptitude for that kind of business that requires you to approach/request/beg/cajole people to buy policies. I made it very clear to them and was slowly moving away from all of them.

 

Before I go further, I must clarify that ‘life insurance agency business’ is not bad at all and only I find it extremely unsuitable for me. Therefore, I must tell all prospective retirees from relatively good jobs that if they want to earn regular income from selling policies directly or through references to the company involved they can indeed go for it, but they must remember that they’ll have to make a sizeable investment in terms of buying policies at the beginning of this career. If you abhor the idea of being an agent then I must warn you to never respond to such calls. I understood the business-strategy of almost all of the private insurance companies very clearly indeed: they target the retiring people specifically, because most of them remain fit for work after the age of sixty; with their long career in relatively good positions they tend to have lots of friends/families/ex-colleagues and connections that may translate into references; and most importantly, they mostly carry home a good pension package. That ‘package’ is the primary target for the companies to tap as hard as possible like the vultures hunting for and pecking the corpses.

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I told my preferences to the executive of the KLI the same thing that I didn’t want it because I neither wanted to nor have the interest to function as an agent. The executive very cordially told me that I was being considered for a job in the research and recruitment capacity with a monthly salary and allowances. He repeated the same thing on my insistent queries. So, I decided to give it a try and went over to their office.

 

After an interview with an experienced associate working with them from outside and an objective test I was selected within two days. I was happy to find the whole of them very professional and friendly, and I thought I made quite a few very good friends in that short time. Another manager held a session with me and other candidates like me, both retired and young ones, explaining the ‘verticals’ and the stipends plus monthly salaries plus allowances associated with the offer. Then, contrary to my hope of getting an appointment letter they informed me that I’d have to appear in the examination held regularly for life insurance agents. I refused straightaway reminding them of my unwillingness to become an agent. They convinced me that to begin the job in a field one must know the basics and that all of the employees and outside agents/associates in the company had also to pass the exam compulsorily. So I finally decided to take the exam, took their training for five days and secured 82% in the exam which made them extremely happy.

 

Then came the big catch: I’ll have to buy some of the policies to get the offer and more number of policies to get a coveted membership of a company club that offered incremental incentives and the opportunity to attend an annual conference in a five-star resort for two days. They did the calculations for the annual premium for me which I found to be quite huge to afford being a pensioner, but they assured me that my monthly income plus increasing commissions would more than compensate for that, and further, that I had the option of surrendering the policies after three years if I so desired. But how since I cannot approach/request/beg/cajole other people? They gave me the way to buy those in my wife’s name who was still eligible as per age. I found all this okay and also discovered the huge benefits in terms of cashbacks/bonuses/savings in the policies of various types even if you continue to be alive which changed my concept about life insurance policies. Besides, almost all of the policies came with what they called ‘riders’ offering various extra benefits.

 

So I went ahead and cut or what they called ‘log-in’ a number of policies. From the month of February 2020 I started to attend their training program that continues for a year—starting with week initially and then once every month for which they give a monthly stipend. In March that year I was given the opportunity to be present while the experienced associate was interviewing someone for recruitment and that marked the start of my ‘supposed’ job. Later in March I had to visit Mumbai for a week, but got locked up in the house there due to the first lockdown in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. The training became online and I attended till about the month of May after which I grew restless, because the whole of the training was about techniques of ‘how to sell policies’ which I never wanted. I told them so and demanded an appointment letter for the job offered for which I qualified fulfilling all their requirements, the promised stipend, the monthly salaries and the incremental allowances due to my club membership. Nothing came out of it and I stopped attending the training in protest.

 

They continued to keep in touch though and reminded me of the five-star conference in February 2021. Although we planned to go there before that it was not possible due to health reasons and I missed the conference, but their calls did continue. We returned to Kolkata in mid-March 2021 informing them of arrival the same day. Suddenly, the calls stopped. When I called up my recruiting manager telling him that I could not earn a single paisa so far apart from my commissions earned out of my own money he said that he was very busy for year-ending completions and would ideally arrange a meeting the next month for considering my benefits and the future course of my ‘job’. Nothing happened.

 

When I called him again in May he said most of them including him got the virus and some of them were in hospitals. This made me feel sorry, and I decided to wait during which I too got sick with acute gastric, the lockdowns also continued. The months of July, August and September passed without any response from them, even though offices were allowed to function by then. I knew now that I lost the so-called job and also understood the reason why. Well, they realized that I could no longer log-in policies on my own as my wife was past that cut-off age and that I had no children who can also be candidates to make policies in their names. In the meantime several calls from some ‘relationship’ managers from Mumbai came to me referring to my ‘inactivity’ to which I made them aware of my no-job-no-income story every time. Still nothing came out of it. But ‘business’ means strictly ‘business’ for them.

 

Finally, I decided to call it a day allowing the policies to lapse which amounted to a huge financial loss, but even if I pay for the third year I’ll get only get 30% of the paid premiums and that assured amount will be still less than the annual premium that has to be paid if I continue for the mandatory third year. The bank under the same Kotak umbrella, an account in which became mandatory once I reported as an agent or a part-time ‘employee’, also behaved funnily.

 

While in Mumbai they offered me a free credit card and when I told the lady executive that the card had to be couriered to my Mumbai address she said no problem noting down the address meticulously. Finally I came to know that the card was sent to my registered address and went back. The bank sent an executive to my home when we came back to Kolkata and he completed all the formalities. Yet the card never arrived this time too, even as they maintained my card details very lovingly in my net banking account. Then, a call came from an executive of the bank offering me more card benefits. ‘I beg your pardon! Where is the card?’ I responded. The executive was surprised in a profound way and promised to deliver it within a week. It never arrived till date.

 

Well, enough of this! I’m relieved that I’ve decided to be rid of them about whom I always had a very positively professional image—their company being fully India-born and one of the topmost earners of revenues/profits annually. Is all this due to the pandemic or the endemic or the epidemic? Anyone cares to explain please? Never ignore the advice of your wife! My wife did indeed warn me before the I took the plunge as I finally wanted her to benefit more. 

The Endless Congress Dilemma Is Advantage BJP And A Constant Bottleneck For United Opposition!

The only political party that is always having the last laughs on the pathetically prolonged Congress dilemma and its manifestations is obviously the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and is greatly advantaged to stage a hat-trick of victory in the 2024 General Elections, even though the biggest national democratic exercise is more than two and half years away. The oldest political party of India, the Indian National Congress (INC or simply Congress), has been suffering consecutive routs in both the General Elections since 2014 and in most of the Assembly Elections in recent times, leading everyone to believe that the only second pan-India party, apart from the BJP since 2014, is caught in the throes of an irreversible decline and fall. It still remains a party bound irrevocably to the Gandhi family, despite the repeated failures of the leadership and internal conflicts led by several veteran Congress leaders called the G-23 demanding a change in leadership and holding organizational elections for more than two years now, after the debacle of the 2019 General Elections. The Congress High Command, instead of listening to their own stalwarts and discussing openly the issues, has been following a confrontational line thanks perhaps to the grand advice offered by the old guards, always supporting the Gandhi leadership in a mental framework akin almost to sycophancy and slavery.

 

The resignation of the then Congress President Rahul Gandhi after the rout in 2019 and his steadfast refusal to hold the post again, the growth of the G-23, the growing dissidence all across the country, the mess the party created in Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh losing power after coming back to electoral victories, the continuing drama in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh and the pending meet of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) failed, as always, to convince the ‘high command’ about the urgent need for structural changes and democratic reforms within the party. Instead, the loyal old guards pitifully prayed to Rahul Gandhi to reconsider and failing to do so requested the erstwhile President Sonia Gandhi to be the interim president to which she obliged. Thanks to a caustic remark by one of the most prominent Congress veterans of the G-23, Kapil Sibal, that he was not aware about who had been the taking the party decisions as there was no permanent leadership, the ‘high command’ finally called for a CWC meeting recently.

 

But alas, no crucial decisions were taken in the meeting about making the Congress united and strong. What had been seen and heard was that Sonia Gandhi confirmed herself as a full-time president and that a new president would be elected after she complete her term which is almost one year away and during which the crucial assembly elections of Uttar Pradesh and Punjab are to take place. Lady Gandhi further accentuated the divide by telling the 23 leaders of the differently-opinionated group to approach her directly for discussions and not through the media, failing miserably to understand why at all the G-23 was forced to go to the media. The old guards again pleaded with Rahul Gandhi to resume next year to which Rahul assured of reconsideration. Of course, the CWC promised party elections and a new president during August-September, 2022. The two leaders of the G-23 who were present in the meeting, unfortunately, lacked the courage to make bold demands which raises questions about the potent political impact of the group. The party gleefully delighted about the proceedings is again the BJP, because as long as Congress remains dynastic and weak it’s their furtherance of the ambition to capture the whole of India by 2024.

 

As is now obvious, the biggest setback that looms due to the prolonged dilemma of the Congress is for the prospect of forming a national united opposition front—as an effective force to counter the BJP expansion—notwithstanding the ardent efforts of Mamata Bannerjee who defeated the BJP loud and clear in her state of West Bengal. While the Congress high command always supported Mamata’s efforts the Congress state party in West Bengal did everything for a division of votes by forming an alliance with the Communist Party-Marxist (CPM) that directly favored the BJP plunge in the state in the West Bengal Assembly Elections-2021; it is only due to the mature decision of the voters who never wanted a communal party to come to power in their secular state that helped Mamata achieving a landslide, and of course, the electoral-strategy wizard Prashant Kishore who joined Mamata’s Trinamool (grass-root) Congress (TMC) was a great help in terms of strategy and planning. Ironically, the same Prashant Kishore who expressed his willingness to join the Congress to help them lead a united opposition has still not been realized.

 

This puts all the political opposition parties of the country in a dilemma too: they realize that any united front cannot be formalized without the participation of oldest political party and its pan-India status; but as has been proved in Bihar where the promising young leader Tejashwi Yadav lost by an agonizing margin to BJP in the Bihar Assembly Elections-2020 due mainly to the non-performance of his prime ally Congress and in Assam where the Congress failed to work out an understanding with the emerging regional parties and instead joined forces with another communal party thus effectively creating a division of votes which clearly favored a worried BJP retain power in the Assam Assembly Elections-2021; barring Maharashtra where Congress is still sticking successfully to the opposition coalition government in spite of the some stray contrary comments made by its leaders now and then, in most of the other states the party has been viewed as a liability for any opposition alliance.

 

The case of the state of Punjab which is always considered the unassailable stronghold of the Congress party comes as the latest case in support of the party being called a liability and mostly, inadvertently or otherwise, favoring the BJP in expanding their roots. The Punjab crisis led to the ousting of the strong Chief Minister and Congress veteran Captain Amarinder Singh who now is reported to be moving toward joining the BJP, like numerous other promising Congress leaders leaving or planning to leave the party over the past two years. The Congress high command, mainly Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, sided with a comically inconsistent Navjot Singh Sidhu who, even after fulfilling his target of assuming the state Congress chief post and having a change of chief minister and government, recently resigned from the post and a few days later did an about-turn rejoining his post, supposedly after his talks with the Congress ‘high command’, and in an immaculate dynastic hold the party is projecting Priyanka Gandhi as the new Chief Ministerial face for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections early next year. Punjab too will go for assembly elections during the same time and the present Congress-created crisis favors the BJP strongly to consider make a tremendous fight to gain power for the first time.

 

Nobody can guess with conviction how and when this Congress dilemma is going to end or end the party itself from the Indian election scenario. For any tangible action by Congress one will have to wait for another year. In this perspective the role of the G-23 is crucial in trying to debate within the party and convince the party for a change that is so much needed to change its tag of an ‘unreliable ally’ in all forthcoming electoral alliances. There have been issues always to counter the ruling power: the disastrous handling of the Second Wave of COVID-19 and the vaccination hassles; the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) movement; the ever-rising fuel prices crossing the 100-rupee mark and still moving ahead; the still unresolved farmers’ agitation and the recent violence in Lakhimpur-Kheri in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh leading to deaths of four farmers; the increasing communal divide and lynching cases; and the alleged bulldozing of democratic norms and values. Rahul Gandhi, of course, makes the right kind of noises, but he vanishes afterward, at times into his unpredictably mysterious sabbaticals; and not allowing the Indian Parliament to function is clearly not an alternative. The oldest political party of India must introspect very intensely indeed and time is running out.  Else, the monopoly of the BJP is set to continue like a juggernaut and in the furtherance of its most loved ambition of having a one-party and much-hyped Congress-free democracy in India.