Happy New Year 2022 To Our Dear Readers And Friends!

We wish you all a very Happy and Prosperous New Year 2022! Let the New Year bring all the happiness, success and prosperity in your life, home, work and relationships. Most importantly, we wish you all very good and sustained health, and of course, a never-ending immunity against any intruding virus! We’ve decided to post our wishes well in advance, because the New Year is going to dawn in at different hours in different countries across the globe. And also, to avoid the last-minute hassles! Enjoy at home with your dearest members of your family!  Stay blessed!

 

You must be wondering that we’ve not touched the two-year-old roaring COVID-19 pandemic in a direct way at all! Well, because we want to end with a piece of good news! The Hindu Almanac calculations for the New Year (panchang 2022) say that sometime during the coming year we’ll all be ‘ferried across’ (as per an interpretation by a friend of mine) which clearly means that we’ll surely overcome the curse of the pandemic in the coming year! Hope this comes out to be true! Omicron, consisting of many existing mutants, could very well be the last to haunt us. Even otherwise, optimism and a positive frame of mind always help us conquer all obstacles. Let’s hope for the best! Thank you all for your continued interest in these humble pages!

India Beat South Africa In Centurion After Rains, Collapses And More!

 

India beat South Africa by 113 runs just after lunch on the fifth and final day of the first Test in Centurion today, conquering the fortress called Centurion. This grand victory is the first ever to be registered by India at the SuperSport Park in Centurion and in fact, Virat Kohli becomes the first Asian captain to do so. The Proteas, set a target of 305 runs to win, started badly yesterday losing four early wickets for 94 runs; but thanks to captain Dean Elgar (77) they managed to reach 182/7 at lunch today with Temba Bavuma (35 not out) and Marco Jansen (13) at the crease, the last pair with some batsmanship abilities. However, immediately after lunch Mohammed Shami devoured Jansen, his third victim in this innings, thus taking his match tally to 8 wickets after his definitive fifer in the SA first innings which completed his 200 scalps in test cricket. The last two wickets of Rabada and Ngidi were taken by the lone India spinner R Ashwin, as the hosts were all out for 191 runs, even less than their first innings total of 197. A fiery Bumrah is the other bowler to take 3 wickets while Mohammed Siraj took two.

 

This has been one of the most tense and eventful test matches in world cricket. India won a crucial toss to opt to bat and on the very first day KL Rahul started an equally crucial 117-run opening partnership with Mayank Agarwal, staying unbeaten till the end of the day with 122 runs. India, at 272/3, were eagerly looking to resuming the next day aiming to build up a total over 400 runs. As luck would have it, rains started in the morning of the second day and the frequent spells led to a complete washout of the second day, a heavy setback for India early on and raring to go.

 

As normally happens after rains or weather interruptions the first collapse of the match happened with the visitors losing all their 7 wickets for just 51 runs in about 16 overs thanks to brilliant spells of fast bowling by Lungi Ngidi who took 6 wickets, India finishing 327 all out, seemingly a good total, but immensely attainable by South Africa on their favorite home track. The Indian foursome pacers, however, had other plans. They engineered the second collapse of the match as Bumrah cleaned up SA captain Elgar in the very first over. Combined with Shami and Siraj they reduced the hosts to a tottering 32/4. Thanks to a partnership between vice-captain Bavuma (52 not out) and wicket-keeper Quinton de-Kock (34), and a late charge by the tailenders the visitors managed to reach 197 runs, giving India a lead of 130 runs which could have been more, but yet was crucial on a deteriorating track. India lost Agarwal early as they were 16/1 at stumps on that fateful third day when 18 wickets fell.

 

India played steady and defending till lunch on the fourth day taking the score to 79/3, possibly getting into a shell to not allow the SA pacers to ignite another collapse. And collapse it turned out to be eventually, the third of the match; but for an entirely different reason. There was a weather forecast for rains on the decisive fifth day, and India having already suffered from a rain washout wanted to ensure they didn’t lose because of rains. Captain Kohli took a calculated risk by going all-out for runs, and wickets started falling in heaps as everyone tried to hit the ball hard for boundaries. They did score a quickfire 95 in just 18 overs with 34 by Rishabh Pant in 34 balls before getting bowled out for just 174 runs; but most importantly, they set a very challenging 305-run victory target for the hosts which, of course, could’ve been 350. Besides, as per the stats no team had ever successfully chased a target of more than 251 runs at this SuperSport Park, Centurion.

 

The signs of the fourth collapse of the match were visible immediately in South Africa’s chase as India gave them almost three hours and a full day to achieve the target or draw the match if the rain gods came to their help on the last day. The hosts ended up the day pitifully at 94/4 with captain Elgar not out with a half century. Shami struck in his first over clean bowling Aiden Markram for 1 in his first over. Then Bumrah and Siraj partook themselves fully in the demolition job that resulted in a momentous victory today to help their team go up in the Series with a 1-0 lead, after the glorious away-series victories over Australia and England which makes the year 2021 a historic one for Indian cricket.

 

Virat Kohli is very emphatic in praising his bowlers who he said are always capable of bowling out any team on any surface, particularly Shami who can bowl effectively at home or away due to his seam-position and line and length. He also applauded the great determined effort of the player-of-the-match KL Rahul, the only centurion in Centurion, that set up the game favorably for India. He added that Centurion has been a great challenge for decades and after this magnificent achievement his team is looking forward to the second Test beginning at the Wanderers, another challenging track, in Johannesburg from the 3^rd of January 2022.

 

For South Africa there have been only two half centuries in the two innings, by Bavuma in the first and by Elgar in the second. Captain Elgar admitted the lack of application shown by their batsmen in both innings. Their famous pace-battery too failed to show their mark in the first day which turned out to be definitive for them in spite of the rain interference. The Proteas would be all tails up for the most important encounter coming up in Johannesburg to stay alive in the 3-match series.

 

On the other hand, India would like to seal the Series in the second test banking upon the gritty performance of the team. But a few concerns do remain: Cheteshwar Pujara, despite a let off by Rabada that looked to be a protocol catch, failed to advance beyond 20 after a duck in the first innings and he is really now on the brink of losing his position; captain Kohli too is not being able to be amid runs as per his standards and he has been without a century for two years now; and the India middle order still looks a bit brittle with an unpredictable Rishabh Pant and other deemed all-rounders. Nevertheless, the present team, with or without minor changes, looks immensely capable of repeating its feat at the Wanderers and win the Series and the last frontier.

India Vs South Africa 1ST Test: Brilliant Unbeaten Century By KL Rahul Puts India In A Strong Position!

India got into a strong position on the first day of the 1^st Boxing Day Test against South Africa at the SuperSport Park in Centurion today, India at 272/3 at stumps off the full 90 overs. This is thanks to a technically sound unbeaten century crafted by opener and the stand-in vice-captain KL Rahul (122 not out in 248 balls) who first built up a 117-run opening partnership with Mayank Agarwal (60), then an 82-run one with captain Virat Kohli (35) and an unbeaten 4^thwicket partnership of 73 runs with Ajinkya Rahane (40 not out), batting out the full day on a pacy and bouncy pitch most suited for fast bowlers. Other than the luckless Cheteshwar Pujara who is literally playing for his place with players like Shreyas Iyer and Hanuma Vihari in reserve and who is without a ton in his last 43 innings got out for a first-ball duck, all batsmen so far have contributed well. For South Africa all the three wickets were captured by Lungi Ngidi. The host team must be sorely missing the services of their strike fast bowler Anrich Nortje who was out due to injury with all-rounder Marco Jansen making his debut in his place. The lone spinner Keshav Maharaj too is wicketless so far.

 

The selection of the India playing eleven has been judicious, mixing experience with promising youngsters which is why Pujara and Rahane have been retained while having a foursome pace-battery preferring Shardul Thakur and Mohammed Siraj to Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah coming back to the team. Ravichandran Ashwin is the lone spinner and his selection is also justified. Mayank Agarwal is spiritedly trying to make the best of his chances thanks to the regular Test vice-captain and opener Rohit Sharma being ruled out of the Test Series and earlier rested for home Test series against New Zealand. KL Rahul proves yet again that he is specially made for test cricket in whatever batting position he is required. Interestingly, this is the first away Test Series for head coach of Team India, Rahul Dravid, once considered the great wall of Indian cricket. 

 

Earlier, captain Virat Kohli won the toss and chose to bat first. He looked to be in good nick despite the recent split-captaincy controversy. In this same venue Virat scored the highest ever individual score of 153 by a visiting cricketer in his only away test series against South Africa during 2017-18, and India actually lost that test match losing the 3-match series 2-1. In fact, the lone victory registered by his team in that visit is only the third by any India team. India is yet to win a test series against South Africa in South Africa. India looks to be in a sound position at the moment to force a win, if they go past 400 runs tomorrow with Rishabh Pant, Ashwin and even Thakur to follow. Winning the toss and the batsmen applying themselves well could definitely lead to conquering literally the last frontier. The pacy pitch of SuperSport Park is surely going to get worse with uneven bounce from the 3^rd or 4^th day onward. However, the South Africa pace-battery is yet to deliver true to their potential. We are in for some absorbing cricket ahead. 

PM Modi Announces Booster Doses And Jabs For Kids Even As DCGI Approves Covaxin For 15-18 Age Group!

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced, in another unexpected national address late evening yesterday perhaps as a Christmas gift like he did recently on the occasion of Prakash Parv  (an annual festival of the Sikhs in Punjab and Haryana) to repeal the Three Farm Laws, booster doses or precautionary doses for the healthcare and frontline workers and all citizens above 60 years of age with comorbidities, to start from the 10th of January 2022, amid the rising Omicron scare in India. In a bid to make the parents confident enough to send their children to the schools the Prime Minister further announced vaccines jabs for children between 15 and 18 years of age to start from January 3, 2022. He also appealed to the people to not panic and follow COVID appropriate behavior strictly while cautioning them against rumors, fear mongering and misinformation. This announcement of the PM has been hailed all over as the most welcome move considering the global Omicron crisis—by the medical fraternity and others including even the opposition political parties. The ‘Booster Dose’ debate has been raging in India since the last few months. 

PM Modi has also presented a positive scenario with the logistics of preparation across the country. He hailed India’s vaccination drive started on January 16, 2021 which has now covered 61% of the population with double vaccine jabs and 91% of the population having at least one jab. The Prime Minister informed the nation that at the moment the country has 1.8 million isolation beds, 0.5 million oxygen supported beds, 1,40,000 ICU beds, 90,00 ICU and non-ICU beds specially for the children, more than 3 thousand PSA or Pressure Swing Adsorption oxygen plants, 0.4 million oxygen cylinders and more support to the states is being ensured for buffer stocks of vaccines and facilities for testing. While praising the efforts of the medical doctors, scientists and experts Modi said that India’s pandemic fight has been based on scientific principles, active consultations and methods throughout the period. 

There is some uncertainty about which of the two main vaccines being administered in India—Covishield and Covaxin—would be used for the booster doses. It is being speculated, with some medical logic behind it, that the doubly-vaccinated with Covishield would get Covaxin as the booster dose and the doubly-vaccinated with Covaxin would get Covishield jab as the booster dose. The priority of fully vaccinating about 40% of the Indian population who have either got one dose and not vaccinated at all, remains still. To make it happen as soon as possible experts across different fields and state governments have been asking the Government of India to reduce the gap of 12-16 weeks to a month for Covishield jabs. The gap between Covaxin jabs is 28 days, but Bharat Biotech has not been able to manufacture and supply enough doses in comparison to Covishield. 

It is also to be noted that Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin for children of the 2-18 age group had been approved on October 12 this year by the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) of the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) and since then the regulatory body’s final seal has been awaited. It has been reported that, to make very sure of the safety issues, the DCGI had appointed another SEC to go through all aspects and finally approved the vaccine yesterday; but only for the 12-18 age group which is a disappointment. The delay has been more frustrating considering the fact that world’s first DNA-based 3-dose non-injectable vaccine for children above 12 years of age Zydus Cadila’s Zycov-D, was approved by the DCGI as far back as in August this year. Anyway, better late than never, and we hope for the best now. Many experts have commented about children having strong immunity against severe disease after infection; but our concern has always been that children may take the virus home where elders also live. 

There is also the issue of the efficacy of the existing vaccines and even the booster doses against Omicron and even the World Health Organization (WHO) is not able to make up its mind yet to suggest or to not suggest the booster doses even as many countries have already gone ahead with that. However, it is more or less accepted that even though the vaccines and the booster doses may not be very effective in preventing COVID-19 and Omicron infections or re-infections the full doses can certainly reduce the severe type of the disease, thus reducing hospitalization and deaths. We further hope that the PM’s steps and the level of preparedness is not used as a justification for going ahead with the assembly elections in 5 states. 

India: Rushing Through The Bills And A Clueless Opposition!

While the opposition political parties of India have been clueless about what to stand for and how to stand for, the ruling political party with its huge majority or a brute majority have been getting used to rushing through the bills in Parliament of which the prime example had been the Three Farm Laws in 2020 pandemic times (had to be repealed last month due to sustained opposition by the farmers) along with other examples, especially after the party’s second landslide in 2019. ‘Rushing through’ essentially means getting the bills passed in a hurry with mostly voice votes rendering ‘debate’ a mere formality. Yesterday, Monday the 20^th of December 2021, the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill-2021 was passed by the Lok Sabha without any debate despite strong opposition to the move. Today, the Bill has also been passed by the Rajya Sabha amid an opposition walkout, and with the Presidential assent being only a formality this move to link the Aadhaar Card to the Voter ID is set to become a law.

 

Why oppose this inevitable move as it traces back to 2013 and only thanks to the verdicts of the Supreme Court of India in the past few years responding to pleas against the moves, the linking could be accomplished only partially till now? The Election Commission of India (ECI), a supposedly independent constitutional authority, has been asking for this reform since long time in a bid to eliminate bogus voting and duplication of voter cards. The Government justifies this move by standing with the ECI and adding to it that the said linking is still ‘voluntary’; that it proposes to be ‘gender neutral’ changing ‘wife’ to ‘spouse’ that will allow both husbands and wives in service vote from the same location; that the voters can register for voter cards four times in a year now instead of just once so far; and that not providing the Aadhaar Card does not necessarily mean that the applications will be rejected.

 

The opposition political parties and some other stakeholders are saying that this is a ‘dangerous’ move leading to deletion of the names of many voters the likes of which had been seen after the ECI decided upon the linking in 2015, enrolling more than 300 million citizens already; that the Government is set to resort to ‘target’ the voters having the profiles of the citizens thus stored in the ECI data base in view of the forthcoming assembly elections in five states; that the fraudsters can have a very good time thanks to possible exploitation of the same data base; and most importantly that the country still not having a Privacy and Data Protection Law in place this might lead to breaches and leaks of personal data. The last point carries a lot of weight, and ideally, the Government should’ve first ‘rushed through’ the Privacy and Data Protection Bill, and then could’ve made the elections reforms bill fool-proof.

 

However, leaks and breaches in the personal data bases have been taking place all over the globe from various sources quite frequently in these digital days—the banks to the social media—and fraudsters have been in the act of resorting to various ‘creative’ measures to cheat people. While as per the Supreme Court orders that submission of Aadhaar Cards cannot be demanded by private entities, the banks, public or private, and the telecom companies have been making the card mandatory for accounts, credit cards, SIM cards, address proof or for change of address and so on. Besides, the linking of the Aadhaar Card to the PAN card has been made mandatory for Income Tax purpose. Of course, the Supreme Court has given some relaxations to some of the above and more for the purpose of digital payment gateways; but the distinction between ‘voluntary’ and ‘mandatory’ disclosures of Aadhaar Card details through the biometrics often gets blurred. We would say there is actually nothing wrong in going for the Card by all the citizens of the country and thus release the outlets for a range of benefits and conveniences.  

 

Politics has always been the mainstay in a democracy like India, and the ‘brute majority’ enjoyed by the ruling party has been the real concern for the largely disjointed opposition political alliances. Now, all the opposition parties are alarmed about the possible benefits through this ‘linking’ law for the ruling party in the forthcoming assembly elections rather than the justifiability of the ‘linking’. As far as we the citizens are concerned both the ruling party and the opposition must focus on the real issues of concern rather than indulging in petty and electoral politics.

 

In the midst of repeated disruptions in the winter session of the Parliament over issues, prominently on a union minister and his on being involved in the Lakhimpur-Kheri incident in Uttar Pradesh where at least four farmers were mowed down by the son’s vehicle, another bill, the Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill has been presented in Lok Sabha today, aiming at making the marriageable age uniform for both men and women, again leading to opposition protests. The proposed bill wants to raise the marriageable age for girls from 18 to 21 which makes it uniform with the boys. Some of the opposition political parties are protesting against the move saying that at the age of 18 one becomes an adult, eligible to vote also, and therefore, the girls attaining the age of 18 should have the right to decide about their future in choosing to get married if preferred. Such was the ruckus in the lower house that finally the bill had to be referred to a Parliamentary Panel for scrutiny, and with just two days left for the winter session it may not be possible for the ruling party to ‘rush through’ again.

 

However, this move must be supported for the simple reason of uniformity between males and females. To add more reason to our support, the boys become graduates at about the age of 21 and many of the girls getting or forced into marriage are thus deprived of higher education. The argument by many social activists that the practices of child marriage and child labor still persist in our society does not hold much water. The opposition against the bill is more of a reflection of the mindset of a patriarchal society than having any solid ground to object to the proposed move by the Government. A step in the right direction can always help better our society in future, and most importantly, no government can ever change the values of a society whatever way it tries. The feudalistic patriarchal domineering mindset still prevails in this country and this includes many political leaders too across various parties, not excepting the ruling party at all. No wonder, the crimes against women continue unabated and the bill for ensuring reservation for women in Parliament has been pending for years. 

Movie The Devil Made Me Do It: The Conjuring-3 Has All The Scares, But A Weaker Storyline!

 

The third installment of the much-celebrated ‘The Conjuring series’ and the eighth film of the Conjuring Universe Horror Franchise—The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It—was made ready for release in September 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic delayed it till June 2021 when it was released in the US and on HBO Max simultaneously. Unfortunately, it could not be released in the Indian theatres again thanks to the pandemic. Since the HBO Max show-term was very short the Indian fans of the franchise have been wondering where to watch the movie, the way they were thrilled and intrigued by the haunted-house stories of The Conjuring (2013) and The Conjuring-2 (2016) with the adored real-life pair of paranormal investigators Ed Warren and Lorraine Warren, played brilliantly by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga in all of the flicks of the trilogy and in one of the Conjuring Universe franchise movies. Finally. Amazon Prime Video started streaming this movie from the 15^th of December 2021, and the horror ‘fun’ has come roaring back.

  

As usual, the story of this film too is based on a real-life court case in 1981 where the murder accused, Arne Johnson, pleaded not guilty under the guise that The Devil Made Him Do It as he claimed was demonically possessed while committing the act, for the first time in the US court case history. Ed and Lorraine Warren testified for Arne as they were convinced about the demonic possession and gave all their evidence in terms of captured camera images and videos. However, since such a premise could never have a legal basis, the accused was convicted and sentenced to 15-20 years of imprisonment; but he got out of jail in five years due to his exemplary behavior and that he married his girlfriend while still in jail. Dry court proceedings can never be an apt subject for a suspense-horror flick and therefore, a thrilling storyline and a script was built around the case.

 

The film opens with the scariest scene of the movie and perhaps one of the scariest scenes ever in horror cinema history. The scene depicts the exorcism of a little boy, maybe around 10 years of age, named David with the presence of the stricken family, Ed and Lorraine and the exorcist. The chaotically horrifying developments that follow had better be watched than explained, with the results that Ed gets hurt and has a heart attack while the character of Arne Johnson (played by Ruairi O’Connor), boyfriend of David’s elder sister Debbie Glatzel (played by Sarah Catherine), looked into the eyes of the violent David and invited the demon to leave David and possess him, which, incredibly enough, happened. To my experience of horror films this is a new twist as it raises some questions: it seems to be too easy that may lighten the job of the exorcists and that a demon or a ghost possesses someone with a definite purpose and so, why should it leave its prized victim! Anyway, this was necessary as a prologue for the reel-life Arne Johnson to go on to murder someone and face trial.

 

As compared to the earlier absolutely absorbing and tension-filled two films of the trilogy the third one lacks a flow of storytelling hampered by flashbacks, jerk-cuts and scenes left half-treated, jumping to other scenes and then coming back to the former. This can be interpreted as a treatment style of the director, but it does not help storytelling keeping in mind the viewers’ continued involvement. For example, Ed Warren who suffered a heart attack probably rested for about a month (not clearly indicated) during which the demon in Arne preferred to do nothing atrocious. However, the moment Ed recovers with a telepathic dream he communicates to Lorraine to warn the police about an impending tragedy in the house of Arne’s employer and landlord. And inevitably, Arne in a sudden burst of possessive fit murders the landlord and is arrested by the police.

 

Now comes the real turning point of the story: Lorraine, with her super intuitive and psychic powers visualizes a grim connection of the Arne’s act with the murder and suicide of two young girls in the recent days. The police were yet to find the body of second girl who supposedly killed her friend in a fit of the same kind of demonic possession and then committed suicide. So, for the first time in the history of the trilogy the police join the investigations with the paranormal help of Ed and Lorraine, ultimately finding the submerged body of the second girl as Lorraine leads them through a dramatically crafted and a light-n-shadow scene, eminently worth watching.

 

With the ‘connection’ confirmed, Lorraine and Ed revisit the house of David and Lorraine discovers a witch’s totem in the underground chambers of the house, filled with rats. The angle of occultist practices come in here, again for the first time, and Lorraine, convinced that the connection works both ways and it is in the process of completing a curse implying more murders, starts the hunt for the source of the evil—if it was an evil spirit or a devilish human being with supernatural powers should be avoided here, lest it becomes a spoiler. While the first half of the film is very engaging and tension-filled the second half becomes rather predictable. The climax, unfortunately, fails to shock-thrill the viewers.

 

But the film is immensely worth watching thanks to the intense performances, as usual, of the couple—Wilson and Farmiga—and also the jump-scares that come when not expected and do not come when expected, keeping the viewers guessing, particularly a scarily delightful scene of David jumping on a bubbling mattress as if filled with water and then something unexpected happening to him. The sequel, different from the other two as mentioned above, reminds us of the brilliant South Korean horror-mystery-suspense flick ‘The Wailing’  of which we wrote about recently.

 

‘The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It’ is not directed by James Wan who created the Conjuring Universe horror franchise with his Atomic Monster Productions and New Line Cinema of Warner Bros Entertainment thus completing the 20-year efforts led by Tony DeRosa-Grund and his team to make a series of films on the supernatural case files of Ed and Lorraine Warren, and directing the first movie of the franchise ‘The Conjuring’ in 2013. Huge commercial success of the first venture led to productions of supernatural horror sequels and prequels one after the other: Annabelle in 2014, The Conjuring-2 in 2016, Annabelle Creation in 2017, The Nun in 2018, The Curse of La Llorona in 2019, Annabelle Comes Home in 2019 and The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It in 2021 which is directed by Michael Chaves who made his directorial debut with a franchise film, ‘The Curse of La Llorona’. The Conjuring Universe has become the second highest-grossing horror franchise in Hollywood history and one of the most critically acclaimed. Almost all of the eight films have been huge commercial hits the world over with positive to mixed reviews. The franchise is at the moment working on two more horror films—the first being titled ‘The Crooked Man’ and the second film’s title, reported to be a sequel to ‘The Nun’, is to be announced.

Virat Kohli To Play The ODIs In South Africa Under Rohit’s Leadership, Ends The Rift Speculation!

A bombshell dropped by a tweet of the former India captain Mohammed Azharuddin that indicated a possible rift between Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma over the issue of split-captaincy which was lapped up fondly by a juicily speculative news and social media, aiming inevitably for a crescendoing climax at the most eagerly looked for press conference by the India Test captain Virat Kohli today in Mumbai finally ended with a cool and composed Kohli answering the questions candidly and bravely. To my knowledge he is the first captain of the Indian cricket team to have publicly questioned the functioning style of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) by implying clearly a lack of communication between the board and him or other players.

 

Virat said that the Chief Selector contacted him only one and half hours before informing him about their decision to sack him as the ODI (50-over one day international) captain in favor of Rohit Sharma to which Virat, as he had disclosed, responded positively and informed about his availability for selection for the shorter format. This apparently declared war with the board did not end there as Virat denied that he was ever requested by the President of BCCI, Sourav Ganguly to not give up the T20I captaincy prior to the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup-2021. Recently, Ganguly said to the media that he had personally requested Virat for the same. Is this going to be the start of a war between the most aggressive captains ever—former captain Ganguly Vs present Test captain Kohli? In any case, his feelings raise important questions about the rather opaque functioning of the BCCI which is further corroborated by the fact the board preferred to remain silent amid one of the most speculative debates about cricket for over a day ahead of a very important tour.

 

The India Test captain went on to say that he was tired of answering the question of a ‘proverbial rift’ with Rohit Sharma, and confirmed that there was never any rift with the most experienced cricketer of the team, further saying that he would miss Rohit as an opener in the Test Series coming up in South Africa later this month. The most positive news for millions of Indian fans is that Virat is ready to play the ODI Series under the newly appointed captain Rohit Sharma. Virat also denied having requested the BCCI about taking rest from the ODI Series in South Africa in the beginning of this year. About giving up his T20I captaincy Virat said that he informed the board about his decision that was received positively by the board, and that he made it clear that he’d be available for selection as Test and ODI captain if the BCCI and selectors thought in similar lines. Asked about the possible reasons for his ‘sacking’ he answered candidly that possibly the reasons could be his inability to win an ICC cup. He added that the change of leadership would not affect his role as a batsman in the team.

 

The seeds of the proverbial rift between Virat and Rohit were sown during the ICC Men’s World Cup-2019 when Rohit allegedly violated the regulations by allowing his family stay with him for more than the mandated 15 days which was followed by an alleged social media action by Rohit. After that the issue of the rift has been coming again and again in the cricket grapevine despite the on-field demonstrations by the duo about their long-lasting friendship.  It was again reported during the India Tour of Australia-2020-21 when Rohit Sharma was not included in the squad due to a hamstring injury or for personal reasons leading Kohli to wonder aloud about the whereabouts of Rohit. Rohit’s ‘hamstring pull’ injury has been very frequent in the recent two years and rather mysterious too.

 

In the middle of the year 2020 Rohit was reportedly suffering from that injury; however, he became fit during the IPL-2020 in UAE leading his Mumbai Indians team and winning the Championship title. But after that he was again in the ‘injury’ list, coming to Australia only in the second of the Test Series when Virat left the team for domestic reasons. Now, ahead of the South Africa tour and him being made the captain in the shorter format, Rohit again suffered a hamstring pull during practice session in Mumbai and was ruled out of the Test Series, advising a rest for about a month. The coincidence was so delicious, Virat Test captain with Rohit not playing and Rohit ODI captain with Virat not playing, that there was no stopping the speculative games. Rohit Sharma should be more careful and must have a ‘national pride first’ perspective if the selectors and the Board had really believed in his experience (rather than choosing a captain younger than Kohli) to lead Team India into the T20I World Cup in 2022 and the ODI World Cup in 2023.  

 

There must have been some behind-the-scene ‘damage control’ activities by the Board and other cricket mandarins leading to Virat’s presser. And also, the fact that the union Sports minister spoke to the media saying that ‘no individual player is bigger than the national team’. However, irrespective of whatever must have happened we must congratulate Virat Kohli for his wonderful candidness and straightforwardness. No doubt, he, the most successful Indian captain in all formats, must have felt a little let down by the last-minute decision conveyed to him over phone; but as per his strong mental frame he’d definitely overcome everything and perform as wonderfully as all his life as a batsman to help his team conquer the last frontier with Series wins. His press conference today was not just for clarifications, but this has been a customary practice by India captains a day ahead of the team’s departure. Team India is leaving for South Africa tomorrow morning instead of 12^th December as scheduled earlier and we wish them all the luck.

 

In conclusion, I need to mention one point again: we, the lovers and fans of the game, make excellent cricketers into ‘superstars’ which is also apparent in the film world, and these superstars are always hyped to the sky by the media. In the aftermath, obviously, such superstars develop egos, mannerisms and dictatorial attitudes which is inimical to the spirit of the game. Virat Kohli is a superhero as he has the best of both worlds of cricket and cinema having one of the top heroines of Bollywood as his wife. But his fans must understand that playing in all formats, performing in all formats and having the burden of leadership in all formats really makes one tired, superhero or normal cricketer. Virat must be the only three-format captain with the exception of Kane Williamson who has also been seen to take rest often in the present-day world cricket. Not to speak of the bio-bubble fatigue of nearly two years now. Therefore, everyone must accept the reality and act accordingly.

How The Hollywood Swear-Realism Has Penetrated Bollywood And The OTT Platforms!

Use of abusive words or slang has been universal in daily conversations of human beings across the globe, since times immemorial perhaps. However, in this piece we’re only interested as to how such cuss words have progressed to more hardened and stronger forms on the celluloid and how they have conquered other very conservative celluloid forms. This is not at all a research paper either; but, interestingly, there is lot of research on the progressively hardening swear words in Hollywood movies—researchers even listing out movies with the maximum number of swear-words used in the dialogues by the characters, one finding a maximum of a near thousand such expressions in a movie of around 90 minutes’ duration. In early times societies in the west too were more conservative, and therefore the swear-words were of the relatively innocent types like ‘heck’, ‘what the hell’, ‘damn’ ‘shit’ and so on. The shift toward the hardened cuss words involving the ‘f***’ or ‘f******’ or ‘as****e’ varieties can be traced to the early seventies in Hollywood movies. Over time it steadily progressed to the early nineties and then the progress has been exponential with almost every movie using those words liberally. It is said or even believed that developing countries like India lag behind any ‘progress’ in America or the west by about two decades. So, we first examine the scenario in India.

 

When we were in schools times were not modern like today’s, but definitely families were more cultured rather than conservative, and for decent families the uttering of swear words was a taboo. Whatever cuss words were in circulation those were limited to a handful of back-benchers and the usage was purely of local slang. Most of us were awestruck on hearing such words. Nevertheless, at times we used to learn some very uncommon local slang, and in the spirit of a new discovery on learning about a never-heard-of word without understanding its meaning I once uttered that in a sing-song way before my mother. My mother angrily ordered me to shut up immediately, and I inculcated the ‘decency’, again.

 

In college days some outside influences from other parts of the country—mostly from the northern side—gave new and stronger abusive slang involving the mother or the sister invariably. In the course of higher studies the words learnt increased substantially—slowly graduating to the ‘f’ or ‘a’ types in the eighties which is corroborated by the fact stated above in regard to Hollywood films starting the initiative in the seventies. Of course, this does not mean that the swear-word phenomenon is an increasing function of higher learning. However, we can say confidently that this has a lot to do with the modernity, urbanization and the frequent international film festivals which in turn mean more ‘exposure’ to Hollywood and other ‘liberally realistic’ films from other countries.

 

From the Golden Era of Bollywood or Hindi cinema of the fifties-sixties up to the technically sound movies of the present day the mainstream movies thus far are mostly free of the hardened or modern swear words—limited only to the relatively innocent local abuses—thanks to their aim of ‘family entertainment’ for more robust commerce. Only a handful of movies that claimed to be different in terms of subjects or storyline or ‘stark-realism’ used those hardened words, albeit selectively enough, to not offend the censor board members too much. Most filmmakers noticed the use of the hardened swear words in daily conversations of particularly the modern ‘progressive’ youth population, but still did not go ahead with a liberal dosage in fear of the censor board where the members still leaned toward decency or conservatism—of course, becoming steadily more tolerant. The mainstream television serials in India of course have been totally free of the specific swear words, again thanks to the ‘family’ perception. Mind you, we’re not talking about sexual content or vulgarity in any national/regional movies or serials.

 

Hollywood movies with the growing exposure of the youth in a modern digital India have succeeded in penetrating the Over The Top (OTT) producing and streaming serials/movies in a  brutal way, because there were no censors or regulatory authorities for these productions till recently when the Government of India woke up to this ‘threat’ to decency. Nowadays, go to any serial or movie on an OTT platform and you’ll immediately find a ‘content advisory’ that starts with the aspect of ‘foul language’ among others. The R or X rated films which were restricted earlier to youth below 18 years of age are available with the 13+ ratings. This means that the words of the ‘f’ or ‘a’ varieties are set to engulf the country soon or have already done so. Nearly every male or female character in the OTT productions mouths an ‘f’ or ‘a’ word almost in every dialogue with or without any necessity for doing so. Thanks to Hollywood, this is a fashionably ‘liberal’ trend that rages at the moment.

 

But still. Why at all? Is this realism of the third kind in humanity? Researchers say that Americans or Westerns use just about 1% swear word of the hardened varieties in daily existence while their movies use it beyond 25% in a single movie. This rule can be fully applied to the Indian people too in regard to the OTT streaming. We suppose the phenomena of a spouse addressing his/her life-partner as a ‘f****** as****e’ is still considered very offensive in any household across the globe. But unfortunately, we find such expressions in abundance in the ‘family’ scenes involving parents and even children of Hollywood movies or the Indian OTT.

 

I’d leave it to you if we need to just laugh at this unique ‘realism’ or be concerned about this, rampant in the large, small and micro screens across households—households the members of which in reality do get separated from each other by those very screens.

Shiv Sena Leader Anant Tare: Tributes To A Peoples’ Political Leader And A Personal Friend!

Again, a shocker. Unbelievable news that came at the most unexpected moment. It has happened to us several times in the recent two years—persons quite close to us die and we come to know about them months later. This time the occasion was a nice gathering of a few senior citizens under their Senior Citizens Club in Thane, Mumbai. A member of the Shiv Sena who attended the event not as a senior citizen as he was much younger informed me to my casual inquiry about the famous Shiv Sena leader Anant Tare that he has passed away about a year back. I was taken aback and was too shocked to ask more questions. Instead, I came down to the nearby lane and telephoned Tare’s personal associate Sunil. And to my horror he confirmed the news that Anant Tare had indeed passed away on 22^nd February 2021 at a private hospital in Thane. He was hospitalized for some illness in December and before the day he was to be discharged he had a brain stroke and later a hemorrhage. As the doctors prepared for a brain surgery, he was found to be COVID-19 positive. Afterward, he went into a coma for more than two months, and tragically passed away on that date without recovering.   

 

In my grief that clutched me suddenly I blamed Sunil for not informing us. He said that the times were too sadly hectic and that the news had been constantly flashed in the local news channels and the newspapers. Of course, that time newspapers were still not allowed in our Thane society, but we used to watch the local news channels quite regularly. How we missed such an important news, we don’t know. Perhaps it was the same divine wish that we should not know about it at a time when we were bogged down with personal issues, and then in March 2021 we left Mumbai for a few months, still not knowing the sad truth.

 

Anant Tare had been a prominent Shiv Sena leader and had been the Mayor of Thane Municipal Corporation three times in the nineties. In 2000 he was elected to the Maharashtra Legislative Council, and after serving a full term as an MLC Tare worked on as a Deputy Leader of Shiv Sena for Thane and Palghar districts. Anant Tare belonged to the Mahadev Koli community, and all his life he worked tirelessly for the betterment of the Koli community, the oldest fishing community or rather the aboriginals, listed now as a Scheduled tribe, of Mumbai and Thane. The beaches in Mumbai are being called ‘Koliwadas’, because the Koli fisherfolks live in hidden hutments along the seashore. Anant Tare had been their beloved leader—a leader who worked at the grassroots and always for the people. He was also a very religious person worshipping the traditional Koli Goddess Ekvira Devi among other deities and was the president of the Ekvira Devi Temple Trust at Lonavla. His office cum residential campus in Thane-West is truly a place of integration with temples of Goddesses of Amba and Ekvira and a Pir Baba dargah (Sufi place of worship).  

 

I knew Anant Tare since 2006 when I was posted in Doordarshan News in Mumbai. We became friends at the very first meeting, without any motivation behind—like that of exchanging favors or following a ‘give and take’ policy. He had visited our office on many occasions, sometimes just for meeting us or at times coming as a guest in the news or the program shows. His associate Sunil had also been a regular visitor bringing stories of the activities/events of Tare Saheb whom he referred always as ‘Dada’, and we used to include some of the stories displaying the energetic spirit of the lively Kolis. Anant Tare had given me and my wife the unique opportunity of attending a Koli festival in Mumbai, and we were stunned by their lively culture, folk dances and a rich cuisine of the sea fish varieties—I could not even count the number of fish delicacies offered. He has also been inviting us to visit the famous Ekvira Temple in Lonavla, but unfortunately that did not materialize, and now he is no more.

 

Our friendship continued naturally after I left Doordarshan Mumbai and even after I retired from service of the Government of India. We have often been in touch and the kindhearted religious peoples’ leader always helped us as best as he could in times of our personal crisis. While living in Thane after my retirement we visited his office several times and had darshan of the temples and the dargah. He always adjusted his busy schedule to be present during our visits. On an invitation from Sunil in October 2020 to come to Tare Saheb’s Navaratri celebration we went there and to our surprise Anant Tare was present there personally, waiting for us and to felicitate us—myself and my wife Ragini. That was an unforgettable moment, and that day of the 25^th of October 2020 turned out to be the last time we met him. Yes, at that time my wife had more plans of visiting Tare Saheb’s wonderful place.

 

We offer our tributes and homage, belated as for the reasons cited above, to a genuinely true leader and a true family friend. Our heartfelt condolences to his family of wife, a son and and a daughter along with all kin and associates. I always discussed politics of Maharashtra with him, but never went beyond that which he too understood very well. Our common subject of mutual respect had been the great Balasaheb Thackeray and all the Thackerays—Uddhav Thackeray (Chief Minister of Maharashtra since 2019 with a coalition government), his dynamic son cum minister Aaditya Thackeray, dissenting leader Raj Thackeray and all others in their families. Anant Tare started his career as a banker and soon joined politics, inspired by Balasaheb Thackeray. He was said to be among Balasaheb’s most trusted ones. In Anant Tare’s demise at an untimely 66, Maharashtra and the Shiv Sena have lost a great honest leader.

The Year-Long Farmers’ Movement In India Ends!

In a huge relief for the whole of India, the Government and the farming community the year-long Farmers’ Movement has come to an end today after the Joint Farmers Front leaders announced in Delhi that the Government had accepted all their demands that prominently included the promulgation of a law guarantying Minimum Support Prices (MSP) for their crops and the withdrawal of all charges against the agitating farmers. The leaders described this as a historic victory against an arrogant government further saying that their peaceful movement was unprecedented in India as well as in the world. The farmers would start leaving the Delhi borders from the 11^th of this month, after the state funeral tomorrow of the CDS Gen. Bipin Rawat who died in a tragic chopper crash yesterday, with a victory march to their respective home states, they added. The leaders also said that the Joint Farmers Front which was formed with the constituents of all farm unions across the country to steer the movement would be kept active to monitor the steps taken by the government in the coming weeks and there will a review meeting on 15^th January 2022 for this purpose.

 

Most of the farmers of the country, the food-givers, fought for the repeal of the three Farm Laws and a guaranteed MSP, and after more than 11 rounds of talks with the Government of India the Prime Minister had to bow down to their demands announcing the repeal of the laws on November 19, 2021, with the ongoing winter session of the Parliament having already effected the same without any debate as the opposition political parties have been fighting too on behalf of the farmers for the same objective. The farmers spent days and nights on the grounds bordering the capital of Delhi for more than a year defying the challenges of all the four seasons and the pandemic. In the process they lost around 750 farmers languishing and perishing in the camps. There have been various protest demonstrations, road-rail blockades, protest and tractor marches throughout the year. The final historic victory proves that the food-givers of any country cannot be ignored for long and cannot be left unhappy and agitating—be it for the ‘roti’ or for the elections or for whatever.

 

We extend our hearty welcome for their decision and stand with them, as always, for the future. Now, the ball is in the Government’s court and it’d be interesting to watch what follows next. The Government knows fully well that they cannot go back on their promises and can never afford one more movement by the community upon whom the economy of the country depends to a large extent. The Government must take all the steps now to reduce and then eliminate fully the trust deficit that has been building up in the hearts of the farmers against the government thanks to various dubious actions taken by the latter during the period to derail the movement. It is good time now to go for the much-needed agricultural reforms in a positive and proactive frame of mind taking all stakeholders on board.

India Tour Of South Africa: Rohit Named Regular Captain In The Shorter Formats, Virat Retained In Tests!

The regime of having different captains for different formats for which we have been writing in these pages has finally happened with the Indian cricket selectors making opener Rohit Sharma the regular captain in the ODIs and T20Is with effect from India’s tour of South Africa-2021-22 while the captain of all formats since 2017, Virat Kohli, has been retained as captain for the 3-match Test Series starting on the boxing day, 26^th December 2021, in Centurion.

This move, probably under the guidance of the new Head Coach Rahul Dravid, is ideally aimed at allowing the wonder of a batsman Virat Kohli to play freely and most importantly, in view of the ICC Men’s World Cup-2023 to be hosted by India for the one day format. This could also be a reflection of the fact that Virat is yet to win an ICC Cup! It is unfortunate that Ajinkya Rahane, the hero of the great Indian comeback in Australia in January this year when Kohli left for home for domestic reasons, has lost his place in Tests as vice-captain to Rohit Sharma who is also assigned to be Kohli’s deputy in Tests. Although Rohit has crossed the age of 34, a year older than both Virat and Ajinkya, he seems to be the right choice as the most experienced senior player to take charge. As we had mentioned quite a few times in these pages the practice of the different-captains regime has been followed by most of the big cricket playing nations.

 

Notwithstanding the outbreak of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 in South Africa the respective cricket boards of the two countries have decided to go ahead with the 3-match Test Series and the 3-match ODI Series, albeit delayed by a week, under a strict bio-bubble plus regulations, with the T20I Series yet to be scheduled, by announcing their Test squads late evening yesterday,. While the Indian selectors have announced an 18-member test squad South Africa announced a 21-member squad. The teams can also expect small crowds of fully vaccinated people at the playing grounds.  

 

Rahane despite his being out-of-form in the last 16 tests has been retained in the Test squad along with the inconsistent Cheteshwar Pujara which is a good move too for their experiences as specialist Test cricketers. Useful all-rounder Hamuma Bihari who has already been playing in South Africa for the India-A team has made a comeback. Shreyas Iyer has also been included for his great showing against New Zealand at home. The other rested seniors players— KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami—have all joined the team. Although opener Mayank Agarwal has been included for his great match-winning battle in the second Test in Mumbai against New Zealand he may not make it to the playing eleven as KL Rahul has come back. Wriddhiman Saha has been retained as the reserve wicketkeeper.

 

Ravindra Jadeja, Shubman Gill and Axar Patel are left out due to injuries, and Jayant Yadav may make it to the playing eleven in the place of Jadeja after the first-choice spinner Ravichandran Ashwin. However, playing two spinners in the tests could be tricky decision considering the fact that most of the pitches in South Africa are fast-paced helping the fast bowlers and India have good choices available in Bumrah, Shami, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Siraj along with three pacers already playing in South Africa being kept as reserve pacers that include Deepak Chahar, particularly if Hanuma Bihari finds a place in the final eleven. In any case, it would definitely be a toss between Bihari and Jayant in making it to the final eleven.

 

South Africa has announced a 21-member Test squad under the captaincy of Dean Elgar with Temba Bavuma as his deputy. The comeback of medium fast bowler Duanne Olivier who last appeared in 2019 is a significant inclusion. The Proteas have ample choices available in the fast bowling arena with the familiar faces of the IPL, Rabada, Nortje and Ngidi, apart from the others; they have too at least four spinners in the squad with many their batsmen having the ability to throw in a few good overs each. The selection of the final eleven would be as interesting as that of India.

 

The India team is set to leave for South Africa on 12^th of this month, and everything looks good for some absorbing cricket, this Test Series also being a part of the WTC-2021-23 (World Test Championship) which is going to be South Africa’s first. The Omicron is still a scare and hope the variant does not do something real nasty. Of course, the news arena currently abounds with positive reports that the Omicron variant—mutating all the earlier variants like alpha, beta, delta and so on—may finally turn out to be weaker virus that may spread very fast, but may cause only milder diseases like normal flues as has been observed so far in South Africa, United Kingdom and other countries. However, many other experts say that it is too early to say that and it may take weeks to arrive at a decision with more and more data available. Like the continuing phenomenon of the ‘toss’ in cricket it is a ‘toss’ too in the case of Omicron for, hopefully, good results.