Cricket: Australia and South Africa At It Again!

Australia and South Africa have the habit of pulling one extraordinary cricket match out of the mundane now ant then. You may well remember the incredible one day international between the two teams played at New Wanderers on 12^th March, 2006 which broke all the records of team innings score and chasing scores. Winning the toss and batting first Australia posted an insane score of 434 for 4. And. South Africa matching the insanity with zeal went on to win it! They did it by putting up 438 for 9 with one ball to spare. The greatest one day cricket match ever played!

Now at Cape Town, they have done it again in the first Test—equally insane unpredictable and topsy-turvy. The first day was normal with Australia batting first and scoring 214 for 8. It continued to be normal till lunch on the second day with Aussies folding up for 284 and South Africa at 49 for 1. Then, the madness descended.

South Africa was shot out for just 96 giving the Aussies a healthy lead of 188 runs and the match was almost a foregone conclusion. But then the climax! Australia was reduced to 21 for 9 and finally all out for 47—the 4^th lowest and the lowest since 1902!

Twenty three wickets fell on a single day. In India we are used to 17-18 wickets falling on a day mostly between 3^rd to 5^th days, but the Cape Town caper was just beyond rational explanations!

South Africa, needing a reasonable 236 to win, put things back to normal losing only one wicket more on that eventful day. And on the third day before lunch they won by 8 wickets! Smith and Amla throwing their might with brilliant centuries.

Just imagine Australia being brutalized in two and half days! The two teams should go on repeating such acts so that we get more cricket treats!

River Brahmaputra and Bhupen Hazarika!

River Brahmaputra flows through almost the entire length of Assam, a state in North East India, from the far east of Arunachal Pradesh down to the west and out of Assam. It’s called by different names in different regions. In Assamese it’s also referred to Lohit or Luit.

The peoples’ singer-poet-composer Bhupen Hazarika accepts River Brahmaputra as the symbol of vitality and strength of Assam. Very much in the tradition of Ol’ Man River of Paul Robeson fame he always sings in eulogy and devotion to the great river:

                         

                        “O’ mighty Brahmaputra…you are the pilgrimage of reunion…

                            For ages and ages…you have been preaching…

                            The message of assimilation…integration…unity…”

But when the sensitive poet sees people in both the banks of the river suffering and leading miserable lives he cries out in anger at the same symbol of devotion:

                           “Even after witnessing the sufferings of countless people in…

                             Your valley so vast…O’ you Burha Luit (Old Luit)…

                         Why do you just flow on…so indifferently…so dumbly…”    

When there is a time of severe crisis faced by the state or the region the poet addresses the river identifying it with the people’s agony and asking for total support:

                           

                             “Today…river Brahmaputra is afire…blazing…

                     The horizon of the peoples’ mind shrouded with smoke…darkness…

                     The sky is peppered with blackened and falling stars…

                           Whom do they think they dare insult again and again…”     

Apart from such classic period songs Bhupen Hazarika had sung many other exquisite compositions describing the natural beauty of the river, its majestic presence; and other patriotic songs on the river and the people in its valley—particularly the youths whom he always described as most courageous and ready to die defending the honor of the Baba Brahmaputra. 

Tributes to the Bard of Brahmaputra...         

The Auto-rickshaw Song of Bhupen Hazarika!

We have said earlier about Dr. Bhupen Hazarika’s songs have a strong social commitment reflecting the joyful or sorrowful times of not only Assam, but the whole of the North East India. Here is one song that aims at the total common man—the unemployed youths. After auto-rickshaws  were introduced in the streets of Assam Bhupen Hazarika wrote, composed and sang this song with his younger brother late Jayanta Hazarika in probably the late sixties to inspire the unemployed local youths not to hesitate but to go for it.

The lyrics of the evergreen song go like this in English:

                             

                             “Driving our auto-rickshaw, we two brothers…

                              Storming through the streets of Guwahati…

     Me the elder brother having a doctorate…my younger brother a post graduate…

                              Having to repay a big bank loan….

                        From the refinery in the fat east to the University in the far west…

                              All localities in between… from north to south…

                        Working hard…sweating…will repay the remaining bank loan…    

                               Permit in my brother’s name…I too drive it often…

                    As my brother says,’younger brother of an educated unemployed…

                                We have no complex…..’

      My brother has only one weakness…Jalukbari University his favorite…

                             Sometimes he would take away the auto from me…saying….

                             ‘My love will be my passenger today…’

         I ask would she marry you…you not being a professor…he would reply...    

                               With pride, ‘My love understands the dignity of labor…’

                      I praise him for the decision…good that you did not run after a job…

    Or you would’ve remained unemployed for life…blessings from my sister-in-law…

                                             Driving our auto…we two brothers…”

The song is inspiring even now! Tributes to Bhupenda…