Test Cricket: New Zealand Beat India By 40 Runs In Auckland!

Crucial 4/62 By Neil Wagner

Thanks to a freakish third day the first Test between New Zealand and India got stretched to the fourth day today and as has been the trend New Zealand overpowered India by 40 runs in Auckland taking an unassailable 1-0 lead in the two-match Test Series. India’s overseas woes spill over with a possible redeeming winning chance in the Test Series gone after this defeat. India can now at best draw the Series or return home with all the zero-defeat margins compounded. As the richest cricket Board of the world, BCCI and its all-powerful and absolutely insulated president N Srinavasan, looks set to take full control of the ICC (International Cricket Council) in the near future their money-spinning Team India seems down and out. The BCCI cannot wish away more overseas tours scheduled during the year, but they must be looking into their bag of dirty tricks to pull out crowds-restoring matches. Anyway, the Indians here created a great opportunity to win and go one up, but they themselves messed it up.

Shikhar Dhawan

The Auckland Test seemed to be over at stumps on the second day when replying to New Zealand’s mammoth 503 India lost their way as usual and were struggling at 130/4. On the third morning there was no indication of the spirited resistance to come as India continued to be dismal losing last six wickets for just about 70 runs being all out 202 giving a huge lead of 301 runs. Luckily for them, NZ did not enforce the follow-on due to some inexplicable reasons. And then the storm. For one rare occasion overseas the Indian pacers bowled with spirit and fury scuttling out their opponents for as low as 105 runs. So, India had a target of 407 runs to chase for a win with more than two days which could have been a record win chasing in Indian history of Test cricket. The third day saw fall of 17 wickets. However, the pitch still looked good for batting.

The Indian batsmen started spiritedly too. They were tantalizingly 87/1 at stumps on the third day needing 320 runs more with nine wickets in hand. Shikhar Dhawan who notched up his first overseas Test century (115) created almost a matching winning partnership with Virat Kohli (67) taking the score to 222. But then NZ took the new ball and the consistent weakness of Indian batsmen to short and fast stuff surfaced again. Add to it their inexplicable aggression leading to absolutely mindless shots and one or two costly umpiring errors. Down to Zaheer Khan at number 9 everyone particularly Jadeja and Dhoni tried to achieve victory, but only spirit was not found good enough for creating an incredible and record-breaking win.

The Scorecard:

Brendon McCullum

Brendon McCullulm was adjudged the man of the match for his brilliant 224 in the first innings. For India they so far have only managed to win all the tosses and could not capitalize on any of them. Seeing some clouds floating above his head MS Dhoni invited the Kiwis to bat first not realizing that the match was for five days and that seamy conditions could not last for long. For the first time Team India is dearly missing the services of its celebrated trio—Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Sachin Tendulkar. Time is running out for captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni now. The second Test starts from 14^th February in Wellington.

Humor In Corruption: The Cattle Ransom!

Once upon a time somewhere in India there lived an young man who dropped out of school due to family poverty and later was appointed as a caretaker of a house under construction in the suburbs of a big town by the benevolent owner. The young man built a small thatched hut in the campus and started living there doing odd jobs apart from taking care. Soon he mixed well with the neighboring households and began to take errands from them too. Thus he somewhat earned the name of a Good Samaritan. However, things were not that met the eye.

That winter was unusually dry with the rains refusing to pour even in little drops. The greenery in the neighborhood vanished and the cows owned by a few families had a hard time finding green pastures to graze. The heads of the households therefore had to take the decision of untethering their cattle so that the animals could graze freely in nearby paddy fields feeding mainly on the dry and cut straws.

Things started happening fast. Almost every day someone’s cow would be missing making the owner tense and agitated. Late evening the young man would turn up with the missing animal saying he had rescued it from the distant village where villagers put it under arrest for damaging their garden plants. The owner would thank him profusely.

The situation changed radically. One evening the young man turned up in someone’s house empty handed saying that the missing cow could not be rescued as the villagers demanded money for release. He said the villagers were very angry and they threatened to sell the cows off on the next intrusion. The owner paid up easily and gratefully. The ransom money began to be collected too frequently for comfort now and some owners had to pay ransom several times a month. Few other stories about the young man started unfolding at that time casting grave suspicion on his activities or associations. Finally, due to continuous pressure applied by some of the owners the young man admitted his crime or corrupt acts. Very soon his elder brother replaced him as the caretaker.

This story is quite relevant even now. Still we find top political leaders stealing animal fodder across our cattle country to make money. However, in an exemplary display of love for animals, only the other day a Uttar Pradesh senior minister deputed a troop of state police personnel in pursuit of his seven stolen buffaloes and even punished three of them for dereliction of duty and not finding the missing animals sooner enough. The full state police force was right royally engaged for days to find their minister’s stolen buffaloes. Fortunately the police found all the animals in different areas of the state and more positively no ransom was found to be behind the theft. The animal lovers of this great country has now some real good reasons to rejoice.

Maharashtra: Ashtavinayak Yatra Or Pilgrimage: Day 3

We got a little late because we had to check out of our hotel this third day being our last of the tour. Our bus was underway around 7am. This morning we were served breakfast at the hotel.

Vighneshwar Temple: Our seventh temple of the Ashtavinayaka tour was the Vighneshwar Temple at Ozhar. It is situated on the banks of Kukadi River, 95 km away from Pune city, just off the Pune-Nashik Highway, in the Junnar taluka of Pune district. The temple is enclosed on all sides by high stone walls, and its pinnacle is made of gold. The Ganesha form worshipped here is called Vighneshwar, ‘Lord of obstacles") or Vighnahar (spelt also as Vignahara, "Remover of obstacles") and is associated with the legend of Ganesha defeating Vignasura, the demon of obstacles.

The temple is surrounded by a walled compound with a large gateway flanked by two large stone Dvarapala (gatekeepers) sculptures and a row of four musicians in bas relief on the lintel. One can view the Lenyadri shrine and Shivneri Fort standing on the wall. Two large stone Deepamalas (lamp towers) stand near the gateway in front of a fine corridor of seven cusped arches. There are owaris (small room for meditation) on both sides of the gateway. The courtyard is tiled. The central temple has three entrances with sculptured side posts and lintels; the east one being the central one. The central one has a lintel with a Ganesha in relief surrounded with monkeys and parrots on trees. The temple has two halls, with first one (20 feet high) having the entrances to the north and south too and has the image of Dhundiraj Ganesha. The next one (10 feet high) has a white marble mushika (the mouse, which is the vehicle of Ganesha) seating in attendance. The temple walls are filled with murals and colorful sculptures. The shikhara - over the sanctum - is covered with gold foil. It also has two wide stone Prakarams (outer path outside a Hindu sanctum). Ozhar is prescribed as the seventh temple to be visited in the Ashtavinayaka circuit, though pilgrims often visit Ozar fifth, as it is a more convenient route. However, we have visited this as our seventh destination only.

Riverside, Ozhar

Girijatmaj Temple: Our eight and last temple of the tour was the spectacular mountain cave temple, Girijatmaj, at Lenyadri ('Lena' in Marathi meaning "cave" and 'adri' in Sanskrit meaning "mountain" or "stone") very near to Ozhar. The temple is situated within a series of 30 rock-cut Buddhist caves on a mountain, which are also called Ganesha Caves—the seventh cave housing the Ganesha temple. The temple hall with the altar has around 18 rock-cut cells used as meditation rooms. Situated 97 km from Pune, you have to climb 307 steps to reach the temple.  The idol here is not a separate idol but has been carved on a stone wall of the cave, from which only one eye of the idol can be seen. The mountain temple campus are full of monkeys who mix well with the devotees and accept the food offered.

Would Look in Spring

‘Girijatmaj’ literally means Ganesha the son, atmajmeaning son and Girija another name of Goddess Parvati or Goddess Durga. Legends have it that desiring to have a son; Parvati underwent austerities meditating on Ganesha, for twelve years at Lenyadri. Pleased by her penance, Ganesha blessed her with the boon that he will be born as her son. Accordingly, on the fourth lunar day of the bright fortnight of the Hindu month Bhadrapada (Ganesh chaturthi day), Parvati worshipped a clay image of Ganesha, which came alive. Thus, Ganesha was born to Parvati at Lenyadri. Later, he was named Gunesha by Lord Shiva. Shiva gave him a boon that whosoever remembers him before starting a job, will successfully complete that task. For 15 years Gunesha grew up at Lenyadri. Sindhu, who knew that his death would be at the hands of Gunesha, sent demons like Krur, Balasur, Vyomasur, Kshemma, Kushal, and many more, to kill Gunesha, but all of them were instead killed by him. At the age of six, the architect-god Vishwakarma worshipped Gunesha and endowed him with the weapons of Pasha (noose), Parashu (axe), Ankusha(hook) and Padma (Lotus). Once, little Gunesha knocked an egg from a mango tree, from which emerged a peacock. Gunesha mounted the peacock and assumed the name Mayureshwara. Mayureshwara later killed Sindhu and his army-generals at Morgaon, the most important Ashtavinayaka temple.

Twenty-six of the caves are individually numbered. The caves face to the south and are numbered serially from east to west. Caves 6 and 14 are chaitya-grihas (chapels), while the rest are viharas (dwellings for monks). The latter are in the form of dwellings and cells. There are also several rock-cut water cisterns; two of them have inscriptions. The layout of the caves, in general, is similar in pattern and shape. They mostly have one or two sides with two long benches for occupants' use. The caves date from between the 1st and 3rd century AD; the Ganesha shrine situated in Cave 7 is dated to the 1st century AD, though the date of conversion to a Hindu shrine is unknown. All of the caves arise from Hinayana Buddhism. 

 

Our fellow passengers have shown a perfect sense of camaraderie and support in climbing nearly 350 stone steps to the temple

—inspired by the Republic Day being observed on 26^TH January, 2014 today. The young helped the older and waited for them to get their breath back now then on the way up. Ashtavinayaka tour has been quite hectic but very fulfilling for us. Taking three days off during a continuously busy schedule we planned our very first Ashtavinayaka trip and completed the full darshan thanks to the blessings of Lord Ganesha. Religious beliefs and sentiments would naturally vary from individual to individual, but you do not need to be bound by a particular religion to visit such wonderfully vibrant ancient sites. Like the way cosmopolitan Mumbai celebrates Ganesha Festival every year.

We were given lunch at a nearby hotel. For the first time during this hectic tour people were seen taking their time and relaxing a lot. The bus dropped us back in Mumbai around 8 pm.