Test Cricket: India Finally Manage To Break The Jinx In Sri Lanka!

India under the young Test skipper Virat Kohli finally managed to break the 22-year no-win jinx in Test Series hosted by Sri Lanka defeating the hosts by 117 runs in the third Test today thus winning the Series 2-1 after wasting a huge opportunity in the first of the three Tests mostly dominated by them. In the first Test at Galle a win for India seemed only a formality when a dismal bout of batting ensured a win for Sri Lanka. In the third Test in Colombo India put Sri Lanka on the mat setting a huge target of 386 runs and capturing three vital wickets for 67 runs at stumps on the fourth day yesterday. They needed to capture 7 wickets today for a series win in Sri Lanka after 22 years, but their bowlers again showed the haunting lack of penetration for most part of today with the scare of Sri Lanka either drawing or even winning the match and the Series looming large. However, at the last moments of the fifth day Ashwin came back to capture 4 wickets ensuring a win for India. In the second Test India won hands down by 278 runs giving the first ever Test victory to Kohli as a captain. Ironically, it was after the second Test that the legendary Sri Lankan cricketer Kumar Sangakkara decided to retire from test cricket and in the third Test without this mainstay of batting, wicket keeping and all-round leadership India could not capitalize to a desired extent upon the hosts.

The third and the final Test match between India and Sri Lanka in Colombo has proved to be the best one with the series level at 1-1 prior to it, both teams staging fight-backs from tight situations, tails of both teams wagging and the match stretched to full five days. Sri Lanka gave India an advantage too by opting to field first after winning the toss—maybe because playing without the assured presence of Sanga after some years. However, India struggled to make 312 and in reply Sri Lanka struggled more, but finally able to reduce the lead to just 111. India struggled again and finally managed to reach 274 setting a seemingly invincible target of 386 runs. And finally on the last day today Sri Lanka could not prevent India from creating history by breaking the jinx. Virat Kohli has an away Series win under his belt now. R Ashwin who took a total of 22 scalps was rightfully named the Man of the Series. Unfortunately, Ishant Sharma got a 1-Test ban for his undue aggressiveness on the field and so will miss the first Test against South Africa. Well, if Australians are aggressive it is only natural, when Indians do, rarely though,  it is an offence! 

For India Dhawan, Kohli, Rahane, Rahul, Pujara and Sharma scored quite a few runs each. However, the consistency was lacking with almost all making  big individual scores in one outing followed by flops in the next. Of course, India had the disadvantage of playing without the service of their regular openers—Dhawan and Murali Vijay. Dhawan could not play after a century in the first Test. Vijay played only the second Test. Ravichandran Ashwin’s ten-wicket haul in the first Test went in vain, but Ishant Sharma’s improved line and aggressiveness gave India something to hoot for in the near future. For Sri Lanka too the batting lacked consistency except for the glorious 162 by Chandimal in the first Test and some good scores by Mathews. On the bowling front Herath’s performance in the first Test was memorable with some aggressive bursts from pacers Prasad and Pradeep. Next India go into the home series named Gandhi-Mandela Series against South Africa starting end of this month. There will be three T20s, five ODIs and four Test matches with the first T20 starting on 2^ndOctober and the first Test starting 5^th November in Mumbai. 

Nostalgia: The Golden Habit of Book Reading!

The late sixties to the late eighties—the golden period for us as far as the habit of reading book is concerned. For my father the period started from around the early forties. Rightfully, my father and we children were termed as ‘book worms’ by family and friends. We used to coil up wherever and whenever possible with books—books of various nature ranging from detective novels to heavy non-fiction in mostly English, Assamese and Bengali. We can hardly forget those golden moments of reading—on a fresh morning in the veranda armchair or reclining on the sofa in the drawing room or half inclined on the pillow in the bedroom or on winter nights after supper inside the warm quilt with the table lamp burning. On Sundays my mother had a hard time getting us on to the table after serving lunch. My father had the usual habit of trying to finish a book on a single sitting and we also tried to imitate him on various occasions. Thanks to my father’s childhood we favoured English classics a lot and were desperate to procure those from all possible sources apart from the huge home reserve of classics built up over time.

My father was in the civil service and it was transferable. Therefore we were used to move from town to town every two or three years. Coming to a new town our prime focus was to locate the public library. Normally my father took us two brothers there and we were never happy with two membership cards insisting on four and getting them due to his support. Almost at every weekend we brothers used to walk up to the library, returning the read books and searching all nooks and corners for newer ones. Back home we used to display our treasure of books enticingly enough knowing that father would soon hover over them. He would select and pick one and retire to his favourite place to devour. We would contend ourselves with the rest for the time being with our sisters also joining in now.

Those days it was not easy to buy books even though the price was much lesser, because earnings were also very less, and our father, being an honest officer, had only his meagre salary to take care of everything. So we tried to save out of our daily pocket money to save enough to buy books later; we used to cajole and beg ‘able’ family guests to take a trip with us to the book-store and once there we were bolder to get our demands through; on our birthdays or any special festive occasions we used to request, depending on opportunities, the likely visitors to gift us only books.

There was such a ‘book-reading bond’ with our scholarly father that whenever we managed to buy a book we used to show it first to him and if he preferred to devour it immediately we let him to do so waiting for our turn with a happy and joyful heart. Even my farmer grandfather and half-literate grandmother were avid readers too. When they visited us they would normally join us reading books at every opportunity. During the time when grandmother came to live with us a crisis of sorts was building up. She was devouring books at an alarming rate and we were running out of our stock of books. Since that time we brothers got employed outside the visits to the public library became far and less. So often we would discuss the problem with our mother how to solve it!

I remember one particular book-store in a particular town. Not having enough savings at the time and enticed by a whole new series of exciting books I went over there with my bicycle quite often. I would always ask the owner for a particular book and try to demonstrate by leafing over that I really intended to buy it. As the owner got busier with other customers I would proceed to the corner of the counter and read the book then and there. I would finish it in about two hours if I was lucky and would return the book with a smile. I repeated the exercise many times and the kind owner never showed any suspicion. Maybe he knew and was amused or maybe he did not suspect genuinely.

Now your mobiles, iPhones, tabs, laptops or desktops and the 24-hour television channels hardly give you enough time to read books. Whatever little or more you may read now it is invariably on the electronic screens. Many of you may have already left the habit irreparably behind. Personally I would buy a book with all pristine excitement planning to read it coiling up in my favourite corner, but would not succeed for days on end. However, it is such a beautiful experience that everyone would like to come back to it now or later, I’m sure. Members of the present young generation should first try to realize what they are missing out on before getting hooked again to their gadgets. For me the nostalgia is just overpowering. 

A Shaken Shillong Bids Adieu To Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam!

It was just unprecedented and a supreme moment of stupefied indecision for a quiet hilly city of Shillong in the state of Meghalaya of north eastern India. News of global proportions rarely happens in this city. The easy-going people here are not much bothered about breaking news or that kind of stuff and are happy with their daily chores—going to work, going to markets, going for their favourite dishes and worrying about rains or the lack of it and electricity or water supply or cleanliness. So nobody was ready for such kind of a huge news break that could go livewire globally. To confound matters, the media did not have a clue about this visit of an eminent personality, even in a small city like Shillong. Finally then, when the news broke around 8pm on that momentous day of 27^th July, 2015 it was incredulity, sheer disbelief, indecisiveness and numbing inaction. The men here in power were mostly looking for protocol and for ways how to handle it. The Governor, the ministers, the bureaucrats, the police and army officers, the doctors—all found themselves rushing to the hospital without giving any thought to making an official declaration. The media acted on their sources and camped at the hospital waiting hours for the doctors or any authority to come down and make it official. The easy-going folks were shaken out of their reverie and took to the streets crowding the hospital campus and the surroundings.

Dr APJ Abdul Kalam was no stranger to Shillong or Meghalaya. He had been coming here since 2002 mostly for his lecture-interaction with students and some other official inaugurations in the role of the Indian President. This time he was scheduled to give a lecture here in the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Shillong on the topic ‘Creating a Liveable Planet Earth’. He had been in the faculty of the IIM and came for lectures quite often in the last two years. Accordingly on 27^th July he arrived in Guwahati by a flight from Delhi and undertook a road journey to Shillong. Upon his arrival in Shillong after 5pm he was taken to a guest house for a little rest with tea and light refreshments. After 6pm he was there in the auditorium of the IIM for giving the lecture to senior students. He was his usual self—jovial, eager to interact and in full energy.

His Last Lecture

Barely ten minutes into his lecture the Missile Man fell silent suddenly and collapsed. The IIM doctor examined him and declared a medical emergency. He was shifted immediately to the nearest Bethany hospital and admitted into the ICU. Apart from the hospital doctors the Army doctors and the state government doctors were called in to treat the former President. Desperate efforts continued to revive the beloved teacher and the scientist. The mouth to mouth news went viral.

The Governor of Meghalaya, V Shanmuganthan rushed to the Bethany hospital and stayed there for hours. The state ministers, the top bureaucrats, the army commands and top cops started landing at the hospital. Meanwhile the reception lounge of the hospital got filled with hyperactive media personnel and the outer courtyard and the surrounding streets were filled beyond capacity with his ardent and anxious admirers—mostly young people and students.

Finally at around 10.30pm the body of the immensely versatile personality of utter simplicity, draped in the tricolor, was brought down to the courtyard to be taken in an ambulance to the military hospital. The large crowd looked on in utter disbelief and with a sense of profound loss, and then erupted into an endless chain of spontaneous reaction. The slogans of ‘Long Live Abdul Kalam Sahab’ rent the air around. Most of them were out with their mobiles and cameras trying frantically to record a last glimpse of their beloved and ever inspiring leader-teacher. Many of them were in tears.

The last journey of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam began. His mortal remains were taken on a helicopter to Guwahati in the wee hours of 28^th July and from there to New Delhi by a special aircraft. Next day he was taken to Rameshwaram, his native place in Tamil Nadu. And today, the 30^th July, 2015, the People’s President was finally laid to rest with full state and military honors. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and ministers and top leaders of the whole country attended the funeral paying their soulful homage for the last time.

Popularity of Dr. Abdul Kalam has to be seen to be believed. Even in this farthest north eastern region of the country tributes were paid to him in almost every corner and the striking highlight is that everywhere it is the common people or the students who showed their pain at this great loss so emphatically. Yes, he has been a role model and source of inspiration for the youth to succeed in life, and his down to earth nature and incredible simplicity won millions of hearts all over. Long Live the People’s President. We pray for the eternal bliss of his noble soul.

Shillong in the meantime has been coming to terms with the reality. The state government had declared a holiday on 28^th July, maybe to recover from the shock and prepare for the next course of action. There were mixed reactions all around here and in the social media. Some objected to the holiday declaration saying this was contrary to what Dr. Kalam stood for. Some found even a glory in this profoundly sad happening—a glorified death for Shillong. They posted or tweeted that the great scientist did a favour to Shillong by choosing to breathe his last here. Now, Shillong will figure prominently in Google searches and people all over the globe will come to know what Shillong is and where it is. The reason for this is simple. People here have always to contend with the nation’s colossal ignorance about the north east India and a sense of being neglected over the decades. People here struggle to come into the national mainstream not for the wrong reasons that usually include natural disasters or terrorism. Now at least, they have the best possible reason to be considered seriously—Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam.

About the media not having a clue to this visit the IIM sources said that Dr. Kalam came for strictly class-room lectures where no distractions could be allowed. Besides, in 2014 when he came for his usual lecture media came to know about it and the eager teacher was very upset at being disturbed in his mission. They have good reasons to block the media this time. But the loss is immense. Millions of his followers were deprived of the audio-visuals of his last lecture.