Food Harmony In North Eastern India!

In the Paleolithic age humans survived on edible plants and hunting of wild animals. They lived in small groups, made rough stone weapons and killed animals for food. The use of fire in the Lower Paleolithic age revolutionized the act of eating as they began to cook their foods finding wonderful ways of having vegetable dishes or mixing vegetables with meat. The survival instinct of eating got gradually replaced by the gourmet approach. The point to note here is that vegetarian and non-vegetarian ways of eating existed on planet earth since pre-historic times. - Please Click to See more Here:  

(This article was first featured in newskarnataka.com's print publication 'Karnataka Today' Volume 1, Issue 1) 

Cricket: India Sweep Freedom Series Tests 3-0 Deserving The Delhi Test Win, South African Spin-Resistance Comes Too Late!

India beat South Africa by 337 runs to sweep the Freedom Test Series 3-0 and lift the Paytm Freedom Trophy today in Delhi. This is Team India’s most deserving win of the Freedom Series Test cricket as the Delhi pitch has behaved the way it has been all these years giving equal opportunities to pacers, spinners and even batsmen. It is a big relief that the pitch has not been converted into a rank turner like in Mohali and Nagpur earlier. The Delhi test has gone into the last session of the fifth and final day and the team that played best has won. From the third day onwards the pitch became slower and slower making run-making difficult and at the same time not yielding the lethal cracks for the bowlers.

The Indian victory largely comes on the back of the player of the match Ajinkya Rahane who scored two magnificent back to back centuries with good contributions Virat Kohli who finally came into form and accurate bowling from both the spinners and fast bowlers. Ironically, Rahane is the player always living on the brink with possibilities of not being considered at all or being rested or being dropped. This is despite his consistency in batting, his selection as the Indian captain in the absence of star cricketers recently and his magnanimous temperament. This is an irony because the Indian superstars never face the axe in spite of repeated failures with the bat and some even get selected for no reason like Rohit Sharma. The ‘realities’ of Indian cricket are too strong to be obliterated quickly.

Spin-mania seems to have totally demoralized the South African team not allowing them even to consider batting well on okay pitches. Their bowlers—both fast and spin—did quite well  to contain India to 334 runs in the first innings after the home team decided to bat first winning the toss. The Proteas should have understood that it was a good batting track offering help to bowlers and not posing any threat of cracking up. The fear psychosis drove them to fold up for 121 in just about 40 overs. They seem to have learnt the hard spin-lesson rather too late as they tried to resist, block  and delay the spin-fall taking 143 overs to make 143 runs in the second innings chasing a mammoth target of 481 set by India.  Most of their top batsmen including a miserable-looking Amla and deVilliers played almost absurd number of balls to make their paltry contributions. On the other hand spin-driven India read the pitch quite well refusing to make South Africa follow-on after taking 213-run lead in the first innings. Umesh Yadav and Ishant Sharma—two pacers included in the team this time—were used sufficiently with the former proving to be very effective. Spinner Ashwin took his 15^th five-wicket haul. Till tea break today the South African resistance continued to frustrate India, but after the break it was a dramatic collapse with five wickets falling in a heap. The Scorecard:

If India do possess sporting pitches like the Firoz Shah Kotla in Delhi why don’t they come out of the spin-compelled mentality for ‘enforced’ wins and allow the home team to grow and compete all over the globe?  

Cricket: Spin-India Wins Freedom Trophy Test Series Against South Africa!

India got the best pitch possible to seal the Freedom Test Series against South Africa by winning the third test match in Nagpur in less than three days again thus taking an unassailable 2-0 lead in the four-match Series. Spinners of India won the first test in Mohali in less than three days and could have repeated the feat in Bengaluru too had rains not intervened from the second day onwards. Bravo India for pitching in perfectly in the perfect kind of pitches provided with perfection by the perfect supporters of Indian cricket. All cricket action at the moment seems to be so spin-oriented that India opted for just one pacer in the squad for the Nagpur test in the form of Ishant Sharma and yet he hardly bowled. The pitch was referred to as ‘diabolic’ by some while for the Indian fans it should described as ‘historic’. Yes, when India win it is always historic and when they lose it is always ‘unfavourable conditions’.

Look at the scores. India won the toss and electing to bat first struggled to make 215. South Africa replied with 79—the lowest by any team against India in Tests. India struggled to make 173 in the second innings. However, they knew with a lead of 309 runs they would surely win and win overwhelmingly. There was not a single fifty by any, forget about glorious Test centuries. Only spin that accounted for the fall of 20 wickets on the second day. And India's best bowler R Ashwin (happens to be a spinner okay) takes a total of 12 scalps.  The Scorecard:

Like the Mohali pitch the Nagpur pitch too was never known for such kind of ‘turn’around behaviour. These pitches were of course ‘lifeless’ for the short-format games and ‘good batting tracks’ for test matches. A special memory is associated with Nagpur.

Way back in 2004 inthe month of October. It was a tour of Australia and the four-match Test Series was being played. Australia were leading the series 1-0 with Nagpur hosting the third match. The series was at stake—if Australia won they would conquer the last frontier since 1969-70 under Steve Waugh and India had to win it to stay alive in the series for a possible win in the last test. The stakes were very high especially for Indian captain Sourav Ganguly who led the team to a spectacular victory over Australia in 2000-01 series in India. And it was a green top waiting for him in Nagpur. Maybe the curator was a bold fellow believing in the spirit of the game who refused to mend the pitch to a spinning one even after being put under tremendous pressure. Some other experts ascribed the factional fights within the BCCI as the main reason for the curator’s defiance.

Whatever be the reasons the ‘conditions’ definitely did not favour India even at home. The lush green cover deflated the Indians while it energised Steve Waugh's invincible Aussies. On the morning of the first day captain Ganguly opted out of the match along with his main spin spearhead Harbhajan Singh citing injury issues. It was widely believed that the skipper opted out due to the green top which for him meant sure defeat. And they did lose that test heavily handing over the series win to Australia.

The biggest problem here is the mindset. Like we pointed out last time the Indian cricket team has been consciously following the ‘spin preference’ instead of a balanced bowling attack and depending heavily on this since time immemorial. Okay, once upon a time the spin trio of India—Chandrasekhar, Prasanna and Bedi—was just out of the world which warranted conducive pitches that time at least at home. However, even at that time the pitches took turn from the third or fourth day onwards and on the fifth and last day it was the deadliest. But pray why to follow the same tactics over decades not at all trying to breed, encourage and promote pacers.  Are the team, the team management and the cricket Board just content enough to win at home only treating the away series as aberrations?

Win or no win this is just not cricket. Cricketing experts are defending such pitches as ‘result oriented’. No, this is not result oriented; this is ‘spin oriented allowing the home team to win easily’. You are not supposed to wind up test matches in two or three days. Or is the BCCI considering the possibility of reducing Test matches to just three days instead of five in the interest of the mushrooming and money-spinning cricket ‘revellers’ of the country? Why not? In Indian Cricket it always comes down finally to money matters. India-Pakistan matches have been blockbusters with the big money filling the coffers of both the Boards. Or else why would the BCCI be so desperate to try pressing the Government of India for permission on the very day of the 7th anniversary of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack  by Pakistan backed terrorists some of whom are still roaming free? This is apart from the ceaseless ceasefire violations and killings of jawans and civilians across the LoC.