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.