Tendulkar-I

I have played a lot of gully cricket. A lot of in house cricket. A lot of cricket with plastic ball, rubber ball, tennis ball. I don't remember when I started playing, but I do remember the time when I started watching. I was around six or seven, I used to try to adjust my black and white crown TVs channels, to catch cable signal, so I could watch a blurred match; ofcourse in my fathers absence, cause he would scold me for doing "ched-chaad" (tinkering) with the TV. My parents thought electronic and costly things like TV should be given utmost care, and were paranoid about disturbing the status-quo. They thought the TV would go bad if I changed channels.

Those days, I eagerly awaited the evenings, the time of 4'o'clock, when my parents would let me out after finishing my homework. And with the makan-maaliks (landlords) kids and the other colony kids, I would play "catcham-catch" or "stopping the boundaries" or "teams". We would make imitation dives, glorious catches, jubiliations of won games, all in imitation of the matches we had watched. The fervour of watching cricket was transported to our little grounds. And the excitement of the little grounds, was transported to watching the matches.

When you are a kid you usually learn things as "mine". My school, my tiffinbox, my teacher, my parents, my ball. Naturally, watching TV, India became my team, having no idea, why it was my team. But yes, I used to cheer for it, become sad when it lost, and would go and tell my parents "india haar gaayi". And in evenings, us kids would discuss and try to imitate the six that we saw some Indian batsman hit. And I remember, I used to be fascinated by Kapil-Devs bowling action, and he siddhu and srikkanth, were the batsmen, who batted like we wanted. Trying to hit the ball, rather than playing like Shastri and Gavaskar. We wanted action, and excitement. And something we could imitate.

In a few years life changed, my family moved from gujarat to mp, halol to ujjain, I lost my evening friends, but cricket stayed with me. By that time I had already learnt to bowl with proper bowling action, which is like learning bicycle. It's easy once you can do it. And by that time, I was hooked to cricket, and Indian team. In ujjain, I made new friends, started playing cricket again, and we would discuss, how slow Indian team batted, that they made 100 runs in 27 overs (yes, there used to be a time). That was the time, when hits were supposed to be made only in slog overs. And then, there was hardly a batsman in India team who played aggressive (except maybe kapil dev). Aggressive like Vivian Richards.

But this one day, I saw sachin tendulkar bat. He had probably come 5th down. We were playing pakistan. And this guy, was pulling and hooking the balls of waqar, akram.

Basant Aa Raha Hai

Khayalon main khoya
Ek Ped ke nicche khada tha main
Thandi hawa ka jhonka aaya
Halki si ek awaaz aayi
Maine upar dekha
Aur ek tahni muskai
Maine aankh jhapkayi
Khayalon ko choda
Aur tahni ke sur se apne kaano ko joda
Tahni ga rahi thi
Kal main koplen pahnoongi
Ki basant aa raha hai
Iddhar nicche, ghans ne bhi hariyali ki dhun thi lagayi
basant ke avagaman main
Usne picche na rahne ki kasam hai khayi
Udhar phoolon ke podhe bhi kar rahe the taiyaari
Ke Rang Rang pahan basant layenge
Maine bhi tahni ki maani
Chodi khayalon ki khincha-taani
Main bhi ghans ki dhun main ram gaya
Aur roshen roshen sooraj sang
Basant ke avagaman main lag gaya

So Be It

the dreary intercourse of daily life,
shall e'er prevail against us, or disturb
our cheerful faith that all which we behold
is full of blessings. Therefore let the moon
shine on thee in thy solitary walk;
and let the misty mountain winds be free
to blow against thee
-Wordsworth

A Delusional Muse

We drive towards the mountains, returning from the cricket ground. It has been very windy all day. The wind blows in gusts, cold and piercing. The mountains in the distance, where the winds are coming from, have veils of white falling upon them from the skies. When you see that in colorado, you know it's snowing up there. A few of the slopes have turned white, and glow against the dull backdrop. In a matter of minutes, the snow fall is spread across a large part of the skyline.

The spread mountains, the falling snow
the blue valley and the slopes aglow

If you were to ask me one word for it, I did say majestic.

A white bird, possibly a lake gull, glides along the winds. It is this feeling I get, when I watch this bird fly. Riding the winds chariot, in a nameless direction, with the wings spread, effortlessly. My timely mind tells me it's journey is short, my worldly mind tells me it's perphaps cold up there, but it is this feeling I get, when I watch this bird fly. A lovely backdrop and this bird in the sky, it is an artists' imagery. My mind tells me it's some in the eye, and some in the sky.
Yet. It is this feeling I get, when I watch this bird fly.
That maybe it is I who fly.

Kind is Beautiful

Here's a sweet short story from Turin Winter Olympics:

Renner skis for Canada. She and her partner, Beckie Scott, were to ski six laps between them, alternating each lap. On Renner’s second lap, the pair was in second place, flying along, when . . .

Snap.

Renner’s ski pole broke.

A cross-country skier without a pole is like a hockey player without a stick, or a canoeist without a paddle.

"All of a sudden, I was kind of flapping one arm," Renner said. "The next thing I knew, there were three racers in front of me."

Renner had invested her life to be in this position. She had her tyroid removed after being diagnosed with Graves disease six years ago. She had pressed on, and at that moment it was all slipping away — the dream, the work, everything.

She watched other skiers go past her, utterly helpless to keep up.
And then something miraculous happened. A man standing near the course handed his ski pole to Renner.

It wasn’t the right length for her, but it was something to fight back with. She started skiing again, and hard. If she could just get to the transition area, she could let Scott, her teammate, take over.
"He gave me a chance," said Renner, who called him her "mystery man."

And who was this man ? Here.
I found it via Deesha.
And if you are wondering what charityfocus is, you can visit www.charityfocus.org

Aaj Ki Kavita

is Indhan, by Gulzar.

Gujju Englis

In my past life, I lived in gujarat. First in khakharia, and then in halol, where I spent my childhood. And so I have special love for gujarat. Here's a super hilarious post on gujju englis (link found via desipundit).

Make me that Child Again

mother, I wish to hide in the mogra bushes
and not come out even upon your scolding

mother, I wish to tug at your saree while you cook
and deliver your message to everyone that food is ready

mother, I wish to lie in the veranda in the summer night
and shout to you "thandi hawa aati", cool breeze comes

mother, I wish to sit by the window and throw my biscuits to the crow
and run to get more, when you open the almira

mother, I wish to drag the fruit jhola to you
expecting cheekoo

mother, I wish to run after the squirrels in the backyard
and float paper boats in puddles left by monsoon rain

mother, I wish to be that child again
can you make me that child again

Women's Day

On International Women's Day:
Please visit BlankNoiseProject which organised a blog-a-thon on March 7th, on eve-teasing in India.
Also, IndiaTogether has an informative article upon Girl Child Education in India. To quote:

Although admission of girls has gone up significantly over the past few years, is it any wonder that attendance and retention rates are low? According to a recently concluded research study 'Gender Discrimination: Impact on Lives of Girls in School in four States (Bihar, UP, Rajasthan, Delhi)', large numbers - over 50 per cent - drop out of schooling before or at the point of transition from Class 5 to Class 6. The reasons are the same: they have to look after siblings; they have to do household chores; or work to support the family.

It's not as if the government is unaware of the issues at stake. In fact, central and state governments have devised excellent policies to improve the conditions for girls' schooling. Schools are closer to homes, scholarships and mid-day meals have been introduced in many districts, and community mobilisation focused on girls' schooling is encouraged in many areas.

...............

Despite such ambitious plans, the harsh reality is that government-run schools are hardly in a position to act as agents of progressive social transformation - even as these are the only schools making any realistic attempt to reach out to large numbers of girls. Parents - even in patriarchy-ridden rural north India - want to send their girls to school. But schools purvey gender stereotypes, hardly different from the rest of society.

Girls huddle separately within the classroom in co-educational schools. In some schools, they are denied facilities to play or use the science lab - which boys have access to. Many teachers talk exclusively to boys, paying no attention to the girls, and only (some) boys answer or are active in class.

Full article over here.