Gladiator of Indian Cricket Gone RIP

Imagine leading a team when the ex captain Nari Contractor was felled by a vicious bouncer from Charlie Griffith.  It required the guts of a Nawab to don the robe of a gladiator and lead a team team filled with seniors such as Polly Umrigar, Vijay Merchant, Farukh Engineer etc.  Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi did not flinch the responsibility rather he must have enjoyed the tenure of captaincy leading the Indian cricket for the next decade.  The most high point of his leadership came when the team won over New Zealand in 1967.


Pataudi had the talent of spotting winners.  He realised that Indian team was not blessed with pace bowlers, its strength lay in spinners.  He groomed Bedi and Prasanna and inducted Chandrashekar and Venkat to make a lethal combination in Indian bowling attack.  The real fruit was harvested by Ajit Wadekar during his famous tour of  West Indies 1971 and England 1972-73  He spotted also spotted the little wizard in Gundappa Vishwanth and gave him a break into Indian team in 1969 against Australia, wherein he scored a duck and century.

Just imagine playing the fearsome pace attack of  Griffith and Halls without much protection.  One can check out in the photographs without helmet, elbow guard or thigh pads, which are basic essential part of the cricket This is precisely the gladiator quality of the Nawab which is difficult to emulate considering the fact that he had lost one eye in a car accident. He was literally seeing two balls, and he used to play the inner one by sheer anticipation and judgement.

 
Wesley Halls                                           M.L. Jaisimha  ( Pataudi's close friend )


 

G R Vishwanth ( 1969 - 1983 ) Pataudi's find    Nari Contractor Injury resulted in Pataudi's captaincy


 

Cricket which was earlier dominated by Mumbai club was de-centralised by Pataudi to represent pan India. Cricketers were chosen by merit across the length and breadth of the country.  This obviously won him some critics from the powerful lobby.

Pataudi glamorised Indian cricket by marrying bollywood Diva Sharmila Tagore on 27th December 1969.  He is blessed with star son Saif Ali Khan, and actress Soha Ali Khan along with a jewellery designer in Saba.  Pataudi was known to play some pranks with his colleagues off the field.  It was all in good humour, in one such instance Prasanna was alleged to have been shot dead by dacoits, and this sent shivers down the spine of  Vishy and Chandrashekar, who were sobbing.

A true legend finally breathe his last on 22nd September 2011.  He symbolised glamour and gladiator quality of Indian Cricket in an era when draw test was considered to be victory of sorts.  He will be remembered as a fine gentlemen cricketer who gave up snobbishness ( being from Royal Background ) to take Indian cricket to great heights with his fielding prowess and leadership quality.  Hats Off to the Nawab RIP.


ACK : Wiki, Hindu, TOI.

Saturday Blues

The day began on a sombre note with Tia being moody and Suresh called up and cancelled the city market trip.  Oh my dear all plans for the day is going awry.  After dropping my wife to the bank i took off and visited the Hanuman temple which is a saturday routine of sorts.  I headed to submit my address proof to IDEA.

I reached their Richmond road office and pleasantly surprised to find no customers, otherwise i would had to wait in the queue.  I was quickly attended by Vinodh Kumar, who apparently wanted to get rid of me.  I told him that i had sent a complaint for his unfriendly attitude.  He acknowledged the same.  I filled in the form and handed over the xerox copy of the passport copy with date mentioned.  I asked him out of curiousity what is the turnover of the company, he said no IDEA, what an Idea.....when you say no IDEA, the advt scream that you go for IDEA network.  Last time too when i visited the IDEA office i had asked the same question, i thought they will improve in polishing their knowledge about their company ( i mean our company being a shareholder i have to take the onus too Lolz )  I had to follow up with investors relations to guide them, and plus introduce the electronic mailing of  Annual reports.

Then i had two options, before that i thought i will purchase some Pizza and bread for my guest, i went to the nearby Koshy bakery and packed a few for the breakfast and bites in the evening.  Next i dropped the idea of going to city market and proceeded to Mantri Mall.   Hey come on my amenesia is taking over i suppose.  I stopped at Brigade road and advised the guard manning to introduce reverse parking which would to a large extent decongest traffic snarls.  He helplessly nodded that he will inform his seniors i doubt it, got to follow up next time around.

While proceeding towards Mantri Mall i came across, the RCB team bus with police escort proceeding to KSCA.  Almost a Z security is being provided by the police to the players.  The bus driver happened to inexperienced i reached faster than him and found that due to priority siren they over took me near the KSCA stadium.  But he could not turn i caught him in my cell camera, with cops too wondering, and such careless driving would be a security threat i thought.  Nevertheless with one escort behind and one in front the risk was minimised.

On reaching Mantri mall for my Tia 's chops, i found there was no stock.  I picked up soup bones and my quota of drink and rushed towards purchase of  Mushrooms and Patravade.  Then while returning i went to Chikka tirupati temple and had dharsan of the lord. I was lucky to pick up ladoos and than proceeded back to the pavilion.  I tried to Insert IDEA sim card it would not work.  Go get Idea helpline, now back to NOKIA Showroom for back up support.

To protect people and property

TO protect and save people and property, in general civil defence personnel are required to save the humankind.  Inorder to do so one must be sufficiently trained in all round skills, and ensure that he or she uses the same on live situations effectively.

In day to day world we are faced with many a situations wherein the teacher is involved in harassing a student, despite the fact that the students mother may be hospitalised and wants to leave the classroom or seminar or even a function.  The gate is closed and the guard is instructed not to allow any student outside the gate till the function is over.  One such situation we faced yesterday.  Rattan the grandson of Shanti madam witnessed both the sides of the coin, initially he thought the student was wrong footed, when teacher scolded her.  But when we made our private enquiries we found the teacher was wrong in detaining the student when majority of the function was over and proceedings were being wound up.  This created an arguement and a scene, the student was helpless since she was veiled.  She was in tears and her friends too were scared. 

We just entered the scene without knowing what was happening, and i just photographed the girl crying.  A noble act was enacted on the day in the premises with DGP just leaving the venue.  But the ground level situation proved otherwise, instead of protecting the authorities concerned were hell bent on detention and harassment of the student.

We were asked to delete the photograph, which was an evidence, I refused bluntly.  Nobody can muzzle the press is obvious, but neither can one gag or coerce a civil defence personnel too.  We proved a point of contention despite threats.

The scenario shifts to the problem area, once we were convinced Shina had to be released out of the horrifying situation along with her friends, she was weeping uncontrollably.  Rattan said i will release you, he went and spoke to the guard and requested him to release in front of a crowd of other students who too wanted to get out of the premise.  The guard relented, and thus the issue was resolved.  Thus the fact that Civil defence personnel should examine both sides of the coin and execute swiftly the decision is reinforced.  All is well that ends well thus our D launch was a total success.  KUDOS to Rattan, even though he might be spoilt brat, but when it was required he performed his duty as a citizen of India.

Its a dog day out

Little did we imagine that our party to celeberate would go bersek in the night, when we handed over our dog to swamy a little boy.  He came and rang the bell around 8 pm and requested to play with our doggie TIA.  We did not want this messy boy to come into our house and i decided to hand over the doggie for a walk with Swamy.  He literally got scared and left the dog into our neighbours house.  It started chasing the children playfully.  The mother screamed the hell out, and all the hell broke loose. I was subject to various types of insults and accusations for no fault of mine.

My friends were sympathetic but yet pointed fingers at me.  I had to say sorry to the crowd to bring the entire matter to a close.  What a night.......mare literally and that is how our party went astray and became a controversy.  Luckily i was not out of my mood i took it amicably and so ended the sordid affair.

Our day was filled with action with Doordharsan visit, Dayanand sagar visit, where we inspected the venue and lined up Yoga introduction classes from Ramdev baba ashram for the 26th instant.  Dev checked in at his youth hostel, his meeting was cancelled and we keep our encounter meaningful till the above incident happened.  STARTLE RATTLE & BATTLE does not always succeed.