aditya kumar's weblog

Years back, when rediff.com was yet to be degraded and more often than not carried articles of substance, I remember reading a detailed story about Shoaib Malik’s Indian wife on the website. Of course, as we all know, Shoaib Malik has been in a state of denial since then but it is a strange cover-up (if it is one), especially since the whole Pakistani team had been treated to a gala dinner in Hyderabad. What adds more credibility to the rediff article is that it claims the source of the news to be Reuters.

The article is still online. If you are interested, it can be found here.

Then today evening, I read the news on another news portal that hits a new low every now and then. Timesofindia.com has Bal Thackeray fuming over Sania’s wedding plans — “Had her heart been Indian, it wouldn’t have beaten for a Pakistani”. I read that and wondered for a moment. What is wrong with Sania marrying a Pakistani? Would the supremo had said that if her prospective husband was of any other nationality or religion? Her heart is human and it is beating for a fellow human but then again, how can one expect Thackeray to understand things that involve human nature?

I am not a fan of Sania Mirza and I would be happy if she went ahead and proved me wrong because I believe that her best is behind her. And personally, I think there is a chance that she may miss the freedom she enjoys as a Muslim lady in India but these matters, I think, should be left for the individual to decide upon.

How very unreasonable we all have been in quietly discarding her choice of a beau. Who are we to judge and who gave us that right? Would there be such noise if Shoaib Malik was not from our hostile western neighbour?

One of the candidates for the BBMP election to be held today — I won’t name her, sent leaflets to her prospective voters through newspapers. One such leaflet made its way to me. While I must insist that the Candidate’s usage of English grammar (or the lack of it) should have nothing to do with deciding who to vote for, I am still reproducing here the contents of the leaflet, as is:

Dear Respected Voters

I know you have hopes from New Carporator, Who want order in every thing, Voters who have some issues which they want to be sorted out by the new Carporator, to do and facilities by solving Civic problem. Like Garbage, Drain or Rajakaluve cleaning specially in the rainy season, Mosquito problem in summer and they want health security, chain snatching incidents are also not uncommon, and they create a cascading psychological fear among women. We hope that Ward No.174 voters will give me one opportunity to show my civic championship I will work for their safety, healthy, security & welfare. I would like to show qualities in practical not by writing in serial one by one many school’s and colleges around the place and this will be an immense requirement of students is bigger stadium 1. water facility 2. swimming pool 3. government school conditions 4. road conditions 5. day to day theft door lock break problem 6. water pipe damages 7. free legal services to senior citizen and physical handicraft 8. Street dog bite problems specially for vehicle drivers by doing many other work want to make the HSR Layout is the pride of Bangalore, I COMMIT FOR HUMBLE, HONESTY AND HARD WORK.

While someone like Lalit Modi would not believe in the concept of “Earth Hour” because it does not bring in the money, I urge you to take a look at the concept.

The idea is that on the Saturday that is two days away, 27th of March 2010, you switch off your lights and keep the power consumption to the minimum for an hour (8:30-9:30 PM). In other words, try to make your carbon footprint to the minimum, for this one hour. And avoid IPL.

This is an event planned at a Global scale (and I think, this is the second year India would be a part of it). So from the space needle in Seattle till the pyramids of Giza, the lights would go out. Of course, at different times but for one hour from 20:30, everywhere.

Earth hour is an easy way to help the world that we live in. In fact, I think something like this should be done on a monthly basis. The energy that we will save would be nothing in proportion to what we spend the rest of the 364 days of the year, but more importantly this would make people aware of the state of the world we live in and instill the thought that we need to conserve of what we have left.

There is this Chinese restaurant I pass by everyday on the way back from work. Last Friday, I decided otherwise. Friday evening, chicken wings on my mind, an unexplored Chinese restaurant — too much to handle.

The already cramped place was now more cramped with my arrival. A couple on the left looked into each other while the soup waited silently on the table — some soup for the soul, that. With the menu in my hand, I finally obliged. All this while, the guy behind the counter, somewhere from North East I guess, was staring at me with cold eyes.

I kept rolling my eyes until I hit upon something that I had never had before: Chinese Roast Chicken. And that is when the confusion started.

“How is this different from the usual roasted chicken?”

“It is roasted.”

“Yes, but how is it different?”

“It is roasted.”

“No, no — ok. How is this different from mughlai roasted chicken?”

“It is Chinese.”

“OK, but what is the difference. ”

“That is Mughlai. This is Chinese.”

A few futile questions later, I head back, without ordering anything. More than my frustration it seems, was the disgust of the guy behind the counter, who probably could not comprehend why would someone even bother to ask the finer things about Chinese Roasted Chicken.

About 3 years ago, I think, I had a chance to meet an officer from a lesser known aerobatics team, based in Dabolim, Goa. I had always thought that The Surya Kiran were the only aerobatics team but that the Navy had one too was news to me. They are aptly called Sagar Pawan (The breeze of the sea). A few days back, my family had seen these aircrafts do a fly-by over Dabolim while the Mig-29ks were being inducted in the Navy.

While interacting with the officer that very evening in Dabolim air base, I told him how I was always thrilled to see Surya Kiran’s perform. At the end of our meeting, the man gave me something I would cherish all my life — a poster of the Surya Kirans doing a fly-by over the magnificent Taj Mahal, autographed by each member of the aerobatics team.

Sagar Pawan use the HJT-16 Kiran aircraft — the same aircrafts that Surya Kirans are comprised of. While Surya Kirans are 12 units strong, the Sagar Pawans have only four aircrafts. Understandably, the aerial maneuvers that the team can perform are very limited.

Today, during an airshow in Hyderabad, one of the four aircrafts went down. Both the pilots were killed.

I have forgotten the name of the officer I had interacted with. I hope that he is well. We stayed in the same colony, for my father retired from the Navy. It is certain that we must have crossed paths more than once.

Aerobatic pilots are a different breed. What differentiates them from their counterparts in the armed forces is that their lives are defined by a relentless passion to fly. These pilots are the best of the best. Their duty does not call upon to risk their lives for the maneuvers they perform but still they do it, again and again, day after day. I do understand that some of it is passion but I have no words to explain what calls upon them then, that makes them do it. It is some degree of madness and these aviators are lucky to possess it. Or maybe lucky to be possessed by this madness. If you have ever seen an aerobatic team perform, maybe, only then the intensity of this can be understood.

In the end the truth is this — all said and done, the country has just been deprived of two of its finest aviators. I would like to salute Pilot Commander Suresh Kumar Maurya and Co-Pilot Lt. Cdr Rahul Nair. We may have crossed paths — I can’t say but I can guarantee that there would have been no other way you would have chosen to go.

“Indira’s killers are being hailed as ‘martyrs’, in New Zealand’s largest gurdwara”, screams the first line of this report, online at Timesofindia.com. The report originates from Melbourne and that makes me wonder what is with Australia and the Indian media.

Titled “Shaheed Bhai” – or martyr brother – the paintings of Satwant and Beant along with Kehar Singh, who was the co-conspirator, hang on the walls in the Takanini gurdwara alongside others who have been killed for their Sikh beliefs, the ‘Weekend Herald’ reported.

Furthermore:

The pictures have divided the Sikh community in Auckland – and upset others in the Indian community. But few were willing to speak publicly on the matter, the report said.

Something is wrong with the Sikh and the Indian community there. Why should it be condemned? Why are they upset? They have no reason to be.

Because right here, in the holiest shrine of the Sikhs, The Golden Temple – Amritsar, we hail them as martyrs too. To kill the PM of a country and then, in that country itself, be hailed as a martyr.

In 2006, I was disturbed to read this article. And then this was published, in 2009, in the Hindustan Times Editorial. I had then mentioned it on my blog, here.

If you feel disturbed too, please read them.

A couple of months back, in one of his articles at Cricinfo, Harsha Bhogle wrote about India’s triumph at test cricket — Being on the top of the ICC Test Cricket rankings. It looked like one of his regular writeups, one of those you can read out while silently nodding your head in agreement and adding Harsha’s insight to your knowledge of the game. But there was one line, in fact two, that stood out. For once, I didn’t agree. I felt like digging deep and evaluating his statements further.

So what were those lines, then? Here is one of them, and I quote: “Amit Mishra and Sreesanth have had their moments in the sun, and Harbhajan has taken more wickets than many of us think he has“. It sounded like, “okay, lets not be too harsh on this guy, he has not been that bad”.

I am not sure if Harbhajan has ever dug into cricinfo’s statsguru and appreciated its beauty apart from doing some serious retrospection but here I am going to do just that.

Initially, I had thought to keep it simple — compare Harbhajan’s first four years in International Cricket with his last four years. It is still simple, just that I then accommodated his years in between, in my analysis. So, we have phases of 1997-2002, 2006- till date and from 2003 till end of 2005. These are the first four years, the last four years and the years in between.

Since making his debut in 1997, till the end of 2002 (31-12-2002), Harbhajan played 33 test matches. His average stood at a gleaming 26.59. His SR was 60.4 and 11 times in these 33 tests he had taken 5 (or more) wickets in an innings(5WI) apart from the 2 counts of Ten Wickets in a Match (10WM).

In the next phase, from 1 Jan 2003 till 31 Dec 2005, he played 17 test matches with a bowling average of 30.33. His SR was at 62 with 6 5WI and 2 10WM.

More recently, since 2006-till date, our man has played in 32 matches, with a rising bowling average of 37.16 and a SR of 75.0. He has now managed to get 6 5WI and once a 10WM.

Now if you have followed cricket closely, you will agree that mostly in every great bowler’s international career, the first few years are rosy. The bowler is high on confidence, gets wickets, improvises, the batsmen are yet to figure him out and all that. Then comes a time when the bowler starts to lose his sheen, the statistics turn unfavorable. There is a sudden rise with the bowling average. This happened to Zaheer Khan, Bret Lee and more recently with Ishant Sharma. But then it is somewhere here, I think, lies the hallmark of an outstanding bowler, the one most likely to be remembered as a bowling great — something happens and the bowler is back taking wickets, improvising again, devising new ways to get the batsmen out and playing mind games. This is when the form lasts the longest. The class shows. This is what differentiates an outstanding bowler from a good bowler.

So, coming back to statistics, if you were to make a graph of the statistics of such a bowler after he has achieved the above mentioned nirvana, you will see that the graph line goes right up at the beginning and then there is that downward spiral and then, in the third phase, a slow but more consistent rise. Let’s take an example of Zaheer Khan here. Between 1 Jan 1999 and 31 Dec 2001, Zaheer played 17 test matches and he averaged 24.47. Then, starting 1 Jan 2002 till 31 Dec 2006 he averaged 34.58 in 35 matches — an increase of 10 runs per wicket. But then again, starting 1 Jan 2007 till date, Zaheer has played 27 matches and his per wicket has cost him 29.39 — A drastic improvement from his outings between 2002 till 2007.

With Harbhajan, the problem seems that he is stuck in the downward spiral forever. There is an account of his disastrous outings in 2006 and 2007 where he averaged 52 and 46, respectively. These were the years when Pakistan, Australia, West Indies and England — all respectable teams (barring, to some extent, WI) completely outplayed him. But maybe you would think that his average of 37.16, in the last 4 years has mostly been this high because of his past deeds in 2006 and 2007. Maybe — because he then averaged 31.53 and 30.17 in 2008 and 2009. And maybe it was this statistic that made Harsha say that line. The glimmer of hope — that Harbhajan has started to come out of the woods, a beginning of the end of his downward trend goes away when you take a look at what 2010 has been. An average of 72.25 in the two test matches he has played. Perhaps the only thing more horrifying than that could be the fact that one of these test matches was played against Bangladesh and all of these matches have been played in home or home-like pitch conditions.

So maybe Harbhajan is slipping into his spiral again. Just when you think he is coming out of it, he hits a new low. You wish to see him giving the ball more air but he never seems to be tired of bowling fast, flat, almost like Anil Kumble but nowhere near in effect.

The rest of the argument has to start with Harsha’s second mention of Harbhajan Singh in the article. He goes on to say, “Harbhajan Singh desperately needs competition to take him to another level…“; It is clear that Harsha Bhogle thinks that maybe even at a sub-conscious level, Singh is missing Kumble. These guys were bowling together for a good 10 years. But has Kumble’s retirement made any difference?

Since Kumble’s retirement on 2 November 2008, Harbhajan has picked up 48 wickets, averaging 33.37 runs in 11 matches. What do you compare this statistic with? Lets go three years before 2 Nov 2008. From 1 Jan 2005 till 2 Nov 2008, with Kumble mostly in the playing XI, Harbhajan picked up 110 wickets in 28 matches at a horrible average of 36.22.

While discussing cricket the other day, someone jokingly remarked that Harbhajan should be locked in a room with a DVD player and DVDs of match recordings of his first few years in cricket. Harsha may certainly not agree. But what he will surely agree to is that with Harbhajan not playing the brand of cricket we know he is capable of, India’s days at the top of the summit may not be many. And while Harbhajan Singh may show his inclination towards participating and producing Reality shows on TV— at this stage, a Reality check may serve him, and the country, better. Surely, the DVDs would help.