MODI ALL THE WAY

Narendra Modi is firmly back in the saddle for another five years. An expected verdict, though the scale of it exceeded the forecasts of most election pundits. After the triumph, Modi did not forget old wounds. So no one-on-one interviews with any news channel which aired the Tehelka sting. The winner takes it all, they say.

Here's a man who virtually singlehandedly propelled the BJP to power in Gujarat yet again. Narendra Modi weathered RSS and VHP displeasure as well as the wrath of the numerous party rebels. The likes of Keshubhai Patel and Suresh Mehta (both former BJP Chief Ministers) have been exposed as political has-beens.

Modi mastered the art of rhetoric - be it soundbytes or provocative speeches. But would his formula of asmita (pride) and development have worked to this extent if the Congress had not played into his hands?

Sonia Gandhi did exactly that, by calling Modi as a 'maut ka saudagar'(merchant of death). Right on cue, Modi, who was talking of 'development' till then, was suddenly harping on terrorism and Sohrabuddin Sheikh. The Congress would have been better served, had they been able to project at least one local leader. The TV screen only showed the imports from Delhi - Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The party had nobody to project at the local level, trying to counter Modi's claims of development. The Arjun Modhvadias and Bharatsinh Solankis remained anonymities while former BJP man Shankersingh Vaghela's influence was limited.

It is now forgotten that Modi got a shocker three years ago in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls. Defying predictions, the Congress had inched close to BJP with 12 seats and a 45.1 per cent vote share, while BJP had 14 seats and 47.4 per cent share. The Congress had enough and more time to corner Modi, only to surrender to rhetoric instead of getting their organisation right. A Congress leader said on TV that election verdicts are becoming 'geographically separated'. Against a well-entrenched local leader waiting for a pretext to polarise sentiments in his favour, grandiose accusations after flying down from Delhi simply did not work.

Modi the winner may have taken it all, but for the BJP the victory is a mixed blessing. The pundits on TV were interpreting BJP President Rajnath Singh's body language after the victory as 'glum' and 'graceless' in acknowledging Narendra Modi's overwhelming role. The party has the challenge of reconciling Modi's image with a moderate face they would like to convey to allies in future NDA coalitions. It was significant that the BJP chose to anoint L K Advani as their Prime Ministerial candidate, just when Modi was at his rhetorical zenith during the Gujarat campaign. Modi may have been able to hold on to his regional turf, despite enemies all around; but the national platform may be a different ball game.

Come Prime Time on Gujarat result day, Narendra Modi did have one competitor for screen space. And Rakhi Sawant's cries of 'dhokha' at losing out in the Nach Baliye final did turn the spotlight away from Modi on some news channels. A mixture of righteous indignation and copious tears, Rakhi was as dramatic as ever. Her latest publicity splash came as some relief to all those tired of the Moditva phenomenon.

ALL-TIME HIGH

The ink is not dry yet on my previous post, but it looks like our Christian Brothers too will plump for more of the brandy (Christian Brothers aka CB being a popular IMFL brand in Kerala)

This IANS piece estimates Kerala liquor sales to hit an all-time high Rs 23 billion during Christmas, despite the Church call.

DON'T DRINK, FOR CHRIST'S SAKE

God's Own Country is on a high, literally. Along with high literacy, Kerala has the highest per capita consumption of alcohol in the country. And come festival time, be it Onam or Christmas-New Year, the tipplers are in overdrive mode. Onam this year saw sales of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) flow past the Rs 100 crore mark (we haven't yet counted toddy consumption). As we approach Christmas and the dawn of 2008, further record-breaking feats are expected.

That's the climate in which Major Archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, Mar Varkey Vithayathil, exhorted his flock to desist from alcohol on Christmas. Vithayathil's Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese says they are sending letters to over one lakh Catholic families, besides awareness campaigns and Sunday sermons on the evils of booze.

It may be a small step, considering Christmas is just one day out of 365. And the Archbishop has not ventured into the other big booze-guzzling day - the dawn of the New Year. But it's still a laudable effort, in a state where the government's steps have been mostly restricted to heavy taxes. Only that increased taxes lead to greater revenue for a government which complains of being perennially cash-strapped. Hooch (illicit liquor) tragedies, ranging from Vypeen in the 1980s to Kalluvathukkal in 2000 have caused the occasional jolt, but tipplers continue to go strong.

There's religious tradition too backing alcohol, in parts of Kerala. The Malabar region has the Parassinikadavu Muthappan Temple near Kannur, where it is customary to offer toddy to the deity Muthappan (a form of Shiva)

Public figures haven't helped matters, failing to come to the forefront expressing concern. Some of them instead have gone to the other extreme, such as Mohanlal and this controversial ad campaign for a whisky brand.


Does a celebrity with mass appeal in Kerala like Mohanlal need an explicit liquor ad for some extra pocket money? Sadly this image of Mohanlal is very much in synergy with many of his recent 'male machismo' films.

The Archbishop's call for a 'dry' Christmas may just remain a cry in the wilderness in a state where his followers quote Jesus Christ turning water into wine to support their thirst for liquor. But the Syro-Malabar Church's concerted campaign is a good beginning, as long as it remains a campaign and not a diktat.

DUS TO DUST

Ten different stories, using six different directors. Dus Kahaaniyan chose to take the road less travelled by, prompting me to catch the series of short films on day two of release.

We were welcomed by a near-empty hall. And a group of kids who were eagerly awaiting the Sanjay Dutt episode left after a while, unable to take the long wait.

In the end, they didn't miss too much. While we ended up watching utter no-brainers like High on the Highway (Jimmy Shergill's junkie act), Sex on the Beach (a lot of flesh and a horrible horror flick) and Zahir (The almost-invisible Manoj Bajpai trying to radiate intensity). Strangers in the Night and Lovedale had interesting twists in the end, but both stories as well as the execution fell flat.

The finale, with Sanjay Dutt and Suniel Shetty as underworld dons, reeked of Sanjay Gupta. All style and no substance, the only thing which stood out was the quick intercuts between Dutt and Shetty and the two kids with a supari to kill Dutt's character. Deja vu was written all over Dutt's don, which has seen Kaante, Vaastav, Khalnayak and countless other flicks. A shootout or two does not make a Quentin Tarantino.

Dus Kahaniyaan wasn't all downhill though.

'Gubbare' may have been a predictable story, but Nana Patekar got it right as the loving husband.

Shabana Azmi gave a riveting performance as the prejudiced Tamil Brahmin in Rice Plate. And so did Naseeruddin Shah who conveyed so much without actually saying much. The plot though, is suspiciously similar to the 1989 short film The Lunch Date

And the pick of the lot - Meghna Gulzar's directorial short Pooranmashi, showcasing Amrita Singh as a Punjabi mother, whose extra-marital fling ends in tragedy. Gulzar's daughter had rich material to work on, a short story by renowned Punjabi author Kartar Singh Duggal.

But all in all, just style quotient does not an experiment make. One prefers a smooth line to curves with too many deep troughs and too few crests to savour. A common theme would also have helped matters, giving the series a sense of purpose.

For redemption I will need to watch Paris J'et aime , Life in a Metro or Adoor Gopalakrishnan's latest Naalu Pennungal.

LOOKING FOR THE GAME

An India-Pakistan test series where the on-field action is reduced to a sideshow? The ongoing series has achieved this dubious distinction, with reams and reams of space cornered by the likes of Dilip Vengsarkar and Gary Kirsten.

The headlines kept shifting inch by inch. One day Vengsarkar was angry, soon he felt humiliated and then the buzz was that he would throw it all away. Only to end up with blurbs of 'Vengsarkar relents', with the Colonel still holding on to his job as Chairman of Selectors. An uneasy calm for now, but it seems just a matter of time before further twists in the tale.

And then Gary Kirstem popped up out of the blue as the coach-in-waiting. One operation BCCI carried out stealthily. But could suspense be far behind? The 'will he, won't he' question arose after reports (conveniently fed by relevant sources?) that senior players were unhappy. This conundrum was solved in public by Kirsten, when he conveyed over the phone to news channels that he was on board.

Despite all this, the team's done pretty well on the field. Probably because BCCI, Vengsarkar and Kirsten diverted the media.

Things were quiet with Pakistan initially, with Shoaib Akhtar not coming up with any tantrums on the field. Rather, he was playing the prima donna when it came to Bollywood offers. It was just a sorry tale of a weak side futher crippled by injuries, and struggling to field 11 fit men on the field.

But now as the third test approaches there is more than a hint of drama surrounding stand-in-captain Younis/Younus (there was a big debate over his spelling in the newsroom) Khan. If you want it straight from the horse's mouth, it's Younus.

Younus Khan is now apparently refusing to lead the Pakistan side, if he does not get the side he wants. All that was missing was some action directly to do with the teams. Now we have it.

There is the blast from the past too, for good measure. Javed Miandad's claim that Imran Khan had faced a player revolt during the course of Pakistan's World Cup triumph in 1992.

Cricket's been reduced to a carnival of big egos, verbal spats and controversies. It doesn't hurt the cause of news one bit though.

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THE AUTUMN OF THE PATRIARCH

An aggressive bunch armed with sticks throwing chairs all over the place. After the mayhem they make good their escape, save one. And the one aggressor who was unlucky enough to be caught is beaten black and blue, as news channels have a field day. The women shown in the images are no less active, using their chappals to devastating effect, as the former aggressor takes blows all over.

These are not visuals of mob violence from Bihar or the Hindi heartland. Instead they come straight from urban Kochi in Kerala. The protagonists being two marginalised political groups - one being the supporters of an ageing father past his prime and the initial aggressors apparently supporters of his 'estranged' son.

K Karunakaran and son K Muraleedharan have been at daggers drawn in public the past few days. The father talking of a return to the Congress, while the son rejected the idea. The Kochi melee merely added violence to the war of words.

It's still difficult to believe that the 89-year old politician who's striving desperately to come out of political irrelevance, and his son, who he's tried desperately to prop up all these years, are at loggerheads. It's not the first time they've spoken in different voices, publicly at least, only to come together. Net result of the violence, Karunakaran's got some attention while some foot soldiers got a few hefty blows.

It's sad that the 'Leader', who once reigned supreme in the state Congress, is reduced to such a pitiable state that he has to invite himself back to the parent party. And the Congress is not exactly welcoming him with open arms.

And son Muraleedharan, whose advances in politics coincided with the decline of his father's influence, has been pushed to a corner. His last few electoral attempts have left him red-faced and he seems condemned to the fringes as no more than a bit player in either the UDF or the LDF. Unless of course the father manages to get him back to the parent party. For inspiration, Karunakaran just needs to look up on an India map. He'll find a certain H D Deve Gowda right above his state.

DANCING TO THE WRONG LINES

Walk in to office eyeing a peaceful night shift, what do you get? A few Dalit organisations have figured out that Madhuri Dixit was dancing to the wrong tune or rather wrong lines in the title song of Aaja Nachle.

On release day they suddenly seem to have realised that the line 'Mochi chala banne sonar" (cobbler tries to turn goldsmith) is offensive and derogatory. Udit Raj and his Indian Justice Party says the filmmakers are trying to say that a cobbler is the lowest in the society. He may have a point, though the lyricist as well as the Censor Board missed the potential for 'social implications.'

But where was Udit Raj and his group all these months? The song's been playing repeatedly for quite some time. But then when it comes to protests, timing is everything. Without a cinema hall screening the film, where's the space to protest?

In no time, Mayawati's stepped into the act and banned the film in UP. And wants a ban all over the country.

As for makers Yash Raj, they are quick to switch to damage-control mode by snipping off the offensive part. And life goes on.....the Indian Justice Party's got its protest visuals screened across the country and more attention and curiosity surrounds Aaja Nachle.

But lyrics, dialogues and film titles do have the potential to offend, especially in communities sharply divided on caste lines. Read Dalit outfit Puthiya Thamizhagam leader Dr S Krishnaswamy's reasons for opposing the Kamal Haasan film titled Sandiyar (Rowdy). The film was ultimately released as Virumandi.

SRK AND MEGALOMANIA

He's here, there and everywhere. The box office is chanting Om Shanti Om and every sporting triumph is accompanied by the Chak De India chorus.

Shah Rukh Khan is all over the place like never before. A hockey triumph at the Asia Cup and news channels make a beeline for SRK's comments. The Twenty20 World Cup fnal, SRK is there to celebrate victory along with the cricket team.

It's not enough being a mascot for sporting triumphs, come Om Shanti Om and the 40-something icon's six-pack abs are out to mesmerise. Sureshot material for magazine cover stories on men and the body. And then the publicity blitz for Om Shanti Om - be it soundbytes, interviews, cricket matches and Dard-e-Disco contests.

The film itself did not have much of a storyline to boast of, but successfully evoked nostalgia and retro with mostly enjoyable digs at the past. And ended up being a celebration of SRK megalomania. What else, with over 30 leading stars from the past and present jiving to the beat of Om Shanti Om.

Manoj Kumar's rant at being 'insulted' in the film only served to pump up the publicity. Add a dash of controversy over SRK's thumbs-up for smoking leaving Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss displeased. And the number one headline over BCCI comments that SRK was attending cricket matches to garner attention to his films.

Early this year one thought Amitabh-Abhishek-Aishwarya would be numero uno in Bollywood. But all the Big B's managed are disasters like Jhoom Barabar Jhoom and Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag. Worse still, the Samajwadi Party's electoral rout in Uttar Pradesh, with people showing scant regard for his 'UP mein hai dam, kyunki jurm yahan hai kam' ad blitz. And the flak he got for the Barabanki land deal in UP. Busy doing the rounds of temples, a better 2008 is all they can hope for.

Meanwhile, leading British-Asian paper Eastern Eye's list labels SRK the Sexiest Asian man in the world in 2007.

KIRSTEN & THE COACH QUESTION

Looks like Gary Kirsten will be coaching the Indian cricket team. Who knows, there might still be further twists before the official announcement. But at least this time the BCCI made its moves quietly, shielding their latest interviews from the media gaze.

Kirsten made his name as a gritty, hard-as-nails South African opener over the 1990s and early 2000s, and has battled it out in the field against the Indian seniors like Tendulkar, Ganguly, Laxman, Dravid and Kumble. But unlike a John Wright, who had made a mark as Kent coach, Kirsten does not have enough coaching acumen to talk of. It's been just about four years after he played his last test. A stint as Cricket South Africa's high performance manager, and a privately-run Gary Kirsten Cricket Academy does not say much. All in all, a battler as player but an unknown quantity as coach.

Is it worth the risk going for an 'unknown' like Kirsten at the expense of desi contenders like Lalchand Rajput, who's given results during his ongoing stint as coach? A Sandeep Patil, who coached Kenya to a surprise semifinal appearance in the 2003 World Cup, was unwelcome. And he's now cast his lot with the ICL.

Getting a John Wright did make a positive difference to the fortunes of the national side, and Greg Chappell did have his share of good ideas (the Rajasthan state board is now using his expertise). But does it justify a blind belief that only a foreign coach can take Indian cricket forward?

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DEFINING THE WORD EXCLUSIVE

6 am Wednesday. As the day breaks it's 'General No More' Pervez Musharraf who opens the news channel headline pack. As the stories unravel, Nawaz Sharif appears on one, then the next and then a third. In no time the quote-happy Sharif is holding forth on all three channels.

Two of them do have Sharif at the other end, while the third tries to cover up the fact that they got Sharif only on the phone with snazzy packaging. Besides getting the same man, what's common across the three channels? The word 'exclusive' blaring out on the screen.

Dictionaries say something 'exclusive' is not divided or shared with others. In the context of journalism a piece of news, or the reporting of a piece of news, obtained by a newspaper or other news organization, along with the privilege of using it first.

Did all three speak to Nawaz Sharif exclusively? If so, the English language is an ass. And the few (?) who may have switched on the telly early in the morning (that too to figure out news) easily impressionable.

To us not to reason why. Just fire the exclusive band before the competitor.

KERALA AND CRICKET

Sreekumar Nair scoring a triple hundred in a Ranji Trophy match last Friday. An obscure footnote on sports pages.

But not if you are a Malayalam newspaper. There it's another 'Sree', another 'Shobha'. A milestone for a state not known traditionally for its cricketing prowess. A marathon achievement for a team whose batsmen struggle to get hundreds on a consistent basis.

As it is, Kerala's had too few batsmen to boast of. Balan Pandit in the 1950s and 60s whose record of 262 not out Sreekumar Nair broke. And K Jayaram in the 1980s, who struck a purple patch in the 1986-87 season, with four centuries out of five matches. That season 'minnow' Kerala did not lose a single zonal match, grinding out draws against bigwigs Hyderabad, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka for the first time ever. There's also Kerala's all-time top rungetter, Sunil Oasis from the 1990s and 2000s

Kerala's had better luck with its bowlers, especially in the last few years. Tinu Yohannan began his test career in style against England in 2001, with a wicket in his very first over. But two more tests and he found himself out in the cold. Tinu may never get a national call-up again, but he will forever remain the one who opened the floodgates. The first-ever test cricketer straight from Kerala (Abey Kuruvilla from Mumbai does not count)

And Tinu's emergence also had a sense of transition from Kerala's sports strengths like atheletics and football. Tinu being the son of the legendary T C Yohannan, Asian Games long jump gold medallist in 1974, Asian record holder for more than a decade and national record holder for three decades. (For more on T C Yohannan read this article)

Nearly a year after Tinu played his last test match (December 2002) two raw seamers were tired out in a practice match against the touring New Zealanders. Those days, Munaf Patel was billed the fastest bowler in the country and the hype around him overshdowed Sreesanth, who showed promise in that match. It didn't take too long for Sreesanth to make that leap into the big league.

Before them there was the promising seamer V Hariharan in the 1970s and 80s, who's now Kerala coach.

The 1990s was dominated by the unlucky Ananthapadmanabhan, who kept scalping wickets with his legspin season after season, and ended up with a tally of over 300. But he didn't have that big match at the zonal level, and in the era of Anil Kumble fell short of the big leap to the national side.

It was in the 1990s that Kerala broke the glass ceiling for the first time, qualifying for the knockout stage from South Zone. Kerala's never sizzled yet in the later stages, but after topping South Zone the team realised they can hold their own at the highest level.

As for now, the bowling attack has bite, but Kerala still awaits the batsman extraordinaire who will go all the way to Team India.

Let's not count Robin Uthappa from Karnataka, who was given three lakh rupees by the Kerala government after the Twenty20 triumph, while Sreesanth got five lakh. Well, Uthappa is half-Malayali, which seems to be why the reward is half of Sreesanth's.

Here's an earlier piece by Ramachandra Guha on Keralites turning the corner in cricket.

NATAKA UNLIMITED

It's been just one week. CM Yeddyurappa has already become past tense.

With a restive Deve Gowda around, the 'Karnataka politics' headline was expected to change in no time, but don't the people of the state deserve a break from this non-stop drama? Even we news channel foot soldiers deserve a break from Gowda's machinations.

A BJP in a desperate hurry for the symbolic value of a Chief Minister down south. But even if you are itching to bat (after bowling and fielding for a while, as Yashwant Sinha said), it's a better idea to ensure an even-paced wicket to bat on rather than an underprepared minefield. Especially if Deve Gowda is turning the ball square with his wrong 'uns. It's impossible to tackle a former Prime Minister (we are talking of India, not Karnataka) whose motto is 'either my son or I am a secular humble farmer.' The party's been forced to realise that a hurried 'Twenty20' approach could also mean 'do and die'.

As for Yeddyurappa, the man in a hurry to be CM, it's difficult to feel any sympathy, though he's been betrayed by the JD(S) or rather the Gowda parivar. He could take some scholarly advice from Atal Bihari Vajpayee, whose first government (1996) lasted just 13 days. And it wouldn't be bad idea to get back to his astrologer's drawing board, and chart out a new spelling.

Yeddyurappa (formerly Yediyurappa) may just ride on sympathy. And the Congress would do well to fight an election without help from the humble farmer and son.

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CHAPPELL'S RACISM TIRADE

Igniting controversy is something Greg Chappell never seems to tire of. Be it making brother Trevor bowl underarm against New Zealand to ensure victory for Australia or leaked emails and revelatory soundbytes/interviews during his tenure as Indian cricket coach.

Now he's joined the Australian racism chorus against India, claiming in a forthcoming TV interview in Australia that an attack on him by a crazed fan in Bhubaneswar in January this year was because he was a foreigner. A white-skinned Chappell discriminated against in India of all places? That's laying it a bit too thick.

Chappell seems to have forgotten that he wasn't very high on the popularity charts in India those days. And news channels were having dig after dig at Guru Greg and his laboratory. Unfortunately for him, his declining stock came in the way of any possible outrage.

He does have a right to feel outraged that the BCCI played down the incident. But comparing his plight to Andrew Symonds is just not on.

Not surprisingly, Chappell on Indian news channels was trying to steer clear of the controversy. After all, he is not yet fnished with Indian cricket, with a coaching assignment in Rajasthan.

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INDIA AND RACISM

FRIENDLIER BUSES IN THE CAPITAL

Diwali day - Delhiites zipping by in their swank cars stopped and stared, treated as they were to a spectacle of green on the roads. At long last, here was public (road) transport in the capital city which made you say, 'wow' on the face of it. A dozen sleek green buses had made their debut.

As a veteran of many a hair-raising Blueline ride, I simply had to assure myself it was indeed possible to undertake a bus journey with some degree of comfort. So Saturday afternoon I landed in Sivaji Stadium terminus in Connaught Place, waiting for the dream bus.

It was a bit of a wait, but the Tata-Marcopolo bus lived up to expectations. Here was a low-floored bus which women, children and the physically challenged could board easily. Automatic gear system, GPS - drivers have the latest technology in front of them. And speed governors are firmly in place to halt the drivers' adrenaline rush.

And all those macho males can no longer cling on to the footboard, because the door has to be closed before the bus moves.

But sleekness can also be a double-edged sword. The day I was travelling the bus crew was all at sea grappling with a GPS system which had to be activated for the bus to move. Technology is great, but what if the end-users don't know how to use it? Also with so many poor stretches of roads, are these buses too delicate to survive? Three buses reportedly broke down on day one.

It's a pity that the Delhi government needed to quote the 2010 Commonwealth Games to move forward on basic transport infrastructure. The capital city of the country should have acted long back. That said, here's to a green future without the rampaging bluelines.

WAITING FOR THE DEPUTY

We are familiar with tales of intrigue and breathless suspense when it comes to deciding on a Chief Minister. But how about prolonged suspense over a Deputy Chief Minister, with the CM decided and all set to be sworn in? Even though the choice is almost a foregone conclusion.

Janata Dal(Secular) or Deve Gowda and Sons Ltd has refused to announce its Deputy CM in Karnataka just yet, preferring to wait till the vote of confidence on November 15. Till then, we also won't get to know who their ministers will be. Pragmatic, considering Deve Gowda and Sons Ltd has a restless bunch of legislators who are willing to swing from one perch to the other at the first hint of trouble.

In corporate lingo, by staying in power all of them might have got confirmed in their job. But then if only some get a bonus (ministerial berths) before the vote of confidence, the others might get too restive a bit too soon. The solution - announce the bonus only after weathering the first big hurricane.

In a world of no permanent friends or enemies, it was no surprise that the latest JD(S) headline package was announced by M P Prakash, the very person who was so near to splitting the party and allying with the Congress.

This mixture of caution and farce should come to an end by the end of the week, with H D Kumaraswamy being the odds-on favourite to be Deputy CM. But then Deve Gowda has a problem of plenty - two equally ambitious sons. H D Revanna wouldn't mind the chair himself and the 'humble farmer' has the unenviable task of meeting both aspirations. Neighbouring Tamil Nadu's DMK strongman Karunanidhi can vouch for the fact that it's a tall order keeping both Stalin and Azhagiri happy.

As each day passes and tidbits of information sneak out, the headlines will keep rolling. Fodder for news channels but frustration for the people. The hapless denizens of Karnataka who have ended up seeing as many as three CMs from three different parties in three years. (without any election after 2004).

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KUMBLE'S COMING, BCCI'S GOOGLY

It's good to know that there are occasions when the BCCI acts sensibly. And steals a march over news channels, bamboozling them with the perfect googly - one Anil Kumble would have been proud of.

Yesterday, all the test captaincy speculation was centred around Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Some channels were absolutely sure Dhoni would be made captain, with generous doses of 'information' from reliable 'sources'. And Dhoni profile stories were already on overdrive - small-town boy, long hair, his Bollywood fans, Musharraf's tongue-in-cheek comment on Mahi's long locks and last but not the least his test career statistics.

But as day turned to night and Younis Khan flogged the Indian bowling at Mohali, anchors began to seek refuge in doubt, and wary speculation replaced confident bluster. Dhoni still remained frontrunner but a cloud of doubt hung over the headline.

The Anil Kumble star was clearly on the ascendant and by the time India hurtled to defeat, 'information' trickling in was pointing towards Kumble. And the BCCI chose to break the news in a written statement as the clock wound its way to midnight. India may have been lurching to sleep, but the world of TV news and its denizens were wide awake. Caught napping, with all speculations laid to rest. It was time to wake up to Kumble profiles - gentle giant, India's highest test wicket-taker (and ODI too), 10-wicket haul in an innings against Pakistan and trapping Lara lbw with face heavily bandaged.

Sensible choice by BCCI in the dead of night, catching the media off-guard. For all his skills, Dhoni is still not ready for leadership in the five-day game. And it's good to have an experienced and level-headed mind at the helm, ensuring a smooth transition to the younger Dhoni later. It's also the ultimate reward for a loyal soldier, who's won far more matches for India than ad contracts.

It also helps that Kumble's shadow won't be looming over Dhoni in ODIs , the leg-spinner having already bid adieu from the one-day game.

But the intruding cameras will remain trained on the flashy Dhoni, rather than the scholarly Kumble. Today a news channel ran a story on Dhoni going to watch Om Shanti Om. The cricket correspondent was busy describing Dhoni's Om Shanti Om trip over the phone. Amen to mindless entertainment and celebrity-gazing.

Suits the unassuming Kumble just fine.

BJP's POWERFUL DEEPAVALI

No more President's Rule and Yeddyurappa (formerly Yediyurappa) is within touching distance of being Karnataka Chief Minister. The BJP can now strut around chanting Karnataka to all questions about them being a North India/Hindi heartland party. It also helps that the BJP has a Chief Minister in a southern state, soon after its war of words over the Ram Sethu with the self-appointed champion of Dravidian ideology, Tamil Nadu CM Karunanidhi.

But does the party really understand the South? In the 2004 elections they didn't do their homework well except in Karnataka, ensuring an unexpected defeat at the Centre. And now, this laboured limp to power in the only southern state where they got a foothold three years back, could well chip away at that foothold (for the next state election at least). Poor Yeddyurappa ended up expressing happiness in faraway Delhi in his faltering Hindi, a language he is far from comfortable with.

And BJP President Rajnath Singh had the gall to thank the people of 'South India' for giving them the opportunity. Firstly, Mr Singh, the people of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh had nothing to do with this deepavali 'gift'. And secondly and more importantly, the people had no choice over this alliance, imposed on them by a majority of legislators.

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THE ADULT HARRY

An adult wizard grappling with the abnormal interrupting a normal world, that's Harry Dresden for you. He thinks and talks like a wisecracking world-weary detective in the Philip Marlowe mould. But he stands out by being the only one of his kind, a wizard private detective sniffing the mean streets of Chicago.

Thanks to HRV's book investigating skills, I got to devour the first book in Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series. It was a good change to read a fantasy novel populated by adult wizards, after Harry Potter, Narnia and the Dark Materials trilogy. And the murders are as brutal as it can get, starting with two human hearts ripped off their bodies.

Dresden's special powers make him the archetypal misfit. His magical power ensures that modern implements quail at his touch, ranging from telephones to elevators. The flip side, he struggles to use them when most needed. The police take his help, but regard him with a mixture of suspicion and disdain.

Too involved in human concerns, Dresden does not cut much ice with the wizard world too. All in all, it's a tightrope walk throughout.

But in a cruel and cynical world, Dresden keeps humanity alive.

The successful book series was spun into a TV series earlier this year but failed to make a mark. Harry Dresden's role is essayed by a certain Paul Blackthorne (remember the arrogant Captain Russell of Lagaan)

PROSPERING ON NOSTALGIA

He's at a loss when it comes to geeks and gizmos. But when it comes to the crunch, it's John McClane's old-fashioned virtues of wisecracks and punches, along with shooting skills and furious fists which win the day. The latest film in the Die Hard series Live Free or Die Hard has McClane of the old world carving a space for himself in the new.

Bruce Willis' cult character gets a lot of help from a cyber geek, but manages to preserve the charm of the old-world action hero out to save America with his guns and fists. It's a pleasure watching him relish the 1960s vintage Creedence Clearwater Revival music on screen, in front of a young geek fed on hip-hop.

But this could well be among the last such films, as the all-action heroes of the 1980s and 1990s disappear into the sunset. They may not have won top prizes for acting, but the likes of Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger entertained audiences across the world with bone-crunching action.

Arnie, the Governor of California, has moved on but the others are still around, trying to extend their sunset period. But with nothing new to offer, the surefire formula to hold on is nostalgia.

Thus Bruce Willis taps into memories with the fourth Die Hard instalment. Schwarzenegger signs off with Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines before taking over as Governor. And Sly Stallone reprises Rocky Balboa for the sixth time, the very character who jumpstarted his career from obscurity more than three decades ago. Following the success of Rocky Balboa (2006), the 61-year old Stallone is now aiming to make box office capital of his 198os relic Rambo for a fourth time. The 2008 release comes a staggering two decades after the third version.

Old heroes may not be a patch now on their former glory. But with nostalgia abounding, they simply refuse to fade away.

GOWDA BENDS, BJP RISES

This was one development I didn't bargain for, that too so soon. After treating the BJP with utter disdain and making grandiose statements about their commitment to secularism, Deve Gowda and son have handed over the Karnataka Chief Minister's chair on a platter to the BJP. And the BJP is all set to have their first-ever CM in a southern state.

Gowda and son Kumaraswamy may have made successful even if cosmetic overtures to the semi-urban and rural electorate, but they forgot the basics when dealing with impatient and insecure legislators looking for a way out of President's rule. Faced with the prospect of a split in the JD(S), it was all about clinging on to scraps of power, with arrogance thrown out of the window. But then, at the end of the day, there's still power to wield.

Meanwhile, the man all set to be CM has gone the Jayalalithaa way. He's now Yeddyurappa, an 'i' short of Yediyurappa. Eyeing power without the i.

So no more 'Karnataka Crisis' headlines till Gowda allows the pride he's swallowed to slip out. And the opposition Congress knows that whenever elections come, they can only do better.

LEFT AND THE PRACTICE OF RHETORIC

It's been a while since the CPM and the rest of the Left parties began their 'we'll pull the plug on the UPA government if they go ahead with the nuclear deal' talk. And with the UPA agreeing to put on hold the operationalisation of the deal, the Left is now on their high horse.

There are whispers of new alliances, with the CPM making overtures to old pals Mulayam Singh Yadav and Chandrababu Naidu. The term 'third front' is again being polished and brought back from the graveyard.

We are seeing a UPA government in paralysis, a Congress pushed to the wall, unsure whether to rally behind the Prime Minister. And Manmohan Singh continues to reflect the perils of being a politician by accident.

Nuclear deal or not, life will go on. Isn't it high time the Congress either unequivocally stood by the deal or jettisoned it to keep the government alive? As for the Left, they seem all the more keen to increase the decibel levels of their bark.

But what about the bite? The Congress may have blinked this time but is the Left ready for the prospect of polls? Electoral arithmetic clearly advises that biting would have uprooted a few teeth for the Left.

Starting with Kerala, the LDF government has been on an alienating spree. Any election would mean a rout, with the opposition Congress gleefully gaining.

In West Bengal, the Left Front will hold fort, but faces erosion in their mass base. The scars of Nandigram are still fresh and the recent ration riots are also an ominous signal.

Any election and the Left faces the prospect of being a less influential pressure group. The best option - cosy up to Mulayam and Naidu and drop hints of a third front.

As for the nuclear deal, there was a lot of hollering but was there ever a debate? Did we hear much more than neo-colonialist and imperialist US and George W Bush? All the statements sounded more like election speeches at Delhi's leftist bastion Jawaharlal Nehru University. The anti-US tirade resembled the enthusiasm with which the JNU Students Union removed a Nestle outlet inside the campus a few years back (being a multinational conspiracy invading JNU)

Not surprising, since Comrades Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury are both former JNUSU Presidents, and that's probably the last time they ever faced an election. It's shocking that theoreticians who have never faced an election in their life (I mean panchayat, state assembly, Lok Sabha etc) are deciding whether an elected government should survive. It also takes theoreticians to talk endlessly over an issue which does not affect a vast majority of the Indian people.

Other than Prakash Karat, who has never even been a Rajya Sabha MP, there is only one prominent politician who's always shunned elections, preferring to lead by remote control. None other than Shiv Sena's Bal Thackeray.

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HOT CHICKS

OF ANNIVERSARIES AND BIRTHDAYS

October 2007 marks the 75th anniversary of the Bodyline series. Yet another pretext for reams of articles (including yours truly) and sureshot headlines. As it is, anniversaries are grist to the mill, ranging from 100, 75, 60, 50, 25, 20, 10, 5 and many a time one (one year of the Manmohan Singh government, for example).

It could encompass 50 years after the EMS Namboodiripad-led Communist government came to power in Kerala (1957), 50 years after Roger Bannister ran a mile in less than four minutes (1954) and 60 years after the creation of the bikini (1946). There is nostalgia, there is history revisited and reinterpreted and titillation too (can't forget the infectious enthusiasm at the top level for a special show on bikinis).

Then there is the 'coinciding date' which juxtaposes an incident in the immediate past with another in the distant past. When there is a supreme irony nothing like it, for a two-pronged headline and a discussion on TV. September 11 may be just a date, but it's difficult to imagine that Mahatma Gandhi's first non-violent satyagraha in South Africa was on September 11, 1906. The irony was brought out clearly last year, the 100th anniversary of Gandhi's first satyagraha.

'Anniversary' headlines may ensure that the dust is shaken off the pages of history. But what about 'birthday' headlines? A preserve of film stars and cricketers. Here if you are a reigning idol, it's not just about numbers like 30 (mature actor), 40 (still dapper despite stepping into middle age), 50 (aeging but still hanging on) and 60 (evergreen). Any number, from 30 to 70 to the very end are good enough for 30-minute specials with the same visuals and the same thing said over and over again. Especially if you are Amitabh Bachchan, Rajinikanth or Lata Mangeshkar, just to name a few.

The TV birthday explosion was kicked off by the Big B turning 60 in 2002. There weren't too many players then, but the birthday cult and fans swaying to TV cameras had made their presence felt. Rajini had a major 50th birthday bash in 1999, but he didn't get countrywide attention. (Those were the days when there was only one English-oriented news channel and there was no comprehension about the huge English-speaking 'South India' market)

A dash of trivia helps in no small measure. Rekha's birthday happens to be October 10, a day before the Big B. The perfect excuse to showcase song after song with Amitabh and Rekha ad nauseam (Salaam-e-Ishq meri jaan, Rang Barse, Dekha Ek Khwab etc)

The following years saw the Khans, Shah Rukh, Aamir and Salman all crossing 40 and this year Akshay Kumar too has done it. But now 40, 41, 42.......every number is an excuse for a headline and half-an-hour of interviews, film clips and camera-friendly fans swearing undying devotion.

If Bollywood's there, can cricket be far behind? 2003 marked 30 years of Sachin Tendulkar and thereafter every year every Sachin birthday has made it to the headlines. Depending on their form. Dravid and Ganguly too got a look-in. Now it's Dhoni's turn.

And if you need a crash course in how to say the same thing in five different stories spread over 30 minutes, the answer is to celebrate a celebrity birthday.

It's a sign of the times that Rakhi Sawant's birthday can create hysteria among some news channels. She gets her publicity, the channels get (or think they get) their eyeballs.

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75 YEARS AFTER BODYLINE

THE CRACK OF DOOM

THE SPORTING SIDE OF CHE

CELEBRATING RD

75 YEARS AFTER BODYLINE

The late 1980s. I was hooked on to cricket and vaguely heard about a Don Bradman way back in the past with an average that was well, Bradmanesque.

Then Doordarshan stepped in and the word of Bradman was made flesh and dwelt among us in our living rooms. Only that it was a Bradman shorn of myth and instead facing mortal peril. The stage being the infamous Bodyline series of 1932-33.

The objects of hate to my impressionable eyes were the sinister-looking English captain Douglas Jardine and his instrument of doom Harold Larwood. The two villains with the motive of stopping Bradman at any cost. And Larwood pounded the pitch with scary thunderbolts aimed at the body, with a clutch of fielders behind the leg stump. The Australians wilted, their captain Bill Woodfull hit on the chest by Larwood and Bradman managing just one hundred. The result: 4-1 England.

Another enduring image is of an England batsman badly sick and struggling in the dressing room, while the England innings was collapsing. Jardine virtually forced him out to bat and there he was, scoring runs aplenty and bailing England out. Much later, I realised the batsman was Eddie Paynter.

Paynter owed a lot to the 'conscientious objector' to Bodyline, the Nawab of Pataudi. Pataudi started firmly with a century in the first test, but as the Bodyline clouds enveloped the field, he was shown as opposing Jardine's plans. Which meant Pataudi took an early bow.

The serial ended with images of what happened later to the principal players. I remember feeling gladdened by the fact that after the 'vile triumph' Jardine faced brickbats in England, and didn't play too much after. Harold Larwood never played international cricket again, and in the ultimate irony, ended up settling in Australia. And Don Bradman went on amassing runs unhindered, to reach the Bradmanesque average of 99.94.

But now, 75 years after October 1932, when the English touring party landed in Australia, it's time for less outrage and a bit of grudging admiration for Douglas Jardine. Inhuman as it may have been, Bodyline was a tactical masterstroke which achieved the twin objectives of an Ashes victory and containing the rampaging Don.

And how can you not conceal a sense of admiration for someone who never flinched when given a taste of his own medicine? In 1933, Jardine made his only test hundred at Old Trafford against the West Indies , grinding out 127 in five hours battling Bodyline tactics employed by Learie Constantine and Manny Martindale.

Let's also spare a thought for Harold Larwood, the former coal-miner, who refused to apologise to a holier-than-thou administration and hence never got to play for England again.

As for Pataudi, he kept a distance from the fledgling Indian side of the 1930s and captained India much later in 1946 (in England) when he was way past his prime.

Leg theory was banned but intimidatory fast bowling continues to mesmerise and horrify. From Lillee and Thomson for the Aussies to the West Indian pace quartet of the 1970s and 1980s, the legacy of Bodyline lives on.

And here's a trivia question gauging the impact of Bodyline.

Q: The publication of the first supplement of the Oxford Dictionary was postponed for one particular reason. What?

Hint: It was published in 1933. The delay was to include the definition of a new word (a cricketing term)

INDIA AND RACISM

Following the 'racist' gestures aimed at Andrew Symonds in the Mumbai onedayer, a natural reaction is, "These Aussies are so racist. It's high time we give them a taste of their own medicine."

Yes, Australian cricketers have been guilty of overt racism, be it Dean Jones referring to bearded South African Hashim Amla as 'looking like a terrorist' on air, or Darren Lehmann hollering black c***, aimed at the Sri Lankans. And then there's covert racism, where Indian and Sri Lankan players are also no angels. Racist abuse has become part and parcel of sledging, regrettable as it may sound.

But the 'monkey gestures' of the Indian fans at the Wankhede Stadium reinforce the very premise of racism - target only those who can be painted as inferior and primitive. So Andrew Symonds with Aborigine roots is the butt of ridicule. A mirror to a society with deep-rooted caste and religious prejudices.

Indians across the world would be happy to be associated with whites, but when it comes to blacks it's suspicion and disdain. Ranging from South Africa to Uganda, Black Africans have been wary of Indian-origin people, who from the colonial days considered themselves higher in the social scale. Some day I would like to see a film on an African-American in love with an Indian and how the parents react. The one such film I had seen, Mira Nair's Mississippi Masala had given the 'Indians driven out of Idi Amin's Uganda' context to explain the dislike.

The Australian media may have overreacted with ridiculous statements like 'Mumbai fans have a reputation for racist abuse towards visiting players' but the incident and the selective targeting of Symonds can't be washed away. Poking fun is one thing (extending even to calling Inzamam aloo) but creating notions of superiority and inferiority is something else.

STING IN THE TAIL

Zaheer Khan clouting Brett Lee for a six. It seemed a faint flicker of resistance before the inevitable surrender. But at the Wankhede Stadium, the flicker expanded its glow run by run, edge by edge, four by four, till 52 runs were added and the target was achieved. Zaheer and Murali Kartik's deeds a far cry from the archetypal surrender the Indian tail is used to. One of those rare moments to savour, when Indian tailenders turn certain defeat into improbable victory.

For a similar ODI moment, one has to turn the clock back 11 years, when Srinath and Kumble put together an unbeaten 52-run ninth-wicket stand in Bangalore to nudge past Australia. After Srinath forgot his batting skills by the mid-1990s, rarely has the tail wagged. Nobody expects the tail to shore up the batting in a big way, but they are also supposed to put a price on their wickets. Over and over again, discipline got lost in either tentative prods or airy-fairy shots.

There have been occasions when the tail capitalised on already huge totals, prolonging the agony of the opposition, such as a Kumble hitting his maiden test hundred at the Oval out of a humungous 664. But a constant ability to irritate and get under the skin of the opposition, the Indian tail has always lacked.

There are cherished individual moments - the outrageous swings of a Harbhajan Singh blade, which are not found in any coaching manual, 'smiling assassin' Lakshmipathy Balaji wading into Mohammad Sami and sending the ball into the stands and Sreesanth's break dance aimed at Andre Nel.

But when individual dazzle and collective will seek out each other, it's victory as Zaheer and Kartik proved. It's time the Indian tail stands up to be counted more often than not.

COMMUNISM AND TAMIL NADU

Muthuvel Karunanidhi is among the many Tamilians who have at least paid lip service to Communism by naming their son Stalin. In fact, Tamil Nadu and neighbouring Kerala are two states where you find many Lenins and Stalins. Socialist-sounding sops have also helped the grand old man in his rhetoric. Remember last year's electoral promise of rice at Rs 2 per kg.

Which is why it's not surprising that the canny politician recently spoke about his belief in Left ideology to Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta. He even went on to say he would have been a Communist if not for Periyar and his Dravidian movement.

It may sound a grandiose statement now from Karunanidhi, but more than five decades back, history did throw up possibilities for Communism to cast its spell over the then Madras State. It's now easily forgotten that the Communists nearly formed the state government in 1952.

Out of 375 MLAs the Congress had only 165, agonisingly short of a majority. Even though the Communists had only 62 seats, they were in a position to cobble together a majority with other socialist outfits. Also the fledgling Dravidian movement was inclined to support them.

The New York Times dated January 24, 1952 shouted, "SOUTH INDIA'S REDS GAIN IN ELECTIONS; 3 Provinces Indicate Trend (Madras, Hyderabad, Travancore-Cochin)-- Nehru Calls Top Party Group to Study Menace.

The Congress wasted no time in their efforts to shut the 'menace'. Madras Governor Sri Prakasa invited the Congress to form the government, despite the party being in a minority. And guess who a panicky Congress sent all the way to helm the state, and negotiate for the extra numbers. C Rajagopalachari, who had been Governor-General of India till 1950, assumed charge as CM. Something like A P J Abdul Kalam becoming Tamil Nadu CM now.

A year later Andhra became a separate state and after the 1956 reorganisation of states Malabar became part of Kerala. Which in turn led to a drastic fall in Communist numbers in the Madras Assembly. But having said that the course of Tamil Nadu could well have been different if the Communists had come to power in 1952. Aspiring to a similar vote bank, being in power the Communists could have checked the rise of the DMK.

Instead the Congress was firmly in power and failed to gauge the emotional appeal of the Dravidian movement. Communism was reduced to a footnote with some pockets of influence, for example industrial hubs like Coimbatore and Tiruppur. (Kalanemi writes in his blog about growing up in hammer and sickle town Tiruppur).

And their ideals were reduced to props in DMK speeches and films, with MGR the underdog majestically trampling over all the odds in film after film.

FAREWELL INZAMAM

World Cup 1992. Pakistan vs New Zealand semifinal. It's morning in Thiruvananthapuram and far away in Auckland, Pakistan looks shaky chasing New Zealand's 260-odd score. Coming in at number three, skipper Imran Khan does strike a six, but does not seem to be in a hurry to force the pace. As I head for school, the tactical maestros of the World Cup, New Zealand, looks right on top.

Lunch break time, news trickles in that Pakistan's won. And that somebody called Inzamam had turned the tables. Highlights in the evening, I get to see a baby-faced youngster clouting the ball nonchalantly all over, while smashing 60 off just 37 balls.

Four days later, it's mayhem in the slog overs, Inzamam slams 42 off 35 balls, as Pakistan reaches a challenging score. Again I am in school, missing out on the fireworks. Pakistan wins the World Cup and a legend is born.

The flip side of the legend too is out in the open in the same World Cup. Before the semifinal exploits, the first memorable (not to him though) freeze frame of Inzamam is the hapless batsman caught unawares while an airborne Jonty Rhodes shatters his stumps. In the very semifinal where he packed off New Zealand, it's a run out which sends him back to the pavilion. The first glimpse of a fatal flaw in running betwen the wickets, which haunted him throughout his career.

But there were many delightful occasions, when the lazy elegance meshed with nerves of steel, notably in an unbeaten 58 against Australia (Karachi Test,1994) . His last wicket partnership of
57 with Mushtaq Ahmed ensured a nail-biting one-wicket victory.

In the topsy-turvy world of Pakistan cricket, it's a tribute to his consistency that he was a permanent fixture for over a decade. But come 2003, the same World Cup stage where he had announced his arrival so emphatically, turned out to be a nightmare. A total of 19 runs in 6 matches, Pakistan's disastrous early exit and a scuffle with Younis Khan, Inzamam's stocks hit an all-time low.

The 2003 home series against Bangladesh was tipped as a make-or-break affair for Inzy. Two tests and the first innings of the third, Inzamam was clearly travelling on the exit lane. But one epic knock changed all that. Third test, second innings, for the second time in his career Inzamam's heroics ensured a one-wicket victory. 138 not out in 262 for 9, Pakistan just about averted a humiliating defeat to minnow Bangladesh.

A day later, skipper Rashid Latif was slapped a five-match ban, after being found guilty of faking a catch. The very next day (September 8) Inzamam was captain. A man who was just a whisker away from being dumped, now had the top job. A synthesis of luck and pluck.

Never known for his communication skills, he did not sit easily on the captaincy chair. Ever mercurial, Pakistan cricket veered towards the mediocre more often than not. There was the occasional century, but the carefree youth of old was lost forever. And another disastrous World Cup sounded the death-knell.

But unlike many others, Inzamam did get to choose his own farewell. Pity he finished just two runs short of Javed Miandad's record of 8,832 test runs, the most by a Pakistan player.

As the genial giant bids adieu, let's also not forget that he had a safe pair of hands at slip.

FROM COUCH POTATO TO GROUND REALITY

Opinions, debates, number crunching, conspiracy theories, a bit of reporting, producing shows for Headlines Today - cricket's entertained and exasperated me over two decades. Two decades of watching cricket matches lazily lounging in the confines of living rooms, or a bit more actively in office and hostel tv rooms.

Just one thing was missing - the feeling of watching a match in a stadium, seeing a Tendulkar in flesh and blood. TV with its innumerable replays and closeups dissects everything for the viewer, but despite being able to wax eloquent on the game I could never say, "I was there."

So here I was heading for Chandigarh on a Sunday night for Monday's India-Australia clash. Not as a mediaperson but as a cricket fan. Early morning we are in a hotel right next to the stadium, and from our room we get a sense of the crowds. A swarm of people heading in one direction armed with loads of posters and banners.

This army brings fear in its wake too. What if the Haryana Cricket Association issued far more passes than seats in the stadium? Ticket scams are something fans are familiar with. Yet they make the long trudge, ever hopeful.

We've got VIP passes and we head towards the Sector 16 stadium, which is staging its first international match in nearly 15 years (Mohali's prospered as a cricket venue over the past decade at the expense of this stadium). Entry point, the cops say no cell phone. The magic word 'media' does not ring any bells for them. The refrain is, if you are media, go to the media section. But then we've already heard there are 300-odd accredited media people aiming for 80-odd seats. The cell phones go straight to the OB van.

I imagined a VIP pass meant that there would be a roof over our heads. Only to realise I was completely out of touch with reality. Here was a small stadium where only the media enclosure and the players' dressing room had roofs. And the sun was in its elements.

Our section had one big tree in the middle, and the early birds had gravitated towards its catchment area. After a short spell in the heat, we too headed for the tree zone. First sitting on the steps and slowly and steadily getting promotions.

In the meantime, Ganguly and Tendulkar too adopted the slow and steady approach. It was like watching a one-day game of the 1980s where 40 for 0 in 10 overs meant a great start. The crowd did not get too much to shout about, with Sachin grinding out only the occasional single while the powerplay was in progress.

We at least had the tree's comfort, sitting in the VIP stand. But what about the thousands who wait for hours to get tickets and are relentlessly exposed to the crushing gaze of the sun? I wouldn't want to be in their shoes.

Vendors arrive with refreshments. Four Tropicana juices and we are poorer by 120 rupees. Prices have indeed shot through the roof when it comes to the cricket fan. Lamb to the slaughter.

While we promoted ourselves from the steps to seats, the runs started flowing. Sachin played a quiet, sheet anchor knock without taking risks. And every single batsman did his bit in keeping the score ticking. And then came the charge, courtesy Dhoni and Uthappa.

I need to concentrate on every ball to savour each moment. Sitting in the stadium, you don't have the luxury of rewinding to what you missed. Replays don't always appear on the big screens there.

The Aussies start their chase. Our focus on the match is interrupted by a verbal altercation. All eyes move to an old man who's furious with some youngsters. Cops step in and one of them sits between the warring groups.

Another flare-up with the old man all agitated. But then Gilchrist falls, and the resulting cacophony drowns out the old man's aggression. A fight stopped in mid-stride.

HRV says Hayden has a penchant for uppish drives, which is why India has a fielder at short cover. The very next ball, Hayden drives and the ball tantalisingly falls just short of the fielder.

There are lots of empty chairs close to the boundary line. Inspiring yet another example of the Indian virtue of jugaad. Some enterprising characters collect chair after chair, one on top of the other, and lo and behold, they are watching the action at a higher pedestal. The cops aren't too pleased though, and eject some of them.

Hayden's on a roll and the shoulders are drooping. But then Ponting falls and the banners are back. There's this enterprising gentleman whose bugle propels the cheering. And Punjabi jokes abound, most of which I can't figure out.

As Kartik and Harbhajan apply the brakes, the cheering becomes louder. I am part of all-encompassing Mexican waves as the buzz of victory gathers steam. Robin Uthappa makes fielding look so easy at the deep, repeatedly picking up and throwing the ball in rapid-fire motion, reducing twos to ones.

And sitting on the stands, you notice sledging, both subtle and obvious, done by both sides. But sitting where we were, we missed out on most of the number one incident, when 12th man Sreesanth taunted Andrew Symonds as he was returning to the dressing room after a defiant 75. We caught on to a bit of it, with all eyes by then pointed towards the dressing room side.

Sreesanth's childish antics I must say are an insult to the practice of sledging. It's part and parcel of the game now, but there is a subtlety to it. A Matthew Hayden can sledge with a smile while half of Sreesanth's energy is wasted in verbal misadventures.

India wins by 8 runs and as HRV said, we witness a footnote in history - India's first ODI win over Australia in over three years (after early 2004).

But all is not hunky-dory. Our cab driver's obstinate certainty takes us to the Himachal Pradesh border late in the night, and we painstakingly retrace our steps. He nearly runs over a couple on a bike, instead of slowing down and asking them the way. And pitches for speed ahead of safety, forcing HRV to ask, aap apne liye ya hamare liye gaadi chala rahe ho.

Even in the cloud there is a silver lining. Immediately after we enter the National Highway and out of the maze created by the driver's penchant for the short cut, we sight Prince dhaba.As their blurb said it is 'good food chew fully'. Only that we couldn't satisfy the 'sleep well' part of the blurb, thanks to the rampaging driver.

The next cricket motto for me is the other blurb which the dhaba had. No 50 50 ask 100 100 Prince's biscuit. Now that Fifty50's been savoured, it's time to watch a test match.

THE SPORTING SIDE OF CHE

He was an avid rugby player despite an asthma handicap and earned himself the nickname Fuser — a combination of El Furibundo (The Raging) and his mother's surname (Serna) — for his aggressive style of play.
He also founded a rugby magazine, called Tackle. He wrote the entire contents under either his own name or a code name, Chang-Cho, which is apparently a play on one of his nicknames, the Pig.

This question was asked at a quiz I went for a few weeks ago. I knew Albert Camus had played football, Hemingway had a passion for bullfighting and that Conan Doyle and Wodehouse had a yen for cricket. But this was unfamiliar trivia. It had to be somebody with a Spanish language connection but Spain or Latin American countries had no rugby tradition to boast of. Our tame guess was legendary Argentine footballer Alfredo Di Stefano.

The answer turned out to be another Argentine, none other than Ernesto 'Che' Guevara. And 40 years after his death, there is a rugby footnote too to the myth of Che the revolutionary icon. The Telegraph has an evocative piece with a photo of Che the rugby player, who's now emerged as an unexpected icon of the Argentine rugby side.

And it's fitting that the 40th anniversary of Che's death coincides with the Pumas' (Argentine rugby squad) surprise entry into the ongoing Rugby World Cup semifinals. A year the outsider breached the inner circle.

SEEING RED OVER WHEAT

CNN-IBN's special report on substandard wheat being imported from Australia has come as a shocker. Going by this, an Indian peasant is fit to eat what is edible for an animal in Australia.

Australia happily exports animal feed for human consumption, that too a country which 'protects' its people with very strict laws on food and imports. A country where a greeting card with a leaf extract from India did not reach the recipient precisely because the leaf originated in foreign shores. Imagine that in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, equestrian events were held in distant Stockholm in Sweden, because foreign horses were not compatible with the country's strict quarantine laws.

This Australian hypocrisy fits in with the French attempt to dismantle the ship Clemenceau, riddled with toxic waste, at Alang in Gujarat. But then a developed country giver needs an underdeveloped/developing country taker too. It's worse that the Indian government is content equating the poor with cattle.

CAPITALISING ON DEATH

Leftist intellectual M N Vijayan is dead. Front page news on Malayala Manorama Thursday morning. There are four pictures splashed across the page. The first shows Vijayan feeling uneasy while holding a press conference in Thrissur. The second - Vijayan is drinking water. the third - Vijayan is back to the mike, all smiles. And the fourth and final picture - Vijayan is collapsing - eyes and mouth wide open as he helplessly slips into death.

A shocker of a picture to start the morning. Was the fourth picture necessary? Is the market the newspaper believes it is pandering to completely insensitive? I am told Malayalam news channels were careful with the visuals but India TV, a Hindi news channel which normally doesn't give too hoots for a story from Kerala in the distant south, played up the visuals over and over again. The entire sequence of Vijayan's collapse was played out, with an 'exclusive' tag to boot. A lesson in how to grab eyeballs out of a tragic death.

This was pure shock value and not even about social outrage, which is invoked by visuals of somebody being lynched to death or mob fury. In such cases too it's about getting there first and creating the maximum impact, with hardly a thought about what images could be disturbing.

And when it comes to breaking news of a bomb blast (Delhi 2005, Mumbai 2006 or Hyderabad 2007) things go haywire. The pressure to show visuals as soon as possible ensures caution is thrown to the winds more often than not. Contrast this with the extra-careful way the American media covered 9/11.

It's no justification but TV news is still evolving in India and there is no maturity or consolidation yet, with so many players competing for their slice in the pie (as well as expanding the pie). But what about pillars of the print media who've been around for ages? Are they falling prey to the sensationalism and shock value encouraged by TV? The market may be king but we could do with a little more sensitivity.

FROM ROSES TO RAGE

Gandhi Jayanti 2007 has been worlds removed from Gandhi Jayanti 2006. Last year the media discourse centred around Lage Raho Munnabhai, and how the film desmystified Gandhi for the masses and the youth. Gandhigiri was the buzzword and there was story after story about peaceful protests with flowers. For that matter, any kind of peaceful protest was likened or twisted to a show of 'Gandhigiri.' To be precise, what 'Chak De' is now, Gandhigiri was then.

A year later, forget Gandhi and what he stood for, the 'instant noodles' Gandhian message of Lage Raho Munnabhai has been relegated to history. If Munnabhai was a redemption song for Sanjay Dutt, the actor was behind bars for a while this year after being sentenced in the Bombay Blasts case, and awaits an uncertain future. The last few months have seen a spate of incidents of mob fury, ranging from Bhagalpur to Siliguri. And news channels and newspapers are agog with road rage deaths.

Gandhi would have been shocked by Muthuvel Karunanidhi's vituperative outbursts against Ram, as the DMK supremo anointed himself as the Head Priest of atheism. The soundbyte-happy Ram Sethu debate has been all about disrespect and intolerance. And even more shockingly on Gandhi Jayanti eve, when the DMK's hunger strike call turned into a virtual bandh in Tamil Nadu, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi had the gall to say that by going on hunger strike, Karunanidhi was only respecting the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi and non-violence. Karunanidhi would have emerged with more dignity and no Supreme Court censure if he had restrained his followers from extending the definition of a hunger strike.

This is also the year of an introspective film 'Gandhi My Father' depicting the difficult relationship between Gandhi and his eldest son Harilal and how the Father of the Nation failed to understand his son. Depicting Gandhi the fallible human being seems painfully appropriate in a year which reminds me of the Julius Caesar line, "O judgment, thou art fled to brutish beasts, And men have lost their reason." A year when a news channel airs a week-long series called 'Murdering the Mahatma.'

Also the year when the Government of India is a mute spectator, while non-violent protests by Buddhist monks are ruthlessly crushed by the ruling military junta in neighbouring Myanmar.

HINDI TAMIL BHAI BHAI

Jab Hindustan hai desh hamara
Hindu Muslim Sikh Isai
Aapas main hai bhai bhai

A paean to secularism recited in Hindi at a joint meeting of the ruling alliance in Tamil Nadu on Sunday evening. And who trots out these lines flawlessly in a thick Tamil accent, without consulting a piece of paper. None other than Muthuvel Karunanidhi, the head of the DMK, whose party came to power for the first time way back in 1967 on an anti-Hindi platform.

Listening to the Kalaignar's ode to secularism in the very language he has openly despised, presented mixed emotions - of mirth as well as admiration. The man has tirelessly stuck to 'Tamizh Tai' as his medium of expression, and has rarely spoken in English in public, forget Hindi. (The only time I've heard a near-English soundbyte of his was when he read out some report on the Cauvery issue in English)

Karunanidhi is in no mood to give way on the Sethusamudram project, a long-cherished dream of Dravidian ideology. And at the same time wants to show off that he's part of a secular India and not just a regional politician. A shrewd publicity gimmick stimulating his cadres and creating a talking point for the Tamil public. And an indication to the BJP that two can play the game of whipping up sentiments.

The perfect launch pad for the hunger strike DMK leaders plan on Monday, after the Supreme Court's special sitting on a Sunday restrained them from organising a bandh. No bandh, no food - that's the motto.

The AIADMK may have prevented a bandh by going to the Supreme Court, but Karunanidhi's Plan B was undoubtedly poetry in motion. And Amma has to tread carefully, with the seasoned veteran already invoking Tamil pride.

At 84, the veteran scriptwriter continues to surprise us with new layers in the plot of power. Ever the artist, the Kalaignar.

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TALKING HEADS AND RAM SETHU

JOHNNY G AND THE 1970s

As the credits roll, Eastman Colour is plastered all over the screen. You are reminded of an era where running trains formed the perfect backdrop for murder, an era when Vijay Anand sizzled with his intricate whodunit plots, double crosses and elegant song picturisations (Teesri Manzil, Jewel Thief and Johnny Mera Naam).

Johnny Gaddar deals with a bunch of crooks planning a huge joint venture and the lure of the lucre, inspiring the double cross. One murder leads to another, as the players are bumped off one by one through a combination of design and accident. It is not a whodunit for the viewer though, as the identity of the gaddar is clear at the outset. But at the same time, the viewer is encouraged to think, as the gang tries to unravel the mystery behind the killing of the imposingly strong Shiva during a train journey.

Director Sriram Raghavan uses film channels on TV to further his plot....as they relentlessly show 1970s flicks like Johnny Mera Naam and one less-known Amitabh Bachchan film of the early 1970s before he became a superstar (This film used to be the one answer to an Amitabh trivia quiz question before the days of Aankhen and Ram Gopal Varma ki Aag)

Wonderful first half though gang leader Seshadri (Dharmendra) didn't sound too comfortable mouthing English punchline after punchline. But Garam Dharm at 70-plus effortlessly oozes charm. As he says, "it's not the age, it's the mileage."

The second half though was a bit of a stretch and could have been tighter. And a self-indulgent director/writer leaves some loose ends.

Great performances from the gang members, Vikram (debutant Neil Mukesh) , Prakash (Vinay Pathak) and especially Zakir Hussain (Shardul).

Fittingly, the film is dedicated to Vijay Anand and James Hadley Chase, a regular companion of many a long-distance train journey (including Johnny Gaddar).

Rediff has Sriram Raghavan's own list of inspirational films. A Who's who of capers.

MORE THAN AN ARABIAN TALE

Tightfisted ideological purity confronted with the reality of slogging it out for a living outside home soil. In a nutshell, that's the tale of Malayalam film Arabikatha (An Arabian Tale)

'Cuba' Mukundan's travails seemed to have struck a chord in a Sunday morning show at Delhi's Sangam, as I watched the film in a full house, along with hordes of expatriate Malayalis.

Sreenivasan's Cuba Mukundan is the dyed-in-the-wool communist who would break Coca Cola bottles from George Bush's America, organise agitations against computerisation because it means less people will get jobs and destroy structures built on what was once farmland, in the name of a return to peasant farming (A pet theme of Kerala Planning Board vice-chairman Prabhat Patnaik).

At the same time Mukundan idolises Cuba and China. Wonder how he would have responded to 'Made in China' toys with way too much lead for comfort.

Mukundan in his zeal even ensures that his father 'Society' Gopalan (Nedumudi Venu) is suspended from the party, after allegations of embezzling funds. Gopalan dies, after which Mukundan takes it upon himself the responsibility of returning the money.

Off he goes to the Gulf in search of some quick money, armed with a notebook too, to study how labourers are being exploited over there!

The penny drops before too long. Confronted with the reality of serving Coca Cola in a restaurant and made fun of because he has no clue about computers, Cuba Mukundan realises the futility of rhetoric. It takes a while, but in the end he figures out that his father had been framed by another power-hungry comrade.


And then there is the China connection, which was the one reason the film was a headline on a few national news channels much before its release (Chinese heroine for the first time in an Indian film). Mukundan falls for a Chinese girl and the wide-eyed communist asks all sorts of questions to her about his land of milk and honey, China. It's chastening for him to realise that she is a victim of the Communist regime.

Arabikatha's wonderful first half laced with biting satire makes the film a must-watch. The second half though did not live up to the first, with a few contrived situations (like Indrajith's character one fine day taking off to the interiors and who does he bump into on the way - the long-lost Mukundan).

Kerala Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan did see the film. But his saga of flip-flops and holier-than-thou statements continue, be it Munnar or Ponmudi. Like Cuba Mukundan, the lack of experience in a responsible position (other than in the party) is glaringly evident. After all, VS has never even led a Panchayat, forget about being a minister. All sound and fury without a remedy to offer.

What Kerala needs is more pragmatism and less rhetoric. Not an administration which trumpets a state ban on the evil multinational monopoly Coca Cola as one of its biggest achievements. And greedily accept funds from the diaspora to sustain its economic model (Kerala model of development).

TALKING HEADS & RAM SETHU

One of the most nightmarish things to deal with in a newsroom is a Karunanidhi soundbyte. Expatriate Tamilians shudder when asked to translate the Kalaignar's words into English. The man's subtle utterings have layers of meaning, rhetorical flourishes and some poetic licence too.

Thanks to Sethusamudram and Ram, the Kalaignar's been a recurring nightmare for the newsroom over the past two weeks. And the man has brazenly stood his ground, precisely because his state is hardly bothered about Ram.

The VHP started off the fireworks with a nationwide chakka jam, which created traffic snarls in faraway Delhi, while Tamil Nadu (where the Ramar Sethu is) casually shrugged it off. But the BJP and the VHP got the opportunity they craved for, with the Archaeological Survey of India affidavit denying the existence of Ram. The saffron outfits went on the offensive, leaving a shame-faced Congress groping for answers.

For the BJP, the Ram controversy came at the right time, as Gujarat heads for elections. And a marginalised VHP had something to talk about, more than a decade after the Babri Masjid demolition.

But this time round, the saffron parties were pitted against somebody who could match them threat for threat and shrillness for shrillness. And it was a win-win situation for both the BJP and Karunanidhi. For the BJP a chance to whip up some fervour in the Hindi belt and for Karunanidhi the perfect opportunity to wax eloquent on Dravidian pride and the 'Brahminical and Aryan' God Ram. The Kalaignar's first chance to harp on Dravidian identity after the heady days of the anti-Hindi riots and DMK's entry into power.

Here's a state where the arrest of the Kanchi Sankaracharya creates hardly a murmur (except for the 2-3% Brahmin population). The BJP and the VHP had made a hue and cry about the arrest of a seer who was involved in the Ayodhya movement, but that didn't deter then Chief Minister Jayalalithaa. And in the 2006 Assembly Polls, Sankaracharya's fate did not figure anywhere in the polls, not even in his headquarters, Kancheepuram.

As for Ram, he is regarded a Brahminical, Aryan God, revered by the 3% Brahmin population, which had during the British colonial regime reigned supreme in the caste hierarchy, and a stranglehold over government jobs. The intermediate castes were all classified as sudras, leading to Periyar's Self-Respect Movement and later the DMK. Local gods are now worshipped with renewed fervour by various 'intermediate' castes and anti-Brahminism has spawned a massive 69% reservation. Also this is the only state in India where kids are happily named Ravanan. So where is the space for Ram?

Things came to a head literally, with VHP leader Vedanti's call for a reward for taking off Karunanidhi's head. The undaunted patriarch responded with his customary flourish, whipping up enough emotions to charge up DMK workers to an orgy of eulogy, in a state notorious for personality cults.

Even the BJP realised the war of words had gone too far, and made conciliatory statements about being opposed to the present alignment, and not the Sethusamudram Project per se. After all, the project was initiated when the BJP-led NDA was in power at the Centre (DMK was a coalition partner). DMK's current Shipping Minister T R Baalu claims that 'no less than six BJP ministers were involved in the final selection of the present route.'

The VHP can still be strident, but the BJP knows the golden rule of politics. Foe today friend tomorrow. And Karunanidhi may again make peace someday with the 'Brahminical' BJP, if pet peeve (in fact his only peeve) Jayalalithaa makes peace with the Congress.

As for Amma, she was sent packing to her Kodanadu estate in Nilgiri district, facing threats of demolition of 'illegal' construction. Amma is now directing protests from Ooty, rooting for Ram only because Karunanidhi is against Ram.

While the verbal duel rages, will anybody spare a thought for the two human beings who were charred beyond recognition by the burning of a Tamil Nadu bus near Bangalore? But then in Tamil Nadu politics, where self-immolation is a virtue, the leaders may be touched by this. But horrified.......never.

CHUCK DE, PLEASE

You switch on a news channel and all you hear or see on the screen is Chak De India. Granted it's a catchy song with an anthemic quality, a We will we will rock you embellished with dollops of pop patriotism. And it's the ultimate sports film, picking up a sport in the doldrums and celebrating the triumph of the underdog.

But heard and seen day in and day out, even a good thing grates on your nerves. And the song itself has been hijacked by the very game the film Chak De India raised its voice against - cricket. Shah Rukh Khan was heard on news channels after India recently won the Asia Cup hockey tournament in Chennai, but then he was seen (at the Wanderers) as well as heard after the Twenty20 triumph. Therein lies the rub.

As the media circus rolled along with Team India, hockey coach Joaquim Carvalho decided to stick his neck out with hockey's familiar theme - Big Brother Cricket. Carvalho castigated a Union Minister and four state governments for ignoring their Asia Cup triumph, while showering cricketers with praise and more importantly big bucks.

Yes, Carvalho is right if he feels hockey ends up playing second-fiddle and politicians bend over backwards searching into the state coffers to reward cricketers. But then Asia Cup is one thing and the World Cup is something else. And it's not as if the Asia Cup triumph did not get its due share of importance. For starters, Chak De and its offshoots were all over the headlines of news channels and newspapers.

As Karnataka CM Kumaraswamy hinted, it's time for Carvalho to stop cribbing and think about the World Cup, Olympics, Champions Trophy etc. After all, nothing succeeds like success.

EKLAVYA AND THE OSCARS

It's the world's biggest and most vibrant set of film industries. The sheer numbers make it hard to believe that Eklavya is the most accomplished film around in India for a shot at the Oscars.

Vidhu Vinod Chopra's film does start promisingly, but in the end leaves you dissatisfied, trying to imagine what it could have been. Incompletely-etched characters and a profusion of style over substance. Hardly Oscar contender material, forget about the prize itself.

The selection procedure is organised by the Film Federation of India, an anonymous organisation otherwise. And their jury this time comprises of Sudhir Mishra (director), Jalees Sherwani (writer), Nadeen Khan (cameraman), Anil Sharma (director), Bijoy Kalyani (producer), Ravi Kottakara (producer), Ravi Sharma (music director), Shahid Amir (costume designer), Ranjit Bahadur (film editor), Jagdish Sharma (producer, director) and Vinod Pande (film-maker).

The need to attach designations give the story away. For many of them that's the only way you get a fix on who they are in the first place. There is a Sudhir Mishra and and Anil Sharma but where's a familiar name from the many regional film industries?

Take a look at the films in contention. Guru, Chak De India, Gandhi My Father and Dharm. It's just a handful of films and all from Bollywood. Difficult to believe that not even a single regional film made the cut. An Arabikatha or an Ore Kadal in Malayalam or a Mozhi in Tamil weren't good enough to even make it to the list of contenders?

Even if it's just a Bollywood race, Guru or Gandhi My Father deserved a look, definitely not Eklavya.

And we haven't even discussed Dadasaheb Phalke Award winner and auteur Adoor Gopalakrishnan's latest offering Naalu Pennungal (Four Women), which was screened at the Toronto Film Festival earlier this month.

Mainstream Bollywood has dominated the race for the Oscar nomination, especially after Lagaan made it to the final shortlist in 2001. The very next year we showcased the garish Devdas and now the toothless Eklavya. Forget regional cinema, even the best of Bollywood gets sidelined. It's small consolation that in the pre-Lagaan days, an atrocious potboiler like Jeans (1998) was sent as the official entry.

An Oscar nonination is something Vidhu Vinod Chopra is familiar with. His 1978 short film 'An Encounter with Faces' was nominated for the Documentary Short Subject category. And in 1989, Parinda was the official Indian entry. But those efforts had spunk. Will he ever direct a Khamosh again instead of the likes of 1942-A Love Story and Eklavya?

WHAT WAS THE POINT?

"First of all I want to say something over here. I want to thank you back home Pakistan and where the Muslim lives all over the world."

Thus spake Pakistan skipper Shoaib Malik after losing to India at the Twenty20 final, adding he was sorry he had let them down.

Malik's let down Muslims all over the world? He's let down India's man-of-the-match Irfan Pathan and his brother Yusuf? Are Muslims all over the world one homogeneous entity? Forget different countries, is a Malayali Muslim and a Bengali Muslim the same?

The new skipper may have been playing to the gallery, a naive bid to stem any possible resentment back home. But it's shocking that his defence mechanism was irrelevant pan-Islamic rhetoric.

Would have liked to remember this Pakistan side as a younger, hungrier lot with nothing to lose and not carrying forward religious baggage of the Inzamam days, the last phase of which seemed to have more of prayers than practice.

I for one had enjoyed as a cricket fan the impetuosity of an Imran Nazir, the poise of Shoaib Malik the batsman and the long handle of Misbah, as well as the wicket-taking skills of Asif, Umar Gul and Sohail Tanvir. Relished it, as Pakistan overturned the form book to enter the final. And yes, there is a tinge of disappointment that Pakistan lost.

But going by Shoaib Malik, there is no space for disappointment if you are not a Muslim. Saddening.

SALUTING THE VANQUISHED

Initial exhilaration about an Indian victory is now tempered with the sheer pleasure of having witnessed a heart-stopping match, where the momentum swung from one side to the other with dizzying regularity.

Pakistan ultimately came second best because the middle and lower middle-order this time round could not cover up fully for the inadequacies of the top order. But then they went all the way in the first place because of the unexpected brilliance of the middle-order. Along with their bowling - Mohammad Asif's swing, Shahid Afridi's accuracy. surprise new seam sensation Sohail Tanvir's sheer unpredictability and the joker in the pack, Umar Gul, coming in effectively as fifth bowler for the first time.

Here's a team even more humiliated than India in the ODI World Cup in the West Indies. A shock defeat to unknown Ireland (far more unknown and inexperienced than Bangladesh, whom India lost to) and a first-round exit. Worse still, the mysterious death of coach Bob Woolmer and zillions of conspiracy theories and suspicion surrounding it.

Soon came a major churn in the squad, with Inzamam-ul-Haq shown the door and the man who thought he was heir apparent, Mohammad Yousuf, left high and dry, with a younger Shoaib Malik handed over the reins. To add insult to injury, Yousuf does not make it to the Twenty20 squad. And immediately decides to pitch in his lot (along with Abdul Razzaq and Imran Farhat) with Zee's ICL.

Who got the nod for Twenty20 ahead of a giant like Yousuf? A Misbah-ul-Haq, somebody on the wrong side of 33, with only five disastrous tests and 12 ODIs to show for six scrappy years of international cricket. Yousuf on the other hand was somebody with a humungous appetite for runs - the record for most test centuries a year and most runs a year in 2006 being the crowning glory.

But it was this unknown batsman who made the middle-order stand up to be counted, match after match. The first India-Pakistan match at the group stage, 42 runs to win for Pakistan with three overs to go. The last big name Afridi is gone. India seemed to have wrapped it up for all practical purposes, only to get an almighty scare from Misbah's 35-ball 53. Misbah had to setttle for a tie here but for Australia, there were no comebacks.

Coming in at a precarious 46 for 4, what does he do? Whack an unbeaten 66 off just 42 balls before the world champions knew what hit them.

At the biggest stage, the final, Misbah believed when the rest of the team fell at regular intervals. And having got within touching distance, he tried to shake off the overwhelming burden with a cheeky shot. Sadly for him, he may have been better off whacking the ball straight, instead of being too clever-by-half with a scoop.

Along came a hero from obscurity at a ripe old age, that's the tale of this Twenty20 hero. This may be a faint flicker before a return to anonymity like David Steele in the 1970s, or a harbinger of great things to come. Let's hope it's the latter. Pakistan cricket needs a few lasting heroes and not blow hot, blow cold prima donnas like Shoaib Akhtar.