Eating Humble Pie

kmp writes in, in response to In Which I Eat Crow:

>>I was supporting England of course

Is it “Sourav Mania” (a la a section of our BB*** )? Or is it just Freddie “Fantastic” Flintoff? ;-) (Mind you Sourav and Flintoff did not get along well either!!!).

Much has been talked about dropping Saurav (and of course treatment meted to him – and me too being a sympathizer). But, what’s the point? He was not performing for a while – and he should be dropped not withstanding the emotions attached. Yes, there is an argument then “why not others”? Of course why not? But, that does not mean bring back Saurav – does it? And, the list of “Why not others” has only Sachin for the time being – but Sachin has an aura which I think nobody else can get (and I don’t want anybody else to get lest we become the prisoners of that again).

And, why is it that people hate Greg – for being antagonistic with Saurav? Just that - come on!

Stern rebuke indeed! Not entirely unjustified for sure. My answers to his (non-rhetorical questions) first. Then I will try to offer my reasons but even I'm not too confident that I can rationalize this away. It straddles the borderline between reason and emotion as kmp has guessed. I put in the effort mainly to get it off my chest. It will be a ragged defence, maybe it will be cathartic too.

The answers to his questions are:

• Yes
• No (though the English team grows on one if one is not careful) - and it would be difficult to find anyone who got along well with Ganguly other than Boycott
• I agree, there is no point
• No it does not mean backing Sourav
• I don't know why they hate him

First up is the psychological defence, followed by one or two things that have bothered me about the entire throw-out Ganguly episode.

kmp asks: Is it Sourav Mania?

Yes it is. I made it clear in this post not so long ago. Let me explain. Remember when Chappell came in and Ganguly was thrown out? Though a Ganguly (and Dravid) fan I had admitted to kmp that it was right that he was let go. If all we heard during that time was true - him not playing in Nagpur because of the quicks, being reluctant/frightened to face fast bowling, making VVS insecure by telling him that Chappell did not want him in the test squad, having lost the confidence and trust of the rest of the team - then he had to go. It is all summarized here in Chappell's letter to the BCCI president. Anyway, coming back to him being dropped - I thought it was deserved too, since his batting form was anyway plumbing the depths. But the Karachi test showed that he was trying and succeeding a bit too. Cricinfo analysed the two innings and gave a thumbs up (I wrote about it here). To be dropped after that - that was galling. They were playing with him like a cat plays with a mouse. If they were going to do that, they should not have picked him in the first place at all.

So there it is. I don't think Ganguly is anything more than a pleasure to watch when he is playing well. Not God - even of the off-side - or anything like that. And, no, I'm not saying bring him back. But he deserved to be treated well, even if he was dropped ultimately. I have always had a soft corner for the underdog - or losers if you will. I don't know if psychologists have a name for it, but that is how I am and evidently many others are.

There is one thing in Chappell's criticism of Ganguly which don't ring true. There is the reluctance to open. I seem to remember a particularly heated discussion sometime ago - about Ganguly being reluctant to give up the opening slot in ODIs to Tendulkar. True ODIs are a different ball game altogether - but the ball is equally new and hard and coming down as fast in ODIs too. And Ganguly faced Akhtar and friends quite grittily in the Karachi test didn't he?

There is also the flip-flopping on Ganguly opening/not opening in the first Test in Pakistan culminating in the heated discussion on the morning of the Test. Why was there a rethink on Ganguly opening - after him being picked as a opener? Did it have anything to do with the dead track? Did someone think - well, even Ganguly opening can do well on this track, and if that happens, it will only complicate things?

And what about the 'integral part of the team' as Chappell puts it in his letter, talking about VVS? He has been kept out of the Test side hasn't he? And if this 5 bowler combination works well, where does that leave Laxman? His form has not been anything worse than the 'master-blaster' - if anything, it is a bit better going by Cricinfo. Why the special treatment for Tendulkar? I don't believe in this aura thing, with all due respect to kmp. If it were true then only psychics should be allowed on the selection panel. I never believed the hype surrounding him much beyond the first five years or so. The real thing does not need that much of gloss. And it is not entirely spontaneous. Shekhar Gupta (of Indian Express) on a NDTV chat show mentioned how a critical article was withdrawn at the last minute due to pressure being brought on his newspaper not to print it. Genius does not need such protection. And one needs to only look at the extensive sympathetic coverage of the booing episode compared to the coverage of the incidents of stoning of Dravid's and Ganguly's houses during the last World Cup. It doesn't make sense in cricketing terms too. Are international cricketers kids who get overawed by a big name? And coming to others who have been persisted with, Sehwag too has not been in the best of form in Tests, of course ignoring those big innings on the horrendous batting tracks in Pakistan.

kmp asks: Why is it that people hate Chappell? For being antagonistic with Saurav? Just that - come on?

But I imagined I was being factual here. It is not only me talking about him being concerned only about the 2007 World Cup, but Indian Express too, here. The relevant quote here:

Someone should redraft Greg Chappell’s contract. The focus of Team India and its coach — and, apparently, the entire BCCI — seems to be one-day cricket and its Holy Grail, the World Cup in 2007. The fact that there are a few Tests to be played along the way appears incidental, and has left players unsure over how they should tackle a five-day game.

And in Chappell's letter to the BCCI he says :

I can assure you sir that all my actions in this matter, and all others since my appointment, have been with the aim of improving the team performance toward developing a team that will represent India with distinctions in Test match and one-day cricket.

But in the very next paragraph, he regresses to this:

In fact, it has only served to confirm that it is time for him to move on and let someone else build their team toward the 2007 World Cup.

Will the real mind of Chappell stand up please?

On the other hand, I think I do hate him. For being so confrontationist. For showing his finger. Or maybe just for guts he has shown in taking on the former captain and turning Indian cricket upside-down by all accounts.

*** kmp is referring here to the electronic discussion board in the company we both worked in before I quit, where he still works. In short, discussions get very heated in there, and loyalties to certain cricketing personalities are stronger than steel, and said loyalties are declared constantly to the irritation of people who are loyal to other greats, and endless/pointless debates rage during the cricket season and during the non-cricket season. I left two years ago, and certain controversies are still being discussed, one of them being who is better - Tendulkar, Dravid, or Ganguly. Another peculiarity is that loyalties cannot be shared - a Tendulkar fan almost always is not a Dravid/Ganguly fan, and so on. In fact, he usually hates the the other two. Any praise of Ganguly - even without any reference to any other cricketer, leave alone Tendulkar or Dravid - quickly becomes a discussion of who is better among the three. You get the drift I think. And we used to agree between the two of us that the guys who posted are mostly nuts/idiots - certainly the authors of someof the more stupid arguments. So it is not a compliment at all to be compared to them :-)

NPT, The Nuclear Deal, And The Flat Worlder

Venkat Krishnan (whom I do not know) roasts Tom 'Flat' Friedman on the latter's shabby article opposing the Indo-US nuclear deal.

In Which I Eat Crow

Yes, I take this back. Things do change. The way Dravid summed up yesterday's batting collapse to Dean Jones during the presentation ceremony was a refreshing change on a gloomy day for India fans. I was supporting England of course.

'It was bizarre', he said. Now, I've listened to captains in the recent past talk about humiliating defeats. Azharuddin had taken to mumbling incoherent nothings towards the end of his captaincy. He was probably afraid of mentioning money by mistake. Tendulkar was in and out before one could say 'we played like dumbasses'. Ganguly had just started mastering the art of stating the glaringly obvious, such as, 'we need to play well to win', then, he was captain no more. Yes that is a pun and I intended it, though Boycott would probably call it a joke. But I think no one, not even Dravid talking of the Karachi debacle, has gone beyond words with single syllables and commonly used terms.

With that in mind, bizarre as a word is different. It is exotic. It sets a new standard for captains. Kudos to Dravid. Being the modest man he is, he would, I'm sure, attribute it to 'contributions from the boys' and how he was 'happy with the boys' for suggesting the word to him.

However, I rush in where he has so gingerly tread - like a certain class of humans are supposedly prone to - and suggest another term to describe the defeat. It is called deja vu. Thus, he could have said, 'it was like deja vu all over again'. He has been part of many such defeats - in spite of his good performances - after all. And we the past and current fans of the team have not infrequently watched capitulation after capitulation on pitches that do not bear resemblance to plain glass.

But I don't think he reads me.

PS: Of course, many had thought that things would change drastically since the last captain was thrown out of the team. What with 'performance' being the sole criteria now, and the change in the working of the team, emphasis on discipline and on the process of winning, and other such new and innovative ideas. But I want to point out that they had no reason to assume any such thing. The task before the team management is not to win test matches. The self-described task before Greg Chappell is to win the 2007 world cup. And that contest does not have test matches. So there.

Medi-oh!

This interesting snippet from The Hindu:

Different facets about Rahul Dravid came to the fore at a felicitation function for the Indian captain on the eve of his 100th Test appearance organised by Bank of Baroda.

Hosted by Cricket Club of India on its lawns, club president Raj Singh Dungarpur set the tone with a tale from Pakistan about the former's hands-on leadership...

Dungarpur, team manager on the tour to Pakistan, said: "It was decided prior to the first Test that Sourav Ganguly would be asked to open the batting. I had a word with Ganguly who told me he was ready to do anything the team wants him to do," said the CCI president, adding: "Dravid had made up his mind that he would face the new ball instead of thrusting Ganguly into the situation and convinced the team management to accept his viewpoint."

Well, well, well! So the 'animated discussion' on the morning of the first Test could not have been about Ganguly trying to convince the cap and coach that he did not want to open and that he preferred coming down the order. So why was everyone on TV and some parts of the print media too implying that it was about the former captain refusing to open?

Here is the interesting mix of innuendo and unnamed sources served up by R Kaushik of DH on the front page the day after the incident (from DH, Jan 14 2006). He starts off innocently, planting the idea firmly in the reader's mind:

It will not be prudent to state that Ganguly was making a case for himself in the middle-order once it had been decided that he would play in the first eleven;

However after pointing to Ganguly's reluctance to open and a sprinkling of data on how he fared when he opened (badly), he throws all prudence to the winds and ends with the following:

It is quite possible that the debate in the morning was Dravid insisting that he would open the innings, and Ganguly countering that since he had been drafted into the eleven as an opener, he will discharge that responsibility. A team source, however, said the former captain desired a ‘rearrangement’ to the batting order -- whatever that means.

This is one hack who has sold his soul.

Nuclear Deal - Another View

Via DH.

Just Deserts

I'd mentioned this US Congressman's unique approach to raking in the money here. He got his just deserts today. 8 years in the pokey.

And we are still letting all and sundry get away with murder. I'm not even talking of the Jessica thing.

Authority

In which Manmohan Singh gives it back:

It was as if, “we live in some totalitarian system, in some fascist state, where authority has to be visibly asserted to command compliance”, Mr Singh said alluding to the BJP’s unrelenting criticism about his authority in the government.

“Maybe those who raise this issue are unaware of this framework. Maybe they think other parties function like theirs, allowing shadowy organisations to interfere in the work of elected governments,” he said in an obvious reference to BJP-RSS ties during the NDA rule at the Centre.

Encore Dr Singh?

Adios

By all accounts, Ganguly seems to be staring at the end of his international cricketing days. If so, sad and here is one person who won't be rooting much for the Indian side.

Cars Vs Bikes

In this Tripping on Bikes -2 post I said that travelling by car wouldn't be as much fun as going by bike, and let it go at that.

There is a book on my shelf which I bought in December 1994. I gave up after a hundred or so pages since it was a bit heavy on the brain. I started again and completed it a month ago. In it the author explains the difference much better than I did:

You see things vacationing on a motorcycle in a way that is completely different from any other. In a car you're always in a compartment, and because you're used to it you don't realize that through that car window everything you see is more TV. You're a passive observer and it is all moving by you boringly in a frame.

On a cycle the frame is gone. You're completely in contact with it all. You're in the scene, not just watching it anymore, and the sense of presence is overwhelming. That concrete whizzing by five inches below your foot is the real thing, the same stuff you walk on, it's right there, so blurred you can't focus on it, yet you can put your foot down and touch it anytime, and the whole thing, the whole experience, is never removed from immediate consciousness.

Yeah, all that and the fact that I tend to fall asleep much more in a car and that it does tend to become a bit of a social occasion.

He goes on about his attitude to the trip itself and more common ground emerges:

... Plans are deliberately indefinite, more to travel than to arrive anywhere. We are just vacationing. ... We want to make good time, but for us this is measured with emphasis on 'good' rather than 'time'... Twisting hilly roads are long in terms of seconds but are much more enjoyable on a (motor)cycle where you bank into turns and don't get swung from side to side in any compartment. Roads with little traffic are more enjoyable, as well as safer. Roads free of drive-ins and billboards are better, roads where groves and meadows and orchards and lawns come almost to the shoulder, where kids wave to you when you ride by, where people look from their porches to see who it is, where when you stop to ask directions or information the answer tends to be longer than you want rather than short, where people ask where you're from and how long you've been riding.

Couldn't agree more.

Harsh

Words for Bihar from a native. After a list of things that should occur for the state to really change - rather than just the CM - the writer says:

The difference between any two States is not so much because the Chief Minister of one is a lot better than that of the other; it is because people in one have initiative and enterprise, and those in the other don't; people in one have some sense of shame and pride, in the other don't.

Because all those things I listed above are not going to happen in the foreseeable future I am sure Bihar is not going to change for the next few decades at least. Nitish Kumar at the best might be a good joke between bad serials. Call it cynical if you will!

Tripping on Bikes - 2

Another trip, another post.

The previous trip had been confirmed a week or so in advance. This one almost did not happen. It was cancelled once due to personal reasons, and then almost got cancelled because of the threat of rain. Time was when the sound of heavy rain falling outside the window was a clear invitation to take our cycles or mopeds out and ride through the neighbourhood, getting thoroughly drenched. But much water has flowed under the bridge since then. Now the thought of rain on our trip is not a happy one if only because there is no hot water, fresh clothes, or dry socks waiting at the end of it. Hence it was nine-thirty pm on a wet thursday that we - Pradeep and I - finally decided to pack our bags and head out the next morning. Bangalore was wet, and rain was very likely. But going had become inevitable. The sudden catches of memories from prevous rides were haunting. Especially since, after the generous NE monsoon, the entire region would be covered with that beautiful green of paddy fields and of the overgrown trees of the ghats. Probably Pradeep felt the same too.

An small digression here. While discussing the rain issue, we had explored the option of going by car. It wouldn't be as much fun as biking, but at least we would be safe from the rain. Now, it is accepted wisdom that travelling by car is safer than travelling on bikes. We now found out that this need not be always so. Two people were uncomfortable with us going by car - Pradeep's mother and sister. All our trips so far had been by bike and they were happier at the thought of us speeding through the countryside on bikes rather than on cars. We had come back without a scratch from each of them! We all feel more comfortable with familiar things and a known devil is better etc. All the same, it was amusing. Only we knew the various incidents over the various trips.

Day 1, Nov 4

I was wide awake at around four in the morning for no particular reason. More than an hour to fill in, which I spent posting on my blog. Then a bath and the usual quick byes to the kid and wife before I was off. For a change, Pradeep was all set by the time I reached his house. We were short of a watch - mine was at home with a broken strap, he doesn't wear one. A call to his sister resulted in a watch being dug out. It had stopped at 1:30 am/pm - many days ago it looked like. We took it anyway. We'd try to find batteries for it in Tumkur. We'd hoped to rope in the brothers Anand and Sunil again, but Anand was away in Spain on work. Without him it would be difficult for Sunil to get the required clearances to join us.

Since it was a holiday (Ramzan) we were able to get out of the city quickly. Soon we decided that we would aim for Jog Falls. We were hoping that the authorities would've releasesd water from the dam after all that rain over the last month or so, and that we could catch the falls in their full glory. The route would be Tumkur - Gubbi - Tiptur - Arsikere - Kadur - Birur - Terikere - Bhadravati - Shimoga. Lunch at Shimoga and then on to Thirthahalli for the night.

We filled some petrol into the bike and it felt good to get going. As we made out way through the outskirts, we could see people busily travelling to work - some walking, some waiting for buses, all hurrying along. And here we were merrily biking. Pradeep remarked on this. Thus we bounce along each of us, hitting reality every now and then. I had hit it the previous day at the mechanic's garage while getting the engine oil changed. A young boy was at the garage, not more than sixteen or seventeen. It was Ramzan eve. He spoke hindi and I guessed he was muslim. And there he was at eight thirty the night before Ramzan working on my bike. And while I was there a man of around fifty years came along with a pretty run down TVS moped. The chain had fallen from the sprocket. Why still use such an old vehicle?

We got on to the Tumkur toll road which is still the same - smooth and easy to drive on. Since it was november, the sun was mild and and the cool air was refreshing. At around eight, we pulled over at a Kamat restaurant that we'd failed to spot last time, for breakfast. Idlis and vadas and two kesaribhaths - one as an appetiser and one for the road. Washed down by coffeee of course.

We were in Tumkur by ten and looking out for watch-repair shops. We found one quickly. Pradeep walked over to the shop. It was staffed entirely by women, who were forthwith treated by Pradeep to an puzzling exhibition of contortionism. He reached the shop and felt in his trouser pocket for his watch. It wasn't there and he had forgotten where he had put it. He was wearing the rain-proof jacket and it had many pouches and pockets. Add to that the pockets on his shirt and trousers. The watch had originally been in his trouser pocket, but he had shifted it elsewhere sometime later without himself being aware of it. Probably at the restaurant. Now he stood at the entrance of the shop, the only potential customer, without a clue as to where the watch was. He proceeded to check all the pouches and pockets, and as I've mentioned, there were a few of them, not all of them easily reachable. Layers of clothing had to be reached under and around and opened. The young ladies in the shop had nothing else to distract them and they gave him their undivided attention. He finally found the watch. He later told me that he got a feeling they found it funny. Can't think why.

We put in calls home from a nearby phone booth before taking off again. Pradeep took over at Arsikere and continued upto Shimoga. This time he did not take over quite so gingerly as during previous trips. And his driving seemed to have turned the corner. No crowded town street, no pothole, no collapsed road could faze him. He took them all coolly. I stopped worrying about the road and relaxed. Till an incident on the second day.

The road was good thus far except for the Birur - Terikere stretch which was quite bad restricting us to a slowish crawl. It is mystifying - this variance in the road quality within short distances. This, for instance, is a highway, so I suppose the same authority is responsible for the entire stretch. Maybe it is due to different contractors executing different streches. Sometimes the road is good for long distances, but suddenly deteriorates for the space of a few feet - maybe they ran out of materials. We stopped for tea at this place in Kadur.


Shimoga was in sight by three in the afternoon and lunch shortly after that. Thirthahalli next. There was a dam project at Varahi nearby which would be good to visit (thought Pradeep). We checked the route from the hotel owner who seemed a bit unsure and guided us to the nearby bus-stand. Pradeep got hold of a bus driver there, and pointing at a road asked him if it went to Thirthahalli. The bus-driver replied in the affirmative but seemed to favour another road (going in the opposite direction incidentally) and reeled out the names of all the stops on it. A bit confused, Pradeep asked him 'Then where does the first road go?' 'It goes to Thirthalli too, but directly unlike the other one', was the reply from the bus-driver. A bit mixed-up in the mind surely.

Pradeep was handling the steering and doing fine, so I just sat back and soaked up the view. We're going quite fast and the wind makes a whistling sound if the helmet visor is raised a bit. The air is so clean it really doesn't matter if the visor is up or down. The main reason we keep it down is to avoid those pesky flying insects. On one of our previous trips, Pradeep got hit in the eye just as we approached his old college. We naturally stopped for tea at his old joint, Pradeep with tears in his eyes due to the insect-hit. The owner must've thought he was taking the visit extremely emotionally. So, we go on with the visor down mostly. The road comes at us as if out of a tunnel with the trees on either side forming the walls. And it keeps going on and on like that. Narrow in the distance, broadening as it meets us. A paddy field is suddenly illuminated by the sun.

It was too far to the dam and it was already around four. We'd visit it the next day. On to Thirthahalli. As we left Shimoga, the scenery became suffused with green, as we'd imagined. Various hues of green everywhere, not a trace of dry earth. Like this:



On the way, we came across a construction site where they were building a new canal. The area was to be submerged once the water was let in. Here is what the whole thing looked like.

The whole site would have looked heroic a hundred or two years ago, man pitting his will against nature and all that. But not so much now. A bystander came across, seeing us clicking away. After the preliminaries which usually consist of 'Where are you coming from? Are you here just for fun? Where are you going to? How much mileage does the bike give?', Pradeep asked him about the big politician from this area, a well-known person. "To be fair, he has done things for this region. True, he has taken money, but then everyone does. Politicians take money, we too take money. That's how it is." Money being the euphemism for bribes and corruption. The new heroism. What exactly has he done for the region? This dam, is the reply. Very unlikely.

After an hour or so we stopped at this roadside hotel.

A beaming lady, who was in the family way, served us tea. A group of three men sat at the next table, apparently just enjoying a nice tea and talk. All of them had questions for us. "Are you from Bangalore, I heard you got lots of rainfall there, Are you here just for fun? Where are your going?" We asked them about the rain here. Only the beetlenut crops were affected according to them, but overall they were fine with the rain.

We reached Thirthahalli at around six thirty in the evening. Nagarjuna, the Telugu film star, and his crew had reached there before us. They were shooting at Kasaravalli village nearby. So the first hotel we checked, newly constructed and with a unhindered view of the town bus-stand and the weather-beaten buses, was full. Another, a little further down did have a double room. Nagarjuna's crew were booked here too, as we realized sitting in our room. The sound of feminine voices and laughter was unmistakable and Pradeep who was facing the door noticed females in various states of dishabille running hither and thither in the corridor. Extras, those essential elements of south Indian film song and dance sequences? Probably. The room was nice and cosy, there was a TV with cable, and a clean toilet.

Dinner was at seven in a darkly lit restaurant down what looked like main street. It had cubicles for the retiring kind and for those who wanted to indulge in a leisurely sip without distractions. We took the option. It had been a good day of riding, equally split between the two of us, and we were in good spirits. Soon the jokes were falling freely in our cubicle - Pradeep usually has a bagful of them. Loud conversation between a group of friends was taking place in the neigbouring cubicle. Sudden lulls in the conversions occurred now and then, to be replaced by sudden bleating and mooing sounds accompanied by cries of "Sheep!", "Goat!", "Buffalo!". They must have had some reason for this behaviour. Later there was much cursing in colourful language at some person who was not among those present. All perfectly normal and hardly the stuff to cause eyebrows to rise. The food was oily mainly. By the time we returned to our room it was eleven. We talked for some more time before saying good-night. I was asleep in three minutes having slept so little the previous night. Pradeep, he told me next day, had more difficulty drifting off.

Day 2, Nov 5

The next day morning I was up first, around six. Nothing to do. I finished my stuff and waited for Pradeep to wake up and get ready. At breakfast downstairs, a family consisting of three young ladies and their parents, no doubt part of Nagarjuna's entourage was also there. Interesting life people in the film industry led I thought - they got to travel to these out of way places, probably often. Breakfast over, we fill in some petrol and headed out to the dam.

The route would be Kaimara, Yadoor, Varahi. The dam - called Mani dam - was at Varahi. The roads were good for a while.

Soon the roads turned nasty, worse than anything so far. They were more like ruins of bygone roads than anything laid in living memory. On top of it, the rear shock absorber was a bit too tight. We were destined to have a bad case of pain-in-the-backside the second half of the day and the next. I mean really bad. Some of the worst riding in our trips I think. A faint glimpse of the road here:


And me, hiding my face from the paparazzi:

We reached the Mani dam at around ten. The dam was full. The strongish breeze raised mini waves and one could almost imagine it as the sea not a dam. The security guards at the entrance refused to let us in. No photos even. As we stood reading the details about the dam written on a board, the guards came down and told us that an LTTE threat to blow up some the KRS dam in Mysore as the reason for not letting us through. Security at all dams had been tightened. Also, the naxalites. One of them pointed out an area on the other side of the dam where he said naxalites were present. What do they do, we asked. They just stay with the villagers and help them and fight for them against the rich landlords, one of them replied. He was a temporary worker employed by a private firm, the other was a police constable. The former was especially bitter - his house was submerged by the dam, and his salary now was just two thousand rupees. Some people nearby could not even move out of the island created by the dam waters. In other places, water was being hoarded by the landlords. They also told us of contracts for big sums of money for lighting the dam. None of the bulbs worked. All this while they got paid a pittance. And they had to face unfair treatment at the hands of the engineers. One engineer had insisted on his relatives being allowed past the gates, saying the dam had recouped its cost by now and even if it were to be blown away it would not be a big loss. As the police constable said, maybe, but a few towns downstream would be submerged. The amount of water stored was huge. They also told us of how some persons who are now big businessmen started small at this very dam. And now there's no looking back for them. 'Money chases the rich man'. We don't know how much of what they said is true. But they surely had more sympathy for the naxalites than for the authorities. It was hard not to feel pity for them.

Some snaps from nearby:



One the way back we stoped to click some snaps of this lonely temple, and other things:

An old cowherd, and his cows checking out the A350:


We stopped for tea at a roadside house-cum-hotel in Yadur, formerly a boom town when the dam was being built, now as charming as any other village. The owner of this hotel who told us of the boom, here:


He keeps a trough of fresh water outside for the cows. A board warns people not to wash their feet or hands in it. And he serves nice idlies. He suggested we aim for lunch at a temple which was about half-way on the way back.

The route was to be Mastikatte - Hulikal Ghat - Balebare Temple - Hosangadi - Thirthahalli.

Lunch would be served at one. Not a bad idea. Though we tought we would be early, the hostile road conditions - Hulikal Ghat was a torture - meant that we were there just in time for things. The puja had started, and lunch would follow immediately. We had to remove our shoes and leave them by the roadside about which I had a few qualms. Without them, we were done for. No way we could change gears with bare feet. Still, there was no other option. Not that there was a serious risk of anyone taking them. All the people were here to visit the temple themselves. They came by car, on private and government buses. The lunch was very hot and very good. Some kids were seated next to us during lunch. By the time we'd finished, I knew how much the kid on my right ate at home, that he did not like curds, and other details. And he was not even talking to me, but to the kid sitting next to him. Kids don't have secrets. Later during the drive, thinking of the incident, I thought if there is a God and it had a smile, children have to be what the smile looks like. And when I say smile, I mean the most sunny, loving, all-encompassing smile ever. Like they say in the US, go figure.

We decided to visit Hosangadi - where the power generation station is. That was a mistake. The devilish roads and we were not even allowed to enter the gates due to security reasons. But we did get to click some snaps:



Then this mini waterfall by the road side.


We returned to our room in Thirthahalli, picked up our stuff and checked out. Jog Falls called . The route: Humcha - Rippanpet - Anandapura - Sagara - Jog Falls.

Pradeep took over the handle at Humcha. The roads had improved and he got into the groove quickly. We got some heavy company momentarily on one stretch of road, shown here:
Nearing Sagar Pradeep suffered one lapse of concentration which shook both of us. We were steady at around 70 kmph when I saw a turn which was almost a semi-circle. By now I'd relaxed and wasn't too bothered about how we would make it. When I see a curve I usually try to judge if I need to slow down or have some fun by turning the accelerator up a bit. If there are no vehicles coming from the other direction, if the road is good, if I'm not already going too fast, I generally increase the speed, and an inclination of the bike and its riders while taking the curve does it nicely and feels good. If not, I apply the front brake a few times or both the brakes if I'm going too fast, thus slowing down a bit before the curve starts. Sometimes, reducing the accelerator completely does the trick - the A350 then falls silent except for a subdued beat of the engine which is like a faint hint suggesting that the bike is just biding its time before it breaks out into a powerful roar again. An enjoyable sound - and I realise that I have grown to like the bike a lot.

Soon the curve was nearer and still no response from Pradeep. Now, a silent urgent question in my mind : would he take it properly? We are already in the curve and still no response from him! On the outer side of the curve is a drop - how deep we didn't know and it didn't even matter if we were to go into it. I grab his shoulders, yelling "Slower!". By now, we are going straight at the opposite side of the road - rather like a tangent drawn to the curve from the direction we came from. Then we stop. Luckily no buses or trucks or anything coming from the opposite direction. Narrow escape! Now, it became clear how different people think. While the thing was happening I had been thinking of how he was going to take the curve, whether we would make it and all that. Pradeep apparently was thinking "What is on the other side of the road?". He had by now decided that we would go down anyway and was worried more on where we would land. Once before too this had happened. Both of us were on the ground - my right glove had been completely scraped off by the fall. We had sustained a bit of damage to the bike. I was looking at a bus behind us , thinking, "Wow, thank god that bus was a bit far away". Pradeep was thinking "The headlight is broken". The leg guard was bent and touching the engine block, but he was thinking of the headlight.

As we continued, the milestones seemed to play games with us. Sometimes a place which was 48 km away, became 40 km within a few hundred yards. I guessed that the second distance was as the crow flies, since no road existed anyway. At one point, 45 km became 48 km within a few feet. Pradeep suggested that the crow circled a bit near the first signboard.

Some snaps from the approach road to Jog:




We reached Jog Falls at around six in the evening. We were in for some disappointment. Very little water had been released from the dam and the falls were anaemic. There were some people who had walked down the 300 m to the foot of the falls and were taking photographs. It had become dark and we wondered how they would find their way back. We later saw the three men - all in knickers and banians - looking weary. Pradeep thought they had lost their pants below in the dark.

We got back on our bikes around half past six. Three roads lead out of the area. None of them was labelled. There were no lights anywhere. So much for attracting tourists. We chose one road and had gone about five kilometres before we had doubts - that was not the route we came by. We turned back meaning to ask someone. We did not find anyone till we'd almost returned to the dam. Two students whom we had passed earlier, leaning against a rail, talking, far from anywhere. They didn't fit here. It looked as if they were living hereabouts. Probably doing their project. They gave us directions. But it was still a different route than the one we'd taken coming here. Kargal - Sagara - Shimoga.

We were in Shimoga by ten. We found a hotel, dumped out stuff and headed out for dinner. Trip over.

Day 3, Nov 6

Today it would be our first day's journey in reverse - Shimoga - Bhadravati - Terikere - Birur - Kadur - Banavara - Arasikere - Tiptur - Gubbi - Tumkur - Bangalore. The Indian Express kept us company for breakfast. Then we hit the road. The road upto Terikere was good. Then it was chinese torture till Kadur. Pradeep took over at Kadur.

The nether regions of our bodies were by now showing signs of great wear and tear. One hour of continuous back-seat riding was all we cold handle, but we went for two hours at a time. One needed the support of the driver's shoulders to even get off the bike. That shock absorber! Pradeep was not enjoying his driving much, as far as I could tell. The previous day's incident had tensed him up. He was finding it increasingly difficult to change to the lower gears in time to stop.

We lunched at the Kamat restaurant near Tumkur and were in Bangalore by three. The traffic was slow-moving. Still, we made it to Pradeep's house by four or so. I was home by five. My son had already forgotten me. Well, almost. Looking down from the first floor as I took off my shoes below, he was telling my wife 'some uncle' had come.

Some More Of The Same

Dravid's statement, from The Telegraph:

"In my opinion and the opinion of the umpires and Match Referee, both of whom I have spoken to, the Indian team did not act in any manner that was unsportsmanlike or against the spirit of the game. If that had been the case, the umpires and Match Referee would have taken action.

“We have the option of taking up the issue with the relevant authorities, but keeping in mind the relevance, the importance and the context of the series, we have decided to let the issue pass and set it to rest.”

What will the umpires and Match Referee's be talking about with the players next? If that cover-drive was really nice or just so-so? If Faisal Iqbal looked dumb or just sorry in the replay of that dropped catch in the third test? About the field placements? I think not, for some reason. Just as I feel they would have hazarded an opinion on the sportsmanlike-ness of that appeal. No, they might have confirm or reject the legality of that appeal and decision, but not whether it was sportsmanlike or not. Even if they did, their opinion would count for nothing at all. As The Telegraph itself points out, Dravid would have done well to call the batsman back - unless things happened too fast for him to comprehend it all. But the walk back to the pavilion takes a long time.

More Cow

Two personalities, two answers. Dravid on being asked about Ganguly's performance (link here):

“I think we tend to get too caught up in individuals in India,” he replied tersely. “We tend to attribute losses and wins to individuals rather than focussing on the team. We look at statistics, we discuss numbers and figures a lot in India, and we try to crucify individuals when we should be concentrating on the team. I am not going to be a party to that sitting in a press conference.”

On being asked about Tendulkar's form:

“He tried his very best, he worked very hard. But we look at ourselves as a team. All of us could have done better, and that includes everyone.”

Dravid is being a bit partial here. If nothing else the former captain too seemed to try quite hard - at least as hard as Tendulkar. So the captain could have found some good words for the former captain surely? Here is what cricinfo.com had to say about his knock:

Apart from Yuvraj Singh's century, the one bright spot for India was Sourav Ganguly's fluent form. He only scored 37, but his decisive footwork and fluent strokeplay suggested he would score many more. He had an in-control factor of 93%, and made only four mistakes in 56 deliveries. Unfortunately for him, the fourth one was a decisive error, and ensured that there'll continue to be a question-mark over his place in the side.

Ganguly did get some support. From Dravid's opposite number:

I’m a big supporter of Sourav... He was aggressive and he fought... I hope his innings holds him in good stead.

NDTV reporters seem to suffer from a similar ailment (I'm writing from memory here) :

"Tendulkar walked in and immediately stamped his class on the proceedings ... Ganguly came in and seemed to be in a positive frame of mind. Yuvraj's century went in vain and unfortunately this is the second time he has made a century with India going on to lose the match."

Positive frame of mind? The man batted fluently by all accounts! And why denigrate Yuvraj's century thus? It would be alright if the reporter was spreading the blame around evenly not so selectively.

And I couldn't believe Dravid said this:

India’s batsmen all have impressive averages, but fail to deliver in crunch situations. “That’s why, when you lose, you have to think of collective failure,” he emphasised. “The guys at the top of the order made good contributions in the Faisalabad and Lahore Tests, but we didn’t deliver the goods here.”

Good contributions in the Faisalabad and Lahore tests? On those tracks? I thought Dravid was supposed to have a good cricketing brain and to be a thinking man himself!

Yesterday must have brought back another unpleasant memory for the Indian coach.

Holy Cows

India looking down the barrel at two down for some paltry total on the fourth day of the last test match. The two includes Dravid and Sehwag. And the lunch-time session of Straight Drive hosted by Sanjay Manjrekar:

Manjrekar: What do you think Geoffrey - did Dravid do the right thing by opening? Or should someone else have opened?
Boycott: C'mon Sanjay he's got two centuries opening - of course he should've opened.
Manjrekar: He's been in the field for so long, I'm sure he'd be tired
Boycott: C'mon Sanjay don't make excuses. He's a professional cricketer, he should be prepared for it. No one expected Gavaskar not to open.
Manjrekar: But you didn't have such big innings in those days did you Geoffrey.
Manjrekar: Waqar do you think someone else, say Pathan, should have opened?
Waqar Younis: No I think I agree with Geoffrey..
Manjrekar : I know Geoffrey wants to interrupt
Boycott (laughing) : Pathan has bowled 25 overs and you want him to come in rather than Dravid! Look, the opener's job is a tough one. That is why everyone wants to slide down the batting order in Test cricket. Everyone wants to bat in the middle order because it is easier there. Tendulkar has never wanted to open in Tests.
Manjrekar: I know Geoffrey but that's a point of view. That is a point of view and I have to get it across.

Why does Sanjay Manjrekar have to get the point across? A point so weak that it can be brushed off so lightly by his fellow commentator? But then, it is almost an open secret that there are many tiny wheels within wheels and many unknown forces at play when it comes to Indian media covering Indian cricket and its shooting stars. So it shouldn't really surprise anyone. And I'm not even talking of the thick layers of hype.

Passion

The Karnataka assembly is in session to decide if the CM has the required support to continue in office. It is live on TV. I think one can safely say that such passion is rarely seen in our politicians. The quest for power brings out the best in our leaders. But of course they are doing it for the sake of people - as they never stop claiming.

It is entertaining TV though. Naked hunger for power, passion, intrigue, suspense, comedy - mostly comedy for the watcher, pathos - mostly of the speaker, and a star-studded cast. One can only find fault with one aspect - the lack of love-interest.

When will someone serialise these things and create the next hit reality show?

Update: Kumaraswamy has been made the JDLP president by the Speaker after much debate. Long live the new government.

Update 2: Deve Gowda steps down as the national president of the JD(S). He is 'aghast' and 'pained' by the developments and attributes it all to 'karma'.

In A Spot - 230106

The series goes on. The latest On the Spot by Ms Tavleen Singh is here, in which she shows evidence of sparing no effort to keep up with the times. I won't talk about the Bofors issue itself - who knows whether we will every know what happened alongwith proof of it. I will restrict myself to her column.

Knowing that the readers are immune to any scams involving any amount less than a few thousand crores, she turns up the magnitude of Bofors affair - by a cool thousand times. While others are content with sticking to the Rs 64 crore amount, she reaches greater heights of journalistic standards by rounding it off to a nice-looking Rs 64,000 crores.

And she also comes up with a nice theory about why the NDA government was unable to bring anyone to book for 5 long years:

There is a theory about this doing the rounds in Delhi as well and the theory is that there was an understanding between Sonia and Vajpayee that the skeletons in their respective family cupboards would remain untouched. If the law minister had not rattled the cupboard the Bofors skeleton would not have fallen out.

Well, I too believe that political parties are quite reluctant to hurt each other in scams like these. Who knows, they may be out of power and facing the music next time round - though that consideration has not kept Karunanidhi and Jayalalitha out of each other's hair. But to just restrict it to two individuals? It would be interesting to know where else this theory exists outside of Ms Singh's head.

Give And Take

BMP fires back at the people:

“We do all the work, the public spoils it, and then we get all the blame. Improving the city is a thankless job.”

The BMP is usually at the receiving end of rebuke and abuse from the people and nowadays the courts too. Good to see them at the other end of the line. Such friendly give and take is definitely welcome. Now, if we could only have periodical boxing matches.

I have seen the loads of sand which the first report talks about. It is a bit infuriating. Let me see, which is the best way to somehow wipe everyone off the face of the city and then start all over again.

In A Spot - 211205

The next installment. Seeking to downplay the money-for-questions episode, Ms Tavleen Singh offers this cure:

Systems need to be put in place that would permit legitimate lobbying and more transparency generally in the way our elected representatives and governments function.

Perhaps she would care to go through the travails of a Mr Jack Abramoff in the heaven of legalised lobbying, the US. The New York Times has provided just the concise summary of it here. There are no passionate arguments and denouncements that blogs like this carry. Just the facts. An excerpt:

Prominent party officials, including the former House majority leader, Representative Tom DeLay of Texas, are under scrutiny involving trips and other gifts from Mr. Abramoff and his clients. The case has shaken the Republican establishment, with the threat of testimony from Mr. Abramoff, once a ubiquitous and well-connected Republican star, sowing anxiety throughout the party ranks.

Shaken and not merely stirred? When lobbying is legitimate? How can that be?

Incredible India

Of course, as soon as that alert was out, there had to be a new post immediately.

Looks like the unthinking are at large again. And they have brought the 'India Shining' fiasco back. Only, it is now 'Incredible India'. Agreed, the latter is from the Tourism Ministry. But when an Incredible India ad just shows up on TV, apropos nothing in particular, it is difficult to differentiate between the two.

Still, the adjective is well chosen. One cannot question the incredible'ness of India. A country which has more than half of its people illiterate and suffers from dire poverty, but is still counted as an emerging power. Pretty incredible. And India was shining too. All it needed was the light to fall on the correct places for the shine to appear.

Update: There is a website too.

Sporadic blogging alert, valid for a month or so, as I catch up with some 'work'. Will be posting, but a bit infrequently.