Adieu to an Artist

The most glorious sight for me on a cricket field is to see an in-form left-handed batter, blasting runs in full form. The southpaws among the batsmen are blessed with a natural grace that makes them an oddity in the times of wham-bham-thank-you cricket. Sourav Ganguly’s flamboyant cover drives, David Gower’s deft touches, Stephen Fleming’s leg-side flicks and Saeed Anwar’s wrist-play all make it worth your while to watch cricket.

There is one batsman, though, who shines among the shining, who is the classiest among a magnificient bunch of left-handers, and that batsman is Brian Charles Lara. He was easily the most gifted and classiest batsman I have seen. Every step of his seemed to have been choreographed to perfection. Be it the slight shuffle of feet before he launches into a seething cover drive, or the way he steps out of the crease to whack a spinner into the long-on fence, it was all doused with oodles of grace that would earn the envy of even a Zaheer Abbas or a David Gower. For me, the most enduring image of beauty in cricket has to be any of BC Lara’s cover drives and the follow-through poise he assumes post that.

Hours of practice and tons of effort will not earn this flair. The brilliance and genius of Lara’s batting is all natural and in-born. He was blessed with it and we are blessed that cricket discovered him. What he has earned through hard work is the stamina and perseverance that goes in building big innings. The only batsman to break the record for a highest individual test score and the holder of the title as the Highest Ever Individual score in a first-class game, Brian Lara knew not where to stop. I suspect he can settle down much earlier than other batsman and hence, saw the cricket ball, not as a 3-inch sphere, but a 12-inch football that he had absolute control over. Even his bludgeoning pulls and hooks would look like an operatic piece that should have been playing on some stage, and not on the 22-yard pitch.

I did not have the opportunity to witness either of his 375+ innings but I did see another that has to be my best Test innings, after the 281 by VVS Laxman. His 153 against Australia in 1998 is ranked as 2nd on the all-time best cricketing innings and no one who saw him play that morning would dispute it. It takes sheer audacity to beat the Australians, and in this case, plain craziness, considering the fact that West Indies were walloped in the series earlier, being dismissed for a grand sum of 53 runs. Lara must have walked out that day with Jimmy Adams knowing that he would have to play out of his skin to even save the match. But, he did not. Before the start of the play, he walked out that morning with a friend to plan out how to outwit the Aussies on a fast Kensington Oval pitch. It would not be unfair to say that the match was won by him – no other batsman even reached 50 from his side. But, he was the King of the Oval that March morning. Against an attack boasting of McGrath, Gillespie, Warne and MacGill, he took the attack to them and with style. They bowled short at him, he launched hook after hook. They bowled at him around the wicket to curb his off-side play and he scored deft touches off his leg. Not once did he lose his cool when runs slowed down or when wickets fell all around him. All he would have told the batter at the other end is to stay on and watch the show from the other end. They would have gladly accepted, I am sure. After 6 hours at the crease and with just one wicket left, he rounded off the match with a fitting glorious cover drive to the boundary.

Whatever his antics were off-the-field, he ruled the pitch when he was in his elements, with no bowler in the world who had the class to outwit his. Lara knew this well and his arrogance was all too evident in the way he strode to the crease or the lack of total disrespect to bowlers. He reportedly once told the batsman at the other end to watch ‘how he would toy with the attack’. I once remember him telling a TV commentator about how he liked scoring off ‘that some left-handed spinner in their team’. Unlike the analytical batsmen of Australia or South Africa, he went out there to enjoy cricket and God save anyone who came in the way of that. Well, he is so great that he deserves to be arrogant, I guess.

In some ways, the last few years have seen the final acts of classy batsmen I suspect. Lara, Anwar, Ganguly (he is no longer the Prince, that’s for sure), Fleming, Kirsten and Thorpe have all exited or are on the verge of exiting the game. The left-handers these days appear the descendants of a bull-ox-man mutant – Hayden, Graeme Smith, Glichrist all look like they have all slog and no class. Of all the batsman moving on, it is Lara’s absence that will be felt the most among the true fans of test cricket batsmanship.

No more graceful brushes of a painter. No more melodies from a soulful voice.

Sweet

This has to be the most moving thing I have read in a while. Growing old is one of my fears too, and I fear turning senile and dependent, more than anything else. The fear would be much subsided if one has a companion to grow old with. I think it is almost magical the way couples grow old. After decades of living together, the tensions and frictions emerge, but they tide over that to be loving to and caring for each other. I think that is pretty amazing from where I am; I sometimes fear I may shudder companionship over time. Stories like these though enforce faith in the human capacity for love. Read this for instance:

“… Her blindness and recent memory troubles have made her deeply dependent. Without him, I suspect, she would probably be in a nursing home. He helps her dress. He administers her medicines. He makes her breakfast and lunch. He takes her on walks and to doctors’ appointments. “She is my purpose now,” he said. Bella doesn’t always like his way of doing things. “We argue constantly—we’re at each other about a lot of things,” Felix said. “But we’re also very forgiving.” “

The last line, I think, is beautiful and inspiring, while yet painting such a realistic picture of how things would be.  They have fights, but they forgive. They grow tired of each other, but he does not leave her side.

I have seen a similar thing happen with my doddappa (mom’s brother-in-law) and doddamma (mom’s sister). She was afflicted with severe bouts of dementia and was unable to take care of herself. Even to have a conversation with her would take a lot of my efforts. But, my doddappa would take her of like a parent – dressing her up, cooking for her, holding her hand and walking her and being by her side almost all the time. He did this for years, till to the day she died. Seeing this would always leave me amazed at his immense affection and love he had for his wife. 

I wish everyone a dose of this magic! 

Peas out of a pod

Two restless peas
running and jostling
are like how these
two very much are

Craving for attention
they tell me tales.
Tales of their heroism
and of little joys

Sharp as you and me
But naive as only
children can be
they amuse me always

Joy comes easily,
so does hurt.
You can run with excuses
but cannot hide

for those little
eyes can see, what
you and I think
we get away with

And, you feel special
when they wait for you
asking everyone,
‘Where’s shreyas anna?’

PS: Written about two very little friends of mine, with whom I wish I was a better person.

Mungaaru Male – Review

I finally saw the movie that everyone in Bangalore has been talking about, a Kannada movie that even the non-speakers have been queueing up to watch.

I came out wondering why though. A little while prior to that I was wondering why the hero was annoying me so much.

I know the answer to the second question. It was because he was hamming away to glory. He speaks in riddles all through the movie. But, I am jumping the gun. Let me review :

Story: One big contrived mess of a hackeneyed story that wants to portray the tale of a heart-broken man and glorify sacrifice. Everything is twisted and turned to ensure a heart-break, though the couple is in love, the parents are nice people and the rabbit does not ring his bell in opposition. Yes, there is a rabbit, but more on him when we come to the best actors. The girl’s dad has a hole in his heart, the propspective MIL cries when the guy is about to break the news and the tops, the mother admonishes his son for putting love first and not sacrifice. 

Acting: Existent in parts, thanks to that grand actor, Anant Nag and of course, Devdas, the rabbit. Both of them would be cursing the director for making bunnies of them. Nag manages to do whatever stupidity is asked of the script with grace and Devdas looks pleasant, hardly Devdas-ish. Yes, another twist that apparently has the hero imaginint a jolly bunny on the road as a drunk, heart-broken Devdas. The hero hams and speaks only in regressive, chauvinistic, and what he thinks, are smart riddles. The heroine stands under an umbrella most part of the movie and makes goofy expressions that make you wince. No, she does not act. Rest make up the credits list.

I hated the movie because of it glorifies brooding almost right from the word go. For heaven’s sake, the guy is brooding even before the girl says a word! For some reason, many of my peers here relate and identify with it a lot. I cannot. Yes, break-ups are hard and tough, but getting wasted over it with booze and self-pity is a sure path down disaster. But, since it is such an easy and emotional thing to do, many do it  and such movies encash on their sentiments, by exploiting those emotions to the hilt. I was wincing the same way when I watched Black. Both are regressive, exploitative movies that do no good to absolutely anyone. It was also irritating to hear the insulting statements against women and how they “treat” men like “dogs that die in front of buses”. There were also stupid jokes about bestiality what with bunnies and ants raping elephants.  The girls breaks out laughing hard. Yep love blossoms over jokes about ants and elephants.

So, I am still clueless and still wondering why the movie has been successful. Even tonight, after more than a hundred days at the cinemas, the movie is still running to packed halls! I am likely to be branded an outcast for saying this - but Mungaaru Male sucks. Even the songs sounded much worse in the cinema and the scenery was beautiful but fleeting. A movie that ends with lines that go ’ Love is sweet but sacrifice is eternal’ deserves eternal damnation.   

Joy of Learning

I joined basic-level French Classes at Alliance de Francaise two days back. It has been as much fun as I expected it to be, and more! I have joined the evening batch, which means we have a lot of working people in our class. But, this class is fun because we have people from a variety of backgrounds, ages, languages, purpose but (sadly!) not gender.

A common thread is that in already two days I can see my classmates totally involved and enjoying the class. It has been like that with me always – I enjoy learning about any new thing you can tell me about. I am always eager to grasp and understand new stuff. It turns out it is true with most other people too, especially if people have enrolled for something on their own initiative. People love and enjoy learning. It is plastered all over their faces.

I think that is a truly remarkable and positive statement of human nature. As a species, we are blessed with this splendid faculty of learning, which is such a blessing. For all the progress we have achieved so far, the curiosity to learn and master every possible thing has been the biggest cause. You think of any concept in the universe – the animals, the stars, the birds, the sand, the oceans, the sky, the ice, the flowers, transport, media, entertainment – and someone somewhere is working on it. Chinese scientists are trying to get near-extinct Pandas to mate in a remote Chinese jungle, while Danish scientists in another corner are converting blood groups. Tarentino is thinking of the next big idea to shock and hook us on silver-screens while Shane Bond is figuring out how to bowl his batsmen out. Yes, this faculty is also prone to abuse, like any other skill. But, well, on the whole, the ill-willed percentage will be much lower than the well-wishers.

The bonus to all this is that we actually enjoy learning. Right across ages, you can see curiosity drives us in very happy ways. So, the wiring within us ensures we enjoy what we can do.

I think I realize this because I have not employed my ability to learn for quite some time now. The last time I felt the high of learning was when I was learning play-back theatre in the Yours Truly workshop. That was six months back. Wow!