The verdict has come and in fact there were 2 verdicts awaited eagerly, Ramjanmabhoomi and ROBOT and both have positively surprised. It probably counts for little in RJB and counts for a lot more $$$ for SUN TV and Marans. Whatever be the judgement on whether a temple existed or not , it is bound to create a divide between the Muslims and Hindus at the political level. The people on both sides would appeal to the SC and it would take a few more years for the final judgement to come.
The masjid and the temple have brought a lot of memories of my younger days , we had a temple and mosque within a few yards from my home and both were separated by a road which ran through it. The land adjoining it was considered temple land and there were acres and acres of it . The masjid would come to life only on Fridays and during auspicious occasions of Ramzan, Bakrid. The muezzin would call the muslims of that area to assemble and it would be attended by a few 50 odd people. The area would be filled with people with white caps and they would disburse peacefully. The temple in contrast would have the suprabatham / sahasranamam in the early hours of the morning each day and some devotional numbers during auspicious festivals like Diwali, Vaikunta Ekadasi ( perumal temple of course ). Half a kilometre away used to be muslim heartland and areas called Asif Nagar , Murad Nagar where curfew was imposed as a precautionary measure though not many clashes were reported. You could see some miscreants throwing stones at policemen sometimes when curfew was relaxed. I am told that the place where we used to stay earlier was bang in the heart of Old city called Red Hills where the minority was in a majority. There was no visible sign of “the divide” and the labour class , bus drivers, fruit sellers would undoubtedly be Muslim though the consumers were predominantly Hindu in origin. School used to the again in the middle of Muslim land and in my school days at the KV Golconda and a lot many muslim classmates meant that Id was as important as Diwali especially since you would get Kheer prepared at the classmates house the next day. Tolerance was taught and practised in our school since we were part of the central govt.
College didn’t help much as BITS Pilani and made me more intolerant of the other side. However I just escaped getting delayed during Advani’s Rath Yatra at Bhopal and AP Express somehow managed to reach Delhi a few hours late luckily before the trouble started and I was back in the secure confines of the BITS Hostel. The notable event in the Indian history soon happened afterwards with the demolition of the masjid in 90s. Whether it has to be considered as a historical event is debatable to the last inch of the land involved. But after my dad picked an auspicious date to solemnize my wedding which happened to be December 6, there is no doubt whatsoever. I still love the urdu ghazals ,the irani chai and samosas which have a special place in the Hyderabadi culture.
All said and done , whether Babar demolished the temple to build the mosque or not , it is not without reason that it is called Ram Janmabhoomi and I believe that we should build the temple in the place where it is and probably build the mosque adjacent to it. Similar to what Singapore has done to solve the land dispute with Malaysia and formed a company to take care of the development , Hindus should offer the same amount of land to Muslims and construct a mosque there so that they can pray without fear. The people of Ayodhya ( hindus and muslims alike ) will benefit immensely from the economic progress that Ram brings with him in terms of tourist inflow and religious congregations and I am sure economics will prevail over religious divides in the foreseeable future as India races ahead in the economic rankings and the SENSEX breaks new highs. After all, Tirupati is one of the top tourist destinations in India and will be for a long time to come. Till then , URDU aur Hindi mein FARKH nahin, hamein urdu par FAKR hai
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Sehwag and OTHERS
Recently cricinfo search showed up 3 names in the popular category , Nepal, Sehwag and Raman Lamba.
Sehwag had to be the top searched both on cricinfo and twitter because of the NO Ball. Lots of people would have already started following him on twitter and he would probably be next to Sachin on that list.
Nepal ? , dont have a clue to what is happening in that country after the Maoists took over the reins. In the cricket world , Nepal became famous at the expense of Singapore ( cricket ?? !!) when the crowd disturbance gave Nepal the victory which rightfully should have been Singapore's.
Raman Lamba is probably one of the interesting searches that cricinfo has shown. His approach was comparable to Sehwag only in terms of attitude , skill levels were possibly half of Sehwag besides that both hail from the same place DELHI. He was considered an attacking batsman who could treat mediocre bowling with disdain and get out to quality bowling to the familiar weakness of outside off stump. His white cap and skull protector were visibly conspicuous a la Sunil Gavaskar. His record on cricinfo which I just searched, a 27 average and a strike rate of 65 odd is nothing great to write home about. His attitude stood out in times when attacking batsmen were rare and I can still remember him dancing down the wicket to Simon O' Donnell after Mcdermott's spell got over.
RL could possibly be compared with Kris Srikkanth who was renowned for the 36 in the WC final in which the cover drive and the pull shot will forever be remembered. But probably one of the better shots was the cover drive he played in Sharjah of the same bowler in one of the tournaments in the 80s and the bowler got through his defences the very next ball.
It is easy to remember the more famous attacking batsmen but the forgotten heroes are the ones who are difficult to track and cricinfo provides excellent information provided you know what you are searching for .
In the Indian team , this genre of batsmanship was rare until India won the WC in 1983 and some people who did that quite consistently for their domestic teams were Surinder Khanna . Not many people remember this person and he was a wicket keeper and a good attacking batsman. He played for India in the inaugral Asia cup in 1980s and opened with Ghulam Parkar. That Asia cup team which India won had a rookie bowling attack led by Chetan Sharma ( no Kapil mind you !! ) and had SK and GP opening and Gavaskar at No :4. Like Raman Lamba, he could make mincemeat of the lesser known bowlers ( SL and Pak had bowling of that kind ) and the Asia cup scores showed that.
Do you guys remember another gentleman called ATUL BEDADE. He appears now as a selector for BARODA and was on the wrong books of I&Y Pathan. He was short much like Sehwag had a nice swing of the bat and could deposit the ball into the stands in domestic cricket quite regularly. His Indian team exploits were nothing too great to write about, but he played one innings of 40 odd against Pakistan in Sharjah with almost nobody else for company. The Pak attack included Akram and Aaqib at that time and he was an ideal 20-20 player who could give you a 20 odd in 5 balls.
This blog wouldnt be complete if we dont mention KIRTI AZAD , who had the ability to hit the long ball without much effort. I still remember the innings he played against Pakistan in Jawaharlal Nehru stadium in Delhi where the shots were crisp and the golf swings were really taking off ( literally !! ). He became more famous in the WC 83 team for his bowling exploits and could bat at no : 7 after Kapil and in the SF of 83 did India a great favor by taking out Ian Botham with his off spin.
An uncluttered mind , a great eye and the ability to stand still in the crease till the ball is delivered is what Sehwag does today and probably the batsmen of the yesteryears were too concerned of the downsides of shot making which got into their head many a time & resulted in truncated undistinguished careers of say a BEDADE or a KHANNA . No wonder Sehwag has
been selected for the CRICINFO All time XI alongside Sunil Gavaskar as the opener and probably would make the World XI as an opener as well displacing Sunil Gavaskar.
Sehwag had to be the top searched both on cricinfo and twitter because of the NO Ball. Lots of people would have already started following him on twitter and he would probably be next to Sachin on that list.
Nepal ? , dont have a clue to what is happening in that country after the Maoists took over the reins. In the cricket world , Nepal became famous at the expense of Singapore ( cricket ?? !!) when the crowd disturbance gave Nepal the victory which rightfully should have been Singapore's.
Raman Lamba is probably one of the interesting searches that cricinfo has shown. His approach was comparable to Sehwag only in terms of attitude , skill levels were possibly half of Sehwag besides that both hail from the same place DELHI. He was considered an attacking batsman who could treat mediocre bowling with disdain and get out to quality bowling to the familiar weakness of outside off stump. His white cap and skull protector were visibly conspicuous a la Sunil Gavaskar. His record on cricinfo which I just searched, a 27 average and a strike rate of 65 odd is nothing great to write home about. His attitude stood out in times when attacking batsmen were rare and I can still remember him dancing down the wicket to Simon O' Donnell after Mcdermott's spell got over.
RL could possibly be compared with Kris Srikkanth who was renowned for the 36 in the WC final in which the cover drive and the pull shot will forever be remembered. But probably one of the better shots was the cover drive he played in Sharjah of the same bowler in one of the tournaments in the 80s and the bowler got through his defences the very next ball.
It is easy to remember the more famous attacking batsmen but the forgotten heroes are the ones who are difficult to track and cricinfo provides excellent information provided you know what you are searching for .
In the Indian team , this genre of batsmanship was rare until India won the WC in 1983 and some people who did that quite consistently for their domestic teams were Surinder Khanna . Not many people remember this person and he was a wicket keeper and a good attacking batsman. He played for India in the inaugral Asia cup in 1980s and opened with Ghulam Parkar. That Asia cup team which India won had a rookie bowling attack led by Chetan Sharma ( no Kapil mind you !! ) and had SK and GP opening and Gavaskar at No :4. Like Raman Lamba, he could make mincemeat of the lesser known bowlers ( SL and Pak had bowling of that kind ) and the Asia cup scores showed that.
Do you guys remember another gentleman called ATUL BEDADE. He appears now as a selector for BARODA and was on the wrong books of I&Y Pathan. He was short much like Sehwag had a nice swing of the bat and could deposit the ball into the stands in domestic cricket quite regularly. His Indian team exploits were nothing too great to write about, but he played one innings of 40 odd against Pakistan in Sharjah with almost nobody else for company. The Pak attack included Akram and Aaqib at that time and he was an ideal 20-20 player who could give you a 20 odd in 5 balls.
This blog wouldnt be complete if we dont mention KIRTI AZAD , who had the ability to hit the long ball without much effort. I still remember the innings he played against Pakistan in Jawaharlal Nehru stadium in Delhi where the shots were crisp and the golf swings were really taking off ( literally !! ). He became more famous in the WC 83 team for his bowling exploits and could bat at no : 7 after Kapil and in the SF of 83 did India a great favor by taking out Ian Botham with his off spin.
An uncluttered mind , a great eye and the ability to stand still in the crease till the ball is delivered is what Sehwag does today and probably the batsmen of the yesteryears were too concerned of the downsides of shot making which got into their head many a time & resulted in truncated undistinguished careers of say a BEDADE or a KHANNA . No wonder Sehwag has
been selected for the CRICINFO All time XI alongside Sunil Gavaskar as the opener and probably would make the World XI as an opener as well displacing Sunil Gavaskar.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Whats in a name
Just changed the template in my blog to green ( hoped Pakistan would win , they did not and still have some shade of green in Australian dress ). Was watching the match played at Barbados and saw that all the stands had been named after their famous cricket players. One could see the Joel Garner stand , the Gary Sobers pavilion, the 3Ws ( walcott, worell , weekes) stand, the Greenidge and Haynes stand. Even had a Cozier and Short media center. This is how much the Barbadians idolise their cricketeers. In late 90s one can remember Anderson Cummins being dropped from the West Indies team and the Barbadians protested by boycotting the match itself for a short while.
In contrast in India ,we have some stands at the Wankhede named after Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Vengsarkar. We have the stadiums named after Gandhis ( every conceivable landmark in a city is named after either Rajiv , Indira or Mahatma Gandhi in that order , Congress still does not have the courage to name something after SONIA ). Every city in India must be having an MG Road for sure. In the South , the names are slightly closer to the game itself ( MA Chidambaram in Chennai , Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore named after the Board Presidents during that time ). Kochi went for the same Nehru stadium when they built a new one and which will be used by the YET TO BE NAMED Kochi Team.
Friends here were mentioning that Kochi Kokonuts will be an apt name for the franchisee now that the WARRIORS name has been taken by PUNE. Thankfully our passion for wildlife has stretched only to TIGERS in the names and still cant match the Australian BULLS, REDBACKS , WARRIORS, TIGERS etc.
As we run out of space in stadia , we will soon see each corner in the stadium with a name ( cow corner and country will soon become extinct terms now that Sydney Hill has been torn down and replaced with a stand ). New Zealand still would have some hills and grazing sheep watching cricket as TV rights and viewership have become far more important than local public watching.
Coming closer home, we will still have the odd Sher E Kashmir stadium or Bhagat Singh Stadium to commemorate our martyrs or remember the whole Indian team itself which recently got buried in the Carribean.
In contrast in India ,we have some stands at the Wankhede named after Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Vengsarkar. We have the stadiums named after Gandhis ( every conceivable landmark in a city is named after either Rajiv , Indira or Mahatma Gandhi in that order , Congress still does not have the courage to name something after SONIA ). Every city in India must be having an MG Road for sure. In the South , the names are slightly closer to the game itself ( MA Chidambaram in Chennai , Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore named after the Board Presidents during that time ). Kochi went for the same Nehru stadium when they built a new one and which will be used by the YET TO BE NAMED Kochi Team.
Friends here were mentioning that Kochi Kokonuts will be an apt name for the franchisee now that the WARRIORS name has been taken by PUNE. Thankfully our passion for wildlife has stretched only to TIGERS in the names and still cant match the Australian BULLS, REDBACKS , WARRIORS, TIGERS etc.
As we run out of space in stadia , we will soon see each corner in the stadium with a name ( cow corner and country will soon become extinct terms now that Sydney Hill has been torn down and replaced with a stand ). New Zealand still would have some hills and grazing sheep watching cricket as TV rights and viewership have become far more important than local public watching.
Coming closer home, we will still have the odd Sher E Kashmir stadium or Bhagat Singh Stadium to commemorate our martyrs or remember the whole Indian team itself which recently got buried in the Carribean.
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