Excellent Gesture by Hotel Royal Court

 Yesterday when I went to the ground I received this from Rahul - a letter from the MD of Hotel Royal Court, Madurai where we had stayed with the Hyderabad team during our Buchi Babu fnals. It was such a lovely, well worded, thoughtful letter which is almost like a citation, something I will surely preserve.

Such care and thought is rare and it shows how much the hotel management values its customers and strives to mark such moments by making such memorable gestures. In all my years I do keep track of such thoughtful gestures by service providers and can see why some brands command loyalty and love and why some do not. Hotel Royal Court served some amazing food in its buffet, had very courteous service and well maintained rooms and certainly will be my preferred choice when in Madurai.

Thanks Mr Sikkandar Rafiq. We had a lovely and fruitful stay there and we will always remember your hotel and its service fondly. And you will always rank very high in my list of top customer service exeriences. 

Before the Coffee Gets Cold - Toshikazu Kawaguchi

 Anything about coffee seems to get our attention - certainly mine. I wonder why coffee is always associated with dates and romantic meetings whereas tea (chai) is to do with friends and informal hangouts. I guess it has something to do with marketing. Anyway the story has been written by the author in Japanese and translated into English by Geoffrey Trousselot.

The premise of the story is that if we could go back into our past and change something we always wanted to what would it be, who would we meet. So there is a cafe in Tokyo where there is a seat which is occupied by a ghost and which is vacated by her when she goes to the toilet during which time one can sit in her place and order coffee which transports you to the place and time you want to visit. The conditions are many but suffice to know that whatever you do in the past during this visit will not change the present and you must come back before the coffee gets cold. So there are many who believe in this urban legend and come to meet someone from the past - four precisely. One to find out if her lover will return, one to give a letter to his wife about his growing Alzheimer's condition, one who wants to meet her sister who died and another to meet a daughter she never met.

The premise is interesting. The writing style with so many details is not really the kind I enjoy so much. I realised Murakami does the same thing to me - distracts me with a lot of details that I forget the main story. But obviously its a personal opinion because the book is a global bestseller.

Thought for the Day - The Hiding Place of Slippery Ideas

 The many wonderful ideas and thoughts that come to our mind which we fail to jot down because we think we will remember them but forget them soon as the moment passes - real gems each one of them - slip away into this hiding place where they lie. If we can uncover that place we find so many of our flashes of brilliance, of insights which can change the course of our life perhaps!

Each such memory or thought that has slipped away seems so fragile, so fragrant, so slippery and out of reach. So beautiful. 

Black Buck Resort, Bidar

 After many ambitious plans were made and dropped, we decided to make a quick 2-day trip to Bidar's Black Buck Resort which had been on my mind for a while now. The drive was easy - a three and a half hour drive. I booked the cottage with no real idea of how the place would be - it comes to some 10k per cottage. It was Dasara time so we figured there might be some people around too. Anyways since it was considered a tranquil place out in the jungle I hoped for some quiet reading and stuff.  

View of lake from cottage

Sample cottage

Check in time is 130 so we took off at around 9 and weaved our way through heavy traffic on the Mumbai highway - the road near BHEL is in bad shape thanks to the new flyover and the traffic does not abate until way way longer - a sign that the city has grown. Perhaps almost till the ORR. We motored on and I found that even the highway was under some repair or the other so it was a jerky ride.

The road less travelled

Road to nowhere - actually to water

 The only good thing was the number of food courts that seemed to have popped up all along and we stopped at one such place - Patnam restaurant and Madurai restaurant. The latter was open and served some good breakfast stuff in some heavy duty plates. I liked it.

Then to Zaheerabad where we played many matches in our youth and turned off the highway towards Bidar which was some 30 kms, and then past Bidar towards Black Buck resort which shows up on GPS. A village road and then a country road and then in the jungle we find the resort. Its full of langurs, harmless if you let them be. We got Cottage No 5. We dumped our stuff and headed off for lunch where we met Ashwin, Abhi's friend from the colony. The chap from the resort told me the list of activities - boating at 4, sncks at 6, bonfire at 730, star gazing at 8, dinner at 830, birdwalk early morning, safari early morning, city tour at 945 am next day and so on.

The green contraption is a light with spikes

Made the mistake of getting on a coracle ride which was pretty pleasant until he decided to spin it around which was a bad idea - my head spun for a long time. Next time, no such adventure sports for me. Back to the dining area for snacks (pakoda), and then back to the cottage. Plans for a blackbuck safari at 630 am were made and we hit the sack early.

Safari jeep

Black Bucks

Next morning we were up for the safari which was a ride in a modified Gypsy along with a couple of couples and their kids - psychologist Diana and her husband Yohann and their kids, dentists Shefali and Mahesh and their kid. Off we went with Hussain who showed us many birds and named them and drove us some 18 kms to the place where the black bucks live. Quite a sight they were.We clicked some pics and came back in time for breakfast.

Self-explanatory

Bidar fort

A quick shower and off we went to the city tour with our fav co-travellers. The city tour included a trip to the bidri craft shops which were inside the old fort. Diana bought herself some bangles and the guy wrapped it in a newspaper which had her pic from an article in it. Off we went from there to the Bidar fort which is quite large. The Barid Shah dynasty which had spun off from the Bijapur sultanate ruled here. We walked around the fort for no charge and saw the gardens, the old monuments, the remnants of the palaces and then returned to the canteen for some soft drinks. Onward to the gurdwara which was to me a first. Then back to the good old resort and some lunch.

Bidar fort

Barid Shah tombs

I took a walk along the bund that evening by myself and returned in time for tea and snacks. Some telescoping where we saw the moon and its craters and the rings around saturn, a peep at the bonfire and off to crash after a hectic day.

The next morning we had a chilled out morning and left at 10ish. Pretty nice trip. Idyllic. Definitely recommend.

Namak Haraam - Movie

 1973. Came after 'Anand' and has the same stars - Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh playing key roles. Its loosely based on Becket, a 1964 English film which was remade into a Telugu film called 'Prana Mithrulu' and then a Tamil film. Gulzar wrote the screenplay and Hrishikesh Mukherjee directed it. Kishore Kumar sang the memorable 'Nadiya se dariya', 'Main Shaayar badnaam' and 'Diye jalte hain', Raza Murad played the role of his lifetime and what else can one ask for.

Seen it many times and it still does not fail to fascinate me - two friends, one rich and one poor, thick as thieves, the poor one helps the rich friend avenge a perceived insult by infiltrating the workers union in his rich pal's factory and soon gets overwhelmed by the poverty and hardships and takes the side of the workers which is why he is called the 'namak haram'. The ending is poetic justice. Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh, Raza Murad, Asrani, Hangal...just perfect. 

The Island of Missing Trees - Elif Shifak

 Elif Shifak is an award-winning British Turkish novelist who has written 19 books, 12 of which are novels including the bestselling 'Forty Rules of Love'. She is the VP of the Royal Society of Literature. This book is set in Nicosia, the capital of the island which is the only divided city in the world - the North being partitioned into Turkish Cypriots and the South into Greek Cypriots. Shifak places her story such that we explore what happened to the island which once was a beautiful place and everyone lived together like islanders and how the partition tore the people, their culture, their trees, apart.

The novel begins in London where we meet Ada, the daughter of a Greek Cypriot Kostas Kazantzakis, who is dealing with the loss of her mother Dephne, a Turkish Cypriot. The fact that the two, Kostas and Dephne, fell in love in times when the island was being partitioned, being of opposite clans, was itself a thing of conflict. Ada is trying to cope with her mother's loss, her own immigrant status, and her father's withdrawn nature and her behavior shows up in strange ways in her school. That her father lovingly speaks to a fig plant he transported from Cyprus and is preserving it from the cold by burying it does not help her. It is only when her mother's sister Meryem, a feisty widow, drops in to meet them in London does Ada know the story of her parents, of the cafe called Happy Fig which was owned by two lovers, Yusuf and Yiogros, and how her parents love story blossomed in the Happy Fig until the partition of the island with a 110 mile long line by the British army. Her father fled to the the UK and later took his wife there and settled down but they never grow out of Cyprus. When Kostas first meets Dephne after a gap he finds her working with the Committee of Missing Persons and realises that she is assisting the project to find out the bodies of Yusuf and Yiogros which were never found! 

The story is about Ada and her father and aunt coming to terms with their heritage but the book is layered beautifully with the history of Cyprus, its beauty, the war, the partition and how it affected the plants, the food. More importantly the book draws attention to the report of the Committee of Missing Persons which was engaged in finding out where people who were killed in the war were buried so their bodies could be exhumed and given to their families for a decent burial. Elif Shifak narrates the story through the Fig Tree, a cutting of which Kostas takes to London as a memory of the days at Cyprus, Meryem and Ada and Kostas and Dephne. Her research into the life of plants, of trees, of mosquitoes, birds, incidents, anything related to Cyprus and the war make this book a work of love and nothing less than that. Beautifully structured, and very well written. Lyrical prose, powerful message, a deep dive into the unknown history of the island.

An excellent read. Thank you.         

Nauker - Movie

 1979.

These days my favorite go-to when I want to feel good is the 70s, 80s, hit films. Most have simple stories with simpler people and end warmly. Nauker was one such - Sanjeev Kumar, a rich man wants to find himself a good lady to marry so she can also take care of his young daughter. He visits a prospective brides house (actually two sisters) - only he poses as the servant while his servant Mehmood poses as the boss. The idea is to test the character of the two girls - and he ends up falling in love with the servant there - a Cinderella type Jaya Bhaduri. 

All's well and that ends well for everyone except Jalal Agha who loses Jaya Bhaduri. I once met Jalal Agha on a cruise in Goa in 1985-86.

Actually ...I Met Them, A Memoir - Gulzar

This is a highly readable book that captures in short and crisp chapters Gulzar's impressions with people who meant much to him and who he had met and worked with. The list includes Bimal Roy, Salil Choudary, Hemanta Mukhopadhyay, Satyajit Ray, Uttam Kumar, Kishore Kumar, RD Burman, Sanjeev Kumar, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Samaresh Basu, Basu Bhattacharya, Ritwik Ghatak, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Mahasweta Devi, Suchitra Sen, Tarun Majumdar and Sharmila Tagore. As he recounts his interactions with each of them, we discover so many facets of Gulzar's own life, precious insights into their creative collaborations, whims, idiosyncracies and so on.

I'll try and write one thing that stayed with me about each. Bimal Roy's commitment and mentorship to so many creative people who came from all over to Bombay, Salil Choudary who would do anything but work - ping pong, drives, Hemant Kumar who smoked incessantly, drove a Mercedes and paid the down payment for Gulazar's first home, Satyajit Ray with his impeccable English and his collaboration with Gulzar to remake Goope Gyne in Hindi, Uttam Kumar the most handsome man Gulzar met and their work together in Kitaab, Kishore Kumar's mad genius and the way he turned up bald before the shoot of Anand where he was finalised to be the protagonist and that's how Rajesh Khanna played that role, RD Burman and his love for chillies and the way they composed 'Musafir Hoon Yaaron' and 'Choti si Kahani', Sanjeev Kumar's great love for non-veg and his constant delays for shoots, Hrishikesh Mukherjee and his addiction to chess and his love for dogs, Pandit Ravi Shankar who composed music for Gulzar's 'Meera', Samaresh Basu and his maverick style and stories, Basu Bhattacharya and his love for poetry, Ritwik Ghatak and his inimitable rebellious style, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi who ran away from home to Gwalior and then Calcutta and then to Dharwad to train with different gurus and became the maestro he was and his love for driving his car all over, Mahasweta Devi who parted with film rights for her story because her favorite Dilip Kumar was acting in it, Suchitra Sen and working in Aandhi and how they caled each other Sir, Tarun Majumdar who brought up Raakhee, Sharmila Tagore and her two dimples - each little chapter revealing so much about the others as much as about Gulzar and about the amazing creative work they had all done between them. If one wonders why so many Bengalis its because Gulzar was a conferred Bengali as he learned the language so well and was as good or even better than many Bengalis with his Bangali literature. 

Fantastic book and one that I will keep in my bookshelf forever. Thank you thank you thank you.     

Trouble - Movie

 Swedish. 2024.

An electronic salesman gets wrongfully arrested for murder and is imprisoned where he finds a tunnel to escape and a bunch of guys who have dug the tunnel who mistake him to be a pilot and take him along. Somehow he has to escape the murder rap by finding a video made by the man who was murdered.

Complicated to tell in few lines so I will leave it at that. Just enough to say that it is entertaining and funny.  

Thomson, Lillee and Holding

 Must be something to learn from these pictures!  

Jeff Thomson

Michael Holding

Dennis Lillee

(No idea who clicked them but pic courtesy whoever did)

Thought for the Day - The Bad Apple Effect

 I was studying the effects of one bad apple on the team and stumbled upon the 'bad apple experiment' conducted by Professor Will Felps of Rotterdam University who concluded that a single bad apple (Depressive Pessimists - those who complain and doubt group's ability to succeed, Jerks - those who say other people's ideas are inadequate but does not offer alternatives and Slackers - those who are laid back and not interested in working or communicating) can disrupt a team and lower group performance by as much as 30-40 percent!

One bad apple can cause team members to argue and fight, not share relevant information and communicate less. It promotes anxiety and defensiveness in the team and over time, people disengage.

The verdict - get rid of bad apples asap before they spoil the whole bunch! 

Awakenings - Movie

 1990. Robin Williams, Robert De Niro

Dr Sawyer treats catatonic patients at a hospital in New York and realises that they have a similar history with encephalitis. He learns of a new drug ; Dopa and is convinced that it might have a positive effect on his patients. The most catatonic one, Leonard Lowe, fully awakens miraculously thanks to his experiment and all other patients also show significant progress. Just when things are looking good the drug's effectiveness fades off, Leonard develops tics and twitches and slowly goes back into his catatonic state.

It's depressing on one hand but also has hope, courage, love as its themes. Dr Sawyer's love for his patents comes through. De Niro is excpetional.

 

Firaaq - Movie

 2008. Hindi.

Directed by Nandita Das the movie is set one month after the Gujarat riots of 2002 and explores the consequences of riots on the lives of ordinary people, a young Muslim couple (husband has an auto) whose house was burnt and looted, an elderly musician who teaches music and remains oblivious to the hate around him, a well-t-do couple whose shop got looted, a Hindu wife who is trying to make up for the guilt of not helping a Muslim woman who had banged on their door seeking protection from a mob and so on.

Nicely made. Nasseruddin Shah, Paresh Rawal, Deepti Naval, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Shahana Goswami, Amruta Subhash, Sanjay Suri, Tisca Chopra, Raghuvir Yadav. Can't go wrong.

     

Dave Barry Turns 40 - Dave Barry

I looked for his book to gift Malay on his 40th and could not find it. Vinod, my go-to fairy in all things concerning books fished it out of his magical collection but by then the birthday had come and gone. Since the humour in my life was generally going down, I decided to read it and Dave did not disappoint. It took a while to pick up steam but as it did I was struck down by loud eruptions of laughter that made me want to slow it down - I was making funny guttural sounds and thought that I  could have heath issues if I continued that way.

He starts with an academic quiz to find out whether you are grown up yet  which most won't pass, then moves on to explain how your body is disintegrating, has beauty tips for mature gals, wonders at the midlife marriage, parenthood at 40, planning midlife crises, sex, time management (read this chapter very quickly he advises - but mostly says one should not waste time on meetings and such stuff), financial planning, politic, sports (I loved this chapter - he covers golf,fishing, walking like a dork, shrieking at little leaguers, skiing), dementia and stuff like that. It really had me rolling over. 

Dave never fails. If you haven't read it, do. And thanks Vinod bhai, you have in so many ways added much laughter to my life, Dave Barry's introduction to my reading list being one of them. 

Around India in 80 Trains - Monisha Rajesh

 Inspired by an article she read about how India's domestic airlines now reach 80 cities Monisha Rajesh, a Telugu who has connections in Chennai and Hyderabad but only barely since she and her family lived and grew up in the UK, decided to gingerly test the Indian experience with - around India in 80 days.Also semi inspired by the Jules Verne classic of Around the World in 80 days she found her own Passepartout and they set out on their three or four month adventure of travelling in Indian trains to the farthest tip on four corners of the country and traversing the 64000 kms network that carries around 20 million people a day! 

To start with Monisha dropped in at the UK representative of Indian Rail who gave her a nice break up of trains to travel by - scenic routes, toy trains, luxury trains, Rajdhanis, Shatabdis and some Indrail passes which are available only for phirangs I think. The duo land in Chennai which is home, get their tickets organised by some jugaad, and take the Chennai Kanyakumari express. For some reason Monisha is also obsessed with Chetan Bhagath and ends up reading all his books on these journeys.

Anyway here's how she went about - Chennai-Kanyakumari-Kerala-Goa. Anyway on to Goa and a stay in Candolim where she mentions the River Princess, a ship that ran aground and stayed there till recently, then the Konkan Railway to Mumbai through 92 tunnels. Then they caught a train called the Indian Maharaja which is a luxury train and went to Delhi.  

From Mumbai another luxury train 'The Deccan Odyssey' which took them to Ellora, Udaipur, Ranthambore and to Delhi. Another IndRail pass and they head right back to - Kottayam in Kerala and enjoy a stay in the backwaters of Kumarakom, hopped across to Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu for their temple trip - Madurai, Thanjavur, Srirangam, Nagpattanam and so on. While in Madurai she stayed at Hotel Chetnoor which was right behind the hotel we stayed in (Royal Court) and we actually had stopped at Chetnoor's bar for a drink - she mentions the hotel and the bar in not so complimentary terms. It was surreal - me in Madurai reading about the same place written by an author ten years ago. Oh, while in the bar they have an argument over Sathya Sai Baba which freezes their relationship a bit. Then to Chennai.

From Chennai to Hyderabad and to Mumbai where they experienced the local trains first hand, then to Pune where they enrolled into the Osho experience which she did not seem to subscribe to much, to Jhansi, Bhopal, Ahmedabad, Dwarka, Diu. And then to Jaisalmer, Kalka on way to Shimla at some point when Passepartout and she have a fall out. She decides to flip between calling it off when she meets known faces and heads on to Amritsar, drops into Kapil Dev's home at Delhi over the wall, back to Chennai, hops on to the Golden Chariot from Mysore which takes her to Hasan, Hampi, Gadag, Goa and back to Bangalore.

From there to the Lifeline Express which offers medical help to remote areas hrough trains, Allahabad,Jammu, Udhanpur, Siliguri, Jalpaiguri, Tinsukhia, Ledo the farthest station in the East,  toy train from Darjeeling, Kolkata, Puri (where she is sent out of the temple for lack of proof of being a Hindu). Cleanses it all up with a 10 day Vippasana course in Hyderabad and then to Chennai and back home.

Monisha wrote very well - witty, packed with the right amount of research, crisp, empathetic, honest - you cannot ask for more. Through all this she keeps her view very honest, meets people easily and except for one time when she runs away from a hotel in some godforsaken place late at night, generally has good experiences with strangers offering help, food, connections, a shoulder, information. From her writing it appears she was open and soaked in the Indian train experience, the many different cultures and people and food that India offers and revelled in it. Makes you want to take train journeys too! Excellent work Monisha  somehow I identified with her in so many ways - her Telugu and Hyderabad connection, the Vipassana in Hyderabad, many of the places she visited, her sense of humour. And to think I bought this book in Madurai where she stayed in a hotel right behind mine and then wrote a book that made it to the bookstore there! 

I'd read her to Naipaul any day.

Flight 814, The Inside Story - Flt Engineer Anil Jaggia and Saurabh Shukla

 Ani Jaggia (1941-2015) was the Flight Engineer aboard Flight 814 which was hijacked from Kathmadu and taken to Amritsar, Lahore, Dubai and Kandahar. The terrorists negotiated the release of terrorists and fled after killing on passenger Rupen Katyal, a honeymooner.

The book delves into the series of intelligence failures that did not help while the aircraft was hijacked - that the flight could have been stopped at Amritsar, that waiting commandos could have stormed the flight etc. The flight was hijacked on December 24, 1999 and ended just before the millennium celebrations, after a week of misery for the passengers and the crew. Four terrorists who nicknamed themselves, Red Cap, Bhola, Doctor and Burger held the passengers hostage and somehow pulled off the impossible.

Edge of seat stuff. The terrorists just walked away and were never caught.

The Audacity of Hope - Barack Obama

 It is about reclaiming the American Dream and Barack Obama writes honestly an with optimism about how one can balance power and politics with the greater good that's necessary for humankind. It is heartwarming to hear of his early struggles when trying to enter politics, asking for donations, the idea that one can get themselves a private jet and zip around.

That apart the book was a bestseller. The title derived from a sermon given by his former pastor Rev Jeremiah Wright. Obama used the title for his keynote address in 2004 at the Democratic Convention and the 20 minute speech apparently catapulted him into national prominence. The book underscores his policy positions, his personal values, his thoughts on faith, race, family, the Constitution, politics, opportunity, the world outside the US  and so on.

Nice read. I like Barack Obama. He is light on his feet, has an easy smile, looks tough and gentle at the same time. Mostly I like how fit he is and wish I could be as fit. Of course I like his views and honesty and vulnerability as well.

India's Most Fearless - Shiv Aroor and Rahul Singh

Two volumes of the same name gifted to me by Mythily. Fourteen stories of valour and courage by the men in uniform under fire. Well researched and well written, I really breezed through the book in a hurry. And gifted it to Nitesh Kanala who is a reader as well.

The first of the stories is about the Uri surgical strikes on September 2016 when Major Tango and his 19 men of Special Forces led an attack to retaliate the killing of 19 Indian soldiers. 3 separate teams accessed 4 launch pads across the LoC and killed 38-40 terrorists and made it safely back. Tango earned a Kirti Chakra and his boss's compliments on his return - bring the bottle, these men eat glass.

Then the surgical strike in Myanmar as a retaliation to an attack on army jawans in Manipur where 18 jawans were killed - 3 units led by Lt Col Delta, bumped off 64 men and returned safely. Lance Naik Mohan Nath Goswami who died while trying to save his fellow soldier in Udhampur. Havildar Handpan Dada who umped out at terrorists and fired at them killing 3 and injuring a fourth in J&K in 2016. Captain Jaidev Dangi who killed three terrorists including Adil Ahmed Mir in J&K in 2011. Major Mukund Varadarajan who killed a terrorist by using tactical brilliance but died in action. Colonel Santosh Mahadik who died in action, Lance Naik Hanumantha Koppad who somehow survived being trapped under an avalanche and tons of ice

Lt Cdr Niteen Anandarao Yadav in Dabolim Goa who somehow landed his flight despite no electrical power, no navigation, no communication and limited control over his engines. Captain Varun Singh of Indian Navy's MARCOS who killed two terrorists in J&K. Cdr Milind Mokashi who evacuated civilian Indians from Aden where a civil war had broken out on his ship INS Sumitra - and rescued in all over 500 people, including 600 foreigners in dangerous circumstances. Squadron Leader Rijul Sharma whose Mig 29 canopy was shattered and left with an option to bail or stay, stayed despite a damaged shoulder and landed his flight. 'Don't let the situation overwhelm you. You can tackle any situation.' Squadron Leader Vikas Puri who had VIPs on his helicopter when both engines failed and the chopped was preparing for a crash landing - when he tried to relight and restrat the engines and it worked - with only 2 minutes to spare. And Wing Cdr Gaurav Bikram Chauhan whose flight had issues when the wing was destroyed and the flight broke up in Pokhran Rajasthan.

Amazing stories, very well told. I am glad they wrote these stories because we get a peek into the world they live in, the way they work, the way they live..and the way they die. Now to read the second volume.        

The Tirunelveli Diaries - Natham

From Madurai we would travel to Natham, a place near Dindigul,where our final match against Chattisgarh was. It was a scenic place amidst green hills, a well maintained ground. I was by myself since Jyo had left and entertained myself by reading my book and watching the game. The final was a relatively easy affair. Some pics

Across the Vaigai river to Natham

The ground

   

Mentoring

Team meeting

Rohit leading the team out

Cap and vice in discussion

Abhirath and Rahul returning

A pat by coach

Me and Chattu

Me and Rajayji

Captain and coach