Day 7 - Indulge Yourself

 Woke up early enough to gift myself a sunrise at Tank Bund. Though the sky was cloudy and it was not the best morning for a sunrise it still had its moments - the winter haze, the sun peeping through the cloud ever so briefly. As always there were interesting characters out there - a group of young boys who were out there with some firecrackers, cyclists who came for a quick selfie, young uns throwing stones into the lake that looked like it was made of marble - so still it was.

  

Another indulgence - breakfast thali at Minerva!

Diwali diyas to end the day's indulgences!

Thought for the Day - Creating the 'Mahaul' or the Environment

 All the talk about what's a good coach or leader came down to this for me - creating the right 'mahaul' for the team to perform at its optimum. The leader or coach or teacher cannot say - I told them but they did not do. What they must do is to create the right environment or the right conditions which enable performances that help to achieve the team's objectives.

It could be in so many ways - giving the right cues to the players, making them feel that they are believed in while at the same time making them also feel the threat of not performing for the time, encouraging the right kind of behaviors and discouraging the wrong kind.

End of the day it boils down to this -  your only job is to create the environment or mahaul that produces the results we want. It is not about giving stuff and information which is messing up the mahaul.

One needs to learn how to create the 'mahaul'. 

Day 6 - Indulge Yourself

I realised it's not easy to find ways to indulge if you are not used to indulging yourself. One can eat food (ice cream, chocolates...always laced with guilt), buy stuff (thought of buying myself a book), do things that pleases oneself. The last category is what I like most, what I feel is my comfort zone because I don't have to spend money and then feel bad. Like walking in grass was one such for me, but I realise I do not have too many such things where I do not need to spend a lot to please myself (vacation, travel).

Cleaning up the bookshelf -  Indulgence

It's exactly here that I need to listen to my small voice and heed to it which I have started doing a bit more in the past decade. I remember the number of times my voice says - buy that fruit, drink coconut water, enjoy that egg puff - and I would just drive past thinking I am not worth it (or that it's not worth my time which is the same thing). But I have started doing it more these days.

Like it might murmur - give the book 'Around India in 80 Trains' to Ajay's daughters who are visiting from the UK (which I did) and that might qualify as feeling good. But I am giving, not indulging myself right? Would getting up early and going to watch the sunrise at Tank Bund qualify? I think so. Perhaps even a chai with Vinod near his house. Or deciding to meet a friend on a whim which happened yesterday. Or deciding to go eat a pesarattu upma for breakfast by myself at Minerva which I probably will today. Or deciding to watch 'Missamma' by myself (which I started last evening!) Or cleaning up  the book shelves  (did) 

Anyway, my indulgence could not go beyond thinking of buying myself 'Nudge' a book I have been wanting to buy (glad I did). But I am also thinking of other ways to indulge myself randomly. Indulge me while I ramble on.

What Money Can Buy

- Book - Nudge, Covenant of Water (bought myself 'Leading Teams' which was expensive but good)
- A massage (easily done - just that I should feel like it which I mostly don't)
- Travel (alone or otherwise) like the trip to Goa which I had planned for a long time but never happened
- Clothes - I went and bought stuff which is not fitting me!!
- Trip to the US - long pending but an arduous and long process which I'm dreading

What Don't Need Money or Much Money

- Pesarattu Upma
- Sunrise at Tank Bund
- Spending quiet, quality time with someone who enjoys the same, someone who makes it easy
-  Movie by myself or with someone who would enjoy it as much
- Buying and indulging myself with a fruit diet
- Coffee with Sagar

I feel I don't seem to be doing a great job at this so far but have decided to stick to it and crack it which I think might happen in a month's time. I might have a more sensitised radar by then about what's good for me, and might act on it faster, do what I enjoy and indulge myself. Looks like those small voices again. More on this later.

     

Meeting DTS Prasad After Half a Lifetime

DTS Prasad was what most kids dreamed of when we were in school - Head Boy of HPS, Ramanthapur, Captain of the cricket team, academic topper (I think) and surely some other achievements that I am not fully aware of. But this much I am sure - he was fully leadership material in the way he handled things head on with a smile, with clarity, compassion and action, a voice and a presence that commanded respect instantly.

Me and DTS

I had heard of him when I first saw a picture of the Under 15 state team from Hyderabad that won the U15 state championship in Madras. Those days we would hear of some cricketing stalwarts from HPS, Ramanthapur - DTS, Subba Rao, Damodar, Nalini Mohan and so on. Though we (All Saints High School) played against HPS Ramanthapur and lost both games in 1982. I did not know DTS then.

Two years later I was selected for the Hyderabad U22 team while in my Intermediate and DTS was on the team too. Led by Hari Prasad from HPS, Begumpet it had Vivek Jaisimha as the vice captain. We went to Trichur, beat Andhra and then lost to Tamil Nadu in the finals. Tamil Nadu had WV Raman, L Sivaramakrishnan (who had already played fro India by then), B Arun. Akbar Ebrahim and co and it was good enough that we played against such a team. It was on that tour that I got to know DTS who assumed the older brother role and took me under his wing. DTS was already studying in the Osmania University College of Engineering pursuing his Electronics Engineering degree - he was one year senior to me. 

Hyderabad U 22 Team 1983-84
Khaja, Vasanth, Vivek Jaisimha, Kaleem (coach), Dayanand (Manager), Hari Prasad (Captain), Ehtesham, DTS Prasad, Rajesh Yadav, me, Asif
Kneeling - Hafiz, Chetan, Ramana, Zakir, D Suresh, Anwar 

Next year I joined the Osmania Engineering College and we picked up from where we had left off. It was always a warm, affectionate, frank and open relationship with him and I always got the feeling that he really cared for me and my well being. We went on University tours to Vizag, Calicut and Bangalore (where he led). In my third year when I was dropped from the Ranji squad DTS was the University captain and he always encouraged me to make a comeback. He really believed that I had it in me to make the highest grade. Under his captaincy I remember bowling 38 overs in a day against Ensconce which had Arshad Ayub and Saad Bin Jung and Raman Murthy. but mostly I remember scoring a 158 against VST which we won.

That 158 became a significant part of my life as I analysed it later. A little detail here - we were playing a 2-day, 90 over a side match against VST. We bowled first and conceded 350 runs (two hundreds to Fareed and Adil Karamat). I was livid since I got only 2 wickets for 128 runs which to me as a first class discard was not good enough. I went into the dressing room and told DTS (the captain and opener) that if he let me open that inning, I would get 128 runs back. He let me - and next day I scored 158 runs and we won that high scoring game! That day it was a nice high and I did not think much about it but later when I thought about it I realised it was an important story that could shape my life - that we could, with proper use of limited resources, achieve 10x, game changing results. And I am deeply grateful to DTS for believing in me and letting me open that day. 

I use that story in every lecture, workshop of mine. In my  book '50 Not Out' it shows up on page 122 with DTS's name in it under Self Belief.

DTS was an aggressive, attacking batman - with a high backlift he would produce booming straight and cover drives, cut and pull fiercely. As a keeper he had a safe pair of hands. One innings that DTS played against SBI at Osmania was breathtaking - he scored 158 in double quick time driving, cutting, pulling the seasoned SBI bowlers to all parts of the ground. SBI had a star player that match in Azharuddin and we could only clap as DTS unleashed an array of strokes. Its  forever etched in my mind.

Come to think of it - DTS was the captain when I scored a 166 in a first round Inter Collegiate match against VV College - I remember him being upset that I did not go for my 200 because there were many overs to spare. But the pads straps cut deep into my ankles and the skin had grazed off and I could not handle that pain and got out.

Enough to say that DTS (or DT as we call him), really believed in me, in my cricket, and in all things good in me. He knew and remembered details of my father's death, was very empathetic about it. He took me to some tournaments - one in Sanathnagar and one in Kurnool. He would always catch up with me in the college canteen with a warm hello.

When Choudary contested for General Secretary DTS took it upon himself to campaign for him, making introductory speeches every single time. Choudary won with a massive margin. Those days DTS would live in a farm with his Dad and Mom - someplace far in Moinabad. I remember there being  dacoity those days in their farm.

As with all engineers, DTS applied and got admission in a college in the US. I remember going to see him off at the Begumpet airport and he walked off as casually as if he was going to Kazipet - an air bag slung over his shoulder and a small wave and a smile. No tears, hugs, sentiments. Just another day.

And then, he disappeared. I heard once in a while from Subbu about his whereabouts. Once he came to India and invited me to his wedding if I remember right. Another time he came home when I was not home and left without leaving a number!

So it was fun to chat with him after almost three decades when he called a month ago telling me he was visiting. He had got my number from Chandu (and gave me his number as well). We fixed up to meet. I met him briefly on Dasara day where he fed me a lot of festive stuff and I gave him two tickets for a T20 match between India and Bangladesh. I met him again today because he was leaving tonight and wanted to give chocolates to Anjali. Our big plan of meeting for dinner or he visiting me at home did not materialise though he lives 2 kms away from home.

We met for a coffee at a Udipi type place at Balkampet. I gave him '50 Not Out' and told him to look himself up on page 122. I was super thrilled when he said he remembered that VST match and even more importantly told me that I had told him I would get 128 runs if he let me open the innings. It was so good to hear that he remembered something that happened in 1987 - 37 years ago - so well. We spoke about my selection job, about his family and mine, work and stuff. 

There was not too much time left to chat but we did the best we could. He promised to meet up when he came next and I am sure we will. Thanks DT, for believing in me, then and, now. We all need someone to believe in us and DT was one of those few for me.                   

Day 5 - Indulge Yourself

 Since we won the Ranji match outright it did call for an indulgence - a coupe of drinks with Don and Sanjay - and headed back home.

Godiva chocolates! Thanks DTS!!!

Red Wine -Movie

 2013. Malayalam.

Massive star cast led by Mohanlal who is investigating the murder of a left party worker and a theatre artist (Faahad Faasil) - turns out that a struggling two wheeler salesman was assigned the job by a bank which wanted to eliminate the man who could have caused trouble for a project of theirs.

Movie flips to and fro. Some interesting angles!

  

Day 4 - Indulge Yourself

Nuts Overload! All for myself!! 

 

Interesting - Litter Free Hyd

 I stopped at the Uppal traffic lights and suddenly a man stepped out in front of the stalled traffic and held a small cardboard notice which said 

'DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE'

It was barely visible to me - and I was right up front. But I must admire the effort - however small - it is the effort that counts. I will certainly take heed of his advise.

I noticed that the traffic cop sat in his nest which had another sign painted on it about keeping the city clean or something like that.

A little ahead one can see a huge sign 'LITTER FREE HYD' near the traffic island and right next to it was a huge sign put up by some political candidate which to my mind certainly is littering.

A lot of activity in that small area. Lots of good intent. We need leaders to role model.  

Life Goes on - Responsibility

 And life has a way of going on. We are stronger than we think and when we are forced to, we find an amazing sense of courage, responsibility, love, compassion.

Whenever I see this picture I would like to remind myself that we are all bigger than we think. Look at the young kid, no more than ten years old taking care of her younger one who was bawling his head of for some reason. I have no idea where they are coming from, where they are going and what awaits them. 

And when I passed them and looked at why he was bawling, she had the grace to grant me a shy smile as if apologising for his bawling. Took my heart away. Wanted to speak to them but didn't want to frighten them or upset the moment, so walked on.

Lots of love kids.    

Day 3 - Indulge

Some conscious choices today

• Full day watching cricket - definite indulgence
• Bun maska, Irani chai at Paradise

• Apple chunks for a snack
• Receiving pics at the ground (thank you Subbu)
• A quiet walk for an hour   

Day 2 - Indulge Yourself

 I have taken to skipping breakfast for the past few weeks but decided to indulge in a roti and omeltette at Paradise with Jyo. An evening out with old friends AP, Ramaraju, Vijay, Srinu and Ruby was another indulgence which i stretched beyond my normal time simply because we were having a good time. And then a hot coffee at home before calling it a night earlier than usual.

But what I indulged most is in listening to songs at the stadium (80s English pop hits played by Riaz) and in the car - (Ruk Jaana, Deva Sree Ganesha, koi jaye le jaye, Sairaat songs)

 

ElderAid Wellness Pvt Ltd - Providing end-to-end Holistic Support for Senior Citizens

Ritika and Mona's new enterprise 'ElderAid Wellness' caught my eye because I feel it is the need of the hour with more and more elderly people staying alone and needing support. I borrowed their leaflet which gave some info about what ElderAid is all about. It has an interesting array of services.

ElderAid offers three types of services - Health care, Concierge and Wellness.

• Health Care Services
• Emergency Assistance
• Accompanied Hospital Visits and Doctor visits
• Pill box management
• At-home doctor visits
• 24x7 Caretaker (Attender)
• 24x7 Nursing Services (Injections, checking vitals, administering IV etc) 

Concierge Services

• Bill payments, errands, bank work, essentials etc
• Accompanied travel (hospital/social visits)
• Handyman coordination
• Property management

Wellness services

• Technology support
• Resource Hub on website
• ElderAid Wellness App
• Online Wellness Events

Visit www.elderaid.in for more details

Call 89779 28481/89779 28482

Good luck Mona and Ritika. All the best with ElderAid.

Day 1 - Indulge Yourself

 Abhinay said he was doing one thing for himself for 30 days and I liked the idea so decided to do it for myself.

Today I started with walking barefoot in the garden for 20 minutes, and followed it up with sitting quietly for another 15 minutes with no agenda, no phone etc.

Was nice.

Turned out that I met Sanjay and Don (Thums Up and egg fiona), Vineet (coffee at Concu) and Vasu and his mom (fish curry and rice)   

The Magnificent Seven -Movie

 1960.

Inspired by 'The Seven Samurai' the Magnificent Seven is the story of seven gun fighters who are hired to protect a village from a bandit. Yul Brynner leads the seven which has Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Charles Bronson and others who have to fight the mercurial Eli Wallach's gang of bandits. Can see a lot of 'Sholay' in it - some scenes and settings are pretty similar. (However we concluded that Sholay was more fun!)

But great to watch.

   

The Pink Panther - Movie

 1963. Peter Sellers, David Niven.

Inspector Clouseau is entrusted with finding the Pink Panther, a rare diamond, which is with Princess Dala. But unknown to him there is a smooth ladies man sir Charles Lytton who is the phantom responsible for many daring jewel thefts, his nephew who poses as a collegian but who is a conman himself, inspector Clouseau's wife who is having an affair with Lytton. The story is delightfully packed with wicked characters with no conscience - they all get together and put Inspector Clouseau in jail while they head off to Brazil to celebrate. Brilliant writing, fabulous characters, superb actors.

 

Gundamma Katha - Movie

 1962. 10 years after 'Patala Bhairavi' and it shows on both NTR and SVR who look significantly older and rounder. Apparently it was also NTR's 100th film and ANR's 99th film! Clearly inspired by 'The Taming of the Shrew' it has a step mother ill treating her step daughter while pampering her own. Two brothers decide to marry into the family and they have to tame both the step mother and the shrew. Long and has many songs, but the story is fun and the actors interesting. The shrew however did not need such harsh treatment one feels and it looked like things hurried up a bit along the way.

     

A Man's Place - Arnie Ernaux (Translated by Tanya Leslie)

 Annie Ernaux (1940) is a French writer and the 2022 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. In this slim 72 page book she writes about her father who grew up on a farm with very little education, moved to the city to work in a factory, worked through the war, ran a grocery store with his wife and a cafe, and stayed in the sidelines of life with his many unfulfilled dreams, his little comforts and his overall shame at not feeling like he belonged in this world.

Annie writes about her father's life simply with no drama, touching upon aspects like what money meant to them, or entertainment, or intimacy. Obsessed with being correct he would be polite, put the best foot forward when there were guests, berate himself for not being politically correct or for showing off his ignorance, worried about what others thought of them all the time, worried that his illness might eat into their savings etc. Annie's accomplishment at passing the teacher training course was one which filled his life with pride. She mentions small details - the photo he took with her standing in front of their house, the paper which mentions her passing the course second in her batch. His favorite song, the time he took little Annie to the central library to borrow books with no idea how to. The way he would address her university friends with utmost respect. And his illness, two months after her passing the exam, and the slow realisation that he may not survive it.  

It's painful, heavy and honest and I could identify myself with parts of him, just as many men perhaps do as they grow older. Thanks Vinod bhai. Another wonderful book from you.

Patala Bhairavi - Movie

 1951. Rated among the top 100 Indian Films of all time 'Patala Bhairavi' is a fantasy film set in Ujjain where the gardener's son (NTR) falls in love with the princess. When the king of Ujjain asks him to earn as much wealth as he, Ramudu sets out to get that wealth. He bumps into a sorcerer who is appeasing the 'Patala Bhairavi' who would grant all his wishes - the only way to access the Goddess is by sacrificing a brave, young man or a sorcerer like himself. Caught in a fight to the end, Ramudu wins.

NTR is so young and sprightly as is everyone else. SV Ranga Rao as the sorcerer has an amazing presence and dominates each scene he is in. It was shot as a bilingual in Telugu and Hindi. I discovered Marcus Bartley, an Anglo Indian cinematographer who worked on many classics as well as so many other wonderful creative artistes like Pingali, Kameshwara Rao and others. Ghantasala composed the music. 

    

35 - Movie

 I read the review and wanted to watch it in the theatre but by the time I moved, it had gone off. I found it on Aha and watched it. Very nice indeed.

A young family, father's a bus conductor, mother is a 10th fail, bringing up their two kids in Tirupati. One of the kids, the older one is a rebel, an original thinker, who questions every math principle and just does not pass a single exam. Added to this trauma is the fact that his best friend, the topper, moved away to another school. The strict, result-driven math teacher does not help. How he finds a way to clear his exam with a minimum pass mark of 35 with a lot of help from his mother who teachers herself English and Math to train him, and in the process finds herself being empowered enough to pass her 10th is the rest of story. The Tirupati dialect they use is very charming, as is the small town feel, the cute house they live in, the school and the innocence of children is very charming and well captured. Nivetha Thomas as the mother did an excellent job, as did the kids.

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. 

Sankarabharanam - Movie

 1980. 

It's been on my list of rewatches for a while and I am glad I could watch it finally. Many new facets showed up this time - last I saw it must have been as a school boy in 1980! Sankara Shastri and his life of dedication as a musician, his principles and beliefs, the pure love between him and his admirer the courtesan Tulasi who finally becomes his patron, the carrying on of the legacy by her son, a dramatic end where the maestro dies in a music school dedicated to him by his secret patron.

K Vishwanath once again carries subtle shades of an artist's relationship with his art, the purity of relationships born out of mutual respect and admiration with finesse, bringing to fore the irony of life and also the beauty of life.

Sankarabharanam is so named because Sankara Shastri is supposed to have mastered the raga and he is called Sankarabharanam Sankara Shastri. The film apparently opened to empty theatres much as Sholay did, and soon picked up, running for years in some theatres - in Bangalore, Madras - until it was dubbed in Tamil, Malayalam and so on. It was played in many international festivals and received many awards. Somayajulu's performance is rated in the top 25 performances in Indian cinema and the film itself was ranked 11th in a poll about Indian cinema.

   

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.