A Trip to Blue Mountains

Even though, I had gone for several road trips in the past six months; I have been delinquent in posting any of the details in the blog. Let me do this on a LIFO basis. The most recent trip was the one to Nilgiris. I was changing jobs and had one week for myself. So, I went to Palakkad and the very next day started the journey to Ooty. We had planned for a two day trip covering Coonnoor on the way and then travelling to Ooty. We started on 27th April 2011 at around 6:00 a.m from Palakkad. We had a brief sojourn at Coimabore (Annapoorna, People’s park) for breakfast bringing a sense of déjà vu. However, let me tell you this; the food and the cost for that sincerely did not bring any nostalgia. Back on the road by 8:30 a.m; the traffic was in full swing and it took us more time than what was anticipated to come out of city limits. The road is not great and we passed through Karamadai and finally reached Metupalayam. Last time when I drove to Ooty in Dec 09; the Coonnoor road was closed because of land slides. This time there were no hassles and promptly took the left turn (NH 67) after Metupalayam. The ghat sections start almost immediately. It is approximately 50 km from Metupalayam to Ooty. One can see couple of Petrol bunks at this point prominently displaying sign boards stating fuel costs more in the hills and asking travelers to top up their vehicles. I did not heed their advice and ended up filling in Ooty. It only costs more by 30 paise or so from the normal rates down hills. Coming from Bangalore; I felt that it was not too huge a difference. Last time; when I went to Ooty; I learnt more about driving a diesel car in steep roads and high altitudes. This time, I was prepared and no incidents happened. The uphill journey was slow because of the numerous trucks and buses and overtaking them is an ordeal. Liitle did I know that I would be at the receiving end in the downhill journey. We reached Coonoor around 10:00 a.m. We saw Sim’s park and decided to go there later after covering Dolphin’s nose and Lamb’s rocks viewpoints. The directions were confusing to the say the least and the roads were as narrow as it comes (and with some hair pin bends to boot). We struck a deal with a guide who agreed to take us to these places at a nominal charge of Rs. 150. I was more comfortable now as I needed to concentrate on maze of a road alone and not the directions. Our guide took us to Dolphins’ nose first and there was no mist which gave us an excellent view. He told us that this particular view point is shaped like the nose of a dolphin and from the opposite Kodanad view point in Koatgiri; it will be even more pronounced. Our next stop was Lamb’s rock view point and here you can see the hills profiled like a women lying down. The mist was coming up and we were just able to see the hills. I was curious to know why it was called Lamb’s rock (as the previous view point had some connection with a dolphin but I did not find anything related to a lamb over here).

View from Lamb's Rock Viewpoint (Sleeping Lady)

Sign Depicting Lamb's Rock

Our guide was kind enough (and knowledgeable also. I don’t think he pulled a fast one on this) to explain that the view point was discovered during the British raj with an officer named Lamb and hence named after him. We had a brief stop also at the Singara team estate and clicked merrily. The next stop was at Sim’s park and I felt this park was much more natural with an inclined landscape when compared to the Botanical gardens in Ooty. One of the specialties of this garden is the presence of rare Rudraksh tree.

We stopped for lunch at a north Indian dhaba near Sim’s park. The menu card showed North Indian thalis of three kind and south Indian thali. We all ordered separate types of thalis and ended up getting the same food with roti, chaval and sabji. The dhal and sambhar was very much the same. We had blocked one cottage at Hotel Lake View near the Ooty lake. Last time also we had stayed at the same place and it is highly recommended. The tariff for a cottage is around Rs. 2000 and an extra bed costs around Rs. 300. In the evening we visited the lake and after that decided to retire for the day.
We started around 7:00 am to Pykara. We stopped at shooting medu for the obvious reason of taking photos. We decided to skip Kalhatty falls and did a quick round of Pykara. We reached our hotel around 9:30 a.m and had breakfast at the restaurant. We checked out from hotel at 10:30 a.m (Check in time is 12:00 p.m and check out time is 11:00 a.m). The next destination was the botanical gardens. We completed one quick circle around the garden. My mother bought a shawl with Toda embroidery. We decided to buy some flowers (the everlasting ones) and the home made chocolates. We were back on the road by 12:00 p.m. I had to drive behind two buses in the downhill stretch. There were lot of honkings and I witnessed some reckless driving by cab drivers like “undertaking” at hair pin bends. We had lunch at Metupalayam and reached home by 4:00 p.m. Not bad for a unplanned trip.

Cup of Joy

I write this post at the aftermath of the Great Indian Run Chase in the WC quarterfinal. I think this is an apt time to bring out the poker player in me. A great poker player (also a reasonably good leg spinner) had predicted the tie between India and England. So, what do I see in my crystal ball for the semi- finals and finals? For that, I need to go back to the league games and do some number crunching. After all, it is all about making educated guesses. I always wanted India to play Australia in the QF. The reason is two-fold. 1. Go for the jugular against the world champions when they have not cranked up to their top speed 2. Once you defeat the world champions; all the other battles will become relatively easy (World T20 2007 semi-finals). I am sure half of the population are aware and would have advocated the above mentioned theory. However, there is more into it. As Harsha Bhogle states in the WC post-match show;, “Statistics are like mini-skirts; they reveal more than they hide”. So, what is the most revealing statistic between India and Australia in a knock-out game. We all know about Johannesburg in 2003 WC Final. We need to go back to circa 1998; the inaugural ICC Knock Out (Rechristened as Champions Trophy later) in Dhaka. The tournament was between the 8 top teams (actually 9 as Zimbabwe and New Zealand played a qualifier where Alistair Campbell’s hundred was overshadowed by Chris Harris’s pyrotechnics) starting at a quarterfinal level. The opponents for India in the QF were none other than Australia captained by Steve Waugh. Remember that the year was 1998: the year in which Sachin had already scored 7 international hundreds against Australia. Sachin scored141 and took 4 wickets in that match and India won comfortably. The next ICC knock out was in Kenya in the year 2000. India had a new look team in the aftermath of the match fixing scandal. The team had a certain Yuvraj Singh (picked from U 19 level after stellar performance in the age group world cup in Sri Lanka) and a tear away fast bowler named Zaheer Khan who was talked in inner circles as a bowler who could bowl toe crushers at will (as he demonstrated against the minnows Kenya in the qualifying match).The rest as they say was history. India squandered a wining position after batting first. They lost wickets in heaps at the back end as well as the front end. Sandwiched between these collapses was a magnificent counter attacking 83 from Yuvraj Singh. Then there was that bowl to get rid of Steve Waugh. The aussie skipper was flabbergasted that an Indian bowler could bowl such an in swinging Yorker. The days of Vegan vegetarian India fast bowlers were clearly over. So statistically, Indi always had the wood against Australia in Quarterfinals and clearly I was not at all surprised with the effort yesterday and those two tyros who have become the veterans today stole the limelight after 11 years.

So, the first SF is between India and Pakistan and the statistical analysis is a no brainer. Pakistan has never won against India in a world cup match. So, it is safe to assume the passage to Final (whatever happens Pakistan simply don’t have the firepower in the batting department to overcome India). The other Quarterfinalists are more interesting. I am backing South Africa and England to come up trumps to the semifinal stage. Yes, I am predicting that England will win against Sri Lanka with the all the odds stacked against them. England has also got the better against South Africa in the last two years. Their ODI record against the proteas in the last two years is simply enviable and it includes home and away series win for the Poms. So, the final would be between two teams who have provided the maximum TRP ratings in this world cup and the last time these two teams met; the result was a tie after a roller coaster ride for 100 overs. My prediction for the winner; all I can say is that let the better team on the day wins. God save the Queen (and also the men in blue)…

Brand Value in Cricket

As soon as Sri Lanka won the toss for yesterday’s Micromax cup triangular final; I knew it was time for me to move on. Luckily, I missed the carnage on Indian bowlers. However, the die hard cricket fan in me wanted to watch India bat as there was always a glimmer of hope with Sehwag in his elements. We have seen more than once how he reduces a formidable target into a cake walk for others. Alas, it was not to be. As the match drifted on and only one result was possible. This series cannot be compared to the England Pakistan test series where fortunes of the teams swung (pun intended) by the minute. So, I started to watch the match like a movie buff who watches his favorite movie for an umpteenth time to decipher the finer nuances like the camera angles, bloopers, any other hidden meanings etc. Then slowly I started to see the impact of brands in the game of cricket.

Just before the match; we had all seen pictures of Suresh Raina practicing with Sehwag’s bat; the bat with which he had hit his 99* as well as his blistering hundred. How did I know it was Sehwag’s bat? It was easy; It was a bat having a Hero Honda label (In all probability SG manufactured the bat) with a yellow grip. So, when Raina came in to bat after Yuvaraj fell; I saw that his SG bat looked different. The sticker was bigger and it was more like an over lay. On close up; I saw that it was the same Hero Honda bat of Sehwag and Raina had put an overlay on top which had not covered the oversized Hero Honda sticker. Then, I realized the importance of brand in cricket and the intricacies of what a player should display and what should be hidden. It can range from Cola, Energy drinks to shades, shoes and trousers. We all know that Tendulkar got a contract with Adidas for his bat after his contract with MRF expired. Harbhajan Singh had gone on record that he had used a bat given by Tendulkar when he hit that blistering knock against DC. If you remember, Harbhajan still got time to put a Rebook sticker on that.

In the current scenario; I think England is the most coordinated team and gives the best value to its apparel sponsor Adidas. All the England players wear the Adidas jersey as well as trousers. Most of them flaunt an Adidas shades and the likes of KP, Sturat Broad, Finn and Ian Bell has an Adidas bat contract also. Most of the other England players stick with the traditional English willow makers like Gun & Moore or Gray Nichols. An exception here is that I remember Ian Trott wearing a Nike shoes when he hit his back to the wall 189 against Pakistan. Australians also has an apparel contract with Adidas but it is only restricted to the Jersey. Hence, we see Katich wearing a Kookabura trousers and Watson a GM one. India has a contract with Nike; but most of our players use a Rebook bat, Rebook socks, Nike/Adidas shoes etc. However, our players usually stick with Nike trousers also. I think the worst here would be Pakistan. Yesterday, I saw Imran Farhat walking in with a CA 10000 bat, Albion helmet, CA trousers; GM pads (should have got from Kamran Akmal).

It was an interesting observation to see such things in two matches played yesterday. This means that our cricketers today have much more to think of than the match…

Opening Gambit

In the nineties; when one day cricket was at it’s pinnacle (both in terms of TRP ratings as well as crowd turn outs) there was an adage that the best batsman in the team should open the innings. We saw the emergence of middle order batsmen like Tendulkar and Ganguly forge a strong opening partnership for India in many one day matches. In reality; this trend started with Mark Greatbatch in the 1992 world cup and continued with Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana in the 1996 tournament. The Sri Lankan Captain at that time, Ranathunga even gave a test opening position to Jayasuriya. He scored a record breaking 340 in 1997 as an opener. This was an interesting choice by Ranathunga as he had two qualified openers in Mahanama and Attapattu at that time. Still, he slotted Mahanama in the middle order and gave Jayasuriya an elevation to open the innings. This was radical in that era as the job of an opening batsman was to see off the new ball for the other top order batsmen. The best batsman in the team was usually slotted at No 4 position. Even though Jayasuriya was successful as an opener in tests; he was more devastating as an opener in one day internationals. Hence, we can safely say that the decision of Saurav Ganguly to play Virender Sehwag as an opening batsman at Lords in 2002 as the beginning of a new era in test match cricket. The trend continued with other teams. Justin Langer was promoted to open the innings for Australia. Today, the Australian openers are two middle order batsmen. Srilanka had Dilshan opening and Brendon McCullum is pondering on opening the innings after giving up the gloves in test match cricket. So, all these changes beg a question... Should a team play the best six batsmen in their country for test match cricket or positions should be given to specialists. Not all experiments were successful the case in point being the promotion of Yuvaraj Singh to open the innings against Australia in 2004. However, going by the current scenario in International cricket; one can safely say that the best six batsmen in the team are taking the field. So, Cricinfo might have to rethink on the All Time XI of different test playing countries.

A Tribute to Gautham Vasudeva Menon

2010-06-24

It was raining cats and dogs today afternoon in Bengaluru and I was watching TV and just flipping channels. I had decided to hog the TV only from evening as the match between Argentina and Nigeria was scheduled to start around 7:00 P.M. The bonus was a lackluster T20 I between India and Zimbabwe. Basically, I had nothing to do for two hours (Even through I had some pending office work but it is against my principles to work on week ends). So, I decided to watch one of my favorite movies; Kaakha Kaakha.

I don’t want to write a review for the movie as it is rather dated. However, I do want to write about the director of the movie Gautham Vasudeva Menon. After the stupendous success of Vinnaithandi Varuvaaya he has proven once again he has once again proven that he is top notch in handling any subjects. He has also proven that the story, screen play and direction (and other technical aspects) are the real strengths of any movie. If he can convert Simbhu to the docile Karthik (by Simbhu’s own standards) then the next hero to approach him for an image make over should be Vijay. He is really the Martin Scorsese of India and his movies are a class apart.

However, he had a humble beginning to his career and his first movie Minnale was in the cans for almost a year before it was released. He ventured to Bollywood for the re make of Minnale; Rehna Hai There Dil Mein which fared poorly at the BO. He came back to tollywood and started Kaakha Kaakha which also ran into financial trouble but became a super hit when it was released. This was followed by Gharshana (remake of Kaakha Kaakha in Telugu), Vettayaadu Villayadu, Pachaikilli Muthucharam, Vaaranam Aayiram and finally Vinnaithandi Varuvaaya.

So, why am I writing all these which look like a copy paste job from Wikipedia. I was just thinking today (after seeing Kaakha Kaakha for an umpteenth time) about why I like to watch all his movies again. The answer lies in his presentation of any subject in a unique manner that has his signature stamped over it. The fact is that he uses this signature in all his movies (a la Mani Ratnam). So, what is this unique style?

1. Narration by the Lead Character: In all his movies; we have the protagonist explaining the premise of the movie, his thoughts and even giving the introduction for the heroine. This started in Minnale with Madhavan explaining his rivalry with Abbas in the prologue. The dialogue “Avanukku Enne Pudikkale; aana Enakku avane Suthama Pudikkale" is still etched in my mind. He went a step ahead in Kaakha Kaakha as majority of the movie was a self narration. The Hero’s introduction of himself (sans any song or fight) as “ En peru Anbu Chelvan; Anbu Chelvan IPS. En perukku pinnadi erukkira moonu ezhuthu than en vaazhkai en thapam" is classic. He followed the same template in all his movies including VTV where we have the hero giving the introduction to the heroine as classy and well read.
2. Re use of props/places/persons: He usually sticks to his crew and lead actors. Surya and Jyothika have done more than one movie with him. Sameera Reddy is in his radar these days. Even the support characters are retained (Like the Bose character in Kaakha Kaakha). He also has this fetish to go to America for the shoot of many of his movies. Some places like Adayar fly over are shown prominently in more than one movie (Kaakha Kaakha, Vettayaadu Villayaadu). Lastly, he likes to be in front of the camera for at least one frame.

3. Importance to the Antagonist: I think many an actor would dream of being the villain in Gautham’s movies. The current list includes, Abbas, Jeevan, Daniel Balaji, Jyothika and Milind Soman. It is not a coincidence that all these actors have accepted these negative roles. It is because the antagonist is given equal importance and screen presence in his movies.

4. Songs/Picturization of Songs and Placement: We all can say that all the songs in his movies were blockbusters and made Harris Jayaraj a household name. Gautham- Rahman combo went a notch ahead in VTV and rendered few classics. The song picturization is also given equal importance in his movies and is always a visual treat. Usually in his movies, the songs are placed very well (only exception is VTV) and will be an extension of the situation. The song "karu karu vizhikalal un kann meyye enne kadathuthe" in PKMC is just superb in this regard.

5. Dialogues: Many of the mundane run on the mill dialogues in his movies have attained cult status. I will not call that luck. I will put it to right placement with the perfect delivery from the actors. The classic being "Sir, ulagathula evlavo ponnunga irukum pothu naa yen jessie ya love pannen". However, in Kaakha Kaakha also there is an intimate scene between Jyothika and Surya where Anbu Chelvan IPS in an emotional moment asks Maya; "Nee Ithana naal enge erunthe" to which Maya replies "Naan enge than erunthe; neenge than enne paakkale".

I am running out of words now. All, I can say that I am eagerly awaiting his next movie. Till that time, I will content myself watching all his movies again and again

Trip to Tirumala: Reloaded

I would like to thank all readers as this blog has crossed 1000 clicks. It would be even more beneficial if you can leave your views/opinions in the comments section. Once again, a big Thank You to all the readers.

A consultant’s job can some times compared to the mythical Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Some times; you feel that you are riding a gravy train: good pay and no work. However, sometimes you do feel that your employers/clients are extracting every ounce for the money they pay. I think this can be extended to the entire service industry. Last few months; my job had taken the Mr. Hyde avatar and the end result was always 16 hours marked red in my calendar for my family. (There can three splits for the 16 hours. Scenario 1: 16 hours of work. Scenario 2: 12hours of work and 4 hours of IPL and Scenario 3: 8 hours of work and 8 hours of IPL if there are two games in a day). So there were no significant road trips in the last few months after the Hyderabad getaway.

We had a pending visit to see Lord Venkateswara and when we got three days on behalf of Good Friday; there were basically no alternative suggestions. The only decision was to finalize the route and decide on the places to cover on the trip. We decided to take a circuitous route to Tirupathi so as to cover multiple places. It was decided to go directly to Kanchipuram and visit Ekambareshwar temple (Prithvi Lingam), Kamakshi Amman temple and Varadaraja Perumal temple. Then, from there to Tirupathi via Thiruthani. The return journey was planned in a much more straight forward manner to Bangalore; the only stop being at Kanipakkam in Chittoor district.

We started around 5:30 AM on 09-04-2010. Kanchipuram is around 263 km from Bangalore. The entire journey is through NH4. The route is Bangalore-Kolar-Mulbagal-Palamaner-Chittoor-Ranipet-Kanchipuram. We reached there around 10:30 A.M. We visited Ekambareshwar temple. The shiva lingam here has a very unique shape. Our next destination was Kamakshi Amman temple. There was heavy rush and we had to wait for an hour before getting the darshan. This meant we were able to come out from the temple only by 12:00 P.M. So, we decided to skip Varadharaja Prumal temple as it would be closed till 3:30 P.M. We had lunch at Sangeetha and continued our journey to Thiruthani via Arakkonam.

Thiruthani Temple

Beast getting a Makeover @ Thiruthani

There were not much of a crowd at Thiruthani and we were able to get a good darshan. I was able to cover one Pancha bootha sthala (Earth) and one Aru padai veedu on the same day.

We reached Tirupathi around 4:30 P.M and checked into our Hotel (Sindhu International) booked via TravelGuru. The hotel is situated on Tiruchanoor road and just half a kilometer away from Padmavathy Amman temple or Alamelu Mangapuram. We went there around 7:00 p.m. The crowd at this temple foretold the expected rush at Tirumala. However, I was confident that not many people would climb up. The next day; we started around 6:00 A.M from Alipiri and started climbing up. By the time we reached Galigopuram; we realized that almost everyone has started climbing the hill. We had to wait for 90 minutes to get the free ticket (Last time when I visited; we got in five mniutes).

This ticket will get you a Darshan in 9-10 hours on any given day

We reached Tirumala by 12:30 P.M and realized that all the queues has reached the road from Vaikuntam queue complex. A helpful policeman appraised us with the approximate time for queue. According to him; it would take 9-10 hours to get darshan standing in the pedestrian queue and around 6 hours if you stand in the Rs. 300 queue. The Rs. 300 queue is a new innovation by TTD where in you just need to stand in the queue. In between; you will come across an Andhra Bank counter where you need to pay Rs. 300 and then you continue your journey. No hassles of finger printing and reporting on a specific time. I forgot, you will get two laddus also. Yes, it is still two laddus per person. They have not yet implemented the four laddus per person amendment. All officials in unison said that if we reach Tirumala by 4:00 A.M the next morning; we can get the darshan in 2 hours standing in the Rs. 300 queue. We took a jeep and came back to our hotel. We got information that the check post at Alipiri would open by 3:00 A.M. So, the next day early morning; we were back with beast. I got a surprise seeing the number of vehicles at the toll gate at 2:30 A.M!! All vehicles were thoroughly checked and bags scanned. Luckily, we didn’t have any bags. I saw that Kerala registration car was getting special attention and checking was done much more thoroughly. I am not sure of the reason; but I think we can all make an intelligent guess. The ghat roads are maintained by TTD and it is one way. There are lots of hair pin bends; however, we can drive through the right side of the road feeling safe that no vehicle is going to come from the opposite direction. There is parking available right near Vaikuntam queue complex II. We joined the Rs 300 queue around 4:00 A.M. The queue moved very fast and we were able to finish the darshan, put money in Sri Vari hundi and collect laddus by 6:00 A.M. We visited Srikalahsti after that and reached our hotel by 9:00 A.M. As, we had breakfast at a APTDC outlet near Sriklahasti; we checked out by 10:00 A.M. Our next destination was the famous Kanipakkam Vinayakar temple. We reached there by 12:00 P.M and was surprised to see the queue. The Vinayakar is a swayambu that came out of a well. It seems that the size of this prathishta is increasing year after year. We started on our way back by 1:00 P.M and had lunch at a Nandi Plaza near Palamner. It was very difficult to drive after lunch as I hardly had a wink of sleep the previous night. I had to use all my faculties to concentrate on driving. At around 4:00 P.M; we stopped at a Café Coffee Day outlet and had a cup of strong Cappuccino. After that, I was totally rejuvenated and reached home by 5:00 P.M.

Crowning Glory

26-04-2010 12:13 A.M

They missed it by a run in 2008. Their campaign got stopped at the semi final stage by an inspired side in 2009. However, there was no way anyone could deny CSK the crowning glory this year. As, I was harping in my previous post; there was bound to be a memory loss for Jason Bourne and it happened in the big final. In the first innings; they dropped Raina two times (on 13 & 28) and I guess Raina would have told SRT; paaji your amnesiacs just dropped the DLF IPL trophy twice. I think Bourne suffered memory loss big time during the innings break and mistook Harbhajan Singh for Kieron Pollard and sent him at two down. Only after six wickets had fallen; he realized that the real KP was sitting in the dug out raring to go and have a hit: boy did he hit. However, our own Maapilai had one more card up his sleeve. In the last post; I had talked about the captain needing grey cells to win this one. We got a taste of intellectual Dhoni (An endorsement for Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd that a litre of cows milk a day gives than aur mann ki shakti) when he placed a straight mid-off and a wide long-off for Pollard and he got snapped by Hayden at the straight mid-off.

I had been vociferous supporter of CSK from the beginning and now you guys have shown that you rock and is the best team in IPL. Hopefully, Dhoni will also hold aloft the T20 world cup in a month's time.