The Last Over & The Decisive Tackle

So I am watching the the second 20-20 international between India and New Zealand..And suddenly out of the blue, its down to the last 2 overs and finally down to the last over.....Since Dhoni and Praveen Kumar made us world champions,we have all gone with the captain's instinct in these tight situations....And as Irfan Pathan bowled those first three balls,I could not help but think that Dhoni was talismanic (yeah I know he could have brought on Sehwag or the other Pathan, but then he is Dhoni..;))...

But more importantly, I was also left thinking about all the other last over games that I had been a part of ....All of us, as amateur sportsmen, must have gone through those moments...Whether its gully cricket (that i have never played- does gully cricket exist outside Mumbai?) or something in college or university circuits...How did we do in that last over...Whether batting or bowling or maybe even captaining a side..?? Do we still look back at those memories with an all knowing smile of things well done or with a hesitant smirk of having missed out on the glory? Or has those memories become too inconsequential to even merit remembrance?


Years ago when I was part of my college team in football/soccer (playing in defense), I came across that "decisive tackle" in a football/soccer match....Man-marking a guy twice my size and skill, I did pretty well for about 15 minutes..til I heard a dear friend(and a team-mate) shout at me to bring the guy down..but before i reacted, the goal had been scored..that was my "last over"....Beaten clean and fair in skills, I could have still brought that other guy down before he had a chance to take a shot...with maybe a penalty as a result..but that at least would have stopped the flow and given us a greater chance...I failed to do it...and like Mel Gibson believed in his Braveheart speech, I can give anything in my life to get out of bed now and go back for another chance to stop that marauding striker from taking a look at goal.....That chance, in reality, will never come.....But I cannot but try and look at opportunities to find redemption....Maybe it will come at a friendly game in the park or maybe even bowling to my fridge at home (which right now looks the more plausible situation)....

Bottom line, i think, we will never be done with our "last over" or that "decisive tackle"...There will be too many memories that will keep us hooked as another final over drama unfolds on television...Or another EPL match take the turn for the unexpected....Unless we were never on the wrong side of the final over or never failed to make that perfect tackle...

We will be there....And some self of us will be there right on the pitch....Somehow wanting to get out and do that final over right..Or get that tackle in place before its too late...Maybe its not true for for all of us...But for all the rest of us, who have played amateur sports with more than what our hearts and body could offer, I would be surprised if there was no last over that we would not want to re-bowl or make that tackle that we did not....

Here's bowling to my fridge...

Cheers!!!

;))

Every Slumdog has his day

So it finally comes to pass...Bhanu Athaiya will no longer be a loner..she has company....and Slumdog Millionaire takes it place in the pantheon of great Indian cinema...the only disconcerting fact being that it is a Hollywood film based on an Indian novel and therefore requiring locations in India,Indian artistes and the Indian touch....kind of like Gandhi I presume....An Oscar sweep and Bhanu Athaiya is part of it....No fanfare then...But no, this time it is different....Even political parties have gone to the extent of stating that this is an example of "Achieving India"..versus "Shining India"...Which I think would have been validated had Lagaan won the award...Bad timing for "shining India" , I guess...

I was kind of surprised when one of the early morning e-mails I read was from a close friend who wrote that he was happy because of SM ....and then there was another colleague who had changed his YM icon to "Slumdog sweeps Oscars"...I had somehow begin to believe that IIM grads were far removed from the world....It was nice to see people connected and reacting to mundane events..But not until I had seen Asif Mandvi in the John Stewart show late that night, that I realized the significance of the event...And what the world made of it....And what Indians made of it...

Make no mistake...I cannot, for the life of me, distinguish bad cinema from good or great.....But having watched Bollywood offerings of all kind so religiously over the past 10 years or so, I know for a fact that I have seen Slumdog before....Not at the Oscars winning everything and anything in sight.....But in much more humbler settings....

So why should we not celebrate Slumdog.....Its after all based in India....And it has Indian artistes....And AR Rahman , we all know, deserves an Oscar with or without Slumdog......

Theres no reason why we should not...As long as we remember that this is not India arriving and conquering at the Oscars.....This is a Danny Boyle film....And this is a beautiful story that has been so enchantingly captured on screen... This is Bollywood from an outsiders point of view...A point of view that moves us to accept that view as our own....

We will be outsourcing movies to India in the future....Thats Colbert take on the Oscars that I hear right now as I type...That day has passed Colbert by long ago....But the real outsourcing deal will have to wait...We are not there yet...That does not mean we cannot celebrate a British film based on an Indian novel and showcasing Indian talent.....We should...As long as we know what we are celebrating, I guess...

As that song goes...Jai Ho....