Bokango, Baabulog, Jee Em & Cricket
2006, trip to Karnala and the Industrial Visit to Aurangabad. These three places or events are where I got to know a lot of my classmates and also some of the seniors. Within a span of 4 to 6 months, I managed to catch hold of few classmates who later became good friends and also few seniors became good friends. When it comes to mingling with the seniors, we normally hangout at restraunts or stay in college and have a gala time mocking some fellow students or laughing about something that happened in the past. But there is only one thing that brings us all together in seriousness i.e. the game of cricket - playing cricket.
We form teams of 6 to 8 and go to other colleges to have fun and obviously make an effort to win. Let me take you through a small journey in which we friends together participated in various cricket tournaments and various things we achieved.
The first ever tournament we played was at Azad Maidan which was held by Hinduja Collage. Hours of practice and hard work took us into high spirits. Our team was called ‘Bokango’ (I don’t know why). According to us the rules were stupid and all the boys in the team were upset. Here is one of the tweaked rules: the bowler’s arm shouldn’t go beyond his body or below his knee. And the match was played under-arm. Well, we lost the match and didn’t make it to the second round. Hey! But we were not sad at all. We completely forgot about that match and came back to our original senses i.e. pure fun and mischief.
The second tournament was Adorea ’07 in Jan, held by the BMS Department of our very own college. One thing all of us were happy was that the match was over-arm but not without some tweaked rules. This time there were two teams representing BMM. One was captained by Vijay Christdoss of FY BMM and the other was captained by Dhruv Deshmukh of SY BMM. Our team was named 'Babulog' because one of our team members called all of us by this name so we named it Babulog. Once again we lost in the first round to a team called Young Generation. Another first round exit. Here is an interesting fact: the seniors who were playing in our team were the runners up of the last version of Adorea in 2005.
After a gap of 10 long months we made an entry back to serious cricket. This time it was within our college premises. The tournament was organized by the hostelites of Mackichan Hall. The rules were absolutely absurd (to us). A small box and a 5 over match where one could easily score 80 to 90. We managed to pile up 70 odd runs for our opponents who were the 3rd team representing BMM. They were called M-5 and we were called Jee Em (for specific reasons). We were outdone by our colleagues and another 1st round exit. I still remember we practiced for about 4 days and each day we practiced for 3 hours.
After we got ousted from this tournament we had decided we would never ever play cricket together again. There was almost a rift within the team. A friendly rift though. One good thing is we never played blame games at all. Few weeks later we heard about another tournament held by Sydenham Collage at Oval Maidan. This time it was proper cricket rules which brought a wide smile on our faces. One thing that was bothering us was that we reached on match day without a single minute of practice.
One rule exited us was that, the amount of runs scored in the first over would be doubled. Cool huh? One of our team mates couldn’t play the first match as he had some other business to attend. We called in a fellow student, Nilesh, who stayed nearby to fill in the empty slot and it was a well made decision to call him. This was the first match where Karan Pradhan took over as captain taking the mantle from Vijay Christdoss who was the captain for all the previous tournaments. Vijay this time was deputy to Karan.
The first match was against Jai Hind College and we won the toss and elected to field. We were set a target of 44 runs in 5 overs. A good start was provided by the openers and later the captain and vice captain saw their team through to the second round. This was the happiest moment of all our team mates as this was the first ever victory as a team in the past year and a half. All of us went ahead with a great amount of confidence to the second round as we faced the hosts, Sydenham Collage. We again won the toss and elected to field again. We had to chase 57 runs in 5 overs which eventually was done by Varad Naik and Darius Mistry. Varad opened the innings and remained unbeaten by hitting the winning stroke by a six. This win took us to the finals, a goal that all of us couldn’t achieve in the past year and a half. We had a 2 hour break which was refreshing for all or us. It was the first ever final for us except for the seniors who achieved this feat 2 years ago at Adorea 2005.
Here we are at our very first final after joining Wilson Collage, BMM. We won the toss again and elected to field. One of our team mates, Benny Gladston made way for the returning Josline Harris who bowled well in the match. A small team huddle and a pep talk by the captain. We bowled our hearts out and bowled out the opponents, Elphinstone Collage, for 78 runs. This time our batting didn’t click and we didn’t fire on all cylinders as we were bowled out for a mere 29 runs. We were disappointed but when we looked back at the past 18 months we were satisfied and happy about our recent achievement.
It indeed was a great tournament for all of us as we went home without any regrets. We only hope to carry this form ahead and look to repeat the same performance in 2008 with all the confidence and success. Although we would miss the services of Darius and Karan as they would be completing their final year in mass media. But we as a team would still continue to take part in as many events as possible and be victorious and bring smiles on peoples faces.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Mahabaleshwar and Me
If you ask a bunch of young kids where they would like to go for a short vacation with friends or family, seldom will you here the place Mahabaleshwar. Mostly it would be Lonavala or Khandala or a small resort to chill out and have a gala time.
Mahabaleshwar lies on the eastern part of the Shayadri range in Maharashtra with a modest population of around 5000 residents and a significant amount of tourists visiting there on frequent bases. Going during the monsoons always brings a peculiar feeling and experience all together. The picturesque roads from Mumbai towards Mahabaleshwar and the scenic backdrops at Mahabaleshwar and places around it just add on to the excitement and fun at which is know as the ‘Queen of Hill Stations’. One of the most significant attractions to me was the Panchganga temple at Old Mahabaleshwar. The climb towards the temple had two other smaller temples. The first one on the way to the Panchganga temple was where it is believed that a small part of the land took shape into a rudraksha seed naturally and people started to worship it and make a temple for it. Right opposite to this small temple is where the Nandi Temple stands in which there is the statue of Nandi to which devout followers whisper in Nandi’s ears believing it would grant their wishes. Just another 50 steps on the stair-cases stands the rather mysterious and famous Panchganga Temple where a lot of devotees come and bathe in a pond placed within the temple. The water that flows in the pond comes from five different river sources and another sixth one which is a hidden river. Climbing back down the hills from the temple, I saw the small huts covered with dry leaves know as ‘neche’ in the local tongue. These leaves are left to dry and later used during monsoons to protect themselves from rain and also keep away heat during summers.
Another breath taking place was the Needle Hole Point, Elephant Point and Kates Point which are different places situated in one place itself (I know it sounds confusing). Its just that there is a rock which looks like an Elephant ( I’m serious) and the gap between the trunk and the cliff is know as the Needle Hole Point (I’m serious again) and the small place above the Elephant is know was Kates Point (Hey! This time I am serious. OK??).
Mahabaleshwar is distinctly known for its cultivation of strawberries and other products derived from this fruit. Strawberry jams, squashes, syrups and out of all the delicious strawberry and cream. Makai or Corn is another crop that is cultivated and is quite prominent among the locals especially the Makai pattice, makai pakoda or the famous Bhutta that we get in Mumbai is boiled and given in cups with a dash of butter and some spices. What seemed to be more astounding or rather funny were the sign boards which had a lot of grammatical and spelling blunders. But when asked a local, he said that the government did not take care of these signs and only the local inhabitants have to spend their own money and put up sign boards. There is a local bazaar that is put up on every Tuesdays and Saturdays on the way to Wilson Point, the highest point in Mahabaleshwar.
All these sights and scenes, the food, the tourist spots amalgamate into a holistic aspect of one of Maharashtra’s tourist destinations. It is quite strange that the MTDC (Maharashtra Tourism and Development Corporation) has not publicised a beautiful and magnificent place like Mahabaleshwar. Other places to visit are the Pratapgarh Fort which is 22 kilometres from Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani which is famous for its educational institutions and is just a half hour drive from Mahabaleshwar.
If Kerala is known as God’s own country and Madhya Pradesh known as the heart of India, I certainly would term Mahabaleshwar as the ‘Queen of all Hill Stations’ not only in Maharashtra but atleast in western India.
Mahabaleshwar lies on the eastern part of the Shayadri range in Maharashtra with a modest population of around 5000 residents and a significant amount of tourists visiting there on frequent bases. Going during the monsoons always brings a peculiar feeling and experience all together. The picturesque roads from Mumbai towards Mahabaleshwar and the scenic backdrops at Mahabaleshwar and places around it just add on to the excitement and fun at which is know as the ‘Queen of Hill Stations’. One of the most significant attractions to me was the Panchganga temple at Old Mahabaleshwar. The climb towards the temple had two other smaller temples. The first one on the way to the Panchganga temple was where it is believed that a small part of the land took shape into a rudraksha seed naturally and people started to worship it and make a temple for it. Right opposite to this small temple is where the Nandi Temple stands in which there is the statue of Nandi to which devout followers whisper in Nandi’s ears believing it would grant their wishes. Just another 50 steps on the stair-cases stands the rather mysterious and famous Panchganga Temple where a lot of devotees come and bathe in a pond placed within the temple. The water that flows in the pond comes from five different river sources and another sixth one which is a hidden river. Climbing back down the hills from the temple, I saw the small huts covered with dry leaves know as ‘neche’ in the local tongue. These leaves are left to dry and later used during monsoons to protect themselves from rain and also keep away heat during summers.
Another breath taking place was the Needle Hole Point, Elephant Point and Kates Point which are different places situated in one place itself (I know it sounds confusing). Its just that there is a rock which looks like an Elephant ( I’m serious) and the gap between the trunk and the cliff is know as the Needle Hole Point (I’m serious again) and the small place above the Elephant is know was Kates Point (Hey! This time I am serious. OK??).
Mahabaleshwar is distinctly known for its cultivation of strawberries and other products derived from this fruit. Strawberry jams, squashes, syrups and out of all the delicious strawberry and cream. Makai or Corn is another crop that is cultivated and is quite prominent among the locals especially the Makai pattice, makai pakoda or the famous Bhutta that we get in Mumbai is boiled and given in cups with a dash of butter and some spices. What seemed to be more astounding or rather funny were the sign boards which had a lot of grammatical and spelling blunders. But when asked a local, he said that the government did not take care of these signs and only the local inhabitants have to spend their own money and put up sign boards. There is a local bazaar that is put up on every Tuesdays and Saturdays on the way to Wilson Point, the highest point in Mahabaleshwar.
All these sights and scenes, the food, the tourist spots amalgamate into a holistic aspect of one of Maharashtra’s tourist destinations. It is quite strange that the MTDC (Maharashtra Tourism and Development Corporation) has not publicised a beautiful and magnificent place like Mahabaleshwar. Other places to visit are the Pratapgarh Fort which is 22 kilometres from Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani which is famous for its educational institutions and is just a half hour drive from Mahabaleshwar.
If Kerala is known as God’s own country and Madhya Pradesh known as the heart of India, I certainly would term Mahabaleshwar as the ‘Queen of all Hill Stations’ not only in Maharashtra but atleast in western India.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Few sips: Behind Bars
Screech!! A sound of a vehicle stopping was heard and as I saw through the iron bars, a tall man with a broad chest and with a mustache that looked like a Harley Davidson 750 cc handle walked in. You may be wondering what iron bars was I looking through. I was locked up at the police station along with 3 other friends of mine for using swords and shot-guns in public. It was around 7.30 in the evening when a couple of friends and myself were working on a photography project that we had to submit as part of our Media course.
Here is the reason why my friends and I were under custody for a night. One of my friends, Mr. Chabdul wrapped a scarf around his face to get a look of a terrorist and another friend of mine Mr. Rahul who naturally had quite a long and dense beard too dressed up like a terrorist. (As if his face was not enough to depict a terrorist). As we were clicking pictures posing as terrorists, we heard the police sirens and just shrugged of our shoulders and continued our work. But after a few seconds we saw a police van heading straight towards us and just before it stopped few policemen jumped off the van with their guns pointing at us. The whole situation became so scary that it automatically made us drop the swords and guns and Chabdul and Rahul removed their scarves and my friend and me shut our cameras off and raised our hands. By this time, the whole campus came to know about the series of events and later we too came to know that one of the residents had informed the police about us. (This happened just a day after the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena attacked the taxi drivers). A couple of other police constables got hold of us and we were pushed in the van and immediately taken to the police station and put behind bars. What a gruesome 30 minutes we had!
Now one of the senior inspectors started to interrogate us by asking our personal details and the reason for carry such hazardous equipment with us and whether we were part of any political banner. We tried explaining him that all we did was pure photography and it was just a college assignment. But he was not willing to take our statements as the final answer. (Common now! who would? Very rare do you have people believing students). He also asked us that which kind of course or college, asks students to use weapons for assignments and who is the one who gave such assignments. We didn’t want to involve any of our professors and wanted to resolve the matters all by our selves (Ya right! As if we were Lord Mountbatten’s generation). The inspector told us that we would have to spend the night in jail and the next morning we would be taken to the court where we would have to justify our reasons. One whole night in jail? Oh my God! What would my parents think of me? Will any girl marry me? What would my friends say? Will the public accept me again in society? What about the nice fish curry mom made that night? These were the questions that came up my mind that night and made me nervous every second.
It was around 9.30 p.m. when my friend Barad gave signals of what I call ‘The Stomach Growling Disease’ universally known as ‘Hunger’. We all were feeling hungry and the biggest question was who would take up the daunting task of asking the inspector for food? We tried flipping a coin but there were four of us, we tried doing ‘eeny meeny mainy moh…’ but that too didn’t work because we forgot those lines.
Finally, Barad took up the challenge and since his mother-tongue is Marathi and it always comes in handy while dealing with government officials in a city like Mumbai. He uttered, “oh saheb sarvana bhuk lagli aahe” (we all are feeling hungry) to which the inspector replied in funny way saying, “Kai re ikde jhunka bakar kendra disto ka tula” (Is this a fast food centre?) Then we too uttered in Hindi that we hadn’t eaten since afternoon and pleaded him to provide some vada pavs (Mumbai’s eternal fast food) and something to drink. He benignly sent a constable and ordered for some food. One of my friends Chabdul was drowsy as hell and his eyes turned red. Just as the food arrived, one of the inspectors saw his crimson-like eyes and asked him, “kya tu nasha kar ke aaya hai? (Have u doped and come?) A stunned silence among all of us and we were scared to death after listening this. We again had to convince him that we don’t involve in such kind of activities and we were just tensed about the series of events that had happened so far. We immediately gobbled up the food and drank the cold drinks and the whole night we were thinking what to do to get out of this place. It was almost 12.30 in the night and we finally made a decision to call our professor who teaches photography and explain him the situation. But he was not in town and we thought that if we call our course coordinator he would get very upset on us. (As it is he is already upset with our whole class. Sigh!)
After a few minutes all of us were feeling sleepy and Chabdul had already fallen fast asleep on the rough floor and Rahul, Barad and I also leaned against the wall and fell asleep. Wack! Tang! Cling! Wack! These were the noises we heard and as we opened our eyes it was already morning and the inspector informed us by striking his lathi on the door indicating that we would be leaving for the court. But finally we decided to call our course coordinator and a couple of other friends, Sharmin and Puyash too, who were also involved in the assignment but were no present on that day. Our coordinator walked in with his palm on his forehead and in his usual high pitch tone that skyrockets the roof saying, “You guys give me trouble inside class as well as outside class”. All we could do is just giggle and at the same time feel sorry for what he has done for us through out our course. He came and spoke to the officials and managed to get us out of the jail. We were all very happy but Barad was very sad as the sword was his and the police had to seize it. Being inside the jail was a totally different experience and on top of that getting bailed out of jail was even better (Ekdum Filmy Ishtyle). God knows what went through the mind of our coordinator at that point of time as it is very difficult to read this persons mind. (I think God too didn’t know).
Overall it was a new but fun experience and later this whole event became a point to talk in college among classmates and teachers too. What a night! Having food in the Jail, trying to convince the inspector and overall, acting like big-shots by trying to solve the matter by ourselves when we had a great person like our course coordinator who finally came and rescued us. This definitely would become a story to tell to all my friends, I thought, as I walked out of the police station and only Barad could do a fine job by narrating this story to our seniors in his ever flamboyant style.
Screech!! A sound of a vehicle stopping was heard and as I saw through the iron bars, a tall man with a broad chest and with a mustache that looked like a Harley Davidson 750 cc handle walked in. You may be wondering what iron bars was I looking through. I was locked up at the police station along with 3 other friends of mine for using swords and shot-guns in public. It was around 7.30 in the evening when a couple of friends and myself were working on a photography project that we had to submit as part of our Media course.
Here is the reason why my friends and I were under custody for a night. One of my friends, Mr. Chabdul wrapped a scarf around his face to get a look of a terrorist and another friend of mine Mr. Rahul who naturally had quite a long and dense beard too dressed up like a terrorist. (As if his face was not enough to depict a terrorist). As we were clicking pictures posing as terrorists, we heard the police sirens and just shrugged of our shoulders and continued our work. But after a few seconds we saw a police van heading straight towards us and just before it stopped few policemen jumped off the van with their guns pointing at us. The whole situation became so scary that it automatically made us drop the swords and guns and Chabdul and Rahul removed their scarves and my friend and me shut our cameras off and raised our hands. By this time, the whole campus came to know about the series of events and later we too came to know that one of the residents had informed the police about us. (This happened just a day after the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena attacked the taxi drivers). A couple of other police constables got hold of us and we were pushed in the van and immediately taken to the police station and put behind bars. What a gruesome 30 minutes we had!
Now one of the senior inspectors started to interrogate us by asking our personal details and the reason for carry such hazardous equipment with us and whether we were part of any political banner. We tried explaining him that all we did was pure photography and it was just a college assignment. But he was not willing to take our statements as the final answer. (Common now! who would? Very rare do you have people believing students). He also asked us that which kind of course or college, asks students to use weapons for assignments and who is the one who gave such assignments. We didn’t want to involve any of our professors and wanted to resolve the matters all by our selves (Ya right! As if we were Lord Mountbatten’s generation). The inspector told us that we would have to spend the night in jail and the next morning we would be taken to the court where we would have to justify our reasons. One whole night in jail? Oh my God! What would my parents think of me? Will any girl marry me? What would my friends say? Will the public accept me again in society? What about the nice fish curry mom made that night? These were the questions that came up my mind that night and made me nervous every second.
It was around 9.30 p.m. when my friend Barad gave signals of what I call ‘The Stomach Growling Disease’ universally known as ‘Hunger’. We all were feeling hungry and the biggest question was who would take up the daunting task of asking the inspector for food? We tried flipping a coin but there were four of us, we tried doing ‘eeny meeny mainy moh…’ but that too didn’t work because we forgot those lines.
Finally, Barad took up the challenge and since his mother-tongue is Marathi and it always comes in handy while dealing with government officials in a city like Mumbai. He uttered, “oh saheb sarvana bhuk lagli aahe” (we all are feeling hungry) to which the inspector replied in funny way saying, “Kai re ikde jhunka bakar kendra disto ka tula” (Is this a fast food centre?) Then we too uttered in Hindi that we hadn’t eaten since afternoon and pleaded him to provide some vada pavs (Mumbai’s eternal fast food) and something to drink. He benignly sent a constable and ordered for some food. One of my friends Chabdul was drowsy as hell and his eyes turned red. Just as the food arrived, one of the inspectors saw his crimson-like eyes and asked him, “kya tu nasha kar ke aaya hai? (Have u doped and come?) A stunned silence among all of us and we were scared to death after listening this. We again had to convince him that we don’t involve in such kind of activities and we were just tensed about the series of events that had happened so far. We immediately gobbled up the food and drank the cold drinks and the whole night we were thinking what to do to get out of this place. It was almost 12.30 in the night and we finally made a decision to call our professor who teaches photography and explain him the situation. But he was not in town and we thought that if we call our course coordinator he would get very upset on us. (As it is he is already upset with our whole class. Sigh!)
After a few minutes all of us were feeling sleepy and Chabdul had already fallen fast asleep on the rough floor and Rahul, Barad and I also leaned against the wall and fell asleep. Wack! Tang! Cling! Wack! These were the noises we heard and as we opened our eyes it was already morning and the inspector informed us by striking his lathi on the door indicating that we would be leaving for the court. But finally we decided to call our course coordinator and a couple of other friends, Sharmin and Puyash too, who were also involved in the assignment but were no present on that day. Our coordinator walked in with his palm on his forehead and in his usual high pitch tone that skyrockets the roof saying, “You guys give me trouble inside class as well as outside class”. All we could do is just giggle and at the same time feel sorry for what he has done for us through out our course. He came and spoke to the officials and managed to get us out of the jail. We were all very happy but Barad was very sad as the sword was his and the police had to seize it. Being inside the jail was a totally different experience and on top of that getting bailed out of jail was even better (Ekdum Filmy Ishtyle). God knows what went through the mind of our coordinator at that point of time as it is very difficult to read this persons mind. (I think God too didn’t know).
Overall it was a new but fun experience and later this whole event became a point to talk in college among classmates and teachers too. What a night! Having food in the Jail, trying to convince the inspector and overall, acting like big-shots by trying to solve the matter by ourselves when we had a great person like our course coordinator who finally came and rescued us. This definitely would become a story to tell to all my friends, I thought, as I walked out of the police station and only Barad could do a fine job by narrating this story to our seniors in his ever flamboyant style.
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