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.
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