Tag: india

India win 2024 Cricket T20 World Cup!

Congratulations Team India for winning the final of 2024 Cricket T20 World Cup against South Africa! Deserving champs!👏
Cool to hold nerve towards the end of the match when the Safs were threatening to run away with it.👌
Relief to win a major cricket championship after coming close many times in the past decade and not closing the deal. That monkey is off the back for Indian cricket team now🙏
Poor Safs can’t seem to shake off the chokers tag. No cigar at the end of another major cricket tournament. 🙏
Sport is fun, sport can be uplifting! 😊
Sport is cruel, sport can be soul-crushing! 😢
South Africa’s time will come. Not today though!
It’s Indian cricket team’s time in the sun! 👍🙏

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/icc-men-s-t20-world-cup-2024-1411166/india-vs-south-africa-final-1415755/live-match-blog?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0O7Jo6xXJDg9YQxMfaTXJg7ivb3iB-OYUdSUiknx4VYut72Ic59cjd7TU_aem_veCKoATSCl1L3tI4lzqtTg

Another day, same feeling! ☹️


Australia’s dominant victory over India in 2023 Cricket World Cup final took me back 20 years. Beginning of 2003 saw me move to Madison, Wisconsin for work after a few months in India with parent Indian company in the 2nd half of 2002. I wouldn’t advise January as the best time to visit Madison, especially if traveling from warmer climes. Wife and son joined me in Madison after 3-4 months. The interregnum was mostly like bachelor life as most of my project team were young guys (in their 20s) and single which meant project work till late in the evening during the workdays and activities as a team during weekend that also included playing cricket. For a very short period initially, during a very short stint, I was the vice-captain of a cricket team we had formed (Over the past 2 decades that team is now one of many teams that are part of a Midwest cricket league). 😊

In 2003 the Cricket World Cup was hosted jointly in Africa, in February-March, by South Africa, Kenya and Zimbabwe. 14 nations featured in that World Cup and they were split into 2 groups of 7 each with the top 3 from each group advancing to Super 6 stage, to determine the semi-finalists and on to the final which was played on March 23, a Sunday. India and Pakistan were in the same group of 7 and their group match was on March 1, a Saturday. India-Pakistan matches generally have a lot of edge to them and attract huge crowds. With time on our hands and cricket fully in our hearts and minds we (co-workers and me) decided to go to a downtown place in Madison where the match was being aired live. We trooped into the place on Friday night and it was jampacked with India and Pakistan supporters. The atmosphere was electric, the excitement palpable and the result very satisfying to Indian supporters as the team easily cantered to victory. 3 weeks later India stormed into the final with Australia as their opponent on March 23. 👍

Arrived the day of the final and duly arrived we at the same downtown place with high expectations due to very strong performance by India earlier in the tournament. The match in itself turned out to be a big disappointment as Australia scored a very dominant victory on the back of sensational batting by their captain and another player who rose to the occasion. The wind was knocked out of Indian team’s sails by the time it was India’s turn to bat. On big occasions, like the finals of an international tournament, the Aussie team do not play just to win. They play to make a statement and so it turned out then. And 20 years later…..thus it turned out today! Some differences in the script though. Australia batted first then, India batted first today. Australia were the undefeated team prior to the final then, India were the undefeated team during this World Cup, prior to the final. Back then I watched live, this morning I just followed the score occasionally. Back then I was a more passionate supporter, now I am more of a dispassionate observer (supporting my team, of course, in a quiet manner). No matter, same result. Another day, same feeling. If it’s not meant to be, it’s not meant to be. Life is about acceptance. Sport is fun and feels more invested and fun to identify with and support a team while the competition lasts. There are more important things in life though. I now look at sporting feats as more of an opportunity to see and appreciate the possibilities expand when individuals and teams pushed themselves to achieve higher and better! 👍🙏

Bouncebackability! 🙏


Last week was quite a week and witnessed a few firsts!

India successfully landed its Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft on the moon and in the process becoming the first-ever mission to land near the moon’s south pole! 👏That’s cool as scientists believe water ice deposits exist near the south pole of the moon. Kudos to the scientists and all those who had a role in making the mission a success! 👏

Last Sunday, in one of the best matches in recent times, Novak Djokovic won the Western & Southern Open title in Cincinnati with a victory over Carlos Alcaraz in a three-set match that lasted almost 4 hours! Setting aside the # of majors won IMHO Djokovic is the GOAT for a simple reason: He has played so many thrillers in majors with other contemporaries who have been part of the GOAT conversation and has now already played a few classics against the best of the next generation.

What do India’s lunar mission and Djokovic’s recent victory have in common?

One of the qualities I have great admiration for is bouncebackability. Failing after coming very close to success and then overcoming soul-crushing setback/s to emerge victorious takes special strength, focus, ability and willingness to learn from unfavorable outcome/s of the past. 👍

India’s earlier moon lander and orbiter attempt in 2019, Chandrayaan-2, was a mix of success and failure in that orbiter was successfully put into operation but the lander was lost in attempt to land. That makes the Chandrayaan-3 success sweeter! 😊

Carlos Alcaraz beat Novak Djokovic in 2023 Wimbledon men’s tennis final in a 5-set thriller after losing to Djokovic in the 2023 French Open men’s tennis final in a bit of a disappointing end to a match that was shaping up to be a thriller (due to cramps Alcaraz suffered after winning the 2nd set). Both Alcaraz and Djokovic’s have shown amazing ability to bounce back after crushing defeats and we can expect some more great tennis when they play again. 👍

There were other historic firsts too last week but that’s a discussion for a different time 🙂

As Shelby Ford v Ferrari so shall be India v Australia!

The Indian cricket team recorded one of the most remarkable come-from-behind victories in sports by beating Australia in the recently concluded Test Match series. 👏 Made all the more memorable by the fact Indian team was playing away, with Australian team having the advantage of home conditions and crowd support, and by the time the last match started the Indian cricket team had lost more than half their starting eleven to injuries sustained in games played during the tour or in training! With injuries mounting Team India was akin to an undersized Joe Frazier taking on much bigger and much more fancied Ali in “Thrilla in Manila” and fighting the last few rounds virtually blind due to his eyes closing from Ali punches in earlier rounds. Under the circumstances it would have been expected that the Indian management might throw in the towel to prevent more serious injuries like the Foreman team did then. Instead the Indian cricket team rose up after each knockdown and took the fight to the Australians till the end, emerging bruised and battered but not broken and eventually victorious 👌 (Trivia: If Frazier corner had let him fight as he wanted to he would have won Thrilla in Manila as Ali was so drained out he could barely stand up and fell down in the ring after the 14th round when he was announced as the victor 😓)

The series victory would be akin to a Porsche getting lapped in Nürburgring, no less, by a car barely put together with whatever spare parts were available! Or, the real life equivalent of Shelby Ford emerging victorious over much more fancied Ferrari in the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans. As in that race the underdog team, the Indian cricket team, started the tour disastrously and still found enough strength and resolve to defeat the Aussies confidently and convincingly. It was as if God ordained “As Shelby Ford v Ferrari in 1966 so shall be India v Australia in 2021”! 🙂

The quality of cricket itself was far from perfect, yet the battles to gain supremacy were riveting and thrilling throughout. So much so that the series went full distance with the final battle still being fought till the last fifteen minutes of a four-month long tour. The ebbs and flows add to the beauty of 5-day cricket Test matches when the two sides keep trading blows and battle fair and hard to force a result. The Aussies are great front runners and play aggressive cricket. They deserve credit for playing fast cricket and taking risks in pursuit of victory. The times when 5 days of cricket were producing dull draws are pretty much gone, save for a few when weather curtails play. The cricketing world can thank the trash-talking (they call it sledging Down Under), sports-crazy Aussies for possibly saving the longer form of cricket. The way the Aussies play their cricket their Plan A-Z all involve aggression. This is also their Achilles’ heel as they find it hard to adapt and change to a more defensive play during the course of a game when things don’t go their way. This trend has become more noticeable in recent times. I have maintained, past few years, the Australian cricket team are very much beatable at home. What it requires is a mix of caution (to frustrate) and aggression (to prevent them from getting on top). The way they play their cricket and the Indian team does too plus the dry conditions which swings the cricket ball less gives India a chance to stay competitive if they combine caution and aggression and maintain discipline. Not easy but doable if maintained consistently at a very high level even though results are not guaranteed. That’s what the Indian cricket team managed to do in this tour and fortune favors the brave. 👍

Ultimately it’s just a sport, albeit being a glorious sport, and sporting achievement is about teams and individuals getting sporting glory which is theirs primarily. 👏 Doesn’t solve any major problems or save lives but what it does is expand our understanding of possibilities for individuals and teams in terms of what is achievable. During these turbulent times that’s priceless 🙏

Another Spiritual Journey

Recently visited Mumbai in India after a few years. Every visit to India is quite an experience and this time was no different. After living in a small town in the US for many years I myself now have to follow the advice I give to folks from here who are traveling to India for the first time: Be prepared for the sight and sounds and go with an open mind just to soak in the atmosphere. The sight of so many people and the sound of traffic can be intimidating for the first time visitor as it is even for someone like me born and raised there. Like other great, major cities of the world Mumbai is always buzzing with activity and change is the only constant. Where once a 10-storey building might have towered like a giant a decade ago the same building might look like a runt of the litter now. And I am talking about distant suburbs on the outskirts of the city and towns outside the city limits! The pace of change is so rapid I could hardly recognize surroundings that I was once familiar with. In a land once known for mystics and spiritualism today capitalism is well and truly alive and kicking 🙂

It was good to catch up with folks old and new. Folks from earlier generation appeared to have grown much older (I am sure they felt the same about me 😀 ). Met batchmates from school and college and it was good to see everyone doing well in their professions. Visited my alma mater and even there old is making way for new as school is being redeveloped for a newer and bigger version to meet the need of changing times. It was good to see neighbors drop by and offer help to parents, respect for elders is very much present. Some even insisted on being given opportunity to help. One main difference between West and East is the individualized culture of the West compared to the community culture of the East. Not to say one is better than the other but it is just a different way of living. Vertical expansion has led to many high rise buildings all over the city and beyond. Which brings its own good and bad. Taller structures have led to green spaces within the community. To cater to the high end buyers businesses have also set shop nearby which obviates the need to go downtown or midtown for shopping or entertainment. Flip side is additional demand on resources which the existing infrastructure is not geared to handle and lot of traffic increasing local travel time. Multiple road projects going on simultaneously also adding to commuter woes. Real estate prices have gone through the roof too. Always amazed and thankful for the time friends make to meet for anyone visiting from outside though. The spirit of the city lives on though in citizens who put up with a lot and still find it in them to care and share.

Yours truly likes to go for walks occasionally. The experience of walking, be it in a wooded area or in anonymity in a crowded street, is spiritual. One either takes in the beauty of surroundings or just learns to stay unaffected by the crowd or noise and be a dispassionate observer. Which helps in developing into a non-judgmental observer and taking everything in one’s stride. In one such walk I got lost. 😀 For the ride back home I hired an auto rickshaw. The driver was from different part of town, not familiar with the area I was in. He asked me to show the direction and I ended up seeing half the town as we tried to make it to my place asking folks along the way for directions couple of times 😀 Did not have time to try more such adventures. All in all the whole visit was quite a ride with some new connections made, some old connections severed and a few connections revived. Which is what life is about: making new memories, erasing some and remembering some old memorable memories. On my return it was great to see my wife receive me at the airport and be back in surroundings that are more familiar now. It was good to be there and it’s good be back. Life is a journey generating a ton of memories along the way to last a lifetime!

Childhood Heroes

Everyone needs a hero figure, someone to look up to. The heroes are supposed to inspire and trigger aspirations of those who read about them. Growing up in India my heroes were in the pages of Amar Chitra Katha and Chandamama. Both these publications were meant for the young readers, rich in pictures and high on tales of valor, wit and wisdom depending on who the historical protagonist happened to be in a particular story.

The pictures in Amar Chitra Katha were colorful and the accompanying words always seemed to add value and substance. The pictures were like music painting a colorful mosaic providing the context for the text which were like vocals describing the story and fully resonating with the readers keeping them engaged till the last page. The images in those books left a lasting impression. Seared into my memory are illustrations of how the rishis (the wise sages) looked. All the rishis sported luxuriant growth of mustache and free flowing beard with thick black hair tied into a bun at the top of the head. On one hand they would carry rosaries and on the other a kamandalu (oblong water container with a nice handle at the top for carrying it with ease). You better be quite hirsute to convince me you are a sage 😀 Creating those pictures by hand must have been a painstaking effort and I was always amazed at the consistent look achieved in those books.

Chandamama had less pictures compared to Amar Chitra Katha books, it had its own charm. Less pictures meant more reading material which is what one wants when younger, right? 🙂 The images that were there painted a picture of an idyllic India with abundance of greenery where learning was more one on one with the guru (teacher) and in communion with nature. The 2 regular features in Chandamama I remember are “Legends and parables of India” which featured allegorical tales and the other feature was “Tales of Vikramaditya”. Vikramditya was a wise king cursed with living in the forest for 6 months for every 6 months spent in his kingdom. The tales always had a picture of Vikramaditya carrying a ghost on his back who would ask the king very difficult questions. If the wise king answered correctly the ghost would be off his back, if answered wrong his head would explode into a zillion pieces and he would experience a very painful death.
Needless to say the wise king would always answer the questions correctly with wit, wisdom and a very thoughtful explanation leaving readers awaiting for the next edition for more of the good stuff. I need to read again the tales to see if the ghost is actually a metaphor for bad karma which carries over.

The creators of those stories and TV series like “Dora the Explorer”, “Spongebob Squarepants” etc deserve kudos for their ability to understand the needs of their audience and producing a very satisfying experience!
Teachers in elementary school deserve special praise too for understanding the needs of kids and moulding their learning experience.

These days my heroes often tend to be regular folks who perform heroic deeds in their own way!