Dingblogs's Blog

Frankly speaking, I didn’t know about IPL 3 until a day before the beginning. (Common guys, I do watch cricket). Of course SRK’s melodrama regarding the selection process before the release of MNIK (sheer coincidence indeed ) had created an impression in me that the extravaganza was somewhere near. Still, the start seemed little abrupt to me. Perhaps because, it has started at a time when we are too busy sorting out the heaps of BTP load piled up for decades.

When IPL 1 started 2 years back, T20 was not very prominent in India. The idea of a compact game packed with non-stop entertainment excited the audience and added solace during the sultry Indian summer. More than that, IPL 1 had some very pleasant surprises. Firstly, the comeback of Warne in an unprecedented avatar, as a witty captain manoeuvring his giddy team throughout the battle with cricketing giants. Secondly, Indian team discovered some new talent in the form of Yousuf Pathan and Ravindra Jadeja.

But T20 is itself too compact a game to have any space for game strategy. Consequently IPL 3 seems somewhat monotonous. Unlike 2 years back, today even Bangladesh plays T20 on its tour to India. So T20 is slowly becoming a run-of-the-mill endeavour.  Probably, it is the time to renovate the game to rekindle the interest. Cricket is a game which is evolving every decade. For example all of us know how significantly power plays changed the game strategy of one-day games and added excitement to the game without compromising with the basic flavour of cricket. The rules of regular T20 could be bent in a way to make IPL unique in its own way. More concepts like ‘free hit’ which enrich the very game of T20 should be introduced. This can make the game not only exciting to watch but add freshness to the game every year. Let’s hope that the organisers will think beyond their cocoons of commercialisation and add some novelty to the game.

As I always look on the brighter side (possibly to save myself from the hard-core IPL fans out there ), IPL 3 has had its share of surprises too, although very few in number. Finally, the class of MI reflects on field too, thanks to some terrific knocks from Sachin and the new entrants Rayudu and Tiwari. Perhaps this IPL will see dormant dada emerge once again as a doyen of captaincy. (only as a captain ). Let’s hope that IPL 3 has its share of adrenaline in the days to come.

This 26^th Jan has been, incidentally, an event in which two musical geniuses Ilayaraja and    A R Rahman were conferred with the prestigious Padma Bhushan. As the news came, a moment of awe was followed by a moment of bliss. As it began to settle down on me, I somehow started wondering about the unique aspects and similarities between the styles of music of these two legends. This, I must admit, is like talking about French grammar without knowing a single French word, given that my penchant for music is backed by absolute zero knowledge about classical music.

Ilayaraja can undoubtedly be called as the one who brought a revolution in south Indian music. Soul stirring melodies, enhanced by subtle and yet dynamic orchestration, which follow a totally unconventional pattern, transport you to a totally different world. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that he is the one who introduced western flavour in Indian music. And he did it in over 900 films for two and half decades! Brilliant! isn’t it?

Rahman, I would say is the one who brought about a revolution in the concept of ‘sound’. What amazes me as an engineer is his consistent penchant for technologically advanced instruments and the multi-layered patterns of orchestration. For instance, Rahman is the only composer in India (and among less than 10 composers of the world) to use an instrument called Continuum fingerboard in ‘Rehna tu’ song of Delhi 6. But it would be unjustified to say that he is a mere technocrat. He is the one who has been trying to bridge the gap between western and Indian music and produce something called a “universal music”. Whether it is the jazz in ‘Tu bole…. main bolun…’ or qawwali style in ‘Khwaja mere khwaja’ ARR’s music has the magic.  Successful fusion of different genres of music to produce a refreshingly new tune, with mellifluous and fresh orchestration is what enchants even a musically illiterate person like me.

So what is the similarity? I opine that both have been path breakers of their own times. It is the innovation and experimentation that always stands out. It is the passion for venturing into new domains of music which continuously polishes the quality of music and result in timeless classics.

How many times have we hesitated to blink eyelids while watching him bat? How many times did the best of the bowlers bite their nails, when the harsh reality of their best deliveries being hit to a boundary transpired?   How many times did a captain wish that a cricket team consisted of more than 11 players, so that they could stop at least one of those inexorable boundaries?   How many times did the combined effort of a team fail to catch the drift of one of his surprise shots?   How many times did the fragile Indian batting line up breathe life, when the MASTER showed them the door to victory with his batting sword?

“You know genius when you see it. And let me tell you, he is pure genius” – Brian Lara.

“Cricketers like him come once in a lifetime and I am privileged he played in my time” - Wasim Akram.

Today, we don’t call him a great batsman, rather SACHIN TENDULKAR has become synonymous with ‘a ‘connoisseur of cricket’. I have always been amazed by the elegance of his play which never seemed to dwindle and the lustre of his brilliance which never seemed to tarnish. What seemed to be a minuscule stride 20 years back, turned out to be an epic studded with numerous achievements and applauses. What makes him unique is his ever-lasting desire for perfection, his stick-to-basics attitude. When Sachin goes out to bat it’s not just the cameras that watch him but the hopes of millions of Indians that are associated with every flick of his bat. Amidst such tremendous pressure, he has been surpassing every limit, which was once presumed to be a threshold, for last 20 years! A friend of mine rightly opines, “If Sachin blasts, it hardly matters whether India wins or not”.

YO SACHIN !

‘Live in marine kingdom’ , ’walk along with clouds’ etc ….not more than half a century back, these words were part of only extremely imaginative writers’ and fantasy story tellers’ dictionary. But today, we live a life par imagination. With technically superlative planes,  we can transcend borders before finishing a slice of pizza. We can virtually be present at a place thousands of miles far with the help of internet. We are now capable of synthesizing artificially almost everything, including things for which, once we were at the mercy of nature.

The other day, I was watching a lecture given by my intern guide. He was talking about the greatest invention/discovery of 20^th century. If I were asked this question, I would have snapped “internet”, for, it is, practically, the life of KGP . On a diplomatic note, I would have possibly said communications or aeroplane etc. But astonishingly, the answer is “Haber’s process of synthesizing ammonia from Nitrogen and Hydrogen”. The logic behind this is simple. This discovery has not only saved mankind from perishing, owing to increased crop failure in the beginning of 20^th century, but also enabled it to grow 6 times from 1 billion in 1900 to 6 billion in 2000. This shows that greatest of the discoveries are not those which comfort us, but those which save us from impending disasters.

Like they say excess of anything is bad, our tech savvy is perturbing the balance of our own nature. Today, ruefully, we have reached a stage where a few steps at this rate will take us down the cliff to a world of natural calamities.

350… it’s not the sequel to the Hollywood period film called ‘300’, but supposedly the threshold amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere, which is no more a threshold. The other day I came across a photograph in ‘The Hindu’ with a few people under ocean.  At the first sight, I thought that its one of those cheap publicity gimmicks for the (then) upcoming under-water adventure ‘Blue’. But my eyes were riveted on it when realisation dawned upon me that it was actually a ‘window into the future’. Incidentally, few of the Maldives’ cabinet ministers had decided to meet under-water to accentuate the possibility of getting submerged in near future due to global warming.

I had always dreamt to be in “The Matrix”. Firstly because of the fancy and stylish stunts which are not constrained by Newton and secondly because it is virtual. It is a perpetual, ideal and yet very practical world which is not effected by any of the man’s actions. Today, we need innovations to stop destroying the nature without crucially altering our lifestyle and translate these innovations into actions so as to realise a perfect, technologically advanced and beautiful world.

The moment it was announced that US president Barack Obama won Nobel Peace prize, atleast half a dozen of my friends’ gtalk status showed “Can’t believe it” , “rubbish” etc. “If Obama then why not me? ” read another one. More over its not just winning the Nobel Peace prize that is astonishing, but winning it out of a record 205 number of nominations is somewhat hard to digest.

But why are we so uncomfortable  with this fact? Perhaps because, a great leader like Mahatma Gandhi, who led a non-violent struggle for independence, didn’t win it inspite of being nominated 5 times. But let’s look into this fact from a slightly positive perspective. First of all, Obama hasn’t been given this award considering leaders from all the ages. He has just been chosen as the best nominee out of 205 nominations received this year. So, lets consider it a relative accomplishment rather than an absolute and ultimate stature of which even Gandhi was deprived.

But on a slightly more optimistic note, having won this award, US president has been conferred with a responsibility of  a ‘global peace restorer’. This will act as a driving mechanism on US to not only  avoid wars to show its supremacy, but also narrow existing rifts between different nations and act as a catalyst to maintain international peace.