Ind-Aus Cricket Rivalry: An account of events.

When the legacy and the glory of Ashes series were incomparable, a great cricketing rivalry between India and Pakistan came into being and it was enjoyed by the entire cricketing world. In recent years the cricketing enmity between India and Australia had caught the fire. These series were very hot because of all on-and-off field happenings, sporting rivalries, controversies, involvement of media as fuel-provider and above all spectacular cricketing performances.

In this article I am trying to give an account of events in order of the time that marked the cricketing rivalry between India and Australia; it had just begun.

I believe the conception took place in 2000-01 when Australia was a real champion side; the new demolisher of the other cricketing sides. They came to India in 1996 and in 1998; however they lost test series in India. In 2000-01, the formidable Australian side with 15 straight wins was determined to conquer India on the Indian soil, in fact, they won 1st test by ten wickets in Mumbai; however thanks to record partnership stand between Laxman and Dravid and thirteen wickets by Harbhajan Singh, India won Kolkata test. In the Chennai test, despite Hayden's double century in the first innings, Australian side could not capitalize further. The real damager for Australia was again Harbhajan, he scalped fifteen wickets in the match and helped India win the test and the series. Aussies were hurt. Aussies introduced mind games in the series yet Ganguly played better of them. Steve Waugh writes in his book, "You had to give him an 'A' for effort in his attempt to annoy us; and in particular me".


India toured Australia in 2003-04. The four match series was drawn 1-1. However, India again disturbed winning streak of Australia by winning the Adelaide test. It was a great test win for India to believe that they could upset Australian side in Australia. Though third and fourth test resulted in draw, it was a tough contest between the sides and they tested each other. Indian batting side performed marvelously except the Melbourne test, which they lost. Ganguly, Dravid, Sachin played handsomely, however batting class of Laxman was excellent and he earned name and fame in Australia. Both sides annoyed each other on and off the field. The entire cricketing world believed that India was a side to give tough competition to Australia other than the South Africa.

In the World Cup 2003, both sides met twice and both the times, Australia comprehensively beat India. The first of them was a disastrous for Indian team at Centurian. You may remember, after the loss to Australia, the furious Indian fans pelted stones on the residences of Zaheer and Mohammod Caif. The loss hurt Indian side. It reorganized itself and came back very strongly in the remaining matches. Both the sides met yet again in the final. There were again verbal attacks and counter attacks from both the sides before the final. Finally, had Zaheer Khan not shown needless aggression (plan?) to Hayden in the first over, the result of the match could have been different? From the very first over, Hayden started demolishing work and later Ponting and Damien Martyn tore Indian bowling. India never came back in the match. Australia won the world cup final by 125 runs in Johannesburg. The loss hurt Indian team.

Australia toured India in 2004-05. This time Australian side accomplished a test series win in India since after 1969-70; it was 2-1 win for Australia. This was a great performance by Australian side in India, and they just outclassed Indian team in all departments of the game by winning two tests (Banglore and Nagpur) with huge margin. India won last test only by 13 runs in Mumbai. During a test, some spectators mocked at Andrew Symonds. Later in the series care was taken by securities not to allow repetition of such insulting act to visitors. But Symonds was hurt.

In the shorter version of the game- the 20-20 world cup, India beat Australia by 16 runs to reach in the final.

No test series ever was so much controversial between India and Australia, but India's Australian tour 2007-08. Not only two sides, but also entire cricketing world divided in two sides including media and cricket boards. Certainly, under the new captaincy of Anil Kumble, favorite was not the Indian side to win the test series.

It was Australian side to open the account of mind game against Indian side. Australia outplayed India in the first test at Melbourne and won it by 337 runs. The second test played in Sydney was the most controversial. The seeds of 'hostility' were sown earlier; they just reaped during Sydney test. The bad umpiring decisions and a trap plotted by Australian side to catch Harbhajan under racism charges worked splendidly for Australian side, but with this and following events the spirit of the game was badly damaged. Australian team targeted Harbhajan for calling 'Monkey' to Symonds, which it believed a racist comment. The same comment, Symonds was made fun of in India by some spectators during the India tour. Australia won the infamous test. Indian side opened protests against bad umpiring and racism charges leveled against Harbhajan. Indian team also demanded Brad Hogg to be booked under violation of code of conduct, later it withdrew. The media got involved in the process. The BCCI backed Indian team and pressurized ICC to drop erring umpires. Eventually the racism episode led to ICC court hearing. There was no apparent evidence against Harbhajan. Indian side relieved but it was hurt badly. Symonds was highly upset with the verdict of the ICC hearing.

It was believed, the Perth pitch could turn nightmare for Indian side, however the Indian team demonstrated a spirited performance and won the test by 72 runs. The forth test was drawn.

Australia won the series 2-1, but the win in the Sydney test would always be remembered as infamous win for Australia. The stage was then set for one-day series. Both teams were highly preoccupied with the previous grudge for the other. They met six times including two finals and India won three of them including the two finals. The young Indian team led by superb captaincy of Dhoni, beat Australia in both the finals. Australian team was pushed onto the back foot; they showed least resistance. Indian team vented out the fury during winning celebration. It was 'advantage India' at the end of India's Australian Tour.


Before Australian team prepares for India tour, Bangladesh toured Australia. A dramatic incident took place in Darwin. Symonds was sent home from the series against Bangladesh and was declared dropped for the tour of India. The reason cited was a disciplinary action against Symonds for his off-field attitude. Many including I did not believe that could be the real reason behind dropping Symonds from squad for India tour. There was something else than our eyes met.

Australian side minus Symonds came for a test series in India. It was a good but very defensive start Australia made in the first innings of the first test. The overall run rate was just 2.86; they never scored that slowly in the first innings. The team India neither played for the result. The team India won the second test at Mohali by 320 runs. Australia in reply to India's first inning's total of 469 scored just 268 at the run rate of 2.63, which was shockingly slowly. The team India smelled victory and put on 314 in second innings. Brett Lee could only take two wickets. India bundled out Australia below 200. The Australian media criticized Australian team heavily for its defensive tactics. Ishant Sharma by dismissing Ponting twice proved that he has certainly got a wood on Ricky Ponting.

Australian team started mind games. Adam Gilchrist during the publicity of his autobiography questioned Sachin Tendulkar's honesty. He referred to the stand took by Sachin Tendulkar during the hearing of racism episode back in Australia. Nobody, in fact, Sachin himself pay no heed to Gilchrist's comments.

Before the start of fourth test at Nagpur, Ricky Pointing pointed again at a senior member of Indian team. He claimed the senior Indian player had called him one of the nights during Sydney test and urged him to withdraw complaints made against Harbhajan Singh. Further, Ponting claimed that the Indian player feared case proceedings. Indian team paid no attention to Ponting's remarks. They had well understood the mind games being played by Australian team.

India beat Australia by 172 runs in last test at Nagpur and clinchéd series 2-0.
There is much more to write about failure of Australian team in the series. The ace bowlers like Mitchell Johnson, and Brett Lee took only 21 wickets at the poor average of 40.07 and 61.62 respectively. Shane Watson was better than them by taking 13 wickets at the average of 32.10. Jason Krejza made debut in last test and he scalped 12 wickets at the average of 29.83. Why Krejza was not made to the side for first three tests is a million dollar question. Only Michael Hussy and Simon Katich bettered in scoring runs than other teammates. Hussy scored 394 and Katcih 349 with average of 56.28 and 49.85 respectively. The batting average of Ponting was 38. The series was completely dominated by the Indian team.

Next day, I took newspaper early in the morning with excitement and read out the hot analysis with a hot cup of tea. The headline was "Aussie loose mind game, India won the test series". I really hope that both sides give up the grudges and play spectacular cricket only. I wish the grudges had been finished. After all, the mind games are part and parcel of any sports. The games are won by excelling in the mind games against the opposition side, but we wish it happened not at the cost of the game itself.

The new and very exciting cricketing rivalry between India and Australia had just begun.

He is not Shahrukh, not someone called Gate or Colgate…he is Bill Gates visiting red light area of Budhwar Peth, Pune.

One of the trustees of The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, Mr. Bill Gates, and his family visited a health clinic dedicated for the red light area of Budhwar Peth in Pune city on 6th October 2008. The clinic provides clinical services to about 45-50 patients daily, including commercial sex workers and MSMs (Men seeking Men) and it also addresses their concerns and queries of HIV Prevention and Care. The clinic is part of a program sponsored by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The visit was a technical in nature, Mr. Gates, and his family including his wife Melinda Gates, the father Mr. William H. Gates Gates, who is the chairperson of The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Gates sisters; all are part of The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation paid a very low profile and personal visit to the red light area of Budhwar Peth, in Pune. The Gates family visited there and spent an hour with commercial sex workers at the read light area of Budhward Peth. Mr.Bill Gates appreciated the work of local NGO, ‘Vanchit Vikas’(Development of Deprived: Uplift of deprived women and children). Mr.Bill Gates expressed his admiration for the good-work done by the volunteers of the NGO, including CSWs. The CSWs were surprisingly delighted to see the sponsor of the program addressing them at their place.

The visit was carefully kept a secret and it took all by surprise. The police, public officials, high-ranking officials dealing with HIV Prevention and Care programs; they all had no news of the visit. In fact, the officials of city based NGO was informed only an hour before the actual visit. Bill and Melinda Gates foundation started its operation in India in 2003 and has committed over $200 million to HIV prevention in India, its largest commitment to the projects in any country.

During the interactions with patients and the beneficiaries of the project, Gates family tried to know whether their sponsored project was on its way to meet its objectives.

The visit came as immense social support for the group of commercial sex workers, the most discriminated against group of people in India. Mr. Gates expressed foundation’s commitment and support to the programs run against HIV/AIDS.

The residents of the Budhawar Peth had never heard of Bill Gates, and the crowd gathered during the visit of Bill Gates was wondering who the man was. The whisper in the crowd was “there is no Shahrukh, he is someone called Gate or Colgate”

Learn more about the foundation: http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Pages/home.aspx

Why do not we hate them?

The recent hatred stirred up in Maharashtra against North Indians, mainly against migrants from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh is not a sudden hostile reaction by some political groups based in Maharashtra. However it is a known symptom of regionalism. In view of regionalism, the hatred and hostile treatment against a group of people is similar to communalism and it is like other political violent movements in India.

India is a country with diverse culture. We boast our cultural diversity as our unique strength; however our history of political and social conflicts shows, our strength is also our weakness. Our weakness is our social disagreements, conflicts of various interests and fights between individuals, groups, or organizations.

In the last couple of weeks, once again there was a rise in reactions of hatred and violence in Maharashtra against Biharis and Uttar Pradesh migrants followed by Railway recruitment exams, MNS violence, arrest and release of Raj Thakare and police encounter of a Bihari youth who was brandishing a revolver in a Mumbai local bus.

News websites are the places to find and read out reactions across all readers of the country on such burning issues. For the last couple of weeks, I have been regularly reading comments posted by readers across the country on Rediff News. There are three groups of people who can be noticed while reading the posted comments. One group hates the North Indians; the other counter-attacks Maharashtrians and the rest stay neutral and appeal not to fall prey to politicians.

Reading through these comments and written attacks on "the other group", I have observed couple of significant truths. First truth is, the hatred expressed is a very general reaction in nature against the other group of people. I mean, when Maharshtrains expressed hate, they hated all unknown Biharis or say unknown Biharis residing in Maharashtra. I did not read a Maharashtrain hating a Bihari or North Indian who is his neighbor or colleague or one he knows well. Similarly, when North Indians expressing their anger in aggressive words, it is against general Maharshtrians; it is not against their acquainted Maharashtrians.

Those Maharashtrians who are expressing their annoyance with North Indians; have they stopped accepting daily needs and services from their concerned service providers who have been migrated from North India? Do they hate and get angry against their North Indian neighbor, or a North Indian friend or a colleague only because of he or she is North Indian?

Those Maharashtrians who are expressing their annoyance with North Indians; have they stopped accepting daily needs and services from their concerned service providers who have been migrated from North India? Do they hate and get angry against their North Indian neighbor, or a North Indian friend or a colleague only because of he or she is North Indian?

Those North Indians who are expressing extreme dislike for Maharashtrians in posted comments; have they expressed their disgust in an aggressive manner against a Maharashtrian friend or colleague only because they perceive an unknown insecurity in Maharashtra? Have they stopped inviting their Maharashtrian friends for festivals and cultural functions only because they hate Maharashtraians in general consequently by recent conflicts against North Indians in Maharashtra?

Neither the North Indians nor the Maharashtrians have hated their acquaintances from the other group. This is because, the hate is a political opinion formed in general against the other group; in fact, in reality the hate is against the unknowns from the other group.

A few months back, there were brutal attacks carried out on Bihari and UP migrants in Mumbai by MNS workers. Upon an inquiry, it came as no surprise that the workers attacked unknown Bihari and UP migrants. They did not beat Bihari and UP migrants who were residing in their locality or whom they were knowing and familiar with.

We hate only the unknowns from the other group based on perceived unknown and uncertain insecurity; many a times only as a result of a politically motivated opinion.

India will be remaining a culturally and economically diverse country. There will always be conflicts of social disagreement, clashes of opposing interests and fights between individuals, groups, or organizations. In democracy and in complex democracy as a political system in India, it is highly impossible to find solutions to inherent problems posed by diversity.

Ultimately, the point is, it is duty of every individual how one may want to react to such politically motivated debates and issues. It is duty of every individual to think, and react sensibly, and not to fall prey to political motivations.

Make rational choices of goods and services, and effectively deal with rising inflation.

According to Wikipedia, Inflation is a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services over the time. Economists say that high rates of inflation are caused by high rates of growth of the money supply with the people. Changes in inflation are sometimes attributed to fluctuations in demand for goods and services or in available supplies (i.e. changes inscarcity) and sometimes to changes in the supply or demand for money.

Last few years Indian economy is growing remarkably and grabbing opportunities available in the world market. The huge foreign investments and equally favorable economic conditions at home have helped bring more and more employment. However, currently India is suffering heavily at its economic growth from a consistently rising rate of inflation. The main cause of inflation has been the pricing difference between the producers and the consumers. The high price of foods, manufacturing products and essential products have further pushed inflation rate in India. Generally, it has been believed that the rising inflation is consequence of current crisis in global economy and it is mainly attributed to rising prices of crude oil in the world market.

In India, when prices go up, especially prices of food and necessary commodities; general people express concerns simply because they find it difficult to meet their needs. Media and political parties in opposition quickly seem to take up cause of general people at large, and then everywhere we hear peoples’ concerns over rising prices. People do tend to speak how inflation and rising prices disturb their individual monthly budget and how they are loosing out on their savings. I have been hearing people’s worries on inflation in my neighborhood, at my workplace, in restaurants, in public buses, at shopping places and almost everywhere.

Quite interestingly, I have listened different groups of people expressing differently on rising prices…I mean their needs and choices are different and they are generally based on their level of income. A group of people saying that they are not just able to cut on their life-style costs…they say maintenance costs at home, shopping and partying on weekends, going for monthly travels and trips, providing children with their demands and overall entertainment costs have turned as basic needs and they just cannot easily be compromised. On the other hand, a different group of people having different set of choices of goods and services they found to have coped well with rising prices, yet they are worried about rising prices of foods and essential goods and services. They said they are finding it too costly to pay for rising monthly grocery bills, loan interest rates, fuel bills, and tuition fees of children. They said they are managing well with rising prices provided they maintain their life-style expenditure at modest level.

Not only individuals, corporate companies have also recognized the fact that they need to cut down their non-operational and non-productive costs as a way to deal with rising rate of inflation and crisis in the markets. In short, first of all they have introduced rationalization in their various expenditures.

The rate of inflation is actually bared differently by two groups of people spending in different proportions on set of services and goods when prices of services are more or less than from the goods. Hence, we can say the rate of inflation is different for people to people and it is depending on their proportion of spending respectively on set of services and goods. So if you want to deal effectively with rising rate of inflation, keep your life style expenses minimum, and bring rationalization in your expenditures.

Customer Service at its Best

Last weekend I enjoyed a Pizza party thrown by a friend of mine at a Pizza restaurant. It was a first time I visited the place on J M Road. I found the place very cozy with quite cheerful staff. I reached there so early and before the schedule time; I came to know this when I made an enquiry with the attendant. I decided to wait for other party men. The staff made me comfortable with playing good music and offering a nice soft drink.

I just took a manual laid on the dining table assuming it was a menu card, in fact, it was a questionnaire-manual used for conducting interviews of new employees to the restaurant. I was curious to know the contents. It was a set of two tests comprised of sixty-eight attitudinal questions and a mathematical test. First few lines were basic instructions for the candidate as to know objectives of customer service. The instructions explained that a new joiner was supposed to answer all questions and the evaluation was to be done on the basis of judging attitude of the person towards customer satisfaction and a general ability to process calculations. The particular questionnaire was meant for each prospective new joiner who would work as to take and serve orders to customers. It was a set of probing questions on general awareness about customer satisfaction as a sole objective of the service, and communication skills, etiquettes, punctuality, and an ability to handle tricky and uncommon situations. I felt it very interesting that such a screening test is applied for every new joiner. I had a chat with the manager of the restaurant by taking prior permission and asking to excuse me for reading the manual without prior permission. He expressed, “Our success is largely depending on the overall experience we aspire to create for our customers. You can see each activity of our business process is directed to create a pleasant experience for our customer; from reception to send-off and from serving delicious food to playing favorite music, we all aim to retain our customers forever. In the whole process, our each and every staff plays very important role as to make customer feel happy to be here with us. We suppose the food is only a reason for our customers and the rest experience of spending a very good time with us at our restaurant is what meant all for them. Hence, we ensure that each new joiner is aware of this fact and wishes to actively participate with us in this process.”

Later, all party-men came and we had a nice treat served with great care and comfort. It was really a good experience resulted out of a very good designed and implemented customer service.

A man of Principles: Late Chandrakant Gokhale

A man of Principles: Late Chandrakant Gokhale

“A man of Principles”, this is how the closest friends of Chandrakant Gokhale remembered him while mourning over his sad demise on 20th June 2008. His son and renowned actor, Vikram Gokhale, called his father as an extreme follower of principles.
Chandrakant Gokhale has worked almost 75 years on Marathi stage. During the period of over 60 years, he acted in 68 Marathi movies, 16 Hindi films and a couple of Hindi/Marathi TV serials. Gokhale acted in 64 stage plays during his memorable career. He started working with likes of Bhalji Pendharkar and Baburao Pendharkar the ones who founded Marathi film industry and very recently he was working on a project of a young Marathi director. He has worked with at least three generations of artists and he was still working as if he always wanted to work till his last breath. We know him as a great artist.
However, he was also known as a man of principles, a very simple and polite man. He lived through very hard times as an artist in his younger days. Those were the days, when artist used to earn very small amount; often it was very difficult to run a family. He would feel accountable of not being able to provide his children adequately; however he was a proud father of very talented children. He would express to his children how much fortunate he was to have such talented and very good children.
His son and renowned artist Vikram Gokhale described his father as self-reliant man. He did not hesitate to say that his father refused his monetary support and wanted to stay self-reliant. Chandrakant Gokhale used to worship Vinayak Sawarkar, famously known as Swatantryaveer Sawarkar. Chandrakant Gokhale was a real patriotic person and was helping in his ways to disabled soldiers and war widows. With the accumulated interest on his fixed deposits in the bank, he used to donate one lakh rupees every year to the cause of soldiers who defend our boundaries. When he could not make it to one lakh rupees a year, due to reduced rate on interests; he used to take only a meal a day and to save money to add it to a lakh rupees every year. It was his principle decision, that to save and donate a lakh rupees every year at the cost of his own health. He was struggling with cancer but he was worried about how could he help the cause of soldiers. The world would remember him as a very good artist and as a very good human being.

...he is also a successful person in the life.

Who is successful in life?
I remember I was in 7th Standard class at my school. One day, one of my classmates asked the teacher who is called a successful person. Actually he had read some news of a successful businessman in a newspaper and so he asked the teacher. He asked her if being financially successful in a business or profession makes a person successful in the life.

The teacher was herself a scholar and a renowned poet. She chose to tell a story to us; about an incidence happened to her a couple of weeks back when she happened to meet one of her old student. She told us, she had gone for shopping in a local market and was buying a packet of incense sticks from a boy. The boy smiled at her and asked if she remembered him. The teacher apologized for not being able to remember him by his name however she confirmed that the boy might have been her student in the past. She asked about him, and his family. The boy briefed him about himself, about his family and about his small trading of incense sticks. He insisted the teacher if she could visit his home which was quite near to the market. The teacher went to his home and on the way the boy told him…how he couldn’t continue his regular schooling because of sudden death of his father and so he had to carry his family’s responsibilities on his younger shoulders. The teacher went to his home and met his mother, who praised her son as he was very much successful in carrying responsibilities of his family alone.

The teacher cited this example of a boy – Who at a very younger age had to leave his formal schooling behind to take on lessons of life in all adverse conditions of poverty, sudden death of father and taking over entire responsibilities of the family including his younger sister’s formal schooling.
The teacher said – he is also a successful person in the life.