Naveen's Journal , 15 Apr 2009, Mumbai

[Taken from my visit to Mumbai one month back where, for the first time, I felt the essence of local trains to Mumbai's everyday life]


April 15th, 2009 - Woken at 9:00 AM by the sound outside of mumbai. Disturbed to find I had fallen asleep without removing the dress i wore last day. Feeling a bit heavy more than i thought. Need to be more careful.

Had to go to Andheri East to get my BOSE headphone fixed. Then to Nariman point to my bro's office. Feeling terrified at the thought of the job to do for the day.

Reached, somehow, to the nearby station - Mansarovar. Don't know how to reach Andheri. Left to me was standing a Gujarati. Asked him about the route to take. Very much helping guy - spent his whole life since childhood using the locals. Even left one train to accompany me. Never thought the men in India's Financial hub have so much leisure time. Couldn't find people having time to even look in eye to eye until now. Need to be more practical in my judgements. Maybe he being the rare exception living solitarily in the fast-flying , out of reach busy city.

Alone travelling in the train, after that guy's stop came and he left. My body in touch with bodies surrounding me. No one is complaining. Very much hot inside. No one is complaining. Normal life to all of them. The world looking so much congested and concentrated to me. Slight increase in the mercury and we shall all be dead. This relentless world: there is only one sane response to it. No complaining and silence, together with serene hot air, touching the water of our body and transforming to cold breeze. Mind adjusted to the situation but my body not ! Waited eagerly for my stop to gain exemption from the relentless situation. Influx dominatined the efflux at every station. Situation deteriorated ....Looked all around. All but me are alive. No complaining. Normal everyday life for all but me!

At last, my stop came. Fighting like a warrior to get out at the stop. Rememberd all manga and animes in a flash. Everyone like me, fighting for a single and same end - to leave the local. With my stop , everything came to halt. Heard stories about this all time from well wishers. Never believed. Can concur now with no hassles.

Got my job done at Andheri. Entered the same hell again to reach Nariman....there is no escape , that being the only sane route to terminus . Can't concentrate. Too tired. No sleep or rest since morning..Closing my eyes to rest. The suroundings going blurry....

The Pathans of Baroda

Last day, I spent my evening watching Ind vs SL ,T20 - the latest revelation in the world of cricket - even though the watching was a continuous-streaming-links search effort - a bit ilking in the end as every 2 or 3 overs the streams were going off-air - and not a peaceful march, sitting on couch and watching the match on the feel-good big LCD screen(common-room in college days and the other TV-room in my previous company). Yeah, I am not always-lucky and notwithstanding the leisure time available, there are no TV-rooms in my new job. Also, adding to the misery are no Neo-Sports and DD1 too at home as Dish TV doesn't catch them here in Dubai. Alas! streaming is truly the only last resort. However, I am still happy watching the live action and not the recorded youtube, rediff videos only later , let alone the live text comentatory at Cricinfo.

Well, to speak of the match, it was a magnificent piece of cricket. Something worth remembering since the next T20 against NZ on 25 Feb ( Who knows that could be another great match to remember! ). As much as thrilling was the see-saw nature of the indian chase till the fall of the seventh wicket, it was only riveting after that. With the arrival of the the Big Pathan(the elder one - Yousuf ), the tide just took a U-turn. Reminiscing the legend Shane Warne who captained Yousuf in IPL- collars standing straght as the man himself, chewing gum to tease the bowler and confidence aplenty - Yousuf just took the most deadly spinner of the time - Bhandara who had already taken three crucial wickets by then - for two huge SIX and a FOUR that flew like a rocket to the stands and finally for 17 runs. The equation was tense 57 off 30 balls prior to the serene entry of Yousuf Pathan. After 4 balls, it was a plausible 40 off 24 balls. That Yousuf's heroic was enough to send the whole Sri Lanka to panic, though, irnoically, the standing captain, Dilshan had been in panic since India hit first FOUR ( I think, since first indian innings' boundary, the pressure was visible all over in his body language and facial expression , except for some glimpses of smile at the fall of each India wicket, making the team also in more pressure than the actual). Well, after that big 17-run over, the rest is history. The two brothers walked over the next overs in a style and this time , it was the other pathan brother - Irfan. As Yousuf also accepted afterwards that Irfan plays seam well so he took singles to give the strike to younger brother and Irfan just slogged the seamers for some wonderful SIXs and FOURs. Utterly majestic was the final blow to win the game - Irfan's best SIX of the innings, according to me, lofted off Malinga's supposedly tried yorker. Pathan brothers just brought back India to the game and also won the game for India. Indeed, that was a perfect day out for Pathan brothers in the middle of the field.

On a personal front, I feel quite high for Yousuf Pathan who has a great talent to clear boundaries with aerial routes. I have been shouting for Yousuf Pathan's inclusion(of course to my cricket-loving friends circle :) ) whenever he was dropped. And I do feel that Yousuf can be our equivalent of Austrailia's Symonds of 2005-2008 - Symond's best period as an allrounder. Clearly, I would like to watch this making of India's Symonds - Yousuf Pathan.