Haj

It was an emotional experience to stand on the same balcony where Kapil and his devils celebrated in 1983! The pilgrimage to Lords was done appropriately on a Friday especially during the holy period of Ramzan! On good recommendations opted for the guided tour which lets you go through the long room where many a batsmen have walked on the way to the middle or on their way back. The guide said the response of those in the pavilion could be icy for batsmen on their way back with a duck on the scoreboard. Botham was out twice for a duck against the Australians! Saw the visitor’s dressing room and sat on the same benches where Kapil Dev or Gordon Greenidge would have sat. The ground itself is rather small and slopes severely across the pitch. The height difference between the left corner (as you see from the pavilion) to the right is more than 6 feet. The stadium seats just more than 30,000. But the history of this place and the tradition makes it special. The MCC still hold the responsibility of maintaining the rules of the game. The only bad part of the tour was the guide himself who actually is a full member of the MCC and so appropriately held a stiff upper lip. By the way, I wonder why they call it a stiff upper lip. Can you try keeping the upper lip stiff while letting the lower one floppy? It does not seem possible, either both are stiff or both are floppy….

The guided tour had 15 Australians and 3 Indians and 2 Englishmen. I couldn’t help mentioning the Inzamam affair and how all the Auzzies are fanatically backing that idiot Hair. These guys are so like the Americans, yuk. Richie Benaud barking at the ICC rather than at his fellow countrymen, sorry boss I have lost all the respect I had for you. His fellow commentator Dean Jones got away lightly after calling a player terrorist. I wish Zidane was around to head butt that guy. The Ashes went on when London was getting bombed while South Africa pulls out of the Sri Lanka competition on security grounds. I think the South Asian teams should say to hell with ICC and form their own organization and play within ourselves and keep the money too. Then the ground that would take Lords place would definitely be M.A.Chidambaram stadium or Chepauk in Chennai. Eden Gardens has become a hell hole after that sad semi-final and Wankhede after booing Tendulkar. I don’t know much about the Lahore stadium but do quite a bit about my favorite Chepauk. The D stand (above the side screen opposite to the pavilion) is the place to watch a test match. Passes for this stand are issued by the TNCA (Tamil Nadu Cricket Association) and usually for the players in the TNCA league. I have never played for that league but happened to play for the NCCA (Northern California Cricket Association)! But my brother did and so we got passes. It is a wonderful experience to sit along with knowledgeable cricket crowd, that too mostly players. Chepauk itself has a reputation for holding a cultured cricketing audience but the D stand takes the cake. I remember when the West Indies played after their ‘83 debacle, there was a standing ovation when Michael Holding started his run up even before the first ball was bowled. The crowd was appreciating his beautiful and long run up. That was a memorable day for other reasons too. Sunil Gavaskar had got tired of opening the innings and decided to come 2 down. But events conspired against him and he was in the middle in the first over with India 0 for 2, both batsmen out by incredible catching of Roger Harper at the slips. The little master faced the fearsome four (Holding, Roberts, Marshal, Garner) to make an impeccable 235, amazing stuff. The second instance which I remember at Chepauk is when the same Gavaskar was the most un-popular cricketer among the D stand crowd. Gavaskar dropped our darling Kapil Dev for the previous match at Calcutta. That was the only test match the great all-rounder missed in his long career, amazing feat considering injuries and stuff. I remember on the first day before the match began the D standers held a huge banner “Sunny days are over” when Gavaskar came out for his morning jog.

Coming to the present, I want to watch a test match at Chepauk from the D stand. With my mom packing a 4-compartment tiffin carrier, I would be all set. Would anyone like to join me? What should the menu be for each of the 5 days? Would it be different if India is winning or if India is losing? Let us ponder over this…

Climate change debate in UK

There is lot of political activity and excitement currently in the UK. The Liberal Democratic Party had its conference last week and this week the Labour Party is having its conference in Manchester. I was just curious about the nature and tenor of political debate in UK and followed some of the important speeches. The LDP has a byline for a Fair and Green Britain. Their leader Ming Campbell gave a lot of importance to climate change issues and how LDP would address these issues, for e.g. have higher tax on air travel and creating a fund for more serious research on greener energy and related technology. Today I watched Gordon Brown (the chancellor) of Labour Party give his address. His was a crucial address as he is pitching for the prime ministers post once Blair steps down. All the talking heads were saying that this would be the make or break speech for him and so I watched it live on TV. He also gave considerable bandwidth for climate change issues and his policy on how to address the issue. Interestingly he mentioned the solution would involve personal as well as collective changes, on how to come up with a policy that would alter personal choices towards greener choice. Even the conservative party leader David Cameron waxes eloquent about climate change. Recently the head of Virgin Air made a that he is setting aside some of the profits for research on making air travel greener like using bio-fuels or something, though his statements are being dismissed as a marketing gimmick by environment agencies. In a small village on our way from Cornwall I saw a bumper sticker in a Smartcar expounding to boycott Esso since Esso does not give a damn about global warning. (www.stopesso.com).

The global warming seems a well accepted fact in UK and is not debatable anymore. The solution to it also seems to be a mainstream debate now. The green debate has move from the supposedly loony environmentalists to the regular politician who wants to appear more caring about our childrens future. A recent article in National Geographic claims that if we don’t address this issue in the next decade or so, the accumulated carbon would create an irreversible change to the climate for the worse!

It is interesting to note that The Economist found it worthy to give it cover page importance. It is interesting to note the same newspaper (as they call it) called it fear mongering in one of their 1997 editions.

India has 1/6^th of the humanity and one would think we should have an equal or greater concern about the future of humanity. Is there any debate on the environment in mainstream Indian politics at all?