Tribute to the Master

I know I will read this post again and again through out my life. Thank you cricinfo for summing up all the memories.

"Friends please settle down, I'll get more emotional! It's hard to believe my wonderful journey is coming to an end. I've a list of names to thank. The first is my father, who passed away in 1999. Without his guidance I wouldn't be standing in front of you. he said 'chase your dreams, don't give up, the path will be difficult.' I miss him today. My mom, I don't know how she managed a naughty child like me. She just prayed and prayed from the day I started playing the game. For four years I stayed with my uncle and aunt when in school, they treated me like their own son. My eldest brother Nitin doesn't like to talk ,much but he said, whatever you do, I know you will give 100%. My first cricket bat was presented to me by my sister Savita. She still continues to fast while I bat. Ajit my brother - We have lived this dream together, he sacrificed his career for me, he took me to Achrekar sir first. Even last night he called me to discuss my dismissal. Even when I'm not playing we will still be discussing technique. If that hadn't happened, I would have been a lesser cricketer.

"The most beautiful thing happened to me when I met Anjali in 1990. I know that being a doctor there was a big career in front of her. But she decides that I should continue playing and she took care of the children. Thanks for bearing with me for all the nonsense I've said (Anjali wipes tears). Then the two precious diamonds of my life Sara and Arjun. I've missed out on several birthdays, holidays. I know for 14-16 years I've not spent enough time with you. But I promise you I will spend the next 16.

"My inlaws - I've discussed several things with them. The most important thing they did was allow me to marry Anjali. In the last 24 years my friends have made terrific contributions. They have been with me while I was stressed. They have been with me even at 3am when I was injured. Thanks for being there for me.

"My career started when I was 11. I was extremely delighted to see Achrekar sir in the stands. I used to ride on his scooter and play two matches a day. Sir took me along to make sure I played. On a lighter note, Sir never said 'well played' because he didn't want me to be complacent. You can push your luck now, Sir, since I'm not playing cricker anymore.

"I started my career here in Mumbai. I remember landing from NZ at 4am and playing a Ranji game the next day. The BCCI was fantastic from my debut. Thanks to the selectors. You were right with me making sure my treatment was taken care of.

"Thanks to all the senior cricketers who have played with me. We see on the screen Rahul, VVS, Sourav, Anil who is not here. All the coaches. I know when MS presented the 200th Test cap, I had a message to the team - I said we are all so proud to be representing the nation. I hope to continue to serve the nation with dignity. I have full faith that you will serve the country in the right spirit.

I will be failing in my duty if I didn't thank the doctors who have kept me fit. Given the injuries I have suffered. They have treated me in odd hours.

My dear friend the late Mark Mascarenhas. I miss him. My current management team WSG, for continuing what Mark has done. Someone who has worked closely with me for 14 years is my friend Vinod Nayudu.

"The media has backed me a lot, since my school days. Even today. Thank you. Thanks to the photographers for capturing those moments.

"I know my speech has become long. I want to thank people who have flown in from different parts of the world. I want to thank my fans from the bottom of my heart. "Sachin, Sachin" will reverberate in my ears till I stop breathing." (Followed by loud cheers).

The crowd wants more. Sachin has handed back the mic. We haven't seen the last of him here surely.

Sudhir Kumar Gautam, by far his biggest fan, waves the tri-colour. Sachin may not have mentioned his name, but he holds a special place in his heart, you can be sure.

Sachin gets together for a huddle with his family. I'm sure he is preparing for a lap of honour around Wankhede.

And the walk start. Sachin waves the tricolour, his wife and kids next to him and his team-mates behind. It's a leisurely walk but the photographers are clamoring in front of him. It's an army.

Now the special moment. Kohli and Dhoni haul him up on their shoulders! He continues to wave the flag. Memories of April 2, 2011, when India lifted the World Cup right here at the Wankhede.

The entourage slowly complete the lap. The chants of "Saachiin Saachiin" will never cease.

The lap's done. Sachin's back on his feet. People surround him. If you look closely, somewhere in the middle you might spot him. Small in stature maybe, but he has the cricket world at his feet now.

He walks across to the pitch in solitude and bends and touches it, one last time. Anjali said in an interview earlier today that she had never actually seen him do it before until his last Ranji game. He has done it now at the Wankhede, his nursery, for a worldwide television audience and the capacity crowd here at the stadium.

The great man walks up the stairs of the pavilion. Thank you for the memories, Sachin!

Why true entrepreneurs don’t smoke

I was reading a book named Freaknomics and it made me think about a question which intrigued me for a long time. What is the worth of smoking a cigarette? This made me do this small/redundant/junk research. I chose to consider Kerala as my research area, as only Kerala can boast about its health and less disparity of income. Yea, also proud about it J

So the first thing that I wanted to do was how I can attribute the value of life a person lost on smoking a cigarette. I had to find an equation for which input was number of cigarettes and the output was minutes/hours of life. The life expectancy in Kerala is 74. Number of death in Kerala during 2009 as per the official record is 232020 (Don’t ask me whether they killed someone to make it a round figure). Using the same record I found out that out of this 93.29% died at the age of 30+. Also as the median age of a person starting smoking is at the age of 30. I choose to consider only the age from 30 to 74 as the years of life. Now if we take the reason for death, the same record gives a statistics as 7.2% from cancer and 27.66% from Heart attack. As per a researcher * 20.1% of the total cancer is lung cancer. As probability of a person who gets lung cancer is 2300% **higher than a person who does not smoke, I neglect any lung cancer caused without smoking. So if we take all the numbers we have a total of 232020 death in which 93.29% of death we are actually interested in.

So the 44 years (74 – 30) if divided in the same proportion as the proportion of cause of death. 7.2% total death is caused by cancer, 20.1% of this number is caused by lung cancer. So smoking-led lung cancer constitutes 2.38% of total death by lung cancer. In the 27.66% of the heart attack, 30% is due to smoking. So smoking via heart attack attributes 8.29% of total death. So based on this total death by smoking is 2.38+ 8.29 = 10.67%. If I divide the 44 years of life in this portion we get 4.69 years. So on an average a smoker by smoking takes away 4.69 years of his life. Let is round it of to 5 (As final stages of cancer and heart disease is not worth counting). So an average smoker’s life expectancy is 69, still ahead of Indian life expectancy.

The percapita income of Kerala is 63,000. So that means an average smoker is denied 5* 63,000 Rs (Rs 315,000): of money. The average cigarette smoked by an Asian is 14. So if we use this in the 39 years of his life he might have smoked considering average price of 6Rs per cigarette the total amount cost to 11,95,740. Now we will try to equate money with the pleasure. I am defining a unit “Pleasure” to measure pleasure received in smoking one cigarette. So one cigarette is worth one pleasure, so the cost of each pleasure is 6 rupees so a smoker invests 11,95,740 Rs to get 199290 units of pleasure. The amount denied to him (3,15,000) could have earned him 52500 units of pleasure. So subtracting this he will get only 146790 out of  199290. So a loss percentage of 26 happens each time he trade for unit of pleasure. Now converting it back to money, for each one rupee he actually makes a loss of 26 paise. No sane businessman will be ready for such a business.

Now a counter argument can be from successful entrepreneur claiming that smoking helped them in getting innovative ideas which made them successful and there by earning more than they could have and thereby offsetting or may be profiting by the act of cigarette smoking. This itself is a complex problem and thus currently out of scope of this research.

nina tikari photography

Reference :

http://www.cr.lsgkerala.gov.in/VitalStatics.php

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/cancer/CA00053

http://business.rediff.com/slide-show/2010/jun/28/slide-show-1-kerala-is-actually-first-in-per-capita-income.htm

Doodhsagar and Tambdi Surla Trek

The idea of a trek is probably to have different set of people join together for an adventure. In one recent trek, a group had four type of people. The scared one (SO) - who is ready to take very minimal risk; The don’t care one (DO) - who doesn’t really care about the trek, but only about the food and sleep that he can get; the Responsible one (RO) - who consider all the risk factor and make responsible decisions; The out of the mind one (OO) - who as the name suggest is out of his mind; probably because of last night inebriated state. So the SO, DO, RO and OO set for a last moment trip to Dudhsagar. They did not have any plan so they decided to plagiarize Bangalore ascender’s plan.

Waiting for Chennai-Bangalore-Vasco Express at Hubli

At Castle Rock Railway station

Tickets were booked in Tatkal to Hubli, as only 16 tickets were available for the direct train from Bangalore to Castle Rock- The usual starting point of the trek. Once they reached Hubli, they waited for Bangalore Vasco train for which they earlier failed to get Tatkal ticket. The journey from Hubli to castle rock is around 3 hours. Around 11, they reached Castle Rock. The entire station was covered in mist. It was a pleasant view indeed. Many trekkers were already preparing for the 14 Km trek along the railway track from Castle Rock to Dudhsagar. After taking few photos, they boarded the train while it started whistling for its departure. As soon as the train departed from Castle rock, everyone in the group started feeling bad about not trekking from Castlerock to Dudhsagar. The trains have one more stop in the midway between Dudhsagar and Castlerock. They decided to get down there. Unfortunately they forgot the food that they had carried, which included chocolates and 35 chappatis. They realized this only after getting down and by that time train had started moving. SO wanted to get in the moving train, this was an unprecedented move from him as it was evident that it should be DO who should show the desperation for the lost food. SO reveled that he was scared of staying hungry in the forest, which solved the puzzle.

Trekkers trekking from Castle Rock

The 7 Km trek from the midway till Dudhsagar is also very beautiful. Many tunnels, 100 year old bridges, mist covered valleys and small waterfalls made that trip a memorable one. It was expected to rain, but it didn’t. Travelling in railway track is similar to walking in a mine field, mines are everywhere, somewhere fresh and somewhere old. OO wondered on who had time to plan these mines when the train was passing through the nature at its best. It took them around 2 hours to finish the 7 Km and finally they reached Dudhsagar railway station, the water falls was just 1.5 Km away from it. As they had lost their food, they decided to make use of a small mess/hotel available at Dudhsagar railway station. For Rs 40 they got enough pulav to appease their hunger. As expected DO was not happy about the pulav.

First waterfall that we encountered on the way to Dudhsagar

On a bridge on the way to Dudhsagar

First tunnel on the way

 Dudhsagar was a majestic view. 50 m high waterfall looked similar to someone who spilled his milk bottle on a rock. OO wanted to take a bath in the waterfalls and soon after taking a few pics, he went directly to enjoy the milk bath. To his desperation there was no Cleopatra there, a few were looking from the top of the bridge, enjoying the sight of many potbellied half naked men enjoying the milk bath. OO felt completely rejuvenated after the bath and was ready for the next 11 km trek to Kulem. They were supposed to follow a Jeep trail. Many bloggers had suggested them to look for a Jeep trail after Sonalim station which came between Dudhsagar and Kulem. Once they reached Sonalim, they enquired about the jeep trail. The station master at Sonalim advised not to take that route as the water in the streams to be crossed are very high and there are chances to find wild animals. OO still wanted to find that trail and take the risk. SO was definite that he was not going to take that route. SO’s jinx worked as they couldn't find the Jeep trail. Thus they walked from Dudhsagar to Kulem, another 11 Km in the railway track avoiding mines. Around 5 they reached Kulem. Kulem has good veg and non-veg restaurants.

The whole gang at Dudhsagar

Her highness Dudhsagar

 Stay at Tambdi-surla foiled, as SO along with RO decided not to go there as no one else is camping in Tambdi-Surla on that day. Tambdi-Surla is 22 Km away from Kulem and one has to rent a taxi to reach there. It is a completely deserted forest with no human settlement near to it. They decided to stay in the tent which they had carried along. RO and OO was all set for putting up the tent in the Kulem railway station, when scariness and sleeplessness struck SO and DO respectively. Both went searching for a hotel and found a house to stay for 250 Rs per head. They moved to the house and arranged for a taxi next day to Tambdi-Surla at decent rate of 1600 for round trip. Stay was decent and they all had dinner together and went to sleep soon. The next day early in the morning they went to Tambdi-Surla.

On the way to Kulem

 Tambdi-Surla is a serene forest, on the way from Kulem to TS we could grab a sight of peocock and wild boars. SO and RO convinced the driver to join us for the trek. Before trek they decided to visit Mahadev temple. The temple was built in 12^th century and is believed to be a permanent residence of a huge King cobra. The temple was surrounded by forest and was beside a stream. The sight of the temple lying in the tranquil solitude of the forest, misty mountain in a drizzling morning will sure make even the hardcore atheist to visit that place. The priest in the temple showed us the way to Tambdi-Surla water falls.

athos porthos aramis and d'artagnan at Tambdi-Surla

Mahadev temple at Tambdi surla

The trek to Tambdi-Surla water fall is a 5 Km trek. OO showed justice to his name when he decided to remove his shoes and trek the 5 km in bare foot, which he regretted just 500 m into the trek. The trek was a medium tiring trek. Crossing many streams and ticking away the leeches, they reached Tambdi-Surla water falls. OO decided to go closer to the Water fall. He used a tree which had fallen recently to reach a rock from where he could enjoy the best possible sight of the water falls. He could not get a good photograph of his feat as the rain started pouring immediately. After spending sometime there, in the rain, they descended. Rain added an icing to the trek. Tambdi-Surla is definitely a must go place and according to OO one should plan to stay at Tambdi-Surla. There is an open space available for putting up the tent, which is beside the stream and at the starting point of the trek and is very clean according to trekking standards.

On the way to Tambdi-Surla waterfall

The distant view of Tambi Surla

Close up view of the falls

SO, DO, RO and OO, though had different interest and opinion at many point during the trek, managed to come to conscience very fast and could enjoy the trip to the fullest. OO after coming back from the trek told the author of this post that he is ready to trek with new type of trekkers- PO, The Pro One’s and probably move from OO to RO.

The Beauty that transcends sun shine and rain

This title used to be the tag line for Asian paints in their advertisement. More than that, this was used by one of my teachers in school to address a few of us who had a darker complexion than others. I wanted to write this post as I saw one of my friends who recently put up a post in Facebook against NanditaDas’s initiative “Dark Is Beautiful”. This post is not to argue against his views, rather to point out my views on the same, through different anecdotes that happened in my life. 

If I start it in the chronological order, it starts with my mother on her wedding day overhearing one of my aunts speaking to someone that my mother will have “kaka kunjungal” (literarily translated in English to crow babies; usually used to comment on a kid with dark complexion) as both my mother and father were dark in color. There I was being judged well before I was born. My mother made sure that her first son, my brother, is fair enough to be not called as a crow baby. She used cream of milk along with turmeric powder on my brother’s body when he was an infant, which she claims to be the reason why my brother turned out to be fairer than me. In my case, I was born sick; I was admitted for 3 months just after my birth, also I had frequent fever and other diseases which made my mother less worried about fairness of my skin. So I turned out to be the crow baby which my aunt predicted four years back.

That was just the beginning, in school, one of my teachers used to address all students with a darker complexion using the title of this post. I was a decent boy who wouldn’t hurt anyone or fight with anyone because if I start a fight with someone he/she would call me “karimban” (Malayalam slang for Dark guy). And that used to hurt me a lot during that point of time. Though “karimban” just meant Dark Guy, for me it used to make me feel that I was an insignificant worm at whom people kick or look with contempt. There were many of my friends who used to get teased by this above mentioned teacher, if they did some mischief or sometimes for no reason. I, being a studious boy, was teased very rarely, but when he did, it did hurt me. Surprisingly this teacher used to be our favorite in school. I am sure many of my other friends who also got teased by him might have felt bad. If not they might be highly mature at that time to know that life is more than the color of skin, which I realized very late. I was good at sports and studies, in fact I got both proficiency prize (prize given for academic excellence) and sports championship in the same year, but I sure was ready to trade both of these to get a fairer complexion.

Life continued, I started realizing more important things in life. I joined NIT and on one Onam I went to visit my old school with two of my friends. I was pretty famous in my school though I was visiting it after 3 years. All the teachers and the office staff still remembered me and they all asked about my well-being with great interest. I felt really good, so I decided to take stroll through the school campus and ponder over the nostalgic days left behind. Onam celebrations was going on, students in all classes were busy preparing flower carpets. I was received with warm welcome in all classes and I was asked to rate their flower carpets. I was walking with a lot of pride and giving comments about their flower carpet whenever I was asked to. During this time, students from 5th got hold of my hand and dragged me into their class and asked me to judge their effort. While I was thinking about what to comment, I heard one of the boys asking another who is this “karimbootham” (Dark devil)? I felt as if I was an air filled balloon whose open end was just released. All the pride and happiness that I felt vanished in a fraction of second. There I realized that all the concept of fairness not being an important part of life, which I developed, was similar to a castle of cards, ready to be shattered by a gentle breeze. Though I could laugh at that incident when I told this to my friends, deep down I could sense that the wound was still not healed.

Though my obsession for a fair skin dropped drastically once I joined the college, few of my habits still had link to this obsession. I selected only light shades of shirt; I considered very fair girls to be way out of my league; I took photos only when there is enough light or flash turned on; I made friends only with crap looking guys (Arjun, Gokul, Ashley, AKP and Das yea I meant you guys itself). It’s only in final year of my college I started making changes to this routine with my girlfriend convincing me to try dark shades of shirt who herself was far far fairer than me. Though that relation was short-lived, she could instill the confidence in me that I was something more than a “karimban”. I still take photos with flash turned on and am still friends with those crap looking guys. But my outlook has changed a lot, though I have never tested how rigid my beliefs are.

But I still live in a world, a world where my neighbor was not sad because her son married a girl from other caste (this is the usual case) but because the girl had a dark complexion and was very happy when her grand-daughter turned out to be fair, a world where my friend asked me to check if I know any white girl suitable for her cousin brother who is very fair and a world where tons and tons of fairness cream is produced to meet the demand. I am not sure whether NanditaDas’s initiative will achieve the desired result, but it sure would have made my childhood more fantastic.

PS: When I look back, I don’t feel angry towards people who teased me for my complexion, but owe them for making me understand what is important in life.

Yea that's me; I guess I had a melanin deficiency at that time

My brother always has been this cute, thanks to milk cream and turmeric powder.

Look at the amount of powder on my face.  

My name is Febin and I am not an actor

In my opinion there are two kinds of people in this world; ones who know what they want in life and ones who don’t. Some people at some point of their life switch sides to the other category, some stay there forever. I belong to the latter; I don’t have an answer for what I want in life though I have answers for what I don’t want in life. I use the method of elimination to decide what I don’t want in my life. When I struggled with my biology I knew that I didn’t want to be a doctor; when I tried unsuccessfully to tune a song written by myself, I knew that I didn’t want to be an composer. When my mother looked at the innocent face of a fifth grade and said that I sucked big time in singing, I knew that I didn’t want to be a singer. I follow this method of elimination to decide what I don’t want in my life. This post is about my small stint before realizing that I didn’t want to be an actor either.

I was in fifth grade and was for the first time experiencing the phenomenon called crush. Those days I was not that popular in school and my crush was in a different division. School anniversary was nearing and my English teacher was preparing for an English drama and was under the process of casting. The drama was an adaptation of Kalidasan’s Shakunthalam. Her first choice was the first rank holder and second choice the sports champion. I, being not there in vicinity of both spots, was sitting in my science class and thinking about nothing. The topper was studying dance along with his crush for last two years which made him not available for the top job: Dushyandhan’s role. The sports champion had already been given the second best role: Vishwamitra. This made my teacher look for less popular people. The sports champion was given the responsibility of casting. Dushyandhan’s role involved keeping his hand over Shakuntala’s shoulder. Touching a girl was considered to be a taboo by all the boys during that point of time. As the science class progressed Vishwamitra started giving cameo role and started picking his enemies for the role of Dushyandhan. After few people, I finally got the call.

When I entered the room I saw my crush along with many other girls. The fact that I was being watched by my crush made me completely oblivious of what was going on there and I completely forgot about the taboo. English teacher asked me whether I was ready for the audition and I in my half sense nodded. I don’t even remember the teacher asking me the question, but she sure was happy that finally she found one guy who was ready to put his hand on the shoulders of Shakuntala. She asked me to act the scene. I put my hand on the shoulder, only to hear every one laughing and realizing that I have kept my shoulders on my English teacher. I turned back and saw disappointment and disparage on my crush’s face. My English teacher was also furious at me. She scolded me for not listening to her and asked me to enact the scene again. The scene was very simple: put my hands on the Shakuntala’s shoulder and walk for a few feet. There was no dialogue involved and I was so desperate to regain the reputation. There I just finished my first audition and the teacher was happy that I didn’t show any reluctance in breaking the Taboo. I got the part.

The complete drama was in English and I was given a big sheet of paper with my dialogue to be mugged up. The next day was the first day of practice. I mugged up all the dialogue and just after my lunch ran to the practice room. I soon realized that my crush is going to be my mother in law “Menaka” and that Vishwamitra wanted me to suffer while he flirted with my crush. I really don’t remember any of the practice session other than hanging out with the topper who also happens to be my best friend. We both were discussing on how to succeed in flirting with our respective crushes. School annual day was very near and my parents were excited to see their son in limelight. My father with his experience in acting in the cliché dramas that used to happen in churches gave me a lot of advice. The only advice that I remembered from his long lecture is that not to worry if you forget the dialog because someone from behind the curtain will always spell it out for you.

The day had come and I was worried about the whole concept of Green room. My English teacher was happy with my performance during practice session, so I was able to convince her that I will wear the King’s gown over my pants rather than removing the pants and wearing the gown in front of everyone else in the green room. I was the sole lucky guy on that day who didn’t have to strip down in front of everyone (including other unlucky girls) for the makeup man to show his talent on us. I had my first Mickey Mouse moment on that day. (Don’t know what Mickey mouse moment is? Search google with “Da thadiya” and Mickey Mouse as keywords). There were many Mickey Mouses that were playing around there in pink and white background. But I don’t recollect having the Mickey Mouse moment with my crush. Still, the evil me can recollect a few of the other moments exactly.

The drama was about to start and we were all taken near the stage. My crush had started dancing around Vishwamitra on her venture to seduce him. My role was approaching and I was completely nervous. I didn’t want to let my teacher down, more than that I didn’t want to see the disappointment on my crush’s face. I couldn’t recollect the first dialogue that I was supposed to say but I didn’t worry because as per my father, there would be someone who would tell the dialogue from behind and I just needed to repeat it. Soon the scene was all set and I was standing there waiting for the person behind me to tell the dialogue. Nobody uttered any word. The complete stage was in silence. Shakuntala was staring at me. Her maids were looking at me with pity. I turned back searching in vain for the non existing person who was supposed to spell out my dialogue. I didn’t have the strength to look at my teacher’s direction. I directly started with the second dialogue. The completely mugged up Shakuntala couldn’t say her second dialogue without delivering the first dialogue. Though I don’t remember the dialogue the audience was for sure laughing out. I could remember all other dialogue and after the first stutter all other dialogues were rendered with perfection. But by then the damage has been done and I had realized that I don’t want to be an actor any more. Time passed by, the drama got over and I returned back to the green room with a bowed head to avoid the disappointed eyes.

PS: Sure I have added a lot of masala.The original characters please don’t get offended by the post. I am still in touch with Shakuntala. She is now mother of a cute little girl. Vishwamitra was blessed with a cute girl recently and I am sure that Menaka also might have settled down somewhere with her true Vishwamitra. The topper is still my Best friend, and still gives me a call sometime from US to advise me on my new crushes.

PPS: I recently met Bharathan who is the son of Dushyandhan at Kannur Bus stand. He had a beedi on his lips and lot of communism in his head.

There I am taking a break from delivering dialogues in style