Watching a Hockey match

I was excited when I saw the World Series Hockey advertisement for the first time on Neo sports tv channel. Hockey which used to be our national game (still the official one) lost its shine in the midst of cricket and WSH can be the best effort to reinvigorates the people's interest in this game. Unfortunately this effort is struggling between Indian Hockey Federation and Hockey India tussle. Still it managed to make an impact on Indian sports arena.

Last week I planned to go for watching the WSH hockey match with my office teammates and family. We booked the tickets for Karnataka Lions and Mumbai Marines match. I was little apprehensive if people will like a hockey match or even if there will be a crowd in stadium. So before going for match, I googled the basic rules of Hockey and shared with the team. On 8th March late evening, before hockey match, we had a good dinner in "Under The Mango Tree" restaurant in Richmond road which is very near to the Shantinagar Hockey stadium. After that we went to the stadium. Once I reached to the parking area, it was a louder noise coming from the ground. Quickly we moved inside and took our seat. Stadium which is having eight thousand capacity was almost filled. People were very enthusiasts. The turf was of international level though stands were ordinary one. Match was already in action and people were cheering for the home team and famous player Dhanraj Pillai in particular.  Local folk drummers and beautiful cheerleaders were raising the people's enthusiasm. Karnataka team was leading in the first quarter but lost by 1-2 goals with a dominating performance by Mumbai in last two quarter. A local fan who looked like a die-hard supporter and old hockey addict, was shouting a lot. In all these noise I was feeling good to see so many enthusiast people watching and appreciating hockey. 

The Pulse with Zakir Hussain

Last night I got the opportunity to watch Ustad Zakir Hussain live in a concert in Jnana Jyothi Auditorium in Bangalore. An exclusive solo tabla recital of Zakir Hussain was like dream come true. The concert was started with a performance from famous violinist Deepak Pandit. Deepak Pandit has accompanied Jagjit Singh for over three decades. Here he was accompained with Heera Pandit on tabla, Rajesh Rajbhatt on drum and Santosh Mulekar on keyboard. It was a very young team when we talk of Indian classical music. They played fusion music, performing most of the ragas. Their performance was applauded by the audience. After the performance from Deepak Pandit and team, time came for the Ustad Zakir Hussian to come on stage. Whole auditorium was standing in respect of him. He was accompanied by young Dilshan Khan on Sarangi. Once the stage was set for Zakir, people were lost in magic of his fingers. These two instruments was played well synchronized and won the hearts of the people there. Zakir played a lot of compositions and earned a lot of appluads from audience. I am not a music expert so can not explain in detail and techniques of his masterpiece performance but can easily say that he touched everyone's pulse with his tabla recital.

First Day Ride in Bangalore Metro

My meeting was going long and I started looking at my computer clock as I had to leave the office to go for a ride on Namma Metro on the very first day of its opening. At last meeting ended at eight thirty and I left from my desk in hurry. In next fifteen minutes I was at my home. Quickly I left home with my wife to reach Baiyappanahalli metro station, which is about ten kilometers from Marathalli. When I reached it was quarter after nine of night but still there was good crowd. We parked our bike there and entered into the station. It is a jumbo metro station and will take minimum five to seven minutes to reach platform as you have to walk a little on footbridge. It took around ten minutes to get the tickets as a modest queue was there. The station was decorated with flowers and an atmosphere of fest was there. We took some photos and everyone there was busy with this only.

In next five minutes, the purple color train arrived and we boarded. The compartments were very comfortable but I was feeling little hot as it was packed with fun riders. Bangalore metro looks similar to Delhi metro in way of design of train, platform, terminal, information system and all other ways. The only difference I found was that here announcement happens in three languages. So in next fifteen minutes we reached to M G Road after crossing four stations. This is not a long distance, hardly seven kilometers but it takes up to one hour if some one travel by bus in peak time. Also it cost fifteen rupees only to travel in air-condition whereas you have to bargain with auto guy and he may ask for a hundred bucks. As it was more than ten 'o clock when we reached there, we directly went to ticket counter to buy return tickets. We looked around M G Road station which was decorated like a marriage function. Then we took a return metro and came back to Baiyappanahalli station. Ride on its opening day was a wonderful experience.

Though metro was late in coming to Bangalore, I was able to make it on first day. Bangalore, which is not a well planned city and not having good basic infrastructure of roads, where people struggle with huge traffic daily, metro will make the life easy for sure. My rating for Namma Metro is ten out of ten. 

Kaifi aur Main

Last night I with my wife went to watch a play "Kaifi aur Main" based on the life of Kaifi Azami. This was organized in Good Shepherd Auditorium, which is one of the good auditoriums in Bangalore. This play was not actually a play but a beautiful way of story telling. Idea of theatrical way to present Kaifi in the mix up of story,  his nazams, gazhals, poetry and songs; was brilliant. Shabana Azami and Javed Akhtar shared the life of Kaifi in a very beautiful way. The play narrated the love between Kaifi and his wife Shaukat in a very romantic way. The social and cultural activism of Kaifi was well shared in this story. Shabana tried to live in her mother's image and Javed tried to create kaifi's portrait. The act of Shabana Azami was fabulous. Javed Akhtar as an actor disappointed me a little bit and that can be undestood as Shabana worked in the theater for a long whereas Javed was always a lyricst first. Jaswinder Singh who sung some of the best ghazals and songs of Kaifi was just fantastic. The songs were well aligned with the rhythm of story. His voice was really melodious and music played was superb. He got the best applauds from the crowd which he rightly deserved. The best part was the narrative style of Shabana, which will be cherished for a long time.

The paisa wasool show IPL

Its only one day left and I was still waiting for the tickets. I called the customer care and got the reference number for courier. Finally at four in evening, tickets were in my hands. Yeah the tickets I am talking here is of IPL only. 

The IPL match between Bangalore and Delhi which was scheduled on twenty seventh but got preponed for twenty fifth due to BMP election. I had some other meeting clashed with this time too. Mukil agreed to take care of this, so I left the office at one. At two, me and Amit started from our house and reached to Chennaswami at about three.

The road around Chennaswami stadium was completely packed and parking was a tough job. There were some parking zone arranged for match including the Cubbon Park but getting up to there was difficult. So we parked our bike in a nearby lane. From there we walked up to gate number seventeen. The ambience there was very festive. I can remember some mela of my small hometown in my childhood days. Some vendors were selling t-shirts of RCB and DD. Few were doing jobs of painting your cheeks with your favorite team or player names. A long queue was waiting for us. Security was tight but it was not a problem for viewers. We entered the stadia through ground floor gate only so that we can get a close view of field. And for our surprise we managed to get seat near cheerleader’s stand. In the first row of our stand G, mild lathicharge by police was happening because of crazy people, so we took seats in third or fourth row.

It was still sunny and seating there was not easy and particularly on stairs is not good. Crowd was cheering for players who were practicing on net near our fence. Before the match will start, Deepika Padukon had a round on a motor bagghi and we saw her from very nearby. I must say she is a beauty. Then comes the cheerleaders and crowd went noisy. Cheerleaders are really professional and they entertained the crowd with a great energy. Its really a tough task and they must get appreciation for this. Finally a toss happened and match got started. We came to support the RCB but it got lost. But the best thing about IPL is you will always win. This show has everything to make you love it. And why you, everybody is a winner here. It’s a real paisa wasool show.