Evergreen Classics : Sachin, Tughlaq and Mylapore

While the first Test was a cliffhanger, the second one was largely dominated by India. Sachin's double century in the first innings was one of his best - one in which he took minimum risks, played aggressively and with purpose. The calculated assault on Hauritz exposed Australia's fragile spin attack. While Hilfenhaus and Johnson will certainly be a handful in Australian conditions, here, where the pitches hardly assisted their type of bowling, they were played relatively easily. They are not in the league of Mcgraths or the McDermotts of this world - atleast not yet.

On my last visit to the Landmark store, I picked up VCDs of two evergreen plays in Tamil - Cho's Mohammed Bin Tughlaq and Mouli's Flight 172. Of this, I grew up listening to Cho's wonderfully written Tughlaq over the gramophone and knew almost all the dialogues by-heart. Catching up with the play over a leisurely weekend was one of the highpoints of the year for me.

After much delay, I could finally tie up a visit to the Kapaleeswarar temple at Mylapore this morning. Somehow those 45 mins in the temple gave me a feeling of immense peace and pride in our traditions. Unlike several other temples, this one was very neat and clean and one could focus on worship rather than watch one's step every now and then.

To round it up, I could follow up that visit to a nearby Saravana Bhavan for a nice breakfast. While on Saravana's, they have drastically reduced their portion sizes and made sure that the customer goes for a second helping to fill his stomach. This was the first time in my life that I had a Onion Uttappam and felt I needed something else to round up the breakfast. Restaurants must be profit-oriented, but surely they can give more generous helpings on the plates! What followed was a spoonful of Pongal for a bomb - this time, even if it still didn't appease the hunger, I had to beat the retreat out of the place to prevent digging a hole into the pocket!

It was a week of classics and was thoroughly delightful. But more was to come! Sholay!! I must have seen the movie atleast 25 times, but I ended up watching it twice today - once on Zee Cinema and again on Zee TV. I still find that movie immensely enjoyable - something which I can't say for most of the other movies of today, even for one viewing.

..This week was Laxman's

What a time to fall sick! Quarterly closing, loads of work to do and here I was, down with viral and severe cold - the kind not experienced in well over a year. Monday and tuesday I was completely bed-ridden. I missed a major part of the 4th day as I drifted between sleep and drowsiness. However, on tuesday I was much better and went live with the cricket from ball 1.

A friend sent in an entry on facebook : 'Last week was Ram's (referring to the Ayodhya verdict) this week is Laxman's'. You bet it was ! Still with over 90 runs to get and just Ishant and Pragyan for company, I thought it would be curtains before India got 150 runs. I was already cursing Raina for running him out before the third umpire, after umpteen number of replays, decided he was just in. Laxman was always grace - cajoling the short pitched delivery through mid-wicket when other lesser batsmen use their power to get the same result. Never seen him as agitated as he was when Pragyan was ball-watching and refused an easy single. In the end, he and Ishant for the most part and Pragyan for the last part, made sure India scraped home with one wicket to spare. The fever stopped just there and I was immediately feeling much better thereafter.

The second test will not be quite the same; such finishes come but rarely in history...