Back to basics

It'd been several years since I had the 'opportunity' to travel by public transport - local train, bus, auto. Atleast over the last 4 years, car took me everywhere, I either drove or was driven. Over the last 2, have had the good fortune of not having to travel much to & from work in any case.

This last week has been different. (No) thanks to dad's hip surgery, I had decided to operate from Tambaram and resolved to commute to my office in Chamiers Road by public transport. Even so, at the last minute on tuesday morning, resolve deteriorated and I took a A/c call-taxi. I returned rather comfortably too, auto to T Nagar bus stand and from there, I got a seat all the way to Tambaram.

There were many opinions as to which is the fastest, most comfortable commute. One, which came from dad, was that there is 21G from Tambaram which would take me to the Park Sheraton bus stand without having to change modes of transport. This I tried on wednesday morning and it took a leisurely 90 mins and I fretted with every application of the brake as the bus negotiated traffic. I decided train would be the better bet to reach faster.

Sure enough getting to office on thursday and friday was quicker, not necessarily more comfortable. At the stations which I alighted, Mambalam and Saidapet, the eager auto drivers charged the usual premium. Unwilling to get into any argument, I promptly paid what they asked for. It was on thursday evening that I got a bit adventurous and tried an alternate route to get home. This route gave me good physical exercise, having had to walk atleast for 40 minutes in sultry weather and I took a little over 2 hours to reach home.

Today, which I presume will be the last date of such a commute for quite a while to come, I finally cracked the best route, the best timing and the most economical trip. A/c bus at 8 30 am from Tambaram, took me to office by 915 am (although there was a garrulous young lady who I would have wished to avoid if that was her usual route; the whole bus couldn't tolerate her).

Some features that have changed a great deal from my school days of travel by bus - buses have always been crowded in Chennai. Seats are definitely better; information system with an announcement is in place in some stops; crowd is more silent - mobiles being ubiquitous; traffic is horrendous, wonder how the drivers retain sanity; conductors use a hand-held ticket issuing system, are definitely more polite (still not polite enough!); passengers transport sweat and filth and leave it in the buses; buses still don't stop near bus-stands; perhaps I could add more to this. However, people don't wait endlessly in bus stops like they used to, I see people taking some mode of transport or the other - share-autos, alternate buses, hitch-hikes, whatever, but keep moving. In any case, most of them are busy with their mobile phones and can't seem to care where they are walking.

So much for travel in Chennai by public transport. Only wish people spitted less and cared more for fellow passengers. The country side along the railway tracks seem loaded with plastic waste and it will be a herculean task if and when there's a concerted movement to clean up. Perhaps that'll need a Lok-Commonsense Bill?

Alas, No Rhythm in Calypso Cricket Anymore!

My Class IV English textbook had a chapter on Central America, but all I remember was the phrase 'Calypso Cricket' and a photograph of cricket on the beach that was a part of that lesson. Ever since, I've had a fascination for cricket in the caribbean, second only to my rather partisan following of Indian cricket. Against all other nations other than India, I've been a Windies fan.

In the 1982-83 series in the West Indies, when radio was all that we had to keep track of cricket, one heard the voice of the ageless Tony Cozier describe how Marshall, Holding, Roberts and Davis were feeding on Indian incompetence against fast, short-pitched bowling. Amarnath and to a lesser extent Gavaskar, managed to salvage some pride for India in that series.

India won the world cup final shortly afterward, but what followed thereafter in India was nothing short of carnage. Marshall was at his prime and even the dead Indian wickets did not prevent him (or for that matter 'Rolls-Royce' Holding or Andy Roberts) from slicing through the Indian batting line up time and again. Crushing defeats in India, Ahmedabad and Kolkata followed and one-dayers were a no-contest. The opening duo of Greenidge and Haynes, followed by an imposing batting line up of Gomes, Richards, Lloyd, Logie, Dujon was just too much for Indian bowling although Kapil, Madan Lal, Binny, Shivlal Yadav and Maninder Singh did put in their best. Post-Lloyd, Richards' team had the same battery of fast bowlers with Patterson, Bishop, Walsh and Ambrose joining the club. Their team played with an air of resignation, that their batsmen will tear into the opposition, set up imposing scores in quick time and then their bowlers would clean up the opposition twice. With almost boring regularity, they continued to dominate and whitewash opponent teams.

Since then, they've of course had a smattering of class players - Lara was regal right through his career. I absolutely adored the batting of Carl Hooper although statistics don't bear out how good he was. But they've been so few and so far between that quite a few of them seemed to be there to merely make up the numbers. One hated to see Sherwin Campbell at the crease.

Wonder how they allowed Caribbean cricket to deteriorate in the manner it has. It would have been quite hard for youngsters then not to have idolised their own stars and not raised their own standards and followed cricket as a religion. True, soccer and basketball may have caught their fancy for the west indians are naturally athletic, but to have altogether dropped their standards in the manner they have, is really hard to digest. Now, barring Fidel Edwards to a certain degree, they don't have a fast bowler worth mentioning and barring Darren Bravo, there seems to be no sign of class in their batting line up. Add to that, Gayle who has the charisma to get the crowd going anywhere in the world is at loggerheads with the governing body for cricket there and there seems to be no end to misery.

It's high time they brought in some outside-in talent to resurrect cricket. What rock is to music, calypso style is to cricket. Usher in the rhythm !