About Dhaka, and my Grandfather...

Have you ever missed someone you have never met? Wished that you were around the person for at least sometime, so that you had tales to tell to the next generation? And also pondered over the simplistic achievements of the earlier era and hoped that even a percent of their goodness was imbibed in you?

My relation with my grandfather is a culmination of the feelings above. He was from Bikrampur, Narayanganj. Tall, fair, dhoti-half shirt-shoes clad, expletives-speaking, stereotypical "bangal" of early 1900s, started his career in 1936, crossed the border in 1948 with my beautiful grandmother in tow as refugees. Grandmother herself was from Rangoon (Burma), moved to Dhaka during World War II, married and shifted to India with her husband. Their refugee certificates state them as East Pakistan residents.

Amongst the new professions of that period, my grandfather was a photographer. He learnt the art in Doss company (Azimpura, Dhaka). With the early horizontal black-box cameras and a few years of employment in Doll Studio (Park Street, Kolkata), he visited Burnpur for Industrial photography, following which the family shifted to Burnpur and opened the first photography studio in the small steel city.

I have heard innumerable anecdotes from Baba about his skills, the small shop with tin roof, his tools (one of the antiques still exist within the family) and the rented house where they stayed for 42 years! My initial memories also revolve around that house, where even I have stayed for the first few years of my life.

The feelings were rekindled recently when Baba was discussing the announcement of the discovery of the Higgs Boson. Satyendranath Bose's 1924 research that created the Bose-Einstein Statistics, build the foundation for Bosons. Bose did his research in Dhaka  and grandfather was his personal photographer. Baba still has the certificate given to grandfather by Bose, amongst the various other memoirs.

Grandfather's skills were not restricted to Bose. He had accompanied General Ayub Khan (later president of Pakistan) for three months in his camps. Manipur's Raja-Rani had offered him to move to the state after seeing his work. He had clicked Sharmila Tagore's childhood pictures, when her dad was posted in Asansol Railways. Asha Pareekh's bengali-style saree clad picture, and bit of still photography work with Meghnad Saha (as assistant still photographer) and photographer in Eastern Talkies is also in his list. And finally Nehru, when he visited to inaugurate Mython Hydroelectric plant (DVC). The list goes on, and I remember this few.

His good nature and professionalism is what people remember him by. Sadly, the small shop he had opened up burnt down and most of his works extinguished with it. Baba had to rebuild the venture from scratch, a loss he regrets till date.

Such times bring such a hollow feeling, an indefinable emptiness, to reach out and live the un-missed moments, get pampered for a few years, just to be able to recount the love, affection and simplicity of the person who passed on his genes to you. Wish he had known that his granddaughter will be on her way to the world! Lots of struggle and ups and downs later, he gave in to his health at the age of 51, ensuing another life of struggle for Baba, who was just 17 then. Well, that is another story altogether :)

The professional success of the period was more towards sustaining families. To pull through the emotional and financial burden of leaving everything behind and begin afresh in a new country. The unsung heroes, the common man, faded away to obscure corners of the hearts of family members. The dedication of the genre of that age was so profound, their art and intelligence was several strata above what we can ever imagine to possess. Hats off to what we call the older generation.

I have promised myself to visit Dhaka (and Bikrampur) at least once in this lifetime, as an ode to the man I am proud to call my grandfather. All I can say about him is that the yearning is going to live and die with me - the remorse of never having seen him and the complaint against God, for taking him away so soon! I guess even He wanted some nice portraits to be clicked :)

Awaiting the cup...

The war ended, but somehow a write-up by a Pakistani journalist – Maheen Sadiq – really moved me to sober down my vengeful, nationalistic spirit and look forward to a well-deserving World Cup final.

Agreed, for the two neighbouring nations, the semi-final was our THE finale! Crackers heralded Diwali with great pomp across India. Each wicket gone was creating fervor and there was no end to the celebrations after we defeated the rivals! Hoards of bikes and cars launched on the roads, and there was a complete bottleneck on the major thoroughfares. Slogans filled the hearts of every Indian and the national flag flew high.

A share of thought for the other party, and revisiting the article by Maheen, Pakistan took the defeat quite bravely. There weren’t any curses for the players, or burning of effigies. True, there are fanatics – one of whom filed a case against the cricketers for match fixing. But in the end, the welcome back of the team to their nation has been very warm, triggered by Afridi’s apology to the nation for losing. According to the country, it’s their president and prime minister who should be apologizing.

Enough of the past match, and sorry if I got carried away! A bigger match is round the corner – for Indians, the play-ground is their shrine, cricket is the cult and Sachin is their God! (No bias / personal opinion here, I do believe he sometimes plays for his own records)… It’s been a long hiatus since our last and only victory in 1983. India has produced some very sincere, industrious and marvelous captains since then – Kapil Dev, Azharuddin, and Sourav Ganguly being the most promising ones. And now Dhoni is doing his bit. He has practically won all the major cups and broken the 15 years of jinx against Australia. The World Cup this year will be his zenith and we definitely see it coming. 

As much as we loath the frivolous and inconsistent nature of the Indian team, they definitely did well this time around. A small misfield here and a fallen catch there, rest the series so far has been pretty smooth for them. The batsmen are in their form, the bowlers look good and, best of all, the fielding has been quite noteworthy. Running between the wickets by the rival teams have been kept under check by players like Raina, Yuvraj and Kohli. 

Sri Lanka, on the same lines, has been a consistent team throughout. They are a very strong bowling side and India will have to depend on its batting and fielding strengths to defend the Lankan team. Castrol Index’s predictions show that Sri Lanka has an edge over India: 

With or without predictions – the finals is going to be more of a match of wits than a match of strength. It is the 3^rd time Team India has reached the finals – they have a humongous load of expectations to fulfill. It adds up to the extreme exhaustion from all the matches since Feb 2011, and the pressure to recover from the daze of the win against Pakistan. Quite a lot for one’s cup, huh?!

The team will have to collect all their mental and emotional prowess, and play a patient and strategic game. The country prayed and celebrated the previous wins, the final one will be showered with blessings as well. Come on India – we are awaiting the Golden Cup!

The Clash of the Titans!!!

India – Pakistan match, that too in World Cup semi-finals, is more than one can ask for. Of course, if they meet in the finals sometime in the future, the whole Cricket scenario will go berserk! Till now, the series is turning out to be a definitive sub-continent tournament.

Both the teams have so far proved their mettle. India scores the highest in batting momentum with 380 points (Pakistan has 254 points) and Pakistan ranks top in bowling efficiency with 246 points (India has 188 points). The quarter finals were a breeze for Pakistan due to the poor show by West Indies – just 112 runs in a World Cup match is nothing short of a disaster. Pakistan won the match by 10 wickets. On the same note, India’s 5-wickets win against Australia was exhilarating! They beat the 4 times World Cup winners with full élan.

Coming back to the upcoming match, let’s measure the odds first, before we can even try to predict the results. Some of the players who are in their performing best are: Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Shahid Afridi, Zaheer Khan, Ravichandran Ashwin, Umar Gul, Umar Akmal, Suresh Raina, Asad Shafiq, and Mohammad Hafeez.

Considering the match being in Mohali, it will favour both batsmen and the bowlers. But looking at the statistics, Pak batting line-up hasn’t been very effective and they have crumbled against high chases. With bowlers like Zaheer and Ashwin, we can definitely look at limiting them to less than 250. Well, if they bowl first, Indians can be in a bit of a strain. As history goes, Indian team has won more matches if they chase. Thus looking at all the odds, they will be in a better position if they bowl first and set a convenient target for their batsmen to chase.

Even though I might be a bit biased for the results, a ‘60 : 40’ chance for ‘India : Pakistan’ seems to be the current prediction. The contenders have a monumental history of rivalry and winning the semi-final will be nothing short of the Clash of the Titans!