India Wins T20 World Cup

I think this is what all bloggers, atleast all Indian bloggers, will write today. India winning the Twenty20 World Cup. Its a wonderful feeling to have seen the spectacle unfold in front of your eyes (on TV ofcourse!).

I somehow managed to leave office by 5:15 pm (match started at 5:30) only to realize that its raining cats & dogs - so heavy that there was no way i could ride my bike home. Fortunately, I met a friend who was heading home in his car and got a lift. I reached just after the first ball was bowled & did not miss any action after that.

It was a match befitting a final of a World Cup. Two evenly matched teams who unexpectedly reached the finals, a very un-Wanderers like pitch, good weather & a wonderful crowd. I dont think i should write much about the match as everyone and his aunt would already know. I would just write about few of my thoughts.

I know we would always regret that Misbah got out to a poor shot than to a great ball, but very importantly we won inspite of our best batsman, Yuvi, and best bowler, Bhajji, both failing to deliver. That sounds great for the future as we have been plagued with CMM level 1 victories in the past, i.e. victories achieved by individual brilliance of one or two players. This victory was a team effort with lot of players playing crucial roles.

We must appreciate Gambhir's knock. In my book, he was the man of the match. He scored a priceless 75 which was pretty much half the Indian tally, on a day when batsmen struggled. Though the wickets taken by Pathan, as well as RP, were crucial, imagine India's scoreboard if Gambhir had scored a 20!

What can we say about Joginder Sharma? I am clueless how he survived yesterday. He was bowling slow, wide & with no variation. I think the Pakistani batsman were baffled that he could bowl like that in a final and hence lost the mind game to him! I think he was simply lucky.

Spare a thought for Misbah-ul-Haq. Clearly the Player of the Tournament. A flawed points system saw Afridi winning the award just because he scored his runs quickly & got some wickets (4 of them against Scotland). Misbah is a wonderful player, especially in this form of the game. I don't know why he was not in the Pak one day team earlier. He stays calm whatever the situation, calculates his moves, pre-empts the opposing captains strategies, and hits the right shots at the right time. As Harsha Bhogle pointed out, his mind works like a computer with all the available information, and he launches an attack at the best possible time. Hoping to see more of his batting in the future.

Finally, another captain and another World Cup. Dhoni emulates Kapil in a wonderful show of captaincy. He is a level-headed, cool & thinking captain. Though fortune swung his way coupla times, we must appreciate the right moves at the right time which he made. Like bringing on Harbhajan in the semi againt the Aussies, or the intelligent bowling changes with Pathan in the final. Though his batting has not been at its best, he did play couple of crucial knocks. Here's wishing him success in his career as captain.

I dont know how selectors will deal with this situation. You can't change a team which won a World Cup. But we have the Big Three waiting at home, and they cannot be left out either. It'll be interesting to see what happens.

Congratulations to the Indian team for a memorable victory. Where's the party tonight?

Chikmagalur Trip

We were planning this one for quite some time, but it finally worked out last week. Off we went to Chikmagalur for a trip of a life-time. (Not to mention it was a difficult decision as the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup was in progress!)

We started off on Saturday morning [15 Sept] at 6:30. We had hired a Chevrolet Tavera with a driver to take us around. It’s a different matter that we intended to leave at 5:30. Fortunately, the car was comfortable & the driver was pretty good. Memories of a forgettable car & driver on our previous trip were immediately left behind. We tried to doze off but the early morning freshness didn’t let us do that & soon we were whizzing past Moodubidri. We stopped at Karkala around 7:40 and had breakfast at Sagar (restaurant).

We started off again & realized that we probably chose the best time for this trip because it was just after the rains and there was amazing greenery everywhere. Our next target was the Hanumangundi waterfall. It lies between Bajegoli & Kudremukh, around 20km before Kudremukh. We reached around 9:15 but sadly, it was closed, maybe due to slippery surfaces or heavy current caused by heavy rains over last few days. So we carried on. But we made up for the loss by stopping on the way for snaps at some stunning locations. The best one was Kadambi Falls. Its a very pretty and small waterfall but it makes for very good pictures. We crossed Kudremukh around 10 am.

Soon we were in Kalasa, surrounded by beautiful tea gardens. We stopped at Goomankhan tea estate for a cup of hot tea right in the middle of the sprawling tea garden. That was a wonderful experience. Then we took a diversion to Horanadu as we still had enough time. Horanadu has a nice temple of Annapurneshwari located at a pretty high altitude and offers a good view. The statue of the goddess is covered with gold and silver, and the calm feel of the temple is very soothing. This formed the spiritual quotient of our trip!! There was some confusion about the road ahead but we were soon on track with help from locals and stopped only after reaching Chikmagalur around 1:50 in the afternoon.

Nitin’s house in Chikmagalur was the right place to land up, nice and cozy. His mother is a wonderful lady bubbling with enthusiasm. She had a sumptuous meal ready for us and we had our hearts fill. But we were running out of time and soon started off again. Our next target was Mullaingiri. This is the HIGHEST peak in Karnataka at 6317 feet above sea level. Apparently it is the highest peak between the Nilgiris & the Himalayas!! The most amazing part was that a temple has been built on the top of Mullaingiri and I have no clue when and how they managed to do that! Rain & fog tried their best to spoil our plans but we kept going till the Tavera could not go any further.

The last part of the journey required us to climb 350 steps to reach the top. To top it there was a somewhat heavy drizzle with very strong (& cold) wind. Bhatia was not well & we were also short of one umbrella. So we left him with Satish (the driver) in the car & started off. I was scared to take the camera or mobile but thankfully Mahesh had his N70 for our photo needs. He was clicking pretty much throughout the way & by the time we reached the top, our jaws & ears were paining with cold. But it was a memorable experience. I had never experienced this degree of cold in Karnataka, especially coming from Ahmedabad with its chilly winters. We went into the temple without our footwear & our feet went numb stepping into rainwater on the floor. But it was a truly amazing experience.

On our way down, the rain had stopped and the wind was feeling even better. Halfway down we saw Bhatia & Satish coming up. No amount of persuasion could stop them & they went all the way up!! We took some more snaps till they came back and started on our way back. Being in the land of coffee, we could not avoid Café Coffee Day!! All of us had coffee & cake at the local CCD and then headed home. On the way I picked up a kilo of coffee powder for my granny which she had been asking for since long.

We reached home around 7:30. Again, aunty had piping hot tomato soup ready for us & we couldn’t ask for more. We caught up on the day’s matches with updates from Nitin’s dad and were soon engrossed in the ongoing match. Dinner was as good, if not better, than lunch; which was followed by ice-cream & fruit salad. We went to sleep after watching Bangladeshi pyrotechnics against the Proteas.

Sunday began at 7 am and we got ready for breakfast. We had some wonderful Neer dosas before we took off at 8:30. On the way to Bababudangiri, we saw the Attugundi falls by the roadside. It’s a very interesting waterfall. It is very small but its shape & path are very pretty. The neat look is due to the cement platform over which it flows down. From there we went straight to the Bababudangiri hills. This place offers a breathtaking view of the ghats. We also visited the Manikyadhare. It is believed that if you bathe under the Manikyadhare and throw off your clothes, your sins will be washed away!! Unfortunately we could not visit the Dattatreya Peetha and Baba Budan shrine due to time constraints. This has been a site of controversy for a long time.

There was an absolutely stunning pond in the midst of the hills which caught our attention. When we reached there, it was covered with fog and we could not see the other end and that made it look huge. Later when the fog shifted, we saw it in its entirety. It had a leafless tree in a corner which added to its beauty. Then we quickly moved on. The road from Bababudangiri to Kemmangundi was the worst stretch we encountered. There was virtually no road! It was very difficult to navigate the curves on such a bad road and so we took long to reach Kemmangundi (reached around 12:30). Kemmangundi is a cozy tourist spot. We spent some good time there. The gardens there had some beautiful flowers. I had a nice time taking lot of macro-mode pics of the flowers.

We left Kemmangundi around 1:30. On the way, we stopped over at the Kalattgiri falls. Nothing great about it but you can’t deny admiring the stone carving BEHIND the waterfall. You can make out Shiva and elephants carved out of the rock over which the water is falling!! But there is a small temple and sadly visitors make the place dirty by bathing and washing clothes. We didn’t stay for long and were back on track. We were already getting late and reached Chikmagalur at around 4 pm. We packed up quickly, had some snacks & started back.

We had a nice time in the car on our return. We had some good chatting, some even better fights (over playing of music, opening/closing of windows, volume of music played - of course I lost all of ‘em) which added to our fun. We stopped in Karkala for dinner at – where else – Sagar and had a good meal. We finally reached home at 11:45 pm, taking extra time due to Ganesh processions & pandals blocking the way in the outskirts of M’lore (15th was Ganesh Chaturthi). We finished our day by watching the South Africans beat England in their Super 8 encounter. As I write this, India and Pakistan have set up a dream final in the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup. Wow!

Here you can see all the snaps we took. Enjoy!!

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