The long journey to the top

 

Captions: Book cover; Australian bastman Matthew Hayden; MS Dhoni

In ‘I Have the Streets — a Kutti Cricket Story’, Ravichandran Ashwin talks about his journey from childhood to the apex of Indian cricket

By Shevlin Sebastian

At 4 p.m. on a summer day in 2010, Ravichandran Ashwin stepped out to play cricket. This was on 1st Street in Ramakrishnapuram in West Mambalam, Chennai. A lamp post was the wicket. As they played, scooters and bikes passed by. When there were pedestrians on the pavement, they stopped playing. For the 24-year-old, it was a fun reminder of his childhood days.

Soon, a young man walked past, accompanying an elderly lady. There is a temple and a hospital nearby. The man recognised Ashwin. He made the lady wait near the temple.

Ashwin was batting. He hit a ball and set off on a run and made it to the other end, without getting out.

The man came near Ashwin and shouted, “If only you had done this drop-and-run at Chepauk, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) would have taken the two points and would not be struggling [now].”

Nine days earlier, in a match against Kings XI Punjab, Ashwin needed to get one run off the last two balls. But he failed to do so. The match ended in a tie. Later, CSK lost in the tie-breaker.

In the Prologue of his autobiography, ‘I have the streets — a Kutti Cricket Story,’ written along with co-author and screenwriter, Sidharth Monga, Ashwin says, ‘When I lose something in life, when I see no other light, I turn to this cricket on the street with some of my best friends. Everything changes, but not the joy I experience when I play here.’

In the foreword former Indian captain Rahul Dravid states that the book will have wider appeal because anyone who has ever bowled in a dusty lane will relate to it. ‘So will anyone who has ever dreamed of hitting a match-winning six for their national team; anyone who has juggled studies and sport and spent the last few days before exams in a boot camp of sorts with their friends’.

The story begins when Ashwin is five years old. He had health issues like tuberculosis and regular bouts of wheezing. Once the family had planned to go on a holiday to Kodaikanal. But on the train Ashwin started vomiting. The parents had no option but to step off and take their son to the doctor.

But it seemed Ashwin was destined to be a cricketer. His father, Ravichandran, worked in the accounts section of the Indian Railways. He was also a fast bowler who played lower-division league cricket. Once, during a match, Ashwin saw his father send the bail flying with a ball.

Ravichandran took Ashwin to watch a Test match between India and England. Ashwin saw Sachin Tendulkar bat and Anil Kumble work his magic with the ball. India won the match by an innings. Father and son went to the commentary box. They got an autograph from batting legend Sunil Gavaskar. Soon, Ashwin got interested in cricket. His parents enrolled him at the local YMCA to learn cricket.

By the time he was 14, his wheezing stopped suddenly. He was practising and doing well in the local circuit. Ashwin was selected to play for Tamil Nadu in the South Zone Under 14 tournament. The good performances continued.

When he was selected to play for the India Under 17 team, Ashwin faced what most cricketers from South India face. Since he cannot speak fluent colloquial Hindi, which is the lingua franca among the coaches and the players, they laughed at him. ‘I felt left out, humiliated and intimidated,’ he said.

A term which also irked Ashwin was when players from the rest of India said, “Yeh to Madrasi hai.”

Ashwin wrote, ‘I am from Madras and I am proud of it even though it is now called Chennai. I will forever be proud of the city on whose streets I’ve spent most of my life. Playing cricket, talking cricket, celebrating festivals and New Year’s, building friendships, travelling these streets to go to cricket practice and the movies….’

He described his selection for the Ranji Trophy. Being dropped for matches. Learning to be resilient. And learning from senior off-spinners how to make field changes and bowling variations to get wickets. By constantly playing and practising, Ashwin became adept at the art of spin bowling.

Thereafter, Ashwin talked about his experiences as a member of the Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League. The one player who amazed him the most was Australian batting great Matthew Hayden.

Before their first match against Kings XI Punjab, as the players congregated in the dressing room, Hayden said, “Sreesanth and Brett Lee will come running at me. They will try to shape the ball back into me to try and knock me over. But I am going to just walk straight at them and try to go right over their heads. And I’m going to go really hard. They will come at me, but I will be nasty to them. I will show them who is the boss.”

Yes, Hayden did show them he is the boss.

There is an absorbing section where Ashwin describes his interactions with former Indian captain MS Dhoni. ‘Each captain is different,’ writes Ashwin. ‘Some can make donkeys run. Some people can buy wounded horses, treat them, train them and make them run. But MS Dhoni will only make a racehorse run. He needs to be convinced before he makes you run. If he doesn’t believe you are a racehorse, he’ll probably give you the time to become one, but he won’t make you run if you aren’t there yet.’

This is a charming book written in a lucid style. It gives you a picture of Ashwin’s life and career, the setbacks and the successes. Nothing comes easy. Grit, resilience, hard work and dollops of luck are required. While the book will appeal to all cricket lovers, it can be a revelation for those who are trying to make their way from junior cricket to the Indian team.

(Published in The Sunday Magazine, Hindustan Times, Delhi and other editions)

Book Details

Title: ‘I have the Streets – A Kutti Cricket story’

Authors: R. Ashwin and Sidharth Monga

Publisher: Penguin Random House India

Pages: 173

Price: Rs 599

When a satirist gets his point across with a smile

 

Last photo: Anil Abraham with his family

The Bengaluru-based dermatologist Anil Abraham has made his name as a stand-up comedian. His Instagram reels have gone viral

By Shevlin Sebastian

Dermatologist Anil Abraham started doing comic reels on Instagram during the Covid pandemic. But it was the ‘Flight to Jamnagar’ that went viral, with over 10 lakh views. It was Anil’s take on the pre-wedding celebrations of billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s son, Anant, on March 1-3. It pushed Anil into the spotlight.

In that reel, Anil has long hair framing his face, a scarf around his neck, and a black coat. In a feminine voice, he says, “Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome aboard the Dindigo Airlines flight to Jamnagar. Yes, it is an international airport now for ten days or however long it takes rich people to party. The crew on this flight speak Gujarati and garishness, Punjabi and privileged English and entitlement.

“We have only VIPs on this flight. Mark Zuckerberg, ladies and gentlemen. Bill Gates, no Sir, you cannot open any windows. No doors either. That is only allowed for Indian politicians. You Sir, who are you? Oh, you are the rat miner who rescued people from a tunnel. You have been a hero for one day. Go back and sit in economy.”

Anil modelled the air hostess on a well-known personality on YouTube called Pushpalata Gaitonde.

Anil realised the reach of his reels when a pilot walked into his clinic. When Anil asked which airline he flew with, the man smiled and said, “Dindigo!” The patient confessed that Indigo pilots and cabin crew often played the flight attendant reels. They always had a good laugh.

Another reel which went viral was Simple Sudha. Anil pokes gentle fun at writer Sudha Murthy who kept saying she was a simple person.

“The city I live in is not Bangalore, but simplicity,” said Anil. “Two simple spoons I carry everywhere. One veg and another is a non-veg spoon... I made my husband what he is today and my daughter, she made her husband the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. I do humble bragging.”

Anil also has a character called Coconut Oil Kesavan. He suggests coconut oil solves all problems. But the main character is a middle-aged Kannadiga called Kuppu, whose wife is Kamala, a bossy woman. Kuppu has a platonic affair with his neighbour, Pakkad Mane Parvathy.

“My inspiration for Kuppu has come from [legendary cartoonist] RK Laxman’s ‘Common Man’,” said Anil.

Asked to describe his reels, Anil said, “It is satire cloaked in humour. If I want to say something unpalatable or politically incorrect, I use humour and give it a domestic reference. Those who enjoy slapstick will enjoy it. They like funny expressions and costumes. Others can read between the lines.”

Anil said that he gets inspiration from reading the newspaper every morning. “The front page of a newspaper will provide enough material for at least five reels,” he said. “What I mean is that real life provides enough opportunities for humour.”

A few people had asked the comedian, “Why haven’t you been trolled?” Anil believes that so far, they have not understood the underlying meaning of the reels. Hence, they have left him alone.

“Thank God for that,” he said.

Surprisingly, Anil does not have a script before he speaks. He has an idea of what he is going to talk about. “For me, it doesn’t work if I write it down,” he said. “I prefer to do it spontaneously. And I do it in one take only.”

Regarding his make-up and costume changes, Anil smiled and said, “It is an Instagram Filter and takes all of five seconds.”

Asked whether his profession is reflected in his wit, Anil said, “I attend a lot of medical conferences. So I will speak about that. Then I talk about my practice, student days, becoming a doctor and violence that is meted out on us.”

Anil worked at St. John’s College in Bangalore for 30 years before branching out on his own.

Patients also offer him a lot of material. He said that a lot of times the problem is minor but for the patient, it is the most important issue in the world.

Once a lady came in and said, “Doctor, you don’t know how much hair I am losing. I lose hair every day. There is hair in my comb, in the bathroom basin and my husband’s butter chicken. Hair everywhere, except on my head.”

Anil said that they don’t realise they are being amusing, and he is storing those sentences for future use.

Anil, who has thick black hair, is a Malayali who grew up in Bangalore. He is married to Veena, a non-Malayali dermatologist. And they have their clinic in Bangalore. They have two college-going sons, Aaditya, and Anirudh.

(An edited version was published in The Sunday Magazine, The New Indian Express, South India and Delhi)

Many questions, few answers

Photos: Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi; the book cover; Prakash Patra; Rasheed Kidwai

‘The Scam That Shook a Nation — The Nagarwala Scandal’ explores how a Delhi branch of the State Bank of India in the 1970s was defrauded of Rs 60 lakh.

By Shevlin Sebastian

At 11.45 am on May 24, 1971, Ved Prakash Malhotra, the chief cashier of the Parliament Street branch of the State Bank of India, got a call. The caller said, “Shri Haksar, secretary to the Prime Minister of India, wants to talk to you.”  

“Put him through,” said Malhotra. 

Haksar said, “The Prime Minister of India wants Rs 60 lakh (today’s value: Rs 170.62 crore) to be sent for highly secret work. She will send a person and you can hand over the money to him.” 

Malhotra was not sure. Then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi came on the line and confirmed it, stating this money had to be sent to Bangladesh on an Air Force plane. This time, Malhotra became convinced that the order had come from the highest office in the land.   

With the help of his colleagues, Malhotra collected the money and took it to the Free Church, which was very near the bank. There he met a tall, fair man wearing an olive hat. After exchanging the correct code, they drove for a while in Malhotra’s government vehicle towards Palam airport. 

At the taxi stand on Panchsheel Marg, the man got out of the car and enlisted the help of a coolie to load the box into the trunk of a Fiat taxi. He thanked Malhotra and asked him to go to the Prime Minister’s office to get the receipt. 

When Malhotra went to the Prime Minister’s official complex on 1 Akbar Road, he was surprised to discover that Indira Gandhi had gone to Parliament. It was the first day of the second session of the seventh Lok Sabha. He told the security that he wanted to meet Haksar. But they told him Haksar was also in Parliament. 

So, Malhotra drove to Gate No 5 of Parliament House and asked to see the PM. He was told both the PM and Haksar were having lunch. Finally, at 1.30 pm, Malhotra met NK Seshan, the PM’s private secretary, and told him about what happened. Seshan informed the PM. He called Haksar, who was in South Block who rushed to Parliament. When Malhotra told Haksar what had happened, the latter exclaimed, “This is an extraordinary fraud.” Soon, the police launched an investigation. 

All this has been detailed in the book, ‘The Scam that Shook a Nation — The Nagarwala Scandal’ by senior journalists Prakash Patra and Rasheed Kidwai. 

Thanks to the detailed research by the authors, we can read the confessional statement by Nagarwala. 

Here is an extract: ‘The driver kept watching the road and saw that I was transferring big bundles of currency notes into my suitcase and bag. I wanted him to see all this and feel uneasy, which he did. I abandoned the empty trunk and asked him to take me to Connaught Place. Along the way, the driver was getting nervous and started asking questions about the money. I offered him Rs 500 in cash and told him not to mention it to anybody, only so that in case the police came to him, he could tell. I was sure at the time that this driver would safely lead the police to the Parsi Dharamshala. And this is exactly what happened.’ 

The question that arises is: why did Nagarwala want to get caught? 

KP Khanna, the judicial magistrate first class in charge of the Chanakyapuri area, tried the case. Within hours, Nagarwala was sentenced to two years of rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs 2000. Nagarwala landed up in Tihar Jail as a ‘C’ class prisoner. 

Expectedly, there was a gathering storm as the Opposition felt that Indira Gandhi was involved. One of their lawyers filed a revision petition. On June 21, Delhi Sessions Judge RN Aggarwal set aside the conviction. 

This book is riveting, to say the least. There were so many twists and turns. 

On November 20, 1971, six months after discovering the hoax, Devinder Kumar Kashyap, 31, the chief investigator, died in a road accident near Mathura. The belief was that Kashyap, a 1967-batch IPS officer, who had just got married, knew too much and had been gotten rid of. However, the authors’ research has shown that it could have been an accident. 

Following that tragedy, another twist takes place. On March 2, 1972, Nagarwala died of a heart attack at the GB Pant Hospital on his 50th birthday. Again, suspicions were raised, although an autopsy revealed that no poison was present in the body.   

Other subjects which are covered include an in-depth profile of Nagarwala and Malhotra, which traces their lives before the hoax, the political landscape during that period (1966-71), and details of the P Jagmohan Reddy Commission which investigated the hoax. Both Indira Gandhi and Morarji Desai also testified. 

In the Authors’ note, they said, ‘The commission set up to probe the scam reached its conclusions, but its assumptions are debatable.’ They also said that while there was an admission of guilt, the identities of the real culprits remained hazy. The investigation process, they said, was too speedy to allay doubts.

In short, there were many questions but few answers.  

Both the writers, Prakash Patra and Rasheed Kidwai, are seasoned journalists with over three decades of experience. While Patra, a former President of the Press Club of India, does political reporting, Kidwai covers government, politics, community affairs and Hindi cinema. Kidwai has also published seven other books, including a biography of Sonia Gandhi.

(Published in the Sunday Magazine, The Hindustan Times, All Editions)

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Book Details

Title: ‘The Scam That Shook a Nation – The Nagarwala Scandal’

Authors: Prakash Patra and Rasheed Kidwai

Publisher: HarperCollins

Pages: 262

Price: Rs 399

When a roof became an amphitheatre

 

Photos: Drone view of the Nisarga Art Hub; a concert taking place; the skylight; Vishnudev KS and Lakshmi V; the cantilever studio; Vinu Daniel and his co-designer Oshin Mariam Varughese

Carnatic singer couple Vishnudev KS and Lakshmi V wanted a mud home at their home in Karukutty, Kerala. When noted architect Vinu Daniel and his team built Nisarga Art Hub, it became a centre for the arts thanks to its unique design

By Shevlin Sebastian

Vishnudev KS and his wife Lakshmi V are Carnatic singers. They were based in Chennai during the pandemic. Because of a newborn baby, they found it difficult to manage. They also wanted to build a home. So they returned to Vishnudev’s ancestral place of Karukutty (46 kms from Kochi).

Vishnudev had inherited a large plot of land from his father. Just opposite the plot, there are paddy fields.

“In Chennai, we cannot dream of building a large custom-built house,” said Vishnudev. “It was important for us that the house become part of the natural environment. So we wanted to build a mud house.”

So they Googled for architects who deal with mud as a material for construction. And that was when they stumbled on the works of architect Vinu Daniel, who was in the 100 Next list of influential leaders of Time Magazine in 2023. And they immediately found it impressive because of its innovative elements.

“Vinu has an experimental mindset,” said Vishnudev. “We could not believe there could be so much innovation for a mud house.” So, they called Vinu up.

Vinu and his co-designer Oshin Mariam Varughese came and looked at the plot in July 2020. And they liked what they saw.

“I sensed a wonderful possibility,” said Vinu. “I knew we should incorporate the rural concept inside the building. That is why we used traditional mud architecture.”

Also, because there were no trees around, Vinu wanted to give a camouflaged appearance. While the roof comprised traditional terracotta tiles, beneath it they used poly-jute cloth all across the ceiling.

And from one end of the main hall to the other end, there is a wire mesh. This enables people to be in touch with nature outside. On some days, a steady breeze blew in. “If I put glass panes, it would have heated the hall,” said Vinu.

The architect said that temperatures were rising in Kerala. Before 2000, there were only about ten days of 40 degrees Celsius. But today, there are over 100 days of these temperatures. “Now, with many new national highways being built, and rapid urbanisation, trees are being cut at an alarming rate,” said Vinu. “So we have less forest cover.”

The construction began in 2020. What was most stunning were the walls. These are made of mud and other materials. When you place your palm on it, it feels cool.

In 2014, Vinu realised that working with mud only would not make sturdy walls.

He had a brainwave. Vinu decided to use the construction material that lies strewn about on vacant plots. He used cement, soil, inorganic waste material and even coconut shells and mixed it with the mud. His invention is called the Shuttered Debris Wall Technique. It strengthened the mud walls.

In Nisarga, in the bedrooms, the walls rise to a height of 25-27 feet. “The walls are load-bearing,” said Vinu. “Two walls in the hall have taken the load off a jutting-out cantilever studio.”

Helping Vinu were his colleagues Subhrodipta Ghosh, and Rosh V Saji.

Vishnudev told Vinu that as musicians, they needed a lot of space to perform and teach. “When somebody comes to the house, they should feel that this is a house built for musicians,” said Vishnudev. Hence, the hall, with an area of 2200 sq. ft. has no furniture. You sit on the floor. There is an open kitchen on one side. And doors leading to bedrooms and a bathroom.

When Vishnudev and Lakshmi asked for more space to hold concerts outside their house, Vinu measured the angle of the roof. It turned out to be 35 degrees. This matched the 30-degree angle of an amphitheatre.

So, Vinu came up with the idea of using the roof like an amphitheatre. On the gutter of one side of the roof, Vinu had already planned to make an elongated swimming pool. He felt he could cover a part of the pool with wooden slabs and set up a stage. Then, at different levels of the roof, he removed the tiles and made glass seats. There are 34 seats. The top seat is at the height of a two-storey building.

The images of the roof went viral on social media. There were over 9 million views on Instagram and YouTube. It helped Nisarga to establish itself as an art hub. Incidentally, Nisarga is a Sanskrit word. It means a natural state.

“Whenever somebody comes here, they can be themselves,” said Vishnudev. “An artist can express his truest self.”

The couple received a lot of media coverage. Many well-known artists have now performed at the hub. Artists from all over the world have asked Vishnudev whether they could come and perform.

As Vinu said, “The initial idea was to make a residence for a musician-couple. Now, thanks to its fame, it is most probably going to be a residency for artists.”

Vishnudev agreed. He plans to add a building outside with rooms so that when artists come, they will have a place to stay.

The couple began living in the hub in September 2023. At that time, leading artist Niloy Ahsan inaugurated the hub with a Dhrupad recital.

(An edited version was published in The Sunday Magazine, The New Indian Express, South India and Delhi)

Some thoughts about a painting

By Shevlin Sebastian

When my former colleague and friend Jose NV sent me this painting, it made me think. This is the age-old dichotomy for a human being. What should we listen to? The heart or the brain. And now scientists say there is a second brain. And that is the gut.

So, in a crisis or an emergency, you receive inputs from the brain, heart and gut. What do you listen to? All the inputs come to your mind. To that ethereal concept known as the self.

If it is a split-second decision, like playing a point during a tennis match, it is always best to follow your instinct. That means your heart or gut.

In an interview, batting great Sachin Tendulkar said that when he went to the crease, his primary aim was to move the conscious aside and let the unconscious do the batting. There was too little time after the ball left the bowler’s hand to use reason and logic and then respond.

All of us do something similar when we drive a car and have an animated conversation simultaneously. The unconscious drives the car. If the mind does not intervene with its random thoughts, the unconscious can execute the action perfectly.

If it is a decision that you have time to mull over, then the brain does a lot of pros and cons. Most outstanding personalities decide to follow the heart or the gut. These are far more accurate. You get results from this. But is this correct? In her autobiography, ‘My Life’, the former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir said that sometimes her intuition made mistakes too.

Some may ask, why discount the brain? It has the vast powers of the unconscious.

But most of us cannot use these powers. From the time we are born to the age of seven, we have received millions of impressions. These form our mindset. They influence our actions till the day we die.

If the impressions are positive, then there is no problem. Life moves forward smoothly, the conscious and the unconscious gelling perfectly.

But if the experiences in childhood are bad, then you develop a negative mindset. This results in persistent defeats right through life. This happens, despite your conscious mind wanting to achieve things. Can we heal childhood traumas and turn around our lives? It takes years of therapy and being constantly on an inner journey for healing to happen. It is like climbing Mount Everest. Many dream of it but few achieve it.

Ultimately, a decision is a leap into the dark. You might land on your feet or it could be a crash landing with broken bones and dreams.

I trust the heart more than the brain. Somehow, they lead to correct outcomes. The problem with the brain is that the ego is involved. Does the ego live in the brain? What exactly is an ego? And where is its location? It is amorphous. We cannot touch it, but we can feel its presence all the time.

The best way is to use all three. Let the brain decide. Then you should observe how the heart and gut react. If they are fine and there are no tremors or alarms, most probably your decision is right.

One cannot avoid the fact that at every moment you have to make some decision or the other. So, we have to use the full powers at our disposal to make the right choices.

Jose could not identify the painter. Thanks to the work of artists, their works can set us thinking. And we can hope to change for the better.