From Chepauk to Gwalior

May 1997, i was enjoying my summer vacation in sultry, sweating summer of North Indian plains in my ancestral village. In those days, TV was a luxurious commodity and electricity was a rarity. My father had a tractor and we used to use its battery to fuel our texla black & white television with shutters. My parents and grand parents had a knack of buying shuttered TVs. My oldest 1983 model 21' Beltek TV was one of the oldest in the entire officers colony of Atherton Mills, Kanpur and was responsible for fueling Ramayana revolution. The more moderate 15' Texla TV fueled the Mahabharatha revolution in my village. Sorry for digressing from the main point (although i want to give my respects to these artifacts as these are responsible for the making of what i am today).

So back to the summers of 1997, India was hosting first of the series of Independence Cups (later Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangaldesh hosted in 1997 and 1998). India started her campaign brilliantly and outwitted the fierce Astle fuelled NZL by Sachin-Sourav openers but Jayasurya single handled punctured the campaign. The last match with Pakistan was a do and die match for the Indians. This match was played at Chepauk on 21 May 1997. Pakistan started his inning and Saeed Anwar did the bulk of scoring, Kumble was taken for a fiercy ride with Anwar hitting three consecutive sixes and Indian bowlers gave the match to Pakistanis in last 5 overs.
India required 328 runs to win in the stipulated 50 overs and like in many more matches Sachin got out in the first overs, Ganguly did his bit of hitting but the load was shared by the fledgling shoulders of Rahul Dravid and mercurial Kambli. India was in the match till 45th overs and ultimately lost it because of so frequent lower middle order collapse. I broke myself into tears. This was the first time, India would not be playing semis/finals, in India. This thought was like a cancer and it continuosly pained me till India defeated Pakistan in the famous final of Dhaka.

Sachin finally erased those tearful memories by scoring world record breaking 200. Now i can remember Saeed Anwar for giving a chance to remember Sachin with more heart. ;)

Some lost test matches

In last 15 years, India has played a number of memorable test matches when i scan them i feel we have lost many matches from the jaws of win/draw. Here i am not belittling the tremendous performance by Team India against the South Africans at Eden Gardens the "Jerusalem of Cricket". One should bear in mind that only one Indian captain has ever won a test series against South Africans and he is quite unexpectedly Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. Here i am enumerating a list of test matches in last 15 years or so that India should have won instead of drawing or losing them.

1. India - West Indies,Bridgetown, 1997
India lost this match quite miserably by 38 runs. India needed only 120 runs to win but bowled out for 81. Sachin still believes this match as one of the most depressing moments of his life.

2. India - South Africa, Johannesburg, 1997
This was a typical Dravid - Ganguly match. In a moderate scoring match they scored more than 50% of their team runs apart from taking few wickets. This was a great batting performance against the young pace battery of Donald and Pollock supported by Mcmillan and Klusener. India failed to get last 2 South African wkts and thus India had to wait an entire decade to secure their first win against RSA in 2007.

3. India - Pakistan, Chennai, 1999
Another depressing moment of Sachin's life. India was wonderfully well placed at 254/6 and needed 271 to win. India lost it by 12 runs and another Sachin's great innings was in vain.

4. India - Pakistan, Eden Gardens, 1999
India needed 279 runs to win the match and series but lost out from the strong position of 1 for 134 to 232 all out. Pakistan in its first inning was struggling at 26 for 6 but Moin khan saved them. Unfortunately Sourav Ganguly could not play Moin Khan's inning.

5. India - Zimbawbe, Harare, 2001
India succumbed to yet another humiliating defeat against Zimbabweans. India was comfortably placed at 197 for 3 but bowled out for 234. Zimbawbe won the match after a brief struggle.

6. India - Australia, Sydney, 2004
This was a glorious match and India had a rare chance to win her maiden series in Australia but a late declaration by Ganguly and a match saving inning by Steve Waugh denied a great series win. India was yet too close and yet too far.

7. India - Pakistan, Bangalore, 2005
This match turned the tide against Sourav Ganguly. India needed to survive few last overs to win the series and to draw the match but India again choked to bat through the remaining overs. Nail in the coffin for Sourav Ganguly.

8. India - South Africa, Cape Town, 2007
India needed score 250 odd runs in order to secure the first even series win against RSA. India choked from 2 for 90 to 169 all out. Ganguly and Dravid failed to secure India and thus lost a golden chance of winning a series in South Africa. South Africa needed just 211 runs in last inning and they did that against brilliant Zaheer Khan.

9. India - England, Oval, 2007
Dravid did not ask England to follow on and it played a major part in denying India a well deserved victory. This match will be remembered because of maiden test hundred by Kumble.

10. India - Australia, Sydney, 2008
This match had everything. I have never seen such an intense match before. India played against the 13 men on the field throughout 5 days with sheer grit and determination, But in the end Bucknor was too much for Indians.

India should have won at least 50% of the above matches. Signing off Amigos.

Last mail to my college batch group

I was reading through my old mails and i got this one. Its very interesting read and its dated 26 May 2004 and refers to my dangerous friend. My friends can guess him easily. I have no edited the mail so you will find barbaric english. Hope you won't mind.
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Dear friend,

There are many reasons to satisfy anybody.But it is against the principle of ethics or simply against my principles that for sake of my entertainment I tease some other person.

Whatever be the reason.As far as arrogance is concerned there is no body in the world who can overpower it. I have born with this arrogance and i will die with it.i think it is clearly understood andyou know that i never reconsider my decisions. so as far as joining the group is concern i will never join it either you leave or not. I simply talked to you during our tour because without doing that our tour would not have been possible. And as far as friendship is concerned may be I am a poor manager of friendship but as far as i have explored myself i am proud to be Mr. Neeraj kumar Jadaun and i dont care about any body.I never make compromise whatever be the circumstance.

main jitna sudharne ki koshish karta hoon utna koi phir muhje pichhe la deta hai. I have decided so many time to not to abuse but it.........

and about group we can learn a lot form it but it was again not possible.
The above mail was a reply to the following mail from my "friend"
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Hi Jadaun,

Let me tell u one thing ........ I created the poll when u were in the grp. So there is no point saying
"Sale samne kuch nahin aur piche sher". I will always considered u as my frnd till the time when u come and say to me or convey me in some other way that u don't consider me as ur frnd but instead u treat me as a foe. I promise u Jadaun u'll find a different S*** in me. I only crack jokes or do this teasing for fun. There were plenty of times when we didn't talk for a long time but still managed to patch up. The same is not true with G***. Still, I sometimes tease him.
Only for fun and not with some bad intention. Now the question comes why do S*** tease Neeraj Kumar Jadaun. The amount of arrogance in u is the reason.

To hell go K**** and all ........ I don't give it a damn ....... nobody can do anything for me because
they don't know under what circumstances I am going on. I am not writing this for making u sentimental. I always knew that this kind of thing (G**** or C******** passing my mail on the grp to u) is going to happen. Mere paas gairat hai Mr. Jadaun .... aur yeh tum dekh loge. I also have lots of work to do and cseitbhu2005 is the only only way I can entertain myself.
Let it be a secret. I am unsubscribing frm the grp and u may join it now. Its all up to u. One thing more ........ I never thought bad abt anybody ....... maine yeh sikha hai Mr. Jadaun.
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In the foot steps of Alexander

First time when i ventured outside "Jambu dwipa", my manager gifted me few very good DVDs. Last weekend i got a rare chance to go once more through them.

In the footsteps of Alexander (1998)
This is the search of the trail of Alexander the human by Michael Wood. I have been a big time fan of Mike since the great "Story of India". He is simply superb in history telling and one of the legends in his own. This particular series starts with the start of Alexander (356-323) from Macedonia, his great conquests against the Darius The Great of Persia first at Issus (333 BC) and then at Gaugamela (331 BC). The divine Persian king was taken aback easily. Alexander got the first real taste of of Asia first in Central Asia and then in Indus India. King Porus would have done the impossible if his elephants did not betray him. The battle of Hydasphes (326 BC) enjoys a sort of cult following among all the military circles.
Its hard to believe that a man of 30 years can win almost all the known world of that time and can only be defeated by the betrayal of his own army. This series is thoroughly enjoyable
although you can not see much of India in it. Mr. Wood has shown mainly Afghanistan and Persia in his 4 hrs series.

Last year my manager sent me picture of only available mosaic of Alexander. Its here for reference.

Alexander is shown here fighting against the Persian army under Darius the Great. This mosaic is in Pompeii (Italy).