Musings

Saw this movie alone two days back at viviana mall. Based on a novel by Colleen Hoover, the main part of Lily Bloom the florist is played by Blake Lively. Ryle is played by Justin Baldoni. The love story is scarred by domestic violence by Ryle who is extremely possessive and jealous of Lily's former boyfriend who meets her just when her relationship with Ryle is taking off. The movie is a bit slow in the first half. Most of it is shot in Boston. A baby is born to Lily from Ryle but she decides to divorce him for the violence she had been subjected to. The relationship ends with the birth of the baby. Blake Lively has played Lily Bloom with great flair and Baldoni plays the violent Ryle perfectly. Ryle's sister Alyssa is portrayed by Jenny Slate with expertise. Atlas is played by the good looking Brandon Sklenar. Movie is worth watching in a cinema hall. Ravindra Shenolikar 

Evening I listened to the raag puriya on you tube music sung by Apoorva Gokhale. Puriya is based in Marva thaat. It's notes are the same as raag marva but the vaadi swar is gandhar and sanvadi is nishad. In marva the vaadi swar is rishabh and sanvadi is dhaivat. This too is a raag that creates a serene atmosphere like marva. It is sung or played during the evening when it is beginning to get dark. Apoorva Gokhale's rendition of raag puriya was excellent. The nuances of the raag were well captured by her. She is blessed with a good voice and has obviously taken a good taalim from her guru. I had seen her name in many concert advertisements but heard her for the first time. She started with a vilambit, followed by a drut and ended with a taraana. She was successful in creating the perfect mood of puriya. YouTube music is a blessing with so much content available. There are recordings of live performances of longer duration of forty to fifty minutes that are a delight to listen to...

There is a nice park just opposite to where we are staying in New Jersey. I went out for a walk there in the morning. The weather was beautiful at 20 degrees, neither too cold nor too hot, very pleasant. There's lot of greenery in the park and walkways in between. Nice benches on the walkways and very few people, mostly with their pets. There is a nice fountain at one end of the park. Blue skies and wonderful quietude. The squirrels were feasting on the grass. They are so fearless here. They do not run away like they do in India. Rather, they stand their ground and are unwilling to be disturbed. Perhaps they sense the fearlessness and sense of liberty in the country only too well. Birds do have a very acute sensory perception. A squirrel was busy eating in an upright position and it allowed me to take a picture.   Ravindra Shenolikar

So far Mumbai Indians have won 3 matches out of 6 and are placed at no.7 in the Points table. It is a miracle that they have earned six points. Their middle order is hardly doing anything. The captain Hardik Pandya has not yet found his touch with the bat. Rohit, Ishan Kishan and now Surya are doing bulk of the scoring. Importantly, they have a poor attack. They have only one world class bowler in Bumrah but he can bowl only 4 overs. The rest are pedestrian. They don't have the skills required for T20 cricket. Very few can bowl the slow ball well. Spinners are extremely ordinary. If you compare MI with other teams the difference can be easily noticed. Most teams bat deep. Punjab has exciting young players in Shashank and Ashutosh. Chennai has Dhoni who comes to bat at no. 8 or 9. Abhishek Sharma, another blazing young talent, is giving Hyderabad the edge. In terms of skills, this year's IPL has moved ahead a few steps. The teams who are not keeping up will perish. Perhaps that ...

Replacing Rohit Sharma with Hardik Pandya as captain of Mumbai Indians for IPL 2024 has unleashed myriad reactions from all quarters. It seems to have strained relations between the two. It is only human as Rohit has led MI to 5 IPL trophies and is well liked by his teammates. However, if you consider Rohit's performance both as a batsman and as a captain in the last two years, you would feel some justification in the decision. Both the players need to handle it professionally rather than emotionally. Now there is news that Rohit will leave MI next year. That would be quite unfortunate. This might have been a factor in MI's loss of first 3 matches. But this sort of start is customary for them. One can see that Rohit is trying his best to come to terms with the new situation. The booing that Hardik is getting from the public is quite unfair and should stop forthwith. Team has spent last few days at Jamnagar facility to bond. Hopefully, it will help and reflect in today's mat...

We visited Pune last weekend. We drove on the 21 km long Atal Setu in the morning that further went upto Panvel and connected to the Mumbai Pune expressway. It was a smooth drive as compared to the usual Thane Belapur road which is heavy with traffic. We reached Pune in four hours with a half an hour halt for breakfast at khopoli. In the afternoon we went to Pavillion mall on the Senapati Bapat Marg which also houses PVR multiplex. We watched the movie Article 370. The movie is well made depicting the story behind the dismantling of Article 370 of the Constitution of India. The performances of Yami Gautam and Priya Mani are quite brilliant. It was good to see the marathi actor Vaibhav Tatwavadi playing an important role quite well. The role played by Kiran Karmarkar of the home minister is also quite superb. However, Arun Govil's depiction of the PM was not so convincing. The movie was engrossing and well directed. Next day we visited a show titled 'Van Gogh 360', showcasin...

A web series having above title is running on Netflix. There are seven episodes, each of approximately 55 minutes. It is a thrilling, fascinating, action packed series well worth watching. The main character is played by Evin Ahmad. She is an undercover agent in London, helping the police. She is well trained in fights, arms etc. She infiltrates a gang taking the name Kate and helps the police to bust it. She comes across Lena, a member of the gang, who has a little daughter by the name Harper. Lena carries Harper with her wherever she goes. Kate likes Harper and developes a genuine kinship with Lena. When the gang is busted by the police, Lena gets shot. Thinking that she is dead, Kate takes Harper with her. Kate feels that she is being used by the police and carries a grave risk to life. She flees London carrying Harper with her and settles down in Barcelona in Spain. She starts a new life with Jordi, a decent young man, and Harper. She tells him and Harper that she is  Harper's ...

India won the fifth and final test against England today at the scenic stadium at Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh and won the series 4-1. The match was over in just three days. England won the toss and batted first on day 1. But they were skittled out for a paltry 218, thanks to a brilliant spell of spin bowling by Kuldeep Yadav. In spite of a superb spell initially by Bumrah, England openers managed to hang on and put up a solid partnership. It was broken when Kuldeep came on and Duncet was dismissed by an outstanding catch by Gill running backwards. Then Kuldeep foxed Pope to have him stumped. Root was deceived by Jadeja's incoming ball and Crawley was dislodged by Kuldeep of a delivery which sharply turned from off to leg. Ashwin took 4 wickets to finish off the lower order and England were bowled out for just 218. India made a solid start through openers Yashasvi and Rohit's century stand and were comfortably placed at the end of day 1. On the second day Rohit and Gill got ...

India wrapped up the test series against England today after a fascinating 4th test which India won by 5 wickets. The test saw many ups and downs. India were behind by almost 160-170 runs on day 2 with 7 wickets down. It looked as if England will get a big lead in the first innings. But a superb 90 by wicket keeper Dhruv Jurel, supported well By Kuldeep saw India finishing on 307, conceding a lead of only 46. India came back strongly in the second innings through their spinners Ashwin and Kuldeep to bowl out England for just 145. They needed 192 to win and made a good start at the end of day 3 scoring 40 runs without losing a wicket. Rohit (55) and Yashasvi (37) continued to bat aggressively today and India barely needed a 100 more when both the openers got out followed by Patidar for a duck. Gill was playing solidly at one end. But soon Jadeja and Sarfaraz were dismissed of successive balls and India were 120/5, still needing 72 to win. The match was delicately poised with England thr...

The 4th test between India and England got underway today at Ranchi. Eng won the toss and batted. But the morning session belonged to India as half the Eng side was back in the pavillion for just 112 runs. India fielded a new bowler Akash Deep. He had a dream debut dismissing first three batsmen. Deep bowled with pace, movement and perfect length. Jadeja and Ashwin chipped in with a wicket each and Eng went in for lunch looking at a first innings rout. But that was not to be. That's what makes this game so fascinating. Eng did not lose a single wicket in the afternoon session. Class batsman Joe Root supported by Ben Foakes built a partnership and pulled Eng out of trouble. Joe Root played a restrained innings and looked in no trouble. He is such a class player and makes batting look easy. He went on to get his 31st test hundred and remained unbeaten at the end of the day. Siraj got the wickets of Foakes and Hartley but Eng reached 302 at stumps with Root and Robinson at the crease....

For the upcoming fourth test between India and England, the spearhead of Indian attack Jasprit Bumrah, who has taken 17 wickets so far in the series, has been rested as part of his workload management. I am sure, the greatest Indian cricketer of all time, Kapil Dev, will find this amusing. Kapil played in more than 100 tests for India and led the bowling attack in a period when there was little support for him at the other end. The only test that he missed was when he was dropped as a disciplinary action taken for an irresponsible shot that he played in the previous test which cost India the match. He never missed a single test on the grounds of fitness. Today,  India's match winner is being rested in spite of being fully fit to manage his workload. Different times,  different rules. Ravindta Shenolikar

I have just returned from my morning walk. It was cool outside, though not so much inside the flat with all the windows closed. I don't walk briskly as advised by the doctors. Just fall into my stride while enjoying the beauty around the lake. Slowly the pace picks up. There is a nice place to sit in the garden beside the walkway, with a few benches arranged circularly and a roof at a convenient height. Usually there are some people in groups sitting there, but today it was vacant. So I went there after my walk and sat. It felt nice. The freedom of no work. Time not pressing hard. All the options to spend the day wide open. No targets, just be. However, we are so used to making plans, short or long term. Only then do we feel alive. We need to have a purpose all the time. While walking back, I was caught by the old habit and started making a few plans as usual. It gave me more energy and drive. The serene moment in the park was lost. Ravindra Shenolikar 

The 3rd test between India and England ended today on day 4 with India winning by a huge margin of 400 plus runs. But it was in no way a one sided affair.  India won the toss and batted first. Soon they were struggling at 33/3. But skipper Rohit Sharma and Jadeja built a partnership of 200 plus and bailed India out. Useful contributions by debutant Sarfaraz and from the lower order players Jurel, Ashwin and Bumrah helped them post 445 on the board. England fought backand were 207/2 at the end of day 2 with opener Dunkett unbeaten on 133. But on day 3 fortunes changed. Led by 4 wickets from Siraj India dismissed England for 319, getting a sizeable lead of 126. India batted well in the second innings with an unbeaten hundred by Yashaswi Jaiswal and unbeaten Gill on 65. India were leading by 322 at the end of day 3. India continued to dominate on day 4, yashaswi got a double hundred, Gill 91 and Sarfaraz got another half century and India declared at 430/4 setting a target of 557 for ...

England started the day at 67/1 and soon lost their night watchman Rehan Ahmed to Axar Patel. But they pursued with their audacious bazball cricket and attacked Indian bowlers. However, Ashwin got rid of Joe Root and Rohit took a brilliant reflex catch at slip to send Ollie Pope packing. Crawley and Bairstow played attacking cricket and England got to half the target very briskly. At that crucial moment Bumrah trapped Bairstow lbw. It was followed by brilliance in the field when Shreyas Aiyar ran out skipper Ben Stokes with a direct hit. This was a major blow and took the wind out of English fight. Crawley was trapped lbw by Kuldeep. But Hartley and Ben Foakes built a partnership though it was now a long way to go. Once again Bumrah produced a well disguised slower ball and Foakes gave him a return catch which Bumrah gleefully accepted. Hartley was bowled by another beauty from Bumrah and the match was over. India won by 106 runs and squared the series. Yashasvi, Gill and Bumrah were t...

Second cricket test between India and England is underway at Vizag and at the end of day 2 India is ahead by 171, thanks to a magnificent spell of fast bowling by Jaspreet Bumra who took 6 wickets. On a flat pitch Bumra's artistry with the ball and his command on reverse swing had to be seen to be believed. The spinners Ashwin and Axar were not very effective and only Kuldeep produced 3 wickets. But Bumra simply destroyed the middle order. The ball that bowled Ollie Pope, centurion of last test, was a vicious in swinging yorker, almost unplayable. He got Bairstove with a ball going away, edged to slip where Gill took a fine catch. Meanwhile, Ben Stokes was playing well and fighting back. Bot Bumra bowled him bowling round the wicket uprooting his off stump. The bat fell from his grasp. Stokes, the ultimate fighter, made a gesture of helplessness which is a huge compliment to the fast bowler. Bumra soon finished the England innings giving India a lead of 143 in the first innings. He...

The first test between India and England has been won by England against all odds after conceding first innings lead of 190. Ollie Pope played the innings of his life, aided by two dropped catches. India was faced with a daunting target of 231 on a turning track. It was a bit of a shock for them because the script had been re-written. England had turned the tables on them. India lost first two wickets of Jaiswal and Gill to poor batting. Rohit played well for his 39 but was undone by some clever bowling by the debutant left arm spinner Hartley. India never counter attacked the English spinners and never seemed to be playing with a plan. K L Rahul looked good till he got out to Root. The runout of Jadeja by Ben Stokes was simply brilliant. The lower order of Ashwin and Bharat and the tailenders fought gallantly to reach 200 but in the end India fell short by 28 runs. It is a co-incidence that Australia lost to West Indies in Brisbane Test in much the same way by just 8 runs with debutan...

After a long time, a five tests series will begin tomorrow. It is between India and England. Due to white ball cricket and considerations of commerce, test cricket has been dwindling over the last few years. Fewer and fewer tests are being played. Nobody seems to be interested in it including the players. However, for the connoisseur of the game, nothing can match the thrill and class of test cricket. It is an equal battle between the bat and the ball. The real class and talent of a player is revealed in test cricket. The loss of Virat Kohli for the first two test matches is a setback for India. Lot will depend upon the skipper Rohit Sharma. Shubhman has been somewhat inconsistent of late. Yashasvi and Shreyas are quite inexperienced. But K L Rahul will be a key player. India has a good attack though, with Bhumra and Siraj at the top, and the spin of Ashwin and Jadeja. It promises to be a good contest. Ravindra Shenolikar