Nowadays there are several conferences happening around and with exigencies of work, it becomes extremely difficult to attend. Also some of the conferences are quite boring especially when the topics are not contemporary, thought-provoking, research based and futuristic. However when it comes to conferences organised by the talented team of More Than HR (MTHR Global), there is always something unique and different. Therefore when the invitation for the maiden MTCHRO Event came to me, I was determined to attend it.
The theme of the event was Lessons in Leadership and saw attendance from several imminent personalities just to name a few; Vivek Paranjpe, Ulhas Page, Dr. Sanjay Muthal, Vijay Kanbur, Anubha Parekh Kini, Anand Pillai, Radhakrishnan Pillai, Deepak Deshpande, Ophelia D, Shamik V, Tanaya Mishra, etc and therefore despite heavy rains and traffic, I was glad I didn’t miss it. Surprisingly there aren’t many CHRO forums and therefore I was delighted to see MTHR organising its maiden MTCHRO Event. With HR professionals playing a key strategic role on the executive leadership team and even on board, it was imperative to establish an exclusive, coveted forum to bring senior HR leaders and other CXO’s together.
The MTCHRO Event is an invitation-only forum that provides networking and education opportunities for C-level Executives not just within HR but even for other CXO’s. More importantly it promises to disseminate knowledge, share experiences and promote collaboration to seek solution on various contemporary HR and management issues.
The value of MTHRO Event is the information, interaction, insights and inspiration one gains by hearing other people’s perspectives on a host of topics. Since it was the first event, the organisers were also interested to solicit ideas from all attendees which could help further shape the forum and even plan future events to elicit maximum participation. With the inimitable Rajesh Kamath compeering the event with his characteristic humour and wit, there wasn’t any dearth of ideas, suggestions and they came in abundance with lot of enthusiasm, just like the incessant rains outside the conference hall. Many of these ideas aimed to impart knowledge management strategies and discuss the megatrends shaping the HR and various business strategies.
The event started with Amber Wigmore from IE Business School, Spain speaking about international trends in B school Talent scouting. Her speech was indeed insightful. Amber emphasised that we must,” Devote most resources to those who show maximum interest in their careers!". She further hit the nail on the head by stating "A Business School is an educational tool, not a placement service!"
The next session had the amazingly talented young leader Jithin Krishnan, Founder Director, Make a Difference. Make A Difference is a voluntary organization with over 12000 GenY volunteers, with less than 10% attrition! Incredible! Today CSR has become extremely important and it is here where HR professionals can play a critical role in promoting community service. Jithin’s speech would definitely motivate everyone to practise volunteerism. In his speech he brought to light the plight of orphans and orphanages. He further added,” What orphanages really need is family support - Family our first conduit to the world!” Jithin narrated a touching story and expressed how youth are tired of being told that they are selfish. As a matter of fact, he stated that younger generation is striving to make an impact and the fact that 12000 volunteers in 23 cities devote their weekends to volunteerism attests this. Jithin also spoke about the 3 M’s: Being M.A.D., Mallus and Mass volunteerism.
The final session saw the unassuming, humble and experienced Sunil Gupta, COO, Net Magic speaking passionately about his experience and emphasizing the importance of Balance. Working in large process, system based organisation for many years and then moving to a mid size organisation was a challenge. However Sunil perspicaciously shared his personal experience and educated us as to how leaders must adapt and find the perfect balance and harmony. He shared some interesting examples of office life at Net Magic which ‘possibly’ (the pun un-intended) made the audience realized the importance of finding and maintaining balance between who we are and what we want to be! Sunil also spoke about the importance of process and managing by exceptions provided there is a customer need and then regularizing it immediately is so that it doesn’t become a norm. In the same breath, he also mentioned that all Processes can be quantified but having a human touch is very important.
It was an exciting event, organised at plush Courtyard Marriott hotel in Andheri Mumbai and had about 40-50 leaders and senior professionals attending it. The organization was spot-on, the dinner was delectably delicious and the speeches were very incisive. After the short speeches, everyone was busy with individual networking over fantastic cocktails. It was wonderful to come across different leaders and the evening provided them with a splendid opportunity to relax, make new acquaintances and enjoy a few in-depth conversations.
Well what really started as an idea has truly transformed into a massive movement. It makes me immensely proud to see MTHR Global blossom into a sought after forum not just by HR fraternity but even by professionals from various walks of life. The fact that MTHR has been in existence for more than a decade and relentlessly continues its mission to disseminate knowledge freely is indeed remarkable.
While the co-founders and core members deserve umpteen compliments, the success of MTHR Global largely rests on the prolific speakers who speak on various contemporary issues and subjects. At the same time its success is also dependant on the various sponsors and the audience who ardently attends in large numbers and participates in various deliberations and discussions.
Let me profoundly thank the organisers and sponsors for their efforts in making the MTCHRO Event a great experience for all. So when you get the invitation for the next MTCHRO or even MTHR Global event, don’t hesitate; just sign up – it's definitely worth attending!
Until then…Cheers !
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Leveraging Social Networks for Recruiting !
“The secrets of twenty-first century economics lie in the servers of the companies that are all around us…”
– From ‘The Long Tail’ –Chris Anderson
From the development of telecommunications to emails, chat rooms, instant messaging, discussion boards, group calendars, blogs and social media, internet has come a long way revolutionizing our lives and shrinking a boundaryless world into our cosy rooms. Come to think of, social media isn’t new but rather, an intelligent combination of various applications using latest technology that appeals to human desires and foster interactions in real time. It works better, faster and is accessible from mobile phones making Social Networking truly pervasive.
We have witnessed Social Media spark revolutions, establish connections, renew old relations and even topple governments. Social networks have facilitated easy content creation and publication which aids organisations in establishing deeper levels of engagement amongst users. The rapid mobile revolution in Asia will yield significant increase in mobile internet and social commerce thereby making social networks to become major shopping centres. The manifestation of social media will have tremendous implication on economy, business, organisations, consumers and individuals. Social networks seamlessly integrate the virtual and real world thereby making it a catalyst for change and defining the future of internet technology. Little wonder, organisations, business and individuals are relentlessly striving to capture space on various social networks.
Today social network generate strikingly different set of challenges for individuals and organisations. The laws for social networks are not properly defined. There are grave concerns about data privacy and inappropriate usage of personal and professional information. But this hasn’t deterred people from subscribing to various social networks.
Interestingly Social network propels ‘disintermediation’ wherein companies approach customers directly with their products and services instead of any intermediaries or partners or resellers.
Disintermediation appears advantageous because companies can directly learn more from customers by engaging them and such interactions help to serve customers better. While traditional branding focused on logos, social media branding essentially is focused on users. This aspect of engaging with users can be extended and creates an opportunity to develop a strong employer brand.
With millions of people subscribing to various social networks, leveraging these networks to tap potential recruits is popularly known as ‘Social Recruiting’. To harness these networks, it is extremely important for HR to understand the various social networks and develop an effective social recruiting strategy. At the moment, these “Big Five” social networking sites viz; ‘Linked In’, ‘Facebook’, ‘YouTube’, ‘Twitter’ and ‘Google +’ are very popular.
LinkedIn is the leader in connecting experienced professionals from around the world, while Facebook at the moment is the largest of the social utility sites with over 700 million users that connects people with friends, family and professional colleagues. Facebook has also included connections to organizations, businesses, and interests. YouTube provides individuals and organisations with amazing opportunity to stream videos. Many organisations have started showcasing real life videos that displays their work culture, work ethos, business practices, domain expertise, case studies etc. These videos are created to provide compelling reasons for customers to do business and for candidates to apply. Twitter is more of information networking service and acts as microblogs that shares user experience using 140 characters ‘tweets’ or messages. Google + appears similar to Facebook and promises to be much more in future.
Biz Stone, CEO of Twitter once said that “Openness is important for the future of a company”. This means social network is no longer a trend but a necessity, a tool not just for recruiters but predominantly a resource for candidates to research information about companies. It provides recruiters with a wide pool of readily available talent, allows them to target passive candidates and develop talent pipeline. Social networking is also cost effective tool that enhances communications by developing good content, providing online updates using blogs, podcasts, and videos. The number of “likes” helps organisations to monitor perception about their brand
HR professionals have gradually started realizing the impact of social network for employer branding. But before they subscribe to social media, it is extremely important to delve on the following aspects:
Create an effective global social media policy: A social media policy outlines for employees the corporate guidelines or principles of communicating in the online world. HR must play an active role along with communication department to design and roll out an effective social medial policy.
Train Employees: Invest in training employees on different social media platforms. Educate employees to respect privacy, protect information and follow the law. A great example is ‘Zappos’ where employees are encouraged to have Twitter accounts so they can interact with current and potential customers. Interestingly they also train their employees on the proper use of Twitter during new-hire orientation. ‘Dell’ has a social media university that renders certifications across different platforms to employees once they complete their training.
Create Content: With content becoming the king, it is critical that organisations invest in creating high-quality content which can benefit the organization. This can be done by using leadership and employee blogs, podcasts or uploading videos that help in improving employer branding. Remember videos encourage more sharing than text.
Advertise Jobs: The simple way to use social media for hiring is by posting job vacancies and search for candidates. Linked In also has separate hiring solutions and exclusive suite of tools for recruiters. You can even post a job for free in the Facebook Marketplace.
Transparent Information to candidates: HR must ensure that candidates are notified, in writing, about the companies use of social media to gather information, e.g., on job applications. Ensure employment decisions are made based on lawful, verified information. Follow hiring policy or incorporate best practices in identifying a legitimate, non-discriminatory reason for the hiring decision with the documentation supporting the decision.
Provide company information: Regular information and updates must be provided on social networks. This can be done by creating a Twitter account for the organisation. The objective of tweets is to communicate about the organisation and what topics are important to organisation. This will help in reaching out to customers and potential hires. This will also help to engage with potential candidates and see what topics they tweet about.
Focus on building communities of talent: This is done by encouraging job seekers, subject matter experts and hiring companies both to participate in a dialogue using discussion boards. The quality of discussions and community membership is important for HR. HR and line managers must join various interest groups to connect with potential candidates.
Reputation Management and Monitoring: The emergence of social media and arrival of tech savvy millennial generation at workplace has made it important to monitor perception of company brands. This can be done by subscribing to agencies that provide reputation management service and by even conducting online polls and feedback surveys.
Facilitate collaboration: Web 2.0 technologies promises to spread social media amongst employees and interest groups. HR must facilitate such collaboration and become a change agent in promoting this technology.
Demography, attitude of the potential candidate, Generation Y and Employer branding are compelling companies to change recruitment methodology. Social networks can improve communication, bring greater efficiency to the workplace and provide great insight about people’s interests and motivations. It offers immense opportunities for learning and knowledge sharing. It is therefore imperative that HR has to adopt and integrate social media quickly. At the same time, HR has to subtly integrate both social recruiting and traditional recruiting including job boards, company sites and search firms to evaluate talent. Social media is here to stay. Both marketing and HR will have to play a crucial role in becoming leaders in harnessing various social networks to build brand and recruit talent.
Friday, April 26, 2013
Destructive Organisational Deviance: Workplace Bullying !
“The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.” – Dr. Martin Luther King
Workplace bullying might have been in existence even before the advent of industrial relations, when work was conducted in guilds and homes. The master – disciple relationship that existed would have used bullying tactics to induce fear and increase productivity. However people who may have suffered the ignominy of such ill-treatment preferred to have remained silent.
It was Heinz Leymann, a Swedish Professor who pioneered research on psychological abuse, and coined the term ‘mobbing’ to describe hostile behaviour targeted at workers. This was based on his studies of nurses who tried to commit suicide due to events at the workplace. Later in 1992, Andrea Adams, a British journalist, brought to notice, the harassment meted at work and coined the term “Workplace Bullying”.
Today bullying is not just an individual or psychological problem but more importantly an organizational problem since it stems from organisational culture. Often employees who become victim are likely to quit. But in reality and based on research it’s not only the victim who is likely to quit but even the co-workers are also likely to leave their jobs.
Bullying and harassment often arises when managers try to hide their incompetence with intimidation. There is some distinction between bullying and harassment but essentially both are forms of personal abuse. Harassment, whether it is racial, sexual or otherwise, is usually incident specific, while bullying is persistent and unwelcome behaviour which impacts the emotional, psychological and mental health of the victim besides ruining their careers.
Bullying also increases due to gloomy market conditions, recession, insecurity, cultural clashes and collisions of generations at workplace. Counter cultures, deviant behaviours, impatience and intolerance fuel workplace conflicts. Bullying can cause damage to individual employees and even greater damages to organisations. It disrupts peace at workplace which causes antagonism, distractions, poor teamwork, lowered productivity, increased trust deficit amongst employees, and makes the environment toxic. Victims often become diffident, and suffer from low self- esteem. Workplace bullying has indeed become a serious destructive force that vitiates the professional lives of employees and makes organisations toxic.
It is not necessary that only a manager or immediate superior bullies their subordinates. Bullying can occur wherever people work together. There have been instances of even subordinates ganging up against managers and bullying them.
Often performance is intertwined with our emotions. Employees do not perform at their best in an environment riddled with fear and oppression. Organisations that fail to monitor and create an environment which is conducive, healthy, congenial and free of bullying suffer from increased absenteeism, turnover, recruiting problems, poor reputation and lawsuits.
There are several definitions for Workplace Bullying but with the changing nature of work, it becomes little daunting to acutely define the term. However to put it simply, workplace bullying is the repeated unreasonable behaviour directed towards an employee or group of employees that creates a risk to health and safety.
A broad range of direct or indirect behaviours can be classified as bullying.
Examples of direct forms of bullying include:
Examples of direct forms of bullying include:
• Verbal abuse
• Berating or putting someone down
• Spreading rumours or innuendo about someone
• Interfering with someone’s personal property or resource or work equipment.
Examples of indirect bullying include:
• Unjustified criticism or complaints
• Hiding or withholding information that is vital for effective work performance
• Deliberately denying access to information or other resources
• Deliberately excluding someone from workplace activities
• Causing inconvenience to a particular worker or workers
• Setting timelines that are very difficult to achieve
• Excessive scrutiny at work.
Preventing Workplace Bullying:
In recent times, few countries have introduced numerous legislations to prevent workplace bullying and have rightfully enforced severe punishments. In addition it is necessary for every organisation to come up with a comprehensive workplace bullying prevention policy and guidelines. There are various agencies and forums that strive to highlight these issues and find solutions to prevent bullying at workplaces. Organisations like Workplace Bullying Institute and International Association on Workplace Bullying & Harassment (IAWBH) are doing phenomenal work in preventing workplace bullying. There are few steps that organisations must take to prevent workplace bullying.
Workplace Policy: It is important to implement an emphatic policy on preventing bullying at workplace. The policy should define standards of acceptable and non acceptable behaviour and make a clear statement that inappropriate behaviour will not be tolerated and warrant disciplinary action.
Workplace Procedures: Workplace procedures should outline how reports of bullying will be dealt with, and should set out broad principles to ensure the process is objective, fair and transparent. The procedures for registering complaints must be shared with all employees along with the names, designations and contact details of individuals who are authorized to receive complaints. The process should also encourage and provide support to both the parties – the victim and the perpetrator.
Evaluate Deviant Behaviour and not just Results: It starts with leadership and managerial behaviour. Behaviour determines action and therefore it is important that along with business results greater emphasis is also given to interpersonal skills and evaluating deviant behaviour.
Avoid Hiring Tyrants: Using behavioural interview techniques, psychometric tests, assessments, reference checks and gathering feedback will help in hiring the right people in organisation.
Single Incident: Bullying thrives in environments where input from employees is limited. Even a single incident of unreasonable behaviour may have the potential to escalate into bullying and therefore shouldn’t be ignored as it can probably create a risk to employee morale, health and safety. When employees realise that no one will bother to investigate, correct, or curtail the problem they soon recognize that by speaking up they may actually increase the risk of repercussions from the perpetrator. Therefore a single incident has to be investigated.
Acknowledge: It essentially starts by calling bul¬lying by its proper name and not concealing under the guise of “tough managerial style”, “task master” or explain it away on supposed cultural grounds or gender proclivity. It is possible that the harasser may not be aware that his or her conduct is offensive. A simple request to cease the offensive conduct may be all that is required to correct the situation before it becomes severe.
Training: Bullying has been linked to situations of role conflict, role ambiguity, parochial and ethnocentric attitude. Employers should make sure that employees understand their role, role expectations, levels of authority and empowerment and have the appropriate skills and resources to do their job. Organisations must therefore encourage and promote diversity. Regular training on conflict management, counselling, managing difficult employees, social skills and interpersonal skills to employees will go a long way in preventing deviant behaviour. All employees including managers and leaders must undergo training so as to acquaint themselves about behaviours that constitutes bullying and harassment.
Skip Level Meetings: Organisations should introduce skip level meetings to encourage employees to share their grievances with higher ups.
Coaching & External Counselling: Sometimes bringing an external counsellor, behavioural trainer, and leadership coaches can help in counselling employees who are victims of bullying and also those who are the perpetrators of bullying.
Encourage reporting & Non-victimisation: It is important to protect and ensure that anyone who raises an issue of bullying including the witnesses are not victimised or punished for doing so. Former employees must also be protected. Documentation is important to any formal investigation. Even if the matter is not formally investigated, a record should be made of all meetings and interviews detailing who was present and the agreed outcomes.
Confidentiality: The process should ensure complainant confidentiality and also ensure confidentiality for other parties involved. Details of the matter should only be known by those directly concerned.
Natural justice: The principles of natural justice should be followed in all formal investigations.
Monitoring and Review: To best prevent bullying at work, risk control measures must be regularly monitored, evaluated and reviewed.
Robert Sutton, professor of management science and engineering from Stanford in his famous Mckinsey article, “Building a civilised workplace" highlights that there is more financial damages in having jerks and bullies at work. The article also brings to light that company with jerks and bullies may suffer from reduced level of creativity and innovation, as well as impaired or dysfunctional cooperation within and outside the organisation.
Workplace bullying can be curtailed by creating an egalitarian structure. Organisations must relentlessly strive to foster a workplace culture, where everyone treats colleagues with dignity, trust, respect, and where all process and systems are established to minimise the occurrence of bullying and harassment.
Monday, February 18, 2013
Ruminations- 2012 !!!
Each year that passes seems to have its own character, and as I look back over these past twelve months, I know that it has been about as eventful and difficult year as it can be. Last year had been quite daunting and if the first month of this New Year offers any indication, there seems to be no respite either!
Nonetheless New Year is the perfect time for reflection and rejuvenation of hope for the future.
Whilst I struggle to spare time to blog, thankfully I did manage to rummage through several interesting books. Let me start the New Year 2013 by ruminating upon books that I enjoyed reading last year.
Well 2012 started with ‘The Ascent of Money’. Like 2011, I have again listed the books under various categories.
Books on Politics/ Society / Economy etc:
India: From Midnight to the Millennium– Shashi Tharoor
Shashi Tharoor continues to remain one of the prominent newsmaker with his witty and sardonic tweets and clearly testifies that the pen (key pad) will continue to remain mightier than the sword! Undoubtedly Shashi Tharoor is intelligent, charming and a learned politician but more than that he will always remain a prolific author. His books are evocative and extremely objective. Although there are innumerable books on Incredible India, Shashi Tharoor has presented a wonderfully researched book, ‘India: From Midnight to the Millennium’ where he shares his views on diverse topics like caste, Indian democracy, the legacy of Indira Gandhi, the partition of India and India’s transition from a socialist economy to a free market economy.
Radheya – Ranjit Desai
Ranjit Desai’s incredible book in Marathi language “Radheya” on Karna, one of the principal characters in Mahabharata is a must read for all. This book has been translated in many Indian languages. Karna is the most fascinating and tragic of all Mahabharata's heroes. Raised without the love of parents; target of great envy and hatred; falsely ridiculed for being of low birth; constantly humiliated at the hands of his inferiors; Karna is at once the most riveting character in the Mahabharata! Karna was generous beyond generosity, made immense sacrifices, and was brave to the point of foolhardiness and therefore the author feels that every man can resemble himself with Karna’s life.
Mahabharata – A modern rendering - Ramesh Menon
The Mahabharata is The Book of Life: in its variety, majesty and, also, in its violence and tragedy. Two years ago, Ramesh Menon’s two thick volumes caught my attention at Crosswords. The volumes were neatly bundled in a box and ever since I bought them, I never had the time to read. Finally last year, I managed to read both the volumes and realised that I should have read it earlier. The book is written in a lucid language and each chapter is a revelation of sorts. Menon has indeed done an extraordinary job rendering this 5000-odd year old epic that describes a Great War and the events that led to it into powerful, simple, resonant prose. The book is intriguing, incisive and informative and it’s difficult to put down.
Books on Cricket:
Standing my ground – Mathew Hayden – Hayden’s book is similar to his captain Steve Waugh’s beautiful autobiography “Out of My Comfort Zone”. The book narrates his struggles to get inside the champion Aussie side, compete with Mark Taylor for his place in the team and finally retire as one of the Greats that brought aggression as test opener.
While Hayden came across as an arrogant, hefty and belligerent player often loathsome of other international opponents however in his autobiography you get to see the other side of his personality- a likeable, adventurous, hard working, resilient and sensitive human being. Unlike other south paw there wasn’t much of elegance and style but Hayden went on to become a prolific batsman who disdainfully clobbered fast bowlers and cleverly used his feet and pads against quality spinners. In his autobiography, he also shares his passion to cook and surf in deep waters around the world.
A Year in the Sun - Michael Vaughan
This book is an interesting read. Described as the most exciting batsman to emerge since David Gower retired, Michael Vaughan provides a view of his own achievements during 2002. He also contemplates the controversy that surrounded England's ill-fated World Cup mission, and discusses the real story behind the decision not to go to Zimbabwe. Vaughan's thoughts about Nasser Hussain, the captain he has served most, and his other international and county colleagues are also shared. Every aspect of an intense and exciting year gets Vaughan's complete consideration - from being given out handled ball in India to clean bowling Sachin Tendulkar, from being targeted by Glenn McGrath to winning the Player of the Series award in the Ashes battle, and on to the World Cup fiasco.
The Devils Pack – Balwinder Sandhu & Austin Coutinho
This is an exciting short book and I am glad someone has finally published a book on India’s maiden World cup win. The book will bring fond memories to all those who had witnessed Kapil’s Devils making history. I can still distinctly remember as a child, how many crackers I burst with my friends on Sunday on the night of 25th June 1983. Balwinder Singh Sandhu provides some interesting insider account and describes the events, the match plans and everything that happened as India won its maiden World Cup victory. In the book Balwinder has devoted one chapter for every member of the winning team and the book therefore seems similar to another book Idols by Sunil Gavaskar which is indeed fascinating.
Bishan - Portrait of a Cricketer by Suresh Menon
“Jim Laker once remarked that his idea of heaven was Lord’s in the sunshine, Ray Lindwall bowling at one end and Bishan Bedi at the other.” With a foreword by Anil Kumble and a flow that makes it as easy to read as, Bedi was to watch, this is a cricket book worthy of a place on the shelf. The author is a prolific writer but somewhere I felt Menon has restricted himself to about 190 odd pages. May be he could have been more descriptive. Nonetheless Menon’s incisive insights make the book especially readable. He makes no attempt to gloss over Bedi’s flaws and idiosyncrasies.
Sach by Gautam Bhattacharya
The book beautifully describes the journey of Sachin Tendulkar, “The demi- God of cricket" from his early childhood till date. Hopefully there will be many books deservedly written about Sachin. Till then this book is a collector’s item for some rare photos. The book features about 83 interviews by eminent personality on what Sachin means to them. There are many interesting anecdotes. You feel sad to learn that Sachin’s brother who was instrumental in making Sachin a cricketer had to struggle and stand outside the stadium while someone tries to organise a pass.
Bradman and the Summer That Changed Cricket: The 1930 Australian Tour of England - Christopher Hilton
In 1930 Bradman arrived in England, a callow youth whose lack of technique, or so the English thought, would be mercilessly exposed. By summer's end he had redefined the possibilities of the game and changed it forever. This fascinating book reconstructs that Australian tour from the first day to the last, in the liveliest detail, including every run in Bradman's legendary 300 scored in one day during the Leeds Test. Using a host of contemporary sources - from regional Australian newspapers and original score sheets, to English provincial and national newspapers and players' memories - Christopher Hilton brings all aspects of the 1930 summer tour vividly to life and also revisits every controversy surrounding one of the sport's most momentous occasions.
Inside Out: Writings on Cricket - Gideon Haigh
Inside out is a remarkably written by one of the best living writers on cricket- Gideon Haigh.
The book features some interesting pieces on cricketing greats from Don Bradman to Sunil Gavaskar, inferences about the enduring significance of the Bodyline series, informative history of Baggy Green Cap and much more.
Classic Cricket Clangers - David Mortimer
This volume is an amusing collection of accounts of cricket players who have thrown away victory for all kinds of embarrassing and highly regrettable reasons. It covers two centuries of cricket.
Book of Cricket - Barry Norman
Barry Norman's Book of Cricket delivers a wealth of information about every aspect of cricket and how its rules developed from its 18th-century beginnings till date.
Management Books:
I sometimes find it a drudgery to read management books especially when there is nothing new. However the books that captured my attention last year:
Managing Organizational Deviance - Roland E. Kidwell
This is an exceptional book and brings to light the various deviance and dysfunctional behaviour in organisations. The book features incisive short cases and draws together contributions written by recognized experts and thereby offering practical guidance to those faced with ambiguous situations of deviant behaviour in the workplace.
The Ascent of Money - Niall Ferguson
If the author concludes by saying “Markets are like the mirror of mankind, revealing every hour of every working day the way we value ourselves and the resources of the world around us. It is not the fault of the mirror if it reflects our blemishes as clearly as our beauty" then definitely this book is worth reading isn’t it. The book provides fascinating history of money, markets, banking and is indeed riveting.
Six Disciplines of Execution - Gary Harpst
This book is short, enriching and worth reading. The author provides an excellent guide on managing business growth through strategy and execution. While the book is designed for entrepreneurs and smaller firms to become better at execution, the lessons in the book are equally relevant and applicable for even larger organisations to anyone who wants to think and become an entrepreneur or work like an intrapreneur.
Firms of Endearment (FOE)- Rajendra Sisodia, David Wolfe, Jagdish Sheth
The book authored by three imminent management thinkers identifies 30 companies which are called Firms of Endearment. The basic premise of the book is that with consumers and employees seeking more in life than simply money, companies need to adopt more meaningful goals than the simple pursuit of profit. These firms treat their employees well and inspire them to be innovative, respond readily to consumer needs and complaints, show interest in their community and maintain high moral standards. The authors have done fabulous research and the book reveals some startling insights into the workings of organisations that are great employers, great corporate citizens and highly successful.
Classics
The Waves - Virginia Woolf
'I am writing to a rhythm and not to a plot', Virginia Woolf stated of her eighth novel, "The Waves". Widely regarded as one of her greatest and most original works, it conveys the rhythms of life in synchrony with the cycle of nature and the passage of time. Six children - Bernard, Susan, Rhoda, Neville, Jinny and Louis - meet in a garden close to the sea, their voices sounding over the constant echo of the waves that roll back and forth from the shore. The subsequent continuity of these six main characters, as they develop from childhood to maturity and follow different passions and ambitions, is interspersed with interludes from the timeless and unifying chorus of nature. In pure stream-of-consciousness style, Woolf presents a cross-section of multiple yet parallel lives, each marked by the disintegrating force of a mutual tragedy. "The Waves" is her searching exploration of individual and collective identity, and the observations and emotions of life, from the simplicity and surging optimism of youth to the vacancy and despair of middle-age.
Fiction:
Unaccustomed Earth - Jhumpa Lahiri
I enjoy reading Jhumpa Lahiri and find her book evocative and sensitive. In Unaccustomer Earth, Jhumpa Lahiri presents heart rendering stories of immigrant families that reveals how even the most ordinary lives have their dramas and tragedies.
Very Good Jeeves – P.G. Wodehouse
“To dive into a Wodehouse novel is to swim in some of the most elegantly turned phrases in the English language.” - Ben Schott
It's been ages since I picked up a P G Wodehouse and to come across the adventures of the British dilettante Bertram Wilberforce Wooster a.k.a. Bertie Wooster and his wry valet Reginald Jeeves, who is often the cause of his salvation from increasingly entangled social situations is simply ecstatic. I guess everyone’s during their college years must have rummaged Wodehouse books and no matter how many times you read, his writing remains immortal, and keeps you in splits. Very Good Jeeves is a superb book and just like all his 92 books including 11 novels, another literary treasure.
Books on Travel & Adventures:
The Ice: A Journey to Antarctica - Stephen J. Pyne
Stephen Pyne's book on the stark and largely unknown continent combines a geophysical examination of the ice with an inspirational survey of how one of the most alien landscapes of our planet has shaped and affected man's life on earth throughout the centuries. The sheer immensity of the ice sheet is staggering. Its weight is sufficient to deform the globe. This book is an all-encompassing guide to the continent which remains the ultimate symbol of the natural world.
The Middle Passage - V.S. Naipaul
I have enjoyed reading Sir Naipaul’s book and find his writing sharp and thought-provoking.
Naipaul's first work of travel writing is an account of his journey in 1950 from London to his birthplace, the Caribbean island of Trinidad. It is both a journey to the familiar and to the strange and Naipaul records it all with immense sensitivity, honesty and clear analysis. He journeys to British Guyana, Surinam, Martinique and Jamaica and forms a provocative and at times piercingly funny study of societies whose common heritage of colonialism and slavery is examined with unique insight.
A Turn in the South - V.S. Naipaul
"A Turn in the South" is a reflective journey by V. S. Naipaul in the late 1980s through the American South. Naipaul writes of his encounters with politicians, rednecks, farmers, writers, ordinary men and women, both black and white, with the insight and originality we expect from one of our best travel writers. Fascinating and poetic, this is a remarkable book on race, culture and country.
India: A Million Mutinies - V.S. Naipaul
V.S. Naipaul's fascinating account of his journey around India approaches this shifting, changing land from a variety of perspectives. Through interviews with people from many different walks of life, he builds an oral history of a country constantly on the move.
Man-eaters of Kumaon - Jim Corbett
This is the best known of Corbett's books, and contains ten fascinating stories of tracking and shooting man-eaters in the Indian Himalaya during the early years of 20th century.
Autobiographies/ Biography / Memoirs:
Along with Biography and Memoirs of cricketers, there were others books, which were far enriching and exciting.
Margaret Thatcher: v.1: The Grocer's Daughter - John Campbell
When Margaret Thatcher unexpectedly emerged to challenge Edward Heath for the Conservative leadership in 1975, the public knew her only as the archetypal Home Counties Tory Lady, more famous for her hats than for any outstanding talent. Yes almost overnight she reinvented herself. Journalists who set out to discover where she came from were amazed to find that she had grown up above a grocer's shop in Grantham. Within weeks of her becoming Tory leader an entirely new image was in place, based around the now famous corner shop beside the Great North Road; the strict Methodist upbringing; and her father, who taught her the 'Victorian values' which were the foundations of her subsequent career.
Being a Scot – Sean Connery
Being a Scot has many beautiful pictures, is well-presented, and is an informative. The book focuses less on Sir Sean, and more on his interests and causes. In its own grindingly literal fashion, Being a Scot will tell you a lot about Scotland. However, there is one enduring mystery the book sheds no light on: if Connery likes the place so much, why doesn't he live there?
Books on Science:
The Sun: A Biography - David Whitehouse
This is a comprehensive biography of the sun, written by David Whitehouse. Since man first became conscious he has sought to understand the nature of the sun; he has worshipped it, been inspired to produce great art about it, researched it and even died for it. Understanding the nature of the sun is key to understanding our universe and to life on earth. The author skilfully weaves his extraordinary scientific knowledge with history, philosophy, archaeology and religion to produce this fascinating account of the life and future of the sun.
Books on Gourmet Delights
The Hour of the Goddess: Memories of Women, Food and Ritual in Bengal - Chitrita Banerji.
Eversince I read ‘Eating in India’ by Chitrita Banerji, I have started enjoying the delectable Bangla food. Chitrita is a splendid food historian and In ‘The Hour of the Goddess’, she describes her memories of food, its associations with Hindu rituals and the roles of women, contextualized within the broad culinary traditions of Bengal. The book is composed of a collection of short essays, coupled with mouth watering recipes and personal anecdotes.
Music (Biography)
A Secret History - Alastair Taylor
Alastair Taylor was with the Beatles right from the beginning. With this book, he offers his inside view on the band's highs and lows, and reveals exactly what split the band apart.
Read Again:
Alexander the Great's Art of Strategy by Partha Bose. This book is ain interesting and must read for all.
Books by Sunil Gavaskar - Sunny Days, One Day Wonders & Idols
And again this year, I hope to spare some time to read books that are pleadingly looking at me from the shelves. Until then, Have a Great Year Ahead!!
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Sledging - It Ain't Cricket !
"How's your wife and my kids?" asked Australian wicket keeper Rod Marsh from behind the stumps to the Ian Botham who had come into bat. "The wife's fine," replied Ian, "but the kids are retarded."
Well aren’t sledging and Ashes like two sides of same coin! Come to think of, Cricket is not just a mere contest between bat and ball, but it’s largely a battle of wits. No wonder players with good temperament and cricketing intelligence become world champions. It is this mental ability and temperament that opponents like to test.
Well as long as this is challenged in a fair manner, Cricket still resembles a Gentleman’s game. But there are times when players use humorous banter to distract their opponent and sometimes tend to cross the line using orchestrated personal abuse and derogatory language. This is generally referred as sledging.
Basically sledging describes the practice whereby players try to get under the opponents skin by provoking, insulting or verbally intimidating the opposing player. The objective is to disturb the opponent's concentration, thereby causing them to make mistakes or underperform.
Sledging, banter, remonstration, abuse, ripostes have been an integral part of the game and like everything in cricket, it also has ancient antecedents. For instance, when W.G. Grace was given out leg-before, he refused to walk and told the bowler: "They came to watch me bat, not you bowl". And the innings continued.
In his riveting book ‘Stiff Upper Lips and Baggy Green Caps’, Simon Briggs presents a succinct history of sledging. He states that, Englishmen were the pioneers and Dr W.G. Grace was an early leader, and believed they had the divine right to use any methods to beat the colonials. Interestingly in the same age of cavaliers, Warwick Armstrong from Australia gave it back to them. In the modern era, sledging was blatantly practiced by Aussies. Ian Chappell’s mob labelled as ‘Ugly Australian’ were the leaders and later Allan Border, Merv Hughes, Steve Waugh continued this practice. Steve Waugh even coined a new cricketing neologism - Mental disintegration!
Its not just sledging but we have also witnessed players getting into argument with the umpires. There aren’t many players like Gavaskar and Gilchrist who walk even before the umpire has raised his finger. Instead of emulating these legendary players or even for that matter, the batting skills of Dr W.G. Grace, the modern batsmen seem to emulate Grace's ability to stand his ground. Once, when the ball knocked off a bail, he replaced it and told the umpire: "Twas the wind which took thy bail orf, good sir." The umpire replied: "Indeed, doctor, and let us hope thy wind helps the good doctor on thy journey back to the pavilion."
The best W.G Grace sledge was on him, though, not from him. Charles Kortright had dismissed him on few times in a county game - only for the umpires to keep turning down his appeals. Finally, he uprooted two of Grace's three stumps. Grace stalled, as though waiting for a no-ball call or something, before reluctantly walking off with Kortright's words in his ears: "Surely you're not going, doctor? There's still one stump standing."
While many of us appreciate the technical side of cricket, it is equally true that good humoured banter spices up the game and can also be counter-productive. Remember Javed Miandad imitating Kiran More and jumping on the wicket to express his irritation with More’s constant chattering behind the stumps. Who can forget Dravid’s brilliant century against the Proteas when Allan Donald ruffled him? And in the Nottingham test, Zaheer Khan ended up taking nine wickets after he was greeted by the English players with jelly beans on the wicket. Venkatesh Prasad uprooting the stumps of Aamer Sohail immediately after being sledged and clobbered for a boundary will always remain etched in our memory.
Here’s a list of some good cricketing anecdotes, witty banter and sledging … What's somewhat unique is the angle from which one looks at them - mainly, funny or provocative things that were said, and brief looks at the personalities who said them.
Graham Gooch got a chilling welcome to Test Cricket. In his debut test, as he wandered out to bat, Gooch greeted Ian Chappell, the Australia captain, with a polite, “Good morning, Ian.”
“What’s so f**king good about it?” came the immediate reply. Gooch was then dismissed without scoring.
Harbhajan must have slapped his own countrymen, but there are also instances of teammates sledging each other. Now this one’s simply hilarious that involved Fred Trueman and Raman Subba Row. England were playing Pakistan and, at what turned out to be a crucial moment later on, Trueman managed to get an outside edge off a Pakistani batsman after the batsman had been frustrating them on a hot sweaty day. The ball went right through the hands of Raman Subba Row who was standing in first slip and through his legs. After the over Raman heads over to the bowler and says, "Sorry Fred, I should've closed my legs." Fred Trueman, who didn't find any of this amusing, quipped back, "No, you bastard, your mother should have."
Another instance of same team members having fun.
David Gower: Do you want Gatt (Mike Gatting) a foot wider?
Chris Cowdrey: No. He'd burst.
England were set a huge target by Australia and Maurice Leyland batting with a youngster was being made to run hard for singles. Leyland said, "Steady up lad, we can't get them all tonight, you know".
Or savour this - "In my day 58 beers between London and Sydney would have virtually classified you as a teetotaler." - Ian Chappell on being informed that David Boon had consumed 58 beers on team flight to England in 1989. Boon claimed that he was afraid of flying.
Even umpires come up with humorous banter. This is "From the Pavilion End" by Harold "Dickie" Bird.
"Bomber" Wells, a spin bowler and great character, played for Gloucestershire and Nottinghamshire. He used to bat at No.11 since one couldn't bat any lower. Of him, they used to paraphrase Compton's famous words describing and equally inept runner; "When he shouts 'YES' for a run, it is merely the basis for further negotiations!"
Incidentally, Compton was no better. John Warr said, of Compton "He was the only person who would call you for a run and wish you luck at the same time." Anyway, when Wells played for Gloucestershire, he had an equally horrendous runner as the No.10. During a county match, horror of horrors.......both got injured. *Both* opted for runners when it was their turn to bat. Bomber played a ball on the off, called for a run, forgot he had a runner and ran himself. Ditto at the other end. In the melee, someone decided that a second run was on. Now we had *all four* running. Due to the confusion and constant shouts of "YES" "NO", eventually, *all* of them ran to the same end. Note - at this point in time, the entire ground is rolling on the floor laughing their behinds out. One of the fielders - brave lad - stops laughing for a minute, picks the ball and throws down the wicket at the other end. Umpire Alec Skelding looks very seriously at the four and calmly informs them "One of you buggers is out. I don't know which. *You* decide and inform the bloody scorers!"
Well this is just the beginning, for the best sledging and banter with some fruity dialect takes place during The Ashes…
1. Bill Woodfull, Australia’s captain in the Bodyline series of 1932-33, responding to Douglas Jardine's complaint that a slip fielder had called him bastard: “All right, which one of you bastards called this bastard a bastard?”
2. “Take a good look at this arse of mine; you'll see plenty of it this summer.” - David Steele to Rodney Marsh
3. Australia fighting for a win nearing the end of a Test Match, Fred Trueman at the crease. The Aus captain has plenty of close in fielders, whose shadows fall on the wicket. Fredie finds this objectionable. 'Ere, if you lads don't back off, I'll appeal for bad light!"
4. Sometimes sledging can be quite subtle. Imagine, for example, how England’s Phil Edmonds felt when he took guard to bat and heard the Aussie wicketkeeper Timothy Zoehrer chirp: "At least I have an identity. You're only Frances Edmond’s husband."
5. Mark Waugh: F**k me, look who it is. Mate, what are you doing out here, there's no way you're good enough to play for England.
James Ormond: Maybe not, but at least I'm the best player in my family.
6. “Don't bother shutting it, son, you won't be there long enough.” - Fred Truman to incoming Aussie batsman as he opened the gate on his way out to the middle at Lord's
7. Tap that one down you little b*stard. - Tony Lock bowls a bouncer at Richie Benaud following a prolonged spell of gardening
8. You are a damned lot of sneaks.- WG Grace to Midwinter, The Oval, 1877
9. Well bowled Harold! - Douglas Jardine after Larwood fells Woodfull with a ball in the chest
10. Hell, Gatt, move out of the way, I can't see the stumps. - Dennis Lillee
11. Mate, if you turn the bat over, you'll see the instructions on the back! - Merv Hughes to Grahame Hick
12. Merv Hughes: You can't f**king bat.
Robin Smith after hitting the next ball to the fence: Hey Merv, we make a fine pair. I can't f**king bat and you can't f**king bowl.
13. Warne bowling to Atherton in Australia during an Ashes series. Atherton nicks one into Ian Healy's gloves but doesn't walk and is given not out. Healy: "You f***ing cheat"
Atherton: "When in Rome Old Boy" said in his best Oxbridge voice!!
14. Derek Randall to Lillee, after taking a glancing blow to the head: “No good hitting me there, mate, nothing to damage.”
15. Ian Healy, placing a fielder yards away at cover when Nasser Hussain was batting: “Let's have you right under Nasser's nose.”
16. Tony Greig, England’s South African-born captain, to the young David Hookes, 1977: “When are your balls going to drop, Sonny?”
Hookes: “I don't know, but at least I'm playing cricket for my own country.” Hookes hit Greig for five consecutive fours.
And its not just England and Australia but even players from other countries resort to such banter.
Gavaskar had decided to relinquish his opening position and come in at no 4 for that test. But, Malcolm Marshall fired out Anshuman Gaekwad and Dilip Vengsarkar for ducks, setting the stage for Gavaskar to walk in at 0/2. Viv Richards quipped, "Man, it don't matter where you come in to bat, the score is still zero." Gavaskar made 236*
In another instance, during the tour of West Indies, a young bowler was trying to get under Gavaskar’s skin by sledging. Gavaskar, a senior player retorted "Son, don't waste time sledging at me. I have been sledged at more often than you have taken a piss".
Greg Thomas, a Glamorgan fast bowler, thundered in and beat Vivian Richards's bat. "It's red and its round. Can't you see it?" the bowler taunted. The next ball was precisely the same; pitching three quarters of length on middle and off, seaming away and once again Richards was comprehensively beaten. "It's red and its round and it weighs four-and-a-half ounces. Can't you see it?” commented Greg Thomas. The next delivery was right in the slot, and Viv smashed the ball out of the ground and straight into the river that flowed around it. The batsman then said to the bowler: "You know what it looks like... go get it!"
There are also instances when players wait for the opportune moment and give it back.
Ian Botham had long ago remarked, "Pakistan is the sort of place every man should send his mother-in-law, for a month, with all expenses paid."
In 1992 World Cup Final, when Pakistan defeated England, Aamer Sohail said to Ian Botham on his way to pavilion "Why don't you send your mother-in-law out to play, she cannot do much worse."
South Africa’s Daryll Cullinan is famous for being Shane Warne’s bunny. Cullinan was batting, attempting a comeback from a complete bamboozling from Warne in earlier games. Cullinan played the first ball from the kiwi bowler Chris Harris very carefully back down the pitch, and keeper Parore yelled out "Well bowled Warnie!"
There is no doubt that playing against Aussies can be daunting and indeed intimidating. Just check this out.
1. Australian fast bowler Glenn McGrath chided West Indian batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan "So, what does Brian Lara's dick taste like?" Sarwan replied "I don't know, ask your wife." McGrath lost his temper and yelled "If you ever fucking mention my wife again, I will fucking rip your fucking throat out!" (McGrath was upset because his wife had just been diagnosed with cancer)
2. Glenn McGrath to Eddo Brandes - "Hey Eddo, how come you're so fat?"
Brandes responds: "Cos everytime I sleep with your wife, she gives me a biscuit!"
3. Shane Warne: “I've waited two years for another chance to humiliate you.”
Daryll Cullinan: “Looks like you spent it eating. Go and deflate yourself, you balloon.”
4. “You convicts are all the same.” - Malcolm Marshall to Steve Waugh after he refused to walk.
5. Ravi Shastri v/s Mike Whitney the Aussie 12th man. Shastri hits it to Mike and looks for a single. Mike stops the ball and says "if you leave the crease I'll break your fucking head" Shastri: "If you could bat as well as you can talk you wouldn't be the fucking 12th man."
6. Inzamam-ul-Haq telling Brett Lee - "Stop bowling off spinners"
7. Shane Warne when bowling against Arjuna Ranatunga wondered aloud, what would draw him out of his crease. Wicketkeeper Ian Healy piped up "Put a Mars Bar on a good length. That should do it." Ranatunga not to be out done believed to have said "Then I’m sure Boony here will get it before me" referring to David Boon who was fielding at forward shortleg.
8. Merv Hughes & Javed Miandad: During 1991 Adelaide Test: Javed called Merv a fat bus conductor. A few balls later Merv dismissed Javed. "Tickets please," Merv called out as he ran around Javed. .
9. Merv Hughes was bowling to Hansie Cronje during a tour game in South Africa. It was an especially flat wicket and Cronje was hitting Hughes for fours and sixes all over the place. After the umpteenth boundary, Hughes headed down the pitch, stood near Cronje, let out a fart and said: "Try hitting that for six." It was five minutes before the guffawing stopped and play could resume.
10. Can you ever forget Ian Healy's comment which was picked up by the Channel 9 microphones when Arjuna Ranatunga called for a runner on a particularly hot night during a one-dayer in Sydney: "You don't get a runner for being an overweight, unfit, fat beep!"
11. Merv Hughes & Viv Richards - During a test match in the West Indies, Hughes didn't say a word to Viv, but continued to stare at him after deliveries. "This is my island, my culture. Don't you be staring at me? In my culture we just bowl." Merv didn't reply, but after he dismissed him he announced to the batsman "In my culture we just say fuck off."
12. Ian Healy asked Arjuna: "Got your legs shivering?"
Arjuna replied: "Yes, I’m tired after sleeping with your wife"
Sledging and abuse is very rampant between Pakistani and Indian Cricketers. And the best way to answer any sledging is demonstrated by none other than the ‘God of Batting’ – Sachin Tendulkar…
Sachin Tendulkar Vs Abdul Qadir - A baby-faced Sachin Tendulkar had just made his cricketing debut against Pakistan in 1989, when he was subject to abuse by his opponents and the crowd alike. Tendulkar was facing a formidable Pakistan bowling attack and the crowds were desperate to break him. They insulted him with banners that read "Hey kid, go home and drink milk", but when Tendulkar sent the then young leg spinner Mustaq Ahmed hiding for cover by smashing 2 sixes in one over, the frustrated mentor of Mustaq Ahmed the legendary Abdul Qadir barks "Why are you hitting kids? Try and hit me". A silent Tendulkar let his bat do the talking and duly obliged Qadir's request hitting 4 sixes in the over, which read 6, 0, 4, 6, 6, 6 - Many cite this incident as the day the legend was born!
Tasteless - The following style of sledging is unacceptable and must be condemned even by those who advocate its practice. Players caught using this style of tactic, risk hefty fines or suspension.
1993 - The Australian slip cordon allegedly greeted New Zealand batsman Chris Cairns with a chant of "Choo Choo" after his sister had just been killed in a train accident.
There is debate in the cricketing world as to whether sledging constitutes bad sportsmanship or good-humoured banter. As long as sledging involves real humour without any politics or racial abuse, it may continue. Ironically that is the kind of humor we are missing in today's cricket when nothing short of a crude family or racist reference and even expletives seems to satisfy few idiots masquerading as cricketers the world over. No wonder Gavaskar talks of severe punishment for those who use personal and derogatory abuse. Ironically sledging is intrinsic to some cultures, in sports like soccer and rugby and even part of daily lives especially in countries like Australia, South Africa, England and perhaps therefore difficult to avoid!.. But, “this ain’t cricket”.
Thankfully the game is always bigger than individuals! Even Robert Mugabe is reported to have said, "I want everyone to play cricket in Zimbabwe. I want ours to be a nation of gentlemen”. Well, so long as you have batsmen and bowlers who will retort to the sledges through their performance, cricket will continue to remain a Gentleman’s game!
Well aren’t sledging and Ashes like two sides of same coin! Come to think of, Cricket is not just a mere contest between bat and ball, but it’s largely a battle of wits. No wonder players with good temperament and cricketing intelligence become world champions. It is this mental ability and temperament that opponents like to test.
Well as long as this is challenged in a fair manner, Cricket still resembles a Gentleman’s game. But there are times when players use humorous banter to distract their opponent and sometimes tend to cross the line using orchestrated personal abuse and derogatory language. This is generally referred as sledging.
Basically sledging describes the practice whereby players try to get under the opponents skin by provoking, insulting or verbally intimidating the opposing player. The objective is to disturb the opponent's concentration, thereby causing them to make mistakes or underperform.
Sledging, banter, remonstration, abuse, ripostes have been an integral part of the game and like everything in cricket, it also has ancient antecedents. For instance, when W.G. Grace was given out leg-before, he refused to walk and told the bowler: "They came to watch me bat, not you bowl". And the innings continued.
In his riveting book ‘Stiff Upper Lips and Baggy Green Caps’, Simon Briggs presents a succinct history of sledging. He states that, Englishmen were the pioneers and Dr W.G. Grace was an early leader, and believed they had the divine right to use any methods to beat the colonials. Interestingly in the same age of cavaliers, Warwick Armstrong from Australia gave it back to them. In the modern era, sledging was blatantly practiced by Aussies. Ian Chappell’s mob labelled as ‘Ugly Australian’ were the leaders and later Allan Border, Merv Hughes, Steve Waugh continued this practice. Steve Waugh even coined a new cricketing neologism - Mental disintegration!
Its not just sledging but we have also witnessed players getting into argument with the umpires. There aren’t many players like Gavaskar and Gilchrist who walk even before the umpire has raised his finger. Instead of emulating these legendary players or even for that matter, the batting skills of Dr W.G. Grace, the modern batsmen seem to emulate Grace's ability to stand his ground. Once, when the ball knocked off a bail, he replaced it and told the umpire: "Twas the wind which took thy bail orf, good sir." The umpire replied: "Indeed, doctor, and let us hope thy wind helps the good doctor on thy journey back to the pavilion."
The best W.G Grace sledge was on him, though, not from him. Charles Kortright had dismissed him on few times in a county game - only for the umpires to keep turning down his appeals. Finally, he uprooted two of Grace's three stumps. Grace stalled, as though waiting for a no-ball call or something, before reluctantly walking off with Kortright's words in his ears: "Surely you're not going, doctor? There's still one stump standing."
While many of us appreciate the technical side of cricket, it is equally true that good humoured banter spices up the game and can also be counter-productive. Remember Javed Miandad imitating Kiran More and jumping on the wicket to express his irritation with More’s constant chattering behind the stumps. Who can forget Dravid’s brilliant century against the Proteas when Allan Donald ruffled him? And in the Nottingham test, Zaheer Khan ended up taking nine wickets after he was greeted by the English players with jelly beans on the wicket. Venkatesh Prasad uprooting the stumps of Aamer Sohail immediately after being sledged and clobbered for a boundary will always remain etched in our memory.
Here’s a list of some good cricketing anecdotes, witty banter and sledging … What's somewhat unique is the angle from which one looks at them - mainly, funny or provocative things that were said, and brief looks at the personalities who said them.
Graham Gooch got a chilling welcome to Test Cricket. In his debut test, as he wandered out to bat, Gooch greeted Ian Chappell, the Australia captain, with a polite, “Good morning, Ian.”
“What’s so f**king good about it?” came the immediate reply. Gooch was then dismissed without scoring.
Harbhajan must have slapped his own countrymen, but there are also instances of teammates sledging each other. Now this one’s simply hilarious that involved Fred Trueman and Raman Subba Row. England were playing Pakistan and, at what turned out to be a crucial moment later on, Trueman managed to get an outside edge off a Pakistani batsman after the batsman had been frustrating them on a hot sweaty day. The ball went right through the hands of Raman Subba Row who was standing in first slip and through his legs. After the over Raman heads over to the bowler and says, "Sorry Fred, I should've closed my legs." Fred Trueman, who didn't find any of this amusing, quipped back, "No, you bastard, your mother should have."
Another instance of same team members having fun.
David Gower: Do you want Gatt (Mike Gatting) a foot wider?
Chris Cowdrey: No. He'd burst.
England were set a huge target by Australia and Maurice Leyland batting with a youngster was being made to run hard for singles. Leyland said, "Steady up lad, we can't get them all tonight, you know".
Or savour this - "In my day 58 beers between London and Sydney would have virtually classified you as a teetotaler." - Ian Chappell on being informed that David Boon had consumed 58 beers on team flight to England in 1989. Boon claimed that he was afraid of flying.
Even umpires come up with humorous banter. This is "From the Pavilion End" by Harold "Dickie" Bird.
"Bomber" Wells, a spin bowler and great character, played for Gloucestershire and Nottinghamshire. He used to bat at No.11 since one couldn't bat any lower. Of him, they used to paraphrase Compton's famous words describing and equally inept runner; "When he shouts 'YES' for a run, it is merely the basis for further negotiations!"
Incidentally, Compton was no better. John Warr said, of Compton "He was the only person who would call you for a run and wish you luck at the same time." Anyway, when Wells played for Gloucestershire, he had an equally horrendous runner as the No.10. During a county match, horror of horrors.......both got injured. *Both* opted for runners when it was their turn to bat. Bomber played a ball on the off, called for a run, forgot he had a runner and ran himself. Ditto at the other end. In the melee, someone decided that a second run was on. Now we had *all four* running. Due to the confusion and constant shouts of "YES" "NO", eventually, *all* of them ran to the same end. Note - at this point in time, the entire ground is rolling on the floor laughing their behinds out. One of the fielders - brave lad - stops laughing for a minute, picks the ball and throws down the wicket at the other end. Umpire Alec Skelding looks very seriously at the four and calmly informs them "One of you buggers is out. I don't know which. *You* decide and inform the bloody scorers!"
Well this is just the beginning, for the best sledging and banter with some fruity dialect takes place during The Ashes…
1. Bill Woodfull, Australia’s captain in the Bodyline series of 1932-33, responding to Douglas Jardine's complaint that a slip fielder had called him bastard: “All right, which one of you bastards called this bastard a bastard?”
2. “Take a good look at this arse of mine; you'll see plenty of it this summer.” - David Steele to Rodney Marsh
3. Australia fighting for a win nearing the end of a Test Match, Fred Trueman at the crease. The Aus captain has plenty of close in fielders, whose shadows fall on the wicket. Fredie finds this objectionable. 'Ere, if you lads don't back off, I'll appeal for bad light!"
4. Sometimes sledging can be quite subtle. Imagine, for example, how England’s Phil Edmonds felt when he took guard to bat and heard the Aussie wicketkeeper Timothy Zoehrer chirp: "At least I have an identity. You're only Frances Edmond’s husband."
5. Mark Waugh: F**k me, look who it is. Mate, what are you doing out here, there's no way you're good enough to play for England.
James Ormond: Maybe not, but at least I'm the best player in my family.
6. “Don't bother shutting it, son, you won't be there long enough.” - Fred Truman to incoming Aussie batsman as he opened the gate on his way out to the middle at Lord's
7. Tap that one down you little b*stard. - Tony Lock bowls a bouncer at Richie Benaud following a prolonged spell of gardening
8. You are a damned lot of sneaks.- WG Grace to Midwinter, The Oval, 1877
9. Well bowled Harold! - Douglas Jardine after Larwood fells Woodfull with a ball in the chest
10. Hell, Gatt, move out of the way, I can't see the stumps. - Dennis Lillee
11. Mate, if you turn the bat over, you'll see the instructions on the back! - Merv Hughes to Grahame Hick
12. Merv Hughes: You can't f**king bat.
Robin Smith after hitting the next ball to the fence: Hey Merv, we make a fine pair. I can't f**king bat and you can't f**king bowl.
13. Warne bowling to Atherton in Australia during an Ashes series. Atherton nicks one into Ian Healy's gloves but doesn't walk and is given not out. Healy: "You f***ing cheat"
Atherton: "When in Rome Old Boy" said in his best Oxbridge voice!!
14. Derek Randall to Lillee, after taking a glancing blow to the head: “No good hitting me there, mate, nothing to damage.”
15. Ian Healy, placing a fielder yards away at cover when Nasser Hussain was batting: “Let's have you right under Nasser's nose.”
16. Tony Greig, England’s South African-born captain, to the young David Hookes, 1977: “When are your balls going to drop, Sonny?”
Hookes: “I don't know, but at least I'm playing cricket for my own country.” Hookes hit Greig for five consecutive fours.
And its not just England and Australia but even players from other countries resort to such banter.
Gavaskar had decided to relinquish his opening position and come in at no 4 for that test. But, Malcolm Marshall fired out Anshuman Gaekwad and Dilip Vengsarkar for ducks, setting the stage for Gavaskar to walk in at 0/2. Viv Richards quipped, "Man, it don't matter where you come in to bat, the score is still zero." Gavaskar made 236*
In another instance, during the tour of West Indies, a young bowler was trying to get under Gavaskar’s skin by sledging. Gavaskar, a senior player retorted "Son, don't waste time sledging at me. I have been sledged at more often than you have taken a piss".
Greg Thomas, a Glamorgan fast bowler, thundered in and beat Vivian Richards's bat. "It's red and its round. Can't you see it?" the bowler taunted. The next ball was precisely the same; pitching three quarters of length on middle and off, seaming away and once again Richards was comprehensively beaten. "It's red and its round and it weighs four-and-a-half ounces. Can't you see it?” commented Greg Thomas. The next delivery was right in the slot, and Viv smashed the ball out of the ground and straight into the river that flowed around it. The batsman then said to the bowler: "You know what it looks like... go get it!"
There are also instances when players wait for the opportune moment and give it back.
Ian Botham had long ago remarked, "Pakistan is the sort of place every man should send his mother-in-law, for a month, with all expenses paid."
In 1992 World Cup Final, when Pakistan defeated England, Aamer Sohail said to Ian Botham on his way to pavilion "Why don't you send your mother-in-law out to play, she cannot do much worse."
South Africa’s Daryll Cullinan is famous for being Shane Warne’s bunny. Cullinan was batting, attempting a comeback from a complete bamboozling from Warne in earlier games. Cullinan played the first ball from the kiwi bowler Chris Harris very carefully back down the pitch, and keeper Parore yelled out "Well bowled Warnie!"
There is no doubt that playing against Aussies can be daunting and indeed intimidating. Just check this out.
1. Australian fast bowler Glenn McGrath chided West Indian batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan "So, what does Brian Lara's dick taste like?" Sarwan replied "I don't know, ask your wife." McGrath lost his temper and yelled "If you ever fucking mention my wife again, I will fucking rip your fucking throat out!" (McGrath was upset because his wife had just been diagnosed with cancer)
2. Glenn McGrath to Eddo Brandes - "Hey Eddo, how come you're so fat?"
Brandes responds: "Cos everytime I sleep with your wife, she gives me a biscuit!"
3. Shane Warne: “I've waited two years for another chance to humiliate you.”
Daryll Cullinan: “Looks like you spent it eating. Go and deflate yourself, you balloon.”
4. “You convicts are all the same.” - Malcolm Marshall to Steve Waugh after he refused to walk.
5. Ravi Shastri v/s Mike Whitney the Aussie 12th man. Shastri hits it to Mike and looks for a single. Mike stops the ball and says "if you leave the crease I'll break your fucking head" Shastri: "If you could bat as well as you can talk you wouldn't be the fucking 12th man."
6. Inzamam-ul-Haq telling Brett Lee - "Stop bowling off spinners"
7. Shane Warne when bowling against Arjuna Ranatunga wondered aloud, what would draw him out of his crease. Wicketkeeper Ian Healy piped up "Put a Mars Bar on a good length. That should do it." Ranatunga not to be out done believed to have said "Then I’m sure Boony here will get it before me" referring to David Boon who was fielding at forward shortleg.
8. Merv Hughes & Javed Miandad: During 1991 Adelaide Test: Javed called Merv a fat bus conductor. A few balls later Merv dismissed Javed. "Tickets please," Merv called out as he ran around Javed. .
9. Merv Hughes was bowling to Hansie Cronje during a tour game in South Africa. It was an especially flat wicket and Cronje was hitting Hughes for fours and sixes all over the place. After the umpteenth boundary, Hughes headed down the pitch, stood near Cronje, let out a fart and said: "Try hitting that for six." It was five minutes before the guffawing stopped and play could resume.
10. Can you ever forget Ian Healy's comment which was picked up by the Channel 9 microphones when Arjuna Ranatunga called for a runner on a particularly hot night during a one-dayer in Sydney: "You don't get a runner for being an overweight, unfit, fat beep!"
11. Merv Hughes & Viv Richards - During a test match in the West Indies, Hughes didn't say a word to Viv, but continued to stare at him after deliveries. "This is my island, my culture. Don't you be staring at me? In my culture we just bowl." Merv didn't reply, but after he dismissed him he announced to the batsman "In my culture we just say fuck off."
12. Ian Healy asked Arjuna: "Got your legs shivering?"
Arjuna replied: "Yes, I’m tired after sleeping with your wife"
Sledging and abuse is very rampant between Pakistani and Indian Cricketers. And the best way to answer any sledging is demonstrated by none other than the ‘God of Batting’ – Sachin Tendulkar…
Sachin Tendulkar Vs Abdul Qadir - A baby-faced Sachin Tendulkar had just made his cricketing debut against Pakistan in 1989, when he was subject to abuse by his opponents and the crowd alike. Tendulkar was facing a formidable Pakistan bowling attack and the crowds were desperate to break him. They insulted him with banners that read "Hey kid, go home and drink milk", but when Tendulkar sent the then young leg spinner Mustaq Ahmed hiding for cover by smashing 2 sixes in one over, the frustrated mentor of Mustaq Ahmed the legendary Abdul Qadir barks "Why are you hitting kids? Try and hit me". A silent Tendulkar let his bat do the talking and duly obliged Qadir's request hitting 4 sixes in the over, which read 6, 0, 4, 6, 6, 6 - Many cite this incident as the day the legend was born!
Tasteless - The following style of sledging is unacceptable and must be condemned even by those who advocate its practice. Players caught using this style of tactic, risk hefty fines or suspension.
1993 - The Australian slip cordon allegedly greeted New Zealand batsman Chris Cairns with a chant of "Choo Choo" after his sister had just been killed in a train accident.
There is debate in the cricketing world as to whether sledging constitutes bad sportsmanship or good-humoured banter. As long as sledging involves real humour without any politics or racial abuse, it may continue. Ironically that is the kind of humor we are missing in today's cricket when nothing short of a crude family or racist reference and even expletives seems to satisfy few idiots masquerading as cricketers the world over. No wonder Gavaskar talks of severe punishment for those who use personal and derogatory abuse. Ironically sledging is intrinsic to some cultures, in sports like soccer and rugby and even part of daily lives especially in countries like Australia, South Africa, England and perhaps therefore difficult to avoid!.. But, “this ain’t cricket”.
Thankfully the game is always bigger than individuals! Even Robert Mugabe is reported to have said, "I want everyone to play cricket in Zimbabwe. I want ours to be a nation of gentlemen”. Well, so long as you have batsmen and bowlers who will retort to the sledges through their performance, cricket will continue to remain a Gentleman’s game!
Friday, March 9, 2012
Film Review – ‘The Iron Lady’ - Delicate but not Definitive !
It’s a strange coincidence. Last week, I grabbed John Campbell’s acclaimed biography on ‘Margaret Thatcher: The Grocer's Daughter’ and the same week, Producer - Damian Jones much awaited ‘The Iron Lady’ was released in India.
After reading the initial chapters, that succinctly creates a wonderful image of Britain and Margaret’s early life, I was little reluctant to watch the movie so as to avoid from getting prejudiced or influenced by the scenes in the film. But it’s difficult to stay away from movies that feature the versatile Meryl Streep, isn’t it?
There is no surprise why the beautiful and amazingly talented Meryl Streep gets nominated for various awards including Oscar’s. Just watch her spectacular performances in some of her movies, ‘Out of Africa’,’ Krammer vs. Krammer’, ‘Sophie’s Choice’, ‘Julia & Julia’, ‘The Bridges of Madison County’, ‘Mamma Mia’, ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ and now ‘The Iron Lady’.
Meryl Streep once quoted, “Acting is not about being someone different. It's finding the similarity in what is apparently different, then finding myself in there”.
Streep brilliantly uses Stanislavsky’s method and with her gesture, sound, tone, mannerism, movement, physical and emotional reactions convey meaning beyond the lines; thereby bringing life into the various characters, as well as her own interpretive contribution to the intricacies and the story. No wonder, her performances are memorable.
‘The Iron Lady’ is no different - it is more about Meryl and yet a delicate film. The film however fails to delve entirely into Margaret’s life and thankfully allows me to gingerly turn the pages of Campbell’s book.
Come to think of, it’s not just her wonderful hats, but there is indeed something magnetic, alluring and yet enigmatic about Baroness Margaret Thatcher. For a generation that grew up in 70’s- 80’s, regardless of whichever country you were growing up, it was almost impossible to come across news that didn’t feature these three magnificent women - Indira Gandhi, Golda Meir and Margaret Thatcher.
For many, these leaders were controversial, reviled and loved. Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister of India; Golda Meir was a teacher, who later became the Prime Minister of Israel and Margaret Thatcher, a chemist, and a barrister, who later became the longest-serving British Prime Minister of the 20th century.
Strangely, there is a something common between these three ladies. These intelligent and powerful ladies were all described at various times as the “only man” in their respective cabinets. Each one of them has left a legacy, made a significant impact and revolutionised the world in many ways. Indira was born to India’s first Prime Minister Pandit Nehru, while both Golda Meir and Margaret Thatcher assisted their parents in their grocery shop thereby gaining good understanding of business and economics.
These women were strong willed, autocratic, fought terrorism, triumphed in war, and redefined the politics of their respective countries. Golda avenged the massacre of Munich Olympics; Indira battled terrorism in Punjab and Kashmir, while Margaret bravely countered the bomb attacks of IRA. Golda won the Yom Kippur War, Indira won the War against Pakistan, helping Bangladesh to separate and Thatcher won back the Falklands from Argentina. While Margaret and Indira studied at Oxford, Indira and Golda Meir were instrumental in making their country developed nuclear capabilities.
Its difficult to rate who is the better leader amongst them since they also committed huge blunders when they were in power. Indira acquired a formidable international reputation as a ‘statesman’ but her lust for power drove the infamous imposition of the internal emergency, the frequent use of the army to resolve internal disputes, and blatantly encouraged - culture of corruption, sycophancy and nepotism. While Golda was superior, Margaret was equally more dynamic and bold.
Although these three women were aptly supported by able men within their cabinet and party, these ladies deserve all adulation and respect for their struggles, courage, resilience and for leading from the front.
There is one scene in ‘The Iron Lady’ that tersely reflects Margaret’s relationship with her parents. When she gets admission at Oxford, her father is overjoyed but her mother doesn’t seems happy at all. Instead of reading the letter, Margaret’s mother smiles and categorically states that her hands are damp. Typically a mother would have rushed wiping her hands, even to her dress and would have affectionately hugged her daughter.
The instant disappointment on young Margaret’s face is poignantly captured by the camera. Apparently, Margaret didn’t share a great relationship with her mother and neither have we read about Kamla Nehru’s relationship with Indira. Both Margaret and Indira were strongly influenced by their father’s. The various letters written by Nehru to Indira which have been converted into epic volume, ‘Glimpses of World History’ and ‘Discovery of India’, also conveys this affection. Interestingly Charlie Chaplin in his autobiography also mentions about Nehru’s fondness and care for his daughter during a chance meeting with Indira in Europe. The camera captures the profound influence of Margaret’s father and clearly mirrors her inheritance of Methodist Church beliefs, conservative ideologies and political upbringing.
Director Phyllida Lloyd presents Margaret Thatcher (Meryl Streep) as an elderly, eavesdropping, lonely widow, suffering from dementia who is kept under virtual house-arrest. Her dead husband Denis (Jim Broadbent) like a friendly Casper keeps appearing whenever she is alone. Margaret is attended to by her daughter, Carol (Olivia Colman) and few secretaries who maintain a light schedule of appearances and photo-ops.
You can barely recognise Meryl Streep and credit must be given to J Roy Helland and Mark Coulier for their fantastic makeup. Streep’s sanguine intonation and demeanour presents a very authoritative, intelligent and surrealistic portrait of Margaret. She stunningly brings to life, Thatcher’s patriotism, ambition, haughtiness including her Victorian values and simplicity.
The narrative in the film moves between the present and past. Her memories introduce us to young Margaret (Alexandra Roach) who bravely runs from the barracks to cover the butter against the backdrop of German bombarding during World War 2. She romances with bespectacled young Denis (Harry Lloyd), who eagerly feeds and fox-trot with her, whenever the background music plays, ‘Shall we Dance’.
Thomas Newman’s music strikingly highlights the various emotions. Justine Wright’s editing showcases few glimpses of Margaret’s political life - her early election, her mannerism in cabinet meetings, her speeches and rebuttals in the House of Commons, her dogged determination to fight the Unions, her victory over Falkland and her purported role in ending the cold war. Abi Morgan’s screenplay and Elliot Davis cinematography meticulously relive some of the actual events. The dialogues in the film are thought provoking and subtly convey some essence of ‘Thatcherism’.
The camera zooms and focuses on Margaret’s wrinkled face, her autograph and helps accentuate the narrative. The beautiful blue dress, hats, pearls, studs and brooch looks elegant, impeccable and endearing albeit the real Margaret wore the brooch on left lapel. The camera moves inside the House of Common. It beautifully captures Streep’s speeches and rebuttal from a low angle thereby making Margaret look intellectually, politically and physically taller in a place that was regarded as bastion of male dominance.
Unlike Phyllida Lloyd’s earlier multi-starrer film ‘Mamma Mia’, ‘The Iron Lady’ is more subdued, slow and yet incredibly touching. With a shallow and incoherent script, the film doesn’t come across as a master piece but it is indeed watchable at least for those who have never heard or read about Rt. Hon. Margaret Thatcher.
Well, it is ridiculous to expect a detailed biography of a lady who governed for more than a decade in a short film. Perhaps one needs a series of documentaries, replete with archived films, interviews and press coverage to understand Margaret and her accomplishments in totality.
Until then do watch ‘The Iron Lady’ for Meryl Streep whose spectacular performance remarkably elevates this film.
Tailpiece - Although the film tried, but this quote from the Time Magazine perspicaciously describes the magic of Margaret Thatcher - “She was the catalyst who set in motion a series of interconnected events that gave a revolutionary twist to the century's last two decades and helped mankind end the millennium on a note of hope and confidence. The triumph of capitalism, the almost universal acceptance of the market as indispensable to prosperity, the collapse of Soviet imperialism, the downsizing of the state on nearly every continent and in almost every country in the world--Margaret Thatcher played a part in all those transformations, and it is not easy to see how any would have occurred without her.”
After reading the initial chapters, that succinctly creates a wonderful image of Britain and Margaret’s early life, I was little reluctant to watch the movie so as to avoid from getting prejudiced or influenced by the scenes in the film. But it’s difficult to stay away from movies that feature the versatile Meryl Streep, isn’t it?
There is no surprise why the beautiful and amazingly talented Meryl Streep gets nominated for various awards including Oscar’s. Just watch her spectacular performances in some of her movies, ‘Out of Africa’,’ Krammer vs. Krammer’, ‘Sophie’s Choice’, ‘Julia & Julia’, ‘The Bridges of Madison County’, ‘Mamma Mia’, ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ and now ‘The Iron Lady’.
Meryl Streep once quoted, “Acting is not about being someone different. It's finding the similarity in what is apparently different, then finding myself in there”.
Streep brilliantly uses Stanislavsky’s method and with her gesture, sound, tone, mannerism, movement, physical and emotional reactions convey meaning beyond the lines; thereby bringing life into the various characters, as well as her own interpretive contribution to the intricacies and the story. No wonder, her performances are memorable.
‘The Iron Lady’ is no different - it is more about Meryl and yet a delicate film. The film however fails to delve entirely into Margaret’s life and thankfully allows me to gingerly turn the pages of Campbell’s book.
Come to think of, it’s not just her wonderful hats, but there is indeed something magnetic, alluring and yet enigmatic about Baroness Margaret Thatcher. For a generation that grew up in 70’s- 80’s, regardless of whichever country you were growing up, it was almost impossible to come across news that didn’t feature these three magnificent women - Indira Gandhi, Golda Meir and Margaret Thatcher.
For many, these leaders were controversial, reviled and loved. Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister of India; Golda Meir was a teacher, who later became the Prime Minister of Israel and Margaret Thatcher, a chemist, and a barrister, who later became the longest-serving British Prime Minister of the 20th century.
Strangely, there is a something common between these three ladies. These intelligent and powerful ladies were all described at various times as the “only man” in their respective cabinets. Each one of them has left a legacy, made a significant impact and revolutionised the world in many ways. Indira was born to India’s first Prime Minister Pandit Nehru, while both Golda Meir and Margaret Thatcher assisted their parents in their grocery shop thereby gaining good understanding of business and economics.
These women were strong willed, autocratic, fought terrorism, triumphed in war, and redefined the politics of their respective countries. Golda avenged the massacre of Munich Olympics; Indira battled terrorism in Punjab and Kashmir, while Margaret bravely countered the bomb attacks of IRA. Golda won the Yom Kippur War, Indira won the War against Pakistan, helping Bangladesh to separate and Thatcher won back the Falklands from Argentina. While Margaret and Indira studied at Oxford, Indira and Golda Meir were instrumental in making their country developed nuclear capabilities.
Its difficult to rate who is the better leader amongst them since they also committed huge blunders when they were in power. Indira acquired a formidable international reputation as a ‘statesman’ but her lust for power drove the infamous imposition of the internal emergency, the frequent use of the army to resolve internal disputes, and blatantly encouraged - culture of corruption, sycophancy and nepotism. While Golda was superior, Margaret was equally more dynamic and bold.
Although these three women were aptly supported by able men within their cabinet and party, these ladies deserve all adulation and respect for their struggles, courage, resilience and for leading from the front.
There is one scene in ‘The Iron Lady’ that tersely reflects Margaret’s relationship with her parents. When she gets admission at Oxford, her father is overjoyed but her mother doesn’t seems happy at all. Instead of reading the letter, Margaret’s mother smiles and categorically states that her hands are damp. Typically a mother would have rushed wiping her hands, even to her dress and would have affectionately hugged her daughter.
The instant disappointment on young Margaret’s face is poignantly captured by the camera. Apparently, Margaret didn’t share a great relationship with her mother and neither have we read about Kamla Nehru’s relationship with Indira. Both Margaret and Indira were strongly influenced by their father’s. The various letters written by Nehru to Indira which have been converted into epic volume, ‘Glimpses of World History’ and ‘Discovery of India’, also conveys this affection. Interestingly Charlie Chaplin in his autobiography also mentions about Nehru’s fondness and care for his daughter during a chance meeting with Indira in Europe. The camera captures the profound influence of Margaret’s father and clearly mirrors her inheritance of Methodist Church beliefs, conservative ideologies and political upbringing.
Director Phyllida Lloyd presents Margaret Thatcher (Meryl Streep) as an elderly, eavesdropping, lonely widow, suffering from dementia who is kept under virtual house-arrest. Her dead husband Denis (Jim Broadbent) like a friendly Casper keeps appearing whenever she is alone. Margaret is attended to by her daughter, Carol (Olivia Colman) and few secretaries who maintain a light schedule of appearances and photo-ops.
You can barely recognise Meryl Streep and credit must be given to J Roy Helland and Mark Coulier for their fantastic makeup. Streep’s sanguine intonation and demeanour presents a very authoritative, intelligent and surrealistic portrait of Margaret. She stunningly brings to life, Thatcher’s patriotism, ambition, haughtiness including her Victorian values and simplicity.
The narrative in the film moves between the present and past. Her memories introduce us to young Margaret (Alexandra Roach) who bravely runs from the barracks to cover the butter against the backdrop of German bombarding during World War 2. She romances with bespectacled young Denis (Harry Lloyd), who eagerly feeds and fox-trot with her, whenever the background music plays, ‘Shall we Dance’.
Thomas Newman’s music strikingly highlights the various emotions. Justine Wright’s editing showcases few glimpses of Margaret’s political life - her early election, her mannerism in cabinet meetings, her speeches and rebuttals in the House of Commons, her dogged determination to fight the Unions, her victory over Falkland and her purported role in ending the cold war. Abi Morgan’s screenplay and Elliot Davis cinematography meticulously relive some of the actual events. The dialogues in the film are thought provoking and subtly convey some essence of ‘Thatcherism’.
The camera zooms and focuses on Margaret’s wrinkled face, her autograph and helps accentuate the narrative. The beautiful blue dress, hats, pearls, studs and brooch looks elegant, impeccable and endearing albeit the real Margaret wore the brooch on left lapel. The camera moves inside the House of Common. It beautifully captures Streep’s speeches and rebuttal from a low angle thereby making Margaret look intellectually, politically and physically taller in a place that was regarded as bastion of male dominance.
Unlike Phyllida Lloyd’s earlier multi-starrer film ‘Mamma Mia’, ‘The Iron Lady’ is more subdued, slow and yet incredibly touching. With a shallow and incoherent script, the film doesn’t come across as a master piece but it is indeed watchable at least for those who have never heard or read about Rt. Hon. Margaret Thatcher.
Well, it is ridiculous to expect a detailed biography of a lady who governed for more than a decade in a short film. Perhaps one needs a series of documentaries, replete with archived films, interviews and press coverage to understand Margaret and her accomplishments in totality.
Until then do watch ‘The Iron Lady’ for Meryl Streep whose spectacular performance remarkably elevates this film.
Tailpiece - Although the film tried, but this quote from the Time Magazine perspicaciously describes the magic of Margaret Thatcher - “She was the catalyst who set in motion a series of interconnected events that gave a revolutionary twist to the century's last two decades and helped mankind end the millennium on a note of hope and confidence. The triumph of capitalism, the almost universal acceptance of the market as indispensable to prosperity, the collapse of Soviet imperialism, the downsizing of the state on nearly every continent and in almost every country in the world--Margaret Thatcher played a part in all those transformations, and it is not easy to see how any would have occurred without her.”
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
The Magic of Indian Ragas - Favourite Hindi Songs !
Music gives character and energy to the film. There are people who watch movies only for its songs even though the film script, its casts and director would be not be of their liking. The songs in the movie resonate various moods, stir emotions, and most importantly play a pivotal role in the narrative. It’s not just the song but even the background score that adds to the narrative. Although few directors have experimented and have been fairly successful to showcase movies without songs, but watching a Bollywood movie without good songs is akin to eating food without salt!
Often film songs get popular even before the film is released. There was a time when people would walk humming these songs in theatres and as soon as the song was being played on the screen, people would whistle and sing loudly. But these days you hardly get to see such acts and unfortunately even the film songs albeit released early are seldom alluring and interesting.
But have you ever wondered why the songs composed before 90’s still appeal to us?
Well most of these songs had amazing lyrics, and were sung by legends. Even the lip sync by great actors on the screen appeared surrealistic. These songs were composed by legendary music directors and many of them were based on Indian Ragas. Although there are cases of few music directors plagiarising music from other cultures, but most of their songs were original and continue to remain etched in our memory forever.
While there are many raga based songs sung by the inimitable Talat Mahmood, Manna Dey, Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Mukesh, Suresh Wadkar and other male singers, I have endeavoured to list below some of my favourite songs sung by female singers along with their ragas. These ragas have been borrowed from various blogs. Most of these songs convey various emotions of love, happiness, tranquility, sorrow, lust, longing, devotion, separation, dream etc. These songs transcend not just gender but even generations. Indeed a good song is infectious regardless of language, age, religion, gender, caste and creed.
Before I enumerate the list, let me confess that I know very little about ragas and of course I haven’t even received any formal training in Hindustani classical music. My mother and wife are trained classical singers and whatever little information not knowledge I have gained is through my discussions with them. When I was in primary school, my mother did attempt to teach me harmonium and even introduced me to a Guru who tried his best to teach me classical singing however as a child I preferred the cricket bat and soccer rather than playing with the Tanpura and Tabla. Over the period of time and thanks to Radio and films, I managed to develop a profound liking and appreciation for music including Hindustani classical.
Perhaps one of the reasons why the old songs are still popular is because they tend to liven your mood and this is only possible if the songs are based on Ragas. Whilst the songs are made on many ragas, the most common ragas used in Hindi films are the following:
Pahadi, Khamaj , Pilu, Kirwani, Bhairavi, Yaman , Shivaranjani, , Kedar, Lalit, Jhinjhinoti, Charukeshi, Darbari Kannada, 7. Malkauns, Bihag, Bageshree, Des & Darbari Kanada
Typically Classical music comprises of ‘Sur’, ‘Taal’ and ‘Laya’, based on appropriate 'Raag'. In its simplest form, the Tabla renders ‘Taal’, harmonium/ other instruments - ‘Laya’, while the singer resonates ‘Sur’- meticulously and melodiously bringing the language or expressions to life.
Indian classical music is based on 'Raga' which is a rhythmic expression of a mood. Raga is not a scale or a tune or a mode. It is more like a framework that binds all these things together. Each raga has a name and generally has an associated time of day when it is best performed, depending on the mood it projects. Ragas ‘induce an emotion’ in the song and can be recognised through patterns.
Identifying or appreciating a raga does not require any formal training. The best way to identify a raag is to listen to a song and ask someone to identify its Raga. Learn this raga, by listening to the song and try humming along with it. Then turn off the song, and try humming along the same tune, but with variations. After some practice, you must start searching for songs that may appear similar or have similar pattern to the song whose Raga you have just learnt. The other method is to listen to the instrumental music.
Pakaad or bandish are the most dominating notes of a given raga. Each raga has its own bandish. If two songs sound similar then they would have same bandish and thus belong to the same raga. It is also said that you can recognize the raga of a song while listening to it from a farther distance rather than by listening to it closer. This is because as you go farther from the source of vocal sound, you do not listen to any words from the song, but you only hear the dominating notes or bandish of the song. Once you hear the bandish, you can easily recognize the raga of the song.
Every Raga is derived from some Thaat or Scale. The ten thaats are Bilawal, Kalyan, Khamaj, Bhairav, Poorvi, Marwa, Kafi, Asavari, Bhairavi and Todi. All the thaats mentioned above are also ragas; and yet a thaat is a very different musical entity from a raga.
Khamaj - Raga Khamaj belongs to Khamaj Thaat and rendered in the late evening.
Bhairav - Raga Bhairav is an early morning Raga and belongs to Bhairav Thaat.
Todi - Raga Todi is a morning Raga and belongs to Todi Thaat.
Bilawal - Raga Bilawal is also a morning Raga and derived from Bilawal Thaat.
Asavari - Raga Asavari is a late morning Raga and belongs to Asavari Thaat.
Poorvi - Raga Poorvi belongs to Poorvi Thaat. It is a Sandhiprakash Raga, and is rendered at dusk, that is the time when the day ends.
Marwa - Raga Marwa is a dusk/ early evening Raga and derived from Marwa Thaat.
Kalyan - Raga Kalyan is an evening Raga and belongs to Kalyan Thaat.
Kafi - Raga Kafi belongs to Kafi Thaat and usually rendered in the late evening.
Bhairavi - Raag Bhairavi belongs to Bhairavi Thaat and is a morning raga.
Exponents of Indian classical music say that an entire life span is too short to learn about Indian classical music. Perhaps that is the beauty of this music. Nonetheless lets not stop ourselves from delving into it and the best way to immerse and appreciate is by listening to film songs based on ragas. Here’s my favourite list of raga based film songs:
1. Piya Banwari - Raaga Bihagda - sung by one of my all time favourite singer Asha Bhosle, Gulzhar’s lyrics, Panchamda’s melliflous music and filmed on the irrestible Diva and Queen of Bollywood- Rekha.
2. Jaise Radha Ne Mala Japi – Raag Bhairavi - Lata’s honeyed voice and Mumtaz looks incredibly beautiful and sensous.
3. Ajeeb dastan Hai Yeh – Raag Puria dhanshree
4. Zulmi Sangh aakh ladi – Raag Pahadi need to be verified
5. Aaj kaal Paaon Zameen Par Nahi Padte Mere – Raag Lalit
6. Rim Jhim Gire Sawan – Raag Pilu
7. Silli Hawa Choo Gayi – Raag Puria Dhanshree
8. Raina Biti Jaye, Shyam Na Aye - Raag Lalit
9. O Sajna, Barakha Bahara Ayi – Raag Khammaj
10. Naa, Jiyaa Laage Naa Tere Bina Mera Kahin - Raag Malgunji – sung by Lata didi in Hindi and Bengali. Salil Choudhary’s masterful composition in both the language.
11. Jaa Re, Jaa Re Ud Jaa Re Panchhi- Raag Bhairavi – Lata Mangeshkar soulful singing. Another Salil Choudhary masterpiece. Also check out original composition sung by Lata in Bengali
12. Tujhse Naaraj Nahi Zindagi Hairan hu main – Lata – Raag Pilu…Although the male version of Anup Ghosal is more soothing.
13. Aja Re, Paradesi - Raag Bageshri
14. Bainya Na Dharo- Raag Charukesi
15. Tu jahan jahan chalega, mera saya saath hoga - Raga Nand (or Anandi)
16. Is Mod Se Jate Hai - Raag Kalyan
17. Jane Kya Baat Hai – Lata – Raag Bhairav
18. Aur Kya Ehde Wafa Hote Hain – no idea about the Raga
19. Roz Roz Daali Daali Kya Likh Jaye.... Raag Kalyan.
20. Prabhu tero nam jo gae phal - Hum Dono Raga: Dhani
21. Tere Bina Jiya Jaaye na- Ghar – Raag Kalyani – Duet but Kishore only sings one stanza
22. Mose chal kiye jaye hai re hai hai dekho saiyan beiman – Raga: Jhinjhoti
23. Chura liya hai tum ne jo dil ko, nazar nahin churana sanam........Raag Pilu
24. Ye Dil Aur Unki – Raag Pahadi
25. Bada Natkhat Hai Re Krishna Kahaiya – Raag Khammaj
26. Jhoothay naina bolay - Raga: Bilaskhani Todi
27. Mora Gora Ang Lai ley – Raga – you should tell me ?
Each song mentioned above is incredibly beautiful. Whilst everyone will have their own favourites, there is a possibility that some of these songs will be part of your favourites as well. There will be many good songs which I may have inadvertently missed but please do let me know so as to add in the list. While it has been little challenging to list down which is the best song amongst all, however based on the some combination like the quality of rendition, the degree of semi classical / classical music, lyrics, singer, the ragas and variations used including the actors on whom the song is screened, I have been able to identify my preference. The main purpose of listing these songs is merely to listen to them again and again ...so as to enhance my knowledge on ragas.
Like movies and books, music is one of those enriching, expensive trans-generational tools that anybody can appreciate. So next time you hear a song, try and hum it and search for a similar song so as to identify its raga.
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Often film songs get popular even before the film is released. There was a time when people would walk humming these songs in theatres and as soon as the song was being played on the screen, people would whistle and sing loudly. But these days you hardly get to see such acts and unfortunately even the film songs albeit released early are seldom alluring and interesting.
But have you ever wondered why the songs composed before 90’s still appeal to us?
Well most of these songs had amazing lyrics, and were sung by legends. Even the lip sync by great actors on the screen appeared surrealistic. These songs were composed by legendary music directors and many of them were based on Indian Ragas. Although there are cases of few music directors plagiarising music from other cultures, but most of their songs were original and continue to remain etched in our memory forever.
While there are many raga based songs sung by the inimitable Talat Mahmood, Manna Dey, Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Mukesh, Suresh Wadkar and other male singers, I have endeavoured to list below some of my favourite songs sung by female singers along with their ragas. These ragas have been borrowed from various blogs. Most of these songs convey various emotions of love, happiness, tranquility, sorrow, lust, longing, devotion, separation, dream etc. These songs transcend not just gender but even generations. Indeed a good song is infectious regardless of language, age, religion, gender, caste and creed.
Before I enumerate the list, let me confess that I know very little about ragas and of course I haven’t even received any formal training in Hindustani classical music. My mother and wife are trained classical singers and whatever little information not knowledge I have gained is through my discussions with them. When I was in primary school, my mother did attempt to teach me harmonium and even introduced me to a Guru who tried his best to teach me classical singing however as a child I preferred the cricket bat and soccer rather than playing with the Tanpura and Tabla. Over the period of time and thanks to Radio and films, I managed to develop a profound liking and appreciation for music including Hindustani classical.
Perhaps one of the reasons why the old songs are still popular is because they tend to liven your mood and this is only possible if the songs are based on Ragas. Whilst the songs are made on many ragas, the most common ragas used in Hindi films are the following:
Pahadi, Khamaj , Pilu, Kirwani, Bhairavi, Yaman , Shivaranjani, , Kedar, Lalit, Jhinjhinoti, Charukeshi, Darbari Kannada, 7. Malkauns, Bihag, Bageshree, Des & Darbari Kanada
Typically Classical music comprises of ‘Sur’, ‘Taal’ and ‘Laya’, based on appropriate 'Raag'. In its simplest form, the Tabla renders ‘Taal’, harmonium/ other instruments - ‘Laya’, while the singer resonates ‘Sur’- meticulously and melodiously bringing the language or expressions to life.
Indian classical music is based on 'Raga' which is a rhythmic expression of a mood. Raga is not a scale or a tune or a mode. It is more like a framework that binds all these things together. Each raga has a name and generally has an associated time of day when it is best performed, depending on the mood it projects. Ragas ‘induce an emotion’ in the song and can be recognised through patterns.
Identifying or appreciating a raga does not require any formal training. The best way to identify a raag is to listen to a song and ask someone to identify its Raga. Learn this raga, by listening to the song and try humming along with it. Then turn off the song, and try humming along the same tune, but with variations. After some practice, you must start searching for songs that may appear similar or have similar pattern to the song whose Raga you have just learnt. The other method is to listen to the instrumental music.
Pakaad or bandish are the most dominating notes of a given raga. Each raga has its own bandish. If two songs sound similar then they would have same bandish and thus belong to the same raga. It is also said that you can recognize the raga of a song while listening to it from a farther distance rather than by listening to it closer. This is because as you go farther from the source of vocal sound, you do not listen to any words from the song, but you only hear the dominating notes or bandish of the song. Once you hear the bandish, you can easily recognize the raga of the song.
Every Raga is derived from some Thaat or Scale. The ten thaats are Bilawal, Kalyan, Khamaj, Bhairav, Poorvi, Marwa, Kafi, Asavari, Bhairavi and Todi. All the thaats mentioned above are also ragas; and yet a thaat is a very different musical entity from a raga.
Khamaj - Raga Khamaj belongs to Khamaj Thaat and rendered in the late evening.
Bhairav - Raga Bhairav is an early morning Raga and belongs to Bhairav Thaat.
Todi - Raga Todi is a morning Raga and belongs to Todi Thaat.
Bilawal - Raga Bilawal is also a morning Raga and derived from Bilawal Thaat.
Asavari - Raga Asavari is a late morning Raga and belongs to Asavari Thaat.
Poorvi - Raga Poorvi belongs to Poorvi Thaat. It is a Sandhiprakash Raga, and is rendered at dusk, that is the time when the day ends.
Marwa - Raga Marwa is a dusk/ early evening Raga and derived from Marwa Thaat.
Kalyan - Raga Kalyan is an evening Raga and belongs to Kalyan Thaat.
Kafi - Raga Kafi belongs to Kafi Thaat and usually rendered in the late evening.
Bhairavi - Raag Bhairavi belongs to Bhairavi Thaat and is a morning raga.
Exponents of Indian classical music say that an entire life span is too short to learn about Indian classical music. Perhaps that is the beauty of this music. Nonetheless lets not stop ourselves from delving into it and the best way to immerse and appreciate is by listening to film songs based on ragas. Here’s my favourite list of raga based film songs:
1. Piya Banwari - Raaga Bihagda - sung by one of my all time favourite singer Asha Bhosle, Gulzhar’s lyrics, Panchamda’s melliflous music and filmed on the irrestible Diva and Queen of Bollywood- Rekha.
2. Jaise Radha Ne Mala Japi – Raag Bhairavi - Lata’s honeyed voice and Mumtaz looks incredibly beautiful and sensous.
3. Ajeeb dastan Hai Yeh – Raag Puria dhanshree
4. Zulmi Sangh aakh ladi – Raag Pahadi need to be verified
5. Aaj kaal Paaon Zameen Par Nahi Padte Mere – Raag Lalit
6. Rim Jhim Gire Sawan – Raag Pilu
7. Silli Hawa Choo Gayi – Raag Puria Dhanshree
8. Raina Biti Jaye, Shyam Na Aye - Raag Lalit
9. O Sajna, Barakha Bahara Ayi – Raag Khammaj
10. Naa, Jiyaa Laage Naa Tere Bina Mera Kahin - Raag Malgunji – sung by Lata didi in Hindi and Bengali. Salil Choudhary’s masterful composition in both the language.
11. Jaa Re, Jaa Re Ud Jaa Re Panchhi- Raag Bhairavi – Lata Mangeshkar soulful singing. Another Salil Choudhary masterpiece. Also check out original composition sung by Lata in Bengali
12. Tujhse Naaraj Nahi Zindagi Hairan hu main – Lata – Raag Pilu…Although the male version of Anup Ghosal is more soothing.
13. Aja Re, Paradesi - Raag Bageshri
14. Bainya Na Dharo- Raag Charukesi
15. Tu jahan jahan chalega, mera saya saath hoga - Raga Nand (or Anandi)
16. Is Mod Se Jate Hai - Raag Kalyan
17. Jane Kya Baat Hai – Lata – Raag Bhairav
18. Aur Kya Ehde Wafa Hote Hain – no idea about the Raga
19. Roz Roz Daali Daali Kya Likh Jaye.... Raag Kalyan.
20. Prabhu tero nam jo gae phal - Hum Dono Raga: Dhani
21. Tere Bina Jiya Jaaye na- Ghar – Raag Kalyani – Duet but Kishore only sings one stanza
22. Mose chal kiye jaye hai re hai hai dekho saiyan beiman – Raga: Jhinjhoti
23. Chura liya hai tum ne jo dil ko, nazar nahin churana sanam........Raag Pilu
24. Ye Dil Aur Unki – Raag Pahadi
25. Bada Natkhat Hai Re Krishna Kahaiya – Raag Khammaj
26. Jhoothay naina bolay - Raga: Bilaskhani Todi
27. Mora Gora Ang Lai ley – Raga – you should tell me ?
Each song mentioned above is incredibly beautiful. Whilst everyone will have their own favourites, there is a possibility that some of these songs will be part of your favourites as well. There will be many good songs which I may have inadvertently missed but please do let me know so as to add in the list. While it has been little challenging to list down which is the best song amongst all, however based on the some combination like the quality of rendition, the degree of semi classical / classical music, lyrics, singer, the ragas and variations used including the actors on whom the song is screened, I have been able to identify my preference. The main purpose of listing these songs is merely to listen to them again and again ...so as to enhance my knowledge on ragas.
Like movies and books, music is one of those enriching, expensive trans-generational tools that anybody can appreciate. So next time you hear a song, try and hum it and search for a similar song so as to identify its raga.
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