Australia vs India WC 2015

After a dream run in the World Cup, India finally exited the show piece event to a well balanced Australian side at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Australia played a near perfect match and outplayed Dhoni's men with both bat and bowl. Steven Smith continued his golden form from the summer piling more agony to the Indian players, scoring a superb century of just 89 balls.
The match was sided towards Australia as soon as they won the toss. India's best chance of winning was batting first and posting  300 on the board.

The toss was crucial giving Aussies the edge

With 18 overs to play Australia were cruising at 197/1 and a score of 350 was on the cards. India pulled it back somewhat but conceded too many in the final overs owing to a cameo from Mitchell Johnson-27*(9).
India were off to a flier-thanks to Dhawan and Rohit but after the southpaw was caught of Hazlewood by Maxwell at deep cover- India didn't recover. Kohli was caught trying to pull a Johnson delivery.
By the time MS came to the crease the captain had realised he needed to stay till the end as his departure would lead to an embarrassing defeat. Captain cool played a good knock of a run-a-ball 65 on what could be his last world cup match for India. The pressure of the chase and the occasion was too much for the India batsmen.
India was never in the fight and were bundled out for 233 in the 47th over losing the match by 95 runs to the Aussies.
India were unable to beat the hosts in a gruelling four and a half months in Australia.
All said and done we must congratulate MS Dhoni for the excellent turn around in our Indian side after the drubbing in the test series and triangular series, taking 77 wickets out of a possible 80.
India played flawless cricket in the World cup and one off day in the office came in the semi finals against the best team in the competition. It is indeed difficult to beat the Aussies in their home turf but one would have expected a better fight by the defending champions.

Could be Dhoni's last World Cup match for India

The youngsters must have gathered a truck load of experience and come back from the Southern hemisphere as better players and hopefully can apply them in the coming tournaments.
The final will be a cracker between the Black Caps and Aussies but Australia seems to be the clear favourites! Hope it turns out to be a cracker of a match.
Cheers!

Tea and Bengali- a never ending love story

Tea is the preferred beverage in most households in Bengal. I am a city born boy, brought up in Kolkata, the 'City of Joy'.

Normal Tea in a clay cup

Every nook and corner of Kolkata has a tea stall. Life without it is not possible here. The speciality is the variety of tea on offer along with the clay cups on which they are served- all at an extremely cheap price- the lowest in India and arguably the best in terms of quality.
Mostly they mix black tea and oolong tea which gives the Calcutta tea its distinct flavour.
The menu has black liquor tea, milk tea(normal), aada cha(tea with ginger), lebu cha(lemon tea).


Generally the tea stalls have a variety of biscuits, cakes to offer their customers. Some stalls have an elaborate platter including toast,omelette, boiled egg even noodles and kathi rolls and obviously the 10-15 brands of cigarettes.
Tea is had at regular intervals. Starting with the morning cup. A forenoon cup followed by tea after lunch around 3pm and a cup        after office/college around evening-the busiest time.



Myself a tea connoisseur, I can tell you that after visiting a lot of places in India Calcutta simply has the best tea to offer. With lot of benefits and hardly any side effects its the beverage that it will live on in this city forever.
The endless Adda sessions at the tea stalls and the countless tea cups are something that can never be taken out off any Bengali's heart. Tea provides an inner satisfaction to all Bengalis that cant be described in words but perhaps can be felt after taking the long first sip of cha after a
hard day's work.
After all,  has any other leaf influenced history, culture, lifestyle, and civilisation so much as tea?

  

The endless adda and Cha

Seeking Happiness!

Life is what we make of it!
What we really seek throughout our lives? Money ,fame, health, peace and it varies for every soul as every star in the galaxy varies from one another.

But there is a common denominator that binds us all together!
It's the search for happiness in life! The state of Happiness we all seek before all of us face the inevitable. The death of a star is much similar to a man. The birth, the radiant youth and then the dimming to our twilight and finally succumbing to the Black Hole.

Every soul in its lifetime should live life for a few days without any help whatsoever- living in the wilderness.

Seek and you shall find!

Self sufficiency you may call it only then will one realise one's inside completely. Understanding of self is a key. Most souls unable to find it in a lifetime.

Appreciating all the small things and having the vision that all that's happening in our lives is insignificant to the universe are the stepping stones towards eternal happiness.

But there is a small twist to all this. Happiness no matter how you find it can only be felt by the human soul when shared with other souls.

Here's praying for happiness for all.

Concert: Czech piano sensation Jana Chaudhuri

Early January evening at Kolkata is expected to be chilly but the winter has been off colour this season. 

But the New Year Concert at the prestigious Sandre Hall was filled with such brilliance it left the audience more for Jana, a young pianist from Czech Republic.

All the seats were filled  at the Sandre Hall and among the audience was present the Ambassador of Czech Republic who had come to Kolkata for a business meet but squeezed time out of his busy schedule to listen to Jana.

So it started..

The Special pianist weaving pure music for the Soul

Jana blew such freshness into the audience with her opening B-flat minor Chopin piece the hall started reverberating. Followed by Preludes by Chopin which was mesmerising.

The style and warmth in her performance was something which really infects you wanting more.

The complete Moonlight Sonata was a pleasant surprise and Jana played it to perfection filling our souls with  Beethoven's much loved piece.

She played two more beautiful pieces (Italian and Czech composers respectively) and finished off with a Dussek Dumka which was stunning. The piece influenced by Czech folk music made the audience come alive and bid farewell with cheerful hearts with promise of more such superb performances from Yana Chaudhuri in the future.

It was a privilege that I could witness this piano concert and it was my sister to whom I am grateful.

I look forward to be mesmerised again by your piano, Yana. Thank you for making this dull early January evening a special one.

Thank you for such a fabulous evening

Mesmerising Zakir Hussain

The phone rang at 5:30p.m. IST. It was Dad. He told us to scurry to Nazrul mancha within an hour as he had managed to get hold of tickets to the Zakir Hussain solo performance to be held there that evening.

Zakir Hussain Program, Nazrul Mancha

A surge of adrenaline ran through my blood. My mother, sister and me were ready in 15 minutes and we hit the road. We reached just in time. The gates opened and we were in Nazrul Mancha.The view perfect. As Ustad Zakir Hussain walked upon stage the audience gave a standing ovation to the maestro. He was awarded the Ustad Karamatulla Khan Music Award 2014.

After the speeches of the dignitaries Ustad ji dawned the stage. To accompany him was present Sabir Khan from the Sikar Gharana School of Music playing the Sarangi. What followed cannot be expressed by words..
It was mesmerising to hear the Tabla played by the best Tabla player in the world. The magic he created with the tabla was nothing short of miracles.

While playing certain 'Boles' the way he painted the stories were amazing. While playing a certain 'Bol' he compared the slower beats and the faster beats with our solar system. The slower beats signified the outer planets which move slower around the sun while the inner planets move faster around the Sun signifying the faster beat. It seemed Ustad Ji is from another galaxy altogether.
The audience was captivated and spell bound by music at its purest and best form.

The program ended five hours back but as I write about it I still hear the deep bass and mind blowing tabla playing in my ear.

Zakir Hussain ji thank you for enthralling us and make us believe with your humility and genius the beauty of Indian Classical Music.

Happy Beginning

Time does fly. I remember the start of 2013 vividly as if it were 5-6 months back. But time is moving in 4th gear. Another year has passed.

It was a good beginning to 2014. My cousins Muchku and Chotku had come over. We had a musical start to the new year with Chotku playing a Bach prelude on his guitar. Muchku was drowsy but lightened up seeing a Jonathan Stroud book(Heroes of the Valley). After the musical session with my sister, Mithi,  on the keyboard and Chotku on the Guitar we decided to watch a horror movie. El Orfanato. The fun and challenging part was convincing Mithi to watch the movie. Muchku and me succeeded on our endeavour and it was a good watch with Mithi getting scared at times.
Moving on, played cricket in the afternoon followed by lunch and an evening siesta. The hilarious honest trailers were great #Muchku suggested it.
The day is coming to a close as the new year kick starts I hope it turns out to be a good one.

Lets remember the lessons the past year taught us and lets strive to be better human beings and make the world a better place in our own ways.
Cheers everyone have a great 2K14!

The cousin gang..
Chotku, Muchku, Mithi, Me(from left)

WhyThoth

Out of the many Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, Thoth is an unusual Egyptian God who is a patron of knowledge, secrets, writing and scribes. Though some stories place him as a son of Ra, others say that Thoth created himself from language. According to Egyptian Mythology he is said to be the creator of magic, the inventor of writing, the messenger of gods and synonymous with the Greek god Hermes. 

 Thoth has a head of an Ibis and Ibis' beak resembles a crescent moon.

Thoth the scribe, wrote the story of our reality then put it into grids for us to experience and learn through the alchemy of time and experience.

Thoth's role as a mediator is well documented. It is fascinating to know that it is he who questions the souls of the dead about their deeds in life and then judges them.

I am interested in Egyptology and Egyptian hieroglyphs and who better to depict that than Thoth. Add to that, we are both nocturnal-it is a lunar deity and goes to sleep only after greeting the new day.