Midnight Moments of Magical Realism

I woke up from a week of fever which ran alongside the soccer fever injecting the effect of magical realism on a mind which was slipping between sleep and sense to discover the clash of the Latin giants; Brazil against Chile, Columbia against Uruguay!

Borrowing from perhaps the most voracious reader among soccer stars, who grew up on Chekhov and Dostoevsky, and conceded before a match with Italy, that his team would have been no match for Dante, Petrarch and Leopardi; Columbia will go past Uruguay on the shoulders of the Master of Macondo.

And Brazil would be child's game for Chile, had it been the game of magic with words! Neruda, Donoso, Bolano, Allende and also Miguel Littin, the real life hero of Marquez!

Speaking of stopping spot kicks, running around a stadium he had stunned to silence, taking a leaf out of Colonel Aureliano Buendía, Sergio Goycochea felt like a child, having saved a penalty from Super Mario in his home town, Lima!

Having sent the ball past the keeper for his second goal in the Federation Cup finals, Christiano Junior went on to collide with the goal keeper, staggered away, fell to ground and quietly slipped out of life in a match his team went on to win by two goals to nil!

As she 'closed her eyes' to the incoming corner kick on the 117th minute of the world cup finals, against the physically superior Americans seeking their 3rd World title, Homare Sawa was lifting her game by the notches her male Asian counterparts can not dream of in another "one hundred years of toil"! VIDEO

Inspired by his black commander, as Alcides Ghiggia unleashed a thundering left footer, the Maracanazo, it had "the same dramatic pattern… the same movement… the same precision of an unstoppable trajectory…. and even the same motion for the dust that was stirred up, in the assassination of a President, more than a decade later, on the northern part of Americas!"

Back to that bibliophile wearing soccer boots, the image of the host captain steaming around the stadium shouting "where is the police? where is the bloody police?" even as the crowds fought pitched battles on the stands, and finally finding a police man brutally caning a fallen fan, running up and landing a karate kick, right on the face of the officer and thus officially 'kicking off' the Balkan War, Europe's nastiest since the two world wars. Yes, there he was! prepared to risk his life, his career, and everything that fame could have brought, right in front of the most brutal of the future Balkan warlords!

The General might have nodded in approval from his labyrinth!

And to conclude, in spite of their "literary" inferiority, the Croatians edged out the Italians on field! Hope the Brazilians emulate the feet to overcome the resurgent Chileans in their do or die battle.

The Auto Smile(y)!

The Smiles From My Shelf [10]

If you have grown up in a "third world" town, the auto rickshaws must have been a constant feature in your life. "Auto" meant the three wheeled gentle giant and everything else were mere vehicles. Right from the days on the road side window sill, taking count of the infinite stream of vehicles passing by, the tuk tuk or the 'kutu kutu' remained my eternal favourite. 

Even James Bond trusts 'Tuk Tuk' to the Limousine to take him places in time :) [VIDEO]

We had regular run ins with 'auto pilots' once we took to roads on rented bicycles. And, yes! Those were the only powered vehicles, we had raced against and won, the cycles racing along the bumpy footpaths as the rivals got stuck in traffic on our minor roads. Again, it was an auto that I had ridden, bleeding from the head with a broken arm, in one of those early trysts with death!

With a Patron Saint in Rajini, they are often righteous and know all the routes 8-) [VIDEO]

The relationship with 'autos' had gone sour and tempestuous once I sat behind the wheel, learning to train a four wheeled giant to listen to me in my late teens. Even as I was dealing with disobedient combination of the wheel, clutch and brake, the unruly 'autos' used to mob me from left, right and rear not to mention that slow moving one just in front, bumper to bumper! And the 'autos' were a 'black mark' on the life on the road since then!

The Autopilots are often quarrelsome, with a specific dislike for the English Language ;) [VIDEO]

Matters came to a head this past week when I was driving home after a hard day at work. I was giving way to an ambulance on the right and suddenly, from out of nowhere, the 'black mark' appeared creeping past my left! Fretting and fuming, I pushed down the pedal in an attempt to overtake the offender. I had a passing glance at the rear of the rickshaw as I was about to go past it. 

There it was written, in bold golden letters accompanied by a smiley..........

"Hi Abhi" :-) !!

 I slowed down and fell behind, in line!

And I couldn't resist to check my broad grin on the rear view mirror :D

The Loss!

It has been a month.....
 and I have been struggling to scribble it down somewhere.

Words were playing hide and seek for quite sometime!

It has been drizzling outside,
 and a couple of drops fell on my lap.

That missed call on the mobile,
 at 8.45pm..... on May 15th had ceased haunting me.

Less than a week ago we were chatting away....
 ...over a couple of drinks, travel plans.... silence.... travel plans....
 
....and I sit alone, making the travel plans, tonight....

There never was an unsmiling face, there never was a foe.....
  just that friendship, unconditional and true
  and that disarming smile, accompanying the rare arguments!

Those eyes had retained a glint,
  even as the body lay motionless and still,
  possibly the parting smile!

The smell of death hung around,
 ....and those blood stains on the floor...
   ....but I had to will myself on!

Even as the drive to the heavenly abode commenced,
 that one last connect, back to earth..... at 8.45pm....

....and the one regret....
    .....that I am destined to live the rest of my life with.

RIP Sunil Kumar Sir,

Will be missing you terribly, though.

A Day on the Road........

 The journey begins.....

 ..through the long winding road....

 .....full of twists....

.... and turns....

 ...alongside.....

 ......the rocky mountains....

 .....and dense forests....

 .....no, not on a picnic...

 .....it's people going to work!!

 ......up the hill.... 

 .....and behind the clouds.....

.......and to return under the evening sun :)

Retired Not Out!!

In the days of the ipl mayhem and instant stardom, let's pause to remember that it was on this day in 1983; that one man attended the call of national duty, overcoming his inner conflicts, to carry his bat from an overnight score of 7 to finish the day, unbeaten, at 154 and left the ground to fly home, not to return the next day and had his name etched in history as the only batsman to have "retired not out"!!

It was an incredible life lesson, Sir.
Thank you very much :)