Day 5 - Goodbye Melbourne, Hello Sydney

Good day today. The fact that India faced a miserable loss meant that we had an extra day to hang in Melbourne. We started the day late after the big ABSINTH night last night - woke up only when the hotel management told us we had already overstayed two hours beyond check out time.

So checked out and checked into the Ponna residence to have lunch - lovely rice paper rolls made by A and her mum (Thank you A and mum!).

Headed to St. Kilda's beach and played a bit of beach cricket. I'm thinking some of the girls were also better than the way the Indian team fared! But I won't bitch about the cricket anymore.


Headed to the airport after a couple of beers and some food at the beach.

After and hour long (or short) flight, we landed in Sydney and checked into our luxurous serviced apartment where I negotiated my way to taking the couch and letting the rest of the boys share the one bed we have!!... Does pay to be tall sometimes!!!

More from Sydney tomorrow.

Day 4 - Absinth makes the heart grow fonder

Ok. We lost the match. In a nutshell it was a pathetic display. India played like they had hand grenades thrown at them. Ganguly continues to impress. Laxman looked good all too briefly. Sachin gave us another teaser, looking great while he was there, but then suddenly getting himself out. The future of Indian cricket (Yuvi and Dhoni looked lik they'd rather be somewhere else).

All in all, this Indian cricket team did not show any fight. Gave in to a less than hostile Australian attack. Fielded worse than Boycott's mum. The bowling was one bright spark. The contrast between the teams could not have been sharper. And then there are Bhajji's comments to put up with.... He needs to play a game as good as he talks it.

Kumble has a lot to think about. Who opens? Does he bring in Karthik with his record in England? Does he bring in Sehwag with his very poor recent domestic form but proven game changing capability? Who sits out? A class batsman like Dravid? Recent double centurion Jaffer? The future - Yuvi? And I haven't even mentioned the bowling line up! Clearly more questions than answers!!!!

India will have to show a lot of grit and character to not lose to a 4-0 whitewash here.

Cricket apart, today was great. The fact that we lost means we have an extra day to chill before we head to Sydney. After the loss, we trudged back to woop-woop (Aussie for a far away place) to our hotel for our evening nap. Headed out to Chappel Street for a quick bite followed by some serious clubbing.

Erinc, a good old friend and a Melbournian joined us in our exciting adventures. In fact, at some point in the evening, we went back to his place where he concocted some amazing cocktails for us! Thank you Erinc!!

Highlight of the evening was this very chic bar in the city we went to. Was on the 15th floor of a building. We were introduced to a sin called Absinth. 70% alcohol. Broken up with some caramelized sugar and a dash of cold water. And it was deadly. Lal has little memory of the sequence of events that followed. Including a conversation with some ladies where Erinc was proclaimed as Italian, Vikas asked one of the ladies to work on her Italian accent and Vikas being asked be her in return to work on his own. The night ended was Souvalaki's (kinda kebab wraps) in the city.

Tomorrow we'll probably check out some more of the city, say our goodbyes to Melbourne and head to Sydney - a city I really love!!

Day 3 - It's gonna be a long hot summer

We only slept at about 530 last night... So no chance of getting early to the game. Which is just as well since we were subject to a wild leather chase with Australia turning the screws, scoring at almost 4 an over through the day.

So we didn't go to the game at all today. Today was Discover Melbourne day (more like Discover drinking in Melbourne day). Woke up in time for a 4pm lunch. Got out to discover the hottest sun I'd ever experienced. Headed to the city after that and A took us to an uber chic bar called the Melbourne Order. A very skeptic Ponna and A then headed to watch Priscilla Queen of the Dessert and the rest of us headed to another bar (yep - lotsa drinking went down yesterday) called The Long Room - another very hip bar and sank ourselves into a few more Mojitos.

A couple of hours of that later, we caught up again with Ponna, A and the rest of the crew and headed for an Indian dinner - a resto which had it's first night open that night. Food was pretty good actually.

Then, after getting refused at a couple of back alley bars, A took us to docklands to a bar by the Yarra river, called Fix, that I thought was yet another very chilled out place to hang at.

Finally got home at about 4am after a very nice drive to the other end of Melbourne to drop A home (as a side note I think A has been a very lovely and warm host to us... She's taken pains to show us around and take us to the cool placed that Ponna doesn't have the slightest clue about!!! :)). On the way back from her place, Ponna was sleepy at the wheel and got me to drive part of the way home in the borrowed 5 series bimmer. Good car, very responsive engine, very balanced steering.

In the meanwhile, India is 6 for no loss, chasing a mammoth 499 to win. We'll be at the ground willing the boys on. But we're up against it.

Day 2 - The Phantom of the Indian Opera

This time I got more of my fearless forecast right... It was warmer and sunnier. India got the last wicket early. We lost 2 quick wickets.


But after that, once again, India went into meek capitulation. It's not like the wicket had any devils, but the discipline among the Australian bowlers to get into the good areas just got to the Indians. Having said that, the one thing that made the day bearable was Tendulkar's innings. It was sublime and dominating. But again - against the run of play, he was gone! Going back to the theory of winning sessions, after day 2 - Australia is up 4-2 after taking all 3 sessions today.

The day was also studded with other interesting observations...
1) Cricket watching in Australia is a pleasure. As against India, where it's a pain to get tickets to the game, get to the stadium, get into the stadium, find a seat, find food and water, deal with security... everything, here it is seamless and an ABSOLUTE PLEASURE!


2) The crowds were very boisterous.. especially in the section we were seated in during the first 2 sessions. Smack in the middle of the Swami Army. Chants ranged from the usual "Sachin Sachin", to the offensive "Show us your passports / Show us your handcuffs" (directed at the Indians by the Aussies and to the Aussies by the Indians respectively.... or should I say disrespectively), to the absurd "You are a wanker".

3) The security guys were sensible. Unlike in India, where every security person seems to be on a power trip, weilding his "lathi" where he can, these guys had the crowd under control while providing a long leash. They'd let a lot of things to pass off as fun while ejecting the odd ball out of the stadium to reinforce who was in charge.

Anyway - after the game we had a bit of an adventure with the Melbourne railways to get back to our hotel to freshen up and then headed out to the next big treat of the night...

Watched Phantom of the Opera at this quaint old theater - Princess Theater. It was absolutely outstanding. The music and elaborate sets combined to make this a very haunting and moving experience. It was stunningly beautiful. Beautiful enough to bring a tear to Vikas' eyes. :) Enough said.

This still wasn't the end of the day. We capped it off with dinner at a very average Italian place, followed by Karaoke (led by A), where Andy rocked the show, followed by Odeon - a club at the Crown Entertainment complex and lastly Bangalore and me (for some strange inexplicable reasons) hanging out at the casino, watching Lal lose money and Vikas win money at poker, inspite of our sleep deprived states.

All in all, the cricket was salvaged by Sachin's innings, the evening was fantastic, we are all very tired and are likely to sleep in.

I'm not going to hazard a fearless forecast for tomorrow. It hurts too much.

Day 1 - Boxing day is all that it's hyped to be... and more

So I got all my predictions wrong... Except for the weather forecast!!! :)



Boxing day at MCG is an experience to behold. Got there after sacrificing omlette orders that took way too long.

Settled down on the upper tier in time for the first ball. India lost the toss and were fielding. Annhiliation followed. Australia racked up 111-O at lunch inspite of a pretty hostile opening spell.

We decided to take India's fate into our own hands. Being the superstitious Indian cricket watchers that we are, we decided to change things up and made the ultimate sacrifice for the troops. We left the stadium (the real story is that we just didn't want to watch Australia chalk up 400 for too few in the day) and headed for the Great Ocean Road. The radio was on through the journey and YES we were ruing not staying back at the ground BUT maybe the wickets would not have fallen had we stayed back. This was further evidenced later.. But I'll come to that in a minute.



Great Ocean Road was a beauty. The weather was crisp. The sea was angry. And the sun was shining bright! Only hinderance was wayyyy too many flies... Never really understood that about Australia.

On the way back, Ponna had the sudden epiphany that the BMW we were in had a fucking tele in it! Pulled over and watched a bit of the game ('cause sensibly enough, the tele won't work in a moving car), including the over when Mitchell Johnson was caught at short leg but wasn't given. As soon as we turned it off, a wicket fell (hence the theory that we should not we "watching" the game... Subsequently modified to Lal and Vikas should not be sitting adjacent to each other while watching the game).

All in all, 2 fantastic sessions for India. And if the theory about winning more sessions wins you the test is true, then we're 2-1 up! But they have the runs on the board and we don't.

Anyway, we ended the day with another lovely Sri Lankan dinner at the Ponna's.

I'll hazard another fearless forecast... Another sunny day tomorrow. India will wrap up the last wicket within the first 5 overs and then lose 2 quick wickets... Jaffer and Laxman. Dravid and Sachin will steer us to safety and we'll end the day at about 280 for 6.

Probably the most critical day of the series tomorrow. If India capsize, it could be a long hard Australian summer!

Day 0 - Chilling in the Melbourne Summer

This is not quite the southern hemisphere summer I was looking forward to. Melbourne is chilly. Jackets essential!

But before I get to Melbourne - the flight. Long and painful. Price of my last minute booking was that I flew to Perth from Singapore, hung out at the airport for 3 hours in the dead of night before my next flight to Melbourne. During the first leg of the trip I watched the new Wes Anderson movie - the Darjeeling limited - which was bitterly disappointing.

So got to a chilly Melbourne around noon, got picked up by Ponna, Andy (Ponna's bro), Lal and Vikas (who ironically left Singapore a couple of hours after me but got there a couple of hours before) and headed out for a lovely Sri Lankan christmas lunch with Ponna's extended family.

Post that, a detour for Ponna, to perform his duties as the good boyfriend we all know he is, to deliver Christmas presents before heading to the hotel, downing a couple of large scotches (very good and very expensive single malt acquired at the duty free - Highland Park 21 years - thanks Comu) on the rocks and crashing.

Woke up, headed to the Ponna's for a bit, discussed chick flicks, constellations, planets, life in Australia, politics of the sub continent, the wicket for tomorrow's game, team compositions and headed out to dinner at Chapelli's on Chappel Street... Kinda the equivalent of Orchard (without the massive malls) in Singapore or Linking Road in Mumbai (ok maybe not).

Now, for tomorrow. My fearless forecast... Hot and sunny day tomorrow. India will win the toss and bat. Put up 250 for 5. Dravid and Jaffer will open. Laxman one drop followed by Tendulkar, Ganguly, Yuvraj and Dhoni. Bowlers will be Kumble, Zaheer, RP and Irfan. We'll draw this game. Key performers will be the Mumbai brigade - Sachin and Jaffer with the bat and RP and Kumble with the ball.

However, if Australia wins the toss and bats... Now that's a whole different story... And not a very happy one for India!!!

Let's hope I'm not eating my words tomorrow with my fearless forecast!!!

Over to the MCG!!!

For an alternate view of this adventure, check out Resident Dormitus

AUSSIE KI TAISI tour diary DAY -1

Ok... In the next hour I'll head to the airport to land in Melbourne on Christmas day - in time to prepare for the big day... the BOXING DAY test - India v Australia.

Watch this space for musings from the land down under, the cricket and adventures of the troops (with characters like Y-kas, Lal and K.Bangalaore from Hydrabad and Ponna, this promises to be a CRACKER of a 10 day trip).

Next update from Melbourne!

The lost moon and the trippy subtitles

Watched a very very interesting Hindi film today... Khoya Khoya Chand (lost lost moon... or as the subtitlist - is that what they're called - would translate it - fucking lost bastard).

Directed by Sudhir Mishra (of Hazaron Khwaishein Aisi fame), one of the new generation of directors in tinsel town, it's a great film about Bollywood in the 1960s, telling a story of deceit, illicit affairs and a hunger for money, fame and success... and love in this complicated backdrop.

The biggest reason I loved the film was that this was the first time in a Hindi movie where I felt I didn't know who the good guy is and who's bad. It's not black and white. It has lot's of shades of grey... and then some! The characters are richly brought to life in a complex and intricate story. Everyone has layers upon layers to them... Very evolved, very beautiful.

My guess is that the average hindi film watcher will reject this movie on the pretext of it being too slow and boring... but it's not a film for the masses.

Soha Ali Khan (I want to marry her) and Shiney Ahuja (I think the biggest barrier to him being one of the great actors of our times is his name!) are simply fantastic with very powerful performances.

As a side note - I'm willing to bet that the guy doing the subtitles was high on something very illegal while translating the movie. I'm not sure how "Uske dil mein suraag hai, Zafar" became "She has a fucking hole in her heart, bastard".... when it should be (for those who don't understand Hindi) "she has a hole in her heart, Zafar (name of the guy)".......

But it's a good watch. Check out a ripped trailer below...