… an amalgam of haphazard strokes
The pen moved over the paper but no words appeared, the ink had dried up. Looking around to refill, I nudged the inkbottle down the table. Shattering glass halted my attempts to scribble, the quill had been screeching for some time instead of gliding over the pages.
I picked up my painting brush and easel…
Is there slight light?
P.S.: After multiple aborted attempts to writing I am back to posting photographs 
Hopefully the inkbottle’s order gets delievered soon.
Hyderabad was a conglomeration of brown patches with few blues and interspersed with green dots, two hours later I was landing in midst of a green earth with a blue river snaking through and as far as the eye could see no brown patches of dry land – Kerala welcomed us.
Alosh’s wedding – the avid photographer looked ill at ease when in front of the camera
The infamous strikes of Kerala hit us, and our plan of going to Munnar went down the drain.
Spent two days at a very small place (I would not even term it as off-the-beaten-track, for that it had to be on a track!), no network unless I went outside for a few meters, backwaters just behind the house, a black sand beach a boat ride away, and to reach the house you had to cross a 2 feet wide strip of land with water on both sides. It helps when your friends live in place that you can only term as paradise!
Wave breaking at a beach covered with black sand
Warning: If you can see the rains approaching on backwaters at a distance that seems at least 4-5 kms, never get on the small fishing boat even for a 10 minute ride. We made that mistake and luckily lived to tell the tale. Within 1-2 minutes the rain that was kilometers away was upon us, and the visibility was reduced to 8-10 feet, I could hardly make out the front of the boat. Strong winds threatened to overturn the boat, and the rising tide threatened to gobble up any thing/person that went overboard; luckily for us we were not in the middle of the backwater but hardly 20-30 meters away from the coast and were able to reach the coast drenched to the bone, but alive.
A fisherman selling oysters by the bucket. We were in a similar boat when we had the Near Death Experience of being thrown overboard into the backwaters of Kerala.
I have trekked through mountains and trekked through jungles too, but one thing has been common – there has been ample daylight, and all the treks were timed perfectly to make use of all available sunlight. So when I got a chance to undertake a trek at night through a jungle that boasts of tigers and elephants, I would have been a fool to refuse this once in a lifetime chance Trekked for around 6 kms for three hours in dense darkness in the Periyar Tiger Reserve Forest equipped with nothing but a tiny torch that threw light till about 10 feet ahead. Walking in plains was easy as the moonlight helped a lot. The second you left plains and headed under trees it was impossible to see an inch in front of you without the artificial aid. Unluckily we were not able to spot any animal, would have loved to spot an elephant in that darkness.
Some Random Waterfall on way to Thekkady
I hate traveling in a cab, and by air. Give me a train any day, or let me drive. Traveling for long hours sitting is very tiring, the stunning scenery helps a bit, but not for long.
Need to give at least 3-4 weeks more to cover all places of Kerala. It is a breathtakingly beautiful place, and I’ve covered hardly anything. I will be back
It definitely was much easier to write a post in the form of unrelated points Will stick to this when the words are not flowing…
Now that all the league matches are over, it is time to check whether the Indian Team that has been selected for the T20 World Cup is performance based, or rather purely based on the past laurels.
Last time I chose my team based on the total number of runs scored, and wickets taken as my criteria. This time I am changing the criteria and using the Cricinfo’s Fantasy Cricket Stats (sorting it based on total points). And this time I am choosing a team of 15 that comprises of 5 batsmen, 3 all-rounders, 1 wicket keeper, and 6 bowlers (like the Indian Team already chosen for the T20 World Cup).
Team
Batsmen
Suresh Raina
Rohit Sharma
Sachin Tendulkar
Yuvraj Singh
TS Suman
All-rounders
Yusuf Pathan
Irfan Pathan
RA Jadeja
Wicket keeper
Dinesh Karthik !!!
Bowlers
Anil Kumble
Ashish Nehra
RP Singh
Harbhajan Singh
Pragyan Ojha
P Sangwan
There are two names here that anyway would not have been in the team – SRT & Kumble. Replacing them would be:
SRT – Virat Kohli
Anil Kumble – Praveen Kumar
There are some major surprises here, none bigger than: No MS Dhoni! The captain of the team is out. Karthik has been keeping better, and scoring at par with Dhoni at least in this format. Also no Gautam Gambhir, no Virender Sehwag, no Zaheer, no Ishant Sharma. Well at least for Sehwag and Zaheer, I can at least say that they did not play many matches, but Gambhir?
Anyway I do not have any problem with the team chosen for T20 World Cup, although I seriously wish that Nehra was going rather than Munaf Patel – this guy never seems to be giving his 100% (to use an oft-used cliche).
Wishing that this T20 brouhaha finishes soon, so that we can get back to the serious business of the Ashes, and the French Open, and the Wimbledon!
Brickbats & Bouquets