A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE - "FIRE IN BABYLON"

Let me make an honest admission.  I am (and have always been a great cricket fan). I have played cricket during my School & College days and on many other occasions during my student life as well. And ever since I can remember I have been an unapologetic cricket fan. And my favourite cricket team has always been the West Indies. I remember with fondness names like Conrad Hunte, Basil Butcher, Seymour Nurse, Rohan Kanhai, Charlie Griffith (responsible for cracking open Nari Contractor’s skull) Wes Hall (the gentle giant) Garfield Sobers, Lance Gibbs and others who made the nucleus of the West Indies team of late sixties and early seventies. As a child, I even had the privilege of watching one day of a test match in Madras (as it was known then) when India played the West Indies. And my excitement knew no bounds when I entered the stadium and took my place to see my heroes in action. A rare thrilling moment that. Watching the greats in action. I did not mind getting up at 5.00 am and travelling 30 km early in the morning to stand in queue waiting in the scorching sun for the stadium gates to open and allow us into its hallowed folds.

And I have been a follower of West Indies cricket ever since. The mid to late seventies saw them become a world power in cricket – a power to reckon with. I followed with fascination the emergence of menacing West Indian fast bowlers – like Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Malcolm Marshall, Wayne Daniel, Colin Croft and Big Bird Joel Garner (at 6ft. 8in) tall. And the batting dominated by one of their best opening pairs  Greenidge & Haynes followed by Vivian Richards, Alvin Kallicharan,  Clive Lloyd, and others.

So, when I had an opportunity to see “Fire in Babylon” which released in Mumbai recently – I grasped the opportunity to see it with both hands. And what a great film it turned out to be. How can cricket be used as a metaphor? How can it be used to restore pride? How can it be used to bind players from diverse backgrounds and ethnicities into a well oiled fighting unit? And how do you cope with continuous assault – both physical and emotional? How do you build character that can withstand the most brutal attack? And yet retain your dignity and respect? These and many other questions are asked (and answered) in this documentary. How the West Indies took a hammering at the hands of Australians Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thompson. And how that loss became a rallying cry for West Indies cricket is the stuff legend is made of. 
Interwoven into this rich tapestry of narrative is the culture of the day – dominance of the colonial powers, suppression of the black man, apartheid. So many of the burning topics of that time and how the West Indies team dealt with each of them. And you get to see world greats like Holding, Richards, Roberts, Lloyd, Croft, and Greenidge speaking into the camera and letting their hearts out.  You get to see and discover why Michael Holding was called “whispering death” or “greased lightning”, what Vivian Richards responses to hostile bowling was, how batsmen around the world were terrified of Joel Garner. And most of all you rediscover that for fifteen long years the West Indies did not lose a single series that they played in.  A world record indeed!

For people of my generation a great nostalgia trip that gives you a fantastic high. And for the newer generations a chance to see these greats in action and to experience firsthand concepts like black power, apartheid, colonialism,  and white dominance and their hypocrisy.   

From an unabashed cricket fan. A cricket lover. A cricket fanatic, even a cricket lunatic !!!

TRIP TO KAAS PLATEAU - SEPTEMBER 2012.

For the last 15 years or so I have always dreamt of a trip to the Valley of Flowers  near Joshimath in Uttarakhand. I had been close on a visit to Char Dham when we had passed through Joshimath, but we did not have time enough to make the trip from Joshimath to Hemkunt Sahib and then on to the Valley of Flowers. A trip that I wanted to make – to see nature in all its beauty. Somehow or the other whenever I came close to planning a trip – events conspired to ensure that I didn’t make the trip. And I lived with a deep sense of regret at not having seen mother nature in all her pristine natural beauty.

Sometime back a friend casually mentioned Kaas (near Satara) to me saying it was Maharashtra’s own Valley of flowers. The best season to visit it is just after the monsoons. He explained that Kaas is very special as the plateau has been formed by the lava from a volcano that erupted ages ago. What’s special about this rock formation is that this is porous rock ( Basalt Rock) where the top soil is just a few inches thick. So the roots of plants can not go deep. Hence all the flowers grow on shrubs and there are hardly any trees on the pleatu.

Given the ambient temperature, climatic conditions, height from mean sea level and  annual rainfall some of the rarest plants grow here and can  be seen to the discerning eye. I was intrigued enough to want to go – but had to find an opportune time to visit Kaas. Eventually last weekend came the opportunity and I grabbed it with both hands. We left Mumbai early morning and Satara is about a 6 hours drive. The road is till Pune is the Mumbai Pune Expressway and from Pune the Bangalore highway – both excellent roads. You could safely take your own car there as well. Our first day was spent at Thoseghar Waterfalls (about 25 km from Satara) – falls that drop from a  height of over 200 metres. The falls make for fascinating viewing what with mist rising at the base of the falls and the falls themselves making a roaring sound resounding in your ears.

CEROPEGIA VINCAEFOLIA

The next day we left Satara early at 7.30 am to reach Kaas by 8.30 am.  It is advisable to get an early start – you can spend time in quiet solitude with mother nature and experiment with camera angles and light before tourists arrive in their hundreds. When we arrived the plateau was covered with thick mist making visibility very difficult. We alighted from the bus – no parking of vehicles is allowed on the plateau (there is a dedicated parking spot – you then have trek the rest of the way). First stop Kaas lake – a beautiful spot where we got see and photograph the Ceropegia vincaefolia a beautiful bulb.  We saw some enchanting flowers  like Vigna Vexillata –Halunda, Euphorbia Lata, Cyanotis Fasciculata – Neelwanti, etc.  (I could not identify all the flowers.)  With high winds, incessant rains and mist all around it became impossible to photograph anything.

EARLY MORNING DEW DROPS

INDIAN ARROWROOT

THE RARE SUN DEW PLANT

Abolima

Vigna Vexillata -Halunda

So the only thing to do was to get drenched and silently stare, wonder struck, at mother nature’s pristine beauty in all its glory, and silently say a prayer of thanks, that you got to commune with her. We of course got to see some very rare plants (the sun dew being one of them). After spending a few hours I reluctantly  boarded the bus home – wishing I could stay at Kaas forever!!

Travel Tips

Ø  Get an early start – best to reach there even before the forest department guards

Ø  Taxis and buses are available from Satara to Kaas and back. Be sure to check bus timings.

Ø  Carry your own food and drinking water. Some snacks are available near the lake.

Ø  Do NOT litter – carry back all your waste. Lets preserve Kaas for future generations to enjoy as well.

Ø  Do not pluck flowers or plants. Note that ALL these plans cannot grow ANYWHERE else except at Kaas.

Ø  Do not pollute the air by smoking.

Ø  Carry robust rain wear the weather is unpredictable. Some warm clothing is also advisable.

Ø  If you are an avid nature lover a magnifying glass is a must as also a field guide on flowers. (I recommend Dr. Sandip Shrotri’s book – Pleatu of flowers – Kaas as a good reference guide.)

Ø  Be careful while photographing flowers do not trample adjacent flowers – they would die. Also check you camera – battery fully charged, appropriate lens, filters, lens caps, etc all in place.

Ø  The plateau closes by 6.00 pm – so be sure to head back before that – so that nature can regenerate for the next morning.

Ø  If you have some sunshine – count yourself lucky – you will be able to see some flowers actually blooming.

A landscape - flowers through the mist !!

A landscape