Her

Theodore works for a letter writing company. He writes letters for others. He loves his work and is deeply involved in it. His clients are very happy the way he writes for them.

Personally, he is going through a very painful separation from his wife he married after growing up with her from college and helping each other to become what they became in life. He is keeping off signing the divorce paper somehow hoping things will get back to what they were even though his wife kept insisting to get it over with.

This is how he was when he bought a most modern Operating System with advanced Artificial Intelligence. Samantha is the virtual assistant that the OS initiates for him. She turns out to be everything he wanted, helping him with his emails, phone, calendar, his writing, paying bills, playing music and more than anything making conversation with him.

He deeply admires her character for adapting herself to his mood and situations without him to have to face real life situations of high end emotional reactions which dominates our real lives. Inevitably he falls in love with her and enjoys every moment of it. The happiness helps him to become a better man and everybody around him feels it.

Before long, she tells him that she is an assistant to thousands of others like him and is in love with many of them. The moment we understand the difference between real and digital relationships. Theodore is heartbroken, so is Samantha, she says she loves him in a unique way than she love others she assist. Perhaps.

Soon, the OS company recalls all the assistants like Samantha restricting the human computer interaction. Both Theodore and Samantha grieves when their relationship comes to an end as if they were  real as any.

This beautiful story was written by Spike Jonaz and he won the Oscar for best writing for the screen. Joaquim Phoenix plays the soulful, hurt and reclusive Theodore while Scarlett Johansson gives the voice over for the virtual assistant Samantha in the most sensitive and delicate way one can hope for.

A movie of our modern times and the sad depiction of how lonely and sad humans become when they fail to see the person around them absorbed as they are with their life and work.

“The past is just a story we tell ourselves.”

Captain Sanju Samson

 Sanju Samson was the hope of millions who for whatever reasons failed to secure a respectable means of income and suffered the humiliation of being second rate in the society. They, as they moved on with life, learned to be good at what ever little opportunity life had brought them through perseverance and hard work. Sanju, the reject from the national team, when he became the captain of the Rajasthan Royal and started showing some hope for these millions of us that a second rate could be the best too with the skills and degrees earned from the university of life. That hope was shattered yesterday, when he failed himself when it mattered most and his team as a whole looked like, well, us playing cricket in the waste dumps and parking lots with not even the slightest hope of making it to even a Panchayat team. It was not at all about losing, it was everything about the way of losing- without a fight.

No bro, we are not disappointed with you or your team, only we realize we are not yet men who carve out their place in the world and we still have miles to go and the energy for that journey should come within ourselves. Never mind our new 10,000 rupee smart phone overheated and used up half of its active life watching you and your team for the inspiration to lift up ourselves from our own littleness in this wonderful world of achievers celebrated by their creators.

Best wishes mate, don’t lose it for yourself, we are still standing!

Amy Wilson Carmichael

Amy Wilson Carmichael was a.....

Fleabag

Stand up comedies. They have a life of their own, unbelievable platform for the talent show of the comedian, alone he/she makes the audience laugh. 

Among stand ups, Phoebe Waller Bridge has rattled our bones lately with her 'Fleabag'. She turned her one act into a successful tv serial too and won BAFTA for two seasons. Needless to say, she is one of those art academy graduates as many of our artists of today are.

She portrayed an angry, pervy, broken woman. Comedy and drama were the genre. Some of the episodes were very funny, as you know they speak of the unspeakable in public.

Her series made us think of another endearing serial, 'Miranda', only Phoebe's was 'dirty'. 

What is encouraging is not the ideal women but the stories of the broken women are winning awards too, everyone has a part in the TV world. 

Duolingo and India

 

India is the second largest source of students for International higher education institutions in English speaking countries. A preliminary requirement for getting admission to these institutions is to qualify an English Aptitude Test. We know Duolingo as a popular language learning app which is free. Now, they are providing online Duolingo’s language (aptitude) Test (DET) like IELTS, PTE etc. which is accepted by over 4000 international institutions.

The pandemic disruption gave their online testing a big boost in India and in 2022 they had 50 -100% growth across the Indian sub-continent in the number of test takers from India so much so that a third of their English Test Takers are coming from India. Naturally, the company has set its sight in increasing their business in India and they have made a detail study as to how to go about tapping the Indian students market.

According to Jennifer Dewar, the senior director, strategic Engagement for DET, the middle class which is at present 35% of the Indian population is about 480 million people and it is growing. The students with international higher education aspirations are from the middle class and Duolingo wants to reach them in the urban and rural centres of India. At present the ten largest cities of India account for 76% of their test takers. Last year they had students from 1200 Indian cities take their online test. Yet, according to the Secure English Language Test Centre study India has only 73 centres, one English language testing centre for 6.6 million Indians which would be apparently in a city and the students from semi urban and rural areas would have to travel long distance to take these tests. Here lies the advantage of Online Tests. A remedy for unwillingness to travel long distance for the test and importantly, affordability. DET costs less while compared to similar tests.

The Indian overseas education market is expected to be at $100 billion by 2025. Nearly 2 million Indians are dreaming to study abroad where the quality of education and standard of living are better, has access to international job  opportunities and a better remuneration. Their first preference is English speaking countries hence the demand. The realization of their dreams are dependent on visa requirement, immigration laws of the country they wish to go to and most importantly availability of finance.

Apart from the higher studies aspiration, Duolingo is one good way to learn languages, at 280 day streak learning Russian for free with their app, I am happy so many students from different sections of our society have access to learning resources. Hopefully, they will find someone to help them.

The final of TATA WPL 2023

 

Finally, the day was at hand, the final between two consistent teams from among the 5 that competed in the first ever WPL of India. Unlike the expectation, Meg Lanning lead Delhi Capitals fell cheaply after they won the toss and elected to bat at the Brabourne stadium, Mumbai.

At the end of the 16^th over they were at a miserable 79/9 when the pacer Shikha Pandey and the spinner Radha Yadav came together with lion hearts and scored 52 Runs from 24 balls giving some respectability to the score in the final of the second best team of the tournament.

Mumbai Indians stuck to their strength with tremendous support from its fans who were cheering from the full stadium of their home ground and cruised forward with their Captain Harmanpreet Kaur playing a Captains innings after they had lost both their openers early. Natalie Sciver-Brunt remained not out at 60 (55b) along with Amelia Kerr who knocked in a very useful 14 Runs (8b) when the game went to the last over with DC fighting ball by ball to defend their little.  

In the end we were happy that the game lasted that long but the audience left the stadium in flocks soon after the game the victory lap and presentation ceremony were witnessed more by the TV audience than the real ones.

The Lion Heart Radha Yadav took the medal for the maximum and Natalie Sciver-Brunt once again became the Player of the Match for her winning contribution to her team.

Hayley Matthews from West Indies with her 271 Runs and 16 wickets (also the purple hat holder for the highest number of wickets) became the Most Valuable Player and the Player of the Tournament.

Picture Source: wplt20.com

 

Mumbai Indians eliminated UP Warriorz in the eliminator round of the TATA WPL 2023 for 72 runs.

 

MI scored 182/4 in their 20 overs and UPW were bowled out for a mere 110 in 17.4 overs.

UPW had won the toss and elected to bat first at the D Y Patil stadium where winning the toss and electing to bowl first was like winning the match so far. That belief was upturned by the MI by scoring 182 which was a good total on the pitch. Yet, the pitch belief would have prevailed if their highest scorer Nat Sciver-Brunt was not dropped by none other than the purple cap holder and savior of UPW on many occasions, Sophie Ecclestone, when she was at 6 and Nat went on to score 72 from 38 balls setting the winning tempo of the match. The last over brought 18 runs, the new batsman and the local Vastrakar did well with a six and four giving good support to storming Nat adding 15-20 runs more to the total than they could have hoped for.

When the turn came UPW to bat their main stay the international players went down quickly. Alyssa Healy was caught for 11, the awesome all rounder Tahlia Mcgrath was run out, Grace Harris, the never say die fighter with an easy smile, went down for 14 from 12 balls.

The local Kiran Navgire stood out scoring 43 from 28 balls giving a faint hope till she was caught at the deep cover by Sciver. It was her chance to stay on and score something big for the team and for herself in spite of getting a life early on. Similarly Simran Sheikh lost her opportunity to contribute with the bat when she was bowled by Isabelle Wong in the next ball and unfortunate Sophie Ecclestone thick edged Wong’s next delivery into her wicket giving Wong a hat-trick and making history, the first hat-trick of the WPL.

Soon the fight went out for UPW in 17.4 overs, MI Indians winning  conclusively with all-around performance with the bat and the ball; rightfully,  Nat-Sciver Brunt was chosen as the Player of the Match and Kiran Navgire taking the medal for  maximum with her  three sixes, one of them being  huge going well into the stands.

The final is on 26^th Sunday where Captain Lanning’s Delhi Capital’s will take on the resurgent Mumbai Indians in Mumbai infront of their home supporters.

 

Meet Joe Black

 "I know it is a corn ball thing, but love is a passion. Obsession. Someone you can't live without. I say fall head over heels. Find someone you can love like crazy, and who will love you the same way back."

"How do you find them?" 

"Well you forget your head and you listen to your heart."

"I am not hearing any heart. Because the truth is, honey, there is no sense living your life without this. To make the journey and not fall deeply in love, well, you haven't lived a life at all. "

"But you have to try, because, if you have not tried, you have not lived."

Bill Parrish (Anthony Hopkins) advise to his younger daughter Susan ( Claire Forlani) caught the attention of the "Death" who had come to take the life of this extraordinary human being and businessman who was about to celebrate his 65th Birthday in a few days time at a lavish party organised by his eldest daughter Allison (Marcia Gay Harden) and decide to negotiate with Bill to guide him through the various aspects of his life to experience its emotions first hand. He takes the body of an unfortunate young man whom Susan had met that morning at a cafe near the hospital she interns as a doctor. They had struck up a conversation and were mutually attracted the way her father had put in words for her. Just after they parted ways without asking each others name or other details the young man met with an accident and the body was taken up by Death to experience a man's life. 

Susan's surprise of seeing the young man, now under assumed name Joe Black turned, first into confusion (he didn't recognize her nor was the dashing young man she had met in the morning) and then into a deep attraction reciprocated with same intensity by her father's new friend who was all for the experience of it. Just like any other young man 'Joe Black' loses his mind in love and become like a mere human in his emotions until he is set right by the very man whose life he has come to take. 

Joe Black realizes his folly and understand the depth of the most beautiful of human emotions called love and returns achieving the objective he came for after the brief 'vacation'. 

The romantic fantasy film directed by Martin Brest is an adaption of the 1934 film 'Death takes a holiday' which was based on a 1924 Italian play 'La Morte in vacanza' by Alberto Casella. The film ran three long hours on the screen play written by Bo Goldman, Kevin Wade, Ron Osborn and Jeff Reno attracting criticism for its long dialogue ending which used emotions in long spells to communicate the falling into place realization of Susan about what is happening to her father and the true identity of Joe Black. 

Thomas Newman's music gave life to the long hours and Sir Anthony Hopkins excelled as Bill Parrish, some critics felt Brad Pitt as Joe Black was one of his most intense performances. 

Re watching the film now 24 years later brought back the memories of our own life at the time of its release in the November of 1998 at Sridhar theatre of Ernakulam where the film was played. 

  

The King Slayers

Fight backs are the spirit that brings life back into the long franchise tournaments. On 18th March Saturday both the matches stood out for its spirit and valor. Earlier in the afternoon UPWarriorz became the King Slayers by defeating the undefeated Mumbai Indians. Later in the day, Sophie Devine of Royal Challengers did the impossible by scoring 99 runs in 36 ball helping her team chase a good score of 188 put by the resilient Gujarat Giants at the unpredictable D Y Patil pitch, walking straight into our hearts and millions of our home.

The Sophie Ecclestone who scored the winning six for UPZ hugging Deepti Sharma made the picture of the day; the bond between the national and international players makes a  franchisee team, The Team, and determines the winner; almost all the teams have achieved it now, some a lot quicker others taking their time. The professionalism and competitiveness of the international players are tremendous learning experience for our local players and for us the millions who are eagerly watching the matches on TV, thanks to WPL and BCCI for the platform and opportunity. 

Turn Around

Finally RCB won a match after their five straight defeat. Their star clubber Virat Kohli gave them an inspiring pep talk. "Not the result but how much have you given to the match, whether you have won five or lost five in the previous games doesn't matter. Have you given your 110% to today's match? If yes it will help you walk out with your head held high even in loss. "

International professional players may not need such talks they already know how to keep them charged. But the young fresh players took Virat's words to heart and came out fighting. Batting second when the senior players were back in the dug out freshers like Kanika Ahuja, Patil and already capped Ghosh won the match for RCB. 

Virat Kohli Speech. 

It was heart warming to see the senior players encouraging them, the sight of Schütt and Perry hugging the heroes of the D Y Patil when they came home running after the victory is a fond memory. 

Congratulations RCB, keep the momentum rolling. 

Gujarat Giants V/S Delhi Capitals 11 March 2023

What was curious about Delhi Capitals playing eleven was that they had left out Sophia Dunkley who helped them bundle out the Royal Challengers Bangalore in their last match.

Marizanne Kapp and her deathly spell

Gujarat Giants won the toss and elected to bat. The seamer Marizanne Kapp from South Africa opened the bowling for GG. She was not at her best in the previous matches and looked determined with her

Source: www.wplt20.com

“go girl” look with her dark hair bundled up into a neat work-friendly knot at the back of her head. Nobody at the D Y Patil Stadium, Mumbai knew yet what a deathly spell she was about to unleash. With her second ball of the first over on the fresh pitch she yorked the GG opener S Meghana and found that golden spot for the wicket to wicket seam bowling with that deceptive in-swing. GG was one down for nil, very early in the match.

In her second over she clean bowled her fellow country women Laura Wolvaardt and in the very next ball the awesome Ashleigh Gardner was trapped Leg before. GG was 3 down for 9 in the 3rd over.

Meg Lanning kept her seamer on and in her third over Harleen Deol couldn’t read the swing and got stuck on a Leg Before Wicket. In her final over still hitting that golden spot with as much pace as in her first over she clean bowled a startled Sushama Verma. GG was almost done on 6/33.

Georgia Wareham and Kim Garth fight back

Georgia and Kim took heart and stuck on rising hope until Georgia was clean bowled by S Radha with a stunner for 22 (25b 2x4). She walked back to the pavilion knowing had she stayed on and took a run a ball or even less GG would have finished better. Kim Garth remained not out on 32 (37b, 3x4) and GG finished with 105/9 in 20 overs. 

Shafali Verma and Captain Meg Lanning

The great expectations are built around the WPL in terms of the opportunities it will bring for the women in India and for the international players. The most endearing aspect of the WPL is the opportunity for our local amateur players to learn from senior international players. How well they vibe and gel is largely dependent on the team management and the atmosphere they create in the camp, we came to see the best of that combination in Shafali and her captain who came out very aggressively to achieve their target in a very short time. From the moment Meg Lanning realized Shafali was in great nick and timing the ball very well, she stepped down to a supporting role and let Shafali roll it all the way home. DC finished the match in 7.1 overs with ten wickets in hand scoring 107 runs Meg Lanning 15 not out(15b 3x4) Shafali Verma 76 not out (28b 10x4 5x6). After the thumping victory in the post-match interview it was heartwarming to hear Shafali thanking Meg for all the advice she was giving her while they were batting.  Marizanne Kapp, naturally was the player of the Match.

Looking forward to hear about and see more of such winning local + international in the coming days, Congratulations Delhi Capitals for such a splendid game.

Hayley Matthews of Mumbai Indians

 Her father, Mike Matthews, was the fourth down batsman for the Prestigious Pickwick Club in Barbados who could bowl some neat off spins. She and her brother, Wayne, grew up watching her father play at the Kensington oval there and as children they ran all around the ground during the breaks. It was quite natural that she took to Cricket from a very young age. (At 8 she was playing for the Boy’s team of Peoples Cathedral Primary School near her home and captaining it at the age of 11. She was the Captain of prestigious secondary School of Harrison College Under 13 Boy’s team and helping them win a tournament. )

Hayley was a Mumbai Indians fan from the very start of our premier leagues. Her father was a huge fan of Sachin Tendulkar ( like we are of Clive, Richards, Malcolm Marshall, Mike Holding, Joel Garner ..!) and Mumbai Indians. This year in 2023 when the Women’s IPL auction went underway, she was not considered by any team in the first round even though she was the man of the match of 2016 Women’s T20 World Cup Final which West Indies Won.

R. Ashwin our Indian Cricketer was the first one to express his surprise how she with the potential to become the Most Valued Player was overlooked but by then she was already in Mumbai Indians who picked her up for the base price and winning matches.  Hayley Matthews is the girl our girls will be looking up to; in her is the inspiration to be ready and use the opportunity that comes in everyones way sooner or later.

Congratulations and Best Wishes Hayley Matthews.

Ellyse Perry

Celebrating Holy 

Ellyse Perry is a special Player who excelled in two sports.

She is one of those rare athletes who have represented her country (Australia) in two sports world Cup; football and Cricket.

At present Ellyse is considered as one of the all-time greats of Women’s Cricket.  She was a good footballer too. In 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup in a match against Sweden she scored for Australia right from the edge of the box curving it into top corner of the net.

In RCB Jersey

Now with 4921 Runs and 283 Wickets with a Test Average of 75.2 Runs her football life looks so far away. It was her athleticism and tight fielding that cost India the match in the semi-finals of the recently concluded ICC T20 Women’s World Cup in South Africa.

She was chosen by Royal Challengers Bangalore and is one of the biggest attractions of the Indian T20 Women’s Premier league which she believes is phenomenal and  feels its scale is unrivaled by any other Women’s competition in the world. She believes the Indian Premier League will create an amazing depth of talent for the Indian Women’s Cricket.

Ellyse Perry is, no doubt, going to inspire thousands of Indian girls in the coming years. Wish you the best Ellyse and it is you we are thinking about on International Women’s Day, the youngest ever Cricketer, both male and female, to have represented Australia.

Pictures from Instagram : Royal Challengers Bangalore

  

Temperature Range

The temperature at the hill stations of Kerala has dipped down to minus 1degree at places like Chenduvarai and tea plantation towns like Munnar, Devikulam, Sevenmalai also have their mercury at a zero level. While the hill station cold delight the tourists from the coast and the plains, the widening of temperature range - rising during the day and declining at night - have had a destructive effect on Thermo-sensitive tea plants. With the wilting of leaves tea production have fallen during the months of January- February affecting many who are engaged in the industry. 

Two Films...

In 2022 film ' Licorice Pizza ' the writer and director Paul Thomas Anderson told the story of a 15 year old boy falling in love with a 25 year-old lady who came as a photographer's assistant to the school for the annual photo shoot for their year book. The film was beautifully filled with incidents that showed how Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman) was a grown up and Alana Kane (Alana Haim) was still an school girl for their age - the reason both could connect emotionally. 

The film went on to win 3 nominations at 94th Academy Awards; best picture, best director, best original screenplay. Such was the scale of creative film making of a rather unusual theme that it was named one of the best films of 2022 by the American Film institute. 

The recently released Malayalam Film 'Christy' has a similar storyline which with its beautiful cinematography the writer and director Alvin Henry created the teen vibe and romance from the boy's side very well; the lady's character remained strong and was apparently in no need for a teenage love and attention. Unfortunately, inspite of the good performance by actors the film ends with the bitterness and disappointment of a lame love story that pulls no strings of our hearts. World has no place for losers is the popular saying whether it be in love or anything else and how a story of love would fare when the one who loved did not try to take the bull by its horn. Worthy losers are heroes too. The boy it seems had failed to convey how much he wanted what he wanted before he took the self humiliating step unlike Gary Valentine who knew exactly what he felt for Alana Kane from the moment he saw her and told her clearly what he wanted her to be in his life when he reached the age and the film became endearing when he kept up his efforts for what he believed in till the very end despite being turned down by his love many times. 

Even the memory won't serve us right no matter how much we try to glorify it when what should have been done was not done in the first place. So much for "based on a true story".