Carver’s Learning’s

George Washington Carver, an American scientist and botanist was born to a slave mother during the dreadful years for the black Americans when the entire community was exploited by the Whites’ and were treated as another animal working on their farmlands. The father is unknown while his mother was separated from him forever during his infant days. The owners of his slave parents were his guardians and have passed on their family name to him. His early education came from nature and he was fond of maintaining flowers & gardens since his childhood. The struggles he faced to get himself the highest degree from college is a story in itself. Throughout his life he remained faithful to the lord, his mother earth and the Godly-work that he took as a mission “to uplift the mankind”.

He stayed simple and protected himself from the worldly desires of monetary gains and sacrificed his life to the benefit of his people; the poor and hopeless black farmers of South America. In his later years he received felicitation from the American government for his contribution towards the betterment of society and the natural ways to produce hundreds of things from plants, herbs and soil. To top it he educated the poor to make a commercial use of their produce and helped earn a respectable status in the society.

The almighty has time and again chosen individual to accomplish his task and save the entire society from destruction. Carver was the one chosen during those days.

Birth: 1864, Diamond Groove, Missouri, USA

Died: 5^th January 1943, Tuskegee, Alabama, USA

Things to learn:

• 1.   Live and lead a simple life.
• 2.   Work is worship.
• 3.   Nature has all solutions. Believe and have faith in it.
• 4.   Self discipline.
• 5.   Attain mission of life.
• 6.   Sustain through difficult phase.
• 7.   Love thy nation.
• 8.   Demonstrate gratitude.
• 9.   Focus. Avoid meaningless distractions.
• 10. Assist the development and growth of mankind through self sacrifice.

You can gather more information on this great human being in detail by reading the Marathi book “एक होता कार्वर” authored by Veena Gavankar.

Australia’s Ashes

The Kings’ amongst the Test series will begin in few days time in the very country that incepted the game of Cricket; England. The name itself, when heard reminds everyone about the Royalties and their Capitalist colonisation that robbed more than half of the wealth available across the whole world. For the very same reason, the blood of the shrewdest & proud country lover boils and erupts. Yet each one has their aspirations to visit the country of Britain at least once in their lifetime.

In Cricket, the Australians have demolished the Englishmen historically. The greatest of the great Test series have been witnessed amongst the two sides, in both the countries alike. For those who haven’t seen the 2005 Ashes played during English summer, has missed the cream of Cricket that was played during our lifetimes. The mightiest Aussies were brought down to their knees by some wonderful reverse swing bowling, exceptional catching and aggressive batting from the Englishmen.

 

In the forthcoming Ashes episode the times have changed with the English team enjoying the onus of being the best Test sides of the world currently. Ably lead by Cook and having the players like Trott, Pietersen, Bell, Prior, Anderson, Swann with Bairstow and Root as fresher’s, there is no doubt whatsoever in an Englishmen’s mind that the Aussies are here to be toast and fried and to be enjoyed with beer throughout the English summers. The experts too have decided the fates of the Kangaroos and have predicted a white wash at the hands of Englishmen. The articles written on the leading sports websites by the globally acclaimed columnist would add to the worries of the struggling Australians while the war of words initiated by the ex-English players would have added salt to the ripe wounds and exaggerated pain.

Knowing Australians and the way their Captain; Michael Clarke, leads, they would be eager to respond on field while staying away from mike and cameras. They do inherit the killing instincts and are culturally rude and have taken on the challenges bigger than their size. And to add some respite, they do have ammunition to combat the better English side. Glance at the Aussies on paper and you would find that the players like Watson, Warner, Hughes, Smith and Haddin can anchor alongside Clarke to post a formidable score allowing the fast bowlers trio; Pattinson, Siddle and Starc to ball their heart out.

The summers in England are pretty warm with clear skies and bright light allowing the perfect recipe for playing cricket. The extreme swing and bounce that can be seen during other season certainly vanishes and getting the runs becomes lot easier. With the armour of aggressive batters Australia would score their runs much quicker against the seamers and although the quality off spinners of Swann would trouble them, they are in with more than a chance of turning the tables on Englishmen. English seamers when compared are more rigid and less versatile on their offering. Whereas the Aussie pack has the dreadful outswingers of Starc, ruthless pace of Pattinson and faithful hardwork of Siddle. The team that everyone has decomposed, the one which has few heroes would fight eye-to-eye and would stag a fabulous Test series against the far better opponents. In the times when Test matches are struggling for their sheer existence the Ashes in England, by far the only Test loving nation, will provide an exceptional experience of Cricket to the extreme fan of Cricket who still believes that the longer format is the best of all.

If Clarke keeps winning the toss and if the batters gather form and collect huge numbers against their name and if the pitches don’t turn ferociously then Australians are in England to win this Ashes by two games to one.

Stay awake. Keep watching!

The Best Match of my Life

Date 9th March 2013
Place Virat Nagar, Virar West

What a Match! 
Jaw-Breaking; Nerve-Wrecking; Heartbeat-Exploder; Cliff-Hanger; Nail-Biter say whatever you have heard about the Great matches from the best of commentators, we had it all on 9th of March 2013 at Virat nagar, Virar West. Two Captains; one me and second Ankit divided equal number of players with different abilities to combat in the first ‘Two Innings’ match. The occasion was special as the veteran; Rajesh Narvekar visited Virar to takepart in this encounter. He accompanied his son who recently featured in daily newspaper Mid-day for smashing a century in Giles Trophy match. Ankit selected Rajesh while his son played under me. The toss was won by Ankit who decided to chase. Although the teams appeared equals in all aspects but Ankit’s team was more bowler heavy while my team had power hitters of the cricket ball.

The Teams:
My team: Me, Dinesh, Santosh, Selva, Vinay, Ajay, Dilip, Amogh, Sagar, Santosh (Security) & Tanay. 
Ankit’s team: Ankit, Vijay, Rajesh, Nilesh, Sanjay More, Rahul, Sanjay (Security), *, Sandeep, Nandu & Guru.

Rule: 2 innings per team; 1st inning consisting of 10 overs while the second inning of 5 overs. The team scoring maximum runs combining the two innings will win. A bowler can bowl maximum of 3 overs in first inning and 2 in the next.

Santosh and Dinesh opened the innings steadily. Santosh made a brisk start while Dinesh was solid and usual. Selva turned the match heads-on with his uncanny stroke play. The drop catch at long on was followed by 3 consecutive sixes of Vijay’s bowling. The scoring rate gather momentum till the time he was on crease. Vinay supported him ably. While the rest made ample use of the limited batting opportunities.

The first innings total of 88 proved huge for Ankit’s team in initial overs till Rajesh bought time to settle; Sandeep struggled; Vijay caught brilliantly by Dilip and Guru by Vinay; until only Rahul and More took attack and got close to be separated by just 5 runs.

The second innings was hit and go for us with contributions coming from here and there. The skiers caught by Vijay and the dive from Sanjay insured we were short by atleast 5/6 runs if not more. More and Guru had a brilliant bowling spell which kept the chasers in the game. Ankit was terrific in his field placing and bowling changes and kept on trying various combinations while the odds were against him.

Came the fourth inning and a target of precise 50 in 5 overs with Vijay opening alongside Rahul, and a bowling opportunity trusted to Amogh. And the gamble that went horribly wrong with lots of wayward bowling and drop catches enabling a glimpse of victory to chasers for the first time in the match. I had no option but to bring myself on and leaving the final over to be bowled by Selva. Hold on, the wickets tumbled meanwhile with Rahul, Vijay, Sandeep and Nandu returning back that swung the pendulum in our favour once again. With 23 in 2 overs the match was tight in our clutches till the man of the moment Rajesh took command and demolished my penultimate over for 10 runs with his chips, pushes and cunning running between the wickets. Poor fielding although was a significant factor too. 

The betters when saw Selva bowling the final over and 13 to get would have still gone with the bowling side but little did they knew about the ability of Rajesh who was supported well by More. A boundary, cuts and glances made the equation of 2 runs to get of a final ball with Rajesh on strike. Such situation demanded more of a Captain’s interference and intuition and I did receive it when I changed the entire fielding pattern. As Rajesh was scoring more freely on the off side I stationed myself on the cover boundary and prayed that Selva would ball short and wide of off stump. And yes he did. Rajesh applied a fierce full cut that landed the ball mere 10 meters in front of me. The spin took it away on my left which I covered, gathered and threw back in a flash aiming directly on the wicketkeeper’s stumps. It happened quickly that in no way in this entire world could Rajesh complete the second run in time as I was stunned to see Selva running from the bowling mark only to obstruct the throw which he failed to gather. Did Rajesh complete the run? Yes he did. A narrow victory for Ankit’s team. Cheers followed from behind with shouts and dances. And a snake-bite stunned silence for us.

That ended the best match I have ever played and Captained. The climax of Rajesh hitting the winning run and Selva making a mockery did flashed memories of the 99 World Cup semi-final match between Australia and South Africa. On this occasion the team chasing won. The handshakes, congratulations and commiseration followed by Vasai special Banana’s thus ending the energy sapping cricket match.

Sanjay More was my Man of the Match.

Cheers for VVCL.