While interacting with the officer that very evening in Dabolim air base, I told him how I was always thrilled to see Surya Kiran’s perform. At the end of our meeting, the man gave me something I would cherish all my life — a poster of the Surya Kirans doing a fly-by over the magnificent Taj Mahal, autographed by each member of the aerobatics team.

Sagar Pawan use the HJT-16 Kiran aircraft — the same aircrafts that Surya Kirans are comprised of. While Surya Kirans are 12 units strong, the Sagar Pawans have only four aircrafts. Understandably, the aerial maneuvers that the team can perform are very limited.

Today, during an airshow in Hyderabad, one of the four aircrafts went down. Both the pilots were killed.

I have forgotten the name of the officer I had interacted with. I hope that he is well. We stayed in the same colony, for my father retired from the Navy. It is certain that we must have crossed paths more than once.

Aerobatic pilots are a different breed. What differentiates them from their counterparts in the armed forces is that their lives are defined by a relentless passion to fly. These pilots are the best of the best. Their duty does not call upon to risk their lives for the maneuvers they perform but still they do it, again and again, day after day. I do understand that some of it is passion but I have no words to explain what calls upon them then, that makes them do it. It is some degree of madness and these aviators are lucky to possess it. Or maybe lucky to be possessed by this madness. If you have ever seen an aerobatic team perform, maybe, only then the intensity of this can be understood.

In the end the truth is this — all said and done, the country has just been deprived of two of its finest aviators. I would like to salute Pilot Commander Suresh Kumar Maurya and Co-Pilot Lt. Cdr Rahul Nair. We may have crossed paths — I can’t say but I can guarantee that there would have been no other way you would have chosen to go.

Titled “Shaheed Bhai” - or martyr brother - the paintings of Satwant and Beant along with Kehar Singh, who was the co-conspirator, hang on the walls in the Takanini gurdwara alongside others who have been killed for their Sikh beliefs, the ‘Weekend Herald’ reported.

Furthermore:

The pictures have divided the Sikh community in Auckland - and upset others in the Indian community. But few were willing to speak publicly on the matter, the report said.

Something is wrong with the Sikh and the Indian community there. Why should it be condemned? Why are they upset? They have no reason to be.

Because right here, in the holiest shrine of the Sikhs, The Golden Temple - Amritsar, we hail them as martyrs too. To kill the PM of a country and then, in that country itself, be hailed as a martyr.

In 2006, I was disturbed to read this article. And then this was published, in 2009, in the Hindustan Times Editorial. I had then mentioned it on my blog, here.

If you feel disturbed too, please read them.

So what were those lines, then? Here is one of them, and I quote: “Amit Mishra and Sreesanth have had their moments in the sun, and Harbhajan has taken more wickets than many of us think he has“. It sounded like, “okay, lets not be too harsh on this guy, he has not been that bad”.

I am not sure if Harbhajan has ever dug into cricinfo’s statsguru and appreciated its beauty apart from doing some serious retrospection but here I am going to do just that.

Initially, I had thought to keep it simple — compare Harbhajan’s first four years in International Cricket with his last four years. It is still simple, just that I then accommodated his years in between, in my analysis. So, we have phases of 1997-2002, 2006- till date and from 2003 till end of 2005. These are the first four years, the last four years and the years in between.

Since making his debut in 1997, till the end of 2002 (31-12-2002), Harbhajan played 33 test matches. His average stood at a gleaming 26.59. His SR was 60.4 and 11 times in these 33 tests he had taken 5 (or more) wickets in an innings(5WI) apart from the 2 counts of Ten Wickets in a Match (10WM).

In the next phase, from 1 Jan 2003 till 31 Dec 2005, he played 17 test matches with a bowling average of 30.33. His SR was at 62 with 6 5WI and 2 10WM.

More recently, since 2006-till date, our man has played in 32 matches, with a rising bowling average of 37.16 and a SR of 75.0. He has now managed to get 6 5WI and once a 10WM.

Now if you have followed cricket closely, you will agree that mostly in every great bowler’s international career, the first few years are rosy. The bowler is high on confidence, gets wickets, improvises, the batsmen are yet to figure him out and all that. Then comes a time when the bowler starts to lose his sheen, the statistics turn unfavorable. There is a sudden rise with the bowling average. This happened to Zaheer Khan, Bret Lee and more recently with Ishant Sharma. But then it is somewhere here, I think, lies the hallmark of an outstanding bowler, the one most likely to be remembered as a bowling great — something happens and the bowler is back taking wickets, improvising again, devising new ways to get the batsmen out and playing mind games. This is when the form lasts the longest. The class shows. This is what differentiates an outstanding bowler from a good bowler.

So, coming back to statistics, if you were to make a graph of the statistics of such a bowler after he has achieved the above mentioned nirvana, you will see that the graph line goes right up at the beginning and then there is that downward spiral and then, in the third phase, a slow but more consistent rise. Let’s take an example of Zaheer Khan here. Between 1 Jan 1999 and 31 Dec 2001, Zaheer played 17 test matches and he averaged 24.47. Then, starting 1 Jan 2002 till 31 Dec 2006 he averaged 34.58 in 35 matches — an increase of 10 runs per wicket. But then again, starting 1 Jan 2007 till date, Zaheer has played 27 matches and his per wicket has cost him 29.39 — A drastic improvement from his outings between 2002 till 2007.

With Harbhajan, the problem seems that he is stuck in the downward spiral forever. There is an account of his disastrous outings in 2006 and 2007 where he averaged 52 and 46, respectively. These were the years when Pakistan, Australia, West Indies and England — all respectable teams (barring, to some extent, WI) completely outplayed him. But maybe you would think that his average of 37.16, in the last 4 years has mostly been this high because of his past deeds in 2006 and 2007. Maybe — because he then averaged 31.53 and 30.17 in 2008 and 2009. And maybe it was this statistic that made Harsha say that line. The glimmer of hope — that Harbhajan has started to come out of the woods, a beginning of the end of his downward trend goes away when you take a look at what 2010 has been. An average of 72.25 in the two test matches he has played. Perhaps the only thing more horrifying than that could be the fact that one of these test matches was played against Bangladesh and all of these matches have been played in home or home-like pitch conditions.

So maybe Harbhajan is slipping into his spiral again. Just when you think he is coming out of it, he hits a new low. You wish to see him giving the ball more air but he never seems to be tired of bowling fast, flat, almost like Anil Kumble but nowhere near in effect.

The rest of the argument has to start with Harsha’s second mention of Harbhajan Singh in the article. He goes on to say, “Harbhajan Singh desperately needs competition to take him to another level…“; It is clear that Harsha Bhogle thinks that maybe even at a sub-conscious level, Singh is missing Kumble. These guys were bowling together for a good 10 years. But has Kumble’s retirement made any difference?

Since Kumble’s retirement on 2 November 2008, Harbhajan has picked up 48 wickets, averaging 33.37 runs in 11 matches. What do you compare this statistic with? Lets go three years before 2 Nov 2008. From 1 Jan 2005 till 2 Nov 2008, with Kumble mostly in the playing XI, Harbhajan picked up 110 wickets in 28 matches at a horrible average of 36.22.

While discussing cricket the other day, someone jokingly remarked that Harbhajan should be locked in a room with a DVD player and DVDs of match recordings of his first few years in cricket. Harsha may certainly not agree. But what he will surely agree to is that with Harbhajan not playing the brand of cricket we know he is capable of, India’s days at the top of the summit may not be many. And while Harbhajan Singh may show his inclination towards participating and producing Reality shows on TV– at this stage, a Reality check may serve him, and the country, better. Surely, the DVDs would help.

I have avoided tags in the past (responses to being tagged, etc) but I could not do that this time. So when Sneha from One Life tagged me, I felt amused but I clearly forgot about the tag — until now. This has been an entirely personal post and I continue the inroads to my personality with the 10 things you never knew about me (well, ok, it is - 10 things that you may or may not know):

1. When I was 20, in Pune, I fancied working for the intelligence services.
2. At almost the same time, I used to visit The Times Of India’s office at Fergusson college road to submit my articles to be considered for publication. They were crap.
3. I gave my first job interview for my third job.
4. I can’t stay away from the sea. I have traveled extensively on the Konkan coast and I have also seen the east coast in a bid to compare the two.
5. I specialize in (self-taught) Visual Aircraft Recognition.
6. I draw portraits.
7. I hate snakes. I can’t stand them.
8. Amitav Ghosh and Rohinton Mistry are my favorite writers.
9. Travel, for me, in many ways, is a time to retrospect. If I move away from my workplace, my mind works very differently and I feel I need to hear the voice within. So maybe, if things permit, I would like to move away from it all and travel.
10. I knew I would be in software back in 9th standard, though, the inner voice can be misleading at times.

Bonus 11: I am an accomplished minesweeper player (Yes, that Windows game no one understands). My best is 16 seconds at intermediate. I lost the screenshot! But an older best attempt is here.

So, who would I tag now? Shradha from Sleepy Conscience. I wish I could tag a few more people but I am not sure how much is my blog read. Can the silent readers please stand up?

India’s Hockey team goes on a ’strike’ because they are not paid their dues by Hockey India. This is how we treat those who are the best players of our National game.

And then, India’s first individual Olympic Gold Medalist says he wants to quit the game because of, none other than, the National Shooting Federation.

Is this because of our obsession with Cricket? If you ask me, I don’t think so. You can’t blame Cricket for the mismanagement and apathy towards other sports shown by Government Sports bodies.

In tennis, Sania Mirza would be quitting tennis soon. No, she is not unhappy with All India Tennis Association, as you may be guessing by now but she thinks it would be the right thing to do after marriage.

Meanwhile, The Big daddy of Marathi Manoos Inc, has issued a latest threat — Australian cricketers won’t be allowed to play in Maharashtra. How can they be allowed to play here when in Australia, Indians are being stabbed on an almost daily basis? Very considerate about Indians. What happened to this nationalism when his party ‘workers’ thrashed non-marathis on a regular basis?

So much for the sports.

Update: An updated version of the last para above has appeared in today’s edition of DNA in Bangalore. It made its way as a “Letter to the Editor” and talks about Indian Politicians approving of Violence, among a few other related topics.