Dhoni's shy parents are a big hit in Delhi
By Qaiser Mohammad Ali
New Delhi, Sep 1, 2008: During the three days that Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s parents were in city to receive the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award on his son’s behalf they were clearly the most sought after among the other award winners, their families, top bureaucrats and sports administrators, who took turns to meet the shy and reticent couple and pose for photographs with them.
Amazingly, the more they tried to remain low profile, the more people were attracted towards them. Even someone of the stature of former cricket captain Bishan Singh Bedi walked up to the Ranchi couple's table at official sports awards dinner, hosted by the Sports Ministry on Aug 29, and congratulated on their son's winning the award and lauded his exemplary temperament on the field. “You have produced a hira (gem). His feet are still on the ground - that's the best thing about him,” Bedi told Dhoni's mother Devika Devi, with her husband Pan Singh standing next to her.
The quiet and humble couple from Ranchi was the toast at the huge Convention Hall of the five-star Ashoka Hotel as they sat at the round dinner table with only a former Delhi player, who had especially been summoned from Mumbai to be their permanent guide during their stay in Delhi.
Pan Singh told Bedi that they might be meeting for the first time, but he used to listen intently to the radio commentary of matches when the leftarm spinner represented India in 1960s and 1970s.
“I remember when they used to describe… here Bedi bowls an armer… I was always interested in cricket,” he said turning to Bedi and then to me. Bedi simply smiled.
“Have you gone around this jungle?" Bedi asked them, referring to the burgeoning national capital.
Pan Singh, visiting Delhi for only the second time and after over 40 years, and his wife, who was here for the first time, visited age-old Qutub Minar and a few other historical places. “I had seen the Lal Qila earlier,” offered Pan Singh.
Dhoni missed the awards ceremony at the President’s Palace on Aug 29 as he was playing the fifth and final ODI series in Sri Lanka. India won the series.
Talking about Dhoni's marriage, Pan Singh said that the most eligible bachelor of the country was free to marry the girl of his choice. “We will have no objection to his choice of girl. We will never impose our choice because if, God forbid, something goes wrong then we will be responsible,” he said.
The superstitious couple never watches live telecast of Dhoni's matches. “We only watch the highlights, like Mohammed Kaif's father. We think something might happen if we watch matches,” said Pan Singh. But it may not be due to any superstition that Dhoni parks his motorcycles at different places.
Talking about his son’s passion for bikes, he said: “He has eight bikes. Some of them are parked at our house (in Shyamali Colony in Ranchi) and some are at the residence of my daughter, who is married in the city,” said Pan Singh. He said the new home that Dhoni is building would take time to complete.
The Dhonis have their roots in Wali village in the Almora district of Uttrakhand, where Pan Singh's elder brother still lives. “The last time I visited Wali was when he performed janeo (sacred thread) on Dhoni after the tour to Kenya and Zimbabwe in 2004," he said.
Monday, 1 September 2008
Wednesday, 31 October 2007
JOY and TRADEGY
October 2007: Month of extreme emotional swings for Sehwag
By Qaiser Mohammad Ali
New Delhi, Oct 31, 2007: Virender Sehwag is going through extreme emotions these days -- from becoming the father of a baby boy to losing his father, with the sudden tragedy Tuesday (Oct 30) making him miss the limited over warm-up match against Pakistan here on Friday (Nov 2).
Some extremely contrasting and unusual events -- mostly happier ones -- have occurred in Sehwag's life in the last few weeks: being part of the Twenty20 team that won the world title, becoming a proud father, getting a recall to the Indian one-day side and then losing his father on Tuesday.
The death of Krishna has prevented him from leading Delhi against Pakistan, thus missing out on an opportunity to stake his claim for a recall to the national Test team for the series against Shoaib Malik's side.
"According to custom, since I lit my father's pyre I cannot venture out of the house for at least four days. So, I will not play Friday's match," Sehwag told me when I met him last night at his Najafgarh home following his father’s demise.
While receiving visitors, including Yuvraj Singh and other cricketers, in the trophy-laden drawing room, Sehwag now has only the first two one-day internationals to press his claim for a Test recall (he has been out of Test side since January 2007 due to poor form).
The selectors have announced the Indian team only for two ODIs. Three Tests follow the five-match ODI series.
October was a month during which Sehwag experienced extreme emotions -- and a few unusual events.
After being part of the Twenty20 World Championship-winning Indian team in South Africa in September, Sehwag's wife Aarti gave birth to a baby boy Oct 19, a day before Sewhag turned 29.
That day, minutes before the baby was born, an unusual thing happened: Sehwag's father, continuing his annual practice, distributed sweets in Najafgarh village thinking that it was Virender's birthday.
"My son was born minutes past 9 a.m. and my father distributed sweets, as he has been doing for several years, about half an hour earlier thinking it was Oct 20," Sehwag disclosed.
"People who got the sweets assumed that I had become a father and converged at my home. But the sweets were meant to celebrate my birthday," he said, himself not able to explain the reason for his father's momentary memory lapse.
But within minutes people also received the good news of the baby being born at a local hospital and the joy was doubled in the Sehwag household -- and worth the mix-up on his father's part.
Just hours later Sehwag boarded a flight to Mumbai for the Twenty20 match against Australia. (I met him in the lobby of the Taj Mahal hotel and went up to his room where he showed me the photo of his newly born son, Aryavir, on his mobile). Although he did not exactly set alight the Brabourne Stadium, six days later he had another reason to distribute sweets.
Oct 26, Sehwag was recalled to the ODI squad for the first two ODIs against Pakistan, partly due to his outstanding record against the neighbours, and also looks to be on his way to being reinducted into the Test side.
The happy tidings were not over yet, as he captained the India Blues team to the Challenger Trophy, a tournament that pits the best available talent in the country against each other - a trial for those vying for selection to the national team. His 75 against India Greens in Ahmedabad was enough for the selectors to pick him.
Oct 30 would have been another red-letter day for the Sehwag diary when he was scheduled to meet the three most powerful people in the country -- President of India Pratibha Patil, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress party president Sonia Gandhi.
However, Sehwag had returned from Ahmedabad Monday with a throat infection and mild fever. So he informed coach Lalchand Rajput that he would be missing the felicitation functions organised for the triumphant Twenty20 side.
He took some medicine and slept well into the day even as his father again complained of low blood sugar and a doctor was summoned. When Sehwag finally woke up at 11 a.m. he went to his father's room where he saw blue marks on his hands.
"I was more or less sure that he was no more. A doctor was immediately called, who advised us to take him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Life is such...," mulled Sehwag, elder brother of Vinod and two sisters, both married.
His father's death seems to have put a stop to Sehwag's happy tidings. But he will soon resume his cricket journey - perhaps having another reason to excel with the bat that made his late father so proud.
By Qaiser Mohammad Ali
New Delhi, Oct 31, 2007: Virender Sehwag is going through extreme emotions these days -- from becoming the father of a baby boy to losing his father, with the sudden tragedy Tuesday (Oct 30) making him miss the limited over warm-up match against Pakistan here on Friday (Nov 2).
Some extremely contrasting and unusual events -- mostly happier ones -- have occurred in Sehwag's life in the last few weeks: being part of the Twenty20 team that won the world title, becoming a proud father, getting a recall to the Indian one-day side and then losing his father on Tuesday.
The death of Krishna has prevented him from leading Delhi against Pakistan, thus missing out on an opportunity to stake his claim for a recall to the national Test team for the series against Shoaib Malik's side.
"According to custom, since I lit my father's pyre I cannot venture out of the house for at least four days. So, I will not play Friday's match," Sehwag told me when I met him last night at his Najafgarh home following his father’s demise.
While receiving visitors, including Yuvraj Singh and other cricketers, in the trophy-laden drawing room, Sehwag now has only the first two one-day internationals to press his claim for a Test recall (he has been out of Test side since January 2007 due to poor form).
The selectors have announced the Indian team only for two ODIs. Three Tests follow the five-match ODI series.
October was a month during which Sehwag experienced extreme emotions -- and a few unusual events.
After being part of the Twenty20 World Championship-winning Indian team in South Africa in September, Sehwag's wife Aarti gave birth to a baby boy Oct 19, a day before Sewhag turned 29.
That day, minutes before the baby was born, an unusual thing happened: Sehwag's father, continuing his annual practice, distributed sweets in Najafgarh village thinking that it was Virender's birthday.
"My son was born minutes past 9 a.m. and my father distributed sweets, as he has been doing for several years, about half an hour earlier thinking it was Oct 20," Sehwag disclosed.
"People who got the sweets assumed that I had become a father and converged at my home. But the sweets were meant to celebrate my birthday," he said, himself not able to explain the reason for his father's momentary memory lapse.
But within minutes people also received the good news of the baby being born at a local hospital and the joy was doubled in the Sehwag household -- and worth the mix-up on his father's part.
Just hours later Sehwag boarded a flight to Mumbai for the Twenty20 match against Australia. (I met him in the lobby of the Taj Mahal hotel and went up to his room where he showed me the photo of his newly born son, Aryavir, on his mobile). Although he did not exactly set alight the Brabourne Stadium, six days later he had another reason to distribute sweets.
Oct 26, Sehwag was recalled to the ODI squad for the first two ODIs against Pakistan, partly due to his outstanding record against the neighbours, and also looks to be on his way to being reinducted into the Test side.
The happy tidings were not over yet, as he captained the India Blues team to the Challenger Trophy, a tournament that pits the best available talent in the country against each other - a trial for those vying for selection to the national team. His 75 against India Greens in Ahmedabad was enough for the selectors to pick him.
Oct 30 would have been another red-letter day for the Sehwag diary when he was scheduled to meet the three most powerful people in the country -- President of India Pratibha Patil, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress party president Sonia Gandhi.
However, Sehwag had returned from Ahmedabad Monday with a throat infection and mild fever. So he informed coach Lalchand Rajput that he would be missing the felicitation functions organised for the triumphant Twenty20 side.
He took some medicine and slept well into the day even as his father again complained of low blood sugar and a doctor was summoned. When Sehwag finally woke up at 11 a.m. he went to his father's room where he saw blue marks on his hands.
"I was more or less sure that he was no more. A doctor was immediately called, who advised us to take him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Life is such...," mulled Sehwag, elder brother of Vinod and two sisters, both married.
His father's death seems to have put a stop to Sehwag's happy tidings. But he will soon resume his cricket journey - perhaps having another reason to excel with the bat that made his late father so proud.
Wednesday, 23 August 2006
FOOD FETISH
Tendulkar’s secret love for non-veg ‘haleem’ is out
(EXCLUSIVE)
By Qaiser Mohammad Ali
Colombo, Aug 22, 2006: Another love of Sachin Tendulkar was revealed during his stay in Colombo -- ‘haleem’, a mutton delicacy prepared painstakingly with wheat – while Sreesanth savoured ‘chaat’ and Yuvraj Singh enjoyed ‘saag bhutta’.
It was a pleasant surprise for the Taj Samudra sous chef Pawan Singh Rana, a Tendulkar fan, when he came to know that his hero also relishes ‘haleem’ besides other non-vegetarian dishes.
“I had prepared ‘haleem’ without knowing that Sachin also likes it. But when I served it to Ajay Jadeja, he asked me to quickly send it to Sachin’s room as he simply loves it,” my friend Rana disclosed as I was having food at the Taj Samudra’s Navratna Indian restaurant.
“I immediately called him up and said I am haleem to your room. Although he was about to leave for dinner outside the hotel, he did taste it and relished it,” said Rana, who belongs to Himachal Pradesh in India.
Mutton, wheat, ghee, kesar and salt is used for preparing Haleem, a popular dish in India and Pakistan.
Former India ODI captain Jadeja, who was as an expert for a television channel, should know all about the eating habits of Tendulkar as they once shared the dressing room and are good friends. Also, some years ago Tendulkar had cooked ‘baigan ka bharta’ at Jadeja’s New Delhi residence.
Other Indian players also enjoyed their food as they either frequented Navratna, an Indian restaurant, in Taj Samudra or simply ordered food in their rooms.
“But whenever Sreesanth came down to the restaurant he always had ‘chaat’. He loves gol-gappas, bhel puri and papri chaat,” said Rana, who is with the hotel for over a year now.
Punjab players Yuvraj, Harbhajan Singh and Dinesh Mongia preferred the food that is popular in their state.
“They always ordered for saag-bhutta, baigan bharta, kachche mirch paneer or dal navratna,” said Rana.
He said that the team as a whole liked the vegetarian thali, which comprised assorted dishes, roti and rice.
“When they did not feel like coming down to the restaurant, they would invariably order thali in their rooms. Vice-captain Virender Sehwag and his wife (Aarti) especially liked thali as they would invariably order it.”
Although captain Rahul Dravid rarely visited Navratna restaurant, he also enjoyed the Indian food.
However, Rana, who had served the Indian team when it visited Colombo for the Indian Oil Cup last year, noted a distinct lack of enthusiasm and cheerfulness in the players.
“This time, they looked a bit different from last year, when they would just barge into the restaurant and say ‘Pawanji, just get us anything quickly, we are hungry’,” he said.
“Whether the bomb blast Aug 14 or not playing matches was the reason, but they looked subdued. The day the bomb blast happened, no one came down to the restaurant and ordered food in their rooms.”
Seven people were killed in the blast less then three kilometres from Taj Samudra. South Africa, the third in the Unitech Cup Triangular Series, pulled out because of security reasons, and India and Sri Lanka agreed to play three one-day internationals.
But persistent rains washed out the first two matches, forcing the two cricket boards to scrap the series.
(EXCLUSIVE)
By Qaiser Mohammad Ali
Colombo, Aug 22, 2006: Another love of Sachin Tendulkar was revealed during his stay in Colombo -- ‘haleem’, a mutton delicacy prepared painstakingly with wheat – while Sreesanth savoured ‘chaat’ and Yuvraj Singh enjoyed ‘saag bhutta’.
It was a pleasant surprise for the Taj Samudra sous chef Pawan Singh Rana, a Tendulkar fan, when he came to know that his hero also relishes ‘haleem’ besides other non-vegetarian dishes.
“I had prepared ‘haleem’ without knowing that Sachin also likes it. But when I served it to Ajay Jadeja, he asked me to quickly send it to Sachin’s room as he simply loves it,” my friend Rana disclosed as I was having food at the Taj Samudra’s Navratna Indian restaurant.
“I immediately called him up and said I am haleem to your room. Although he was about to leave for dinner outside the hotel, he did taste it and relished it,” said Rana, who belongs to Himachal Pradesh in India.
Mutton, wheat, ghee, kesar and salt is used for preparing Haleem, a popular dish in India and Pakistan.
Former India ODI captain Jadeja, who was as an expert for a television channel, should know all about the eating habits of Tendulkar as they once shared the dressing room and are good friends. Also, some years ago Tendulkar had cooked ‘baigan ka bharta’ at Jadeja’s New Delhi residence.
Other Indian players also enjoyed their food as they either frequented Navratna, an Indian restaurant, in Taj Samudra or simply ordered food in their rooms.
“But whenever Sreesanth came down to the restaurant he always had ‘chaat’. He loves gol-gappas, bhel puri and papri chaat,” said Rana, who is with the hotel for over a year now.
Punjab players Yuvraj, Harbhajan Singh and Dinesh Mongia preferred the food that is popular in their state.
“They always ordered for saag-bhutta, baigan bharta, kachche mirch paneer or dal navratna,” said Rana.
He said that the team as a whole liked the vegetarian thali, which comprised assorted dishes, roti and rice.
“When they did not feel like coming down to the restaurant, they would invariably order thali in their rooms. Vice-captain Virender Sehwag and his wife (Aarti) especially liked thali as they would invariably order it.”
Although captain Rahul Dravid rarely visited Navratna restaurant, he also enjoyed the Indian food.
However, Rana, who had served the Indian team when it visited Colombo for the Indian Oil Cup last year, noted a distinct lack of enthusiasm and cheerfulness in the players.
“This time, they looked a bit different from last year, when they would just barge into the restaurant and say ‘Pawanji, just get us anything quickly, we are hungry’,” he said.
“Whether the bomb blast Aug 14 or not playing matches was the reason, but they looked subdued. The day the bomb blast happened, no one came down to the restaurant and ordered food in their rooms.”
Seven people were killed in the blast less then three kilometres from Taj Samudra. South Africa, the third in the Unitech Cup Triangular Series, pulled out because of security reasons, and India and Sri Lanka agreed to play three one-day internationals.
But persistent rains washed out the first two matches, forcing the two cricket boards to scrap the series.
Friday, 17 February 2006
Sports Journalists Federation of India's (SJFI) 'Best of News Agencies' award winning story, 2006
Multan: Where even masons and mechanics play billiards skilfully
By Qaiser Mohammad Ali
(Indo-Asian News Service)
Multan (Pakistan), February 17, 2006: Muhammad Sarfraz works as a mason during the day and then plays billiards on one of the many tables placed on dusty footpaths -- an amazing sight in this town of Sufi saints.
Sarfraz is one of hundreds of peasants and daily wagers who play the elite game of billiards, displaying the same passion with which people play carrom or kabaddi in Indian villages and small towns.
Sarfraz had a further surprise in store when he said that there were "five-six" tables in his small village, about 30 km away where he started playing the game.
"I got hooked to billiards about one and a half years ago after reading about it in my village, Attahrah Puli," Sarfraz, still wearing his work clothes, told me even as he took the aim for his next shot.
Like a majority of the people here, Sarfraz watched the fourth India-Pakistan one-day international here Thursday - and then switched to his favourite sport and passion.
Sadly, most of the 150-odd cue sport clubs here are in a dilapidated state: walls with peeling plaster, and no chairs. Many of them have their tables on the sidewalks of dusty, busy roads.
Muhammad Saleem could be one of the craziest of people that one can possibly come across here. He has two tiny rooms and two cots to sit on in his parlour. Saleem, who makes air coolers in summer, bought two second-hand billiards tables last July after his workers "pestered" him to buy the tables - for Rs. 21,000.
Saleem, who is also a big cricket fan, thus became an "owner" of a club that has no resources or space to keep their tables. He is, however, so enthusiastic about the game that he has occupied the footpath on the main road of the Gujjar Khanda area to make up for lack of space.
"There are many clubs like mine, in Liaquatabad, Qasim Bela, old Shujabad Road and Mazoorabad where people play billiards on the footpath, unmindful of the traffic and other distractions," Saleem, a Yuvraj Singh fan, said, sitting on the cot.
Apart from the daily wagers, motor mechanics and students also visit his club daily. "On an average, 30-40 people come here every day to play."
Surprisingly, despite the craze for the sport, there are no official local championships.
"No tournament is played in Multan and there is no city association either," said Rana Qaiser while playing a game at the elite Multan Cricket Club, barely 100 metres from Saleem's parlour.
"There is no club membership here. Anyone can come and play on any of the three tables between 11 a.m. and 1 a.m.," said Qaiser, who has his roots in Hissar in Haryana, India.
One of the three people Qaiser played with Wednesday night was the Pakistan Cricket Board's chief curator Agha Zahid, who is in Multan for the one-dayer.
Qaiser said that the game in Pakistan got a boost about 15-20 years ago after Red & White sponsored a tournament in Karachi, and later when the Karachi-based Muhammad Yousaf won the World Amateur Snooker Championship in 1993.
But some people got hooked to the sport even without having heard Yousaf's name. Sarfraz is one of such people.
But Saleem and Qaiser said that Yousaf, the first Pakistani to win the world title, is widely credited with spreading the craze for the game of green baize in Pakistan after his historic triumph.
(This story won the 'Best of News Agencies' award of the Sports Journalists Federation of India in 2006.)
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