VISHWESHWAR BHAT writes: Quite appropriately, in today's one-day match at Indore, the three Kannadigas on the ground, players Rahul Dravid and Robin Utthappa, and the umpire A.V. Jayaprakash, all wore black bands in memory of Dr Raj Kumar.
And, quite fittingly, it took another Kannadiga, this one sitting in the commentary box, Javagal Srinath, to put the cricketers' gesture in perspective.
With Robin Uthappa making an emphatic statement with his sterling performance in the sixth onedayer it appeaars the search for opening the innings has been fianlly found. Hitherto selectors, coacha nd the captain were trying various permutaion and combination and ther objet was nowhere is sight. But now it seems the search is over. Another fact that has emerged during recent test and onedayers is that the youthful talents has taken over. In fact it is younger talent that has repatedly come to the secue when the top experienced players failed. Take the case of the Indore match, despite the absence of Sehewag, Kaif and Tedulakar we won comfortably. The dilemma that faces the Indian cricket is whom to drop in favour of younger talented cricketers. The concept of idispensability of any player is on its last leg and waht matters is not reputation however awesome but purly by their performance at this point of time
That was a very thoughtful gesture. Well appreciated.
It is indeed heartening to see the gesture shown by our own Utappa, Rahul and Jayaprakash and Javagal shrinath. I am afraid, the world would not have known the reason for wearing the black band but for the presence of Javagal Shrinath, the “Mysore Express”. Thank you Dravid for the gesture, though you may not have seen Rajkumar’s movies and you may not speak kannada at all!!
Rahul Dravid *does* speak kannada. I’ve heard him speaking in kannada to venkatesh prasad in one of the matches when he was keeping stumps.
I will second Pradeep on this one. When he used to keep wickets, I have heard Dravid instruct Sunil Joshi, ‘munde haako, munde haako.’ It’s another matter that Joshi could never hear.
Everybody talks of Dravid not speaking Kannada. At least he has an excuse, he was born in Indore to a Maharashtrian father and a Tamil mother. But has anybody heard Infosys’ Narayana Murthy (born in Siddlaghatta, educated in Mysore) speak in his mother tongue?
“But has anybody heard Infosys’ Narayana Murthy (born in Siddlaghatta, educated in Mysore) speak in his mother tongue?”
I have – when I once met him for lunch along with Javagal Srinath and a few others. Speaks perfect Mysore kannada too. Seemed to be quite proud of Kannada and Karnataka in general. It is a different matter that being the head of a global company he probably thinks it is not right on his part to appear openly parochial in public.
As for Dravid, yes he does speak Kannada – not quite as fluently as those for whom kannada is mother tongue – but quite well.
Mohan
We saw Anil Kumble visiting Kanteerava Stadium and paying his last respects to Dr. Raj and speaking to Shivaraj Kumar. He also spoke to Camera in Kannada.
Narayanamoorthy is a very proud Kannadiga. The other day I heard him speaking on the topic “Information Technology in India, Opportunities and Challenges” in Institute of Engineers, Mysore. He began his speech in Kannada. His gesture received wide appreciation and also the other speakers who probably would have spoken English all the way, had Mr. Narayanamoorthy done the same, used Kannada to start their speeches. Thats the trend I feel. Whatever a leader does, people follow
Come on KP….Narayana Murthy can and does speak Kannada, very well. You are not expecting him to speak Kannada in all the IT conferences, are you ? Oh, and Sudha Murthy has an excellent grip on Kannada too….I have a feeling, you read too much of Ravi Belagere ;)
….. and Sudha Murthy is a well known author of many many kannada books and columns. Her “Dollar Sose” initially published in “Mayura” monthly was very good and is hugely popular.
SRM,
Yep…..but it’s crazy how certain journalists have teamed up against her. I was reading an article in SOM where an eminent writer quoted Mr. Ananthamurthy thwarting Smt. Sudha Murthy’s books getting into Bangalore University. Oh, Ravi Belagere’s “love” for Mrs. Murthy is a public secret. He is a good writer, but perhaps his writing about Sudha Murthy was one of the worst ‘sUrya shikari’ I’ve ever read.
Oops….I guess we are digressing….but then, isn’t that the intent of a blog ?
it was a good gesture by our kannadiga players.
Munde hako…. is what dravid could utterly shout and our poor Joshi could never hear it. Not a good gesture towards Sunil Joshi. Atleast i felt bad about it.
Joshi, the boy who did try very hard and was bit unlucky compared to cricketers from metro-cosmo citiles like blore and mumbai. The BCCI never gave him much options and one of the great cricketing captain has asked him to get to field as an extra player with a small hairline fracture in his limb.
His performance in South Africa tour was amazing where he could get Man of the series. Its irony that, Indian cricket couldn’t benefit much from devils like BK Venkatesh Prasad and Sunil Joshi.
As kannadigas(true or forced) we are thankful for the gesture.And as a sometime teammate of javagal, I think his love for kannada and Raj is wellknown.
Hi Guys , I used to play cricket with Javagal Srinath(Babu),Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid during my college days and Rahul Dravid knows Kannada very well, and on top of that they are pure Kannadigas and great wildlife lovers too, thier favroite spot is Kabini back Waters,Karapura.
Cheers
Santosh (Giri)
Saraswathipuram, Mysore
Thanks Santosh for the info.
But we all kannadigas will be delighted if we hear Rahul doing an interview with Udaya or ETV-Kannada, or Zee-kannada, in kannada.
With due apologies to the fans of ravi belagere , I think we all know what type of journalism that he stands for and whom he really caters to ( I mean the market for such journalism)
I assume your post was aimed at me since I am the only one who talked about Ravi Belagere in this thread.
Yep, I absolutely agree with you……what I meant was that his “writing” is very good…..no two words about the way he expresses his ideas and his language.
But, yes, I dislike what he writes because I don’t agree with him at all…on almost all the issues. The only one which I liked was his article about Pratibha Nandakumar…even there I thought he wanted to tell the whole world that he was her long lost love or something…maybe I was wrong…but that’s what I felt when I read the article.
Mr. Vinay and December studddddddddddddooooooooooo.
Namaskara. We wish you were more clear in your comments. Lets not get biased and see into what Ravi Belagere writes
The article on Prathibha Nandakumar.
How often you have seen people who write good about someone with whom they have spoilt relationship. Ravi is clear about what he writes and wants to say people as why he is writing it. IF he is writing that she is lost love of his, its only to authenticate what he is writing. Want to know more about their relationship: Read his novel: ‘Meenarugala Ooorinalli Avaru’
Ravi has an art in giving his POV (point of view) and not decisions. Successful writes often get into the habit of passing diktats (decisions) and hoping that his reader community will follow it. Lankesh tried it to peak of his abilities and failed miserably. BV vaikuntaraju did it some extent and hardly could smell some success.
Ravi’s POV makes you to think and it is formula of success. Its not easy to be on success for 600 weeks. i dont see any reason as why he cant continue for next 600 weeks.
Agreed, Ravi’s Khasbath is bit more than bisi-bele bath has every component to eat. if you find it littly spicy, pour churmui on it and then eat. Churmuri has nothing which is against anyone’s diet.
I wanna re-iterate Ravi stands tall among the current kannada writers list of Mogalli Ganesh, Jayantha Kaikini, Diwakar, Nagatihalli, Chandrashekhar Alur, Gowri lankesh, Indrajit Lankesh (does this boy write?), Vishweshwar Bhat, Jogi Girish, etc etc
Dear Vinay, DS,
First of all I wonder why Ravi appeared in this thread.
I fully agree with Girish’s POV on Ravi. I am a reader of Hi Bangalore since the 2nd issue. I knew then itself that it will be a success. Also remember Ravi started his tabloid (is it a tabloid?) when Lankesh Patrike had become stale. Ravi’s command over language is excellent. May be sometimes we feel it is exaggerated but many a times “Khas baat”, “Hello”did make my eyes wet.
Dear Girish,
If I am correct, “Minarugala oorinall” is a short stroy not a novel.
The St.Josephs Boys School Bangalore has a Dubai Old Boys chapter. They got all excited recently at the thought of Rahul Dravid and Robin Uthappa dropping into town. They couldn’t pin down Dravid for a ‘meeting’ but right now they are frantically working on roping in Robin Uthappa, who is still hanging around playing for the A team, to get them a bat autographed by the Indian team. They plan to sell it and raise funds for the next Old Boys get-together! Talk about marketing opportunities. Unlike kerala and andhra, I am glad there are not too many people from our side of the woods coming here to get their brains washed by common commercialism.
Meanwhile in Dubai, Philips has announced a prize to the journalist who gives it the best coverage over the next two months – an all expense paid trip to the world cup finals. Nice. Both the ethics and the prize.
That made good reading!! Never thought Ravi and me would feature in a discussion on cricket!! But then why not?
i can not understand how some people compare belegere with
the great lankesh.when it comes to creative writing & taking stands that are not popular,belegere is nowhere near lankesh.
belegere is a kind of person who can do any thing for success without any adherence to idealogy
Rightly said Somashekar .
I just cannot comprehend how people ‘IDOLIZE’ this guy belegere.
He is a ‘No 1’ crook . Ask anyone in Rajajinagar ( Dr Rajkumar road)
His Paper is nothing but an extortion tool . I am anguished and pity those people who referance his talk , crime story etc.( Incl Churumuri)
He has no ethics on journalism and very arrogant and looking for instant glamour .
hey prakash ,
nobody is perfect. In a life time every body will do mistakes. Nverthe less ravi is a good writer. But i dont understand why he addressed murthy in singular terms? ( in one of his article)
He has to understand that, an intelligent reader group is watching his articles. Mostly none of them are interested in his crime news; rather in khass baat, olidante haaduve, janaki, chinivar etc..
For me it has become a habit !. Thet karadi taraha oduttini !!
aadre ravi infosys bagge ninna abhpraya tappu taane ?
utappa is asset of india and iam very happy because he is from karnatakka
I heard that Ravi’s writing on feelings of love is extremently good and is similar to real life situations. I amazed to hear these all from my friends. Its really a great we have Ravi as a Kannada writer.
One day rahul will be speaking in Kannada in one of the media channels
and there will be huge fans following him
as he is kannadaiga
how will he miss dis runabanda
ene agali
Kannadave Satya Kanndave nitya antha avnige gotte irbeku…………..
Rahul Dravid seems to belong to Marathi background. I have seen his interview in Marathi language on a popular marathi channel.
Hear Rahul Dravid speak in Kannada…