The Common Man Speaks

Archives for October 2020

Decoding Mirzapur 2’s POST-CREDIT scene (SPOILERS alert!)

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Having a post-credit scene is in vogue in the west but the idea is currently taking baby steps in India. So, when the makers of Amazon Prime Video’s Mirzapur season 2 kept a post-credit scene at the end of the last episode, hardly anyone of us saw it since we never anticipated it.

The show’s cast member Vijay Varma, who plays the dual role of the twins Bade and Chhote, had to enlighten or spoon-feed us about it on Twitter for us to realize it. As soon as he revealed it, people rushed back to the finale of the last episode of Mirzapur 2 to have a look at it.

SPOILERS ahead

The post-credit scene in Mirzapur 2 comes minutes after the ending credits start rolling. The scene features Varma sitting in his office toying with a ring on his finger. The ring falls from his hand and Dadda (Lilliput), from the adjacent room, addresses him as ‘Bade’ and asks him to bring some files.

Explanation of the scene

After going through various comments on social media, it is found that there are people who haven’t understood the scene.

Mirzapur 2 poster

As we know, Varma plays the double role of twins Bade and Chhote. Bade is called so because he is five minutes elder to Chhote. Bade is married while Chhote isn’t. During the ending moments of the final episode, we see both Bade and Chhote getting shot. But we are not told whether both die or one of them survives or both survive.

The post-credit scene makes it clear that Bade is dead and Chhote is impersonating as Bade. He wasn’t merely toying with the ring. He was struggling to play with it on his index finger like Bade used to do [thank you Mandar Dalvi for this bit in the comments]. As he is unable to do that, he keeps it away so that his bluff doesn’t get exposed.

This should bring back memories of a moment in one of the earlier episodes where Chhote impersonates Bade and succeeds in fooling the latter’s wife.

Also read: Difference between film journalism and entertainment journalism

We now realize that that moment had plenty of relevance!

Needless to say, this obviously means that there will be the third season of Mirzapur in which Chhote will play an important role.

Additional reading:

Fact check: Was Deepika Padukone paid Rs 5 crore to attend JNU protests?

Reaction to Tanishq ad reveals THREAT to the very idea of India

14-year-old Marian Gherasim becomes the youngest T20 int. player

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Romania’s Marian Gherasim has become the youngest player ever to play an international T20 game at the age of 14 years and 16 days on 16 October. He made the record when he played the second T20 of their bilateral series against Bulgaria at the Ilfov County ground.

Gherasim broke the record of Kuwait’s Meet Bhavsar who had made his T20 debut against Maldvives at the age of 14 years and 211 days in January last year. [See the list of youngest players to debut in T20 internationals HERE]

Gherasim is a medium fast bowler who also bows off spin. He didn’t bowl on his debut match. But he did bowl 3 overs in his second match the next day and picked up 1 wicket by giving only 22 runs. [See the scorecard HERE]

Marian Gherasim
Marian Gherasim flanked by his teammates Pavel Florin and Cosmin Zavoiu [Photo courtesy: Paval Florin on Facebook]

Ramesh Satheesan, the captain of Romania, spoke about him during a discussion in the Facebook group ‘Die Hard Cricket Fans.’ He said, “He’s been with us ever since he was 10, developing his cricket under the watchful eyes of our national coach. Multi talented guy, bowls perfect off spin nowadays with loop and spin. [He] mixes leg spinners in between.”

About the wicket he took, Satheesan added, “He’s also the youngest to have taken an international wicket I believe that too that of the opponent captain; with a perfect loop and beating the batsman in flight.”

Astonishingly, Gherasim was also a part of the Romanian team when he was 12 years old but those matches didn’t qualify as international matches.

Gherasim is the youngest of the three brothers. His eldest brother Laurentiu made his T20 debut with the team at the age of 16 last year.

Sharing how the Gherasim brothers started playing cricket for them, Satheesan added, “Their house is very close to our cricket ground in this village called Moaravlasie and every time there’s a game happening in the ground, these lads used to visit us and started played casually. That’s how the fascination started.”

Also read: One of Wasim Akram’s biggest achievements is forgotten

Reaction to Tanishq ad reveals THREAT to the very idea of India

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The recent advertisement by Tanishq Jewelers gives a heartwarming message of unity in a country that is divided by various segments. In other words, it speaks about peace and harmony among two different communities.

So when the makers of the advertisement are forced to pull it down for this very reason, for showing the India penned in the Constitution, it speaks volumes about how ideas about secularism and religious harmony have come under serious threat in the last few years.

Just imagine – an ad is pulled down for giving the same message its constitution promotes… Let that sink in!

In this period, I have come across countless comments on social media where people mock secularism. Those who believe in it are looked down upon as criminals. To quote a couple of real examples, one Right Wing troll once asked me in a What’s App group whether I have improved or am I still secular.

Not so long ago, a friend faced ouster from his housing society’s What’s App group after being ‘accused’ of being secular. Let this sink in too!

These are the same people who always claim to be most patriotic. Either they don’t know or are pretending not to know that the very idea of India is based on secularism, which is promised by the Constitution of the country.

Tanishq

And since they are clearly not following the basic idea of India mentioned in the Constitution, how on earth can they proclaim to be deshbhakts?

It won’t be right to say that these are just paid or professional trolls who spend most of their time writing toxic posts and targeting people who don’t agree with their dangerous views. Unfortunately, such people are now found in our close friends, relatives or even in our homes.

I am sure all of you must have witnessed people from your close circles not only sharing communal posts in What’s App groups but also justifying them. There are a set of people who are paid to promote such stuff but there are many others, like our near and dear ones, who are doing it for free!

The ones who fall in the latter are more dangerous because they are not doing it for any monetary reward. They are doing it simply because they believe in such toxic ideas. It’s becoming more and more clear that education only makes you worthy of being employed. It doesn’t guarantee you not walking into the communal trap laid by the political class.

Also read: How Kangana’s comments exposed FAKE patriotism of these people… again

Therefore, the response to the Tanishq ad with such a pure message can’t be a co-incidence. It is a result of what all is transpiring in a lot of minds in recent years, including the educated class.

It just proves yet again how hatred and bigotry are slowly becoming the new normal.

But all such incidents have also made it clear that these toxic trolls get panic attacks at the very mention of secularism or harmony between two faiths. Hence, this should encourage us to do things that irk them the most.

Let’s keep sharing not only the Tanishq ad (see below) but also other videos and posts that promote what they fear the most – unity!

Jai Hind!

Additional reading:

‘Anti-nepotism’ brigade has created a TOXIC atmosphere online

You might be triggering DEPRESSION in someone without even knowing it

Forgotten innings: Lance Klusener’s 99 v/s Sri Lanka

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South Africa’s Lance Klusener was one of the most exciting all-rounders to have played the game. Those who witnessed his start and rise in the 1990s would mostly agree that he deserved to play many more matches for the Proteas.

Although he was a good pace bowler, Klusener was mostly known as a batsman who can smash just about anyone when he is in form. This is more so since some of his best ODI (one-day international) innings came under pressure situations. It would come as a surprise to many that he batted at number 11 when he started his first-class career as a bowler.

Klusener became a star in no time after his debut in 1996. But his popularity increased after his antics with the bat in the 1999 World Cup, despite South Africa not lifting the cup.

Who can ever forget his histrionics in the semi-final of the WC against Australia where he almost took his side to their first World Cup Final ever? Even after more than 20 years, the result of the match continues to hurt me, although I am not a South African.

But maybe because his 1999 WC heroics are so popular that one of his best ODI innings is forgotten. It came in the final of Golden Jubilee Cup in Lahore in 1997. The series was organized in as part of the celebration of Pakistan’s 50 years of Independence and was also known as Pakistan’s Independence Cup.

Lance Klusener
Lance Klusener (File photo)

It was a quadrangular series between Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa and West Indies. It came as a surprise to me to not see India being a part of a ODI series taking place in Asia.

Sri Lanka and South Africa reached the final played on 8 November at Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium as both the teams won three and two matches respectively in the league stage. Pakistan won one while West Indies lost all the three matches in the series.

Sri Lankans were a much bigger threat in that era but they could score only 209 for 7 in their 50 overs with not a single batsman going past the score of 32. South Africans were in great form in that series and it felt they would cruise to the target. But that wasn’t to be.

The Proteas were in a spot of concern when they were 71 for 3 [the idea of sending Pat Symcox as a pinch-hitter didn’t work] and 109 for 4. But Klusener, who came in at number 3, kept the innings alive for the South Africans when wickets were falling at the other hand. The other batsmen were getting starts but they weren’t able to capitalize on it.

Klusener batted one-down in the series to get some quick runs. It wasn’t different in the final as well. The left-hander started hitting boundaries as soon as he arrived. But when the team kept losing wickets, he changed his role and controlled his aggression to see his side home.

To see a hitter like him showing maturity and responsibility is what makes this knock a highly memorable one for me.

Also read: Forgotten Innings: Nayan Mongia’s historic feat v/s Australia

It is unfortunate for any player to get out at 99. I was disappointed when he was caught and bowled by Sanjeeva D’Silva on that score. But I remember him telling Ian Chappel in the post-match presentation that he was glad to see his side home in the final.

The video of his speech is not available. In fact, there’s only one 11-minute poor quality video of that match shared on YouTube (seen above). But it’s good enough to revisit, what in my opinion, is one of the best ODI innings by a South African.

Looking back at the Klusener of that era today, I can only imagine how destructive he would have been in the T20 version of the game today.

Additional reading:

One of Wasim Akram’s biggest achievements is forgotten

Forgotten Spells: Srinath’s match-winning 6 for 21 v/s South Africa

One of Wasim Akram’s biggest achievements is forgotten

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Contrary to today’s times, the 1990s saw a battery of fast bowlers around the world that would trouble some of the best batsmen of that era and played for a long duration. The list of such bowlers would be incomplete without the mention of Pakistan’s great Wasim Akram.

Although there were the likes of Glenn McGrath, Counrtney Walsh, Curtly Ambrose, Allan Donald, Kapil Dev and Javagal Srinath, my personal favorite was always Akram. More than his pace, it was his skill of moving the ball on any surface that used to fascinate me. Who can forget his two wickets in two balls in the 1992 World Cup Final?

In 104 test matches, Akram took as many as 414 wickets at an average of just 23.62. He took a staggering 502 wickets in ODIs (one-day internationals) with a similar average of 23.52.

The bowler had plenty of memorable moments on the field in his career spanning around 17 years. But unfortunately one of his greatest achievements [if not the greatest] is forgotten. In fact, I haven’t heard about it in various cricket discussions I have had in my life, both offline and online.

Akram was one of the rare bowlers to take as many as four hat-tricks in his career. Two each in tests and ODIs. The only person above him is Sri Lanka’s Lasith Malinga who has taken five [all in white ball cricket].

(See the list of all test hat-tricks HERE)

Wasim Akram bowling

This article is about his test hat-tricks which are highly significant. Akram took his first test hat-trick versus Sri Lanka in 1999 at his home ground in Lahore when he dismissed Romesh Kaluwitharana, Niroshan Bandaratilleke and Pramodaya Wickramasinghe.

In the same year against the same team at Dhaka, Akram got another hat-trick when he sent Avishka Gunawardene, Chaminda Vaas and Mahela Jawavardene back to the pavilion in a matter of three balls.

Now, this is where it gets interesting. The two hat-tricks Akram took were in two consecutive test matches. Hence, he is the only bowler in the history of world cricket to take two hat-tricks in two matches back-to-back.

Watch both the hat-tricks in the video above

All of you who are reading must have had hundreds of cricket discussions in your life. How many times have you people discussed about this feat by Akram? This would be interesting to know.

As far as hat-tricks are concerned, the only bowler to have had a bigger achievement than Akram was Australia’s Jimmy Matthews. He took two hat-tricks in two innings of the same match against South Africa way back in 1912.

The two matches in which Akram took two hat-tricks were a part of the first Asian Test Championship. The Lahore tie was the league match while the final happened in Dhaka. The other team in the series was India, which couldn’t reach the finals.

Also read: Forgotten Cricket Moments: The real Lagaan match at Brabourne Stadium

Despite the first of its kind triangular test tournament, the Asian Test Championship isn’t remembered as a memorable series. The second Asian Test Championship of 2001 [played between Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh] is even less remembered with India not taking part in it.

Maybe because of the low key nature of the tournaments, Akram’s incredible feat has been forgotten over the years.

Additional reading:

Forgotten spells: When Srinath was on a hattrick THRICE in one innings

Forgotten innings: Nayan Mongia’s historic feat vs Australia