This is the Agastya Kund at Badami Caves. The Bhootnath Temple can be seen in the distance.
Serene (Wordless Wednesdays)
Arches (Wordless Wednesdays)
Monsoon Shelters
Mismatched shoes – by design
Currently its the FIFA World Cup 2014 that rules TV time at home. Being hosted by Brazil, the live telecasts can be seen at some unearthly hours in India but football fans are not complaining. Ofcourse repeat telecasts are shown to suit those not willing to sacrifice their sleep but it means others at home having to give up their favourite serials.
Since I could not fight the football fever, I decided to join in. As I was trying to learn the intricacies of a spectacular pass or a heroic save, I found myself admiring the fluorescent brilliant colours of players’ footwear.
For those viewing matches on TV, there will be a different take-away from every event for different people. For some it will just be spectacular football. For some it would be well… shoes!
Cheers!
Since I could not fight the football fever, I decided to join in. As I was trying to learn the intricacies of a spectacular pass or a heroic save, I found myself admiring the fluorescent brilliant colours of players’ footwear.
Note: All images below are from the TV transmission on Six HD via Hathway cable provider.
Mentally I congratulated the company and its designers that had come up with these great uniforms for the players. Coordinating colours for the different teams and the accessories must have been a real challenge…. And that’s where I spotted in some players had differently coloured shoes on the Right and Left feet.
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| Pink shoe on the right foot and blue on the left |
Was something wrong with the transmission or was this a case of making do with some shoe because the proper one was damaged? The latter was a wild idea discarded immediately because the teams would be fully kitted out and such a problem was unimaginable.
So that left me with the option that the shoes mismatch was deliberate.
But why would someone do that?
As far as I know, among whatever fashion or function footwear statements anywhere so far, no one had come up with mismatched shoes.
As you can see, my mind had strayed way beyond the games that were being telecast. I now avidly watched a few more games just to see if this was repeated in other teams and to my utter surprise it was. That confirmed my suspicion that the mismatch was not by chance but by design.
As is usual, I turned to Google-Baba and here is what I learnt. The first search threw up several colourful shoes… oops boots/cleats.
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| Screen shot of random Google image search for football shoes 2014 |
Further search gave me the following gyaan:
- The shoes are called cleats. The following sentence is from wiseGEEK: Cleats are athletic shoes with plastic or metal studs on the sole designed to help the shoes grip the playing surface.
- Several football players have deals with sports footwear companies which takes the competition beyond the football field.
As I learnt from this abc article, Puma athletes will wear one pink (on the right foot) and one blue (on the left foot) shoe. See the image above. Read the article here
http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/
Yay! So my observations were right… there was some method in this apparent colour madness!
- According to this article, there are many more ‘special’ cleats that players will be wearing. I must now look out for Eucador goalkeeper Maximo Banguera’s boots that are supposed to to reflect light (Lotto Solista boots). Keisuke Honda’s (Japan) Special gold and black Wave Ignitus 3s.
- This article on sporttechie gives a comprehensive list of boots that companies have created for 2014.
- Nike’s new Magista and Mercurial boots use its ultra-lightweight fly knit technology wherein it seems as the player is wearing socks with cleats attached. According to this article on the New Zealand Herald, Ronaldo is going to wear the Mercurial Superfly.
- Adidas has the special Battlepack boot collection for the 2014 Fifa World Cup. Read about that range here.
Obviously the World Cup has something at stake for the participating teams and the sponsors as well. The teams will battle it out on the fields and a silent (or colourful) marketing battle will be going on simultaneously.
For those viewing matches on TV, there will be a different take-away from every event for different people. For some it will just be spectacular football. For some it would be well… shoes!
Neymar, Ronaldo, Bartolli, Banguera, Honda. They are the guys to watch out for!
So whether you are a football fan or not, do watch the matches. You never know what you will learn!!
So whether you are a football fan or not, do watch the matches. You never know what you will learn!!
Cheers!
PS: While we are discussing things other than football, here is an article from abc News that talks about Why Soccer Players Walk Out With Kids.
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| Screen shot of the article |
The Magnificent Upper Lake at Bhopal (Wordless Wednesdays)
The Best of Ruskin Bond
An un-put-downable book after a long time…
I happened to get hold of “The Best of Ruskin Bond” an anthology of his prose and poetry and was totally enthralled by his work. The stories are autobiographical and describe his childhood, the various personalities that have influenced his life. His love of nature and trees comes through palpably specifically in “Bird Life in the City” and “In the Garden of My Dreams.”
“At Home in India” is something that each one of us should read and share especially if anyone has any difficulty in articulating their patriotism.
The travel writings immediately transported me to Mandakini valley as I almost felt myself seeing the Alkananda and the Ganga. This book has put Dehra Doon on the top of my travel list!! An awesome inspiration for a person wanting to write about my travels…
I do not know the
technical definition of a ‘short’ story but these are about 5/6 pages
long and they commanded my attention like no other in the recent past.
There are several sentences that have stayed with me long after I put away the book. Here are a couple from “The Kitemaker” but every story is a treasure by itself.
“Now everyone hurried, in a heat of hope, and delicate things like kites and daydreams were trampled underfoot.”
“There is a great affinity between trees and men. We grow at much the
same pace, if we are not hurt or starved or cut down. In our youth we
are resplendent creatures, and in our declining years we stoop a little,
we remember, we stretch our brittle limbs in the sun, and then, with a
sigh we shed our last leaves.”
I happened to get hold of “The Best of Ruskin Bond” an anthology of his prose and poetry and was totally enthralled by his work. The stories are autobiographical and describe his childhood, the various personalities that have influenced his life. His love of nature and trees comes through palpably specifically in “Bird Life in the City” and “In the Garden of My Dreams.”
“At Home in India” is something that each one of us should read and share especially if anyone has any difficulty in articulating their patriotism.
The travel writings immediately transported me to Mandakini valley as I almost felt myself seeing the Alkananda and the Ganga. This book has put Dehra Doon on the top of my travel list!! An awesome inspiration for a person wanting to write about my travels…
I do not know the
technical definition of a ‘short’ story but these are about 5/6 pages
long and they commanded my attention like no other in the recent past.
There are several sentences that have stayed with me long after I put away the book. Here are a couple from “The Kitemaker” but every story is a treasure by itself.
“Now everyone hurried, in a heat of hope, and delicate things like kites and daydreams were trampled underfoot.”
“There is a great affinity between trees and men. We grow at much the
same pace, if we are not hurt or starved or cut down. In our youth we
are resplendent creatures, and in our declining years we stoop a little,
we remember, we stretch our brittle limbs in the sun, and then, with a
sigh we shed our last leaves.”
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| Image taken from Peguin India | http://www.penguinbooksindia.com/en/content/best-ruskin-bond |
Go grab the book and read!
Cheers!
Space for Parking or Kollam? (Wordless Wednesday)
Sun at Sinhagad (Wordless Wednesday)
Tree Remains (Wordless Wednesday)
Potholed Wonders
Somehow I have noticed that when people say ‘I love travelling’ it usually means foreign exotic destinations. Ask such people about something in their own city and one is more often than not likely to get a blank look. But of course there are exceptions!!
I admit I too had not done much ‘sight seeing’ of significant places close to my city, or indeed in the city itself. Something that I have been consciously working to overcome over the last year or so. This post is about one such wonderful place that I visited recently.
Potholes usually evoke images of roads riddled with holes and pits with traffic mayhem all around. So when I read about possibly several hundred years old naturally formed potholes near Pune which are geological wonders themselves I just had to go there…
I admit I too had not done much ‘sight seeing’ of significant places close to my city, or indeed in the city itself. Something that I have been consciously working to overcome over the last year or so. This post is about one such wonderful place that I visited recently.
Potholes usually evoke images of roads riddled with holes and pits with traffic mayhem all around. So when I read about possibly several hundred years old naturally formed potholes near Pune which are geological wonders themselves I just had to go there…
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| Natural potholes seen near Pune |
These are at a place called Nighoj about a couple of hours drive (approx 90kms) from Pune. The road is excellent except the last part when one has to lurch across the country roads to actually reach the river bed. We are going to see potholes remember?? Jokes apart, these are formations in the bed of the River Kukdi. The irregular jagged ‘holes’ or craters seem like a canyon and open up suddenly as one trudges along the hot rocky river bed. Despite seeing some amazing photographs in a magazine, the sight took my breath away.
These potholes are formed in the layered basalt rock of the river bed and extend for quite some distance and were about 25 feet wide and deep where we stood. The depth may be more in other parts according to reports. Being the peak of summer, the river had hardly any water, thanks also to the dam that is built on it. This showcased the full glory of the potholes and made them easily accessible as well.
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| Dam wall visible in the distance |
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| The holes are shaped like a pot being wider in the centre |
A huge plus was that the river bed was very clean. There were a couple of temples on both sides of the river and a Laman Jhoola built across it. One can see the potholes slowly end and the river bed gets the usual flat appearance downstream.
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| Temples and Laxman Jhoola |
The area is home to the uncommon Capparis decidua. En route one passes several pomegranate fields as well as onion fields enroute where the harvested onions are stored in makeshift huts called ‘Kandyachee chaal’ कांद्याची चाळ (depending on the season you visit).
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| कांद्याची चाळ |
We were very lucky to see a colony of Swifts. It was a beautiful sight to see the birds feed their young ones. A binocular is a must!! Their nests are washed away every time the river fills up and they rebuild them again the next year. Tip: Keep utter silence so as the birds are not scared off.
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| Colony of Swifts |
If you are in Pune with half a day to spare do visit this amazing place.The famous Ranjangaon Mahaganapati Temple is located close by on the main Nagar Road and can be easily added to to the itinerary.
🙂
Happy travelling!