Prem Rao

Exploring the California Zephyr: A Scenic Journey

Amtrak’s California Zephyr was ready to go at Chicago’s Union Station. This iconic route from Chicago to the West Coast was started in 1949! My wife and I got in like hundreds of other passengers – each finding their own coach and seat, heading for their own destinations. Some were traveling to Mt Pleasant or Burlington, IA while others were going further to Lincoln, NE, or even beyond to Denver, CO or Salt Lake City, UT. Some were traveling all the way to California, getting off at Sacramento, for example or like us going to the very last stop, Emeryville in the Bay Area of California.

This train has one of the longest routes in North American continent. It covers 2438 miles ( 3924 km) across 7 states in a journey of over 52 hours with an average speed of 55 miles per hour. Check out this map in Wikipedia which shows the route of the Zephyr.

As the clock moved towards 2.00 pm we heard the last call for passengers to board the train. An official in the uniform of the Amtrak Train Conductor sang out, ” All aboard the California Zephyr”. Shortly after, our train powered by 4200 horsepower Siemens ALC 42 Charger diesel electric locomotives began it’s long journey. The Superliner Sightseeing Lounge with its glass dome roof was a stand out feature. We could sit here and enjoy the scenery as we sped past.

We crossed a lot of farmland then crossed the mighty Mississippi River before reaching Galesburg, IL. Later that night, at nearly midnight, we stopped at Omaha, NE.We woke up next morning near Crescent Valley and Battle Mountain in Nevada to see a beautiful sunrise on the desert.

Pictures we took don’t do justice to the sheer grandeur of the nature in all its magnificence. Later we saw many canyons, craggy hills and miles of desert in Nevada. . After an hour’s stop at Denver, Colorado. we began the climb up the mountains. The browns of the desert gave way to the greens of the mountains. We passed the Colorado River where people were enjoying kayaking and river water rafting. Then we came to the best part of the trip as we saw the majestic snow clad peaks of the Rockies in the distance.

The Zephyr moved into the last lap of its long journey. We passed the lakes in the Sierra Nevada mountains and here again witnessed some very pretty scenes. We passed the 7000 feet high Donner Pass and the lovely Donner Lake- which sight will remain in our minds for long.

The train then began its descent to the sea level of the Bay Area. We saw the waters of the Bay glisten in the late afternoon sun as the Zephyr sped to its final destination, Emeryville, CA. We reached around 4.30 pm a short while ahead of the scheduled arrival.

The food in the Dining Car was much better than we expected. Some people had told us with the best of intentions, that we would be well advised to carry a lot of snacks as the Amtrak food wouldn’t be that good. This advice, we found to our relief, was quite wrong. We had breakfast, lunch and dinner on two days in the dining car and we found the food was pretty good! The Dining Car also presented an opportunity for us to meet fellow passengers and make new friends.

Was 52 hours tn the train too long ? No, it wasn’t- as we had comfortable private sleeper cabins with all the necessary amenities including a washroom en suite. Perhaps pending 52 hours in the chair car would be very tough. But then I am 74 ! All the Amtrak staff were courteous and efficient during our trip, especially Antonio. Tony has spent 29 years of his life doing the job of a coach attendant – and he does it damn well!

My conclusion based on our experience: you need to spend more to really enjoy the long train ride. The views make the journey well worth the cost. The amenities were reasonably good. The staff were helpful and took good care of us.

Pro tip: to get the best views, you should travel on the California Zephyr from Chicago to Emeryville as you get the best views on this route. Emeryville to Chicago- or so we are told- is not that hot as many of the best scenes come during the night when you are asleep in bed!

In The News, sports

Back-to-Back IPL Wins: RCB’s Journey to Glory

May 31, 2026 will remain an unforgettable day for me as also for the millions of other loyal fans of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru ( RCB). They won the Indian Premier League in style beating the Gujarat Titans in the finals at Ahmedabad. Through this victory, RCB won the IPL for the second successive year, having won it for the first time in 2025. You must remember why we fans were delirious with joy. It had been a long, long wait for us. In 2025, RCB won after a barren 18 years of missing out on winning the world’s most coveted T20 cricket championship after the T20 World Cup,

The fans have been loyal- sticking with the team through thick and thin. They bore the agony of having lost in the Finals in 2009, 2011, and 2016. They were one of the few teams to have never lifted the trophy. Yet the fan base kept growing. RCB currently has more than 25 million followers in Instagram- the highest fan base amongst all the teams. Finally, in 2025 RCB beat Punjab Kings in the finals and the jinx was broken.

This year, the team did consistently well. At the end of the league phase, they were table toppers with 18 points having won 9 out of the 14 matches. They then beat Gujarat Titans handsomely in the Qualifier 1 to head straight into the finals. Interestingly, they met the same opponents in the finals and beat them again. By winning 2 IPL titles in a row, RCB join Chennai Super Kings (CSK) who won in 2010 & 2011 and Mumbai Indians (MI) who won in 2019 & 2020 as being the only teams to have achieved this commendable feat.

Unlike in the past, RCB had a well rounded team and did not depend on a few stars. In past years, the batting was a major strength but the bowling unit did not quite measure up. So in spite of having super stars like Chris Gayle, A B de Villiers and Virat Kohli in their ranks, they could not win important matches consistently. The bowling unit was considerably strengthened with bowling stars like Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Josh Hazlewood. Many individual players won Man of the Match for RCB in the last two seasons. This definitely helped them win in 2025 and 2026. Experts and players alike speak of excellent strategies by Head Coach Andy Flower, Director of Cricket Mo Bobat, Batting Coach Dinesh Karthik and others which was a major factor in the RCB championship victories.

Virat Kohli is now past 37 but showed the same enthusiasm and commitment as when he played the first game in 2008! His feats will always be cherished by RCB fans the world over. Now is the time to celebrate, to once again live through the moments that made 2026 such a special season for RCB! .

Book Reviews, Authors

“To Kill A Mockingbird”by Harper Lee

To start with, I owe a debt of gratitude to the late Ms Harper Lee for two things. The first is for her outstanding book, ” To Kill A Mockingbird” originally published in 1960. This has since become a classic in American literature. I am truly astonished that I had never read this before.

The second (and more meaningful for me personally) is that “Mockingbird” is the first book I have read in months! Not having posted here since March 2026 indicates reading or writing about bookshow age, lethargy, a lack of interest or other factors combined to keep me away from reading books or writing about them. And to think I always was a voracious reader all my life!!

I guess you can put it down to one’s taste, but I have always had a particular liking for books written in the first person. The story in “To Kill A Mockingbird” is spelt out by young Jean Louise “Scout” Finch , a girl growing up in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama. Here she lives with her father Atticus Finch ( a lawyer and a member of the state legislature) and her elder brother, Jeremy “Jem” Finch. Since her mother had passed away when she was just two, Scout has been looked after by Calpurnia, their black cook and housekeeper. Remember this book was published in 1960- before the Civil Rights laws came into being. Terms like blacks, Negroes and worse were freely used then. It’s only in more recent times that it has become politically correct to refer to them as African-Americans. You will know that Alabama was a hard core Southern state where slavery flourished. The book is set in the 1930s. Slavery had long been abolished but there was a major racial divide between the whites and the blacks in these parts of the United States.

The racial divide is brought out in the courtroom when a white girl Mayella Ewell accuses Tom Robinson, a black, of having assaulted and raped her in her house. Atticus Finch defends Robinson to the best of his ability in the court of Judge Taylor. The author weaves a gripping plot moving from the past to the present – recounted often by “Scout” Finch who describes what she sees and hears. She is an exceptionally intelligent young girl, full of questions and eager to find out answers- which are not forthcoming. The book dwells on the different perspectives of both the whites and blacks that feature in the story. The underlying racial prejudices and tensions are written about with great sensitivity. There is a certain charm about the book as events are seen through the eyes of a young girl.

Ms Lee was born and lived in Alabama herself. Much of what she writes about is based on her own experience and observations of life around her. This enabled her to write such graphic descriptions of the characters in the book, such as Calpurnia, Atticus’s sister Alexandra, Mayella Ewell, or their neighbor Miss Maudie Atkinson!

“To Kill A Mockingbird” was awarded the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1961. It was made into a highly successful movie in 1962 with Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch and Mary Badham as Jean Louise Finch. It won many awards as well the following year.

I am happy that I read “To Kill A Mockingbird” while I could!! If you have not read it yet, I would urge you to read it as an example of excellent story telling.

In The News, sports

Nari Contractor: 92 not out!

As an ardent fan of Indian cricket for more than 65 years, I was moved to see Indian batting legend Sunil Gavaskar being overcome with emotion recently. The occasion was the presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Award in the Sportstar Aces Awards 2026 to Nariman Jamshedji Contractor. For me, it was so endearing to see the former Indian cricket captain once again though he was now 92. Thousands of kids in India, like me, hero worshipped him way back in the 1960s. This incident flooded my mind with many memories.

It was quite a co-incidence, I thought to myself, seeing Nari at 92. I had seen him score 92 in the very first Test Match I had ever seen: India vs Pakistan at the Feroze Shah Kotla in Delhi in February 1961. Apart from Nari’s 92, Polly Umrigar scored a century and India piled up a massive 463 in the first innings. In that Test, V V Kumar, a leg spinner made his debut for India and took 5 wickets in an innings. The match however ended in a draw. Interestingly all the 5 Tests in that series ended in draws! In those days it was considered better to draw than lose a Test. This was Contractor’s first series as India’s captain.

He made his Test debut vs New Zealand in 1955 aged 21. At 26, he became the youngest ever cricket captain of India -at that time. He had shot into the limelight by scoring a century in both innings of his debut in the Ranji Trophy playing for Gujarat. A stylish left handed opening batsman, Contractor played 31 Tests for India from 1955 to 1962 when his Test career was tragically cut short- but more of that later. Also, in those days, Tests were not played as frequently as they are now.

When England ( then popularly known as MCC) led by E R Dexter toured India in 1961, Contractor led India to a famous 2-0 victory in the 5 Test series. This was the first time India had defeated England in a Test series. By the way, the England squad had stalwarts like Dexter, Mike Smith, Ken Barrington , Geoff Pullar, Bob Barber etc. The enigmatic Salim Durrani and all rounder Chandu Borde were the most successful bowlers for India.

India went next to the West Indies led by Contractor. Mansur Ali Khan, the Nawab of Pataudi, just 21, was the vice captain of the touring team. It was planned that he would eventually take over the captaincy from Contractor. The Indians were outplayed in the first two Tests. Things became worse in the tour game versus Barbados. in March 1962. Contractor had his skull broken by a fast short ball from Charlie Griffith- the young, tearaway fast bowler. This was a huge set back for the touring Indians. Mansur Ali Khan was pitchforked into the captaincy – in the process becoming the youngest by far to lead the Indian Test team . India went on to lose the series 5-0.

Following that blow, Nari Contractor was in grave danger of losing his life. The West Indies captain, Frank Worrell joined some of the Indian cricketers in donating blood to save Contractor who was battling for his life. He underwent two operations in which surgeons removed fragments of bone from his brain. They placed a metal plate in his head.

In those days, batsmen never wore helmets, there was no rule restricting the number of bouncers in an over, so being an opening batsman was indeed a challenging task. Contractor loved cricket so passionately that he was courageous enough to resume playing the game at the first class level for Gujarat and West Zone. His biggest disappointment was that he was never selected for India again but I guess the selectors must have thought it was too much of a risk.

And what became of Charlie Griffith? He was vilified in many parts of the world as a “chucker” throwing the cricket ball while bowling. As young boys in India, we hated him intensely for having put our hero Nari Contractor out of the game. Griffith was officially called for throwing twice- once in that same fateful game in Barbados and once 4 years later in Leeds. He played 28 Tests for the West Indies from 1960-1969 making a fearsome fast bowling combination with Wesley Hall. He was dogged by controversy but played till the end of the decade. He was knighted for his services to sport in 2017 when Barbados became an independent country.

Ironically, 5 years later, in April 2022, the metal plate inserted in 1962 in Nari Contractor’s head was finally removed! And, coming back to where I started this post, I was so very happy to see Nariman Jamshedji Contractor, my childhood hero, 64 years after his near fatal accident on the cricket field.

In The News, My Take

Of Books and Controversies

Mr Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the Indian National Congress is the Leader of the Opposition in India’s Lower House of Parliament, the hallowed Lok Sabha, Recently, there was a sensation in the Lok Sabha when Mr Gandhi, whose supporters project him as a youth leader despite his being 56 years old made serious allegations about the ruling Government’s handling of the Galwan Crisis of 2020. He said the allegations were based on the writings of India’s former Chief of Army Staff, General M M Naravane (retd) in his memoirs ” Four Stars Of Destiny”. Initially he said he was quoting from an article in The Caravan. Later he was seen exhibiting a physical copy of Gen Naravane’s book. Interestingly, Penguin Random House India declared categorically that the book had not been published! Apparently the Govt of India has not yet cleared the book manuscript. Rahul Gandhi was seen on television programs saying that General Naravane’s book is published and is available abroad.

From the point of view of an author I must say this: Thanks to Mr Gandhi, millions who had not heard about General Naravane”s book- have now heard about it- and how! As of now, it remains to be seen in what form or shape the book will be officially published. I am sure Penguin Random House India will reap a rich harvest from this book as will General Naravane whenever it is finally published!

General Naravane’s book is not the first- nor will it be the last -book to stir up a controversy. Some books have been controversial. Some have been banned. Some have been controversial and banned!!

Over the decades, many books have been banned in India by ruling Governments. I came across this interesting blog post recently in The Himalayan Writing Retreat –“10 Books Banned In India- To Read or Not To Read? ” .

I had heard of some of them, of course, like “The Satanic Verses” by Salman Rushdie. The Government of India, banned the book in 1988, when Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister. You may recall how Sir Salman ( Mr Rushdie was knighted in 2007) was attacked in New York in 2022 -decades after the book was first published! . He spoke about his recollections of that day in a BBC interview in 2025.

Mr Rahul Gandhi’s mentioning General Naravane’s to be published book in Parliament – in a move to attack the “failures” of the ruling Government in dealing with the Chinese perhaps boomeranged on him. The gist of the allegation is that the Govt and Prime Minister Modi was ambiguous in his direction during the crisis. A feeling was sought to be created that the Army Chief felt let down due to a lack of clear direction. The Govt defended itself by saying that approval was given to the Army Chief to act as he deemed fit. The Prime Minister cannot be expected to act like a platoon commander on the ground.

The Parliament ruckus had two interesting-but perhaps unintended – side effects. The first is that a new generation- millions of Indian youth fed largely on social media – is hungry to know how the Congress dealt with such crises in the past. They have heard about the 1962 debacle in the hands of the Chinese in 1962 from their grandparents. They want to know in a crisp conducive to social media manner what actually happened way back in the early 1960s.

The second is that for more serious readers- several books that are based on events on the Indo-China War of 1962 are getting a new lease of life and a huge boost in the bargain. It is well settled that many published books were highly critical of the failures of the then ruling Congress Government of Jawaharlal Nehru. He was Rahul Gandhi’s great-grandfather.

I have read books like “The War That Wasn’t” by Shiv Kunal Verma; “The Battle of Rezang La” by Kulpreet Yadav; and “JKF’s Forgotten Crisis: Tibet, the CIA & The Sino-Indian War” by Bruce Riedel, to mention but a few. Every author has written of how those days were characterised by poor strategic vision and policies, total lack of preparedness, and oscillating between bravado on one day and abject surrender on another. These led to India’s defeat at the hands of the Chinese. India’s image ( and that of Mr Nehru in particular) took a brutal beating in the eyes of our own citizens if not the whole world. What stood out was the bravery and valour of poorly equipped Indian Army troops fighting against great odds and exhibiting immense courage in most cases.

In The News, My Take

Remembering A Legend: Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose

On January 23, we paid our respects to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, whom I consider one of India’s greatest leaders on his 129th birth anniversary. Naturally there were many articles /podcasts/interviews posted on this day about Netaji and the impact his leadership had on India’s freedom struggle. As a keen student of history, I read most of them with avid interest. I would like to share some which caught my attention.

In this Press Conference,, Sudhanshu Trivedi, Rajya Sabha member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) elaborated on the reasons why the British finally decided to leave India just after World War II. The chief reason – their confidence in the Indian men who served in the Indian Armed Forces was not as strong as before. This change started when Netaji Subhas Bose led the Azad Hind Fauj or Indian National Army since July 1943. By 1945, though the Allies had defeated Hitler’s Nazi Germany, Japan and Italy to won the Second World War, Britain was a spent force. Many – even amongst the Allies- believe had it not been for the economic and technological power of the United States and the massive manpower of the USSR, the war would have gone on for many more years.

The British feared they would not be able to control a mass revolt of troops in India. The mutinies of some units of the Royal Indian Navy and the Indian Army in 1946 came as the last straw. Britain decided to quit India. The decision to quit India was really not triggered – as is often believed – by the Quit India movement launched by Mahatma Gandhi in 1942.

It was equally interesting to hear India’s senior most military leader, General Anil Chauhan, the Chief Of Defence Staff speak about Netaji. In his address at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, he lauded Netaji as a classic military leader with strategic vision. I particularly liked the point that Netaji led by example. His dramatic escape from India in January 1941, an arduous journey to Germany and his return to Asia by sea, travelling in a German U-boat and later a Japanese submarine have become part of the Netaji legend. In contrast, I could not find – in all these decades since Independence- any account of India’s leading freedom fighters like Gandhiji or Nehruji, facing British bullets or lathis at the head of a freedom fighters. They were arrested many times but were confined in comfort as political prisoners. Indeed, Nehruji wrote his most famous book, ” The Discovery of India” while in Ahmednagar Jail.

This article in The Organiser traces how Netaji broke away from the Gandhi-Nehru Congress way back in 1939 as they disagreed on the way to get freedom from the British. It is often said that history is written from the point of view of the victors and not the vanquished. General Chauhan mentions this too in his talk referred to earlier.

I wonder if the youth of India know of Netaji’s achievements as they have not got the publicity they deserve. On October 21, 1943 he announced the formation of the Azad Hind Government while in Singapore at the height of the Second World War. This was the first Government in exile to be formed for India. As many as 11 countries accord recognition to Free India. He hoisted the flag of Free India in the Andaman and Nicobar islands in December 1943. Netaji visualised and implemented the printing of currency, hoisted the National Flag in December 1943, and gave the new country the anthem of the Azad Hind Fauj.

Looking at distant events as we now do in 2026, we can only admire and pay homage to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. He was undoubtably one of India’s greatest sons and arguably the first Prime Minister of Free India. Jai Hind!!

In The News, My Take

Good Bye To Flying Non-Stop From BLR-SFO

A news item in LiveMint a few days ago grabbed my attention. Effective March 1, 2026, Air India’s flight AI 175 which took you non- stop from Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport to San Francisco would no longer be in operation. Figures indicate that in the last year nearly 1,50,000 used these non-stop flights. This was a popular flight for techies and business executives as it connected two major tech hubs. It also was popular for old folk like me, as it helped us skip a layover to catch a connecting flight.

Before this non-stop flight came into being, we used to travel via Europe. I remember the stopovers at London’s Heathrow airport, or at the Charles de Gaulle at Paris, or the Schiphol at Amsterdam. The break was handy in the old days – we could go out and stretch our legs. Later however, particularly after Covid, things changed dramatically. The security processes made us go through numerous checks all over again. Often it meant moving from one terminal to another- in Heathrow, for example, this involved a short train trip as well.

With these changed circumstances, Air India’s non-stop flight came as a big boon, especially for older folk. I recall reading with awe back in January 2021, that an Air India non-stop flight from San Francisco to Bengaluru was flown by an all women team of pilots. who created history by flying over the North Pole. This feat was indeed rare for those days.

Living in more affluent times than we did in our childhood, it is not surprising to see many of the 35 seats in the business class occupied by Indian elders flying out to be with their children! It has been our pleasure to have flown this several times- to and from San Francisco. I would like to give a shout out to the cabin crew of Air India. In our experience, they were always polite and efficient. Many went the extra mile to make us comfortable. On many occasions, the cabin crew helped us set up and retract the flat bed.

Another aspect of flying with Air India which we enjoyed so much was the food. This suited us more than that of other airlines. All that was served was invariably of a high standard, served with impeccable style. The entertainment channels on offer helped us pass time by seeing movies during the long flight of nearly 17 hours from Bengaluru to San Francisco. After all, the cities were 8400 miles or 14,000 kilometres apart.

Air India had cited operational reasons for discontinuing the BLR-SFO non-stop. Even their long range B777- 200 LR aircraft could not fly the new routes without re-fuelling. Not flying over Pakistan and Ukraine were the main reasons for the longer routes. It is reported that over time Air India will move its hub for flights to the US to Delhi. After March 1, 2026 we will need to find other options to reach our destination. Based on our personal experience over the years, I for one, will definitely miss the AI 175 and AI 176 non-stop flights.

I hope someday they will be reintroduced. The sooner the better.

In The News, My Take

In Homage: ASI Shri Tukaram Omble, Ashok Chakra (Posthumous).

A few days ago, on November 26, my mind compulsively went back to the dreadful events that engulfed Mumbai – India’s commercial capital- on that day 17 years ago! As you would know, starting November 26, 2008 the city was in the grip of panic amidst concerted planned attacks by a group of Lashkar -e- Taiba terrorists from Pakistan.

In my blog post of November 27, 2020, I had recalled the tragic chain of events that took place after the terrorists landed in Mumbai in the evening of November 26, 2008.

Another 5 years have gone by since then. We remember with sorrow 166 innocents of different nationalities, mostly Indian who were killed and more than 500 who were severely injured. These didn’t take place in one place. The battle with the terrorists went on till November 29. It was centred in different locations like the Taj Palace, The Oberoi, Chabad House, Cama and Albless Hospital, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus of the Indian railways, the road leading to Girgaum Chowpatty etc.

There were many heroes in those chilling days. Many were nameless: taxi drivers who rushed injured to hospitals; Mumbaikars who sheltered passers by during the shootings on the roads; the constabulary of the Mumbai Police who were facing an enemy the likes of which they had never face before- in terms of quality of equipment or the indoctrinated ferocity of their attacks; the staff of the Taj and Oberoi Hotels who put this lives at risk to save their guests; and of course, the Naval commandos (the MARCOS) and the National Security Guard NSG who were better equipped to fight the terrorists.

Some were named too: like Vishnu Zende , the train announcer at CST whose timely announcements led thousands of people in the vast station to safety;

In my opinion, by far the bravest deed came from 54 year old Asst Sub Inspector Tukaram Omble of the Mumbai Police. He had joined the Mumbai Police in 1991 after serving in the Signals Regiment of the Indian Army. It was Omble’s sheer bravery that enabled Ajmal Kasab – one of the terrorists- to be captured alive. Kasab was armed with the dreaded AK 47. Despite this, Omble physically hung on to Kasab though he took many bullets in his chest He clung on till his colleagues overpowered Kasab. Omble was awarded a richly deserved Ashok Chakra posthumously.

We came to know later that the terrorists ( all from Pakistan) came wearing “kalavas” traditionally worn by Hindus and had IDs with Hindu names to confuse the police. There was also a bizarre claim by a few that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was behind the terror attack. The book ” 26/11: RSS Ki Sazish” was launched by veteran Congress leader Digvijay Singh.

Thanks to Omble’s bravery Kasab was captured alive. This ultimately led us to the truth behind the dastardly attacks.

Years have flown past, but we remember Omble with awe and respect. We can never forget what he singe-handedly did in the early hours of November 27, 2008.

TV Serials

“Aarya”

At this stage on my life, I have the luxury of having time on my hands. This led me to seeing a lot of television serials. It was from a show Sunday Brunch with Sushmita Sen by Kamiya Jani of Curly Tales fame that I first got to know of Sushmita Sen’s venturing into her digital debut. Naturally, we knew of her as Miss Universe 1994 and a Bollywood actress after that.

“Aarya” the serial she starred in as the female lead got her the award for Best Actress Female at the Filmfare OTT Awards. The serial got much acclaim running for 3 whole seasons. These had 25 episodes fwhich aired from 2020 to 2024. A nomination for the International Emmy Awards for Best Drama series followed.

I was prompted to watch Aarya on JioHotstar. Watching this in 2025, I certainly had a lot of catching up to do! I soon got pretty interested in the show and saw all 3 seasons over several months. Sometimes I saw many episodes together, at other times there was along gap and I had to figure out where I had left off in the rather complex story. The story was interesting. I heard it was adapted from a Dutch drama series.

In my view, Sushmita acted well overall in a role which suited her- suave and sophisticated . Yet the story line seemed uncharacteristic of her – transitioning from being a home maker and mother of three kids to being a drug smuggling don. After an excellent start in Season 1, I saw a sameness in her acting. I wish she had been shown to be more vulnerable- and therefore more human! Her pet theme that mothers would go to any extent to protect their children rang hollow after some time. Yes, they would by and large! However, how many mothers would they take up drug smuggling in a big way in association with international gangs? How many mothers would kill or get people killed left and right?

It is true that in life some people do get good breaks from time to time. In this series all the chips were in Aarya Sareen’s favour . Episode after episode saw her win against the hapless ACP Khan. One felt almost sorry for the bumbling Khan – the last straw being that even Aarya’s kids called him by name as if he was some domestic servant of theirs and not a senior officer of the Narcotics Control Bureau. To add insult to injury, the director dwelt at length about Khan’s personal life which ultimately didn’t add any value to the story one way or the other. In another surprise, I thought the director was silent on the real story between the ever faithful Daulat and Aarya.

The violence and gore quotient was quite high all through the series but that was only to be expected. The story was gripping in many parts and the photography and screen play was of a consistent high standard.

If you like action packed thrillers, you will enjoy watching Aarya. Naturally, I have not spoken much about the story. Be prepared for some amount of complexity with many characters in the fray.

In The News

India’s Women’s Cricket: Rawal and Mandhana’s Record Partnerships

As I write this post, my prayers – along with those of millions of cricket fans in India- are with Pratika Rawal. The opening batter sustained an injury while fielding in India’s match vs Bangladesh a few days ago. India has qualified for the semi-finals of the ICC ODI World Cup for Women. The next game against Australia is most crucial. It is a do or die match as the loser gets eliminated from the tournament. Sadly, it appears unlikely that she will be able to play in this match.

Pratika, a 25 year old from Delhi, has carved a niche for herself as the opening partner for Smriti Mandhana in the Indian Women’s Cricket team. Her presence in the match versus Australia would have meant a lot to the Indian team. Let me explain why.

India has always done well when Mandhana and Rawal have given them a solid start. The match versus New Zealand a few days ago was again extremely important for India. They had to win to enter the semi-finals. Mandhana and Rawal scored 212 in their opening partnership to give them a dream start. Both scored centuries- Mandhana 109, and Rawal 122.

Smriti Mandhana and Pratika Rawal : Picture courtesy: Firstpost

This was the highest partnership for India in the Women’s World Cup. They broke the previous record of 184 between Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur in 2022.

This opening pair has shown promise to be potential world beaters. In the year or so that they opened the batting for India Women, they have put together 7 century opening partnerships. Out of these, 5 have been in this calendar year! This is the most for Indian women and is jointly the second highest in the history of women’s cricket. In January 2025, they started with a 233 run opening stand against Ireland with Rawal scoring 154 and Mandhana 135.

Till date, they have the distinction of having scored 1557 runs in the calendar year 2025. This is fairly close to the highest so far- 1635 runs by the legendary pair of Sachin Tendulkar and Saurav Ganguly in 1998. In the ongoing ODI World Cup, they are No 1 and No 2 in the runs scored- Mandhana 365 in 7 matches and Rawal 308 in 6.

Yes, India’s women cricketers have truly come of age. Recently, Smriti Mandhana scored a century in 51 balls- making her effort the fastest century for an Indian- man or woman- in One Day Internationals. Till now the fastest 100 in an ODI was by Virat Kohli and came off 52 balls! Mandhana has hit 29 sixes this year which is a world record for women beating South Africa’s Lizelle Lee who hit 28 in 2017.

Pratika has shown that she has matured vastly as a young batter. She was the fastest in women’s cricket to reach 500 ODI runs- reaching this in just 8 innings. She beat Charlotte Edwards of England who had achieved this way back in 1997. She recently became the joint fastest in the world to reach 1000 ODI runs achieving the feat in 23 innings.

With Pratika’s injury, unfortunately it appears most unlikely that she and Mandhana will break the Tendulkar-Ganguly record for the most runs as an opening pair in a calendar year. After the World Cup, the Indian women tour Australia in early 2026. Let’s hope their partnership continues to flourish there too. Mandhana and Rawal certainly have it in them to be world beaters in the opening slots for women’s cricket.