For better or verse

Illustration/Uday Mohite

Virat's back
Virat's on song,
been so long,
no more writer's block,
the hunger's back
in huge measure.
The shots, the pleasure
gotta admit, we asked,
‘Brother where art thou?'
We lacked the Energiser Bunny
the form was gone,
he was forlorn.
I missed the MCs and BCs,
I missed the man.
Petulance aside,
the pumped-up patriotism was gone
obviously, the fickle fans were bereft.
Without him, we lost chutzpah,
the unit looked deflated, defeated,
the team seemed
pedestrian.
Without him firing,
seems like a team, tiring
but his triumphant return…
last Sunday,
the dude was back.
The calculator in motion, charting the run chase,
team in a jam,
he's back with elan.
Those two smacked sixes off Rauf,
the Paks gobsmacked.
Impossible is nothing,
Javed's six off Chetan Sharma.
36 years later… just got repaid.
The monkey's off our back,
and Virat's the GOAT once more.

Mic not a megaphone
Indian cricket commentators -
perhaps not empty vessels,
but boy, they make the most sound.
They fall into categories -
the over talkers,
the machine gun rattlers
the bitter ex-players
the know-it- alls,
the non-players
the mic is a megaphone-ists,
the relentless critics.
I have a view, a humble view,
to be a cricket ‘expert',
you have to have been a player,
a first-rate player,
it adds the extra layer,
not just a ‘bits and pieces'
cricketer,
you should have faced the heat,
sweated the sweat,
oozed the blood,
spilt the guts,
scored the runs,
taken the wickets,
Benaud, Warne, Shastri, Holding
If you've not been there, done that,
zip the judgements.
‘Oh my, he's dropped a sitter'!
Dude, when did you last take a catch with 60,000 screaming fans?
Can't be an armchair critic,
for commentary on cricket,
just my view, as an armchair critic.

Sunak rather than later
Rishi, hey.
Settled in?
The world's agog,
Biden called you Rasheed.
Ironical in a way,
Your heritage is many pronged
British-Indian,
Grandmom from Pak,
Infosys by marriage,
East African, Kenya,
But can ya do it?
Are you ready?
Rishi,
Ladies call you ‘dishy',
Initially a tad fishy,
Some tax ‘jugad',
That's over, thank god.
Wishes and more wishes
Indians are overjoyed,
Its like ‘he's our guy'.
That man's heritage,
complex,
much expectation.
Third PM in three months,
the Torys,
a sob story,
have they passed their days of glory?
Reappointed Bravermann,
brave man,
but UK, gotta say,
you're led by an Indian,
you've okayed a British Indian as PM.
Had to happen Sunak or later.

One Musk-eteer
Elon's closed the cage,
it took an age,
the bird is freed.
For me some, greed,
44 billion…
Twitter… public to private.
Twitter… Parag a tad bitter.
Got the sack… but got a
sack load.
Musk promises free expression
Means?
The trolls…
now on a further roll,
Free speech… a free for all?
No cap on what's said,
Hate speeches, the leeches,
Will it end?
A new era… for sure.

Rahul daCunha is an adman, theatre director/playwright, photographer and traveller. Reach him at rahul.dacunha@mid-day.com