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By:

Waleed Hussain

4 March 2025 at 8:04:30 pm

Tilak Varma: The Calm in the Chaos

There are moments in T20 cricket when a match appears to slip beyond reach. For India, one of the most encouraging developments in recent years has been the emergence of a young left-hander who seems increasingly comfortable in precisely these circumstances. His name is Tilak Varma. Varma offered another compelling demonstration of his value, striking an unbeaten 51 off 25 balls against New Zealand in Christchurch. India had slumped to 112 for six while chasing 181, with Mitchell Santner...

Tilak Varma: The Calm in the Chaos

There are moments in T20 cricket when a match appears to slip beyond reach. For India, one of the most encouraging developments in recent years has been the emergence of a young left-hander who seems increasingly comfortable in precisely these circumstances. His name is Tilak Varma. Varma offered another compelling demonstration of his value, striking an unbeaten 51 off 25 balls against New Zealand in Christchurch. India had slumped to 112 for six while chasing 181, with Mitchell Santner threatening to derail the innings. Varma responded with a match-turning partnership alongside Nitish Kumar Reddy, adding 69 runs from just 30 balls to steer India to a four-wicket victory. His late assault transformed a precarious chase into another memorable Indian win. Varma’s greatest contribution to the Indian T20 side may lie in his ability to bring order to chaos. India have never lacked explosive batters. The challenge, however, is ensuring that aggression does not become recklessness and that a promising start does not collapse under pressure. Varma offers a different kind of assurance. He can attack without losing sight of the situation, rebuild after early wickets and accelerate when the game demands it. His left-handed presence also gives India a valuable tactical dimension, disrupting bowling plans and forcing captains to reconsider their match-ups. The Christchurch innings illustrated these qualities perfectly. Such performances are what distinguish a talented batter from a genuine match-winner. The foundations of Varma’s reputation were laid in South Africa in November 2024. Given the opportunity to bat at No. 3, he responded with an unbeaten 107 off 56 balls at Centurion, helping India post 219 for six and secure a crucial victory. He followed that performance with another century, scoring 120 in the next match, establishing himself as a batter capable of dominating quality international bowling. They demonstrated that Varma could assume responsibility at a pivotal position rather than remain confined to the role of a supporting batter. His willingness to take ownership of the No. 3 position was particularly significant for a team continually searching for the right balance between stability and aggression. In the 2025 Asia Cup final against Pakistan, Varma’s unbeaten 69 guided India through a tense chase after an uncertain start. Modern T20 cricket increasingly demands players who can fulfil multiple roles within a single innings. Varma has demonstrated the ingredients required for that responsibility. His left-handed batting adds variety to India’s predominantly right-handed combinations, while his ability to play spin and pace makes him a flexible option across different conditions. The long-term implications are substantial. India need not depend exclusively on one or two established superstars to rescue difficult matches. A reliable Varma in the middle order could give the team greater freedom to attack early, knowing that someone capable of rebuilding remains available when wickets fall. There is, of course, a distinction between potential and sustained greatness. International cricket will test Varma against opponents who study his strengths, exploit his weaknesses and devise plans specifically to contain him. Consistency, fitness, decision-making under pressure and the ability to recover from prolonged lean patches will determine whether he becomes a dependable international fixture or one of India’s defining T20 batters. The challenge is to nurture his development without burdening him with unrealistic expectations. Every promising young cricketer does not need to be labelled the next superstar. Varma deserves the opportunity to develop his own identity. There is something particularly inspiring about Varma’s journey. His rise from Hyderabad, supported during his formative years by a coach who helped him overcome financial constraints, reflects the role that opportunity, sacrifice and perseverance can play in sporting success. But inspiration alone does not win international matches. Performance does. And Varma is increasingly providing the evidence to support the belief surrounding him. For Indian cricket, Tilak Varma represents something more enduring than a succession of memorable innings: the possibility of a middle order built around intelligent aggression and emotional resilience. The next chapter of his career will determine just how far that promise carries him. Yet the signs are encouraging. India may have discovered a batter who can do more than entertain, more than accumulate runs and more than rescue the occasional match. They may have found a cricketer capable of becoming one of the defining pillars of their T20 future. (The writer is a senior journalist based in Mumbai. Views personal.)

Asha Bhosle was once almost hit by a train

Quaid Najmi
Apr 16
3 min read

Mumbai: The legendary singer Asha Bhosle - who passed away here aged 92 on April 12 - once lived far from the arc lights of fame, in the distant north-west suburb of Borivali, in the early 1950s, when she was still a struggling artist finding her voice.

 

In those difficult days, she developed an enduring affection for the humble trains. When buses and taxis were beyond her means, Asha-tai relied on the Western Railway’s suburban locals, travelling across the city for her recording assignments.

 

Reaching the Borivali station itself was no small task. Faced with a long detour, she often chose a shortcut - a risky trudge across the railway tracks and it was this ‘trespassing’ that once almost cost her life.

 

Recalling the terrifying episode at a public function nearly 25 years ago, Asha-tai shuddered: “It was monsoon season and pouring. I had covered my head with a rain-coat and was walking on the tracks. Because of the heavy rains, I could barely hear anything. A steam engine of an Ahmedabad-bound train was coming from behind, whistling desperately - but I remained oblivious. I was almost a goner… Suddenly, there was either a push or I myself stumbled and fell off the tracks. Seconds later, the train rushed past me at full speed, still whistling furiously.”

 

She later described her survival from the brush with death as nothing short of a miracle – probably, an act of divine intervention. “Perhaps, the Almighty wanted me to sing more for all of you, so I survived…” she said, with her trademark mischievous laughter, reflecting on that little-known chapter of her early life.

 

Love for Trains

Despite the dangers, her love for trains only deepened. The multi-faceted crooner delightfully mimicked the “cooing” whistles of the old steam engines - “very pleasing,” she would say - and contrasted them with the “ghonn-ghonn” honks of modern-day trains, which she found far less charming.

 

Asha-tai vividly recreated the hustle-bustle of a typical Indian railway platform: “There are vendors chanting, ‘Garrram Batata Vada, Chaiiii…!’ The taste on railway platforms - you won’t find it even in big hotels. If you want to experience that ‘chatpata’ flavour on the move, then you must travel by trains,” she urged, breaking into imitations that left audiences in splits.

 

Emphasizing her love for the monsters on the railway tracks, she even sang a few lines from her own popular Marathi folk song, “Mamachya Gavala Jauya…” (1963), bringing alive the romantic spirit of India’s train journeys.

 

Asha-tai, an avid train traveller, said trains were more than transport - they were a window to India. “To know India, you must travel by trains. They are a melting pot of cultures, you meet people of different religions and from multiple states, they are full of love and teach us a lot in life. A person who has not travelled by trains has seen nothing,” she said.

“I have travelled all over India - starting in Third Class, then Second Class, and as I progressed, First Class. I made my children travel also in trains everywhere,” on her own romance with train journeys.

 

When admirers likened her voice to that of Goddess Saraswati, she gently nudged and corrected them: “There is no comparison. Where Goddess Saraswati sets her foot, perhaps a little dust has fallen on me…”

 

 

A Fragmented Past, A Family Reunited

Acclaimed singer Usha Mangeshkar, 90, retains only hazy memories of her elder sister Asha Bhosle’s Borivali years - a period that followed her elopement and marriage to Ganpatrao Bhosle in 1949. The couple lived through a difficult phase, cut off from the Mangeshkar family and it was in Borivali that their first son, Hemant, was born.

 

“Asha and Ganpat spent a few years there, but it was never really discussed openly in the family… I was too small to remember much,” Usha told ‘The Perfect Voice’.

 

Years later, Asha returned to the family fold, first to their Dadar home, where her daughter Varsha was born and her ‘naamkaran’ (naming) ceremony was celebrated with great joy by all. As her marriage with Ganpatro floundered on the rocks, Asha reached out to her elder estranged eldest sister, Lata Mangeshkar, leading to a reconciliation.

 

Around 1953, Asha-tai eventually moved back to the family residence in Walkeshwar, where her third son Anand was born. Usha Mangeshkar remembers that phase with warmth. By then, Lata Mangeshkar had become a towering figure in music, supported the entire family, and magnanimously purchased separate homes for her siblings in south Mumbai.

 

“Even Ganpatrao (died 1966) was also a very nice person. His children - Hemant, Varsha and Anand - were raised very well. Gradually, all of us began living together again as a happy family,” Usha said in an emotional voice.

 

 

 

 

 

 


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