WADEKAR CHALE AAGE AAGE

The BCCI has some  unfinished chutney  on its plate. If the Express is to be believed , the management of Thala’s team has lodged an official complaint against the DJ at RCB’s Chinnaswamy Stadium for belting out the Gana Appu’s song Dosa , Sambhar, Chutney Chutney  ( https://youtu.be/JSBTJ9tyik8).  It  was “ not in good taste” and CSK fans will not whistle podu to it -a song often used in memes referring to South Indian stereotypes . 

I was a bit surprised because  Bengaluru  based RCB , unlike  Chhole Bhature PBKS or Butter Chicken DC or even Laal Maans Rajasthan Royals or even the Aloo Posto Deem Siddho KKR , is not  exactly a team  from the  North , a region often accused of a bias against the Peninsula. 

I can understand Chennai having a bit of rivalry with Bengaluru . Chennai’s Red Ball

record against Bengaluru is a no match  ( for its one Venkatraghvan, Bengaluru had the crafty Prasanna, the maverick Chandrasekhar and the stylish Vishwanath in days of yore and  later Rahul  Wall Dravid )  but its White Ball ( read IPL) achievements under the iconic MSD are something to which RCB can’t quite hold a candle to. 

I also know that much like Bengal and Odisha who contest about ownership of the rasagulla, the two southern states are in dispute over the  maalikanaa of the dosa. The  barefoot  Malayali historian P. Thankappan Nair ( Bengalis will surely remember  him , his Remington typewriter and  vast corpus of books on the City of Joy ),  mentions that dosa originated in the town of Udupi . This claim has been repudiated by KT Achhaya who puts it as back as Tamil Sangam period. So with the disputed origins of dosa, and sambhar also not being a Tamil original ( `actually made by cooks of Maratha ruler Sahuji in Thanjavur in honour of Sambhaji Maharaj in the !7th century), I wonder how the CSK fans are finding the lyrics stereotyping them. 

Which brings us to the third  portion of this Culinary Triad  in the controversial ditty , the Chutney. Now can the chutney be really a stereotype for South India? The word has its origin in a Sanskrit word, it refers to a mixture of herbs, spices, fruits ,  making it a complementing condiment,  is pan South Asian with various regional variations.

Or is it just Pan South Asian? Actually, no. it went everywhere the Indians went, so much so that in West Indies and other places where indentured labour went from Bihar and Eastern Uttar Pradesh, it spawned a genre of music called  eponymously - the Chutney music. The name is symbolic , evocative of the mix of many ingredients it is , to refer to an uptempo  music that is a mix of Bhojpuri, and the Caribbean calypso and soca. 

Now the Wisden- ised aficionado may raise an eyebrow over mentioning Chutney  music while talking about music  and West Indies cricket when only the calypso somehow defines  cricket songs from that archipelago - with its many songs from 1920s onwards.  The most famous to the Indians is of course Lord Relator on the Colossus in the history of  India West Indies  Red Ball bilaterals, Sunil Gavaskar https://youtu.be/sege02Y4O0Y?si=wt8hi-zIq9dc-NNj ( “they could not out Gavaskar at all ‘) . Calypsos have been strung around the Greatest Garfield Sobers   by Slinger Francisco aka Mighty Sparrow (  https://youtu.be/v7xp-pYA7HI?si=uS9ahyUJu06vsuD7) and the Master Blaster Viv Richards by the Calypsonian turned Gospel singer Sir MacLean Emanuel aka King Short Shirt  ( https://youtu.be/yxWyqO7s36A?si=Q6-9jIsRQsD9nt5h). 

But somehow , when I heard a  chutney song on cricket by Sookraj Sagar I was completely besotted and stuck in a loop . A fusion genre of Bhojpuri folk music with the Caribbean and soca and later the Bollywood, it assumed popularity among the labourers indentured from the Indian Hindi belt and their descendants . In 1969 Sundar Popo burst on the charts with his Nana and Nani ( https://youtu.be/22T_K_PrhC0?si=ySLrn5EjOO4LlR3r)  and Sooraj’s song looks pretty much inspired by it. 

Chutney music is played with the dholak, dhantal and harmonium and is indeed evocative of  the folk songs one heard during weddings and festivals, and with the inclusion of percussion ensemble of tassa played in Hindu and Muslim festivals alike , its  truly emblematic of religious harmony prevailing in the community of indentured labourers. It also reminds of the significant presence of a substantial Indian thread woven in the tapestry of West Indian life  and is also a resounding reminder that West Indies cricket is not all about Blacks and Black empowerment  as the great Viv Richards would like us believe  when he called West Indies ‘ the only sporting nation of African descent that has been able to win repeatedly against all international opposition ‘. 

Cricket in West Indies is also about the Indo - Caribbean which had been contributing to its success beginning with magic of Sony Ramadhin and then the batting  exploits of Gavaskar’s idol Rohan Kanhai and  his good friend Alvin Kallicharan ( both incidentally captained the WI teams). And not just the Indo - Caribbeans, even the Portuguese-Carribean immigrant community from Madeira produced Larry Gomes , a star of the 1970s and 1980s, member of the West Indies team which won the World Cup in 1979 ( and lost in 1983) and crushed England 5-0 in 1984. 

But to come back to Sagar Sooraj’s song . Do listen by clicking on the hyperlink https://youtu.be/lA2lA1eTpnE?si=_fGYDu2jMFF_7UDo. I reproduce the lyrics for those who may grapple to grab them:

 

Wadekār chale āge āge (walks in front), Sobers goes behind; 

Kanhāī 's  drinking white-rum,  Durrānī 's drinking wine.    (ṛāūī)

Sobers hits the ball, bhāī (brother), straight (right) in(to) Bedi's hand.

Bedi shouts "How's that," (the) umpire shook his hand (says not out).

Bedi  calls  to  the  skipper  (Sobers),  "Come  on,  you  should  go."

The skipper said, "Bowl bhāī.  You be me, then you'll know." (Ref)

They're (W.I.) bowling to the Indians - it' five for seventy -five.  (2)

Sober's  laughed,  "Ha, ha."     He  said,  "This  test  is  (now)  mine."

Wadekār told Solkār, "Betā,  just hold your end  (keep your wicket)."

"Sardesāī  will beat them (the W.I.) till the game will bend." (Ref)

When they went to Barbados, (Uton) Dowe was bowling faas (fast). (2)

Dowe bounced to Gavaskār,  (who hit him for a six)  another six alas !

Sobers  nearly  cried,  bhāī,  to  see  his  side  get  lick (licked).

You'd  better  take  a  rest,  bhāī,  before  you  get  sick.  (Ref)

The   great   Indian   bowler,   (Syed)  Abid  Alī,  (2)   

He   showed   all   the   people   that   he   could   rally.

He  bowled  Morris  Foster  when  he  was  ninety-nine.

He  returned  the  Indians  right  back  in  the  line. (Ref)

 When these great cricketers went back to their lands. (2)

I   and   my   darling  went  and  shook  their  hands.

Some people asked the reason - they said, "You don't know the man."

But  these  guys  defeated  the  mighty  West  Indians.

And the bowling averages went on to Venkatarāghavan.