scrumming with the hurricanes + tales of monkey island

www.livemint.com SATURDAY, AUGUST 1, 2009 L9

PlayLOUNGE

Reboot ahoy!B Y K R I S H R A G H A V

krish.r@livemint.com····························

There’s trepidation at first.Pacing around the room. A

self-deprecatory chuckle or two.Biting of nails. Then a few sighs,a flash of annoyance. A picosec-ond of utter horror. Denial.Maybe even furious anger. Then,a reluctant acceptance. Calm,quiet. Maybe even fun!

For many gamers, the first5 minutes of Tales of MonkeyIsland could well be the mostgut-wrenching gaming momentsthis year. Consider the weighton its shoulders.

The first two Monkey Islandgames are held on Himalayanpedestals, as glorious relics ofthe golden era of adventuregames in the early 1990s. Withtheir wonderful humour andbizarre plots, they’re easily oneof gaming’s most beloved titles.The news of the series’ resurrec-tion was greeted with equal partsjoy and outrage, and the angryeye of the Internet was focused

sharply on Telltale Games, atthe helm of this reboot: Fiveepisodes, one a month, eachlasting around 4-5 hours. Notunlike a TV miniseries.

So, first, the good news: Thefirst chapter of Tales of MonkeyIsland , called Launch of theScreaming Narwhal, is a fun,sharply written game that ishighly recommended. It man-ages to capture the spirit of theoriginal and the voice-acting andmusic are all spot-on.

The bad? It doesn’t seem toaspire to the dizzying heights setby its predecessors, and there’s asense that in playing safe, Tell-tale didn’t have as much fun withthe franchise as it could have.

M i g h t y P i r a t e G u y b r u s hThreepwood (“capital M, capitalP”) returns to thwart Evil PirateLeChuck’s plans of voodoo-powered world domination.Things, of course, go a bit awry.There’s a mysterious curse inthe air, and Guybrush findshimself separated from hiswife Elaine, stuck somewhere in

Monkey Island isback after anine­year hiatus.But does thereboot put freshwind in its sails?

GAMING REVIEW | LAUNCH OF THE SCREAMING NARWHAL

whelming about Launch of theScreaming Narwhal. It does itsjob reliably—setting up the storyarc, getting you excited about thepremise—but it could haveaspired for more. The secondarycharacters in Flotsam are a bitho-hum, and some of the dia-logues are bland—somethingthat would have dragged it downif it were a stand-alone game. Butas a pilot episode, this could bethe prelude to something won-derful. Fingers crossed. Luckyvoodoo charms invoked. Bring iton, we say!

Launch of the Screaming Nar-whal is available as a digitaldownload at www.telltalegames.com/monkeyisland. Currently, all fiveepisodes can be ordered for$34.95 (around Rs1,750).

the Caribbean, in astrange little place called Flot-sam Island.

Controls are simple enough:Walk around using the the key-board, click to examine or pickup objects. The inventory alsoal lows you to combine tw oobjects to make something new.The puzzles mostly hit the sweetspot between practicality andinsanity, and one sequenceinvolving a mad doctor and a labmonkey deserves special men-tion for the way it’s crafted. Ifyou’re stuck, there’s an in-gamehint system that nudges you inthe right direction. The graphicsare sharp and colourful.

So blame it partly on the colos-sal expectations that the seriescarries with it, but you can’tshake the sense that there’ssomething ultimately under-Island­bound: The pirate returns.

RUGBY

Scrumming withthe Hurricanes

B Y B L E S S Y A U G U S T I N E &

K R I S H R A G H A V····························

I t’s 7.30 on a Sunday morn-ing, and Kuldeep Bist oweshis team a round of bananas.

The 43-year-old rugby coachof the Delhi Hurricanes, sportinga John Lennon hairstyle and aleg brace out of a science fictionmovie, is paying the price for hisown decision. “It’s my fault,really,” he laughs, watching therest of his team practise setpieces at the Jasola Sports Com-plex in Sarita Vihar. “There was alot of filthy language being spo-ken on the field, so I decided tofine anyone who swears duringpractice. Turns out, I was thebiggest offender.”

But while bananas can bailyou out if you use swear words,Bist isn’t so easy on sloppy play.“This team tends to get toocomfortable, so sometimes a bitof kick in the back is necessary,”he says. “They’re almost like anextended family .” He’s notusing a figure of speech. Thereare six pairs of brothers in DelhiHurricanes, all from the samevillage of Maidan Garhi, whererugby is now the sport du jour.

In 2004, when Bist, a formermember of the national team,decided to form the Hurricanes,finding players was his first majorchallenge. Scouting for talent at afew local school matches, such asthe Shiksha Bharati School atDwarka, he found that even theso-called seasoned veterans knewlittle to nothing about the gamethey were playing.

“The first question he askedus,” recalls Manoj Kumar, one ofthe Hurricanes’ most senior play-ers at 28, “was ‘What position doyou play—Flanker or Winger?’ Wewere stumped. We had no ideawhat those terms meant.” Bistthen shifted focus to getting the

young, green recruits up tospec, and in that search found

the village of Maidan Garhi.L o c a t e d n e a r t h e I n d i r a

Gandhi National Open Univer-sity (Ignou), where Bist lives andworks as an administrator, Mai-dan Garhi is home to the Dagarclan of Jats. Bist noticed thatmost boys there were “heavilybuilt and seemed to have a natu-ral inclination towards sports.”He hung around the village look-ing for “catch”.

He got his most importantcatch in 20-year-old Arun Dagar, anational-level high jumper anddiscus thrower. When Bist askedArun if he would play rugby, theyouth, who had only seen rugbyon television, agreed to try it out.Like Bist years ago, he fell in lovewith the game. Arun not only wenton to become the team’s captain,he was also instrumental in get-ting other boys from the village toplay along. Friends joined in, andbrought their brothers along.There are around 18,000 rugbyplayers across the country, but thevillage has given this year’snational team four players. Rugbyhasn’t yet found a permanenthome in Maidan Garhi, however.

“Nearly 40 boys from the villageplayed rugby at one point, but alot of them left because theythought it had no scope,” saysArun. “There’s no space to playwithin the village, and even thefields have too uneven a surfacefor proper practice,” he says.

Professional rugby is a littlem o r e t h a n a d e c a d e o l d i nIndia, and fledging clubs suchas the Hurricanes, which partic-

ipate in inter-city tournaments,operate largely in an amateurspace—where sponsors arerare. Few, if any, can supportthemselves full-time with justrugby, and juggle jobs, house-holds and college with a gamethey love passionately.

“My parents ask me what I’mgoing to get out of this game. Idon’t have any answers to that, allI know is I love it,” Arun says.

This familial objection getslouder, says 17-year-old JaggaDagar, another player from Mai-dan Garhi, when you get injured.“The coach insists we all getinsured, but insurance compa-nies pay only if you have beenadmitted in hospital. They don’tcompensate if you have a frac-ture or are prescribed physio-therapy,” Arun says.

“The boys all want to make a

career in rugby, but are doubtfulabout it,” says Arun. “Their mainambition right now is to beselected and play in the nationalteam.” All eyes are now on the2010 Commonwealth Gameswhere India, as host nation,qualifies automatically.

Nitin Dagar, 19, who wasnamed Best Forward at theUnder-19 Bombay Gymkhanatournament in June, has con-vinced his parents that rugby isgoing to take off in a big wayonce the Indian team, currentlyr a n k e d 8 3 r d i n t h e w o r l d ,debuts in the games.

Bist echoes the sentiment.“But I hope we don’t draw worldchampions New Zealand in thefirst match,” he says. “Then,we’ll have to plead with them tokeep the score down a bit!”

blessy.a@livemint.com

A Delhi rugby teambraves hostility andindifference to findpassion and talentin the village ofMaidan Garhi

En route: The Hurricanes(coach Kuldeep Bist is ina black T­shirt) haveshifted training groundssix times over the last year.Their current home inJasola is also temporary.

Rugby 101: A typicalpractice session involvescomplex set pieces, basicdrills, discussions onstrategy and, if you’relagging, lots ofpunishment push­ups.

The men’s rugby season kicks off inJuly, and goes on till the end of theyear. All the metros have more thanone local men’s team: Delhi hasthree—the Hurricanes, Lions andBulls. Mumbai has the BombayGymkhana, and the MumbaiMagicians. Chennai has the Cheetahs,while Kolkata has the Jungle Crows,Future Hope and Kolkata Policeteams. Bangalore has the Tigers andthe Rugby Football Club.

„ For more information on rugby inyour city, visit the Indian RugbyFootball Union (Irfu) or Rugby India(www.rugbyindia.in), or subscribe tothe Irfu newsletter at EverythingRugby at www.everythingrugby.com

„ Irfu organizes tournaments andtraining camps for both men’s andwomen’s teams. Rugby teams inIndia are organized into twodivisions based on rank. At the end

of each season, the most successfulteams in Division 2 are promoted toDivision 1, while the bottom­rankedteams are relegated.

„ The Delhi Hurricanes, currentlyranked second in Division 2, isscheduled to play at theBhubaneswar Division 2 CallaghanCup in October.

„ This year saw nearly 40 schoolsparticipating in the annual MumbaiIrfu inter­school tournament, with250 games played over two weeksin February.

„ The first All India Women’sRugby Tournament was held in May.The Indian women’s rugby team willtravel to the Asian section of theWomen’s Rugby World Cup qualifierin October.

Blessy Augustine

PHOTOGRAPHS BY MADHU KAPPARATH/MINT

SEASON OF PLENTYWhere to catch the lions and the bulls in the near future