Memories come at very unexpected times. Like for instance, this very entry that I am penning
down. Why of all people should a Kashmiri woman with whom I had journeyed from Hazrat
Nizamuddin to Yeshwantpur Junction in 2005/2006 come to my mind; and why now?
Maybe it's because she played an unwitting role in reviving the joker in me who had died
sometime during the course of my masters. Just to add on, the joker is alive and kicking!!!
Maybe it's because I was seeing a die hard public Pakistan supporter for the first time in
my life. Maybe it was because she, her classmate and an elderly Sikh couple made the journey
"the el classico" - one where you get to know everything about everyone, tell everything
about yourself and have loads of fun.
Wherever you are girl, continue spreading the cheer!!!
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Sunday, January 06, 2008
Opinion on Sports
India's Tour of Australia
The Indian cricket team is on a long tour of Australia and as expected, is losing matches; and that too in the sickening manner reminiscent of Karachi, Bangalore and Mumbai against Pakistan and England. These are matches which just require some grit to stay in the middle.
Melbourne was definitely in such a category, but one needs to be careful while doing the same to Sydney. The umpiring was patheric and the Aussies showed the depths they can plummet character-wise just to win. Ponting, Clarke, Symonds and Hussey showed what scoundrels they are; people who just want to win at any cost. Having said that, the best response by the Indian team would have been to somehow draw the game and show the middle-finger to the Aussies.
As far as Mark Benson and Steve Bucknor go, "The exponential rapid decay of your respect levels have begun buddies!!!!"
Ranji Trophy
This edition of the ranji has brought Saurashtra into the semis. They seem a good team specially the lads Pujara and Jobanputra. Delhi too has looked good this season and UP has been superbly consistent throughout. Baroda is the 4th semi-finalist. Its good to see variety in the Ranji. Hope Tamil Nadu get to win the trophy next year. They are a supremely talented team who just need to get their act together consistently.
Sunil Mittal's Football academy
Read this first. It certainly is a good step forward, but if we do need to encourage football culture should we not look at the disasters called our cities and ensure more open spaces so that there is a sports culture inculcated? Life has become too much of Baristas, multiplexes, bars and restaurants.
Indian Tennis
The Ladies' section looks bright with the mercurial Sania Mirza promising to look good. But what I am worried about is the lack of good single's players in the Men's section. Bopanna needs to rachet up his game; else the dependance on Leander is going to destroy our chances in the Davis Cup.
The Indian cricket team is on a long tour of Australia and as expected, is losing matches; and that too in the sickening manner reminiscent of Karachi, Bangalore and Mumbai against Pakistan and England. These are matches which just require some grit to stay in the middle.
Melbourne was definitely in such a category, but one needs to be careful while doing the same to Sydney. The umpiring was patheric and the Aussies showed the depths they can plummet character-wise just to win. Ponting, Clarke, Symonds and Hussey showed what scoundrels they are; people who just want to win at any cost. Having said that, the best response by the Indian team would have been to somehow draw the game and show the middle-finger to the Aussies.
As far as Mark Benson and Steve Bucknor go, "The exponential rapid decay of your respect levels have begun buddies!!!!"
Ranji Trophy
This edition of the ranji has brought Saurashtra into the semis. They seem a good team specially the lads Pujara and Jobanputra. Delhi too has looked good this season and UP has been superbly consistent throughout. Baroda is the 4th semi-finalist. Its good to see variety in the Ranji. Hope Tamil Nadu get to win the trophy next year. They are a supremely talented team who just need to get their act together consistently.
Sunil Mittal's Football academy
Read this first. It certainly is a good step forward, but if we do need to encourage football culture should we not look at the disasters called our cities and ensure more open spaces so that there is a sports culture inculcated? Life has become too much of Baristas, multiplexes, bars and restaurants.
Indian Tennis
The Ladies' section looks bright with the mercurial Sania Mirza promising to look good. But what I am worried about is the lack of good single's players in the Men's section. Bopanna needs to rachet up his game; else the dependance on Leander is going to destroy our chances in the Davis Cup.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Macha/Maga/Dude/Yaar, whoever you are - "Blogger is improving!!!"
One particular feature of Wordpress which I wanted to see in Blogger was the way by which anyone could leave behind their site/blog URL while commenting.
Finally, my prayers have been answered.
Thanks to the Blogger team.
Those coming in from Wordpress/Livejournal, please try the feature by commenting.
Finally, my prayers have been answered.
Thanks to the Blogger team.
Those coming in from Wordpress/Livejournal, please try the feature by commenting.
Educating Amit Varma
Amit Varma, in this blog-entry links to a ToI photo where the deputy CM of Maharashtra is being weighed against books at a function in Pune.
Well, the picture looks funny with everyone in the best of spirits, specially with Mr.Patil's staff/stooges trying to balance their leader, who is trying to balance books on the other pan. (digressing, does this make Mr. Patil an accountant, since he is balancing his books?)
Amit goes on to say
I shall deliberately ignore the 'never wish to find out' phrase and do my best to educate him -
The act that Mr. Patil is indulging in is called Tulabharam, which translates ino English as weighing by scale. It generally is carried out as an act of charity usually at temples and socio-public functions. There is an interesting story concerning Tulabharam involving Rukmini, Krishna and Satyabhama.
Mr.Patil's reasons behind this Tulabharam may be debatable, but the one important question that needs to be asked is, "Why the heck are books being weighed against Mr.Patil? Is this how the Ministry of Education (hopefully those are books for school kids) "functions" in disbursing books?"
Well, the picture looks funny with everyone in the best of spirits, specially with Mr.Patil's staff/stooges trying to balance their leader, who is trying to balance books on the other pan. (digressing, does this make Mr. Patil an accountant, since he is balancing his books?)
Amit goes on to say
No, do not ask me what Mr Patil is up to. I don’t know, and never wish to
find out
I shall deliberately ignore the 'never wish to find out' phrase and do my best to educate him -
The act that Mr. Patil is indulging in is called Tulabharam, which translates ino English as weighing by scale. It generally is carried out as an act of charity usually at temples and socio-public functions. There is an interesting story concerning Tulabharam involving Rukmini, Krishna and Satyabhama.
Mr.Patil's reasons behind this Tulabharam may be debatable, but the one important question that needs to be asked is, "Why the heck are books being weighed against Mr.Patil? Is this how the Ministry of Education (hopefully those are books for school kids) "functions" in disbursing books?"
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
England, stay at home
Yes!!! I'm so happy. England are out of Euro 2008. In my opinion this is something which they needed, something similar to India exiting out of Cricket World Cup 2007.
Both the teams are similar, lots of hype and reputation, but when it comes to actual performance where a fight is expected they are zilch.
The exit turned out to be good for India in terms of the new team being built, certain players having to regain their form, will England go the same way?
Both the teams are similar, lots of hype and reputation, but when it comes to actual performance where a fight is expected they are zilch.
The exit turned out to be good for India in terms of the new team being built, certain players having to regain their form, will England go the same way?
Sunday, November 18, 2007
It's 0400 hrs but we still follow the Queue
Discipline is the key to success -this might have been drilled into our heads since time immemorial. Why we do certain things and don't do certain things depending on whether there's someone to supervise us or not?
Whatever may be the answer to that question, the following incident should clear one doubt - following a system irrespective of the hour of the day, or the presence of a monitoring person saves a lot of time and effort.
A couple of my friends had to catch an early morning flight, and despite my best assurances regarding their timely reaching at the airport thanks to Bombay's round the clock available transport facility, they wanted to book a cab. Unfortunately, the cab service had all its vehicles booked upto the afternoon. That left us with no option but to rely on the regular autos/taxis.
It was about 4 in the morning when we exited my apartment complex. True to my prediction, there was a queue of autos at the auto stand. But, all the drivers were asleep. Not wanting to disturb them and having observed movement of autos and taxis on the road, we decided to flag one down. All that we got for a good 10 minute wait in the morning chill was a few full autos and a Maruti Esteem which flew over a speed-breaker at about 80-90 kmph.
We then decided to wake the first driver in the queue. He got up without fuss, got ready and before leaving woke the next guy in the line and asked him to take his due place at the head of the queue. He then drove away.
As I went back to my apartment, I saw Driver #2 pushing his vehicle to the head of the queue and then walking back to wake driver #3.
Neat isn't it? I don't think this would happen in any other place in India.
There were also a few questions in my mind:
1. Do I doff my hat to the work culture of this place?
OR
2. Do I doff my hat to the fact that Driver #1 considered it his responsibility to intimate his sleeping colleague that the numero uno position was vacant and had to be occupied?
OR
3. Do I doff my hat to the chain reaction that set in among all the drivers?
OR
4. Do I doff my hat to the fact that no one else would have occupied the vacated spot even if the other drivers had not woken up to push their vehicles?
Whatever may be the answer to that question, the following incident should clear one doubt - following a system irrespective of the hour of the day, or the presence of a monitoring person saves a lot of time and effort.
A couple of my friends had to catch an early morning flight, and despite my best assurances regarding their timely reaching at the airport thanks to Bombay's round the clock available transport facility, they wanted to book a cab. Unfortunately, the cab service had all its vehicles booked upto the afternoon. That left us with no option but to rely on the regular autos/taxis.
It was about 4 in the morning when we exited my apartment complex. True to my prediction, there was a queue of autos at the auto stand. But, all the drivers were asleep. Not wanting to disturb them and having observed movement of autos and taxis on the road, we decided to flag one down. All that we got for a good 10 minute wait in the morning chill was a few full autos and a Maruti Esteem which flew over a speed-breaker at about 80-90 kmph.
We then decided to wake the first driver in the queue. He got up without fuss, got ready and before leaving woke the next guy in the line and asked him to take his due place at the head of the queue. He then drove away.
As I went back to my apartment, I saw Driver #2 pushing his vehicle to the head of the queue and then walking back to wake driver #3.
Neat isn't it? I don't think this would happen in any other place in India.
There were also a few questions in my mind:
1. Do I doff my hat to the work culture of this place?
OR
2. Do I doff my hat to the fact that Driver #1 considered it his responsibility to intimate his sleeping colleague that the numero uno position was vacant and had to be occupied?
OR
3. Do I doff my hat to the chain reaction that set in among all the drivers?
OR
4. Do I doff my hat to the fact that no one else would have occupied the vacated spot even if the other drivers had not woken up to push their vehicles?
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Nuvvu Nuvvu
This is the video of one of the most romantic and sweetest songs in Telugu.
What do I like about it? Well, Sonali Bendre and the surroundings. Wish I was her partner. Do you wanna partner, Sonali?
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