India @ 62

Its Independence Day again. A well deserved holiday specially for poor souls like me who are in the six days a week grind. Its also the time for my annual review for all things Indian (My way to mark the occasion).

The last year had more than its fair share of tragedies. The Bihar floods, the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, the global economic recession, the attacks on Indians in Australia, worse Indians being attacked in India on the basis of region, IPL being staged outside the country for security reasons and now the swine flu. It was also the time for elections and the year of Slumdog Millionaire.

The biggest event was of course the general elections held in April & May. The UPA came back to power with a much stronger mandate with the Congress itself crossing the 200 mark. Lets hope that free of the crutches of whimsical allies the governmant would take some stronger decisions. The elections were completed fairly smoothly though now some people are raising questions regarding the reliability of the voting machines (a case of sour grapes because its mainly the people who lost this time). The elections caused IPL to be shifted to South Africa which reaffirmed the clout of BCCI in the cricketing world.

The 26/11 attacks on Mumbai have been well documented. It has caused increased security and safety concerns. India as a global destination has come under question. Sports teams have now started withdrawing from events in India. (Australian Davis Cup Squad & British Badminton contingent). The 26/11 attacks showed that nothing is really secure. The biggest poblem is can these attacks be prevented at all? Post 26/11 there were a few citzen rallies and that was it, now all those concerns and issues seem to have been put on the back burner.

Another regular news item was Indians getting beaten up in Australia. Media, politicians etc raised a big hue and cry over this. Australians were accused of being racist. But my question here is, dont we do the same? Indians are getting beaten up in parts of India on the basis of region. Caste related killings still take place. So why should be expect anything better from outsiders?

The global economic recession has had its impact everywhere. People are losing jobs, salaries are getting lower. For the Indian economy the bigger impact could be the possible failure of mosoons this year.

The hysteria caused by swine flu has already cost quite a bit. A big weekend has been spoiled because of extra safety precautions being taken. Many more people have died because of malaria and dengue n the same time period than swine flu but nothing much is being said about these.

In the sports world, its still cricket which rules. BCCI now gives grant to the football federation. Hockey world cup dates are changed to avoid clashing with IPL3. They also refuse to sign WADA clauses which other sportsersons have signed inspite of having some reservations. However some individual sportspersons are still around giving hope. Saina Nehwal's achievements have led to full page coverage of the World Badminton Championships. The big tennis stars (Paes, Bhupathi & Sania) are still here, with Somdev DevBurman & Yuki Bhambri also coming into the news. After a good performance in the Olympics our boxers are still making news with their peformances in the various events.

And lastly the entertainment world. We have some more Indian Academy Award Winners. Rehman is now a global icon. Nothing much to write about in the Indian movies front though. Television is getting weirder day by day. News channels have become mass hysteria generators and nothing else. And the rest of the prograaming has been taken over by reality shows which are getting more and more unreal day by day.

So this is how I have seen India turn 62. More negative than positives came out. But its human nature to always hope for better. Hopefully I will have better things to write when India turns 63.

P.S. My views on 2007 & 2008

The ISM-IIT Debate

This post is for those related to Indian School of Mines only.

I have heard the issue of conversion of ISM to IIT since the day I joined ISM as a first year petroleum engineering student in 2001. Hardly a month passes before this issue gets raised in the online ISM comunities. And the issue gets discussed and debated, though nothing constructive has happened so far. Personally I am in favor of the conversion. For those who believe the same can sign an online petition.

http://www.petitiononline.com/ismu/

I am not sure how this would work out, but at least its worth trying out

Love Aaj Kal

Watched the latest flick "Love Aaj Kal" over the weekend. It was interesting, didnt get bored during the movie. But I liked it enough to blog about it. Here are some takeaways from the film (dont mind the MBA jargon :P)

1. The global economic recession is still very much there. Everyone's in on cost-cutting. How else do you explain the producer (Saif Ali Khan) playing two unrelated characters (Jai & the younger Veer)?

2. Jai gets his dream job. He goes to office daily, eats a burger, parties with friends, comes home and plays video games. Slowly he gets bored with this routine and becomes more and more depressed with his own lonely existence. He seems to be sick of his own life which everybody around him considers to be awesome. The character and the scene seemed to be an almost perfect image of my own current life. I go to office, do some work, come back home and play mafia wars on facebook, and lead a perfectly single and loner life.

3. I dont think I have ever waited for a character to just appear on-screen and wished she had more screen time. Harleen Kaur doesnt say much during the film but her very appearance simply lights up the screen like nothing else could have. No wonder it brought about such a change in Veer. And who cares if its a Brazilian (Giselle Monteiro) playing a Punjabi girl. I think I have fallen in love here :)

Some Random Words

Words are meant to communicate... but some words stay with you for long. Its been now more than a year since I started my new life. Here is a random collection of quotes and conversations which took place over the last year or so.

Note: The identity of the people has been kept secret for obvious reasons :P

• Jab Saboon laga liya hai to nahana to parega hi. (The reason for having to make more expenditure)
• Doosron Ki Shaadi me hum kyun shehnai bajaye?
• The Impairment of the Invisble by the Uncontrollable resulting in a Reduction of the Unquantifiable !!! (Someone trying to explain formation damage)
• I came over and saluted your seat and paid my respects to it.
• A - "We had a nice feast in the Jamnagar mango garden" ; Reply - "I Hate You"
• Girl With Big Dog, trying to enter the lift,"Aapko Isse Darr lagta hai?" - We, inside the lift, "Haan" - Girl & Big Dog, entering the lift, "Koi baat nahi, nahi kaatega"
• Q - "Can we meet?"- A - "Ask my boss"
• "God came to India" - "Kaun Pele?" (On being shown Maradona's pic)
• Yuvi ne dhuandhar batting ki (Translation - Yuvi was batting smoking smoking)
• "Do you smoke?" - "No" - "Then your existence is useless"
• If you do not do this, you will not make any progress and you will grow a tail and die like a monkey
• "Sir, we met you last week" - "Yes, I remember" - "Sir we sent you a mail" - "I saw that" - "Sir, it had a file attached" - "I did not fill it" :)
• Forget the frame and get some work done (after an hour hour long discussion on frameworks went nowhere)

The Zoozoos are Here

The Zoozoos are here, there and everywhere. The white creepy and cute figures with egg shaped heads, huge tummy and ultra-thin arms and legs are everywhere. They are on television and the internet. They are promoting Vodafone products during the ad breaks in IPL and now they have started giving interviews in innings breaks as well. Today, they arrived on the office computer screen. Apart from the ads themselves, I have seen them as facebook application, zoozoo smileys, zoozoo quizzes and what not. (By the Way, I am a cool Zoozoo, as are apparently all my friends). They can be downloaded as wallpapers, ads and even the making of ads themselves are available everywhere on the net, they can also be used as emoticons. And it seems there is no stopping them as Vodafone are planning to release 30 such ads. I guess, soon they will start appearing in dreams also jumping around and talking gibberish in their funny tones. Maybe by this time they will have a team of their own in all the major sporting leagues. Just imagine a team of zoozoos playing cricket or football :P.

But it has to be said it has been a brilliant and highly successful ad campaign.

The Curious Case of IPL2

Its been a week since the second edition of the Indian Premier League began across the Indian Ocean in South Africa. The first edition was a thriller. And there were doubts whether the second edition would retain the same attention. So far, this edition has proven to be a curious case to say the least.

The tournament was moved to South Africa because of general elections taking place in India. But South Africa also had its elections. And more interestingly there were two games held on election day (both proved to be thrillers).

T20 was supposedly a young man's game. But going by this year's results so far, it seems to be a battle of supremacy amongst the golden oldies. Matthew Hayden and Rahul Dravid are leading the race for the orange cap while Anil Kumble is the joint highest wicket taker so far. And there have been good performances from most of the other senior players too. Seems that the South African conditions are truly separating the men from the boys.

Unlike last year there has been hardly any memorable performances from the younger lot. Of couse with the honorable exception of Kamran Khan.

Strategic Breaks: Disrupt the momentum of the game. But are raking in the money for the broadcasters while I utilise it to surf random channels :)

Apart from the games themselves there is a lot happening on and off the field also.

The Cheerleaders: They are back and entertaining the public. After the hue and cry raised against them last year, there have been no comments this time around. So watching them on TV seems to be OK with our moral police.

The Dog: Bruno halted play for 10 minutes in the opening match while nobody knew how to shoo it off the pitch.

The Blog: The Fake IPL Player. Whoever you are Sir, you rock. If what you write is true, then well no comments :P. Anyway the frequency of posts has reduced. But the content is intersting to say the least. Rumours have been floating around the identity of the blogger. There have been reports of him having been caught but the posts still continue to roll in. (And he has developed a huge fan following with over 2200 followers and thousands of comments in his week old blog)

The Hovering Camera: Is causing more trouble than its worth. Provides a top view of the pitch which is useless. All you get to see is the batsman's helmet. And its causing as much trouble as the sight screen for the batsmen as it zooms in.

The Commentory: Well am sick of this DLF maximum and Citi - Moment of Success business. But the roaming commentators are a good idea. Although Mandira Bedi should be thrown out.

And for my view of things

The Hello Tune: On the opening day the entire office had its hello tune changed to the Mumbai Indians theme song. Call anyone up and you get AALA RE blasting from the other side.

The Ad: I like the Vodafone ads witht the cute little cartoon figures. Hate the one with the Hello Hellos shouting on and on.

The Fantasy League: Rain abandoned the one game in which 5 of my fantasy XI were playing :(. Jesse Ryder scored runs after I dropped him from my team while Dravid went the other way :(. Of course I did make a brilliant decision to bring on AB de Villiers. Current rank is in 13000s. Hoping to improve as the tournament progresses.

So this is as far as the first week of the tournament was concerned. Hoping the case gets more curiouser as the IPL progresses.

P.S. Happy 36th birthday to the LEGEND

Fairytales do still take place

The times are bad. Switch on the television to any news channel or just pick up a newspaper. All one can find is bad news coming from everywhere, whether its the global economic crisis or the terrorist strikes happening across the world. The atmosphere is filled with gloom. And it is at times like these that the sports world can provide events which lift up the spirits. The sports arena supplies stories like no other. Stories that touch the heart. Case in point: Afghanistan achieving ODI status in cricket.

Not long ago, the country was ruled by Taliban and had been for all practical purposes cut off from the rest of the world. Then 9/11 happened. And Afghanistan came back into global conciousness after the Taliban was overthrown. Sports play a major role in this (Just look at post-apartheid South Africa after years of international isolation).

About a year and half back a ragtag bunch of Afghans started playing in the World Cricket Leagues. The team slowly worked its way to the World Cup Qualifiers going from Division 5 to Division 2 after winning every single stage. At stake in the tournament was a place in the 2011 cricket world cup and ODI status for the next 4 years. Though they failed to qualify for the World Cup, they did get ODI status. On the way they beat the powerful Associate teams like Ireland, Scotland & Bermuda. The story of Hamid Hassan and his team from the war-torn country provided the romance of the cup. In fact they were the main attraction of the tournament. The whole world loves the underdog and the underdog who performs is even more loved than anything else.

The journey of the Afghanistan team over the last 15 months does prove one thing:

Fairytales do come true

The Elections are Here

Its that time again. Time for the biggest festival in India. The General elections. We might have the Olympics and the World Cups in different sports but nothing, absolutely nothing gets bigger or better than this. This time we will be having a 5 phase voting spread over a month. The official notification has been released and the fun has begun. But the political games had started long time time back. The big 2, Congress and BJP are in deep negotiations with the allies. Both camps making new alliances and losing out on old ones (Losing mostly). And we have the bunch of power hungry opportunists who call themselves the Third Front (Left parties, BSP, Telugu Desam etc), who have no common ideology except a shared hunger for power. And this is just the beginning. Post results (with a hung Parliament, the most likely result) will be the time when the power brokers come into action. New back room king makers will emerge. Lets just wait and watch and enjoy the political power games.

Some snippets of the games going on

• Advani calls Manmohan Singh a puppet and has his track record as home minister laid out in open by the PM (which was a bit surprising)
• BJP bombards the internet with links to Advani's blog (Sorry, but no links here)
• Varun Gandhi gets into trouble from EC
• Congress & BJP are ditched by their allies
• Third front starts dreaming again (Personal opinion - Dont care if its UPA or NDA in power, but Congress/BJP should be the one forming the government, not this bunch of oppotunistic jokers)
• IPL becomes non-resident (South Africa is the confirmed venue) and political mudslinging starts on that too (hardly surprising, given that most BCCI units are headed by politicians)

So the fun has begun (though the nation's future is at stake). Lets just sit back and enjoy while it lasts. But more importantly go out and vote on the electon day. (I can't because I will not be in my home constituency at the time of voting)

The Non Resident Indian Premier League

Been a while since my last post here. Well work life has become a bit more busy. Although if I really wanted to I could have still written down a few posts in the interim. And its been a longer time since I wrote about my favourite topic, Cricket. So here goes.

Our biggest festival, the General elections are here. Now, unlike other parts of the world where national elections take place on one day with the results available by the next day, ours is a spread out process. this time the elections are in 5 phases spread over a period of over a month. Nothing wrong with that, specially with the security issues and the logistics involved in conducting this mammoth exercise. But unfortunately for cricket buffs like me, the general elections coincided pretty much with the second season of the IPL. This is how the drama unfolded.

• IPL announces the fixtures for the second season.
• The Election Commission announce the dates for the general elections.
• Sri Lankan team bus is attacked in Pakistan by terrorists injuring many players (which is one of the most disgusting things to have happened).
• The Home minister P.Chidamabaram says providing security to IPL would be difficult during the elections.
• Many of the state governments state thier inability to provide security.
• IPL modifies schedule which is again rejected by some states
• The schedule is modified again and again but always met with unwillingness from some state governments (Seemed like becoming a OR problem with each state providing their time constraints)
• End result. BCCI announces that the IPL will be held outside India.

So the Indian Premier League becomes the Non Resident Indian Premeir League with South Africa & England becoming the front runners to host it. But it does seem ironical that our dometic tournament is being hosted outside India. With the current security situation following the Mumbai attacks on 26/11 and Lahore attacks on the Sri lankan team, there can be no guarantees for anybody's safety. And with the elections going on (which is much more imprtant than cricket) providing extra security would not have been possible.

But as usual we have the political gamesmanship on. Some allege that the Congress governments were the ones refusing to procide security. Others allege that Congress was trying to arm twist NCP's Sharad Pawar (who happens to be ex-BCCI president) for a better alliance deal. Then the political mud slinging has also begun. But it all has become a farce.

Now if the touranment is held in South Africa, who would the people in the stadium (assuming some go to watch) support. TV viewership in India would likely remain same. But will the matches have the seem feel as last year. After all how many people would come to pay and watch the Non Resident Indian Premier League.

Main Aur Meri Tanhai

Since I joined my new job, quite a few times I have been asked this question about what I do with my free time. Now during the MBA life it as assumed that post-MBA life would only get worse. The work life would be pretty hectic and finding time for myself would be a rarity. But then they said the same about IIM life too. Its been more than eight months in the job and yes, I do get a lot of free time for myself post office hours, in spite of a six day week. So now comes the question of what I do with "my time".

Well, here is a random list of activities that I came up with

• Surfing the net, chatting, social networking (orkutting, dont know the corresponding term for facebook), news, etc
• Cricinfo for following all sorts of cricket (Tests, ODIs, T20s, Indian domestic). Also has great anlayses and columns. Personal favorite - Andy Zaltzman' s Confectionary Stall
• Watch foreign TV series, some ongoing some old episodes
• Watch movies
• Blog, when I am getting really bored, like now. Also like reading the blogs
• Youtube videos
• And lots of downloads, movies, music , e-books

All the above activities involve the laptop. Now for the other activities

• Cleaning up the room, (occasionally)
• Washing & ironing (hate doing the second part)
• Reading Books
• Occasional cooking (limited resources hamper this)
• Malling (a term coined for roaming about aimlessly in the mall of Navi Mumbai)
• Thinking (now this covers a whole range of issues, the big ones (where to go for dinner, how to reduce the tummy etc) and the small ones (Indo-Pak relations, IPL team configurations etc))
• And, of course, wasting time in sheer laziness

And for social life

• Flatmates
• Some old college friends

So basically this is what I am upto during my own time.

Or else there is always this immortal line for the loners

मैं और मेरी तन्हाई, अक्सर ये बातें करते हें....