Indian Television: 50 Golden Years

Date: 15th September, 1959

Event: Launch of Television transmission in India.

Doordarshan is born.

Saw a nice documentary showing the 50 year journey made by television in India. As the timeline progressed it brought back lots of memories of the shows which I used to watch as a kid. Here is a list of those TV memories.

Ramayan (Ravan's laughter actually scared me in those days :P); Mahabharat; Surabhi (my all time favorite); Byomkesh Bakshi; Circus (dont remember much of Fauji); Discovery of India; Mulla Naseeruddin; malgudi Days; Mungerilal, Mr.Yogi, Karamchand; Turning Point; India Quiz; World of Sports; the still running Chitrahaar & Rangoli; the daily afternoon soaps (Shanti, Swabhimaan, Junoon), Dekh Bhai Dekh; the English serials (Yes Minister, Bodyline), Oshin (Japanese serial in English), Space City Sigma (a sci-fi program); No Kidding, Chhutti Chhutti (during summer holidays), the cartoons - Mickey Mouse & Donald Duck, Tom & Jerry; Pingu; Jungle Book (with its famous song - chaddi pahan ke phool khila hai); Vikram Betaal, Meri Aawaaz Suno (the singing contest); Current Affairs programs - The World This Week & Parakh & many many more.

Those were pprobably the golden days of Indian television. Very few but very good shows which are still memorable unlike today when TV watching has become more channel surfing than any viewing particular program. Would be nice to go back to that era.

150 years of oil industry

Pic: Drake's Well & Edwin Drake

The Date: 27th August, 1859

The Place: Titusville, Pennysylvania, USA

The Man: Edwin Drake

The Event: Oil struck at a depth of 69 feet. The first ever producing oil well is drilled leading to the birth of the oil industry.

This has to be one on the most impotant discoveries in the history of mankind. Without this natural energy resource, the entire industrial revolution and the technological advancement of the past one and a half centuries would not have taken place. Just imagine a world without oil. We would probably still have been living in the middle ages. The discovery of underground crude oil reserves would surely rank alongside mankind's greatest discoveries, like fire, agriculture, the wheel, written language etc. And over the last 150 years it has been the one industry with the maximum impact on the geopolitics and the global economy.

As the indutry celebrates 150 years of its existence, I salute the man who made it all possible. Col. Edwin Drake, hats off to you sir. After all that single discovery of you has had a very powerful impact on what I am today.

The Ashes

The most important cricketing contest of 2009 is over. We had the T20 World Cup & Champions Trophy will be underway soon. But the Ashes was the most eagerly awaited contest of them all. The end result: England beat Australia 2-1 to retain the Ashes (somehow I tend to forget the 5-0 thrashing given by Australia in 2006-07).

"When we were bad we were awful, but when we were good we managed to be just good enough" These words by English captain Andrew Strauss gave the best possible description of the series. Unlike the 2005 series which was faught between two great teams full of great players this time it was played between two average teams. Players like Trescothick, Vaughan, Simon Jones, Hayden, Langer, Martyn, McGrath, Gilchrist & Warne were really missed this time around. Even Pietersen, Harmison & Flintoff were not as good as they were in 2005. But still this was a great series to watch for the neutral viewers like me (though with an English bias).

This series was full of some great moments. The Jimmy-Monty last wicket stand to save the Cardiff Test (which proved the most decisive in the end), Flintoff's destructive spell at Lords, Broad's spell in the first innings at Oval, the batting of Clarke, North & Strauss throughout the series, Phil Hughes announcing on Twitter that he had been dropped before the team was officially announced, the dramas of the keepers' injuries, Haddin getting replaced by Manou after the toss at Edgbaston (this after I had named him as my trump player in the Cricinfo fantasy league), Prior's injury delaying the toss at Leeds, calls to get Ramprakash/Trescothick to shore up the faltering England batting for the final test, end of Anderson's awesome non-duck record, Trott's century on debut, and the biggest of them all, Freddie's retirement. If there was a player whose sheer presence could lift up his team, it was Andrew Flintoff. Statistically he wouldnt qualify as amongst the all time greats but his impact was always huge. He was the only one to come close to being Botham's replacement. Now people are already asking if Broad is the next Freddie (no one is looking for the next Botham anymore), such has been Flintoff's impact.

And lastly, whether one likes him or not but one does feel a bit sad for Ricky Ponting. After all he is the first Australian captain in over 100 years to have lost two Ashes series in England. And he has had to carry physical scars of both defeats. A scar on the cheek causd by Harmison's bouncer on Day 1 at Lords in 2005 and the getting hit on the mouth by a Prior shot at the Oval in 2009.

And the English papers are celebrating in the manner in which only they can. (Check the pic below)

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