My Day of the Bandh

Monday, July 5th, 2010

Bharat Bandh called by all opposition parties over fuel price hike. The bandh could be called a success. It certainly disrupted my life a bit. I did not go to work. First time since my days in Assam has any bandh had any effect on my life. Last time it was in February, 2006. ULFA had called an Assam bandh and my flight from Kolkata to Dibrugarh via Guwahati was halted in Guwahati itself. Alternative arrangements were made to reach Duliajan next morning by road. But that is another story for some other day.

Coming back to the Bharat Bandh. I wasn't sure whether I should step out of house or not. So I did a quick SMS survey of a few friends and colleagues asking them about their plans. The responses were as usual mixed. 

"In two minds, not sure, wait and watch".

"Not going, not that brave"

Some called to say they would be going. 

And finally came the answer "Just reached office".

Now reading this range of response I decided to look out. The traffic was much less. I could see a bunch of policemen also. Public buses plying on the roads. Though they were fewer in number (so it seemed to me) and there were certainly less people in them. I almost made up my mind to go. But at that moment also decided to switch on the TV. Switched on to the news. All I saw was a local train being stopped, buses being pelted with stones. Our round the clock news channels were certainly making all eefforts to motivate people to stay at home by showing repeated clips of violence at public transport and the deserted roads in Mumbai. And so the mind was made up. No way I was going to go out now.

And I also wondered "By not going to work, was I a participant in the protest movement, and supporting the people who called the bandh, or had I simply taken a personal safety decision?". This question I put on Facebook and Twitter. There were a couple of interesting replies.

"Neither... you are simply bunking"

"You are not wrong"

I am not sure what, if anything, was gained out of this bandh. Seemed to me a massive exercise in futility. Nothing really happened. With no elections in the horizon, the government can simply ignore such activities. Many people took it as an extended weekend. Loss to the exchequer must have been huge though. I used up a leave.

And for the people enforcing the bandh, it must have been a really LONG day at work.

Hand of God or Hand of Devil

World Cup Football, 2010

2nd Quarter-Final, Uruguay vs Ghana.

Last minute of Extra-Time. The sores are level at 1-1 after 120 minutes of struggle in which the teams dominated in phases. Ghana make a last ditch effort to score the winning goal. Off a free-kick, the ball floats in dangerously in the penalty box. After multiple hits around the penalty box it is finally going into the goal, with the goal keeper beaten. But before the ball could cross over the goal line, Uruguayan player Luis Suarez blocks it with his hands and prevents it from crossing over. A deliberate handball and a foul. Suarez is immediately shown the red card and Ghana awarded a penalty. Ghanian striker hits the crossbar and the ball goes over. And the referee blows the whistle. The game went into a penalty shootout which Uruguay won 4-2 and proceed on to the semi-finals.

The Ghanian players were gutted and so were their supporters, the entire African continent. They had been denied the chance to become the first African team to reach the World Cup semi-finals by the thinnest of margins. The Uruguayans were celebrating.

The focus though was on one man, Luis Suarez. No one is quite sure whether what he did was right or ethical. It was certainly legal. He has probably made the greatest self-sacrifice in footballing history. But in doing so ensured that his team still had a chance. And it was a chance which the Uruguayans did take. Suarez did commit a foul (a deliberate one) and was duly punished also. Ghana failed to capitalise on that.  He didn't get away with cheating. He is going to miss the semi-finals but has ensured that the rest of his team doesn't.

Ghana maybe feeling cheated. Uruguayans are celebrating. But the neutral observers have been left divided. Suarez's act is in the proper grey area. He was punished for a crime but his team survived because of his crime. In one sense the perfect crime and the ultimate self-sacrifice for the greater cause.

It certainly was the Hand of God for the Uruguayans but "Hand of Devil" for all Africa.

70-68

Wimbledon 2010, Gentlemen's Singles 1st Round, John Isner (USA) beats Nicolas Mahut (France) 

Score: 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (7-9), 7-6 (7-3), 70-68

Match started on Tuesday and ended on Thursday, with a playing time of more than 11 hours with the final set itself lasting over 8 hours. On Wednesday as the final set reached the 20 all stage, everyone's attention had shifted to Court 18 at Wimbledon. Soon the score updates and match details were pouring out everywhere. My Twitter and Facebook timelines were flooded with score updates. And at 59 all the match had to be halted due to bad light. The commentator announced that the game would resume for a third day on Thursday and reminded everyone that this was not a cricket match but a game of tennis which is going on. Thursday was a historic day because the Queen was visiting Wimbledon for the first time since 1977. But attention was totally on the goings-on in Court 18. Isner and Mahut played 20 more games before finally Isner managed to break Mahut's serve in the 138th game to win the match.

Probably every single professional tennis record got broken. Longest Match, Most Games, Most Aces (both player broke that by a huge margin). In fact the final set itself was much longer than any tennis match ever played. The match already has a wiki page of its own now. The scorecard failed during the match as it could not keep up with the number of games. And the best twitter comment was about Norwegian officials rushing to Court 18 to negotiate a settlement between the players. It even managed to steal the headlines from the ongoing football world cup.

It was a remarkable game representing probably everything that is good about sport. Two players fought long and fought hard. Neither conceded an inch but they played in the right spirit. And what really stands out is that  in the bigger context this match meant nothing. It was just a first round match. There were no trophies or big prize money to play for. The winner was most likely going to emerge too exhausted to may be even stand on his feet, forget playing in the next round. Which was exactly the outcome. Isner lost in straight sets in just over an hour in the second round. He was exhausted but he did come to play the 2nd round and completed it, thus showing true respect for his opponent Mahut. Isner later withdrew from doubles. Sometime in sports it seems unfair that there actually has to be a result. This was one such instance.

This post is for the two men who gave the world a remarkable game of tennis to be remembered forever. To John Isner and Nicolas Mahut.

Its Raining

5 nights ago, I wished it would rain. There were intermittent, sporadic showers. But no monsoon rains. At least not until today. It rained in the night, It rained during the day. And I got a little wet coming back from office. But absolutely loved the weather. There is something marvellously uplifting about the rain. The pit-pat-patter of the raindrops on the windows, getting soaked in the showers. Just marvellous. 

And the rains will make the heart want to sing. Here is list of random rain songs which came to my mind.

1. Shubha Mudgal's - Ab Ke Saawan Aise Barse
 Hoping for a great rainy season. Full of energy, this is a song celebrating the arrival of the monsoon.

2. BJ Thomas - Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head
If I am outside while it is raining, the song automatically starts playing in my head.

3. Saawan Barse Tarse Dil - from the movie Dahek
Soft romantic number, and Sonali Bendre, nothing more to be said.

4. Ek Lakdi Bheegi Bhaagi Si - all time classic from Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi
Kishore Kumar, Madhubala, a rainy night, a broken down car and simply MAGIC.

5. Saawan Ka Mahina Pawan Kare Sor - from the movie Milan
Shor nahi baba sor, SOR

Let It Rain

Just Past Midnight
Lightning & Thunder But No Rain

A Cool Breeze

Body Wants Sleep,Mind Doesn't

Gmail, Facebook, Twitter All Ckecked

Daily Blog Updated

Nothing To Watch On TV

Don't Really Know What I Am Doing

Dreading The Days Ahead

And Looking Forward To Them As Well

Just Let it Rain

Homework in Today's World

Found this article here. The picture here really is the sign of times now. There is now a business in doing homework for nursery kids also.

The Sea... and Me

It had been a wish for quite some time now. And it finally got fulfilled last week. I made my first offshore trip (not a foreign country, but a petroleum installation). Not having visited any offshore installation so far had been a big gap in my petroleum engineering career (rather, former career). So finally managed to visit 2 installations in the Bay of Bengal earlier this month.

The Sea is an enormous thing. And it is beautiful. Blue waters, Waves moving, Fish swimming in the sparkling water, Dolphins jumping around, Finhing Boats everywhere, the birds. Yes it was beautiful. And looking all around, it made me think quite a bit. Maybe it does to everyone. The realisation that I am just a small human being comes up as I see the water everywhere, all around. And yes, it was a lonely place too.

Unfortunately, my mobile phone was taken away  (safety reasons), so no pictures to share from that visit. Only memories.

And Yes, another item checked on the List

Where do you see yourself after 5 years???

Its that time of the year again. The CAT results are out. The interview lists have been drawn up. And the qualified candidates would have probably got a registered post from the respective institutes. The contents of the post would be (a) A letter intimating the date, time & venue of the GD/PI; (b) a 6-10 page form to be filled in and brought alongwith other required documents to be submitted at the same time.

Your elation at receiving the interview call then slowly diasappears as you read the form. The first page with all the personal details would be the easiest to fill out. But then start arriving, the really weird questions.

• Where do you see yourself after 5 years? (Honest answer, I dont know)
• Where do you see yourself after 10 years? (Again, I dont know)
• Where do you see yourself after 20 years? (OK, I exaggerated a bit here)
• Why do you want to pursue management as a career? (For the money, Honey, but see if anyone can give this answer)
• Narrate an incident when you had to show leadership skills? (???)
• Narrate an incident when you had a disagreement with people around you? And how did you handle the situation? (???)
• Narrate an experience which changed your perspective of life? (Seriously!!! Almost all of us have had pretty normal kind of lives. Where the hell does this life-changing, earth-shattering experience come from)

And it can go on and on. People with work-ex could still cook up something to write in here. But even then its not easy. Most people (yours truly included) manage to put in something and just try to get around and go through it. My suggestion, just write in whatever comes to mind and do it honestly. Browsing the net and creating artificial situations doesnt help. The only point of these questions as I see is that they they are trying to test your creativity and writing skills.

Why am I writing about this now? Anyone who successfully clears this process immediately becomes a consultant in this matter for the future generations to come. So results are out, interview calls have come and telephone calls, pings, scraps, mails seeking guidance have started coming. So just felt like writing about those experiences.

And for the question about where I see myself after five years, its been four years down the line and I am still to figure it out :)

The Bugle, The Dog & Mr. Pavlov

The IPL is on. Which means that there is something interesting to watch on TV every evening for the next 6 weeks. However this post is not about the cricket. (All cricket related posts are on the crickiblog).

Everyone who has watched even part of matches would have made this observation. Every now and then comes an irritating sound and the crowd goes wild. Its referred to as the Bugle and the in-stadium DJ plays its whenever he feels like. But the response is always the same. A loud cheer from the crowd. And this seems to be an universal phenomenon. It happened in South Africa last year, and its happening in India also.

Is it part of natural human instinct to cheer when you hear the bugle. Or has it become a case of "Classical Conditioning experiment", like Pavlov's Dog (dog started salivating on hearing a bell ring it associated it with food) with  the crowd in the stadium cheering when the DJ pushes the bugle button?
My theory is this. The Bugle seems to have originated in the South African domestic Pro20 games. The Bugle would be played whenever the crowd had a cause to celebrate and the crowd would cheer. In IPL2 the crowds were mostly neutral to the teams playing. So they would cheer whenever the bugle got played. And television coverage brought this to Indian audiences. The bugle came to India during the Champions League. The crowd reaction stayed the same. Now regardless of the match situation the crowd cheers on hearing the bugle.

Phir Dil Do Hockey Ko

Phir Dil Do Hockey Ko...

The Hockey World Cup has got under-way. This is the message that Virender Sehwag, Rajyavardhan Rathore & Priyanka Chopra are giving to the country. The ad campaign is catchy and effective.
Hockey in India has acquired a somewhat mythological status. We have got enough Olympic gold medals (8 of them) to ensure bragging rights as probably the greatest hockey nation of all time. The team won six consecutive gold medals from 1928-1956 without being beaten even once. The exploits of these players are told as epic tales. Dhyanchand has been selected as the Indian sportsperson of the 20th century. But sadly that era is long gone. We failed to even qualify for a place at the Beijing Olympics. 

The decline has been steady. There have been a few false dawns in between. The Asiad gold in Bangkok, 1998; The near-miss in Sydney Olympics; a couple of Asian Championship wins but after that its all back downhill. The administration has bungled big time. The KPS Gill regime was removed and replaced by a temporary committee but there isn't much sign of improvement. Indian Hockey has been in news mainly for the wrong reasons in the past couple of decades. Even the players threatened to go on strike for not being paid. (Sounds similar to West Indies cricket story)

It is in this context the Hockey World Cup is being held in New Delhi. India took on arch-rivals Pakistan on the opening day. It was lovely to actually hear the national anthem sung by the large crowd present at the stadium. The crowd was loud and cheered on the Indian team as they destroyed Pakistan 4-1. Our media went over the board as they always do. Cash prizes were announced for the players. All this jingoism came crashing down in the next game as we lost to Australia 2-5. Now some people started asking for the rewards to be withdrawn. 

But what was most heartening to note was that people actually cared a bit for the tournament (I was asked the hockey score in office while working late during the Australia game). The tournament broadcasters reported TRPs way beyond even that of cricket matches. Just hoping this kind of support continues after the World Cup also regardless of the result.

After all Hockey is our national sport and  was the sport which brought India on to the global sporting map.

फिर दिल दो ह्वाकी को...