The wham-bam-thank-you-mam version of Cricket just proved that though cricket might be a game of glorious uncertainties, irrespective of the version… class defies age and even certain principles of uncertainty.
Day one of IPL had 2 upsets as far as the team performance goes but as far as individual performance is concerned it fell in line with my thinking that legends are ones who can adapt to any terrain & conditions. Sachin, Dravid, Saurav, Laxman and Kumble where not born legends but took the stairway to legend hood.
However, the elevator and escalator bound team owners of the IPL who were pioneers at acting, building cities and airports, making cement, spinning yarns, publishing stories and even brewing liquor and flying planes at the same time fell well short of identifying, recognising or for that matter appreciating cricketing brilliance.
One man said it all tonight…after a brilliant 66 of 48 balls Dravid said that ‘such trying conditions favour ‘boys’ like us who play proper cricketing shots’… Even the erstwhile Mallya might not have noticed the subtle sarcasm in that statement. Dravid played like a man possessed out to prove a point to his critics. And he did it in style…
I might have jumped the gun in going all out in praise just after one performance but a seasoned cricket fan knows that this innings was one that is to be treasured for years to come. One of the commentators even wondered if he could ever get to see the repeat of a spectacular cover drive by Dravid in the remaining 59 games of the IPL.
It was a day when we saw two 36 year olds and a 39 year old from India and a 40 year old Aussie prove that age rarely matters in the shortest version of the game. Some crafty spin bowling by 2 veterans and a fine display of drives by 2 legendary batsmen…. what more can fans ask for.
Unfortunately I sense that good cricket is on the road to extinction, since the advent of the all new term ‘cricketainment’ which certainly has ‘tainted’ classical cricket. Cricket in all its glory was entertainment enough but today it is appreciated only when the kookaburra ball is airborne and sails over the boundary lines for a maximum which in turn is appreciated by gyrating maidens with plunging necklines and even shorter hemlines, which unfortunately is as important as bowling a 'maiden over'.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Indian political baptism of Shashi Tharoor.
Shashi Tharoor was the pride of Indians and in particular the Malayalees around the globe including me, not so long ago, a serious contender for the UN Secretary General post, unfortunately his stars were not quiet aligned and was ‘Banned by the Moon’. There ended his long innings with the UN and was homeward bound to test the political pastures of his motherland armed with a half baked knowledge of his own mother tongue.
He plunged head on into the Indian Political scene and more so into Kerala politics claiming to be a son of the soil. Managed to get a ticket from the largest nationalist party of India for the Trivandrum seat much to the ire of his cadres who were probably seeing him for the first time in the city. He did try the nostalgia / roots factor in his campaigns but in my opinion he underestimated the political wisdom of the citizens of Kerala, a state where Political astuteness and Political sense are natural inborn traits of its citizens.
I happened to see a program in one of the channels where they interviewed a couple of people from the lower strata of society in Trivandrum who had simply not heard of one Shashi Tharoor but confirmed that they would vote for the ‘Palm’ Symbol. Well such hardcore devotions to a party might carry him through which I doubt very much since the overall polling percentage in TVM was much lower than most of the regions in the state.
Of late you see a great many educated socialites throwing their hat into the ring, which as Dr. Manmohan Singh rightly said will only act as spoilers in this election. I’m also of the same opinion. Well there are so many better ways that the Shashi Tharoors, The Meera Sanyals, The Gopinaths and the Sarath Babus could have been service to the nation rather than seeking mandate from the people before having proved to them they were one among them.
Founding a low cost airline, contesting the highest position in the UN, being a private banker or even being the protagonist son of rags to riches story of an Idli vendor is not going to draw the voters in this great Indian democracy. Sure all of them might be better bets to our corrupt politicians but what all of them have failed to understand is that change does not happen overnight. Change cannot be brought about by an individual but by a movement. They should have concentrated on creating a movement rather than testing their own popularity. In a democracy it’s a movement that matters and not an individual. If it was an individual that mattered then an autocracy or a dictatorship would have long replaced the great Indian Democracy.
Shashi Tharoor made a better effort by aligning himself to the biggest National Party but unfortunately he simply did not realise that New York to Kowdiar is a long way. I’m no psephologist but I’m sure he will not win. If he does win then it would certainly be an aberration on the most politically literate state in India.
He plunged head on into the Indian Political scene and more so into Kerala politics claiming to be a son of the soil. Managed to get a ticket from the largest nationalist party of India for the Trivandrum seat much to the ire of his cadres who were probably seeing him for the first time in the city. He did try the nostalgia / roots factor in his campaigns but in my opinion he underestimated the political wisdom of the citizens of Kerala, a state where Political astuteness and Political sense are natural inborn traits of its citizens.
I happened to see a program in one of the channels where they interviewed a couple of people from the lower strata of society in Trivandrum who had simply not heard of one Shashi Tharoor but confirmed that they would vote for the ‘Palm’ Symbol. Well such hardcore devotions to a party might carry him through which I doubt very much since the overall polling percentage in TVM was much lower than most of the regions in the state.
Of late you see a great many educated socialites throwing their hat into the ring, which as Dr. Manmohan Singh rightly said will only act as spoilers in this election. I’m also of the same opinion. Well there are so many better ways that the Shashi Tharoors, The Meera Sanyals, The Gopinaths and the Sarath Babus could have been service to the nation rather than seeking mandate from the people before having proved to them they were one among them.
Founding a low cost airline, contesting the highest position in the UN, being a private banker or even being the protagonist son of rags to riches story of an Idli vendor is not going to draw the voters in this great Indian democracy. Sure all of them might be better bets to our corrupt politicians but what all of them have failed to understand is that change does not happen overnight. Change cannot be brought about by an individual but by a movement. They should have concentrated on creating a movement rather than testing their own popularity. In a democracy it’s a movement that matters and not an individual. If it was an individual that mattered then an autocracy or a dictatorship would have long replaced the great Indian Democracy.
Shashi Tharoor made a better effort by aligning himself to the biggest National Party but unfortunately he simply did not realise that New York to Kowdiar is a long way. I’m no psephologist but I’m sure he will not win. If he does win then it would certainly be an aberration on the most politically literate state in India.
It was only a Padma ‘Sri’ not a Padma ‘Sir’.
Skipping the Padma function by the skipper of the Indian Cricket Team and his trusted team-mate Harbhajan hasn’t gone well with the Indian public, the bureaucracy or me.
Well, would they have done the same had they been invited by the Queen of England to kneel in front of her for being conferred the title of a ‘SIR’, definitely not ...so why this casual approach to ‘SRI’. Guess being paraded down the streets of Cape Town like glorified slaves bought for a couple of millions of US$$$ was more heady than an honour from the Head of State of the largest democracy in the world.
Well these are days when one of the Bollywoods best known Khans pays his way to collect ‘Datukhood’ from Malaysia but there were also days when good old Indian Cricketers refused the Knighthood and a set of contemporary Indian cricketing legends of the likes of Dravid, Kumble and Tendulkar made it a point to collect their Padma awards personally.
If I may borrow a piece from one of my favourite Ayn Rands….’Money, my friend is the root cause of all evil’- Howard Roark
Well, would they have done the same had they been invited by the Queen of England to kneel in front of her for being conferred the title of a ‘SIR’, definitely not ...so why this casual approach to ‘SRI’. Guess being paraded down the streets of Cape Town like glorified slaves bought for a couple of millions of US$$$ was more heady than an honour from the Head of State of the largest democracy in the world.
Well these are days when one of the Bollywoods best known Khans pays his way to collect ‘Datukhood’ from Malaysia but there were also days when good old Indian Cricketers refused the Knighthood and a set of contemporary Indian cricketing legends of the likes of Dravid, Kumble and Tendulkar made it a point to collect their Padma awards personally.
If I may borrow a piece from one of my favourite Ayn Rands….’Money, my friend is the root cause of all evil’- Howard Roark
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Untouchability in Royalty
When Michelle Obama hugged (or rather put an arm around) the Queen of England it became a controversy. I’m surprised what rights / credential do the Brit press have in commenting on the untouchability in India when they claim that touching the Queen was a breach of Royal Protocol.
Check out the link to find out more on what happened
Check out the link to find out more on what happened
Pappu can’t stand...
The title refers to the recent ruling that Pappu Yadav cant contest the elections due to his ‘track’ records.. Well I drew inspiration for this title from the recently popular bollywood number ‘Pappu can’t dance’. Talking of Bollywood many of them are in the fray this elections. One says his father died because of the Congress Party while his sibling says his father died for the Congress party. Sibling rivalry coupled with some grammatical conflicts between ‘for’ and ‘because’ makes this election interesting.
I’m back to this blog after a hiatus; the reason being was busy and didn’t find reasons enough to pen (type) a story. But finally couldn’t resist the temptation of the Great Indian Democracy on the threshold of exercising its franchise.
A Gandhi behind bars and shifted bars (as in Jails) in the meantime for having batted for Hindutva when his grandfather’s name was Feroze and he himself was half Parsi and Half Sikh… a Dutt who carried out a sting on a Union minister and a Pappu who cant neither dance nor stand in this elections where inspirations enough for this blog.
It was a MONTH in which you saw all about the ‘HOW NOT BE A DEMOCRACY’ basics being displayed. Young kids off the block churn out speeches on dismembering other humans and whip up communal passion; couple of Avatomov Kalashnikov fans are denied tickets. All this happens when a former Under Secretary to the United Nations is also in the race but pulled up by our now famous Public Interest Litigation enthusiasts for having asked people to sing the anthem from their heart. Funny country this!!!
The media makes its money by analysing all of the above in programs titled the ‘The buck stops here’ when they clearly know that the buck never stops here nor there but just gets passed on.
Kudos to the Election Commission in their effort to carry out one of the most challenging tasks in one of the biggest democracy in the world. Let’s hope every one of us makes use of our rights to exercise our franchise and return the most efficient and honest leaders to the parliament to lead this country.
I’m back to this blog after a hiatus; the reason being was busy and didn’t find reasons enough to pen (type) a story. But finally couldn’t resist the temptation of the Great Indian Democracy on the threshold of exercising its franchise.
A Gandhi behind bars and shifted bars (as in Jails) in the meantime for having batted for Hindutva when his grandfather’s name was Feroze and he himself was half Parsi and Half Sikh… a Dutt who carried out a sting on a Union minister and a Pappu who cant neither dance nor stand in this elections where inspirations enough for this blog.
It was a MONTH in which you saw all about the ‘HOW NOT BE A DEMOCRACY’ basics being displayed. Young kids off the block churn out speeches on dismembering other humans and whip up communal passion; couple of Avatomov Kalashnikov fans are denied tickets. All this happens when a former Under Secretary to the United Nations is also in the race but pulled up by our now famous Public Interest Litigation enthusiasts for having asked people to sing the anthem from their heart. Funny country this!!!
The media makes its money by analysing all of the above in programs titled the ‘The buck stops here’ when they clearly know that the buck never stops here nor there but just gets passed on.
Kudos to the Election Commission in their effort to carry out one of the most challenging tasks in one of the biggest democracy in the world. Let’s hope every one of us makes use of our rights to exercise our franchise and return the most efficient and honest leaders to the parliament to lead this country.
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