Time, where art thou?

Probably the busiest period of my stay here at IIT.

Last Week: Spons, IMS, Midsem, Quiz, Presentation, Drams, Assignment.
This Week: Assignment, Midsem, Spons, Intern, Drams, IMS, Quiz.
Next Week: Presentation, Spons, HOME, Intern, Assignment.
Next^2 Week: Presentation, Seminar, Intern, Term Paper, Spons.
Next^3 Week: Endsems on the way, Spons
Next^4 Week: Endsems.
Next^5 Week: Radar goes blank.

Sigh!!

Gaffe at T20

This is the image that would be etched in our mids for quite some time. Oh! what a game of cricket it was - more so because India won eventually. But what sticks out as a sore thumb and has refused to recede from the confines of my mind is the following quote of Shoaib Malik at the presentation ceremony:

"First of all I want to say something over here. I want to thank you back home Pakistan and where the Muslim lives all over the world. I am sorry we didn't win but promise we did give our 100%..." (sic)

It still eludes me as to what makes him think that every Muslim in this world would be cheering for Pakistan and not for their home country. All of us know that Pakistan is a declared Islamic state but Shoaib has conveniently assumed that all Islamists are Pakistanis. This is so naive a comment that I still find it hard to believe that it has come from the captain of an international cricket team. Agreed that Shoaib Malik was fearful of the fact that he might suffer the same fate as Bob Woolmer but this is not the way to go around saving your life. Imagine the kind of impact his comments would have had on the many Muslim households (particularly one Pathan household which had two of their Muslim sons playing together for India for the first time) in India who were cheering for their home country. As Mukul Kesavan rightly writes:

It is a world where Muslims, Hindus and a Sikh currently play (the game of cricket) for England, where Buddhists, Muslims, Christians and a Hindu play for Sri Lanka, where Hashim Amla turns out for South Africa, where a Patel plays for New Zealand, where Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and Hindus play (and have always played) for India. Why would Shoaib think, then, that the Muslims of the world were collectively rooting for the Pakistan team or that they felt let down by its defeat? Did he stop to think of how Danish Kaneria, his Hindu team-mate, might feel hearing his Test skipper all but declare that the Pakistan team is a Muslim team that plays for the Muslims of the world? It is one thing to be publicly religious—Shahid Afridi thanked Allah and Matt Hayden and Shaun Pollock are proud, believing Christians—quite another to declare that your country's cricket eleven bats for international Islam.

If Shoaib took in nothing else about the final, he must have noticed that the bowler who took his wicket was called Irfan Khan Pathan, that the Indian team's most visible cheerleader, the guy who was hugging Indian players in turn at the end of the game, was one Shah Rukh Khan. I feel a residual distaste in even mentioning their names because both Shah Rukh and Irfan are admired in India for what they've achieved, not who they are... (link)

It's time to hire a PR agency, Mr. Malik !!

Vividh Bharati and the Independent India

I admit to never hearing Vividh Bharati, but I have heard enough stories to consider it as an integral part of the just-independent India's culture. Vividh Bharati would complete it's 50 years tomorrow and is hosting a day long program to commemorate the event. The Hindu came out with a brilliantly written piece on the history of Vividh Bharati and it's association with the India of yesteryears.

It was a life dictated by Akashvani. If Baldevanand Sagar as much as began the Sanskrit news, it sounded my death knell, as it was time to run out of the house to catch the school bus. The day ended with a glare from my mother if I did not go to bed when the long-drawn and dramatic voice announced ‘Hawa Mahal’. In the absence of television and national newspapers in our town, the 9 p.m. news was the most important link with the world outside. Having little interest in news, I would get fidgety and more often than not, end up speaking and being firmly reprimanded by my father. Bored, as I walked up to my room, Ramanuj Prasad Singh’s booming voice followed me....Read more

A few interesting points discovered:

• Jhumiri Talaiya (yes, it is a real place and not a figment of imagination) became famous throughout India overnight as youngsters in the town would compete on who sent out the most song requests in a day or month. This led to almost all Vividh Bharati Radio listeners being aware of the name of this town and subsequently the whole of India. (Wiki link)
  

• The show comperes used to qualify themselves as Aapki Behan or Aapka Dost and not as RJs. Get one female compere to announce herself as "Main hoon aapki behan XYZ" today and that station would have all it's listeners switched off in a second.

Pretty interesting must have been those times !!