I and Y

There is a great sense of irony in the names of people who run the two cricket leagues in India.

While IPL has been consummated, mid-wived, delivered and nurtured all by Lalit MODI, its lesser known step-brother ICL has a Himanshu MODY to take care for. Modi and Mody - I and Y.

While IPL has been busy giving logistical lessons to FIFA, helping South Africans to go to school and lest we forget, boosting the South African economy by 3 million Rands, ICL has plummeted to spiralling rounds of self introspection catalyzed by the latest ICL tournament's cancellation and the impending mass exodus of players following BCCI's amnesty.

It is only ironical that while Modi seems to suffer from capital I disease, Mody is left asking: Y is all this happening to me?

Bliss

Consider these factors:

- Being up all through the night
- Sitting on the 4th floor terrace
- A good breeze blowing
- Being with the 8 best friends of yours who you have spent the best part of your last 5 years
- Sharing a bottle of scotch
- Hogging the last leftovers of grub that you have in your wing
AND
- Doing all the senti talk like you have never done before
- Inventing theories on the existence of your being

With the knowledge that you have an end sem to write within the next 24 hrs.


Nothing but sheer bliss!!

Cricket Trivia

The first testicular guard was used in cricket in 1874 and the first helmet was used in 1974. It took 100 years for men to realize that the brain is also important!

Tells quite a bit about our priorities.

Plain Comical !!

Here is Ponting:

In their first innings, it took us 70 to 80 overs to get the reverse-swing going. Their guys were doing it within six to eight overs. That's a big difference. (Source)

Death of Cricket

Can anybody hear the death knell of cricket (sans IPL) ringing not too far away?

International cricket will die of neglect if this pattern carries on. Zimbabwe is already a basket case; West Indies is relying on Allen Stanford to kiss it back to life. Many of Bangladesh's senior players, who have never yet been invited on a full tour of India in spite of playing them in the country's maiden Test in November 2000, have given up hope of ascending to the big time, and have instead sold their souls to the Indian Cricket League. Don't be surprised if a raft of Pakistanis follow suit. The Champions Trophy may have been detested as a competition, but right now, no one feels quite as detested as its jilted host. (Source)

And not to mention, according to the Australians, you have a far greater chance of being attacked in Pakistan, which hasn't seen attacks in its cricket hosting cities far a while now, in comparison to Bangalore (venue of the 1st Test Mach between India and Australia) and New Delhi (Venue of the 2nd Test Match)

This and that

Chalk and Cheese !!

Source

The snow and the scarf

I am currently reading, rather very slowly, a book titled Snow authored by the Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk. Haven't read much of it - only the first hundred odd pages.

The book narrates the experience of a poet who goes to the distressed town of Kars, Turkey to report on the prevalent suicide epidemic among the young girls there. The primary reason being - the modernist and secular Turkish society bans the girls from wearing head scarves lest their names are struck off the roles. The head scarf has always been a symbol of the girl's dignity and her love for Islam. She considers the innocuous act of removing the head scarf demeaning to the Almighty. Stuck between the dilemma of being allowed to lead a normal life without her head scarf and being considered as a social outcast with her head scarf, most of them took the easy route of taking their lives themselves.

Given the uninteresting nature of our classes, it is always advised to carry some reading material to keep oneself occupied while the professors blabber away to glory. Snow has been my reading accompaniment for the last few days.

As I was walking the corridors of my college the other day with nothing but this book in my hand, I spot a beautiful petite female Muslim student strolling around dressed in a traditional salwar kameez with the head scarf on. For a moment, I was standing still wondering at the coincidence.

Pretty co-incidental and I am proud, albeit for a moment, about the liberalized education system that I reside in. Please for a moment, allow me to forget the Rajs and Nandus.

Napoleon and Einstein playing cricket

A man who responds to the name of two legends - Napoleon and Einstein - is currently donning the national colours for the U 19 Indian Cricket Team.
This has potential to make pretty interesting headlines which could be - "Napoleon disrupts the progress of the Barmy Army" or "Einstein relates his success to the quantum of the spin".

There have been some memorable names in cricket - perhaps none more so than Hogflesh - but there's one at the Under-19 World Cup that runs it close. Napoleon Einstein, an offspinner from Tamil Nadu, is part of the Indian squad.

"My grandfather was a scientist," says Einsten. "He wrote a letter to Albert Einstein and even got a reply from him. I've got no idea [what the letter was about] even though I've read it. My mother was a physics graduate and she teaches Physics in one of the schools. So I'm Einstein. Napoleon is my father's name.

"We don't believe in God. In our family, we're rationalists. Other people are named Krishna and Ram after Gods, so we were named Einstein and Napoleon after great people." Link

Seems it won't be long before cricket turns itself from a gentleman's game to a rationalist's sport

Sunlight - A toy?

Heart wrenching stuff about the toys kids play with. Read the full post here.

A few days ago, Puttachi spotted a spot of sunlight on the wall, and she was fascinated. She forgot everything else and played with the spot for more than fifteen minutes, and that is a lot to say for some one as restless as this kid is.

And then she goes on to lick that spot of sunlight trying to decipher the phenomenon. Cute pics here. Take a look.

A Cheap Tree

I met this female yesterday - at one of those huge family receptions - who was an acquaintance a few years back. I think she recognized me going by the furtive glance she threw my way. As I walked up to her and stretched my hand for a shake, she made my hand hang in the air just for that extra bit of time which makes you feel that you are not wanted here. And then!!

"You look cheap.", she said.

Still not able to grasp the meaning of those words - and also being amazed at how could she say this after we had met for the first time in a few years - I could do nothing but give her a blank stare.

She repeated, "You look cheap, you look like a tree".

Trying to retrieve the situation before it went to the point of no return, I managed to blabber out, "I-look-like-a-tree but I don't give fruit".


Thankfully, the dream ended just then and I woke up from my afternoon siesta. It was scary !!

P.S. This post is autobiographical in nature.

Race for the Ratna

This is the cartoon which appeared in The Hindu today. A perfect slap in the face for all the political parties which had been lobbying for their respective leaders to be accorded the title of Bharat Ratna.

Dr. Radhakrishnan (first recipient of the award) would be turning in his grave if he found out that National Congress Party (NCP) had asked for a Bharat Ratna for Sharad Pawar. Greedy bastards !!

Champion Vs. Another Champion

Even the mini victories (of a point) against the champion need to be savoured. Have a look at this point which Fabrice Santoro won against Roger at this year's Australian Open.

Sad that this is the last we are seeing of Santoro.

WTF Quote of the day

"My father is a very kind man. And he very sorry when he does something like September 11" (sic), says Omar-bin-Laden, son of Osama-bin-Laden here.

That was long known. Isn't it?

Hockey and MBA

Ask any player who wields a hockey stick of his dreams and 9 out of 10 times the answer one would get is, "I want to represent my country at the Olympics" or "I want to win the gold for my country at Olympics". Not all, though. There are few of the variety who choose to skip an Olympic and pursue a MBA instead. Yes, please introduce yourselves to Viren Rasquinha.

Viren has represented India in Olympics in the year 2004 and is a former captain of the national side. The midfielder, an Arjuna Awardee, represented the country for eight years and also led the Maratha Warriors team in the Premier Hockey League from 2004 till 2007. Though now, he has secured admission in the Indian School of Business and is giving the Olympics a miss. (News link)

I may not be in a correct position to pass a judgement on this decision but imho, if he had cracked the admission test, there was every possibility that he could have cracked it next year as well given the fact that his GMAT score would have remained the same and the profile would have got richer by one more Olympic appearance. All this is not to happen though. For now, the nation has lost a hockey player, atleast temporarily.

Waking up to India, finally !!

A lot of movies have been made acknowledging the presence of the huge number of software techies in the West though most of these acknowledgments came from the Desis themselves. There have been a few instances where this fact has been portrayed by the Westerners, though very seldom.

Google has been feeding off our intelligence for quite some time now and it was expected that this would be visible in their PR exercises soon. A brilliant example of this is:

It was about time that either of Rakesh, Ramesh or Vivek (in this case) replace the till-now-present Marys, Ted, Rosss and Susans. How long would it take to see a Ted in the demos created by say indiatimes.com?

Ground Reality

Sanjay Bangar writes here about the state of the varied grounds used for Ranji Trophy matches. Here are a few intriguing excerpts:

There is a ground in Guwahati where a busy railway track runs right behind the sight-screen. The game has to stop on a number of occasions when a train is passing by as the players don’t want to be disturbed by a moving train when they want to concentrate on the moving ball, nor do the umpires want to miss a faint tickle because of the sound of the train.

The GSFC Ground in Baroda where we played the Ranji final in 2000-01 is located amid thick forestry. Players were often reluctant to go in search of the ball once it crossed the boundary rope because there we had loads of monkeys for company on the periphery and nobody was keen to invite the monkeys’ wrath in case they suddenly found a liking for the red cherry.

I am sure there would be so many more interesting stories in Indian first class cricket which don't reach our ears. And, it is a brilliant idea to get first class 'struggling' cricketers to write columns. This gives the aspirants an estimate of the steep climb before the glamorous peak and some sound-bytes to people like me who are suffering from the writer's block.

'Aaj Tak' aisa nahi hua..

B.P. Singhal, former IPS and ex-Rajya Sabha member, writes this in one of his columns after he was interviewed by Aaj Tak after the recent Narendra Modi expose by Tehelka.

Aaj Tak harped on the same old refrain that ‘Modi did not call the Army until three days had passed’. When the TV channel contacted me on phone to get my response, I told the anchor that the Godhra carnage took place on February 27, 2002, that the Hindu backlash commenced on February 28 and the Army was doing flag march on the forenoon of March 1… He cut me short by saying that ‘This is exactly what we had said, no action was taken by Modi on 29th, 30th and 31st thus giving three clear days to the murderers…’ I had to cut him short by reminding him that the date 28th was 28th of February 2002 and there were no 29th, 30th or 31st in that month. The phone was of course disconnected. Link

Depressing for the Indian media!! Isn't it? Though it certainly suits a news channel like Aaj Tak which makes breaking news out of things like "Abhishek Bachchan didn't say 'Hello Sweetie' to Ash this morning after waking up. Are they taking a divorce?" or even more wackier ones like "Sting on Sonia Gandhi: She has two holes on her left ear but only one on the right."

P.S. This inspires me to write a post on '10 most wackiest breaking news on Indian television'. Coming up soon.

So-Nil (in PR) Gavaskar

The mention of the word 'Sydney', at this point of time, would result in the recollection of all the ensuing fracas in the so called gentleman's game. A lot of ink has been wasted by a lot of people trying to shout at top of their voices on how Bucknor is a secret ISI agent sent to annihilate the Indian cricket team or whether Ponting should enrol for the Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's newly launched course titled "The art of playing".

And one voices among the present mob is of Sunil Gavaskar, who claims to be a commentator, very patriotic in nature who breaks down in the studio every time India record an overseas win. Though most of us have conveniently forgotten that he is also the the chairman of the ICC Cricket Committee and thus responsible for keeping the reputation of ICC intact but what we have seen of him in this episode is him lambasting the ICC left, right and center and even hinting at a racism claim against one of the ICC Referees. This is what he says:

Millions of Indians want to know if was a 'white man' taking the 'white man's' word against that of the 'brown man'. Quite simply if there was no audio evidence nor did the officials hear anything then the charge did not stand... This is what has incensed the millions of Indians who are flabbergasted that the word of one of the greatest players in the history of the game, Sachin Tendulkar, was not accepted. In effect, Tendulkar has been branded a liar by the match-referee.

Pretty naive and hasty for a man like Sunil Gavaskar to voice an opinion of such nature. Somebody truly needs to remind him that some part of his monthly wage is also contributed by the ICC.

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 !!