Dear reader, (Ahem.. I know that it’s me and me only, most of the times) before getting into the matter, let me ask you, what exactly are you looking for? A creative and innovative solution to the Commonwealth Games organizing woes? Suggestions for conducting the Games in a better way? Or lessons that we should learn from the bitter experiences? This post is, nothing of that sort.
I take great pride in being an Indian. I am a sports lover as well. If you also belong to both of these categories, there couldn’t be a tougher time for you. I am, like the most of us, embarrassed and hurt, with the controversies related with the CWG. But it is better to appreciate the positives, rather than being dejected at the negatives. The following is an attempt to implement that thinking strategy.
1.Withdrawal of athletes
CWG, is the biggest sporting event that India has ever witnessed. But many of the top class athletes have already withdrawn from it, pointing at the safety and hygiene reasons. That might look like a disappointing thing, in the first look. But, that increases our winning chances. If all the other countries pull out, we win! Commonwealth games champions! May be that was what the organizing committee had in their plans. Anyways, it didn’t work out that way, and many teams have already arrived. But still, the absence of some of the big names might help our athletes.
2.PM steps in!
You know what that means? Just when the organizing chaos was running high, our prime minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh intervened. Till then, Sheila Dikshit was announcing deadlines to announce the next deadline. Whether the PM made a change or not, I don’t know. But with all the due respect to our democracy, let me say, both our current president and prime minister are rubber stamps. Our PM is a good economist, but, never a good leader. If he was, he wouldn’t have let things go this bad.
A sardar says : I’ve been proud of the industrious nature of Sardars. I’ve never seen a Sardar begging. Alas! Just then, Dr. Manmohan Singh was made the prime minister of India.
You know what is the difference between Dr. Manmohan Singh and our local pizza store? Our local pizza store stops taking orders at 11 in the night.
These jokes sum up what I’ve got to say about our PM. But just then, the news headlines about the PM’s intervention at the CWG, gave me a feeling that he is doing something on his own. Just a feeling. But it’s better than nothing. Right?
3.DD sports in HD
Are you people aware of the fact that there is a sports channel called DD Sports? There is. Apna Doordarshan’s sports channel. The channel has been operating, very effectively, for around a decade. It has always brought high quality sporting action to us, with superb picture quality. Their programs included the live coverage of the highly exciting games like Billiards, Caroms, Kabadi etc. Inter district cricket tournament in the state of Madhya Pradesh, Three day practice match between Australia and the President’s eleven, Race between tortoises conducted in Bihar etc. were covered, enabling us to catch the nail biting action live.
Now, they are going to telecast the CWG events, that too in HD. Their obsolete equipments have been replaced, spending a huge sum of money. At least for a small period, they are going to telecast something, that people would actually watch. Thank God!
Hope these worked for you. You see more positives like these? Let me know.
P.S :- Both the jokes about Dr. Manmohan Singh were picked up from Twitter. Credit goes to the unknown authors. I, shamelessly, copied those and used them in my blog, as if they were my own creations, and hoped that no one would find out. Bad me.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Thursday, September 23, 2010
A 'not so good' experience.
A quick note, this is. After quite sometime.
Whenever I get an opportunity to travel, literally, I pounce at it. Traveling, books, movies - all make me go crazy. Equally. Around a couple of weeks back, I had a chance to be at the city where I spent four important years of my life. One of my friends was with me, the experience that I was referring to, happened on our way back.
Trivandrum central railway station. Me and my friend, call him A, were waiting to get into Maveli express in which, we had booked two sleeper class tickets. Around ten minutes were left for the departure, and we located our compartment, and looked for our names in the chart outside it. A was looking at the chart very keenly, and I said, "What are you looking at man? Let's get in".
A gestured me to wait. "There is one right next to our seat, dude."
"what?" I didn't get it.
"F 18" A replied, with a smile.
"Whoa man, Let's hope she is beautiful. She might already be there at her seat. Come, let's get in" I pulled A and we both got in. But her seat was unoccupied.
"You shameless idiot. Why do you look for girls in the reservation chart?" I started an arguement with A, just to kill time.
"Oh I know the kind of a saint you are. You also do the same, don't ya?" A hit back in the same tone.
"Well, I have done it, sometimes, while traveling alone" I had to confess. "Ok, leave all that. Just five minutes left for the departure. She might come in, any moment. Don't look at her too much ok? I hold the rights for that"
"Aha. Keep holding the rights. She probably might look at me, and never at you." A replied.
"But I do have an edge, pal. My station arrives at 2 o clock in the night. I'll get up, and watch the sleeping beauty, before I get down from the train. By the time you get up, she might not be there" Just when I finished saying that, she came in.
She was fair, and beautiful. Wearing a peacock blue dress. Accompanied by two people, her grand parents, probably.
A lightning passed across my stomach. My heart sank, instantly. She couldn't walk, or stand properly. Her hands and legs were dangling, as if she had no control over it. Her grand father was carrying her, and she was trying to walk, without much success. He made her sit on the side lower birth. She was talking to them, but, it wasn't clear at all. I saw her grand mother holding a white cover on which it was written 'Department of radiology, Trivandrum medical college'
I could sense the drop of tear that was there at the corner of my eye. I looked at A. He is a religious person, and he was already aplogizing to Jesus. Both of us, silently, walked to the door. Train had already started moving.
When I woke up at 2 o clock in the night, I did look and smile at her.
Here I am, a fellow human being with countless number of imperfections and weaknesses. I live, each and every day, fighting with each of those, trying to be a better person. She does the same. The challenges that she has to overcome, is much tougher, though. But who decides that a few people have to fight a tougher battle than most of us? Why can't they be like the rest of us? I don't know. And I will never know.
Whenever I get an opportunity to travel, literally, I pounce at it. Traveling, books, movies - all make me go crazy. Equally. Around a couple of weeks back, I had a chance to be at the city where I spent four important years of my life. One of my friends was with me, the experience that I was referring to, happened on our way back.
Trivandrum central railway station. Me and my friend, call him A, were waiting to get into Maveli express in which, we had booked two sleeper class tickets. Around ten minutes were left for the departure, and we located our compartment, and looked for our names in the chart outside it. A was looking at the chart very keenly, and I said, "What are you looking at man? Let's get in".
A gestured me to wait. "There is one right next to our seat, dude."
"what?" I didn't get it.
"F 18" A replied, with a smile.
"Whoa man, Let's hope she is beautiful. She might already be there at her seat. Come, let's get in" I pulled A and we both got in. But her seat was unoccupied.
"You shameless idiot. Why do you look for girls in the reservation chart?" I started an arguement with A, just to kill time.
"Oh I know the kind of a saint you are. You also do the same, don't ya?" A hit back in the same tone.
"Well, I have done it, sometimes, while traveling alone" I had to confess. "Ok, leave all that. Just five minutes left for the departure. She might come in, any moment. Don't look at her too much ok? I hold the rights for that"
"Aha. Keep holding the rights. She probably might look at me, and never at you." A replied.
"But I do have an edge, pal. My station arrives at 2 o clock in the night. I'll get up, and watch the sleeping beauty, before I get down from the train. By the time you get up, she might not be there" Just when I finished saying that, she came in.
She was fair, and beautiful. Wearing a peacock blue dress. Accompanied by two people, her grand parents, probably.
A lightning passed across my stomach. My heart sank, instantly. She couldn't walk, or stand properly. Her hands and legs were dangling, as if she had no control over it. Her grand father was carrying her, and she was trying to walk, without much success. He made her sit on the side lower birth. She was talking to them, but, it wasn't clear at all. I saw her grand mother holding a white cover on which it was written 'Department of radiology, Trivandrum medical college'
I could sense the drop of tear that was there at the corner of my eye. I looked at A. He is a religious person, and he was already aplogizing to Jesus. Both of us, silently, walked to the door. Train had already started moving.
When I woke up at 2 o clock in the night, I did look and smile at her.
Here I am, a fellow human being with countless number of imperfections and weaknesses. I live, each and every day, fighting with each of those, trying to be a better person. She does the same. The challenges that she has to overcome, is much tougher, though. But who decides that a few people have to fight a tougher battle than most of us? Why can't they be like the rest of us? I don't know. And I will never know.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Deciphering politics
Indian politics continues to be the one thing which incessantly amazes me. It is something that I would never fully understand, no matter how hard I try. Just like electronics, the subject that I took up for Engineering studies.
But being a responsible citizen of this country, I can't fully turn my face away from politics. I need to know how my country is being run, by the representatives who are chosen by the people of this country. So, this post is the beginning of my humble attempt to analyze, understand and extract the valuable politics lessons, using the current happenings as my reference. I would also try to know about the various qualities that a politician should necessarily possess in order to lead this country to prosperity. If you are a mortal in a similar confused state as mine, join in, be a part, learn these valuable lessons, and throw in your suggestions. Or if you already claim to understand politics, there.. take that envious look from me.
Lesson no.1 - Never ending fight against corruption
Yes. That's something that politicians are supposed to do and talk about, throughout their political careers. Sorry. both are same. Talking is mostly what they do. Right? You can see corruption allegations being hurled at ministers and prominent leaders very often, and never think that it's for ruining the image of the enemy or for any sort of political gains. It's all part of the selfless fight. Want to see an example? No need to look too far.
If you have been reading the newspapers, or watching any of the news channels, you would know. The Bihar government was alleged of certain financial irregularities in the recent past. The opposition is demanding chief minister Nitish Kumar's resignation. Now, if you ask me, whether the allegation has truth in it, I don't know. That is definitely out of the radar of this blog. My focus is, the fight. Have a look at a few glimpses of that.
Bihar Assembly was in utter chaos, during last week. Now, for us, no better example can be found. How to fight against corruption is just being illustrated in the picture. Still don't get it? Let me explain
You can see the picture of MLC Jyoti Kumari throwing flower pots around. Flower pots made of clay tend to break when thrown from a particular height. What an effective way to protest against the alleged financial irregularities! But this particular technique works well only if the flower pots are the taxpayer's money. That's probably the reason why the respected MLC Jyoti Kumari didn't bring her own flower pots to implement this sophisticated yet effective way of fighting corruption. A slipper was flung at the speaker by someone. You might be thinking that it was a bit of an undisciplined act and all, but that's all part of the fight. A microphone was removed and thrown away, and lot more. Read the full story here.
I have studied about our political system in Social science, during my primary school days. But I never knew the practical side of it. Neither did the school Parliament teach me anything like these. Being in the school parliament was so easy, actually. No body threw slippers at each other. But the reality seems to be different. Chaos has prevailed in many of the state legislatures recently.(Link). So the school Parliaments need to change as well. Physical training is essential for the students. Or shall we club the school parliament with, say, Sports day or something? Training in Hammer throw, Shot put etc. might turn out to be pretty handy in the parliament.
Watch out for the coming lessons. Soon.
But being a responsible citizen of this country, I can't fully turn my face away from politics. I need to know how my country is being run, by the representatives who are chosen by the people of this country. So, this post is the beginning of my humble attempt to analyze, understand and extract the valuable politics lessons, using the current happenings as my reference. I would also try to know about the various qualities that a politician should necessarily possess in order to lead this country to prosperity. If you are a mortal in a similar confused state as mine, join in, be a part, learn these valuable lessons, and throw in your suggestions. Or if you already claim to understand politics, there.. take that envious look from me.
Lesson no.1 - Never ending fight against corruption
Yes. That's something that politicians are supposed to do and talk about, throughout their political careers. Sorry. both are same. Talking is mostly what they do. Right? You can see corruption allegations being hurled at ministers and prominent leaders very often, and never think that it's for ruining the image of the enemy or for any sort of political gains. It's all part of the selfless fight. Want to see an example? No need to look too far.
If you have been reading the newspapers, or watching any of the news channels, you would know. The Bihar government was alleged of certain financial irregularities in the recent past. The opposition is demanding chief minister Nitish Kumar's resignation. Now, if you ask me, whether the allegation has truth in it, I don't know. That is definitely out of the radar of this blog. My focus is, the fight. Have a look at a few glimpses of that.
Bihar Assembly was in utter chaos, during last week. Now, for us, no better example can be found. How to fight against corruption is just being illustrated in the picture. Still don't get it? Let me explain
You can see the picture of MLC Jyoti Kumari throwing flower pots around. Flower pots made of clay tend to break when thrown from a particular height. What an effective way to protest against the alleged financial irregularities! But this particular technique works well only if the flower pots are the taxpayer's money. That's probably the reason why the respected MLC Jyoti Kumari didn't bring her own flower pots to implement this sophisticated yet effective way of fighting corruption. A slipper was flung at the speaker by someone. You might be thinking that it was a bit of an undisciplined act and all, but that's all part of the fight. A microphone was removed and thrown away, and lot more. Read the full story here.
I have studied about our political system in Social science, during my primary school days. But I never knew the practical side of it. Neither did the school Parliament teach me anything like these. Being in the school parliament was so easy, actually. No body threw slippers at each other. But the reality seems to be different. Chaos has prevailed in many of the state legislatures recently.(Link). So the school Parliaments need to change as well. Physical training is essential for the students. Or shall we club the school parliament with, say, Sports day or something? Training in Hammer throw, Shot put etc. might turn out to be pretty handy in the parliament.
Watch out for the coming lessons. Soon.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Worldcup hangover : Things that I miss
FIFA WC 2010 has just come to it's conclusion, with Spain having the last laugh. well deserved, I would say.
For the last one month, on almost every day, I had one or two international football matches to look towards, and that was really nice, especially when the hectic time that I was having, almost jeopardized the sanity of my mind. But not anymore. Now, I am suffering from the post world cup hangover. Missing the vigor and passion of hard fought football matches. So, here comes a list of the things that I miss very badly after the exceedingly well organized one month football extravaganza in South Africa. Pardon the nonsense.
1. Shakira
Shakira and her theme song were really magical. The best thing (arguably, I know) about this world cup. There was a bit of a controversy regarding FIFA not approaching an African singer to perform the theme song. But who wants to see an African singer like Akon or K'naan perform? Not that they aren't good enough. But still, can they be as hot and sexy as Shakira? Not in my perspective(Em kinda straight, you know), and I don't know about the girls out there.
Just watched an interview of Shakira in Youtube where she talks about her WC theme song, football in general, and work that her foundation does to provide education to poor children. Find the video here. The interviewer appreciates all the philanthropic work that she does, or at least she claims to be doing. Even I appreciate the same too. But I've never seen anyone appreciating the philanthropic work of Vicente Ferrer Moncho or Jamini Bhushan Ray. The rule is quite simple. When you are an exceedingly hot female, the probability of your philanthropic/social work being appreciated is very very high.
I need to move on to the next item in the list. Let me conclude this one first.
Providing education to poor children is a great thing. Education helps us to live on this planet in a better way. Earth is such a beautiful planet and we need to conserve it. Because, earth is the only planet where Shakira exists. Damn.
2. Vuvuzela
Vuvuzela needs no introduction, for those who have been watching FIFA WC 2010 matches. Vuvuzela is the large blowing horn which produces a highly annoying buzzing sound. It is very commonly played during football matches in South Africa. The sound is so annoying that, certain television networks had to try to filter it out.
Google has even introduced a Vuvuzela button in Youtube. While watching football videos, you can blow a Vuvuzela. If you haven't seen that button yet, check out the highlights video of the Ghana Uruguay quarter final here. You can start blowing the Vuvuzela by clicking on the football shaped button seen near the pop out button.
3. Paul and his predictions
Paul is the psychic octopus who predicted the outcomes of several matches correctly. He is a maverick, indeed. He entered the field of astrology, and no other octopus has done it before.
If the Paul prediction thing had happened in India, won't the west have accused us Indians of being superstitious? Anyways, I enjoyed the buzz around his predictions, and all the lame jokes surrounding it. I miss Paul, and I am sure he is disappointed too. He hasn't got any more predictions to make. He has to live as an ordinary octopus now. What would have Paul said on the situation, if he could speak? Here comes the answer.
"Ahem.. Thanks for all your support. Now my future looks kinda empty, as the world cup is over. But on the other hand, er.. I mean, on any of the other eight hands, I have noticed certain opportunities in the form of Indian premier league. I could predict the results of those matches"
How about that? Shall we begin a campaign 'Paul in IPL'? Or shall we use him to predict the things that are likely to happen in our Indian politics, where the happening are unexpected and illogical most of the times? That could work out very well, considering the fact that Paul also doesn't have any logic or skill behind his predictions.
So, these are the things that I miss, mostly. The withdrawal symptoms are so strong that, despite not being a keen observer of club football, I have decided to keep track of all the English/Spanish premier league matches this year.
For the last one month, on almost every day, I had one or two international football matches to look towards, and that was really nice, especially when the hectic time that I was having, almost jeopardized the sanity of my mind. But not anymore. Now, I am suffering from the post world cup hangover. Missing the vigor and passion of hard fought football matches. So, here comes a list of the things that I miss very badly after the exceedingly well organized one month football extravaganza in South Africa. Pardon the nonsense.
1. Shakira
Shakira and her theme song were really magical. The best thing (arguably, I know) about this world cup. There was a bit of a controversy regarding FIFA not approaching an African singer to perform the theme song. But who wants to see an African singer like Akon or K'naan perform? Not that they aren't good enough. But still, can they be as hot and sexy as Shakira? Not in my perspective(Em kinda straight, you know), and I don't know about the girls out there.
Just watched an interview of Shakira in Youtube where she talks about her WC theme song, football in general, and work that her foundation does to provide education to poor children. Find the video here. The interviewer appreciates all the philanthropic work that she does, or at least she claims to be doing. Even I appreciate the same too. But I've never seen anyone appreciating the philanthropic work of Vicente Ferrer Moncho or Jamini Bhushan Ray. The rule is quite simple. When you are an exceedingly hot female, the probability of your philanthropic/social work being appreciated is very very high.
I need to move on to the next item in the list. Let me conclude this one first.
Providing education to poor children is a great thing. Education helps us to live on this planet in a better way. Earth is such a beautiful planet and we need to conserve it. Because, earth is the only planet where Shakira exists. Damn.
2. Vuvuzela
Vuvuzela needs no introduction, for those who have been watching FIFA WC 2010 matches. Vuvuzela is the large blowing horn which produces a highly annoying buzzing sound. It is very commonly played during football matches in South Africa. The sound is so annoying that, certain television networks had to try to filter it out.
Google has even introduced a Vuvuzela button in Youtube. While watching football videos, you can blow a Vuvuzela. If you haven't seen that button yet, check out the highlights video of the Ghana Uruguay quarter final here. You can start blowing the Vuvuzela by clicking on the football shaped button seen near the pop out button.
3. Paul and his predictions
Paul is the psychic octopus who predicted the outcomes of several matches correctly. He is a maverick, indeed. He entered the field of astrology, and no other octopus has done it before.If the Paul prediction thing had happened in India, won't the west have accused us Indians of being superstitious? Anyways, I enjoyed the buzz around his predictions, and all the lame jokes surrounding it. I miss Paul, and I am sure he is disappointed too. He hasn't got any more predictions to make. He has to live as an ordinary octopus now. What would have Paul said on the situation, if he could speak? Here comes the answer.
"Ahem.. Thanks for all your support. Now my future looks kinda empty, as the world cup is over. But on the other hand, er.. I mean, on any of the other eight hands, I have noticed certain opportunities in the form of Indian premier league. I could predict the results of those matches"
How about that? Shall we begin a campaign 'Paul in IPL'? Or shall we use him to predict the things that are likely to happen in our Indian politics, where the happening are unexpected and illogical most of the times? That could work out very well, considering the fact that Paul also doesn't have any logic or skill behind his predictions.
So, these are the things that I miss, mostly. The withdrawal symptoms are so strong that, despite not being a keen observer of club football, I have decided to keep track of all the English/Spanish premier league matches this year.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Nuggets of nonsense
I am enjoying the World cup football pretty well, especially because My fav team, Argentina is doing well. Premature exit of Italy and France was very sad. But this is not what I want to talk about.
The cleavage showing girl Mayanti Langer (Am I right?) who hosts the pre and post match show in espn/star sports freaks me out. Come on.. this is about football and all of us clearly know that she is not the best expert that we can have. She claims to have some knowledge about football, but she's far from the best. Isn't she?
Ok, men usually like cleavages and all, but why,why in a football related show?
***
Me : Do you have jeans of hip size *censored* ?
Salesman : Sorry sir, we don't.
Me : Sigh, but there in that shelf, I can see size *censored*
Salesman : That is ladies jeans, sir.
Bro chuckles. Immediately made silent with an angry stare.
Me : *^$$^%$@^#
Salesman : Sir, why don't you try the largest size in the kids section sir?
Me : (mutter) Fuck you (Normal voice)No. I'll gain some weight and come back.
Bro : (On the way back)Hey, don't walk near that dog. It might get tempted by the bones in your body. They all are too visible.
Me : Ohoho.. great joke.
Any short cuts to gain weight?
***
My bottom is on fire for the next ten days. But I can't reveal why. Being an anonymous blogger sounds like a better and better idea to me.
***
I always find facts which are contrary to the reasons when I follow reasons far enough. Do you think that it's logically possible? I need to get some sleep, I know, I know.
PS.1 - The author of this blog is not that lean as this post indicates. Actually, he is a muscle hunk, with these six, eight, I don't know how many packs and all.
PS.2 - I seriously wish if PS.1 was true
The cleavage showing girl Mayanti Langer (Am I right?) who hosts the pre and post match show in espn/star sports freaks me out. Come on.. this is about football and all of us clearly know that she is not the best expert that we can have. She claims to have some knowledge about football, but she's far from the best. Isn't she?
Ok, men usually like cleavages and all, but why,why in a football related show?
***
Me : Do you have jeans of hip size *censored* ?
Salesman : Sorry sir, we don't.
Me : Sigh, but there in that shelf, I can see size *censored*
Salesman : That is ladies jeans, sir.
Bro chuckles. Immediately made silent with an angry stare.
Me : *^$$^%$@^#
Salesman : Sir, why don't you try the largest size in the kids section sir?
Me : (mutter) Fuck you (Normal voice)No. I'll gain some weight and come back.
Bro : (On the way back)Hey, don't walk near that dog. It might get tempted by the bones in your body. They all are too visible.
Me : Ohoho.. great joke.
Any short cuts to gain weight?
***
My bottom is on fire for the next ten days. But I can't reveal why. Being an anonymous blogger sounds like a better and better idea to me.
***
I always find facts which are contrary to the reasons when I follow reasons far enough. Do you think that it's logically possible? I need to get some sleep, I know, I know.
PS.1 - The author of this blog is not that lean as this post indicates. Actually, he is a muscle hunk, with these six, eight, I don't know how many packs and all.
PS.2 - I seriously wish if PS.1 was true
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