3 Idiots....All izz well!!

Just came back from watching the movie that has been creating waves lately. Yup u guessed right...3 Idiots. I enjoyed it to an extent that I have not enjoyed another movie for a long time....really - all izz well. Its late in the night so wont write much, but the movie is highly recommended. I wont mind watching it a 2nd time even!!

Give me some sunshine, give me some rain. Give me another chance, I wanna grow up once again!!

The Cider House Rules....

Yes that's the name of the movie I just watched. It moved me so much that I was compelled to write a few lines, about what my thoughts are at this moment after watching the movie.
The movie is mostly set in an orphanage and specially deals with the life of a "special" orphan living there with the rest of his kind. Twice he was adopted but twice fate brought him back to the orphanage.
This is a love story if you ask me, only the love here is different. It's the love that the doctor taking care of the orphanage has for this "special" orphan and the love that others in the orphanage has for him. Of course there are twists, like him leaving the orphanage to see the world on his own. Getting involved with a women already engaged to a lieutenant who has gone to the war, etc. But at the end, he does come back to those who love him the most. Although a little late in the day for the beloved doctor, who is there no more to see his "son's" return.
I just realised, that it's far more important to be loved by people around you in life, than any other materialistic achievement you can have. So, I just make one wish- I don't want to end up unloved...ever!!

Enough of hooliganism!!

I couldn't stop myself from writing this blog after a long time. This is one event which I couldn't let go without penning down my thoughts on it. The event that I refer to is the recent act of hooliganism done by who else, but Mr. Raj Thackeray's MLA's(I would much rather call them goonda's). First they demanded that all the MLA's take their oath's of office in Marathi, and when one MLA didn't follow their DIKTAT they went on to slap him, inside the assembly!! By this time the house has already taken action by suspending the 4 MLA's of MNS(that's the party of Raj "Goonda" Thackeray) for 4 years.
In my opinion this has gone for too long and too far now. These MLA's must be suspended for life, but further more their party must be banned as rightly demanded by some people. They have been at these kind of acts for a long time now. As I see it, India is one country and some goonda named Raj Thackeray can't tell anybody from outside Mumbai or Maharashtra for that matter, to not come and settle there. Mumbai is what is today because of contributions from not only the Marathi Manoo's but the so called outsiders also. And the real problem of Mumbai lies in it's outdated and creaking infrastructure, and pray who is responsible for it?? Not the outsiders at all, but the bloody politicians, who make empty promises of making Mumbai into the next Shanghai.
I just wonder can this be possible anywhere else?? Lets take for example New York. Can the original resident's of New York say that they want the "outsiders" to get out from there?? I don't think that's ever going to happen.
I have never been a great fan of reservation and stuff like that, so my suggestion is, give every Indian citizen equal opportunities. After that if the Marathi Manoo's have it in them to get the job they are welcome to, and why only in Mumbai. Why not look across the country as so many people do??
So everything boils down to choosing the right leaders who can deliver on their promises. And sadly the Mumbaites seem to be hardly bothered as to who leads them. The reason I say this is when the attack happened on Mumbai last November, there was huge hue and cry, also candle light vigils. But all that came to nothing when the time came to vote in the general elections, the turnout was dismal. So when they themselves don't want to change anything, how can anything change in Mumbai??
In a way this is how our great country works, we just let everything be!!

Death of a star and other stories...

It's been ages since I posted last. And during this time, life as well as the world has changed a lot. One change that's fresh in memory is the sudden death of MJ- The King of Pop. MJ or Michael Jakson as was his name, died suddenly a few days ago. Not that he was keeping very good health lately, and I remember thinking that he might not live much longer during his last health scare- I guess it was something to do with skin cancer. But even I was taken by surprise with the suddenness of his death. I must admit that I never much followed MJ, my likings were different and no one actually exposed me to his music. Lately the company I work for picked up one of his hit songs-"Beat It", as a theme song for one product and I remember actually dancing on that song during one of our meetings. Little did I know it's origins then!! After wards I did came to know that it belonged to MJ and I actually downloaded his Thriller album, my first tryst with MJ's music. Anyhow the reports coming out after MJ's death suggest that the cause of his death might be prescription painkillers. Saying which I am reminded of Heath Ledger- The Joker, who died last year I guess when he ODed on prescription drugs. This is an increasingly common occurrence nowadays especially among celebrities. Those who should be role models are acting in such a way!!
Among other things, India the defending T20 world champions bit the dust in this years T20 world cup. It was such a woeful performance that the less said the better. The defending champions failed to win any match in the Super 8's stage. I hope we come back to winning ways, but am not sure looking at their performance in West Indies currently.
Then again Roger Federer was finally able to win at Roland Garos after numerous attempts. His nemesis Rafael Nadal didn't reach the final and the rest is history. Wimbledon is going on now, lets see if he can win it back. I hope he does, I like him as a player and as a person.
Enough for today, I hope I can be more regular. I noticed that one of my friend is following my blog and left a comment on my last post. I take this oppurtunity to thank him.
I will be back!!

Terror's shadow on cricket..

I am writing after a long time, more than two months after i posted last. I have been looking to find something to write on but didn't get the motivation for it. Today something happened which shook me out of this slumber. In some ways it reminded one of the infamous Munich Olympics. Yes it was an attack on sportsmen, cricketers to be precise.
The Sri-Lankan cricket team was touring Pakistan as a replacement for India who had declined to tour there. Today morning when the Sri-Lankan team was going to the Gaddafi Stadium for the third day's play of the second test of the series, their team bus was attacked by armed terrorists. This led to many of them getting injured as well. This is shocking to say the least!!
The world is increasingly becoming a very unsafe place, and Pakistan would rank the highest among all unsafe locations. For now, I am just thankful that none of the players are grievously hurt, can't think much more to write.

A New Year has Come....well almost!!

The new year is almost upon us. The current year has been a mixed bag. It had it's great moments as well as the very worst. The best will be us winning not only gold in Olympics but also two other medals, as also the end of nuclear apartheid that we were being subjected to for long, last but not least will be the success of out scientists in helping us join the lunar club. On the downside the share market has crashed, though it's more an effect of the sub-prime crisis. We were shown to be a soft target for terrorists this year like no other, what with them hitting at will. It reached it's nadir when ten young men in their twenties could come ashore from the sea to attack Mumbai. And yes the politicians kept playing us one against the other. I hope this new year sets this right at least if nothing else, a hope that we will get real leaders. Leaders who will think of the country and it's people first and politics later. And I have one emotional wish to make, can we please have good bullet proof jackets for our police force, one's which are actually bullet proof and don't lead to people dying instead of wearing them!!
So here's signing off for this year with lot's of hope for the coming year...may it really be a HAPPY NEW YEAR for all of us..Amen.

Terror and it's aftermath....old wine, same bottle!!

It's been a few days since the terror attacks on Mumbai, the financial capital of India. But I am still depressed about whatever happened, as well as whatever is happening in it's aftermath.

Terror over....for now.

Finally it's over, at least for now. Yes the reign of terror in Mumbai has finally ended. The operation to free Hotel Taj, Hotel Trident and Nariman House have all been successfully completed by the National Security Guard(NSG). But it has left a deep sense of shock in it's wake. We seem to be the worst country in terms of response to terror attacks, if not the most vulnerable to it( leaving aside Pakistan and other such countries). I don't have time to delve deeply into this attack right now, as I have to go out. But surely I will touch on the many aspects of this attack in my next blog, but for now I am relieved that the nightmare is over!!

Saved by a whisker, nay a day and 1 hour!!

I had gone to Mumbai for a training program last week. The program was scheduled on 24th-25th November, and I left for home on 25th night itself, reaching home on 27th morning. It's chilling to think what would have been the case if the program had started one day later, meaning which I would have left Mumbai on 26th night. Yes 26th November 2008 night, when all hell broke loose in Mumbai!! I learnt about the blasts across Mumbai and the shooting in VT, when I was preparing to get down at Tatanagar while on my way back home. I was shell shocked by the daring shown in the attacks at first, although I had no way of getting to know the details as the time was 12 o'clock in the night. I considered myself lucky to have got out in the nick of time. If I had to get out the day after, there could have been all sorts of problems. The first incident of shooting started at around 9.20 pm, by which time I would have already boarded my train. But then a shooting at VT would have ensured that all the train services would have been thrown out of gear, and we could have been stuck somewhere without a way of getting out...Lucky me!! Even if we accept that the risk to my life was not very great on hindsight, there is no overlooking the fact that the return journey would have been one hell of a journey, I don't know when I would have reached home. As it was, I was home in good time and the first thing I did was take stock of the situation. The situation as I found out was much worse than I could have imagined. The terrorists as I found out have unleashed a reign of terror across Mumbai, and the endgames were being played out at two luxury hotels and one building which housed a Jewish center. But more about that later, right now I am just relieved to be back home without facing any problems, but at the same time concerned for all the people who are caught up in the shootouts.

All good things come to an end....a tribute!!

This is a tribute to the best bowler that Indian cricket had. Today on the last day of the third test with Australia, at the Kotla, Anil Kumble decided to walk into the sunset. Purely going by statistics he is by far the best Indian bowler till date. At the outset itself I want to make one thing clear- I am no great fan of Anil Kumble the bowler. I am a bit traditional when it comes to cricket, and he was the antithesis of it. His bowling wasn't great to look at, he was a leg spinner who didn't spin the bowl!! But one thing that he wasn't was inconsistent, he ends with more than 600 wickets!! And he was a true fighter, always giving more than 100% for the country. It's ironic that the two images that I will always remember of him are when he overcame physical pain to get out there and perform for the country. One was in the West Indies, in spite of being hit while batting, he came out to bowl with a broken jaw, and the second was in his last test. He hurt his left hand while fielding, and required 11 stitches on it, but he came out the next day and bowled his heart out, and took wickets too. It's a sad truth that in spite of such achievements he never got his due. He was always criticized as I read some where, for what he didn't do rather than for what he did for the team.
I would be honest and put my hand up to confess that I have been among his distractor's too. But as I heard the news of his retirement from my Dad, who was watching the match while I was taking my lunch, I was shocked. I knew that his retirement was around the corner, but didn't expect it coming quite so soon, and hardly in this way. The news was out even while the Indian batsmen were out there trying to take the game out of the reach of the Australians. In all the years I have been watching cricket, never have I seen such a strange way of announcing retirement. I will miss him bowling in a test match for sure. I was all teary eyed as I read various articles being written about him and his decision to retire.
As he retires, we are face to face with the end of an era. Three more players are set to retire in the not too distant future,while one has already announced his retirement. For people like me who have grown up watching Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid, Laxman and Kumble, it feels strange to think of a time in the very near future that an Indian test team will turn out without any of them. I have only one wish and one hope as we stand here. The wish is that we had won more matches with the strong team that we had, and the hope is that Indian cricket is ready with it's replacements for these legends. Failing the latter, the huge fan following that cricket enjoys in India will suffer- I have already had one friend telling me that he will stop watching cricket from the day Sachin Tendulkar retires!!
At the end I will only say- Mr Anil Kumble, thanks for helping the country win so many matches, and best of luck for whatever you do in your future....have a good life!!