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 And the real problem of Mumbai lies in it's outdated and creaking infrastructure, and pray who is responsible for it??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!!

A step forward...and a step back!!

Today is a special day for India, today we joined the select club of countries who have successfully launched lunar missions. Early in the morning the PSLV blasted off with Chandrayan-I, India's satellite which will map the Moon for the next two years. India has come a long way since the time I remember in my childhood, when the PSLV failed in it's missions to place satellites into orbit, due to technical shortcomings. As of today India's space agency ISRO has successfully placed many a satellite into orbits using the same PSLV, thereby earning name as well as money for the country.
But although the day started off on a happy note, it couldn't be sustained. For starters the stock market opened lower, and crashed by more than 500 points till the end of trading. But there was more in store. The last month or so has seen the secular credentials of the country take a beating- what with the attacks against the Christian community in different parts of the country, as well as one Mr.Raj Thackeray of MNS ranting continuously against "outsiders". Mr.Thackeray's goons have repeatedly attacked north Indians making a living in Mumbai (soon to be supposedly our own Shanghai), but the nadir was reached so to speak, when they attacked north Indian students last Sunday. The poor students had gone to appear in the recruitment exams for the railways. The way they were beaten up, made for harrowing reading!! At last the Maharashtra government woke up from its slumber to file cases against Mr.Raj Thackeray, and he was arrested yesterday early morning. As expected his goons went on rampage and damaged properties as well as hurt people. Mumbai was on siege, so much for the talk of making it Shanghai!! Anyhow Mr.Thackeray became the first from his notorious family to spend a night in the lock up. But that didn't amount to much as the court granted him bail, minutes after sending him to judicial custody for two weeks. So he is free again, to spread more fear and hatred. I wish someone will be able to think above petty politics, and take strong action against him and his goons.
Till that time lets at least cheer for the amazing scientists who made it possible for us to join the lunar mission club....at least we are moving forward in somethings!!

03-10-2008.....Bittersweet!!

03-10-2008 is my birthday....I turned 28 years old today. But when I compare it with even last year, I have to admit I enjoyed it much less than last year. I was expecting my so called friends would remember my birthday, as such I was waiting for calls and messages to start coming from mid-night itself. But I guess I am a bad judge of people, because except for one message that arrived from a 2 year old friend, I got nothing else. I actually had a fit full sleep for the initial hour or so, waking up to check my phone!! Still when I woke up I was confident that many more calls and messages would be forthcoming during the course of the day. Till around 9.30 am, I had received two messages- one a cousin brother and one from a friend, and one call from my parents. Surprise surprise, my own colleague had forgotten completely and could only remember when two other colleagues came and wished me. Even my boss conveniently forgot to wish me when he called me in the morning for some official work. Anyhow during the day only a handful of wishes came my way. The day even plumbed the depth of my not being able to get a decent lunch, at the office( where I was for a meeting), as the food was finished before I could eat. My bosses tried to make up for this by arranging for chicken sandwiches to be delivered, which all of us ate to our hearts content. The saving grace was that I actually cut a cake on my birthday, and it's not very often that I have done that in the last 28 years. Inspite of all this one thing still rankles- the HR manager didn't deem it fit to wish me in the morning when we met, choosing to wait instead for the cake cutting ceremony. I so very much hate pretenders!!
A departure from last year was that one of my childhood friend who is bad at remembering birthdays remembered and cared enough to give me a call to wish me. I had given him a huge dressing down last year for forgetting my birthday!! Not that this year I was in a forgiving mood either. The list of people who missed is huge, but two people stick out like sore thumbs. One was the person to wish me first last year, and the other person has never forgotten to wish me in last many years, even when we were on barely talking terms. It hurt real bad, and am still nursing my wounds. Other significant oversighter's were my colleagues from my work place, I got a call from one of them who remembered at 9.30 pm in the night, and boy was I rude!!
After the meeting was over, our team had an impromptu beer party, sponsored by my boss. I took a drink one too many and was really sozzled, when I got that call from my colleague, but I am not sorry for lashing out at him!! I am hurt and angry....maybe time for some introspection and review.
But as the saying goes I may be down, but I am not out!!