MODIfied Rules - Irked Pakistan!!!

Expectedly whenever the IPL time is around there has to be drama and controversy surrounding it. This time also its no different, if last year it was the tiff between the IPL governing body and Union Government of India, on the matter of scheduling the tournament some time later or somewhere else due to a clash of dates with the general elections in the country, this time the controversy has risen in the face of non inclusion of Pakistani players in the tournament. And trust me this is just the beginning, with Mr. Shrewd aka Mr. Modi still at the helm of the things, expect MORE as the tournament starts and eventually progresses to the crucial stages. Honestly speaking I am not a big fan of T20 cricket at all, as I fall into the league of those guys who still enjoy and follow Test Cricket religiously and are the real connoisseurs of that format but the reason why I still follow this short format is because of the glamour, drama, and controversies surrounding it and not to forget the little bit of cricket too which is played between all this. This year too we will have those last over matches, may be even the last ball cliffhangers, in fact we might also see the super over thrillers but I will watch this edition of IPL more so for the drama and glitterati surrounding the tournament rather than the cricketing reasons, because I don’t believe T20 is cricket at all, for cricket we have Test Matches and to some extent ODIs. T20s are like those steamy foreplays sessions which are indeed incomplete without a marathon main courseJ

However if just talk about the controversy of this season, it is actually hard to adjudge what is right and what is not. Because if think from the commercial standpoint of the franchises, what they have done by not picking up the Pakistani players seems quite practical. With such a great degree of uncertainty attached to the participation of these players due to a deadlock of dialogue between the two governments, added with an ever looming threat of another 26/11, compounded by the constant threat from idiotic factions like MNS and Shiv Sena, its obviously prudent on their part, not to splurge crores of money on such players whose chances of playing the tournament are abysmal. One can argue that government should provide security beef up and ascertain an environment where every sportsman can play and exhibit his skill, as that will be the best thing possible for the game of cricket, but is it really needed???? Are we financially so viable that we can afford to apportion a big chunk of our finances in giving security cover for the smooth functioning of a club level tournament where the interest and pride of the nation is not directly involved. If it would been the same scenario for the hosting of World Cup of Cricket, things would have been understandably different, because it would have been an international event and would have involved our country’s pride, and being a good host we are expected to treat our guests as Gods. But being in such a poverty struck scenario, fighting the demons of cold waves, floods, drought, swine flu and don’t know what else, it would be an absolute injustice to the common interest of our nation to let such a contingent of players participate in this event at such a huge expense.

On the contrary we are also celebrating the probable concept of IndoPak love affair by the medium of ‘Aman ki Asha’. In such a scenario we must forget everything, even the bloody days of 26/11 and welcome our neighbors and allow them to participate in this highly popular and successful event. Because sports should always be kept away from politics and also sports heals the wounds faster than any other means. So why this apathy towards our neighbors? After all they are the World Champions of this format and how can one boast of a world class tournament without the participation of these world class players. Also what wrong these players of Pakistanhave done to receive such a step mom treatment? In all probability they aren’t the part of Lashkar-e-Taiba or Hizbul Muzaheedin or Al-Qaeda, neither they share there dressing rooms with the likes of Ajmal Kasab and co., so by that logic they should be welcomed and allowed to play like any other international super star.

If we ponder on both sides of the coin, it is actually very hard to choose one of them as the right side. The drama, the controversy and the argument will go on endlessly but one thing which still boggles me is that when all the franchisees were so sure about not bidding for any of the Pakistani player, why were their names retained in the auction list? This actually made things a lot worse and it was really insulting for each of those players, also for the Pakistan Cricket Board and even for the nation of Pakistan. Such a scenario should have been definitely avoided and should have been handled with much more grace. Anyways its time to move on and get ready for the next set of drama which would be unfolded and popped out very soon from the Pandora of Mr. Modi. Let the fun begin!!!

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Carnal Desires of a Celebrity!

I've some how fallen in love with this saying that 'All bad things in the world are hard to resist!'. This is so damn true, be it stuffing ourselves with those high caloried junk stuffs like pizzas and burgers, be it smoking stick after stick and polluting our lungs like an old fashioned tempo truck does to our eco system, be it taking that risk of opening the email with a subject line ‘*** Open Carefully ***’ sent on our official email ids, be it taking that extra interest in the low hemlines of our neighbour’s wife or enjoying, gossiping and googling for hours about the masala news on Tiger Wood’s 17^th mistress, Clinton’s cigar-esque sexacapde in white house or Kareena Kapoor’s love bite marks on her neck . Obviously we extract utmost pleasure from each of these, more so from the last ones though.

Our forefathers may say infidelity and volatility in relationships are the latest mantra of the new generation. People switch over from one partner to the other more frequently than an Indian IT Pro switches his job (obviously in the post and pre recession era, however the switches in the former are recession proof J). For our forefathers the concept of eternal love, life long bonds and epic love stories might seem to have extinct today. Though we can’t generalize the entire generation with this tag but we all will agree to some extent that in this era of highly prevalent social networking, even our principles have taken a backseat. But that’s how fast things are changing today and almost everybody is impacted by the Americanisation of our cultural values.

The underlying perception has always been that, if you are involved in any unethical activity you can’t excel in achieving the ultimate aim of your life. But does this actually holds true even today???? One can’t say an emphatic YES for this. Certainly not when you think of Tiger Wood’s 17 ( and still counting) mistresses in a period of around 5 years over which he was still the no.1 golfer in the world, rather the best the game has ever seen. Certainly not also when you think of Bill Clinton using the most unorthodox ways to place his cigar, leave apart the nitty gritties of his tale (courtesy Miss Lewinsky), betraying his wife, his daughter and also the common man’s belief about him, but still managing to remain the most powerful, popular and influential President United States has ever seen. Again certainly not when you give a thought to the greatest authors of our times Salman Rushdie and his countless girl friends, each of them being of his grand daughter’s age, again neither of them weakened his extra ordinary writing style. Also if we think of the dashing southpaw and cricketing sensation Yuvraj Singh, he has as many girl friends attached to his name as the no. of centuries he has scored in his career and last but not the least the legendary Shane Warne who has legspinned with as many blonde babes and brunettes in his life, as he has foxed a countless string of batsmen around the world by his willy art of spin bowling. So I am pretty much puzzled myself, that does that anecdote of wisdom still holds good? Or has the current crop moulded its mindset in such a way that these unethical extracurricular activities of fun actually act as a stimulant to their success stories and have become a part of their day to day lives.

The debate is endless, but if we keep the common man and his pleasurable but unethical adventures aside for a while and talk of only these high profile celebrities, the debate takes an altogether different twist. Should these super stars continue to recklessly lead there extravagant lives or should they also take into account the concept of morality, ethics and conscience for the sake of millions of their fans and followers who are literally idolizing them? Shouldn’t they curb there carnal desires for the sake of their fans and for the simple reason of leading by example. Apparently one school of thought advocates that as long as they are doing justice to the trade they are practicing, what difference it makes to the rest of the world and why on earth are we interested in the personal and off the field lives of these SUPERMEN. But may be people have always been this way so has been these super stars and probably because of the over intrusion of media in our bedrooms, things have come into light quite a lot in recent times. But I still feel if you are being idolized by millions and followed by billions, you owe that extra bit of moral responsibility towards your fans and well wishers because they are the ones who eventually make each of them a SUPERSTAR or the least which they can do is by keeping the controversial aspects of there lives under wraps thereby not hurting there zillion fans. Because even in this era of fast food and instant coffee, personalities like APJ Kalam, Sachin Tendulkar, Shahrukh Khan and AB Vajpayee still exist who have achieved unparalled success in their respective fields, in addition to a stainless character and a crystal clear conscience.

But at the end of the day, howsoever we may discuss, whatsoever me may preach, we are no one to pass a judgement on anybody’s life and as to how they should lead it. And as long as we aren’t involved in any such fix ourselves it is always fun to enjoy the show and gossip around from outside. No wonder I am in love with this cliché that ‘All bad things are always hard to resistJ’

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2 Idiots and a SUPERMAN!

The toughest thing on earth is undoubtedly to make people laugh and similarly the easiest way to grab attention is to say something against somebody very popular, something very successful or something against a unanimously acclaimed creation of art. In other words, some people try to make their views count and prove themselves smart by criticizing somebody of the stature of Sir Sachin Tendulkar, or declaring the Great Roger Federer as an over hyped phenomenon or by terming a movie like 3 Idiots as a ‘just another movie’, infact an overtly dramatic and a boring one too. Obviously these people can’t be slotted in the category of WRONG ONES, as everybody is entitled to his/her own opinion and we should respect that too. But honestly speaking when somebody talks against something obviously credit worthy, it does irritates to a certain level, but again that’s how the life is and infact that’s where the fun liesJ

On the eve of Christmas I somehow managed to get tickets for the premiere show of the most awaited movie of the year ‘3 Idiots’. Most awaited not only because it has one of the best actor of our era in the form of ‘Aamir PERFECTIONIST Khan’ but also because it had an impressive supporting crew in the form of ever so versatile ‘Boman Irani’, evergreen and classy ‘R Madhvan’, guy with a brilliant comic timing ‘Sharman Joshi’, one of the most gorgeous actress of recent times ‘Kareena Kapoor’ and last but not the least outstanding, exemplary, immensely talented and the biggest entertainer duo of our era ‘Raju Hirani’ and ‘Vidhu Vinod Chopra’. And hence the expectations from this project were sky rocketing and I was dreading that this assignment might well become a victim of over hype and mass hysteria. But when I came out of the hall after around 3 hours my cheeks were aching, so was my stomach, so were my palms, so were my feet and yes, so was each and every part of my body. I have never laughed my heart and soul out to such an extent ever in my life and I was very happy to be proved wrong about the dreaded failure of this movie due to over hype and towering expectations. And I can proudly say it was one of the best and finest movie watching experience I have had in my entire life!!!

However, honestly speaking I enjoyed the movie a lot more when I watched it for the second time in a weeks span. It is mind boggling how craftily each and every dialogue of the movie has been designed, that every single of them makes you giggle out. And when I mean every single of them makes you laugh, I actually mean every single dialogue being delivered in the movie, and you can only notice this fact when you watch the movie for the 2^nd time because when you watch it for the first time you are so much in awe with the environment created by the movie that you keeping on laughing endlessly with the crowd, in the process skipping around 30% of the dialoguesJ And apart from the laudatory performances by all the established stars in the movie, one character which stood out was Mr Chatoor AKA Silencer, born in Uganda, brought up in Pondichery, practicing the Art of Silent Air Perfumery all across the globe and a proven genius when it comes to delivering path breaking speeches to felicitate the honorable dignitaries. GOD! He was nothing but SUPERB and no lesser than Aamir, Sharman and Madhvan. But still Man of the Match and Man of the series for this act will undoubtedly be Mr Raju Hirani. This guy is a real magician, if you can improve an excellent piece of work i.e ‘Munnabhai MBBS’ by an even more polished piece of art in the form of ‘Lage Raho Munnabhai’ and can further expand your canvas of excellence in the form of ‘3 Idiots’, you are nothing but a GENIUS. And mind you neither of them can be categorized as an act of cheap comedy, upon that each of them carries a very vital social message which gets acclaimed by all ages and all sections of the society. No wonder he needs 4 months of solitude in a secluded hill station to finalize each of his scripts.

But when you have a superstar like Aamir in any assignment, all other remarkable and stand out acts are bound to get overpowered. Such is his persona and charm that every other thespian sharing the screen space with him seems to be overtly dominated by this grand star. It seemed to be a ‘2 Idiots and a Superman’ show, rather than 3 IdiotsJ Still there is no lack of fun, frolic and entertainment due to this aura gap. But as I said at the beginning where there is success there has to be an element of doubt and controversy attached to it. Hence enters a wise man by the name of ‘Mr Chetan Bhagat’ and creates a lot of fur ore, adding to the hoopla created by the movie itself. I am a big fan of both Bhagat ( having read and laughed my heart out on all his novels) and the entire 3 I team. I have also been reading all the blogs of Bhagat on this controversy and I was partially convinced by his theory too. But there are certain questions which have actually caught me off guard –

1. What difference it would have made to the record breaking revenues or to the egos of the makers of the movie if they would have actually included Bhagat’s name at the start of the movie, because whosoever has read the novel would agree to the fact that quite a lot of facts have been cut, copy, pasted ditto in the movie!
2. Would Bhagat have created the same ruckus, had the movie wasn’t such a big success?
3. And why do all such controversies crop up at the time of a film’s releaseJ

Whatever be it people had a great time reading Bhagat’s best seller Five Point Someone and an even greater time watching 3I, so why to waste our time in adjudicating who is right and who is not, in this mudslinging act. But hats off to the entire 3I team for delivering such a classic entertainer which will definitely prove to be the AVATAR of bollywood and most probably will divide the genre into pre 3 Idiots and post 3 Idiots era, much like the greatest movie of all time ‘SHOLAY’ did. Kudos once again to the entire 3I team and undoubtedly AAAL IZZZ WELLL when something entertains so WELL:).

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Aman ki Asha: Destination Peace!

I woke up on the new year morning to collect my TOI copy at my doorstep and I was bamboozled to see the front page. It read ‘LOVE PAKISTAN’, and what followed those two words were few white pigeons and few paragraphs emphasizing a probable marriage of these two words. And by the time I finished reading those few paragraphs, I was partially convinced with the idea. I flipped over the pages and found the entire edition celebrating the possible concept of Indo-Pak love affair. Well, only TOI could have managed to coin such an idea and trust me howsoever vague and outrageous it might seem but after the mega success of their earlier initiatives of TEACH INDIA and LEAD INDIA, you better ought to believe them. And this time around it seems much bigger and far better as it is a joint venture between Times of India group of India and Jang Group of Pakistan and they have aptly termed the initiative as ‘Aman ki Asha: Destination Peace’.

Honestly speaking we have never managed to keep these two words( LOVE , PAKISTAN) on the same plane all our lives. Now if we force ourselves to give a serious thought, it is not that improbable too. We have grown up with a mental setup that, India and Pakistan can never be on the same platform. But we must realize that all this hatred and docile mental setup has to do with a few bad events, few half minded autocratic rulers and few radical terror outfits maligning and maneuvering our minds to such an extent that we can’t even think of the undeniable truth that people across the border are very much people like us. They are the people who are culturally and emotionally most similar to us as against any other nation in the world. The lifestyle they lead, the festivals they celebrate, the sport they support, the food they eat, the film stars they idolize and the battle against poverty, unemployment, corruption and illiteracy they fight is exactly the same as we have in our country. So why this stressed and consistently wry behavior against each other? Just because of the vested interests of few political parties, sans which they don’t have any agenda to fuel their existence or because it gives the 1^st world nations enough to strengthen their reins in south asia or because of an incumbent fear amongst the rest of the world that if these two vibrant nations get united, there combined might will be a big threat from them to counter.

Practically speaking the major reason why this initiative seems to be a commendable one at this point of time is due to the fact that their hasn’t been any terror attack on our nation in the past few months, rather post 26/11 we haven’t seen any major instances of military insurgence either and that is why we can even fancy of such a possibile love affair with our neighbor. But spare a serious thought that even in the times of those terror attacks and violations at the Line of Control how is a common man across the border a part of those heinous acts? Is he also equally at crime as those dreaded terrorists and leaders are? Is he also an equal conspirator in those hate campaigns and blood stained act? Common sense will say ‘NO’, this hate campaign is just an act of a select few, who are in turn misguiding an innocent lot in the name of ALLAH and JEHAD to adopt this path. So actually the common man across the border is as innocent as we are here in our beloved nation. So why to live in this estranged environment against each other where we can easily live in harmony, love and peace and enjoy each others success and combinely fight against the common cause of Terrorism which is hampering the progress of both these immensely gifted and potent nations.

Gone are the days when Kashmir still remained the major bone of contention between the two nations. I remember there was a period few years back when almost every citizen of this nation was so very possessive and egoistic about Kashmir being a part of our country, its not that people don’t care about Kashmir anymore. But today there are far greater challenges to combat for both the countries, be it internal disruptions in India caused by Naxals throughout the country, be it fight against the cross border terrorism across the nation (against a similar problem few years back, which was confined only to Kashmir), be it fight against basic amenities of food, education, shelter and poverty. Similar is the scenario for our neighbors too, be it their fight against internal fundamentalism, be it their fight against the constant Taliban threat, be it their fight for survival against the basic needs of livelihood. Kashmir comes way down in the priority list for both the nations at this point of time, as things have changed in a big way over last few years. So deploying crores and crores of annual budget just to strengthen ones defence and to outnumber each other in terms of their Nuclear weapon Diaspora and satisfy ones ego at the expense of other more important aspects from a nation’s perspective is nothing but utter stupidity.

So in this context the initiative taken by Times of India and Jang group to bring the people of two nations together by means of various cultural events and activities and to make them realize that its high time that people of both the nations understand this simple fact that they can’t continue with this feeling of hatred against each other just because of those few antisocial groups who are reaping on this highly sensitive issue by poisoning our innocent minds. Its time to inculcate the feeling of Brotherhood, Affection and Love for each other and to fight our problems in a joint way.

I wonder what will happen to this new found love with another 26/11 attack, probably the ambitious love affair might turn into a fling or a mere infatuation deal. But again some facts will still remain the same, that the common man of both the nations will have no part in such heinous acts, hence in the long run love and sensibility for each other should prevail and it should conquer those malicious intentions which are aimed at disrupting our new found but ever lasting LOVE AFFAIR.

Hate Terror, Not the Innocents!

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