A multi million 'no ball' : Innocuous or Shameful?

It's match fixing time again folks! So naturally there will be lots of drama, lots of revelations, lots of twists and turns, lots of shattered fans and last but not the least lots of Pakistan amidst all this. Honestly howsoever shameful and disheartening the latest match fixing saga, or spot fixing as they have termed it this time around, may be, but not many are shocked with the involvement of Pakistani players in this dirt. It has happened before, it is happening consistently and with the state of governance in Pakistan, it won't be farce to say that it will happen in future too. Many Pakistani cricketers have committed graver crimes and have been let off rather easily, no wonder not many are surprised with such brazen acts of impropriety.

But why Pakistan time and again? Either players from other teams are too skillful to get caught or their is something wrong with the grooming and mushrooming of raw talent in Pakistan. Though there is no guarantee with anybody's conscience but one can safely assume that post Azharuddin and Mongia era and in the cash rich environs of IPL, the chances of an Indian player indulging in such acts has minimized to a good extent. But bowling no balls to become a millionaire! Isn't it rather too cheap? Well, if we think of the overall atmosphere in which the Pakistani players are playing these days, it won't appear so cheap. No international cricket being played on their home soil for over 18 months, despite of being the T20 World Champions they don't get a chance to play in the cash rich T20 leagues like IPL,an average Indian cricketer earns more in one season of IPL than his Pakistani counterpart earns in almost a decade. No wonder it breeds an environment where Md Amir is forced to think that ' this damn Malinga guy, not half the cricketer I am and yet he merrily munches on a million bucks every year, so what's the big deal in making some bucks by bowling an innocuous 'no ball' or for that matter makes Md Asif envious of Praveen Kumar who flashes a garish gold chain dancing around his neck every time he comes up to bowl despite not being a patch on him as a bowler, naturally pride and honor can take a back seat and a multi million 'no ball' can do the honors instead.

So does all this converge to a moot point that Cricket today is all about money? You either make it by burning yourself playing non stop cricket or you assimilate it by wrong means. At the face of it, it seems so, but when we think of the cricketers of the class of Tendulkars, Dravids, Kumbles, Gangulys, Laras and Ranatungas, the grace, humility, dedication and integrity with which they have played every single match in their lives, our faith in this beautiful game still remains strong. But certainly such acts of dishonesty which crop up every now and then actually aches million hearts. The recent match fixing fiasco can't be simply treated as a Pakistan centric failure, we are no saints or intolerable marshals of such crimes either. The tendency to forget and forgive is the one which is causing the maximum damage. When the government itself decides to make the tainted cricketer of his time Md Azharuddin as the member of Indian parliament and when other such suspects of the biggest match fixing fiasco of the last decade are making a hefty living out of their new found and well applauded commentary and coaching careers, we can't preach the lessons of integrity and lawfulness to our neighbors. And rather all we are doing is using the lack of legal evidence as the smokescreen to avoid proper accountability.

Such shameful incidents will keeping on happening in the future too and no level of moral policing or extreme punishment can curb them because it eventually boils down to the morality of every individual. Money or no money if the individual is playing the game or pursuing a career for the sole sake of representing his country to the fullest of his integrity, he will always be a trustworthy representative but a(n) Asif otherwise. No wonder if the Commonwealth Games have lost their sheen, it is because the organisers have failed to provide a moral compass to their team. Likewise, if the Delhi Metro, another gigantic government enterprise, has proved remarkably free of sleaze, it is because its chairman is a man who has zero tolerance for corruption. And if Sania Mirza is winning her first round match at the US Open, people are not crediting her for this rare feat but are suspecting Shoaib for this fix:).
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Peepli Live - An Unjustified Thrive!

As with every Aamir Khan movie, the expectations very skyrocketing with "Peepli Live" too, though it wasn't featuring the mega-star himself but still his association with the movie itself is a big enough reason for everybody to go and have a taste of his creation. For me there was certainly one more reason to watch the movie and it was the setup around which the movie has been made, Farmer Suicide. This has always been an intriguing and disheartening chapter and hence to know about it through Aamir Khan's kaleidoscope was certainly a mouthwatering opportunity. And without doubt and expectedly the movie did quite well at the box office too and it recovered all its expenses even before its release, thanks to the marketing genius of Aamir Khan and naturally the reviews from the critics all around have been overwhelming too. Usually I watch all such releases on the very first weekend itself but due to some other commitments I have to wait for this one for its second week. So the curiosity to meet 'Nathha', 'Budhiya' and 'Ammaji' (all being the main protagonists of the flick) was at its zenith.

Now the issue on which this piece of art has been made is a very sensitive one. In the last 10-12 years over 2 lakh farmers across the country have committed suicide due to their inability to make a living out of farming, hence out of their misery, helplessness and failure to feed their families they are forced to take this horrendous step. The reasons of these suicides are manifold, ranging from failed monsoons, lack of finances to buy appropriate farming equipments, indebtedness through use of Bt Cotton, misuse of agricultural chemicals, lack of expert advise and guidance or negligence on the part of government authorities but the truth of the fact is, the end result of all this in the form of mass genocide is absolutely unacceptable and a complete failure on the government's part. Because if our country which has always been thriving on the agricultural and green revolution for its development,has to face such an epidemic, then it surely reflects the sorry state of affairs of the microlevel governance. And if somebody has taken an initiative to bring this problem at the forefront through the medium of cinema, then it is definitely worth all the praise.

But after watching this 110 minutes odd piece of art I was utterly disappointed, rather I was deeply hurt. Its perfectly acceptable that the makers of this movie tried to make a satire out of it, but did it actually turned out to be one? For many, rather for most it did, at least the box office numbers and the reviews suggest so but for me it didn't. For me it was a mockery of the entire issue considering that the core of this issue of Farmer Suicide is such a sorry and dreadful affair and the condition of those people who are actually forced to commit this heinous act and that of their family members is beyond imagination. Agreed, that people might be actually committing suicide or pretending to commit suicide in the lure of that Rs 1 Lakh catch, but the movie no where captured what leads those poor people to do so or what can be the remedial actions for it or what are the loopholes in our system which leads to such a misery which is still unsolved for past so many years. And honestly I went in to watch this movie with these expectations only. Some might argue that the movie has exceptional performances from its main protagonists i.e. 'Nathha', 'Budhiya' and 'Ammaji' , but was it really the case? Factually it was not. Because in the 110 minute long venture Natha had 5, may be 6, Budhiya had 8 and Ammaji had 5 dialogs in all, that's it! And people, rather critics are talking of classy acting based on these 5-6 dialogs; hilarious! Rather majority of the footage is dedicated to the media channels, no wonder what they showed about the TRP hungry media channels is absolutely correct but the makers could have dedicated an entire movie towards that comical and overtly dramatic set of events, hence mixing such a serious issue, which needed some really good treatment with those media gaffs is a total injustice with such a sorry state of affair.

Though these are my personal views and a majority might not agree with them but I am still wondering why is this movie such a heartthrob among masses. Probably because people connect very well with the acts involving 'M...', 'B...' or 'G...' abuses, as seeing and hearing all that with such ease they can find a part of themselves in such acts or may be people and critics are so spell bound and intimidated with the maestro Aamir Khan, that they don't have the guts to even think that anything coming out of his hat can be detested, criticized or denied. Whatever be it, I still feel such an important national issue needed a far better treatment than what it has got from its makers but at the end of it we live in the era of absolute freedom, hence the movie has been made and hence this writeup has been penned down:).

JAI HIND!

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Shaadi ke Right Effects!

Marriage is undoubtedly the most talked about, fancied, sought after, celebrated and preached upon event in India. Whatever be your caste, whatever be your customs and whatever be your ideologies you just can't escape being a part of this roller coaster extravaganza. Without doubt marriage is THE most important event for any human being who gets into this sacred bond irrespective if his nationality, color or creed as this phenomena totally gives a beautiful turn to ones life but it wont be farce to say that the amount of time, money and efforts an average Indian spends on a marriage well and truly exceeds the amount spent in getting an entire clan married in the west.Though the purists and the critics might term the Big Fat Indian Wedding a waste of time, money and resources but truth of the fact is we don't give a damn to all that supposed 'crap', we celebrate and ornate our weddings in our own grandeur way and cherish it for our entire lives.

Then what is the reason that I am blab erring so much on wedding and fancies related to that? No wonder, I have recently got married and I have my own share of experiences some of which were funny, some of them were sacred and some really scared me. But the overall package is actually a treat and a treasure to cherish for life. Those 7-8 days or so were really nothing short of a bollywood blockbuster. With around 90-100 relatives buzzing our home, 20 odd friends who have kindly travelled down from almost all parts of the country and innumerable local pals and close family friends really transformed the event into a festival of sorts. Every single thing that happened over that period was a dream and hasn't happened earlier. On the buildup to the big event when I was busy with preparations which majorly boiled down to shopping my attires for various functions, I was bewildered with the response of my mom. All her life she has screamed, scowled and cursed me for splurging excessive amount on buying 'branded' stuffs which for her never made any sense. So after receiving pertinent flack for buying a pair of jeans for 3000 bucks, t- shirt for 1200 bucks and a pair shoes for 4000 bucks, it was a pleasant but unimaginable surprise when she was the one who suggested me to buy those expensive 5 digit Sherwanis, Dhotis, Suits and Kurtas, I was literally dumbstruck thinking this to be serious prank played by her but she has never been a prankster so it was something else brewing up. Reluctantly I asked her ' is everything alright?', on which she immediately replied innocently that ' no no its ok, if you don't like these ones we can look at other ones too'. Then it struck me 'dude its your marriage, so take it easy these things will happen now' :) Though I was still not very keen to spend that huge amount in buying those overtly dramatic costumes which I doubt I will ever wear again in my life but the lure of getting clicked putting those fancy attires was way too high to decline the offer.

So when I was still trying to get in terms with the fact that I am the predecided man of the series of this tournament even before the start of the first match, surprises and shocks were unravelling themselves at a fast pace. Everybody around, be it my relatives, be it my friends or be it the domestic helps were so very keen to feed me up all the time that it virtually seemed they are being paid heavily by the government of India to stuff me up. Moment the meal got ready, irrespective of the time and irrespective of the fact that I have just consumed something really heavy, at least 5-6 people started pestering to have my meal, and the urgency and justification with which they forced me to do so seemed as if this is the last meal available for a long long time. And the moment I eventually start having my meal, almost everybody around left whatever they were doing and rushed up to feed me something or the other. So if the aunts pestered me to have some more 'chapaatis', cousin sisters forced me with some more 'curries' and 'dahi badas' but the worst were the grandma's who tried forcing their way with those 'high calorie sweets'. The ferocity with which everybody was hellbent in feeding me it almost seemed as if I am the lieutenant commander in a multi nation armed force operation and I have to rush to take my position in the siachin glacier. It seemed a bit irritating that time but after giving it a serious though I realised it's not the time to get irritated rather these are the moments to cherish and enjoy as I will never ever be subjected to such hospitality again;).

Also all my life I very well knew the fact that I am not the most good looking guy around and my closest friends were the ones who time and again made me realise this fact through their worst possible taunts and remarks. So on the contrary when all those guys along with everybody around were going gaga over my looks and appearance on whatever I dressed up in, it all seemed to be more of sarcasm than the real praise. And all that was also a part of being on the groom's seat and hence naturally those high dose of attention and accolades but trust me it was real fun hearing all that from the guys who would have found it really difficult to mutter all that;).

So amidst all these intriguingly interesting moments which were all probably the first and last hand experiences for me;) there were also some really awkward ones too. Especially the one in which I had to be on the stage, endlessly smiling for more than 3 hours, getting clicked with each of the well wishers and making each of them realize that I am genuinely happy by their presence. Gosh! Can there be anything more difficult than this? I doubt! But now I can understand how the great Sir Sachin Tendulkar might be feeling collecting all those awards and prizes on various stages for last 20-22 years, getting clicked with millions of people, genuinely smiling with each of them, I bet its much tougher than scoring those 100 odd centuries. Anyways, if this wasn't all, there was more to come, bending down at least 200 times to touch the feet of all the elders around garnering their blessings after the main rites were over, though it might have easily shed at least 5kgs of my weight(so no grievances against all those people who were hell bent in feeding me to limits:) ).But amidst all the fan fare those intense rites and rituals actually sent a sense of responsibility down the spine and the feeling of being a part of that atmosphere was absolutely pious. That is one feeling one can understand and acknowledge only if he/she has been a part of it. The alien concepts of being a responsible husband, taking care of not only my own parents but also my partner's parents and always exercising the traits of love,compassion and loyalty were far too clear than they have ever been. In fact what the preachings of last 20 odd years could not do, those mantras and rituals did in 100 odd minutes, no wonder we have such high regards for our customs and beliefs.

So all in all on a lighter vein if somebody has never felt good about himself, has more often than not been subjected to pranks and puns of his friends and is still longing for some really royal treatment than certainly its time for him to get married. Though no guarantees about the same treatment post marriage but the attention, hospitality and high degree of accolades one receives in the process is unmatched, unforgettable and most definitely once in a life time experience. Howsoever artificial, forced and made up all that might be but for me it was all truly memorable and overwhelming:)

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Common Wealth Games or Games with Common Man's Wealth?

When the capital of our country has been bestowed with the opportunity of organizing a global event of the stature of Common Wealth Games whose magnitude can be easily ascertained by the sheer fact that athletes from over 72 nations will be taking part in 266 events across 17 disciplines over an action packed period of 12 days, ideally this mega event should create an atmosphere no lesser than what the FIFA World Cup did for the rainbow nation of South Africa but ironically things are no way near those high decibel levels. Thanks to the horrible state of preparations and highly corrupt governance of finances involved in the organizing of this event, there are no Vuvuzelas roaring in India to celebrate this global event. Infact not many of us are even thinking about the games at all, rather we are more bogged down by the controversies surrounding the organizing of the Games.But why such a sordid state? Why we are not talking about the Games and the prospective atheletes who can bring medals and in turn some glory to our nation?

Reasons are many and they are all depressing. Despite the fact that the games were allotted to India in the year 2003, giving our authorities a time frame of over 7 years to get prepared for the big stage, not much happened on the ground till 2006. Though the international guidelines stipulated that all CWG projects should be complete by May 2009, with last year being kept aside for trial runs, our organizing committee is no where near the international standards rather they have are busy in revising the deadlines or the project completion date all the time. And with no more than 50 days left for the opening ceremony, the abysmal state of preparedness is shocking. Most sporting venues including the Jawaharlal Nehru track & field stadium and swimming complex won't be complete before the Aug 10 extended deadline. At the table tennis facility the false ceiling has collapsed, at the weightlifting arena the vinyl flooring is already peeling, there are also reports of seepage at the boxing stadium, the swimming pool for the main event got flooded last week, and not even one third of the total flats for accommodating the international contingents are complete. If these facts on the state of infrastructure ill preparedness seem to be outrageous than the ones regarding financial irregularities are even more shocking and disgraceful.

A mammoth Rs 30,000 crore has already been spent on various infrastructure and development projects related to the CWG, though its a different matter that Rs 30,000 crores to achieve such a dismal state of infrastructure is an utter mockery of the tax payer's money. But if ordinary chairs worth Rs 500/- are being 'hired' for Rs 8500/-, 100 liter refrigerators which cost around Rs 4000/- and can store no more than 5 bottles of water are being hired for Rs 42,000 a piece, a single roll of toilet tissues whose worth is not more than Rs 100/- are being brazenly projected to be bought at Rs 4500/-, treadmills are being hired for over Rs 9.75 lakhs which is several times higher than the buying cost of the most efficient and suave treadmill available globally and when a gigantic sum of Rs 4500 crores has been spent on renovating various stadiums whose present condition is a fact of public knowledge now, heads are bound to turn and common man is sure to feel dejected, sad and furious. And when common sense defying contracts are being awarded to parties who have no idea about managing things, scenes are bound to be this dramatic and tragic. So giving these huge financial irregularities the names of scam and corruption is an understatement because in true sense it's nothing short of a large scale public robbery.

But what is staggering is the fact that why are people of the stature of Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi not speaking at all on this royal mess. They never let a chance go by when it came to speaking volumes on the corruption charges against Mayawati and Madhu Koda or leave that apart they sacked their own minister Mr. Shashi Tharoor who was not even proved guilty but had to step down for mere allegations from the opposition. So when the government backed organizing committee has well and truly eaten up a huge amount of public money by the name of common wealth games why are these bigwigs so dumb and numb. Is it the age old politics of remaining silent and letting the storm pass by or is it a clear cut case of everybody having there own share from this huge pie? Whatever be it by doing so they are doing no good to the reputation of our nation because when we are hosting an event of this global stature we are not only supposed to treat our guests with utmost care and respect but we should also be concerned about the pride involved in the entire process. By practice every new event, activity or version is much better than its previous edition, be it Olympics, be it Soccer World cup or be it Common Wealth Games and the same happened with the recent FIFA world cup in South Africa too which was a masterpiece event and ditto with the last edition of Olympics in Beijing. Infact the standards of excellence and quality in Beijing were so high that it will be a herculean task for the next organizers to match their predecessors. Certainly nobody is expecting us to set new standards of quality and excellence through the Common Wealth Games but we should be at least respectable in all the setups and arrangements. Though at this point that seems to be a distant reality because by the look of it the organizers seem to be more keen in robbing theCommon Man's Wealth rather than focusing on the success of Common Wealth Games.

So in this murky scenario of financial irregularities, collapsing ceilings and flooded stadiums what can a proud but dejected Indian do? The only possible thing he can probably think of doing is to earnestly pray that this edition of Common Wealth Games ends out to be free of mishaps and accidents.

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An enigmatic breed called ‘MANAGER’!

Nobody amongst us might have had the good fortune of not coming across a typically complex creature called Manager in our day to day lives. Though the roles or nomenclature might change a bit from Manager to Boss or from Supervisors to Heads but the misery more or less remains the same for every one of us;). And if somebody is dedicating a write-up to a breed called Managers then there are no second thoughts on the fact that recently he/she has had a really torrid time with his/her managerJ. Of course there are various types of Managers ranging from Crackpots to Dumb Jacks, Furious Irritants to Scrimpy Morons, Suspicious Detectives to Overtly Hyper Disciplinarians, Frustrating Timetables to Rowdy Cops and from Hitler-esque Mavericks to Power maniac Egoists. But somewhere down the line I have also read or overheard from some corner that there also exists a breed of Good Managers. Although I strongly believe that this is a creature of a fictious world but the people who talked of such a specie were very strong in their belief and support towards such a creature. EUREKAJ!

Though my professional career is not long enough to have come across each of this varied category of managers but definitely whatever short time I have spent in my corporate life I have come across quite a handful of them. It hasn’t been a very pleasant experience all the while but surely it has taught me some lessons and ways to handle such weirdo bigwigs. One of my managers was such an irritating fellow that he invited the wrath of entire team for his crazy ways. He used to jot down each and every point one said in his/her weekly work update meeting and quizzed people on the things he has jotted down in the last week’s meeting but the irony was these quizzing had no relation with the actual work progress. His motto was that one should be able to answer and substantiate each and every word he spoke in the last meeting. Now who remembers each and every word verbatim he/she spoke 7 days back? This act of his was so frustrating that one day out of curiosity I asked him ‘sir did you start your career as a steno/typewriter?’ And without any surprise my appraisal ratings were the worst in the team for that particular cycleL.

Another manager had this habit of noting down the minute by minute activities of every member in the team. So if somebody talked on phone for say 15 minutes the manager will update his excel sheet for that employee and make a mark of that telephonic conversation. Similarly if somebody went out for some administrative work, the manager again updated his corresponding excel sheet with that fact. So after receiving a poor appraisal in spite of 3 client appreciation emails, 1 quarterly award, 5 ‘pat on the backs’ when I went to my manager asking for a justification for the same he took out a 56 page print out of his closet and started reading out my statistics, which read in the last 12 months I was on phone for 1611 minutes, I went to the loo 328 times, I was on my desk only for an average of 6.5 hours out of an expected 9 hours and I spent 150 hours in training so with such facts I don’t deserve a better appraisal. Obviously it was enough for me to change my job but I still appreciate the endurance and observation capabilities of that managerJ.

So when the memories of this time table manager were still fresh in my mind I came across another weirdo who took pride in causing pain to his subordinates. He was so audacious that he openly declared it once that if somebody fails to abide by what is expected out of him (subordinate), he (manager) will go to any extent to ruin that guy. He was among those sadists who derive pleasure from other’s pain and miseries. One of my very close friends became a casualty to this deadly habit of his and he had to remain unemployed for around 8 months in spite of having a rich industry experience of 8 years. He resigned in this company and requested this manager for an early relieving. So out of an expected notice period of 2 months the manager agreed to relieve him in 1 month and hence the poor guy made all his arrangements according to this 1 month notice period, he even took a joining date from his new company based on this relieving date. But much to his misery and more to the pleasure of that manager, he fell into a trap when on the second last day the manager came up to him and asked him to serve the entire notice period of two months. When asked for this sudden and last minute change in plan, the manager had just one thing to say ‘company policy’. The poor guy pleaded for help and almost cried in front of the manager to relieve him early because he has made all the arrangements accordingly but that maniac head was hell bent to cause him pain, consequently my friend’s new employers refused to accommodate him on any date later than the decided upon date and he had to remain unemployed for a long time due to this crazy attitude of that sadist manager. I am still bewildered what monetary or materialistic gain that man derived from my friend’s misery but he certainly invited loads of bad wishes from all of usL.

Another unique manager with whom I had the undesired privilege to work with had this knack of asking employees to stay late in office. Work or no work only those employees were considered good who stayed late in office. And it wasn’t this simple either, if you are coming at 9 am and leaving at 6 pm i.e. a total of 9 work hours, you don’t qualify to be a good employee, but if you are coming at 3 pm and leaving at 9 pm i.e. a total of 6 work hours, you qualify into the league of good employees just because you are in office till 9 in the night. And mind you, productivity and results had no bearing on these classifications. And over that the manager wanted to see all the team members on their seats when he was on his seat, so even if he is himself on his seat for 5hours, his subordinates should be on their seats for every single minute of those 8 hours. And hence when people who came to office at 9 am and went out for lunch from 1 pm to 2 pm had to give justifications for their absence from their seats for this period just because the manager came to office at 1 pm and found them missing for a period of 1 hour. Insane but true!

What baffles me is not the fact that why these so called Managers and Heads are more often than not unpopular characters amongst their subordinates but the fact that how they actually evolve into being one of this breed. Certainly when one starts his/her professional career he is a nobody or in plain simple terms a fresher who works a bit, gossips a lot, meanders around various quarters building relationships, falls in love, screws some tasks and to some extent or the other happens to be a popular guy in his/her own group. So what happens over a period of time that this normal happy going creature transpires into an egoist power driven guy who is bloody thirsty for nothing else but attention and pride? I am still searching for a perfect answer to this mystery but I believe most of the guys fall prey to the power assigned to them which in turn inflates their egos to such an extent that they hardly care for their popularity and amicable relationship with their subordinates. Obviously such a generalization is dangerous and unfair and there can be many perspectives to this debate because there certainly do exist those friendly, supportive and good managers too, so what if their number is much lesser than the number of tigers left in IndiaJ.

And as a matter of fact everybody has to put on this cap of a manager sometime in their career, some earn it by virtue of their good work and some do so by their experience but after donning that covetous cap not many care to be a part of that rare breed of ‘good managers’, they are just happing being on that authoritarian seat and I believe only those who finally succeed to get a place in that rare category of ‘good managers’ are the ones who can give a perfect answer to that enigmatic question J

Bhopal Gas Tragedy or Poor Man's Mockery?

Bhopal Gas Tragedy took place on December 3rd 1984, officially killed 15,000 innocent people, in reality killed many more. In 1989 Supreme Court of India happily brokered a meager $470 million settlement between the Indian state and Union Carbide as a compensation for little over 1 lakh victims, where the actual number of victims was over five times. Today in the year 2010 the industrial site of disaster is yet to be cleared of the toxic waste and the people living around are still deprived of proper drinking water. But why has this ruckus cropped up now in 2010, 26 years later? Primarily because of two reasons, one being the fact that a lower court handed out a verdict on gas tragedy just recently and secondly because of the omnipresent starving media. And trust me this is one of the rare occasions when the role of media to me seems app laudable and I am pretty sure if Mr Anderson would have dared to flee away from India today, media wouldn't have allowed to let that happen even in anybody's distant dream, but those days were the days in and around emergency so to even think of such a scenario is nothing less than a brazen audacity.

But the million dollar question is who let Mr Anderson flee away from India? Oh, is it actually a million dollar question, its not even worth a penny. Obviously the Arjun Singh led state government and Rajiv Gandhi led Congress government at the center facilitated that. But the then chief minister of Madhya Pradesh Mr Arjun Singh has adopted a buddha-esque silence and the octogenarian politician is not even caring to clarify an ounce on the debacle and the then circumstances. But what is outrageously horrendous and hard to believe is that fact that Mr Anderson was actually flown out in a state government plane when he was charged under sec 304(culpable homicide not amounting to murder) which were later deleted in the trial by the state police. Obviously the nation has the right to know that under whose instructions these decisions were taken but when in 2010 the government's spokesperson says that those decisions were taken keeping in mind the tense situation in Bhopal which might have eventually led to the murder of Mr Anderson by the furious mob, it further saddens our hearts that the government is so concerned about the well being of the murderer and not at all about those lakhs of innocent people who lost there lives for no fault of theirs.

And what about the hysteria which is prevalent within the Congress for the alleged involvement of Rajiv Gandhi in the escape of Mr Anderson or for that matter any scandalous issue. For the Congress who is umbilically tied to the Gandhi dynasty, the very mention of Rajiv is enough to spark off an angry 'how dare you drag Rajivji into this' response. And same is the affinity of opposition who never lets away an opportunity slip by to embarrass the first family of Indian politics. Though I don't have anything against any of the Gandhi superstars but this sycophantic hysteria on every issue irrespective of its meritocratic valuation epitomizes injustice by all means and yields unsurmountable comical extravaganza more often than not.

Certainly Bhopal is not the lone incident embarking a loose stand by the government on a serious issue, Babri Masjid, Kashmir deadlock, Godhra Massacre are some of the other instances showcasing government's inability to handle key issues with a vengeance. And another reason of this loose stand on Bhopal Tragedy could be a shattered state of India at that point in time due to Indira Gandhi's assassination weeks ago, Sikh terrorism posing a serious threat, north eastern states boiling with unrest and bloody genocide going around across the national capital. And also in those days United States was enjoying an exceptional supremacy over most parts of the world.So expecting a tough stand against an American multinational at that point was a bit too much. But even then the manner in which the victims have been compensated is more of a mockery than a compensation, the style in which the Indian court has dealt with Mr Anderson suggests that he was this country's beloved son and those lakhs of innocent victims belonged to a foreign land, and last but not the least the manner in which the government is defending itself rather than taking some concrete action is nothing short of a joke.

Though the newly formed Group of Ministers have promised a speedy resolution to this age long injustice.But their ambitious proposal of extraditing Mr Anderson to India is nothing short of an ambition to one day land on SUN, though definitely the least they can do is to allocate a substantial compensation to each of those long suffering victims. But still the damage and loss caused on that night is irreparable.

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Honor Killings or Killing of Honor???

One of my Casanova friends was lamenting his love tales to me few days back. He was objectionable to the fact that I call him a Casanova all the time, his point was I am seriously looking forward to settle down in life, so what’s wrong if I am choosing my life partner on my own. He continued by saying that I went on with a girl for around 5 months and then asked my parents to get me married with her; they opposed it by saying that she belongs to a different religion, I was helpless. Then again I went around with a different girl for 3 months and asked my parents to plan my wedding with her; they objected to it again saying that she belongs to a different community, I was helpless again. Unwillingly I have to again go around with another girl, 3 months later the same scenario cropped up; my parents rejected her because of her different caste, I was helpless again. But I didn’t lose hope, I found another beautiful girl who was a perfect housewife material and luckily for me she also belonged to our religion, community and caste too but my parents still disagreed on her citing a new found reason that she is of our gotra and we don't endorse the same gotra marriage fearing the menace of 'honor killing'. Hearing his comical but sorry tale I was laughing my heart out but at the same time I was flabbergasted too. My friend then asked me ‘am I still a Casanova?’ I replied I don’t know your intentions mate, but definitely what your parents are doing is not right at all, such parochial thinking is not good by any means.

Certainly this was not the first time and unfortunately also probably not the last time that I have been jolted by such a parochial mentality still prevalent in our modern society. And over that to hear these sorry incidents about 'honor killings' is even more hurting. People go on to kill their daughters and sisters just because they have married a person who doesn't belong to a particular caste or he actually does belong to their own gotra. So supposedly to keep up the honor and pride they end the life of there innocent family member whose only crime was that she wanted to live life with a person whom she considered the most apt human being to spend rest of her life. This is nothing less than the most heinous and barbarian piece of act a human being can ever perform. But the irony is a certain section of people have almost turned this act into a norm and they provocate it with such an authority that it almost seems to be a constitutional law in those areas. The setup of Khap Panchayats and their ideologies in this regards is a serious threat to the noble idea of democracy and freedom of thought which is the very basis of the existence our great nation. When the entire world is moving forward both technologically and socially, the Khaps have in a sense institutionalized this aghast practice to such an extent that its a matter of shame for our nation to still remain a breeding ground for such inhuman acts.

So at a time when we are patting our backs that we have successfully moved over those age old unacceptable practices of dowry, sati and female foeticides these frequent stories of 'honor killings' resulting from an out of caste or intra gotra marriage is horrendous. Infact it is far worse than old generation's sins of sati and dowry because awareness and literacy level were far less in those times. So, when highly educated and well to do people indulge into such acts, it is nothing less than an act of utter shame for all of us. And giving it a name of 'HONOR KILLING' is far more outrageous than the act itself, it's like deriving pride from such shameful acts, it's more of pressurizing and misleading innocent people by the name of family pride and honor. It's ultimately nothing but forcing free mongers into death trap for parochial political mileage. It's high time that the government actually takes some corrective,preventive and punitive measures to strictly stop such deadly practices because it's in the best interest of not only our society to collectively condemn such tragic acts but it is also important for the healthy upbringing of our future generations.

As a matter of fact marrying someone of your choice is by no means a dishonor of ones clan but certainly being dishonest in ones job is a surely an act of dishonoring ones community,caste and clan, so is being corrupt, being untruthful and being unhelpful towards the needy. In simple words honor killing is a contempt of individual freedom and it's not honor killing by any means but it's certainly killing of ones honor in a real but tragic sense.

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Report Cards - Then & Now!

Remember those scary moments in the school when the very thought of teacher talking of Report Card sent shivers down the spine or the dreaded scene of teacher entering the classroom with a bunch of Report Cards turned the chirpy classroom into a moratorium. Report Cards used to be the true indicators of our all round performance in not only various subjects but also reported and graded other aspects like attendance, sports and overall conduct too. And the worst part being every student has to get their report card's duly reviewed and signed by their parents. Now it can't get any scarier than this? I still remember how hard I tried to evade such situations every time I perform miserably in any of my exams. At times I tried to convince my teacher by telling her my parents are out of town but my HITLEResque class teacher had all the time in the world and was ready to wait for ever, so eventually this ploy never worked. I even tried maneuvering my report card at times by changing those 3's (out of 10) into 8's or 1's into 7's and getting them signed by my parents in a rush, but poor me, I failed every time and rather made my life even more miserable. But those were really beautiful days, rather truly honest and transparent days. And Report Cards were a true and an honest representation of a student's all-round performance in various facets of life which are all equally important for his holistic growth and development.

I don't really know what value and importance Report Cards hold in present day school and college lives, I wish they still follow that beautiful tradition but certainly the manner in which our government is using the concept of Report Card has changed entirely. Recently the incumbent union government came up with a Report Card on completion of their 1 year at office and if one goes by what that Report Card actually reads than one might definitely jump to a conclusion that this has been by far the most efficient government not only in the history of Indian politics but may be in the world history. The Report Card boasts of all the wonderful things the government has done in past 1 year, it emphasizes on achievements like allocating Rs 36,000 crores for the basic services to urban poor and development of slums, approval of construction of around 1.5 million houses for the poor and slum dwellers, setting up of health and sanitation committees in over 36,000 villages, sustained improvement in disease control programmes specifically for tuberculosis, malaria and dengue, proposal for setting up of more high quality medical institutes like AIIMS, opening up of around 20,000 primary and upper primary schools,providing in service training to around 27 lakh teachers and providing free text books to around 10 crore students and approval of proposal for opening up of 6 new IIMs, 2 new IITs and 10 new NITs to list a few.

On the face of it, all these things seem so praise worthy and the report cards certainly seems to be of one of the most brilliant students of the class. But if we give a serious look at all these achievements, aren't these so called 'achievements' the bare minimums expected from any government? These basic amenities and services are the least which a citizen expects from its government, so categorizing them as achievements and patting their own backs is nothing less than making a mockery of themselves, its an indicator that even the government wasn't expecting that it will be able to do all this and when they have finally managed to achieve some of it they have classified it has 'achievements' . And for a change from the normal practice this Report Card holds only rosy aspects of the student (read government here), but where are those weaklings? Shouldn't the government's inability to check the rising prices also featured in their coveted Report Card? What about including their inability to handle the Maoist menace in the list of their 'achievements'? And how about enumerating the bravado's of those tainted corrupted ministers who are assimilating the public money for resurrecting their own empires? Or what about enriching the star studded Report Card by adding the government's shortsighted failed foreign policy and inability to still grab the main artisans in 26/11 terror strikes?

The government feels that it can once again be-fool the people of this country by hiding its failures through the means of these self proclaimed 'achievements', employing this new found prop of perennial Report Cards. But unfortunately every citizen of this nation is somehow aware that what needs to be done and what has been done, so by adopting these new tactics to mislead the people of this nation, government is only fastening the process of digging its own grave. But I truly wish that in my school days I had this choice of writing my own Report Card too, where I could proudly mention how many runs I scored last year playing for my division, how many girl friends I managed to woo in the last 12 months, how many injuries I successfully faked to escape a late comer punishment or how many classes I bunked to catch those SRK flicks and I can leave no room for those poor marks obtained in Maths test or Physics assignments.

I wish life was as beautiful as it used to be, but for these manipulative politicians!

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The Beautiful Game that Enchants One & All!

Whoaaaa! It footloose time again, its time to rock n roll, its time to go berserk, its time to unwind and dive into the magic of breath taking, exhilarating and nerve wreaking excitement, its time for FIFA World Cup, its time for 31 days of uninterrupted highest quality FOOTBALL action! But the question is why is our nation is going crazy about the football world cup? Afteral neither we have our national football team featuring in the tournament nor football is the game which we follow so avidly. Hence, it's a bit strange that a nation which eats, sleeps and breathes cricket is not talking about India's prospects in the forthcoming Asia cup or Yuvraj Singh's exclusion from the ODI team or for that matter Sir Sachin Tendulkar's prolonged rest regime, rather they are counting days and minutes left to the start of football extravaganza or possible magic that will weaved in the world cup by the likes of Messi, Ronaldo, Rooney or Torres. The reason is simple and universal, this 90 minute game is the most widely played and watched sport on the planet earth and almost every person born on this planet has somehow or the other definitely played this sport, no wonder it evokes so much passion and interest among the masses irrespective if their color, creed or nationality.

So even a lay man who is technology deprived, has no knowledge about the rules of the game or has no live access to these electrifying contests, understands the game and supports/ follows a team just by a simple logic that his team has to get the ball to the opposite post and not let the ball get in their own post, which is certainly no rocket science to understand and follow. Actually I have no qualms in admitting that I am no better than these guys when it comes to the matters of football literacy. Infact, I don't even know much about the superstars in the world of football but by virtue of my soccer crazy friends and reverberating media I can proudly name 10-15 heavyweights of the game and the ones who are most popular are also my favorites for this world cup:). But it’s not that I don't enjoy watching soccer or I don't have any interest in it, it’s just that I have hardly managed to take some time out of cricket and invest it in football or I failed to cultivate this football sense at the right age and hence I can't debate or express my views on soccer issues with the same authority as I do for may be some other games like cricket or tennis. Obviously I am not those types who religiously follow those midnight English Premier League or Champions League matches and grieve or rejoice on them for next few days, but yes I am certainly among those who once in four years take a plunge in this world cup bandwagon and enjoy it to the fullest. Though I have also come across some people who are hard core leftists talking in comparative terms and always ready to fight and justify how and why their favorite sport is better than football. But luckily I don't fall into this bracket either, cricket is undoubtedly my favorite sport but I don't have any animosity with any other sport either, and when it comes to soccer and soccer world cup specifically, the fun and ecstasy derived from it is different, special and incomparable.

And if we talk in terms of sheer statistics than no other sport is a match at all to this beautiful game. If we consider the numbers of this world cup, 32 countries will play 64 games to fight it out for 31 days across 10 different venues for the covetous 6.5 kilogram trophy and a total prize money of $420 million, of which the winner’s share is a mamoth $31 million. And spare a thought for the amount that this world cup will pump into South African economy, a whooping $12.64 billion, apart from creating almost 7 lakh jobs.And if we talk of popularity, almost 4 lakh visitors are expected to visit southafrica to be a part of this outstanding phenomenon with an expected live viewership of 3.3 million and a TV viewership of 27 billion. Take a breath, whoa! Now is there a match to this gigantic phenomenon? By any stretch of imagination NO. As always this world cup is the biggest ever,earth shaking in its size, symbolism and significance. And not just in numbers but in the sense of movement and pride too.

So no denying the fact that you just can’t escape being a part of this greatest show on earth.It’s like, you may love it, you may hate it but you just can’t ignore it. Football is more than just a simple game, it symbolises the power to bring people together regardless of their language, colour of skin or their religion. Football does this magic of making people smile and believe even amidst their age old foes of poverty, illiteracy and hunger. So let us put aside all our worries and take a plunge in this football fever yet again by shaking on the WAKA WAKA tune and letting those millions of VUVUZELAS roar!

Salute to the magical game of FOOTBALL!

WAKA WAKA….this time for AFRICA:)

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Side effects of being in LOOOVE!

Many of my friends have shared the experiences of their love lives at various times with me and I couldn’t stop laughing on each of those hilariously weird stories. Though obviously some of the incidents are really serious ones and the guys involved in them would hardly find them funny and might even kill me for laughing on their sorry state but for everybody else it’s a really nightmare to stop oneself from laughing on those anecdotes. What I don’t understand is with such a high degree of drama involved which might even beat the theatrical excellence of Ekta Kapoor, with such a high degree of tension prevailing between the warring couple which might even outpower the indo-pak border tensions and with the huge operating and maintenance cost involved to keep the love alive which might even overshoot the annual budget for a country like Bhutan, why are these guys still keen in being a part of this setup. Probably because pleasure lies in the pain;).

Some years back one of my close friends who had this craze of having a girl friend eventually happened to woo one of the girls in our group and was super excited with the fact that he too now belongs to the elite league of guys who have a girl friend. But his hyper excitement evaporated in few days which compelled me to ask him ‘What happened bro?’ To which he hesitatingly replied, ‘ there is something wrong with my gal, initially she used to call me day in day out but from last few days she is just giving me missed calls, indicating me to give a call back. Earlier I did that without giving a second thought but now I have realized that my expenses on mobile recharge has increased so exorbitantly that I don’t even have the money to take her out for a samosa treat or get my bike fuelled. I even tried giving her a hint but her reply was ‘now money is more important than me, right? ‘and she didn’t pick my call for next two days though I often found her phone busy’. I couldn’t say anything on this to my friend because you can’t talk and laugh simultaneously JJJ.

Another friend of mine who considers himself very smart, infact he proclaims himself to be the smartest in the herd, tried to impress his girl friend once by flattering her by his culinary skills. He gave her a surprise by cooking a very good meal for her and in turn got loads and loads of appreciation, love, affection and what nots from his girl friend. Moreover he even became a cause of envy for the other guys in the group, as these poor guys were subjected to the wrath of their gals everyday to learn some cooking from this smart stud. And eventually this smartest guy in the herd went on to marry his girlfriend but the scenario changed completely in due course, and all the guys in the group who felt humiliated because of him at one point are laughing there hearts out because the poor guy keeps on complaining all the time that from that day onwards I am the one who is doing all the cooking and my gal just relishes, reviews or criticizes my cooking JJJ.

Infact the very same guy gave yet another proof of his smartness by projecting himself as DIFFERENT from the herd by showing unexpected interest in shopping. No wonder his gal was very happy with this weirdly different habit of his, as shopping is the best rather the only hobby which girls pursue with full dedication. To start off with he couldn’t foresee the side effects of this move but very soon he realized that he has once again dug up his own grave. The situation is so bad now, that when all of us enjoy our weekends watching movies or matches at home, the poor guy religiously drives his wife to all the shopping malls in the town and even turns up into a part time coolie carrying loads of shopping bags. And the last thing which he wants from us is a discussion on his weekend shopping trysts JJJ.

Another poor friend of mine was very disturbed from his self obsessed beauty conscious girl friend who couldn’t stand any other girl around even if she is much inferior to her in looks and the only question she had for everybody around was ‘how am I looking today?’ Obviously she was the most beautiful gal in the world for my poor friend when he fell in love with her, but very soon he got so irritated with her self obsession that he started saying ‘that you are looking very gorgeous today’ even before she said anything to him. Naturally things started to worsen fast but they turned into a debacle when once his ‘aaah so beautiful girl friend’ was thrashing him for having a Pamela Anderson wallpaper on his mobile, the poor guy tried his best to keep his frustration in check but failed to do so beyond a point and vented all his wrath on his petulant girl friend but the final nail on the coffin was his caustic statement that ‘ if you really wana look beautiful wear such skimpy clothes and dress scantily otherwise you are as good as Nana Patekar’JJJ. And that was the last time they talked, but we still pull their legs by the names of Pamela and Nana;).

But one trait with which many of my friends have suffered a lot or are still suffering is the stigma resulting from the ‘transactions of gifts’. Invariably all their girlfriends start the countdown for their own b’days two months in advance and they make sure to start the day with a header note ‘only 58 days to goJ’ and end the day on a footer note ‘now only 57 days to goJ’ . But this is not all, in this period they even start enumerating the items they don’t have or are planning to have on an urgent basis and the poor guy has no other option but to assimilate that huge amount to buy those highly expensive gift items be it a branded swiss watch, diamond studded ring or an expensive touch screen cell phone. And unfortunately he gets no points for doing all this either because ‘ this was expected out of him’. But the things get worse when the guy’s b’day comes, the poor guys expects a decent gift in return of that expensive swiss watch but what he gets in turn is a Greeting Card. Rationale behind that greeting card being, gal to boy – ‘you know baby, I have made this card all on my own, each and every word on that card is original and I mean them by heart’. But the poor girl is unaware that even guys have access to Dr Google through which they can find each and every quote she has copiedJ. One of my friend is so irritated with this vicious gifting cycle that he claims that he can even open a full fledged card gallery without investing a penny JJJ.

One more constant point of debate or rather misery in the beautiful love lives of my friends is the CELL PHONE. Last weekend one of my pals invited me for a stay at his place as his live-in girl friend was out of town and he might have finished only two pegs of vodka that he started his lamentation. I was praising his girl friend for keeping the place so organized and clean, when he vehemently stopped me and said ‘ that lady whom you are referring to as your BHABHIJI is not a normal woman, she is a CBI agent, she scans, frisks and investigates all the messages sent or received; all thecalls made, missed or received with such an authority as if she has been delegated my case by the honorable Prime Minister himself, and I can’t even afford to object to any of these frightening activities, otherwise pat comes the reply that why are you scared, have you done anything wrong? And over this, if at any point in the day she calls me and finds my phone busy, then it’s a nightmare for me, she grills me to such an extent that I feel guilty of being a co-conspirator in 26/11 Mumbai attacks. And if somehow I found her phone busy some day and I can garner strength to ask her that whose call was it, she will bombard me with accusations like – you don’t trust me, you are suspicious about me etc etc etc.’ And he went on for hours and I don’t think I have ever laughed harder than that ever in my life, but the poor guy still laments that you can only understand the fun out of my misery and not the suffering I am subjected to and my reply to him on this always happens to be ‘but my dear friend, who asked you to fall in love and invite this misery JJJ’

Obviously not all love stories are this tragic, dramatic or eventful; there are certainly those SRK type love stories too:). But I still don’t understand why people are still plugged into such relationships when they spend half their time lamenting and fighting over petty issues and the other half in mending those issuesJ. Certainly nobody wants to fall into such a situation and there is no denying the fact that love is the most beautiful thing which can happen to anybody but still such awkward things do happen because of the immaturity and impatience on the part of the individuals. But as long as one is not involved into this mess or some may say bliss everything seems funny, its only when you are a part of this brouhaha you feel the real brunt or the side effects of being in LOOOVEJJJ.

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