Circus Time!!!

Its easily the most exciting, happening and buzzing time of the year. Undoubtedly the months of April and May are going to be the most important months not only for India but also for the enitre world because of the magnamanity of the 2 events taking place at the same time in bigger than ever form. One being the general elections of the biggest democracy of the world, which will see more than a billions voters turning up to vote for their man, their party and their government and on the other hand the staging of IPL-2009 which is only gonna be bigger and better with every passing season. There was quite a tussle between the two events, mainly on the staging and clash of dates of the two, though the election are a much bigger and important event by any standards but the governing body of IPL wasn't ready to compromise on their cash rich event, which is richer and more popular than the most high profile test series or odi tournaments between any top teams in world cricket.
If the Indian political circle has Mr Narendra Modi to add to the charisma and spice to the political circuit the IPL has Mr Lalit Modi with all his might and shrewdness to combat any obstacle on his way be it demotivating the rival ICL compatriots, be it convincing the most stubborn cricket boards to change their itinerary or be it the Indian Government itself for the scheduling of the tournament as per the decided schedule. Mr Lalit Modi tried all his skills in cajoling the various state governments to provide extra security beefing for the high profile event but it came out as a sheer coincidence that all the BJP governed states readily agreed to provide any level of security but the ones which were being governed by the Congress or the allied units straigtaway refused to provide so, stating that by no means they want to compromise on the security between this two high profile events, probably because the UPA government dont want a repeat of Mumbai terror attacks or Lahore Attacks on Srilankan players which very nearly cost them their government, so they didn't want to take any chances which might by any means hurt their reputation and on the other hand NDA and BJP led alliance is trying to make the most of it as they are not at the helm of things. No matter what but Mr Modi tried his best by coming up with many modified fixtures but eventually he had to move the tournament out of India because by no way he wanted to cancel it, missing out on the golden eggs which the cash rich Hen yields.
I wonder how much the guys from pretoria and johannesburg will understand and enjoy the rivalry between KOLKATA Knight Riders and CHENNAI Super Kings but then the stats say only 2 % of the people and revenues comes up from the spectators present in the stadium and the rest 98% comes up from the TV viewership and television rights and with the tournament being scheduled at the prime time slots of 4 pm and 8pm IST,its again gonna top the TRP ratings. But there isnt a surity that IPL ratings will be the sole winners, with so much drama, glamour and technology involved in elections this time around. All the major political parties have comeup with their promotional songs claiming lot many things which i actually doubt they have done and promising far lot many things which i am sure they can never do. They have also roped in personalities from the world of movies, sports and every corner possible to actually campaign and stand in elections thereby increasing the glamor quotient and temperatures during elections this time around. So when you see Priety Zinta, Salman Khan, Md Azharuddin, Sanjay Dutt, Madan Lal, Shilpa Shetty preaching you to vote in elections or emphasizing on the fact that why they should vote for a particular party don't mistake it with a film shoot or film scene, they are actually a part of some polictical party. With new demigods like Varun Gandhi, Raj Thackeray and Rahul Gandhi the heat is only gonna increase, and with pettier and nonsensical issues as their agendas to woe the voters, i pity on them what good they are doing to themselves or to the nation by such gimmicks but they are certainly giving lot of frenzy and readymade food to the news channel to reap upon. When the political arena will see these new faces playing there cards in such a high profile fashion the world of IPL will also see some charismatic and most expensive performers in the world of cricket in the form of Kevin Pieterson, Andrew Flintoff and J P Duminy. How these heavy weights actually fare in their respectve arenas is a different outlook altogether but the frenzy and the hoopla they are gonna create is going to be HUGE!
No matter who wins or who loses, 2 things are very clear, first being the fact that all the high profile celebrities who are actually preaching us the importance of a voting and the true and honest intent of their respective parties, wont be a part of this electoral process as they will be busy holidaying in South Africa watching the IPL matches and secondly Indian Masses will be the sole winner in this action packed period of 2 months with so many artisans performing in the grandest of circuses ever held in the history of mankind!

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plight of being a non alcoholic, passive smoker eggeterian!

Its almost 12 years since I left my home and have been living without my family but fortunately with very beautiful companions every single time. Though reasons for living outside have changed from high school education to graduation or job postings to post graduation but certain things have more or less remained the same. First, as already mentioned those wonderful people around me and secondly some common thoughts or frequent flurry of sarcastical remarks being impounded on me and on some of my habits by those wonderful people around me. The first of those mocking remarks came when I was in the very 1^st year of my life outside home. It came from those excited and hep bunch of friends who had there priorities well cut out right from the moment they stepped out from the barricades of there home and the agenda topping there list was SMOKING a cigarette. I still wonder how much and what they understood about the taste of various cig brands but they certainly looked very confident and preachy about each of them. I somehow never felt the urge to try out this extraordinarily exciting venture, initially because of the fear of my parents knowing about it but majorly because I myself never felt like doing it just for the sake of feeling like a MAN or to experience that MACHO feeling or for what ever insane reason a teenager dos it for at that point of time. I often use to hear it from my friends that ‘he don’t have the balls to try it out, he is mamma’s boy, he is still a kid and what not in the world’ but nothing moved me even to taste it out. The trend continued from school days to engineering days, the set of beautiful companions changed but the mockery and the remarks still remained more or less the sameJ. Now even the studious and bright guys of the group have started doing it, and the circle around me have graduated from being a smoking bunch to a regular drinking bunch. Drinking being the latest and the most exciting venture in the first year of engineering, excited one and all. But I was again on the wrong side of the table, when all my close and dear friends enjoyed those heavenly drinks I comforted myself with sweet sips of Mango Slice!!! Trust me I said Mango Slice not even a ‘Coke’. The remarks kept on getting worse, none of my bloody scoundrel friends let the opportunity go by, by not making fun of me on every booze party, some even treated me with milk bottles, but I enjoyed all this as much as they enjoyed doing it to me. But that still remained the way I was or rather I amJ. But never did it happened that they stopped taking me to any booze party or I stopped accompanying them in every cigarette break in the TAPRI outside the college. I enjoyed my Mentos as much as they enjoyed their stick, I enjoyed my peanuts, chips and cheese lings as much as they enjoyed there drink, rather invariably I have been the one who urges them that ‘come on yaar lets go to the TAPRI and have a smoke or it has been ages man since we last had a booze party’ and they have always treated me as a guy who is a voracious smoker or a sumptuous drinker. The trend continued in office too where my companions changed from my roommates/classmates to my project leads and project managers but my company to them still remained as loyal to TAPRIS and BARS as it used to my other mates. Though a new set of gyaan came my way preaching the fact that if you are a smoker or a drinker you climb the corporate ladder faster and you make friends rather quickly but even this didn’t worked in my case and I was always lucky to enjoy a good rapport with all my colleagues and seniors for whatever reasonsJ.Another rather irritating cause of worry for my friends remains the fact that I don’t even eat nonveg stuff and so they can’t really rely on me before ordering a full ‘Tangdi Chicken’ or ‘Chicken Tikka’ as they have to hear those boring ‘Paneer Tikka’ or ‘Veg Crispy’ orders every single time, though I have graduated to ‘Tawa Mushroom Masala’ and ‘Egg Fried Rice’ off late but that hasn’t soothed there irk by any meansJ. Now there isn’t any specific reason for being an eggiterian when even my dad, bro, most of my close mates infact all those special people with whom I am gonna spend my entire life are Non VeggiesJ but then even I don’t know why is it so, but that’s the way I am. So none of my friends actually hesitate to give me a treat or a party as I always turn out to be the most innocuous invitee to those parties who neither smokes, nor drinks, nor ventures for the most expensive non veg delicacies.

The most recent remark on all this weirdo lifestyle being ‘Saale thodi to sharam kar, ab to ladkiyan bhi peene,fukne lagi hai…kab tak frooti piyega…’JJJ. And actually none of this leg pulling affects me but for the fact when a new guy comes in and says ‘Saala…iski surat dekh to lagta nai ki ye peeta ya fukta nai hoga….dekh ke to saala ek no. ka kami@% lagta hai…’ Irritating to the coreJ. Most of my friends always remain irritated with my so called self proclaimed saintly life style atleast if we judge on these parameters but they are always anxious about a fact that when it will come to marriage the gal’s parents will always choose him over us, thanks to his saintly atticsJJJ! Anyways, I have finally raised my bar to Mocktails and Breezers but the taunting altercations with my friends and usual visits to TAPRI and BARS still continues and will always continue as long as they keep on selling mentos, peanuts and chipsJJJ!

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kin...

OUTRAGE!

I have witnessed many traumatic and excruciating terror attacks, and I was hurt and shaken by each of them, but none hit me as hard as the recent Mumbai terror attacks did. The entire sequence of events made me feel so frustrated, irritated and disgusted that I experienced a feeling of guilt, of not been able to do anything for my country at those hours of crisis. I was at a pub enjoying a post event party with my friends, when suddenly somebody stopped the DJ and broke this news to us, it was around 2240 PM, at that point we thought it to be some routine chaos caused by the Raj Thakeray’s buffoons, but wisely so most of us rushed back to our homes and after reaching back we came to realize the gravity of the situation, when we were being flooded by the phone calls of our relatives and friends from all over the country. That was just the start of the pain and anxiety which was to follow for next 60 hours. With no TV at my place I was stuck to my laptop, refreshing at least 10-12 news website every 2 minutes and attending the phone calls from all over, getting updated about the entire drama. Thanks to our brave soldiers and security personnel the epic ended but what followed was even more hurting for me and the level of outrage which was boiling inside me rose to mercuric levels. I was and I am, still bamboozled with the way our office bearers have handled the entire situation and made a complete mockery of it.

It’s a real shame for the entire nation that we have chosen these spineless rustics to rule our country and to protect us from any untoward incidents. It was really shocking that the incumbent ministers who enjoy a security expense of Rs 180 crores on them, as against a meager Rs 158 crores expense for the common man, can’t even pay slightest of attention to the regular warnings being given by our intelligence about the possible sea borne attack on the metropolis. Reasons for this lapse????? May be because that wouldn’t have helped them strengthen there vote bank for the forthcoming elections. For those who came to know about the name of our Home Minister only after the tragic incident or for some who still don’t who our honorable Home Minister was at the time of the attacks, here is some food for thought, the name is Mr Shivraj Patil…. Surprised??? Even I was. I can’t recall a single act of his which actually qualifies him as a candidate for Home Minister, but unfortunately he was the one, probably one of the weakest ever our nation has seen, and to expect any strong measures from him, was actually asking for too much, may be one of the few advantages which the attacks presented us with was his outcast. Another out of the place heroic was being exemplified by the dynamic Mr Narendra Modi, who reached one of the terror seiged targets, wasting a security cover of 12 NSG commandos on him and targeting the incumbent government for the attacks. Now come on!!!! Was it really the time to cash on for some political interests?? Even a mentally challenged person would have thought of only one thing at that point of time and that was just the well being of our COUNTRY, but with the flamboyant Mr Modi it wasn’t so. What followed wasn’t any better either, Mr R R Patil, honorary deputy chief minister of the state, tried to lighten the atmosphere for the grieving nation by MISusing the lines of a famous bollywood movie “bade bade shehro, aisi choti choti baate hoti rehti hai”, goodness gracious me, WHAT WAS THAT??? HORRENDOUS!!!


Things got dirtier when the Chief Minister of the state Mr Vilasrao Deshmukh, loitered his way into the Taj Mahal hotel accompanied by his not so popular actor son Ritiesh Deshmukh and the super flop film director Ram Gopal Verma, now what these two gentlemen were doing here on the very next day after the event would be a task far too tough even for the US Intelligence to comprehend, but this is India my friend!!!! I guess it was a tourist visit to one of the monumental parks. The mudslinging wasn’t confined to the boundaries of terror affected areas but it bore its trauma even on the saddened family members of the martyr Unnikrishnan, whose parents have to face a media captured DOG fight with another high profile office bearer, the chief minister of Kerala. SHAMEFUL! Incidents like this which hurt even more than the actual tragedy galore but what saddens me more is the fact that what can a common man like me do to vent out his outrage and to accomplish his dream of doing some thing for the nation. He can’t go out there any fight the miscreants on his own, nor can he join the army or any of the security forces, as he/she wont be physically competent to do so. He can’t become the minister in charge or office bearer thereby changing the laws and policies to our good, because for that he will have to be a part of this entire dirty system. Protesting against the terrorists or the ministers is just short lived and it eventually dies in the days following the real tragedy, so even that’s not a way to fight the real problem. We as Indians are very emotional by nature and we have a habit of forgetting things very easily, now when the entire nation is in anger against the in competencies of these impotent politicians, we will forget every bit of it in next 15 days.

I still can’t understand when our neighbors have been creating havoc in our nation or for that matter promoting such activities in our nation from last decade or so, why can’t we take any strong military action against them???? Politically because we don’t have any strong evidence against them??? Now did USA waited to find any politically viable evidences before attacking Afghanistan or Iraq after 9/11??? They didn’t. Everybody knew what has been done is wrong and so it was all justified, although if we analysis the entire situation on the parameters of human rights and other humanitarian issues it would be a different ball game altogether, but why we as a nation are so lackadaisical in our attitude??? Aren’t our lives as valuable as an normal American life??? These questions make me feel so shattered and guilty that even I am a part of this system, and to expect our government taking any strong action against the culprits would be again asking for too much, what they are engaged in or for that matter any political party would have been engaged in at this point is only one thing, strategizing the policies for the next general election which are to be held in the next quarter. And they have already started doing so by manipulating the inflation figure which is rapidly coming down, but it’s a real surprise that the daily use commodities still cost us the same!!!!

So what can a common man do to fight this mess which has engulfed the entire system??? Unfortunately I don’t have a clear cut agenda with myself either. But I would share a dream or rather a fascination of mine, when I was a teenager. I had this rage of casting a vote at the time of elections and was very fascinated by the entire process. 8 years have passed by since I have been eligible for casting a vote constitutionally, but much to my dismay I am yet to exercise my right even once, and this has happened due to my stay outside my home town attributed mainly due to studies and job location, and I still regret every time I miss that opportunity. But at this point of time I find myself rather lucky and to some extent satisfied that I haven’t casted my vote and hence I am not a part of electing this politicians, I am not against any political party because for me all are one and the same with there only motto being there own well being, everything else come later or rather never comes. Hence my idea of doing something for the nation, inspired by the current stream of events is that I won’t exercise my VOTE ever. I don’t want to be a part of this process of electing which eventually ends up electing those people who eat up the economy for there welfare and leaving the nation in a state of helplessness, disarray and quandary at the time of contingencies. Not only this I would earnestly propagate this ideology of mine to whosoever I can, of not using this fundamental right of there in electing such people who ultimately end up doing no good to our motherland. I will justify my ideology by umpteen number of reasons which will clearly explain why one should not exercise this right and what are the consequences of being a part of this process. So when all the political parties will come up with there own political agendas to woo our hearts, may be I will come with mine with justified reasons of opting for a NO VOTE option. I may be antisocial and constitutionally incorrect and might not be able to do so by the means of road shows but I will certainly do it by some means like a chain mails and I guess being a common man I can exercise this right of doing something for my motherland of which I am very proud of and I truly care for it unlike some of the office bearers of our beloved nation.

Jai Hind!

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kin...

Respect thy GOD!

'Sachin is a sore loser-Adam Gilchrist'
Understandable, that he didn’t expressed his views immediately after the incident, becoz he must be under his board's contract, but he could have expressed it post retirement.Even that didn’t happened. why? Reasons-1. That would have caused a huge uproar and he wouldn’t have got all the good farewell words which he got then. 2. Australians were on a winning streak then, and it would have further strengthen there tag of 'Unpopular Winners'. 3. He had to come to India to mint big money through IPL, so saying it then would have hampered his chances to actually even land in India. 4. The best way to earn money in cricket is to get India involved into it, and if India is involved, who else but the GOD(sachin Tendulkar) will fetch you more moolah. 5. Never in recent times Australia has been thrashed so badly as India has annihilated them in Mohali, and it is a very hard feeling for any Australian to accept this fact and moreover to hear anything against themselves repeatedly in the global media for so long, the frustration was bound to peep in. Reasons may be countless for this untimely and outrageous remarks but one thing is very clear Mr Gilly, you have lost all the authenticity and respect which you use to EARN for yourself before this cheap melodrama, you were among the very few aussie players whom the world over, everybody adored and respected, but after this incident I am sure, that your fan following is surely going to tumble as the global stock markets are tumbling. To question a man of Sachin Tendulkar's aura and stature demands some courage. The man has served not only his nation but the GAME for 19 long years and has earned respect from not only his countrymen but also from the people worldwide, he has earned a name for himself not only for the way he plays his game but more so for the way he conducts himself outside the field. By making such remarks Mr Gilly you have painted a very sorry figure for yourself, you might succeed in selling a few extra copies of your autobiography but the talking which the Master Blaster will give through his bat,to your team mates in the coming matches will be a really harsh truth for them to accept who are already struggling to get in terms with this shameful defeat and the dent which you have made to your own widely respected personality will be the lifetime stigma for your prolific career!

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