Schummi does it again as does Valentino!!

So another grand prix over and another set of results.
Michael Schumacher another one (Magny Cours) as does Valentino Rossi (German moto GP).
Leadership wise Alonso still comfortably perched on top while Rossi is making the in roads to the top spot.
I have been a bit disappointed by Mclaren this year. Last year, they were the fastest around though unreliable. But this year they are definitely the third best car after Renault and Ferrari.

Next year promises to be interesting due to the Musical chair of lead drivers.
Kimi moves to Ferrari (my most fav driver moves to my least liked team).
Alonso to Mc Laren (Mc Laren has been my favorite team due to Senna and Mika followed by Kimi)
Montoya moves out. Schummi still races on.
I hope Karthikeyan gets another look in. People frown saying that he was last of the lots last year. But to me he was one of the 22 drivers among a huge number of aspirants. And that he did it from India where rupee gets beaten 45 to 1, speaks volumes.

Another Blasts

I wrote a blog sometime back about our non chalance attitude towards blasts and loss of Indian lives.
Many governments have changed hands, we have had countless PM but unfortunately with these coallition governments none have had spine to tackle terrorism. It has more become an election point than a point of action.
And to add to that we have parties like SP which just cares about vote bank politics and without any facts give statements. Like giving clean chit to SIMI even when the investigations have just begun. Also its leader gave a statement like giving money to Pakistan for Kargil war. That was slap on the face of so many young martyrs of Indian Military.

And what we do about this new terrorist attack. We do nothing. We forget and carry on with our lives. We discuss it in cocktail parties and perhaps write a few blogs.
Its called our resilence and we are credited for carrying on with our lives. Our parliament passes a resolution that it was an act of terror (come to think of it, if we have enough stupid MPs, it might not even have been called an act of terror).

PM will now push for Zero Tollerance....haha ha.. After 2 decades of terrrorism, we finally have woken up to the fact that we need to have zero tollerance. Till now it was ok to have some lives expended...WHY?
Because Indian life is cheap! and thats the bottomline.
Cheers to that!

Fuussball Magique

So the world cup fever is reaching its Zenith. Quite a different WC as compared to 2002, with 6 of the QF teams having already won WC previously. This is in stark contrast to 2002 when only 3 of the final 8 were previous winners.
And it seems some of these past champions are only riding on luck rather than good football to reach to QF and beyond.
But then Germany did reach the final in 2002 in an almost slumber like manner. But as it is said, when Germans play well they win else they reach the finals...And this time they are playing quite well and they are not overdoing. Calm, composed, compact and possibly the most well organized team in this world cup. So they are to my mind favorites to win against the Team I root for Sparkling Argentina.
Argentina has for sure been the entertainer of the WC having boring teams like England, Italy and Ukraine (France was in the list till their last encounter). But their strength is also their drawback ..full of youthful exhuberence (most being the team mates who were in the team that won World Youth Football C'ship coached by Jose Peckerman)has added a spark to the WC yet their lack of experience will show when they take on Germany and if at all progress further.

For Brazil vs France - My pick is surely Brazil..France is back from Dead but its like the last breath activity...they will be put to rest admist the Samba beats...
My WC disappointment has been Ronaldinho..though brilliant in midfield and as playmaker, he can do himself good by scoring in last few matches...

England vs Portugal - The world including England is perplexed on how they mananged to reach so far...they are playing sleepy football..defensive almost to the point of keeping the ball in Goalie's hand..
Portugal have played rough football. They are an interesting opposite of slumber football of england. They have played as a WC game needs to be played when you don't have enough talent - With lots of urgency (perhaps their iberian neighbour Spain could learn something from this side). They can spring a surprise, though England might just again scrape through..

Italy vs Ukraine- The most boring of the matches on cards in QF. Italy has always been the ultra defensive team..prepared to go in Penalty shoot outs...Ukraine has picked the traits from them...but still Italy as always is a compact unit which do some scoring sometime..so they seem the winners from here..

At this stage..Brazil are still the favorites and they haven't peaked as yet. All thanks to bundle of talent in this country. All 11 frontline players can be replaced by equaly good 11 players...

So will Latinos strike rich in European heartland..only Once it has happened..1958 Sweden WC..team that did it ...BRAZIL.

DELHI BLASTS : Our tolerance or cowardice

Today Delhi got rocked by a series of bomb blasts. Many were killed, many more wounded...but many many affected...
Watching a real good coverage on BBC far from my motherland, I heard correspondent say, that Delhi will fight back and be back to normal...its not the first time it has been under attack from the terrorits.
Yes, true, we Indians have learned to take the bombings/terrorist attack in our stride...forget Delhi, how many of such bomb attacks we hear in our Kashmir...

But is it our tolerance or our cowardice...such blasts happen every year, whenever some festival or national event approaches...
What has been done...I guess while learning to take it in our stride, we have also stopped caring to even think whether something has been done to stop it..or will something be ever done...
Its time I think when India should stand up and say..enough is enough...
Terrorists have to go...their sponsorship (in whatever name) stopped...and it should not be afraid or hold itself back in achieving it...

Condolences to the bereaved families and friends...Speedy recovery to Injured...
God Bless us all...

INDIA WINS!!!

Yes..unbelievable but true, India has won a One Day match. This win reminds of India's win over Sri Lanka in 99 world cup.
But it has one better aspect to it (and I hope and I pray that it sticks)...that everybody contributed.
Good start to the current stint of Dravid as captain...
(and I hope and I pray that its end of Ganguly :), his century at domestic cricket not withstanding)...Remember Laxman keeps hitting Indian bowlers in Challenger, gets into the team and then forgets what he is suppose to do there... Dada seems to be taking a leaf out of Laxman's book.

Also nice to see Sachin coming back and getting into the groove. Would have loved had he got his hundred...

But then who cares..India Won and won in style...

Best wishes to Dravid and his boys...(adieu Gangulyda...awaiting your retirement announcement)

What is the meaning of being Indian?

What is the meaning of being Indian?

Do we use it so callously that we hardly know its meaning. I think we do.

The incident that set me thinking, happened some while back when I went to see the movie “Million Dollar Baby”. The movie was engrossing and in such movies (unlike Karan Johar’s Tearjerkers) dialogues (and even sometimes the lack of them) matter.

Now like typical Indian Movie hall scene, which I am pretty sure everyone would have experienced, kids jostling here and there, cell phones ringing, basically anything which distracts you from the movie.

Similar thing happened, an overzealous kid went talking on and on, and unfortunately his Dad did little to calm him down. We (I and my friends) were sitting just behind them and besides us were sitting couple of foreigners. One of those ladies in exasperation ended up shouting “SHUT UP”.

Rude I must say, but well the movie was being ruined. Had it been Mr. Karan Johar’s movie I would not have least bothered to what SRK was babbling about. But this was a multi Oscar winner and a movie that was really interesting.

When the movie ended, the lady did give a piece of her mind to the Dad of the kid, telling him and I quote “I did not pay the money to hear your kid talk”

Well, well, well!!! A foreigner telling an Indian dad, that his Son was disturbing people, the apple of his eyes, the bearer of his family name, this cute little kiddo- disturbing people. That’s stepping into a danger area and I am pretty sure the lady realized that once Mr. Dad reacted. And I quote,

Dad: “ARE YOU INDIAN?” –Psst Psst..Mr. Dad they don’t look like one

Foreigner: “Excuse me!!!” - Yes lady, this question definitely is the trick question to set you off the track- she continued “No I am not”

Dad: “From where are you?”

Foreigner: “Copenhagen”

Dad: “Then go back to Copenhagen and go to the halls there, do you see families there watching movie?”

Foreigner: “Eh!!” – don’t worry he would be getting somewhere

Dad: “We are INDIANS” (and here it comes) “and we have a culture” (yup our most potent weapon in arguments), “we go out as family to watch movies, we don’t leave our kids behind”…(Hmm that’s true)

Till now our foreigner protagonist was totally lost, she was clueless as to what was happening.

And at this point my friend (a good Samaritan he is) stepped in. I am pretty sure overhearing the conversation had made him puke-ish enough…

He said and I quote “ I am an Indian and I too was disturbed by your kids talking” (good entry mate, that should put the dad on a back-foot)

Dad: “Are you a father? “

My friend: “Eh!!” (Gees I hope not, I hope all the precautions worked)

Dad: “So you are not a father, you don’t have a kid and you think you can tell me about children.”

My friend: “I am just saying that kid’s talking did disturb us and nationality has nothing to do with it. So don’t bring it in”

Another guy possibly with Mr. Dad: “Hey! You should not say this, you are an Indian….”

(Aw…whatever that’s suppose to mean)

And at this point my other friends steps in to put an end to an irritating albeit interesting conversation…

“You don’t have to bring Indianness into every argument and there is definitely no need to drag it in this context”

And the conversation ended…

I was really perplexed by the development of the conversation and fascinated by the logic of it. The logic seemed to reflect Saurav Ganguly’s thinking, “I can’t make runs sitting in the dressing room” (True you can’t argue with that, but what about others who are in form and are not getting chance because of you, but then who explain him the logic)

Coming back to the first point I raised. Have we Indians started using the word Indian very loosely? I am an Indian, I can bring a kid (good, Indians do encourage family) and he can howl since we have our culture to protect us.

But Mr. Dad just one point, both my friend and me may not be father (as yet) but we have been kids in our lifetime and have gone to see lots of movies with our parents.

We too have been overzealous like kids that age ought to be but our parents had ways to control us and keep us calm (and for the records I have never been hit by any of my parents), but they could very cleverly keep me quiet.

So I am pretty sure you were enjoying some quality time with your family, but it does not give you any right to infringe upon other people right to have the same.

And why flash being Indian so loosely. Hey the reason most of us are Indians are because, when our parents thought of having kids, they stayed in India.

Had you Mr. Dad or I been born in lets say US of A (a country offering nationality on the basis of birth); we would have been flashing our American Nationality all over. Then we would not have brought being Indian into such conversation. We would have just brought our world policing attitude to the table (but then that’s a topic of its own)

Lets first understand what these 6 alphabet ‘I’ ‘N‘‘D‘‘I‘‘A‘‘N‘ strung together in this order means. Behind it is 5000 years of history. A heritage that is a mix of many cultures each assimilating and resulting in what we today call Indianness. So lets find some other arguments to counter when someone points that your kids talking disturbed them but lets keep being Indian and our culture away from it.

Environment and Poverty

Was just watching TV like any normal day today..and while surfing (well watching TV means surfing the channels or as one of the Saeed jaffrey serial set in london said "Playing Piano with TV remote" ), and I saw this feature on CNN...

It was predominantly about the need of conserving environment et al...but what stuck my mind was this observation by one Mr Khosla ( I forget his first name. His is an organization based in Delhi that works toward economically beneficial yet environmently friendly innovations etc).

Anyways his observation was that the majority of people on earth lives under $2 a day wage and the source of most of their daily needs is the environment...fuel from woods etc.

So while the "Haves" are busy destroying the environment, they are also taking away whats left with the "Havenots"
Some food for thought...

Back

Back after a while to my blog...
Really I envy those who can blog everyday. It sure takes lot of discipline to do that...
Anyways last few days or weeks have been eventful. I am now in the city of Lausanne in Switzerland.
Lausanne is a very beautiful city like most of this alpine nation. In my some subsequent blogs I will try to capture my experience in this small but sweet city...

Institute of Bad Jobs

I am kicking off with a post dedicated to one of my friend who had the guts to leave a cushion job and pursue what his heart wanted him to do. And he started his next innings just a few days back.
And also hoping that another one will be doing that in the times to come...
Incidently both have been my flatmates....

“Anchorlessness – that was to be one of his chaotic concerns in that uncertain year; battling a sense of waste was to be another. Other fodder too, in the farrago of his mind, self-pity in an uncongenial clime, the incertitude of his reactions to the place, his job and his inability to relate to it – other abstractions too, his niche in the world, his future, the elusive mocking nature of happiness, the possibility of its attainment”

------ English, August: Upamanyu Chatterjee

When is one satisfied with one’s job? What happens when one is not satisfied? Is a bad job really Bad?

Some obvious questions and some obvious answers later, I found the silver lining.

To set the perspective straight, job satisfaction and B-school students seldom go hand in hand. So those who are from B-Schools or know people from B-School will tell you, “Nobody is bloody satisfied. I want his* job and he* wants mine”

(*Gender bias is not intended).

Disillusioned with my job,

Seeking some solace,

I found some

Thanks to a friend’s grace.

My friend said to me,

“Come, take the job I do,

I do nothing and you can do it too”

The dreams of doing something

That will make some difference,

Well is just a dream.

But I said to myself

You are lucky my friend,

by doing nothing, you can at least dream of doing something

that will make some difference

Than end up doing Something

Where doing “something” is the only difference than doing nothing

This was pretty much summing up my feelings towards the job certain while back. What am I doing here? Where am I heading? I hope this road is leading me somewhere.

But as I said in the beginning, there has to be a silver lining. And I found one, thanks to another friend of mine. Well, a bad job makes you realize what you have been missing or what you always wanted to do. Something, which in your heart you had always wanted to do but “social norms” had stopped you in your steps.

A musician, a painter or a follower of pure science. A bad job helps you rediscover yourself.

Lets say what if we end up doing something which even though not something we really like, keep us satisfied enough to keep us interested. Then self-rediscovery is a good bye.

So when somebody leaves a cushioned job and a lifestyle that goes with it, just because it’s not what his heart wants- it’s a brave decision. And it’s a decision that can be attributed to A BAD JOB.

Though the catch here is that you should know what your heart wants. I for one have no clues, perhaps what I really want is somewhere very near to the job I am doing.

But my friend knew what he wanted to do and he has his heart set on it. And like it’s in case of a fighter, the biggest weapon in his armory is having it in his heart to fight it out. I wish my friend and other fighters like him, All the best! Mates. May you get what you seek!!

Because if people did not go after what they sought, an Elvis would have at best ended up owning a fleet of truck (May be the largest in the world) or an Arnie instructing in some non-descript Gym or a Tendulkar moving files in some office. Or a Columbus remaining in the continent of Europe and not discovering the resource rich land of America.

So God Speed you my friend.

And God speed the institution of bad jobs, which makes people introspect and go in search of self-rediscovery.

Lets Playball!!!!

Why blogging and if at all why now?

Why blogging: Nice way to express my thoughts/opinions/judgements....

Why now: well for some time now I have been going through many blogs and have found them interesting...I guess am just following the old adage "better late than never"...

So here I am, joining this ever growing community...

Will I be regular/diligent in posting blogs : CAN'T Say..after all I am a gemini...don't know where the next wind will take me...

But hoping to have a good time doing it while I am doing it...so let's Playball ..

Assumption: There is at least one hit ;)