The older the better!!!

How would it be carrying a billion expectations on your shoulders? Pretty tough I guess! Every time I walked into the crease with hardly a dozen people watching in the pavilion (mostly team mates), there would still be a lot of butterflies in my stomach. I can just imagine how it would be in a stadium filled with thousands of people vouching for you. Only a couple of days back I saw a man do just that for 20 years in a row.

I, probably am not the greatest fan sachin ever had, nevertheless, i have reasons to believe that in my own right, I was. When i was much younger, I dreamt of being a tendulkar one day. Over the years the thought vanished....and i was content being a normal human being. Man.... just the thought of playing the game for 2 decades....wow.

It wasn't plain sailing though for the great man. Sometimes its the media, sometimes it was the fans (who are more like fanatics) who wrote him off, only to see him fight back harder and reclaim his position. If there has been a sportsman who has conducted himself in a manner worthy of being noted, it is sachin. Some may argue Federer is, but i think his temper is far ahead to that of sachins'.

The 174 against australia was a scene to witness. No matter who, all would agree that it was poetry in motion. I only wish the great man...."Its been a pleasure watching you play; Tell me there is more in the reckoning"

The Maya Jaal

Democracy! That’s what we Indians take pride in……But wait a minute….look back and think about it. We are a democracy alright, but do our votes count? The voting pattern in our country baffles me if not anything. A classic example is Mayawati. Who the hell made her the CM. Let alone CM, a while back we were even thinking of making her our PM. I guess we must never vote if we can’t pick the right leaders. I wonder what the whole of UP was thinking while voting for maya. Apparently most of the state funds are spent on her self-glorification. A court filing was pending and the park with various statues of her and her goon friends were on display. While a huge number of people are suffering in dire poverty, maya finds joy in unveiling her statues.

And this certainly wasn’t her first splurging spree. Her birthdays have made it to the news too. Crores of state funds and bribes are collected to finance the mega event. Wonder why the news channels do not cover these programs and show to the public the mockery of their votes. And we call this democracy.

I guess Lucknow was once called the city of nawabs; but with the current state of affairs it may be renamed: Lucknow UP “where stone age comes to life”. Funny but the state of UP now reminds me of Narnia where people are turned in to ice. Just a minor change: its stones here. And look at the coincidence here even UP is rules by a crazy woman.

We give positions of power to people in half wits and expect them to do us good. Maya is just one in the bandwagon of many jerks in our country. Its high time we stop this nonsense. Make your vote count. We are going nowhere with a 54% turnout for elections. Enroll yourselves and put an end to the sham. People of UP…..All the best in your jumbo ride. At least be sensible the next time around!!! Dalits…..the only dalit who benefited from the present pro-dalit government is Maya. Don’t do the same mistake again!

Public Nonsense

Ever wonder what you do could put somebody off. If you haven't; pay attention.

Something that started of as a fashion, slowly became an addiction. Smoking; true, it has fire on one side and a fool on the other. Never know whats so amusing about a cigarette! smells bad enough to repel a dodo.

Damaging public property, another nuisance specifically in our country. Tyres are burnt, buses vandalized. What have we gotten into. As they say "civilization started when man started throwing something other than a stone to show his discontent."



"Make the world you canvas" goes a saying...but i guess some people misinterpret it to be "Make the world your toilet". Guys, its disgusting. Next time you see someone do it....give them a rupee and tell them to use a public rest room

Summer Springs a Surprise.... RCB!

The hapless teams of last IPL had something to cheer about this summer. The Bangalore team, often tipped as the test IPL team made it to the finals. Whats more it did so in style under the leadership of "namma bengaluru huduga" Anil Kumble.

well, while bangaloreans made merry, teams like Kolkata had a lot to worry about. Sharukh khan may hav to reconsider his decision to own a team. Maybe, as a result of his team, no one may turn up to watch his flicks. Preity tries everything from Aloo parathas to prasad....none worked.

Well, pictures speak a thousand words....here are some of them

Things you 'MUST' do this summer

"Go....Dance in the rain" is the last thing I would suggest you this summer. Anyway, I have a list of things you must do as the mercury rises. Here it goes :

• Go, Get a haircut! Guys....this is a must do....your ex-dhoni hairdo is a strict no no!
• Girls....u too must try it (specially for the adventurous ones). it feels great when you feel the breeze brushing through your scalp!
• People who are Naturally 'hairless', never mind.....this section doesn't apply to you!
  
• Eat ice...trust me its the best way to beat the heat...although you might have to visit your dentist pretty soon.
• Swimmers, non-swimmers....hit the pool. Try going to the deepest corner...then swim halfway to the middle and stop kicking. For those of you who don't know swimming, even better....just jump anywhere....you might still drown!
• Go to the roadside vendor and have 5 GOLAs in a row....try different flavours...Make sure you brush your teeth after that....those colours can be pretty hard to remove!
  
• Put off your fan, sleep with 3 blankets on.....you will conserve Power.
• Try Bungee Jumping....just another way of cooling you down...
• Wear fancy sunglasses...like the one Rajinikant wore in his films.....the ones with heart shapes, pink rims, fluorescent green shades etc. Wear them in the night too....
  
• Spend a day at the cold storage....there will be plenty of animals for your company.
• Wear a sweater, muffler and a monkey cap for Lunch....top it up with a woolen overcoat....be sure you will burn a lot of calories!
  
• Walk aimlessly.....if you have a lot of free time...which I 'm sure most of you do, go on a walk....keep your pockets empty.....cellphones and money can be a big distraction for a lift back home. Keep walking......
  
• Have an early morning cold water bath....it will keep you fresh throughout the day! If it is too hot....have bath every hour till you sleep....make sure you aren't using public water, dig your own well for this.
• When you feel that the heat is irresistible, have cold meals...i.e. cold rice, cold tea, cold chicken, cold dosa, cold roti, cold dal, cold pizza.....u just said the heat is irresistible!
• And Finally, as I said...go Dance in the rain. Make sure you keep off the manholes; or else the next time we see you could be in the newspapers!

P.S. All the above acts must not be performed alone. Have someone along for moral support and supervision!

Cut, Copy & Paste

Plagiarism, a very sophisticated word given to the cut, copy, paste phenomenon. Earlier, even plagiarism needed effort as we had to write. But with the advent of computers, its gotten much easier. All we do is select, cut, copy and paste! Hey but what triggered me to post my views on plagiarism??? It was a mail which said everybody to stop sending blog posts that were copied from elsewhere!!! I guess it was the need of the hour.

Hey, but that brings us to the all elusive question, weather to be a hard working blogger or a smart blogger....obviously many of us take fast track...but does it pay off? I do not think so! A smart blogger always thinks the person on the other end is dumber than him....which is a good thing if the other person actually is dumb, which is not the case very often.

When it comes to staling an original article, i am reminded of one of my school teachers. We were reading the Daffodils by Wordsworth and the chap reading it misread one of the lines. The teacher promptly stopped him and said, "poor Wordsworth would have put in so much labour pains in creating this masterpiece and you are trying to modify it!" The incident shows us that a few things are always better off in their original form. No amount of change can bring in the charm of an original.

A Blog is a diary where you pen your thoughts....at least don't copy others' thoughts!!!

Poll Position

As India braces itself for polls lets look at how rational we are at voting for the right people. As Indians, we have a lot of pride in flaunting our nationality. But, when it comes to voting, we are far behind. Ask a novice and he would reply that he does not beleive the voting system in the country. Ask another and he would say, give me a bottle of whisky and I would vote for anybody. In a distant country called America, people voted for change, here in india, we vote for no change. Basically, our society despises change.....and that is evident from the way religion is thrown in the ring like a football and kicked around by vagabonds. While on one hand we have fools who claim that they are saviors of the Indian culture, on the other hand we have bigger fools who claim they are saviors of country itself; all this when there are a countless attacks on the country by people within the country; sometimes in the name of religion and sometimes as terrorism.

We have heard the statement "this is a era of coalition governments". The political parties stoop to such an extent, that they would put Cleopatra to shame. Parties which were once considered enemies, get together like a script straight from Bollywood. Archrivals become best buddies. And in the midst of all this, money changes hands like a parallel banking system. We have had PMs who haven't even lasted a fortnight and we call ourselves the biggest democracy in the world. Democracy has become an object that the citizens of the country use to claim their rights but wouldnt make any attempts to follow their duties.

A popular TV commercial "Jaago Re" shows us how the youth needs to respond to elections and vote responsibly. However, I am sure it looks good on celluloid, but ground realities show us a different picture. Invarably, there will be people who say "I wanted to vote, but I did not have an election card", "All are equally corrupt, there is no point voting", "No time dude", "I have more productive work to do", "I dont beleive in Democracy", "I dont pay tax, u expect me to vote"..............and so on.

But at the end of the day......these are like excuses one would give in a school for missing classes! At the end of the day Democracy is of the people, by the people, for the people!!!

Go Jump

New Zealand is one place I have to visit someday. Pristine beaches, thrilling adventure sports is what come to my mind when I think of NZ. Specifically, the bungy jump from kawarau bridge seems to be one of the best experiences one would get in NZ. I have never been to NZ, but I certainly plan to be there someday!!!

I think, therefore I am

At times we humans have this great abiity to think too much. I mean in a sense that beats all senses. Computers have the problem of overheating and thereby shutting itself, unfortunately we humans don't! Take the example of trying to understand a complicated scientific theory from Einstein. I am sure most of us wouldn't understand a thing. And the people who claim they have understood are lying. 

Nevertheless, there was one instance where I found that thinking too much was good. I have heard this story from many people, and each time I heard a new version. Let me give u a breif outline:" Once an atheist science professor comes to the class and questions the students of the class about the validity of God. He makes strong statements which would even make a god fearing person a non beleiver. The strongest point he makes he makes is that of god existed, there needed to be some proof. Can anyone touch God, See God and so on.......the class is stunned in silence. Suddenly one student raises his hand. The professor is happy as he thinks his theory was foolproof. The student says "Sir, you dont have brains!!!" The professor is taken aback, recomposing himself he says "what do you mean?" The student now gets all the attention from the class and he continues, "Sir, if you had brains, there must be some conclusive proof. Can you touch your brain? Can you hear your brain? Can you feel your brain?If you still claim you have brains, then how can you say God does not exist?  The whole class erupts into a thunder of applause.......truly this chap deserved it.

I have no clue who the person was, but had I thought so much, my brain would have one numb!!! Studies claim that we only use a small part of our intelligence......so true considering Edison never had formal education. As they say "i was born intelligent, education ruined me"

Anything for publicity!

The recent mangalore attacks by the Sri Rama Sene gives us a glimpse of how cheap our politicians will get to gain publicity. What is worse, the head of the lunatic group admits it and thanks the media for giving his party the much needed publicity. As it is said "make hay while the sun shines", now the party claims it will disrupt the Valentines day celebration. The method they plan to use: forcibly marry people who are dating........that in a way saves the couple some trouble. No one has to propose to the other!!! After all why do people date!

For once the Sri Rama Sena is proving themselves........after all Lord Rama's army had MONKEYS. Oops....wrong.....those monkeys respected women.....these don't.

One piece of advise for the hooligans.....Grow up guys....and stop tarnishing the religions to gain petty publicity. 

Astrology: creativity at its best!

Astrology has been around for ages now and I really wonder where it all began. In fact, who says time traveling isn't possible. Visit an astrologer today and he will take you on a joyride to the past and future and guess what you will believe every word of it!!!

I'm no maverick in astrology, but the whole concept amazes me and I find it funny to an extent. The reason: You go to an unknown person; in all probability he has a flowing white beard, he speaks funny things and makes funny gestures and looks like a character straight from stone age.; He then will ask about your name, your birthday, birthmark, birthplace etc. After all these he'll show you glimpses of your astronomy textbooks (which you may have missed studying in your school) and finally tell you fantasies about your future. Not to mention your pockets are ripped before you are out of his 'abode'.

Adding to all the drama, you have multiple disciplines in astrology. There is a Chinese astrology, Indian astrology and all other existing countries. In India you have an astrologer in every street. Each claiming that their predictions are much better and 'beware of imitators'. Many are of the opinion that a person who does not find a job has a Plan B : Astrology/palmistry.

Palmistry is popular even in the working classes. There is ample literature on palmistry and everyone who's read a couple of books can read your palm. Professional palm readers have business cards that can put a qualified professional's business card to shame!

But, we have to give it to them that they give people hope (although it could be false hope). It is probably very unscientific too but who cares........I believe in astrology and palmistry and so do you!!!