Sachin's Farewell Speech At Wankhede

It just can't get better than this. This guy is perfect at everything. No wonder he is called 'GOD'

This is the heart moving speech that the great man delivered at the Wankhede on 16th Nov, 2013 when he decided to call it a day after 24 years of devoted service not only to Cricket but also to the Nation. Enjoy it!!!

This one's a masterpiece by the Little Master himself.

Pseudonym : h!v

'SACH' an 'IN'ings

Image Coutesy:dinarm.deviantart.com

 I'll start with a confession - I'm nostalgic, for all my memories of cricket, right from childhood till today, are attached to this man - SACHIN RAMESH TENDULKAR.
Sachin's class is unmatched in modern cricket. No wonder he is counted along side some of the biggest names in this sport. To be considered a one amongst all time greats like Sir Don Bradman, Sir Vivian Ricards and Sunil Gavaskar so early in one's career would have been a whole doze of satisfaction for many. But this approx 5'5" boy from Mumbai was different. Sachin went on to pile incommensurate amount of runs in all formats of the game - from First Class to ODIs to the testing Test Matches; he rose up victorious with his head held high all the time. Sachin's career has been closely scrutinized and followed by cricket watchdogs and fans not only in India but across the world.
 
Particularly, for me, he was and still is, no matter what, a hero. I still remember when I, as an 8 year old kid, had the honor to witness Sachin batting from the stands of Captain Roopsingh Stadium at Gwalior during India's match against the West Indies in the 1996 Wills World Cup. It was a sight truly different from watching him on the television sets. To watch Sachin batting from such a close corner, and then see him take away the Man Of the match Award, for a brilliant under-pressure 70, was a dream come true. It was during the days when India as a team of 11 odd players had just one batsman. The little master, bearing the burden of a million hopes on his shoulders, more often than not, did justice to the Indian fans. It was when the runs scored by Sachin formed a bulk of the total runs scored by India. It's an incontrovertible fact that Sachin, as a single handed force, cruised India to many unimaginable victories, including the 1998 win at Sharjah against Australia. The win was Sachin's, not the team's. So brutal was the force of the feeble-medium-built man that Steve Waugh couldn't help but comment in the next days Press-conference - " We didn't lose the match to India, we lost the match to a man called Sachin Tendulkar." And this is just one instance, out of many, when Sachin helped India to get through with God like appearances.
Given his devotion and propriety towards the game, it was saddening and bizarre to learn that soon by the early 2000's Sachin was being accused of playing for personal landmarks and not for the team. He was being berated for not having contributed with the bat when it really mattered. Perhaps, he bore the brunt of the high expectations people had from him. He was considered a God already by then; no wonder people wanted him to perform all the time - flawlessly and relentlessly.
Critics of Sachin, though a few, argue that Sachin piled runs only against easy opponents on easy batting tracks. Let me remind these captious-nagging souls that Sachin, besides holding all possible records in cricket, also holds the record of hitting the most number of centuries against Australia, the most dominant force in modern cricket. Add to it, the fact that a bulk of Sachin's 100 centuries have come against the top sides of the world like Aus, SA etc. (stats provided below)

Centuries against different nations

	Test	ODI
Australia	11	9
Sri Lanka	9	8
South Africa	7	5
England	7	2
New Zealand	4	5
West Indies	3	4
Zimbabwe	3	4
Pakistan	2	5
Bangladesh	5	1
Kenya	-	4
Namibia	-	1

A rather more amusing fact is that most of Sachin's critics have always been people like reporters, statisticians, so-called 'cricket experts', or cricket players themselves who have not even played half as much cricket as Sachin has. On the contrary, all the cricket legends of the world and his contemporaries,  including another greatest of the time Brian Lara, admire Sachin as a batsman and consider him as someone blessed.
Sachin however, with his alchemy of sorts, has always turned the stones thrown at him into milestones.
During his poor patch, in the early 2000s, he was the lone target of all the polemics of the cricket experts and the media. Soon talk was rife that the master should get retired. But Sachin, yet again, in 2003 WC at South Africa, proved that even when he is not what he was during his peak years, he is still the best batsmen in the world. That Sachin can only be compared with his alter ego and no other cricketer in the world was understood by all those had been suggesting his retirement by saying that the key players of other nations were doing way better than Sachin was. Sachin turned to be the highest run scorer in that tournament. He was the sole reason why India made it to the finals, and his failure was the sole reason why India failed miserably in the finals. But the matter of fact is - Do we expect him to score all the time; shouldn't there be instances when he fails but India still wins the game? Cricket, after all, is a team game!!!

As a person, Sachin was exactly the opposite of what he was on the field while wielding a bat in his hand. He showed his aggressiveness only in his game. His bat used to do everything for him - trash talking, sledging, pressurizing (the opponent) and of course run-making. It is an achievement in itself that Sachin's two and a half decade long career has been free of any controversy whatsoever. Tendulkar, when even nearing the end of his career, played a few scintillating knocks. The 175 against Australia at Hyderabad in 2009 and the DOUBLE TON against the mighty South Africa at Gwalior in 2010 are just to list a few (Please check videos below). He also played vital knocks in the WC 2011 against Pak and Aus and helped India sail through into the finals, and later on re-create history by lifting the world cup for the second time after a hiatus of more than 25 years. It was a moment truly deserved by the master.

It's however, really sad for die-hard Sachin fans (like me) to imagine Cricket without its most talented and ardent disciple. There is a generation of people for whom cricket only meant watching Sachin Tendulkar bat, for whom cricket began with the rise of Sachin and will end with his fall. It's the end of an era...
"THE GOD" calls it a day...

Pseudonym : h!v

The Great Battle Of 2014 - Demystified

So after a hiatus of close to three months, here I am, pitching in again, throwing some light on one of the most followed upon topics by the people of the world's largest democracy - "General Elections 2014". In this article I won't be all mushy and delicate with my opinions; in fact, there will be some criticism - hope nobody sues me for slandering, but then none of what's written here is fake.

The facts are real; the opinions are rather mine.

The battle for the Prime minister's Office boils down to not just two leading national parties, namely the BJP and the Congress, fighting one another to prove their hegemony. The equation here is far more complex - there are inter party disputes, conflict of interests of parties that are members of the same coalition and there are also internecine conflicts within parties, especially within BJP.

Let’s look at the elections with a bird's eye view, analyzing what's going against the two major parties when it comes to reaching that magical figure of 273.

Image Courtesy:www.indiatimes.com

 WHAT CONGRESS HAS DONE WRONG :

INC has been in the soup lately - for the sake of this article let me call it the Italian 'Scam-Soup'. Congress has been executing one scam after the other so blatantly and consistently that the people's trust on Congress and its leaders has really taken a bashing. So despite its spicy flavor, people are not ready to have the scam-soup anymore. There has been a litany of scams in the past few years - Coalgate, 2G, 3G, CWG...'MadamG' and what not. It seems that the Congress ministers of state are more interested in pulling off these complicated scams, no doubt they hardly manage time for other 'unimportant' works like public welfare and good governance. Truly speaking, the UPA led coalition is in shambles at the moment with a long list of allegations tainting the image of its ministers. The CBI and the CAG, while struggling to get the perpetrators of a scam to book, are soon burdened with another scam - far too complicated and involving much more money than the previous one. It's a mess.

The economy is also struggling and the growth has largely been sluggish - Thanks to the lackadaisical attitude and policy paralysis of our ministers. One of the world's most promising economies until a few years back, almost on the verge of touching the two-digit growth mark, is now snailing at a mere 4-5% growth. And then if that's not enough, the troika of  the leading credit rating agencies of the world - Moody's, Fitch and S&P - are deteriorating India's stand in the international market by relentlessly talking about downgrading India's rating even further. Any more fall in the ratings, would plummet India down to junk status. And that would be a big blow to the economy. From the people's perspective too, the economy is not any better. Inflation is ever increasing, interest rates are rising, and rupee is dipping like mercury in winters and markets in the job are also at their all-time low. All credits to Congress. The giant robust bull of Indian economy is now reeling under pressure and trying to fight its way out of the vagaries of the western economies.

WHY IS BJP NOT A BETTER CHOICE EITHER ?

The BJP is not a stable party within itself. Its party leaders can't manage their own internal politics, let alone they would be able to manage the politics of the seventh largest nation of the world. 'Mr Red', I mean Lal Krishna Advani or the angry old man, has been all hustling and bustling with a 'Modi' elevating as the forerunner in the race to the Prime Minister’s office. Advani has divided the party further into two major factions, the Modi's and the Non-Modi's. At a juncture when the entire so called 'Parivar' of the BJP should be on its toes to curb this menace called Congress, they are busy in these petty fights. Mr  Red, with this attitude, you should not be called the party patriarch anymore. And Mr Modi, please learn to behave like a would-be-PM of the country and get over your tantrums. Your arrogance and 'I’m-the-man' kind of attitude is way too much for the people of this country to deal with. You are surely the people's best bet today but please learn to make people believe in you rather than trying to impose your belief on them.

THE NUMBER'S GAME:

Neither the Congress nor the BJP, by any chance, would be able to reach that 243 mark all alone. They would need the support of regional parties to form a coalition. Now the situation on both sides is pretty worse. The Congress lately lost two of its major allies, the TMC and the DMK. Its terms with the SP do not seem very good either. BJP also is struggling to soothe things with JDU.  Also, the BJP, with it banking on NaMo as the Prime Ministerial candidate, will not be able to get the support of many parties, if at all it appears out as the one with the major chunk of votes.

The bottom-line: Both the BJP and the Congress need to have at least 200 seats on their own to be able to form a coalition at the Centre. If that doesn't happen, the election result can swing in any of the infinite possible directions.

The Con-PM vs The Bha-PM :

This one's a bummer. While we surely know now that Bhartiya Janta Party-PM candidate would be Narendra Modi (NaMo), the Congress is still playing it ugly and has not openly come forward with a name for Congress-PM candidate. It might also be that the Congress is vacillating from Manmohan Singh to Rahul Gandhi and back to Manmohan Singh as their choice. But to expect Manmohan Singh to come up for a third consecutive term, especially when the

country's economy and also the country itself is not doing so well, would be far too much. So most probably it would be Rahul Gandhi (RaGa).

This epic battle between NaMo and RaGa is due for sure, if not now then surely in 2019. But for now, let’s presume its NaMo vs RaGa, which most likely is the case.

Now NaMo is surely the best available choice. He might not be able to do a 'Vajpayee' but he might do very well, even with his arrogance of sorts. Critics of Modi, might say that the pogrom that happened in Gujarat in the 2002 communal riots brands him as an anti-Muslim communist and stands out as the biggest example of his bad governance and administration. Okay, point conceded dear critics. As a rebuttal, I would like to make you aware of the fact that Mr Modi had been at the helm for no longer than 2 months when the riots started. And no CM, just two months old, would have been able to deal with it with strong actions right away. Can this be treated as an excuse to exculpate Modi - a blunt No. But should Modi be given a chance considering Gujarat has not witnessed any other incident of communal violence ever since - a welcoming Yes.

Modi's, arrogance and fearlessness, can also prove to be a big boon for the country, provided its channelized properly. Modi is the one who can take some serious steps in times of crisis with great audacity and conviction, he can re-establish India's dominance in the South East Asia and the subcontinent, propose India's ideas in the international zone and force leaders of other nations to mould or relax policies in India's favor.

But does all this make Modi, the best Prime Minister India could ever dream of - apologies but the answer is a NO yet again. Mr Modi has done some really good work in Gujarat. Not only has he made the state administration and bureaucracy almost corruption free, he has also helped Gujarat gain new industrial significance both in the country and abroad.  But the growth in Gujarat is not, as Nitish Kumar pointed out, all inclusive. The southern parts of Gujarat are blossoming and industrial activity is at its peak, but the drier parts of the state like Saurashtra are struggling. So if the Gujarat-model of development really work for the entire country is still a riddle. Those who champion Modi's idea of development fail to realize that 70% of India's population still resides in rural villages or rural suburbs.

But then again Mr Modi, any day, would be a better choice than the INC’s heir apparent – Rahul Gandhi. This scion of Indian politics’ first family has been remiss in his responsibilities for far too long. We cannot afford shirking of duties anymore. India needs a strong leader given that things are not panning out very well for countries around the world. And if there is no one better than Narendra Modi, we accept him with grace.

 Pseudonym : h!v

Disclaimer: The opinions presented in the article are author''s own. The author does not intend to promote any National Party/Candidate.

At 43, Is Rahul Gandhi Still A Youth Icon???

Rahul Gandhi - the Youth Icon of India.
Had I been an English teacher, this would have been the first example that I would have thought of to explain my students what an oxymoron as a figure of speech means. Typically, an oxymoron is a short phrase, a combination of words, that highlights two or more contrasting qualities/peculiarities at the same time. This very construction makes an oxymoron an illogical phrase. 'Deafening Silence', 'Constructive Destruction' etc. are a few examples of it.
Coming to Rahul Gandhi - Indian Politics' first family has been reveling in projecting their heir apparent as India Inc.'s youth icon.
However, there are some inherent flaws in this image projection.RaGa recently celebrated his 43rd birthday and was revered on that occasion by the members of the Youth Congress.
Now, at 43 , is he still young enough???
I guess not.

Courtesy: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/

In a country where the average age of the citizenry oscillates somewhere around 28, he certainly cannot be considered young, let alone being a youth icon. INC might be taking into account the average age of our politicians when calling him young, but that does not make his case of claiming himself younger any stronger. After all, the absolute age has to be 'the' final criteria for defining how young an individual is. So what if most of the politicians in India either already are or soon-to-be sexagenarians. And what if the most prominent leader of the prime opposition party is an octogenarian. They don't make RaGa any younger, they only make him appear a bit younger when in the pack.
Let's analyze what exactly the Congress aims to extract from this fake and false image. The Congress well aware that its days at the helm are nearing end, wanted a strong and popular contender to kick start and boost their election campaign. That,of course, could only have been RaGa. Now that he may be, but what he certainly isn't  - is a good leader. This entire proposition by the Congress and its attempt to project Rahul as the young and vibrant leader, in its pursuit to retain power at the center, can be proved to be a fallacy. The point here the INC tries to make is that RaGa being a young leader will revamp the entire democratic system of India and largely the nation itself by pouring in a lot of novel ideas and plans. But then is the young and energetic RaGa mature enough to head the government of such a vast and diverse land called India , that too at such a critical time in history when India has been struggling to repeat the story of her golden days.So the RaGa saga, backfires for Congress on two accounts.
One, Rahul Gandhi is no more young enough to be projected as the youth icon of the country.
Second, even if he is considered young when gauged against the other fellow politicians, he is definitely not mature and 'grown-up' to the extent of leading a country like ours.He is still a teething baby, on the stage of Indian Politics.

RaGa might just be the apparent choice for the Congress, but he is not the right choice.

Pseudonym : h!v

"Those eyes..."

To the love of my life: 

I still love those eyes,

I really  do,

It's time that has forced me to -

Forcefully forget you,

Heartlessly be indifferent to you,

And hurt you beyond compare,

All I can do now is to stare -

Stare at 'my' future,

And reminisce 'our' past,

Which we wished would forever last,

But Alas!!!

It didn't...

And here I'm, scared and frightened,

Looking through the frame,

Into those lovable eyes again,

Collecting and connecting the pieces of my life,

To get back my life again,

Because, somewhere deep down, I still love those eyes

I really do...

Pseudonym : h!v

"Bombay Girls & Bombay Rains"

If there is anything that is more unpredictable than the IPL, more fascinating than the Beethoven's symphony and more beautiful than life then it has to be either of these two, or even both.
"Bombay Girls & Bombay Rains"
They are similar in many aspects perhaps.
'Bombay Rains' are beautiful but they are equally unexpected. As the Mumbaikars often say, expect it to rain, when you least expect it to.
One moment you see the sun shining brightly over your head with no dominant cloud cover either, but minutes later you would be amazed to realize that it's actually raining. When it's Mumbai, it rains any time, any day and in any amount. Bombay Rains, on that part, are notorious for causing a lot of inconvenience to the always-energetic and rearing-to-go Mumbaikars.
Rains in Bombay are so badly timed at times, that it seems it had rained only to get you soaked in water.
When you step out of your house its pre-dominantly sunny if not completely. By the time you walk to your Bus Stop/ Rickshaw stand, it starts to get cloudy and then all of a sudden, out of no where, its raining cats and dogs. Alas!!! You are drenched and cursing your fate. That's the best you can do now. Mumbai with its sporadic showers and drizzles can even bamboozle the MET officials and make them scratch their heads.
But 'Bombay Rains' are equally beautiful. Indeed they are. It's really a site to witness the bustling Bombay slowly getting laid in a water cover and yet not giving even a hint of slowing down. Welcome to Mumbai!!!'

Courtesy: www.ajeyarao.com

Bombay Girls, on that part, are like Bombay Rains. They are spontaneous, unpredictable and you can always spot them at places where you would least expect a feminine soul in any other city/town across the country. And how can I forget - they are beautiful like the rains here.
They carry a persona as charming and vibrant as the natural showers. They are street smart and they know how to live life the way they want to. And most importantly, they are untiring & like the Bombay Rains, can go on relentlessly striving for their own success and for their family at large. They are not deterred by the daily chores and problems of an 'every-minute-counts' type of city life.
Bombay is beautiful and so are its rains; and certainly beautiful are its women.
Bombay is a fabric of culture woven so strongly that it has place for all kinds of people. It has embraced everyone who has packed his bags and come here with a dream in mind. That's the truly cosmopolitan city it is - 'My Mumbai'... 'Amchi Mumbai'...

Note: The title of the article is inspired from a novel - Bombay Rains Bombay Girls
 
Pseudonym : h!v

5NNRKQQ6Q2UJ 

How to Improve Your Vocabulary

So after a series of articles on the on-going upheaval and happenings across the length and breadth of the country, this article comes as the first of my instructive articles, to say the least. I have tried to keep it
as simple and self-explanatory as possible. By the end of this article, you would have guidelines to improve your vocabulary and learn some utterly simple daily life habits that would help you decipher a whole new gamut of words.
This article is different, from the plethora of others available over the net giving tips to people on improving their vocabulary. And it is different in the sense that it does not suggest you the same age old
way of going through the arduous and, practically impossible, task of learning Latin and Greek roots randomly.
That methodology, having never worked for me, is not  advisable.
First things first, read some Vocab-building books. Now the next question that comes to the minds of every sane soul reading this article is - That's what everyone says. Yes, but with Vocab-Building books,  I mean some genuine books dedicated to increasing your word power and your ability to play with words. I don't intend to make you start reading a reputed daily right away. That would take time, but we would come to that eventually, for sure.
Let me list a few books that are a must-go-through to increase one's range of words:

Courtesy:http://www.goyalpublisher.com/

1) Word Power made easy: Remember the book with red-cover that almost everyone has but fails to go through it. This is probably the mother of all books on Vocabulary-Building available in the market. Follow it,read it, chew it and digest it - and do all this religiously. Even if you are a slow reader and take time to go through things,  a month and a half would be more than enough to complete it thoroughly.
Take your time; don't run through it just for the sake of it.

Book: Word Power Made Easy
Author: Norman Lewis
Publication: Goyal Saab
Price: Rs. 149 (books4u.in)

2) 30 Days for a more powerful Vocabulary:

Courtesy: http://cp75.com/dealtz/bkimg

Once you have finished that, hop on to the next book that would raise you to a higher level. You won't take much time to adjust to the tone and theme of this one immediately. Its very much the same because both these paper jacketed stuffs are two great pieces of work by the same author. You would find some commonality between the chapters in the books as well. Please don't get deterred or bored by it. Go through it with full vigor and passion. Vocabulary building is a slow and
an on-going-never-ending process, you need to keep up the spirits all the way. This book, as the name suggests, has to be completed in 30 days. Read one chapter a day, follow the time-plan as given in this useful handbook.

Book: 30 Days for a more powerful Vocabulary
Author: Wilfred Funk & Norman Lewis
Publication: Goyal Saab
Price: Rs. 90 (books4u.in)

3)Six weeks to words of Power:

Courtesy:http://books4u.in/uploads/

This is perhaps the toughest in the lists of books I have mentioned so far. With tough, I don't want you people to misconstrue me as saying: it is difficult to read. What I mean is the words in this book are high-level words and will take you to an all new world of English, where only a few intellectuals are able to reach. But the book makes it so very easy for you to know and learn everything that's written.A must for anyone wanting to revamp their English and eventually domain of words. English is a very rich language, a good vocabulary helps you to explore it well, if not completely. This book again, as the name suggests,has to be finished completely in six weeks. Try sticking as much to the timeline as possible, but just in case you need to extend it, do it. Don't sacrifice understanding for saving time. At the most, you would need an extra week. 7 weeks time is more than enough for this one.

Book: Six weeks to words of Power 

Author: Wilfred Funk
Publication: Goyal Saab
Price: Rs. 90 (books4u.in)

Now that you know a lot and lot of words, it's time to get started with reading as much stuff as you can. Read whatever you like, and also what you don't. English dailies like "The Hindu", "The Indian Express", "The Economic Times" etc. are perhaps the best available in the market at affordable prices. Look out for new words when you read them, look up their meanings in the dictionary. Try recalling them when in leisure.
Now that you already know a wide range of words, you won't come across many alien words in a single article - since your understanding of the articles will improve, you would naturally develop interest. This would allure you to reading even more  and apparently know even more. Vocabulary building is very easy once you tend to develop an interest. The more you read, the better it is. There is no limit to learning Vocabulary, you can always keep on adding new weapons in your arsenal. Learning Vocabulary, or on that part learning anything, is a slow and a never-ending process. You can keep on learning all your life.
In the end, just three more suggestions:
- Be Patient - don't expect wonders overnight
- Be Inquisitive - prepared to learn everywhere and anywhere
- Be Yourself - never try to flaunt more than you know

Find more articles by the author on B-School and CAT here

Pseudonym : h!v

The Quick-'Fix' That Cricket Needs

This article also found place in the columns of the online sports journal Sportskeeda.com:http://www.sportskeeda.com/2013/05/24/the-quick-fix-that-cricket-needs/

A few days ago the entire cricketing fraternity, especially the fans, were shocked to learn that the IPL that they had been following with such passion and fervor; skipping their offices and delegating their other commitments at times; was fixed, or at least a few matches were, without a doubt. Three players of
the Rajasthan Royals team, one of them being a National Indian side speedster, were allegedly said to be involved in what the media has liked to baptize as 'spot-fixing'. These players have been charged of accepting tranches of money from bookies to concede a minimum number of runs in an over. So its seemingly clear, and alarmingly sad for Indian Cricket, that these players were in cahoots with the bookies and contrived with them to make some quick fortune by indulging in spot-fixing and ultimately dragging Cricket into unprecedented notoriety.

Courtesy: http://sphotos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/

That they betrayed not only the sport but also its fans is apparent. I would not comment much on the entire episode of spot fixing, rather I would bring into light the loopholes and lacunae in the cricketing system that have facilitated such a disgraceful act.
Long before Cricket had been a gentleman's game - not any more. The grandeur and royalty that this sport brings along with it; in the forms of money, popularity and fan-following has driven many players to self-destruction. It has tempted the players to run after money and, those unsuccessful in doing it the right way, resort to methods like this. If this proposed hypothesis is true then it would be right to conclude that "Cricket is spawning greed"...
However, even if the hypothesis is not true, there is definitely something going very wrong with Indian Cricket. Some strict corrective measures are the need of the hour.The fact that its not the first time that Indian players have found themselves caught in such quagmire beckons some urgent action. Truly speaking, Indian Cricket is in crisis and something needs to be done urgently to revamp the system.
Lets look into the possible measures that can be taken.
First, it is the sole responsibility of the BCCI to regulate not only all kinds and all levels of cricket played in the country, but also to keep a close watch on the probity and fairness of the players. BCCI should come up
with strict guidelines which need to be followed at all cost. Anyone found to have contravened these guidelines should be punished severely irrespective of their stature and seniority. Acts like these will serve as
a precedent and borne some fear in the minds of other players, harboring even the slightest of thought of doing an unprofessional act and thus scarring their probity. If their conscience has not been able to deter them from indulging in these acts at least fear would.
In addition, the BCCI can also look forward to take a step ahead and compile a statute book defining
every possible act of indiscipline and also pronounce a punishment for the same. The punishment could vary depending on the seriousness of the mistake and range from just a deduction in match fee to even criminal proceedings in serious cases like this. Pessimist might argue that any law making agency or BCCI on that part, can't make a holistic statute book and list every possible act of indiscipline. Yes, but if we eye a long term aspect, then it is always possible to get that book updated on occasions when we come across something that has already not found place in this list of these activities. This would ensure two things - Not only it would make the players aware of all the activities they are restricted to do when in contract with BCCI but it would also make the players, and everyone involved with cricket, know that since there is a Control Board law in place there is no escape.
Actions like these and more are necessary to ameliorate Indian Cricket and maintain its sanctity. Indian Cricket is in danger and needs help to fade away the notorious and commercial image it is shaping for itself.
A Quick-'Fix' is what Cricket needs today, and certainly no other case of Spot-'Fix'. Actions should be taken urgently and for good.

Pseudonym : h!v

Go Goa Gone

My Verdict: 7.5/10
Comments: Good

Courtesy:http://www.moviehdwallpapers.com/

'Go Goa Gone' is more than what   you might be thinking of it. It's a fairly good movie and people, specially boys, looking forward to some typical raunchy humour would be delighted.The dialogues are pretty well timed and delivered, which gives that extra punch to the dialogues.The humour is very natural on most of the occasions. It is unlike the poorly executed and artificial humour which is typical of the movies of Rohit Shetty.
The movie takes you to Goa where three friends, and luckily a girl as well, land into all sorts of trouble. They end up coming to a secluded island where possibly they are the only humans left - rest everyone being zombies!!!
When there is no way out left, the actor-producer Saif Ali Khan comes to their rescue.
Let it be a suspense as to how and why the zombies come to existence in the first place and eventually how does our group of youngsters manage to get rid of them.
Saif Ali Khan is an add-on in the movie only to boost the star cast. Kunal Khemu, especially, has stolen the show with his quick-witted dialogues and ribaldry.Expect expletives!!!
A pretty light movie to watch and a good way to spend time with friends.
The music is good but not very soothing to the ears.
Overall a good complete package of fun-filled evening.

Pseudonym : h!v

The Cobweb Of Social Networking

We live in an electronic age, or to say in contemporary parlance : an e-age. Well, people here are suffering from a syndrome of putting the letter 'e' almost before everything.We have e-mail, e-ticket, e-bill, e-banking, e-networking and e-dating as well !!!
I guess in years to come we will soon witness e-births and e-cremations. (Pun intended!)
Nevertheless, not long before, all of these 'e-activities' were taken up in person physically instead of just logging in, typing a few words, clicking a few buttons and then eventually logging out, sitting back and watching the 'e' do its work. It's indeed phenomenally magical. But its equally unorthodox, unconventional and lackluster, to say the least.The internet today is replete with various sites of its own kind. From Facebook, the mother of all social networking sites, to Twitter, from Instagram to Flickr, from Flipkart to E-bay, there is a litany of such examples to follow.
Undoubtedly, internet has not only made life more easy and comfortable, but it has also helped people in staying more connected and bolstered the feeling of social oneness among them.So far, so good.
But what internet has also done in the course is often forgotten : it has rendered some vulnerability to every individual using the internet.Looking at the trends today, it is easy to conclude that the people, particularly youngsters, are addicted to the social networking sites of the likes of FB, Twitter etc.This has two-pronged effect - one, their sense of friendship and knowing people is contracting to the internet community only. Youngsters prefer to make friends over the internet and some 'out-of-mind' characters even go on to as far as dating someone they have known only over the internet. No sane soul in this world would support that idea but then there are always exceptions.
Two, the information shared or rather broadcasted on these social networking sites makes an individual's personal credentials and private information easily accessible to people.This facilitates unwanted people and intruders to peep into one's life and transgress one's privacy. No level of security can avoid such incidents because more often than not, sooner or later , there always is a glitch that can be exploited and taken advantage of to access one's personal information.
If we talk of organized Cyber-crime then the situation is even worse.The biggest and the most dangerous cases of frauds and heists have been perpetuated over the internet. Cases of money laundering involving huge amounts of cash are littered all over the web. Recently, several of the banks operating in India declared a cumulative loss of close to 6,600 crores because of cyber money laundering in the periods of Jan-Aug, 2012. Further a survey by Norton claims
one out of three internet users is a victim of cyber-fraud. The numbers are undoubtedly alarming and uneasing. Yet, people take this with reckless attitude and do not adhere to the rules of online banking strictly. Their nonchalant disposition is one of the reasons for rampant cases of cyber-frauds.
Optimists believe that a person is equally likely of being a target of an actual robbery and getting mugged of physical cash. But what they fail to realize is this - Cyber frauds are pretty more likely to be the mode of crime in this world of ever-increasing tech-saviness. Add to it that the perpetrators of these crimes are difficult to nab, given the sophisticated nature of the crime.
So the point to be driven home is this - the comforts and facilities that this 'e' age has showered upon us, offered just at the click of a button, should be used to the fullest. But it shouldn't be made a habit and a necessity, because sometimes the conventional way out is the best and the safest way out.

Pseudonym : h!v

Advertisement - The Inside Story

What started of as a way to make one's product known to the public, has now turned into a dirty game, whose only objective is to appease the public and tease them into buying ones product, even if it's not exactly what they need. The advertising industry has vowed to deceive the public by making them fall prey to one of their many charades and end up proving their marketing sops a perfect bait.
Celebrities and individuals of public appeal can easily be spotted endorsing a variety of products in add campaigns and on TV. However, there is one really important question that comes to the surface from here. Are these products really useful to the extent that our much-revered and fanatically-followed celebrities force us to believe???
Their personality juxtaposed with their aura, charisma and public image has such captivating effect on the minds of the people that they cease to cogitate the utility of the product.
Nevertheless, what really intrigues me is this question - Do our celebrities ever use the product that they endorse with so much conviction, in the first place???
Do we really know and for that part, should we really believe that Katrina Kaif's long silky hair, that she loves to flaunt, are the way they are because of a constant nourishment from the shampoo she endorses??? That seems a bit too hard to get into the head, at least for hardliners like me.
Furthermore, do you really believe when you see a Hrithik Roshan jumping 10ft down a cliff into water after having gulped down a soft drink??? And before jumping he chants the famous catch line of the even more famous soft-drink, to make believe the naive people that all the adrenalin that was needed to execute this super human effort was managed as a by-product of the drink. If it's true then it is expedient for the Sports Ministry in India to make that drink the official refreshment of the Olympic contagion we send every four years to different places around the world only to witness ignominious defeat in most of the sporting events, if not all.
The truth however is far from what we perceive. The celebrities endorse the product to receive fat pay cheques and contracts. But the public taken by the aura of their favorite celebrities end up shopping a not-so-useful product.
So advertising, in today's world of cut-throat competition, has become more about luring or tempting the customers to buy a product than the mere traditional motive of making it known amongst the people.
Another perfect trick that people succumb to is what I would call the "conditions-apply" catch. So the companies, to all extent, try to prove a deal way more profitable and favorable to people than it really is by using just two words and an asterisk - "*conditions apply".
They advertise rampantly about a particular deal offered or a discount given. Tempting, so much so these deals sound, that the customers can't help but to check it once. This however proves to be a futile mistake because the articulate salesperson inveigles them into buying that deal. The gullible customer only realizes later that he/she did not qualify for the deal or got only a fraction of what was promised because of a small miniscule footer - in possibly the minimum font size - whispering in a muffled tone: "Dude!!! You almost got mugged. This is what would happen if you would fail to notice me. Better luck next time."
A study also proves that a customer actually ends up spending more money when he , or precisely 'she', shops during a sale. That's because of the frame of mind a person is in when shopping in a sale. A false feeling of "I'm saving money, if I'm buying something now" dominates the thought process and by the time that feeling subsides half the work is already done. Indeed the customer might have saved some money, but effectively he/she has spent much more in proportion.
But we, the people, innocent as we are, have a relatively fading memory. We are foolish and blind and make such 'Oh-my-God-I-wasted-it' type investments again and yet again.
In the end no more serious talks and absolutely no suggestions, just two more words - Happy Shopping!!!
Pseudonym : h!v

To 'Netaji'...With Love

Dear Mr. Netaji,

First of all I feel very disgusted for having sitting down to write this letter to you, because had you been working to the best of your ability I would have never decided to write this in the first place. So more than anything else, and more than the shabby critical eye opener this letter really is, it is a token of ignominy and chagrin for you and your political class.

When will you people learn to run the country with clean hands and head. The country today is replete with cases of corruption around almost every government deal. The top political brass is hardly bothered to address the needs and problems of the common man. Instead, they are busy draining the exchequer and in process robbing the poor Indian middle class. We pay taxes to the government to make sure that the public amenities are made available. We don't owe you that money.On the contrary you owe us services in return for the taxes we pay you. We don't pay the taxes so that you can meticulously and deceitfully appropriate huge amounts of it to yourself and hide it under your desi facade.

I also wonder how big your bellies are ??? You people are even better than pigs.For pigs have that unsocial habit of going on an eating-spree in public, but you and all other netas are pretty good at concealing your greed and appetite for money.You and your accomplices execute "the fraud" with such precision that it goes unnoticed; only to become public after all the money has been chewed and digested. And then what happens is usual chores- you convene a meeting of the top group of ministers and finally instruct the CBI to cursorily probe the matter. Days and months pass-by, and the already over-burdened and over-worried people forget the case and move on.Finally, you are free on a parole and all set to bring into effect the next scam-in-progress.So apart from running the nation - and that we know very well how you do - you also take up this arduous task of denuding the public of their hard-earned money in the name of national progress.

Sometimes I really wonder - as a responsible citizen that I am - which one of you is the best pick for leading a country of more than 100 billion people. For it needs some brainstorming to run a country like ours where people rely so much upon good governance for their welfare. After all its not a joke to shape the destiny, or on that part play with the destiny, of several billion people.Each one of you in some way or the other is worse than everyone else. Some of you are illiterate goons bequeathing political power as a heir of the family legacy.Some others are educated but make the best use of their knowledge only to indulge in scams and political heists.And just a handful of you are sincere leaders, really wanting to clean your house, but are incapable and ineffective because of lack of support from their fellow counterparts.

So all in all, its a situation of total disaster wreaking pandemonium all across the system.

The result - an inescapable political imbroglio.The repercussions - ineffective governance and a corruption prone economy.

So Mr. Netaji please learn to take the onus of governing this country seriously, if not for the people who elect you to power, then at least for your own self, because you are as much a part of this country as every other Indian is.

Yours sincerely,

Ek Aam Aadmi

Pseudonym : h!v

"The Train"

Courtesy:http://farm7.staticflickr.com/

The other morning I woke up,
Only to catch my train,
There were many like me,
All sober and witnessing the same testimony,
Our trains might be different,
But we were all running to the same destination,
To our cozy, yet so uncomfortable offices,
To our alluring yet so vapid work places,
Each one of us bears this prejudice,
That 'Green Leaflets' are the reality,
So fight the world with plurality,
For life's a game of cats and mice,
Where only the fittest survives,
It's dusk now, and way to my home I catch the train,
I'm tired and jaded, down with pain;
Everything now for me is soporific;
And I turn to sleep just as I touch the wick,
Even in my dreams I'm struggling,
And there are many questions boggling,
But eluding all, the next morning, I wake up again,
Only to see the same perplexed faces again,
And only to catch the same train again...

Pseudonym : h!v

Kissa Kursi Ka!!!

Coutesy: 
http://en.clipart-fr.com/clipart_pictures.php?id=4446

India has long boasted of being the world’s largest democracy. But there is an inherent flaw in the very structure of Indian political system. With so many parties in the political fray, both national and regional, the people of India Inc. find themselves in a political quandary. With so many parties and regional leaders appeasing them for votes the 'junta' stands utterly confused.

This has a dual effect.

One, it makes the poor and illiterate people of rural India vulnerable to the overtures made by the leaders. They easily fall prey to the false promises made by the dominant-regional leaders and end up not using their most basic political right of voting as optimally as they

should. Their ignorance proves blissful to the shrewd leaders of this country.

Second, this has a trickle-down effect on the governance of the country at large. The votes and

subsequently the power to form the government is distributed, almost so evenly, amongst these

parties that none of them emerges victorious with a thumping majority. The result: ‘An alliance’.

The consequences: distribution of power and opinions alike.

We ultimately have a government so deeply riddled with compromises and power-sharing that it’s incapable of officiously implementing a policy across the country. The same is the condition of the Indian State currently. Be it the drama we witnessed over allowing FDI or the deregulation of the prices of petrol and its variants or whatsoever. Every time the centre has tried to ratify a

new policy there has been some opposition from at least one of the members of its alliance.

There are numerous cases where we have witnessed a high level drama and polarized opinions over the ratification of a policy. Whatever be the end-result, the process of policy implementation itself suggests how deeply plagued and how unstable the foundation of Indian political system is.

In times of severe political crisis, when quick and effective decisions need to be taken, our

government finds itself tied down and burdened with the load of an alliance. Instead of expediting the process of policy-framing and decision-making the government is busy appeasing its brethren to reach a consensus on an opinion. Instead of negotiating for policies, in India's interest, with the foreign leaders the government spends time either vegetating or solving internal disputes. The people at the centre find themselves devoid of power and authority.

It’s high time the Indian leaders learnt to work in tandem with each other or else India would

still be the largest democracy in the world but unfortunately not the most successful one.

Pseudonym : h!v