Happy Rains
It is raining in Kolkata. Big, small, tiny splashes with a lovely breeze cooling the atmosphere. It promises to calm the stressed nerves and give you a reason to smile!
So, everybody in Kolkata … enjoy today … Happy Rains!
Corruption and Communal Sentiments
Trivialism is what losers do. If they don’t get their way they pick trivial issues and try to oppose just for the sake of opposing. That is what is happening in the Indian political circuit nowadays. A 73 year old man brought out the cause that strikes each and every heart in India. The plague of corruption was drowning the ship and he had the guts to come forward and go on a fast-unto-death pledge for all Indians. He had no political aspirations, nor did he ever do anything for himself. His earlier causes have always been for the betterment of the people of India. Be it the resurrection of his village Ralegan Siddhi, articulation of the RTI Act and even getting corrupt ministers to resign, his selfishness (if you think he has) has always been about the country and not himself. He has no political affiliations and thinks practically and non-violently. What good would he get if he stands against corruption? Especially at the age of 73, how long does he expect himself to live to see all corrupt people of India behind the bars and the money of the tax-payers back to where it belongs? Who would he want to leave his money and property for, that is if he has them?
After reading the news piece about some minister from the National Congress Party calling him a “non-secular” person just because he praised Narendra Modi for his developmental work in Gujarat I was appalled by how trivial a matter they could find to hit him with when they had a bigger cause of drafting and passing an Anti-Corruption Bill in hand. This does not mean that Narendra Modi’s non-secular acts are not known to us. No righteous person can support his special sentiments towards his religion so as to harm people of another religion (as news reports has said). What I mean to say is that we have to look beyond religious affiliations and caste and creed when India is facing a much bigger adversary who does not know caste, creed or even religion. They do not think of all that when they hoard their bank accounts with the tax-payers’ money. They do not see whether the money that they swindle from belongs to an extremist or to a liberal. They simply know “money”.
Hence, my only request to the people who are trying to find these trifling faults in a man who is fighting for a greater cause must look at themselves first and think … are they really hurt by what Anna Hazare said about Narendra Modi or are they trying to fight with him just because they lost the previous battle?
Invaluable Lessons of Bowling and Fielding
I am partially disappointed with The TOI’s coverage of the World Cup semifinal cricket match between India and Pakistan held in Mohali yesterday afternoon. Although I do like the graphical representations of match turning points, the match scorecard with analysis and the batting analysis of Sachin’s 85 off 115 balls, but I cannot understand why TOI did not cover the main highlight of the match – bowling and fielding by both teams.
It is absolutely clear that the differentiating factor between the winning and losing side was their bowling and fielding. India won the match by sheer disciplined fielding and bowling. Honestly I have never been a fan of the team’s early foray with the bowl and their spread across the field. It was unlikely of the team improvising and adjusting to the changing pitch and bowlers bowling a straight line without giving an extra till the late overs. That was something that cricketers all across the world should add in their cricketing-lessons.
Pakistan’s dropped catches, failed leg-before-wickets and patchy bowling costed them invaluably. That showed how unprepared and nervous they felt in Mohali. This Mohali had been a lucky pitch for them the last 2 times they had played here against India. The Pakistani bowlers came back confidently towards the end to take the 9 wickets of the Indian batting. Among the remarkable dismissals were Yuvraj Singh’s bowled facing his 1st ball, Sehwag lbw and Virat Kohli’s catch by Umar Akmal, all bowled by Wahab Riaz. Wahab’s 5 wicket detruction was the highlight and saving grace for the rather sad Pakistani bowling and fielding. His career best would have won him the Man of the Match if Pakistan would have made the targetted 261 runs.
The lowest point for Pakistan was Umar Gul’s worst bowling performance ever. Giving away 69 runs in 8 overs lead Pakistan’s loss. Also Pakistani fielders faired badly when it came to catching Sachin’s weak strikes. It was only because of Pakistan’s bad luck that Sachin survived and made 85 which brought him the Man of the Match award. Fielding positions were another area where Pakistan got a setback. Fours could not be contained in the initial overs and even the ball over-throws was worrysome. As for the dropped catches, any Pakistani cricket fan would be outraged for such a bad performance.
As for India, Dhoni was right in praising his ‘boys’ for their bowling and fielding. When he said that he didn’t have to use an extra bowler because his major bowlers were doing their job was so true in more ways than one. It is unlikely that all bowlers click on the same day. But it happened yesterday evening. Such line and length is quite a treat. And the fielding … sigh! It was top order. Crisp and prompt. Absolutely mouthwatering. The ecstasy of watching the celebrations after every wicket is like you suddenly attained wings! Your eyes pop out and you feel like crying out loud with endorphins in blood reaching abnormal levels.
Let us take victorios names now. The Indian bowling line-up – Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel, Harbhajan Singh, Ashish Nehra and Yuvraj Singh. All taking 2 wickets each. All maintaining splendid line and length. This is unnatural and unusual for Indian cricket. It might be that such figures were there before I was born (1983), but after that, I did not see such a phenomenon. Notable wickets were Yuvraj’s crippling of the Pakistani middle order, Bhajji’s bowling Umar Akmal out who would have been dangerous if left in the middle (he made 29 off 24 balls), also his sending the valuable Shahid Afridi back to the pavilion before he could damage the winning plans that Dhoni and his men were working on throughout the match was just wow! I must say I started my celebrations after Shahid was caught outside the 30 yard circle by a cool and confident Sehwag. Towards the end Nehra’s 2 quick wickets and in the climax Zaheer Khan chorusing the swan song for Pakistan by dismissing the steady Misbah-ul-Haq who was the only one who could turn Pakistan’s fate if someone in the down order would support him by staying in the crease, was a lovely treat.
Fielding was the best thing that India discovered they could work with in this match. Be it Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh or Virat Kohli. Their fielding positions were prim and proper and they did not disappoint. Catches by Virat and Sehwag were something to go back and watch again and again. It was the saving of 1 or 2 runs that I believe brought India closer to the cup.
I apologize for mixing a little salt in such a sweet but there are 3 moments in the match which notably made me scream with irritation. First, Yuvraj’s arm hitting the bales while attempting a run out, his conceding 15 runs in one of the late overs he bowled (the first ball went for a wide and a four!) and Ashish Nehra’s lousy almost-catch outside the 30 yard circle. Special apologies to Yuvi … you’re my most favorite player since you started playing . As for Nehra, sorry for the finger you hurt trying to take that catch.
I really hope that the men in blue learn from these invaluable lessons in bowling and fielding that they themselves scripted in this match. Wish them all the bestest of wishes for the World Cup Final 2011 on Saturday against the best bowling side in the world – Sri Lanka.
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Facebook Addiction Center (FAD) – Forward
My cousin sent me this forward …
If you are on Facebook, I am sure you will find this hilarious
The 76-year-old woman walked down the hallway of Clearview Addictions Clinic, searching for the right department. She passed signs for the “Heroin Addiction Department (HAD),” the “Smoking Addiction Department (SAD)” and the “Bingo Addiction Department (BAD).” Then she spotted the department she was looking for: “Facebook Addiction Department (FAD).”
It was the busiest department in the clinic, with about three dozen people filling the waiting room, most of them staring blankly into their Blackberries and iPhones. A middle-aged man with unkempt hair was pacing the room, muttering,”I need to milk my cows. I need to milk my cows.”
A twenty-something man was prone on the floor, his face buried in his hands, while a curly-haired woman comforted him.
“Don’t worry. It’ll be all right.”
“I just don’t understand it. I thought my update was LOL-worthy, but none of my friends even clicked the ‘like’ button.”
“How long has it been?”
“Almost five minutes. That’s like five months in the real world.”
The 76-year-old woman waited until her name was called, then followed the receptionist into the office of Alfred Zulu, Facebook Addiction Counselor.
“Please have a seat, Edna,” he said with a warm smile. “And tell me how it all started.”
“Well, it’s all my grandson’s fault. He sent me an invitation to join Facebook. I had never heard of Facebook before, but I thought it was something for me, because I usually have my face in a book.”
“How soon were you hooked?”
“Faster than you can say ‘create a profile.’ I found myself on Facebook at least eight times each day — and more times at night. Sometimes I’d wake up in the middle of the night to check it, just in case there was an update from one of my new friends in India . My husband didn’t like that. He said that friendship is a precious thing and should never be outsourced.”
“What do you like most about Facebook?”
“It makes me feel like I have a life. In the real world, I have only five or six friends, but on Facebook, I have 674. I’m even friends with Juan Carlos Montoya.”
“Who’s he?”
“I don’t know, but he’s got 4,000 friends, so he must be famous.”
“Facebook has helped you make some connections, I see..”
“Oh yes. I’ve even connected with some of the gals from high school — I still call them ‘gals.’ I hadn’t heard from some of them in ages, so it was exciting to look at their profiles and figure out who’s retired, who’s still working, and who’s had some work done. I love browsing their photos and reading their updates. I know where they’ve been on vacation, which movies they’ve watched, and whether they hang their toilet paper over or under. I’ve also been playing a game with some of them.”
“Let me guess. Farmville?”
“No, Mafia Wars. I’m a Hitman. No one messes with Edna.”
“Wouldn’t you rather meet some of your friends in person?”
“No, not really. It’s so much easier on Facebook. We don’t need to gussy ourselves up. We don’t need to take baths or wear perfume or use mouthwash. That’s the best thing about Facebook — you can’t smell anyone. Everyone is attractive, because everyone has picked a good profile pic. One of the gals is using a profile pic that was taken, I’m pretty certain, during the Eisenhower Administration. “
“What pic are you using?”
“Well, I spent five hours searching for a profile pic, but couldn’t find one I really liked. So I decided to visit the local beauty salon.”
“To make yourself look prettier?”
“No, to take a pic of one of the young ladies there. That’s what I’m using.”
“Didn’t your friends notice that you look different?”
“Some of them did, but I just told them I’ve been doing lots of yoga.”
“When did you realize that your Facebooking might be a problem?”
“I realized it last Sunday night, when I was on Facebook and saw a message on my wall from my husband: ‘I moved out of the house five days ago. Just thought you should know.’”
“What did you do?”
“What else? I unfriended him of course!”
Oscar ‘Fever’
A movie buff can only understand my dilemma. I’m suffering from a fever called ‘Oscar’. Its symptoms are insomnia affected hours of watching an Oscar nominated/awarded movie, mental movie reverberations, mumblings of Oscar facts and backache due to watching movies after movies after …
Are you one of us? If yes, you will know what I was doing at around 2AM last night. Star movies was showing Titanic and because my husband had to sleep early because it was office night, I couldn’t watch it. Unable to sleep under the stress of missing the ‘action’ I decided to force myself to sleep. But sleep is a mindless bitch. She stays away when mind commands and heart does not respond. Heart wanted Titanic, mind said “nap time … dive inside your covers” and I was anyways messed up.
Meryl Streep in Sophie's Choice (1982)
Enough! No more mind games. Let the heart drive. Out comes my 10 inch Acer Aspire. Throwing the covers over my head in the dead dark of the night, I switched on. Blue light flooded the room like sunshine and my heart leapt with joy. Entering the movies folder was more anticipating than waiting for my salary. I chose to watch the 1982 classic “Sophie’s Choice”, the story based in America about a young writer befriending a Jewish American and a Polish Catholic who had suffered from the Hitler’s holocaust.
I had never seen the movie before. All I knew was Meryl Streep won the Academy award for best actress and my favorite mother-daughter team, Lorelai and Rory Gilmore were fond of this movie. This was reason enough for me to spend the next 2 hours 31 mins in the dark room with only the netbook light under the covers with my husband sleeping (un)soundly to watch the schizophrenic antics of Nathan Landau, heart-rending Sophie’s past and experiences of young Stingo as he tries hard to live as a writer only to be sucked into the fun and dramatic life of the passionate couple.
Now, after waking up late in the morning, getting lessons on gastric instability caused by sleepless nights and spending the major part of the morning thinking about choices Sophie makes in her life, I decided to record my experience here. This is testimonial to the fact that Oscar fever is real and will be experienced by all movie buffs all around the world.
2010 in Review by WordPress
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.
Crunchy numbers
About 3 million people visit the Taj Mahal every year. This blog was viewed about 53,000 times in 2010. If it were the Taj Mahal, it would take about 6 days for that many people to see it.
In 2010, there were 15 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 186 posts. There were 45 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 3mb. That’s about 4 pictures per month.
The busiest day of the year was February 20th with 3 views. The most popular post that day was I am a Gulmohar Tree.
Where did they come from?
The top referring sites in 2010 were google.co.in, guruji.com, search.conduit.com, facebook.com, and stumbleupon.com.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for gulmohar tree, gulmohar, ranjish hi sahi lyrics, teri yaadein love story, and teri yaadein.
Attractions in 2010
These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.
I am a Gulmohar Tree April 2007
21 comments
Teri Yaadein – Male and Female versions May 2007
224 comments
Ranjish Hi Sahi – Runa Laila June 2007
26 comments
Star Parivar Awards 2007 May 2007
60 comments
Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk March 2010
68 comments
Revisiting the Old Kolkata Charm – Dalhousie
Kolkata is considered to be the city with a big heart and richer colonial history. With its upcoming East-West Metro rails and establishment of the Jyoti Basu Nagar, the city is going forward to meet the next century, but it still hasn’t left behind the last century and even the one before that. I got the wonderful opportunity to see it again this afternoon.
Dalhousie Square with GPO or the General Post Office situated in the centre of the heart of the city, is the commercial centre of Kolkata of the yesteryears. There are so many buildings around the GPO that sings of a glorious past and lovely and strong present. The BSNL telecommunications offices, Raj Bhavan and of course the Writer’s Buildings are some of the imposing examples of the old world architecture.
Here are some of the pictures I took around this area.
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