The World Cup is Back

Well its time for another world cup. Which one? Well there is only one world cup till date and that if Football world cup !

Last time I had started bogging around world cup time, and it is really quiet some time now(4yrs). Not only I am married, but I have a cute baby boy :-). I have progress in my profession and started a business too...!!! And currently I am in UAE- My first international official trip. Thus I proved all the jyotish wrong who told me I will not be able to go out of country ;-)

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So who will be the hero of this world cup? Will we see anyone close to the likes of Pele, Maradona or Zidane? Looks unlikely but you never know!

With my extremely busy schedule, it will be very difficult to watch matches, but I will definitely try as much as I can.

3days to go...!!!!

Slumdog India

Everybody is talking about Daniel Boyle's film "Slumdog Millionaire" nowadays, be it for good, bad or ugly. I was thinking to watch this movie for some time now and yesterday I could find some time so I vouched for it.

I must admit, it one of the finest film that I have ever seene. The direction and editing has been masterful, not giving u even a moment to think of something else. Adding to it was good performance by almost all the actors, and totally engrossing and supporting background score by Rahman. The movie makes u spell bound from the very begining and retains your full attention till the very end. For indian audiences it a short film of just 2 hrs. No doubt it has made so much noise world over.

Coming to the flip side(which are too many i guess), firstly the way slums have been shown-dirty & unhygenic- it is too much. I think most of the indians have been shocked to see it, leave alone the foriegners. Even most of Bombayites also must not be knowing that such things do exist in thier own city. I mean everybody knows there is Dharavi, but how many have actually gone and seen it? We all have seen reality of mumbai and its slums and trains in movies like Dayavaan, Satya, Metro, Salaam Bombay, Traffic Signal etc, but nowhere it has been projected in such bad taste.

Also, Anil kapoor's character as a negative host doesnt go down too well. He keeps making fun of him being a "chaiwala" and the public keeps laughing at it. Atleast we havent seen any such show be it Kaun banega crorepati" or "Dus ka Dum" or watever.

If we look from one point of view it has shown all the "Bad" things about india. Slums, crowded locals, riots, poor police stations, beggar gangs, flesh trade, cheating guides, irresponsible call centre employees and irresponsible show host. The problem gets examplified because it has been made by a britisher. Had it been made by Indian it would have been ok, but as a Britisher has made it, it looks like this is his take on India, tat he is making fun of India. Also, as it has been made by holloywood, it gets more exposure and recognition worldwide. The wold will have now this image of india. I was talking to few of my friends in US and they say they are fed of explaining thier collegues that India is much more than what has been shown in "SM". 

So is it just a artistic film or is the west(specially British) calling  India as "Slumdog" ? India off late has been growing as powerful economy and has been taking job of lots of westeners...!!! This is the bigger question which is surrounding this movie and lot of critics have criticised the movie on this grounds. I think it is difficult to ascertain the truth behind this, but yes I do think India cud have been projected in a better way without loosing the creative part of it.

Whatever u say, think or debate you must first go and watch it. Because it is not a movie u can afford to miss.

moDOOMism....

Finally the fears have come true. As a stunned Nations tries to cope with the headline everywhere, Narender Modi readies himself to take oath for a third term as Chief Minister (And not Common Man) of Gujarat.

I have always been a staunch opposer of him, and really wished he lost elections this time. But it did not happen, and he again tasted victory. So I re-captulated my dislike for him. Here is the list

1. He is a hardliner. Hardliners can be good in autocratic rulership and democratic.

2. He is communalist. He has religious bais.

3. He is criminal. His role in post godhra riots is known to all now.

BJP is close to calling him "Gr8" leader, but a little introspection will make them shy away from saying the same.

It is being said that Modi has won election mainly on "Progress" and due to his charismatic personality. Probably i can also not deny that he has some charisma in his personality, but i beg to differ on progress issue. If we see history we find that Gujarat has always been among the richest states in India. That coupled with the bouyantic growth India has seen in last couple of years because of global factors, I dont think what Gujarat has achieved is anything significant more. Also to be kept in mind is that Reliance, whose forte is gujarat, has been doing massive expantions in recent years. Thus the progress gujarat has achieved is unelastic to Modi's so called good policies.

How elections are won and lost is probably known to none, and thats why it is difficult to say why Modi wont election. But the strongest factor that I see was that he did not have any opposition from anybody else.

But what has been interesting is that Modis own people revolted against him, and mainly because of his autocratic style of working. One of the key attribute of a good leader is that they create loyalist. But modi seems to be too self centred to think of others, and share his power.

Whatever reason it is, a really sad chapter has begun in Indian Politics, which will have ramification at National level. Gujarat and India have sent out the wrong signals, and this will only have ill effects at macro level. 'God Bless u India'

Pele, Maradona, Zidane

Zinédine Yazid Zidane is a classic example of how one can reach to the epitome of success on basis of shear talent and hard work, despite having a humble background.

Zidane, an Algeria based Muslim immigrant, had to fight many battles to reach this hieghts.
Zinedine Zidane’s career began in the backstreets of Marseilles where, at the age of 14, he was spotted by a talent scout and offered a place at the academy of AS Cannes.Soon he was able to
make his mark and was signed by Bordeaux.In no time he was able to prove his mettel to the world, and suddenly everybody was talking of this young boy from Marseilles.

Victory after victory Zizou's stature kept rising. The most important ones being the World Cup 1998(where he scored twice), European Championships 2000 and reaching final of 2006 world cup. It was all cause of Zizou's magic. His ability to dribble, make impossible moves, pip pointed passes and astonishing free kicks are just a few to say. Watching him play is sheer pleasure. He is so comfortable with the ball.In a high voltage games like world cup, many players just wanna pass the ball as soon as possible. But for zizou, its seems its part of his body....!!! With him having the ball ....anything is possible.

I think for Indian public,who do not understand football , so much they do cricket, i wud like take the liberty of comparing him with Tendulkar. Sheer talent, great determination and the hunger to make a psotive difference. But Zizou might have an edge, as he has won many
matches for his team solely single handed.

For last couple of days zizou is in news for the Infamous Header. Initially it was much criticized, and now everybody is saying it was a planned provocation my the Italian. I agree Zizou should not have done that in the first place. But, if he was provoked beyond his temperament(the kinda comments tat might have been passed are really sad to read), and he headed the opponent, I dont see anything wrong with it. As an individual, may be I might have done the same thing. Remember we are talking of football-A game which is so physical and so full of emotions- and not golf.

Zizou surely deserves to be put in the league of Pele and Maradona, and one small header cannot take tat away from one of the all time great footballer. Though France's win could have added icing to the cake, but never the less Zizou goes on to become Living History...!

Slaute to u Zizou
(for more info log to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinedine_Zidane#Personal_life)

Indian Growth Story

Around a decade back, the Indian growth story was only a subject of academic interest. It was a lot talked about, but time and again it was brushed off because of various reasons. All MNC's agreed India is an important destination but did not commit much investment (indirectly saying, its time hasnt yet come). At the same time comparisions were made with the Dragon
(China). Everybody gave thier pros and cons usually in favor of the dragon.

Half a decade down the line things are in much better shape. Indian's positioningg as a driver for growth for most of the MNC's has already been established( with the likes of IBM, Motorala, Intel and host of others showing full commitment to investments in thier Indian Operations). Even though dozen other are still exploring thier options for the same and China's story has lost some fuel over growing concerns over is communist approach (banning google, releasing right figures etc).

India has been recording consistent growth of 7-8 % and in last quater it even touched 9 %. Infrastructure (roadways, telecom etc) is improving, per capita is increasing and sensex touching new highs.

Will India be a dream Growth story like US, Japan or other european countries...???

Lets look at the fallouts. Though the Indian industry has done expectionally well after liberalisation, the problem area which remains is our polity. The political system which was already in bad shape, has been detriorating in the recent past.
We have added jewels like Arjun singh, Narender Modi & Bal Thackrey,to the already existing crown of Indian Politics. The focus has been on how to use caste, religion and region to divide people and increase thier own vote bank. No student wondered about his fellows caste, no gujrati was more centric on money than religion and no Bombaite aware of his region before these great men spell thier charm. As though this was not enough, there are also talks of reservation in private comapnies...???

As a society we have only moved back and more so in last couple of decades.
Just look at the headlines u c in paper and tv channels. If u c in last one month Fanaa and Reservation controversy had maixmum space/time share. Probably BJP Gujrat wing devoted all its time n energy for last few months only in taking out juice of the "fanaa"controversy. And congress put in all its power to push thru the 'Quota' bill. Is the nation be discussing these as main issues??? Though in between things like rahul mahajan and mika's kiss kept viewer's entertained. And at some times it was sensex's fall or rise Or India losing one day series.

When instead we should have been talking of challenges India faces to become a better destination than China. Or why cant India host 2014 footbal worldcup? Or 2016 Olympics?Everybody who reads this will laugh as he/she knows it cant happen and this is the tragedy. We never ask ourselves y not??? And accept its not possible.

India is lucky that it has current a very Good President and Prime Minister. President Mr Kalam is a great visionary. He has written lot of books one of which is "India Vision 2020". He has analysed India current situation and given recommendations onhow to make India a Developed state by 2020.

Mr Manmohan singh is another visionary who started the reform process in India in the 90's and knows exactly wat is needed to catapult India into the developed nation countries. But it is only a tragey that inspite of such visionaries being pressent in top positions the political system misusing the power of democracy has not let them do much.

But again there r people like Kurien,Sreedharan and Narayan Murthy who have set excellent precent of how one person can bring about positive change in society. Not everyone can become like them, but we can defintely see wat ideology we are supporting...and wat role models v r choosing (Narayan Murthy or Narender Modi).

I think its time people like Murthy enter active politics and clean up the mess. This will also be a big confidence booster to people like Manmohan singh & chitambaram. We defenitely need corporatization of Indian Politics or it will soon be politicization of Indain society.

NAR(mada) bachao

Narmada Dam project is India's longest,biggest and most ambitious water management project taken by govt of India ever. A country which has abundant water resouce but still discrimination in water availability, it was to be one But its unfortunate tat it has always been into controversy.

Recently it was in news cause the popular activitst Medha Patkar went on indefnite hunger strike and was finally forcibly admitted in hospital in critical condition after 9 days of fast. Though it is not sure how much will this affect govt decision to raise the hieght of Dam by another 11 meters, it has defenitely attracted the required attention.

I have been hearing about Medha Patkar and Narmada Bachoa andolan since my childhood. That time I used to wonder why would anybody oppose such move which will only bring only good things to ppl of this country-irrigation of baren land and control of floods....??

But now I things are more clear. With watever progress made in the contruction of Dam, already thousands of people have been displaced. Govt claims it has done needful-relocated the displaced- but reality is something different. Most of the people neither have thier old land nor have been provided with new ones-thanks to the most efficient system in the country-Corruption. With full supply chain integration-from politicains to bureaucrats- there hardly any room for leakage.

Most of us living in cities cannot imagine wat it means. To get a feeling closer to it, just imagine when u leave ur office today evening , u have no where to go. No home, no othe place. More than the physical and material inconvinience caused, it is the psychological impact of being "Worthless" and without base.

Recently two more prominet personalities jumped into this fire-Aamir Khan and Narender Modi.Aamir is known for his perfection in acting and in doing what he beleives. Even though he has always separated himslef from any public statement about his personal views, this time the gravity of situation was such , he could not resist. He clearly stated that it was govt failure, and necessary relief should be done before any futher progress is made on dam construction. May be "Rang de Basanti" has some real life affect on him...!

Narender Modi. The less it is said about him the better it is. His 2nd time victory as CM of Gujrat is often compared with that of Bush's 2nd time victory as President of US-Unfortunate. But I think the first event is was far more derogatory than the 2nd one. Modi, out of the blue declared he will keep fast for 51 hrs to protest. Against what? Why? or why not? Maybe he was also not sure. But probably he thought it could be a good publicity stunt and make an issue out of it as he is not able to address the real issues of Gujrat. Wat a gift he has been to India from the land of Gandhi !

Now the matter is in court's hands, who will review the relief work and then decide wat shud be done. But surely it has shown us the darker side of Democracy and Politicians.

Wake up people of India...!

Judicial Irony....

Last few months have brought Indian Judicial Irony into picture.

A man kills a women in front of 300 people and still moves scot free, as his crime could not the proved because of lack of evidences. A popular actor get jail term and spends three days in jail before getting bail for poaching engangered animals.

There has been lot fo hue n cry in the media and among the common people for both the cases. Though it looked the proper corrections would be made in the first case, after initial enthu the officials are again trying to put the matter back in black hole, as it will be like digging thier own house to find the thief. It will obviously raise lot of questions, on lot of police officials-ex n serving- and not to mentioned the mighty politicians. It can open up a pandora;s box which will have strings attached all over. And most important it will have the capability to shake governments.

Though the 1st case is more critical and serious the second case has been a bigger surprise for me. If somebody can scott free in an serious offence like the 1st one, y cant a person do the same in a minor case like the second one? I think it might be difficult to find an answer to this question but lets try.

People say it is because the witness in the 2nd case did not turn hostile unlike the 1st case, ans reason for this is cause the Bishnoi community luves n protects its animal. So that means we are trying to say that peoples luv for each other has been overshadowed by peoples luv for animals? This looks very unlikey. Lets dig deeper.

The main reason for witness turning hostile is pschological (threats) and physical (assualt) pressure put on them. In some cases it the greed for money as well, but usually it is on supplementary. It is very clear that in 1st case these means were very well used and the witnesses scummed to it (except a few). But y did it not happen in 2nd case? There can be 2 possible reasons. One that the same was not applied to the witnesses, which is very unlikely. And 2nd that there is some other party backing the witnesses for political mileage. Though nothing can be said for sure at this moment, but this truth will come out sooner or later. And it may come out sooner if if we go by his comments given to a pvt news channel after his release from jail.

A few more interesting cases are
- Son of an IPS officer is sentenced 7 ys imprisonment for raping a german student. A case were it looked more like a consented sexual relationship, with no proof of any force or attempt to avoid the same. Interestingly the sentence was given in 7 , where usually it takes 7-17 yrs for the same, just cause the victim was a foriegn national. Clearly foriegners r more valued than thier own citizen...!

-The key witness of most famous homocide case of gujrat was sent to jail on charges of perjury and aptly so. But it was even better to know that the culprits were given punishment even after all the drama.

Off late thier have been chrages of corruption in judicial system as well, and there is no denying to the fact. But where do common man go when the ploticians, bureaucrats, administration and even the judiciary is corrupt?