A walk to remember...and some more..

Sachin Tendulkar walked...finally....and as expected people hailed the great man for the gentleman gesture of his...But did they forget that he never "walked" earlier, even when he knew he was out and always waited for umpire's decision. The only reason I believe is the presence of UDRS. He probably knew that West Indies will challenge the decision and instead of embarrassing himself the way Ricky Ponting did the other day, decided not to waste time on the field. But we Indians have to eulogize anything and everything associated with the "GOD". Can we please let him be human and, for a change, give other players their due credit...

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Saw "The Bridge on the River Kwai". I am on a "IMDB Top 250 movies" watching spree, you see...:)..It's an excellent movie, though it appears absurd at times. I got confused by the actions of the protagonist a number of times but understood the concept by the time movie ended (have to admit that the reviews helped a great deal as well :)). The highlight of the movie is the cinematography and the acting of Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness) who deservedly won an oscar for his performance. The pace of the movie is excellent, even though it was made around 50 years back (I can definitely vouch for that, especially after watching "Seven Samurai"). Though based on World War II, it is not a usual war film. The movie revolves around the conflict between Colonel Saito and Colonel Nicholson. The greatness of the movie lies in the fact that the director makes the viewer understand the predicament of Colonel Saito who, though on the wrong side is not the devil as portrayed by Ralph Fiennes(playing the character of Amon Goeth) in Schindler's List.
I wonder why such movies are not made in Bollywood. I don't even need fingers to count good Hindi movies released in the past two years.

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I was recently reading a blog, a post on which criticized men for everything that is wrong with women in the world. It smelled both of hatred and a "female" chauvinism...And I wondered, isn't this the way of life?? That the powerful will always dominate and the weak will always suffer. We see this everywhere...don't we ?? Politicians make the common man suffer, big bully always has his way in school and BCCI twists the arm of every cricket playing nation to have its way...Instead of generalizing and hating them, can we try to make ourselves stronger, to face the difficulties in a better manner??? Too idealistic and too theoretical, I agree, but won't the world be a better place if such were to happen...

A book, a world cup and some movies

Kungfu Panda is one of the best movies that I have seen and I keep watching it over and over again. The beauty of the movie lies in the eternal and yet so easily forgotten message that it conveys. That of believing in oneself....



Probably that is the reason we find children so happy. They are not bothered about what happened a few days back and are not concerned about what future has in store for them. They look forward to the evenings when they can go out and play....everyday....two month summer vacations or the festivals like Holi, Sankranti etc is the maximum they look forward to. And don't we get the same message from self help books and religious teachers. To live in the present and enjoy moments that we so often consider insignificant.


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Saw some highly acclaimed movies in the past few days...Seven Samurai, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's nest, The Graduate, Amelie, The Girl in the Cafe, Wall-E and a few more. Of these I enjoyed only Amelie and The Girl in the Cafe. You can laugh at me for my terrible lack of understanding of "good Cinema" , of being a simpleton and not appreciating the rest..but I can't help it....and I can assure you that most of the people don't understand/like them either. But since one would be a fool not to praise them, and it will look odd they will pretend that they thoroughly enjoyed these movies. (yes...I am expecting reactions like "Kya bakwas kar raha hai!!!", "you are an idiot", "you don't have a proper taste","how can you say like that (which basically translates to Kya bakwas kar raha hai!!!)").

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World cup is going on and strangely I am not missing watching matches at all (we don't have tv and we mostly watch matches in which India is playing by live streaming). Sometimes, I miss the old me which used to go crazy over everything and anything related to cricket. All my heroes (except Sachin) have retired and are either sitting in commentary boxes or in news rooms analysing the present world cup. It was so much fun to watch them in action in older days. And then I realise, it was them whom I loved watching and not the game of cricket itself. Don't things of past always look glorious?????

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Completed reading "India After Gandhi" by Ramchandra Guha and thoroughly enjoyed it. For all those who consider Nehru a villain;Indira Gandhi an Iron Lady and Rajiv Gandhi, the maker of modern India should read it. For it will clear most misconceptions by citing the events in a fluent and lucid manner. Though this book won't improve your life in any manner, it will definitely make you more knowledgeable about our very own existence, as to how we managed to survive as a Democracy, how we are still a secular society even when the odds were heavily against us. And probably you will admire the far sightedness and patriotism of the founding fathers of this country as well...

Happy Birthday

This blog completes two years today...:)...
Isn't it amazing that it has survived two complete years and is still alive despite being authored by the laziest person in the world :)
Happy Birthday my dear blog....



P.S. Thank you dear anonymous for reminding me...

Mirror mirror on the wall...

Newspapers are full of stories about scams these days viz Sukna Land Scam, 2-G scam, Commonwealth Games scam, and yes Bofors Scam (now that court has given its verdict on Ram Mandir, BJP has nothing better to do than dig old graves). We just love big numbers,...1.76 lakh crores in 2G scam, 70k crores in CWG...it's difficult to sate this appetite, isn't it. And we criticize, we keep doing that ...all the time.
It's tax time of the year and we just submitted our proofs for tax savings . I form the second lowest rung of hierarchy in my company. Of the total annual salary, I get around Rs 84k as house rent allowance. The tax on this amounts to around Rs 8.4k per annum. How to save this amount??? Simple!!! Just produce fake bills showing a healthy amount as house rent. Nobody cares as long as this amount does not exceed Rs1.5 lakhs. Add to that fake medical bills, fake leave travel allowance bills etc. etc. Recently I learned a new method; just donate the taxable portion of your salary to some charity by cheque and get cash in return. This would serve two purposes:
a) You would save a hell lot of money on taxes.
b)This would make the black money of the charitable institute white.
A classic example of "I'll scratch your back, you scratch mine". You can't even get caught. Because you donated the money with best of your intentions to a charity authorized by government itself.

Now, just imagine the population of the country which earns enough to pay taxes, and we'll come to a figure that would put to shame the likes of A. Raja ,Suresh Kalmadi, Abdul Kareem Telgi and every tom, dick and harry whom we call corrupt.
We don't even feel ashamed about it. It's our hard earned money after all. Why should we pay government for it?? Anyways it's going to end up in a minister's pocket or in some anonymous Swiss bank accounts.
I went to a marriage last year where I saw a lady advising her nephew, a young college student , to prepare for civil services because that is where one can earn the real money. All the pride that I carried in my heart for our 'great' value system evaporated then and there.
Don't get me wrong. I am not writing this to stop anybody from doing this, because I can't. I just want to make one request: Stop criticizing the ministers, the bureaucrats, the officials for siphoning money off the top. Because, deep down we all are as corrupt as any Kalmadi, A Raja , Lalu, Yediurappa, Ramalingam Raju and any other name that one can think of. Because had we been in their places, we would have done the same. Because we do it with all earnestness during the one month in which we get our chances. Because... we can at least try not to be hypocrites....

Fact for the Day 13

Part 1
Some time back I was troubled by a strange problem. My keyboard started behaving in a strange manner on which a number of keys got interchanged, most notably the "@" and the " (quotes) key. I thought it was due to some software problem since the Windows version I was using was a pirated one. I tried to find a solution to this problem but in vain, and sometime later got used to this "different" keyboard. A few months later, the computer was formatted and now Windows XP was installed, but after some time the problem appeared again. I was confused as to why it was happening because I was the only one amongst my friends who had faced such a problem. I asked a few of my "geek" friends the reason for this anomaly but even they were clueless.

Part 2:
I have always been fascinated by British English and prefer to use it over its American cousin. It always irks me when I see people using "color" and not "colour" or when I see a red line appearing under "defence" while using MS Word. Probably it's the way I have learned it and don't want to change.

Now my room mate Anurag uses a Linux machine instead of a Windows one and falling for my obsession of using British English, I changed the language settings of this computer from English (U.S.) to English (U.K.).

Lo & Behold!!!!!!

The problem in Part 1 appeared again. I immediately wiki'ed for different types of Keyboards and got my answers immediately. You can read about it here.

Random Musings...

As a child I always used to believe that nothing bad can happen to me. In the end, I'll be successful, that I would fare better than others and that eventually it would be a happy and comfortable life. Come what may, I'll be a winner in the end. That belief, is now shaking. I've come to realize, that I will have to "make" those things happen. And to "make" those things happen, it would require a lot of effort. Now, I actually am the Master of my own destiny. I know these thoughts sound very cliched. I've read similar stuff all my life and never gave a second thought to it. But only now I feel the depth of these thoughts and understand what they actually mean.

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India plays Australia, and like many other Indians, I want Sachin to score those two centuries as soon as possible. I hardly care about anything else regarding cricket these days. India will tour South Africa sometime in December, and again the only thing I want is that Sachin, Dravid and Laxman should play the best innings of their lives there. I might be sounding unpatriotic, but I am not concerned with India's win or loss anymore. Sachin should be ahead of Ponting, ALWAYS...Dravid should retire on a high, so should Laxman...My passion for cricket will retire with these greats...

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So much has been said and written about Commonwealth Games. And we were supposed to feel proud about them. In my case, they have made me feel the exact opposite.

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Time seems to be running out very fast right now. Few of my friends(both college and school) have got married, a close friend, Prashant will marry in January next year, so would Jyoti and Shivpriya. Gaurav Dugar has already fathered a son. Another friend Shashank has set up a business in USA. Most of my batchmates from school have completed their studies and are all set to lead a well settled life. They have laid down the road map and are all set to build upon it. People have been places and here I am, still considering myself a kid, fully uncertain about my goals and aspirations, questioning about Life, Universe and Everything, doubtful as usual, indecisive, perplexed, confused....

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Babri Masjid case has arguably been decided in favour of Hindus, in spirit if not in name.If communal forces like RSS, VHP, Bajrang Dal etc. are happy about it, then it's a cause for worry. I don't know every nitty-gritty of the case, but if a Judge can rule in the high court about the place being the actual birth place of Lord Ram, I can't help but question the credibility of the appointment procedure of the High Court Judges. Was he in the right frame of mind when he made the ruling???? He seems to be talking as if in his previous incarnation he christened Lord Ram himself. Maybe he really did....I am waiting for a detailed report on India TV.

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ESPN Cricinfo has come out with the concept of an All Time XI Test Team. The jury will decide on that but you can make and vote for your own team. You can check it out here ...

My team is

(openers)
Sir Jack Hobbs ,
Sunil Gavaskar ,

(middle order)
Sir Don Bradman,
Sachin Tendulkar,
Sir Viv Richards,

(wicketkeeper)
Adam Gilchrist,

(allrounders)
Sir Garfield Sobers,
Imran Khan ,

(bowlers)
Wasim Akram,
Shane Warne and
Curtly Ambrose .

Given a choice, I would have kept Brian Lara as my twelfth man and Imran Khan as my Captain. What would have been your team??

Happy Gandhi/Shastri Jayanti by the way :)

Guilty

Do you ever feel guilty for being more privileged than others????