Actions Will Speak Louder Than Words

If I learned anything about India in the past week, it is the fact that politics and politicians will never keep their noses out of things. Of course, when terror hits one of the biggest cities in the world, the government is bound to be expected to take some drastic steps.

In this case, the drastic steps involved some heads rolling - these heads should have rolled a long, long time ago. I'm sorry. This government, as unfortunate as it has been in encountering the global economic crisis and this unfortunate incident, has been equally inept in its response to both.

Of course, what preceded both the economic crisis and what is now being called 26/11, can also make one question the government's grip over the country. As far as the economic crisis was concerned, the banning of export of basmati rice for a couple of months and a ban on the export of food grains for a year after the crisis had fully begun made the buffoons sitting in Delhi show their true identity.

Increasing the petrol prices after the oil companies were on the brink of running out of cash was also an almighty disaster. In trying to keep the voters on their side, the party currently governing this country delayed the rise of petrol/diesel prices - if they had done that earlier, the rapidity of the rise of inflation might have been curtailed.

Now, 26/11 has yet again thrown huge question marks about how much control this government actually has over this country. The intelligence failures are apparent. The delays in sending the National Security Guards, who are known as "black cats" and are commonly seen in politicians' cars and outside their houses, and the delayed reaction of the Marine Commandos or MARCOS, showed that even in times of great urgency - red tape is something which the people of India have to live with.

What has truly amazed me is the response of the various political parties. Name calling, using this incident as leverage for the elections and trying to divide and rule in times where the people of India need to be united just make me feel sick. What has also surprised me is the reaction of the public to this terror attack. People are angry and want good governance - they don't want idiots coming television and trying to score political brownie points.

The reaction of the people though, can be understood because this has been an attack on the people in the higher strata of society. Had this attack happened in a remote village, people would've cared for more than four days and forgotten about the whole thing. The fact that this was an attack on people like bank chairmen and millionaires has made the upper echelons of society realize that nobody can escape the phenomenon of terrorism.

What people want is action - not politicians coming out and making promises that they will never fulfill, not bureaucrats thinking that their jobs are safe no matter what. In these times of great uncertainty, the least that the people of this country want is that nobody enters this country with guns and grenades to kill them.

The Prime Minister of this country is certainly a great man - one who brought the economic reforms to this country which is now growing rapidly. It is now time for him to reform a considerable number of issues and ensure that there is some accountability within the government.

In these troubled times - only actions will reduce the anger of the public. We're sick and tired of excuses from inept politicians.

We want answers, and fast.

IPL - Bonanza or Bust?

The IPL finally got under way this summer for the first time. Touted as "entertainment ka baap" by the broadcaster, I must confess, it has lived up to the expectations of many people if not surpassed them. It has been good value for money for most crowds as they see some some good cricket, and if they're lucky, some controversial incidents!

I think that the IPL will give cricket a better image worldwide without a doubt. I'm sure that the purists will disagree with me. I've stated all along that cricket is played only among the Commonwealth Nations and some other countries who really don't dominate the world of cricket anyway. What the IPL does (and T20 as well) is that it takes the sport a step closer towards globalisation. I'm not too sure whether the ICC or some people sitting in their arm chairs are looking for that though.

We're halfway through this tournament, and the team I support - The Chennai Superkings with our marquee player, the amicable MS Dhoni has done pretty well. It has been a good learning experience without a doubt for a lot of youngsters. Yes, Sachin has not played until now, Ganguly has failed fairly consistently (I'm not surprised) and so has Dravid. So what? It is a league, it is a team game with 4 foreigners in each team. If they perform well, so be it. I think every fan supports a team for the bond that they feel with the team. If you support one team for one or two players - you're a fool.

I think another good thing that the IPL has done is that a lot of females seem to be taking interest in the game. I'm pretty sure that they wouldn't have cared had a cricket match been on for a whole day or 5 days, but 3 hours of cricket - with entertainment more often than not has attracted their attention. A family can attend a match, like they might go out for a movie, at 8 p.m. and have a really good time. It has become a real obsession for many, and I'm not exaggerating!

Many of the purists are asking whether people will associate themselves with their teams and whether they would remember the 17 man squad of each team - questions which can only be answered after a couple of years and not 3 weeks. I think that the tournament has produced some city loyalties - whoever I know supports the Superkings. I watch some games on the TV and I see fans becoming quiet when their team is losing. If that isn't associating yourself with a team, then what is?

The IPL has produced some controversial moments as well. But, I would say that publicity - good or bad is still publicity! I don't believe conspiracy theories about those incidents being staged either. Any sport, any tournament will have controversies. It's pretentious to ask for good, aggressive cricket without expecting a single controversy.

As for the IPL experience, I see crowds filling up stadiums, players giving their everything for the franchises. The fans are enjoying this cricket fest and it has, at least in my view, surpassed all expectations. It has been great fun to watch some matches on TV and even attend one! So, the IPL without a doubt has been a bonanza!

Sayonara Beijing!

This has certainly been a historic month for Indian sports. While we won an ODI Tri Series in Australia for the first time, we somehow failed to qualify the Beijing Olympic Games' hockey tournament. It is quite a true reflection of the way the two sports are run in a country where there is no system of 'separation of federation from the government' .

While cricketers get 58 lakh rupees each for a win in a one day tri series competition, football players got zilch for winning the Nehru Cup. Hockey players got nothing at first for winning the Asian Cup but then got bits and pieces. The simple fact is that we prefer to play and support a sport which is played mostly by the Commonwealth Nations. We want to exist in a World where we feel we are successful. We have this pathetically recessive thought that supporting our hockey or football teams are going to get us nowhere. I didn't see any news reports about eggs being thrown on players or people criticizing the Indian Hockey Team for their miserable failure. I did see some Indian Cricket fans berate Yuvraj Singh for not scoring enough runs on the Australia Tour though. No one seems to care about anything other than cricket. We are yet again trying to prove that we have only one dimension. It saddens me no end.

The simple reason for our failure to qualify for the Olympic Hockey Tournament this year is that we don't care about our Hockey Team. We don't care if they qualify, if they win, lose, get thrashed. But we do feel the pain of Sachin Tendulkar when he gets out in his 90s. That said, we celebrate for 5 minutes when we see our Hockey Team win the ASIA CUP and we celebrate for 5 days when we see our Cricket Team win the CB SERIES. Talk about putting things in perspective.

Yes, the flaws are in the system. Whose job is it to clean it up? Only if we put pressure on the Hockey Federation will they act in a suitable manner. I heard somewhere that an ex-Army man is incharge for selecting an entire team. We have a 'technical consultant' who is sitting in Australia while the team is in Chile trying to qualify for the biggest hockey event in 4 years. None of this was covered in the news. None of this was made known to us. Why? The Indian Cricket warriors were battling Australia... that's why!

We, as a nation must really learn to put things in perspective. We set ourselves up for failure and then blame the poor players who have been beaten down by the very evil that we've nurtured. I'm not saying that we should become hockey fans.. all I'm saying is that partisan support for cricket - is just that, brainless.

For now though, because of the inability of the system and of course, us - the men in blue.. with the sticks are coming back home having failed rather ignominiously. I hope that we are able to develop some tact to support them in the future, if not the sport itself.

Five Months.... And Nothing's Changed!

Wow.. It has been somewhat of a hiatus, and I get the feeling of complete unfamiliarity when it comes to blogging now.. It started off as a "block" and then I just couldn't find time to blog. I have absolutely no reasons as to why I couldn’t blog.. I just couldn't!

The funny thing in all this is that barely anything has changed in my life (of note) that really needs writing about. I remember the first time I felt like blogging since October - and that was when Benazir Bhutto passed away quite tragically. Somehow again, it just didn't happen. Now, somewhat equally inexplicable is my desire to blog again! You can see I'm going nowhere with this...

The next time I really felt like blogging was on New Year's Day.. and again for some stupid reason or the other.. I didn't blog. The beauty of the blogosphere is that it is always there. You can always come back to it after some time and acclimatize.. feel at home and then really get back into your "groove".

I'll end all of this here.. but I'm pretty confident I will come back soon enough to blog about something. For the moment though, it's just nice to be back here again!

Sad 'State' of Affairs....

India is a country which is statistically very strong. We all know that, though statistics are good markers - they're not the absolute truth. This is what applies to India. Our GDP is in trillions but our per capita income is very low. Our economic growth is 8% p.a. but the disparities between the rich and the poor are there for everyone to see.

So, when the Indian film Industry makes nearly 800 movies a year - you would think that we would get some critical recognition (in the form of... an Oscar) in the industry's existence. There are various factors (like the Oscar jury being biased against Indian films) which don't help us without a doubt. But, believe me, we're doing our cause no favours. By nominating movies like Ek Lavya, we're simply increasing suspicion about our credibility. Our country seems to be playing politics everywhere.

The funny part about this situation is that we might end up not having a nomination at all if things go all wrong (as if they already haven't!). It is certainly a sorry state of
affairs for the president of the jury to admit, a month after the movie was nominated to admit foul play in its nomination. 800 movies and no nomination? Don't believe statistics completely!

Doesn't this completely make fools out of Indians on the whole? Where's the transparency anywhere, where's the accountability? Be it the nuclear deal or the great Indian debacle against Australia - nobody seems to stand up and say "Sorry, my bad". Everyone loves to point fingers in India - that could become our 'national gesture'.

While we're talking about embarrassments - it would be apt to add that India ranks 120th (out of 149 countries) in the Worldwide Press Freedom Index. We're drowning ourselves in glory aren't we? I mean, we're the biggest democracy and there is no freedom for the press, no freedom of expression for bloggers.

I've ranted about India not being a true democracy in the past. This proves that even though you have 1.2 billion people in a democracy, you can't be the largest provider of freedom. So, then that vindicates the fact that statistics don't mean everything, right?

Sour Grapes..

One thing that I didn't envisage when the Indian Cricket Team won the T-20 World Cup was the opposition that their treatment would get among other sports persons. The hockey team has taken exception to the vast amounts of money given to Team India. At first, I actually thought that they were right. Now, though, I have very different thoughts.

Last year during the Hockey World Cup, the Indian team was ignominiously dumped out in the 1st round after being placed 11th (12 teams in all). So, how many effigies of hockey stars were burnt? How many hockey stars resorted to the back door of airports in fear of a backlash from fans? None. These guys could barely beat South Africa, who were the minnows of the World Cup 2006.

The Indian Cricket team's fortunes were somewhat different. They lost, played poorly in the World Cup 2007. Effigies of pretty much every player were burnt on the streets of every city. The players returned home through the back doors of airports. It was a poor performance met with the anguish and embarrassment of the 'stars' in public. The media pretty much hung them out to dry as well.

Fast forward to the present… The hockey team won the Asia Cup in Chennai and in style. The media was more than appreciative. Yes, the government did very less to show their happiness. The T-20 team's win though has been treated with a great amount of happiness as well. This was a World Cup, not an Asia Cup. The BCCI is the richest sports body in the World. They can afford to give out 80 lakh rupees to their players. It is not their fault per se.

The fact is that when the cricket team lost, they were taken to task. When they won, they were glorified. The hockey team had the luxury of coming back home to a stable environment even though they lost pathetically in 2006. We all know that hockey is India's 'National Sport' for practical purposes only.

We're all Indians. We should enjoy these moments when our sports teams are achieving great things. Yes, one sport is more important than the other for obvious reasons. Cricketers are more popular and they deal with a lot more pressure. People seem to be forgetting that point! As for the hockey players - don't be disheartened. If you guys win the World Cup, I'm sure that there will be a victory parade for you as well.

Otherwise all this nonsense of the cricket team getting more attention just sounds like sour grapes to me. That has been happening for the past 2 decades and nobody has had problems for so long, so why now?

T20 - Here to Stay.

I wrote an entry slating cricket a few months back. That might have been a scathing entry about a sport which was dying then. I cannot and certainly will not say anything of that sort today though!

Twenty-20 cricket has been a real breath of fresh air. This advent has brought a lot of exciting matches and some breath taking shot play. I have never been so excited about cricket for a long time. India is winning its matches as well and a final against Pakistan beckons, so why should I be unhappy?

I saw a lot of cricket commentators worried about the introduction of this format of the game. They were concerned at the fact that this would overtake test cricket in terms of viewer ship and interest. Who are you kidding? I don't think anyone has the interest to sit and watch 5 days of cricket continuously. We were all interested in ODIs in any case and that was beginning to bore us all!

As for bat dominating the ball - that is not true. The bowlers can learn how to bowl in the slog overs in a 50-50 game. They bowl positively. Batting also becomes positive. So, how can positive changes be negative?

We get to see the exciting side of the game in this format. We don't see guys just standing around, looking at the sky or wondering about what's back at the hotel for dinner. We have full fledged, hardcore cricket. The commitment is there, and so is the excitement - for me that is what should define sport. Cricket was fast becoming a game of the last century. This has been a renaissance of sorts for the game.

I never thought that I would see a day where I would be saying "I'm looking forward to a cricket match". Well, I am! Many people were questioning India taking a young squad. I praise them for that. It was a gutsy move and one which has paid off. We're no longer going to have to put up with 35 year old imbeciles who think too much of themselves and are not physically fit.

It is no coincidence that the 2 teams with lower average ages have made it to the finals then. Whatever loss the ICC made with the Caribbean debacle has certainly been made up here. I just hope that this transforms the sport into a spectacle, something which it has been lacking for a considerable amount of time. The T20 revolution is here to stay!

Indian Idle

Life is probably the most unfair thing to live through sometimes. I certainly saw first hand what that means yesterday. The Indian Idol turned out to be nothing more than a farce and the winner was one who won not because of his talent, but because of where he hails from.

You would think that after 60 years of democracy, Indians would understand the concept of voting. You would think that most people who voted actually had 2 ears to listen to what and how the contestants were singing. Considering that the process spanned 7 and a half months, results should have been announced sooner. The finale by itself was a 3 hour drag at the end of which I was left with a bitter taste in my mouth.

It just goes to show that in India, you can't achieve too many things by voting. Many people are losing their faith in the voting process as it is. The only way this could have been fair for us was if we had let the experts decide who can win and who can't. Would Donald Trump hire somebody on Apprentice because he/she has got more votes than the other?

I don't think that Prashant should have been in the top two in the first place. There were 2-3 singers ahead of him - and they were quite a distance away from him in terms of quality. Emon, Deepali and Chang would have driven Amit Paul close but make no mistake; Amit Paul deserved to be Indian Idol by a zillion miles.

You can only determine a good singer on the basis of his/her voice.. not his memory or his/her ability to remember lyrics. A slip in lyrics means very less. I remember the lyrics of a lot of songs; does that make me a good singer? I invite you to come and listen to my voice and decide for yourself (if you're alive after such an experience!).

It is frustrating when there is injustice in this world. It is frustrating when Bollywood stars get bail for a stonewall jail term. It was hard enough to keep your eyes open after a 3 hour snooze fest and at the end of it I felt like throwing stones at my TV.

We've been a democracy for 60 years and considering that all our politicians turn out to be utter flops.. I cannot fault the Indian public for not bucking the trend. As for Amit Paul, he is the true Indian Idol. Prashant may be a good human being, but he should be counting his lucky stars – which means that he should count every single star in the universe.