Dreamzzz, Desires n Desperation...: September 2007

Sep 24, 2007

Boys Becoming Men

Take the pressure off their back and they will win you a world cup. Don't have high expectations and they will deliver their best. India have just achieved something which is capable of going down into history books and if not atleast it is worthy of becoming a case study.

If Cricket is a strange game then 20- 20 has lived up to the reputation and produced some amazing games worthy of a world cup. Minnows and marginalized team like Zimbawe beat the world champions in their first game. The world champions got their act together and produced some ruthless cricket to knock teams like Sri Lanka out of the tournament only to find Yuvraj too hot to handle. Bret Lee was hit for the longest six of the world cup by him and the little onslaught sealed the fate for the champions. On their way India also butchered South Africa who was undefeated in the tournament.

And this was a team without an experienced captain, without a coach, without any real experience of the game format and without any experience of playing together as a team. Nothing was expected of them as memories of an early world cup exit were fresh in the minds of the people. Advertisers were shying away from the cricket, board was battling it out with Indian cricket league and hockey and football team were doing the Chak De act at their respective stages. So what was expected was to get into the second round and then make an exit at the hands of England who were playing quite an aggressive cricket and were high on confidence after recent series victory. They were playing the same team who demolished Indian bowling attack at numerous occasion in the last series.

What else, to compound the problems India were without their three pillars of batting attack and the lone warrior was Yuvraj Singh with the maximum experience of one day cricket. But it was one over which changed everything. Yuvraj hit the ball all around the park with miraculous ease and absolute power. The most economical bowler in the one day series was hit for six sixes in an over and Indians crossed the magical 200 figures for the first time. It changed everything. Indian team started believing that they are capable of producing some good cricket and if the boys kept their act together, they can do it. The team as well as fans started smelling victory from there on. And that was what I think was the turning point of this tournament. Indian team came home with the self belief and after a long long time, Indian fans had a nice sleep with dreams of Yuvraj hitting the ball everywhere and India winning a world cup.

The average age of Indian team was 24 years and if you put up the experience together than the whole of the team combined has played lesser one day internationals than the 3 senior players who were sitting out for the greater cause. The players like Joginder and Rohit Sharma were never tested before in international conditions but the way Rohit maintained his pause in the crunch match against South Africa and England it was really a delightful treat for the eyes. It requires a lot of confidence to hit Mohd Asif for a six off the second delivery that you face and Yusuf Pathan justified his inclusion in the team by hitting the ball out of the ground.

We never had a balanced pace attack and in this format our bowlers were expected to be hit for anything but then it’s the bowler who won us the quarterfinal against South Africa. If the batsmen were capable of some audacious stroke play then bowlers also proved that they can work wonders if they get their act right. Sreesanth was a bit inconsistent in the tournament but luckily he completed a nice finish by holding on to probably the most precious catch of his life. RP Singh was spectacular while Irfan Pathan once again proved that what he is capable of. I wonder that if in a batsmen friendly match he can be so potent then he would have done wonders in the seaming and swinging conditions of England and what else that this chap can wield his willow also a little bit.

An inexperienced team playing without a coach has done something so wonderful that it’s worthy of going into the history books. It has done a lot of good for Indian cricket and hopefully in the history of Indian cricket, this victory will get a place near to the only other world cup victory. Kapil was about 24 years old at that time and the average age of this team has been 24. What a match and what a tournament. Presence of ShahRukh Khan reminds us of Chak De factor but the boys have proved themselves that they are worthy of taking on men now. We have a street smart captain who doesn’t hesitate in making fielding change after every single ball and we have a team who can hit Australians with the same power as if they are playing minnows.

Sep 20, 2007

Questioning Hindu Consciousness – Save Lord Rama first, Ram Sethu Will come later


Instance 1: CARTOON ROW - A Danish cartoonist just painted a cartoon of Prophet (which they said resembled Prophet because Prophet himself was never photographed) and the Muslims around the world set ablaze anything related to Denmark. Our own secular India was not far behind and every political party condemned the action. Effigies were burnt in India by people having political affiliation to national as well as regional parties. Denmark is a secular country with very high living standards and the origin of cartoon was to highlight Islamic terrorism. Well, the whole world believes this but the projection and association was wrong and that’s why Danish reputation suffered a lot. But if you ask this question about existence of Islamic terrorism and whether our political leaders approve of this fact or not, I guess that most probably our leaders will question the credibility of this fact. They don’t even believe that Islamic terrorism is the right word. This is vote bank politics where you defend your vote bank first and use an Ostrich view (I see nothing so nothing is happening around) to see things. All the political parties extended their support to the mass protest against Cartoons.

Instance 2: DA VINCI CODEBangalore was the first place to go up in arms against the release of the movie Da Vinci Code. This movie questions the credibility of Jesus Christ and then all the political parties tried to lean their shoulders to support Christian minority. Again a vote bank politics to attract the 6-8% votes of the Christian of the country. Da Vinci Code was disapproved by Pope but still both the sides of the coin are co existing since approximately 500 years. Every party supported the Christian agitation during that time also.

Instance 3: RAM SETHU – After Muslims and Christian this time it was for Hindu to raise their voice against destruction of Ram Sethu (Adam’s Bridge) and it was expected that almost all the political parties would support Hindu agitation also but then Indians were surprised by some knee jerk reaction by some politicians.

Instead of debating about the alternate bridge routes possible, Congress (the ruling coalition at the center) and DMK (ruling party in Tamil Nadu and a part of the coalition at the center) raised questions on the credibility of Lord Rama itself.

Who was Rama and what was his contribution? To answer this question I would like to ask a simple question that “What image Karunanidhi would want for himself in people’s mind after his death?” Whatever he want, the shelf life of that image will be maximum 100 years after his demise or who knows may be only 10 years or lesser than that after his political demise. So may be after 10 odd years people will remember him as MK Road, Or Kalainar TV or Kalainar Nagar or ex chief minister (most of these images will change depending on who comes to power next, Jayalalitha will leave no stones unturned to wipe all this off in the near future). But think about Rama, he has the same image persisting in people’s mind since thousand years. Just imagine about his greatness that he became a part of the folklore and is still alive in the mind and heart of millions of people. His symbolic acts still are the parameters of the right and wrong and are guiding millions of people everyday.

About scientific evidence - I don’t know he was a myth or a reality because I don’t think that science has reached to a point where they can answer questions like existence of god and ghost. I would ask Mr. Karunanidhi that was his father a genetic engineer that he was created like this? Perhaps he don’t has the answer neither we have but even the top of the scientist would like to believe that there is a power beyond our understanding and beyond our comprehension and only fools would like to believe that there is no supreme power than them.

Congress took a foolish step and then retracted but DMK simple jumped the gun and still would like to believe that they are right. You can’t prove or disprove the existence of Rama in court but DMK is simply proving the lack or moral fiber by not following the court’s suggestion. The Supreme Court has ordered about exploration of possible alternate route but nobody wants that and I don’t know why. Is it just because Hindus have no collective consciousness and people can easily toil with their emotions? Or it is because they don’t have a common political affiliation and thus their vote does not count? Or is it because somebody needs another controversy to simply push the country into elections? Well, whatever it is, one thing is pretty certain that we are projecting our secular image forward. “Listen Western Powers, What you always believed to be a country of Hindus is actually a secular country where all the other religions are assured of their religious independence, safety, security except Hindus”. I don’t know Rama existed or not, but if he ever existed then perhaps Hindus are waiting for another Avtaar to come and save the mythology. Hindus will not do anything. Poor Rama you forget to visualize that instead of fighting Ravana one day you have to fight this secularism bug deeply routed inside political leaders.

Jai Hind

Sep 13, 2007

Lord Rama existed or Not? Questioning Hindu Faith

I don't think that anybody can fight a court case in the favour of existence of Lord Rama and win it because its easy to shrug off thousand of years of heritage in a moment and its easier to prove that everything which supports that claim is invalid but then the question is not about existence of Lord Rama but rather it goes one extra step to question the Hindu faith.

And that is where the subject become touchy. I was just having discussions with one colleague of mine who was having the same opinion that there are really no historical evidence to suggest that Lord Rama ever existed but then equally true is the fact that there are no evidences to prove that other religious Gurus like Mohammad or Jesus ever existed or even if you can prove that they had a physical existence, no body can ever prove that they were really something like Prophet or Messiah. We can always degrade ourselves to question the faith of a community or a religion on the broader level but have we ever tried to think that who exactly was Lord Rama or Krishna or Jesus Christ?

Why do we need idols to worship or why do we need a religion to follow? The answer lies in Anthropology or behavioral sciences. It is the common need to socialize that bring us and binds us together. This need to feel a part of the group is so strong that it gave rise to groups and 'Kabilas'. This is common for all animals including the most civilized ones like us. With the evolution of groups, it became mandatory to differentiate and for that symbols were required and slowly these symbols evolved into religious symbols. That's why you will find symbols like Air, Water, Sun, Moon, Fire common across all the religions.

Another reason was to attribute some unexplained phenomenons like flood, fire, disaster, earthquake etc to some super mighty powers who had the capability to bring terror and cause damage to life and property. This fear again bound human beings together and helped them create a code of conduct. Due to this incapability in comprehending certain things people actually started believing in super powers.

The third reason was the wide gap between level of intelligence and power between the tribes. There were strong and weak tribes. The strong one will often loot and plunder the weak ones and make their life miserable. In all the religion you'll find concept of saint, demons and of warriors who will fight the demons. Jesus represented this supressed class and became a symbol for the weak and poor of the world. Even if nobody believes in his existence today and we have no historic evidence to prove, I will still say that Jesus at that time more than being a god was a symbol of hope for the millions of poor and depressed people and that is why Cross is still one of the strongest symbol of the social injustice today.

Ram or RamaRajya more than being a physical person was a symbol and that is most important. He was an object of faith and people worshiped him because he relieved them from the terror of Ravana. VHP has become an icon of foolishness and they can still afford to play around with the Hindu faith but then if a statement like "Rama did not exist" comes from Congress party then I am more than sure that something is seriously wrong with their think tank. Try saying some day that the Muslim or Christian gods never existed and you will be wiped out from the national political scene but anybody can question Hindu faith and still walk tall among the political circles. This is a sheer example of how people have taken advantage of the Hindu tolerance Level which is fairly high compared to other religions. Don't forget the cartoon row or the demonstration against Da Vinci Code.

Anyways, Congress is in deep waters now. They have not just questioned the Hindu faith, they have also challenged the basic premise of being a Hindu. There is no point of following a religion when the base never existed in the first place. The next logical step is to prove that as Rama never existed so no point in fighting for Ram Janmbhumi and then no point in being Hindu. When the whole world is looking forward to Vedas and Gita, this statement coming from a well educated individual have surely embarrassed the whole country.

Nothing captures the existence of Rama better than this -

"Man se Ravan jo Nikale, Ram uske man me hai"
(When you will be able to take Ravana out of your mind, you will discover Ram inside)

Sep 6, 2007

Ram Gopal Varma Ki ************

If the title is not self explanatory, then your are dumb enough to last for 3 hours of this movie. Yeah I am right, only people without brains can survive this mockery of the epic.

Some of the adjectives to describe this movie will be "annoying, frustrating, time waste, wastage of money, pathetic display, mockery etc etc". I have never ever seen people walking out of theater during interval form a Amitabh's movie, but then Ram Gopal Varma's genious has made that possible. Truly, he is a genious. And he should be given credit for several reasons.


He claimed that his favorite movie is Sholay so as a tribute to that cult classic he has taken this project which seems more like making a mockery of the old. I don't know how Amitabh reacted to this project. Well, he'll say that it was a different experience and working with Ramu was blh blah blah but then the fact is that the age factor is creeping into his system. Yeah he is well past 60 right? It shows in the movie.

The man who wrote dialogue for the movie should be forced to watch this movie 2 times in a go without any interval and I am sure he will die of brain damage or perhaps would never take any writing project again. The same punishment should be inflicted on the entire crew of Ramu. He should be thanking to god that his movie company is not public or the public would have rightly rewarded him by bringing his stock prices to unprecedented low levels.

Dialogues are so pathetically written and so pathetically enacted that you are left with no other options than to scratch your hair. Half the theater was empty after the interval and those who were there were begging for the "basanti ka naach" which was not there and then everyone left. Those who survived the movie were just to justify their expenses.

Don't watch this movie, if you are a true Sholay Fan. Watch that movie again instead. But yeah is you want some skin show and some wild camera angles, go waste your time and money.

All the best.

Ex Supermodel Ki Kahani

" Take off the camera, stop shooting or you'll regret every moment if it Stop! Stop! You'll all go to jail, just stop". The girl was shouting but none of the photographers stopped shooting. They kept her in focus and the cameras tried to shoot every possible angle. The girl was pleading but no, there are no jails for these photo journalists. Within minutes, the photos made to the website of the popular news channel and also to some of the blogs. Poor she.

Ex- Supermodel - Geetanjali Nagpal has a very impressive educational background with names like Mt. Carmel and Lady Shri Ram to quote. She claims that she did some modelling assignments with Sushmita Sen however, no channel tried to contact any of her friends or any designers. They were too busy in shooting her hip movements in the designer skirt. Nobody knows that where she modeled and for what. Even Mehr Bhasin was unable to recognize the name or the face. Anyways, the world is too big and given the kind of looks and figure, its sure that she looks like a model but super model? Way too much for the imagination.

Sleeping on the street - Take a look at the pic below.



How many of you will believe that she is sleeping on street and that too on Delhi's street? I know that many of the Delhi people might be curious to know about the street where she is sleeping. But the channel has put in headlines that she is begging for a living and is sleeping on streets. But the video shows Geetanjali sipping Pepsi and standing outside some shop in a crowded street. Comeon everybody knows that Delhi streets are not safe for a girl to sleep and for a girl like her, people will actually crowd on the street and make it impossible for her to sleep. Looks like this, even when dressed shabbily don't go unnoticed dear.

Well, whether she is begging for living or sleeping on street, the news channels have got their breaking news and enough masala to build on a sensational piece (psychiatrist and a model was just add on) and I have got a blog piece.

Sep 3, 2007

Where are Ramesh Powar's Famous Red Googles?

















In the recent series against England, Powar sported a new pair of goggles which were surprisingly not Red. So where did the red ones go? Big question, Check the two images. Is this Hyderabad Bomber a fan of Powar? Nice timing for Powar or else you never know about Indian police.