Dreamzzz, Desires n Desperation...: April 2009

Apr 18, 2009

A good start to the Extravaganza called IPL.


What a day of cricket it has been? IPL really has changed the cricket otherwise who would have expected to see two great cricketing brains (Shilpa Shetty and Mandira Bedi (Pun intended!)) analyzing the performance of the likes of Dravid and Warne? After India's and Pakistan's first round exit at the last world cup anything is believable but then certainly nobody would have believed that Rajasthan Royals would be routed for the lowest total ever in the IPL and that too by Royal Challengers who finished just before the last team in the previous edition.

I am sure that the organizers would gloat about the presence of Hollywood stars as well but then, this was the day of extra-ordinary cricket by the two teams, who were at the fifth and seventh position last year. And man! What else could be better for a fan of classic test cricket than to watch Rahul Dravid hitting one of the biggest sixes of the match? Nothing could delight me more than watching a retired cricketer like Anil Kumble taking five wickets in four overs. Nothing could be more beautiful than watching a vintage Shane Warne still moving the ball at his will. Still capable of drawing the batsmen forward into the drive and then turning the ball to clip the top of the leg stump. It’s really an eye candy to watch Shane chit chatting with the likes of Praveen Kumar and then our ‘desi’ boy clubbing him over the top for a six. The format might have changed but then the spirit has not and that’s really good for the cricket.

It was a really incredible day for Indian cricket and well this is something for which IPL can take credit. I mean! this is a format, where you can see a certainly young Dhoni, taking on a vintage Tendulkar and then you wonder why Tendulkar refused captaincy or have decided to opt out of the national team in this shorter version of the game? Well, half into the second match of the season and you watch Rahul Dravid clubbing a slower ball from Munaf Patel and sending it deep down the deep midwicket boundary. You wonder that is this the same guy who was sent packing out of the one day squad last year? Or is this the same old fox ‘Kumble’ who hanged his boots last year? But then at the same time some body might be thinking that have they made a bad choice in the form of South Africa as the venue?

The ball does move here a bit.

This is a country where the ball does its own thing and it seems that a score of 170 – 180 could easily be the winning score. The boundaries are big and the crowd is and will be more interested in the ‘beer’ than watching the action in the middle. The conditions will be windy and younger players will be more likely to fail than their experienced counterparts. The bowlers will be no more at the mercy of the power hitters and well the way Praveen Kumar was moving the ball around both sides of the wicket must have delighted the likes of Irfan Pathan Zaheer Khan and Nathan Bracken. At the same time this also must have sowed the seeds of doubt in the minds of some big hitters of the game. Well, as the tournament will progress the pitches will suffer wear and tear and hopefully will become more flat but by that time it seems only the best will survive.

Moving the venue to South Africa seems to be good for the bowlers but then ‘twenty twenty’ is called slam bang cricket and my doubt is that it stands to loose a part of the audience it has attracted in the last season. So, we might see moves like removing the cap of 4 foreign players in the playing 11. It might be relaxed to five or even can go up-to six because you don’t expect some of the inexperienced domestic players to make an impact like they made last year.

Anyways, the first two matches were really a treat to watch. It was really delightful to watch the legends like Kumble, Sachin and Dravid rising up to the challenge and proving that ‘class’ is ‘the class’ and will always be the ‘class’. Though it’s too early in the tournament to predict the end but then be ready to see some spectacular performances from the oldies. Who were all written off by the critics not much ago.

Image courtesy this blogger.

Apr 5, 2009

The Making of the new 'Gandhi'


The latest in this whole drama is the plot to murder the 'new' Gandhi which according to police reports was hatched by the D- company. A person was suspiciously arrested and Karnataka Police immediately declared that the guy in-charge was here to plot the murder of Pramod Muthalik and Varun Gandhi. Well, these two gentlemen have become very famous in the past 2 months and all of this has been made possible by media. The national media is behaving more like communist party (wants all the power with no accountability). It's the combination of sheer shortage of good news items and the 24 hour broadcasting compulsion. that they are bound to generate newer sources of stories and to fill the 24 hour schedule by repeating them time and again by adding different flavours. 'Re-usability definitely matters'.

Anyways Karnataka is a BJP ruled state so hardly anybody will buy this argument that D-Company is hatching a plot to kill Varun but, then at the same time the news becomes credible in the light of the fact that for more than two decades this constituency and the neighbour districts have been the recruiting ground for the A, B, C and D companies. There are folklores about these companies and their master henchmen. Though no sane logic can justify Varun's hate speech but then many people feel that this incident is all a media blunder and the only proof is a video footage which can not even be defended in a court of law.

Well, this case will definitely become a good example of how media can change a boy who use to write prose and poems to a man who can single handedly hijack the election campaign of a national party. Within a matter of one month Varun' s image has been overhauled and suddenly he is in the league of extra-ordinary (controversial) people in politics. Well, he will win election or not only time can tell but it is sure that this person will live his life on the edge now and nothing of this has been possible without the help of media.

Varun has denied making the speech and he is sticking firm to his stand partly because his legal advisers would have told him that the CD can not be defended in the court of law and partly because his political advisers would have told him that "make a small concise statement and wait for the media to interpret it. The more the merrier". Well, it is really surprising that though statements came into light after a gap of around 2 weeks, none of the TV channels actually dug deep to verify the source of the news item. They just broadcasted it like they broadcast popular "You Tube" videos.

More surprising was the fact that even election commission did not do any sort of verification and simply pronounced their decision against him. Had the decision based on some credible evidence (a bit more than what was already available in public domain) then probably this episode would have died down but then it was all about luck by chance. BJP stayed defiant against EC as no credible evidence was provided against Varun and also because they are already protesting against one of the members Navin Chawla. Congress who blatantly disregarded the advise of Chief Election Commissioner regarding suspension of Chawla is not upping the ante against BJP to heed to the advise of the election commission and criticizing them for inaction againt Varun. "Sab ek hee thaali ke chatte batte hain".

Varun was finally jailed and it just made the right kind of news. Article 144 was enforced in the town of Pillibhit and the entire national media covered the whole event. The live telecast and repeat telecasts made Varun one of the most talked about subjects of the month. The politics immediately followed. NSA was slapped against Varun and is mainly because BSP does not want him to campaign in the state. It's almost sure that he is not likely to repeat the same sentiments during his election speech but he will definitely snatch some Hindu votes from BSP. BSP is worried because the alienation of Brahmins from Brahmin-Dalit vote bank will severely dent Maya memsaab's chances of becoming the prime minister.

Well, the UP government's quick action which was supposed to keep this person behind the bars will definitely not succeed because, the same media which was talking about stern action against this man, will turn against Mayawati. They will telecast and repeat telecast stories of the political motivated action against him. One way or another, Media will keep getting their stories, news channels based on their broad strategies, will keep adding masala to simple news items and then at the end of the day, everybody will realize that a new Gandhi is born. Political analysts will soon start comparing him to his late father Sanjay Gandhi .The same Gandhi who commanded really strong influence over his late mother and at one point of time was regarded even more powerful than Indira. Time will tell whether Congress takes him in his fold (seems unlikely because of his mother) or BJP brands him as their reply to the Gandhi family. Either way Varun is set to make many more headlines. Good that he has discovered this art early on in his political life (like another cunning politician Lalu) and we all will see whether he can master this art over time.