Check this out:http://cricket.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2005163.cms
It is amazing how shameless our Indian cricketers are. They are demanding a raise after the world cup debacle. Their excuse - we have only lost a world cup game, we haven’t fixed a match or anything. Downright appalling. I’d say - we could ruthlessly can the following guys:
1) Sachin Tendulkar
2) Virender Sehwag
3) Saurav Ganguly
4) Yuvraj Singh
5) Harbhajan Singh
Rebuild a young team. Make Dinesh Karthick vice-captain and give Dravid targets aka Sarwan.
BCCI and Indian players
Posted in Cricket.
– May 4, 2007
The Namesake
Alright, my mind was piqued after a hiatus of 5 months. Too much latency huh? Saw this movie that all blogs and reviewers were raving about. I mean ‘The Namesake’.
For someone, who hasn’t read Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel, this movie will be a revelation. Quite a splendid rendition of a long book in 2 concise hours. But that is where my gripe with Mira Nair is.
The editing is choppy. We flit from scene to scene almost as if there is no context in the scene change. Also, if you’ve read the book, the film does NOT do justice to the character of the protagonist - Gogol. The book portrays Gogol as a disenchanted guy - who treats India as just that - India - a foreign country. The movie makes no emphasis of this. Instead there is this romantic evocation of Gogol staring at the Taj Mahal and being inspired to be an architect.
The movie has its pluses - Irfan Khan is good and so is Kal Penn (Kalpen Patel for purists). But the movie belongs to Tabu. Tabu’s role is brilliantly etched out giving the actress ample room to flout her talent. This anguish of a young daughter and then a middle aged mother is so touchingly portrayed by Mira Nair through Tabu’s Ashima that you can’t help feel if Mira is telling some of her own tale. I would suggest the reverse of what I did - I read the book a year ago and watched the movie last week. See the movie first and then read the book at leisure.
Posted in Movies.
– May 3, 2007
Paint my love
As Michael Learns to Rock once crooned - Since you came into my life the days before all fade to black and white, since you came into my life, everything has changed.
Ah - the tribulation of being a coloured person - neither white nor black - neither western nor oriental. I write this blog on the heels of my previous blog - a rant against racist Aussies. The very people the Aussies targeted were the kings of apartheid. Herschelle Gibbs has proved recently by calling Pakistani supporters - animals, that he is a child of that very system although he conveniently overlooks that he is himself ‘coloured’. At least, it’s not just Shilpa Shetty pretending to be white, but a whole lot of coloureds born in western society. By the way, the girls that targeted Shetty should be profoundly thanked for showing us what British society is truly like. How should Indians react to this? I suggest counter-racism. This has worked wonders for the black society in the US. This brand of racism is a subtle disgust of their white peers, absolute rejection and loud condemnation of bigotry, no open hostility and absolutely no pottering around like Shetty making inane comments. I am an Indian and proud of it. And if you are white and wonder where our hands have been, let’s just say - our arseholes don’t stink like yours.
Posted in Blogs.
– January 19, 2007
Racist Aussies
If you’re as avid a cricket fan as I am, you will doubtless have admired Australian cricket. Their cricketers can absolutely sleep-walk into any international XI. Their individual talents are breathtaking and as a collective whole, they are lethal as the cricketing fraternity has discovered. These admirable qualities however end on the field and pertain to the team alone.
Aussie fans are absolutely boorish and horribly racist, as the South African team found on their recent tour to Australia, where they were greeted with incessant chants of ‘kaffir’ - the South African term for ‘coloured people’. They didn’t stop at that and as expected targeted Monty Panesar - the first Sikh to play for England calling him a stupid Indian who cannot speak English. Refer http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/ausveng/content/current/story/267740.html for more details. I may not be far off the mark, when I say that the Aussies are losing fans rapidly and deservedly too.
Posted in Cricket.
– November 13, 2006
Lay off the President
I wish there were no post in a democracy, wherein a certain figurehead would not be answerable to anyone. I refer to the Supreme Commander of our armed forces. Make no mistake. Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam is a wonderful human being. He was one of the leading contributors to our nation’s nuclear programme. He is arguably the most popular President in India since 1947.
Agreed the Prez is merely a figurehead in India’s brand of democracy. But he does have executive powers to overturn even a Supreme Court ruling. That is where my grouse is. These executive powers give the President immense privileges - that should be very carefully enacted. If captured terrorists and murderers plea for pardon and their lackeys threaten the nation with dire consequences if their comrade is hanged, what does the good scientist do? He tries playing the Narasimha Rao game. He thinks the nation will forget and when they have forgotten, he will commute the terrorist’s sentence.
Mr. President - we have not forgotten. Such an affront to the nation does not merit any deliberation. I know it is a stupid rant of mine and these words will never reach you. But I hope the nation’s sentiment does. We are tired of the proxy war Pakistan wages on us. We are tired of politicians giving terrorists clean chits. If Afzal is not hanged soon, it would be decent of you to step down as you are answerable to the nation and not to the terrorists or separatist Kashmiris.
Posted in Politics.
– November 11, 2006
Baap re baap
Ever wonder, how many people in the world get such a headstart in life because their moms or dads made it big. If the child decides to pursue the same career as the parents, there are 3 possibilities:
1) The offspring is equally or more talented than his/her parents and usually outshines them.
2) The offspring is not as talented as the parents and sinks under the pressure of expectations
3) The offspring clearly is not half as good as his/her parents, but is way more successful than them.
Here are a few in each category I can think of.
1) Kajol, Hrithik Roshan
2) Rohan Gavaskar, Nitin Mukesh, Uddhav Thackeray
3) George W Bush
Posted in Blogs.
– October 20, 2006
Clemency for criminals
It has always troubled me, when people in high offices plead clemency for criminals that deserve to hang. You all know what I’m referring to. I consider it a national shame that even our President entertains the kin of such folk.
If the crime is as heinous as attack and murder of innocents in a megapolis or an affront as serious as an attack on the Parliament, the criminals should be made an example of. Instead, here is the supreme commander of the nation contemplating pardon. Pls. comment if you all are as outraged as I am.
Posted in Politics.
– October 6, 2006
bin Laden dead? Bah - Humbug!!!
If you’ve lived in the US, you will find a strange co-incidence with happenings in the world of geo-politics and the world encompassed by global terror. It’s just a month and a fortnight away before mid-term elections to the Senate and the House are scheduled. Voila - comes the bombshell of bin Laden’s death. Every time - Dubya’s rating takes a dip, the terror alert goes to amber - red - whatever color strikes most fear. Right now, Bush has made a kind of remarkable recovery in his ratings. He’s up to 44% (up from a dismal career low 38%). Watch out for another Osama video - the moment, things get hotter for the Prez. These guys are masters at manipulating the press.
Posted in Blogs.
– September 26, 2006
Scrabble with me!!
Dunno how many of you play SCRABBLE? Try these sizzlers!!!
DORMITORY:
When you rearrange the letters:
DIRTY ROOM
PRESBYTERIAN:
When you rearrange the letters:
BEST IN PRAYER
ASTRONOMER:
When you rearrange the letters:
MOON STARER
DESPERATION:
When you rearrange the letters:
A ROPE ENDS IT
THE EYES:
When you rearrange the letters:
THEY SEE
GEORGE BUSH:
When you rearrange the letters:
HE BUGS GORE
THE MORSE CODE:
When you rearrange the letters:
HERE COME DOTS
SLOT MACHINES:
When you rearrange the letters:
CASH LOST IN ME
ANIMOSITY:
When you rearrange the letters:
IS NO AMITY
ELECTION RESULTS:
When you rearrange the letters:
LIES - LET’S RECOUNT
SNOOZE ALARMS:
When you rearrange the letters:
ALAS! NO MORE Z ‘S
A DECIMAL POINT:
When you rearrange the letters:
IM A DOT IN PLACE
THE EARTHQUAKES:
When you rearrange the letters:
THAT QUEER SHAKE
ELEVEN PLUS TWO:
When you rearrange the letters:
TWELVE PLUS ONE
AND FOR THE GRAND FINALE:
MOTHER-IN-LAW:
When you rearrange the letters:
WOMAN HITLER
Posted in Blogs.
– September 22, 2006
Only in America
Only in America…..do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front……………………………………………………………………….
Only in America……do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries, and a diet coke……………………………………………………………………………………
Only in America…….do banks leave both doors open and then chain the pens to the counters………………………………………………………………………..
Only in America……do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk in the garage…………………………………..
Only in America……do we buy hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in packages of eight…………………………………………………………………………..
Only in America……do we use the word ‘politics’ to describe the process so well: ‘Poli’ in Latin meaning ‘many’ and ‘tics’ meaning ‘bloodsucking creatures’. (Guess this applies to mera mahaan bharat as well)…………….
Only in America……do they have drive-up ATM machines with Braille lettering………………………………………………… …………………………………..
EVER WONDER….
Why the sun lightens our hair, but darkens our skin?
Why women can’t put on mascara with their mouth closed?!
Why don’t you ever see the headline “Astrologer Wins Lottery”?
Why is “abbreviated” such a long word?
Why is it that doctors call what they do “practice”?
Why is lemon juice made with artificial flavor, and dishwashing liquid made with real lemons?
Why is the man who invests all your money called a broker?
Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called rush hour?
Why isn’t there mouse-flavored cat food?
Why didn’t Noah swat those two mosquitoes?
Why do they sterilize the needle for lethal injections?
You know that indestructible black box that is used on airplanes? Why don’t they make the whole plane out of that stuff?!
Why don’t sheep shrink when it rains?
Why are they called apartments when they are all stuck together?
If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?
If flying is so safe, why do they call the airport the terminal?
——————
Posted in Blogs.
– September 21, 2006
