La-La awaits me

While I write this, I am pained to an extent but then there is some bit of joy too.! Guess what , I am getting back to Singapore - a semester that awaits me : a not so tough one i should say but nevertheless trying to get back to being busy.

My NUS life has been sorta patchy especially with regard to some of my results. This definetly makes me wonder if i am made for Comp.Sci after all - May be i could have shunned away Engineering itself and gone into some other stream - a doctor may be.. But then its a bit too late and i need to garner some interest in the field that I have chosen.

Otherwise its been an awesome 1.5 years in Singapore..I love the city for its splendid source of balance in terms of work-hygiene and so on but then the place gets monotonous and boring, as do all the other places..Infact i felt that this 20 odd day break was longer than my semester itself.Pretty wierd for me to say this esp when we international students love to be back home amidst our friends,family and ofcourse the glorious Indian food..but then again when u end up sleeping half the day and waking up to your proper day as the sun sets, you know that you are out of place to some extent (atleast thats what i feel after 4 days of this kind of Americanish routine)..Then again, its nice to be lazy especially after a tiring semester and a small internship..

The feeling of going to Singapore gives me some fresh energy and i bubble like a small innocent child..infact when puttas once buzzes me and tells me "mahesh, iam leaving blore tom mning", i go on saying "wow thats amazing" and then realizes that she goes on saying "huh?U mad??"And then i realize may be its not the same for all, may be their sentiments are bigger, may be they are just too much attached , may be they are worried about a multitude of reasons but then it doesnt bother me to any extent..

But then the energy that comes out thro my veins when the flight captain says "To the port of Singapore " is someting that i love, be it the n th time i visit the place..may be my affinity towards the la-la place could be coz of it being my first visit abroad but then i simple love the place..Looking forward for one more semester of hard work , some tennis with sandeep along with some steamy discussions abt Australia and England(India and SRT will be my nicks in google talk for sure!!!), some mind rattling debates with Vaas and co about India (whether the country is going to the dogs!)nice dinners and lunch with my favourite people and ofcourse literature with puttas and fafu in my team and kicking some Anuja,Shashi and Vaas ass!The propsects seem to be intresting!

Fed to the dogs

Indian cricket to the dogs!!SRT - the vice captain of India..A delight for cricket lovers no doubt to see the little man don some big responsiblities again..As it is said, when the going isnt easy,trouble comes falling into your lap..Dilip Vengasarkar has no doubt just done that for the little man!
When his place in the Indian team is under scrutiny, the selectors throw the vice captains buck to him just before the biggest tournament in cricket..Sums up the Indian attitude!!
Way to go - indian team to the dogs

Laxman dropped?

India lose a series and axes fall on V.V.S.Laxman - a familiar disheartening tale.Laxman has to be the most unluckiest of the lot of the Indian cricketers who have had a stint with the national side.At 32 and counting, his chances of cementing himself have gotten dimmer and the exclusion from the West Indies tour of India has proved to be a major setback right after the 2003 debacle.His tale has to be titled as "Very very sad laxman"(very very special seems to be ages ago).Born and brought up at Hyderabad, he made his debut way back in 1996.The 90's had those remarkable one test stincts - Ganguly (1992),Dravid(1996) all having one or two tests before been shown the doors only for them to return more strong and hard hearted.But for laxman the scripts have been written differently and in a more sad and empathetic way.

At his sublime best, VVS Laxman is a sight for the gods. Wristy, willowy and sinuous, he can match - sometimes even better - Tendulkar for strokeplay. His on-side game is comparable to his idol Azharuddin's, and yet he is decidedly more assured on the off side, and has the rare gift of being able to hit the same ball to either side. The Australians, who have suffered more than most, paid the highest compliment after India's 2003-04 tour Down Under by admitting they did not know where to bowl to him. Laxman, a one-time medical student, finally showed signs of coming to terms with his considerable gifts in March 2001, as he tormented Steve Waugh's thought-to-be-invincible Australians with a majestic 281 to stand the Kolkata Test on its head. But even though he had another wonderful series against the Australians in 2004-05 with two centuries, one of them involving back-from-the-dead, match-winning, 300-plus partnership with Kolkata ally Rahul Dravid at Adelaide, he hasn't quite managed the consistency that could have turned him into a batting great

Then again,how about a Virender Shewag?He has had similar or more failures than laxman.Again one can argue that Shewag can bowl and field while Laxman cannot bowl and can only field in the slip cordon.(His slip catching abilities are amazing and his blinders at 2 nd slip and gullies have given India some crucial breakthro's).But again, we are talking about V.V.S.Laxman who hails from the southern half of the country unlike his close buddy who comes from the capital.The autobiography of John Wright has this line that says "mate,suggest dropping me to the selctors and u ll find urself out of the job" sums the attitude that our players have..Under Saurav Ganguly, the dice was heavily loaded against the South Indians - only few debutants emerged in his captaincy that spanned almost 5 whole years(Yohannan,Balaji,badani,venugopal Rao).And it isnt surprising to say the least to find none of them in the scheme of things now.Infact,Anil Kumble was made to sit out despite his heroics in West Indies in favour of Harbhajan.Although one can go about ranting that harbhajan was the younger and more verstaile, selectors comfortbly axe the old south indian war horses while the North Indian underperformers go under the cover despite their lack-lusture form.Shewag is a recent entry into the elite list.

It is indeed baffling to see a pattern emerging out against the southies but then thats the reality and its hard to digest.The fate of laxman is very much on the walls, with virtually no chance of his re - entry into the ODI team and with the likes of youngsters like Dinesh Karthik and Raina giving his place a real run for the money, one can comfortably ink his career as the one that was ruined by badluck,fate,illtiming and above it all-selction blunders.May be the thumping off drives and those gorgeous flicks are no more to be seen from Vangipurappu Venkata Sai Laxman.

SRT - A legend fading away

The euphemisms had run out. On May 23, 1999, as Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar dedicated an unbeaten 140 runs to the memory of his father who had passed away just four days ago, millions and millions of Indians considered themselves blessed. On that day India rewrote the definition of the word Pride. It now read: Sachin.

Sachin's return had brought back hope once again to a World Cup almost snatched away in the bud. Sports writers groped around for adjectives to describe his feat. But, it seemed that they had run out of superlatives. The word "best" seemed too little; the word "great" fell short by far. When Sachin Tendulkar took his guard that day, India came to a standstill. Every backlift was accompanied with a million prayers, every stroke played with passionate pride, every boundary with boundless joy.

The light had gone out in his life. Yet he brought it back to every cricket lovers' life.

As he entered the arena, he looked like a little vulnerable child. But once he took his guard, there were angels all over the field. They seemed to have come down to protect him, watch over him, help him keep his calm and concentration, making him nothing short of invincible. As he hammered 140 not out in 101 deliveries, he stopped only to look up at the skies at 50 and then again at 100 as he wiped a tear from his eye.

At the end of the day, no other than his mentor, Sunil Gavaskar said in a voice choked with emotion. "We are truly blessed with special talent." Wrote Gavaskar later, "...Even the Gods stopped to watch" And the Prime Minister of India, Atal Behari Vajpayee, seemed to echo the sentiment of the entire country as he said, "The whole of India is proud of you. You have showed the entire nation, especially the Indian youth, how to serve the nation by overcoming each and every adversity."

He is truly a legend, a master of techniques.His god like off and straight drives and those mightly sweeps and cuts might all come to an end one day .. And sadly the day doesnt look too far beyond the World Cup..Sachin has had a horrid run of events from the time India was under Rahul Dravid.His ODI form has gone from bad to worse and his test fortunes dont seem to take a turn to the other side either.The last test in RSA typified his recent batting woes and by padding against a debutant left arm spinner, it can clearly be said that a nail has been smashed into his retirement coffin and it wont be long after the world cup that he might have his ODI chapter closed .After all he has been a part of over 350 odi's and has been the greatest servant for Indian Cricket - during those miserable post 1999 WC trauma and during the match fixing scandal.

But hey then for how long will he ride on his glory?Its been a year since Sachin got some form and its been since 2001 that he has been on this 'on' and 'off' switch.May be the ODI toll is telling on him, may be he is getting to become a grumpy old man, may be his family and social life have a say or may be he has just lost his momentum and confidence.But then, the rules are the same for a young Pathan and for a old war horse.With due respect he has been given a long rope and unfortunately the rope never seems to end.Its high time that Indian selectors show some fairness and show some concern towards the future of Indian cricket and follow the Australian Boards policy (have the teams welfare infront of the individual).With sheer talent getting wasted in the ranji circle - courtesy some lackluster attitude of the selectors who go in for old warhorses than fresh new blood, the future of Indian cricket needs to be in the mind of the selectors.Sachin can indeed be a part of this future(for a small period to come) but then his ODI mood needs to be tightened up and his place needs to be given up for grabs.

The time has come and the inevitable happens..And its time we bow down to Sachin and thank him for all the wonderful entertainment he has given us .. Its been truly awesome and to watch him bat one of his greatest innings against Pakistan in Chennai (1999) will be one of the most cherished moments in my life..Kudos Sachin - you have changed the game of cricket!

India - A country in shambles?

This is my first "official blog" and being my new year resolution, i thought i ll hit the nail on the head by starting on something that's close to my heart ..

DISCLAIMER :
Iam a proud Indian and this article although might contradict that in lots of places, i wish to say that iam so proud to be an Indian but then the anxiety for my country has prompted me to write this more than anything else (apart from some steamy debates and discussions with loads of people..)

I have been in Singapore for the last 1.5 years and the country amazes me in every sense of it.Be it the roads, the luxury, the cars, the bikes, the system for everything they have that seem to be so well integrated and well in position, the multitude of cultures and most importantly the attitude of the people.The Singaporeans go into the books as one of the most perfection loving people that i have ever come across.Their attitude is something is what one should look into.(although i agree that they aren't the best people to hang out with if given a choice).I totally agree with people with opinions like 1."Singapore is as small as my d*ck and its so easy to get anything done. 2.Singapore is this so called democracy that's "Hitler" like and to put it in better terms (quoted from one of my buddies) "If Lee Kuan urinates, the country urinates" .. An answer to people who think so is based on one simple thing that i have mentioned already ..However small the place is, the attitude is what that ultimately counts. The people are so much in love with their country that they think 100 times before they do anything that they think might hurt the cause of his / her nation.May be one could say that these kind of values are inculcated either coz they see their parents follow the same or may because of National Service (for the men at least) ..But then lo!Its working isn't it?

So now India is something that amazes me with its sheer attitude of people,politics,everyday news and the list is sadly endless..This is something that's sad as one can observe that this is being said in a negative vein but nevertheless its all true..Red tap ism, bureaucracy is something that's part of all countries but then is corruption?Is poverty?Is illiteracy?Is rape,murder of children to this ghastly extent ever heard?Then as its said "welcome to India!"..
Welcome to India means u have invited urself to some trouble or the other..Lets consider this situation ..An Australian couple come to Goa for Christmas and then go down to Bombay for New year ,to gateway of India to find themselves being surrounded by horrible people looking at a chance to grab the women and molest her?Can u imagine how bad the state of mind will be for one foreigner when this happens to his wife on the New Year eve when he doesn't know the language, the people and the culture.That's a rude rude shock right?A tourist bus in Agra being attacked and several INDIANS injured as the people hurled stones at the bus thinking the bus had pple from the West and the icing on the cake goes something like this - A police man to the reporter says" they protested against Saddam's killings and we had no option as this didn't involve us directly " .. Have u heard of such comments?Shocking isn't it?Then i say again "Welcome to India".
So where are we now?In a middle of a huge quicksand?Where is India going towards?India - second largest growing GDP , great economic growth rate, boasts of having a huge pool of NRI's willing to spend crores for the sake of the nation and its economy.We have reliance, infosys,Wipro, Tata's,Bajaj and so on ..but then what?How does this affect the normal guy on the roads who is waiting to get an opportunity to either create trouble or get his hands on something that he might relish on - may be kids?may be lives?are we housing terrorism in those young innocent minds on the roads having nothing to do?Are we doing anything at all to manage those burning issues that has come to shed so much bad light on this great country?
Iam pained when i write this but then this is the harsh reality ..What is being done is so very slow that this might just not be enough..There might be new airports, new cyberabads,new electronic cities, new metros but then how about the basics for starters?Why is the attitude of people so bad?Are we so bad after all?Any girl who is reading this knows how much of ogling and stare happens when she walks on the road, or takes the bike or the car?Is there anything fundamentally wrong in our heads?Do we consider women as mere things to satisfy us?This is indeed shameful but then whats the solution?How will the India of 2020 (so to speak) be a country that looks up to women, looks more clean, free from pollution ,have great societies, have well educated people and more so looks more class with people and their polished minds?
May be iam just expecting too much for iam talking about India isn't it?The country is cursed and so be its destiny!!