These are some of the things I plan to do in the next year:
1) Write CAT and pray to GOD that I get through.
2)Put fight to get a job.
3)Pass out by the end of the year
4)Start working on the bank balance(looks didn't work,hopefully the bank balance would)
5)Get out of engineering
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Andrew Flintoff or:How I stopped liking and started hating the British Sportsmen
Just heard of this, the best all-rounder in the world of cricket claims, " I was shot at in Delhi". Isn't this wonderful? I was wondering, England have won the Ashes, and how is it that there has been no sensational statement coming from any star British player. Totally expected, however let me add that this piece of news has totally shaken me to the core.
From Henman to Johny Wilkinson to Beckham to Flintoff to Andrew Strauss, British sport is all about celebrating stars rather than players. As players, there are many who are better than each one of the players that I have named. But no one craves for limelight as these people do. Why? Because they are British. They ruled a major part of this world at the beginning of the previous century. They brought civilization to the rest of the world. They were the ones who ruled a major part of the world. And since they are too good, Commonwealth Games are held every four years to commemorate the tyranny of British rule in many parts of the world.
Let us start from the sport Indians and I love to watch-"cricket". If there is a person who has seen cricket only through BBC and SKY Sports, his views on cricket will be radically different from the rest of the world. The best opener in the world would be Marcus Trescothick, the best batsman in the world would be Michael Vaughan(who incidentally is the best captain in the world as well), the most consistent batsman would be Andrew Strauss, the best all-rounder would be Andrew Flintoff, the biggest match winner in cricket would be Kevin Pieterson, and of course the best bowler which would be Steve Harmison, the best exponent of reverse swing would be Simon Jones. The connect is all these players belong to England. Moreover after the victory over an ageing Australian side, they would be the best team in the world, though there is an Indian team which beat Australia at their peak and drew in Australia at their peak. There is a Kiwi side which almost defeated Australian at its peak. There is a chunk of land called the Indian sub continent where England is yet to win. But wait a second, did they not earn a moral victory in India the last time they were around?Moreover,it is not due to lack of cricketing skills that England loses in the sub-continent. It is mainly due to the weather here, which is the conspiracy of the Indian gods. And moreover the Hotels in India, where they make food which they cannot digest. And much more importantly, the hooligans here,who unlike the civilized hooligans from England don't hurl abuses or personal taunts on players. They would rather shoot at them. And of course such things inspire Andrew Flintoff to run around bare chested in Wankhede stadium( a thing which Saurav Ganguly is not supposed to do in the Lord's). And of course, England rules the world of cricket, a sport which they invented. They have had innumerable moral victories including ones in all world cups so far.
Now, tennis, where we are expecting Henman to win since the time he started playing in Wimbledon. Where the balls were taken out from their boxes much earlier than they normally are, so that it suits Henman and he gets knocked out in the second round. As long as I live, I believe the British public would be cheering Henman in Wimbledon and would always return disappointed because they can't accept the fact that he can't win.
Football, the passion of England. England is the land of hooligans. The way to support your team is to torch supporters of other teams. Shout abuses against other players. Write 1000's of pages on the brilliance of one goal by David Beckham, while in the meantime there are infinite such goals scored by Zidane, Ronaldinho,etc. Here, again the concept of moral victory is important. Brazil won WC 2002, because of a 'fluke' which David Seaman never expected. There was no other challenger to the throne. And of course, EURO 2004, which was all the fault of the referee and for which he rightly got reprimanded(read death threats) by the hooligans. Despite this conspiracy against England thoughout the world, they won a world cup held in England in 1966.
And England which rules the world of rugby after being crowned world champions in 2003 thanks to the seriously "awesome" play by Johny Wilkinson, are yet to win a match against a top team since WC2003.
This is how I stopped liking and started hating the British Sportsmen
From Henman to Johny Wilkinson to Beckham to Flintoff to Andrew Strauss, British sport is all about celebrating stars rather than players. As players, there are many who are better than each one of the players that I have named. But no one craves for limelight as these people do. Why? Because they are British. They ruled a major part of this world at the beginning of the previous century. They brought civilization to the rest of the world. They were the ones who ruled a major part of the world. And since they are too good, Commonwealth Games are held every four years to commemorate the tyranny of British rule in many parts of the world.
Let us start from the sport Indians and I love to watch-"cricket". If there is a person who has seen cricket only through BBC and SKY Sports, his views on cricket will be radically different from the rest of the world. The best opener in the world would be Marcus Trescothick, the best batsman in the world would be Michael Vaughan(who incidentally is the best captain in the world as well), the most consistent batsman would be Andrew Strauss, the best all-rounder would be Andrew Flintoff, the biggest match winner in cricket would be Kevin Pieterson, and of course the best bowler which would be Steve Harmison, the best exponent of reverse swing would be Simon Jones. The connect is all these players belong to England. Moreover after the victory over an ageing Australian side, they would be the best team in the world, though there is an Indian team which beat Australia at their peak and drew in Australia at their peak. There is a Kiwi side which almost defeated Australian at its peak. There is a chunk of land called the Indian sub continent where England is yet to win. But wait a second, did they not earn a moral victory in India the last time they were around?Moreover,it is not due to lack of cricketing skills that England loses in the sub-continent. It is mainly due to the weather here, which is the conspiracy of the Indian gods. And moreover the Hotels in India, where they make food which they cannot digest. And much more importantly, the hooligans here,who unlike the civilized hooligans from England don't hurl abuses or personal taunts on players. They would rather shoot at them. And of course such things inspire Andrew Flintoff to run around bare chested in Wankhede stadium( a thing which Saurav Ganguly is not supposed to do in the Lord's). And of course, England rules the world of cricket, a sport which they invented. They have had innumerable moral victories including ones in all world cups so far.
Now, tennis, where we are expecting Henman to win since the time he started playing in Wimbledon. Where the balls were taken out from their boxes much earlier than they normally are, so that it suits Henman and he gets knocked out in the second round. As long as I live, I believe the British public would be cheering Henman in Wimbledon and would always return disappointed because they can't accept the fact that he can't win.
Football, the passion of England. England is the land of hooligans. The way to support your team is to torch supporters of other teams. Shout abuses against other players. Write 1000's of pages on the brilliance of one goal by David Beckham, while in the meantime there are infinite such goals scored by Zidane, Ronaldinho,etc. Here, again the concept of moral victory is important. Brazil won WC 2002, because of a 'fluke' which David Seaman never expected. There was no other challenger to the throne. And of course, EURO 2004, which was all the fault of the referee and for which he rightly got reprimanded(read death threats) by the hooligans. Despite this conspiracy against England thoughout the world, they won a world cup held in England in 1966.
And England which rules the world of rugby after being crowned world champions in 2003 thanks to the seriously "awesome" play by Johny Wilkinson, are yet to win a match against a top team since WC2003.
This is how I stopped liking and started hating the British Sportsmen
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
There are all kinds of utopia people have imagined about and written about but the one which is the most addressed is the one based on complete equality;no division between the rich and poor,or for that matter no division on any basis and high levels of goodwill characterising relations between people.
But one thing most of these forget to mention is that equality doesn't mean identical,it doesn't mean sameness.They are as different from each other as similar triangles and congruent triangles. According to me,in a true utopian society,people should be equal but also different.
Now as far as the Indian scenario goes, for centuries together our society has been stratified thanks to the corruption of many vedic concepts where the society was divided mainly in terms of 'guna' which later corrupted to 'profession' and ultimately it became 'hereditary'.We had an hierarchy where a class of people were considered superior to the other and hence they were ill-treated.
And since independence, very renowned scholars thought the best way to help the people lowest in the hierarchy was to elevate them to the top and then gift them with goodies.Now,this lead to a more complicated problem.An hierarchy creeped into the so-called lower castes and hence the whole 'goodies' concept failed.
It has been 57 years and we have still not understood the futility of the exercise,instead we are planning to extend this to the private sector.What I suggest is not to leave it to the government to take care of the upliftment of unprivileged people.There should be affirmative action taken by the private sector,each and every individual should try to contribute not in kind,but actually come forward and try to help people by educating them or atleast ensuring that each one of them gets a decent education.This I think will have very far reaching effects.One,this will make more and more people self-reliant.Once they are self-reliant,they will have more clear ideas on what is good for them and they will definitely become more human,by which I mean they will start thinking not just about themselves but also about the people around them.I think such a society will be a very just society.Once this happens,I think that is the day we can say,'Not only did we realise what our rights are as citizens of a free nation,but we also realised what our responsibilities are'
But one thing most of these forget to mention is that equality doesn't mean identical,it doesn't mean sameness.They are as different from each other as similar triangles and congruent triangles. According to me,in a true utopian society,people should be equal but also different.
Now as far as the Indian scenario goes, for centuries together our society has been stratified thanks to the corruption of many vedic concepts where the society was divided mainly in terms of 'guna' which later corrupted to 'profession' and ultimately it became 'hereditary'.We had an hierarchy where a class of people were considered superior to the other and hence they were ill-treated.
And since independence, very renowned scholars thought the best way to help the people lowest in the hierarchy was to elevate them to the top and then gift them with goodies.Now,this lead to a more complicated problem.An hierarchy creeped into the so-called lower castes and hence the whole 'goodies' concept failed.
It has been 57 years and we have still not understood the futility of the exercise,instead we are planning to extend this to the private sector.What I suggest is not to leave it to the government to take care of the upliftment of unprivileged people.There should be affirmative action taken by the private sector,each and every individual should try to contribute not in kind,but actually come forward and try to help people by educating them or atleast ensuring that each one of them gets a decent education.This I think will have very far reaching effects.One,this will make more and more people self-reliant.Once they are self-reliant,they will have more clear ideas on what is good for them and they will definitely become more human,by which I mean they will start thinking not just about themselves but also about the people around them.I think such a society will be a very just society.Once this happens,I think that is the day we can say,'Not only did we realise what our rights are as citizens of a free nation,but we also realised what our responsibilities are'
Long time no post
Its been a long time since I posted something.I think I am running short of things to put here,so I will be a little stereotypical for now and try to put a new post as soon as I come up with an idea on which I can write something.
This is a review of the Hindi movie 'Anand' which I had posted in a website and I am just pasting whatever I wrote there.
""Babu Moshai, Zindagi Aur Maut ke Khel Mein Hum Sab Katputhli Hain" An immortal piece of dialogue from an immortal movie ‘Anand’. Many a Hindi movie starts of well, but falters pretty badly in the climax. Anand was one of the few movies, which grips you from start to end. It is one of the few movies which has an unforgettable climax.
Consider this the eponymous character Anand Sehgal(Rajesh Khanna) lies on the bed dying. Babu Moshai (Amitabh Bachan) enters the room. He cannot bear to see his friend lying still on death bed. He holds him and shakes him up weeping uncomfortably
"Tum Mujhe Aisa Chod Ke Nahin Ja Saakte"
"20 mahine se mein tera bak bak sun raha hoon"
"Baate Karo Mujhshe" And then as if on cue, the tape recorder plays "Babu Moshai, Babu Moshai, Zindagi aur Maut Ki Khel Mein Hum Sab Katputhli Hain, Yahan kya hote hai, na tum jaane na main Sab Upar Wale ki Haath Meiin" The ghostly way in which the voice appears and the equally eerie laughter, creates such a haunting impact, that a shiver runs down my spine every time i watch this scene. It's as if Anand is speaking through his spirit, and even after death he still continues to live.
Anand is a masterpiece of the first order by Hrishida and one of my all time fav movies. Now an interesting thing regarding the dedication of Anand. It was dedicated to Raj Kapoor and the city of Mumbai.
The Raj Kapoor connection was easy to make out, as he was Hrishida's best buddy in real life. Hrishida got his first commercial success with Raj Kapoor's Anari and Raj Kapoor got the best actor award for the movie. They were as different as chalk and cheese. While Raj Kapoor was the typical loud Punjabi extrovert, Hrishida was the very epitome of the Bengali Babu with his sober intellectual demeanor. Also Hrishida's movies were aimed at the common man, and pretty sober and minimalist in nature, while RK was a showman par excellence with his penchant for larger than life canvas and huge settings. Hrishida himself admitted that Anand's character was based on RK's and he didn't cast RK as he couldn't bear to see his friend die on screen also. For his part Anand was a movie always close to RK's heart.
Regarding the Mumbai connection, i feel the story of Anand is somewhat linked to that of Mumbai. One could be that Hrishida made his career in Mumbai and i guess this was his way of saying thank you to the city which made him. Most of Hrishida's best movies have been Mumbai centric "Anand", "Mili","Abhimaan","Gol Maal" to name a few. Also like Anand, Mumbai is a city which though beset with innumerable problems like slums, crime, pollution, overcrowding still manages to survive and live every day. Life is not easy for an average Mumbaikar, what with all those overcrowded trains, high prices, crime rate but he/she still has a zeal for life, which is rarely found anywhere else. Its a city which gets back to normal life even after a couple of bomb blasts have destroyed large chunks. Its a city where dreams are made and realized. Its a city where people face a daily struggle and yet have an inexhaustible zest for life,much like Anand, who knows he will die but takes death head on as he says "Babu Moshai, zindag Badi Hone chahiye, Lambi nahin". Mumbai is a city that dies a thousand deaths daily, but never loses its love for life. Anand is a man who knows he is to die, but makes the best of his limited life."
Thats all for now.Will try to post something more substantial the next time.
This is a review of the Hindi movie 'Anand' which I had posted in a website and I am just pasting whatever I wrote there.
""Babu Moshai, Zindagi Aur Maut ke Khel Mein Hum Sab Katputhli Hain" An immortal piece of dialogue from an immortal movie ‘Anand’. Many a Hindi movie starts of well, but falters pretty badly in the climax. Anand was one of the few movies, which grips you from start to end. It is one of the few movies which has an unforgettable climax.
Consider this the eponymous character Anand Sehgal(Rajesh Khanna) lies on the bed dying. Babu Moshai (Amitabh Bachan) enters the room. He cannot bear to see his friend lying still on death bed. He holds him and shakes him up weeping uncomfortably
"Tum Mujhe Aisa Chod Ke Nahin Ja Saakte"
"20 mahine se mein tera bak bak sun raha hoon"
"Baate Karo Mujhshe" And then as if on cue, the tape recorder plays "Babu Moshai, Babu Moshai, Zindagi aur Maut Ki Khel Mein Hum Sab Katputhli Hain, Yahan kya hote hai, na tum jaane na main Sab Upar Wale ki Haath Meiin" The ghostly way in which the voice appears and the equally eerie laughter, creates such a haunting impact, that a shiver runs down my spine every time i watch this scene. It's as if Anand is speaking through his spirit, and even after death he still continues to live.
Anand is a masterpiece of the first order by Hrishida and one of my all time fav movies. Now an interesting thing regarding the dedication of Anand. It was dedicated to Raj Kapoor and the city of Mumbai.
The Raj Kapoor connection was easy to make out, as he was Hrishida's best buddy in real life. Hrishida got his first commercial success with Raj Kapoor's Anari and Raj Kapoor got the best actor award for the movie. They were as different as chalk and cheese. While Raj Kapoor was the typical loud Punjabi extrovert, Hrishida was the very epitome of the Bengali Babu with his sober intellectual demeanor. Also Hrishida's movies were aimed at the common man, and pretty sober and minimalist in nature, while RK was a showman par excellence with his penchant for larger than life canvas and huge settings. Hrishida himself admitted that Anand's character was based on RK's and he didn't cast RK as he couldn't bear to see his friend die on screen also. For his part Anand was a movie always close to RK's heart.
Regarding the Mumbai connection, i feel the story of Anand is somewhat linked to that of Mumbai. One could be that Hrishida made his career in Mumbai and i guess this was his way of saying thank you to the city which made him. Most of Hrishida's best movies have been Mumbai centric "Anand", "Mili","Abhimaan","Gol Maal" to name a few. Also like Anand, Mumbai is a city which though beset with innumerable problems like slums, crime, pollution, overcrowding still manages to survive and live every day. Life is not easy for an average Mumbaikar, what with all those overcrowded trains, high prices, crime rate but he/she still has a zeal for life, which is rarely found anywhere else. Its a city which gets back to normal life even after a couple of bomb blasts have destroyed large chunks. Its a city where dreams are made and realized. Its a city where people face a daily struggle and yet have an inexhaustible zest for life,much like Anand, who knows he will die but takes death head on as he says "Babu Moshai, zindag Badi Hone chahiye, Lambi nahin". Mumbai is a city that dies a thousand deaths daily, but never loses its love for life. Anand is a man who knows he is to die, but makes the best of his limited life."
Thats all for now.Will try to post something more substantial the next time.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)