Time to act not react

When was the last time you opened a newspaper and saw no news related to a terror attack in some part of the world?

When was the last time when for a day you thought yes today there wont be any attack in any part of the world?

When was the last time you heard the word “peace” without any reference to the word “war”?

Been thinking for a long time now to write something on the terror attacks that struck Mumbai late last year.

The 60 hours of mayhem and carnage shook Mumbai and India like never before. We might have had experienced a lot of bombings in the past but what happened in Mumbai was unprecedented.Taj Mahal Hotel , Oberoi Hotel and VT station are amongst the major landmarks of the city and for 10 terrorists to make their way into these places and that too loaded with arms and ammunitions was not a joke.

Few questions that have perplexed me and continue doing so are :

A thing that I have always failed to understand and will continue doing so is why in the name of God the Police personnels on duty at most of the places had no weapons and were still expected to fend off the miscreants and terrorists?

Are the politicians the ones to be blamed?

Should the media not exercise some control over what to show and when to show?

 

To start of ,the intelligence agencies had provided information to the Government regarding a terror attack but as usual the lacklustre and laidback attitude of government states that “you should always wait for the thing to happen before acting”. 

We all blame the politicians the ruling governments for any falacies that might occur but then shouldnt we blame ourselves before that, afterall aint it we the citizens who have this “revered” job of electing our leaders? So aint it we who are directly responsible for electing the “corrupt brains” as our leaders.Yes goverments and politicians are to be blamed but we are equally at fault.

We think taking candle marches and peace marches help us a lot but for me as an individual peace marches are as absurd as sitting in a room and voicing your opinions, yes government may take notice but then till the time we act the peace marches and the banners that accompany them wont make any frigging difference.

1 Lakh people who turned up for the peace march that was held on 3rd December would help this nation far more if they all vote and help chose a worthy representative rather than someone who wins because of the “influence”.

Its easy to blame but then taking the blame for all the mishappenings wont be that bad. on one hand we corrupt the society by our acts and on other we blame corruption for everything. If you hate corruption so much then have the balls to accept your mistakes and take a chalan rather than try and bribe the authorities money and get your ass off.

Politics is a business and politicians it seems are in it for just one purpose and that is to make money. The well being of citizens is secondary for them and all they need is their own well being and thats why when a politican says stuff like “bade bade shehron main aisi choti choti cheezein hoti rehti hain” , I aint surprised.They try to gain mileage from adversities and thus actions of Advani on the day of atacks werent surprising.

The gvernment can do up with better Anti terror laws , a federal agency which has finally come into existence(Atleast on papers), setting up of NSG units across the country(which again has been passed)and above all for heavens sake providing the poor old police personnels with better arms to protect themselves and the people they protect from the terrorists who are far far far technological advanced than the police can ever be.

The government needs to realise that in certain cases being pro active helps and this is just one of the case

Media’s role during the terror attacks has come for a lot of flak and praise from different quarters of society and calls for certain restrainment in what to be showed and what not have also been made. Various NEWS channels across the country flashed news and pictures from the sites and provided detail information about the next action of the MARCOS and NSG which in a way helped the terrorists as they were proactive and before the security personnel could act they were ready.

While the relatives and well wishers of those who were caught in the fight between devil and the goodness were pleased to find the whereabouts of all those who were caught in the attacks the media also provided the terrorists with an ample scope and oppurtunity to decide upon their next move. After all even they had access to what was ebing telecasted on the television sets. Some act of restrainment from the media in showing the “apt” content than each and everything that was happening at ground zero would have sufficed I guess for all.

Last but not the least the time is ripe to act and not to react as we so often do.Reacting is fine but then actions speak louder than the words and its high time thatw e let our actions do the talk.

 ” Probably, no nation is rich enough to pay for both war and civilization. We must make our choice; we cannot have both.”

Karzzz….zzzzzzzz why Satish Kaushik why!!!

Dont know what took over me today when I decided to go and watch Karzzzzz………….zzzzzzzzzz……..

Karzzzz, a movie about reincarnation directed by Satish Kaushik and starring the legendary Himesh Reshammiya(sp :O) has to go down in the annals of Bollywood as the murder of a cult classic by similar name albiet with a single Z.

How critics rate the movies is something hard to comprehend (what with the movie getting ratings like 3 and 4 stars) when the movie deserves less than 0 stars if possible.

A sincere request to Himesh, please for the sake of God and humanity stop acting and hamming.

What could have been a watchable movie turned out to be a dud and the only thing I can think off is why the f*** does censor board allows directors to destroy classics for fun?

Whilst in original Karz Rishi Kapoor put in a great performance here seeing Himesh Reshammiya play the role of monty was like seeing a school boy enact the movie on stage and trust me that would have been a better experience and maybe even worth the money spent on a single ticket.

Commercially picking up a hit subject might be a big incentive for directors who seems to have lost the creativity to come up with originals, but I guess they should have the capability to judge where the movie they directing is headed to and if they unable to direct is as it should be then its better to shelve the project rather than going ahead and “torchering” the public.

Himesh Reshammiya as an actor is worse than anyone you can think off(And that includes me and you) andeverytime he comes on the screen you cant stop laughing your heart out even if he is enacting the most serious scenes. When it comes to dancing, Sunny Deol will be proud of himself and when it comes to showing emotions and action then God forbid even a Dog can prove to be better bet than him.

Karzzzzzzz………zzzzzzzzzz……. has made a complete mockery of the classic and Rishi Kapoor and Subash Ghai must be reeling with anger right now seeing he treatment meted out to the movie.

Most of the attempts at remaking classics and hits have been poor to say the least in recent history(First we had mr Ram Gopal-I -cant-make-a-watchable-movie-Verma destroy Sholay(the best movie ever made) then remake of Umrao jaan etc and now this).

A word of advice for anyone who has ahd to bear the brunt of Himesh Reshammiya, go out and pick up the original Karz to get back to senses after the shock and horror you’ll be subjected to for 2 and half hours of Karzzzz.zzzzzzzzzzz……….

 

May Go give sanity and brain to the directors and actors and they finally learn even good subjects need good treatment and you ahve to polish Gold before selling it in the market, unpolished even the best of gems dont sell

The name strikes fear

The two keenest appreciations of Sachin Tendulkar were made from vantage points that could not have been more opposite to each other, and together serve as an incontrovertible cross-reference to his greatness. The first was Sir Donald Bradman’s famous remark to his wife during the1996 World Cup that Tendulkar put him in mind of how he himself batted.

The second is the widespread understanding in the cricket community that match-fixers will not successfully get on with their crooked business until Tendulkar is out, and an anecdotal account of how Tendulkar once unwittingly ruined a fix by batting too blissfully well.

It must be understood that neither reflection would have been made lightly. Sir Donald was not given to hyperbole or glibness, but rather was precise in everything he did and said. Nor would the fixers have bothered with throwaway lines.

Together, these tributes convey immutable impressions of Tendulkar that accord with less quantifiable, more aesthetic understandings of the glory of his batsmanship, Here is a man capable of changing the course of any game. Here is a man incorruptible in the face of the venal temptations that so many of his peers could not resist. Outside the laws or outside the off stump, he could not be lured. Here is a man not susceptible to human failing in any endeavour, a man not so much invincible as invulnerable.

Here is a man whose name is synonymous with purity, of technique, philosophy and image. If Ian Botham can be seen as the Errol Flynn of cricket, or Viv Richards as the Martin Luther King, or Shane Warne as the Marilyn Monroe, or Muttiah Muralitharan as the hobbit, Tendulkar is surely the game’s secular saint.

Right from the beginning, he appeared to be touched by divinity. He came among us as a boy-god, unannounced. He was 16 and was hit on the head in his first appearance, but neither flinched nor retreated a step. Nothing thenceforth could harm him, temporal or otherwise. He was short and stocky – like all the best – and mop-topped and guileless to behold. He has scarcely changed since.

Tendulkar was born with extravagant natural talent, but he was also driven and indefatigable. When a boy, he would bat from dawn to dusk, and even a little beyond. As with all the greats, he came not from another dimension, nor the mystical east, but from the nets. By such dedication, he came to understand intimately his own gift, and at length to lavish it upon others.

 

‘Here is a man not susceptible to human failing in any endeavour, a man not so much invincible as invulnerable’ © Afp

 

His movements at the crease are small but exact. He said once that he did not believe in footwork for its conventional purpose, because the tempo of Test cricket did not permit a batsman the textbook indulgence of getting to the pitch of the ball. Rather, he thought of footwork as a means of balancing himself up at the crease so that each shot was hit just as he meant it. He scores predominantly through the off side, an unusual characteristic for such a heavy run-maker, but of course he can play every shot.

Tendulkar’s method promotes an air of calm, reassurance and poise at the crease. Brian Lara’s batting is characterised by explosion and violence, and Steve Waugh’s by grim resolve, but Tendulkar’s ways are timeless. His battles with Shane Warne, genius versus genius, have been for the ages. It is said that the common element to concepts of beauty among all peoples is symmetry, a balance between all the parts. So it is with Tendulkar’s batting.

How easily he carries the hopes and takes responsibility for the well being of untold millions on that impossible subcontinent; in this, he is also divine. All eyes are upon him, day and night, but no scandal has attached itself, not in his private life nor in his cricket endeavours. Across the land, he is the little man on the big posters and hoardings, creating a kind of reverse Big Brother effect; he is not watching them, but they are watching him. Still he stands tall.

Sometimes petty criticism is made that he fails India in its hours of need, but it is not borne out by the figures, and besides, no one man could take upon his shoulders all of India’s needy hours. Just 30, he has already made more than 50 international centuries.

When called upon, he also bowls intelligently, if sparingly. He is sure in the field. There is even about him, as there was about many saints, something of the ingenu. He is not a natural captain for the modern era because he can lead only by example. He does not have a charismatic presence in a cricket stadium, but rather fills it in a different way, as the one certainty in a sea of doubt. Batting is the most fraught of sporting pursuits because even for the best the end is only ever one ball away. Tendulkar seems to turn that verity upon itself.

As Tendulkar put Bradman in mind of himself, so he puts others in mind of Bradman. Once I was on a night train winding down from Simla to Kalka that stopped halfway for refreshments at a station lit by flaming torches. On a small television screen wreathed in cigarette smoke in the corner of the dining room Tendulkar was batting in a match in Mumbai. No one moved or spoke or looked away. The train was delayed by 20 minutes. Not until Tendulkar was out could the world resume its normal timetables and rhythms.

 

Taken from Wisden Asia Cricket November 2003, was written by Greg Baum.

how does it feels to be a 7 pointer

been a 5.someone all my life and always revered Hari ,alok and Ryan for all there misdemeanors in the now famous 5.someone and there life in college was like a dream . Always felt if they can come out of the mess with 5.something in IIT then i surely can do much better than them..but trust me being 5.someone leads you nowhere and then suddenly barging into the territory of so called studious buggers the high it gives you nothing else can(not even weed , grass , or coke )..Imagine everyone expecting you to remain at the low lying pedestals and you suddenly jumping the que and entering the places that were never meant for you…

Something similar happened with me last week when the once dreaded but now respected result of SIP(Summer Internship Programme)came..Seeing my performance during the 3 moths of training(which was more of holiday period than training) and like everyone else expecting a C grade only to get an A grade which shoot your GPA from a meagre 5.87 to 7.05 and the reactions that it produces from the world are extraordinarily brilliant.

Whilst some people said its all down to luck factor some nincompoops put it down to me changing my grades myself(where they got this idiotic idea is something i cant comrehend in the next 10 lifes )..some even went down to the extent of saying that 7 has to be the lowest grade…

so much so for few minutes of glory and i loved it all..There are many who still ask how can you of all people get an A and the only innocnet and polite answer that i have reserved for them is to simply eff off and worry more about their own lifes than thinking about my life…

But talking about peoples reactions and not telling mine on seeing the result would be a cardinal sin…So here it goes on seeing the result I was numb for full 25 seconds and it was like lightning has hit me on the head and Iam on a merry go around thinking what the eff is all this and there has to be some mistake in the printing(I was never expecting more than a C)…When the feeling sunk in and I was told that I have finally broken the 7.barrier the first thing that came out of my mouth was” fuck the 5 pointers 7 pointers rule the roost” ….Its been feeling awesome since that day and I have started to get a feeling that am a fucking intellectual bugegr who can study also :O…

Heres a piece of advice to all the 5 pointers to study smart and not hard and one day they ll also join me in the celebrations and say aloud ” fuck the 5 pointers 7 pointers rule the roost”

Though to end it all I would like to say that the celebrations of being a 7 pointer are goin to be short lived and no one should try to cross the 5.someone barrier for its the best thing and as someone famously said

“theres even a  best seller on 5 pointers whats there for 7 pointers ”

one year as a mba student

its been more than year now since i took admission in ICFAI Mumbai to do MBA(marketing)..Had high hopes and huge dreams before my joining and was also worried about how tough studies might pan out to be :O.But trust me when I say this MBA is not the least about studying in classes and getting theoretical knowldege rather its all about garnering practical knowledge and thinking out of the box which sadly no MBA  college teaches you…

Learning fancy terms like merchandizing , branding , product management and all that jazz will help you only in getting better grades but if someone thinks knowing all these terms will help him perform well in the industry then am sorry.As a marketing executive no one in the market will expect you to use terms like merchandizing when you go out to the market and talk to a dealer all that your company needs is you to be able to convince the dealer to buy your product and sell it to the world..So where do these fancy terms come into use why cant the colleges start teaching what is really required and instead of making you read terms that will no where help you in your professional life make you do some studies and work during your college that may help you in your professional ventures.

When will the managements realise that most of the people who come into an MBA college know these terms like retail and merchandizing and what we people need is someone who can enlighten us about what it is like in the real corporate world than telling us foolish terms which at the end of the day look good only in books and are a method of faffing in front of some poor n foolish souls…

From personal experience I can say that what I have learned out of college through experiences and interacting with people has been lot more helpful and better than what i have learned in college..like goin to good pubs few table ettiquettes can be learned  which are required when you are in corporate world and reading books which are far far away from text books i have garnered few handy tips….even a book like “how to talk to anyone” makes more sense thn a text book on retail management and a book on how to quit smoking has helped me more than a book on financial maangement…

If the students can realise that bookish knowledge aint gonna do any good to them then why cant the so called teachers who know everything realise that giving bookish knowldege will elad the student no where..

Why make someone work hard for nothing is something i can nver comprehend….

Till the time the people who matter the most in these ventures understand and realise that its not bookish knowledge that you need to be successful in life and its more about out of the box thinking and implementing things and ideas that no one else have thought about the quality of education would increase many a folds…

And a sincere request to all the teachers and students around the world….Hard work helps no one its smart work that will take you palces so dont believe in working hard but believe in working smartly.

aamir-a must watch!!!

went to watch aamir with loads of apprehension as to why was i not watching the first family of bollywood together in sarkar raj and was going out to watch aamir a small budget movie starring rajeev khandelwal(the blue eyed boy of television industry and this was his first movie)and directed by raj kumar gupta(another debutant)spending 250 bucks on a ticket for the third row is certainly what you have in mid when you shell out 250 bucks but then this is mumbai and no money is enough money(even though my bro shelled put the money but still what the heck)…reached the audi 5 minutes late and all my apprehensions were gone withing first 10 minutes of watching the movie.

its the story of a doctor who hapens to be muslim and has just returned to mumbai after completing his studies in UK and how he is made a pawn in jehad and war to show who is better.

the movie covers mumbai as it is meant to be and shows the muslim dominated areas and in many ways the hardships faced by them..

the narration is superb and the best part is that there are just 2 characters in the movie while others just keep on revolving around them..

its a 1:30 hrs movie that has got the pace and grip to keep the sudience spell bound…

one of the best movies covering mumbai in past couple of years after black friday..

this movie has certainly given bollywood a top rated actor and a dirctor who knows how to handle the subject and raj kumar gupta ahndles the subject with finnesse..

PS if you are looking for a movie with songs , dances , item numebrs and beautiful bods then please keep away from this movie or it will dissapoint you like anything…theres everything in this movie but for these things

its all about money honey!!!!!!!

the beautiful game is no longer beautiful….gone are the days when a club with mediocre finances can dream of fighting for glory.now even for fight to survive you need to spend loads and loads of money.Even if we take the ever increasing inflation into account through out the world still the blind money for which players are being bought in search of glory is maddening.
clubs around europe are going all out to win trophies and in search of glory they give a damn even if it means buying success instead of fighting for it…
clubs like chelsea have spoild the market in past few seasons by paying over the odds for every player…last season man utd spent a sum of 50million pounds+ for just 4 players…..
with big business houses and rich and the famous around the world taking over football clubs has it really been turned into a business for them as most of them dont even know whats the game all about….these business men are going all out to buy success and to win trophies
yes wining trophies is important and the leagues and competitions are all success oriented but does success means soo much that you actually forget what business u in and change the market dynamics as to what suits u..like if u want a player then bid so much for him that no club can compete that.
from what i see the game has really lost its shine and now its all about minting money and thats why we see only clubs that can spend big being able to fight for glory throughout the world…
while some clubs are made to sell their assets in search of bringing in more players there are few clubs that can just keep on adding more and more and dont have to think much about players that they are selling(they can manage even by removing just the “deadwood” from the club).
in short the various leagues around europe are not being played on level playing field.In england chelsea and manchester united are way ahead than others when it comes to financial powers , in italy inter milan spends idiotic money , in spain real madrid and in germany bayern munich…and its only these clubs that are winning trophies… the rich are prospering while the poor are going down and down.
but as a fan of beautiful game and the history of the game all i want to see is the charge of proponents of beautiful game ahead of these money minting thugs and i hope one day in not too distant future we will see the game being played at a level playing field with the fight for glory being betweena tleast 10 clubs and not one or two as has been the case for past many years and would always hope that the businessmen who are investing their money in the game to see it as a sport and not as business

can test cricket rise from ashes

Since the first twenty twenty international was played between Australia and England on 13th June’2005 at Rose Bowl, Hampshire (England) purists of the game who vouch for the integrity and purity of test cricket have loathed the new format.

Twenty twenty started in England and it was an attempt made to get back the crowd who had switched to more engrossing and entertain games like football and rugby bring back to cricket grounds. Well the attempt did not prove futile and on 15th July’2004 at the first 20-20 game help at the lords between Middlesex and Surrey 26,500 people came in to watch the game and that was the largest attendance for any county game since 1953.

But in cricketing fraternity 20-20 had more haters than lovers and almost each one denounced this as something which will die its own death. India was one of the last countries to play a twenty twenty game (and thankfully when they played at Bullring , Jo’Burg)they won the game.

20-20 really and truly arrived on international scene with the announcement by ICC that a 20-20 world championship would be held in South Africa. The tournament turned out to be a huge success and it began on a bang with(Gayle storm destroying South Africa only to be blown away by Gibssy’s terrific knock)till the finals where arch rivals India n Pakistan locked horns(and ironically the place they locked horns was Bullring)with India(the least fancied of the teams)winning the cup in a humdinger.

Buoyed by the success of “T20″ championship Lalit Modi the Vice President of BCCI announced a tournament wherein 8 teams(Mumbai , Delhi , Kolkata , Jaipur , Chennai , Hyderabad , Bangalore and Mohali) would play against each other in a league format and the winner stands to bag a cool1million USD and before the announcement of IPL ZEE TV owner Mr.Subash Chandra of ZEE TV announced the ICL wherein teams from across the country will play a tournament in league format. But BCCI’s power hold on the economy of ICC worked and IPL has achieved heights that ICL can only hope for.

The mechanics of the game were simple wherein all 8 teams would be owned by business houses and the teams have to bid for players.

The tournament has so far proved to be a huge success and it has done nothing to allay the fears that 20-20 will kill of test cricket.

Twenty20 tournaments like the World Cup and the IPL have thrown up players like Yusuf Pathan who have achieved great success and recognition via this upstart form of the game without any sort of track record at the Test level.

Now the main question is where does test cricket go from here?

Has 20-20 really killed “pure cricket” and introduced slam bang action of the game or is there still a lot left for test cricket to offer.

Wherein 20-20 gets glamour in the game test cricket brings in classic touch to the game.

While 20-20 requires you to show the world who can hit longer and bigger test cricket is about showing the world who can fight and show resistance for longer hours.

The comparison is bit like that between classic music and the hip-hop music

While people still dance to hip hop music they still find solace and peace in classical music.

Initially people thought that 20-20 is all about bam bam cricket and nothing else so it will kill of the elegance that is on show during a test match, but “T20″ proved it as a baseless theory and it showed players not only wilting the willow but also being ready for a fight so all in all as much as hitting was required equally important was technique and elegance.

Purists also said that 20-20 will kill of bowlers as its a batsmen’s game but from where I see it 20-20 cricket will instil more discipline in a player and will help him in bowling fewer no balls(after all a free hit can be a bowlers worst nightmare).

Yes test cricket will always play second fiddle to 20-20 and one day cricket .But having survived more than 100 years of modernity change and threat to its existence since its inception I fully expect it to beat the threat of 20-20 cricket and continue in the similar way.

While 20-20 has made house hold names of players like Misbah-ul-haq and Yusuf Pathan what test cricket gave this world were names like Don Bradman, Vivian Richards, and Sunil Gavaskar to name a few.

Yes test cricket could do with some help from the corporate world and the kings of cricket world BCCI and ICC to transform it a little bit and to turn it into as much a money grabber as 20-20(chances of which are similar to those of Sreesanth playing a game with proper attitude).

But we can always dream on and think that maybe one day test cricket will rise from the ashes and take the world by storm and we will again get to see some innings like Steven Waugh’s 200 against West Indies at Jamaica in 1995-96 series or maybe some fine bowling performances like Anil Kumble when he played with fractured jaw (2002).

who am i

hello world!!!!!!

this is varun mahajan aka i dont know what all but the bottomline remains different names one person and the person is me…

belong to picturesque kangra valley located in himachal pradesh 24 years old but still life is a zilch with the search to make it anything but zilch and hoping one day it will be achieved.

iam a engineer by chance and an mba(stil pursuing)by choice.iam a lazy bone to the core and ask me anything on this planet but dont make me work..

many people who know me will vouch for the vices in me than my virtues but then thats how the world is..you negative qualities are only what people see.though i believe first impression is the last impression but the first impression is generally the positive impression(before that its all benefit of the doubt).

i got big dreams which i hope to fulfil one day and be the person i always wanted myself to be..

all in all i guess am a good human being with laods f virtues and even more vices and tons of untapped potential which someday would be explored.

and yes before i forget iam a liverpooln fan , a team india fan and sachin tendulkar fan

so any1 speaking any tosh about these three in any way will not be tolerated

and thanks for reading my blogs am a newbee so any sort of feedback negative positive would be more than appreciated