Day 116-2011 : A Locha Called IPL..

We definitely need Lalit Modi back!  At least the IPL does.

Just a couple of weeks ago, in the euphoria of the World Cup win, I was actually looking forward to the IPL.  A lot of friends said it is overkill; an overdose of cricket.  I somehow was actually not feeling that way and was looking forward to more cricket.  The World Cup win probably making me want more.

A fortnight into the competition and I am not so sure anymore.  With ten teams and a competition that runs for more than 1.5 months, this tournament is going to take some viewing.  And the format is convoluted too.  I just cannot understand it.  With every team playing every other day, it is beginning to get a bit confusing.  Forget about the matches, following the points table is getting to be difficult.  Add to this the player changes this season.  It took some time for me to figure out who is playing for which franchisee.  And I am not sure, I still know of all the changes.  A Gambhir playing for Kolkata, Yuvraj for Pune and Dravid for Rajasthan!  Two new teams, Pune and Kochi, which by the way, has its own identity crisis to figure out, of being a team from Kerala or Gujarat!  I am now really feeling 'cricket fatigued'.

So two new teams.  What else is new?  Cheer leaders...of a different kind!  Fully clothed cheer leaders in traditional Indian costumes are doing duty for the Pune Warriors.  I am not sure if that is going down well; with the crowds as well as the ladies themselves!  Imagine dancing in the sun fully decked up!  The SET MAX hosts have a couple of new inclusions as well, one of them actually trying to do a Mandira Bedi with noodle straps and a strategically placed 'Pallu'.

Notwithstanding all of this however, there have been a couple of great performances this season.  Paul Valthaty...(who!?!?!) has emerged as the King for the Kings XI Punjab team.  The knock he played against the Chennai Super Kings was tremendous.  No wonder Greg Chappell has been talking of the Indian bench strength.  Sachin's first T20 century was a knock to savour as well, especially because it showed that he is still learning and evolving.  Yes, he played some helicopter shots aka Dhoni with equal effect!

Though I am not inclined to follow each and every match, my favourite teams this season are the Mumbai Indians and the Chennai Super Kings.  At the start of the tournament, I expected them to play the finals.  Currently, one of them is at the top of the points table and the other at the bottom.  Now that I have shifted base to Mumbai, my loyalties have now shifted to the Mumbai Indians! Of course, having a strong team helps too!  I am rooting for them to win this season.  But there are still a whole load of matches to be played before we reach the finals...we will just have to endure them.

By the way, tomorrow me and the family go away to Kashmir for a week's vacation.  Now, you know what to expect in the next post then!

Take care!

Day 10-2011 : The Republic of Scamland!

That should probably the name of this country after what we have seen in the last year.  For anyone who rates integrity as a core value of mankind, 2010 was a horrible year.

Corruption was not limited to any specific sector.  It was apparent that corruption exists in all walks of the society.  Here are a few of those (which came to light):

• 2G was of course 'too(2) (G)rand' a scam; mother of all scams.  I am sure the stakes (read rates) would have been even higher for the 3G spectrum allocation.
• The politicians' greed also spread to an institution which is known for its discipline, the Indian Army.  The Adarsh Housing scam dragged the Army into the mud.
• Land was the cause for other scams involving chief ministers and their families in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
• Sports had its own share of scams. CWG and the mess around it projected the country in very poor light, whereas the event was actually meant to do exactly the opposite.  IPL and the infighting amongst its stakeholders blew the lid off another can of worms, putting the much celebrated Lalit Modi in the dock.
• Of course, when money is the root cause of all, how can the financial sector be behind.  The LIC Housing scam where the topmost officials are said to be involved continued the shameful trend.
• Medicine was not spared as well.  Ketan Desai, the president of the Medical Council of India, was finally removed from his office for allegedly amassing wealth through corruption in the medical education sector.

The very institutions which are supposed to control this disease were mired in controversies of their own.  Former Chief Justice of India (CJI) was accused of amassing a lot of wealth during his tenure.  Moreover an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court alleges that 8 of the last 16 CJIs are corrupt.  The office of the Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) and the process through which a CVC is appointed also came under scrutiny when P J Thomas, who is accused of corruption, was appointed to the post.

All of these are only symptoms of the sorry state of the Indian polity and the society, where greed seems to be a worshipped evil.  We have all been celebrating the Indian growth story.  I am sure if we did not have the scourge of corruption, we would be growing at a much faster pace.  Purely in cash terms, the amount of money which is diverted into the parallel economy of corruption, could easily contribute to the GDP and a couple of percentage points of growth!

What can be done?  Every issue has a process and people component.  This one needs transparent processes and accountable people.  Unless we put in place both of these, corruption will continue to be a drag on our economy and culture!  This will mean different approaches and measures in different sectors of public life, the end objective of which would only be to secure the collective futures of all the hard-working citizens of this country.  I strongly think that we can make a start by ensuring that the judicial process for convicting such accused persons is expedited as well as the punishment for those individuals is severe.  Restrictively severe.

Take care!

Day 291 - The Masterclass

21 years.  This masterclass has now been in session for 21 years. And this post is about the 'Master Blaster'.  A perfect role model for many thousands of young people seeking their destiny in this populous nation. 

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar's genius has been in session for 21 years.  Right from 1989, when as a 16 year old, he blasted 28 runs off an Abdul Qadir over in an exhibition match in Peshawar; till earlier this week, when he scored his 49th test century, a sublime 214, a lot has been written about this man and his cricketing talents.  I will, hence, not try to repeat all that (though it might just be worth it) and just stick to my take on Sachin. 

The one word that comes to mind when one thinks about Sachin is consistency.  One can argue that he had this phase of a couple of years, when according to his own high standards, he was scoring below par.  He was also dogged by injuries.  In fact, the pundits opined that his batting prowess had declined, his career had slid permanently and the end was nearing.  However, nobody could have imagined the kind of purple patch that he is in right now.  They call it the 'second wind'.  Some tacky Hindi commentator even compared it to the flame that burns its brightest just before it gets extinguished!  Whatever it is, I am loving it!

As an ardent fan, I have seen it all.  The pounding that Abdul Qadir got in the exhibition match, the bloody nose in Pakistan, the nearly missed century in New Zealand, the series of run-a-ball (or better) innings, the 'Sholay-like' friendship with Vinod Kambli, the opening slot in ODIs, the 'Don' himself wanting to meet him, the sand-storm inning in Sharjah, or for that matter the one after that; the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, the Arjuna Award, the Padma Shri and the Padma Vibhushan, the Mike Deniss episode, and more recently the Symonds one, the misfit captain, the injuries (tennis elbow being the main culprit; and I was actually thinking all the while that he plays cricket!), the apparent loss of form, the abstention of an international 20-20 career, the second wind, the wax statue at Madame Tussuad's, scoring a double century in ODIs, highest number of centuries in ODIs and test matches, highest number of runs in ODIs and tests, almost leading the Mumbai Indians to the winners trophy in IPL 3, scoring the most number of runs in IPL 3, in spite of not playing the format internationally. Phew! I have just skimmed through the surface.  Imagine, there is more to come.

To me, for the last 21 years, Indian cricket has meant Tendulkar.  And when he is dismissed, the hopes of a whole nation sink, the stadiums go quieter or just empty up and a million television sets are switched off.  When he does well, the whole nation is in a cheerful mood, the stock market is on the upswing (a recent research paper correlated Sachin's performances to the stock markets' performance!).  He has handled such intense scrutiny, pressure and criticism amazingly well. 

However, the best thing about him is, he still is very down to earth and retains his middle class grounding.  Here is the proof.

Take a bow, Sachin!

Take care.

Day 119 - Expectations

Last week was such a disappointing and depressing week.

The week began with THE event, which a lot of people in the organisation were looking forward to for a long time.  Monday was spent doing nothing but distributing envelopes and talking to people.  The one word which was heard time and again, was, 'Expectations'.  Interestingly, in different connotations too.  Someone said their expectations were met, some said their expectations were largely met, some said not really and some took the road of 'I have no expectations'!

'Blessed is the man who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed'!

Is that really true?  Did all the colleagues who said that they had no expectations really mean it?  Is it possible to live in this material world and have no expectations?  By the looks of last week, yes it is.  Difficult maybe, but not impossible.

Expectations, I think, are manifestations of our perception of our own self and the environment around us.  Hence logically, if we are able control our thoughts and focus them on the present rather than extrapolating the past into the future, we might be able to get rid of undue expectations. 

On the other hand, we could argue that whatever we expect with confidence becomes our own self-fulfilling prophecy.  What is the point of living if you do not expect something from life and are keenly looking forward to it?  I know this is very abstract, but so is the eternal mystery of expectations.

The mystery of me being very disappointed and depressed might also just be a case of misplaced expectations.  Who knows...

The rest of the week was not very uplifting either.  The IPL cesspool continued to get dirtier by the day.  Look what two people with big egos can do.  And more importantly, look what a megalomaniac can do, if not governed adequately.  The good part though, was, my prediction (and wish) came true.  Mumbai Indians played Chennai Super Kings in the final and the Super Kings became the Kings of IPL!  My loyalties were divided, but I did realise that somewhere down there, I do have an extra special soft corner for Chennai!

I will be there at the end of this month.  Should remember to congratulate my friends in Chennai on the victory!

Appudi podu podu podu.....

Take care.

Day 110 - (Un)Common Sense

It has been an interesting week.  I did find a way out of the maze of priorities that I found myself at the turn of the last week.  Help came in the form of Sukumar Subramaniam! 

However, the more interesting happenings for me this week have been outside the ambit of my life.  The IPL and its workings are being unravelled as an outcome of the Tharoor - Modi war!  And what a cesspool it is!  The brand is taking a beating.  I am absolutely certain now that some of these matches (if not most) are actually staged and fixed.  Alas, cricket is no longer a gentleman's game.  The other interesting stand-off has been between two regulatory bodies in the country.  SEBI and IRDA are at loggerheads on who should be regulating the ULIPs.  Assume there is more to it than just jurisdictional insecurity.  Ego is at play; otherwise this one would not have been fought so publicly.  Poor Pranabda has a task at hand now.

We celebrated Priyanksh's birthday on Friday with friends and family.  After the cake cutting, along with the dinner, some very dangerous rides were on the menu at Hakone!  Some of our heads are still spinning.

Drove to Pune on Saturday, to meet the in-laws, and especially my father-in-law who is recovering from a cataract operation.  And it was while driving through the dark tunnels on the Mumbai - Pune Expressway that I decided I was going to write about traffic in Mumbai and the infrastructure thats supports it.

Traffic in Mumbai is insane.  I remember telling a few foreigners about the difference in traffic between Mumbai and Chennai.  Mumbai has more vehicles on the road but the flow of traffic is more organised than Chennai.  I would now like to retract that statement, which was based on my stay in Mumbai during the early few years of this decade.  Mumbai traffic is insane.

Everyone drives very aggressively; like there is no tomorrow.  Everyone wants to be ahead of the other vehicles.  There is no lane discipline, especially on the wider roads of the Eastern and the Western Expressways.  Sometimes, the distance between the vehicles while overtaking etc. actually scares me.  The margin for error is very less.  A millimetre here and there can cause an accident.

Add to this the infrastructure that supports road transport in the city.  There is no doubt that India as a country builds infrastructure on a lag basis, when there is a demand for it.  There is no proactive planning involved.  However, the issue that bugs me is the way the infrastructure is built.  There is no common sense used.  Everything is bare minimum.  There is no thought given to illumination levels, signages, reflectors, etc.  Suddenly, out of nowhere a divider comes into being; there is no reflective paint on it and hence so very difficult to recognise it at night.  Moreso because the illumination levels of our street lights are not only inadequate but pathetic.  Add to that the penchant for drivers to use the high beam (part of the reason to be using it is obviously the inadequacy of the street lights), with no element of common sense in it.  When driving at night in Mumbai, you are practically driving blind, atleast in most of the places.  Lack of adequate signages, and more importantly, inappropriate placement of signages can easily confuse a commuter into taking a wrong exit / missing an exit.  I definitely think people in Chennai who built these have a little more common sense.  It is definitely not due to their liking of the colour yellow that most dividers, reflectors, etc. are well painted in that colour!  :-))  Not sure what can be done to make the authorities smoothen these rough edges when they build roadways.  Hopefully common sense will dawn and prevail some day!

If you are driving in Mumbai, please take it easy.  Life is precious.  Drive safe.

Take care.

Day 82 - Too Much Of Anything; Good For Nothing

I am refering to our country's beloved sport: Cricket!  And the context of mentioning it now is the ongoing IPL Season 3. 

There was a time when I would bunk school to be able to watch cricket.  Not in the stadium, but on television.  There was so much more anticipation before any game of cricket those days.  Waking up at 4.00 AM in the morning to watch the Benson & Hedges World Series matches was so exciting!

Nowadays, there is so much cricket being played and telecast, I do not really care who is playing whom, unless there is a match of great significance being played. 

I believe that too much cricket is not good for anybody.  Not for the fans, not for the players, not for the administrators in the long run and certainly not for the game itself.

Too much cricket doesn't give enought time to players to recuperate from slight niggles and they tend to play with minor injuries which make things even worse, sometimes, career threatening.  I do not remember Kapil Dev, a medium pacer; workhorse of this times, ever getting injured and missing a match due to that. 

For the audience and the fans, we get to see time and time again the same players and teams battle it out against each other and it becomes repetitive and boring.  Interest in the game wanes.  For example I was so very excited when we had the first season of the IPL.  By the time IPL 3 has come around I do not think I have the same fascination for the event anymore.  2 consecutive matches every day is causing cricket fatigue for me.

One might argue that this is all good for the administrators.  More cricket translates into more money.  But the point is that they are all killing the golden goose!  So much cricket is taking the interest out of the game which is not good for sponsors.  The administrators are sweating the game too much.

All this cricket has made the game very different from what it was twenty years ago.  The pace of the game has changed.  The experiments in batting, bowling anf fielding are coming thick and fast.  As of now no one is complaining, but as this goes on we might see something similar to a baseball game on a cricket pitch very soon.  There is a need to preserve the classic form of cricket.

I am defintely not looking forward to a game of baseball.  Take care.