Can India do an encore ??

They say cricket is a game of glorious uncertainties and this cliché is sure to be tested as cricketing giants and minnows alike lock horns for supremacy in the ongoing T20 World Cup in England.

This newest format of the gentleman’s game was initially met with a lot of skepticism by cricketing pundits across the globe. So much so that cricket administrators were apprehensive about recognizing this format. The success of the inaugural T20 World Cup in South Africa put to rest the debate and ensured that twenty-over cricket was here to stay. It helped that India, with all its monetary clout in cricketing circles, had emerged victorious in the tournament. This win also ensured that a billion Indian cricket crazy fans would pay obeisance to a new generation of cricketing Gods.

Circa September, 2007. Indian cricket was going through a turbulent phase. The Wall, Rahul Dravid, had stepped down from the captaincy of the Indian cricket team.MS Dhoni, with a shrewd cricketing brain coupled with the camaraderie he shared with his teammates, was seen as the one big hope by all and sundry. Dhoni had some rather large shoes to fill and he did so with aplomb leading the Men in Blue to a handsome victory in the T20 world cup. This incidentally was his first assignment as the Indian captain. He led a motley bunch of cricketers who, seemingly, did not have the word ‘pressure’ in their vocabularies.

Two years hence and this fearless bunch has carved a niche for themselves in international cricket. India comes into this years’ world cup as the defending champion and with the much vaunted favourites tag. The Indians certainly have the requisite arsenal to enable them to get their hands on some silverware yet again.

Fresh from a strenuous season-2 of the lucrative IPL, lethargy is one thing the Indians will have to be wary of. With the packed schedules, the possibility of player burnout cannot be ruled out either. Also, the first world cup in South Africa was more of an experiment. This time around though, all teams have had significant exposure to the twenty over format. The ability to think on one’s feet is a vital aspect of T20 cricket and teams would be well aware of this now. They have had an opportunity to get down to their drawing boards, re-assess their strategies and fine tune their skills. As an obvious consequence, the Indians have a far tougher job on their hands and will have to play out of their skins if they have to retain their title.

Having Dhoni, who has a seemingly calm and mature head on his shoulders, at the helm is a bonus. Dhoni himself has been lacklustre with the willow of late. He is a vital cog in the wheel and the captain needs to sort out his indifferent form if India has to do well. What remains to be seen is, can this street-smart cricketer outthink, outsmart and outmanoeuvre his formidable opponents and lead the Men in Blue to an unprecedented second world cup triumph. Signing off in anticipation of a heartwarming performance from our heroes.

                               Chak De!!            

A Call for Stability...

"A party or leader succeeds brilliantly when there's synergy between the (authentic)message,the (credible)messenger and the moment(and its anxieties and aspirations)..."

The Hindu  April 16,2009

The UPA government had survived five turbulent years in office despite receiving a fractured mandate in the 2004 general elections...Numerous bickerings with the Left and almost as many brickbats from the opposition ensured that the governance had been anything but stable...

Five years down the line the world's largest democracy geared up for another bout of machiavellianism,and a very promising one at that...A plethora of voters,both young and old eager to exercise their franchise and numerous self anointed king makers dishing out promises to woo them all..Pardon me for not mentioning the sheer numbers for they are mind boggling indeed..Thousands of polling booths spread across the length and breadth of the nation catering to an almost unimaginable suffrage...The Indian General Elections are a spectacle unmatched and unheard of elsewhere....

The Election Commission, which had had its own share of mudslinging in the run up to the elections, did a remarkable job in staging a by and large peaceful and fair electoral process..Spread over an entire month encompassing 5 different phases, the canvassing itself was more or less on expected lines..The ruling alliance fought the election on the plank of quality governance while the NDA banked mainly on the anti incumbency factor and a largely underplayed Hindutva campaign(unsurprisingly though)...

May 16,2009....

Come D-Day and the country waited with baited breath..Political pundits and novices alike had predicted a hung parliament..But the UPA juggernaut was not to be thwarted..The voters had handed them a very comfortable mandate,a mandate for a responsible and stable government..The BJP found itself lagging behind yet again..The Third and Fourth fronts had been shunted aside..They, in any case, had probably bitten off more than they could chew...India's enfranchised population seemingly swept aside all religious and caste concerns and voted enmasse for development...

It was as much a mandate for the outsider(read between the lines :P )Mrs.Sonia Gandhi as for the gentleman at the helm, Dr.Manmohan Singh(on his way to 7,Race Course road yet again)...The promising Rahul Gandhi extolled the merits of enlightening the youth brigade and his alleged political naivety paid rich dividends for the Congress in the Hindi heartland,with the party pocketing an unprecedented 21 parliamentary seats from Uttar Pradesh(arguably the biggest turnaround in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections)

Adorned with a comprehensive mandate,the UPA enjoys an enviable position in the lower house of the parliament now..They would do well to keep their festivities in check and get down to the far more serious job in hand..

Signing off in anticipation of a wholesome and cornucopian response to the trust the Indian public has shown in the United Progressive Alliance...

             JAI HO!!     

PS:The aforesaid is strictly my personal opinion..Any bias should therefore be excused...      

free-Economically?? I have my doubts....

This is just a layman's attempt at understanding this word called 'RECESSION' and its significance in the Indian context...This particular word has been figuring a lot in my consciousness of late,unfortunately so...

A word of caution though...Considering my limited understanding of economics,you may find this extremely naive...Please correct me wherever you deem fit to do so...

Circa 15 August,1947...A nation came into being..Close to hundred years of struggle against the despotic colonialists finally bore fruit..We became an 'Independent' country...61 supposedly prosperous years hence,how many of us have actually bothered to mull over our exalted state of freedom...Lets just confine ourselves to our economic freedom for now...

We stake claims to being one of the foremost economies in the world...Statistics too,would lend a lot of credence to our claims..But then,statistics can be deceptive...'India Shining'..A well documented phrase that lured us into a false sense of security not too long ago..This illusionary state of economic freedom,this bubble of comfort bursts suddenly when the US administration announces a marginal cut in its interest rates on property loans...What follows is unprecedented...Huge multinational conglomerates fall like nine pins...India isn't aloof to the crisis either..Our stock market comes crashing down like a pack of cards..One moment,optimism is scaling new highs(our very sensitive SENSEX breaching 21K,by no standards a mean feat)..One blink of an eye,and the worst of pessimists are left confounded by the scale of the economic crash...They say that the markets are driven not only by monetary 'bull'ishness but also by sentiments across the investor's spectrum..A simple question..Are our sentiments so frail so as to be sent into immediate disaster mode when something happens in a country a few thousand miles away..

Industry experts are optimistic about the crisis passing out soon..But their guarded optimism doesn't hide the fact that we are in a hole and a very deep one at that...

              "Sensex plunges further amidst weak 'global' cues....."

Parental Advisory: Get used to this pretty soon...Coz our 'Booming Independent Economy' ain't going anywhere anytime in the near future.... 

Sahni Ji n Short Term Memory Losses:Lighting Up Our Lives!!

December'08 set in with the usual wave of chill...Only this time it brought in some really horrible tidings instead of the usual year end festivities we associate with this month.....The whole nation was still trying to come to grips with the gruesome audacity with which a few "Kasabs" had brought the ever bustling aamchi Mumbai to its knees(literally)...

One could almost feel the palpable dread that had crept in..With the India-England series having been cut short,we had little else to look forward to...Yes,Bollywood's two biggest Khan's were soon coming out with their dose of popcorn guzzling entertainers...Yet even the industry insiders were apprehensive about the fate of these big budget ventures considering the sombre mood of the viewing audience....

Dec 12 brought with it a certain decrepit Surinder Sahni Ji into our consciousness...Punjab Power ka to pata nahi par Sahni ji certainly did light up more than a few lives with his wierd yet unassuming ways...Shahrukh's subtle portrayal of the simpleton Surinder Sahni, who, through an unfortunate turn of events,gets married to a vibrant and petite Taani Ji, was a welcome addition to the already remarkable repertoire of characters the King Khan has lent his voice and consciousness to over the years...

Aditya Chopra's return from his self imposed sabbatical as the 'nirdeshak' brought some much needed respite to Yash Raj films who were reeling from a string of unanticipated flops..Rab Ne sent the cash registers ringing on its way to becoming Yash Raj's biggest opening ever...The enormity of its success surprised quite a few who didn't quite like its cliched approach...

Yet how did Rab Ne manage to bring the viewers back to tha theatres??I think i have the answer...Rab Ne, through the lovable Surinder Sahni as its protagonist, brought the focus back to the common man...His sweet love story lacked the flamboyance and larger than life ambience that you would normally associate with a bollywood love story...Indian film makers of late had been selling dreams and doling out fantasies for the so called elite 'multiplex viewers'...It is here that Rab Ne was different...It may not have had the brilliance to satiate sophisticated appetites, yet it was meant for the masses,for the aam aadmi who far outnumbers the sparse multiplex viewership,for the nukkar wale picture hall ki junta...

'Taani Partner' became a hit n 'Macho' more than a mere motorcycle accesory...The Surinder/Raj combo had us all crooning 'Haule Haule ho jaega pyaar' haule haule se... :) :)

Those who know me well,will now understand why i loved Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi... :)

Not more than a fortnight later, we had the perfectionist Khan dabbling with some masala entertainment of his own...Ghazini was not a mere flick..It turned out to be an emphatic statement from Aamir..'If Akshay n Shahrukh can do it,I can do it better'...Bollywood's best bet for an Oscar took a break from thought provoking cinema and set about becoming the '8-pack' hunk in his own meticulous manner...His rugged bald look attained an almost cult following and we now have scores of young wannabes vying for their share of his muscular 8-pack frame...The scary intensity with which Aamir portrayed his amnesiac character was a treat to watch...The newcomer Asin with her incessant yet cute "kachar pachar" endeared herself to millions of hearts..Ghazini,quite understandably,turned out to be the biggest money-spinner in years and is still going strong...

For all his success,Aamir's 'Guzarish' still went unheard as 'Taare Zameen Par' failed to make it to the final nominations for the Academy Awards...It seems this charmer will have to wait a while longer before he adds another glittering feather to his star studded cap..

All said and done,the best thing about both these movies was that they gave all of us something to cheer about..Some much needed frivolity in trying times.... 

As I end on a lighter vein,how I'd love to hear this dialogue more often..."Picture abhi baaki hai mere dost.."  :P :P :)

Dhoni-Is he just Lucky???

I wrote this around a month back...my perception about Dhoni has changed a bit since...In a cricket crazy nation, where cricketers become superstars overnight, his remarkable show of respect to 2 great stalwarts of Indian cricket, Dada n Kumble, in their farewell swansong , deserves a special mention....gestures such as these could only have come from a man who has his heart in the right place...so please don't read much into the last line of this post for i've kind of changed my mind about it... still..i'll not edit that line because i feel you'll be able to appreciate what i said only when you've read it!! So here we go........

MSD or better still Mahi, is now a household name. The boy from Ranchi has roared up the popularity charts like none other and is now the heir apparent to the throne of Indian cricket, i.e., the test captaincy. Dhoni started out as an unabashed clobberer of the cricket ball and his aggression combined with his long locks elicited gasps of admiration from one and all including General Musharraf himself. Certainly not a purist’s delight, Dhoni nevertheless carried on with his unconventional ‘lathmaar’ approach to batting and soon became the cynosure of every Indian cricket fan’s eyes. But then we Indians have always had a tendency to support the underdog....

                Then came the big leap. The Wall, the battle hardened Dravid stepped down from the captaincy. The Nawab of Nazafgarh, Sehwag, by then, had lost favour with both his teammates and the selectors. Dhoni was seen as the one big hope by all and sundry. A good cricketing brain (not necessarily the most conventional one) coupled with the camaraderie he shared with his teammates made him the automatic choice over the brash prince charming of Indian cricket Yuvraj Singh....

                And MSD slipped into Dravid’s shoes with aplomb winning the T20 world cup in style, which incidentally was his first assignment as the Indian captain. He led a young side that completely tore apart the opposition exceeding all expectations. Dhoni was still going great guns. But a slight change in his batting approach was evident. He was no longer his uncomplicated self with the willow, no longer the dreaded marauder, but a quite grafter of runs who could explode when the situation demanded....

                India’s winning ways continued under Dhoni but the captain himself was a lot more subdued now. Newer match-winners emerged in Gambhir and Raina. The older gladiators resurfaced with the master blaster Sachin having a sensational resurgence. Yuvraj continued with his consistent ways that justified his billing as one of the most efficient finishers in the shortened format of the game. Dhoni, atleast for the time being, has taken a backseat. His die-hard fans might attribute this change to the maturity he has attained as a cricketer and the huge responsibility on his shoulders. But, if you are an avid cricket follower, it doesn’t take too much of grey matter to figure out that Dhoni is indeed struggling a bit. Grafting runs and hardly able to execute his trademark heaves now, maybe bowlers have sort of worked him out....

                To the honest viewer,atleast to me.... India is winning matches because of pure team brilliance( someone or the other puts his hand up to do the rescue act every other match) rather than Dhoni’s individual brilliance or his extraordinary captaincy. But, the Dhoni phenomenon refuses to lie down quietly. A Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award adds to aura surrounding Dhoni. Though, what perplexes many is how Dhoni got the country’s highest sporting honour ahead of stalwarts such as Dravid, Ganguly or for that matter Kumble. Meanwhile, Brand Dhoni is scaling new highs. And the cricketer in Dhoni made everyone sit up and take notice when he was picked up as the most expensive player at the IPL cricket auction...

                Speculations were rife, could Dhoni justify his billing as the most powerful hitter of the cricket ball. Could this street smart captain outsmart, outthink and outmanoeuvre other much more illustrious names when he locked horns with them in the battle for city supremacy. Could this soccer like format which had already made heads turn with the kind of investment it generated, bring out the best in this small town boy...

.... And Dhoni did kick up a frenzy when he led his team into the finals of the IPL only to be thwarted by Warnie and his band of merry men..

                Now, he has sterner tests ahead of him, more hurdles wait in his path. In the wake of the ongoing Aussie tour of India, the dilemma of Seniors vs. Juniors has resurfaced. One of the much fabled FAB- 4 has already fallen prey with Dada having announced his retirement. Can Dhoni put aside all the bickering and steamroll the all-conquering Kangaroos on home turf. Or, will it ultimately boil down to the fact that Mahendra Singh Dhoni is just another very lucky guy who thinks he can toy with his senior Indian pros just because the planets favour him!!

a Safer Haven..

I've been contemplating writing a blog for months now...had plenty of really stupid excuses for not starting it earlier..perhaps none more so than not being able to zero in upon a name for the blog...

I hope you've seen the movie 'The Pursuit of Happyness'..n if you haven't, i urge you to do so at the earliest..Believe me, it'll move u...n mind you,i'm probably using a mild term when i say it'll 'Move' you..

But more than the movie,its the heinous fidayeen attack in Mumbai that prompted me to use this name...

 ....in Pursuit of HappYness..and if i might add, a SAFER HAVEN....

"Maximum City..Maximum Damage!!! the ordeal has finally ended.... or Has it ??...Is there any point in running around like a headless chicken now... Will this dastardly terrorist attack finally stir supposedly 'SOFT n CONFUSED' India into some congruous action..."

Now, this is how i perceive the highly unfortunate terrorist strike in Mumbai that places a huge question mark over our internal security and intelligence inputs yet again..n i suppose this just about sums up what most of us feel about the really sad situation that we all find ourselves in......