India to Maharashtra

Well …for a couple of days I was getting pretty irritated with our media competing with each other in a tail wagging competition around Sachin Tendulkar completing 20 years in International Cricket.

In my own blinkered view, I find cricket a highly overrated game and other than the T20 version, a major waste of time. T20 version is good only as a form of entertainment, not sport.

While Sachin has crossed several milestones in the last 20 years and done his country proud, I would like to know where Indian cricket has traveled in the last 20 years. Not much if you ask me….except for the T20 World Cup (not exactly a connoisseur’s delight).

If the goal of a national player is bring accolades to the team, or make it capable to achieve such objectives, I do not think Sachin stacks up very well.
So as I was trying to keep my cool with this media hoopla, even as celebrities of all hue and colour fell over each other to sing paeans to Sachin we have the sudden messianic appearance of the great Balasaheb.

This man takes the cake….or vada pao (Jai Maharashtra!!!) if you please. He surpasses all levels of irritation and invites a tremendous sense of disgust.

Comrade Balasaheb took serious umbrage to Sachin speaking words to the effect that he is an Indian first and Maharashtrian later. Howzzat!!!

This same man in the past cried foul when members of the minority community said “We are Muslims first and Indian later”.

Comments

The catholic spirit.

“In a bizarre act, two churches here have banned a group from conducting yoga classes, saying the ancient practice was allegedly "un-Christian". See full report. I could not agree more. The churches have got it right. Certainly yoga is un-Christian . It originates in India and is closely associated with a religion or rather a group of religions with similar origins collectively referred to as Hinduism (the name of the religion itself is one given by foreigners referring more to a geographical location than a philosophy). Christianity , unlike Hinduism is a missionary religion. Their missionaries have, over centuries, spread the word of the Lord far and wide and ofcourse have done a few mean things along the way. However, the contribution of Christianity to the progress of civilisation as we know it today is undeniable. Yet it is a little surprising that these churches should feel threatened by yoga, which, even if one links it to Hinduism is pretty harmless as Hinduism is ...

Anil Kapoor's 24 ....slow, boring and .... Stupid....

Well Jack Baeur need not worry. Anil Kapoor's Jai Singh cannot hold a candle to the American. Slicker than usual production values and outdoor shots do not give you 24! Have watched the first two episodes.....it is no different from Bollywood style action mixed with sentiments. ....with a little more polish. The action is laboured, the sequences sometime verge on the comical. ( he actually gets a confession from his boss by injecting him with some lethal poison which finally is revealed as glucose... In a gun fight in a cinema hall.....playing hide and seek with shooters, Kapoor with Anupam Kher in a forgettable cameo, walk in front of the fully lit screen..asking to be shot..and thank fully Kher does get shot!..) The dialogues are predictable and like in most Bollywood movies....too much of it. The least they could have done was a smart script. But maybe I am being unfair, I cannot compare a serial to a movie. Finally that is what Mr Kapoor has done,...

Amir Khan at IIM - Bangalore

A colleague of mine informed me that Aamir Khan was playing badminton at IIM(B) . Big deal!!! But then I thought, it is less than a couple of minute's drive away...and let's face it...Amir Khan is a bigdeal!! I have been reading in the newspapers that the Super Star and some of the cast and crew of Three Idiots were camping at IIM(B). So here was my chance. I grabbed my camera and started off. True to its reputation, the couple of minute's drive on Banerghata Road proved a lot more than that with heavy traffic on Saturday night. Infact it was a big night at IIM(B) otherwise as well as there fest is going on. Using my contact, and showing adequate at outrage at the poor security guard manning the side gate for trying to stop a Professor. ... (my act of outrage actually provoked a stifled laughter from my colleague) I reached the badminton court and clicked away many a photographs and a few short videos. Obviously, now I feel to bashful to show it around to my colleagues ...

Comrade Chakra

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