Stress reliever

September maasam !! :p

****************
Dautya - 2nd edition
****************

September, as Wikipedia informs me, is not a special month. No country got its independence in this month. No big events took place except for the infamous 911 which changed everyone’s world. But as they say life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get. And we had our mouths full this month. At the point of our life (as a grad student) where all the interest in sports we love becomes the last priority, we had to stop whatever we were doing, create time out of thin air and spend it on refreshing certain websites that report on Indian sport.

Indian sports? You must be thinking I am talking ONLY about what happened in T20 World Cup. No. September fortunately has been great for all the major sport events that India participates in. The month started off with much optimism in the air. We had just won the Nehru cup in soccer where we had beaten a much higher ranked Syria in a high-voltage final in New Delhi. The whole nation was shouted “Chak De India” when we easily won the Asia Cup where we overwhelmed Korea in finals. South Korea actually is the World Cup runners up. So lifting Asia Cup was no small matter.



Then out of nowhere Indian cricket, as if sensing that it was lagging behind in performing at world events, lifted the inaugural Twenty 20 World Cup! Damn it, the Indian crickets choose the worst moment. Mid-term exams almost spilled water on the fun. But knowing desis mentality, I am sure no one missed anything. Worst of all were those who were participating in Parichay. But now that we have won it who is complaining?

As a grad student, I thought I have seen enough thrills and frills in my life. But I was wrong as each and every T20 match passed a high frequency sine wave through everyone’s hearts. I have already started to cherish a few moments that will probably bring a smile on my lips forever. The fear that a “Chak De” type situation had come up for Pakistan during the Bowl-out against us. The time when I was sitting in my Lab in COT and refreshing cricinfo.com and watching in disbelief when Yuvraj was hitting those historical 6 Sixes. Priceless. And to go back home and find that this video was the day’s most popular video in Youtube? Priceless. And when Rohit Sharma flung himself to run-out Boucher in the crucial match against RSA. Priceless. And how about Sreesanth’s reaction when he took the wicket of Hayden? Priceless. Priceless. Priceless.





But the best moment that I cherish probably was when Mishab-ul-haq skied the ball in the last over just after he had hit Joginder for a six. That was the perfect moment when God for fun could have slowed the time for everyone. Wait ... I think he actually did that. What followed that cant be described in words. Chak De had suddenly become Chak Diya ! We had won the World Cup !! All the effort we put in by watching those matches finally paid off.
_____
Thanks cricinfo for the wonderful ball-by-ball coverage and these gr8 pics.

The BEST song ever.

What can bring words out of you all the way from the inner most depths of your emotion ? Is it your thoughts about your lover ? Or are you super-religious and cant stop thinking about the benevolence of the almighty GOD ?

For me its both. Depends on my mood.

So I find Sufi music every central to my very existence on this planet. It sooths me, gets me in the mood. Gets me going. This particular Sufi song has certainly changed the outlook of my life.

Well ... you cant blame me. The song is perfect if ever there was any. The mystical beats of Rahman with the hypnotic lyrics of Gulzar.A cheerful SRK dancing on the train lip-syncing to the energetic voice of Sukhwinder Singh. Immortal!!! Thats what this song is. Cant ask for more !!

jinke sar ho ishq ki chhaanh
paon ke niiche jannat hogi

For he, who is shielded by the umbrella called love, has heaven under his feet !!

So :

paon jannat chale chal chhaiyyan !!!

(So he who ) walks in the shadow ( of love ) ( and ) stroll in heaven !!

gulposh kabhi itarae kahin
mahake to nazar aajaye kahin

Sometimes when she shows-off like a flower and then hides, it is her fragrance that ( makes me ) locate her.

And then how can I miss these B.E.A.U.tiful line :

tawiz banake pahanun use
aayat ki tarah mil jaaye kahin

And then the sacred hymns :

mera nagama vahin mera kalama vahin
mera nagama nagama mera kalama kalama

( Enough of my sick translations ... its just spoiling the song )



P.S : Why didn't I start my blog with this post ????

Idiocratic America

When I came to US, of all the things that I was eagerly looking forward to, the most anticipated one was the doing a course under an American professor with many American students.This is my 3rd Sem now and of the 11 courses that I have taken up, only 2 were taught by American profs and hardly 10% of the students were from America.

Then when I became a TA in COT, then for the first time, I came in direct contact with American undergrad students. The "customer care" effect was clear among them. They would not hesitate to ask anything and everthing even before they try to analyze it. ( whereas we Indians would always be the last ones to ask "doubts" ). After a few classes of "How did you figure that out?" "ooh! thats tricky !!" and "Thats it? Is it really so simple?" , I realized that most of them were smart but unfortunately dumb.

Then I found out that most of the smart Americans who were not dumb, went into Law or Management field. Science and Engineering is not a popular option here.Thats why so many I20s are being issued to International students.

Then I saw this film "Idiocracy". Its a dark comedy film on what is going to happen in the future.The argument made in the film is simple : the human race is getting dumber with each passing generation. Well ... it actually is talking about the % of "intelligent" people in US.

Here is the intro of the film.



I know what you are thinking : Thats a dark prediction of the future that might never happen.

yeah ? Then have a look at this :



Ok ... lets spare the poor teen ... but lets turn our attention towards the President of United States of America.



Now lets look at a TV survey. ( ok ok ... they just included the clippings they wanted only to prove their point ... )



Believe me, I worked for 6 days in a Motel.I know that chances that these might really happen in US are bright. And maybe what Asimov predicted is going to happen in the far far future after all !! Science is going to be re-introduced by an extremely small group as a religion. Because when u ain't never fear it, u aren't ever gonna respect it.

To end this blog entry, let me quote Chris Rock here -

"You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy,the tallest guy in the NBA is Chinese, the Swiss hold the America's Cup, pakistan is accusing the U.S. of not helping against war on terror, Germany doesn't want to go to war, and the three most powerful men in America are named Bush, Dick, and Colon."

Hyd Blasts and the Terrorists psyche

A Terrorist attack is nothing new. But how the system responds to it gives an assurance to the people of the city because you never know when the terrorists will strike again. What happened at Hyd will surely give goosebumps to Hyd'badis whenever they go out with their family during the weekend to see a movie or to have fun in a park or even when they go out to eat in a restaurant.

The infrastructure of the city , touted to be the next big Indian city of the future, completely failed. At Gokul chat, no ambulance arrived. Heck! There was no police to take care of the proceedings. ( How well the police constables are trained to handle such situations is yet another question. ) All the injured were taken to the hospital in autos and buses ! It may indicate the dynamism of the Hyd'badi public as a whole but thats not the way things should be. The lack of policemen saw the media person make merry. As usual blood , dead bodies and soon crying family members will be on TV . Courtesy : The media today.

Within 24 hours, the government has come up with an Islamic Terrorist organization. Whats in the name? They are all the same. And even I , thousands of miles away from Hyd'bad, know that it is SIMI which is behind it.Why ? Simple. Gokul Chat.

The bomb at this eatery only indicates that the terrorist who planned it is from Hyderabad. Not only that, the scary part is that this indicates that he is not only young, but probably educated. Because, this is located at Koti, a heaven for book lovers.A place where you can find any book in the world for 1/4th its original price.

In fact, I have many fond memories of that place. I remember buying all the 5 books of Harry Potter books and gifting them to my sister on her B'Day. And those countless times I went to buy novels. And every time I went there , I did eat at the Gokul chat.

And that this terrorist could convince their bosses that this was a good target.( even though it wasn't have high profile place and even the "number of kills" would be less ) This means that either the young terrorists are very smart or that their bosses themselves are Hyd'badis !! Scary , isn't it ? Their psyche is just getting more and more complex.

What is the solution to all this?Nothing comes to my mind. Oh God, Why wasn't I born in a era when conflicts could be resolved through wars.