Jhor bole aami saathe
mon er saathe brishti kaande
ki korbo bhebe na paai
jhorer saathe miliye jaai?

(the storm says with you friend
a tear or two, rains lend
I know not what to do
storm take me along too)

Modinama

Modi modi kahan modi kahan (main) modi modi ittefaaq se...says a seductive song from a recent hit movie. Oh heck! not quite. Maybe it was mudi and not modi. But what the hell! Nowadays that's the only bit of repetition you can encounter when you switch on your TV screens and when you leaf through the cripsp newspaper of the day. And Goddamn it, it sure isnt any ittefaq that our bronzed villain with his price posessions make it to the front page everyday and hog the centrestage at every practically every discussion in the 9 o clock slots in TV channels, for more than a month (it certainly seems so...we TV chaps have a habit of exaggerating, you know!)...so move over Sexbabas, sania, shoaib, amina, fatima, fatso-ma(whatshername)..we have the new man whose shady dealings can guarantee you entertainment more than when you watch a ball soar past the boundary for a six or when the rattling of stumps seems music to your ears in the ongoing IPL. Mr Modi is the essential powerman who has been allegedly corrupted by power, money and a little more power. You ca almost picturise him as a cheroot-smoking villain sitting cozy in his chair (shun the suit ala sanjay dutt in that 'not-quite-wow-but-jao' commercial) with arm candies like priyanka chopra, shilpa shetty, preity zinta or celina jaitley or some firang babe by his side, practising modisatva. He is the quintessential wily fox who can turn tables with his clever calculations and manipulations. The I-T raids have opened a pandora's box to be sure but the main treasure chest is still hidden away somewhere in some swiss suite perhaps guarded by brawny bodyguards and ofcourse, brainpower and money.
SO who spoiled it all? Enters our suave smart 'I taak in englees, I waak in englees' mr tharoor, who hates travelling in cattle class and misquotes saudi arabia (in lieu of women or dates?). But still the henchman creates a goof up costs modi dear. Power crazy, he is too. and tries to influence modi in disclosing details about a new team in the next IPL, with a will to 'mentor' the team. But whenever there is a women involved, case twisted hai boss(I can hear miss pushkar crying aloud that she has to face the ordeal only because she is a woman...well I sympathize with you but nevertheless, clean dealings are scanty miss pushkar...proofs are apparently nowhere, sweat equity or whatever) SO Mr Tahroor and miss pushkar(God bless them...private souls) enter into a jugalbandi and despite Mr modi's efforts to let aapno amdavad buy a team in IPL, Kerala with its chartbusting literacy rate, dupes modi's intentions and Kochi is born. And Modi is fuming. But reports suggest that there can be another little character in our story. The man who has head in clouds, Mr Praful patel. Patel saab is alleged to have played the role of a messenger between tharoor and the IPL. and another list of shango-pangos like patel's sweet lass daughter, or his not-so-sweet-lass-secretary etc etc who might have transpired in the dealings. Then again another newspaper claims that the funds disclosed by patel might have been spiked and intentionally so, at the behest of modi, to make tharoor lose his track. Ho hum! Now isnt that a bit too much now? I-T steps in meanwhile, with stepbrother ED and conduct raids and raise allegations that can be 1 out of the existing million. come on guys, so many twists in the tale is bittering the suspense and thrill. The viewers are getting confused. And soon you think that such things are commonplace, trite. It happens in every business or the other. So what if it is IPL? So what if guru Ezekiel or Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi or Boria Majumdar does not get tired discussing about cheap thrillers every evening?
So before a Khan may be held responsible for fudging accounts or a Zinta be accused of fixing matches or Modi be sacked or Tharoor be deported to America or Patel be let scot free or Manohar takes charge of the IPL mess and makes more money than modi, you will inevitable switch off your TV and pick up and read an Agatha Christie and mutter 'Kitna filmi hai saala'. Here dies another saga after Shoaib-Sania, a natural death...

How's that?

Whenever i look at the Sports team in my newsroom, I feel a distant longing and an incisive disappointment. Not because of the content that they contribute. But for a different reason. I look at the members and think I could have also been one of them. And I wander to the exciting alleys of my childhood days.

Yes, exciting. I used to be a cricket crazy individual, innocent and adventurous, unassuming and emotional. I loved cricket. But, only cricket. The over hype of the game in our country had roped me as a victim too. So the other sports were completely ignored by the seeds of passions fresh in my mind during those days. And that is a prime reason- my lack of knowledge regarding other sports like football, hockey, the olympics, tennis, badminton etc.- why i am not in their shoes.

But passion and knowledge are different. You can be passionate about something but know well-informed. Yes of course I was well informed but not a cricket buff ( like the way I can say-now- I am a bollywood buff) Records, achievements, career, statistics used to escape my notice. I only used to be mesmerized and thrilled by the very soul of cricket. Whenever the Indian team walked on to the field, whenever I used to look at a photograph of a favourite cricketer on a card which used to come free with a chewing gum once. So the passion did not seep into research and by the time the evening tuitions took away my freedom to go to the field and play the game unchained, and by the time the pressure of studies and other attractions guiled me, the passion towards the game was going afar.

Now i am left with the memories, layman knowledge and the same old lack of remembrance or interest in statistics- the first step that can make you a successful journalist or more so a cricket historian. But, never mind!

Distant Surmises

Ya so its my 100th post! Way to go! (umm...a little long way perhaps...as far as I can recollect I started blogging around 3 to 4 yrs back....ha ha so that would mean 25 blog posts per year ....or to put it simply, 2 blogs per month. well, a snail's pace has finally got me to the century mark. But then again...

Its a landmark event. Thank you very much. Much accentuated by the Calcutta trip I am about to undergo in a short period of time from now. Ya i still dream to ramble on those romantic wide stretches of red road in South calcutta amidst a drizzle, with the maidan on my left; and to drive through em by pass with the wind caressing my hair and blocking my audibility, I so wish to pass those golden hours simply by looking down to the roads and the playground where children (or lack of them) play to their heart's content and also the roads from my balcony where cars zoom past and I try to identify the make of each of them; how I wish to roam those salt lake alleys clutching your palms tightly and taking each step and making a vow, how I wish I pass through those dingy roads of north kolkata, charmed by the sights, smells and sounds, in a taxi and smile surreptitiously. Oh Calcutta, you will always be with me. No matter wherever I go, no matter wherever destiny takes me, the affinity towards you will grow manifold each time i get an opportunity to visit you.

I was recently stumped by a question asked by one of my colleagues about what kind of a person I am by nature. I was zapped thoroughly. What kind of a person i am? Never thought of it. Or maybe I did and every time i have wandered off to a nearby topic failing to gather moorings into the earlier issue of discourse in melancholy. It was a very deadly question. i failed to answer. I groaned, I whizzed but no words cam out of my mouth. Strange but I still remember I used to consider analysing one's character (that of a friend) na favourite pastime of mine while in college. But now, There have been so many instances that i have been proved otherwise that before venturing out to be judgemental about an individual's disposition, I correct myself and take the road most treaded by people. I cease to dedicate myself. I choose not to. Including mine. Scary, yes, but true, i guess.

When I was returning home today, I recalled that somebody had passed on his thoughhtful and invaluable advice to me sometimes when I was in dire need of it during the junction when i was to decide, whether I will step towards the field of media (television) or not. That gentleman, whom (fortunately) i fail to recall, said with utmost confidence and zeal that there is no such work as production work in tv. And I detest myself for not scrutinising the advice properly or not re checking it (although it did not turn a sore for me) I am finding scope in production work and the words of the particular gentleman that you HAVE to be a reporter to be in TV news is a myth, I discover now. Also a few months back when a very well known reporter from a leading TV channel asked me to become a reporter for her channel, I understood that under the veil of whatever solemnity and grandeur she attached to reporting, the plain deal was that her channel was in dire need of reporters and if it comes witha cheap price tag, then why not? Cheap labour, I see so many around me in the newsroom everyday. I feel sad but unable.

Last but not the least, there was a time when I was astonishingly unable to find faults with me, major ones I mean. But nowadays i do. Such is life. Such are revelations. Amen.

Unload the freight

Mamata Banerjee is, perhaps, the second most entertaining politician in Indian history (after Laloo Prasad)
A treat to watch her presenting the railway budget'10
I give a thumbs up to the budget.

Her antics made the Lok Sabha come alive today (in a different way) The highly enjoying Sonia Gandhi and a visibly amused L K Advani drove home the point.

Golden moments:

1. Reads out the list of 130 new trains in one breath, interjected by comical apologies for mis-pron(o)uncing the names of most of them.

2. Her constant jibes at detractors in a very evil way (she even at one point of time replied to somebody in Bengali)

3. While announcing the Ankura-Agartala rail link, somebody quips up and our didi says with a mock smile "You theenk thees eez olso phor Bengol. eet eez awar nebaaring kaantry" Amazing!

4. Classic: While facing stiff opposition and ruckus mamata says: "Okay shaaut! Aai veel kaat awl"(referring to the 'cut' of the new services announced.

5. The way she flopped back into the chair after an almost 2 hour long marathon speech. Hilarious!

Truly Didi tera viewers deewana (only during the budget speech, that is!)

'Defending' an 'insane'

You might call Utsav Sharma a psychotic patient. i will call him too. but what exactly must have been going through his mind while attacking Rathore, the alleged molestor of Ruchika Girhotra? Well like every individual who has a heart and detests such an action on young, unsuspecting girls, he too must have been infuriated by the whole turn of events. The only difference between him and other 'sane' individuals is that Utsav had translated his thoughts into action, which other people would have not dared to, fearing the impetus of law on them But he didnt. I know for a fact that there are many who silently support his act and thinks that Rathore got an iota of what he desreved(keeping constant the allegation that he is guilty) Many would call him the torchbearer of people's mass movements and protests towards the case. An 'insane' person did wht the other 'sane' people had only conceived. His bravery wont go unnoticed like his laurels and achievements in the education sphere.

Out with it!

A popular news channel was airing exclusively the narco test videos of the suspects arrested in the Aarushi murder case, accessed by the channel. Narco tests, as per my knowledge, employs a truth serum which prompts you to reveal the hidden facts stored in your sub-conscious. It was painful to watch as the suspects were talking in a semi-conscious state and repeatedly denying the chances of their involvement in murdering Aarushi. but what was shocking was the way the interrogators tried to force out an admission from them and even went to the extent of prompting them the lines that they should speak out. Hazard this...Interrogators: "Speak out that you killed Aarushi. Say it. Say it that you have killed Aarushi" Pathtic. It was a good thing that nobody gave in to their demands. No I am not defending the criminal of the perpetrators but simply trying to lend some humanity to the whole process. yes of course You can argue that criminals or suspects of such nature must be handled in a dexterous way. True but watching it on the screen was painful indeed. At the end nobody owned up and thus the process is delayed. Note that tests have confirmed that Narco tests are not fool-proof(I recollect reading it somewhere). I dont remember distinctly whether Dr Talwar also underwent such tests or not. But impartially he should also have been conducted the test upon.