The transition

Who doesn't get fascinated by the rags to riches stories? Stories of guys who made it big against all odds or those who rose from their humble background to become the Whos Who of their field.

Somehow, I find myself glued to such stories. I love autobiographies. Most of them tread this line. It fascinates me when I read about one Naresh Goyal who started as a cashier travel agent and now owns the biggest private sector airlines. I love the story of Lance Armstrong who battled his cancer, went through the rigours of chemeotherapy and then set the sporting scene ablaze with 7 Tour de France victories. The Dhirubhai Ambanis, the Oberois and the Kushalpals. List is endless.

A certain Christopher Gardener who once struggled in life so badly that he was left to sleep in public toilets along with his infant son but later became owner of one of the the best known stock broking firm. We love to watch a Hrithik Roshan winning mountain peaks in Kargil not because he was brave but because of what he became from what he was showed in the second reel of the movie.

All this blabbering because I just watched an interview of Milkha Singh on CNN IBN. The guy who till now , for me, was a headline who lost bronze in Rome Olympics by a whisker and whom I used to rate behind only Bishan Singh Bedi wen it comes to giving illogical views in media. This interview changed all that.

Cheers!

Congrats Preity Zinta and 'his' team

Thanks to Harbhajan now there is a controversy regarding Zinta's gender!

Money Talks!

IPL is a roaring success.

Players who are used to temperatures of 20 and 25 degrees are now lining up to play in the killing heat of Apr-May

Now no player would complain about 'too much cricket' and 'burnout' issues.

And now articles like this would become extinct!!

Money Talks!

Cheers!!

PS: Look, who's blogging!

Olympic Saga

Unprecedented and Bizzare are two of many terms being used for the security arrangements that are in place for the Olympic torch run. All this for a 2.5 Kms stretch.

And they say politics and games are two separate issues!

Few days back, my friend Abhay pointed me to an article by Vir Sanghvi where he logically discussed why Politics and Games cannot be (and never were) separated.

Here is the excerpt:

South Africa was prevented from participating in the 1964 Olympics after India and other non-aligned nations threatened a boycott. The South Africans were only allowed back in 1992, when apartheid was being dismantled. In 1976, nearly all African nations, not content with a ban on South Africa and Rhodesia, boycotted the Olympics because New Zealand was taking part. New Zealand’s crime was that it had allowed its rugby team to tour South Africa. Rugby is not an Olympic sport, but that wasn’t the point. The Africans said that any country which engaged with South Africa would be shunned.

This is not a position peculiar to the non-aligned movement. The 1958 Olympics were boycotted by some European countries because the USSR was taking part. The Europeans were protesting the invasion of Hungary. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter declared that the US would boycott the Moscow Olympics to protest the Russian invasion of Afghanistan and 80 other countries followed suit. In 1984, the Soviets retaliated by boycotting the Los Angeles Olympics.

The Chinese themselves are no slouches when it comes to boycotting the Olympics. In 1976, they threatened to boycott the Montreal Games if Taiwan was allowed to compete as the Republic of China. (The Canadians threw the Taiwanese out.) In 1980, the Chinese joined the boycott of the Moscow Olympics.


Somehow I find myself unable to associate myself emotionally or in any why with the symbolic gestures like carrying an Olympic torch or for that matter something like this! Why not just go ahead with the opening ceremony and get on with the games? Why doing this merry-go-round in so many countries and attaching so much pride and honour in carrying the torch? This pride and honour is another issue which is beyond my head. The 70 odd guys who are supposed to carry the torch on 17th April in New Delhi are the prominent personalities of their fields and are already honourable. Its only them who are taking pride and feeling honoured and not the common man (Ask those guys who will be virtually locked between 1pm and 6pm inside the buildings where they are employed just because their building happens to face Rajpath!)

Anyways! Life goes on...

Will Power!

So, how would you feel if your followers put up your statue while you are still alive? Probably the question is too hypothetical for most of us to answer. For some, it wont be. Ask Mayawati!

Amit Varma,on his blog,runs a series "Where your taxes go?" The series features the most absurd ways where the exchequers money is being wasted. Mayawati unveiling her statues alongside Kanshiram's would surely rank among the top if Amit decides to feature this one.

And here is the reason behind this deed.

"In his will, Kanshiramji stated that ‘Mayawati is my true follower, her statues shall also be installed,” she said while inaugurating the statues at the Rs 500-crore Ambedkar Samajik Parivartan Sthal.

Notice the eye-popping 500 crores!

Can somebody file an RTI to make Kanshiram's will public? I fear what all Kanshiram left in it for all of us!

Cheers!

Quote of the day

"...you work in an Indian giant or an MNC, your company is as good as your immediate boss"

-- Overheard while standing in queue at the bus stop.

Cheers!