Cricket, Government and National interest!!

A few weeks back, Nimbus, which had bagged the four-year BCCI, telecast rights last year for $612 million, was asked to share cricket telecast with national broadcaster in the ‘interest of the nation’.

I couldn’t decide whether to be feel happy that the common man with no cable connection at home would be able to watch the men in blue playing World Cup or to question the decision of the government which is forcing a private company, who bought the rights to telecast the matches ‘exclusively’ in a multi-million bidding!

How fair it is on the part of the government in this open economy to force a private player that too by the way of an ordinance to share its business with government?

While surfing got hold of this article by Karan Thapar. A thought provoking conversation there.

An excerpt:

“And what about the right to food, education and healthcare? No one can deny that they are more important than cricket. So, now, is the government going to force restaurants to provide free food, hospitals to admit patients without charge and schools to waive their fees? In terms of the government’s logic that should have happened first!”

Cheers!!

My brush with Jade Goody...

Thursday was just another day for me. I started from the office to the bus stop from where I usually take route 66 bus. It was already dark and as soon as I boarded the bus I sank on my favorite last seat of the bus and immersed myself in the music filled in my ears by my mp3 player. 15 minutes later the bus stopped at one of its numerous stops along the route and a bunch of 5 boys aged not more than 14 got down from the bus. Nothing unusual! As the bus was about to leave from the stop, one of those boys came to the back of the bus and knocked the window to grab my attention. And what he did? I got the middle finger! Before I could react, the bus was on its way. This is just one of the milder incident with an Indian but my first brush with so called ‘racism’.


Not the gesture but the thing that baffled me was the age of the boy. I am sure, given a chance, he could not have pointed out where India is on the world map and surely he would not have any idea whether Asia is a continent or a Russian actress. But he somehow concluded that we (read Indians or Asians) are there on his land and are responsible for depriving some of the things that could have been his or his elder brother’s or for that matter his father’s!


The organization in which I am working here employ around 1000 Indians, all from different IT majors from India and at a place where total no. of employees is not more than 3000, it’s a big number. Since the time I have landed here, there have been two drives when the English contractors were laid off and were replaced by Indians. They are loosing their jobs with alarming regularity. Same is happening in other organizations too and in large numbers. This is the other side of the coin which we tend to miss while assessing their behavior towards us. In my view, their frustration is not entirely unjustified.


The buses here are crowed with Indians. Almost every day, they get packed at the first stop itself from where most of us board it. That leaves no option for the English guys to stand all along the route.


Think of the same scenario in Mumbai or Delhi. Foreigners all around you. Snatching your jobs overnight leaving you or your father jobless (Hunting for a new job at the age of 40 is not a feel which everybody look forward to). DTC or best buses full of them with you barely finding a place to stand. So, hows the thought?


I remember the time when I was a kid, a large no. of students from Africa (mainly Nigeria) flocked Gwalior (my home town). They were there to do some degree courses. And I remember each one from our colony used to see all of them with great suspicion.

So we should not be surprised when we are being watched by the same spects now in this alien land. More than the racism, I guess this is the sense of insecurity they have developed against us. A feeling that the hard working, weekend slogging breed of Indians will slowly throw them out of their jobs and would slowly stand with them on the podium of economic growth.

Cheers

Timepass...

A little cloudy day with the temperature hovering between a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 8 degrees. A perfect setting for sipping a ginger tea while watching a Chashme Buddoor or a Katha. Sadly, this 25 year old moron is sitting in his office supposedly giving support to some other teams in their testing. The fact that not a single representative of those teams have turned up till now to ask for support completes the misery. Mind you, it’s a Sunday!!

Welcome to the corporate world. The world in which you earn more than you deserve, you sleep less than you need, you save more than you think and in a nutshell, you live less than you wish. You will realise this when you miss the marriage of your close friends coz you are 4500 miles away from them.

(4th Feb. This is somebody’s anniversary in my family. Trying to recollect the couple’s name but failing. Murphy is playing with me again and I know as soon as the clock would strike 12 midnight and it would be 5th, I would have the names!)

Okie...4th Feb. Today I completed my 4 months stay in UK. Not comparing the life here with India, admittedly, its been easier here. Easier to the extent of being monotonous. Roads are so smooth and straight that you can actually finish a novel while driving before taking another turn. The gas cylinder would never finish at the odd time coz you have electric stove at your disposal. Even the trucks and buses would stop near the zebra crossing pleading you to cross the road first and there is no need to go to vegetable market after finishing you grocery shopping coz you have the ‘you-name-it-we-have-it stores’ like Sainsbury and TESCO!

Still the country is alien (no, I am not sympathising with Shilpa Shetty and I have not watched any of the Big Brother episodes). I mean, something is missing. Where is the excitement of penetrating the crowd all the way from platform 1 to platform 7 at Andheri station to catch 8:57 local? Where are those bumpy rides in Pune’s non existing roads? Where is the fun of running to neighbour’s house asking for the spare gas cylinder when yours is finished with half cooked curry on the burner? Where is the feeling of achievement when you bargain successfully and get kilo potatoes in Rs 9.50 instead of 10! What is the use of taste buds when you have all but tasty food in English restaurants! (My taste buds are all packed and locked in the drawer. Asking for the taste in English food is like demanding a six from Courtney Walsh).

All things are not bad either. Weather is something to die for. Although it’s a little fickle and too cold at times but personally I like winters no matter you are all packed with two sweaters and 3 jackets giving competition to Shammi Kapoor. And the place is just too beautiful to ignore. The folks are extra courteous and start the sentence with please and then stuff it with 253 sorrys and 562 thankus.

The analysis will continue…

A little conversation..

My room mate works in the same office as mine. A new girl joined her team a few days back. Yesterday, he shared a few thoughts with me in office on the Instant messenger. The conversation was brief and is produced verbatim below (I have done some formatting)


Friend (My room mate):
U know

Friend:
The new girl

Me:
Hmm…What about her?

Friend:
Her skill sets

Friend:
Huge smile

Friend:
Sweet talk

Friend:
Nice pleasant face

Me:
Hehehe!!

Friend:
Constant questions

Friend:
To keep ppl thinking she is not sleeping but involved

Friend:
One question 2 each

Friend:
Walk in a hurried way

Friend:
Needless run 2 collect printouts

Friend:
Results…

Friend:
No test case is being run so far

Friend:
No work is being done for last 5 days

Friend:
Forget to add

Friend:
One more skill set

Me:
What’s that?

Friend:
Laugh or at least smile for every joke played by all

Friend:
However bulshit it is

Friend:
Stupidest jokes 2 make ppl comfortable and warmth

Friend:
And 3 ppl r still assisting her to her questions and sorting things for her accommodation

Friend:
2 guys have brought lunch for her. List is endless!!


And he concluded the conversation a little later when we met in the evening:


Conclusion: A girl’s smile is equivalent to 4 days of a guy’s hard work!

Disclaimer :
The above conversation is a figment of our ( me and my friend's imagination). No such person exists on the face of the earth or for that matter, on Jupiter.
Even if the person in question identifies herself and comes back running to me, my above statement will hold good.

Cheers!!

The weekend..

After a 15 day respite from the cold weather when the temperature was 6-7 degrees (yes, this is termed as ‘respite’ in UK) the weather gods are again showing their colors. It’s been pretty cold since last three days and the next few days are not looking too great. Mercury is threatening to dip further and there is this BBC site to put an authentication stamp on mercury’s threats. During the next 5 days, maximum temperature is 5 degrees while the minimum is touching -2!

This weekend was eventful. Not that I climbed mount Everest and met Lalu Prasad Yadav but yeah,visited London for the third time and covered many places. There is a certain London eye, which looks like a replica giant wheel which I used to ride as a kid. It takes a whopping 45 minutes to cover one round! What a boring stuff.

Then there a London bridge which is famous by mistake. Actually parallel to London Bridge, there is Tower Bridge which opens up when a ship passes. Most of the people believe that this function is done by London Bridge. So London Bridge takes all the credit while Tower Bridge does the actual job. Similar instances can be seen in office when a guy and a girl work in the same team!

I had a chance to visit Greenwich on Sunday.We all know this place for GMT. I don’t know what excitement people get when they stand across a line claiming that they are standing with one foot in each hemisphere. The line is imaginary (latitude and longitude), hemispheres are imaginary even the whole concept is imaginary!!
Anyways, I proudly stood across the line and got my snap clicked.

In London, there are around 1,25,12,567 museums. The likes of Lord Curzon, Cornwallis and Wavell and their counterparts in many other countries Britishers ruled bought/stole so many things that they had to convert half of the London into museum to make place for these stuff. Need another life to see all the paintings in National Gallery at Trafalgar square.

All in all an entertaining weekend. Sadly the grind in office started today. Waiting for Saturday….

Cheers!!

Murphy and Me...

My life is full of incidents, accidents, situations and circumstances which can be faithfully explained only by Murphy’s laws. This guy is practically dictating my life.

Just a snapshot…

Whenever I watched any of my stock booming and decided in the night about selling it, the stock either crashed with the opening bell of the stock exchange next day or the entire set of bulls converted into wild bears over night converting my share into a penny stock.

Whenever I felt cramps on my body or had a disturbed sleep and I went to office praying for a ‘light’ day in office, I had entirely new set of loads to finish and I ended up doing donkey’s job.

If I target 8:55 bus in the morning and reach bus stop at 8:54, the bus will turn up at 9:15. Next day, if I target the same 8:55 bus and reach there at 8:56, it would have left at 8:54.

No matter how hard I search for the best deal in the market, after I buy something, it will definitely end up ‘on sale’ everywhere in a few days time. Take this, I bought my Sony cell phone after surfing many, for 130 pounds. Five days later, it was available in 99 all over!!

The probability that my shoe lace will open up is maximum when I am visiting a peak in Switzerland packed with all warm clothes and three set of hand gloves.

My camera roll will get exhausted at most obscure places at the time when I just find/experience the best location/sunset during the entire visit.

There are hundreds such incidents that happen with me….Atleast 2 a day!! Infact Murphy got pretty active during last few months so I thought of documenting these.

Am sure my life will continue to be governed by his laws, so more will follow.

Cheers..

Away from India...

I got a chance to read a conversation which I had with somebody more than a year back and it reminded of my days when I used to blog regularly. I have been posting with alarming irregularity now and infact the year 2006 was quite barren with 19 posts in all. This place seems more or less dead. But this is one place where I made numerous friends, got to know many wonderful human beings and agreed and disagreed on their thoughts, got their thoughts on mine and this place provided me a space where I vent out my feelings, be it personal life, political issues or my travels and now once again there is a burning desire to make this space lively. I know this is my umpteenth attempt and even this attempt does not guarantee a success!

The last time I updated my blog when I switched my company and when I uprooted myself from Bombay to settle in Pune. I was beginning to indulge myself in the pleasures which one can have only when he is on bench (read last post), I guess my project manager managed to get a picture of what I wrote. He decided to put an end to my honeymoon and packed me immediately to UK on some project. It’s been more than three months now.

Last 100 days were quite happening and I am pretty satisfied with the way things are shaping up here. I am quite content on the travel front. I visited Scotland, Switzerland a little of France and a city, Blackforest in Germany. Add to this list London and Cambridge and I can say that the traveler in me is highly satisfied. Switzerland is truly next to heaven and visiting a mountain peak in -10 degrees is an experience in itself.


Since the day I have landed here, more or less everybody is asking me one question. Are you missing something there? Now I am a sort of a guy who can be happy in almost all circumstances. I can spend time in Sahara desert thinking about Mallika Sheravat and can survive in Antarctica discussing the problem with Sehwag’s batting. But the two things that I can think of and can actually put into ‘missing’ list is the hard copy of Times of Times of India every morning and Rajat Sharma’s channel 7. Really missing all those Rakhi Savant’s scoops. So please keep me updated with every minute detail on that front and flood the comment box with the latest developments.

Hope the flow will continue…

Cheers…