Things that crossed my way!

Hi Guys,

It’s really great out here with three days gap down the line. Thanks to the poojas and the political parties who have converted a local public meeting into a big word war and in the fear that problems may arise during their meeting on Monday, our college (or the local body) has declared us holiday.

I was thinking of what to write about in my blog. A lot of things came into my mind. I have decided to pen down a few things.

A fanatic of Sachin

On seeing the subtitle, you may wonder who that fanatic is. Well, it’s me. Right from the days I started watching cricket, I’m a big fan of him. I don’t know how I started to follow him, but I remember some of his innings. Actually still now, I don’t like someone the way I like Sachin. Maybe I’m a fan of some celebrities, but am not sort of fanatic. I have passionately followed him. I still remember some of his innings, his two centuries in Sharjah against Australia (I was so young then). Another innings was his double century against Australia in Sydney some 7 years ago. He didn’t hit well in the first three matches, although India managed to do well. But Hayden was still warning the Aussies about Sachin. He was saying Sachin would bounce back any time. In the fourth test, Sachin hit a scintillating knock. It was a double century.

Another innings, I remember is the quick fire 98 against Pakistan in 2003 World cup. Pakistan had hit 272 and my brother was saying India would never win. But Sachin tormented the Pakistan bowlers like anything and India won the match. The way he roared back after the tennis elbow injury was unforgettable. When everyone said, his time was over, he answered to the critics, as usual with his bat. This year, his performance has been fantastic. This season has many unforgettable innings including the 175 against Aussies in a losing ODI, when India hit 347 in reply to their 350. His 200* against SA is the first ever double century in ODI. He continues to impress in tests too. He has a continuous streak of centuries, including the last match winning innings.

I hope his dream of getting a World Cup comes true next year. I think I might have scribbled a lot of things above. I was quite excited and don’t even remember what I wrote (anyway I’m not going to check).

The Three Mistakes of my Life

Recently I read the book ‘The Three Mistakes of my Life’ written by Chetan Bhagat. It’s yet another fantastic novel, portraying the story of a young man named Govind Patel. The novel deals with friendship, cricket, religion, business and love. Just can’t believe how things can change the way a person live. The novel deals with how their lives are changed by the Gujarat Earthquake, the famous Kolkata test in which India won despite the follow on, the twin tower crash and finally the Godhra incident. I don’t really like life stories to the extent I like fiction and thrillers, but this man has been writing superbly. I liked 3 of his 4 novels including this one.

Commonwealth Games

Before starting of Commonwealth games nothing was looking good, but after the games everything is looking good. The way the games were conducted was good. India winning 101 medals and getting second place was even great. Saw a few matches now and then in TV. Particularly, saw the women’s 4*400 relay team. Indians had never achieved greatly in athletics, but they ran the race as if it meant life to them and we had gold. It was one of the best running I have ever seen. Many other stars also performed well. One disappointment was Vijendar Singh missing gold. I expected him to win the gold, but he missed it. Gagan Narang continued from where he left in Melbourne CWG. India losing to Australia 8-0 in Hockey was embarrassing, but it is the first medal of our Hockey team in CWG and it’s great. It’s good to see our Government giving some prize money to the medal winners. It was a fantastic 10 days from October 3 to 14. IT has completely made India proud.

Sad Demise

Last week, one of my college mates passed away, due to bike accident. I don’t know the exact story. It seems that he and his friend were riding to our college in the morning and when he overtook a minibus, another city bus has come in the opposite path they were crushed in the middle. They didn’t suffer severe body injuries, but it was their head which was injured. The rider was uninjured and he took his friend to the hospital and was waiting outside. Suddenly he fainted down and was announced dead. His inside of the head was injured and he has died due to blood clotting. The other boy is still in critical condition and a operation needs to be done in his spinal cord.

Another point is that the demised boy used to be a very safe and sensible rider. He never took risks and still then he died, because of other’s mistakes. If he had put a helmet, he would have escaped. We only realise value of small things, only after we are hit!

Be careful and ride safely!

That’s it for now. See you soon.

Happy Reading!!!

CWG- Pride or Embarrasement?

Hi Guys,

It has been a long time since I wrote my last post. Recently one thing has been in the news so frequently, the CWG scandal. What should have made us pride has been leading us down, because of our officials. Well, in this post let me point out my views on this issue.

Well, how to begin with and where to begin with? It seems that the issue has started well before India got its vote. Today morning I read that during the venue selection meeting, there was stiff competition between Delhi and Montreal (Canada) and Delhi beat Montreal 46-22. It is said that in the backdrop India gave money to all the member nations in the name of some development scheme to get the vote in our favour.

So, somehow India got the chance and when the news came I was so happy that our country is going to host the second biggest sporting event in the world, the first being the Olympics. Last CWG was in Melbourne (2006). At the closing ceremony India got the flag and many of our stars performed in the stage marking the arrival of games in India.

The preparations started well before and everything was supposed to be over before many months. But as usual like every other Indian event our organizers were sluggish and everything was beyond schedule. Stadiums were not finished before deadline and CWG committee had to warn our officials to finish off things quickly. Things were appearing to be fine. Stadiums were finished and their inaugurations took place. Each of the stadium looked world class. I thought our officials had finally reacted.

Then before a month, media began to dig deep and find all the scandals possibly related with CWG. Each day you can find news portraying one official or minister being accused of mishandling money and power. There were many resignations, accuses and things and they reduced slowly and people became annoyed and directly asked the media to support the games instead of damaging them.

So, everything was going well. With a fortnight left to the games, it was not from within the country, but from outside the country. Athletes from other countries were aggravated of the poor quality of games village. It was completely true and was covered by one of the most reputed news channel. They were dog’s marks on the bed, water leakage in the restroom, etc. Our officials replied that the recent rains in Delhi had delayed the work and things will be finished soon.

Roof that collapsed a few days ago

In good time our government got in. They appointed more workers, made lot of efforts and what a magic! In just 2 days time, other countrymen say the conditions are much better and are fit for living. They could have done it much earlier.

Today morning in The Hindu I read Peter Roebuck’s column on how India would pull all things just at the end. He says he expect a decent CWG. I also expect the same. I hope our officials would pull up things and make a superb appearance at the end.

Now the recent news is that Mr. Suresh Kalmadi has accepted responsibility for all the affairs. I don’t think this is fair as he is not the only person behind all these things. There are lot of reasons and I think our government has asked him to agree in order to pacify the media and other countrymen.

Rather than focussing on these issues, we can focus on the games and support Indian athletes at the games.

Happy Reading!!!