Keep the Faith!!..

The Hot Topic in this Cricket crazy Country until the next Test Match at Trent Bridge is going to be the World's Number one Test Teams debacle in the Iconic 2000th test match at the Home of Cricket, Lords. Every single Cricket Crazy Pundit in this Country is going to have a view on what went wrong with the Test.

Of Course, the debate is going to start off with the Dhoni's decision to Bowl after winning the toss, the bowling and fielding decisions that he took as Captain. Well, all of it played a part in a sub standard performance from the Best Test side in the World. Of Course, a few Die Hard Pundits will have some other reasons; which I would like to call excuses. Excuses like Zaheer Khan bowled less than 14 overs and so there was no teeth in the attack, the changes in the batting order in the batting order in the second Innings as Sachin and Gambhir missed a large part of the Match and some might even say that the pressure of the 100th century got to Sachin.
All this said and done, India's performance in the entire Match was lackluster to say the least. A 400 test scalps Bowler struggled to even put pressure on the batsmen, forget taking wickets. The famed batting line up struggled to score more than 300 runs in each of the Innings. This considering tha fact that the English managed to score 269 runs after losing 5 wickets for 62 runs.The thing that baffles me is a complete lack of the instinct that makes Dhoni the person that he is. Suresh Menon his blog on "cricket next"is of the opinion that Dhoni needs to reconnect with his old self. According to him, Dhonis's statistics of better winning percentage than most other successful Captains of the Modern era has become an albatross around his neck. We all now the Indian team has the goods to defeat any Test side in the world at the moment. We did win a test series in West Indies without Zak and Sachin. What the Indian team is missing is the Dhonism. Captain courageous needs to buckle up and lead from the front. There is no harm in resting the team's most experienced bowler, Harbhajan for the next test or playing without an unfit Zaheer.Its time for the attacking Dhoni to rediscover himself and be brave in taking decisions rather than going along with the flow of things. Hope that by the time the next test comes about, we will be able to take 20 wickets and score more than 300 runs in each innings. More than all this, win or lose, Its time for the No. 1 Test Team in the World to play like the No. 1 Test Team and not like the Rabbits that they so often were in Foreign conditions.......Dhoni, The God, the Wall and the Craftsmen will anyways play their part but what they need is for you to be you...Go for it!! The birth of the game of Cricket is for us to take!!...

Mr. Chief Minister. Why did I vote?

Dear Mr. Chief Minister,

I turned 18 about 9 years back and since then I have had the opportunity to vote thrice be it the General Elections or the Karnataka Assembly Elections. I being a relatively new voter and like most other voters in the country did not look at Election Manifestos to decide on who I was going to work. I voted for the party that I thought was best suited for the job at hand. And today, I am a terribly disappointed Citizen especially when I see the state of affairs in my honetown.

I have come to realise that there is no political party in the country that is truthful and Nationalistic. By Nationalistic, I mean a party that believes in development and with a decisive agenda that puts the country's interests before anything else be it internal or external policies. Instead, we are still stuck with Vote bank politics.

Developmental policies in India is based on the importance of a particular region. i.e. a region that enjoys a clout in terms of votes and seats. I unfortunately come from a district that has 2 assembly constituencies and shares the MP seat with the neighbouring district of Mysore. And in that aspect, they fortunes of a political party does not depend on my region. And so, development of this place is not on the priority of any political party.

Its is time that we get our acts together. We as a community have been indifferent to the situation around us. We crib about the roads, the lack of basic infrastructure, the indifferent approach of our representatives, the dying of our culture, the advent of outsiders coupled with the boom in real estate and the influx of tourists. Any wedding, any family function or get together; this is the topic of discussion on all most all occasions besides the coffee prices and labour problems. But, what have we done about it? The answer, NOTHING!!!...

Its time for us to pull up our socks and be heard. There are a lot of pressing issues in regards to Coorg and it will take more than an article to write home about. My grievances is with the basic infrastructure in the "Scotland of India".

Without doubt, Coorg is today one of the fastest growing tourism economies in Karnataka. From one Orange County 10 years back, we today have about 5 high end resorts with another 5 or more on the way. and of course the 200 or more home stays. Yet the roads are pathetic. In some cases, the road seems to be on the map but not on the ground. And this in spite of connectivity being the most important factor for any industry to develop. Unfortunately, the powers to be think otherwise. We do not even have a proper Hospital in the entire district and for any problems we have to rush to the nearest city.

Mr. Chef Minister, now that you are going to be presenting the budget for 2011- 2012; kindly consider we not so important voters and give us what we deserve. We are not asking for a railway line as the Times of India article dated 23rd February 2011 suggested. We do not even need a railway line. Not bad enough, the real estate boom is already dwindling our Natural resources. We do not need a state sponsored catalyst to it. We are asking for good roads. Roads that prescribe to the standard set by your agencies and not few centimeters of tar as is presently being done.

There are a lot of pressing issues that I would like to bring to your notice and that I will do, but first give us the basic stuff that we require...

Signed,

A Frustrated Voter!

Confused!

Bangalore, the cosmopolitan City today seems to be in a state of confusion. For a city that has always been looked upon as an outgoing city is today fighting to stay true to its name. The woes of the City has grown with the times, Disastrous Traffic situation, Loss of greenery due to Infrastructural development and of course the clamp on Nightlife in the Pub City of India.

There are enough organisations working towards the development of the City in some form or the other but nobody is working towards preserving the most important aspect of Bangalore, Bangalore itself.

I am not advocating for extended party hours or justifying as to why clubs and eateries need to be opened beyond the 11:30 deadline instead I am asking the Authorities to give me my Freedom to take a decision.

Moral policing by the so called saviors of our Society and backed by an Administration that strongly beleives that the best solution to any problem is to impose a restriction has robbed the very essence of Democracy. It is sad that a minority is actually making people accept their way of thinking. And here is why I think so;

Ban on Dancing:

The dance bars had to close because they did not have the necessary licenses and they were increasingly becoming joints for the Flesh Trade. The ideal thing will be to legalise prostitution and this will help in controlling Child Trafficking and help authorities to maintain records and help in preventing STD's. Its not like its something that has crept into our society of late, It is the World's oldest Profession. But, this is beyond Individuals and will need a change in laws and require the coming together of the executive and the Judiciary.

So, What did the Authorities in Bangalore do when the Dance Bars went to Court?

They decided that instead of getting into a legal wrangle with the powerful Dance Bar owners who invariably have some sort of connection with the Underworld, lets just BAN DACING ALTOGETHER

This aided by the fact that the so called upholders of our Culture, The Muthaliks and the likes think that is is their Birth Right to tell people as to how to lead an Indian way of Life that is morally acceptable. It makes me wonder if its just plain jealousy that makes them do the things that they do. For if they really researched on India's culture, they would realise that the Mujras was an Indian thing and was not something that the British brought in to our Society. It is true that we must not forget who we are but at the same time, India has survived as a Culture for so long only because of its ability to evolve and adapt to the Various influences and the changing times.

The Problem is not the ban on Dance Bars but the ban on an Individual having a good time. Instead of Changing the laws to identify and differentiate between the various places of entertainment, the Administration decided that the best Solution is to put a Ban on dancing. it is even more appalling that this rule has come up in a City that had dancing since the 70's with joints like Blue Fox, Peacock and so on.

And we have our Police Commissioner, a decorated Policeman who speaks about how the rules cannot be changed to suit a few thousands. My only request to Mr. Bidari is to help us from going backwards like the Middle Eatern Countries. look at Iran or Afghanistan and look at the state of "The Paris of the East" today. I only hope and pray that the Commisioner would not want to be remembered as a person who talibanised this city but instead as a person who let Bangalore be Bangalore.

Of course we understand that the police have a big responsibility in their hands and that we have to prevent Crime and so on but banning dancing or asking people to go home by 11:30 pm in only creating rebels and encouraging Illegal parties which in turn the Media and you, the Administration labels a Rave and brands everybody as Drug Addicts.
The people of this City are very co-operative and we can use this in a positive way. Lets make people take a oath that they will not drink and drive. We can have the Police working in tandem with the Drinking water holes to prevent people from Driving after drinking. Let people carry ID cards wherever they go so that people below the legal Age Group do not have access to Alcohol. I am sure the people of this city will be much obliged to follow these rules that let them enjoy their freedom while being responsible.
People of Bangalore, wake up and be counted. Vote for your rights and fight for your rights. For those who are not from Bangalore and who face the wrath of the Locals a lot of the time, Please understand the place you have come to and adapt to it rather than make it the place you want it to be. We do not want Rakshanas here to direct us what to rakshishify................

I rest my case but hope that we stop cribbing and start acting!!!................

Is the National Sport dead?

From being the first Non- European team to be a part of the International Hockey Federation and remaining unbeaten at the Olympics for 6 games in a row from 1928 till 1956 to the present state of Hockey, what went wrong?

The record speaks of a tremendous record until the 1980's, winners of 8 Olympic Golds, 1 silver and 2 bronze, 3 medals at the world cup with 1 in every position at the podium and the startling fact is that nearly 60% of these medals came before the 90's although we won the Gold at the Asian Games in Bangkok in 1998. The decline of India's hockey powers which started in the early 90's can be largely contributed to the change in playing conditions and surfaces.

Cricket frenzy in India started around the time the decline of Hockey started. The 1983 world cup and the subsequent win at the world series down under started a new cricket revolution while Hockey saw a decline

The synthetic Hockey field came into being in the 1970's and the game has definitely changed since then but the powers that run the game in India have never looked beyond the National team for the development of the game. The differences between the administrators and the various State bodies has badly affected the infrastructure from reaching the masses.

A simple case in example is the situation of Hockey in Kodagu. A Hockey fraternity like Kodagu got its first Astro Turf Stadium only last year. This inspite of the known fact this tiny district has produced some of the stalwarts of Indian Hockey like BP Govinda, MM Somayya, AB Subbaiah and so on.It is said that more than 50 players have represented the National team in some form or the other. The worlds biggest hockey tournament, the inter family hockey festival had a participation of 225 teams last year (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodava_Hockey_Festival) last year. And yet, the access to infrastructure and exposure to tournaments is zero.

And this brings us back to the moot question, What is the problem or rather what is the solution? We need to bring corporates to get involved in the running of the game on a PPP model rather than just being employers. The PHL was a good model to increase popularity of the game, and this needs to be tweaked to make it more lucrative for investors and corporates similar to the IPL.

Its time we act to bring glory to our National Game for the powers that run the game in the Country will take a long time to realise this. Axing coaches and players is not the solution. The game needs to be nurtured at the grass root level if we have to return Indian Hockey back to its days of Glory..................