Hiding yourself from the world

Lot many people read through my blog and comments over phone or in person or through mails... but why do they fear to post it right there in the comment section??

Who should be leading Team India??

There has been a lot of discussion on the bloggers world about who should be the next captain for Team India. Well before naming anyone let us chalk out what qualities a captain should possess to lead the team successfully.

1. In modern cricket, Australia has proven time and again that aggressiveness is the key to success - bash the opposition into submission. So we need a captain who is aggressive and not submissive.
2. The captain has to lead the team and so it is crucial that the team should respect and follow the instructions of their leader. So we need a captain who is authoritative.
3. A good leader is one who could take all blame onto himself – on occasions of team failure, but give up the credit to the team on success. So we need a captain who is unaffected by criticisms.
4. Also a leader should possess good experience and talent so that he can make quick decisions at crucial moments. So we need a captain who has good old cricketing experience.
5. Finally a good leader should have the ability to be a savior for the team in times of crisis. So we need a captain whose ability (batting/bowling) could be trusted.

Now let us pick the name one by one from the Team India to see who qualifies the majority of this qualities and who should be the right candidate for captaincy.

Sachin Tendulkar
He lacks the aggression; he is submissive in nature, he lacks the fury, he is furious with bat but not with his body language or expression and so loses on point # 1 above.
Now, although the team may follow his orders because of his seniority in the team but then he is not very authoritative, he is just cute and so loses on point #2 also.
He had faced criticisms in the past when he wore the hat of captaincy and his batting performance detoriated, he immediately opted to give away the captaincy and got himself free from that extra burden and so loses on point # 3 also.
No doubt he has got a good talent and experience and so scores high on point # 4.
He is a great batsman and I do not doubt his batting abilities but he had never played an inning when India needed the most, he is not a savior like inzy and so he scores low in point # 5.

Virendra Sehwag
Sehwag shares the same stand as Tendulkar for point # 1.
He is not so senior member of the team and so the team may face ego problem following his orders, he is easy going friendly chap and not very authoritative by nature.
He is obviously the best member in the team who is untouched by criticisms. All he cares about is to score runs and cares not for what the world talks about his batting style or his ability to “Kar Le Duniya Mutthi Mai”
He has the talent and is no doubt a savior for Team India.

Rahul Dravid
No need to mention much about this genius in the cricket world, who has built his credentials to score second after great Don Bradman, by his sheer hard work and consistency in performance. He aptly scores high on points 2 though 5 but he lacks aggression. No doubt he is the strong contender for Ganguly.
But by doing so, are we not simply relying too much and putting up too much responsibilities on this poor chap. The good team is one which can share the responsibilities equally. Already he had been dumped with the role of Wicket Keeper, making him the captain will be too much a burden for him to carry.

Saurav Ganguly
Finally this is the man of discussion. He is without any doubt the most aggressive player India had ever had, not only when he is batting but during fielding or for the matter of fact even when he is in the pavilion watching his team play to victory. He would go out with unconditional support for his team members and would do his best to boost the morale of his players. If he wins a match he distributes the credit to all, but when he loses any he eats all the blame. He certainly scores very high on point # 1-4 but loses badly on point 5. Yes, he is not a savior. You cannot expect him to snatch the match away to victory all on his own. But he is all ready to stand and provide full support and boost one’s morale to make the team come together and snatch the match away to victory.
I don't wanna say anymore read my heart here the writer has penned the story very nicely.

By these statistics we are left with only two in the entire team India who is best suited for taking up the captaincy – Dravid or Ganguly. I do not support for the former for the reasons explained above and so the only choice left with is Ganguly. I do agree that off late he has not performed well with the bat, but that is not enough the reason to remove him the captaincy. It is just not his season. Have patience, give the poor chap some time and he will definitely rise victorious. He had proven his credit in the past and I am sure he will do so in the future as well.

Weekend tour to WV and Pittsburg

Last weekend I managed to find some time out of my usual busy schedule to go to West Virginia and Pittsburg with about a dozen of friends from the ML account. Some where my own friends, some my friend’s friend and some my friend’s friend’s friend. But it was a nice tour with so many new friends or rather I should say chain of friends. I drove down to Bhanu’s place (Yes, Bhanu was there in this tour, so you can obviously expect some fun and some adventure ;) will tell you about the adventure part later) and from there fourteen of us started on three different rental cars and headed straight for our Hotel already booked Glens Dale – WV.
Don’t wanna say much about whether the Motel was good or not – but the receptionist was definitely good ;) and so our boys then had no problem with the shabbiness of the room or the room service. Few tried there best but all they could manage was just her name that sounded something like Kareena.
After dropping our luggage at the motel we went in search of food for the “Pet Puja” and stopped by the Pizza Hut. Again since we had a mixed breed of Vegetarian and Non- Vegetarian in the group, there was some confusion with the orders which could be attributed to either the girl’s (girl who was taking the order) true ignorance towards veggie food or she had encountered the pure veggie breed for the first time but she definitely looked a bit shocked seeing such big group of ALL BOYS. And then Pronobesh confused her further by his order of “Buffalo Chicken”, I had to correct him that if he means “Buffalo Wings” by this?
After our sumptuous meal we went to see the “Palace of Gold”, the Iskon Temple on the hills of Moundsville – WV. It was a beautiful temple and the scenic beauty surrounding it was just awesome. Few amongst us fealt blessed hearing the Gyan on Krishna’s consciousness and about Chaitnya Mahaprabhu and his spiritualisms, but some chose to stand out and smoke their chimney. From there we went ahead to see the “Green Miles”, the place were the prisoners were executed. This is one of the old Green Miles Prison of East Coast, Featured in MTV fear. People have gone through different Supernatural Experiences here. But we were not so lucky and found that we are a bit too early for the season to begin. But what has season got to do with this, I wondered? Is it something like the ghosts come back and occupy there cells to beat the chill of the season and stay there till it is spring/summer? Anyway we were told that it would open for visitors after a week and so we all had to return back to our motel without experiencing anything supernatural.
The next day we started for “Laurel Caverns”, the undeveloped passages in Pennsylvania's largest caverns, to explore a 430-acre geological park with 2.8 miles of Underground Passages, catacombs, and native sculptures. But since we fell short of time we had to restrict ourselves to just a one hour tour.
After exploring the year old caves we proceeded towards the Pittsburg downtown to experience some mad driving. Yes you read it correctly; it was some Insane Driving by all the three cars, not because of the lack of driving experience but because of some misguided directions and one-ways and other stuffs. We wanted to go to the Golden Triangle – the point where the three rivers meet, but could never reach there and mistakenly (or I can say correctly, because it was on our list) we reached Mt. Washington. Climbing the Mt. Washington requires some real driving skills, because the streets are not only narrow but also steep and sharp turnings.
It was already around 8 PM when we headed back for NJ, we had to cover some 350 odd miles (with few breaks off course for food and fag), and since we had office the next morning, we targeted to reach NJ latest by 2 AM. This means we have to cover the entire distance in not more than 5 hrs. This left us with no option than to drive at an average speed of about 75-80 miles/hour. So the mad drivers buckled up their seat belts and no matter what the god may shower, Rain, Hail or Storm, we won’t slow down. The night driving at 80 MPH with heavy rainfall on I-76 East was the real driving test and was never ever experienced before by me. At end it was all safe driving with all fourteen returning safely to their destinations. Also not to mention I certified on the skill of following a Car without losing it’s track even for a sec, during this entire tour :-D

Destroyer Comes back...

Vinay Katiyar the miscreant of the Babri Masjid case is back in news, this time with the Taj Mahal issue. Read the story here
It would be interesting to see how the debate moves ahead. Will he go ahead with the demolition of the great Taj this time to rebuild a Shiva Temple at the site?
This man seems to be reading a lot of history and working hard towards finding himself some work to do and be in the news. Can the party chief try and find some worthy task for this poor chap to perform?

Shakti Stin(g)ks

Read this on rediff today and this is what I had to say in response.

"Page 3" is a movie from Madhur Bhandarkar a notable director from the Bollywood. Why do you think he had depicted a similar show in his movie, if the entire "Casting Couch" episode is falsified? He himself is a Director and one from the Bollywood bigwigs. You think he has just worked upon his imagination here?
No, the entire thing has been shown very correctly and truly, infact I would say he was “Inspired” by the growing sexual favoritism concept in Bollywood.
The thought of broadcasting this "Casting Couch" event was to arouse consciousness among the general public and to help put a brake on this shameless growing deed in the Bollywood Industry and not to rip off the Shakti’s image.
You had said that it's an internal private matter then will you argue that a similar case in IAF where three girls had reported charges against their supervisor of asking sexual favors to qualify them in their exam, as an internal private matter and dismiss the case?
Do you realize how many talented actors/actress are affected by this illicit favors? Do you realize why you see so much talents on the stage actors but still you don’t see them make it to Bollywood?
Adultery practices,or soliciting sexual favours in any industry or establishment,politics, bureaucrats or even at private level make a news because not acceptable practices.Social and cultural pressures somehow drive us away from indulging in.And that is how society gets going. But the vital question remains-should not public at large be aware of what all is going on?
Now lets take this to another level and replace Bollywood aspirants to Job aspirants, and the whole scene gets murkier. This may not be a legal issue.. so the police is not what these bigwigs are scared of. These guys are not too worried abt their family either, so the only way to stop these immoral acts( hoping that all these supporters of Shakti, at least find the issue immoral), is by showing them to the world.. And if the fear of a lurking camera is what scares them, then WAY to go India TV, the public is with you, and Damn to that word called privacy

B L A C K

This is the kind of movie that was never made before and could never be made.
Sanjay Leela Bansali has demonstrated his talent well through this magnificent movie. Amitabh and Rani are just wonderful, the best of their career I would say. Rani’s act in the entire movie is more than appreciable, she played the part of Mitchell as if she herself had been blind and deaf from birth, a pure natural act and Amitabh is at his best in this movie.
The Director has magnificently shot the entire movie in Black as the title goes and then the last part has been shot in all White. The movie goes smoothly and touches upon the miseries, pain and feelings of a small girl who has been born Deaf and Blind. Then comes the magician a teacher who vows to teach this girl the meaning and definition of each and every thing on the world.
This movie will certainly go upto Oscar and I swear no one can stop it from getting an Oscar if the judges there are not Deaf and Blind themselves.

India Vs US

No this is no news about any Baseball/Cricket match between the two :). I am talking about who is ahead in what here. Certainly US is much ahead of India in technology and developments but it is far too behind India when we talk of the Banking System in the two countries. While in India the Banking system has made a major advancement, the US is still lagging behind.
In US when you go to open a Checking account, you receive your Debit Card a week after via mail. But in India you get it instantly along with your net-banking ID and Password.
In US you have to buy Checks and in India it is free.
In US net banking does not support fund transfer facility. In India it is free and you can easily transfer your money from one bank to another.
Not to mention there are many many more facilities that US banks don’t provide but you can find them with the Indian banks.
Any comments??

PETA and these Celebs

Now here is something you called “Irony” Bollywood Celebrities Ads for PETA I can swear to oath that none of these stars have themselves given up eating Non-Veg foods. And they are calling for people to stop cow slaughter for meat. This is ridiculous, they are not posing for these ads because they are really concerned about animal killings, they are doing so just because they are getting money and popularity doing these.
Amisha own’s a restaurant in Bandra (W), Mumbai named as “The Fire Place” where you can find all varieties of Chicken meals and she is making ads for PETA. The first thing she should be doing (if she really has concern for the poor animals) is to convert her restaurant into a Veggie Restaurant, but that won’t fetch her any fame or money and so she won’t do that.
Let these people aside, I am surprised from the act of PETA organization. How can they select such people to campaign for them?

Lalu Raj

Lalu's days are gone. Paswan seems to have bent upon eradicating the Lalu Raj from Bihar. This man is really fighting a tough fight.
Read the story here

Martyrs Day

Today is the day three brave men gave their lives for their country. They were no ordinary men. They were men who dedicated their lives, who fought the British till their last breath. One of these men, who's a bit more famous than the other two, went on a fast for 52 days at a stretch!!! I'm not sure if even half a million in this country know about this great deed! The three of them were mercilessly killed on this day by the British. The three men were Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru. There's not one word in the papers or in the news about the importance of this day. Every newspaper/news channel is full of news about the "friendship" series, the final ODI between India and Pakistan!! and the damn election news. No one is talking about these three great heros of the freedom struggle. Shame on us!!

Internet Spamming

There is a new kind of spamming taking hold of the net world, that's the "Employee Referrals for Jobs". Yes, I receive them almost daily from some friends in some company in some part of India. I receive those Spams (if I am allowed to use that word now) even from my colleagues who has my yahoo mail id in their address book and unknowingly they put my name also in the 'CC' list. Also I receive the same referral Spam from multiple friends working in the same company. I get into dilemma sometime as to whom I should respond back if I have a guy to be referred to, and whom should I help to be the lucky winner of referral award :-?

"The Rising"... will it do good?

Ketan Mehata’s “The Rising” is scheduled for release on June. It is exciting to see how he portrays the hero of the freedom struggle “Mangal Pandey” who we all know was the first soldier in the British army to revolt against the use of animal fat coated bullets. But that is the only thing majority of us know about him. History speaks very little of this hero, yet Ketan Mehata chose this character for his movie. What makes the movie more exciting is the fact that the role of Mangal Pandey is being played by none other than the maestro of bollywood kingdom – Aamir Khan. He certainly did well enough in Lagaan and in Dil Chata Hai…. but then he remained silent for almost 3 years and certainly the viewers would be expecting another major hit from this talented hero. Both Ketan and Aamir did a lot of research and worked real hard towards making this movie a great success. But all those publicity has already led the Aam Janta to build a very high expectation, and if Ketan and Aamir fails to achieve that… the movie will bomb. This is what had happened to Kaante. Though the cast the crew the portrayal of the story in Kaante was good, it bombed, reason being the fact that publicity of the movie was too exaggerated and so public had set up a very high expectation from the movie but it failed to achieve that level and so it bombed. Take the case of Hum Tum… though the movie was a copy of the English version “When Harry met Sally”, it did well at the box office, reason – no high fly publicity. People went to watch this as just another romantic movie and they loved it, because they got what they had not expected.
Well let us wish “The Rising” does good, already the year has proved lucky for the bollywood industry with “Swadesh” and “BLACK” already on the hit list of the year.

Role of an opposition party....

The role of oppositions is funny and they make themselves funnier with their act. When a party takes the opposition seat, they believe their sole task is to oppose any reforms or agenda put forward by the ruling. So whenever any issue is put forward by the ruling party our opposition has to (as if it is mandated) step forward and oppose the same without even knowing the details of it or making any calculations to find out if the reform is good or bad, will it really affect the country’s economy or will it give a significant boost to the socio-economy infrastructure of India?
Take for example the new budget proposal, almost all industrialists is speaking in favor of the budget but our opposition (BJP) chose to take a separate stand. The funny part there is no common voice among the party leaders. Vajpayee shares his opinion about the budget, saying "salaried people have to pay more taxes". But his fear is contradicted in Yashwant Sinha’s statement "His tax concessions both on direct and indirect side do not justify his budget estimate for the next year" meaning the government will not be able to pull out enough taxes from the general mass (majority of which belongs to the salaried class) with the suggested tax reforms. This is stupidity, the party should do some research do some calculations and then they should decide whether or not they should criticize the reforms proposed.
I am not against BJP here, even the Congress or any other party behaves the same way when they take up the seat of opposition. Why they behave so? Whom are they trying to fool? Why can’t they be rationale in their thinking?

Fringe Benefit Tax.... what's the idea?

The Fringe Benefit Tax to be imposed by the government as proposed in the new budget session would put a lot of people into a twist of Tax calculation and correct return filing.
The fringe benefit tax is based on the universal principle of cost to company which means all reimbursements made by the employee from the company will fall under this tax category. Even the expenses such as Travel, Lodging and Telephone bills will not be spared. This means every small and big business owners will have to keep account of the expense categories and then calculate and declare appropriately at the time of return filing. This seems quiet a hell lot of work for small business owners, the simple fact of keeping account of all such kinds of expenses and categorizing them under appropriate groups seems illogical for small business owners.
Read the complete story here to know all about the Fringe Benefit Tax.

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