WORLD CUP

Sachin Tendulkar was 10 when Kapil Dev brought the world cup to India.This is 2011 and what happened to cricket in India and Sachin himself is a story worth telling.Most of us have witnessed it but still the story never fails to amaze.Sachin is hailed as cricket's god and there is not a bit of exaggeration in there.Seeing him play one realizes that all the millions of neurons that he has,are trained to interpret the trajectory of the ball and send out signals to his framework to take the right stance and through a well coordinated series of movements at par with a ballet artist deliver the right amount of force to manoeuvour the ball through the right places.He is as perfect as it gets.He has been the spine of the Indian team for more than 20 years and still shows no sign of aging and on the contrary he has become more sound technically.Its no wonder that the present team wants to win the cup for Sachin.All of them have grown up watching him play and feel blessed to be in the same team with him.The present team is rich with energy and talent and it has got the right motivation.With a tactful captain that M.S Dhoni is we have the best chance that we have had since 1983.

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LAL CHOWK

The controversy is a part of our very recent past.I am not one of those well informed people and whatever general awareness I have is a direct result of my attempts at finding some raunchy "sansanikhej" masala news that they serve on every news channel that is(apologies to the exceptions that prevent the whole community to be cursed).The purpose of mine that I want to serve here is bringing out the ambiguity that exists over the so called freedom of opinion.First of all I dont believe that such a freedom should exist as it promotes stupidity.What I noticed as I watched the many debates that I witnessed over various news channels is that no matter what anyone said,he or she was branded either to be a moderate or a right extremist.I am not here to advertise the middle path.What I want to bring to notice is,the very wrong presupposition of the Indian media that the masses are incapable of an independent opinion.Should a
flag be hoisted at the Lal Chowk?There is only one standpoint from which such matters should be dealt and that is the nation's interest.The separatists are creating problems and trying to colour India's actions in dictatorial black.A strong message needs to be sent across to them and thus hoisting the tricolour in their bastion is very much needed and thus well justified.The problem lies in the fact that BJP was using it as a publicity stunt.This however does'nt imply that anyone who said yes to the unfurling was a Hindu extremist.On similar lines anyone who went against the unfurling was portrayed as a Congress sympathiser,BJP condemning moderate and progressive Indian.The truth is that these are the people who avoid confrontations and actions even when the country's interests are at stake.What is behind these biases that the Indian media holds is a big question?Every media person at that time argued that such an action would lead to the already volatile conditions in the valley to worsen.Well the conditions there have been bad for as long as anyone can
remember and it is going to get worser if the separatists are not dealt with strictly.Of late the separatists have also gathered big-wig sympathisers in the so called intellectual circle and also in the international media.In such challenging scenario the stance that Indian media has taken is the wrong one and it needs to be corrected.

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RUSKIN BOND

During my initial years at school I was very introverted and it took me days to start conversing with other kids.I was'nt interested or talented in playing any sports and so I preferred to stay inside during lunch breaks and evenings when everybody darted for the playgrounds.Well as time passed me by I opened up a bit and slowly I became kind of normal.However I still felt uneasy in unfamiliar domains.

At school my favourite subject was English language.The main reason behind it was that my teacher was a wonderful lady who made me feel comfortable.The stories and poems recited by her seemed to take a dream like quality.Unlike others she would be very pleased when we came up with our own interpretations of poems.The danger that my introverted nature posed to me enjoying a wholesome childhood was somewhat offset by my literary inclinations.

Through textbooks I was introduced to Ruskin Bond's short stories like "Woman on Platform 8"(this was the first one) and "Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra".Reading these stories made me an instant fan.The stories transported me from my
own world into some unknown hill station in the foothills of the Himalayas.Through the stories I myself felt like a boy from the hills,with nothing more important than wandering in the hills.How can one create such lively a world with nothing but words still remains beyond my understanding.There have been many authors with a brilliant vocabulary and the right sense to use it efficiently,but Ruskin Bond's gift seems to be extra sensitive senses capable of absorbing even the minutest of details and the wisdom to interpret these details correctly.

Many of his works were semi-autobiographic in nature and most of them were influenced by events of his childhood.A few years later I became a member of the local British library and one fortunate day I stumbled upon "collected works of Ruskin Bond".That whole summer I dedicated myself to this book.Most of the short stories in there were already read by me, but still I read the whole book word by word.In all of his works the surroundings that the characters inhabited was not just a mere backdrop,but it was a character in
itself with its own chemistry with the other characters.The pleasure and calm that one feels while seeing a beautiful stream is what one feels while reading his works.The book also had some novels and novellas like-"Room on the Roof","Vragrants in the Valley","Delhi is not Far" .

Bond wrote "Room on the Roof" when he was just 17 years old and won the "John LLeweLLyn Rhys" prize for it in 1957.It is a semi-autobiographic account of his struggle towards becoming a writer.The book is still one of my favourites and I remember being moved to tears while reading the last pages.The opening lines of that book still remain with me
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And the last puff of the daywind brought from the unseen villages, the scent of damp wood-smoke,hot cakes,dripping undergrowth,and rotting pine-cones.That is the true smell of the Himalayas,and if once it creeps in the blood of a man,that man will at the last,forgetting all else,return to the hilsto die.

The worlds that Bond created were so complete and so life like that my heart yearns to be one of his characters possessed by that last gust of daywind who returns at last to the hills for his nirvana.

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CIGARETTES AND ALCOHOL

It was the first semester when in full audience I had affirmed that I would never touch alcohol or cigarettes or any other thing of the same sort. My proclamation stemmed from the hate that I held for intoxicants and the hate stemmed from the fights between my parents that I encountered as a child when my father returned home drunk.Please dont interpret that my father was a wife beating drunkard because he was'nt.It was just that my mother was highly intolerant towards these bad habits and it was hard for her to control her disgust.

This is the eight'th semester and here I am -an alcohol gulping cigarette smoking self righteous bastard trying to defend himself on web log.So what happened in between that changed me so much.Well first of all I was not that wise enough at that time to realize my youthful vanity that fuelled me with a spineless confidence.Just out of a small town I did'nt realize that life had just started for me and there was a lot that I had to still see and experience.

One of my great friends brought a great deal of change in how I looked at things.He had once said to me that one life is what we have got and so we should let all kinds of experiences enrich us and for this first we must loose our inhibitions.This one maxim so deeply provoked me that on the last day of our first semester I smoked a complete navycut.My head seemed to go in circles but I felt great on loosing my inhibition.During the first sessionals of the second semester when we were battling it out with our courses I took a drag of "kings" and realized that my sleepiness was gone.All during that sessional I smoked so that I could stay awake and study.Slowly and steadily the habit took hold and I became a smoker.Like every new smoker I tried every other brand that crossed my eyes and later on settled on "kings".

In the same semester I drank alcohol as in vodka for the first time.The occasion was my birthday and breaking the shackles of another inhibition seemed the second step in a brand new direction.Through the next semesters I developed taste for whisky,rum,wine,brandy,whisky again and smoking continued as usual.

My mates had now started to mock me over my addictions.I however never took notice because I knew that I was not addicted and I could quit when I wanted.But why would I want to quit,when I had discovered its benefits.Contrary to all beliefs intoxicants possess benefits when taken in quantities that one can handle and it is also a fact that they harm our health anyway.Smoking increases the metabolism and thus helps your mind to be active and as everyone knows it is the best stressbuster.The most common application however is that it is a very good timepass.NOTE: to get cancer from smoking you need to be a heavy smoker and
preventing oneself from becoming one is not that great a challenge.Alcohol on the other hand is a great motivator and lets you break your barriers.Most importantly-its great fun getting high.The downside of these habits is that it can empty your pockets in no time and of course the health issue.

Ayn Rand who was a chain smoker all through her life had expressed her thoughts on smoking in the book Atlas Shrugged through one of the characters who says

I like cigarettes, Miss Taggart. I like to think of fire held in a man's hand. Fire, a dangerous force, tamed at his fingertips. I often wonder about the hours when a man sits alone, watching the smoke of a cigarette, thinking. I wonder what great things have come from such hours. When a man thinks, there is a spot of fire alive in his mind—and it is proper that he should have the burning point of a cigarette as his one expression.

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DA VALENTINE CODE

This is the real story behind Valentine's Day.I dont have any tangible proof to support it as they have been destroyed by a secret society.More about this secret society later,first hear the story.

Well the story is about Mr. x who ran a small greetings card company by the name Y.Mr X was deeply in love with a lady called Rosemary.Rosemary was a poor but clever girl and she did not love X.X tried all the tricks but could not win Rosemary's heart.He was fond of buying precious gifts for Rosemary which she accepted only because she could earn money by trading these gifts at Mr. z's pawn shop.
One day Rosemary met Mr.K and both instantly fell in love with each other.Mr K used to run greeting card company L which was loosing badly in competition to Y.When K learnt about the inclinations of X towards Rosemary he hatched a plan.He convinced Rosemary to pretend being affectionate towards X and then gain access to his secret
business strategems.Rosemary's new but fake attitude completely possessed X and he started spending even more on her.Meanwhile Mr K slowly started to gain all of X's businesses through the prior knowledge of X's strategies.All this did'nt seem to matter Mr X who was drunk with his new found love.

One fine day Mr X decided to ask Rosemary to marry him.When he reached her house with the ring he was dumbfounded to see Rosemary in the arms of K.When he confronted her she told him that she was going to marry K and then coldly asked him to leave.Betrayed he resorted to heavy drinking.Slowly he lost his business completely
and whatever riches he was left with he squandered on drinking.He spent his days drinking in dirty pubs and many nights he spent on the street.When he went out of cash he started to trade articles at the pawn shop.Once he went to Z's pawn shop so that he could buy money for alcohol.There as he looked around he saw a golden chain with the word R hanging from one of the links.He could clearly identify this chain as he had gifted it to Rosemary.When he enquired Z about it he came to know the truth.Z also told him that she was now the wife of K who ran the successful greeting cards company by the name L.Upon knowing
all this the truth became clear to X.

Driven by a strong feeling to avenge,X decided to pull up his socks and ruin K and his business.He was a very good businessman in his days and he knew someone would still help him.He had learnt a lesson the hard way and this had made him even more determined.Being aware
of the immense power that love possesses over the heart that carries it, he made a plan.X had contacts with the top clergymen at Vatican.He made a deal with them.The church was to invent the concept of Valentine's Day and in turn X's company would pay royalty,popularize uncle Santa.X's company made astronomical profits from Valentine Day cards and merchandise that year and K's company went out of business.If not his love X got his revenge.When everyone celebrates Valentine Day,the top notch of every greeting cards company pays their homage to Mr X behind guarded doors.Oh yes this secret is guarded by the "Priori of Sion".Please dont laugh as what I say is the truth.

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BOLLYWOOD MUSIC

Music in India is customised to suit the soul of cinema.Cinema in turn is tailored to earn maximum profits.A popular item girl not worth mentioning once had commented on what sells as cinema in India by using an alliteration-"Shahrukh and Sex".She may not be completely true but it is a fact that an average Indian prefers being served cheap thrills over arty cinema.Thus what we have as music is something which either disrupts the harmony inside or goes unregistered despite of its forceful attempts .Due to the same reason big names like Anu Malik and Pritam shamelessly lift music from different parts of the world and brand them as their own.Such people should be severely condemned and barred from making any music at all.

The independent music scene seems to be going out of existence.There was a time when independent albums were the in thing.The music that was dished out was not brilliant but here and there one could spot signs of it.Most importantly the music seemed original.The period I am talking about is when Alisha Chinoy swept the country off its feet with "Made in India",when singers like Shaan and Sonu Nigam and Lucky Ali made albums and bands like Euphoria and Silk Route were trying to establish themselves.

Today no artist or company is interested in making albums and TRP seeking talent hunt shows is where young artists try their luck.The era of cassettes is over and whatever CD's get sold are the pirated ones.Internet is where people get most of the music from.Musicians now have only one option and that is to make music for the movies.This has made music dependent on taste of the masses and on skimplily clad item girls.

Item song upon item song makes me hungrier for music that lasts,for songs that I can sing to myself without straining my brain to remember it.The
scene is not completely grim as exceptions are universal and to prove it we have "The Mozart from Madras" and a few other.Amit Trivedi has been like a breath of fresh air with the originality he has displayed in his brief career.Also moviemakers today are making better cinema and giving composers the freedom to experiment.Bollywood music needs to reinvent itself and the way forward is making it independent of cinema.The solution lies in the enemy itself that is the internet.Online music stores with a nominal charge per song and the profits from advertising on the website alongwith an arrangement that prevents the songs being illegally published elsewhere can help the present music scene a lot.Also the moviemakers must be made to pay a part of the profits based on the popularity of the music for the movie since it plays an important part in drawing attention of people towards the movie.It is true that nothing can constrain brilliance but clearing the path leads to a sense of freedom which is necesarry for artists getting experimentative and original.

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GREED IS GOOD

There can be a million ways to look at things,but only one amongst them will let us see the truth objectively.Strangely enough it is not that tough to identify the correct perspective.This is because we humans aided with superior quality brains are able to develop the faculty of reason.We as a species have travelled from being barbarians to be able to control fire all because we reasoned that a better way was possible.Strangely enough during this process were conceived irrational concepts that have stuck to the minds of the humans like leeches who now threaten to suck the reason out withoout even being noticed.These concepts have something common in them- all are meant to blunt the brilliance that humans are capable of in the name of the common good.These concepts directly or indirectly try to accentuate a falsity that living for one's own happiness is evil.The madness that plagues the societies at large today
can only be cured when we realize that the "virtue of selflessness" is the greatest frauds of all times.One must remember that any leap that the humankind has ever taken in the process of civilization has been due to the unrelenting endurance of some brilliant and courageous mind to stick with his vision.All these great minds were at there times opposed by the societies that existed but it was the ego of their morality that made the leap possible.

This irrational majority has declared greed to be evil and they have succeeded in establishing this as a fact.What material wealth one is capable to possess is directly propotional to what he/she possesses as talent and values.Greed is that motivator which pushes one to achieve more than what the person is capable of.To do so thus a man needs to enrich his talents and value system.Thus greed pushes you to be a better human.If a person breaks laws to acquire more and more material possessions,then it is that person's rationale and inefficiency of the state to stop such a person that should be decried and not greed.A reasoning brain knows that material possessions can make you happy only when you have deserved them and thus through greed they try to become deserving.On the other hand an unreasoning mind is unaware of this fact and thus greed drives him to loot.

The faceless and the motiveless says greed is evil.They say it turns men into amoralists who are incapable of love towards anything other than money.Yes ofcourse it does such things,but being amoral when the accepted morality is at fault and love for money coupled together is the best cure for our society.our morality is at fault because it is not headed the right way.The stage of advancement that we have reached is because we have always held to reason and it is against our best tool to still believe in irrational concepts like that of selflessness,god,rebirth,soul and other concepts that rise from these.Love for money is the best thing that could happen to an individual(the one who can reason) as it is very hard to earn honest money and thus to deserve more and more money a person will be driven to get more and more deserving.They say greed makes one forget his duties towards his family.Well duty is something that is dictatetd to us by our own morality and not by the moral code of the society.This sense of duty arises from love which in itself is such great a force that it is impossible to neglect what it dictates.

Who are these faceless and motiveless people?How can one defeat them?What invisible lies in the path to the truth that bars the view?Or is it that no one wants to see this truth?To all these questions I have only one answer or perhaps a question-wHO IS JOHN GALT?

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