Triumphant Dada

I follow/play cricket and resided in West Bengal for 4 years which entitles me to write about Dada aka Sourav Chandidas Ganguly, the second most successful Indian captain.I was shocked after he announced his retirement from all the forms of game. What made Dada different was his flamboyance and aggression.This marks an end of a golden chapter in the history of Indian cricket.

Each great person has critics. Dada too had suffered a fair share of criticism.Playing alongside a deity shadowed his otherwise fantastic achievements.But their was a quality in Dada which no other earlier Indian captains had. He was a born leader and cultivated young players into superstars.

I remember India participating in ICC championships, Kenya, with  unknown players like Zaheer and Yuvraj. We deserved the cup but lost to Chris cairns’ stellar performance in the final.Nobody can forget the Natwest series final in 2001 and Dada’s famous shirt swinging reaction at Lords’ balcony.

The only time I thought that Dada and his team could not rise to the occasion was the 2003 World Cup final, but each Indian player got outplayed that day.Again Dada’s wonderful young team got overpowered by a better opposition.That too came after a very disappointing tour of New Zealand.

Sourav and Sachin were the best opening pair.I guess it was only Dada who can take care of both his batting and the captaincy together. Dravid and Sachin failed remarkably handling this dual responsibility. He was a genuine match winner, India never lost when Dada performed well (remember those sweet wins against Pakistan).

Nagma, Chappel and Short balls almost brought Dada’s downfall but he always came bouncing back. He could not lead Kolkata to a better performance in IPL. That is what probably cost him his place this year. But as they say greatness doesn’t have any expiry date.

I wish dada all the best for his future endeavors. Thanks for entertaining us with all those towering sixes.

Expectations Unlimited

Yeah Expectation which defines every role. To carry out their role efficiently ,a  person should clearly know what are the expectations. Every institution/individual review its expectations after a certain time period. For example, we expect team India to win the Cricket World cup this year. But the dilemma is, does this expectation bring you down?

Most of us must have faced such a situation in our life,where the pressure of expectation has brought us down. This pressure is different for different people, for e.g. compare Sachin Tendulkar with you/me but so are the rewards.

I experienced a similar situation few days back, when I was sitting on the front seat of a  car along with the driver. My role was not to sleep, but I was napping in between.Once I came to the back, I was able to control myself better.

My observation is that you are always better off, if you follow a zero sum game principle,which simply means that you will always do better when you know that you have nothing to lose (nobody to impress but you). Because then failure will not disappoint you,but success will be a bonus.

Again this is just a hypothesis and is not applicable everywhere. Sometimes the zeal to win and putting your life on the task helps you overcome the pressure. In the end we should appreciate the fact that failure is also a part of life. You cannot feel the ecstasy of win if you have not experienced the agony of failure.

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is doing awesome!.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 2,300 times in 2010. That’s about 6 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 12 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 34 posts. There were 19 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 16mb. That’s about 2 pictures per month.

The busiest day of the year was July 5th with 89 views. The most popular post that day was About.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, twitter.com, mihirshah.wordpress.com, blog.rangde.org, and linkedin.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for save water, save water pictures, save water poster, poster on save water, and save water save life.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

About August 2009
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Chase Excellence not Success January 2010
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Fir Dil Do Hockey ko March 2010

The GOD February 2010
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Water Crisis : When will we learn August 2009
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Agni pariksha

After Rakhi ka Swayamvar and Rakhi ka Insaaf, Imagine is planning to launch one more series named Rakhi ki Agni Pariksha. As in Ramayana Sita goes through Agni Parisksha to prove her sanctity, similarly Rakhi will have to pass the fire test. She herself said that she is as pure as Ganga in Swayamvar. When asked about this she said I am confident of passing the Agni Pariksha successfully.

The Information & Broadcasting ministry has agreed to air this show on the prime time slot. Once it is successful many celebrities are also lined up to go through the Agni Pariksha. Some of them are former telecom minister A Raja, CWG boss Suresh Kalmadi and UP chief minister Mayawati. All of them seemed confident of passing the Agni Pariksha, though some skeptics having fool-proof evidence thought otherwise. Rakhi herself will host the later sequels to the show.

The Supreme court is also planning to send Ajmal Kasab to the show so that the exchequer can o justice quickly. Former railway minister Lallu Prasad Yadav has demanded a JPC to review SC’s decision. He thinks that this method can be applied to all the big-ticket cases which includes the fodder scam case as well.

Inspired by this idea popular actor Shahrukh khan has decided to use Agni Pariksha for the climax of his directorial début “My name is Salman”. The dabang protagonist will prove his innocence in animal poaching; killing poor people while drunk driving & various other cases by setting himself on fire & coming out unscathed. Shahrukh admitted that his earlier movie ‘My name is Khan’ was a mistake as his surname not name was Khan.

Look at the video above first, I don’t think I will have to write anything after that.

Men in societies such as ours are invariably the bread earners, but most of them don’t know how to use it in the best possible way.It is the women who after doing all their operations research, maximize the output to survive even on a low-income.

This unique quality was given to them from their mothers, but along with these gems comes stones like that they should get married early, never revolt to their husband’s bad habits & have lots of babies. People can argue about it but the main cause of population explosion is  because the male & female partners are not having an equal status in the family.

I have been to a trip in the village of Kuthambakam, where we had met Mr. Elango. He told the main problem of the village was that the men beat their wives after drinking. The first thing he tried to eradicate was the drinking problem. Once the men were sober , they began to respect their wives & helped them in setting up cottage industries.

I went to Vandavasi to meet RangDe’s borrowers. We met some 4-5 of them & all of them were women who were running the show. One widow had started a little restaurant & her aim was to make sure her only son gets through college. One mother daughter pair made sarees & other women apparels.It was heartening to see their  families being supportive of them.

As responsible citizens & the youth change producers, we should promote the equality between the girl & boy child. Stop discriminating between them. An educated girl can improve the society in a better way than an educated boy.

Expect the unexpected

To those who are not familiar with the word “Underdog“, it means a person or a unit who is expected to lose in a competition. I will only talk about sports.

The best example is today’s victory of Pakistan over England. I never expected their batting to match that of England, but inclusion of Mohammad Yousuf lifted their spirits. After losing two tests they have bounced back in this series & I think they can level it too, just like they did against Australia.I am not pro-Pakistani,but after watching this passionate young team ,I wanted them to win.Also given the recent floods & calamities in Pakistan it is boost for the nation winning on the same ground where Umpire Daryl Hair forfeited the match to England.

Now come to Tennis. I started watching the game because of Wimbledon & particularly Sampras…7 titles in 8 years is no mean feat.Going down the memory lane,I was supporting him for his 9th Wimbledon title. He was on his way to the 4th round winning easily.Then he met a lesser known Swiss named Roger Federer.I was rooting for Sampras during the entire match.When the match entered the fifth set, I was sure of his victory. That eventful day saw breaking of many records & the fall of one tennis superstar led to the rise of the other. Fedex became the only person to defeat Sampras in 5 sets in a Wimbledon match. ( My cousin was supporting Fedex )

Those underdogs who rise up to th challenge & show zeal are worthy of creating upsets & the sports world need such shocks to constantly improve itself.

Happy Independence Day

Today my country India, celebrated its 64th birthday( after getting freedom from British rule). But since then some other vices (mentioned below)  have ruled us from which we need  freedom today.

Freedom from Corruption:

This is the most ugly one as politicians & bureaucrats have made it a part & parcel of their duty. Even the average person & foreigners think that it is mandatory to bribe officials for completing any task or avoiding any punishment on breaking any law.The latest Common Wealth Games fiasco has shown that how deeply it has permeated in the system that even putting national pride at stake is not an issue for those practicing it.

Freedom from Divisions on Society:

Every person does not classifies himself as an Indian first. The divisions in the society is as wide even today as it was 64 years ago. No government policy had been able to bridge the gap between rich & poor. We are still classified as minority/majority based on our religion/caste.India is still a male dominated country. If someone doesn’t speak the local/regional language, he is treated inhumanly.We need somebody like coach Kabir Khan of “Chak De India” who can unite different entities into a single unit called India.I don’t know whether it is a good idea to do a caste based census of our people.

Freedom from Illiteracy:

We are very far from China in this regard. Our people have a habit of not preparing themselves for the future. China converted its biggest liability, its population, into its biggest asset. We need to manage our human resources better to progress. We have to somehow turn our unskilled labor into skilled one. Everyone should have the channels to get vocational training.

Freedom from “Chalta hai attitude”:

We can get freedom from all the above only once the youth opens its eyes to the injustice done. Watching silently & doing nothing is as bad as committing a crime.So don’t stay quiet if you see any wrongdoings, protest against it.

PS: I have resolved today to get freedom from two of my vices :

1) Freedom from Laziness.

2) Freedom from Indecision.

They missed the 20-year-old Thomas Mueller,who was the hero of their quarter-final victory, suspended due to a 2nd yellow card. Schweinsteiger was playing as a defender.It was looking that Germany wants to hold Spain & take the match to a penalty shoot-out.Though Neuer was good at the post as was Casillas. But Germany was not even looking to(or rather prevented) attack.

Iniesta & Pedro were playing very smoothly & making some good chances from the flanks, however Germans defended bravely,but this approach was always risky & just one good header from Puyol, made the difference.Germany had conceded only 2 goals before this match,both from well-directed crosses.(Barring Lampard’s refused goal).

So again after performing so well, Germany continued their disappointing run at the Semifinals/finals of big competitions. It was a repeat of the Euro cup final with the same result.This is the EuroCup & this is the WorldCup video.

But Germany again made a top four finish, this time with an inexperienced attack.Bravo Phillip Lahm & Joachim Leow.

I fancy Spain’s chances now, but since both the finalist have never won a World Cup before so it will be a pressure cooker match.Hope the best team wins.

Looked like it is a cracker of a match, when people can score almost from midfield. Uruguay & Ghana, both were making chances in the second half & both being given as many as 5 yellow cards during it. Diego Forlan took the free kick chance whole heartedly & Kingson  beaten very subtly by the striker. After the match was level, both the teams started making aggressive moves. But Kingson, Suarez’s mis-hits & some good defending by Ghana took the match to an extra time.

In  extra time, Ghana took the onus of scoring & they were clearly looking more dominant. In the meanwhile Forlan & Boateng missed some superb chances for their respective teams.

The most dramatic moment was the free kick given to Ghana at the last gasp, at which they almost had a goal, denied to them by Suarez’s hand, who was promptly given a red card. It was a pity the Gyan hit the crossbar on his penalty as the African side missed a chance to seal it then & there.

Finally a more dramatic shootout saw Muslera saving two shots back to back & Maxi missing the post. It was really disheartening to see a deserving Ghana side losing in Penalty shoot out.

The only takeaway from the match was Luis Suarez who sacrificed himself for his team’s sake( although it was illegal) & God was on his side as Gyan missed the penalty. I don’t see Uruguay winning the semifinal though, but all the best to them.

Watch the thrilling last minutes here

Watch The Penalty Shootout here