The noisy neighbour

The best part about today's match was not the super-vintage performance by Ryan Giggs; not the unexpected haul of two goals by Darren Fletcher; not the clever winner by Owen; not the fact that Nani didn't play; not the fact that Tevez didn't score but...Rio Ferdinand is done with his mandatory brain-dead moment of the season and we still managed to win that match. Ben Foster is soon turning into the true successor of Barthez! No wonder the United talent squads are looking for fresh talent across Europe.

Hi-at-us

It has been ages since I posted anything on this blog. Not that I have been totally anti-social in all this while. I have been at it on Twitter - not the heights of @prolificd or as controversial as @tharoor or as sought after as @Swannyg66 but in my own small way - tweeting/re-tweeting and replying.
So lets get on to my favourite topics - all the topics that you, my loyal reader have been yearning for.
Cricket - Sachin Tendulkar - the Indian team starts and ends with him. Period.
Football - Cristiano Ronaldo has left the shores of England; life after Ronaldo is not that bad, after all.'We' now openly support the retro-active punishment meted out on the Eduardos of the world. What have they done to the game - diving et al. I don't think there will be a difference in our performance against the top clubs and ones like Spurs who are out there to win. I think we will struggle against the smaller teams which are out to defend a 0-0 score-line or are too physical - that's where you need a moment of magic, an opportunistic free-kick given your way (euphemism for the d-word) to wrest the game away from the Stoke Cities and Evertons of the world. Let's see how long the SRT of United, Ryan Giggs continues. With Owen Hargreaves set to return, things may after all get very exciting. Just keep Valencia and Nani for the Carling Cup games; they just don't belong and Carrick is ready to be sold.
Films - Watched Kaminey today. Liked it. I didn't understand why they kept saying you need to get your brains with you to watch this movie. Didn't find it to be such a brain-teaser! Priyanka Chopra has acted in a range of movies in her 6 (?) years-long career. I recall watching her first film in Ahmedabad which was an unmitigated disaster for me. She acts well.
Books - Last read was My Friend Sancho. Anyone who has followed my posts should know that I'm a big fan of India Uncut. No wonder that I liked the book a lot. It is a light read. You will finish it in one sitting. Written very well. Amit does an extremely good job of sketching the characters and you, at least I, could even put a face to the characters and that usually is my acid test for how well a book has been written.
Politics - While the BJP seems to be in self-destruct mode, Congress is in no position to take advantage of it. That's because the Ministers who actually have an opportunity to make changes which will result in the aam aadmi see the benefits of inadvertantly voting in Congress are not doing the things.Of course, this time round, they don't have a Shivraj Patil to undo anything good that the Govt. would have done in one change of his bandhgala but there is so much of reform and by reform, I don't mean controversial things like FDI/privatization but simple reforms which eliminate red-tape/bureaucracy/corruption in the government machinery. As of now, I see only Kapil Sibal, Kamal Nath and Sushil Kumar Shinde (surprisingly) to a certain extent trying to work towards the super-ambitious 100-day agenda. Sharad Pawar who had the portfolio best suited for his political career has IMO failed spectacularly, given the expectations we had of him. Maharashtra seems to be heading towards a hung assembly where the few seats that Raj T wins may prove crucial in forming the next government.

On a personal note, Navya almost became a shikaar of a Quick Gun Shanthi who insisted on treating her seasonal flu with Tamiflu syrup. We somehow managed to avoid Tamiflu and its side-effects. She is thrilled about becoming an akka in January '10 and we are all gearing up for it.
With that, I sign off for the day and hope that I won't be away for so long.

Modi in Maharashtra

I have read some of the reports of Modi's speeches in Maharashtra and he is clearly missing the trick. I think the reason why SS didn't want Modi to campaign in Maharashtra was exactly this - he will surely get the aaghadi out hit wicket (continuing with the cricketing analogy). Even Suresh Dada Jain has found Pawar difficult to handle in Jalgaon. The best tactics for BJP-SS is to play the local game.The Assembly elections are going be held later in the year but BJP SS can surely gain lot of ground if it just focuses on the performance of the local MPs in each constituency. Why? Not because the Maharashtrian voter doesn't differentiate between local and national issues but because there is such overbearing inefficiency at the local level that they can push some of the youth voters to vote and vote against the sitting MPs and create a very good starting point for the Assembly elections. But if they are going to mock Pawar for making Pratibha Tai the President, he is not only mocking Pawar, he is also mocking Balasaheb who not only supported Tai but will go to any lengths if he sees a real chance to get a Maharashtrian elected as the PM. And when Modi talks like this, all Pawar needs to do is to brush him off as someone who just doesn't get things. There are so many things on which Pawar can lose his wicket - the state of the farmers in Vidarbha, the sugar mills in Western Maharashtra, the power crisis - things which he could and should have improved upon. I was reading reports of his whirlwind tour of Madha and other areas and was amused to find Saheb talking about those very issues - power crisis and agri prices. Because others are talking about irrelevant topics, he gets to talk of the important stuff and get away with not delivering on them!!!
I sometimes feel politics in India is so simple - you just need to be marginally smart and you will be seen as brilliant - well, that is true of our cinema, sport in general, literature and what not?

Pictures posted @ BVHK Ke Chhayachitra

Some pictures from our trip to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Indonesia are up on my photo blog.

Opportunity

This is the best opportunity for Arun Bhatia to re-launch his political career. If there was ever a time when the urban electorate would vote without keeping in mind the usual suspects like caste, money, populist promises, it is this. Arun Bhatia definitely has the best credentials in terms of never having bowed down to the politicians; always called a spade a spade; people don't want to choose from the same bad options that we currently have. Arun Bhatia, this can be your best chance. Go, sieze it. Choose one person like yourself for each Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha constituency in Mumbai and Pune; announce what you wish to accomplish and how; do door-to-door campaigning to take your message to the electorate and ask them for donations; mobilize the youth - the first time voters, the industrialists who visit the five star hotels and can influence the votes of their work-force. Start early and start well and not even Sharad Pawar will be able to affect your chances in Mumbai and Pune.

Go...go...go!!!

Insensitivty

Smarting under the snub of the father of Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, the slain National Security Guard (NSG) commando, Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan Monday reacted strongly, saying had it not been the house of the officer “not even a dog would have gone that way”

I just hope and wish that at least one of the hostages that Major Sandeep helped save, if not the Major's colleagues from the Army, take the Kerala CM to task for this insensitive remark. When I say 'take him to task', I, for one, wouldn't be surprised if someone just decides to bump him off. All the other statements that have been made - Vilasrao Deshmukh's justifications, R R Patil's DDLJ stunt, Naqvi's male chauvinism and some other leader's stupid remark about how netas wouldn't be doing chaukasi themselves are all passe. Here is a man insulting a man who has just lost his young son just because he has snubbed him. Forget the fact that you are dealing with a martyr, if it had been your worst enemy and he had reacted in this way after his son't death, you would have just let it go because you know that the man is going through hell anyways and you wouldn't have raised a hue and cry even if you had been insulted. But you are not V S Achuthanandan; you are sensitive, you are sensible, you are civil, you are not a barbaric animal like Achuthanandan. #$%^ him.

Rohit Brijnath at it,again

Super brilliant article by Rohit Brijnath.

English Premiere League

Ok, I have not been as desperate about Manchester United winning as I usually am. There is probably a feeling of "I have achieved it all with my team and it is time to move on". yeah,yeah - I know this is what Cristiano Ronaldo should be saying, not me but I can't help it if I have that feeling, can I?
Anyways, I did start watching the matches from this weekend and following the progress (yes, finally it is a progress for United) and I think Manchester United will be leading the table on 30th November, if not before then.

TATA AIG

I got a call from Tata AIG - for renewing my car insurance in November.

I: Renew to November mein karoonga, tab tak AIG rahegi kya?
Call Centre guy : aapne bahut achha sawaal poochha hai. lekin aapko to pata hoga, har ghar mein kuchh na kuchh problem to hoti hi hai. har ghar mein kaanch ke bartan aawaaz karte hain.
I: kaanch ke bartan awaaz nahin karte, toot jaate hain.
CCG: haan sir...main aapko bataana chahata hoon...

Just as I thought this would be the beginning of a great discussion, my phone went dead on me!!! Damn.

Guru Greg

Hopefully the sight of Guru Greg does to the Indian team what his statements did to Lara in the ODI series during India's last tour of the West Indies.