Facts n Fiction

The Cricket World Cup 2007 fever is scaling rapidly on the excitement thermometer as we are almost at the end of the elimination rounds. And I guess India and Indians top the list of excitement, anxiety, speculation, and enjoyment when it comes to World Cup Cricket or any form of cricket for that matter. Yes, we have all blends of cricket fans, fanatics, critics, and mere spectators. It is rightly said that cricket is a religion in India. India stands at a crucial stage of entering the “Super 8” round currently, with many “ifs” that will decide India’s fate. Let the experts handle those speculations. I am certainly not going to give you a pre or post match analysis here. To summarize in a single line, what I would like to convey is that its time we get emotionally detached to cricket and take it as just a game. I am referring to incidents that happened after India lost to Bangladesh last week. Posters burnt, players bad named, slogans were shouted and I even saw (on some news channel)

In past few weeks I have come across some peculiar things between married couples. I have read, observed and even witnessed things in certain cases. And I keep thinking why and how can a person have some confidante outside a marriage. I don’t know if it is correct, proper, required or so important and I am still wondering. By someone outside marriage I surely don’t mean any ill relationship but just someone who is sought to discuss issues, solve problems, or just to share things. I have seen many who are doing it; prefer talking to someone at their workplace or one time close college buddy. I am not making things specific to any gender. Everybody irrespective of the gender is doing it. A husband discusses things with his female colleague at the workplace or his college pal. And there are instances where a wife has found someone with whom she feels comfortable discussing most of the things. Few of my married friends have approached me just to talk, share things, express worries, get res

I was busy reading “Digit” magazine sitting in the balcony of my apartment few hours ago. Suddenly I heard crowd shouting some slogans from a distance. Assuming it must be some event in another building I continued my reading. The voices seemed approaching near and I could hardly concentrate. I finally gave up on my attempt to focus on the article after I was shook by thundering sounds of crackers. In no time my building was surrounded with smoke clouds and the smell of cracker bursts started irritating me. The crackers continued to burst and for a moment I felt it was diwali time. The voice of the crowd had somehow drowned in the cracker thunders and I couldn’t make out anything that was happening. I couldn’t help looking over the balcony edge to find out what was the mega event. It was an election campaign procession for some candidate in my locality. Yes it was election time indeed and rarely seen candidate and the supporters were vividly visible all of a sudden. The crowd continued

I glanced through the SMS that had flooded my cell phone on the New Year morning. With a heavy head, blurred vision I was trying to read the tiny text that spoke heart felt wishes for the New Year. I popped out of my bed only to become a telephone operator, taking calls every 3 minutes. These calls were from almost the same people who had already wished my “Happy New Year” on SMS. With a toothbrush in my mouth, I was thanking them, wishing them the same, and so on. However, there was something different in the voice wishes and the text wishes. The SMS usually ended in “Happy New Year 2007” with some prologue. The phone call ended in “So, What’s your new year resolution?” with my answer to it as “Nothing” only to result in an outburst from the other end with words like “Why!”, “Why not!”, “What!” and so on. As I sat sipping my tea I was thinking what could be a New Year resolution. Why would one make (or vow) a resolution on the first day of the New Year? I mean to decide something for

I was watching news this evening, as usual when one news caught my eye. It was nothing extraordinary. However, the number of times the news & its details were flashed on screen on one of the news channel makes me particularly write about it. Sharne Warne is retiring and there must be too many mixed reactions from cricket lovers and his fans in particular. Warne has surely been an awesome bowler and a wonderful cricket player at times. Also one more wonderful Australian bowler, Glenn McGrath will bid farewell to the cricket career as a bowler. There was very little that was mentioned about McGrath. Sharne Warne seemed to steal the show as usual, not in the right sense though. Let me remind you that I was watching one of the Indian news channel, which are famous for adding sensitivity to any bit of information they have and make it sellable. As I continued watching the news piece, what irritated me most was the repeated telecast of acts with which Warne had disgraced himself. The sca

Finally the city, lately known for its slums, crowd, traffic congestion, and so on will have something new to talk about. The lost glory of the Mumbai will soon be restored by the new makeover moves that the tourism department has planned. The proposed new setup is to promote Mumbai as a new tourist destination. Apart from the revamp and restoration of existing monuments or places of visits, the tourism department has also plans for economy budget hotels, amusement parks, and get-together centers across the city. Let’s see what the new Mumbai by 2011 have in store for us and its visitors. Forts: The MTDC along with some archaeological experts will take up the restoration and restructuring of six forts viz. Sewri, Worli, Sion, Bandra, Mahim, and Vasai. You will not only find these forts beautified but also furnished with facilities like signboards, seating arrangement, toilets, amphitheaters, and landscape gardens. We should possibly see these forts by 2007 end. Filmcity tours: We will

I usually like watching Marathi programs more than any other programs (if I am not watching CNBC or CNN-IBN). I am not a proponet of reality shows but I have found ‘Sa Re Ga Ma Pa’ on ZEE Marathi interesting and I have started liking that show. It’s a reality show to search for Marathi singing talent. I have not enjoyed watching any other reality show as much as I enjoy this. One very strong reason is that it is related to singing and it’s a program in my mother tongue. Other reasons why like this program is that the program really looks like reality show, meaning nothing enacted or faked. And most importantly it does not fool people by asking them to SMS and select the best singer. May be later the program might adapt to that strategy but so far everything seems to be good. I particularly liked today’s (31st Oct 06 – Tuesday) program and that’s the reason I give it an exclusive mention here in my post. A contender called Ameya performed remarkably well that impressed the host, the ju