Saturday, June 27, 2009

central cabinet

the first minister to get some serious work was our foreign minister, s.m.krishna. just days after he took charge of his seat, there was a gurudwara shoot out in vienna. which initially looked like any other shootout in a foreign country snowballed into a serious headache for government. just when he thought he had things in control, there was australia. there was students.. and there was racist attack.


health minister, gulam nabi azad, now this is more serious than anything, a global epidemic, pandemic, government says it has stocked enough medicine and repeatedly assures people not to panic, till now there was not a single death and most cases have already been cured. though i am not judgemental on his performance with this single issue i think he has done good in this short period. there is a perception that he is not qualified for this ministry, and doesn't have knowledge on his ministry, well lets remember he is a heavyweight and crisis manager for his party for a long time.

agriculture minister..sharad pawar...mostly press releases and statements are coming from cabinet secretary only. in his previous term managed to give undue importance to cricket more than his agri ministry. not a competent minister specially in crisis situation. continues to be involved and interested in BCCI more than farmers.

in my opinion, government master stroke came when it appointed nanden nilekani for national id card project., with a cabinet rank. i think this ministry is in the best hands. in a developing country like india, going forward there should be more technocrats in ministry apart from politicians. our PM was not an politician when he was finance minister in early 90's and we all know how he was involved in globalization of indian economy.
may be nandan nilekani induction in central cabinet is also signs of things to come .....

Monday, June 22, 2009

Hype.P.L

when IPL became a big hit in its first season, there was a conception in cricket fraternity on how it has brought out domestic talent and played a big part in few youngsters getting springboarded into national team...at the end of first season, we had the likes of Ghoni, ravindra jadega getting selected on national team with their sole contribution in IPL alone...however during their national duty captain didn't have enough faith on them and they were mostly not palyed and sometimes dropped immediately after touring.


IPL season 2, apart from the usual aussies domination, there were some indian beacons like ojha, pandey(bangalore), abhishek nayar. as expected the national team selection after IPL has again rewarded them, with the inclusion of abhishek nayar and nehra solely on thier IPL performance. ok now the question, is it justified in selecting players on their performance in IPL alone ignoring there contribution in ranji trophy and other domestic competition, does a bowler bowling just 24 balls in a match prove his merit. or a batsmen hitting 3 sixes in an over suddenly becomes more important than an other domestic player who has a better average and technique.

all these first time selected members, as though reading from a written script say, how much IPL helped them particularly playing alongside international players and performing against or along with them. in my opinion they are carrying a wrong confidence if they are thinking or relying only on their exploits in IPL alone. now Abhishek nayar might have hit Flintoff for 3 sixes in an over in a match against chennai, or nehra might have kept Pitersen tied down and taken his wicket.if you try to repeat that in a 50 over match against England in Lords, then you are most likely to be proved wrong.


the world T20 champions, Pakistan did not have any IPL experience this season, with all pakistani contracts suspended by IPL, and as if that is not enough to red face Modi....people were thinking about ICL when abdul Razaaq made crucial contribution in semifinal and final matches. No doubt IPL is a good entertainment, good earning for players, good finance for the board..but i think it is not a good idea to reward IPL performers with a team selection, conveniently ignoring thier stats in other domestic tournaments.

later this year there is going to be a T20 champions league tournament, another question, how can you call it champions league, when the domestic leagues that contributed to world T20 champions are not represented. It is no luck or co-incidence that pakistanis made it to the final twice in a row, everybody knows that they have been having very successfull t20 domestic competition for a very long time. BCCI will throw its money and power to make champions league tournament success, but without pakistani presence the tournament is not complete or atleast lack quality cricket. It would be worth watching the likes of gilchrist and symmonds face pakistani pacers, rather than seeing them belt hapless bowlers(read delhi bowlers).

coming to the worl cup result, personally i was very happy that sri lanka lost the final..and i guess when the entire country would have supported srilanka to win in final, most people down down south would have loved seeing srilankans bite the dust. that is tamilnadu for you.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

kangaroo attacks slumdog

suddenly students are being stabbed, beaten with screw drivers, cars being burnt,petrol bombs being hurled. hungry Indian media had got a beautiful story to run for a month. closeup of bruised student with swollen red face, another student in life support, another very ..very closeup image of abdomen stitches are common pictures in TV now. from what i have heard and seen in online press the Australian media hardly cared or reported any of these incidents. also till date there were hardly any arrests made regarding these incidents. seems like kangaroos are having a nice tiger dish(tandoori) down under.


well somehow this made me think that, the home country or people here or the media here care much more for these citizens who leave the country for higher studies and most likely settle abroad. if a prominent Sikh is assassinated in Austria an entire state in India goes to bundh, buses and trains are being burned and highways blocked, it takes several days to return to normalcy. if an andhra student is killed in US there are debate and resolutions getting passed in state assembly and not to mention headline news in national media. there were rally by students in Chennai against recent attack in Australia. great ! good stand for your countrymen when they are in trouble.show solidarity, politicians and governments mostly forced by their moral obligations tries to get justice for these victims.


OK..now what you get back in return for all this. the single most huge contribution that NRI's have made over several years is entertaining bollywood, kollywood, tollywood artists, inviting them for shows, spending money on amitabh,ash,abhishek's movements. latest trend being they have started inviting cricket stars also. the recent most shocking event that happened in India was 26/11 the entire country mourned over the tragedy, central government sent emissaries to all countries to put pressure on Pakistan, and to some extent it achieved to arrest key people involved. now the obvious question is did Indian's living abroad go out of their way to support the cause, was there any signs or shows of solidarity, a silent rally or anything of that sort. another most intriguing aspect is writing books, blogs and articles showing the country in a very poor light, some of these books have went on to win the coveted 'Booker prize' award and some have made out to be a blockbuster Oscar winning movie, all at the expense of showing the dark secrets of the home country, these people who have gone from this country and settled abroad know very well what to sell in the market, don't they.

i am no saint to write this, but the last time i checked, ..this blog though trivial gives me liberty to write this. thanks for reading.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

செய்தி துளிகள்

நம்ம ஊருகாரைங்க பாசகார பயளுங்கனு, எங்க ஊருலரிந்து போன அமைச்சர் நிருபிச்சுடாருங்க, ஆமாங்க சென்னை சேர்ந்த ஒரு குழு டெல்லி -சென்னை ரயில் பிடிக்க தவறி , திரு திருன்னு முழிச்சிட்டு இருந்திருக்காய்ங்க, அப்ப நம்ம அமைச்சர் ஒரு தனி ரயில் பெட்டி ஏற்பாடு பண்ணி வழி அனுப்ச்சு வைத்திருகாருங்க. சில பேரை அவருடன் தங்கவும் வைத்திருகார் டெல்லியில்.
அருவா வெட்டுனாலும் சரி, பாச மலைனாலும் சரி, நம்ம பயலுங்க தாங்க முன்னாடி.

பிரசில் நாட்டை சேர்ந்த ஒருவரை, ஏற் பிரான்ஸ் விமானம் ஏறும் சமயத்தில் ஏற தடை பண்ணிர்காருங்க, காரணம் அவருடைய பாஸ்போர்ட் செல்லுபடி ஆகும் தேதி முடிந்து போயிருக்கு, விமானம் ஏறும் கடைசி நேரத்தில் இப்படி ஆகிருகேனு அவருடைய நண்பர் ஒருத்தர் ரொம்பவே சண்டை போட்டு பாத்திருகார், ஆனால் அவர்க்கு அனுமதி மறுக்க பட்டிருக்கு, சரி நண்பனுக்காக தானும் அந்த பயணத்தை கைவிட்டுருகாருங்க.

உயிர் காப்பான் தோழன் ! அப்படின்னு சொல்றாங்களே அது இது தானோ ?

Movie Review

Movie. Angels and Demons.
adaptation from Dan brown novel. the novel if you read will be simply breathtaking, a fiction that covers physics, relegion, history, arts and much more. the book shows the early catholic church in a very poor light, and how medieval churches considered science as thier main enemy.

having read the novel the suspense element in the movie has already gone, it is known pretty much beforehand what will happen and how it will happen in the movie. still the only consolation is beautiful picturesque of churches and artifacts in Vatican city, even this interest were gone after sometime when i realised it would be highly impossible for the crew to get access inside churches in vatican.
the novel is 100 times more interesting and thrilling. if you are planning to watch this movie, skip it. get the book and read, best selling novel by Dan Brown.