Time and tide waits for none......

Many of us want time to go slow when we r experiencing the time of our life whether it is spending time with our loved ones or having a ball with our buddies.... or basking in the glory brought upon us by our colleagues..... the opposite is true too, we want time to zoom by during our hard times whether it is during our exams or staying away from our near and dear or having tough times at work.... I can only wish both of these would happen but reality strikes in your face and makes the hardships last longer while the happy times pass by as if you were dreaming......
Yes I am posting after a long time for reasons unknown to myself in a strange way.. it was a rollercoster ride for the past year or so..... more sorrows than happy times but hey.. no complaints whatsoever ..... it is what it is.... trying to find reason for something out of your control is something like trying to hit a home run every time you walk to the plate.. It ain't happening bro....
now after the emotional issues coming to latest developments or as a matter of fact events supreme court has upheld the government proposition of 27% reservation to the OBCs proving the fact that the government is still run by a bunch of thoughtless people who one day will only be remembered for the precedent they set forth as the so called "Visionaries". I don't have a problem with reservations but I have a problem with their effectiveness. folks I myself am a OBC what if I come down to India and take CAT exam and get into an IIM on the basis of reservation .wouldn't that be gross..!! yes it will be and can anyone guarantee me that wouldn't happen in future. okay the court in its directive said that the creamy layer would be sidelined, but who decides the criteria for creamy layer. I have a valid argument when I say that all my graduate studies were completed without spending my family money, so.. that cannot be a criteria to disbar me from using reservation or atleast there will be people who will be discontent and might move even to court for their rights. so. my friends it is a relative term like "good" and "Ideal" and can only exist on paper or in dreams. I request people to consider one alternative.. please make economic position as a criteria rather than playing divisive politics based on caste . give scholarships to students who are good in merit but poor in money holdings. make our nation a place where any eligible person will not be deprived just because he was born to parents in wrong caste. i cannot guarantee 100% efficiency but atleast that makes more sense than following a system that reminds the very same thing(caste) which it is aimed not to and treat everyone equal. Isn't that ironical ..!!!!
moving on it interests me that sanjay manjrekar made these comments on sachin " Sachin is the elephant in the room of whom no one want to talk about" ... I can draw only one conclusion from these words. that people need to be careful while speaking in public because what you say decides what you are worth of. If you want to hog limelight by taking a shot at legends... think a second time.. because if you don't make sense.. forget about gaining you will be left with nothing.... It reminds me of words a governess in Archer's Kane and Abel says about TV and liveshows" too many things will be said in public which will be regretted later".....

so friends who are in different stages of life and different places of world "No matter what the circumstances are always find a reason to smile...." to quote one of my seniors " life is wonderful when you can laugh at yourself ...."

The week that was....

What can I say abt last week.. shall i call it hectic coz i spent most of my time in my lab?? or entertaining because of the leaks chappell made to the media.. about his report before the working committee of BCCI....shall i say "Surprising".. seeing the way sachin reacted on Chappell..( I always support sachin no matter what..!!!) or pathetic hearing that bandh has been celebrated in andhra and Tamilnadu against the supreme court for asking the govt some serious questions?? what ever it maybe it was just another week.. just a quote "If you want to know the value of a week ask a graduate student who is about to graduate... "the life of a graduate student can be a food for thought for some other day...

I will say a few words about a legend who i think is always underrated but always overperforms.. no prizes for guessing.. he is the "Jumbo Anil kumble..".. A typical South Indian vegetarian.. who gave everything he has to cricket but was not disappointed at the lack of pomposity some of his mates enjoyed .. I think he won more matches for our country than any other player... boyyy i had some very good moments which i will cherish throughout my life.. like when he bowled the entire pakistan team at kotla.. and when he took 6/12 against westindies to give hero cup.. when he emerged as top wicket taker both at the world cup in 1996 surpassing murali and warne.. and also in the Indian tour of Australia where he took 24 wickets.. and helped india retain the Border-Gavaskar trophy..

He is an example for what commitment and determination can take you to.. he did not have a magical arm like murali.. nor huge flipper like warne all he had was the will to succeed and he did himself no harm by having good work ethics.. he showed us how not to take success into head and start overreacting( are u listening sehwag and yuvi..) .. that humility and modesty will always keep in you goodstead... why all this kumble talk??? because this phenomenal player has bowed out of oneday cricket.. an irreparable loss considering the fact that there is not a single spinner who can match him 50%.. Pity India...

Of late cricket has been dominating my blog i want to digress form this monster.. i have recently read "First among equals" by Jeffrey Archer.. Although the first part is a bit boring the narratio picks up afterwards and is worth a read for the details he provides about the working of british parliament system.. not the best of his writings though.. Iam reading "The catcher in the rye" by J.D salinger.. the so called one in top ten American books of all time.. it's interesting although it is debatable if it is so good as to be in top ten...

For the past few days i have been entertained by the music of L subamanyam... for starters he is a renowned violinist who does albums in Fusion music.. the music was awesome...words cannot describe him and his achievements in the worls of music and iam a no one when it comes to talking about him...I heard him first at a late nite working session in one of my friend's lab.. the first thing i did after listening was , I took a pen drive and copied his collection... Thanks Sachin for introducing me to some good music and for sharing.. ur collection...

of late I have been hearing some bad news... regarding my friends.. which makes me naturally sad but i have been rather happy seeing my reactions of the entire mess.. had it been 3 years earlier i would have been doomed .. thank god .. because he knows when to make what to happen.. sure experience makes you wiser.. but more importantly it decreases the haste in you.. no longer you are over emotional and asking yourself questions like y does it happen only to me...?? you just feel sad when ur best of friends turns a traitor or cheats you and u accept it quietly... (although meaning of quiet differs for different ppl..) and move on.. yes life goes on.. it doesn't stop for anyone anytime anywhere....

See ya soon...

Good Show INDIA

The unthinkable happened.. INDIA are out of the world cup.. the worst ever performance in world cups .The blame game started rolling ....Dravid blamed the top order. chappell blamed the entire team ,Sharad pawar first blamed the media and then blamed team India and said the contract of greg chappell will be reviewed.. I ask the simple question " y was chappell doing what he was doing in the first place..??" the management said he had a vision 2007 when he was made the coach.. although he did not prove himself as a gud coach even in domestic level he was given the reins of indian team he immediately created a controversy saying ganguly was not fit to be a player.. he shud have been stopped then and there itself... instead he was given a free hand and can anyone answer me including chappell what the hell happened to the vision 2007... has it lost its steam and ceased working when 2007 arrived ....?? with all due respect to his talent DRAVID is not a captaincy material... he always had excuses ready ... Hail experimentation ... coz the main player who was experimented for the whole period before world cup "Irfan Pathan" could not even get a single match in the world cup... what sort of experiments are you doing u crazy fellas.... which did not yield even a single result rather they made players look like s/w pros " u never know if ur job is secure"... I made a complete turn around from my previous post.. coz i could not bear india losing so tamely.. the match reminded me of the semi final of 1996 world cup with the exceptions that "the pitch was gud for batting in this case and THE GOD too failed...."


Sachin can u explain to ur millions of fans how you felt after you were bowled like that... you did no harm to the reputation that " you cannot rise to the occasion when required".. ofcourse u did a pakistan in 2003 world cup or a sharjah a decade ago...but u were the one who was equipped with the talent and temparement to tackle murali... u had to show the way ah... yes u showed the way... by scoring a duck... Dravid sir can u explain to us the foolish ppl who support you day and night what made you to play uthappa and dhoni after thier consistent failures.... yeah go on and tell the ppl that sehwag came gud by scoring a century against bermuda.. a classical case of elephant stamping on a fly.... and only that was because u showed faith in him.... u didn't say a word abt ganguly while he was in exile... now we will see who comes to ur support.... dude.. that was not the way to treat a buddy... of yours.. u were afraid of backlash.. now the same thing plays against you.... you were not able to do even half as gud as ganguly as a captain.... what made you to bat like u were in a test match secnario when u needed to score some quick runs against the lankans.. may be u were saving urself from blushes.. gud job .... there can be any number of questions .. but does anyone have answers ???? can the board assure this will not repeat or give the ppl the reasons for the debacle.. no they r only worried abt the telecast losses .. they suffered.. get the hell out u idiots... do u really care abt anything other than money and power can u spell cricket correctly... let it be run by ppl who share passion .... my kind request to all the people who are involved with runing and playing cricket "please do not allow this to happen again.... u have everything u need ...now dont u think u act a bit responsible and accountable to ur actions?? Is this too much to ask from you ?? afterall you owe the ppl of india for your bank balances and ur celibrity statuses .. think abt it ..will ya..."
I will end the post by quoting siddharth from cricinfo
"Several questions need to be asked, including serious ones of Dravid and coach Greg Chappell, but the most galling aspect is that there doesn't seem to be any long-term vision, any honest appraisals. Indian cricket needs a massive overhaul (if a first-round exit doesn't instigate it, nothing will) but the fact that it's unlikely to happen is even more disturbing. It's not the Indian board's motto yet, but as someone once famously said, "Money can't buy happiness but it can give you the kind of misery with which you can live comfortably.""

The World cup...

Of course I haven't been posting off late in my blog but my contention is that I have a strong reason for not doing so....the reason is.....Those of you who know the reason please tell to those who don't know and those who don't know the reason please ask those who know.... anyways cutting the crap.. its always good to be back .. reasons will always be there some personal,some work related.. and I don't want to whine about them... I am here to write something ..some crap...

This crap is about "World Cup"....Cricket .. best described as"game played by 11 idiots and watched by 11,000 idiots".(Bernard shaw if my memory doesn't fail me..) the same..(idiot thing u know...) is also true about the guy who said it.. dare not to make fun of our of unofficial National game.. we live with it ...with it we rise and with it we fall....of course we get hurt by seeing INDIA lose.. but some moments...( ex: IND-AUS 2001,Sachin's Sharjah heroics...) will be forever etched in our memory... we will talk about them to our grand children... yours truly here has been brought up seeing sachin tendulkar enter the arena and carving a niche for himself.. Its individuals like this who are still making this game a household one....

My buddy Karthik has written a nice feature "worstcup" .. although he reasonably presents a case where the public can feel cheated or humiliated... by supporting the cricketers ... but for every sehwag there is a sachin for every azhar there is a ganguly.... faith and belief are afterall the two things which make millions of indians pass the tests of life.....I agree with karthik that we need to prioritise things in life and cricket as such shud not be our first priority but aren't we entitled to things which will make us happy even after many years down the lane...

I guess cricket is a team game but it is the individuals which bring respect to the game .. cricket owes its popularity not to the way it is played but for the ppl who play it.. like kapil,sachin,ganguly and dravid who are so dedicated and comitted ppl equipped with the said qualities perform some class acts which will be etched in our memory for ages to come.. who said public has short memory.. how many of our parents forgot our win in 1983( of course world cup.. and world series in AUS)...how many of us can forget the IND -AUS series 2001 (pictured above.. )...

My point here is individuals like sachin and ganguly with their skill and elegance can make some or rather most of us sit up and watch or stand up and take notice.. so it is to these individuals that we owe something for giving us some of the most enjoyable moments..... I might be circumventing a little bit but i would like to say that .. Idiots have been there in the past.. (Azhar.. and co).. idiots are there now (sehwag and party..) and idiots will continue to be there.... but we should not hate cricket or get hurt by seeing these ppl fail... look out for the ppl who always play out of their skins.. always puts team before self.. and for whom success never goes to head.... All is not lost if we don't qualify for super eight.. but i hope India does qualify .. just to surprise itself and the ppl..

never lose hope coz when hope is lost there is nothing left.... so I hereby ask my fellow country men to cheer for India in the coming match( I pray for it to be matches..) .. see you after the srilanka match....

Prediction: India marauds srilanka with a victory by 100 runs or 5 wickets...

long time ....huh!!!

I cant exactly attribute the delay in posting an artricle ..maybe 50% lazy and 50% reluctance after the treatment i was meted out for my last article.. but after consistent threats that i would have to make way for someonelse in their blogsville(who will threaten me like my frnds...)I refused to give up and was waiting for an inspiration .. Alas it never came ... and after convinced that it will not be around for sometime.. i started to wirte a bit hastily.... i will write the salient features of my summer..book "American Summers" (John wright way da..) To start with I donot want any controversies abt my book like Jaswant's or Wright's so please understand a disclaimer will be displayed if u try to create a controversy....

I started my summer as any child would... anticipationg lot of fun and little else to do... but my Faculty had other plans... asusual plans went hayway.. deadlines came like hurricanes and stuff.. but being the cool person iam i always had time to buy a monthly pass at BLOCKBUSTER and started reading Fiction stuff ...(on the advice of mah sweet cousin...Vyju...) .. I started with War of worlds.. and wondered when will it turn into a relaity.. my wise frnds told " Soooooon " then came Munich.. which was a gud movie.. after seeng which I thought If only we(Indians) had an equivalent to Mossad in working.. then atleast dying for a country would definitely make anyone proud..
"eye for an eye holds gud" I guess... even in our case..where scores of civilians are killed for just living their lives in a normal fashion..
"Crash " came next although it was a gud movie I failed to get through it.. coz.. i did not understand the message .. he portrayed the different sections of people in US really well...
I could go on and on..but i guess ppl will be bored and wouldn't mind posting brickbats to me.. saying they were busy and so do the honours myself... ridiculous isn't it..???
coming to the fiction stuff.. I started my summer with "Da Vinci Code" and followed it with "Angels and demons" and " digital fortress" all written by Dan brown.. Then Jeffrey Archer caught my eye with "Not a penny more and not a penny less " I coninued with him to "Kane and Abel" and still not sure if i read his best and went to "Honour among thieves" . Meanwhile i have something interestng to tell you guys.. as an offbeat thing I read Jhumpa Lahiri's "The Name sake" which according to me is one of the best.. i was so immersed in it that I started to hate the name Moushumi itself... coz.. she cheats on her husband in the novel..poor gogol ganguli.. unlike sourav ganguli.. lives with it...
rest of my summer was spent on enjoying delicacies courtesy: Atlanta restaurants.. I spent some time with my cousin in Atlanta the olympics city.. and the saddest of all another birthday of mine has passed ..so sad na.. I was surprised when my professor quipped.. so, Ravi how is it being a year older?? have u started enjoying being old..??? no guesses .. of waht was the reply..

So all in all I had a good if not great summer ..as always eagerly looking forward Fall ..hope atleast it is "GREAT".. wish me guys and gals.. dont you..???


Elegant Yellow

Reservation against Reservations

This was one of the comments to my previous article
"A meta joke would have been that 'the quality of the joke is so @$%!ed up that it appears to have been written by a person who got to write the joke merely not because he is a scheduled or backward class person coming from the lower economic strata of the society, but a low IQ person born to a rich influential person in the society'.Hope you can take this one in the same spirit.Now that we have had a 'laughter', can we use our collective intelligence for something more productive for a change?"

I would have really appreciated had he given his name but that does not bother me anyway.He has raised some interesting questions to be discussed.

abt Quality of the joke :

@anonymous:

If you have been following the recent developments in our country you would do well to notice the two acts (or laws ) about reservations one happened at a regional level (Andhra govt making a law for the reservations of muslims) and one at the national level (Damn Arjun singh for that...).ok so what does these show.are these acts of a great vision do these leaders envisage a country with no reservations or with 100% reservations (reservations based on religion, caste,sects..blah..blah..blah..) going by the mindset of the politicians to woo sections of people by offering reservations can u blame a person if he foresees reservations everywhere in the next 2 decades.
And to term the person writing it as one born to a rich influential person in the society is nothing but comments of a person who is in a haste.

Reservations at the highest level:

what is the need for reservations at the highest level? what are the limiting factors for an individual at this level which is stopping him from going into a profession of his liking??

think once!.. aren't we creating divide between the people by identifying them
by the caste they belong to when our motive is to treat all the people alike.
So if someone asks to get rid of the reservations once and for all you call him names..say he doesnot know the ground realities and stuff...

what makes me laugh is the attitude of the politicians..Seriously, Reservations is a magic wand which u wave when u feel u have to gain an upperhand on someone else. and sadly Arjun singh is waving it to make it big in Congress Ranks. Now has arjun singh or for that matter the govt made its stand clear on how it wants to deal with the upliftment of the backward castes . What has the government achieved by providing reservations for the past 50 years.where is the hope that what could not be achieved in last 50 years could be achieved in the next 50 years.Reservations are not the permanent solution of the problem. What is the use of reservations at the higher level when people cannot make it to +2 level or under graduation??

I agree on the fact that the Majority of the people in higher positions are from Forward castes but does that mean that from now on for the next 50 years we should have only the OBCs and then reservations will be needed for the uppercastes ...Is this some kind of a Musical chairs game ...come on lets atleast act sensibly and give Merit only Merit the recognition..and stick to the word Perform or perish..no castes nothing u bend ur backs and get waht u want..is that a difficult statement to make ..I don't think so...

Now to all the so called corrupt politicians...If u support reservations...why are you supporting it ?? Do u think they r going to uplift the downtrodden or other sections..???Don't u think they should be encouraged at the elemntary level by setting up more institutions or by providing free education..to those who cannot make it to the school...based on their financial background???

Atleast atleast let the idiot Arjun singh come up with a blue print so that the reservations will be erased atleast after 100 years..then the people will believe in the cause ...No clear agenda...no plan as to how to tackle the consequences of reservations ...but onething is there for sure..who cares what is going to happen after 30 years if i can be the next primeminister for the next 5 years...if we can be in power ...Make hay while sun shines....or maybe this ...keep making hay until the sun keeps shining....

when youth come onto roads they don't come to draw political mileage or for that matter any advantage...they come only caring for the future and for the future of this great country..they cannot be treated as they were by the delhi police...afterall they are the knowledgeable they know waht they are doing ...they are not like ARJUN SINGH who clearly does not know waht number of OBCs we have but he is certain that the percentage is going to be 49......when youth are insulted it's the country's future at stake....what stopped these politicians from meeting them before 7 weeks of agitation shud be known only to them.......It really pains to see that even the learned ppl likke Chidambaram and manmohan singh are behind this election Gimmick..they lost their credibility...they nolonger will be respected for their learnedness...

ok coming to the solution which our anonymous wanted ...
Start with the grass level...identify the people who cannot come to school due to financial inability..make education free for all..none is treated based on the caste they belong to...nor by the financial status their parents are into..Please remember the main reason y some learned people wanted the children to wear uniforms for schools..no disparities based on any criteria..None should be neglected none elevated too..make it happen..that stops the differences...between elite ppl and poor..everyone irrespective what his parents are should be given the same opportunity and facilities....Work towards that ..then INDIA will be a better nation than what it is today..as an INDIAN i hope and wait for that to happen....

I sincerely request the anonymous to really start thinking like a sane person ..and comment on this one too....

Thanks
Ravi

Reservations.....

A Funny forward from my friend..Ananth..

Ahmedabad, 30 April 2056: I attended the bash at the IIM-OBC Alumni Association to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the reservation of seats for OBCs (Other Backward Castes) in IIMs. Since I'm not an OBC, I was not supposed to attend, but at present, we MBFCs (Moderately Backward Forward Castes) together with the Non-Scheduled Tribes have a political alliance with the OBCs. We sipped champagne and talked about how so many of us had progressed from reserved seats in the IIMs to reserved jobs to reserved promotions. Unfortunately, the party broke up when a Non-scheduled Tribes faculty member objected to the OBCs dancing with all the pretty girls — he wanted equal opportunities for every caste at each dance. I pointed out that the Non-scheduled Tribes had exceeded the quota of champagne reserved for them. The party ended in a pitched caste battle.
1 May 2056: Today, I became president of the IIM Board of Directors. Under the present rotating presidency system, a member of each caste is made the president by turn. When it was the turn of the MBFCs for president, they had to choose me because I'm the only MBFC on the campus. True, I'm only the campus dhobi, but then every caste must be given an equal opportunity. All those centuries of oppression by the OSBFCs (Only Slightly Backward Forward Castes) and the OFCs (Other Forward Castes) must be rectified. I hope to restore the high standards at IIM — I overheard some foreigners calling it the Indian Institute of Morons, the other day.
2 May 2056: They've announced the cricket team for the series against Australia. I was overjoyed when they chose an MBFC man as captain. But my hopes were dashed when I realised he was a Most Backward Forward Caste and not a Moderately Backward Forward Caste. The selection committee lamented that it was gross discrimination that no member from the Jarowa tribe (the Stone Age tribe in the
Andamans) had ever found a place in the Indian cricket team. A squad has since been dispatched to the Andamans to capture a Jarowa tribal to play in the national team. I hope he will improve their performance — they had an innings defeat against the Maldives recently. I would have played myself except for the fact that I lost a leg some years ago when I was in hospital with a toothache and a doctor recruited through the Unscheduled Caste quota extracted my leg instead of my tooth.
3 May 2056: There are too many NFCs (Neo-Forward castes) in the IT business. Under the terms of the Business Reservation Act, their firms will now be taken over by the other castes. I hope they will be able to restore the Indian IT industry back to its former glory. For some unfathomable reason, it has gone down the drain after job reservations were implemented. I went for a movie featuring star actor Mungeri Ram. He may lack teeth, be four-feet-three and have hair growing out of his nose, but this year it's the turn of the EBC-RYs (Extremely Backward Caste-Rural Yokels) to be stars and Mungeri Ram is the best of the lot. I wonder why foreign movies have become so popular.
4 May 2056: A truly great day. We now have an OFBMBC (Other Forward But Moderately Backward Caste) general as the Head of the Armed Forces. I hope he'll be able to win back the territory we lost ever since reservations were implemented in the Army. Since then, the north has been taken by Pakistan, the North-east by China, the east by Bangladesh and the south by Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Only last winter, we lost the war against Bhutan and free India is now limited to the western coastal states. But I'm sure the OFBMBC general will turn the tide.
5 May 2056: My wife and I have been blessed with a bonny daughter. Since my wife's an SBBNSBC (Slightly Backward But Not So Backward Caste), my daughter will be an MBFC-SBBNSBC. I must lobby for reservation for her caste. She's the only member and I'm sure she has a great future.

Note:This article was not created by me and i take no responsibility..for any of the consequences except laughter...