Dravid --- Indefatigable persona

I came across an article on Dravid, i agree to most part of it.
here is the link http://www.haftamag.com/2007/10/12/rahul-dravid-a-journey-par-excellence/

Cricket 2020 way or the 5050 way

It is surprising and strange that this is my first post on cricket.

This post is in response to the adulation that our 2020 cricket team is receiving. And what was rather shocking was the speculation about the future of the big three with the present success of present young team.

It’s hilarious and unintelligent that present young team can win us matches and tournaments in one day international with the same panache of winning 2020 format. The basic difference between 50-50 and 20-20 format is you need batsmen who can stand at the crease for longer time rather than hit out and get out types. This difference is bought out in practice the way Bangladesh played against the big wigs, they have batsmen who are apt for the 20-20 format, and they are not well equipped to stay for a longer time.

This is no way ridicule to the victory that our team has received. It’s a great win that Indian team has achieved. But what was a shock was the way they were treated as they were the best in the history of Indian cricket. There is every chance that these young lads (average age of 24) will take this hero worship into their head, and no one knows whether they will be able to accommodate losses and the criticism which is mostly likely to accompany.

It is in the best interest of Indian cricket that the big three stay in the team and groom these talented young lads for the vagaries that cricket will have in bag for the future.

Chak De – Not one more review!

Just looking back at my blog entries I realize there is not much happening in life apart from watching movies, or there are too many things happening around that I don’t have time to reflect back (hope the latter was true).

Coming back to the topic, I watched Chak De this Friday. It was with Shashank and Raj. I had my share of watching bad movies (too many of them) most of them being telugu, shashank being the reason to blame. Returning from USA, he insists watching telugu movies, he still thinks they are as good as the ones that were around when he left (3 years ago). The deterioration of telugu movies is unprecedented, I did not watch a decent telugu movie after Bomarillu that was approx one year ago.

I had this feeling of watching a very decent movie right into 10 minutes of the Chak De. The screenplay is very gripping, direction very natural with great support from cinematography making you feel the smell of dust (I meant quite natural).

I always cherished watching movies related to sports, more so in English as they have many of such movies. Even though you know what is going to be the climax, you still are gripped to the narration of Chak De. One cannot but appreciate the versatility of Shah Rukh Khan for his acting prowess in this movie. I started appreciating him is a good actor from the movie Swades. This would be one of his best movies in his career. I think it’s quite a risk to act in such movies at the top of one's career and I hope to see that it pays off for Shah Rukh.

One of the most touching points presented in the movie are, importance of team over individual (I always believed in this all through my life) and how girls/women are looked down by the other sex. I should bring out something about feminism; I read a blog entry of my colleague which talks about the problems faced due to eve teasing. The blog influenced me so much that I started rating places based on the safety of girls. I just can’t stop thinking about eve teasing, which I thought was not too rampant in Hyderabad (rather I hoped it never existed). Man, this is getting into my head, after watching Chak De which even more emphasized the point that women are always a suppressed lot. Hope I am not turning into feminist. There is this very thin line between being sensitive to others feelings and believing that every man is a maniac. That blog entry started all this, but hope that does not turn into hatred for guys.

I should thank my friends (Phani and Shashank) for making me move my lazy ass to come up with some updates on my blog, which by the way felt like ages ago.

'Bheja Fry' -- The crisp comedy

Yesterday 6 of us ventured out to watch a movie called 'bheja fry'.
Everyone was skeptical about watching this movie, though I insisted that it would
be a great movie to watch.

Even i was skeptical after my hopes were shattered by their earlier venture "honeymoon travels". I took my friend to this movie against his choice of "ghost rider" which i thought would be a trivial kids movie, turned out to be in the top 10 earners of the month (year probably).

It was 1:30 in the afternoon, we started from our place (i call it suburb -euphemism) to sangeeth (around 20km) from our place. Hyderabad sucks in these matters of hindi movies. At max there would be 4-5 movie halls which screen such movies two of them being pvr and prasads.
And the chances of getting a ticket in pvr and prasads is around 10% during weekends, so we are left with 2-3 cinema halls with couple of them in some suburbs exactly 40-60 km from my place.
so we are left with very few options. Any ways we reached the hall at around 2:15. There were some 10 people near the hall. My friends were very sure that we are the only stupid who dared to come to such a movie. But i still insisted that it will be a good movie.
Movie started at 3:30 it was a roller coaster ride, amazing movie. Though the movie was copied every scene from a french movie, the dialogues were intelligent and witty. It was an awesome movie after all. Vinay pathak as bhusan was exemplary, his timing was apt and expressions very genuine. Kudos to the team i should say and the dialogue writer in particular. There isn't much story to talk about but the dialogues were too good.
I think these movies might not be money guzzlers like stupid movies (kank, dhoom-2). But they give you a good laugh and a refreshing experience. More production houses should make such movies, they cost less ( i did not find a scene or location where they needed to spend in such movies) and are more importantly appreciated. It makes business sense as well as the return on equity will be far more than those 40-50 crore ventures as the investment need is very less ( at max i guess it should have cost them 1 crore). As the investment is less the risk involved is equally less when compared to high investment projects. Return should be equally good with new age multiplex audience increasing daily. Not just from the movie goers, i guess every one would love to have a dvd / cd of such movie, they can earn equally well with dvd rights. other revenue avenues would be rights from tv channels.

So i think it makes perfect business sense to produce such movies (khosla ka ghosla, bheja fry etc). It will save us from the disgusting movies that are released atleast 2 in a week.

Chalo have a great time by watching bheja fry.

Where are we heading?

Bandh was declared in Hyderabad today (4th april) against supreme court's stay on OBC reservation.
Reason for stay : Using 1931 data for arriving at the present percentage of quota. which any rational mind would think a good enough reason for stay.
Now how do the ministry and parties reply to this, they call for bandh against the stay, as they lack balls (can't help it but use that word) to look into the matter and stand by their quota percentages. If they think what ever they are suggesting would help and it the right thing to do, i dont understand why dont they do a market assessment on the numbers and update the 1931 figures.
Now the underlining aspect is that they are not sure (or damn sure to falter) that the present calculation will be correct.
How do they retaliate call for bandh , this solves two points
show their allegiance for serving the backward castes
Show supreme court that the people are backing their decision.
Seriously where are we heading, with a boastful 10% growth rate, about to be become as one of the economic superpower on one hand. And caste based politics, decisions to gain vote bank, on the other.
Is there any way one can stop this, i dont think we can change these politicians to work for the greater good (never going to happen). What is the solution?
We need systemic changes, where the politicians have to follows the rules, they can't make judgments (rules) but only follow standard rules and implement them. who will set these rules, people from academic background, bureaucrats with good track record, and should have representation from different walks of life (i am not talking of a caste based reservation here) like farmers, villagers etc.
This will for sure have a greater impact for the cause of development of india. One of the many problems with the above suggestion is that, we might neglect the welfare of the lower rug. Possible solution for that, any firm which reaps benefits from our land should pay back some percentage by setting up welfare societies.
I know most of these sound radical, but only such radical decisions can save us from these politicians.