Pothana is ever relevant

Mandaara makaranda maadhuryamunadelu...

Mahati cycled turned around the corner, slowly, oblivious to the natural beauty around her. Cycling. Thinking. Cycling. Staring into the distance. Cycling. As the bike passed right next to the pink flower in the green grass, the honey bee rose from it...

Madhupambu vovune madhanamulaku

to check whats going on, but not wanting to let go of the sweet summer flower...

Nirmala mandakini vichikala thoogu...

Mahati turned right, passed the golden carpet of the harvest ready wheat fields and cycled parallel to the tiny stream, gurgling on the pebbles and stones. The ducks stayed in the water fearlessly, gliding along, smoothly, with the water flow...

Rayancha jaanune tharanginulaku

unmindful of the disturbance created by the passing bike in the surroundings...

Lalitha rasaala pallava khaadhiyai chokku...

As the clouds scattered the setting sun's light, spreading the rays as if to bathe the Earth in the warm shower of the evening sun, the Mocking bird started singing, as if to mock the mechanical life of human beings...

Kokila cherune kutajamulaku

Mahati then turned her bike towards her home, to heat and eat the frozen pizza, to wake up early the next morning, and to be successful!

Vinutha gunaseela maatalu veyunela!?

Do I need to explain further!?

To do or to not do

"How can you be so irresponsible? This is blatant dereliction of your duty. You are here to serve us. You better do it properly!" Mahati heard an elderly lady shout at the newly joined, young travel ticket examiner (TTE) on the janshatabdi train, bound to New Delhi. Mahati put away her earphones which continued to play Channa Mereya, completely oblivious to what's happening around. Mahati quickly gobbled the Chole Kulcha she wished to enjoy slowly when she bought it at the Ambala Cantt. She wanted to help if there is any trouble. She inquired what the problem was, from her neighbour.

Her neighbour looked up from his jio-sim equipped smartphone, grinning. He was engrossed in watching the popular Hindi drama serial on Hotstar. Mahati understood that the guy knew what was happening around just as much as his smartphone does. She then realised that more than half of the coach were like her neighbour. So much to be a good samaritan! Just as Mahati rose to find out if everything was okay, an old man with thick beard and a blue turban which was tied down tightly to his chin with a cloth rope started to shout at the TTE as well. The old man is a daily traveler on the train and apparently, the previous day, the TTE failed to notice an unclaimed bag and that created a ruckus. Today as well, there seem to be few unclaimed bags. Mahati showed the TTE which all her bags were. The TTE struggled with the smartphone wielding youth who were uninterested in their own baggage and finally he shortlisted two bags to belong to none. He shouted for two coolies who came in like bomb detection squad. They all decide to not open the bags as opening unclaimed bags would be as foolish as trying to play a spinner with a cross bat. The bags are kept in a far corner. In Kurukshetra, the TTE relayed the information to the next, Karnal station and in Karnal, dropped the bags at the station master room.

The old man, the elderly lady and the other very responsible, respected people were satisfied. They stood the TTE on the spot and taught him the basics of his work. What wonderful teachings, wondered Mahati, just like Krishna to Arjun, at the very same Kurukshetra! After the TTE was allowed to go and perform his lesser important duty, other than listening to the elders, they all started to talk among themselves, quoting various incidents way back from the 80's. 'Do they even maintain newspaper clippings?' chuckled Mahati to herself. She then remembered her earphones. By now they were playing Kabira. As the train neared Panipat, two men, who looked like a tall and a short pahalwan entered the coach, looked on the racks and inquired the people around, in a rough language, where their bags were!

No one spoke. Mahati was listening to Ye tara wo tara, her neighbour was cursing the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law at the same time, from the hindi serial. A scared passenger brought in the skinny TTE and ran away. The burly man looked into the face of the TTE and menacingly asked where his bag containing his certificates were. The TTE informed that two bags were dropped off at Karnal. The men did not find place for their baggage containing certificates in their coach. So they decided to keep them in this coach. The TTE tried to explain the previous days incident and looked at the old man with the turban for help. The old man looked straight ahead, tugging at the rope which secured his turban to his chin. The TTE turned to the elderly lady who first noticed the unclaimed bags. She simply said, "I do not know what you are talking about." Enraged, the TTE made a phone call to his superior and assured that the youth would receive their bags by courier and that they need to pay for it at the New Delhi station. He then turned to the public and hissed, "You want to know why the so called 'public servants' neglect their duty most often? I just realised that it might be because the public do not deserve servants!"

A week later, Mahati looked at a newspaper report about a blast near Kurukshetra in a New Delhi bound train. The bomb seemed to have been in an unclaimed bag and no one bothered to report it. The TTE was suspended. There was no longer a chin for the blue turban to be bound to.

The Fearless

In the movie, the Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan had made an error. The bank robbers should have been wearing a different kind of masks, the mask of perfect gentlemen. Then the bank would have straight away given the key to the vault. Mr. Nolan has too little imagination!

Fear makes a person work hard and earn. Fear gives strength. Fear keeps a person honest. It is the fear of failure that made people like Virat Kohli what he is today.
Fear makes a person steal. Fear kills. Fear makes people lie. It is the fear of facing life that makes the likes of the suicide committing students what they are today.

Nirav Modi had no fear. He worked hard to earn by stealing. He had no fear. He lied that he was honest. He had no fear. He lived a successful life. A life which thousands dream of. To rub shoulders with celebrities. To be the patron of stars, to deal with the highest class of people, live in the best possible of localities and create a brand around one's name. A month ago, Virat Kohli would probably have been shopping for the finest diamond necklace from a Nirav Modi's shop and students from IIM Ahmedabad would be writing thesis papers on the Nirav Modi brand.
Nirav Modi had a clout. So did Vijay Mallya, Lalit Modi, Dawood Ibrahim, Haji Mastan and many others who are still wearing a mask on their faces. Don't panic if your favourite filmstar or cricketer loses his mask and gets exposed.
Yes, mask it is. Nirav Modi had no fear. Neither does Lalit Modi or Vijay Mallya. They had their masks on. If you don't believe this, browse through all their company catalogues or videos, you will understand. They probably have no fear now, because the mask has been removed. So why not live the common man's dream. Vijay Mallya watches cricket matches leisurely while Lalit Modi tours one country a day. Nirav Modi would probably start dating one hollywood beauty every day. The common man will move on and continue dreaming while such people will live those dreams.

The opposition is having a field day. The government is in loggerheads with the opposition about the point, who is it to blame for the mishap. Finally, it is sure that there were multiple number of noses under which Nirav Modi swooped through and created an empire for himself. There is no point asking Raghuram Rajan what he was doing or telling P Chidambaram and Arun Jaitley to give an explanation. The damage is done and there adds up another set of NPAs for the public sector banks. No Manmohan Singh or Narendra Modi can save it in a day. Every government had been struggling to keep the PSUs alive for quite sometime now. By the way, just a point of observation. Too many siphoning cases are coming into limelight after 'Chotta' Rajan got caught in Bangkok a year and half ago. Any coincidences?

Yes, the public is shaken. So am I and are the millions of depositors in the PSUs who in reality stand guarantee for people like Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi. But as always, the public has a volatile memory. There is too much to read about, already. Soon, this will phase out. Just like the commonwealth games, 2G, coal, augusta westland, adarsh and countless other scams before, this scam will be forgotten. There will be other massive scams that will come up in future about which the public has to talk about. Brace yourselves! And oh, if all goes well and if people truly forget the scams, then like D. Raja and Kanimozhi, Vijay Mallya and co would probably make a comeback too.

It is a fact that such people live a king size life. Just type in Vijay Mallya/Lalit Modi/Nirav Modi king-size life on google, you will know. And they had no fear. They could now as well give a motivational talk which goes like, 'Do not have fear. Live your life. Chase your dreams. The Naomi Watts and Kate Winslets shall automatically come to you. Just keep one thing in your mind: Nobody is a saint but everyone is a gentleman. Just keep the mask on. Don't worry about the others, they will keep dreaming!'

The Path not Taken

Summer in Europe has come to an end. This is the last time one (by one, it is implied that it is an Indian who is used to temperatures as hot as Arnab Goswami's temper) could take a long bike ride in the nice evening weather in Germany. Cycling through a forest is great. It provides one with fresh air, good exercise, great scenery and improves reflexes, since one has to be quite agile, lest a boar should run full on to the fahrad. In short, biking through the forest in the south-western region of Germany is fun and the end of August is the best time to undertake this journey.

Good cycle, good headlights, good taillights. Enthusiastic driver. Time to go home. Enter the forest. Then two roads diverged into the green wood and the driver cannot travel both.
She must choose and choose wisely. It is time to go home, but an enthusiastic driver. What to do.
She looked at the one road and looked as far as she could.
Far she could see, to where it bent in the undergrowth.
But nay, she is the enthusiastic biker and she took the other path, just as fair,
because it was grassy and wanted wear.

Little did she know that Robert Frost had mentioned an Autumn climate, rather than the sweet summer. She now has a lot to face in the dense canopy of the forest which is so thick that it came to be called the 'Blackforest.' She has boldly chosen one and has to go ahead. Cycle she does, coolly at first and quickens her pace in a moment. The only source of light is that tiny diode on the front of her bike and the occasional firefly that kept hitting her face. The canopy felt like the vast sky, just without the bright moon and the twinkling stars which were blanketed. Few minutes into the ride, came they. No one who ever traversed the path near the forest had gone without tasting one of them. The eyes were not spared either. Squinting her eyes, she wanted to reach the end as fast as possible. But the forest never seemed to end. The little diode was still the only source of light. She rode at maximum power since she got well nourished after swallowing a million of those insects.

And then came the end of the road. She hated road endings but not today. She cherished it and felt happy that the forest ended, only to enter the farmland which was infested with enough insects to fill a boeing cargo! But back came the moon light under which she looked at her body, covered with insects like in the movie, Mummy.

She shall be telling this with a sigh
that she took the road less traveled by
the reason for which she now knows why

Plant and do not forget!

"Monsoon finally! I feel as relieved as drinking sweet lime after biting into a chilli." said Mahati's friend. The summer this time was so hot that some Indians went to the Sahara desert to chill out. Added to the heat was the disappointing loss to Pakistan in the Champions Trophy final. Hence only after few rains did things cool down. Mahati and her friend were on the terrace enjoying the monsoon rains which are much awaited for, in India almost every year. The Indian Meteorological Department failed again to accurately predict Indian monsoon and hence, as they always did, they rolled dice everyday to predict the weather forecast and the amount of rain. Today they said it would be overcast. It started raining in the evening. Close enough!

Mahati's body was in the state of a thermal gradient, with her feet experiencing intense heat being radiated from the floor of the terrace as the air above it got cooler. As it rained, the first rain drops to touch the floor got vaporized instantly, sacrificing themselves to take the heat away from the floor so that the next generation of drops can land peacefully. As the temperatures dropped and the air got denser, with more oxygen to breathe in, Mahati and her friend heaved a sigh of relief and decided it was time to enjoy a walk in the rain and went downstairs. As they reached the gate of their apartment, they saw the watchman who decided to enjoy a beedi in the beautiful rain. He just finished the beedi and was putting it out against the trunk of a tree which was sprouting fresh leaves. "Balram, it is not good to smoke, especially in such a weather and on top of it, you are hurting a tree?" asked Mahati. The watchman, bewildered at the fact that he was hurting something made of wood said, "This is how I have been putting out my beedi for the past ten years madam!" Feeling disgusted, merciful and amused at the same time, Mahati and her friend went on just as the watchman plucked out some fresh leaves to chew them.

Salutes to the brave women of the Chipko movement 

"People need to change. They need to plant more trees. Otherwise, this guy is going to chew all the fresh leaves, killing them all! It is monsoon time and Vanamahotsav is round the corner. In the academic year, this is the first ever festival that school kids need to celebrate. They should go on a sapling planting drive. I heard that in a temple courtyard recently, they planted 3000 plants. That is great!" said Mahati. Her friend asked casually, "How many of them survived?" Mahati replied, "You are so pessimistic. It does not matter how many survived. In the 3000, even if 30 make it t become fully grown trees, it is great, no!" Her friend asked, "then why can't they have simply planted 30 plants and made sure they all made it to become trees? Let me explain. Once planted, a sapling needs the care that one takes, for a baby. It is not at all practical to take good care of thousands of plants. Planting saplings is not a photo opportunity. It is the duty of the people. Vanamahotsav means 'The festival of trees and forests.' It is not enough to chop down a tree to make way for a politician to plant a flowering plant and pose for photos. That was not why it was started by K M Munshi and actively endorsed by our first PM Pandit Nehru in 1950. This is a drive to conserve forests and make sure there are more trees around us. It is not necessary to plant 3000 saplings in the hope that 30 will survive. It should be that 30 saplings should be planted and made sure they grow into trees, apart from conserving the existing trees. Plant and take care of it. Do not forget and leave the plant to rot. That is the idea of a festival of trees!

They kept on walking on the street in the potholes of which rainwater was settling down, not knowing where else to sink into the ground. "Still, something is better that nothing, right." Mahati said. Her friend stopped suddenly and pointed at a huge banner hung on the side of the road. The banner read, 'Planting drive to plant a million saplings by our beloved chief minister - Vanamahatsav celebrations, 2016. Jai Telangana'
Right below the banner, there was evidence of the planting drive. Ten neat holes were dug and fences constructed around them to protect the saplings. The saplings dried up and died. The banner continued to flutter, stronger than ever.

Puppy Shame!

It was Friday night and Mahati invited her friend home for dinner. She finished garnishing the pulihora and bisibelebath and they both were setting up the dinner table when her flatmate stormed into the room. She was coming back from her office and was visibly upset, angry and both. A concerned Mahati said, 'What's up? Anything wrong? I invited my friend for dinner and made a Andhra special.' Her flatmate did not quite notice Mahati's friend. She asked, 'How can people be so mean?' Mahati quickly put all the dinner in a hot pack.

'The guy that my parents wanted me to marry rejected me saying I am too thin for him.' said her flatmate. 'How can people judge someone based on their looks and physique? Is that not mean and hurtful?' Mahati replied, 'Absolutely. But what you should actually be doing is feel happy and grateful that you would not be married to someone who did not even interact with you to know about you. He let the weighing machine weigh your character. Obviously you would not want to marry a person like that. It is good news. Let us be happy for that, no.' 

Her flatmate did not cool down yet. 'Yeah, you are true, I should be happy. But what if all the people I know and will know in the future are like that? That is because, now that I think of it, girls who I thought would befriend me for what I am and of course, all the elderly aunts in my family also are the same. They judge me because I am thin. How correct is that? I am sure that some aunty lady would have told the guy that "look she is too thin. she is not suitable to marry." In fact, some so called friends are worse, whenever we go shopping for clothes, they direct me to the kids section. Is it my fault that I am thin? Is every one of them perfectly shaped? Does every woman need to have a so called curvy figure? Why can people not just be themselves and not indulge in bashing others for something they have no complete control on!'

Mahati understood her flatmate's agony and tried to console her. She said, ' Try not to think of all those. You might have only a handful of friends or people who like you for who you are. Only worry about those. Do not bother about others. When friends do such body shaming, it generally is in a very friendly manner, try to think of it that way. And when relatives say so, well, they are all relatives after all, what more do you expect.' she winked. 'However, even relatives try to tell for our "own good" you know. We do not realise it but we also do it quite often. After all, we are relatives for others too, is it not. None of us are Buddha or Gandhi. We do hurt others unknowingly. Just try to only take from what you hear, what you really need. All this might seem to be a way to escape the taunts of the society and not stand up against it boldly. But trust me, you would achieve nothing out of standing up. Nor do I say that you should start eating and exercising once someone comments on your skinniness and start dieting once someone starts bashing you for being a kilo heavier. Whatever others think of you, you do know that there always is someone who knows what you are. Don't let go of them! And now, enough of philosophy and let us eat before thermodynamics starts working on the imperfect hotpack!'

Mahati's friend who was listening all along laughed and asked, 'But what about me?'
Mahati's flatmate, who in her furore have not seen him till then, had a look at him.
He was five feet, three inches tall!

Bucketing Down with a Shower

Well, yes, the title is a cheeky way to say that water is wasted when using a shower. But before starting any argument, let me confess that I use a shower daily, not because I like it, but because I have no luxury of using a bucket (In the west, you would find a lot of wastage of resources and energy). But somehow, there are a lot of people who are convinced that a shower wastes less water than a bucket bath. I do not think so. India has been facing water shortage since times unknown and we have come to a conclusion that using a bucket is the best way out. I support this 'tradition.' By the way, California too has just realised it. Maybe in few years time, we would be seeing buckets in every bathroom in California atleast.

One Quora explanation tells us to plug the water in the bath tub, take a shower and compare the water levels with the volume of a bucket. It is absolutely nonsense. Probably the writer got confused between a bucket and the bath tub (I am scared of the wastage created by a tub bath, so I will not even talk about it). I decided to do a simple experiment in a hostel bathroom in India. The reason for choosing a hostel bathroom is because generally in hostels, the shower faucets are clogged in most of the pores (the reason for this is a research problem no one has ever probed into) and thus I am literally using the slowest possible shower faucet. I filled a one liter mug with the water from the shower. It took me a bit more than 12 seconds for the mug to fill. That would mean 5 liters per minute and assuming 5 minutes for a bath, it consumed 25 liters of water. Assuming that those who believe that they are conserving water by taking showers will also bathe very fast, I cut down the bath time to a very very modest 3 minutes which brings down the consumption to 15 liters. Now, according to Milton, selling its products on Flipkart, the common bucket is 18 liters in volume, thus making a shower bath better, mathematically (in reality, it is not, you know! :-P)
However, to give an edge to shower faucets, I have made a lot of assumptions above. I have also not considered the initial wastage that generally occurs while using a shower and also the fact that a bucket is never filled to the brim (even the volume is calculated likewise).

Now, instead of my calculations, I look at the American "Faucet Flow Rate Regulations" (yes, there are such regulations), framed in 1994 (I really wonder if the US knows about a bucket! I am kidding, it does, Amazon.com sells them). According to the regulations, the maximum allowed flow rate is 2.5 gallons per minute which is about 9.4 liters per minute. The aim is to bring that down to 1.2 gpm but that is only in California but let me assume this is the norm everywhere. Even though it is a huge, huge assumption, let me go ahead and say that every shower faucet in the US urinates 1.2 gpm or 4.5 liters per minute, rounded off. An average person showers for 8 minutes. That would mean 36 liters of water in total. Phew! Again, the 'conservationists' who believe shower bath is good would let's say bathe for only 5 minutes which makes the count 22.5 liters of water. Again in the shower's defense, let us assume that a common bucket has a volume of 22 liters. The shower still uses more water!

However, I am showering no praises on bucket bath. That is because in the true defense of those in support of a shower bath over bucket bath, I have always taken into account that those who go for bucket bath only use one bucket of water which might not be true. Using two or more buckets of water makes it way water consuming than a regular shower bath. But hey, I have assumed so much for the shower players, I can make this small assumption as well. Just keep in mind that there are millions who are still thirsty while we bathe daily/weekly. Overall, "a" bucket bath is way better than shower in the present circumstances at least! Also, c'mon, with a bucket bath, one can reach any particular spot on the body but that is not possible with a shower bath. Most importantly, you can take your time in a bucket bath without having to worry about turning off knobs. What is the point of taking a bath if one cannot stand and wonder or recollect the lyrics of a really long song!

Some disturbing links:
https://www.unicef.org/drought/drought-countries.htm
http://www.wri.org/blog/2015/06/global-tour-7-recent-droughts
https://www.drought.gov/gdm/current-conditions
http://www.seametrics.com/blog/global-water-crisis-facts/

The Other Side of the Moon!

After a hard day at work, Mahati also had a hard time at home. The air in the apartment that she was sharing with her fellow Indian friends was full with unpleasantness. Mahati wondered what would have come up this time. "It is always difficult for us Indians to live in countries like this" her friend was saying. Mahati quickly realised the gravity of the situation and completely agreed with her friend and joined her in bashing the western world because she knew that if she did not, there would be no dinner and she was hungry. In the canteen the next day, her friend brought up the topic again. Confident that there is no problem with regards to food, Mahati freely spoke her heart out this time. 'Why are we unhappy?' she asked. 'Because we are not given the opportunity to be happy.' Mahati wondered whether it was the salad, because she was not happy with those huge lettuce leaves in whose pockets were hiding one or two tomatoes.

She realised that the salad was not the problem. 'Why are we not allowed to explore and express ourselves?' 'Who is stopping you from expressing yourself?' Mahati asked. 'We are discriminated by our looks, color and language. These are no reasons to discriminate. Why should we not be allowed to explore?' Mahati now understood. Something at the workplace or the salary slip, she decided. 'We come here for opportunities, yes,' her friend continued 'but we also work hard. We are here not because we have no opportunities back in India. We are here because, these countries are rich enough to have enough opportunities in every field of work. And since we do well in our work, we deserve to be respected on par with the locals.'

'Agreed. But I do not think that these are reasons enough to be unhappy about. We are all lucky that at least we are given an opportunity to prove our talents, to be able to eat food whenever we are hungry and sleep when we are tired. We also come from a country where there is enough food for everyone even though some individuals get food equivalent to a hundred people and some go hungry for days. Still there is food for everyone and hence most households are full of laughter. Maybe not every household, but every one who go out of India for these so called better opportunities all have a home to which you can look forward to going to and there is always some one looking for you to come home. What more can one ask to be happy? There are millions who cannot define what their home is. No matter what, we know that we can always go home, right, unlike many others.'

'Yes. But why on Earth should we not be allowed to be happy when we are away from home? Should I be happy only thinking about home?' Mahati replied, 'Nobody is stopping you from trying to be happy with your life, are they? Just try to enjoy life and be thankful.' 'Yeah sure. Thanks. Aah. See, look how happy that girl seems. She is fair and liked by everyone here. She has no reason to be unhappy like us.' he was saying, Mahati's friend. Mahati got up and went to the girl and introduced herself. 'Hi. Nice to meet you.' said that girl.
'Which part of this country are you from?' Mahati asked
'Oh no. I am not from this country. I have come here in search of some opportunity to work.' the girl said.
'I see. You were so nicely mingling with the people and seemed very ha..I mean, we thought you are from this country itself. Why did you come here then?'
'Oh, you see, I did not want to come, I had to come.' the girl winked.
'Where are you from?'
'Syria'

Nothing but the Best!

A time capsule is defined as 'historic cache of goods or information, often intended as a method of communication with future people.' This would help the future anthropologists and historians. Emperor Asoka's pillar inscriptions of Sarnath is one example. Even though not even as close to being significant or historic like the Asokan pillars, the time capsule at the Mercedes-Benz museum in Stuttgart, Germany is useful for the common man to understand the shaping up of one of the world's largest economy. Yes, the museum devoted to exhibiting the development of the brand Mercedes, just like any other museum begins from the origin. But what is exciting comes after the origin. The way the company has taken shape and the way the entire country has developed as the automobile developed is explained quite brilliantly and that is the best thing about the museum.

The journey begins with the display of a superb model of a sports car. Probably that is the indication about the grandeur of what is about to come further. An elevator to the top floor from which the journey of the automobile starts is not just any ordinary elevator. It is the time capsule. As it goes to higher floors, there is a fast recap of videos visible on the wall opposite, thus taking us back in time along with it. At the entry, there is a statue of a horse as if to thank the animal for serving mankind so well before the automobile revolution. It could as well mean that the service of the animal stopped just at the entrance of the automobile. Either way, the horse is happy. It can have a life of its own.

Whether a coincidence or competition, it is a wonder that both Mr. Daimler and Mr. Benz had developed their own automobile in the year 1886. If Daimler modified a horse wagon, Benz made a carrier of his own. They both ran on gasoline. Thus started the journey. It goes on to show how the ambitious men that they both were conquered every part of the transport and logistics sector. The breweries in Germany were more than happy with the arrival of the automobile and were among the first customers. Later, an Austrian businessman, who wanted to win the annual vehicle race in France got a customised car made for the very same purpose and named the car after his daughter, Mercedes. After Benz and Daimler came together, they retained the name. Interestingly, it is only around the late 18th century that Germany as it is now has grown in popularity under the iron chancellor, Otto von Bismark. If this is a coincidence, then the crucial role played by the automobile companies during both the world wars is no coincidence. 

Once the war ended, west Germany, especially Bavaria grew in the automobile sector. Now, every fourth car on the road is a German car. Due to the destruction left by the war, nation building, like the breweries earlier required good transport and logistics facilities and Mercedes was in the forefront in grabbing that opportunity. So much did the car and their speeds develop that the group had to focus exclusively on safety at a point of time. Thus came the 'airbag.' No, the seat belt was invented by Volvo. Towards the end, there is a proud exhibition of the Formula One race cars, the suits worn by different drivers like Lewis Hamilton and Juan Manuel Fangio. Surprisingly, Micheal Schumacher does not feature anywhere. There are also exhibits of the original cars used by celebrities like Pope John Paul II (someone) - basically the papal car, the car used by Lady Diana, the truck that carried athletes during the 1972 Munich Olympic games, the car used in Jurassic Park etc. There is also a souvenir shop and a car showroom, into which people generally go to sit in the car and click photographs.

Any normal human being whose heart beats at 72 cycles per minute wishes to travel at least twice in that time capsule. This museum is a perfect reflection of the motto Mercedes-Benz: Best or nothing. It is nothing but the best!

Politics and Cricket: Bullying a Bully

As India immerses itself deep in challenging cricket and landslide electoral mandates in politics, it could be the right time to think about politics in cricket.
There is one more thing that Indians love, apart from cricket and politics: movies. Indian movies somehow tend to show that the rich guy is the villain, even the 'high budget' movies. For the common man, the relation of movies to cricket is quite simple. The Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) is rich. And hence, BCCI is the villain. And anyone who can tame the bull(y) by its horns is a hero, even an otherwise hated person. It probably is the human nature. Not many ever support the Tiger when it chases its prey. This brings us to the question, why the hatred? Even if there is no hatred, there definitely is no love. BCCI is not loved like FIFA by the fans. Is it all because the BCCI, within a span of very few years grew from an underdog and a sidekick to being the boss in cricket? Well, that should make the average cricket fan in India be fond of BCCI. It just is not loved just as same as cricket in India. Maybe the movies do have an impact on the people.

On a serious note however, it is quite sad that many a man has conveniently forgotten the tremendous changes that BCCI brought into the game in India. The board had over years transformed the face of cricket in India and made heroes out of people who know nothing more than hit a 22 pound sphere with a three foot stick. And when a jobless, retired supreme court judge decides that the BCCI is bad and requires a changeover, he is welcomed as a hero. The bull has been brought down onto its knees by its horns. Many would argue that the BCCI had made a lot of money and hence it is bullying other countries and boards. Well, it would be great to know how the world of cricket got ruined by that. BCCI per se does what the United States of America does to the entire world. And we all love America and carry no love towards BCCI. The board was registered as a society in Tamil Nadu way back in 1928 and why did we have to wait for over 80 years to realise that it is wrong for the board to be a society and not pay taxes? Just because it is the only board running in heavy profits? How come we then don't bat an eye that Education Testing Services (ETS) in the name of SAT, GRE, TOEFL and GMAT is robbing millions of dollars from Indian students who wish to go abroad for higher education and yet, ETS is a non profit organisation. But when BCCI which is lifting hundreds or maybe thousands of players and those related to cricket, there occurs a problem for it to continue as a society.

The seasoned quitter!

It is probably because of lobbying, in which India is earning quite a name in the last few years. In Indian cricket, the Mumbai lobby is the strongest. And when met with opposition from people like N. Srinivasan from the south, we all know what happened to him. A major portion of his downfall is his own doing. However, when things did not quite work out at the BCCI, the lobby sent its representative to the ICC. It seemed like he waited for the right moment to attack the BCCI and the moment came in the form of the recommendations of the Lodha committee. The outcome of these recommendations might definitely help city boards like Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. We have to understand that we will all see more of Kohlis, Rahanes and Nairs and cricket in India will be the same. But what about the Mahendra Singh Dhonis, the Kedar Jadavs and the Ravindra Jadejas? How come Maharashtra and Manipur have the same say in cricketing decisions. A single vote for Maharashtra would mean complete Mumbai dominance and it is not good. No wonder Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri are quite happy. Even electoral colleges keep in mind the population and popularity in mind while deciding the vote share. Not even a competitive lawyer like Kapil Sibal could make the court understand this simple logic.

The advisory committee! How on Earth did a sensible person like Ramachandra Guha agree to be a part of it? If being a cricket historian takes one to the advisory committee, then should P.N. Oak had been made the Endowment minister or Arundhati Roy the principal secretary? Going by this logic, the appointment of Gajendra Chouhan as the chairman of FTII can also be justified. Guha should have followed example of Dravid in politely rejecting honours. Instead he chose his idol, Sachin Tendulkar in readily accepting jobs which he is not capable of fulfilling. By the way, Harsha Bhogle was ousted by the BCCI. Does that not make him the topmost contender to the advisory committee?? He would have truly been a wise choice! Whoever the advisor is, he/she should remember that nothing or nobody is above the game. Protecting the interests of Indian cricket should be the priority of the board, which it of course has been doing quite nicely for years, until the Lodha committee entered.

In their entire life, the Lodha committee members would have spent more time in the cafeteria in the district court that on a cricket ground, or knowing about cricket. While I do acknowledge that a judge does not necessarily need to be highly knowledgeable about the things that he reports on, I feel that they have gone too far into 'changing' BCCI for the better. They should have been content when the majority of their recommendations were implemented. All the problems stemmed from the IPL spot fixing for which the BCCI had done enough amendments. The thing is...The newly appointed CoA do not know how to play! And if they want to do well, the BCCI has to function the way it always functioned. Yet, the committee finds faults entirely in BCCI and not at all in the law and order maintenance! Just like what they did their entire life, they simply punished the easy target. And when the BCCI is at its weakest, Shashank Manohar at the ICC is attacking from the outside. The result: The bully BCCI has been bullied into doing things!

In a Perfect World, in Tennis!

I am a lone Rafa fan among a bunch of stupid friends who are Federer fans. Sorry for delaying this but I kept it in waiting so that I can dedicate it. This piece is for all the big Federer fans out there, especially MY GREAT, AWESOME FRIEND, PRASIDDHA who is ready to crash onto Saturn along with Cassini space orbiter if it would make her meet Roger Federer. (You win today, but one day I will win too!)

In a perfect world, in the sport of tennis, the perfect tennis rankings would feature Roger Federer at the top, followed by Rafael Nadal in the second place. The perfect grandslam final would be played between these both, with Nadal thrashing Federer on clay or a slow surface and a fierce battle ensued between them on other surfaces. And for a period of time, a record 160 weeks to be specific, this did happen in tennis. Everything was perfect, until other beauties like Novak Djokovic took over the crown. However, there is only one perfect situation and true tennis fans have missed it for a long time even with Rafa and Roger around.

And for once, just once, there came another chance. Again, everything was perfectly for the setting. In unexpected, yet delightful turn of events, the best players in the world right now, Djokovic and Andy Murray lost cheaply in early rounds in the Australian Open while Wawrinka and Dimitrov just scared the many a fan for a brief time. Thus, after six years, the result was, the perfect moment came once again. Called together by their colloquial name, 'Fedal,' they did play like true gladiators that they are but only a bit old and weary. They both knew Federer's time was up (sorry, Federer fans, sadly this is true) and this match is the last big thing that they could do together! Ah the lovely couple and their sad break up!!  Even the craziest of Nadal fan would have not worried if he lost. Because he would be losing to Roger Federer! No one cares who wins as long as they get to see them play each other in a major. And they did not disappoint. They fought and they fought bitterly. Federer the ever child he is and Nadal the ever fighter he is. They fought for the championship. No reason for Nadal fans to be upset. After all, this is just Australian Open. Not the Wimbledon nor the Roland Garros (better than the US Open though). I am sure that if Nadal continues this kind of a show, we know what birthday present he is going to give himself this year.

This would be the end. We only walk forward. No going back! 

Both were gracious. They played for the victory like they always did. They played for the tennis fan and importantly, they played for tennis, the lovely game that Sir Isaac Newton improvised sitting in the lawns of Cambridge. It could be tough to play to balance all the three. They did it because it is them, 'Fedal.' They are now not two different players. And now, there will not be one clear winner in the match. Just as Federer wonderfully said after the match, 'If tennis allows it, they both would be sharing the trophy.' And yes, they spoke wonderfully. It was as if both of them prepared for a speech together, which could be used irrespective of who won. They both carried the same grace and competitiveness right from their game into the speech. The speech was spontaneous but felt well rehearsed like the Nobel prize or the Academy award acceptance speech. Well, this match was definitely the Oscar of tennis, it is only once in a lifetime event.

If this match did not display the spirit of tennis, nothing would have. Of course, most of their encounters and many other tennis encounters did display the spirit. But they played a grandslam final like an exhibition match. It takes great sportsmanship to do so. They also perfectly understood the gravity of the situation. While they celebrated each point which they won so hard, they also knew to celebrate in the 'non hurtful' way. It is as if both of them knew the other's fanbase. They wanted to keep everyone happy, yet wholeheartedly fight for the trophy. That is the return they have given for all the love that they received. This match has taken the Federer-Nadal rivalry to another level: it paired their names. A Fedal match is now not something which tennis fans would watch to support one player. It is the whole match as a package that they would be interested in. Of course, they are never going to meet in a grand slam final again. Their (read Federer's) age will not allow them to. Their (read Nadal's) body and fitness will not allow it and their rankings definitely will not help. This is it. This is the last that we have seen them play each other in a major final and they made it a true tennis match which makes the average tennis fan go like, ' Well, that is for a lifetime!' 

Turning the Tables

"Why don't you come over one day. It's fun. I have been working in this industry for five years now and there was not one day when I felt bored" said Mahati's friend. He worked as a sound manager for a TV show. He entered the film industry hoping to become a good director and had his write friend make some wonderful scripts ready. He wanted to earn an extra rupee, so he grabbed the first opportunity that came to his hand: to work as a sound manager for a TV show. As fancy as the name sounds, all he has to do is to click the right button at the right time. It of course is exciting and not boring because, one small mistake and he would be vapourised by the director.

It was any other routine day. Mahati felt that she should rather go to the shoot since it was a movie shoot of the hero on the TV show and it could be a change from the regular. She could see how a film is shot and would actually see the hero in action. Mahati went along with her friend to the shoot. Her friend was busy managing the reflector paper, so Mahati was left for herself. On the set was a movie in which the hero played the role of a poor guy. Mahati pondered what the hero's past had been. He had come from a humble modest family of a cashier in the government vegetable market yard. The hero had faced a lot of pressure at home to not take up acting since it would not guarantee a fixed income. The hero also had to face lot of insults multiple times from multiple persons in the film industry. 'What a man!! He definitely must know how hard life is,' thought Mahati. She felt great to see him in action.

The movie reflected Mahati's mood. The villain was a billionaire whom the hero once helped on one occasion. Obviously, when the hero needs help, the villain does not come forward voluntarily. Hence, he is the villain. 'What an actor!! He definitely must be aware of life lest he cannot express emotions that well' Mahati thought. She mentally thanked the wonderful director who was responsible for introducing and bringing fame to the hero. Despite of multiple failures and insults to the hero by many others, this particular director never stopped believing in the hero. He made him what he is today. Then she remembered that the director died recently because of poverty and illness. She felt sorry for him for a moment and went back to adoring the hero and his acting skills. The hero ended the scene with a strong dialogue on poverty, common man and the power of a single man, who without a strong backing can have mighty influence on the society. 'What a simpleton!! He definitely must know what poverty is and being left out by those who had once approached him for help feels like' thought Mahati.

Something in the back of her mind struck her. As she was trying to process what she had thought in a while, the hero who had donned a poor guy's character and championed the cause of the common man sped past her in a chauffeur driven Rolls Royce to his home in Bandra. 

A walk through the ages in Baden Karlsruhe, Germany

Statutory Warning: The writer has been dormant for quite sometime now. Hence, the blogpost is duly scrutinized and perused. However, do not mind if the post wanders away from the topic or if you find English, not being the language that humans generally speak. Thanks

Germany is a great place to work in, provided one knows German. Or provided one knows how to shut themselves off from everything but work. Any attempt in learning German language, heritage or culture will be welcomed by the locals warmly with a huge smile. To learn German, one could try the hard way out, that is by watching the television in Germany. It is ridiculously ridiculous to watch even 'The Simpsons' dubbed into German as 'Die Simpsons' and worst, to watch Nickelodeon channel in German. Well, that is the hard way. A much easier way would be of course to enroll for German classes. Apart from language, one way to learn the culture of the place would be to visit museums. The Badisches Landesmuseum in Karlsruhe is one place which teaches a lot of good history.

Nice view in the night!

The palace is centrally located in the town which is built in such a way that all roads lead to the palace. The palace which was built in 1715 does not at all seem so. Whether it is the German archaeology department or the engineers of the 18th century, one does not know. A quite costly ticket for the museum visit will however take one through the ages, from about 2000 BC mankind to Steffi Graf of the modern era. A walk through the ancient Cyclades, with their marble stone figurines, through Anatolia, Mesopotamia, Greece, Macedonia, Sicily, Rome, gives the perfect routemap for someone from Asia visiting the place. The Byzantine empire is obviously given a lot of importance in the early history. An entire section is devoted to explaining ancient funeral techniques. Great!

The renaissance period section greets one with a life size dolls of Jesus Christ and the 12 apostles (yeah, that's right!), how they were all murdered and stuff which moves on to silver and bronzeware of that age. The later part of the museum shows how rich the Barons, the Duchess and the Dukes grew in Europe. Lavish lifestyle, one must agree. And a safe one too, because one cannot find many weapons. Probably the Persians were too busy deciding who would invade India that they left Europe mostly in peace to fight among themselves (this obviously is a joke and please, no talking about the Crusades, because they fail to be mentioned in the museum). The lavish lifestyle included lots of games that were played which is seen from the variety of medallions and trophies on display. A pineapple featuring in the trophies has been in usage from times unknown, apparently.

That would bring us to the last section of museum, where there is a pleasant surprise in wait. A number of tennis balls used by Boris Becker and Steffi Graf are on display along with scientific inventions by great companies like Bosch. Interestingly, Adolf Hitler features no where in the museum even though a number of war boots and the Nazi arm strap are on display. That is very nice of the Germans(?).

The tower is a special one, climbing on the top of which gives one a good view (I don't I need to mention Karlsruhe. One cannot see Paris from this 90 foot tower.) The statue of the Baron of the palace features in the huge lawn present outside. The palace is marvelous and needs a full day to cover everything present inside. A visit to this place truly takes one through the Art and Culture of Karlsruhe Baden. Try visiting it in Germany. Karlsruhe is an hour's journey in the 257 kmph train from Franfurt. Do the math!

Vasthavattide...Pothavattide!

Indian movies of the 80's and 90's had a unique feature. Birds stop flying, tidal waves halt and trees cease to sway the moment there is a shocking scene. On a sad, quiet evening, Mahati felt such signs. Everything and everyone were in motion but nothing seemed moving forward. The Delhi based media as usual felt that South Indians are 'below the belt' and had no clue about the things happening down here. Still, Mahati felt that something in the world order was not in place. How would it be! Music froze for a moment, unable to believe that Carnatic maestro, Mangalampalli Balamurali Krishna passed away.

Murali Krishna, a child prodigy earned the title 'Bala' at the age eight and mastered all the 72 melakartha raagas soon. He was also the creator of many raagas one of which is the inspiration for her name, Mahati realised. Even an acclaimed mathematician would be awed at the new project that he had taken up which involved the tala system and the creation of thousands of newer raaga from the multiple probabilities using the 72 melakarthas. Surely, he must be the pioneer amongst those many musicians in the modern era who took Carnatic music to the masses through his wonderful works like Tatwalu. He truly sings about the beauty of life and death which come unannounced in Tatwalu. His contributions with the help of many others only have opened up Annamacharya and Ramadasu to us. Music would be proud of him, with his thorough understanding of the field and his many many innovations, the world would be proud. Find his music journey here.

His close friend and his jugalbandhi partner, late Pt. Bhimsen Joshi was awarded with the Bharat Ratna literally on his hospital bed. When asked whether he deserved the highest civilian award of the nation, Balamurali just replied that he can buy his own first class rail ticket (Bharat Ratna recipients are given Indian railway concessions). His music had won him not only the best awards for art in India but in France as well. He was honoured with Chevalier rank by the French government in 2005. That is because he sang in French! His music has garnered enough support worldwide in the form of his friends, number of concerts and awards and importantly his disciples.
The country is proud of its best actor, kamal Hasan who is a proud student of Balamurali. Hasan refused to appear in the video of the patriotic song, 'Mile sur mera tumhara' unless he was shown listening to his teacher that is Balamurali Krishna. P.V.Mohan Krishna would remind us of Balamurali himself.

The entire world gave a teary farewell to Micheal Jackson. Balamurali Krishna deserves nothing less. He did receive such an honour. He was certified to be great enough to be awarded the Bharat Ratna by none other than Selvi Jayalalitha herself. That assures his greatness. Yes, music had only frozen for a moment. It continues to flow in its path with numerous other contributors emerging like the mighty Ganga with its hundreds of tributaries. Yet, there is some void, an unfillable one, like a gap formed when four wheels are brought together. Those lucky to have listened to the 'Sangeetha Virinchi' live in concert are the content ones. The humble arrogance in his beautiful compositions, his smile and his voice which all remained same over the years (like Yesudas's voice), are going to live on, forever.

Dandi March to Mars: old 500 to new 2000

Hundreds of people must have had a sleepless night yesterday. Vijay Sekhar Sharma is one among them. Unlike many who were sleepless due to anxiety, Vijay Sekhar would have had a night of joy and excitation. His company, Paytm would have skyrocketed in valuation. By taking a bold step in withdrawing its guarantee on 500 and 1000 rupee promissory notes, the government of India has made all Indians shift focus on themselves rather than some elections happening in a far away land.

Black money is the prime reason behind the fall of rupee value. As long as the rupee minted in India and the currency notes printed in India, stay in India and circulate, it is fine. But if they cease to circulate, it creates a gap in the wealth of the nation. This can happen by either stashing away the rupee in form of dollars and gold bonds abroad or by creating an excess of currency through counterfeit notes, which are all actually a form of warfare on the Indian economy since it is still predominantly an economy which deals in cash. A gap can also be created by suffocating circulation by hiding lots of large denomination notes under bedroom tiles and buffalo sheds (if you take it literally, stop watching Indian movies for sometime!). It is right time for those who can, to move towards digital transactions because they are perfectly safe and now are actually safer than currency transactions. RBI has published FAQs on this matter.

Who will benefit from this: a common man's view

A popular TV channel rushed to ATM centers in cities like Mumbai and Kolkata and towns like Bhatinda and interviewed people standing in long queues. Almost everywhere, people resonated the same idea that they are ready to face hardships for a day or two if 'black money' is controlled because of this move. Just three and a half hours before midnight, the prime minister announced that high denomination notes cease to be legal tender from midnight. This has shocked common people but the move was quickly welcomed because HONEST PEOPLE HAVE GOT NOTHING TO LOSE if not gain.

One need not worry about traders, small or big and the middle class. They are well informed (social media made sure everyone knew the news in no time) and have enough time to deposit all their legal money in the banks in time by December 30, 2016. In case the deadline is missed, they can go to RBI branches until a later date. 

Those who wish to exchange all their money would be getting four thousand rupees and a withdrawal of ten thousand per day is possible until November 24, 2016 which would be good enough for the small traders. For larger transactions, cheque transfers, NEFT and everything else is still the same. Those who are scared that all the black money will be exchanged into hundred rupee notes, no, it cannot be.

All those farmers, teachers and middle class people who generally get paid and deal in cash have to walk to the banks and wait in long queues to deposit money [sic]. After all, when we support nation wide bandhs, why not this. That in one stroke is going to increase the money in banks and thence their lending capacity of banks for which they have been waiting for like a drought struck land waiting for rains.

In the end, the commoner is going to benefit from the wealth that can be saved from illegal money.

A win-win situation

Suppose a person has jewellry and some of his friends, unknown to him got fake jewelry made, it would be a disaster for the person if he plans to exchange the jewellry with other commodities because the jewellry value is not what it should have been. Counterfeiting money is one form of indirect war on the country and needs to be put in check. Second, all the excess money generated through hawala transactions or tax evasions or by skipping large loan repayments is being used to fund terrorism, example of which is influential people buying gold and lands, thus making black into gold. Putting this money in check would first bring down the amount of gold being smuggled into India. If gold purchases drop in this country, it will reap gold for the common people. Say no to Dhanteras more than crackers during Diwali.

As for the government, the timing and the secrecy behind the move is absolutely applaudable, especially in a country like India with so much population. If all the good that is supposed to happen, happens, it is great. Either way, the big political heads who have illegal money stored and ready for disbursement during the UP elections are hit hard. Obviously, two months from now, life is going to be the same for the common public who are now happy that government has taken a courageous step considering the history of demonetization in other countries. They will forget that they all stood in long queues but the PM can go back to voters and tell them he tried.
New five hundred rupee notes will soon come into circulation and daily routine will be the usual. The new two thousand notes can be used for higher transactions, better than the earlier one thousand notes. Maybe this is required. After all, the times of Marching to places like Dandi are now replaced by race to planets like Mars through the likes of Mangalyaan.

However, it is still not a lost situation for people like Vijay Mallya i.e those with accounts in the British Virgin islands and other such places. The Enforcement Directorate tirelessly continues to try and fish out all it can from the wealth that Vijay Mallya had accumulated.

Future?

It is a great thing to know that we are concentrating on two things connecting exclusively India: air pollution and black money. While we have to congratulate the judiciary, legislators, economists, RBI and the GoI for such a bold step, the big doubt does remain as to how long the new notes will stay put from being counterfeited. Maybe it's time that the old dons and criminals are done with and new blood has to come up. It is important that black money in any form, needs to be wiped off, in and out. We all should do our bit facilitate this. Until then, rest assured that those 500/1000 notes which are buried in the politician's and businessmen's backyard remain buried forever.

97/118 ...Not a Rational Number

Italian mathematician, Giuseppe Peano defined a rational number as the fraction of two integers. A proper rational number means that the denominator of the fraction is greater than the numerator. The fraction 97/118 would have fallen into that category. The fact that India ranked 97th of 118 in global hunger index makes the number only improper and completely irrational. This might be an obvious number, considering the fact that India, once called Sone ki chidiya is racing to the top in the number of people born on its soil.

About 20 crore (200 million) Indians are hungry and undernourished. This is roughly the same as Brazil's entire population. Ironically, India and Brazil compete against each other in every aspect like growth rate, GDP and poverty! While growth rate and GDP feature regularly as topics of discussion and in the headlines of newspapers, poverty seldom finds any reference. Should the newspapers then have a separate section devoted to poverty like the business, cinema and sports sections? Politicians are busy, executing the needs of the majority, appeasing the minorities and making news whereas people, with their artiodactylic behaviour let the 'shepherds' dictate what they should be bothered about. Journalists on the other hand are also busy, with some of them trying to glorify the surgical strikes and some others doing all possible research so as to discredit the strikes. India is home to 15% of the world's poor people. Does this not find enough fuel for the politicians, journalists and people to discuss about? Definitely, debate moderators who out shout debaters will have a lot to tell the nation about its poverty.

Improved or improving??

India is the largest producer of fresh fruits, tropical fruits, fresh vegetables, potatoes, cabbage, cauliflower, brinjal (eggplant), cow and buffalo milk, rice, wheat and mainly pulses. India exports about 10 billion dollars worth horticulture produce, second only after China. How is that both the countries are also placed top two in the number of hungry mouths? Is India exporting all its produce without feeding itself first? A hungry man can never satisfy other's hunger. Even though India is the largest producer of pulses, we import pulses from countries like South Africa and Mozambique. Why? And why, with so much surplus of pulses, the fares are so high and people are still hungry? People are still eating spiced up, flavoured Biriyani with Mirchi ka Salon garnered with rich cashew. Food grains are being stashed away so that prices go up and since rice and pulses are the staple food, people are going to buy them, whatever the cost. But what about those who cannot afford the prices? Good business can be done honestly as well. Lee Iacocca and J.R.D. Tata would have loved to explain on that. As said by the historian, Ram Guha who obviously picked it from Mahatma Gandhi, "A true nationalist needs to accept the dirt in his country so as to clean it up."

On the bright side, India has become better in the past decades. Poverty has fallen from 36% of the population in 1990-91 to 15% now. The hungry mouths however have increased. Thus comes into picture the biggest menace in the country, over population. Can we find an answer to this problem?

http://www.thp.org/knowledge-center/know-your-world-facts-about-hunger-poverty/

M.S.Dhoni: No Story Told

In Ramoji film city, people click photos with their head jutting out of the face of one of Ravan's ten faces. Some people photoshop themselves shaking hands with Amitabh and Sachin or hugging Deepika Padukone. This is how one feels when he sees Sushant Singh Rajput's face morphed into Dhoni's when he is surrounded by other Indian cricketers. We do not know who to feel sorry for. Dhoni or Sushant. Apart from such morphological changes, the movie, MS Dhoni: the untold story has other routine, illogical stuff like a failed love story and a hasty marriage both which are in the movie for an obvious reason: songs. The movie is more about Sushant's imitation of Dhoni than the story of Dhoni himself. It is very good as a movie, a three hour magic well weaved by Neeraj Pandey but it somehow does not look like a great biography. That makes one think whether Dhoni's life achievements so far have content enough to fit in a bollywood movie.

Seriously, the way we in India are making biopics is not satisfactory. Are we so short of legends that we have to make biographies of young cricketers or are the players scared of the eventual thing that is being forgotten by people? Today, not even a cricket aspirant would recognise G.R.Viswanath if he even enters the Chinnaswamy stadium. While it is Attenboroughs and Browns who make movies on legends like Gandhi and Ramanujan, we in India make movies on olympic bronze winning and cricket world cup winning athletes. Every person has his/her own story and every athlete has immense hard work and perseverance behind success. It would not be a surprise if tomorrow a movie is made on the life of Hardik Pandya or Sania Mirza. It is quite shameful that no Indian film director could make a movie on our first prime minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. None of the people care because we are all too engrossed in trying to find evidence for something the army had done to protect us. Of course, when the public has such volatile memory, why do movie producers want to dig old stories when they can make money on existing 35 year old 'legends' who successfully captained winning teams. It would be an easy way out for Dhoni as well because, thirty years down the lane, it is highly unlikely that a film director would consider making a movie about him.

The known story

Having said about the unnecessity of a movie on M.S.Dhoni, the making of a fine movie needs a mention. MS Dhoni: the untold story is any other movie with an added feature that it is about Dhoni. While the first half of the movie talked about Dhoni's passion towards playing cricket for India, post interval was all about what people already know about. While time was devoted to show his achievements as a captain like the 2007 world cup final and 2011 final, the movie fails to show many other memorable victories that Dhoni had brought us through his batting talent. He was a wicket keeper-batsmen before he became a captain. The movie also showed his feuds with senior players but neglected his friendly character and his extraordinary show of respect to elders in his first test match as captain. Music did the magic for the movie. The background score brings in more passion on the part of the audience towards Dhoni. There should have been more time devoted to the way Saurav Ganguly selected Dhoni to the playing XI for the India-Pakistan match at Visakhapatnam. There is no mention about his wicketkeeping talent nor his father selling his scooter to buy Mahi his first cricket kit.
Yes, there was no story told about MS Dhoni. It is just a recollection of some of Dhoni's old and famous matches with a good background music and excellent imitation by Sushant Singh Rajput. Dhoni will be a happy man. So will be his fans.

The Morgan Effect

Back in 2004-05, when Sachin Tendulkar was facing continued failures, mainly due to his tennis elbow problem, Indian fans condemned him and some wanted him to quit cricket. We know what all he achieved after that! Ten years later, when a Russian tennis star confessed she did not know who Sachin was, the entire nation exploded. Forget Sachin, Sharad Pawar who is a living legend for the corrupt, was supported by one and all in India when he was pushed from the stage by the Champions trophy winning Australian team in 2006.

We Indians are a funny lot. We are so patriotic that we let not one bee sting our country and its integrity. But among ourselves, we love to do that one thing: stab one another in the back nicely. Well, India's got talent too, Mr. Morgan. Lets not blame him, it is a natural wonder for any person to see one and a fourth billion people celebrating two medals. But Piers Morgan does not know the Indian way in which we are used to sharing one Roti over ten people in a household and we love the bonding. There is similar bonding in the country men after two Indian women succeeded at the wonderful sporting event that is the Rio olympics, a true banner-man of  world peace and health.

Health reminds us of two unhealthy things about India. India has a gift (?) of population, the best renewable source of energy. Those people have gotten themselves a beautiful gift of laziness, the enemy of sports. Sports is human nature but laziness isn't a human virtue. We Indians eat a lot of sweets. That is probably the reason why PV Sindhu failed to win the gold medal, she is too sweet to snatch away victory from the Spaniard. But seriously, does she require so many gifts? Crores of rupees, BMW cars, plots for house. Do we want to turn her into a cricketer? What are we encouraging? medals or sports? It is one thing to encourage players to win medals and another to encourage people to play sports. If one had followed Deepika Kumari in the archery re curve, one would have known the amount of focus that she had. But no one remembers her because she has not won any medal. It is like our athletes are remembered only once in four years, during the Olympics. Can we imagine Kohli's name chanted only once in four years for the world cup? Talking about cricket, even though Sachin has come out of other sports now, why could he have not done that while he was an active cricketer?

Missed the BMW target!? :(

It is the medal that got them the BMW, not their passion!

How can other sports pick up in India? Unlike cricket, many of the sports are post-independence games and it is true that we need more time before India becomes a strong presence in every game. We have enough coaching academies; maybe not; but still, focus should be on developing the players physically and mentally; For example, what do the archers need? better focus. Mental training is required than physical - mental training to tune the body physically; This would prove to be quite cheap and in fact quite indigenous. We fail to identify the greatness hidden in our backyard. The US athletes do yoga whereas ours pray to gods; they have a control over their physique whereas we eat junk food - all possible junk food. Since, we are an open minded nation, we eat the junk from every corner of the world: Mexican, Italian, Chinese and of course, Indian.
We should encourage sports and sports players than medal winners - that might be good in another sense as well that is, with more competition at home, there is better quality from the country. Star sports is taking good steps towards this. This might get us more medals. Because, in the end only medals matter!! 

Out through the mouth!

88*28.317*3600 = 8970825.6

This is the amount of water that flowed into the sea in a day from the Godavari river! In words, that is nine million liters of water. Nine million! In just one day, 88 cubic feet of water rushed into the sea per second from the river. And the figure is just calculated over just one hour. Not two months ago, in the same regions that the Godavari flows through, 25 trains carrying a total of 5 million liters of water were busy trying to moisten the drought dead lands. Politicians and activists were debating whether the Indian Premier League should be held at all or no, as a solution to tackle the drought. Surprisingly and not so surprisingly, not many seem to bat an eye and the river is interested only in mixing with the salty sea water.

Well, what would one expect? The Indian cricket team is in the West Indies and ProKabaddi does not seem to need any water to maintain its 'turf.' Politicians are busy solving their conflicts over river water sharing but not the flood water management. Courts are busy deciding under whose jurisdiction justice falls into. People in the lower regions of the river and near the delta are anyway used to displacement due to floods. Be it Assam or East Godavari in Andhra Pradesh, people expect floods every now and then. Why should they be deprived of their habits? Governments are happy to spend a little sum on effective displacement of those people. For benefits to be reaped every five years, there should be such floods every two years at least. Rivers like Brahmaputra and Godavari are difficult to control. There have been irrigation projects on them but no flood management projects. Is there no way to save all that water from going waste? Ground water levels are low with land ready to absorb any amount of water and hold like a sponge, reservoirs are at dead storage levels with dams strong enough to hold water to the fullest. Surely there can be ways found to use the flood water.

It is very sad to note that the Jayakwadi dam which serves the Marathwada region which was plagued by the drought is still running at its lowest water levels. Also, the Ujjani dam on Bhima river near Solapur has a huge capacity which was not completely utilized during the floods. River water has many uses. Irrigation is only one of them. Catchment areas are useful for groundwater replenishment and water diversion as well. If canals cannot be constructed for diverting flood water to smaller tanks for irrigation, there are other methods like lift irrigation which can be used to divert water to wherever needed. When states have MoUs between them about river water sharing, certainly they could discuss possible flood management solutions.

The Jayakwadi dam is the largest irrigation dam in Maharshtra and is not full

The solution could be anything. Multiple river integration is a distant dream. For now, probably the thermal power plants, papermills and sugarcane factories could be where the flood water is diverted to, a jump from the usual in which water meant for irrigation is diverted to those places. It is quite easy to do so because the infrastructure to divert water to those places is already there, unlike cultivated land. How much hydro electric energy can be derived from the floods while keeping them at check. What about small check dams at strategic places? For once, low cost projects which help people rather than contractor alone can be constructed. Have we forgotten how to make barrages? That is probably a good solution. Should the nine million liters only enter the sea along with hundreds of homes and property? Can there be no canals dug only for flood crisis? Or maybe not. Because when there are no floods, these canals will be used as dumping areas only aggravating the flood!!

In the words of Amitav Ghosh, "Solutions to such problems cannot be dealt at individual level. Government alone can take initiative when it comes to disaster management."

Human shield - an Easy Target

It was September of 2011. The entire nation was discussing the mesmerizing, valiant effort that Rahul Dravid put up in the England test series. Everybody praised that poster boy of the gentleman game for having his name on the Lord's honors board. No one cared two hoots about the fact that the then Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor, D. Subbarao's term was coming to an end. People did not take to Orkut, Facebook and Twitter to raise support for an extension of his term. It was however, of course extended understandably by Dr. Manmohan Singh. In fact, it is to the credit of D. Subbarao and the Prime Minister during his term, Dr. Manmohan Singh, a former governor himself, that the post of RBI governor has gained popularity.

Why do people now so want Prof. Raghuram Rajan to continue badly? He of course is a firebrand officer, keen to bring about changes and tremendous reforms. It is very true that Dr. Rajan has brought beautiful reforms like bringing down inflation and reviving the banking sector among many other things. Bringing about such reforms is the purpose of the Apex bank of India. Is Dr. Rajan being glorified for doing justice to his job honestly? But why not D. Subbarao back then. In fact, Duvvuri Subbarao is credited to have steered India safely through the 2008 Great Depression even though he had to tackle with it right from day one at office. Does that not demand similar glorification?

They steered change

Individualism

This is no political campaign for elections nor is it a cricket game, for us to glorify a single person, support him and pray he works well or plays well. No, this is the head of an institution which more or less controls the economic policy of the country. No, the RBI governor is not a representative of the people. He has got higher responsibilities and of course requires to be highly qualified for that. He is unique among people. He understands things which common man cannot. A daily wage labour has no clue what inflation means and how it happens. All he is worried about is, Why is the tamaatar that I bought for thirty rupees a kilo two months ago is now hundred rupees a kilo? Now, just because we have information at hand easily, let us common men not pretend that we understand how Dr. Rajan brought about the real wonderful changes so well. In fact he definitely is dynamic, especially as he talks about Make for India to boost Make in India: a brave explanation. But no, we do not understand what CPI, WPI, NPA, LA etc mean. He spent years understanding economics. We did not. So, people, let us not pretend that we support Dr. Rajan for the reforms he dutifully brought about.

Swamy and Swaminomics

So then why is that people support Dr. Rajan fervently and want him to continue even after he himself expressed to go back to teaching? Definitely it is because of one person: Subramanian Swamy. Giving importance to his claims is as bad as giving importance to Donald Trump's claims about making America great or Gautam Gambhir's claim that he will make a comeback to Indian team. Or are people scared that Subramanian Swamy can convince people with his claims? Anyone who know the professor Rajan would say how good his credentials are. He is capable of making the common people understand the subject through is teachings. Definitely he is going to do very well there. He at least will stay away from fake admiration. Here, people have stooped to levels as low as glorifying Dr. Rajan for watching a cricket match from a non-vip gallery. It is interesting to see Amartya Sen speak for Dr. Rajan. Other 'dignified' people like Swaminathan Aiyar, economist brother of Mani Shankar Aiyar says that Raghuram Rajan gone is billions of investment gone. All this is only a way to get back at Swamy. If Dr. Rajan is being glorified just because Subramanian Swamy opposes him, and is being used as a human shield and made an easy target, it is an insult and disrespect to one of the finest economic thinkers in the world at the moment. It would be an insult to the nice economists the country has in plenty if people are convinced that investments won't come without Rajan.

He steered the ship like a true captain

The prime minister, in an interview recently, very rightly said that the appointment or extension of an RBI governor is an administrative matter and need not attract media attention. In his address to the U.S congress, he praised Paul Krugman, a possible hint that Rajan is not wanted by his government. Who the government appoints is, like it always has been, upto the government. It would of course be their downfall if they don't appoint someone as competitive as Dr. Rajan or D. Subbarao or Y.V. Reddy or many other well deserved governors we had. This is no fashion or cinema related institute. Of course, certainly with the appointments of the Chauhans and the Nihalanis, it is quite natural for the common man to be scared!
It would be wise for the one-eyed king to not poke himself in the only good eye!