It took me 3 trips to Landmark and 7 hours, but I finally finished Chetan Bhagats -"The 3 Mistakes of My life". And well truth be told it wasn't that bad a book. A neat package of religion, politics and cricket, Mr Bhagat sure knows what sells in India doesn't he, mixed together with his usual collection of youthful drama. One good thing i will say about Bhagat is that his characters have tended to become more mature with each book. Though his books could use a little more realism ( for instance why would the Australian government offer citizenship to a 13 yr old school boy, just because he might be a cricketing prodigy and as if Australian citizenship can be so easily given away). And finally for a book so attached to cricket, Chetan Bhagat shows a remarkable lack of knowledge about the game and has even got his facts wrong on a couple of occasions. Nonetheless I would say a timepass book (but then I did read it for free).
Sticking to cricket, the Super Kings (my fave team) have made it to the IPL semis at Mumbai Indians' expense.A terrific achievement considering that no team was hit as badly as Chennai by the mid series departure of the Aussies and Kiwis, and that a large portion of their success is due to the local talent in the team. Well all in all I would say its a fair result, the 4 most consistent teams made it to the Semis. As far as the Indians go, there is only word to describe them, Chokers, they have lost their last 3 matches in the final over of the game, twice due to sloppy fileding and bowling. All in all Lalit Modi and co must be delighted with the 1st edition of the IPL so far, its been closer than anyone could have asked for. Lets hope the Semis and Finals don't dissapoint.
In other happenings, I've started reading this book called "The 10 most Beautiful Experiments", a really good book so far, especially for science lovers, a lovely tribute to the ingeniuty of scientists. Hopefully I'll be able to finish it in couple of more trips to Landmark.
Lastly, I heard the 2 new songs of Coldplay's lates album, "Violet Hill" and "Viva La Vida", and I cant wait for the full album to come out."Violet Hill" is probably one of Coldplay's best ever songs, and the the album seems to have a completely different sound to the typical Coldplay stuff.
Random Thought for the Day - "A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools. "
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Thursday, May 22, 2008
A Slap and a Slip..Not Great Sports But Lots of Entertainment
I saw the UEFAChampions League final last night, and the entire game could could have probably been summed up by the weather, started of bright enough but ended up becoming a damp squib,atleast in the footballing sense. But even though the match didn't make for the most classic of football matches it sure made for one hell of a TV Drama.
First of all to begin with, Roman Abramovich couldn't have asked for a venue to see his greatest dream come to fruition, to see his team win the greatest prize in European Football on his home turf must have been the ultimate dream. Then as the game began Cristiano Ronaldo was determined to prove his worth and boy did he do just that. Then came Frank Lampard's turn to add the masala to this game, a man who scored of the spot, days after his mother's death to get Chelsea here, got them the precious equalizer. From this point on it was more about dramatic little moments than the continous flowing good football. Chelsea who probably were lucky to go into half time level were probably unlucky to have not won the match outright. So onto extra time and the football got no better but the drama got more intense. John Terry, who only 2 weeks back was stretchered of the field with a broken arm, made one of the great saves of the day to keep Chelsea in the game. And then it really got fun..Didier Drogba goes and pulls of a combo of Zidane and Harbajan Singh..imagine this could very well be the last act Drogba pulls for Chelsea ( considering that he could have atleast smacked Ronaldo, he has one coming). So on to the finale and the man who put the ball in the back of the net 42 times from often incredible positions couldnt put it in from 6 yards out. You would think that was drama enough, but then John Terry goes from hero to villain in 30 minutes (kinda like those soaps) and his slip up (literally) cost Chelsea the champions league. And for the last act of this gripping drama it came down to two men, Ryan Giggs,who has played at the same Club for 16 years and Nicolas Anelka who has hardly spent more than a year at the same club. And ina fitting finale, it was the veteran who became Man Utd's highest capped player ever in this match, who scored what would be the winning penalty, and Roman Abramovich watched 13 million pounds go down the drain as Anelka condemned his team to fate aptly described by his nickname, The Sulk.
On the whole given that Man Utd had a tougher group and knockout fixtures, I hate to admit it, but they did deserve the trophy.
On a different note as an incredible season of European football come to an end, I cant help but say that this has been possibly the best season of football I have witnessed. For the first time 4 leagues in Europe (England, Italy, France and Scotland) all were decided in the last game of the season, and we had one of the best Champions league competitions in quite a while, an utter unknown Zenit St. Petersburg, picked up the UEFA cup, thrashing the mighty Bayern Munich along the way. Add to that Milan didn't make it to next years Champions League, Valencia had to stave of relegation and of course who could forget England being knocked out of the Euro qualifiers. But my favorite tournament of the year had to be the FA cup, the oldest tournament in the world provided the most drama of any competition across Europe, consider the likes of Havnt and Waterlooville a team which doesn't even play in a professional league, taking on Liverpool at Anfield and taking the lead not once but twice, Barnsley knocking out Liverpool and Chelsea, and Portsmouth who knocked out Man Utd, going on to become the first team out of the Big 4 to win the competition in 13 years.
What a season of football, with the European Championships just around the corner, it's still not over, and in the spirit of football, I will be rooting for Switzerland or Croatia to pull of a big upset and lift the championship.
First of all to begin with, Roman Abramovich couldn't have asked for a venue to see his greatest dream come to fruition, to see his team win the greatest prize in European Football on his home turf must have been the ultimate dream. Then as the game began Cristiano Ronaldo was determined to prove his worth and boy did he do just that. Then came Frank Lampard's turn to add the masala to this game, a man who scored of the spot, days after his mother's death to get Chelsea here, got them the precious equalizer. From this point on it was more about dramatic little moments than the continous flowing good football. Chelsea who probably were lucky to go into half time level were probably unlucky to have not won the match outright. So onto extra time and the football got no better but the drama got more intense. John Terry, who only 2 weeks back was stretchered of the field with a broken arm, made one of the great saves of the day to keep Chelsea in the game. And then it really got fun..Didier Drogba goes and pulls of a combo of Zidane and Harbajan Singh..imagine this could very well be the last act Drogba pulls for Chelsea ( considering that he could have atleast smacked Ronaldo, he has one coming). So on to the finale and the man who put the ball in the back of the net 42 times from often incredible positions couldnt put it in from 6 yards out. You would think that was drama enough, but then John Terry goes from hero to villain in 30 minutes (kinda like those soaps) and his slip up (literally) cost Chelsea the champions league. And for the last act of this gripping drama it came down to two men, Ryan Giggs,who has played at the same Club for 16 years and Nicolas Anelka who has hardly spent more than a year at the same club. And ina fitting finale, it was the veteran who became Man Utd's highest capped player ever in this match, who scored what would be the winning penalty, and Roman Abramovich watched 13 million pounds go down the drain as Anelka condemned his team to fate aptly described by his nickname, The Sulk.
On the whole given that Man Utd had a tougher group and knockout fixtures, I hate to admit it, but they did deserve the trophy.
On a different note as an incredible season of European football come to an end, I cant help but say that this has been possibly the best season of football I have witnessed. For the first time 4 leagues in Europe (England, Italy, France and Scotland) all were decided in the last game of the season, and we had one of the best Champions league competitions in quite a while, an utter unknown Zenit St. Petersburg, picked up the UEFA cup, thrashing the mighty Bayern Munich along the way. Add to that Milan didn't make it to next years Champions League, Valencia had to stave of relegation and of course who could forget England being knocked out of the Euro qualifiers. But my favorite tournament of the year had to be the FA cup, the oldest tournament in the world provided the most drama of any competition across Europe, consider the likes of Havnt and Waterlooville a team which doesn't even play in a professional league, taking on Liverpool at Anfield and taking the lead not once but twice, Barnsley knocking out Liverpool and Chelsea, and Portsmouth who knocked out Man Utd, going on to become the first team out of the Big 4 to win the competition in 13 years.
What a season of football, with the European Championships just around the corner, it's still not over, and in the spirit of football, I will be rooting for Switzerland or Croatia to pull of a big upset and lift the championship.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Immigrant Song
Sorry to disappoint any rock fans (who might have picked up on the reference) but this post is not about the classic Led Zep song, rather it is about the tune most politicians seem to be whistling nowadays. Illegal immigration has become the mantra of any politician who wants to create a stir. Just a couple of weeks back the Italian Prime Minister during his campaign speech, promised to rid his country of the "Army of Evil" that is the illegal immigrant population of Italy, strong words coming from a man who is famous for his Mafia ties and whose football club was docked points for match fixing. Immigration is one of the hottest issues in the US presidential elections, particularly with the Republicans. Closer to home, who can forget Raj Thackeray's outbursts against immigrants from within his own country. Basically it seems that the easiest way to stir up the voters is by telling that there are evil men who come from lands unknown and take away their food, money and jobs and are responsible for all the crimes committed against them. And somehow it seems to work, look at the actions of the people in Mumbai, they actually had to name their IPL team the Indians as a response in solidarity, almost as if the feeling of being an Indian was being lost, or consider the fact that t 1 in 8 Italians fear immigrants ( a number which was 1 in 20 less than 5 years ago) , and McCain's popularity with the Republicans soared when he supported strong anti-immigration measures. Why is that all of a sudden there is this outrage against immigrants ?
Now consider the facts , the largest crime syndicate in Italy is the Mafia, which of course does not comprise of immigrants ( another interesting bit of info - southern Italy which is dominated by the Mafia is the most economically backward section of Italy) , the American economy is in the crapper because of a useless war and a housing bubble, neither had anything to do with immigrants and as far as Mumbai is concerned, the city would be nothing if not for the immigrant population, for instance what would have happened if the Ambanis had been denied entry into Maharashtra. The fact also is that these immigrants do the most menial jobs which the local population of any place would never touch. I mean think of it, these people wash toilets, clean houses, sit on roadside stalls in the middle of summer for a meagre living and yet it is these luxuries which politicians want to take away. I guess people just find it easy to blame someone else for their problems, especially if that someone happens to be completely different from them.
And somehow I don't understand the outrage against immigration. Think about it, if I was born in Bombay, Bangalore or New York and not some war torn part of Croatia, an African Desert or a village in Bihar, then its just my good fortune. I have absolutely no right to deny anyone else the same opportunity that I've had. Most immigrants are people who leave hopeless old lives behind, just to be able to survive, I mean nobody wants to leave their home for the heck of it.
Also anti-immigration is just pure selfishness, basically we don't want to share what we have, for instance the Americans use 25% of world resources for 4% of its population and yet they are concerned about immigrants, I mean given the amount of resources they use, they should probably accommodate more people. Also most local population were immigrants at some point of time, the oldest Americans themselves are illegal immigrants.
In an ideal world everybody would be born equal, with the same opportunities available to all, but that isn't the case. The oppprtunities you have depend a lot on the circumstances you were born into, and I guess everybody has the right to seek opportunity wherever it lies and just because we have doesn't mean we can deny it to others. And again most places are better of for immigrants , take the Mughals for instance, what would Indian culture, art and literature have been without them, or the impact which the Irish and Italians have had on USA. Eventually I hope people realise that migration and immigration are what make the world tick. I would end with a quote from the song which gave this post its title -
"So now you'd better stop and rebuild your ruins,
For peace and trust can win the day
Despite all your losing. " - Led Zeppelin, Immigrant Song
Now consider the facts , the largest crime syndicate in Italy is the Mafia, which of course does not comprise of immigrants ( another interesting bit of info - southern Italy which is dominated by the Mafia is the most economically backward section of Italy) , the American economy is in the crapper because of a useless war and a housing bubble, neither had anything to do with immigrants and as far as Mumbai is concerned, the city would be nothing if not for the immigrant population, for instance what would have happened if the Ambanis had been denied entry into Maharashtra. The fact also is that these immigrants do the most menial jobs which the local population of any place would never touch. I mean think of it, these people wash toilets, clean houses, sit on roadside stalls in the middle of summer for a meagre living and yet it is these luxuries which politicians want to take away. I guess people just find it easy to blame someone else for their problems, especially if that someone happens to be completely different from them.
And somehow I don't understand the outrage against immigration. Think about it, if I was born in Bombay, Bangalore or New York and not some war torn part of Croatia, an African Desert or a village in Bihar, then its just my good fortune. I have absolutely no right to deny anyone else the same opportunity that I've had. Most immigrants are people who leave hopeless old lives behind, just to be able to survive, I mean nobody wants to leave their home for the heck of it.
Also anti-immigration is just pure selfishness, basically we don't want to share what we have, for instance the Americans use 25% of world resources for 4% of its population and yet they are concerned about immigrants, I mean given the amount of resources they use, they should probably accommodate more people. Also most local population were immigrants at some point of time, the oldest Americans themselves are illegal immigrants.
In an ideal world everybody would be born equal, with the same opportunities available to all, but that isn't the case. The oppprtunities you have depend a lot on the circumstances you were born into, and I guess everybody has the right to seek opportunity wherever it lies and just because we have doesn't mean we can deny it to others. And again most places are better of for immigrants , take the Mughals for instance, what would Indian culture, art and literature have been without them, or the impact which the Irish and Italians have had on USA. Eventually I hope people realise that migration and immigration are what make the world tick. I would end with a quote from the song which gave this post its title -
"So now you'd better stop and rebuild your ruins,
For peace and trust can win the day
Despite all your losing. " - Led Zeppelin, Immigrant Song
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