2010 - the Entry point

It is unvelievable for myself - I did not have a single blog entry in 2009. Such a shame. Anyways, bear with me for kicking off 2010 on this 'shameful' note. Have a great Twenty Ten. Do all that you want to do, Enjoy with family and friends, Help the needy, Spread peace, Drive carefully, Drink at your own risk............:)

And I promise you people, this year you would see a different ME. :D

Parvati Omanakuttan's narrow miss

I am not a follower of the beauty pageants, but chanced upon the Ms World 2008 finals telecast on Zee Cafe on Saturday night. Kept watching it because of the Mallu connection - Parvati Omanakuttan.

She did very well to reach the top 5 and for me she was the winner too. But, she was unfortunate to miss it very narrowly to the girl from Russia. But, I thought she did better than the Russian babe in the final questions.

Was quite disappointed to watch her returning with only the first runner up position when she fully deserved the big crown. Anyways, good job from a girl from Kerala-Mumbai.

Poetic justice awaits Kerala CM

The communist government in Kerala is about to complete exactly the half of its scheduled tenure, but Chief Minister Achyuthanandan has landed himself in trouble, yet again.

The never-ending saga of the Munnar land issue is all set to snowball in to a bigger political issue in the coming days and most probably, this time, it would end only with the resignation of Achyuthanandan.

His detractors within his own party are plotting a better organized and orchestrated effort this time and it looks like the final battle for Achyuthanandan. The coming days would very well decide the fate of the political career of this veteran leader from the land of backwaters .

It is payback time for Achyuthanandan. I personally lost all the respect from this leader from the land of backwaters the moment he insulted the family of late major Sandeep Unnikrishnan.

The sheer thought of coming face to face with the family of a real life martyr might have taken the wits out of the leader, who claims to have fought the British underground. While blurting out those expletives, unthinkable from a leader of his status, Achyuthanandan forgot the simple fact that his own party has thrived on hundreds of martyrs.

He had been reckless (we often misunderstood it as he being brave) throughout his career. And, looking at the way he handled issues in the last couple of weeks, it looks like he is beyond redemption.

Let's have a CEO to run India...

I am very late with my posts on this subject of the Mumbai attacks. I was flabbergasted with the verbal diarrhea that followed and I am sure, it was the same for you too.

But, it was infectious and here I am posting just another.

What I really liked was the anti-government sentiments that followed the tragedy. People have now lost their patience. I had always wanted something different.

So, I am only surprised that, we, the common man, waited so long. The home minister, the chief minister, the defense minister, the prime minister, the finance minister, all have long lost their credibility for the simple fact that, they are incapable of protecting the lives of the people - let's forget their long-proved inability to protect our financial security. They haven’t been able to protect the most important thing - lives of the people.

I just want to suggest one idea. Instead of these aged and inefficient politicians, let's have a corporate method of ruling.

Let's have a CEO instead of prime minister. Let's have a chief financial officer instead of finance minister. Let's have a chairman of the board instead of the president. Let's have executive vice presidents ruling our states. Let the common man be the shareholder of the country. Let this corporate machinery be answerable to the common man in every manner.

Let's have boardroom battles, let's have deadlines, let's have commitments. Let's be clinical in the way our country is run.

Let's make the country profitable, not a carnage of inefficiency.

Let's get into the business as fast as we can. Let's try to save the remaining lives.

Kudos to news channels!

On that weird Wednesday, I was visiting my folks down Kannur in Kerala. I did not even bother to switch on television as my 3-months-old daughter was drawing all my attention.

So, obviously, I was unaware of all the human tragedy that had been unfolding in Mumbai on that night. Next day, I was staring at the newspaper headlines which screamed, "Mumbai attacked". I felt numb.

As I did not have a cable television connection, I was not able to catch the live events. The shock and awe those events created did not fully get conveyed to me until I reached back in Bangalore and methodically went through the archived news on websites, photos and some Youtube videos.

I received forwarded mails bashing news channels for telecasting the events live. The argument was, it would have helped terrorists to prepare counter strategies.

Let’s spare our news channels at least here, I feel, though I am not at all a fan of them. In any country, the same would have happened. I don't think terrorists were also watching those news channels for advance information while fighting Indian commandos in Taj!

Instead I admire those reporters for their guts. They were gutsy for a change. They risked their lives.

Cleaning Up, Big Time!

• Read all the good books and watch all the good movies.
• Travel all the interesting places.
• Click some good photos.
• Start a cookery blog, develop recipes
• First and foremost, break news, do good news stories on the professional .
• Then, progress in life by doing things which I have always wanted to do.
  

Insane it might sound, but I was just listing out certain important things I want to do in my life, apart from raising my family, offering them bread and shelter, and being good to my pals and countrymen.

So, why this sudden outburst? I don't know if it is the same with others, but in my case, I have been harassed by an evil friend called Mr. Laziness since a long time.

So I am now doing some major cleaning-up exercises. I am making my mind strong by writing this blog entry. I am going to take one step at a time.

So, one good early result is, my devoting time for world cinema. I have already watched some good ones. My colleague and friend Kugan is my key supplier of these movies!

So expect my briefs on those good movies I would be watching/already watched in the coming days....

That LOST FOREVER feeling…

I haven’t been updating this blog for quite some time because of the simple reason that I was not getting that drive to write. There was no dearth of topics, but nothing was coming straight from my heart.

In between I wrote an entry on a couple of movies I watched, but deleted them after about a month. I thought the entry I wrote did not make any logic.

However, today it is different. Anil Kumble has retired from international cricket. Now, how does it matter to me in such way it left me very sad and stunned? Why did his departure scenes on television leave me teary eyed? Why did I have this strange urge to sob uncontrollably?

This was something similar to what happened when I watched Abhinav Bindra winning India’s first individual Olympics gold.

Now I believe, we are deeply attached to certain elements around us, but we are never conscious of that fact until some change happens to that pattern.

On a normal day, in normal circumstances, seeing that person in action, or having a word with him, or sharing the work with him would all look very ordinary for us. He may be part of your family, a colleague, a politician you had been watching for years, a film star, or now here, a member of the Indian cricket team.

Now, suddenly, the awareness dawns that, you won’t be able to see that person the manner in which you had been watching him for years. That single thought itself is so powerful that, it would leave you numb. Then you slowly go back to all those years you had been watching/seeing him and you would feel sorry for having neglected the true value of being with that person, or watching that person.

All these years, you had been taking him for granted that, he would be there forever. And suddenly you releases, it is not the case and that hurts!

Only on the day Bindra won gold, I realized I am a patriotic in nature!

Now, in this case of Anil, I would be lying if I say I did not care for him as a cricket follower. To tell you the truth, Kumble and Venkatesh Prasad are the only two International cricketers whom I watched in action on the field. (I met Sehwag during an ad shoot, and Azhar and Manjrekar at a party).

So when I got the news that Kumble is hanging up his boots, obviously 1995-96 came to mind, when I watched him playing Ranji Trophy against Kerala in Thalasseri. I was in college and bunked classes to watch him. So, now this awareness that I admired Kumble has come to light when it is all over!

Another experience: On the day I became a father, someone told me the veteran Congressman K Karunakaran was no more. The news did hurt me so much and I even felt like, the news took away a portion of the joy the day gave me with the birth of my daughter. Now, why should I be so concerned to that extent? I am in no way personally related to Karunakaran. I am not even an ardent fan of him.

Then why? Now here, is that strange connectivity element comes into play. I had been watching him all these years and I realized on that day that, how difficult it would be to imagine Kerala politics without K Karunakaran! Later, I tried to confirm the development and, when the news turned out to be a hoax, you can imagine how relieved I was!

So, appreciating those people as if there is no tomorrow would definitely make a difference, I feel.


(pic courtesy: Cricinfo.com)