The Night Of The Underdog

Johannesburg was the place to be at, for every Hyderabadi last night. Deccan Chargers, that remained an underdog in IPL Season 1, rocked IPL Season 2 with grace, poise and spirit of Hyderabad. That spirit of survival is euphemistically called the spirit of Hyderabad.

This match kept me awake till 12: 30 am and I slept, before the chargers were crowned because I needed to catch up for my driving class next morning. I was happy with the fact that DC meted out a crushing defeat to the Royal Challengers. Challengers began the match on a good note by lifting a good number of wickets: Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds among others. Eventually, DC turned the tables on RC by their sheer prowess, astuteness and spirit. The match, however, kept the audience (esp. DC Supporters) on tenterhooks till the last 1 ball. A sense of triumph and pride was captured on every player’s face, against the background score of “Go Chargers Go”; every time a wicket was lifted. And gracing it, were the DC Cheer Leaders lending the oomph factor! Both the teams were quite aggressive on the field, as if it were the last match of their lives! Why not? In every Endeavour, one must give their 100 %. Ohja from DC lifted 3 prominent wickets. One could see his lips saying ‘fuck’ when he took the wickets and in another moment, he was caught giving a series of lengthy kisses in the air. The camera, in those last tense moments was switched on an off at Venkatram Reddy, Owner of DC and Vijay Mallya, Owner of RC.

There was some verbal sparring on Facebook too between Bangloreans and Hyderabadi’s. At my place, we could hear and see crackers going off in haze filled horizons. The gust of wind, rain and bloody power cut played spoilsport but that didn’t deter us from staying awake. Now that’s what we call the madness of Indian Premier League (IPL). While Akon staged a spectacular performance, Katrina Kaifs swivel to the tunes of ‘Jai Ho’, made the feeling of victory stonger and sweeter. IPL T20 was a nightmarish experience for every bowler, but IPL Season 2 revolutionized that perception.

A Jubilant Jai Ho!

As India waited with bated breath for the poll results yesterday, Congress made a clean sweep and headway! The people of India once again invested the reigns and empowered Congress to rule India.

I’m delighted and elated too, like everybody who voted for congress. A double vote catapulted into a double win. I’m glad the party emerged a clear winner at the centre and the state. From scathing attacks, to scandals, to controversies and attempts to tarnish the image of the party; congress has survived it all! A contended Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh peep out of the FrontPage photograph of every newspaper across the length and breadth of India. A picture of poise and composure, they did not indulge in any negative comments about any party. Even Rahul Gandhi had kind words for L.K Advani. ‘Respect’ for Advani pervaded his views on how he (Advani) has fared in the elections. This boils down to us and our friends too. We also feel a polarization of views, opinions and perceptions with acquaintances. However, it’s all about respect. Each of us has freedom to our own opinion. Therefore, I strongly believe that though we agree to disagree with other person, we must hold respect to their opinion.

Congress has come up with some brilliant manifesto. I enclosed the manifesto below. Please read through and let’s hope and pray that the government delivers on its promises:

1. Enactment of a National Food Security Act; 25 kilos of wheat or rice for Rs 3 a month to those below poverty line.

2. Maximum possible security to each and every citizen.

3. Highest level of defence preparedness and further steps for the welfare of the defence forces and their families.

4. Accelerated process of police reforms.

5. Increase in the daily wage paid under the NREGA from Rs 80 to Rs 100.

6. Health security for all.

7. Comprehensive social security to those at special risk.

8. Quality education affordable to everyone.

9. Nationwide skill development programme.

10. Expansion of schemes for improving the well-being of farmers.

11. Democratic and professional functioning of cooperatives.

12. Greater impetus to empowerment of weaker sections of society.

13. Control of communalism and caste atrocities.

14. Sharp focus on the special needs of children, especially the girl child.

15. Making elected panchayat institutions financially strong.

16. Connecting all villages to a broadband network in three years.

17. Special focus to small entrepreneurs and to small and medium enterprises.

18. Maintenance of high growth with fiscal prudence and low inflation.

19. Introduction of goods and services tax from April 1, 2010.

20. A completely new look to urban governance.

21. A new deal to our youth to participate in governance.

22. Protection of India's natural environment and steps to rejuvenate it.

23. Massive renewal of science and technology infrastructure.

24. Judicial reforms to cut delays in courts.

25. To continue to be sensitive to regional aspirations.

26. Energy security for the country.

27. Steps to preserve and promote our heritage.

28. To continue independent, pro-India foreign policy.

29. To intensify the involvement of overseas Indians in development.

PS: It’s been 13 days since I joined the driving school and now I’m driving it on my own. It’s not as hard as I envisaged it to be! Yet, I need to practice and turn confident and get habituated to the nuances of the roads :-) Its fun though!

Grievances Galore

Things are turning awful and awry for the people of Hyderabad, with frequent power cuts, the Bolakpur contaminated water deaths, Fire at Secretariat and so on. As it is, Congress is accused of umpteen fallacies and is meted out destructive criticism and the spawning of the above events only made matters worse.

Who is to be blamed? Is it right to blame the government or the concerned authorities of the respective departments who are showing slack in fixing things faster? I’m averse to power cuts because that means waste of time for me. No Power cut, No productivity. A person is left with nothing to do absolutely. I wonder how people lived in days when electricity was not invented. I can’t work because my Laptop will be running out of battery, the same with T.V, Cell phone and PC. I don’t mind climbing 5 floors to my apartment as I’m a fitness freak. But definitely not when I just return from work at 10 pm and have the 3kg Laptop to carry. Last Monday I had to wait for an hour downstairs until the power was on. The newspapers and TV read that it’s because the underground cable has been soiled and need to be fixed; and people have to put up with it for about a week. It’s a day more than week and the power cuts are still frequent. The hours are odd and random and range between 4 to 6 hours a day. I wonder how long it takes to fix it. People smugly acquiesce the fact that government bodies are slack and take it in their stride but it’s high time the government must ask these authorities to beef up their ‘speed-of-fixing’ things. I wonder if it really takes a week to fix it.

The recent contaminated water deaths in Bolakpur found its place under the genre of tragedy. I cannot even quote the numbers because neither the government nor the press is willing to give the precise numbers. It’s a strategy the government and press use to report things. They always cut off a ‘zero’ is what my mam told us when we were studying civics in intermediate. A noted local newspaper pegged the death toll at ‘6’ when there were about 20 to 30 who died and around 300 who were injured. It’s only after a certain number of deaths, do the authorities wake up to it. This is sheer delinquency on the respective authority’s part. The histrionics and drama of experts from water and nutrition department unravel now, very much after the deaths. And as ever, it’s always the poor who are hit tremendously. Apparently they can’t demand accountability from the government because of their illiteracy and poverty. One can comprehend their plight, when they drink water despite its foul smell and change in the colour from colorless to tones of orange and red. The laxity of the authorities: the drinking water pipe got concocted with the sewage pipe.

A fire broke out in secretariat last Wednesday. Instead of rationalizing the reasons that led to it, the opposition parties say it is the conspiracy of congress to gut some files and save their asses. The fire actually broke out on account of a short circuit in a computer cable. The next day, the newspaper reads no attempts to gut the files. What rot? Can somebody elucidate what’s happening?

The grievances of the commoner just seem to be perpetual; from power cuts, to open manholes, to grave deaths that can be averted by driving down delinquency, to badly constructed fly overs that leads to its eventual collapse and so on. Instead, of correcting these defects, the government and all parties are in haste to cash in only votes, votes and votes!

MA Madness

I was feeling really weird and eerie on the last day of my final MA exam. We all were giving our 5th and final paper: Modern Classics in translation. Anyway, coming to the weird part of it, instead of being happy - is definitely because I knew our stint with 2 years of MA is over.

So what? This is always what we wanted! All throughout the course of 4 semesters, I hankered for MA to finish. Each day, I remember, for the sake of not missing the enriching lectures, I did attend classes whenever I could. It was not only difficult but sometimes pathetic for me to attend , toting the 3 kg Laptop (includes the cable also and a novel) hanging on my right side and my big handbag hanging on my left side that contained a Tiffin, a book, a pen, my wallet some essentials needed to freshen up once I reached office, post college. It was hell doing it everyday and for 5 days consecutively. Though we had holiday on a second Saturday, I would still bunk college on every Saturday. A self-declared holiday influenced very much by my corporate lifestyle: working only 5 days a week.

Our Rendezvous with MA and our professors was certainly an uplifting, rewarding and enriching experience- something that we will cherish all our lives. MA gave me so much! How much? It made us better persons, honed our life skills, I must say, opened the window to the world and how it works, a doorway to knowledge, empowerment of sorts, It certainly added to my courage and audacity, it moulded our perspectives, views, opinions; to question and react to things, doing what you want to do rather than being compelled by people and circumstances and the list will go on and on…

We always feel happy when we are on the precipice of accomplishing various phases of our academic life: schooling, intermediate, graduation and PG. I have felt happy at the end of every phase, but this one! The reason is that at the end of every phase I knew what I will take up next. It was very much decided. Now, I was apprehensive as to what next? Where will I be heading? and yes, this insecurity, though I’m working and positioned well, in the field of my choice. Marriage is definitely not on the cards anywhere in the near future. Not at least when I’m so young. I need options man. Got to make something of my life! I do have some plans though of either pursuing higher studies or switch from corporate life to some other field. I will let you folks know when the time is opportune!

As of now, I’m sure all my classmates and friends are going through the MA hangover. I’m doing both: the hangover and work (it’s been a week since I joined). We wake up and realize that, things that have been so much a part of our life, are not now anymore. I’m talking about things intrinsic to MA: the rushed affairs in the mornings to make it to college by 10 am , but ending up there by 10 30 or eleven am; the internal 10 marks assessments, the semester exams, mind boggling lectures, the fun and much more!

PS: The photograph in this post is one taken during one of the photo sessions, during out last days of MA. One can see my classmates standing with our professors. I couldn’t make it coz of office :-(