Once a village, always a village....

My friend was telling me that she saw the construction of the village start in front of her about 4 years ago. She said she was was very excited about it back then. It was a golden opportunity for India to make a mark in the international circuit. But, alas! Look at the plight of the CWG village! I am shocked and disappointed and so is my friend. This year when I went to Delhi for a short visit, I saw that the village has still not been completed. No change. No further construction. Nothing. My heart sank on coming with terms with the reality.

Now, I know that CWG is going to be a 'no-show' at the end and I am not wrong.

According to sources, New Zealand, Canada, Scotland and Ireland have strongly objected to the condition of the accommodation provided to them.

But why?

The apartments alloted to the athletes are in 'un-liveable' condition. No wonder, why it's called a village! Bathrooms and toilets in particular are said to be in a 'mess'. Sources say that the apartments which were left unlocked through the day and night were found to be dirty.

What were we thinking?!

Is this is a joke?

Seriously, nowadays you see every other actor getting a doctorate or being honoured with knighthood. Do you honestly think they deserve such an honor? The answer is NO. Notable celebrities like SRK, Yash Chopra, Amitabh Bachchan, Javed Akhtar, Shabana Azmi, Risha Kapoor, Akshay Kumar (Why? For making slapstick comedies?) and even Shilpa Shetty Kundra (LOL!) have been conferred honorary doctorates.

And, who can forget the recent case : Sachin Tendulkar being made honorary Group Captain!! Why? I couldn’t digest it. According to adman Santosh Desai, because these doctorates, the celebrity gets associated with a cause. Columnist Pritish Nandy thinks that giving a Bharat Ratna to Sachin Tendulkar is not right because he has not improved the life of millions irrespective of his own achievements in sports.

I totally agree with what writer and columnist, Shobhaa De said. She says let us put it this way. If Sachin’s star power can motivate the youth to join the forces, then why not? But then arise questions like why can the celebrities be not made brand ambassadors for coke and all? Why can’t we reserve the awards for the fields they are meant for, like the Oscars?

But when chess legend Vishwanathan Anand refused to accept his doctorate from the University of Hyderabad after his nationality (velle Hindustani!) was questioned, he was not missing much. He was just being rational.

The Famous Shot

It was a cloudy January afternoon in Kanyakumari. 14 year old Dhruv Prajapati was disappointed. The clouds were covering up the annual eclipse when the sun and moon are exactly in the same line. There was no way he could capture that moment. Just a few moments before 1:15 pm, Dhruv aimed his camera once again at the sky and to his amazement, the clouds had turned into a perfect filter – thin enough for him to show a clear disc and thick enough to protect his eyes from the harmful rays. At exactly 1:15 pm, he pressed the shutter and click!

For him it was just a freak image, until he paid attention to the ‘Perfect Circle’. To the viewers, it is just a circle drawn with a white pen on black clouds.

You can yourself judge why the impressed panel of veteran astronomers and photographers awarded Dhruv the ‘Royal Greenwich Observatory’s Young Astronomy Photographer Award’ for 2010.

R.I.P. Kou Kou

China and Japan have not been on really good terms lately and now their friendship is taking its last breath with the death of Kou Kou, a 14 year old panda. Kou Kou died a week ago of cardiac arrest after he failed to recover from an anesthetic at the Oji Zoo in the western port city of Kobe. Veterinarians had sedated Kou Kou, as a part of a programme to impregnate his partner Tan Tan and were seeking to extract semen from him.

Chinese forestry administration called up the Japanese zoo to seal the corpse of the panda. China will soon dispatch a team to Japan to further investigate this case.

According to the Chinese experts, Kou Kou died because of overdosing of sedatives that were given by the vets. They also questioned why the Japanese vets conducted this programme outside the animal’s mating period.

Many conspiracy theories are emerging especially when the relation between both the countries have been strained since an incident involving a Chinese trawler captain and a Japanese coast guard.

Incredible India!

It’s great to hear the latest Conde Nast Readers’ Travel Awards have voted India as the seventh best destination in the world. India left behind countries like Thailand, Greece, Brazil and France to be in the top 10 list. And, why not?! When our motherland is rich in heritage, languages, culture and religions!

You feel a sense of pride when you read such reports about India. Chalo! At least somewhere we are excelling!

But we should not forget to maintain this position. Still a lot can be done to take India to the first position in the above mentioned list. The government can provide medical as well as spiritual tourism by developing infrastructure like hotels, transportation, security and easier visa norms.

I totally agree with the idea of introducing a ‘dedicated tourist police force.’

South Block

Yesterday only when I was surfing the net, I came upon a headline on Yahoo! News: “I am not retiring - PM”. I was like, “Is he running our country?” Now today while going through the editorials, I came ran into this article : “PM draws the big picture. Now his team should get to work.” (You bet!)

It says that on a particular occasion, his interaction with the editors revealed that Mr. Manmohan Singh will complete his term as PM, most likely with a new team of ministers. He spoke his mind, read Sonia Gandhi’s mind, which according to him are difficult problems. He adopted a safe and reasonable approach to many of them.

I’d say that’s great. But he should not overlook the possible rockiness that might welcome him and his ‘new team’ of ministers in midway. He says that there is plenty scope for co-operation between India and China. But, I hope he knows that the situation can worsen as the new leadership will take over China within 2 years. The J&K issue is screaming for attention, but there are no easy solutions to a vexed problem. Right?

PM and his team will need to be backed by the Congress and other allies, unless they want their efforts to have disastrous results.

My faith in the Indian government has already eroded. I am sure I am not the only one who thinks like that.

All Indian politicians need is a kick and most importantly a vision. Well, I hope our PM is wide awake now, to prove his capability to his people.

Worn Out But Still Runnin’, Actually Walkin’!

A recent study states that among 15 of the largest economies of the world, India has the oldest head of the government as well as the oldest ministerial cabinet. Quite shocking, isn’t it?! Now if we further analyze this report, we find that the average age of the Indian cabinet (64.4 years) is almost 2.5 times the country’s age i.e. 25.9 years. This is quite amazing as in most of the countries, the difference is only a decade or so. For example: China, where the average cabinet age is 61.2 years.

India has one of the youngest populations in the world, but the difference between our leaders and the Gen Next is appalling. Perhaps, that’s the reason why the youth is not able to connect with the older politicians. Also, the younger politicians like Rahul Gandhi, Omar Abdullah, etc have to live in the shadow of their older and more ‘experienced’ counterparts.

Are you?

She was looking extremely desirable in that white short dress. He couldn't stop staring at her through his binoculars. Everything about her seemed to appeal him. Her eyes, hair, nose, neck, etc etc. His grand dad had gifted him a pair of binoculars on his birthday and he was totally fascinated with it. His perverted mind had already thought of doing lot of things with his new gift.

"Damn. This thing is great." He said, looking at his new gift.
She was still there. Taking a stroll in the garden with his younger sister, Melanie. Probably, she had invited her gorgeous friend for barbecue tonight, he thought. He grinned like a fool. Just then the bell rang and he ran downstairs. The guests had started flooding in. Though he was busy welcoming everybody to the BBQ party, he still couldn't keep his eyes off her. He wanted to talk to her and that's what he had exactly planned to do in a while.
"Hey, Ryan!" He turned back. Melanie had called him out. Her friend was standing beside her, smiling at him.He smiled and went towards to that girl,completely ignoring his sis.
"Hey." This is it."Hi. I am Heidi. Mel has told me a lot about you." She gushed."Oh, is it?" He tried to sound surprised.
"Err. Yes. But don't get happy. There isn't much to talk about you!" Melanie interrupted."Yeah, right." He said sarcastically. "So Heidi, want to go for a walk?""Yeah, sure!"
"So, what is this necklace you are wearing? It has "A" inscribed on it. Does "A" stand for your boyfriend?" He hoped not. "Is it your lucky charm?" That sounded nice."Oh, no. It stands for my former name.""What? What were you called before?""I was called Alan.""Alan? Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha. Ok. You are joking. What are you saying?" But the worst was about to come out."No, I am not joking. I was born a man." Heidi's expression turned serious.
Ryan was shocked to death.
"Yes. I am Mel's ex-boyfriend. She ditched me and stop talking to me. I was hurt and wanted to be near her. So, I decided to get a sex-change operation and turn into a girl, so that I could at least be her good friend.""You are sick." Ryan wanted to die.
With that thought, he ran at full speed to his room, leaving that girl alone in the garden and the first thing that he did after reaching was locking up his binoculars in the attic because he didn't want to be reminded about that "Heidi-Alan."
"Hey, Ryan. Where did you get lost?" Melanie said while waving her hands in front of him."Oh. Nothing." Shit. Was I hallucinating?"Dreamy head! Meet my friend, Heidi." Mel pointed at her friend. "Heidi, this is my pervert brother, Ryan."He thanked God for bringing him back to reality.
"Hi, gorgeous." Ryan smiled."Hi, Ryan. Hope you still remember my secret?" Heidi winked and laughed horrendously.

Friendships Day

Friends are like melons; shall I tell you why? To find one good you must one hundred try. -- Claude Mermet

International Friendship Day is celebrated on the first Sunday of August. Why is it celebrated? How it was started? And many other questions related to its history are not known. It is only known that the U.S. started a trend of dedicating a day for honouring their friendship in 1935.

It is also said that it bloomed with the spread of internet.

According to an Indian website, on this day people spend quality time with their friends and express love for them. People exchange flowers, cards and wrist bands (which are very popular among tweens) on this day.

This year, in New Delhi and Andhra Pradesh, many schools and colleges came together to participate in the Friendship Walk.

Many also planted trees to strengthen their friendship with nature.

The festival has gained so much success and popularity that many nations across the globe have adopted the tradition, and started celebrating Friendship Day on the first Sunday of August.

In the end I want to wish you all, "A Very Happy Friendships Day!"

Pulpo Paul

Paul, the Octopus became internationally famous when he correctly predicted the winner of Germany's 7 matches at the 2010 FIFA World Cup, as well as the final. Though he retired on 12th July, he is still very much in talks. Here's Paul's small biography and his journey so far....

Paul hatched from an egg at the Sea Life Centre in Weymouth, England. He then moved to a tank at one of the chain's centres in Oberhausen, Germany. His name has been derived from the title of a poem by the German children's writer Boy Lomsen : Der Tintenfisch Paul Oktopus.

According to DOA, local businessman in Carballino, a community in Galicia collected about 30,000 Euro, 'Transfer Fee' to get Paul as main attraction of the local Fiesta del pulpo festival. Though Manuel Pazo, a fisherman assured that Paul would be presented alive in a tank and not on the menu, Sea Life Centres rejected the offer.

Paul's career began during the UEFA Euro 2008 tournament. He correctly predicted the outcome of 4 out of 6 matches of Germany.

Then came 2010 FIFA World Cup.....

Paul's correct choices for the 2010 World Cup, broadcast live by German news channel NTV, endowed him with the celebrity status. He predicted the winners of each of the seven 2010 FIFA World Cup matches that Germany played against Australia, Serbia, Ghana, England, Argentina, Spain and Uruguay.

Paul correctly predicted the outcome of the semi-final, by choosing the food in the box marked with the Spanish.Though nobody knows how he used to choose the boxes, he maintained a 100% accurate record during the tournament by correctly predicting Spain's victory over Netherlands in the Final.

In the end all I can say is that he has been a superstar and deserves a quiet retirement. Paul is arguably the most famous sea creature the world has ever seen.

EPIC - India's First Web Browser

A Banglore based software startup, Hidden Reflex, has launched a browser known as 'Epic'. This browser targets the Indian audience in particular. It has been created by a team of Indian engineers on the open source Mozilla platform.

Epic renders a unique "Indian" browsing experience. It provides users access to the latest national and regional news from popular publications, live television channels, videos, stock quotes, top music and local events. There are 1500+ customised Indian themes and wallpapers of freedom fighters, movie stars, etc, for the Users. It also supports different Indian languages which enables the Users to write in those languages in Epic's free built-in word processor. It is currently supporting 12 Indian languages.

Free antivirus scanning and healing is built into Epic, while another security measure warns users when they're about to visit potentially dangerous websites.