IPL Loyalty Dilemma

Off late I am in a new state of dilemma. This is over the tsunami which has taken frenzy over the entire nation called the IPL. Whichever TV Channel you open or whichever radio station you tune in to people are ga-ga over it. Now I am not going to write about whether it is worth the hype or not. Time will tell the answer. My dilemma here is to decide upon which team should I be supporting. And I think this must be a common feeling.

There can be numerous logics in deciding which team to support. I tried the following:

When I looked for my favorite players, Yuvi and Pathan is in Punjab , Gilli is in Deccan, Gayle is in Kolkotta, Warne is in Rajasthan, Murali is in Chennai ,McGrath is in Delhi, Jayasuriya and Sachin are in Mumbai and last but not no way the least Nathan Bracken and Praveen Kumar are in Bangalore. So, I am torn into pieces if I decide to support based on players of choice. But still If I manage to make a decision, I would go with Punjab.

If I go by the logic of location of the team on the map and my nativity , Chennai is the place where I belong while Bangalore is the place where I have some wonderful memories and Delhi is a city I really really like. But still as nativity counts above other factors this factor draws me towards Chennai.

Then, I decided upon to support the best team, but with surprise results being thrown in like Royal Challengers being dismissed for 82 going on to beat Mumbai Indians. When I thought Rajasthan Royals were the odd men out in this league they came up with a surprise win over Yuvi's men. Still going by this philosophy, as per the points table Kolkotta team looks to be favourite. But the level of uncertainity raises serious doubts over this philosophy.

And if I decide to go by the team ownership and ambassadors of each team, one side we have Shahrukh Khan (for Kolkotta) and Preity Zinta(for Punjab) from Bollywood while the rest of bollywood seems to be rooting for Mumbai , Kris Shrikanth and Vijay (Oh! God didn't they find anyone else) are rooting for Chennai cement's Chennai team, Business tycoon Mallya has Bangalore to his name and so on. Based on my preference of the ownership, I would go with Bangalore team.

And in case I decide to think as silly as to decide by the gersey, I felt Delhi's gersey was the best and Chennai's the worst.

So, here I am still unable to decide whom to cheer for apart from the cheer girls as of now.

Banes of reservation

It is shocking to say the least that supreme court has passed the judgment on the reservation row  justifying the 27% reservation for "Other backward class" in educational institutions. I fail to understand how this reservation is going to help the real "needy". If a person from the OBC can make it to an engineering institution then I don't think he is backward enough to be given reservation for entering into IIMs. And I do not see how this will help the really backward villagers to gain their primary education and forget IIM, at least  attain a matriculation. I am not completely against reservation.( Though this may sound cliched, this is the truth.) Reservations need to be made on the economical status and the residential status . I have personally seen in my own Govt. Engineering College seats from ST rural going vacant which clearly says that people over there have not risen enough to attain education upto Class 12th. How will reservations in Engineering Colleges and AIIMS help is anyone's guess.

Consider this:

• One out of every 2 students passing out of IIMs henceforth, doesn't deserve in the first place to be there.
• If the power hungry political parties have their say, this is going to be true with all the Engineers graduating out of India when the same law is passed for private Engineering colleges of India. This wil in turn increase the money laundering done by Private institutions in the country.
  
• More and more patients will die due to doctor's negligence and more and more bridges will collapse because of the quality of doctors and engineers graduating out of our country .
• With outsourcing industry already facing threat from other countries and US election promises, this will hit India further.
• IITs,IIMs and other premier institutes will surely lose their global recognition though not immediately.
• This step will further boost the confidence of the political parties to introduce reservations into Private sector Jobs as well

Well , Have I written anything path breaking here. No, all of us know this and realize this. But none of the political parties dare to raise their voice against this injustice fearing to lose the  vote bank in an election season.  The only relief I see here is a clause in the judgement which says that this needs to be re-considered every 5 years. Lets hope this nightmare lasts for only 5 years.

The dogs of war: Not as good

Of late I have turned to be a termite , gobbling up lot of stuff all useless of course. Hence, here I am writing about the 3rd book of Frederick Forsyth I recently finished. Titled "The dogs of War" it is a tale of treachery and double crosses. Once again Forsyth surprises by the meticulous detailed planning for the toppling of the Govt. in erstwhile African state. And as always it is full of information about the black market of weapons,African politics and the difference between Capitalist and Socialist economies. In addition, he provides a certain humorous situations in the narrative wherein the humour is at the expense of the poor uneducated Africans.

However, when it comes to the story, one is left wanting for more once you turn the last page. Lots of strings are left untouched. And the operation seems to be over very easily and smoothly. It cannot be recommended to a non Forsyth fan to turn him into one, but it is a defnite read for a Forsyth fan like me.

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Australian Mind Game

Australia have been using this mind game since a long time. Right from the time when the tag " Ugly Australia" was given to them. It has always worked and this time is no different. But the difference is this time it has worked out for the opponents.

Consider this. Which was the turning point in both the final games of CB series during the Australian innings. For me and many other I talked with it was the wickets of Symonds and Hayden. Out of the total 4 wickets( 2 players in 2 matches) harbhajan took 3 . Now you would ask me what has this to do with mind games and sledging. Turn back news papers of the past week or so and you will it full of stories of wars of words between these individuals. Now lets leave out the investigation of who started these and who retaliated. But the ultimate effect is that it affects your performance on field.

My logic is that once you know that you are involved in a mental game with an individual you become mindful of the individual rather than the game he is playing or the ball he is bowling. I think this has been primarily the problem with Australia. They want to dominate people on and off the field with both actions and words. The same was the scenario between Sachin and Shane Warne some years back when Sachin was in the form of his life and the same is now. I believe when you are hostile towards someone you tend to under perform against him. It might be that you start taking him very casually and start committing mistakes or that you become over aware of his performances that you forget to play your natural which ultimately leads to your downfall in the eventual battle of actions. So my logic is see each individual player as a player and not as an individual with whom you have a grudge.

I think Sachin is a perfect example of this. He never indulges in any of the word battles and he shows all his aggression with his bat and saves all his mental energy for the game.

Accept or defy my logic. Comment me.!