A Game of Cricket....

Without a doubt, the biggest scandal to hit the Indian Cricketing world in years. All these years, it was the Pakistanis who indulged in match fixing, ball tampering, and we Indians were the clean ones. Spotless White.. Once in a blue moon, comes a cropper of an Azhar, Chetan Sharma, Manoj Prabhakar, but those are rare blips..

Suddenly we have three members in one team, the CEO of another, a Board President, tens of bookies, and a valid question by a Judge pending an answer.. If a bowler was involved, what was the batsman doing? This is definitely not the end of the saga.

Take the next part.. A President of the Board who openly refuses to resign, because he has done nothing wrong. His son in law is clean. The rule diversions to have his relative get exemptions, the fact that no one else can get this exemption is another discussion, another story.

A rumoured comment, that the team who plays under the Indian Banner is not a team that comes under a country's purview, but is a privately owned team. One wonders in this case, all the State, Central and National recognitions.. Are to whom? And the Country takes pride that "the Country" won.

Political Bigwigs taking sides, and demanding resignations. The Pawars, the Jaitely's, the Scindia's all have their lines drawn. Some indebted, some trying to settle old scores. It is now who can pull who to what extent. As that will define the ultimate power.

But all this only for a betting spot fixing scandal? Just three bowlers doing a job for bookies, which might have been in place for years? That alone cannot be a factor for such huge impacts. So much media coverage, making it a national issue, with even one person commenting to the media, that they are equally to blame, for promoting Cricket the way they do.

No doubt it is all due to the money involved. It would definitely not be in a few crores, but more in 00's or 000's of crores, where the takers would be large and many. Or some one might not have gotten his due.

The fact that sports has become a business is well known. Talent sourcing is big money, and the younger you find, the more money involved. Similar post by another blogger, Talent Hunted, speaks volumes how we as a country have found a means to live on. So what if a few people are sacrificed in the bargain

Part of the problem does remain the public, who has glorified sport and Cricket especially to such an extent, that it is now considered as God.. No longer is it a game that was meant to be enjoyed, a game that actually united the country in more ways than one, but now probably becoming just another sport, a rich man's sport..

The Idiot box and its Magical Power

Nothing new here, right? We all have been party to the Idiot box and its mesmerizing hold that it has on people, their families and in many cases, full control over lives. There was a time when the Idiot Box or the Telly or the TV (to its real name), was a rarity in Indian houses.. Even in cities like Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta, if you had a television in your house, you were well off.. If you had a colour TV, when the entire society was on B&W, you definitely had relations abroad.

Of course the content at the time too was very simple and mediocre. One Channel. Regional language programmes in the morning, Delhi controlled News at night, with an All India viewership. Hindi or regional film on Sunday, the highlight of the week.. Sunday plans were based on Sunday movies!!

How things change. A box in every house, if you don't have one, you are considered person non value.. But that is not the point of this thought.. It is the power that has crept in from outside into our homes and how it is ending up controlling our daily lives.

We lived in a world of Ads between the dead beat programmes, but now it is the Ads that people don't want to see.. It is the continuation of the serial and what happens to the Mother In Law or the bad woman, or how people get screwed just when their life is about to be made..

It is why is the good woman always gets screwed, why are mother in laws so dominating, why does the clean guy the one who suffers the most, how come the bad guy continues to survive, despite all the planning, how could the grand kids be so cruel as to murder their old grand parents for a few thousand rupees..

Why do we flaunt so much wealth in front of others to allow them to take advantage of us, why do we see so much lax in relations, women getting raped, and other women allowing them, how can parents be dumb to leave their children alone.. God, I can go on and on and on and on...

I have tried to steer away from it, however as one lives in a joint family, where you have your parents, relatives watching some serial or the other, escaping from them is very difficult. Of course, one can just walk out, but then that is also considered rude. It is a democracy after all, and every one in the house does have a right to see what they wish.

Where it does amaze and upset is when all of the above is taken for real and non TV people start living their life thinking all about the characters. Why, when, how, why not.. the list is endless. Very soon we are dragged into their "personal TV lives" and we start losing our reality and start moving into a dream realm that we know does not exist and is fictional, yet we start living there. We are the Ram, the Bhoomi, the Jadgish, the Shyam, the Kishan, the Ayesha and who have you not. We start thinking on the serial and how we would want to turn it around and make sure the bad guys are screwed up and the good people start living their lives. Try calling some one during a key serial time. Half the people will not pick up the phone!

But then, that would be a drop in the TRP's... Who the hell wants to watch a show where there are only good people. It is truly said, that Indian Television is probably the biggest generator of sadness, hatred and revenge related worlds through their soap operas. Sure you have a lot of the Western and the Arabic world soap operas where they have their own stuff, but we are masters in churning out depression and sadness on a daily basis. We would rather have people lost in some imaginary world and forget their real "pathetic lives" rather than to show them reality or for that matter, provide them with some relief of a lighter side of life?

Shows do state that the characters are fictional and hold no resemblances. Indeed most of them outside of the show, are normal people, some old mothers are no more than actors in their 30's just doing a serial. However, how many take that as fact! The more our sad stories run, just proves that we truly are a depressed nation. 

There may or may not be an ideal solution to this. Of course, one cannot live without the Idiot Box in totality, but neither should one also live with it in entirety. We do have good informative shows that are truly eye openers with a message, but how many really apply that message in the true sense, where it should be and where it should not. A fine line between reality and information is a must. As the world gets smaller through technology, it is imperative that we maintain our emotional balances.

As I recently overheard: If a Guy during at an IPL Match time, calls his girlfriend ,don't leave him girl. He is one in a Million!!

Getting rid of.... Our Mess

Image from JM Simon Post

While reading an article the other day, could not resist thinking on two things..

1... Good Bold Decision... 2.. Have we screwed up the system so bad?

What was it? Just a Dubai Govt campaign to slash 500M plastic bags! 500M bags in a year, as our consumption in a small country like Dubai was nearly 2.9 Billion bags annually. The thoughts that came to mind were the normal, no possible way, we cant be that bad, 2.9 is over exaggerated, etc etc..

Of course, also thinking more could not but resist thinking about a similar post of mine "The Green Thing", where is, we have another case of how we have managed to mess ourselves up with technology, our wants and our needs, and the generations that come, manages to blame the preceding generation, as each generation manages to mess up the environment...

However, back to Plastic Bags.. A great campaign, where in a decision is done to get rid of nearly half a billion plastic bags in six months. Chances are that they will achieve it and probably even more. Simply because of the will of the Govt and the people providing support to make the country a better place. So what is the issue? Just a few:

Why can we not do this without being asked to. We all know that half the things we use are bad for the environment, yet we use them extensively.

Why have we never learnt the concept of reuse unless we have to pay for it.

Why does every thing free have to be abused to an extent, that it has to be taken away for our very own benefit?

Why do we only follow these when the Govt's take it upon them to clear up the mess..

Why does the Govt allow the mess in the first place only for it to later on spend millions to clean up an environment that they are equally to blame.

Why do we never ask ourselves the question: Why, or Why no?

One looks in the streets, outside of Super Markets.. People have stacks of Plastic bags in their hand. It comes for every thing. One chocolate, and you want a bag, a can of Coke and you want to carry it in a plastic bag. Forget it that the minute one steps out of the shop, one takes out the item and throws the bag on the spot. And this is repeated every five / ten minutes.

The amount of non recyclable waste that we generate is mind boggling to say the least. The World population going up to nearly 7 Billion, and with population increasing leaps and bounds, it is simply a mathematical projection as to when, how soon, how fast can we head to a disaster in the making. And what is worse, that in many underdeveloped countries, the Govt does not care a damn about this, as the top few are busy making money even at the cost of the average man getting his life screwed (which he does on his own).

Not asking any one to put up a revolution of some sorts, but simply that we should to the extent possible, try to make the world a better place.. Of course one person in a million is not going to make a difference, but if this catches up, some day (hopefully by then we have not killed the world), we will have a nicer place to live in. A start with Super Markets without plastic bags maybe?

Social Media and its importance..

Had been at a loss for some time, as to what to write about? So many topics, so many discussions, and then a overdose of social networking.. FB, Tweets, Tumblr, WhatsApp... you name it, and I tried to get into all...

Made me think, as I got dragged into one social media after another. Started spending my working hours trying to find time to do some social media, coming back home, have dinner and then restart on my social media.. My FB's, my tweets, getting in touch with friends and relatives via Whats App, all to be in touch. Late into the night, just wanting to be in touch.

I come home by the Metro, I see the same. 3 Out of of 5 are on some sort of chain. BBM's, SMS's, FB, Tweets, the works.. You dont find any one who is any one not being on some kind of Social Media. And this is not limited to being on the train, bus, or any form of commuting, but even expanding to being at family get together, weddings and at every possible opportune moment. One sees a world that finds being on the media more critical and important than being together with people and relatives.

As this grows and one sees the discussions, what is also surprising is that there is, most of the time, nothing important being discussed on the Media. It is not world wide impacting discussions, but more that one has a bad stomach, one had a bad meal, or a headache in the morning after a drinking night...

Where are we headed to? Yes, Socially, being visible is a big factor, however to what extent. Are we headed into a phase where being socially visible is the key to one's very existence. Is it to such an extent that personal relation ships are no longer important or required, but being present on some sort of a net based application is? Is one who is not available on FB, BBM, Twitter, not relevant?

Is it like the age old joke of a person who applied at Microsoft but when informed the HR, was told: Sir, if you don't have E_Mail, you don't exist.... But then also, if he had E_Mail, he would have been an office boy at Microsoft.