Month: January 2008

Posted in Politics - General

Questioning one’s Lordship

Posted on by ganpy

New Hampshire was a big surprise. The political polls and surveys ended up being a mockery. How can someone with a 13 point lead lose with a 2 point margin? – not even close..! Anyways, they have moved on – at least Bill Richardson has.
Michigan primary was a joke too. The Democrats couldn’t let Clinton battle against anyone known. Instead, she took a 10+ point lead over the uncommitted.

So much snow had fallen in the last couple of weeks that the squirrels had to build an igloo to store their nuts..(No..I am not applying for Letterman’s writing team!!!)

On a totally different note, Have been educated quite a bit on Ramayana by my new found blog satirist. And if this guy does not have creativity, who else does? Not to pile on the base he had already built by questioning the very premise of the authenticity of Valmiki Ramayana – but I have always considered the epic as it was told, to be a North Indian version only. Even though Kamban’s version has the story set in the very same sleepy UP town with a slightly tamilized versions of the characters (Dasrath became Dasarathan..Ram became Raman and Ravan became Ravanan), there was a nativity to it that a Tamilian could relate to. Whether you agree with the diversity in Ramayana’s versions and how no one can categorically say that Valmiki’s is the most authentic, or not, the satire and humor is amazing. After reading this blog, I have more convincing reasons to question Ram’s lordship.

Posted in Cricket

Gutsy move

Posted on by ganpy

No matter what really happened between Bhajji and Symonds – Suspending the tour is the best decision made by BCCI in recent times. Just bring the team home! Australians may be playing great cricket – unbeatable cricket. But they are clearly playing a game of disgrace. I don’t care about the Sydney test results. Why is Ricky Ponting finding it difficult to handle reverse sledging on field? Why is it termed “racism” all of a sudden? What happened to 50 years of Australians playing the game that way? Indian and Sri Lankan players have been at the mercy of Australian sledging all these years – Has is not been racism? Absolutely, yes – now that we know how the ozzies like to refer to it.

Now, why is it difficult to handle abuses on field by the so-called “tough Ozzies”..? Is it because of the fact that the Indians have learnt the art of fighting back by saying a thing or two on the field and not just let go off the slurs…?
ICC should take a look at racism with an objective pair of lens and not just when the Asian cricket teams fight back against the white counterparts.

As for how the crowd reacted in Mumbai and a few other venues when Symonds was in India – yes it was bad..not acceptable. But again, these are 2 different issues – the crowd behavior and the player behavior. I hope BCCI does not compromise and just decides to bring the team home.
Kumble deserves a lot of respect for being so mature and gritty..specially his comment at the post match conference – “Only one team was playing with the spirit of the game. That’s all I can say…(you know who it is!)”
Awesome Anil Bhai!

As a side note, BCCI should also insist on an umpiring panel that they agree to, if they ever have to go to Australia again. We all know what happened at Sydney.

Posted in Politics - General

Caucuses and Consequences

Posted on by ganpy

Even if you have forgotten the famous night in Iowa approximately 4 years back, when the Dean train was hit by one speech (probably just by about 60 seconds of that short speech actually), which was made so infamous by media clouding it with all the negative publicity they could, I haven’t.

It still doesn’t make sense to me why Howard Dean got what he didn’t deserve. Who was behind it? His Democratic competitors or Karl Rove or the absolutely “influenceable” & malleable American voter?

Here is the now “famous” speech..

None of that happened last night.

Was I surprised with the results? Yes for the Republican winner and No for the Democratic winner. Even though my candidate of choice was Obama at the beginning of the campaign (which was about a year ago), he certainly has failed to project a “different” and a “non-Washington politician” image, which he so proudly claims he does now. May be Kucinich would have been a great choice. Someone who represents the left side of the spectrum strongly and better than any other brainwashing political talks that the rest of the Democratic line-up indulges in.
For some strange reason, Kucinich has nothing to attract support to his camp except his beautiful wife…!

Will the Caucus results influence the New Hampshire primary? I do believe so in the case of Obama and Clinton.
The consequences? Hmmm…

Posted in Environment, Pictures

Being Carbon neutral…

Posted on by ganpy

Not to be left behind in the environmental conscious race, we recently decided to do our bit by purchasing a hybrid vehicle. In fact, the additional car could have been easily avoided but we believed in it and did it. So we have taken our first step towards being carbon neutral. Again, this term is so loosely used that there is nothing neutral in the usage. But at least,it is being used for a good purpose. Even if people think they have done enough by taking this small step (which is insane), it is still better than driving 2 blocks in a Hummer all by yourself and idling the engine for hours in a parking lot while you are sipping a cup of coke & talking on the cell phone with your buddy!

The best part is that even our son understands the concept of using a hybrid vehicle (in his own little mind)..even though he likes getting on his monster van (who doesn’t?). He has already started asking me about why we don’t have a hybrid minivan.
Any auto manufacturer listening?

Here is a picture of my wife’s prized possession and our pride.

Posted in Uncategorized

New Year Greetings..

Posted on by ganpy

For some strange reason, the new year’s eve simply has been another day, another evening and another night for me, the past 3 years. I was not with my family last December 31. But I had the pleasure of at least getting back to my hotel before mid night…to watch the clock tick past 12 all alone from my bed. And today has been a quiet day as well. Very laid back, reminiscing over the year that just went by and generally thinking about an exciting new year.

But the fact remains that a new year certainly marks a new beginning – how much ever symbolic it may be, how much ever virtual it may be..There is something in your mind that is excited to receive the new year while being sad to let go of the old one, at the same time.

Resolutions? – I don’t make any..Don’t know why. But just don’t believe in making resolutions on Jan 1!

Happy New year folks!