The Hockey Shame,Once Again

With the failure of Indian Hockey Team in qualifying for Olympics for the first time in 80 years still fresh in mind,one would have thought that it is the worst phase and it can get better only in the coming days…but what do we see….Corruption!!!!!!!.

This is the last thing that one would have thought to be the reasons behind Indian team’s poor showing in the past years.

The Shame…Disgrace…the Secretary of IHF Mr. Jyothikumaran has been caught red handed accepting money to select a player for a prestigious tournament… on TV….And think he has been at this post since 1994 !!……If the allegations are true then he has definitely cheated this nation.

As it is,the problems with the National Game of this country have been too many to count….Mr KPS Gill,the super cop and the president of IHF has been refusing to resign despite the poor showing of the team and repeated demands of many hockey players and parliamentarians….The problem of the game losing its popularity to cricket has been growing.The working of IHF has been least transparent.Many teams new to Hockey are defeating the Indian team like China did in the Asian Games…The FIH is threatening to take away the opportunity that it has given India of being host to the Hockey World Cup in 2010.And the last nail in the coffin has been laid by the corruption………

I believe Hockey is a very attractive game and personally I have been going to the stadium to watch the PHL matches regularly….The hands of Govt. are tied due to the Olympic Charter and Autonomy of IHF…….but if this rot continues I think the little interest that is left for this game in India would be gone too.The hockey has been stinged…

The Karmyudh Begins!

Wow….the ‘Karmyudh’ of Cricket is about to begin today.Being a diehard fan of this game I am very much excited about the bonanza for cricket lovers!!!

The prospect of a Sachin and Jayasurya opening together,then Brett Lee and Sreesanth bowling in tandem,Ganguly and Ponting batting together… will be mouthwatering.

Similarly when Symonds and Hayden play against Harbhajan the contest would get more fired up because of the recent controversies.Dhoni kepping for Murali would be a spectacle too.Yuvraj playing against Ishant Sharma would be interesting.

Looking at the teams …Hyderabad Deccan Chargers have got the fire in their batting with Gilchrist,Symonds, Afridi,Gibbs and Rohit Sharma in their ranks!!! This looks really Explosive.

Delhi Daredevils have got a lot of spin options in Daniel Vettori,Dilshan,Shoaib Malik and Sehwag.Also, there wont be too many runs on offering at the top by them with Mcgrath and Asif opening the bowling.

The Kolkata Knight Riders have got a huge hype built about it with SRK doing a lot of advertisement himself.The think tank is great with the trio of Ganguly-Ponting-John Buchanan.The rest of the team doesn’t look great on paper with Shoaib Akhtar ruled out.

The Banglore Royal Challengers have some experience to fall back on with Dravid,Kumble and Kallis in their ranks.Virat Kohli would be the player to watch out for.But they may struggle with their fielding.

The Mumbai Indians have some very good match winners in Sachin,Jayasuriya,Harbhajan Singh,Robin Utthapa and Lasith Malinga.They are looking very strong.I think they have got the right mix and are the favourites.

The Rajasthan Royals don’t have much star power apart from their coach cum captain Shane Warne…I must say they look the weakest on paper.

The Chennai Super Kings have got a strong team with Dhoni,Murali,Hayden,Hussey,Oram,Suresh Raina and Balaji in their ranks.They can trouble the other teams a lot.

My team Kings XI Punjab has got some very talented players like Yuvraj Singh,Brett Lee,Sangakkara,Jayawerdene,Piyush Chawla,Pathan and James Hopes.I am sure we are going to give tough competition to every team.

Finally I think its going to be a great event…I am hoping to see close games and very good cricket.I believe Test cricket wont be affected by IPL as playing for the country is the biggest honour and we have seen in the past that ODIs did not impact the Test cricket as well…Though I do think that IPL would increase the following of this game by many folds.Let the play begin…………..

The Quota Conundrum

Are we moving forward or back? The days of ‘Divide and Rule’ are back or what? Has quality been compromised for votebank politics? Would Equality be achieved? Would my country gain from this? Would the youth rise? Is reservation the right tool? What is the future? Would we be able to solve this conundrum ever???????

All these questions have come to my mind and I am sure to many minds in recent days over the Quota Muddle.

The much awaited Supreme Court judgement on OBC reservation has arrived.
Keypoints---> 27% reservation upheld and ‘Creamy Layer’ to be kept out.This makes it 49.5% reservation after including SC/ST’s .

At first look it seems to be a judgement that has taken the middle path.Nice word…nice word…Creamy Layer……nice……so the Court (with due respect) thinks that Economically forward people among OBC’s don’t deserve this reservation thing….really appreciated....BUT!!!!….If that is the case then why bring caste to it.Does being from a particular caste or religion mean that the person is poor or rich??? If economic status is the criterion then what is the need to bring in the caste.Give reservation to the poor and no one complains.BUT!!!…again this but……when would this nation realize???.(Note the definition of Creamy Layer might be changed soon as per the wishes of political parties from 2.5 lakh limit right now to……)

When I went with my friends as part of ‘Youth For Equality’ in a rally and later to PGI where doctors were on hunger strike last year…I had seen hope….hope in the eyes of my friends that at least the Judiciary in this country cares….BUT!!! I must say there is disappointment now.I have nothing against anyone but how can a census done in 1931 be the basis of judging such an important issue.If the government really wants to do something for the people of this country then it should invest its energy and resources on the primary education.If resevation was a solution then the list of OBCs and other categories that need to be given reservation would have shrunk now instead of remaining the same.

This thing has given only a fillip to the parties like MNS which has demanded reservations for Maharashtrians in the jobs,dividing Indians into North and South.Tomorrow you would see Quotas on the basis of caste in private sector jobs as well and a day would arrive when the cricket team of this country would have a quota too!!!!

When would this word 'Reservation' go.Its hurting this country big time….

Here We Go!!!

Finally!!!!!!!!

The day has arrived when I would start Blogging.I have been thinking of doing this for months now…but at last :)

Writing is a beautiful form of expression!

I want this to be a place where I can write about anything I feel strongly about, put my experiences and share anything that I want to....