Friday, May 23, 2014

While I was away

So while I was away trekking up the Himalayas in Sikkim away from all the madness in the world,  high up in the mountains without any access to mobile phones or the world wide web, a ton of changes have taken place. Even Arsenal won a trophy after 9 years making me believe that I have been away for an eternity.

  • Congratulations to Narendra Modi on becoming the new Prime Minister of the country. Although I have never been your fan, as an optimist, I can only hope that you prove me wrong and take India forward rather than backward in the next five years.


Can the NaMo bandwagon deliver its promises?
   
  •   Congratulations to Louis Van Gaal on being appointed as the new boss at Manchester United. Going through your impressive resume and the list of clubs and players you have managed, I can confidently say that the United board got it right this time. Plus, I have a new team to support this World Cup. #Netherlands
The new Gaffer at Old Trafford

  •  Congratulations to TRS and the TDP on winning the elections in the newest states of the country, Telengana and the Seemandhra. I can only hope that Hyderabad doesn’t turn a pink colored city now.
Hyderabad - the new pink city? :-/

  • Congratulations to Manchester City, Atletico Madrid and Arsenal on winning the Premier League, La Liga and the FA Cup titles. All the three teams have played amazing football this season (Arsenal for the first 8 months only, though) and deserved to win trophies.
Champions of Spain after 18 years

  •  Happy Birthday to Yaya Toure, the best midfielder in the Premier League. Despite being from the other side of Manchester, I really hope that you stay at City, where you may not get cakes but instead win trophies.
20 goals from the midfield this season. Simply superb!

  • Congratulations to Ryan Giggs on calling an end to an amazingly successful career. It feels odd to imagine a Manchester United squad without the Ryan Giggs. There could not have been a better choice for the #2 man at Old Trafford, and hope you do as well in your new job.
Ryan Giggs Ryan Giggs running down the wings!!

  • And last but not the least, to Liverpool and to Samir Nasri. HAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHHHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHHAHAHA.

Awwwww, Stevie! :)

I decided to be totally neutral while writing this article but looks like my Red Devil blood took over at the end. Frankly, Liverpool have been the most entertaining team this season and I really do hope Suarez gets fit in time for the World Cup. As far as Nasri is concerned, I do not know what the FFF were thinking when they selected their World Cup squad.

http://www.outdoorsmartphone.tv BEAMER TEST use a captcha

Saturday, May 3, 2014

The Great Indian Election and the 'Selfies' people

The great Indian Voting drama
April 30, 2014 – Just another day in my life. I probably wouldn’t even remember the day the next year, or even maybe the next month. So, before I forget (and probably to remember), this was the day I joined the huge bandwagon of people who decide the fate of the country. When I say ‘decide the fate of the country,’ I do not mean I will be taking decisions as to whom India can trade with or which country to go to war with. Instead, I just went and cast my vote for a leader who will be taking such decisions.
Frankly speaking, I wasn’t (am still not) a great follower of politics. I only knew the names of the bigwigs contesting in the elections since the last couple of months, I had only been reading various posts on my Facebook wall with half-baked knowledge on who the best leader for the country was. As the election date grew nearer, I did my bit. I researched on the leaders who were standing from my constituency, discussed here and there, overheard from here and there and finally I knew around 4-5 candidates for the Lok Sabha seat amongst the 30 odd and around 2-3 Assembly candidates and rounded upon the couple of people I’d be voting for.
And finally the big day arrived.
The sweltering summer heat has been tortuous over the past few days and hence I decided to wake up at 6:30 AM and be amongst the first people to vote (and also post my finger on Facebook). Alas! Over the past few years 7 AM became the new 10 AM and there were already a few people in the queue and the line began growing at an astonishing pace. Anyways, I was done with my voting (for the first ever time) by 7:30 AM and returned home with a sense of accomplishment. It wasn’t an easy vote to cast and I ended up voting for the most literate of the lot (Ssshh! I won’t be saying who lest I want my vote be invalid à la Naidu).
That's my vote :)

Before the D-Day, if there was a flood of posts about whom to vote, then the D-Day was a Tsunami. Inked fingers and posts like ‘Voted for a better India’, ‘Did my part’ and ‘#Vote4change’ became the norm of the day. People exulted like they’d won a war. While some went to work, others just sank into their couches on the national holiday. The much hyped about Election drama was over, with just the touch of a button. Despite all the hype and buzz generated, the polling percentage in the city just about crossed the 50% mark.


Venky, who had done a lot of campagining work on Facebook, finally casts his vote.
And then, inked fingers became photoshiopped inked fingers

May 01, 2014 - It was like yesterday never happened. The entire buzz about the Great Indian elections died down. Profile pictures changed again. Ink on the fingers were replaced by pouts on the faces and people went back to laughing at Jose Mourinho and applauding Cristiano Ronaldo. It will probably remain this way now for the next fortnight as we approach the end of the season in the Premier League and that the IPL has returned to India.
In exactly two weeks from today, on May 16, the election result date, I foresee my Facebook wall going bonkers again. Ecstasy and anguish will be the flavor of the day. There will be forecasts about where the country is headed in the next five years. The pessimists will just write off that the country is going down the gutter while there may be optimists who see a bright future. And there will be a bunch for whom it wouldn’t matter much (I wouldn’t want to speculate in which category I would fall in).

And then only a week after this, the world will be back to normal. People will live with the new leader, no matter how good or bad. And then Facebook can be used a media to vent out frustration about the state of affairs of the country.