The Fite Klub

Fite Corruption

2011-08-27T21:50:00.000+06:00

One way to stop corruption in government processes is to make all government systems online,hence a common man does not have to face officials in person.

Each online application should have service-based SLA and the department/officials need to answer if they do not act on any issue/concern of a common man,meet target SLA's.

Metrics like turn around time,resolution time should be gathered at the end of each month and reported to respective ministry...This has advantages...more quality jobs....what say???

-GAG

Prefer Siddhu to Sadhu

2011-04-27T05:04:00.004+06:00

I was always shell-shocked and bemused at high profile list of Sathya Sai Baba's followers,how could you make a ordinary man - a GOD...someone can now just claim that he is the reincarnation of SSB,like how SSB did years ago...it was hard to believe my eyes to see the GOD of cricket weeping,he should have wept after getting out in the WC 2003/2011 finals and not winning us the WORLD CUP.

Every god man rotates their hand before they produce something...

Thanks to Dhoni/Yuvraj/Gambhir and all the young guns for doing that and making us happy.

I hate the pravachan that comes on all TV channels when you wake up in the morning and people sit in front of the box and watch some sadhu speak about life...as if we do not know anything...I prefer Siddhu to Sadhu...:-)

What have they achieved in life to give us that knowledge, they are school drop-outs and since they did not find a job, they land up creating ashrams via black money donated by all quarters and exploit the public...not sure why people do listen to them and waste valuable time. A better option would be to watch Ramdev and practice yoga, which would help them immensely to stay fit.

On other news that happend today,Kalmadi was arrested today and it was great to see that the law in our country is really doing what it is supposed to do.He was also hurled by a slipper when he was being taken by the CBI to the court,which was again nice to see.. :-)

Meanwhile Assange (wikileaks) revealed that Swiss Bank has deposits from India more that anywhere in the world, which gave reasons for opposition political parties to point fingers at the ruling government...as if so say that if they would have been in power, they would have got the money back the next day.

-GAG

@kitchen (Jan-Mar 2011)

2011-03-22T04:17:00.005+06:00

Egg Biriyani

Pav Bhaajee

Lunch

Bread,Onion Pakoda

Egg Curry

Teheri

Kurma

Roti's..in the making

Pizza (Mushroom,Onion)

Egg Curry - II

Aalo,Baigan Curry

Mushroom,Tomato Curry

-GAG

GAG's Kitchen

2011-01-15T23:04:00.014+06:00

Delicious Chicken Curry

Pudina Pulav

Chicken Curry - Another View

Omlette

Broccoli Fry

Vada Pav,Kaddu and Roti

Rice,Daal & Stuffed Brinjal

Baigan (Stuffed)

Aaloo Paratha,Pudina Chutney & Aachar

Cheela ki Jawani

Pulav & Raita

- GAG

Stuffed Bai-gun

2010-11-21T10:07:00.004+06:00

Stuffed Bai-gun...

-GAG

Kurry Khazana

2010-11-17T07:43:00.006+06:00

Paneer-Butter-Masala

Egg Curry - Andhra Syle

Rajma Curry

-GAG

GAG da DHABHA

2010-11-14T02:48:00.007+06:00

Parda Biriyani by Master Chef Sai...

-GAG

GAG's Cibo

2010-11-13T23:16:00.011+06:00

YES !!! Home Made Pizza

Khana Khazana

Omlette

Wings

Parantha,Aaalo,Rasam

Pooriyan

Cabbage

Dhokla

-GAG

GAG Recipes Cont...

2010-11-11T07:29:00.005+06:00

Wife's Favourite...Kasam se Rasam

Veg Kurma..by Sai

Poori with Kurma

-GAG

Diwali Special at 3311

2010-11-06T05:45:00.004+06:00

Diwali Special - Gil-Jamun (copyright)

Lehsune-Palake-Daal Gravy

Cabbage Fry

Ek Din ka khana

-GAG

GAG's Recipes Cont..

2010-10-31T23:16:00.010+06:00

Daal-Palak

Veg.Kurma turned into Aalo-Gohbi-Carrot-Beans-Peas Fry

Mushroon Fry

Maggi with onion rings

Kala Chana

Kala Chana,Rice and Chapatti

- GAG

GAG's Recipes

2010-10-10T09:01:00.020+06:00

Tofu ka Paratha

Torri

Bread Upma

Aaalo-Gobhi Fry

Aalo-Baigan

Paratha

Delicious Egg Curry

Poha

Aaloo-Bhindi Fry

Hyderabadi Dum Biriyani - courtesy Sai

My Experiment with Spaghetti

Aalo,Mutter and Gobhi : Made for each other

Smoothie : Banana,Strawberry

When in doubt : Aaloo,Tomoto Fry

This is Aaloo+Kudrun

My Kitchen : When i cook....

Apple Kheer : courtesy Sai

My Rotis

Chole Masala : Looks awesome and so does the taste

Rice,Sambhar with chips : Deadly combo

Sambhar : all alone

More Kolumbhu or Kadhi : courtesy Sai

Aaloo,Tomato curry : Again was in doubt

Lunch

Readymade : Buritto,wings and coke.

Chicken Curry turned Biriyani...changed my mind in between

Chicken Curry : A failed attempt

Tomato Rice,Chennai ishtyle

Daal...Saviour

-GAG
for orders leave a comment

Flawless America...???

2009-11-07T01:34:00.007+06:00

OK ! I landed in the Unites States about a year ago and always heard that the system in the US is flawless.

Once you land here, you need to get an I-94 document apart from the VISA which you have. The I-94 is the document which says how long you can stay in the USA. My I-94 said that I can stay until 2011, which is perfectly fine and is inline with my VISA.

The issue is what if the person or the officer who did the data entry had a bad day in office and as a result screwed up my details. YES unfortunately this is what exactly happened and he/she wrongly entered my date as 2009, which meant I was illegal in the US for a couple of weeks with no fault of mine.

How did I get to know of this mis-match….had applied for a Learners Permit to be able to drive. The Permit was given to me for 3 months, upto Oct’2009, but normally it is given for a year. I questioned them the day it was issued, but the Motor Vehicle Authority informed me that the system gave them that date, so they could not help me.

After 3 months when I went to get my permanent license, the system did not allow them to extend the dates beyond Oct’2009.Here comes the trouble…!!! They some how found out that the data which has been entered into the Homeland Security is wrongly entered and to get that fixed I have to contact the USCIS.

Upon investigation at USCIS, they informed me that the data needs to be corrected by the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) ...wao i was getting to know a few new terms and offices here.

Went to the CBP and it took 2 weeks for them to get my information corrected in the homeland security data.

In this land of the greats where the system is such organized and perfect, I was able to find a loop hole. May be the american system is perfect but the person who entered the data was not an American…ha-ha.

Oh Yes..now i am able to drive again...!!!

-GAG

Deferred News,Nevertheless

2008-02-23T19:44:00.005+06:00

Sanjay Dutt getting married to an already married Manyata Devi.Absolutely brilliant coverage by the media I tell u and the media were going all gaga about it. All happy that Sanju Baba finally tied the knot for the 3rd time (not sure,pls check).But the funny part is that one week later we get news which says that Manyata’s First husband has filed case against her, accusing of her that she hasn’t filed a divorce. Some more interesting facts were that Manyata had got their marriage (with Sanju) registered in Goa, where the law says that if they are to have a divorce in the future, then the wife gets half-share of the husbands property…pretty cool ah…must say quite an intelligent girl.

Some more pretty Interesting news, Madam J (Jayalaitha), turned 60 this month and she visited a temple in Tamil Nadu, which couples visit when either of the husband or Wife turns 60 and then they exchange garland.Media reports suggested that Madam J did exchange garland…guess with whom…? With her near and dear friend sasikala…Daal mein kuch kaal hain….! AIADMK’s rival got this golden opportunity and the rest is……….

Media is all crazy here in India, there are some copy-righted news items which are to be broadcasted once every week. There is one channel that has got loads of interests on the WWF jerk Khali, who despite of his huge dimensions looses all his fights. Then you have one channel trying to prove that Lord Ram existed and he was the engineering mind behind the Sethu Project. Goddam…!!! Now to add some more spice to this news, we have some another channel trying to figure out what route did Hanuman take to get the Sanjivini? I mean its fine to see these kind of articles once in a while, but why to repeat it again and again…? Another guy in the news was O.L.Weed…I salute Bhajji of getting the better of these spoilt brat and successfully getting under the Aussies skin.One advice to Hayden,ours guys wud'nt have understood what that meant....:-)

-GAG

Indian Premier League - Squads

2008-02-23T19:44:00.004+06:00

Bangalore Squad

Mark Boucher Wicketkeeper
Age 31 years 79 days
Batting Right-hand batBowling Right-arm medium

Nathan Bracken
Age 30 years 161 days
Playing role BowlerBatting Right-hand batBowling Left-arm fast-medium

Shivnarine Chanderpaul
Age 33 years 188 days
Playing role BatsmanBatting Left-hand batBowling Legbreak

Rahul Dravid
Age 35 years 40 days
Batting Right-hand batBowling Right-arm offbreak

Wasim Jaffer
Age 30 years 4 days
Batting Right-hand batBowling Right-arm offbreak

Jacques Kallis
Age 32 years 127 days
Batting Right-hand batBowling Right-arm fast-medium

Zaheer Khan
Age 29 years 136 days
Batting Right-hand batBowling Left-arm fast-medium

Anil Kumble
Age 37 years 126 days
Batting Right-hand batBowling Legbreak googly

Dale Steyn
Age 24 years 238 days
Batting Right-hand batBowling Right-arm fast

Cameron White
Age 24 years 186 days
Batting Right-hand batBowling Legbreak googly

Chennai Squad

MS Dhoni
Age 26 years 228 days
Batting Right-hand batBowling Right-arm medium

Stephen Fleming
Age 34 years 325 days
Playing role Higher middle order batsmanBatting Left-hand bat

Matthew Hayden
Age 36 years 114 days
Playing role Opening batsmanBatting Left-hand batBowling Right-arm medium

Michael Hussey
Age 32 years 269 days
Playing role Opening batsmanBatting Left-hand batBowling Right-arm medium

Joginder Sharma
Age 24 years 120 days
Batting Right-hand batBowling Right-arm fast-medium

Albie Morkel
Age 26 years 255 days
Batting Left-hand batBowling Right-arm medium-fast

Muttiah Muralitharan
Age 35 years 309 days
Batting Right-hand batBowling Right-arm offbreak

Makhaya Ntini
Age 30 years 229 days
Batting Right-hand batBowling Right-arm fast

Jacob Oram
Age 29 years 207 days
Playing role All-rounderBatting Left-hand batBowling Right-arm fast-medium

Parthiv PatelWicketkeeper
Age 22 years 348 days
Batting Left-hand bat

Suresh Raina
Age 21 years 85 days
Batting Left-hand batBowling Right-arm offbreak

Delhi Squad

AB de Villiers
Age 24 years 3 days
Batting Right-hand batBowling Right-arm medium

Tillakaratne Dilshan
Age 31 years 129 days
Batting Right-hand batBowling Right-arm offbreak

Gautam Gambhir
Age 26 years 129 days
Batting Left-hand batBowling Legbreak

Dinesh Karthik
Age 22 years 264 days
Batting Right-hand bat

Glenn McGrath
Age 38 years 11 days
Playing role BowlerBatting Right-hand batBowling Right-arm fast-medium

Farveez Maharoof
Age 23 years 166 days
Batting Right-hand batBowling Right-arm fast-medium

Mohammad Asif
Age 25 years 62 days
Playing role BowlerBatting Left-hand batBowling Right-arm fast-medium

Virender Sehwag
Age 29 years 123 days
Batting Right-hand batBowling Right-arm offbreak

Shoaib Malik
Age 26 years 19 days
Batting Right-hand batBowling Right-arm offbreak

Manoj Tiwary
Age 22 years 98 days
Batting Right-hand batBowling Legbreak googly

Daniel Vettori
Age 29 years 24 days
Playing role BowlerBatting Left-hand batBowling Slow left-arm orthodox

Greg ShipperdCoach
Age 51 years 99 days
Batting Right-

Hyderabad Squad

Herschelle Gibbs
Age 33 years 362 days
Batting Right-hand batBowling Right-arm bowler

Adam GilchristWicketkeeper
Age 36 years 98 days
Playing role Wicketkeeper batsmanBatting Left-hand batBowling Right-arm offbreak

VVS Laxman
Age 33 years 111 days
Batting Right-hand batBowling Right-arm offbreak

Shahid Afridi
Age 27 years 356 days
Batting Right-hand batBowling Right-arm medium, Legbreak googly

Rohit Sharma
Age 20 years 296 days
Playing role All-rounderBatting Right-hand batBowling Right-arm offbreak

Chamara Silva
Age 28 years 68 days
Batting Right-hand batBowling Legbreak

Rudra Pratap Singh
Age 22 years 76 days
Batting Right-hand batBowling Left-arm fast-medium

Scott Styris
Age 32 years 225 days
Playing role All-rounderBatting Right-hand batBowling Right-arm medium

Andrew Symonds
Age 32 years 256 days
Playing role All-rounderBatting Right-hand batBowling Right-arm medium, Right-arm offbreak

Chaminda Vaas
Age 34 years 24 days
Batting Left-hand batBowling Left-arm fast-medium

Nuwan Zoysa
Age 29 years 283 days
Batting Left-hand batBowling Left-arm fast-medium

Jaipur Squad

Mohammad Kaif
Age 27 years 81 days
Batting Right-hand batBowling Right-arm offbreak

Kamran Akmal
Age 26 years 38 days
Batting Right-hand bat

Justin Langer
Age 37 years 91 days
Playing role Opening batsmanBatting Left-hand batBowling Right-arm medium

Munaf Patel
Age 24 years 223 days
Batting Right-hand batBowling Right-arm medium-fast

Yusuf Pathan
Age 25 years 95 days
Batting Right-hand batBowling Right-arm offbreak

Graeme Smith
Age 27 years 19 days
Batting Left-hand batBowling Right-arm offbreak

Shane Warne
Age 38 years 160 days
Playing role BowlerBatting Right-hand batBowling Legbreak googly

Younis Khan
Age 30 years 83 days
Batting Right-hand batBowling Right-arm medium, Legbreak

Kolkata Squad

Ajit Agarkar
Age 30 years 78 days
Batting Right-hand batBowling Right-arm fast-medium

Sourav Ganguly
Age 35 years 227 days
Batting Left-hand batBowling Right-arm medium

Chris Gayle
Age 28 years 152 days
Playing role BatsmanBatting Left-hand batBowling Right-arm offbreak

David Hussey
Age 30 years 220 days
Playing role Lower middle order batsmanBatting Right-hand batBowling Right-arm offbreak

Murali Kartik
Age 31 years 162 days
Batting Left-hand batBowling Slow left-arm orthodox

Brendon McCullumWicketkeeper
Age 26 years 146 days
Playing role Wicketkeeper batsmanBatting Right-hand bat

Ricky Ponting
Age 33 years 63 days
Playing role Higher middle order batsmanBatting Right-hand batBowling Right-arm medium

Ishant Sharma
Age 19 years 171 days
Playing role BowlerBatting Right-hand batBowling Right-arm fast-medium

Shoaib Akhtar
Age 32 years 191 days
Batting Right-hand batBowling Right-arm fast

Umar Gul
Age 23 years 312 days
Batting Right-hand batBowling Right-arm fast-medium

John BuchananCoach
Age 54 years 321 days
Playing role BatsmanBatting Right-hand batBowling Right-arm medium

Mohali Squad

Mahela Jayawardene
Age 30 years 269 days
Batting Right-hand batBowling Right-arm medium

Simon Katich
Age 32 years 183 days
Playing role BatsmanBatting Left-hand batBowling Slow left-arm chinaman

Brett Lee
Age 31 years 104 days
Playing role BowlerBatting Right-hand batBowling Right-arm fast

Irfan Pathan
Age 23 years 116 days
Batting Left-hand batBowling Left-arm medium-fast

Piyush Chawla
Age 19 years 58 days
Playing role All-rounderBatting Left-hand batBowling Legbreak

Ramesh Powar
Age 29 years 276 days
Batting Right-hand batBowling Right-arm offbreak

Kumar Sangakkara
Age 30 years 116 days
Batting Left-hand batBowling Right-arm offbreak

Ramnaresh Sarwan
Age 27 years 242 days
Playing role BatsmanBatting Right-hand batBowling Legbreak

Sreesanth
Age 25 years 14 days
Batting Right-hand batBowling Right-arm fast-medium

Yuvraj Singh
Age 26 years 70 days
Batting Left-hand batBowling Slow left-arm orthodox

Tom MoodyCoach
Age 42 years 141 days
Playing role Higher middle order batsmanBatting Right-hand batBowling Right-arm medium

Mumbai Squad

Loots Bosman
Age 30 years 312 days
Batting Right-hand batBowling Right-arm medium

Dilhara Fernando
Age 28 years 216 days
Batting Right-hand batBowling Right-arm fast-medium

Harbhajan Singh
Age 27 years 232 days
Batting Right-hand batBowling Right-arm offbreak

Sanath Jayasuriya
Age 38 years 235 days
Batting Left-hand batBowling Slow left-arm orthodox

Lasith Malinga
Age 24 years 176 days
Batting Right-hand batBowling Right-arm fast

Shaun Pollock
Age 34 years 219 days
Batting Right-hand batBowling Right-arm fast-medium

Sachin Tendulkar
Age 34 years 302 days
Batting Right-hand batBowling Right-arm offbreak, Legbreak googly

Robin Uthappa
Age 22 years 101 days
Batting Right-hand batBowling Right-arm medium

-GAG
Data sources www.cricinfo.com

From Hibernation...

2008-01-31T22:14:00.000+06:00

Certainly,not a good Experience.

Was all excited to move to one of the largest and most sophisticated workplace in the country…..? Naah…Atleast not me, don’t really know about the others.

A few days back I had the leisure of traveling on my own and on my own terms, but for the past few days I have been made to wake up quite early just to catch the bus which would take me to my work place to earn my bread. Know what, it’s a real pain…but got no other choice….as of now.

My new office is at Siruseri and its located at a distance of 30 kms from my home and it takes round about 1 hr 10 mins to reach it in the morning and it takes about 10-20 minutes more in the evening...reason being the roads are pretty bad in shape. I really don’t understand what our TN government is doing for past few years. I believe the politicians have never been to this part of the city and have been accustomed to travel on the really excellent roads near the Beach Road. It would be pleasant experience for them if they have their office’s shifted to this part of the city.

The road which leads to my office is a stretch of 20 kms, which has numerous top IT companies of India, but still the roads are pathetic. The companies could aswell spend a few penny and resurrect these pitiable roads for the wellbeing of there employee’s.

My new work place is a beautifully architected place, no complaints on that but it would have been just perfect for us employees had the roads been a bit better…..”Is any body listening?”

If you want me to explain the ride it’s like the driver has to maneuver his way between the pot-holes and if they succeed on that there are abundance of Cows and Buffalo standing on the middle of the road scattered in such a way the drivers are given a real hard time. These drivers could have a real good career had they been into F1 or any other motor sport.

To add to misery, had a salary cut as the company did not achieve its target in Q3 but we still recruit thousands without work and see them have fun….pathetic policies. It definitely hurts when we have workers slogging day in-day out to deliver and at the end of the month we get a letter saying some crap.I was amazed to see that there was no opposition .

Wake up guys.......

-GAG

Saurav Hamara Gaurav......!

2007-12-09T19:57:00.000+06:00

Bengal-uru, I didn’t know had so many fans of DADA and I must commend the audience out there, they really were lively and the atmosphere in the stadium was truly electric. Also would like to mention that the banners and posters on display were really innovative and I was just waiting to see the next ones….Just would like to say that Keep up the good work Bangalore.

Coming to the match between India–Pakistan played at the MA Chinnaswamy Stadium Bangalore, I would like to let the readers know that I am known to like the hated…and for this reason I break all rules and back them, Saurav Ganguly was/is one amongst them. Today, I am proud of myself that I backed DADA.

During the Chappell Era.... 2005-2006

I would not like to get into details of his achievements and his work of the past for the simple reason that I believe he is the greatest leader of modern era or for that matter any age India has produced. Besides I have done that in many of my previous articles, so really don’t want to get into the details of it all over again.

This one is merely to Congratulate Dada on scoring your maiden test double ton….I am proud of you DADA.

class is permanent....and now...2007

The Bengal Tiger kept roaring and will continue to do so…..

-GAG

Ham Shanti Ham... A Review

2007-11-14T13:54:00.000+06:00

All the excitement of this SRK flick and it was apparently the most eagerly awaited movie of the season…but sorry to say that the movie didn't live up to my expectations.

"Picture abhi baki hai mere dost…!" is the tagline of the movie Om Shanti Om and I, as a viewer was just hoping when this ordeal would get over.

The movie begins impressively with the yesteryear star Rishi Kapoor dancing on the tunes of the song "Meri Umar Ke Naujawano…Dil Na laga Na Oh deewano…", and in-between the song SRK the male protagonist of the movie as Om replaces him and starts of jumping and running ala Rishi Kapoor…but I am afraid comes no where close to what Rishi had done.

The story (if any exist) is quite simple and is based on Re-Incarnation.

Om, the struggling actor (naah…Ham-er) falls in love with the superstar Shantipriya played by the Deepika Padukone.Let me say it again, she is just gorgeous. Let me also add that she is quite talented of whatever I got to see in this film, but I am sorry to say that SRK and Farah Khan have utterly wasted her talent. Her role doesn't have any kind of soul in the movie.

So back to the story, Om dies in trying to save Shantipriya, who is burnt alive by Arjun Rampal, the villain. Infact they both die in a fire before the interval of the movie.

First half ends here, Om and Shanti are burnt to death….!

Second half…year 2007…SRK is back as Om again. He is a superstar's (Rajesh Khanna, played by a duplicate of RK) kid and eventually becomes a superstar himself in this period with a six-pack-abs and is afraid of fire for known reasons. He begins remembering his past life as and stuff that has happened.

Om after bagging the award, gives a speech which takes him back to his previous life. He now decides to take revenge on Arjun and to make the movie Om Shanti Om again, which was to be made with Shantipriya 30 years ago. He decides to find a heroine who would look similar to Shanti…and guess what; he finds an exact replica.Again Deepika looks stunning and lovely.

Beauty...

Om after winning the best actor award at the 2007 FilmFare award function hosts a party .For me this party is the highlight of the movie as it has 31 bollywood stars dancing along with SRK.

and the beasts...

Every things falls in place in the climax and as expected Om manages to get rid of the villain with the help of Sandy, the new Deepika.Infact Shantipriya’s BHOOT too helps them in their revenge. Wao…! what a story.The hype...the hysteria created before the release of the movie was tremendous, but the end result was pathetic to say the least.

Some positives of the movie are the songs which are pretty good…I would like to mention that the song "Main Agar Kahoon…" is my favorite sung by Sonu Nigam.

And yeah i watched Om Shanti Om,First Day First Show.It is believed that if SRK runs in his movies,the movie does run to packed houses...lets wait and watch and observe how the public responds to SRK's latest offering.

-GAG

Split-Ends

2007-10-24T13:21:00.000+06:00

Deepika Padukone is the next big thing in the country and several gentlemen want to have a link-up with this long legged beauty and the latest of the lot is our Indian Cricket Captain, MS Dhoni. In fact more than he expressing his desire to be with this beauty, our media has taken up all the pain to unite this couple. The scene is such that every channel is keeping a close watch on their activities. It was the occasion of the T20 match at the Braboune Stadium in Mumbai and it was reported that Mahi has requested Deepika to be present at the match.

Deepika did turn up for the match with SRK, who had come with his family for the game.

Scene 1:

Cam on Deepika, She is smiling...The news waalah’s …comment “Yeh Smile kis ke liya tha…aap SMS ke zariye zaroor bataiyee…”

Aapke options hain….

1. MS Dhoni
2. She remembers a Joke
3. British Bull Dog, who cares…!

Scene 2:

India require 5 to win the match, MSD on strike and Brett Lee charges ,bowls a long-hop which MSD pulls it over the square-leg fence for a Six. India Win…..But another interesting question by our media….”Yeh Chakah kis ke liye tha….aap SMS karke zaroor bataiyee….” Here we go again….WTF is happening is beyond my imagination.

This is actually is period of break-ups which further leads to many more link-ups…

It was Bipasha’s alleged break up with John because of the Manchester United winger doing something naughty....

As the split was confirmed…and Ronaldo who I thought would have had better options available, Bips might have felt she needs a superstar and hence went into hunt and found Mr.Saif Ali Khan, the most eligible of the current lot, although not reliable. It was reported that these two have started dating and in the meanwhile John was linked with Vidya Balan, but then Vidya always maintained that they were just “good-friends” and it was reported in media that Mr. Not Dependable (Saif) was now interested in the Kapoor babe, I mean Shahid’s chick…because Shahid was getting too close to Vidya and was not anymore interested in Kareena.

Now it is confirmed that Saif and Kareena are dating and are very much together. Why has Kareena fallen for Saif, whose track record of his past relationships has not been that impressive. I guess she would have compared the hit rates of Jr.Patudi and Shahid and I believe Saif is far more saleable in the industry than the Shahid-the kid. If that’s what Kareena is looking out for then …all the best to her and her new association

Now things are a bit clear…as of now Shahid is with Vidya, Saif is with Kareena and Bips is back with John…uff what confusion.

What would happen to our cricket captain…time and of course the polls would tell.

-GAG

Touch Kiyeejaa...

2007-10-17T11:06:00.000+06:00

Another season and yet another series of salsa, disco, rumba, tango etc…on the idiot box and in addition to all these we have these non-dancers begging for our SMS . I really don't believe if any sane person would send those SMS's (barring the family of the contestants). Can't really comment on the Morons and Jerk community. So, I in actual fact don't know how these programs do last seasons after season.

One more thing which absolutely baffles me is the fact that what do these channels achieve in making these TV actors (non) dance and compete against themselves? First of all it's difficult to handle them in these f*** all serials and then to see them again for three hours on a weekend is an absolute scare…I envy people who are not forced to watch these morons.

Some contestants are tolerable just for the sake of the entertainment they provide, would like to mention Cyrus Broacha(who does disco in a cow-boy outfit) in this league but in general most of these competitors are very non-talented, most of them unquestionably have two left feet.

Cyrus doing what he doesn’t do best

The audiences, absolutely glued to the TV watching the incapable TV artiste compete against each other. I would like to also mention the fact that these shows do not showcase any talent, its just a bit of skin show which goes on...On prime time and on family channels.

There was this episode in one of the shows, the theme being Touch, where the couples were told to be in-touch with each other through out their act. I don't believe the amount of obscenity that was on display and parents have no other option (of their own will) to watch any thing else or some rather do not intend to watch any thing else.

Some of the jerks are like...I mean what do I say?

There is this Pooja Bedi (D/O, Kabir Bedi), who comes along with a guy (her partner) who looks and is half her age…and the judges (another set of three morons) talk about the chemistry between them is absolutely marvelous and that kind of bull-shit…Pooja would be saying to her self it is not the chemistry that attracts us…its for the biological reasons we are together….

Then of course how can we have a show with out the most beautiful eunuch (probably not...Bobby Darling might be in contention for that, for people who don't know him/her ...Please visit www.google.com ) in the country Rakhi Sawant….and her partner…gosh! How does that dude tolerate her, he should be awarded for that.

Some decent performers being Sudha Chandran, who gets accolades for all her performances, one mention of Mika (bro or Daler Mehndi) who I believe speaks his mind irrespective of the consequences. He openly says I cannot dance on the f*** all tunes, play me bhangra and then see me in my rhythm.

One mention of one of the judge, who has been a choreographer in bollywood and must have lived in Mumbai for years wants the audience to believe that he can not speak Hindi and feels prod of it.

Can say these crappy shows are by the cleverest for the jerks and performed by a few retard morons

-GAG

From the Draw-id way to Mahi way.

2007-09-24T11:20:00.000+06:00

The Indian cricket team finally got their newest one day international captain in the form of MS Dhoni, who comes from a small place called Ranchi. It gives me immense pleasure to let you all know that I was born in that little place and lived 7 years of my childhood there. But this doesn’t excite me that some one from my city of birth has been given the mantle to lead Team India. Let’s wait and watch how he fares as a captain. Let me make myself absolutely clear that at present I am no fan of his as yet and am not quite impressed with his unique technique (is a complete bottom hand player) but what I like in him is his temperament. All this was required as our ex-captain indicated that he isn’t interested in leading the team any more because his batting is getting affected.

These kind of statement from the “best” batsman of Indian cricket absolutely annoys me. It’s true that leading India is not a trouble-free job, but given a responsibility and the honor to lead ones country, one should be a bit more tolerant and open-minded. I agree to the fact that he hasn’t been given the proper work-force with him, but that shouldn’t deter him from doing his duties to the best of his abilities. I have often heard that the best player is chosen as the captain from the group of guys, which I certainly don’t agree with…but for the past few years it has been that way and to be fair the he wasn’t the best man to lead Team India.

We too work for organizations and are assigned with various tasks by our managers…but are we ever allowed to say no to any work allotted to us citing an excuse that this might effect our performance and consequently our rating in the appraisal….I am sure we aren’t, then why this is allowed else where…?

Coming back to the newly appointed captain, I feel the selectors have put in faith on this guy, but for me they should have given a chance to the Yuvraj Singh, who I believe is quite aggressive and flamboyant as a person and is a match winner in the true sense. Of what I have seen of late in the T20 matches, Yuvi does give his inputs, which need not have the approval of the captain…which makes me conclude that he wanted the captaincy once RD resigned.

Another baffling issue which was in the air just after the ex-captain has resigned was that it was speculated every where that Sachin Tendulkar would be offered the captaincy. I am delighted that this did not happen as this would have meant that ar’s and the kar’s would have ruled for the next couple of years(they are already) and Ajit Agarkar (another kar) would have played international cricket for yet another 5 years. I just need to ask these knowledgeable people, what confidence Sachin gives them as a captain of the side, who could resurrect the fortunes of Indian cricket. Though in RD’s tenure he wasn’t that inspirational or aggressive, but his results were good and acceptable. But in Sachin’s case, he was neither inspirational nor his results as a captain was good. He is a proven failure as a captain.

Some of my observations watching the recent series against England and the T20 world cup; In RP Singh we have got a good swing bowler and should persist with him, In Robin Uthappa, we have got a good back-foot player and could be used well in the Australian conditions (he plays well both in front of the wicket as well as pulls and cuts well), Of whatever I have seen of Rohit Sharma, he looks a decent bat.

As for the three old stalwarts of Indian Cricket, they should announce their retirement after the Australian Series and pass on the mantle of Indian Cricket to the youngsters. Reaching the T20’s final is certainly a good beginning for MS Dhoni as a skipper…lets keep our fingers crossed and wish him all the best for his tenure as captain.

My only advice to him would be that only the best would survive at the helm...!

-GAG

Him-eesh, naah….Him Rocks

2007-08-20T16:31:00.000+06:00

I always had a thought of putting up something on this whiz kid called Himesh Reshammiya,but was either apprehensive of the repercussion, but then thought since nothing has been put up on the FiteKlub for a really long time(I guess a month or more), why not put up something peppery and debatable.

It has been round about 2 to 3 years since Himesh Reshammiya has been providing whole some entertainment to the audience. Some might differ, why some, infact most of the knowledgeable masses of this world might, but some where down the line they might just have a thought in their mind that this guy is in actual fact a gifted entertainer.

I without a doubt started liking Himesh’s work since “Tere Naam” and I felt that was one album which was absolutely splendid. It was one album, which one could listen from the first song of Side A (If you are using the good old cassette) and go through all the songs until side B gets over.

He was a born genius and at an early age of 14 he started producing serials on television…don’t ask me which one cos I really don’t have any idea about it. Coming back to his Music, he has an amazing sense of capturing audience’s nerve. His style of music has captured the imagination of not only the kids, teens but adults too. His genre of music is now-a-days played in almost all discos and all the so called happening places of the country. This is testimony enough to prove the point that - Himesh is in and is there to stay.

I know for sure that there are many opinions about the way he sings - the nasal effect. But does Kumar Sanu has a voice more nasal-ly than that of HR? I am sure you'd agree on that, fine… Let us forget about his voice, isn’t he providing us with some really cool foot-tapping numbers and in between some really high-quality soft numbers.

Just watched Aap Ka Suroor-The Movie. I didn’t find it a great movie, but it was certainly better than some of the other crap that is going on in bollywood.The music of the movie, which I feel is his forte was certainly good and the heroine of the movie Hansika Motwani is absolutely gorgeous and is definitely there to stay.

Hansika Motwani..the new damsel

Now people might have different opinions for either liking him or disliking him, but I for sure like him for his music.

We can’t even say that he has been purely lucky and would fade out in some time. He might fade out or might produce more hits, that only time will tell but for now he is in and is ruling….

-GAG

BOSS yehi tha…

2007-07-04T18:13:00.000+06:00

Last week was this genius artiste’s birthday and I though it would have been apt to pay my respects for all the excellent work he has done for us by putting up an article on the FiteKlub.This genius was born on (27-June). He was known to the world as Rahul Dev Burman (RDB). He was also called Pancham, pancham’da for obvious reasons. I call him artist because he was good in whatever he did, be it composing, singing or acting. His talent towards music was spotted early by his father Sachin Dev Burman (wao Sachin and Rahul in the same family) and amongst his first work was the mouthorgan he did for the song “hai aapna dil to awara…(from the movie Solva Saal).”, which went on to top the charts in the year 1958.

In the year 1961, RDB was offered his first movie by the yesteryear comedian Mehmood.The movie didn’t perform all that well, but Mehmood gauged the ability of RDB and offered him his next movie not only as an Composer, but also as an actor in the movie Bhoot Bangla.

His colossal talent is apparent from the wide variety of music he has composed from the sixties to the nineties. He brought about some kind of revelation in the music scene when he deviated from the regular dholaks, tablas, harmoniums and those music created by making the horse run to guitars, drums etc.He was a true Rock Star.

He was brilliant in what he did, but I must say here that he did have some talented singers with him.The likes of Kishore Kumar, Asha Bhosle were at their peak when RDB was growing as a composer. The wide variety of his music was a treat to the ear.

Some of his most memorable numbers being…

Chura liya hain tume
Mehbooba Mehbooba
Ek ladki ko dekha
Meri soni meri tamanna
Gulaabi Aankhen (The bass guitar was first introduced to Indian music)
O Mere Sona re sona (The synthesizer was first introduced to Indian music)
Hum bewafa hargiz
Tujhse Naraaz nahin jindagi
Ik din bik jaayega
Aanewala Pal
Chehra hain ya
Jeevan ke har mod pe
Do lafzon ki hain
Khatooba
Hamen tumse pyaar kitna
Rim ghim gire sawaan
Dum Maro Dum
Musafir hoon yaaro
Lekar hum
Ye ladka haay allah
Jindagi ke safar mein
Tere bina jeeya jaaye na
Tere bina jindagi se koi
Is mod se jaate hain
O Maajhi re…..Oh the list is endless………………

My Favorite song remains to be "Humein Tumse Pyar Kitna" sung by Kishore Kumar and composed by R D Burman.

I am an ardent fan of Kishore Kumar and I adore all his work. But, it would be right to say that RDB and Kishore were what they are because of each other, not to forget the contributions of Asha Bhosle.

I just adore these three versatile artists…

-GAG

Talent Hunted

2007-06-29T14:51:00.000+06:00

Its great fun watching these music talent-hunt shows on television on the weekend that are held in almost all the channels ,Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge (Zee), Indian Idol (Sony) and Star Voice Of India (Star Plus).

It is true that Indian youth is given opportunities in abundance to showcase their talent to the whole wide world, but what does really happen to them after winning these contests. The winners of these so called Idols are nowhere to be seen. I don’t even remember their names now.

What I really feel is that the person who really benefits from these shows is the host of these shows. It was Sonu Nigam in the first series of SaReGaMaPa (Best contemporary singer) who showcased his talent on these shows and then went onto become the countries best singer, then came Shaan, who is doing quite well for himself and now I believe Aditya Narayan (son of Udit) will soon follow their foot steps.

For people who haven’t seen these shows, in one of these shows you have these “gurus” (4 of them), who try to train/nurture and guide these unfortunate contestants. I call then unfortunate because it’s their ill-luck that they are the chosen ones to be tormented and insulted on television by one and all.

These music competitions are hilarious to watch though. The rivalry is more amongst the mentors than the contestants. These contests have mentors/gurus who fight for everything and I am sure all these fights are scripted and staged. There was this incidence where one of the music director from the Yalgaar Gharana, Ismail Darbar, accuses Asha Bhosle (the judge) for not giving the appropriate judgment and went of record saying that these singers can not judge another singer and only a music director can be a good judge. This all happened on the show hosted by Zee.

Hearing this, one moron (popped from nowhere, who is one of the judge on the programme on Star) who is quite insecure of his future and who all the while says why should Pakistani singers (Adnan,Atif etc) should be given a work on Indian Soil and also calls the music directors ,”Desh Drohis”, for offering them work. He is none other than Abhijeet Bhatacharya.He now goes on a news channel where he says the following things about the one of the mentors of the other show…

Abhijeet: “saregama ke guru-o ko toh dehkho, woh kya judge karenge”

Though he rightly points out that a person who has composed music for two movies (Ismail), comments on the legendary Asha Bhonsle.

Abhijeet (On Bappi Lahiri):”Jab Bappi aur Usha Uthup gaaten hain to yeh patah karna mushkil ho jata hai ki kaun ladka ke liye gaa raha hai aur kaun ladki ke liye “

He also makes fun of the Hindi pronunciation of Bappi’da.

He goes on ….”Appke shows ke guru-o ko pehle kudh gana sikhna hoga, unhe yeh tak patah nahin ki gaya kidhar se jata hai….” accusing Himesh of Nasal Singing.

Abhijeet creates kind of scenes on his show, which is not only cheap but also derogatory. He says to contestants that if you don’t know to sing very well, you can please go to the other show (on other channel).Its mandatory to have one tussle between Abhijeet and the other judges on the program on Star TV and poor Shaan (the Host) looks on with the kind of look ...”Kahan phaas gaya yaar!”

This brings another incident on Zee to my mind, where Res-Ham-Miya (Guru of one of the gharana’s) was so impressed by a Pakistani singer and alleged that he would make him the alternate to the Sufi singer, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s kin, in India. He goes on and says if you follow this kind of singing you will definitely get work…"tum mere next film ka next gaana zaroor gayoge." .He further adds I don’t want you to become an ordinary stereo-type singer having no work…he says…I am sorry yells… “Mujhe tere ghar mein roti chahiye, struggle nahin”

To top it all we have Anu Malik on Sony, who is expert in insulting. I am pretty much sure that he has been given the license to behave (mis) at his worst on the show, which is guess increases the TRP of the show. He has regular fights with Javed Saab, and in between Senior Narayan (Udit) grins and the pretty Baby Doll shows off how attractive she is in her 40’s.

I kind of enjoy these shows, switching from one channel to another (thanks to my remote), as I get to see these duels as seen never before between countries respectable musicians, and in between get to hear some songs too.

-GAG

Lords…Johannesburg…Barbados….???

2007-05-07T13:11:00.000+06:00

Sri Lankan was worthy winners of the 9th edition of the ICC Cricket World Cup where the last two champions (India & Pakistan) vanished in the first round of the competition….Flabbergasted…!!!

I have always adhered to this fact that the team reaching the finals of the competition along with the Aussies can be considered as the worthy winners of the world cup. So reaching the finals is what the other teams should aim at. This world cup had a lot of drama associated with it, all for wrong reasons. The killing of the Pakistani coach Bob Woolmer was quite unfortunate and I guess the cops should try to bring the wrongdoer to justice as soon as possible, whoever it may be.

How the semi-finalist major Teams faired…..

Aussies: They won their fourth cup and the third consecutive time ….its as simple as that…and they are there to RULE.

Sri Lanka: No one would have given them the chance of reaching the final, but I always thought that they had a balanced team led by an aggressive and imaginative captain, unlike ours (meanwhile I am an Indian).They did fairly well and can be proud of their achievement.

New Zealand: They performed reasonably well, guess after the 92 world cup, this was by far their best performance in the world cup. Again they had a cool captain who led quite brilliantly.

South Africa: They choked again, nothing new…and I believe that they are not that good side as they are though to be…as far as I am concerned, South Africa Sucks…They still believe that they are on-par with the Aussies and go gaga over their 434 run chase (as we do of winning the Natwest Series recently).Come on Africans, forget the past…live in the present and you guys are not that good as you think you are …and somebody please let this fact be known to Barry Richards and Pat Symcox.

I could have written about the remaining teams who made up the numbers, but don't want to spend time on those mediocre performing (non) teams, rather I could spend time on some of the best performers of this world cup.

For me Matthew Hayden was class apart (no disrespect to the Pigeon). He sustained his good form through out the series and for me he was the best batsman of the tournament. His innings in the super eights against the South Africans was absolutely out of this world. His shots reached the fence in a jiffy.

I feel privileged to watch some of the individual and some teams dominate their respective sport for in the present era…here are a few (Readers are welcome to add their own and differ with the ones chosen by me)
· Michael Schumacher
· Pete Sampras/Roger Federer (I still admire King Pete)
· Tiger Woods
· Sachin Tendulkar (Up till 2003), Warne & Murali to a certain extent
· & of course The Aussie Cricket Team

Meanwhile, Lasith Malinga was adjudged the sexiest player of this edition of the tournament beating the likes of Kevin Pertersien, Freddie, Dan Vettori and our very own MS Dhoni and the rest…..

To sum up it up, the Australian were worthy winners of the 9th ICC Cricket World Cup and it would be quite unfortunate that we will not be able to watch some of the stars perform again on the Cricket field

The next big thing that I am awaiting is not the next India-Australian series or the next Ashes, but I am waiting for the release of one of the most eagerly anticipated movie…..."Aap Ka Suroor - The Moviee, The Real Luv Story" (Thats the full name of the movie starring Himesh Reshammiyya)

-GAG

The Guru came...earned...showed and went

2007-04-11T13:37:00.000+06:00

The guru came.....!

The end of 22 months of promise or to say ordeal/turmoil has come to an end…If I remember rightly there was a lot of hope and anticipation when Guru Greg joined the Indian Cricket team as its second overseas coach. Guru Greg was able to impress the coach-selection committee (comprising of Sunny Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri and few other morons) by his vision and a few power point presentations. As per Ravi Shastri, his presentation was simply outstanding. The other options available for India were Tom Moody- the lanky Aussie all-rounder, Sandip Patil and Mohinder Amarnath

He was given a ceremonious welcome into the country and the team and I still remember him greeting the entire country with folded hands (The Namaskar as we call it), with the Tri-Color hung onto his shoulders. What I personally feel is that he realized in beginning itself that he need to get rid of players who were aggressive and who would not bow down to any of his recommendations must have realized that “Ek Mayan Mein Do Talwar Nahin Reh Saakten…!”

As a Cricketer he was one of the best One-Down Bat in the Seventies. He was an aggressive batsman and was never afraid of playing shots. He is one of the cricketers who scored centuries in his First Test Match and his last test appearance (after announcing his retirement from the game). But I also heard of this fact that he asked his younger brother Trevor Chappell to bowl underarms in one of the match in the early 80’s against the Kiwi’s to win a match. I really do not know what this suggest, does it mean that he wants to win at all cost or does it mean that he is a bad loser.

The first task he undertook was to get rid of the man, who I believe made Team India. The only thing I got to hear from all corners was that they were building a young team for the 2007 ICC World Cup and that the Ex-Captain was mentally and physically not up to the mark to lead the Team, which he had so successfully led until 2005 (post match fixing era).He made the current captain as the best choice which I still don’t believe. He is neither aggressive nor imaginative. Though he has good command over his language, but I am sorry to say he is not a good communicator on the field. Coming back to Guru Greg, he promised a lot during his initial days of training, but I guess no one would have believed that he was an Australian representative, who had come on a mission…mission to dismantle Team India.

His conduct became worse when his folded hands changed to a saluting the Indian Public with his raised Middle Finger gesture.

He Showed.....!

To sum it up, I have to say the Board took a wrong step by appointing this great player as our coach but his coaching skills were not at all beneficial to the Team India as his records says it all…When Chappell took over as coach India was ranked 2nd in ICC rankings. Currently India has dropped to the 6th position in ICC rankings.

Bye Bye folks....

Talks are in the media that we are going to have Robin Singh as our fielding coach (will educate how to have a stance where your head is pointing towards the point region and you can site a cricket ball and not have any head/neck injuries…meanwhile a month ago we heard he was involved in some match-fixing issues…related to Marlon Samuels…where did all those allegations vanish), Venkatesh Prasad as our Bowling coach(to train our bowlers to bowl slow….slower….slowest….) and Ravi Shastri as the Manager/Coach for the series of Bangladesh(will teach how to bat at a strike rate of 40 odd runs/100 balls...and keep looking at the Man of The Series Trophy…and train so-called ageing players how to have an alternate career). I have also heard that we are going to appoint a bowling coach for the spinners. If this is the scenario, then I guess we will have coaches for batsman for playing on the off-Side, one for playing on the leg side (front of the wicket) and two more for playing strokes behind the wicket. Are these solutions explainable?

Does this team of new coaches have it in them to produce the results against the mighty Bangladeshi’s….Its only time that would provide us with the answers….

-GAG

Corridor of uncertainty.

2007-03-17T15:02:00.001+06:00

In his playing days he was master at leaving the red cherry outside his off-stump, but these days he has got this bad habit of laying a hand on any thing and everything…and especially passing comments.

Is Sunny Gavaskar going over the top...?

His war of words with Cricket Australia is getting uglier day-by-day as most of the cricketing fraternity are getting against the Little Master...and rightly so. I guess his remark against the Aussie’s behavior on the filed was uncalled-for and then dragging the name of a departed soul was completely unacceptable.

His comments has really tarnished his rapport with not only some good friends he had in Australian Cricket but also with the community of cricket loving nation such as Australia. To be fair to Australia, they play the game hard and in right spirits and call the act of sledging as “mental disintegration”. Now if a player who can’t withstand these kinds of tactics has no right to take part in international cricket.

A few years back, I remember him commenting on the Kolkata (then Calcutta) crowd as “Uncivilized”. Consequences were that he had a really troublesome time dealing with them. I guess people should be very-very careful while speaking on a public platform and in media. I have noticed that he tries to impose his thoughts on one and all. There was this incident where one of our upcoming fast bowlers didn’t tuck his shirt in and didn’t comb his hair(believe me he was looking awful on the television) but to be fair on the new comer, he should have been given a friendly advice by the Little Master rather than passing comments on him on satellite TV.

He has a very enormous stature in the International cricketing arena and all these comments should not hamper his fan following. He gives opportunities to all and sundry to pass remarks on him, which can be avoided, for sure.

These words on Australian Cricket, David Hookes and for that matter Australia as a whole has definitely made the Aussies seethe with anger. It would be nice if the little master apologizes before anything more is said and written and in future keeps a watch on what he says in public.

-GAG

2007-02-28T16:52:00.001+06:00

Controversy Queen walks away.....

Wherever she goes…she amuses all and sundry. There was this comical incident which happened the recent past in Mumbai, where our very own “Item Girl”, Rakhi Sawant felt that she was humiliated by the Mumbai Police

I guess this must be the n’th episode of this nature that Ms.Sawant has got into…can’t really keep a count of it. From the time she has come into the glam world, she has an incredible habit of making big issues out of nowhere.

There was this incident which happened some time back outside one of the Police Station (Arthur Road Jail) in Mumbai, where Rakhi out of the blue, appeared on the scene with a number of Computers. Her version of the story was that, it was organized by the Lion’s club and she has to preside over the entire distribution process.

When asked by the media (sorry to say this again, don’t have any other valuable information and quality work to perform and were present waiting at the jail premises for Ms.Sawant hours before she had arrived), she said that she was embarrassed by the cops. For the reasons as to why the cops didn’t allow her into the prison, she informed them that the cops felt that the inmates would go out of control if they see her. It was absolutely hilarious the way she narrated the entire story.

The important points of her interview being….
1. She is a lady sent by god to perform good deeds on this planet.
2. She demanded and reply as why can’t the cops provide her security inside the jail…her argument being that if they can provide securities to the Big B, SRK and Sanjay Dutt, Salman etc then why the hell they can’t provide security to this helpless girl who want to do some thing good for the society.
3. When the media inquired as to what good would happen of you distributing computers to the prisoners….she said she wanted to do a noble cause and give computers to the inmates as they would be able to get valuable information and then would not waste time and consequently become responsible citizens of India by educating themselves…..so I believe her main objective was to help the demands of the growing IT industry, so that the IT companies will now have to wait outside these prisons and get hold of these graduating guys coming out of Tihar Institute of Technology…(thought of a acronym, but it didn’t come out too good.) and other such lockup…. so further Narayan Murthy's in the making.

It’s believed she wants to help the prisoners by giving them freebies from the cash she had earned from the Big Boss...and the cops say that, she was denied entry into the jail premises as she arrived 2 hours late and was allowed to bring in one computer, instead she came up with 10.Her reason being that the inmates shouldn’t get into a quarrel for computers…her reasons are quite valid…I guess.

Whatever you say and think about this female, we have to agree that she has the charisma to seize the attention of the media and the people wherever she goes. She definitely speaks her mind (whatever she has)

Salutation to this controversy queen for being so different.

-GAG

2007-02-22T18:06:00.000+06:00

Aussies under threat ?

Its long time since I have written something on my favorite topic and as the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 is approaching, I thought I make my self clear as whom I think are favorites to lift the most coveted title in the game this time around.

Are the Aussies under any threat to be dismantled from the TOP position of world cricket, which they have proudly held on for such a long period of time?

Most of you would feel so, as you all did about DADA and always thought that if he would ever return to the Indian side ever. Life has changed for DADA as he is the first player to be picked for the World Cup by the selectors and the crazy Indian fans (these polls they conduct in every news channels to decide the Team India for the upcoming championship…and these fans have a very short and amusing memory) besides the Indian Captain….! I generally back players and teams who have proven credentials. I have always believed on the fact that Form is temporary, class is permanent.

Similar to DADA’s form (a year back), the Aussies find themselves in a spot-of-bother. The poor results are just because of the amount of cricket these guys are playing in the recent times. They have played a grueling 5 Test Ashes Series and then participated in the One day series involving the English and Kiwis at home and then a three match One day series in New Zealand (which could have been avoided) was far too much of cricket in 3-4 months time. This has certainly taken a heavy toll on these cricketers, as the major troupe are nursing injuries and are fighting these injuries to get back into the side. Beating the English team convincingly in Ashes was expected, but then loosing to them in the finals and then loosing to the Kiwis in the Hadlee-Chappell Trophy should not be taken as major concern, as they are a champion side and would bounce back with a lot of venom.

For me it’s just not acceptable to consider the South Africans as the number one side in the world. It’s really unfair on Australia. Its similar as labeling Suresh Raina and other useless jerks were apparently better that DADA a year back. For me, these bunch of cricketers in the Aussie side are the best to have played in a team for a really long time. Loosing the 5 games in a row should not be taken as any cause of concern as they would be even more determined to get their third world cup in succession.

On a lighter note, I have always believed that which ever team reaches the final of the world cup along with the Aussies should be the champion of World Cup, coz the Aussies are in a league of their own. It’s similar to a time (prior 2003-04) when there was Sachin and then the rest. For me the Aussies would rule the roost in the upcoming world cup. Though they have a lot of injury and form concerns like the ones of Andrew Symonds, which is a major set back as he is a crucial member of their one-day squad…and now to the injury scare to Brett Lee and Matthew Hayden, any team would crumble. Form-wise, Gilchrist isn’t firing at the top of the order, but I still believe they would deliver the goods and would lift the title for the fourth time…. Hat trick of Titles of course.

Before I finish….let me reiterate that I am proud of DADA…. :)

-GAG

2007-02-18T18:15:00.000+06:00

Salaam-E-Ishq: Review…..

Salman-Priyanka in Salaam-E-Ishq

Pathetic movie…..to say the least.

For the team who had come out with “Kal Ho Na Ho”, which I quite enjoyed and so did my friend KD, coz I made him watch that movie, say twice a week or so. Those times were just amazing we, the movie, the biriyani’s and the various wraps supplied by the vendor near our place and to add to it we had one room-mate whom we kindly called “The Moron” .

To describe “The Moron”…requires another article just dedicated to him…so forget him for the time being and let’s ponder on the job on hand…the review on the movie.

This was a movie which was supposed to create havoc at the box-office…but not to my surprise has not done too well, as most of the multi star casts never succeed at the box office.

The movie has 6 pairs in it, Salman the self claimed hero of the movie, is paired along with current hottie Priyanka Chopra.John with the female version of Emran Haashmi…..Guessing Who…? Naah not Mallika Sherawat! Its Vidya Balan.I guess she appear the most innocent of all the current crop of female actor in bollywood but certainly has at least one interesting scene per movie in all her movies done so far. If not all, most of it.

Then there is Anil Kapoor who is more like a buffoon rather than a sophisticated and stylish officer which he was supposed to portray in the movie. His role is just that he falls in love with a hot babe in the movie and is forgiven by his wife Juhi and his two kids as the movie reaches its climax. Believe it or not, Anil has shaven off his moustache in once of the scene in the movie, just to appear youthful…..hehehe….funny he looked.

The most interesting and good part of the movie is that of our very own Govinda.Must say as an audience I just wanted him to appear more on the screen .His only desire in the movie is that he should get hold of a blonde from abroad. To accomplish this he hangs around in his cab in front of the airport day in day out. He finally accomplishes his ambition.

Then there is one more couple in the movie …Sohail Khan and Isha Kopikkar. My friend KD feels that Sohail Khan for some reason or the other looks more like the Deol’s kin rather than a breed of the Khan’s…(KD needs to clarify on this please).They have a very interesting role in the movie…and do not speak a word other that some hilarious noises which he creates. Having sex with his newly wedded wife is his only goal in the movie

To say the least, the movie was dull and the performances were mere ordinary. I am wondering why I wasted my time writing this article on such a shoddily made movie… may be it can act as an warning message for all the viewers who haven’t yet watched the movie or the ones who are planning to.

To put it in brief, It was a let down by the team which produced “Kal Ho Na Ho.”

-GAG.

2007-02-18T16:35:00.001+06:00

Never Cry for One Who Makes You Cry!

- Anon

Today being the 14’th of February, a day celebrated by all who are in love….. It’s purely coincidental that on this day I had to write my 14’th article for the FiteKlub, which came into existence 6 months back…..Let me take this oppurtunity to wish all the readers very happy valentines day.

2007-02-08T16:41:00.000+06:00

Abhishek Jayanthi......!

Another dry day in the making…naaah…..Big Deal! Is it that important day of the year to be celebrated as ”Abhishek Jayanthi”, where the public are made to watch what would be his agenda for the day and to know what gifts he has got and if is fiancée has reached the airport to receive him or not. I guess we have got better things to do in life. I guess the Bachchan’s are getting into a desperate situation and are eyeing for any opportunity to get more into the limelight.

On the day of his birthday, it was aired on all satellite television news channels, baring Doordarshan (they believe in telecasting the NEWS and not all these crap), that Big B had gifted his son with a 1.7 crore (74 Lakh is the cost of the vehicle and the rest was paid as the import duty) Bentley and just after two days we come to know that it was his dear uncle Amar Singh who has presented Junior Bachchan the car. This was revealed when our dutiful cops wanted to check if all the rules and regulations have been taken care of for importing the Bentley. It was found during this investigation that the car was purchased by Amar Singh and the address of registration was given as the address of “Jalsa”, the residence of the Bachchans at Mumbai. It was also show on TV that Mr.Bachchan was gifted with a 3.5 Crore Rolls Royce by the maker of his upcoming movie Ekalavya.So I guess its Cars galore at the Bachchan’s residence….

The gift by his fiancée was kept as a big secret as was quoted by Ash’s secretary- "Her gift to Abhishek is too personal and confidential".

We aren’t bothered whatever the gift they both exchanged and what on earth they did on the day

The WAR has commenced:

As an audience I am kind of enjoying the silent war that has begun between the Bachchan’s –vs-SRK and H.Roshan.The Big B (with all due respect to him, as he the best thing to have happened to Bollywood) is trying hard to sustain his super stardom and the Junior is trying even harder to outshine the “First Superhero” of Indian cinema. The best part of all these are King Khan and Krrish are both ignorant of all the stuff that is being said about them and are busy in earning glory, fame and accolades from all corners. I guess the Bachchan’s are kind of feeling insecure of their future, which I sincerely feel they shouldn’t as the Indian audience has given them so much of love and adulation in the past and would continue to do so.

The kind of stuff being done is too immature and silly. Apparently Aby Baby is coming up with an answer to Krrish to out do Hrithik’s performance in Krrish. In reality if you ask me as an unbiased viewer, I feel Hrithik has an edge in what ever he does over everybody in Bollywood,leave alone the Junior Bachchan. He dances well, in actual fact much better than the rest, has a stunning physique which junior can only dream of, and has solo hits which Junior has failed to deliver up till now. They both act equally good, nothing special to write home about.

Its sheer pressure to deliver hits is bothering both the Bachchans. Making his latest flick Guru a tax free in one of the states, ruled by their dear friend “Softy Singh” is all unwarranted.

Meanwhile SRK has maintained his dignity all the way and shown all due respect and admiration to Big B, what ever have been the later’s remarks on the new KBC and the new DON. Reportedly Big B hasn’t not watched the new KBC and has disliked the new DON. The Bachchans are feeling the heat and are not able to digest that the new host of KBC is doing well and is on TV four days a week. I guess this has started bothering them and they are looking out for each and every way of publicity that they can get.

On the Marriage:

Apparently both Abhishek and Ash are astrologically manglik…some thing to do with the planets… which means that the planet Mars (mangla) and possibly even the planet Saturn are in the seventh house(layman wouldn’t understand whose house …so I suggest forget it). People with manglik dosh are prone to multiple marriages. That means Ash’s marriage to Abhishek could either end in divorce or his death. I have also read some reports which suggest that Ash has already married……….oops surprised……yes she has apparently married a peepal tree in the holy city of Varanasi, and a banana tree in the southern Indian city of Bangalore to kill her manglik dosh.

So would the dosh survive….to take its revenge…?I hope it doesn’t….. :)

God Bless the couple...

-GAG.

2007-02-01T15:01:00.000+06:00

The Ultimate Moron

Circuit announcing,and the Ultimate Moron is.....

I was quite fortunate not to watch all the episodes of the so called “BIG BOSS”, but was forcefully made to watch some of them. The contestants for me were all a mixture of morons and jerks. Look at the credentials of some of those like Ravi Kishen-The Big B of Bihar, Carol- The “Show-Off” babe, Aryan Ved-Emotional fool, Anupama Verma – Played some good game with Ved, Rakhi Sawant-Oh what can be said about her…she is just awesome…just an awesome actress(over),Bobby Darling-What kind of creature is this...?, Baba Sehgal-Cannot sing and cannot act either, Roopali Ganguly-Readers she doesn’t have connection to the Ex-Indian Captain, Deepak Tijori-certainly can make movies than wile away time here and his Aashiqui partner Rahul Roy- the ultimate winner and many other morons.

This was indeed a torture for us viewers to sit in front of the idiot box and watch these jerks fight it out. For me Rakhi was just awesome in the entire series. Of whatever I had seen, she used to sing, dance and do all awful stuff’s to lure other male contestant…but not to my surprise not a soul was bothered about her and her activities. It was as if she never existed in the show.

There was this horrendous, atrocious, nauseating, sickening (all synonyms I guess, thanks to MS-Word Thesaurus) creature called Bobby Darling, now what does this name mean…is up to the readers to decide…as it’s beyond my understanding.

The love story involving Anupama and Aryan was good time pass for the audience.

In the end I guess the most deserving contestants were left to battle it out in Carol, Rahul Roy and Ravi Kishen.You should have seen Ravi Kishen on the show as he would embrace all the ladies (Bobby Darling included) at any given chance…that desperate guy. He is considered to be the superstar of Bhojpuri movies and the man in Nagma’s life. You should have seen him beg for apology from his better half and their kids once he was eliminated on the final day, I guess he had no where to go.

Ultimately Rahul Roy emerged the winner of the show. The reason for his triumph I guess was as he was the laziest, slow and not at all entertaining and never took on any body in the show.

God bless the voters who opted for Rahul as the winner by casting their valuable votes. I guess the ultimate winners nowadays are the Telecom Industry and the TV channels.

Hence Rahul Roy became the Ultimate Moron of all…………!

-GAG

2007-01-18T13:25:00.000+06:00

The Comparison Continues…

I have been watching and reading news article’s where comparisons between Pete Sampras, ”The Champion” and the current No.1 Roger Federer has been going around for a while. For me it’s really difficult to understand how any comparison can be made between any two players or any two teams of different two different eras.

But if you ask me who would be my personal favorite…I would definitely go for Pete Sampras who was ranked World No. 1 for 286 weeks (record). I guess Federer at 25 has many more years of tennis left in him and as of now has 9 grand slams to his credit compared to 14 in all for Pete. So considering the trend of the previous few years of competition faced by FedEx or to say the lack of it, I guess he would without doubt be crossing Pete’s 14 grand slams in the coming 2 years or so.

I would like to take you to the early nineties and the time when Pete started to make his mark on the tennis court…he definitely had much more fierce competitors than what Federer has now. To name a few Stefan Edberg who was at the fag end of his career, wasn’t playing that well but still was a force to reckon with, but you still had Boris Becker, Jim Courier doing well, the ace guys Goran Ivanišević, Richard Krajicek, Mark Philippoussis. Michael Chang who never gave up and of course you had the flamboyant Andre Agassi. You had players who were expert playing on only one surface like some of the Spaniards like Alex Corretja, Albert Costa, Carlos Costa, Sergi Bruguera who could play only on clay. You had Pat Rafter, Greg Rusedski, Tim Henman, Yevgeny Kafelnikov competing well, and then you had Marcello Rios to my surprise becoming the number one player at one time.

The fact of the matter is that Federer, with no fault of his, doesn’t have the same kind of opposition that Pete had during the nineties and thereby he is winning almost all tournaments.It’s just in the past year or so, Rafael Nadal has been giving him some kind of resistance, which is quite unfortunate.

Many would disagree with this …but facts are facts and you cannot deny it.

As far as his record is considered...its amazing.

Grand Slams 14
Tennis Masters Cups 5
ATP Masters Series 11
ATP Tours 34

-GAG

2007-01-06T06:06:00.000+06:00

Spin Wizard Bids Adieu...!

The Magician Celebrates.....

Shane Keith Warne….the name mesmerizes you…isn’t?

I was fortunate enough to be born in the era of this Great (this word is quite often misused, but not in the case of Warnie) Aussie cricketer. For me he is the best thing that has happened in cricket. He must be a spoilt brat doing all kinds of illegal stuff (be it cricketing controversies like leaking out weather information prior to a match….I really don’t understand what would happen if he had done that…would it change the consequences of a cricket match and the weather is for everybody to see for themselves, him sending ridiculous SMS’S, taking those banned pills as advised by her mother etc.).What ever is said about this guy, the for sure is a match winner and I his bowling speaks for it.

The start to his international cricket wasn’t that great, where he was hammered all along the park by the Indians and finished up taking a solitary wicket (Ravi Shastri) in the test match. Don’t really want to get into his records as of now as this article is meant to honor to this greatest bowler I have seen in my life.

I was fortunate to see some of the legendary bowlers in action, but I can for sure say this that none were like Warnie. He has several tricks up his sleeve…and number of different deliveries to hurl at the batsmen. His varieties contain the normal leg-spin, the wrong-un, the flipper (goes straight after pitching), and the zooter (goes straight after pitching, but gains momentum after pitching)

He is worthy enough to have received accolades from all corners of the world and we’ll for sure miss the MASTER in action. For me he has been a legend and doing what he does is no joke…believe me! He is definitely a cricketing idol; many youngsters try to emulate his style of bowling, his style and his trait.

Today the 05th of January 2007 a great career has come to an end and finishing with 708 test wickets and over 1000 international wickets, I salute the wizard of spin; Shane Keith Warne

-GAG

2007-01-04T19:17:00.000+06:00

The subtle differences-II , Continued from http://www.thinshark.blogspot.com/

Chennai:

1. Any body from North India or any other part other than South India is referred to as “SETH PAYYAN”.

2. Kollywood (Tamil Cinema Industry) is supposed to be very advanced and technically brilliant….I agree…but their fans are Morons….any kid on the road would ask you “nee rajni aaa….kamal aaa…”…meaning are u a fan of Rajnikanth or Kamal Haasan.

3. People in Chennai worship their film stars…and love heroines (should have a large sized tummy…see their pelvic motion to believe it.

4. The slums at Chennai have to have something hard in the night before they go to sleep ,they call it “Thanni “ and then we should see them go high and listen to their language.

5. Food in Chennai is good but, I some how feel how could you eat curd rice day in and day out.

6. Only place where you can see people dancing (Dappaankuthu) on a song called ‘Gaana Pattu’ at funeral procession or at a wedding. This dance has actually become so popular that a movie becomes a mega hit.It is believed to be performed to relieve stress.

Kolkata:

1. Most pathetic place I have ever been to.

2. To start with,there is no alphabet “V” in this part of the world…..Pranav becomes Pranab.

3. Every one should be addressed with a suffix “da” (male) or “di” (female) in their names and the software industry it’s a must to show how close you are to your BOSS.

4. TAKA...TAKA...TAKA…I thought Indian currency was Rupee…But here they still follow the Bangladeshi currency

5. This is a place of Strikes…..there are strike imposed either by the opposition party or by the ruling party ever fortnightly for anything.

6. One common factor between Chennai and Kolkata…they have strong women buffoon in Mamata & Jaya who manage to shake the government.

7. Still you can see Trams linger on the road….hampering the flow of traffic and annoying the public.

8. Amazing it may sound, but the Local Bus (size doesn’t matter) has to have 2 conductors in every bus….one managing the commuters at the front and the other at the back enquiring “KOTHAAAIII”…meaning “where do u wanna go”.

9. Invariably every bus stop has a Water Tank associated to it and we need to tell the conductors which tank number we need to go.

Pune: Good-Sweet memories…so let it be like that….no complaints what-so-ever.

-GAG

2006-12-03T22:40:00.000+06:00

Dont Lose Heart............ !

It was the 20st of Nov 2006 when I received awful news from one of my cousins. My DAD suffered a Heart Attack. I actually went numb and didn’t know how to react. The day prior I spoke to dad over the phone and he sounded quite normal and jovial, as he always is.

I spoke to mom and she said things are normal and said that I need not come, but then I didn’t want to leave them alone at this horrible time…and decided to fly back home at the next available flight.I landed in Chennai at 7:45 AM on 21st Nov 2006.I reached Malar Hospital (Hospital of Muttiah Murlidharan’s wife), where my dad was admitted.

Thought I could share all the knowledge that I have acquired in the past two weeks with all…..

The symptoms:

As per my Dad, he didn’t feel any pain in his heart…it was just the sweating that accompanied with his left hand getting heavier. So the normal belief that an attack comes with a pain in the heart is false.

Then second day at hospital was the most horrible time of my life. My Dad got yet another attack on the second consecutive day. The doctor who was treating my dad said that it was a life threatening attack. They immediately sent me to the medical stores to get an injection by the name “Aggriblock IV”. The doctor spent around 3 hours with my dad in the ICU that day. It was a struggle but he managed to save him that day. But this period was horrible for me and my mom. I knew that I shouldn’t break down as there was no one who could be a support for me that day and I knew I had to do all by myself. I had all kinds of thoughts wandering in my mind that day and had prepared my self for the worst. But due to god’s blessings, once the life saving drug was given to my dad, he reacted positively to the medicines and started becoming stable.

After a few days the doctors advised us to perform an Angiogram and if required an angioplasty.

What actually is this angiogram and angioplasty?

Angiogram: An angiogram is an imaging test that uses x-rays to view your body’s blood vessels. Physicians often use this test to study narrow, blocked, enlarged, or malformed arteries in many parts of your body, including your brain, heart, abdomen, and legs. When the arteries are studied, the test is also called an arteriogram. If the veins are studied, it is called a venogram.
To create the x-ray images, your physician will inject a liquid, sometimes called "dye", through a thin, flexible tube, called a catheter. He or she threads the catheter into the desired artery or vein from an access point. The access point is usually in your groin but it can also be in your arm. This "dye", properly called contrast, makes the blood flowing inside the blood vessels visible on an x-ray. The contrast is later eliminated from your body through your kidneys and your urine.

Angioplasty: Angioplasty is a medical procedure in which a balloon is used to open narrowed or blocked blood vessels of the heart (coronary arteries). It is not considered to be a type of surgery.Arteries can become narrowed or blocked by deposits called plaque. Plaque is made up of fat and cholesterol that builds up on the inside of the artery walls.

If the blockage is not too severe, an angioplasty procedure can be used to open the artery. Traditional angioplasty involves the use of a balloon catheter -- a small, hollow, flexible tube that has a balloon near the end of it.

This procedure treats the condition, but does not cure the cause. Re-narrowing may occur, which may or may not require another procedure.

If the arteries are not sufficiently widened by angioplasty or the blockages are too severe to be treated by angioplasty, CABG (Coronary artery bypass graft) may be recommended.
As feared, my dad had 90% blockage in his arteries .There are actually 3 arteries that provide blood to and from the heart. One is called the left artery and the other two are called the right arteries. Dad’s had blockage in all of his three arteries and all were 90% blockage. It is believed that people with 70% blockage in their arteries would not even know about it. But the rate at which these percentage increases is very quick. So to all you lovely people, based on my experiences, please take your loved ones for a complete medical checkup so that things can be found out at an early stage and we don’t suffer later. The main cause of these blockages are cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes and the reason for my dad’s condition was diabetes as he is a diabetic for the past 20 years and insulin dependant for the past 4-5 years.

The problem with my dad’s arteries were that they were too thin to perform an angioplasty and hence the doc recommended us to take dad to the Apollo Hospital to perform a CABG (By-Pass Surgery)

So as of now we have handed over dad to the hands of the docs at Apollo Hospital, which is considered as one of the best in business in Asia. But there is another twist in the tale,as my dad has suddenly developed this cough, which according to the doc needs to be cured completely in-order to perform the surgery. His oxygen levels have also gone down to 62(normal being any value between 75-100).He is being given doses of steroids….yes…steroids to improve his oxygen level, which has worked well. Now his O2 has up to 85.

CABG(Coronary artery bypass graft) : Commonly known as by-pass surgery would be carried out on my dad. The process is a kind of grafting, where a small nerve from his leg or any other part of the body would be cut and grafted in his arteries, there by the blood in his arteries would flow through this new path.

Hope I have given you all some gyan on our Dil……………..:)

-GAG

2006-11-18T16:35:00.000+06:00

Party Last Nite........

It was about a month into my new organization and the first party to attend. Initially I didn’t have any idea as to why this party was organized and who would host the party.The party began on a leisurely note, where all invitees were strolling (ala Ranatunga running between the wickets) into the hall.

The starters and drinks (nothing special) were served and the two hosts distributed some kind of chit to everybody in the party hall and then announced that everyone with the chit has to find their respective partners. The next thing you see is everyone running around in search of their partners.

Our hosts planned a few games for us and set the ball rolling and the game of passing the passer started. It was quite evident from the proceedings that the hosts had targeted a few chosen ones from the crowd. The “Who-Am-I” section was pretty dubious (to me at least).People who watched it could judge it themselves. There was this incident where the participant had to identify the personality of the most wanted terrorist in the universe and guess what he found the personality in his third question.If you are interested in the sequence of questions he asked, the here it is….”Is he a man”….we say yes….he asks “Is he a bomb-attacker (literally)”…we had to say yes (no options provided) and then comes his answer…”Osama Bin Laden”. So you be the best judge and decide wasn’t this fixed???

The organizers did a good job by making all of us dance to their tunes. People who wouldn’t have shook their hips on the dance floor and never would have imagined that they could dance, did a pretty excellent job. Though it was funny we all enjoyed it.One of the participants stole the show and he did a really fantastic job. His maneuvers were simply fabulous and he certainly rocked and guess damaged the stage by his jumps. I too was made to dance by my friend as he had to choose a partner to accompany him on the dance floor, and we together did a bit of “Kajrare”. I guess it was fun time for all of us which made us forget all of our tensions in life as well as at work.

Once we all danced to the tunes of the hosts, we had a plan for the hosts in store and asked them to dance of “Kajrare”, which they sportingly obliged.

Regarding the food, the starters weren’t served properly (was given in some kind off tissue paper, which I thought should be used only for wiping and cleaning purpose).The food was good. Being in Calcutta (the home of sea food), I though we could get fish items in surplus but the fish delicacies were finished in a jiffy and was not even served after the initial quantity was finished (ask my friend who waited for it for quite some time for his refill .The desserts were good and we enjoyed it to the fullest.

By the way i had Krishna in my chit and was able to find my Radha....:)

-GAG

2006-10-05T22:20:00.000+06:00

Dead End - All Over

Is it the end of the road for one of the finest leaders India has produced in sport?

Many would believe so, so do I; I don’t feel this because Saurav had failed to perform on the two occasions at the challenger trophy a Chennai. I feel this because of the following reason; Geoff Boycott or Ian Chappell (Not sure) once said cricket is a game played between two ears. And I guess, there are many other thoughts that are going through Saurav’s mind, which is not allowing him to perform to his best of his ability.

I was there at the Chepauk Cricket Ground at Chennai to witness the match between India Blue and India Green (Saurav was part of this team) and felt that did he have to prove to all these Tom, Dick and Harry Potter all over again that he could still bat. I don’t think so. Many yester-year players have gone through this and were forced to take the decision to quit the game prematurely, even though they had much more to offer to the game. To name a few Kapil, Vengsarkar, Shastri, Azharuddin (The Wristy Genius-who was/is my favorite player and I could go miles to watch him play) all did well for India but had a bad exit from the game for different reasons.

Does it mean that mediocre players, when perform well in these tournaments are a better player than Saurav. Not really and I guess one and all would agree with this. These players who perform well in these tourneys have all been given enough chances at the International stage but have not given the impression that they could handle the demands of International Cricket.

When Indian cricket was under turmoil in the late nineties, a first-class decision was made by BCCI to make Saurav as the captain of the Indian Cricket Team. This is when Saurav sowed the seed, which later went on gave fruitful results. He gave confidence to his choice of players and supported them all-along, which I feel now a days is missing. The camaraderie is missing. C&D are still trying out newer options day in day out. We as a spectators are kept guessing who would play and if they play when would they bat .I do not have any thing against the current Indian captain and coach trying out new thoughts, but newer things should not be tried all in the same game and I feel they are over doing this.

Irfan Khan Pathan, was considered to be best swing bowler not long ago and his incoming deliveries to the right handed batsmen were lethal aka Akram.Where has the swing gone and who is responsible for this. He has forgotten his primary job. We could have got any other proper batsman if at all we wanted a batsman at one down if the captain didn’t want to bat at one down (though I guess he was the best of is, was and ever will be at one-down, which India or may be the world has ever produced)

As they call him the Bengal Tiger, he had lived up to the name and did whatever was possible to keep the team together. He was the one who build TEAM INDIA. Many current players, the likes of Yuvi, Sehwag, Bhajji, Agarkar, Zaheer…etc aren’t coming out with any statements cos they are apprehensive that they would loose their place in the side if they come out with any statement in support of their dada, but the day they retire or face the same situations (which I guess almost ever good player has to go through), they would undeniably come out with some words for their mentor. If we look back, the current Indian captain was always criticized of slow batting in the ODI’s and was even dropped from the national squad quite a few number of occasions. Playing him as Wicketkeeper batsman was the thought of the then captain and consequently keep him the side, as he was considered and was next only to the master blaster in terms of batsman ship. I guess RD didn’t like that, but then the combination worked wonders for TAM INDIA. If anybody considers this as a sacrifice, then Saurav also had something to sacrifice, the opening slot to Veeru. Why was it required for him to break the partnership of Sachin-Saurav (Considered to be the best in the game, even now)? He did this because he knew Veeru could offer more to the team at the opening slot rather than playing in the middle order. I loved his aggression (the slinging of the T-Shirt at Lords at the Natwest Final, who else could dare to do that?), his attitude (made the former Aussie captain wait for toss) and his leadership skills.

Now what does the future hold for Saurav? Guess the traits in him can most certainly make him a good coach (Not for now, since we need to give some more time to C&D duo to play around with the Indian Cricket Team), if not we can for sure find him on television again in the world cup not as a player, but giving commentary for some channel or the other.

I am sure the future hold good for our DADA in what ever he does and love you for whatever entertainment you have provided to us.

-GAG

2006-10-04T09:38:00.000+06:00

Maine Skirt Kyoun Pehena....!

News channels should raise the standards of their content and people should think bigger.

Should these channels be spending timeslot of 1 hour for an article that has no relevance to anybody (except for some of the people who thinks they caretaker of some religion)

Should Katrina really be victimized for wearing a skirt (which was quite "long" enough) at a religious place, which I am sure she wasn't aware of it and by the way the outfit wasn’t that offensive either which was made out to be.

I guess we have more essential things to deliberate upon rather than to see this article coming on air again and on again in every news channel.

And with no fault of hers, these "responsible people", should have asked her to change her dress as she entered the religious place, which they didn’t bother to do. Those caretakers should have informed her about the rules they follow.

I have also heard that these group have considered legal action against Katrina (Oh God, We have many more issues, involving many others crimes committed by others to take care of, rather than fight a case with an insignificant issue of why Katrina sported a skirt) and have also said that the she has hurt the feelings of many followers of the religion.

Come-On people…grow up and let people live, don’t try to create an issue out of nothing.

-GAG

2006-09-27T22:16:00.000+06:00

Is Junior Bachchan really the sexiest in Asia?

I was just browsing and came through this article, which said that Abhishek is the sexiest in ASIA. Unbelievable. …Believe it.

What are the parameters by which we decide if a person is sexy or not. I guess these parameters are generally based on the salability of a celebrity. More the movies, ads the more sexy he is.

A few year’s ago Salman was considered sexiest (Ask Aish…. she had acknowledged this in an Rendezvous) and then came the rage of Hrithik Roshan (‘cos that was the time “Kaho Na Pyaar” had just released and his dancing was the craze of the nation)

I know Junior Bachchan has given a good movies…. which includes movies called
- Tera Jaado Chal Gaya (Tried to ape dad)
- Naach (Didn’t see it…but guess it was pathetic…. no one knew what is happening)
- Run (Remake of a Tamil Movie)
- Bas Itna Sa Khwab Hai (Never heard of it…. he did it)
- And many-many more solo movies, which he must have got because to the surname.

Now why is he considered sexiest…is beyond my imagination. For the actual hits he had given. I guess these movies, which were hits, were a multi star cast movies. All these hit movies had better stars that him…like John accompanying him in Dhoom, Dad in Sarkar, Ajay in Yuva (AB-Junior was apparently good in this movie)

Again I ask why is he thought to be the sexiest…cos he was and linked with almost all top co-actresses in bollywood, be it the Kapoor Girl or Queen of Hearts or the Pretty Woman or the latest in the list “Heart Break Lady”.

Beware Junior…her track record isn’t that impressive…. these shetty girls know how to play the game.

And Hey Junior, you being called sexy if fine…no harms about it, but hey don’t get carried away with all these adoration.

-GAG

2006-09-25T17:37:00.000+06:00

What have we really done?

This was a question put up by Jeff Thompson, people who don’t know who he is, lemme tell you all that he was one of the fastest bowler (first to cross 100mph) in the late seventies and early eighties and was the opening bowling partner of Dennis Lillee.

Coming back to the question…there was this debate going on after the finals of the DLF Cup and the topic of discussion was why is there a huge gap between the Aussies and the rest of the world. One of the commentators commented that cricket in Australia kind of grew after the world series of cricket, which was played in 1977.This was the period when Day-Night cricket came in and one-day internationals took over the limelight from Test Cricket (though, I still prefer the older version of the game). He further added that parents encouraged kids to take-up the game with the consent of their wives of course…. unlike in India where some kind of “rules” (For God Sake, Break those “Rules”) are made in the colony where guys are not allowed to play (I have been a victim of it).

So what asked one of the Indian commentator (the former opener,” Red Indian”…with beard)? Cricket is considered as a religion in India and each and every one regard themselves as experts here...blah…blah…

There was this explanation given by Jeff…. He simply asked the audience that why do we make these cricketers as super heroes. He further adds on saying the difference had India won the Cup, then there would have been celebrations at every nook and corner of India and cricketers would have been given a God’s status. But in Australia, they believe that the team had gone to play and win and did their job…. its as simple as that.

He also requested the players to look into the mirror and ask themselves what have they really done and accomplished for India…. No personal landmarks please…. to receive all these adulation.

Do they really deserve to be worshiped?

-GAG

2006-09-24T12:33:00.000+06:00

DLF Cup - As seen through my eyes....(India -Vs- Australia played on 22-Sep-06)

After bowling out Aussies for a paltry total of 213,every one would have assumed that it would be a cakewalk for the Indians. I guess its high time the pathetic tag be removed from the Lankans…though they deserve to be called so, but I feel Indians with there display of cricket have the full rights to be called Pathetic.

I wont go into the detail of the Aussies innings, though would give credit to the innings of Matthew Hayden, who was looking ominous for more runs. He was fluent as ever and was striking the ball hard and clean. He was eventually run out, Indians need to than their stars and Damien Martyn (I don’t understand why are Aussies are persevering with this guy who is a misfit in this team…so is Simon Katich, I guess both cant carry for long)

Coming back to the Indian Innings, I guess sanity prevailed after a long time and our captain decided to send his deputy to open the innings. The innings began well for India, with Viru striking the ball well. It was nice and heartening to see Viru take first strike and play the way he used to. The face-off between the Master Blaster and the lanky fast bowler McGrath began in the second over of the match. The first ball bowled was short in length and the Master decide to pull the ball towards midwicket, but was early with his short and was hit on his right shoulder. The ball ballooned in the air after ricocheting with his shoulder and Haddin takes a simple catch. All appeal and the Umpire gives the Master out. Sachin shows dissatisfaction and when he was walking back towards the pavilion, the umpire see’s the replay on the giant screen and then recalls Sachin (finally a good use of the screen has been made, the first of its kind. Sachin again becoming the First Player to get the verdict, I guess).

According to Law 27.9,an umpire can alter his decision and so by the law he recalled Sachin.There was a heated verbal discussion between the umpire and Ponting, but then McGrath the bowler didn’t argue (to my surprise, I guess he has become wiser with age). Sachin played that over rather cautiously and left most of the deliveries. But the storm was to awaiting at other end. Lee was bowling superbly and was bowling FAST; I mean real FAST.I guess Sachin was not happy to continue batting as he was given out earlier and only resumed batting on a recall. My only question here is had it been Munaf Patel or any of the lesser batsman, would the recall have been made…with no fault of Sachin? As I mentioned earlier that Lee was looking dangerous and Sachin succumbed to a delivery, which was way out-side the off stump and he guided the ball to the point fielder (Hussey), who gleefully accepted the catch.

As Sachin departed, walked in Md.Kaif…now I don’t understand the thinking of our captain. He should had been there to face the music, when the bowling and weather were both hostile, but what we see is a not inform Kaif walking in. Kaif not even settled down, when Lee produced another peach of a delivery rattling the furniture of Sehwag.Sehwag being bowled too many times for his own good. Getting through the defense of an opener is the most satisfying a bowler can think of.

In came the Wall to give company to Md.Kaif. Both of them cautiously playing McGrath and Lee. McGrath was not at his best and was bowling on either side of the wickets. I guess our batter’s did not take advantage of it and were letting McGrath settle down, which is a disastrous thing to do.

Dravid was playing slowly, which didn’t help to India’s chances of winning the match. As Sunny Gavaskar most often says, if the opponents are on the mat, we should try to keep them there and not give a sniff of chance to recover. But this simple thing was not followed and The Wall fell to Clark, who was the same bowler who was hammered all around the park in the earlier matches. Things looked good for India when Raina joined Kaif, with Raina showing aggression and trying to take the attack to the opposition. He slammed a wonderful straight six. He is batsman with good promise, but I guess this new brand of cricketer’s only show promise and never deliver when the going gets tough. These players should realize that’s its no point making these 20’s and 30’s and if they are not able to convert these starts into hundred’s then there is something terribly wrong with our selection policies. That’s the reason I advocate the inclusion of a former captain into the team as he used to win you matches on his own. How many of match winners do we have in the current team barring Sachin, Sehwag and Yuvraj? With all due respect to Dravid, he cannot win you matches on his own and that’s a hard reality. I agree to the fact that he is the best batsman, may be in this universe, but unless you dominate attacks you cannot win one day matches.

Kaif and Raina departed in quick succession and left India reeling and staring at defeat. Mongia making a comeback into international cricket after a gap of 18 months started his innings with élan and was looking comfortable and gave an impression that he was never out of this side. His play of the back foot and some of his drives was a treat to the eyes. Meanwhile the axe man Dhoni joined Mongia and both played aggressively and everyone would have believed that these two young guns would win the day for India.Dhoni, was in his usual self and with his unique technique scored freely. He smashed a straight six and things looked better for India and not to good for the Aussies. Ponting then made his move by brining back his best bowler of the day in the form of Lee. Lee eventually removed Dhoni with a short ball outside the off stump, which Dhoni upper cut it straight to the point boundary, though the replay showed that the ball was a no ball. With Dhoni gone all the responsibility was on the shoulders of Mongia, who was playing well, but he didn’t get the support from the other end. Agarkar gone, Harbhajan given out and rest followed them to the pavilion leaving Mongia stranded on 63.Indians fell short by 18 runs and thereby do not qualify for the finals.

Kapil Dev, one of the commentator gave a good difference between a good and a great player, being that a great player would finish the match for the side where as the rest would not bother about result and give good performance. Can’t blame Mongia though, as he was on a comeback mission and he succeeded with both the ball and the bat, a good all-round performance.

Our planning was not good enough I guess. Firslty shuffling with the batting order is not helping things, as players never know which position they are expected to bat. I feel cricket is a simple game and keeping it as simple as possible would be the best thing for Indian cricket. I would like to ask what pre season condition camp conducted for the players in Bangalore and Chennai were conducted? I heard some commando training was imparted on the players, to make them tough. I don’t see any results…do you?

Aussies are on a roll and are the favorites not only for this tournament, but also for the Champions Trophy and the World Cup.

-GAG

2006-09-24T12:29:00.000+06:00

Why did I name this blog “The Fite Klub”?

I really don’t know. Actually I was introduced to this movie by one of my friend and really liked the movie. To be frank I didn’t understand the movie at the first instance, guess no one would have either, but watching it second and third time things became clearer. I guess my friend Komodo Dragon of ThinShark fame also helped me understand the movie. The rules of the fight club were quite exciting.

As I came back to Chennai after winding up things from Pune, I was in a state of insomnia(people can now relate to The Fight Club) for some days and still continue to be in due to certain things which recently happened in my life…don’t want to elaborate on it, as this article is dedicated only for people to know how we named the blog. Then this idea struck in my mind that why don’t I name my blog as “The Fight Club”. I tried that name, but I guess its already used up and hence gave the name, that sounded the similar with some spelling mistake.

So that’s how the advent of our blog was done.

Hope you guys didn’t mistake for the Fight Club which was made in Hindi…never have seen that and neither I am planning to do so, I was referring to the one which starred Brad Pitt and Edward Norton.

-GAG