Moin Khan – The New 'Critique'

During the current India-Pakistan ODI and Test series, one persons name has been flashing across newspapers, news channels and sport reviews. Its Moin Khan.

His first statement claimed that the Indian basting maestro Sachin Tendulkar was scared of Shoaib Akthar. The comment created ripples across the country, but Sachin let his bat talk in response. He scored a century in the first ODI, which India lost eventually.

His next comment was that Indians appealing against Pakistani captain Inzamam’s in the first ODI was against the ‘spirit of the game’.

I happened to read an article by Harsha Bhogle in Indian Express. He had the answer for Moin Khan.

The funniest was still to come: Moin Khan thought that India’s action in appealing against Inzamam was ‘against the spirit of the game’.

I must confess I am a bit wary of former cricketers talking of the spirit of the game and that is why only a few names are respected. I believe that the moment a cricketer is willing to appeal against a batsman he knows is not out, he loses all right to talk about the spirit and the culture of the game. And if he has sledged at a cricketer, made personal remarks in abusive language, then he is a threat to this so-called spirit.

The full article can be accessed here.

In today’s papers Moin has made his third comment, that the Indian cricket team is not a perfectly balanced team.

I sincerely hope that by the end of the series, the new critique of cricket eats his words and is rechristened as Loin Khan!!!

Love = Energy

Like Energy, Love Can Neither be Created, Nor be Destroyed,
It Can Only be Transferred From One Girlfriend to Another Girlfriend.

Freedom of Expression

I first came upon this term, during the standoff between a management institute and the blogger community within India. Now the same term is being flashed across newspapers and news channels all over the world.

A Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, in its September issues came out with 12 caricatures of Prophet Mohammed. If you are asking as to why they had to come out with such caricatures, then Copenhagen Post, another Danish newspaper explains, “Jyllands-Posten called for and printed the cartoons by various Danish illustrators, after reports that artists were refusing to illustrate works about Islam, out of fear of fundamentalist retribution. The newspaper said it printed the cartoons as a test of whether Muslim fundamentalists had begun affecting the freedom of expression in Denmark.”

According to me, the explanation is ridiculous. If it indeed was a test, then I hope the editors are happy with the fact that they have passed their test with flying colors. There are protests all around the globe; protesters are burning buildings, threatening more suicide bombings, killing people and also getting them selves killed.

I hope the issue dies down soon. The Danish newspaper has publicly apologized for the cartoon strip. A case has been registered in Danish court against the papers, and they would be punished accordingly, if found guilty. The Danish president has termed this event as a ‘global crisis’, and I’m sure measures are being taken to pacify the sentiments which have been hurt.

I also hope that the people, whose sentiments are hurt, forgive and forget this incident. If they have a grudge towards the entire episode and take to violence, then it does not serve their purpose. Everything gets back to square one. According to the latest news reports, an Iranian newspaper is planning to bring out its own set of caricatures depicting the Holocaust. This would only worsen the crisis.

Hope peace and normalcy returns as soon as possible.

Things are looking bright...

Looks like the small issue with the 'people's department' in my office is getting settled. The chances of getting relieved on the day, I had asked for, are high. With good support from my immediate boss, I think it will be settled soon.

There was a time, a few days ago, when I felt that it would not be that easy.

The Name's Kong..... King Kong

Happened to watch King Kong last Saturday. One of my TAPMI classmate had come down from Mumbai. Spent the evening, at Spensers, with three of my classmates and the parents of the classmate from Mumbai. After idling our time in Spensers, we decided to watch a movie. So all of us headed to Satyam.

When we reached Satyam, the time was 9:15pm. When we enquired about the availability of tickets, they were available for just 3 of the movies. After deliberating for nearly 15 minutes, all of us decided to watch King Kong.

It was a pathetic movie. The King Kong appears just before the interval, i.e. approximately one and a half hour after the movie started. Till then the movie was telling the viewers in detail about the heroine. How she was struggling with her theater acting, how she was drawn into acting for this “special project” by the director. The movie also goes in length to show the love blossoming between the script writer of the movie and the heroine.

The “special project” was to shoot a movie is an island, which was unexplored by humans. No one knew about its existence, no one knew what existed there. The director had stumbled upon a map which would lead to this secret island.

The second half is the most unbearable part of the movie. Once the crew lands in the island, they are attacked by a variety of living beings. First, they are attacked by the tribesmen, then by the King Kong, then dinosaurs, giant crabs, giant shrimps, giant mosquitoes, giant leeches, giant bats and what not. The creatures keep coming and coming, there is no end to the threats that our poor crew faces in the island.

On top of this the King Kong falls in love or develops a strong liking for the heroine of the movie. He saves her from 3 T-Rex’s!!!

The crew manages to save the heroine from King Kong, and they also manage to capture it alive. They bring it back to their city, and put it on public display. The King Kong escapes, and is finally shot dead by fighter planes after it destroys half the city, during its search for the heroine.

The movie took 3 and half hour to complete, and since we were seated in the 4th row from the front, it looked like ages since the movie started. I was surprised that it was one of the costliest movie ever made, surpassing the record set by Titanic. All the money seem to have been spent on the animation, which bores you after a certain point of time.

Finally at the end of the movie, I was relieved that I could get back home and have a sound sleep. Luckily none of the slimy creatures haunted me in the night.

New Job

MBA’s are known to be frequent job hoppers, and I’m doing everything in my capacity to reinforce the belief. After 8 months with my present employer, I’ve decided to quit. I’d been toying with this idea for the past 3 months, and finally when I got a chance to get a better profile, salary and career growth, I decided to take it with both hands.

I’ve put in my papers, but the usual hick-up with the people’s department is slowing things down. Hope things settle down soon, and I am relieved in the next one or two weeks.

The new job would be taking me to a new city. I have been there just once, during my “educational trip”, in the 5th semester of engineering.

Lets hope the new job provides me with all proper avenues of growth.