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| POLITICALLY QUALIFIED? |
| Saturday, April 05, 2008 |
Last night, CNN IBN's prime time show 'Face the Nation' featured the topic whether superstars like Rajinikanth should comment on matters that are essentially political without having formally entered active politics.
If IBN were to believe in the above, then Rajdeep Sardesai and Sagarika Ghose must indulge themselves in active politics before commenting on political issues.Labels: hogenakal, karnataka, Media, tamilnadu |
Property of Sheks @ 11:17 am   |
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| MUSINGS |
| Thursday, April 03, 2008 |
The ICL Chennai Superstars team fails to get a hatrick of three straight series wins. After winning the inaugural ICL T20 and the ICL 50s tournaments, they failed to qualify for the finals after being defeated by the Hyderabad Heroes, yesterday. Chasing a score of 148, Superstars had managed to reach 136 in 19 overs with three wickets remaining. Justin Kemp of the Hyderabad Heroes bowled the last over and in the process, picked up two successive wickets of the first two balls. In came Shabbir Ahmed. It seemed, at that moment, that it was all over for the Superstars when Shabbir sprang a surprise by hitting a six taking the score to 142. All that was needed was one more sixer. But Kemp had other ideas and bowled a tighter delivery and all Shabbir Ahmed could manage was a quick single, almost running out Syed Mohammed, who was at the non-striker's end till then. 5 runs from 2 balls. Syed Mohammed was going strong with a strike rate of 141 and he was expected to hit the winning shot. But he messed up in the process, hitting to the wicketkeeper, trying to 'steal' a single and running himself out, thus signalling the end of the Superstars' campaign in the ICL Grand Championship 2008. Hyderabad Heroes will meet one of Kolkata Tigers and Lahore Badshahs in the finals while Chennai Superstars will vie for the third place with the loser among the latter two teams.
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Presently on, is the other semi-final between Kolkata Tigers and the so-far-undefeated Lahore Badshahs. The Badshahs have posted an imposing total of 182 and the Tigers have just begun their chase.
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The Cauvery issue is back. This time it is not over tribunal observations but over a drinking water supply project at the Hogenakkal area, that lies exactly between Karnataka and TamilNadu. Karnataka is not in favour of TamilNadu utilising the river's waters for supplying drinking water to Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri districts. The state contends that the centre give permission to implement a similar project to supply drinking water to Bangalore City. TN argues that it will be utilising only that share of the water allotted to it.
There is the usual stuff happening...farmers from Mandya district blocking the Bangalore--Mysore highway, defacing, torching and deflating tyres of TN-bound buses, simmering tension at the border between the two states, regional Kannada parties (some of whom are Kannada chauvinists) protesting, autodrivers in Bangalore frowing at anyone who happens to speak in Tamil, Tamil movies lifted off theatres in Karnataka etc. Editorials in newspapers opine that the only way to solve this issue is by talks. But when talks have been going on for decades and no solution is in sight till date, how could one expect fresh rounds of talks to resolve the issue?Labels: cauvery, cricket, karnataka, tamilnadu |
| Property of Sheks @ 8:34 pm |
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| MUSINGS |
| Wednesday, October 31, 2007 |
I'm finally back in the blogosphere after almost a month and a half. Shortage of good topics, shortage of time to write and disabled access to some common web hotspots(read Orkut and Blogspot) were some of the reasons I could not blog as frequently as I used to.
** The actual training lasted for four and a half months from early June to late October. The people at the Education & Research department themselves were not sure about the exact duration of training and used the term "three or four months", during the induction programme.
** The training goes like this:lectures on a certain software concept happen for three to seven days depending upon the length of the course. Trainees had to slog during these three to seven days and on the day after these days, a test would be conducted. The test would last for about an hour or two after which lectures for the next module begin.
** The results of the tests would, in 75% of the cases, be disastrous. This was expected as the minimum score required for passing was set at 65%. Add negative marking to that and it only makes matters worse. To put it in simple terms it is equivalent to climbing a steep hill carrying a heavy boulder on your shoulder(pun unintended!). The gruelling process takes four and a half months at the end of which you finally get rid of that boulder.
** What makes, or tries to make, the training programme enjoyable is the plethora of recreational facilities in the campus. These facilities make the campus look more like a resort than like an industry. But the facilties are extraordinary.
** A new batch comprising of some 800 trainees joins every fortnight. The 800 get trained in the same manner as their preceding batches. After four and a half months, they get posted at various locations only to go on bench for a maximum of two months.
** Staying in Mysore, it is normally expected of one to visit the famous palace when time permits and during dussera. Unfortunately I did not do both. I'm not interested either.
** Autos in Mysore are of the same type as those in Chennai. I've seen people talking about the bad impression that Chennai's auto drivers create on first-time visitors to the city. One of these people also state that such things do not happen in any other part of India. For such people, I suggest travelling in a Mysore auto. If you happen to be a smart,good-looking youngster, the auto driver by default asks "Sir/Madam, Infosys-aa?" If your reply is in the affirmative, pat comes the response from the auto-driver "200 rupees!" Then comes a barrage of excuses to justify the huge amount--"Night time,sir!","12 kms,sir","LPG auto,sir!","Return savaari nahin milega, sir!" etc.
** Some auto drivers there do not even know the way to go to common places. It so happened that a friend of mine caught an auto to go to a place called K R Circle and finally ended up in K R S Dam!
** Talking about first impressions about cities, a similar incident occurred two weeks ago in Bangalore. It was 11 in the night and I came out of the Cantonment railway station looking for an auto to go to Malleshpalya. The driver demanded 200 rupees! A few days earlier I had travelled to Cantonment from Malleshpalya and had paid only 80 rupees. I was willing to pay 120 rupees which happens to be 1.5 times the metre fare. But the driver flatly declined. Other auto drivers nearby seemed to come to my aid but they were worser for they went on to support the first driver's stand of sticking to nothing less than 200 rupees. Only a few autos were present, then, and having no other alternative I travelled in this auto shelling out my hard-earned money. (People who rile about Chennai's autos are advised to take note of the above situation and if possible, experience it. In Bangalore)
** The Karnataka State Transport Corporation's Volvo buses seem to be favourites of almost everyone who is desirous of travelling in and out of Bangalore. I am no exception. The buses do rock big time but there are a few Volvos which can be hell. I happened to be in one such bus while going from Bangalore to Mysore. I happened to be in the rear-most seat (the least preferred seat in other buses). The moment the bus came out of the city traffic and was out into the highway, out came the smell of vehicle emission. It was coming from the engine and Volvos have their engines at the back. Throughout the 140-km journey I had to endure this noxious
smell that almost made me faint. Beware of such buses.
** It is hard for someone, who is new to Mysore, to locate a certain place. The people out here have a weird way of giving directions. They don't specify important landmarks. They just tell you to go left, right and then straight only to end up in the wrong place and again ask for directions upon which this second person gives new directions that take you to almost the other corner of the city. I had a hard time locating a certain hotel which happened to be in the road opposite to the palace. When I asked for directions, I was given only the directions but no landmarks. Call it answering to the point!
Disclaimer: This post is written with the intention of sharing my experiences in a city I was visiting for the first time. It is not meant to hurt the people of a particular state but if anyone wishes to disagree I'm ready for talks.Labels: autos, karnataka, Mysore, training |
| Property of Sheks @ 4:59 pm |
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| About Me |
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Name: Sheks
Home: Madras, TamilNadu, India
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