Unfair treatment for Sourav Ganguly

Treatment meted out to Ganguly is not fair. Agreed that we should promote and groom young talent especially when the world cup is just around the corner. But the way the whole situation was handled was amaeturish. It seems like a conspiracy against the former captain. Raj Singh Dungarpur before the start of Pakistan series talks to a news channel about how having Ganguly in the team has a negative effect on the players and immediately denies it later. How can such a senior member of the board say such things especially when the player is in team for the series. Shouldn't people show some respect towards the players?
I myself am of the opinion that one should never take his place in the team for granted and should be in the team by sheer performance but at the same time the past performace should not and cannot be ignored. Player of 300 odd matches cannot and shouldnot be judged by his few failures. I have been a very fierce critic of Ganguly when it was reported during his initial days of captaincy that he doesnot show up for the nets. I feel that no one is above the team (including the captain). If you are in a sport you have to be disciplined there are no two ways to it. There should definitly be disciplinary action against the player who does not abide by the rules, but humiliation should be a no-no. Ganguly had a lean patch no doubt, but who doesnot have one. I think stripping him of his captaincy is punishment enough for his non-performace in a few matches.
Ganguly is the same player who was talked about as the leader that India long waited for. He took India to the finals of 2003 world cup. Everyone praised his attitude on the field and off the field. He backed lots of new comers like Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, Irfan Pathan, Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh, Mohd. Kaif to name a few and showed lot of faith in them.
I am having a hard time understanding as to what is it that made Ganguly a villain from a saviour. I think he deserves to be given a fair chance to prove his abilities on the ground before he is shown the door.
He was taken for the test series with Pakistan but was not given a chance to bat (even when India knew that it is a batting wicket) and then without any reason was axed from the ODI team. He could have opened the batting instead of Dravid and could have got some runs against his name. Player of his caliber should not be humiliated atleast when it is not clear what is wrong on Ganguly's part. Everyone salutes the rising sun no doubt, but we should also give a warm farewell to the setting sun.

Whose universe is it anyway?

Should we act responsibly? Do we have any duty towards our society? Or should we act responsibly only when pushed to the extremes? I would like to discuss this issue in the context of growing problem of environmental pollution and conservation of energy. Should one always act in the best interest of oneself or should one act ethically. It is clearly an issue of tragedy of the commons where one person benefits by defecting, given others donot. If everyone defects, in our case, starts polluting the environment beyond what the environment can handle, then we all are at a disadvantage. It is in the collective interest of the society to conserve energy and reduce all types of pollution.

I completely agree that we cannot go back to the pre-historic ages. But we certainly can do our bit which will keep the environment liveable for a longer period of time. It is not that it is difficult to cut down on our daily consumption of energy or to alter some of our day to day habits. I think it is just a question of attitude. We just donot want to think about such things as cutting down on plastic bags, using a hand kerchief instead of a paper, turning off the lights that are not required etc. We just want to be in our own shell and turn a blind eye towards these small issue which could result in big change.

To tackle the electricity shortage problem, in India, authorities have already asked everyone to reduce their electricity consumption or else they are thinking of disconnecting cable television late night and also cutting on the late night movie shows at the theaters. This might be a little authoritative not necessarily the best way, but just an indication of the seriousness.

What does it take to print/copy on both sides of a paper(left to me I would print 4 pages on 2 sides given it is legible) ? Not even 1 extra second. But no one seems to care about it, thinking (probably not thinking at all) that how is it going to make any difference to anything. Would people stop polluting and start conserving energy when government levies a high tax on the usage?

Pollution generated in US can affect people in Bangladesh. Every year we hear about floods in Bangladesh and poor villagers getting affected, this is because of the overall increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Since no one person or country can be singled out for such calamities we just go about our "normal and routine" day to day activities. Developed countries should set an example for the rest of the world to follow. I just hope that people would start becoming more thoughful and own up the responsibility.

Serial Killer

Look at the type of programs we have these days in TV. I have never been interested in any kind of soap operas ever, which have now hijacked our TV channels for the last may be 8 years or so. Gone are the days when we used to have some innocent(e.g "Nukkad") and meaningful("Kirdaar","Mirza Ghalib") serials. Even the so called soap operas of those days like "Hum log", "Buniyaad" were well made and had some values and were not eternally long like "Junoon" or "Kyonki Saas bhi kabhi bahu thi" and there were no last minute additions for things like valentine's day etc. It clearly shows that people don't have a script or even an idea where the story should head. It seems it is just on the spur of the moment that the director decides what is it that he/she wants to show in the next episode. We used to have just two channels 15 years back but we I think had some quality programs.

Now every channel seems to be churning out similar kind of serials whether it is "Kyonki Saas bhi kabhi bahu thi" or "Jassi Jaisi koi nahi" or "Kkusum". I am in no way saying that we should go back to those old days, infact we should change with times and should try and learn from our mistakes and should come up with new stories and issues to talk about. I would rather say we should become technically more sound in making T.V serials or even movies. These days it seems it is just a question of money all the way. Person having more money wins. Everything now depends on the TRP ratings and the glamour content. Every thing on T.V now caters to the urban market.

Isn't it the duty of the regulator(Prasar Bharti ) and the country as a whole to offer programs which are entertaining/thought provoking. At the same time it should not become autocratic. We as a nation would have to grow in our thinking. Crap begets crap or as they say in a techy language garbage in garbage out. Please don't mistake me that I am against entertainment programs. I am very much for different kinds of programs but my only concern is the quality.

It seems like a blind race amongst different channels. One wants to out do the other. I am not ready to agree that we have shortage of good thinkers in India then why is it that we are not able to come up with good stories. Should everything boil down to money? We should be driven by quality and not quantity. People can make money by making good entertainers or issue based programs also. People do like to watch good movies if they are made and also appreciate them. We should increase our bars for quality not choose best of the worst.

For not having good programs, should we criticize people who make it or who see it? Should people stop watching such programs like a mass boycott so that people making it have no incentive to produce them anymore? So if that is the case then it is clear that people have not yet shunned such programs and that they have the right to watch what they think is good, like a true democracy. In that case I should not even be writing about it. But this is just my opinion......

my indulgence into poetry

Sawaal

Ek kavita likhne ki hai tamanna aaj

Isi soch ki jwala mein hai jalna aaj



Karna kya hai zindagi mein nahi kuch bhi padta maloom

Kiye jaayen jo karte hain, ya ki chalan apne kadmon ka hai badalna aaj



Aisa kyon hai ki har subha liye khadi hai ek sawaal mere saamne

Pherloon muh in sawaalon se, ya inhi ke bhanwar mein hai utarna aaj



Sawaalon ke is van se lagta hai milegi ek raah nayi

Us sunahare sawere ki chahat mein, is andhere ko hai nigalna aaj

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Ek ajab si khushi

Ek ajab si khushi hui mehsoos mere dil mein

Aaya nazar mujhe ek dost, mere katil mein



Jab likhe insaan taqdeer apne haathon se

Tab rank bhi hota hai raja apni mehfil mein



Dole nayya kitni hi beech majhdhaar mein

Doobti nahi kabhi bhi kashti sahil mein



Agar hota hai ghayal insaan nazron ke teer se

Jaal kya hai aisa phir hothon ke til mein

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Lahron ke saath bahe to kya kiya ?

Sirf Phoolon se khele to kya kiya ?



Is bhari duniyan mein lekar janm

Bas apne hi liye jiye to kya kiya ?



Chalte rahe rahi bane har rah par

Na rah koi banayi nai to kya kiya ?

kitni hi mushkilein aaye rahon mein 
Hosla gar khoya to kya kiya ?