Mahabharat - The Epic

India is a great country with diverse culture. This is the land of Lord. Rama and Lord. Krishna. One of the biggest asset which we have for which we should feel proud is "Mahabharat" - The Epic. As an indian, I would suggest everyone should know the basic theme of it which was written by Maharshi Vyasa. Its a completely no nonsense narration where each and every character has its own importance and most of them are related logically. If you go through the story then everything is logical in that. If the entire narration is broken into individual stories, then all stories conveys some message to the society.
It sets some of the classic examples of friendship of Karna and Duryadhana. At the same time the respect for his guru from Ekalavya. Bhisma's pratignya is a tribute of a son to his father. Gita upadesha to Arjun by Lord.Krishna. It also conveys what are bad things in a society like playing poker and what extend it can spoil the life, And exhibits agony of Karna life and also shows the love of Yashoda for Krishna. Denial to bless Duryadhana by Gandhari before Kurukhestra war. These are some of the remarkable moments in Mahabharat which is still has a lot of meaning.

In the Kurukhestra war there were many warriors who lost their lives. If you see, most of the warrior from Kaurava's were killed in a cheated way. This was not expected from Pandava's, but as Lord.Krishna says, there is nothing wrong if you are using improper way to fighting against people who themselves did not follow any rule.
One charecter in the entire episode who impresses all is Karna. His entire life was full of agony as he did not carry any identity. Though he came to know about his identity still he did not reveal to anyone. He is a man of his words. He is an epitome of friendship and a great warrior who defeated all the Brothers of Pandava in the Kurukhestra war but did not kill anyone as he promised Kunti that he wont be kill any of his son if he gets a chance except Arjuna. It was his badluck as he was carrying lot of curse behind him which was the main reason of his death in the Kurukhestra war.
The last gyan given by Bhisma to Pandava is thought provoking where he says, nothing is great than the nation. Which is still holds good in todays life. These are few moments which conveys lot of things which tells what one should or should not follow in their regular life. This is not specific to any relegion or special category people but there is a message for everyone which is still valid in everyday life of 21st century.

Ugly Protest

The recent protest in Punjab and Hariyana against the attack on Sant Ramanand and Niranjan Dass at Vienna (Austria) shows ugly use of freedom in a democracy. I condemn what happened in Vienna, but the way the later things happened in India is not acceptable in any logical sense.
In democracy everyone has rights to protest if she finds its wrong, But it is unlawful if someone is using violence as a medium to justify their opinion or concerns. And that what exactly happened this time.
Some unruly crowd came into the road, disturbed regular life of normal people, burnt the train and what not. This is a huge loss to nation and the tax payers who pays from the pocket. National assets are not there to burn for to show the resentments of some unruly crowd who does not have even commonsense. This shows that there is no difference between the crowd who attacked Sant Ramanand and Niranjan Dass and the people who created chaos for several days disturbing normal life. Because of this, people were left stranded in many railway stations, not having normal normal food and amenities. Instead they could have gone in a peaceful way to protest against the attack.
No doubt there would be some handful people who are always eager to utilize this kind of situation and create disturbance all over in the country, but this is not a good thing which should be encouraged in any civilized society. These mob should be caught and punished so that others can live in a peaceful way and that would show true picture of democracy which does not encourage violence to protest for expressing someones concern.

Verdict 2009

This is year which will be remembered in the history of congress party. They landslide victory in the Election despite not so good performance in last five years. The result was shocking for most of the party. BJP who were expecting a close number near to congress, now they are far behind the congress in terms of result obtained. And congress is almost near to the majority and going to form the government again. Personally, I was disappointed by the way the people responded for selecting the government this time. If the performance of the government is analyzed in last five years, there is nothing substantial which was done by the UPA allay. The corruption is all time high and price of regular items are all time high. Not even potential national level projects was kicked off in last five years. Lapse in security system and all and unending list of disappointing performance by the UPA government. Some of the power hungry minister and some tried to pacify some of the communities by providing sops in educational sector. Still amazingly the party came with maximum number of seats.
On the other hand the poor plan by BJP to go single handed in most of the state made the party to pay a lot. There is no presence of BJP in most of the southern states like TN, Kerela, AP. It did not pay much attention to these states in terms of forming alliance with other political parties. In orissa, the spat with BJD made it not to get even a single seat. This all accounted to defeat of BJP. Though there are various agenda for the party, but it failed to capitalize on them. Poor plan, no proper alliance in southern states and poor execution made the party to see the failure.
One good thing happened this time is some of the party like RJD, SP, LJP virtually lost their identity. The defeat of Ram vilash paswan is a strong message to others about the strong performance of Nitish government in Bihar. These netas (Lalu, Paswan, Amar singh) now almost silence out of humiliation as they don't have any bigger role to play. Also the Left party.. I pity on them. So majority of single party has some good sign of a stable govt for next five years with no pressure from Lefts in running. I hope this time the govt will do something in coming years which it could not do in it last 40 years of ruling after independence.

Curious Case

It happened sometime before when Slumdog was nominated for Oscar and there was a movie called "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" was also in the league for some of the category. When the movie was released in India, It did not get so good review kind of thing in the media. As a movie freak, I got a copy of it sometime ago and As i did not have any other entertainment mode, curiously I started watching this movie. The length of the movie is more than the normal english movie, so it took me 3 days to complete it part by part. And personally i liked the movie.
The speciality of this movie is the story of the movie where the lead role guy lives life in backward. It means, The hero born as an old man and dies as a small child... sounds funny... but its hard to live such life in real, where you have to live against the nature. There is another movie called "Memento" where the movie runs in a opposite way. Like the movie starts with end and ends with start. The screenplay of both the above movies are amazing. In one movie, where the hero lives a life in opposite way and portaying that on the screen is not so easy task. The narration part of the movie is also equally good. And about Memento I would say, If you want to understand the movie at first attempt, find a media player which can play a movie from last to beginning instead of beginning to end. These are the classic examples of some of the movies which proves that how the bollywood needs to workout on improving the quality, and critic should stop criticizing others for not getting any Oscars (by any hindi movies).

IPL 2009

Finally after lot of tussle between BCCI and Govt. of India, the schedule for IPL 2009 has been announced. The funny part of the outcome is that, Indian Premier League this time will be held in the land of South Africa. No doubt there is no sportsman spirit exists these day in the game of cricket. All the team play for money. And the regulatory board too became money minded. The commercialization of the cricket game started around 10 years before when Jagmohan Dalmia was the president of BCCI. He realized the potential of the game in india, and as the electronic media was booming at that time, he exploited the situation and made the BCCI into million dollar engine. It was the first cricket board which had asset more than million dollar. And the legacy was carried successfully by the rest of the BCCI presidents. The Indian cricket team emerged as highest money making team as the audience for the team was huge. India has population more than a billion and the scope for earning is more. The influence of Indian team over rest of the world was clear in the last world cup when Indian team was out, and then the sponsors were not ready to fund for rest of the series.
This time there was height of stubbornness of the BCCI regarding the decision to continue the game in South Africa. In my view, no game spirit has more value than national interest. As the Parliament Elections were announced in the same period, and it is a herculean task for any government to provide security for this kind of event. There is a chance of taking advantage of the situation of anti terror elements to spoil the election as well as game. When more than half a billion people has to cast their vote, conducting a free and fare election is itself a big job and providing security for the game is not possible at any cost. When the home ministry it self is not sure to provide security for the whole event, considering the gravity of situation, the event could have been postponed and have been scheduled in India it self. But the kind of approach BCCI took, is not acceptable on any condition. Any sports academy should respect to national interest before thinking about profit or loss while orginizing any such events.

Congrats Team India

No Doubt, this is gala time for Team India and fans of Indian cricket team. Winning the series in NewZealand after 33 years is really commendable job. Credit goes to all teammates and coach. The team is in its best form and carrying a lot of positive spirit. When any battle is won or lost, the credit goes to captain of the team. So the discussion will be incomplete if I forget to mention the name of Dhoni. Dhoni proved himself in every front of challenge which indian cricket team confronted in the post world cup era. The confidence was all time low. Lot of speculations in media about team after shameful exit in last worldcup. Dhoni took charge of commander at odd tome and proved in T20 and followed by continuous success in following all the serise. Defeting Australia is also one feather on his cap. The best thing about Dhoni is his coolness and he know how to get the best out of a player. I would say he has got some criminal political brain ;) which he uses at the right time to get the best result. There is another guy who is not getting much hype in media. He is Mr.Gary Kristen who happens to be coach of indian cricket team. He is a great cricketer who believes in doing. And some other players are Goutam Gambhir, Suresh Raina who are playing consistently and they are key for match winning. Kudos to Viru for his fastest ton. He was nightmare for all the bowlers. Still the Test series is ahead for the team and we have to wait and watch. As people say "Asli cricket is test cricket" .... So have to see how this team proves in the Asli cricket. All d best Team India