Khan, Kricket & Kolkata…..

Once upon a time it was – "haar ke jeetney walon ko baazigar kahte hai..." now would you say something about "jeet ke haarne walon ke liye...”? haa haa... well, dear SRK, in case you have noticed, Dada still rules.... even though he was “retired hurt” early after being denied of the cap and captaincy.

We all used to think that this Kkkhan has got some brain as he kept making money from the game even though his team successively failed to perform during the last 3 seasons... The fan followings, the anthemic korbo lorbo jitbo, the gold and black aggression (now reduced to purple though) – everything was a crowd puller. There was a magic that was created by a powerful emotional branding that KKR managed to build with its image. And it was built upon the active presence of two big personalities, SRK himself and of course the center of all attentions – “DADA....” And it definitely worked in favor of the owners as far as the business sense goes. But now looking at the half-empty stands and half-hearted crowds, it seems that the buzz has died somewhere, the magic has faded and the entire positive emotional feel has turned into some sort of negative emotional vibes.... Clearly, without Dada fans are not happy, not coming and not cheering like one would normally expect from the Kkkrazy Kkkolkatans. I think the recent Eden match and the low turnout was little hard to swallow for SRK who seemed definitely not ecstatic as he always used to be even after being such a habitual looser in the past (it’s good that he chose to enjoy the final form Mannat and let the Rajnis-Ghajnis gear and cheer at Wankhede, so thankfully there wasn’t any “Clash of the Kkkhans” and eventually we won).

Even if you leave your emotions aside, it is still impossible to justify that Ganguly – the 4^th highest run getter of the last season wasn’t picked up by any team during the auctions. There is definitely a fair amount of cricket left in the legend that he always proved in the past through his strong comebacks. And also it’s hard to understand that someone like Kaif or Balaji still makes it to the dressing rooms while legends like Lara and Ganguly were left out. And what would you say about Dravid and Laxman who are neither getting younger nor turning into big T20 specialists, but are still comfortably in. The new gen cricket revolution in the form of IPL could have been a fair platform for all… but unfortunately, it’s not.

Looking at the circumstances, no matter how much SRK dedicates his win to DADA, it would be really tough to win back the fans like before. And it seems equally unlikely that Ganguly himself accepts the invitation to come and rescue by manufacturing an association with the team. The only thing SRK may hope is that his team keeps winning matches and proves a point to the fans. As we know, it’s ultimately the wins that make people forget everything (like everyone has stopped talking now why Sreeshanth? Why not Ashwin? Why Nehra? Why not Harbhajan?). I know SRK would be dying to see the fans forget everything and start chanting the korbo lorbo jitbo like ever before... but will they?

The Making of a Time Bomb

The fact today is that we are living in an extremely volatile geo-political environment worsened by our own mindless, shortsighted and uncontrolled human activities. The future repercussions (which are not a future anymore!) of our egoistic developments that were often (always) neglected and forgotten looks now more prominent than ever. The world today is facing serious issues that are all somewhere linked to this monstrous human greed. There is global food shortage, economic crisis, risk of epidemics, nuclear emergencies, terrorism (and/or war)…. There is shortage of natural resources, energy crisis, climate change and natural (unnatural!) disasters like the recent earth quake and tsunami in Japan. It’s ironical that the nuclear reactors which were meant to meet the energy requirements to make life run are now posing the biggest challenges apart from the earthquake and tsunami itself in this post-disaster aftermath. The developed countries burn chunks of their resources (not just dollars) in defense (or attack?) technologies and armories to show off their domination and power. They build super highways, neon cities and skyscrapers, to stand tall (and laugh at the miseries of poor nations). And they always sends (invests) money and people (army) after every devastation (self or natural) to show their solidarity (and superiority) to the international community. But one would wonder that instead of sensitizing international equilibrium and pushing people towards uncertain and riskier political environments they could have primarily addressed to issues that are beyond a country’s local concerns. The need is global unity and true cooperation by which we can (“Yes We Can…”) cope with unforeseen natural disasters like earthquakes, tsunamis or even any epidemic flue that they names after some unfortunate innocent animals.

Time to Redefine Terrorism

It’s very unfortunate that some politicians are trying to cash on by playing separatist politics... at the time when we... the common people have to unite together and counter terrorism in the same voice... Before putting bans on terrorists, such politicians should be banned for their anti-constitutional remarks....