Monday, February 27, 2006

Kya yeh football hai??

Hi ESPNStar Sports India,
I'm an ardent football follower living in Chennai.The only reason I bought a set top box amidst all the discouraging verdicts about it, is to watch the weekend Premier league matches.I understand that from past week you have decided to try out parallel Hindi commentary for these Premier league matches. I'm not particularly against this idea of yours to increase your viewership among those Hindi speaking group and I do not have any grudge against these commentators or their pronunciation of footballing terms.I will be able to put up with these mistakes(for I do not understand them). But these commentaries are a total misfit to these games as these commentators are not aware of the tradition in which these league games are played. They might update their knowledge about those derby matches between liverpool vs Everton by reading about it somewhere which is no where near to the first hand experiences these English commentators have lived through during their times as a player.Most of the English commentators are ex-players and they know the tradition and spirit involved in these games which is very essential for commenting on these games.

Only after listening to the Hindi commentary I realised that the match is made more intersting by the English commentators.IMO these guys live football,eat football and breathe football so we tend to get first hand information about the game,team and player.Thanks to you that it was parallel commentary and so I had an option to change audio channel to English the moment I started hearing Hindi commentary.

I feared the worst and did search to find out that you might probably adapt the same system of parallel Hindi commentary for the world cup 2006.This is a mega event that happens only once in four years. So please spare us from these commentaries from here on and do not even think about implementing the same for World cup. Moreover the onus of Hindi commentary belongs to the national broadcaster (who will borrow the feed from you somehow before world cup) and you as a sports channel do not try to compete with their viewership with such terrible techniques.

PS: I do not understand Hindi.My knowledge of Hindi is limited to 'Ek gaon mein'. courtesy: Bhagyaraj which is very simple.So the complex literary terms used by these commentators are completely out of my lexicon.

With all hopes
Srivat.

Thursday, February 23, 2006

'Real'ity

It was the Champion's league match between Real Madrid and Arsenal. Just after 10 minutes the most criticised and my favourite striker Ronaldo gets a beautiful through ball from Zizou with which he rounds of Jens Lehmann easily and hits the first goal of the match. I really wanted to express my joy by hailing Real Madrid at the top of my voice. But then it is almost midnight and supressed the thought not wanting to disturb others.With every minute and with every other attempt made by Galacticos Lehmann produces some wonderful saves.By Half time the whites have had atleast 15 shots on target. The second half begins and within just two seconds Cicinho cuts in from right to find Zizou who hits a wonderful volley for which Lehmann this time has no answers. Out of ecstacy I shout but still strangely silently without any oise.My joy knew no bounds,I expected Madrid to win by 3-0 to make it comfortable for them. With every other pass and shot I see myself nearing my television.And finally Robinho with a wonderful play puts his shot into the net.But before I could make sure that its a goal the TV goes blank.Huh..To hell with these cable operators and set top boxes.By then I could hear some weird polyphonic tone. Slowly but steadily the volume increases. It kind of appears to be a familiar sound to me. Damn..its my alarm in Cell phone.

With all difficulty I open my eyes to see that the time is 11.55 P.M.In just 5 mins the match between Real and Arsenal will kick off.I switch on the TV and wait for the match to start remembering the Real Madrid dream I had a few moments ago. Arsenal play this match at Real Madrid stadium Bernabeu where no other English team has managed to win. It is 12.15 already
and the sports channels still telecast some 'Team India Glorious'.Let me switch to sun music. Thats murali with mic.scary enough in the middle of night. Did i miss the match timings then. What does ESPNSTAR.COM say. The match is supposed to start only at 01.00 A.M. still 45 minutes more.

The same alarm sound once again.Now in reality, the match is about to begin. How energetic the madrid fans are in the stadium.There comes the galacticos. Ronaldo hugs Henry saying something to him with a big smile.'Kick them out,you Ronnie' I murmured within myself.The match starts.

Excellent Cassilas..great save..your are my favourite..Very good Gravesen..oh..now what..woodgate injured..nope..puhleesee..Meija substitutes him..ok..he is quite a good lad..hey you ramos..cmon man do something..you are the central defence..got to get the ball from Henry..no Guti..not him..he is fabregas..pass it to zizou..he is in white shirt..huh..Ronaldo..cmon man at this level you got to control those first pass...Beckham..damn it..lob the ball above the goal keeper..instead of hitting it with all the force..who the hell told you get in front..go do the job which you do better..cross them in David..Thank god..Arsenal didn't get a goal in the first half.

Let me drink some water.Its really wierd to see the guys playin it like this.Probably Lopez carol might bring Raul for Ronaldo, that would pull the spirits up of the players.Oh..second half about to start.

Ronaldo..you again..giving it away to Henry..go run with him and stop him..you fatso..Guti lunge..Stop him..Ramos Bring him DOWN atleast..Casillas stop it..oh..no.Sh*t.thats a goal..you fools..dont you know if there is someone capable of scoring its him..but that was a beauty of a goal ain't..hmm..let him come to Barca next year..that will be a match..Cmon Madrid..still there is time..and there comes Raul the prolific champions league scorer for madrid..Listen to the ovation from crowd..who is going..thats Robinho..thats alright kid..well played..oh..you reyes..we all know how good an actor you are..get up and play..madrid dont stop play that guy is faking..who is that..hahahaha..meija is trying to roll reyes outside the play area..great dude..dont give meija a card for that ref..you dumbo..give it to reyes..wenger sensed it..brings another oscar nominee Pires for reyes..oh..raul that header should have gone in..Carlos hit it buddy..Lehmann leave it..good shot and well stopped..Ramos..that was unlucky..that too should have gone in..guys keep an eye on Henry..stil 10 minutes more..you can pull it..Cicinhooo..huh..thats ok..four minutes injury time..can pull at least one guys..oh..no Henry..dont do that..not to corner flag..time wasting..but can't be blamed..huh..thats it..Ref blew it.awful it was to wake up for this sort of game.Anyways if these guys can pull themselves up then they can probably win in highburry in the return leg and then can go through.It is difficult but possible.

I shouldn't watch the reviews and read websites for a day or two.It will be too embarassing to know all this.All these English guys will have an opinion on it.How about the dream I had sometime back.Wonderful piece of football that was by Madrid.Wait a minute..which was that.Think hard you idiot..think hard.It definitely doesn't look like Bernabeu.oh.Is it highburry then. Really..yeah..looks like that in all probability.So the dream I saw was the return leg match and even if Real wins by a 1-2 they go through by away goal advantage.How good that feels!!! Come on Real Madrid..you guys can pull it back.There and back again at highburry in a couple of weeks.

Hope my dream becomes true.

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Good Conductor

I was waiting at the vadapalani signal to board a Metropolitan transport corporation bus to my place.For those of you who think why would someone wait near a signal instead of a bus stop, welcome to Chennai.There is a small reason behind it.Apart from the chores of driving the bus in the chennai traffic, the drivers of these bus also have another social responsibility - to improve the stamina of the bus travellers.That is one reason why they usually stop the bus either 100mts away from the bus stop either before or after, so that these people waiting to board can run towards the bus and then board it.At times the brake system in the buses might be a little late to respond, so when the driver applies it at vadapalani it might stop only at Udhayam theatre. People who do not know this usually run behind the bus until they are exhausted and then give up,others knowing this will directly go and wait at the udhayam theatre bus stop. Since I was aware of these techniques I thought that the probability of boarding a bus near a signal is more than that of boarding it in a bus stop.

Oops..that was off topic. Coming back to my post.After a couple of minutes I was lucky to board an express bus whose driver didn't bother stopping it at signal but slowly kept it moving.As usual I chose to stand on the footsteps near the conductor for the obvious reasons(part of which is explained in my choosing a seat post,the other part will have to be a separate post totally irrelevant here.)At first he looked to me like a calm and experienced conductor.I gave him a 10 rupee currency and asked for a ticket to my place. He said it costs six rupees and asked for a 1 rupee coin from me.

Now I had to dig into my wallet.I had never felt comfortable taking my wallet out while travelling in foot steps. First the swaying bus will make you lose your balance,second the pessimistic capriconic thoughts in me make me feel that the wallet is accidentally going to fall out of the bus or I might slip trying to hold on to my wallet.After negotiating all these thoughts I got hold of a one rupee coin and handed it to him.The conductor looked at me and then said 'sir give me that five rupee coin'.

Only then I realised that he has been looking into my wallet till this time.I was totally annoyed by his act.I dont have anything in my wallet that could embarass me.But for me it was a very indecent act, peeking into my wallet without my consent. He could have directly asked me for a five ruppee coin the moment I gave him the currency. I couldn't justify his act of peeking into other's wallet whatsoever.An act of misconduct from a conductor I thought.

At the next stop this guy boarded the bus. He was wearing a lungi,pulling up the bottom of it and tying it to his waist,exposing his supposedly Bermuda shorts(lungiya madichu katti iruntharu pattapati trouserukku mela..as vadivelu dons in 'orange trouser' scene). He pulled out a 100 ruppee bunch from his shorts pocket and gave one to the conductor. I saw the expression changing in conductor's face. The conductor was furious now which I thought was because of the 100 rupee given for a six rupee ticket.But to my surprise ,he called the guy near him and told him that carrying money like this inside his shorts pocket is not safe.Even if he had to he advised him not to expose it in the bus and taking a single currency out and keeping it in his shirt pocket before boarding is a much safer thing.He also told him to move to one corner of the bus and lean on to one of the seats so that he can feel the money inside his pocket.

He then started telling me that pickpocket's nowadays are very skilled.Looks like in the past week he witnessed a similar guy having money in his shorts under his lungi lose some 15000 ruppees.The theif had just cut the part of the shorts pocket with the money using a scissor/small knife without making contact with any other body part(thankfully..definitely the
pickpocket deservevs credit for his/her skill). He further added that most of the losers are not chennai guys and usually from villages.Even though vadivelu and vivek had campaigned enough in their movies about the risks involved in carrying money in crowded places like bus, these people still are attached to the same techniques they adopt in their village.The conductor also told me that he could easily identify the pickpockets from their looks,the position and posture they stand,their clothes,money handling methods and even with the currencies they give him etc.,

I'm not sure if the villager realised his mistake.But words of advise and sincerity in his job did overshadow his misconduct. When I thought about it after sometime I realised that there could be numerous justifiable reasons behind his act of peeking into my wallet and felt happy that I didn't pick up an argument with him.

Thursday, February 16, 2006

chinna chiRu kiLiyE

  • Morning news in Real Madrid TV announcing Real Madrid victory
  • An article on Sachin proving his critics wrong in the news paper
  • Roobaroo in a music channel
  • Early morning breeze on my way to office
  • Deciphering an inscription
  • Sight of a beautiful sunset
  • These are a few things that bring an instant smile on my face everyday. But none of these can match the sight of this cute little girl going to school.It will cheer up even the gloomiest person in the world.

    Everyday I or rather we(Prabhakar,Suresh and I) happen to see her at a railway station. She is some 2 feet tall, wearing a light blue pinafore on a white shirt,with hair dressed neatly into two plaits.She carries her own school bag(good school..bag looks weightless to me). She walks on the road talking,jumping and singing something to herself and laughing frequently.

    She is not bothered by anything around her.She is in her own world and doesn't worry about the delayed train,exams etc., signs of which one can see in the faces of her father and elder sister(most probably) following her.An exhibit of unadulterated happiness that is too good to be compared to the list at the start of this post. It reminds me instantly of Mahakavi Bharathi's verses.

    'ஓடி வருகையிலே கண்ணம்மா, உள்ளம் குளிருதடி'

    How true.Nothing better can come close to this description and of the whole song.

    We eagerly look forward to see her everyday in the morning.We peep out of the train door with a frantic search all through the station and then a bright smile lits up our face once we see her. Watching something like this early in the morning before going to office pumps up the energy levels and for sure motivates people like us.

    But what is so special to mention it today. My friend Suresh(can call him a philosopher for his 'peN' philosophy and my coach too for volleyball) who has been witnessing this sight daily on his way to office ,has been blessed to witness such a beautiful and similar sight everyday right in his house at any time.Only difference here is he has been blessed with a 'He'.Congrats Suresh and I'm sure Junior suresh will fill your family's hearts with joy and happiness.

    Tuesday, February 14, 2006

    You too,BBC Sport

    BBC Sports and Fun page has its own/fans version on what famous sporting(hmm..ok..Cricket and Football only) personalities would be saying to their loved ones relating it to the recent happenings.Quite funny.

    Read it here.

    Monday, February 13, 2006

    Visit to Pulipakkam

    Last weekend we(Bala,Prabhakar and I) had been to vyagyapureesvarar temple at Pulipakkam. Eversince I joined my new company I wanted to climb one of those hills on the other side of the scenic Paranur station.On inquiring about the possibilities of climbing it, the locals told us that there is also an old siva temple there.And that was enough information for three of us to explore and enjoy.

    We got down at paranur station and then started walking for about one km before we saw some signs of a temple on top of the hill.We were not sure if this was the one the villagers told us.But then started climbing up the rugged ascending path. The temple as such looks very small without any praharams. But then the stones and pillars that were scattered around gave us a feeling that it should have been quite a big temple when it was built. The dozens of siva lingams also gave us a feeling that there should have been more sannidhi's in the temple showcasing these lingams.The walking path around the temple also appears to be newly laid.So we cannot conclude exactly on what was the outer praharam like or the boundary of the whole temple.A whole view of the temple and the chengalpet lake(I think that is the lake in the background) was beautiful.

    The architecture and design of the pillars resembled the ones in Airavateesvarar temple.With our limited knowledge we can only conclude that the temple was built after Raja Raja chozhan's period.(Experts could easily provide the exact era when the temple was built simply by looking at the design and architecture of the temple.) The gopuram was a newly constructed one and so was not of much help in predicting the time during which the temple was built.There were also many inscriptions on the walls of the temple. We tried our hands at decoding it for an hour or so and were successful in deciphering a few of those inscriptions but then not the exact era and the king who built it.

    After staying for around an hour We decided to walk to another vishnu temple in an adjacent hill. But only after reaching there found out that it is being renovated. Instead of trekking back the same route we climbed up, we decided to be adventurous and started to walk around the hill hoping to get down by the far end thereby reaching the station.

    We were happy to see walking trails till we reached the top of the mountain.After which the trails disappeared and we had to venture our own way out.The path descending down the hill was totally filled with thorny bushes and some trees full of spikes.We tried our best to climb down through this difficult path with a hope that it was the last bush in the path.At one particular instant there was no way out and then we happened to meet a villager who told us that it is not possible to get down by the route we are trying to.He further said that going back the route we climbed up is the better option and any other route is much harder and time consuming.With no other option we retreated back with excellent memories of the temple and bruises/cuts caused by the spikes.

    Wednesday, February 08, 2006

    'peN' philosophy

    I had this niggling question in my mind for the past two days.Its about one of my colleagues who recently got married(some 20 days back).An year back, they met each other during their training days and had fallen in love. Before marriage this guy always used to be with her during lunch and other tea breaks. Always followed her to the the lobby,cafeteria etc.,A couple of days back he pinged me and told me to call him before I go for my tea-break.At first I thought this was just one-off day just to catch up with me.But I was puzzled when it happened for the next two days.

    1. Has he lost interest so quickly.Appadi paatha kooda 'aasai aruvathu naal mogam muppathu naal'nu solli irukaangale.Its just 20 days after his marriage.The math logic didn't work out.

    2. Is it because he doesn't want him to be projected as a married guy, by sticking around with bachelor guys indulging in trivial chats.This too didn't sound convincing because it would have been an obvious choice to go around with married men to understand the intircacies of married life(well..err..I meant money management,time management,relationship management etc.,)

    Since the answers I thought and ones from other like-minded friend did not appeal to me, I put this question to a friend of mine who is married (and I assume that term by itself means 'tolerant' too) and doesn't mind answering silly questions asked by morons like me. He looked at me for a second and then took my pen out from my shirt pocket and started saying

    'Very simple. When this pen is kept out on a desk it becomes a common property,may be you are the current possessor,but anyone can claim it and own it.So you always have a watchful eye on it not wanting it to be claimed by anyone else. The moment you seize it and put it in your pocket it becomes your own pen and you assume yourself to be the owner of the pen.From then on you are not as watchful as you were before.'

    And that does explains everything.

    cha..ivalvau thaana..ippadi than etha pathi yosikanumo atha pathi yosikama entha entha vizhiyatha pathi overa yosika koodatho athai yellam thevai illama yosichu kevala pattu porathu.

    Monday, February 06, 2006

    Why Me..

    After reading the reviews for Rang De Basanti we decided to watch it someway or the other this weekend. I'm always apprehensive about booking tickets in the counter for a very silly reason. Everytime I had booked the ticket(2 nos) ,usually the guy in the counter gives me tickets for two corner seats in the theatre, though there are other seats available. Apparently he doesn't know who I will be watching it with. But somehow thinks that the other person is a girl.

    The trouble in sitting in a corner seat and watching a good movie is the obvious disturbance by the other corner seaters in front of you.Whatever be the movie these people have their own stories,romances and duets.So it is pretty difficult to watch the movie on the screen.:-)And thats why I usually dont take the responsibility of booking tickets.But this time it was thrust on me and I was told to get it delivered to my friend's house. So I thought of trying my luck in phone now.But I never knew there are things that can irritate me more than sitting in a corner seat and watching the movie.This is what happened.

    I found out one of the theatres showing RDB and called them.But to my dismay two guys from the theatre had picked up the call at the same time.
    Me : Hello
    Guy1: Hello
    Guy2: Hello
    Guy1: Adede..Sir Neenga vera eduthiteengala..Seri Naan Vechudiren
    Guy2: Seri pa..Saying this Guy2 also disconnected the line.I was trying to interfere between their talk to show my presence..But it dint help.Luckily next time I tried there was only one guy and I inquired about the availability of tickets.

    I was in a way surprised to find that the tickets were available for Saturday night show and immediately dialled the Home delivery number. I was annoyed when the automated voice I heard said that the cell phone has been switched off. I couldn't beleive this. We were badly in need of tickets and this guy has switched off his cell phone. I decided to call theatre up again and tell them about this.More irritating was the guy's answer when I asked him why is the cell phone switched off,'Athuku naan enna sir panna mudiyum. Saturday night show ticket irukku..Advance booking counterum galiyathan irukku.Neenga nerlaye vanthu ticket vangi konga.Atha vitutu home delivery number switch off panni irukangannu solreengale'.On hearing the first line of his answer I didn't want to talk to him and when I heard him telling me to come and book it directly I was totally provoked.But didn't want to pick an argument with him as I was in my office.Honestly I was expecting some kind of an answer advising me on some timings for calling the home delivery number.So this was totally unexpected.Is it very difficult to understand why would someone want to check if the home delivery option is available or not.If at all I can come to the theatre to book tickets why would I bother to talk to him about a cell phone that is switched off. My awful luck with reserving tickets to cinema still continues :-(.