Main hu Tufani!! Thums up

With Summer at the door steps, it is time for the new set of cold drink ads to hit our television. Recently, a big change took place, wherein the Salman Khan is replaced by today's heartthrob, Ranveer Singh. I watched the recent ad done by Ranveer Singh and some how I felt the absence of the persona revolving around Salman Khan. Of course, those ads of Salman were also no great, but somehow, Salman used to carry them on his shoulders very well. It was obviously unbelievable to see Salman standing on a truck carrying Thums up, which itself is hanging to a moving Helicopter. And all this stunt, just to drink a bottle of Thums up. But, with Salman in the ad, it was bearable. Back then, we made comments about those ads to be illogical, funny and what not. But, now when a similar stunt filled Thums up ad is released, with Ranveer replacing Salman, it looked foolish. It could be a generation gap issue. We grew up with Salman doing all such ads, while Ranveer is a next generation guy for us. He is likeable to the next generation not us. So, just like any foolish stunt of Salman was acceptable to our generation, similar foolish stunts will be acceptable to the next generation. The way we connected to Salman, Ranveer connect to the next generation. Considering the next generation as the potential market, of course, replacing Salman by Ranveer is the right way to go ahead. Enjoy the ad and get Toofani!!!

VC:ThumsUpOfficial

Kulhad Chai @Mumbai airport

Enjoy a warm home made type Chai served in Kulhad at the Mumbai airport. Every sip of the tea gives refreshing feeling and awakens you out of boring, sleepy waits of early morning boarding flights.

Kohli Vs Smith

A very long awaited cricket series is about to begin in a couple of days. Not many competitors make a series interesting as Australia does. Saurav Ganguly said few days, "Virat Kohli is yet to be tested as Captain." While he puts foreign tours to Australia, England, South Africa as the criteria to his real tests, this Australia tour to India, can be one of the biggest barrier to cross for Kohli to prove his mettle.

India Australia series is always seen as competition not just between teams, but also at individual level. Whether it Gavaskar-Border, Tendulkar-Warne, Ganguly-Waugh, Harbhajan-Simond, Zaheer-Gilchrist or any other, but such combinations keep making headlines. The two teams also has a history of few consistent and/or successful captains. These captains have left milestones on their way. And the rivalry between these captains became the face value of the series. From Australian side, while few names like Border, Gilchrist, Ponting, Clarke made it bigger for the team, the Indian counterparts stood tall with names of Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Sachin, Ganguly, Dravid, Kumble  and Dhoni.  The stories of how Gavaskar almost made his team to quit series because of bad umpiring, and how Ganguly made  Waugh wait for the toss, to how Kumble strongly showed disappointment in press over the attitude of Australian cricket and supporting umpiring, all of them attempted to make this rivalry look bigger and sold the series to the viewers. At times, people were more interested in knowing, who said what, rather than knowing the scores and performances of the player.

With the rise of Kohli to captains position for the Indian team and a similar rise of Steve Smith at the Australian helm is possibly gearing up for similar long lasting rivalry for the two teams. Both the caprains have reached the peak point at an early stage of their career. The age is on their side. To add to that, they don't seem to find any competitor in near future from their own team. Both the Captains are fearless, read to take on the rival team at any venue. While Smith has supported sledging as an aggressive move, Kohli is mostly seen on the ground with that attitude. Still if compared, Kohli seem to be more stabilized in his captaincy, while Smith probably is still trying to get hold of his team. If he manages to do that soon as Ponting did back in his time, we can witness one more successful rival captain combination emerging in coming years.

School Prayer

Recently, I visited my school after a gap of almost 24 years. It so happened that for a work related reason, I had to visit Bhopal for a couple of days. Now, I spent my childhood in Bhopal. All the schooling done there. Bhopal being my father's karmbhoomi only, we shifted from the place once he retired. It was way back in 1993. After that, I never got chance to visit the place. So, once this opportunity arrived, I made plans to revisit all the places, which now exist only in my memories. Back then, digital memory making was not common like today. So, we pretty much have all the memories in our minds. I took a chance to visit my school. 

Luckily, I reached just in time for the prayer to begin. Now, I don't remember what prayer we used to sing and how we used to sing. Being a part of prayer singing is different. If it is hot weather and you have to stand under the Sun, you want to get over this prayer quickly. But if it is cold, you want to linger around little longer to stand under the Sun. For few, it used to be the time to initiate new pranks, but for some, it was a time to really offer a prayer from the heart. This time, when I attended the prayer, I was not a student, but just a listener.

I was really surprised, that such a big crowd, when sing the prayer in chorus, it really sounds beautiful. In fact, I could distinctly make out even the slight variations in the tune, which make it melodious. I couldn't resist from recording the complete prayer, and now I am not able to resist to share the same with you.

This is one of the best experiences of listening Vande Matram. Very beautifully rendition. Of course, you can see, some kids having fun during the prayer time, but just look a little deeper and few kids with eyes closed and singing prayer with complete concentration would also be observed. I really commend such a big task done by the teachers in bringing all the kids of this big crowd to get in sync.

Really,it is true, those were the best days of our life.

Shadow follower

Doomsday clock and Donald Trump

  

 The advent of Donald Trump as the 45th President of USA has really shaken the earth. As soon as he arrived, he has started taking decisions on the lines of what he had mentioned during the elections. Whether it is regarding the banning of immigrants from seven Muslim countries or bringing in restrictions and new norms on the issue of H1B visa, he is taking the whole world on a ride. To add to that, his way of thinking towards the scientific community has started creating a panic among all the scientists. Probably, this panic somehow appeared in the recently defined new time of the Doomsday clock.

I am pretty sure, most of the people had never of this clock, which kind of predicts our proximity to a possible catastrophic destruction.It considers all the possible conditions which may effect the human kind and depending on the threats from all such conditions, it is set to a time closing the mid night time of 12 o'clock. Here, the mid night time of 12 is considered as the time of that catastrophic destruction, and depending on the current situation, it is set to a time approaching this midnight time. This clock originally started in 1947 by the members of the bulletin of the atomic structures, wanted to use this clock to suggest a probable nuclear war. For example, the clock was set closest i.e. just 2 minutes to the mid night time in 1953, where a probable nuclear war threat appeared high because of the successful test of the thermonuclear device by the Soviet Union. It showed a lowered threat of any such nuclear war in 1991 by setting the clock to 17 minutes to mid night, when a treaty called START I to reduce the arms stock was signed between USA and soviet union.

Beginning with the intention to portray the threat of nuclear war, slowly, this doomsday clock started considering other parameters like climatic changes or some new adventurous  discoveries in the field of biological or chemical field, which may inflict irreparable damage to the human kind.

This year, this doomsday clock is set second next closest to the midnight time, i.e. at 2.30 minutes to the mid night. The triggering point here is the emerging Donald Trump as the president of the strongest nation on the earth. The scientists were already scared with all his unconventional way of threatening declarations made during the election period. The clock had already moved closer to mid night time, compared to earlier years. With his selection, the clock had to move a little more closer. 

Although, there doesn't seem to be any real threat hovering over our head, but as these scientists claim, it will be the way decisions being taken by the Trump government, not just regarding the nuclear weapons or strategies, but also his about maintaining the relations with different countries and guiding the path towards development, which will set the tone of the environment desirable by the human kind. 

Only the time has all the answers. What may seem as some abrupt decision by the Trump government, may probably end up as a right way to move ahead to answer the issues related to terrorism, financial imbalance and other issues. Lets wait and watch the changes in coming year. The next update of the Doomsday clock, will eventually indicate the direction of journey of human kind.

.

Jallikattu - a game changer !!

A lot has already been written about Jallikattu in past few days. When the topic came into discussion few days ago, I had, frankly speaking, overlooked it. But then, one day, I saw a big, no, not big, huge poster put up just in front of my window. Yes, here, in Mumbai, saying "We support Jallikattu". That point, I realized, how big this issue is going to be in coming few days. And that is exactly what happened.

               In coming days, I saw news of protest all across in support of this traditional game. Sooner, all Tamil actors jumped in to forey. The chief minister had to rush to Prime minister, Supreme court was in action. The strength of the protest was increasing day by day. Suddenly, one day, apparently it turned violent, Chennai was out of control. Then, news of burning cabs and all, by the policemen themselves, started making rounds. A result, as of now, apparently, a legislation has been passed by the Tamilnadu government to lift the the ban over Jallikattu, but still some Supreme court proceedings are in function. Basically, Jallikattu is on this year.

                    There are many such traditional games like Jallikattu, which have been banned over past few years. I am not really into this thread of news, but probably, Jallikattu was latest 2014-16 in this list of banned games. But unlike other games supporters, Jallikattu supporters did not accept it easily and came back very strongly this year to get the ban lifted. 

As I said, there are many traditional games on the same lines as Jaallikattu, which are facing the wrath of people considering them as animal cruelty. There is Kambala in Karnataka, where there is buffalo race taking place. On the same lines, Maharashtra has race organized for Ox.

          But, when I had hear about these bans being put, I keep wondering, why selectively some games are banned. For example, Ox race, buffalo race, Jallikattu are banned, but horse racing is going great. It is still allowed. These Oxes, buffaloes, bulls belong to the farmers to the extent of being their family members, but the horses are bred and bought only with the sole purpose of racing. While, these banned games used to take place during some festive occasions, that too in some remote villages, the horse racing take place almost regularly, that too as a business, and in city areas like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai. 

Another interesting and surprising thing I realized last year during Olympics is there are games solely related to horses. How well are those horses tamed !! These horses are made to dance (with or without their wish, we do not know) on some musical piece ( of course the skill is of the jockey). This makes me wonder, why couldn't PETA reach on to these urban venues to get horse racing and other such games banned, while they successfully managed to bring ban on the traditional games.

I am not pro- or against traditional games. All I am saying is, make similar rules for every one. Let economics not govern the future of some games. Traditional games are banned pointing at cruelty on animals, but games like horse racing are never discussed, because lot of money is involved in it. This intrigues me

I tried to read a bit about Jallikattu. One of the most informative material, I received here. Seems, there is lot of logical reasoning put in behind this game. First and foremost, to improve is to improve and retain the original breeds of the type. As I read, the number of original breeds of cow has been reduced from 130 to 35 in last many years. One of the reasons is, no attempts have been made to retain those breeds. In addition, because of cross breeding with European cows, other breeds yielding more milk than original breeds are taking over the market. The hidden aspect, which probably is now getting revealed is the introduction of A1 type milk in India, which never was present here. Still unrevealed completely, but some protein structures of these A1 type contain an amino acid moiety releasing morphine type product in the blood stream, a well known drug molecule. If some how it is confirmed, that this  A1 type milk has side effects, then all the white revolution we are feeling proud of, will come back to us, haunting for the life time.

To some extent, there is  a possibility of animal cruelty in such games. Probably the dynamics of the game is dangerous for both the bull as well as the men,trying to tame the animal. As Kamal Hassan suggested, rather than banning the game and stopping the long tradition suddenly, you regulate the game and make attempt to make it safer. I would give example of Dahi handi in Maharashtra. Its a game, where a huge human pyramid is made to break  a pot tied at a height. Earlier, people used to make almost 9-storied human pyramid with a very small kid at the top. But in last few years, efforts have been taken to regulate this game. Now, it is an adventurous sport, restricted for adults with minimum age of participation 18, plus a restriction on the height of pyramid to be made. In between, the game had acquired the phase of political ambition, but now, it seems to be returning back to the nature of original game, with the intent, it was started.
I believe similar efforts should be taken while considering all the sports of adventurous nature and PETA should rather concentrate towards stopping cruelty on different horses, who have now a days converted to meager source of enjoyment for few rich people around.