Light House in Marseille, France

One interview: different reflections

Some body suggested to watch recent AAP KI ADALAT's episode on Raj Thakre. Apparently it was awesome. The way he was blunt and clear in his views made an impact on many people including the anchor who appreciated this answers at many instances. It was more evident, when a girl from the crowd called Raj's views inspiring ( and even looked little inspired). I have been a big fan of Raj Thakre for some time, if not for any good reason, at least for his oratory skills. He is one of the best speakers in India at the moment. I think, I will improvise on my words and call him the best speaker I have heard in long-long time. He speaks with proof in hands, talk straight and blunt and has a passion in his words which no wonder attracts crowd in millions. If you start listening his speeches, you can't stop in between and you don't want him to stop. The experience has always been exhilarating. The only issue is all his speeches have been in Marathi language which makes it cut off to all other people who doesn't understand Marathi. This has a negative impact that many a times, his words have been construed and presented in odd manner making much different meaning than what he intended to convey. And since his speeches are straight and blunt, he has often been portrayed negatively.

In this context, his recent  visit to Aap ki Adalat's new episode was a relief. Since, here, he talked in Hindi, he put his views on many of the issues in words which now can be understood by many people of India. 

 Apparently, it helped in making his image a little better than earlier. While watching the video, I came across two other of his interviews recently taken by Arnab Goswami by Times now and by Rajdeep Sardesai for IBN.

What really made me think is the way Raj put his points in the same way across all the three interviews. He was consistent in his points (including the examples and puns). And it also didn't seemed rehearsed.

What put me off is the way Arnab and Rajdeep were stuck with the questions and the way they kept repeating the same questions again and again. The worst one was by Arnab, who really made me wonder, how on earth has he reached to such big heights to run a channel on his shoulders. He was pathetic. He looked unprepared with no matter to discuss with Raj Thakre and so circled around one question for almost 20 minutes. This changed only after Raj warned him to move over to some other topic.

Rajdeep was no different. Only thing is Raj bluntly said no to answer his repeated questions and so he had to move to other questions which again were not taking the interview in any good direction.

In comparison, Aap ki Adalat was a much better show where he had a variety of allegations to answer to and even Raj didn't appeared angry as he looked at times in other 2 interviews.

After viewing these videos, coincidentally, I came across an interview of Rak Thakre on Z24TAAS  a Marathi channel. Though, it started on the same note as other three interviews, where once again Raj answered in the same fashion as earlier. But here, something different did happened. Raj was asked about his views on development, his views to include Reliance in the development of Godapark in Nashik, his views on privatisation etc, and his views did made some sense which needless to say were very clear and blunt. Unfortunately, I could not find its video on YOUTUBE  to share here.

All in all, one thing is clear to me that the media in our country is irresponsible and apparently haven't understood the meaning of strength they have with them. As a result, some are misusing it while others can not make the best of the opportunities they get. The end result: confusion and chaos in the public. 

Vegetarian Food delight at bluewhaleecotourism, Cheul, Alibagh, Maharashtra, India

Vegetarian food delight at  bluewhaleecotourism, a fantastic spot in a small village Cheul near Alibagh, Maharashtra, India. A place famous for a huge baby blue whale skeleton.

IPL -7

So, an year has passed and we are back to new season of Indian Premier League (IPL).

If you are looking for the schedule of matches, you can find it here

It seems, IPL has completed one complete round and has returned at the point from where it started. To begin with, IPL had 8 teams, which changed to 10 for one of the season, then reduced to 9 in the last season and once again it has 8 teams participating. The exiting teams are from Kochi and Pune. Pune's exit has relieved me. Now I won't be in dilemma whether to support Mumbai or Pune.

Most of the players I knew are out of the league now. Even Bret Lee went unsold this time. That makes little less interesting for me. Virat Kohli is the new hero of Cricket. Off-course he is fantastic, he can not cast spell on me (much older than him), as Tendular or Ganguly did some 15-20 years back.

IPL is also marred by so many controversies, which again makes it worth avoiding for some. When even the owners of the team seem to be involved in the controversies, credibility is bound to go down.

But in spite of these I prefer IPL for many which I have already discussed earlier through this blog. It gives one last opportunity to fading out players like Sehwag. It gives opportunities to upcoming players like Sanju Samson. It helps removing unwanted players like Chandila who basically play for money and not for the love of the game. It helps remove bad blood among players of different countries. (Off-course it at times creates one among players of the same team, read: Gambhir Vs Kohli).

What I appreciate most is the fact that it diminishes the line of country wise division among players. I think there is a need to remove the idea of one country playing against another. I think there is a need to go beyond that give more importance to the passion of the game.

I keep hearing from almost all commentators and players saying, "India-Pakistan match is a very crucial match which neither of the team would like to loose. All other matches apart, this is one match they want to win". Watch any India-Pakistan match and you will hear words on these lines. Same is the case with Australia-England match. Whether it is Ashes cup or any other match between these two teams. You will never hear such words for India-WestIndies, India-Newzeland match. Is it because of some history of exciting battle between two players like Sachin Tendulkar vs Shane Warne? It surely is not. 

Recently, I watched India-Pakistan 20: 20 match as well as India-Pakistan match in Asia Cup. Both the matches had commentators as well as some players uttering words like this is the most important match which they can not loose at any other cost. Doesn't matter if they loose all other matches, but not this one.

Interesting thing is nobody asks question like Why? and no body tries to answer it even if not asked.

Why this match is so important to win?

All I can understand is there is lot of history between the two countries, and the two countries try to look at this match as a representative of those wars, battles and unexplainable activities which they want to take revenge of. And that's why all the players are so full of passion and pride that they make this match a question of life and death. This is what makes me repel away from such country wise matches. The bad blood flowing here is between the two countries while the bad blood flowing in IPL matches is between two players. There is a big difference between the two. 

Even if you are supporting Mumbai Indians, but if Yusuf Pathan hits long sixes for KKR, you appreciate it. No matter which team you are supporting, you don't want Gayle to get out cheaply, because that will take all the interest out of the match for which you are watching. But, same can not be said about the country vs country matches. Most of the Indians/Pakistanis want their team to win the match because of the national pride and the fact that they can not accept defeat from Pakistanis/Indians with open heart. This is a feeling which really makes IPL preferred over Country vs Country matches for me.

Off-course this  feeling has subsided in recent years, but you need to give  a big  credit to events like IPL for that. So, when I hear words like "This match is the most important one for India against Pakistan", it doesn't resonate with me. For me, Pakistan is as good as South Africa, Srilanka, West Indies. I am trying to understand what these players and commentators try to communicate while uttering these words.

The Red Fort, New Delhi

Heartbleed bug

This word has been making rounds for last few days. While most of us are still unaware of this bug, some of us have just read about it.

Those some of us must be curious to know what exactly is this heartbleed bug all about. With my limited knowledge, I will put down what I could understand.

Picture taken from (http://www.edmsauce.com/2014/04/09/soundcloud-will-log-account-due-heartbleed-issue/)

To begin with, we need to understand the concept of SSL that represent Secure Socket Layer. In newer version it is called TLS (Transport Layer Security).All the information on internet is in the encrypted form to avoid any body stranger get access to the information. SSL/TLS is the way for this encryption. Now, OpenSSL is one such open source software to implement SSL encryption. It is widely used by many websites on the internet. This software has been revealed to have the bug "Heartbleed" which makes the important data including username, password, bank details and many such important information  of the users available to the hacker. So, if the bank or company website is follwoing OpenSSL for data encryption, your information, your web history all is available to the hacker. 

This fact was recently revealed by two different sources on the same day. A Security firm named Codenomicon and a Google researcher name " Neel Mehta" separately revealed this lacuna but coincidentely on the same day.

Apparently the bug should be called "CVE-2014-0160" based on the line on which the bug was found, but it is given a more general name "Heartbleed" to make it popular and spread awareness faster among people about it. There is an extension of the software OpenSSL called "Heartbeat" which allows the connections to be kept open even if there is no data transfer taking place between two connections. Based on this concept, the name "Heartbleed" is given which kind of try to indicate that some unexpected data is bleeding out with out anybody's information through these open connections.

Can we avoid this leaking of information? Apparently not. If we change passwords etc in coming days, still it is of no use because untill the bug in the OpenSSL is not taken care of. Luckily, most of the banks  do not use this OpenSSL for encryption, so there are chances that your bank account details are safe with the bank.

You can check whether your sites are safe or not by visiting these sites LastPass or Qualys. Apparently Gmail was using OpenSSL and it is advised that you change your passowords. 

All of the information presented here is taken from http://www.cnet.com/news/heartbleed-bug-what-you-need-to-know-faq/ site. Refer this site to understand the bug in more details.

Streets of Geneva, Switzerland

How I Met Your Mother - is over

Those who keep track of the sitcom "How I Met Your Mother" might be little disheartened that it is over.

Yesterday I watched the last two back to back episodes. Surprisingly these two episodes did not created that interest which is a signature of HIMYM's each and every other episode. It was kind of evident, that they some how tried to wrap it up. Apparently, the producers and directors already had the end in the mind, but they falter in arriving at that situation. It seemed like little disconnected.

Although, through one of the questions of Ted's son, it was somehow revealed that the story was not actually about how he met their mother, but it was kind of building up of story to finally lead Ted to Robin for one last time.

Those, who haven't followed this sitcom probably won't understand anything, but those who have, would understand what I mean to say.

I was little disappointed with the way the story ended and it was kind of difficult to digest all of them grown up. Seems like wrapping up such successful sitcoms is always difficult. I found the same with other sitcom like "Friends".

But all in all, it was one of the most hilarious sitcoms, I have watch. Best part was any of its episodes were unpredictable. Those who wrote those episodes have really done a commendable job. You couldn't expect what will be served in today's episode. While watching it, you might feel what exactly is happening in the episode and might not make any sense, but then some how towards the end of the episode everything will synchronize. And in case it doesn't, then was also well taken care of by pointing out that the story teller don't exactly remembers.

I remember one such episode where Lily is pregnant and Barney kind of make fun of her, but saves her also. The whole episode was about how Ted is trying to recollect the events and finally gets the whole story right.

Then there were episodes with mention of some Goat in the apartment and how it made no sense.

HIMYM showed that you actually don't need a great story to make people laugh. It succeeded in creating laugh riots for nine consecutive years.

I think all the actors in the sitcom were highly benefited. We have seen Lily, Marshall, Robin and Barney playing some big roles even in Hollywood movies, except for Ted around who the whole story revolves around. At least I did not come across any of this other work than HIMYM as yet.

It will be difficult to create the same magic again, but then, same was said when "FRIENDS" had ended.