Future of indian sports and Jodhaa Akbar ...

Firstly, sorry for this weird title .. but couldn't think of anything else ... if anyone gets some better ideas after reading the post ... please feel free to suggest ...

Secondly, I had penned down the below post on 19 Jan 2008 (the day when India won the Test match at WACA); just couldn't put it on the blog earlier. Many (not that i have many readers :)) will find this post totally out of context or even un-apprehend-able (for yaa all, check out my take on Jodhaa Akbar in the P.S. note) ... but I am sure that die hard cricket/tennis fans will be able to relive the exact feeling that i wanted to convey from this post a month back ...

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Today (that's 19 Jan 2008)... the present that the Indian cricket team has given to all us cricket fanatics is just inimitable ... am sure that there would have been many moms/grand moms etc asking "Su thayu ???" (for non gujjus, this translates to "what happened ???") when their kids must have simply started screaming their lungs out and dancing too... when R P Singh's yorker uprooted Shaun Taits off stump ...

And for once, I was delighted with Star (Hindi) News creativity ... they were airing a nice slide show of snaps from this memorable win with the background score of Lagaan's "Chale Chalo" ... and when the line "Toot Gayee jo ungli utthi ... " came, Ricky Ponting's snap, the one where he had raised his finger at SCG to (incorrectly, cheatingly, unsportsman likely) pronounce Saurav as OUT, was shown ... and this moment surely got me smirking with pride...

And yes ... Ek aur Karega ???? this simple question of Kumble to Ishant Sharma will surely become a lingo close to all cricket lovers for years and years (i think even generations) to come ...

and also today, 19 Jan 2008 saw two Indian stellar performances down under ... one at the WACA ended up on the winning side and other at Melbourne sadly on the losing end ... I am talking about Ishant Sharma and Sania Mirza ... somehow i found a lot of similarities between the contests that they were having ..

---> both were fighting out against the best in the business ... one vs ponting (in particular) & other vs Venus Williams ...
---> both are young and inexperienced
---> both gave their rivals a torrid time. Even though Sania ended up losing the game; this was one of the hard fought win for Venus. (Believe me, I had a tough time shuttling between the tennis and the cricket match; Sania was playing awesome tennis)

Today gave a satisfying feeling about the future of Indian Sports ... just hope that these talents are groomed properly ... AMEN !!!

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P.S.: saw Jodhaa Akbar yesterday night; it’s an okay movie, magnificent sets, costumes and all, great direction/cinematography for sure ... but somehow i didn’t find anything great that would justify the rave reviews it is getting on all sites. And I am sure most of you all will find this berry funny ... but I enjoyed watching Rohit Jugraj's SuperStar (the one in which Kunal Khemu plays a double role) more than Jodhaa Akbar ...

Just like that ...

It might seem that I am getting obsessed with cartoon strips of late :) ... but this one presents predicament of thousands in a plain simple sentence.


BTW this ones from "Just Like That" featured in today's TOI.

Saddened by today's Media ...

Not that this is something new or unexpected ... but when you look at the articles and footage and the melodrama created after just one sentence of Zaheer Khan in an interview to a news channel; you are forced to smirk at the desperate measures that media are taking to thrive in today's throat cutting competition ... and reinforces the business strategy of any field ... Give more of what sells rather than what makes sense !!!

Any of you sensible guys out there who must have got a chance to see the interview .. can easily figure out that it was just an innocent sentence which said .."Not really ... I was not tired as such ..." (What do u expect him to answer a question "Were you Tired???" ... do you expect him to say that "Yea .. I was dead tired !!!") ... and voila ... the media got fodder for their cricket gossip ... with headlines "Zaheer contradicts Dravid", "Zaheer takes on Dravid", "Zaheer's disclosure brings more embarrassment for Dravid", "Zaheer's beamer to Dravid", "Zaheers bouncer: I was ready for follow on" ... whereas in the interview Zak also followed up his comment saying that the follow-on was a team decision and he definitely went with the team decision ... never during his interview does one get the feeling that he opposed Dravid's decision of not enforcing the follow on ...

But just imagine what the number of people who wouldn't have seen the interview; will start thinking after reading/seeing all these about ZK as a team man?? Many will think that just one good performance has gone to his head ... Wat repercussions will this have on Zaks and RD's working relationship???

I do understand the competitiveness of today’s media due to which each one trying to come up with something that can lure in audience ... but how I and million others just wish that they would spend the same amount of time, enthusiasm and resources and focus on some REAL news !!!!

P.S: Having said this I would like to duly mention that our media has been doing a lot of nice, extreme and real journalism too .. which has been a triggering force for lot of improvements nation wide ... but just that all of them give more than required footage to such gossips .. which is what gets annoying at times ... you are surfing the news channels to get some news and you are bombarded with BREAKING news like these :-( well ... rather than annoying it makes me sad ...