Serena Williams: Was that really a foot fault???

Its US Open time. Has to be. Its raining here in New York and Serena Williams is on fire. Again. Two years after her famous ‘outburst’ she did it again last night. But was she at fault the first time around? Here is an exclusive footage back from 2009. Right behind the lines-woman. Same angle. Same point. You decide.

Rio de Janeiro: The City of God!

Favela on my way up the Corcovado

I have been following reports of the police crackdown on Rio’s drug gangs this past week and some of the images on the BBC website surely paint a completely different picture of the city than what I encountered during my trip.  I of course did not venture into any of the favelas (shantytowns built on mountain top overlooking the city and the South Atlantic) despite my humorous threat to do so when heading out of work in Sao Paulo.  Indian kid (not really a kid but kid sounds right when I type this), can’t speak português, travelling alone to Rio and threatening to walk into drug and crime infested favela! My Brazilian client contact laughed alright but something told me he wasn’t amused. I guess the fascination with Rio’s favelas has something to do with the fact that I absolutely loved “The City of God”.  It ranks very very high among my favorite gangster movies and is usually one of my first recommendations, if asked may I add.

Anyway like I was saying, I had a great time in Rio and at no point during my 3 day stay did safety cross my mind!!  I went everywhere, did late nights, took the subway, the bus and all I got was “Indiano?!!!” or “Slumdog milionário!!”.  Like Raj Koothrappali from 'The Big Bang Theory' would say “I was exotic!” and boy did I love it!! J  The touristy stuff was outstanding too.  The tram ride over the Lapas with me hanging out, the stunning sunset from Pao de Suca (Sugarloaf mountains), the colourful graffiti, the outstanding Maracana, the late night samba at Rio Scenarium, the chopp and bolinho de bacalhau on Copacabana, the unique Cathedral Metropolitana, the bohemian people and the majestic Christ the Redeemer (partly covered due to renovation) watching over us! Cidade Maravilhosa as they say it. City of God, I’ll add if you ask! 

Paint thy town...blue!

I was surfing through the pile of pics I accumulated during my Brazil trip and realize that there are quite a few gems in there.  There is of course the Rio trip which I haven’t documented for reasons unknown (Did I tell you I am lazy?).  And all the incredible graffiti. That was one of the things I remember the most. Shame I did not carry my camera around everywhere!! But here’s a small compilation from what I got.  

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Sachin Tendulkar: Why is he among the greatest Indians?

Sachin Tendulkar: Among the greatest Indians?

When I first created this blog (out of sheer boredom) I knew one thing for certain.  That I will someday write a glowing tribute to the “Special One”. Jose Mourinho may have taken on that title with aplomb in the world of football (or has he?) but for the millions of Indians around the  world there is only one who can be anointed King.  I can wait for Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar to announce his imminent retirement but then this post would become an “also ran”. (I am secretly worried about unfair comparisons (if any) between my silly post and the eloquent prose of the omnipresent Bengali sports writer (and South Indian statistician) who surely will be working overtime then!).  Besides can I even write when I am holding back my tears?  A lot of what is written below can be / and surely will be dismissed as irrational exuberance of a crazy fan but the truth is a lot of objective analysis (and imagination may I argue) has gone into what I am about the say.

To understand the almost God like worship of a mere mortal sportsman you need to understand the larger canvas that he operates in.  And no it’s not the green patch of land that you see on TV.  It’s the enigma called India. To understand Sachin you need to understand India! And what can I tell you about India that you don’t already know. Nothing. But something dawned on me that is relevant to explain the preposterous that I am about to utter.

Should we look at India as a country?  Or is it a continent masquerading as a country? As must be obvious by now I hold the not so obvious view. A country that is so diverse culturally, linguistically, geographically or hell even genetically that it’s a miracle it even came about in the first place.  (I am not about to thank East India company for putting it together because the conception of the “idea” of India was indigenous.)  If Europe is a continent how do we not qualify? We have more official languages (not dialects…actual separate languages with separate scripts) than the whole of Europe put together.  The Kashmiri and the Tamil are so different (culturally & physically) that they make the Germans and the English look like twins.  The Assamese farmer and the Rajasthani trader have zilch in common just like the Spaniards and the Poles. The food from Cochin is as different from the fare that you get in Delhi as Athens and Milan! I can go on but you get the idea. I think. We have magnificently pulled together thus far despite separatist issues which I don’t like to ignore personally but will put aside for the sake of this post. In this canvas of a billion plus diversity operates our superhero. 

Only four other Indians (in my humble opinion) have had a greater influence on the collective consciousness of the Indian mind. Buddha, Ashok, Akbar and Gandhi.  The first, who at his prime united vast swathes of this land by his simplistic yet powerful concepts on living. The next two, rulers who made first attempts at creating a country and establish rules that contributed significantly to what we know today as our constitution. And the last of course the Mahatma who despite skepticism (which shocking and fashionably has carried on till this day) saw us through the last hurdle and did it in some style.  But how can I dare forget countless other greats (scholars, politicians, freedom fighters, artists included) of centuries, decades and generations ago and pick a cricketer to come bat at number 5 in my fantasy list of great Indians?  One let’s admit it’s an endless debate. Two a lot of the others have had great influence over their chosen fields or specific regions but haven’t occupied the same mind space (in a favorable sense of the word of course) across India as the ones I have listed above.  Three we need and deserve a post independence icon. And nobody let’s face it has collectively made us as proud  as this Mumbaikar over the last 60 years.  And as many number of times.  Unlike even 20 years ago where large parts of the country hadn’t fallen to the spell of cricket (and overdose of information) now, thanks to television, it would be impossible for anyone in South Asia (and the rest of the cricketing world) to not have heard the name TENDULKAR. A vast majority will willingly like to be categorized as devotees.  Yours truly included.  Amen.   

P.S: I have in the past jokingly (maybe even seriously) told some of my western colleagues who show interest in travelling to India “If you are ever in trouble say ‘Cricket is my religion, Sachin is my god’. And then say ‘Help’. You will do just fine”.  

Luke's Law of Team Strength!!

11 is never equivalent to 11 in sports. Its either 12 or 10 depending on the 11th jackass you pick!!!

Yuck???

Octopus soup anyone?

I have been travelling on work for a few years now, usually on short term assignments with fellow colleagues from India!  And as is typical for Indian work colleagues we don’t really bond well (or pretend at least) unless we have had our share of ‘arguments’.  I have had numerous ones on topics ranging from presidential campaigns to sports teams, from the state of the economy to the more serious issues of our times like who’s hotter between Scarlet Johansson and Megan Fox? Scarlett of course! But no other topic of argument has come up as often as the great debate on Vegetarian vs. Non Vegetarian food.

Now this is a topic of discussion that has been fought out passionately across the length and breadth of our county (and others considering we pretty much inhabit every part of the world now!) and for good reason.  No other country that I know of has such a high percentage of vegetarians. A fairly reliable (or contentious?) free online encyclopedia (got it yet?) tells me that as much as 31% of Indians are vegetarians!!  No they don’t eat ANY meat, poultry, fish, seafood or in most cases even eggs. Onions and garlic is also taboo among the Jains who number as much as 4.2 million followers.   It’s only natural that when you travel abroad (for the record I have absolutely no problems) where a spicy vegan meal is “challenging” to find, to say the least, you end up hearing all kinds of arguments for vegetarianism. (Partly out of frustration I suspect J). Arguments range from vegetarianism being the healthier choice to cruelty to animals.  But the one argument that is hard to “bite” is “My Choice”. 

Is it really your free choice or is it based on conditioning? Just like mine may I add before you jump to the conclusion that I have an agenda!  The “free choice” argument doesn’t really fly.  The reason I don’t eat lizards today is because I have grown up in a culture which finds eating lizards “gross” and distasteful!!  If I were born and brought up in some part of China I might quite relish the thought of “sundried spicy lizard ” or whatever its equivalent is!!  Same rule applies to vast majority of Indian vegetarians. The only reason they don’t eat meat or fish is because it’s not acceptable in their socio-religious environment. They find chicken, lamb, beef or even the delightfully tasty pomfrets just as “gross” as I find eating lizards. In the perfect world we would have a fully understanding (in this scenario that would be ‘taste’ I guess) of all our choices and our choices would not be as influenced as it is today by where and which families we are born into! But obviously it doesn’t work that way.  Unless you are the guy from Man vs. Food, our choices for the most parts have been made before we were born and we just find rationalizations to justify those choices. With a deeper understanding of factors that drive my choices (or the lack of it) I am ready to experiment. Frog Legs? Sure. Lizards? Ehh…not sure if it’s healthy J

Crushed cans and hope!

Big sporting events are when bloggers come alive.  I must say I had plans to blog about my ‘perspective’ on Vuvuzelas, Larissa and some football this past World Cup but as I mentioned in my previous post, work took an unlikely precedent over following sports!!! And YES I plan to start my next few posts complaining  about the lack of work life balance only coz this blog is still anonymous and its highly unlikely that my boss will stumble upon this!! J  Anyway, the good part about work right now is travel. And the opportunity to experience something special if you keep you eyes and ears open.  Here I was in the middle of 100000 colorful Dutch fans in Amsterdam watching the World Cup finals. The overwhelming smell of weed. The pile of crushed beer cans. And hope.  

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