Blame game? To whom?

I am a huge sport buff. Can watch or follow anything from Snooker to Golf but not an exception because it all started with Cricket. Test series win over England and West Indies in seventies worked as a power booster for Indian Test team. Then fifty over format enter the scenario with Carry Packer series. Indian team was a mere spectator during 1975 and 1979 world Cup (Prudential Cup). Only thing I can remember from 1975 is Gavaskar’s 36 not out from 60 over (amazing). 1979 world cup was no better than previous one. Then came 1983, India survived group stages, thanks to 175 by Captain Kapil Dev. Semifinal, India beat England, there was a gem of innings played by Sandip Patil. Finally the judgment day, 1983, 25 June, India to play West Indies, winner of previous two World Cup. Something like David verses Goliath. I was in Mumbai and staying in I.I.T. India bundled out with 183 runs. Sometime during West Indies innings, live telecast interrupted. Before that I just able to glimpse a ball that bowled Gordon Grinidge and bowled by Balwinder Singh Sandhu, it was one of the best in-swinger I ever seen. When the live telecast revived by then Vivian Richards already departed. Clive Lloyd injured batted with a runner and finally ended with Michael Holding, West Indies bundled out with 143 runs on the board. That win means India going to keep the Prudential Cup forever. That was a huge power booster for Indian Cricket and today they are one of the top three team in the world.

Other sport that fascinated me is football, early days it was East Bengal and Mohan Bagan, slowly and steadily I fall in love with this game specially club football from England, Spain and Italy. In those days I was backing Liverpool Football Club but I do not know somewhere in the 1990’s I started following Manchester United and still I am loyal to them. Back home, Indian football is not in good shape. Why the football never got a power booster? When 1950 Indian football team qualified for World cup, shame that they never able to participate because that time the team used to play without shoe, in bare foot and it was against the rule and guidelines laid by FIFA. Is our sport ministry was that poor? It was not a question of wining but by playing World Cup in Brazil along with South American and Europeans giants would have been a power booster itself and our football also would have walk in the same path along with cricket. Jarnail Singh, P.K. Banerjee, Chuni Goswami (played cricket and football), Thangaraj etc. were the few Indian football greats. Given chance they would have been conquered the world too.

With football world Cup going on in South Africa, I just wonder if in future we will going to have a team like 1950’s, of course we do not expect a bare footed dare devils like 1950’s, because kits will be no problems any more.

Last comment, until now this is the worst world cup (game and skill wise) I ever seen.

!!!Missing the power booster? Blame it on Rio? Excuse me why is Rio? Blame it on shoe or poverty!!!

Barren Warren? Nope! It is full of dead bodies

Thoughts are magical, we can move back and fro within a moment; even we do not know what will happen tomorrow. Last week memories took me back to 1984. I was in Dubai at that time. However, I was living a tension free life over there; still missed India and news from India. Televisions over there always full of news from Gulf countries, about civil war in Lebanon, USA and its policy, Russia and Israel. Israel? Obviously, while talking, you always preferred to mention your foes more often than your acquaintances. However, hardly there was anything about India, always preferred to give a miss to the news. Then, India was a country that provided them with all skilled and unskilled workers; no one imagined that it was a crouching tiger and going to explode one day. Often I used to walked to a near by supermarket to buy a newspaper, the paper I used to buy was ‘Gulf News`. I cannot deny that it was a quality newspaper. Anyhow, exactly end of 1984 two important news that I missed out and came to know exactly a couple of day after, it actually happened. Both were shocking incident Indira Gandhi’s assassination was on 31st October and then Bhopal Gas Tragedy on 3rd December.

Then the anti-sikh-riots, after Indira Gandhi’s assassination, was a horrible thing can happened. It was man made and do not want to name the bigwigs who played an important role into that riot. No body can prove anything against these people. I am here not for above incident but the incident took place on 3rd December, 1984, Bhopal gas tragedy.

Night of December 2–3, 1984, there was a leak of a deadly gas like methyl isocyanate (MIC) along with other toxins from the plant of Union Carbide, resulting in the exposure of over 500000 to 800000 people and since than almost 15000 to 16000 peoples died. Others effected by the gas, genetically.

Four years later of the said incident, mere $ 470 million given as compensation out of originally claimed $3.3 billion. Finally, 1991 victims got a miserable amount of the compensation.

Main culprit Warren Anderson was arrested but later released on bail by the Madhya Pradesh police and he flew out of the country, I am not here for any investigation, how, when by whom but all I know the coward left behind a score of dead bodies and helpless people. Twenty-five years, six months and 15 days passed by and pains are still same for the victims and the surviving family members. Nothing and almost nothing happened to those on duty, always ignorant about the condition of the stored deadly gases in Union carbide, and finally got away with two years of jail and that too a bailable one. Warren got away without any thing. Most funniest thing was Union Carbides smooth take over by another USA company known as Dow Chemical. Government policies and administration's work culture in India, seems everything chalta hai with the white skin.

!!!Warren Anderson, twenty-five years on and still living, call it sleep in peace (S.I.P) over thousand graveyards.!!!

The Softness around this ‘M’, yummy and softy.

After a few heartfelt topics, it is time for a little stroll around my memory lane. I always believe in destiny and you can call me a destiny child too. Today where I am and how I reached there I do not know but lately things happen to me is that finally able to say no to money. Most probably consider a biggest achievement until to date. My old client from Virginia kept knocking me since 26th December for a project, a dream project for anybody, but politely ignoring it. Once I was like a crazy bit surfing the net all the time and asking, no rather pleading for job to them. I also off loaded quite a bit of students to get myself a considerable free time. So, entering a new phase of my life, just relaxing and writing or expressing myself.

I considered myself among those rare breed, who have seen a computer specially in India from its crawling days. It was just mid eighties; we worked with PC-DOS and Gw-Basic, FORTRAN, PASCAL and COBOL. For our documentation and Spreadsheet needs, we used WordStar and Lotus123. Then enter the MS-DOS. We were least bother with the changes. We Indian always same, least bother about the software we are using, never bother about the amount of hard work gone to create a software or other creative things we just copy it and use it like it is our paternal property. Anyway, the MS-DOS was one of the first Operating System (OS), which was also one of the first software by Microsoft Corporation. Even person like me whose days spent around the computer was not much aware about the MS. Then we started with GUI software called Windows 1.0 and around that time one of my friend just returned from USA, told me that for documentation why not use Microsoft Word, I was using WordStar and WordPerfect. She gave me six 3½“size floppy with Microsoft Word 2. That was my first encounter with the software which today I used everyday and maybe hundred times. Until 1995 we were using x86 systems, but in 1995 there were lots of buzz around that we are getting a few new computer (Pentium 1) with colour monitor and 20G.B. hard disk for a new OS called Windows-95. Life, I mean our job was not as same as before, things changed every day from that point onwards. You cannot imagine the joy when we realized that instead of pressing your up-down or left-right key for uncounted numbers of time you could take your cursor to point just with a moving device call mouse. All these comfort started with GUI based OS, it was very relaxing.

However, it is not good for me, mean a person who like to take the challenge silently which thrown by this company known as MS. No, I am not talking about application packages like Microsoft Office., look at other beautiful software which they just hurling at us. I am waiting for Visual studio-10, off-course in this case they have a tough competition from SUN Micro System.

So, Bill Gates, sir, I belongs to the generations those started without your MS touch but today I cannot live without it.

!!!This Gates is so huge, most probably whole universe can enter in it at one go!!!

Cashing the Crash

Two major disasters back to back within 10 days that was really a horrible experience. First, there was the Mangalore Air tragedy and then the man made accident of Jnaneswari Express. Both are same, victims are travelers either returning or going to home. When an air crash taken place, everyone including the aviation minister started blaming the pilot. Come on yar, they are also the victims and deserve sympathy.

In late nineties while going to my office my next-door neighbour’s husband told me “good news for you”. I was very surprised, I was in talking terms to my neighbour but hardly talk to her husband and wondering what good news he can give to me. Finally, he told me “there is a new train for Kolkata; it is a super deluxe express with full AC and food included in the fare itself”. Therefore, Gyaneshwari or Jnaneswari bring little memory back to me. When it started, it was full AC but gradually it reduced to a normal Express train like Gitanjali. I was happy and was looking forward to the journey, but never made it. Always traveled by Gitanjali or Mumbai Howrah Express but finally 2005 when I went to Mumbai that was the time I traveled by this train. It was no more the train as it was; I mean it was change to normal express train like other lots; still it was better than the lot. It named after Great Maharashtrian 13th century saint Jnaneshwara.

The politics in West Bengal is getting murkier by day. With small municipality election around the scenario in Kolkata and surrounding area is worst than ever. Every day there are two to three political meeting going right down under your nose and so much noise pollution is created by these small time politicos can not describe it. During my life I have been to many places including Jamshedpur, then it was under Bihar and now Jharkhand, I never seen this kind of noise in my life. Last Loksabha general election was better than this one.

Now this days politician no more tell that what they can do for you or what they have done, instead they always try to find fault of the opposition even language they use is not fit for any ones ear. I do not know how these foul mouth politicians get or buy vote.

The most ugly and horrible side of this election came to a point cannot be explained. The mud slinging taking place among politicians using the Gyaneshwari Accident. Seems India became good platform for all kind of terrorism, beyond the boundary as well as inside too. What a gory scene, if things go this way one-day world will get larger as people will not move around as fear will grow larger within. Whole families with men, women and children perishing in a man made sabotage. All I can spare is my little prayer for the departed souls.

!!!Looking up, just wonder if the God still exists and if yes then why there is more break than make.!!!