| Manchester United: Champions of Europe :) |
[May. 22nd, 2008|01:15 pm] |
For a football lover, last night's European Champions League final was an absolute treat. Of course, if like me, you're a die-hard supporter of one of the finalists, it was heart-stopping stuff! Moscow '08 will rank with the other great European Cup finals - Istanbul '05 when Liverpool pulled off the mother of all comebacks and '99 when Manchester United scored twice in extra-time to beat Bayern Munich.
So I was drained but delirious when Manchester United goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar saved a penalty in sudden death from Chelsea's Nicolas Anelka, clinching the trophy for United - fifty years after the Munich air crash that claimed eight of "Busby's babes" and forty years after one of the crash survivors, Sir Bobby Charlton led them to their first European Cup triumph.( Read more... ) |
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| On the Olympic Torch's ominous arrival in New Delhi |
[Apr. 9th, 2008|05:36 pm] |
I will unfortunately not be in New Delhi on 17th April, when the Olympic torch is scheduled to pass through the Indian capital. I have a strong feeling though, that it will invite a lot more trouble on it's relay around India Gate than it has thus far, in other cities around the world - in Paris, London, etc. The Olympic torch relay has already been an unmitigated disaster for China in publicity / diplomatic terms, and I think the relay through India will attract the most negative publicity. ( Read more... ) |
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| O Jerusalem! |
[Mar. 28th, 2008|02:52 pm] |
I've been fascinated by the Arab-Israeli conflict ever since I read "O Jerusalem" by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre as a high-school student in Bangalore. Next month, I will finally have the opportunity to visit Israel and the city of Jerusalem, when I travel to Jordan, Israel, Egypt and Palestine - or rather, what many hope will one day become the independent state of Palestine.
This has been in the works for over a year now and I was thrilled when my mother finally agreed to sign up for a Holy Land tour which takes us through various holy sites in Jordan, Israel and Egypt. The 10-day tour starts in Amman in Jordan, crosses the border into Israel to Nazareth and onwards to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. After around 4 days based out of Jerusalem, we cross the border by road into Egypt and spend a couple of days in Cairo and Alexandria. While the regular tourist highlights like swimming (or rather floating on!) the Dead Sea, visiting the Sphinx and Pyramids and a Nile cruise are included in the tour, I'm also looking forward to exploring the historic and contested city of Jerusalem, meeting some Israeli friends in Jerusalem and visiting the key Palestinian areas including Jericho and East Jerusalem - which Palestinians hope will one day be the capital of an independent Palestinian state. Given the volatile situation in the region, I hope we're nowhere near any of the rockets / crossfire that the Israelis and Hamas keep exchanging :) |
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| Dhaka Diary 4: Adventures in Chittagong, Cox's Bazar and the island of Moheshkhali |
[Mar. 14th, 2008|03:25 pm] |
'Dhaka diary' is a bit of a misnomer for this entry because it chronicles my first trip outside of Dhaka, to the bustling port city of Chittagong and then further south to Cox's Bazar beach (purportedly the world's longest beach!) and the island of Moheshkhali, near the border with Burma (Myanmar). The trip was a breath of fresh air (literally!) and though the beach was an anticlimax, the trip had its share of thrills and scares - including a terrifying train ride, an outbreak of bird flu in the country, meeting some militant trade union sorts and a shaky boat ride across the sea to the island of Moheshkali, off Bangladesh's cyclone-hit coast.
( Chittagong: Living to tell the tale )
( Cox's Bazar beach: The *strangest* beach I've ever been to! )
( Adventures on the island of Moheshkhali ) |
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| India's Jerry Mcguires |
[Feb. 22nd, 2008|04:35 pm] |
If I've been coming to office bleary-eyed of late, it's because the knock-out stage of the Champions League - arguably the most mouth-watering feast of football, barring the World Cup - has started. It unfortunately does often become a distraction at work too - with detailed analysis of the future of football (Pato, Benzema et al) becoming more of a draw than reading analysis of the future of India's aviation sector! Speaking of football feasts though, I was rather disgruntled to discover, that in our age of globalised media, I couldn't access a single cable channel in Bangladesh / India that was broadcasting the African Cup of Nations and had to instead make do with live internet commentary from the BBC and expert analysis from Adrian, my old friend from Zambia, who got to see the matches live on cable, in Holland.
But this post isn't one of my usual sports-fanatic ones; it's about some of my friends who are fanatical enough about sports to make it their careers and in the process transform the face of sports in India. Call them Jerry Mcguires or Mark McCormacks. For me, Indranil, Abhijeet, Anirban and Sameer were great chaps who I befriended during my AIESEC days and who over the course of a decade, have grown to be dear friends. They're all bright, driven guys who'd excel in any of the *regular* corporate jobs that attract bright, driven sorts. Instead they all chose to take the risk of creating (Anirban) and later joining (the other three) Globosport, a sports celebrity management firm that has now expanded into film celebrity management and setting up sports infrastructure. From that fateful encounter between Anirban and Indian tennis legend Mahesh Bhupathi that led to the genesis of the firm, they've come a long way. From signing on a young female tennis player called Sania Mirza who would go on to become the biggest female sporting sensation in the country, to bringing new ATP events to India like the Kingfisher Open and setting up tennis academies, they've contributed immensely to the development of a number of sports in India, that unlike the national obsession of cricket, would not have attracted those resources otherwise.
Over the years, I've been witness to their incredible journey and the huge risks they've taken, and it's been nothing short of phenomenal and inspirational. From Nil's entertaining accounts about the business to hosting Abhi in Chennai during his sales/BD visits, to watching them oversee the erection of stands at the CCI in Mumbai ahead of the inaugural Kingfisher Open, I've always been in awe of their boundless energy, passion for the sport and courage to take personal and business risks. They've set themselves even more ambitious goals for the future, and I'd bet a lot on them achieving them :) |
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| Dhaka Diary 3: Of Halloween, war stories and Ali Baba |
[Jan. 10th, 2008|03:43 pm] |
Happy New Year folks! After a wonderful Christmas and New Year's in Cochin and Bangalore, I've returned to Dhaka and am back to the serious business of chronicling my (mis)adventures! :)
So life in Dhaka has grown increasingly interesting with the passage of time. In a breakthrough akin to David Livingstone finding the Victoria Falls(!), I discovered nightlife in Dhaka - like the Vic Falls, Dhaka nightlife always *existed*, but it was just such a welcome surprise to finally stumble upon it! Otherwise, like the Loch Ness Monster, I was expecting it to remain a legend that I'd heard of, but never witnessed :)
I've also continued to have the pleasure of meeting many interesting sorts including some UN Peacekeepers, a few fellow intrepid expats, Bangladeshi fighter-jet pilots, oomen(that rare breed!) and a gentleman I shall call Ali Baba for reasons described later :)
( Tangential war and travel tales )
( Discovering the Holy Grail: Nightlife in Dhaka! )
( Encounter: Ali Baba ) |
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| Pondering the virtues(?) of single-sex education! |
[Nov. 29th, 2007|03:00 pm] |
I attended two co-educational schools upto 8th grade and subsequently attended an all-boys school as a boarder. It does merit mention though, that we did have *limited* interaction with our sister school - at the biennial "socials"/ball, church(!), etc. I was pretty shocked when I recently heard that the St. Joseph's Boys School in Bangalore - with whom our school has been fierce rivals for over a century - has decided to admit girls. I'm on the fence when it comes to whether co-educational education is better than single-sex (Harrow has an interesting page on the virtues of single-sex education!), but I will admit that it will fundamentally change the character of a school to admit members of the opposite sex, after being single-sex for 150 years. It'll be interesting to see if the Joseph's *experiment* yields positive results. Do any of you have strong views on the benefits of one form over the other? Do you co-eds rebut Harrow's argument? :)
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On the subject of my all-boys boarding school, one of my distinct memories was of all the boarders aggregating in the tiny TV room and the collective "oohs" and "ahs" that would resound in the dormitory corridor whenever an appealing actress/performer graced the grainy 21-inch telly screen! So imagine the effect when an attractive young Vanessa Mae emerged from the sea in a dripping figure-hugging red gown working her bow on her violin with furious pace, in the video of her smash-hit debut, quite appropiately called "Red Hot"! Though the raunchier video "Ooh ah, just a little bit" of a certain Gina G was probably more memorable for most of my fellow boarders(!), some of us (including yours truly) were hooked by Mae's prodigious talent and her fusion-classical work. I subsequently bought three of her albums and was delighted recently to get the opportunity to watch her perform live in Delhi! It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening (the free wine did raise the spirits!). Mae had awesome stage presence and tried in vain to get the stodgy Delhi audience to let their hair down and dance to some of her pop numbers. My only grouse though, is that she didn't perform "Red hot", that number that had started my journey as a fan of her's all those years back! |
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| Dhaka Diary 2: The curious incidents of the first visit |
[Oct. 8th, 2007|04:17 pm] |
After a brief return trip to Delhi, I'm back in Dhaka. I thought I'd chronicle the highlights of my first 10-day trip to Bangladesh, where amongst other events, I almost got deported(!), had run-ins with a neighbourhood pimp and visited a local Dhaka bar where I joined raucous Bangladeshis cheering for the Bangla Tigers in their World Cup match against a familiar foe - Pakistan :)
( Dhaka: Sights, sounds, people, places )
( You not like Bangladeshi oomen? ) |
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| Dhaka Diary 1: Early days in Bangladesh |
[Sep. 16th, 2007|10:30 pm] |
So I'm finally in Dhaka.
"Finally" because I was told in January that as one of the firm's "flexible" resources (read single, unmarried, with family not in Delhi!), I was going to be deployed on the ground (yes, I make it sound like an army enlistment!) in the Bangladeshi capital in April. Courtesy the emergency and the ensuing political crisis in Bangladesh , our project only kicked off this month. So it was with a mix of excited anticipation, dread and mental exhaustion (from waiting for this inevitable trip!) that I set off from Delhi last Wednesday morning.
A few days in Dhaka later, I'm quite relieved to say that the culture shock has been minimal, though that's probably because we're leading a rather sheltered existence in Gulshan, Dhaka's diplomatic enclave. That said, I've attempted to *gradually* immerse myself in the local culture and cuisine, with encouraging results thus far. Aware that Bangladesh was a fairly conservative Islamic republic, I figured nightlife, watering holes and social life would be immediate casualties. The good news though is that booze is available (albeit with constraints); the remaining two still remain elusive, but the (legendary?) Philip resolve might just change that! Though when a friend eagerly asked me online "How're the women?!", I had to recount the foreboding tale of my first encounter with a woman in Bangladesh; I was climbing the stairs upto my office when the lady coming down *froze*, covered her head with her burqa and looked in the opposite direction! Do believe me when I say that I've never had that reaction from the opposite sex before! :)
**
( Such a long journey ) |
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| Goodbye Rhys Jones |
[Sep. 7th, 2007|10:17 am] |
When England's football team walks out tomorrow at Wembley (the Mecca of football) to face Israel in a Euro '06 qualifier, they will be led on to the pitch by two young 11-year-olds. Their best friend Rhys Jones was shot while playing football with them, a couple of weeks back in a murder that has shocked the entire UK and opened a debate on the alarming rate of gang crime in the UK. I've been following the news coverage following the murder and it angers me that the murderer has not been brought to justice.
Rhys was buried yesterday. He was shot by a hooded teenager while playing football and died a short while later in his mother's arms. He was a huge fan of the Everton football club and hoped to play for them one day. His parents wanted the funeral to be a celebration of his life and asked the city of Liverpool to come in their football jerseys and brightest clothes. The Times and Telegraph have also carried poignant articles about the funeral.
**
It's difficult to talk about death. For the first time in my life I witnessed a death firsthand and it left me shaken for days. I was driving home late on Saturday night when I came across an accident scene. A Mercedes had hit a biker in a high speed collision. The biker wasn't wearing a helmet and was lying motionless on the ground. A swathe of cops were at the scene and I was wondering why no one was rushing him to the hospital. It dawned on me that he was dead and it was just so disturbing seeing that young man lying on the road, having breathed his last. I sat in my car for the longest time after that, my mind blank. My brother rides a bike in Bangalore and I rode a bike for five years in Bangalore. I just felt very lucky to be alive.
Please ask whoever you know who rides a bike to please wear a helmet. And those who drive cars, to drive responsibly. |
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| Prawn curry for the soul: A week in Kerala |
[Aug. 24th, 2007|12:21 pm] |
An unusual sight in our neighbourhood last week was a young man jumping around in circles like a kalaripayattu dancer, a rolled-up newspaper his weapon of choice against the circling chikungunya-carrying Aedes mosquites! My mother claims that somewhat bizarre sight comes a close second to me imagining I was Sir Lancelot as a 7-year-old and animatedly vanquishing my poor mother's carefully tended rosebushes with a bamboo stick (my Excalibur!) in our garden in Zambia :)
( Happiness for Ronny = seaside, cold beer, fried fish )
My school friend Arjun was also in town for a day, so we hung out on Fort Kochi and wandered down Jew Street and stepped into the odd antique/curio shop. We also visited the St Francis Church where Vasco da Gama was buried. Choir practice was taking place and I felt impelled to educate Arjun on the differences between choir singing in England and India :) |
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| Fancy a trip to Cox's Bazar, anyone? |
[Aug. 9th, 2007|04:26 pm] |
As I fill up visa forms for a country that's currently under a state of political emergency and that almost every year, has 66%(!) of it's area submerged under floods, I'm also devouring any online material about the country's literature, tourist spots, nightlife (or lack thereof!). My search for a travelogue about the country's capital along the lines of Dalrymple's "City of Djinns" has been futile thus far, the lone article of note being this NY Times travel piece. What's rather ironic and disturbing though, is the news that their most famous (and controversial) writer has been attacked in Hyderabad today!
That interesting trip abroad aside, I'm also looking forward to embarking on a nine-day holiday down south to Cochin and Bangalore - will be wonderful to catch up with family, assorted friends and my dogs after so long. Two days to go. Can't hardly wait :) |
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| The unifying power of sport |
[Jul. 30th, 2007|02:29 pm] |
One of the things I just *love* about the game of football is it's power to bring together and unite people from across religious/ethnic/cultural lines.
A beautiful and poignant example is war-torn Iraq's historic victory over Saudi Arabia in yesterday's final of the Asia Cup, which led to wild scenes of jubilation across ethnic lines in Iraq and the world. The team which has players of Sunni, Shia and Kurd ethnicity has become a powerful metaphor for national unity in a country that in the post-Saddam era has descended into a civil war that shows no signs of ceasing. Like Iraqis quoted in the article say, the sectarian strife is likely to continue, but the national team's heroics provided a brief and rare ray of hope in a dark and cloudy period. |
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| Marathon movie post :) |
[Jul. 23rd, 2007|02:27 pm] |
I attended the OSIAN Cinefan Festival of Asian & Arab Cinema over the weekend. It was the first *film festival* I'd ever attended and it was a very refreshing experience, seeing award-winning films from different countries (Lebanon, Iraq, Turkey, Japan & Indonesia), with completely different languages and contexts. There's nothing like being transported to a faraway Turkish meadow or a house-party in Beirut on a lazy Sunday afternoon :) Brief reviews behind the cut. ( Read more... )
Of the mainstream Hollywood flicks I've seen over the last two months, I must confess that, of the slew of summer sequels, I was left rather disappointed with Pirates 3. I'm a *huge* Jack Sparrow fan(!) and there simply wasn't enough of him in the film! Part 2 introduced too many irrelevant plot threads which needed closure in Part 3. Part 1 easily remains my favourite in the trilogy. Die Hard 4 was vintage John McLane and I was grinning as the cocky cop manoeuvred his way from one explosive situation to another!
I've also been enjoying films from my flatmate's massive DVD collection and I recommend Robert-De-Niro-directed "The Good Shepherd"! ( Read more... ) |
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| The results are out and ... |
[Jul. 6th, 2007|04:15 pm] |
Summer translates into a drought of football viewing, (save for oddball tournaments like the Copa America) for football fans like yours truly. The only thing we can look forward to is salacious gossip and eventual shock announcements from the transfer market and the reviews of the football season gone by. ( The best and worst of 2006-07 )
**
Today's the last day for voting for the new Seven Wonders of the World - if you haven't yet voted for the Taj Mahal, please do so NOW! :)
Of the 21 finalists, I've had the opportunity to visit four - the Eiffel Tower, Taj Mahal, Neuschwanstein Castle and the Colosseum. I hope I get to see all the others in my lifetime, including those at the other end of the world like the Easter Island statues and Machu Picchu, and one which can genuinely claim to be "in the middle of nowhere"!
Which of the 21 is on top of your must-visit list? :) |
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| Dharamsala & Mcleodganj. At last. |
[Jun. 26th, 2007|04:27 pm] |
After numerous *abortive* attempts over the last two years, at coercing Dharamsala-regulars Messrs Blah & Tripathi to embark on a trip to "Little Lhasa" with me, I finally made a trip to Dharamsala & McLeodganj last weekend. I spent a relaxing two days in the official capital of the Tibetan government-in-exile; though I didn't get to catch a glimpse of Tenzin Gyatso (aka His Holiness The Dalai Lama) or witness the popular Miss Tibet pageant, I did encounter assorted sorts including spaced-out Israeli hippies, friendly Tibetan monks, contemplative mountain goats(!) and randy Japanese tourists. In between long bouts of sleeping and drinking, I also got to sample some excellent Tibetan cuisine and squeeze in some touristy sight-seeing, details and photos of which, are behind the cut.
( Photo-blog: Mcleodganj ) |
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| Missing the monsoon! |
[Jun. 13th, 2007|01:20 pm] |
Nowadays, anyone who makes the mistake(!) of asking me how I'm doing, is subjected to a five minute diatribe on the scorching Delhi summer heat, the dust-storms and the marathon power cuts that drain my inverter and turn my bedroom into a suffocating oven. Argh!
I really miss enjoying the monsoon when it hits south India - ten years of blissful weather in Bangalore and two years on a rain-swept campus on a hilltop in Kerala have really spoilt me! I'm contemplating going on a trip/holiday down south at the earliest, and some photos I'd taken on earlier trips to Kerala are helping fuel that desire! So for those of you who haven't visited the backwaters of Kerala, here are some pictures from what has to be one of the most intoxicatingly beautiful places on earth :)
Taken on an evening cruise down the backwaters, after attending a Kottayam district panchayat meeting (yes, I was in Kerala on work!!)
( Photos: Kerala's backwaters .. ) |
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| The politics of reservation: Opening Pandora's box |
[Jun. 5th, 2007|02:19 pm] |
So the borders of Delhi and the neighbouring state of Rajasthan were under siege over the last four days, in violence that witnessed 25 deaths, clashes between communities in multiple locations, a bandh in Delhi and the army being given shoot-at-sight orders in Rajasthan.( Read more... )
Two of my grouses against reservation are that it has inevitably become a political tool in India, used liberally to garner vote-banks; and because it is communally divisive. The recent violence is a clear manifestation of that. What's particularly frightening though, is now that the Government has opened Pandora's box, it seems very unlikely that the monster of reservation will die down any time soon. |
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| Saved by my scatter-brain |
[May. 30th, 2007|02:08 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Delhi | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  relieved | ] |
My mother is convinced I'm a scatterbrain who is prone to losing valuable items, forgetting important things/dates and the like. She's not entirely unjustified in her reasoning. I have in the past, misplaced my passport in London's Heathrow airport, lost my brother's Walkman, forgotten my sister's birthday, etc. When I was younger and less self-assured(!), I'd wonder whether these aberrations could be explained by me being an early victim of Alzheimer's, amnesia, etc! That thankfully has not been the case, though my condition [flashback: my last *condition*!] is still something I'm trying to figure out. Especially after it struck this morning, though with a twist.
In my hurry to get to office, I forgot my car keys inside my car. I realised this after I'd travelled with a colleague, in her car, to the other end of the city. So I frantically called a friend and requested him to go and check on my car. He reached the spot, confirmed that the keys were indeed in the ignition and that the doors were locked. Before I could ask my Man Friday to get a locksmith and prise open the lock, he told me that my car's boot was unlocked(!) and he promptly climbed into the car and retrieved the keys (I have a hatchback in case you're trying to visualise it!). So in a strange twist of fortune, my forgetting to lock the boot effectively played saviour to my forgetting the keys inside, and potentially having my car stolen!
So I'm not sure if the jury's still out on whether I'm a scatterbrain. Maybe I do need to visit a doctor/shrink after all. Or is the odd memory lapse a common thing amongst all of you? :) |
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| Blood diamonds. And now blood gold? |
[May. 23rd, 2007|02:30 pm] |
Apart from being a gripping and powerful movie, "Blood Diamond" [my review of the movie] also educated the world about the illicit trade of weapons for diamonds in war-torn sections of Africa. The bad news is that the practice is apparently still prevalent in conflict zones in Africa, though this time with gold. The BBC has carried a damning expose of Pakistani UN Peacekeepers trading gold for guns with militia groups in Congo. While it's one thing to have "evil, capitalist/consumerist diamond companies" driving these practices, it's particularly disturbing to have an organisation of the stature of the UN being involved. Tsk.
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Curiously enough, I spent my childhood in Congo's neighbourhood (Zambia). Though I'm now in faraway Delhi, I still manage to get the occassional dose/insight of life in Africa from the blog of my old friend Adrian Pais. ( TIA - This is Africa! )
**
I'm eagerly waiting for tonight's mouth-watering Champion's League final between AC Milan & Liverpool. It's a repeat of the 2005 final which went on to become the greatest European final ever. Though Milan will miss having a striker of the calibre of the great Ukrainian Andriy Shevshenko, I imagine their fortunes will pretty much revolve around Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite aka Kaka. So who're you supporting? The Rossoneri or the Reds? :) |
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