The typical Indian fan
It is characterisitic of the Indian cricket fan to dream of the impossible when the team shows just a few hints of brilliance. I am no exception. I wrote this in sulekha on
Jan 23 2004 for a blog contest when India was doing well against Australia in Australia. To read it again makes me look like a dumbass. This goes to prove that cricket is so unpredictable. Read on and have fun.
Indian cricket-What does the future hold?The current series in Australia has raised all our hopes and many of us think that this is the best Indian team since Kapil’s devils. Each one of has an interesting picture of the Indian team of the future. The team that has everything it takes to win the world cup 2007 in the Americas. The team that will rattle the Aussies with its impeccable teamwork, the Proteas with its commitment on the field, the carribeans with its pace attack which would remind the carribeans of their golden days, the Pakistanis with its aggression, a team which would offer lessons to the best of sides to play better.Join me in the journey to the future.
Scene 1- Kingston, West Indies.,2007India’s devastating opener… Any guesses…the young wicketkeeper batsmen Parthiv Patel (he could become the Gilchrist of the Indian team, looking at the form he is in) is all set to face the first ball of the day. Shaun Pollock, the strike bowler of South Africa, is out of the game. He is suffering from acute diarrhoea, caused probably due to the nightmares of bowling the new ball to the devastator and to prevent his economy rate from shooting up like temperatures in Chennai when the Great Indian middle order takes over.
Scene 2- The Hotel where the Aussies are put up, a day prior to the world-cup finals,2007The Aussie captain announces at a press conference that the team management has requested Dr. Ashutosh Banerjee (when Indians are good in cricket, they can do well in other fields too), noted psychiatrist to counsel the Kangaroos who are trembling with the fear of being preyed upon by the Indian tiger.
Scene 3- Trinidad, West Indies India Vs Pakistan,2007India wins toss and elects to bat. The batting wizard, Virender Sehwag blasts the Pakistani bowling and at the end of 50 overs, he stands unbeaten at 205 and the Indian scores stands at 410/4. This innings sees 4 new records to be created, the fastest 50, the fastest 100, highest individual score and the highest aggregate by a team in an innings. In reply the Pakistanis were all out for 138 in 37 overs. The ball moved a lot during the Pakistani innings, partially due to the dew and to a major part due to the droplets of sweat in the pitch, the sweat of the Pakistanis when the pace of Pathan and Zaheer tormented them.
And finally
Scene 4- A middle-class residence in Southern Adelaide.2015An Australian student is typing something which seems to be an article on the future of Australian cricket . Here are the first few lines-“The current series in India has raised all our hopes and many of us think that this is the best Australian team since Ponting’s side.”This article was for the blogging contest organized by an Australian online community in view of a cultural extravaganza in an Adelaide University. He was inspired to write this because the Aussies were doing well against India in India. They scored their first ODI victory over Indians in India in 12 years.
Brand Gurukul
hi all..this is a short story based on my personal experience at NIIT.
Brand GurukulIt was a busy Monday morning. It was business as usual for Radha whose weekday mornings were exceptionally busy. With three other souls (her two kids and her husband) suffering from the much talked about blues, she had to be quite a juggler to keep things in order.
Finally she made it. After seeing her loved ones off to work, she surprisingly made it to on time to “IT Gurukul”. Yes she was a counselor working with this leading IT education institute. A counselor in this context is not like the one you find at the psychiatrist’s or the family court. In the world of IT institutes, a counselor is someone who preys on the unsuspecting starry-eyed student who enters the institute to find a course of his choice. Counselors very nearly practice hypnosis. They can enroll even the toughest-to-convince kind of students to their expensive courses, no matter what the intention of the student is. The job of a counselor can be equated to that of a salesperson. But such terminology would glaringly reveal the monetary interests of the institutes like the Gurukul. Education at these places is as commoditized as the cosmetics business. It is ironic that an institute with such interests has a brand name which is so different in philosophy. A Gurukul is supposed to be a school where the teacher’s sole interest was to impart knowledge. Of course there is still one thing in common; the Gurudakshina is still there, the only respite being that students’ thumbs are not asked for.
As the day progressed, the number of visitors to the Gurukul began to increase, slowly but steadily. Radha has had an easy day so far. After finishing off with two girls who were already aware of their courses, thanks to the Gurukul’s enormous advertising budget, Radha wished that the rest of the day remained as peaceful. She motioned asking the next visitor to come in.
In came a bespectacled young man of say 18, dressed in a black tee. His Nike shoes and exotic perfume made Radha feel comfortable since most of her persuasive skills were made use of only when she had to explain the course fee structure. The Nike assured Radha that the boy won’t take much of her time. Given her experience, she could just breeze through with the session. She was confident that this young lad would walk out as a student of the Gurukul’s famous 2 years course.
She greeted the boy and made him have his seat. After the introduction, the counselor wielded the most common ice-breakers.
“So Pranav, which college do you go to?”
He mentioned the name of a prominent self-financing engineering college just outside the city. This made her all the more happy, for there are around 240 engineering colleges in the state and it was child’s play to bait the students with the slogan of Placement assurance.” Radha went on to the next question.
“Which is your discipline?”
“EEE. Electrical and electronics engineering”
“Oh! That’s wonderful. So I assume that you’ve come here to make a career in IT. Is that right?”
“No”
Radha was startled. She hadn’t received such a point blank response from anyone who had entered the campus. But she knew she had to act smart and went ahead with her questions coolly.
“That sounds interesting. In that case young man, may I know in what way do you think the Gurukul will be of help to you? What do you want to learn?”
“I just want some basic IT exposure, a programming language maybe. I am here to explore the short –term options. Nothing more than three months please.”
“Sure. But before that can we talk a little more?”
Pranav nodded.
“I would like to know what career options you have in mind.”
“Well, I want to be seen as an electrical engineer. I’ll work as an electrical engineer.”
“Can you elaborate on that?”
“Yeah. I might be working with the power plants or transmission and stuff”
“Ah! All that toil under the sun, the grease, grime, angry supervisors who are at least a century backward and at the end of it all, peanuts as salary. How happy do you think you will be with that kind of a profile?”
Pranav was visibly enraged. He raised his voice and answered sternly
“Ma’am, you are offending me. Every profession in this world commands its own respect. I’d be as happy as an IT professional with that kind of a profile.”
Radha sensed that things were going beyond control. She knew exactly what she had to do.
“Cool it Pranav. I didn’t mean offence. I have a few engineer friends who were unhappy. That question was more out of curiosity than anything else. That’s about it. Now let’s get back to business. Yes, there are opportunities in your field, but don’t you realize that they are far too limited. It is necessary to have backup options. Do you agree?”
“Yes”. His rage seemed to have subsided a little bit.
“And any company would look for an OS and a database along with the programming language”
Pranav gave a nod.
“Have you heard of .NET? Knowledge of the latest technology surely gives you an edge.”
He nodded again.
“I’ll give you exactly what you asked for. Short-term courses. Four months for C and C++, an extra 3 months if you want Java. Two months for Linux and Windows basics, and a solid 6 months for the .NET package.”
Pranav was looking at the catalogue handed to him
Radha went on. She knew that she was winning.
“My advice would be to take it all in one go. You’ve just joined college and you do have 2 years. The 2 years course gives you all that you wanted plus “placement assurance”.
Pranav was lost in deep thought.
“So what have you decided young man?”
There was a brief pause. Then Pranav asked in a clear voice “How do I register ma’am?”
Radha was gleaming with pride. It was another battle won. Dealing with such clients gave here immense satisfaction.
A week had passed.
It was another Monday morning. Radha opened the refrigerator sleepily and reached for the milk. Wait. There’s something missing. Where’s the light in the fridge? Is the fridge working? She checked with the other switches. It’s a power cut. That meant no coffee maker, no microwave, no water heater, no mixer and no a lot of other essential things. Oh no! Not on a Monday morning.
A perplexed Radha called the customer service number of the local electricity board. A half-asleep clerk attended the call.
“Good morning. TNEB”
“Good morning Sir. I am Radha calling from Indira Nagar, Adyar. There’s no power here.”
“I’m sorry madam. There is a major fault in the transmission line feeding Chennai. It’s a catastrophic blackout. I’m afraid it won’t be cleared very soon. We’ll have to wait”
Radha, frustrated and terrified at the consequences of what the clerk had just said, shouted into the receiver “What the hell are your engineers doing?”
The clerk replied calmly. “There has a resigning spree in recent times, madam. There were 10 resignations in the last 30 days. Our recruitment scene is not rosy either.”
“But, why”?
“Because, they were not happy. They were not happy with the toil under the sun, the grease, grime, angry superiors and at the end of it all peanuts as salary. All of them have joined software firms. They say that they are better off writing code for department stores.’
Radha hung up. Only shock, awe and confusion were to remain.
The End
