Ranjan Blog

So finally my exam is over. Im done with it. So now im totally free to spend my time doing things i love. Like play, go for matches, travel, shop and work on the net. So hopefully ill be able to blog a lot. Im not going to allow the BSNL guys to hamper my inet needs. Its been 6 months since i applied for my broadband connecion and im still waiting for their call. But ill come online through dial up itself. i had many things to write during the past month but fought my urge to come and blog. I though i shouldnt waste time on the net and totally devote my time for the exam preparations. And now its finally over. So wen i think of something…pooof….itl be blogged immediately..

Im studying for my gate exam so wont be frequenting the net. Ill resist the temptation of posting here till that time. So i apologise to anyone who visits my blog hoping for some insightful views in this period. Promise to be regular after exams. Ciao!!!!

I had not thought of giving an IFFI report until amey asked for it. I guess all my friends out of goa (actually that would make 99%) will have to see and hear about IFFI through me.

IFFI has been wonderful for Goa. Actually it has been great only for Panaji. But i have never seen anything like it before. The entire city is just buzzing(and horning..the entire place is too crowded and there are traffic jams every road…pain to drive) with excitement. The event started on thursday the 23rd. I had got a pass for the inauguration but didnt want to go alone leaving my friends(sniff sniff kya dosti!!!). so my friends and me saw what was meant for the public. The float parade was really good. The floats were of real good quality and we enjoyed the ’sights’ and sounds. Then we went to miramar beach and witnessed an air show by our air force. That was a little disappointing although they perofrmed some good stunts. The smoking of the tri-colour was also good but we have seen it before and didnt quite excite us. The inaugural ceremony was supposedly worth seeing. It had all the glitz and glamour. One of my favourite stars ‘riya sen’ attended the event. Damn it! I should have gone for the show!!

The film festival though has been bogged down by lot of controversy. Theres been huge confusion about everything. Apparently there were serpentine queues for all movies and people had to wait for 3 hrs in queue for a 2 hour movie. Wat a joke!! Anyways that hasnt dampenned the spirit. This however was only during the weekend. I had been to Inox today and it was pretty calm. However it was very hot(if u know what i mean!!). There are nice stalls put up outside inox and all the movie personnel relax there. Theres also a DJ and a stage to entertain people.

The best part is the festival atmosphere on the roads. The road in front of Kala academy is full with stalls. The childrens park is a treat to go to. I witnessed an awesome Laser show there in the evening. They had projected a video on a stream of vapour coming from a fountain and that was really rivetting. Apart from that 3 stages for different kinds of events to keep the crowds enthralled. You wont see such an atmosphere anywhere for any festival. Believe me!!

And to keep the best for the last, the movie and concert park at Caranzalem has really entertained us. 3 famous hindi movies have been screened there for the public. Yesterday was a realy good concert by Shankar Ehsaan Loy about RD Burman. Shaan, Kailash Kher and others perofrmed. I missed it cause of some unexplanable reasons. And today’s Sonu Nigam concert was just too good. There was a mad rucs. I dont think i have seen that many people at one place. There were easily about 1 lakh people on that ground. We had to park my bike very far and walk. But i have no words for the show. He sang some really good songs and the crowd very definately entertained.

So thats my IFFI report. I dont think ill be going again and wasting my time. So i dont think ill be adding any more. Guys who are not here in Goa, u all are really missing something!! These past few days have really been fun. I have taken a lot of snaps and its on my flickr site. www.flickr.com/photos/mechranjan
There are some awesome videos which i cant upload but ill only be too glad to share them if anyone drops by home.

Its very disheartening to hear that some fans have thrown stones and smeared cow dung on the houses of our cricket stars. This is totally unacceptable. And its not surprising that those people are from a political party as only such people can carry out such nonsense work. My point is no person has any right to do such a thing.

Think of it!! We don’t pay for our cricketers’ salaries nor do we contribute in any way to the sport of cricket. If the BCCI was a government organization then probably you can justify by saying that its our money that the exchequer is paying them. But even then why don’t we go around throwing stones at all our politicians who also don’t do their work properly?? Why don’t we smear cow dung on faces of all those govt. employees who are corrupt? Why only target the cricketers? The BCCI is a totally an autonomous body. Yes a large part comes from the ticket money which we pay but we pay for entertainment and we get it many times. We don’t go and throw stones at our investment bank when our mutual fund goes under loss do we?? (Hope yall got the analogy!!) Maximum I can understand if a person pays for the match ticket and then watches India getting all out for 91. But we sit in our comfortable chairs at home and watch the match for free. Then why show the disgust?

Our cricketers are representing our country and we must respect them. Yes we get frustrated cause we follow the game so closely and we love our sports persons and cannot hide our disappointment. Yes we must criticize them cause its required and tell our views to the world. But we must express our views in a proper way and not trouble the families of our sportspersons and more so malign them. When we fail in our exams, our parents don’t throw us out of the house or throw stones at us do they? They criticize and scold us, but most importantly support us to become better.

And one thing is very baffling and worth pondering over. Our cricketers do bad for 3-4 months and they get their houses stoned. Why is there no such reaction when India’s hockey team play badly? They finished 11th out of 12 teams in the tournament recently and people are oblivious to it. Why no reaction when India does not win medals at the Olympics? Why no reaction when Narain Karthikeyan or Sania Mirza perform lose horribly??

Atrocious, sickening, appalling, horrific are the many adjectives which you can use for the recent performances of our highly over-rated cricket team. Whichever adjectives you use there is no doubt that they have not played upto their potential and there is definitely a problem. Its not something which will get right all by itself. The team management has to do something immediately cause the world cup is just round the corner.
The main and probably the only reason for such failure is the coach. Mr. Greg Chappell, the highest paid cricket coach in the world, who was hired by our Indian board cause he is supposed to be the best around. So far, for all the losses, Mr.Greg has said that he has brought in youngsters and the team is in a transitional phase and that it takes time. But Greggie do you think we are idiots? You think we don’t understand the game? Which new players have you brought in? Raina is the only youngster he has brought in and that too was a mistake. You don’t play a person without him having proved himself consistently at the domestic level. Munaf Patel one more person, but he was brought in cause there was nobody else. All the senior fast bowlers were suffering from injuries and there was no talented bowler at domestic level. He kinda didn’t have any choice. So effectively he has taken the same team from John Wright. The same team which Wright had so wonderfully built and which was playing so well suddenly has lost confidence. And Mr. Greg has to accept the responsibility.

One thing Greggie should learn from this is “Don’t repair what ain’t broken”. He tried to experiment and build a team which is flexible but in doing so he has unsettled the entire team. One might argue that he did well initially, but it takes time for a new coach’s tactics to work and the initial success was essentially that of John Wright’s team.
In all the recent matches I have not seen India come out to play with any fixed plan in mind. The kinda planning for each and every player, which other better teams do so well. The main job of the coach is to analyze and dissect every opponent and make a plan. Without this the captain and the entire team look a litle foolish on the field.
Also hes done all this advanced coaching methods but none seem to be having any effect on the field. So much importance is being paid to fielding but we still see catches being dropped at will. Players still show no urgency in running between wickets and the fielding has been well below par. The commentators in SA have been complaining that theres no intensity in India’s training session. Huh?? Mr. Chappell do you hear that?
One more thing which has irritated me for quite sometime now is that he is only looking at the WC and that all these matches being played as practice matches. Aren’t these matches of any importance? I mean the WC comes once in 4 years and inbetween these matches are our dose of sport. We pay to watch these guys and all we get are practice matches?? That’s ridiculous!!!
That’s brings the question “What has he contributed to Indian Cricket??”. I hope someone can answer this for me.
I look at cricket in the same sense as football and for good reasons. The same players under different coaches play differently. And in football when a team doesn’t play well the coach takes the blame and eventually gets the sack. So Greggie, I don’t buy whatever reasons you are giving. You are to blame for our team’s failure and you better do something about it fast else ul get the sack and probably few stones for your collection which our mad fans will only be too glad to throw at your house!!!

365 days of natural disaster free tourism- come visit goa!!! Thats wat the goan tourism uses to entice tourists to goa (although i dont know who came up with such a dumb slogan!!How the hell do u predict a natural disaster??). Goa being a gr8 tourist destination has lakhs of people coming in during this tourist season from nov-jan. And all these tourists come to the cities and make life a living hell. Thats the downside of living in a tourist destination.

Many people will agree that due to excess tourists and especially foreign ones(who can shell out in dollars), cost of living in goa has gone up tremendously. Also theres been a population explosion of these non local traders(read as marvaris) who have set shop here and boy are they rude to us locals when we ask hem for a discount. They say they can sell the same thing for twice the amount to these tourists. The bigger picture is the increase in crime levels and that is cause of concern. Drug trafficking, smuggling and prostitution levels have increased exponentially over the past decade. Although thats really the biggest problem, i think we should leave it to the gov authorities to handle. It kinda doesnt affect me directly so i wont break my head over that.

The biggest and most irritating problem i face in the city with these tourists, is on the roads. Boy o Boy!! The people who come here are on a holiday and are completely oblivious to the surroundings and stroll freely on the roads like cattle. I mean literaly. We have to stop and honk loud and for long for them to move aside. And theyl show absolutely no sense of urgency on a busy highway. They r just not bothered that we guys actually use the roads for our vehicles!!! Also theyl suddenly decide to cross the roads without thinking or seeing and wen my car comes screeching to a halt in front of them, theyl flash a stupid smile expecting me to show some goan hospitality. Get a grip on your life u tourists. We live here!!! The road is not a lawn. Also here in Goa people can avail vehicles on rent. And thats also a cause for so many accidents. Its very tough for them to navigate through the extremely comlicated traffic plan(especially of panaji) and they being on a holiday just are not alert enough. Ok heres a message for all the tourists. A ‘NO ENTRY’ SIGN IS APPLICABLE FOR TOURISTS ALSO. It doesnt say anywhere ‘no entry for goans only’, does it?. Theyl just zoom in a no entry road as though their father built it. We live here and we follow the rules just like u guys do back at ur home!!!! Theres always an accident round the corner waiting to take place.

Yes a good percent of the tourists are worth having (goa does need few of them, if u got what i mean) but u wouldnt want to be distracted by a babe when u are on a busy highway, would you? That would be detrimental to the ever-so crowded roads. And also we have a very big number of couples on their honeymoon and they would do stuff you really wouldnt expect anybody to do IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD!!! GET A ROOM!!!

So goa may be the hottest tourist destination, but for us goans (ya try argiung about that with me!!) its certainly not very pleasant to have lakhs of people in our backyard waiting to kill us. Who knows, my next trip on my bike or car would be my last cause of the tourisattack!!!!

Diwali the festival of lights is celebrated in Goa in a very unique way. Huge effigies of narkasur are made all over the state. The construction of these effigies begins a week in advance and a lot of effort goes into it. They are made of hay, paper, sack and other combustible material. Fire crackers are also put inside the effigies(to make the burning more exciting and spectacular). They are then put up for display the night before diwali and at dawn they are lit. Its mostly famous in the cities and people from all over the world come to witness this event. Over the years this tradtion has gained a lot of popularity and many more people have begun to take part in it. There are narkasur competitions organised which are keenly contested. Panaji city, where i reside, is the place to be on narkasur night. Its absolutely crowded, streets are packed and there is the festival atmosphere. Yes, the traffic is a big problem, especially around 10pm if u want to move around to see the city, but with experience u learn how to manage it. For me diwali is the most fun filled festivals and my favourite. Especially this time it was better because my new camera with which i roamed around. This was the first time we took snaps for diwali. I have put up the snaps on my web page in flickr.com. check out the link given below. The ones iv dispalyed were all in panaji itself and mainly done by residential colonies. Observe the buildings in the background. Ul realise how big each narkasur is. The best part of diwali this time for me was that all my friends came down from their respective jobs in different cities and we all got together after a long time. It really made diwali fun. Hope each diwali gets better and that i can put up more of my experiences and snaps here for everyone!!
Check out the photos here. www.flickr.com/photos/mechranjan

Hello world. For long time i wanted to create my blog and write all i felt in 1 place. But the time just didnt come.  Its finally come and now ill be regular in putting all thoughts in here.  It will mostly be about sports cause i feel strongly about many topics in it and i csn vent my frustration in here.  Hope to have really worthwhile arguments here cause i really love debating. so ill say to myself happy blogging!!!