Date with Jeff Archer - Bangalore visit

Last Friday I had the opportunity to meet one of my favorite authors. As part of the tour organized by Landmark, he was here at Bangalore Landmark on the 23rd. This event witnessed a huge gathering. The event was supposed to start by 7 Pm and well it did start on time. But book lovers had gathered at the venue well before 6.Since it was raining heavily that day, I was of the impression that not many would turn up. But to my surprise there was huge gathering even by 6.50 when I stepped in. I had to stand right at the end of the hall to get a glimpse of him.

Evening started with a very hilarious speech by Lord Archer before he answered few questions from the audience. Then he sat down to sign copies for huge number of fans who had queued in. I was one of them and had to stand in a chaotic queue for about 45 minutes before I could get a copy of his latest book signed. He did sign each one of those copies with a smile and with the huge queue like that one I guess he would have done it till well past midnight. I was worried that I might get nothing more than a few strokes scribbled on my copy as I guess I was the 300th guy to get one. But surprising it was as clear as his first one. I did mention this to him while getting my copy signed, for which he thanked me by getting up from his chair :). I should confess that I was moved by this gesture of him.

Couple of things that struck me about him right throughout the evening was his humbleness and the witty way in which he put each sentence and word through. Though I have read a lot about his interest about cricket I came to know the passion with which he follows the game. He is an ardent fan of Sachin, Dravid, Gavaskar and Kapil.

He said he had come across the name of R.K. Narayan a lot on this tour and decided to get his hands on some of his books. Said he loves R.K.N's work and that he has already read 5 books of his in the last 5 days. The author was also critical about lack of education, our indifference towards politics. Also his experience on his first tour to USA to promote his "Kane and Able" was very funny.

Though his entire speech was enjoyable few quotes from his speech that I can recall:

"20-20 is not cricket, its entertainment. Cricket is Laxman and Dravid surviving an entire day against Australia", when asked about his view on IPL.

"I am like Shane Warne, leading and winning with a bunch of hopeless", when one of them asked whom he considers to be his biggest competitor.

Financial crisis made me write my first book ironically I named it “not a penny more not penny less”.

"The way they (Indian cricket team) behaved in Australia, when touring abroad, they are the best ambassadors,"

"He is a genius" on R.K.Narayan.

“In my view Shakespeare is the greatest story teller of all times, if we didn’t know the end of Romeo and Juliet we would be in the edge of our seats."

“Though my first book will always be close to my heart, this book (A Prisoner by birth) is the best work of mine so far."

“In US and UK one book purchased book is read by 3 people, in Australia 7. In India its 25, I don’t know if this tells anything about the economy of the country, but most of the comments I get on my website are from Indians."

RJ

Glory Glory ManU

The very first match that I watched on my new TV wasn’t an enjoyable one. This because of the way Chennai SuperKings lost to Bangalore in the IPL match. But that sad beginning was over compensated with the magnificent victory of Manchester United in the Chanpions League finals.

What a season this has been, full of excitement, fun and tension. This is probably the best season I have watched till date. Till December Manchester United were number 2 in the league and then came the slide of Arsenal to give us the advantage and take the top of the league. In December no one would have thought that it will go down to the last game of the season and that too fighting against Chelsea who were a distant third in standings then. But finally we made it on the last.

Thinking about the season everyone is happy for Ronaldo, heaping praise for his game. Rightly so his performance was what stood out, overshadowing the contribution of the other players in the team. Man Ronaldo was fantastic this season no second thoughts about that. But for me the best player of the team is Rooney, though its just marginal but in my opinion Rooney was the best player of the season and then comes Ronaldo.

When Rooney first landed at Old Trafford he had the reputation of being arrogant and selfish in the game. He used to be one of those guys who used to shoot as soon as he gets the ball around the D area. But in this season and the last he has transformed himself a lot, in a way that he is happy to play a supporting role, which allows Ronaldo to get in. Now going by the goals scored Ronaldo is miles away from Rooney, but looking at the overall game in my view Rooney is on par with Ronaldo, may be even inches ahead of him. If only there would have been a system like in Basketball where the rebounds and assists are also tracked I think Rooney would have scored more than Ronaldo. The way he set up the shot in the 35 min and 42 min last night is a classic example of what I am talking about.

Last night game was an edge of seat thriller that was in balance till the last kick. Happy that ManU clinched a double this season and hopefully they should continue to dominate the league and the cup next season too. Hopefully Sir Alex will also be the driving force behind ManU for at least another 3-4 years.

RJ

Minority Report

Reading through a news article couple of days back I felt really silly rather than surprised or shocked. This article talks about the current Government planning to post only Muslim Officers in Muslim dominated areas.

Before writing my view on a decision like this let me first paste few lines that I gathered from the net:

The preamble of the constitution defines India as a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic.

In India (80.5%) are Hindu. Other religious groups include Muslims (13.4%), Christians (2.3%), Sikhs (1.9%), Buddhists (0.8%), Jains (0.4%), Jews, Zoroastrians, Bahá'ís and others. Tribals constitute 8.1% of the population.

Well the above two lines is what India is or at least what it is supposed to be on paper. This is a question that I have been asking many for the last so many years: "how can a country that is socialist also have various divisions based on caste and perks for a specific community. From my understanding socialist means equality and when there is equality then there can be no division in terms of caste or any such thing.

Anyways getting back to the issue, this decision/plan of the Government will be no surprise for someone who goes through the paper daily. Over the last few years since the UPA government has come into power there have been many such incidents targeted on the upbringing of minorities. No problem with that, the only problem is that in this current Government’s dictionary the word to the right of minority has always been Muslims. If you look at statistics the majority amongst the minorities in India are Muslims. Still the Government just want to concentrate on this majority. By statistics the Christian population in India is only about 10% of that of Muslims. But have we ever heard of anything for them, when they are one of the real minority.

Right from the Sachar committee to other benefits or programs that the UPA have introduced, they have all been targeted at Muslims. One need not have to be a scholar to understand the simple reason behind this “VOTE BANK”.

From whatever you have read here so far you might think that I am Anti Muslim or one of those guys who hate minorities. But please stand corrected, I am not anything that I have said in the previous sentence. All I am is a peace loving citizen who wants the country to be free from any divide or inequality. Am also a keen follower of politics, which is why it irritates me when the Government, which is supposed to be a role model for the aspiring politicians plays few games for the benefit of the vote bank. Guess one should be reminded that, we were all taught in the school that every person in this country is equal and that no caste or religion is superior to another.

So this kind of a strategy by the Government will only make more and more communities realize that being separate is rewarding and, at the minimum, it protects their temples and educational institutions; and to be among the majority means loss of religious and cultural freedom.
RJ
follow these links:
http://www.rediff.com/news/2006/dec/11sachar.htm?zcc=rl

http://www.newindpress.com/column/News.asp?Topic=-97&Title=S%2EGurumurthy&ID=IEM20080414220910&nDate=4/15/2008&Sub=&Cat=&

Defunct Drive-in

Few weeks back while I was in Chennai, I had to accompany my sister to a music concert near Gemini Flyover. I was given 2 options by sister; either attend the concert for 30 minutes and leave or drop her and come back after an hour. I happily chose the second option, this not because I didn’t want to attend the concert but because I had Woodlands drive in mind.

I dropped her at the venue and was headed to Woodlands Drive-in Restaurant. I was shocked to see the gate closed and a board of "Agri-Horticultural Society” in place of Woodlands drive-in. When I inquired with the security guy at the gate, he informed me that the gates of the Drive-in restaurant were closed for the public from April 12, and that the land that was leased had been taken back by the government. Ooh damn I was a week late, if only I had gone a week before I could have had something to eat one last time.

Woodlands has been one of the most prominent land marks of Chennai for ages. It’s sad to know that it will no longer be available for public. Woodlands is (or rather was) situated in the heart of the city bang opposite to the US Embassy. It’s a lovely place that cannot be replaced. Where else can you get a place situated in the heart of the city, filled with trees? It was filled with so many trees that you felt you were in a different city once in. It was one of my favorite hangouts in Chennai, probably would be right up there if you would ask me for my fav. places in Chennai.

It was not only about the delicious Sambar vadas, curd vadas, idly, dosai, and chole batura (infact all the items served there were good), but it was more about the place itself. The place was very peaceful isolated from the Chennai traffic and heat that all Chennaites are accustomed to. There have been many occasions when i used to get into the place to just relax myself under coolness of the big banyan tree. The best thing about the whole place was that you could order for just a plate of idly and still sit there in the restaurant for hours together.

Most of the Chennaites would tell you that their Sunday morning routine would be to go some temple followed by breakfast at either Woodlands, HSB or Rathna Cafe. It is a place that has given a lot of happy memories.

They say that in US many the business deals happen over a cup of coffee at Starbucks. This place was the Chennai substitute for Starbucks. Through the day you could see lot of salesmen all exchanging leads with one another. Last year while I was doing my summer internship, I happened to get few good leads talking to the other salesmen there.

Probably the next time I go to Chennai I will try to sneak in and get a picture taken. It is sad to know that a place that was part of Chennai Tradition will vanish forever now.

RJ