Musings and Mumblings

Tebowing It: Analyzing the Tim Tebow Phenomenon Post 2011-12 Season

2012-02-07T17:05:00.000-05:00

Tim Tebow topped Global Language Monitor's Sports Brand Affiliation Index after his playoff victory against the Steelers making him the most recognized brand in American sports. Over the past few months, there has been no athlete that has divided the opinions of the American sports watching public as much as Tim Tebow. Expert and fan opinions range from He's-the-best-thing-since-sliced-bread to he's-a-trick-act-who-will-be-found-out-soon-enough. No one really stands on neutral ground.

I'm not going to lie. I'm not a Broncos fan. I'm not Christian. Heck, I don't even identify with any major organized religion and I make mostly atheist comments. But I'm an unabashed Tebowmaniac.

I started watching Tim Tebow play when he was tearing it up in the Swamp. Tebow's college stats show that he was one of the greatest ever college football players and then there was the "Promise" which led to a recordbreaking season and a BCS Title. Ordinarily most players would be praised by the national media for something as gutsy as this but Tebow started dividing opinions pretty early on with his role in Focus on Family's Superbowl ad. Religion is one of the most divisive things in the world and is the key reason for Tebow.

Tim Tebow is an gifted athlete with an incredibly work ethic, great leadership skills and a desire to succeed. I have not heard of one instance where his faith has conflicted with the team interests or has offended any of his teammates. In today's world of playboy millionaire athletes who treat their fans like they are beneath them, Tebow and his ideals are a breath of fresh air. I cannot see why people criticize Tim for expressing his views about Jesus and his religion while they worship certain NFL wide receivers who have crass tweets about their sex lives and are generally self-obsessive and narcissistic . As I mentioned earlier, religion is divisive and a stickling point for a lot of the world's political problems and therefore Tim Tebow probably expects some of the hate directed towards him. However, it is unfair that this colors fans' and experts' perspectives about his abilities as a NFL player. Besides, Tim Tebow is not the first athlete openly flaunting his religion. Several NFL players including Troy Polamalu and Kurt Warner have been very vocal about their religious beliefs. Tim Tebow has really been turned into the poster-child of American Christian athletes by the media which has won him several fans and critics simply on the basis of his religious views and the manner that he chooses to express them.

I watched as many of Tebow's games this season as I could, including both his playoff games (for which I stayed up till about 5 in the morning because I was on my vacation in India). Tim Tebow's stats for the 2011-12 NFL season include a QB rating of 72.9 and a TD/INT ratio of 12-6 which, as his critics point out, is very pedestrian compared to the more statistically accomplished rookies like Andy Dalton and Cam Newton. However, when evaluating Tebow's performances it is important to take into account his 660 rushing yards and 6 TDs on 122 attempts. Moreover, it was when he replaced Kyle Orton as the Broncos' starter that they went from being a 1-4 team to being divisional champions. Also, if a young quarterback's worth and potential is gauged largely by his fourth quarter performances, the amazing Tebow Time comebacks surely bode well for Tebow's future in the NFL. His comebacks against the Bears and the Dolphins really tell the story of Tebow's season for me. Both were improbable come-from-behind wins aided by Tebow's never-say-die attitude. While his passing mechanics may have left a lot to be desired, it must be remembered that he made tremendous strides during the season and he was working without a true Number 1 receiver for most of the season and had not really received too many reps with the first team in the holdout-shortened off season. All his critics should look at the Broncos' playoff game against the Steelers to see that Tim Tebow is indeed capable of directing an NFL level passing offense.

The Broncos' coaching staff need to modify their playcalling. As Eli Manning has shown over the past few years, taking off the training wheels benefits a good quarterback. The most alarming stat of the Broncos' offense as they closed the 2011 season: In the first half of their final four games, the Broncos ran the ball, or didn't throw it, on 45- of-49 first-down plays. They did not pass on 11-of-11 first-down plays in the first half at Buffalo; 10-of-12 . against Kansas City; 11-of-12 against Pittsburgh; and 13-of-14 against New England. Mike McCoy needs to change this statistic or else the Broncos will continue to be predictable. I agree that part of the reason for the conservative playcalling was Tebow's fault as his pedigree as a pocket passer was questionable at best and the coaches felt that an Urban Myer-University of Floridaesque system would put him in the best position to succeed. While Tebow's toughness is an important part of his game (He played hurt for most of the AFC playoff game against the Patriots), he has to change his style of playing because even someone as dedicated in the weightroom as Tebow is bound to be injured frequently if he keeps taking the amount of hits that he did this season. Besides, the triple option will not continue to work in the NFL. This offseason will be very important in Tim Tebow's young career as it is imperative that he continues the in-season progress he made as a passer to increase his potency as a pure passer.

Tebow's intangibles are often derided as being made-up by his backers as an attempt to cover his failings. I disagree. I think his desire to win is infectious and it affects his teammates. Rookies like Cam Newton and Dalton have better numbers than him but have continually fallen short in crunchtime. The now famous Tebow Time comebacks should not be chalked down to just luck and a good defence but also Tebow's mental makeup and the opposing defense's inability to account for Tebow when he is firing on all facets of his game. This is another reason I am very optimistic about Tebow's future in the NFL.

Tebow's contemporaries like Mark Sanchez, Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco have been given 3 or more seasons to succeed and yet haven't really hit the heights that were expected of them (in Sanchez's case he has really consistently been hitting JaMarcus Russellesque nadirs that probably warrants being run out of town). Yet Tebow's critics cry for his blood whenever he doesn't perform at an elite level comparable to Drew Brees Young quarterbacks make mistakes and this is Tebow's first year as a starter. Hopefully Denver CEO and Hall-of-Famer John Elway isn't one of them and allows Tebow to fulfill his potential as the Broncos' starting quarterback for a very long time. And hopefully very soon, Tebow's critics and backers can analyze his on-field performances without having religion color their opinions.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2012-01-01T01:01:00.000-05:00

Ladies and Gentlemen its 2012. A very Happy and Prosperous New Year to all of you! Time to be great! Lets do this

Edmund Hillary - "It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves".

New Twitter Button!

2011-09-02T15:51:00.001-04:00

Adding a Twitter button to my posts starting from August 2011 so you can tweet them! Exciting huh?Also, follow me @soumyajeetghosh

Analyzing the 2011 London Riots

2011-08-22T14:34:00.000-04:00

In a recent interview with BBC2, the British historian David Starkey channelled his inner Enoch Powell and controversially said the following about the London riots

A substantial section of the chavs have become black. The whites have become black. A particular sort of violent, destructive, nihilistic gangster culture has become the fashion.

Black and white, boy and girl operate in this language together. This language which is wholly false, which is a Jamaican patois, that’s been intruded in England and this is why so many of us have this sense of literally a foreign country

Starkey's comments are definitely rather racist and xenophobic on several levels; political commentators eager to toe the current politically correct climate, denounced him gleefully and failed to see the little merit that his comments had. While classifying the chavs behavior as being "black" is irresponsible, it is true that there is an increased romanticization of "a particular sort of violent, destructive, nihilistic gangster culture" in the media today so much so that calling oneself a "G" is a badge of honor. The younger generation looks upto celebrities like Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. (aka Snoop Dogg), Clifford Joseph Harris Jr. (aka T.I.) and the denizens of reality shows like Jersey Shore as role models because they best epitomize the high flying get-rich-quick-and-make-merry lifestyle that attracts them. The media is greatly to blame for creating a sick and poisoned society because they promote the glitz and the glamor of such lifestyles instead of promoting a culture of conservative spending and values.

The gradual disintegration of the old-fashioned family values for various reasons have contributed to the attractability of such celebrities and with it has come a false sense of self-worth and entitlement. Families with new-age values from developed countries worldwide should regard the England riots as a caveat to change the blueprint of their personal family ethos. Several sociologists noted the lack of participation of the South Asian population in the English riots. At the risk of repeating Starkey's mistake of generalizing several ethnic groups, the conservative values imbibed by most of the South Asian children definitely contribute to their mindset of working hard (sometimes perhaps too much) to obtain their goals. I have to mention here though that I do not approve of the claustrophobic traditions of most South Asian cultures but perhaps an amalgamation of different world cultures is required in the changing global society.

Another worrying development is the social unrest because of the increasing unemployment rate. Young and college educated people are disappointed at not finding jobs and are getting increasingly disillusioned. In the meantime, entitlement benefits are staying the way they are leading to a meaningless drain of a country's resources. The socialist system in England has absolutely failed and America is on the fast track to civil unrest unless someone in the government steps up and does the right thing. Jobs need to be created and useful people must be given gainful employment and people living off perks and social welfare should be sent a stern message that they HAVE to learn to fend for themselves.

It will be very interesting to see the reaction of the David Cameron administration. Depending of what you read, the incumbent government has been put to the sword for its financial austerity or lack thereof. Increasing spending is no longer a viable option in cash starved England and the next address from the Chancellor of the Exchequer should surely be interesting. The Prime Minister has already ruled out race, poverty and spending cuts as reasons behind the riots. The punishment meted out to the rioters will be scrutinized worldwide. The administration is really in a no-win situation because regardless of its response it will be castigated by leftists for being too harsh on people stricken by poverty and by rightists for being too lenient to wayward entitled people poisoning society. Cameron has promised more riot-trained troops in case of future reoccurences; the police were found to be severely understaffed this time

Measures must be taken to prevent such future occurences and while security measures could help protect the common citizen it is but a bandaid over a bullet wound unless measures are taken to repair a fractured society. The biggest lessons should start at the school levels where children must learn about their rights and responsibilities as a citizen of a country. The American (private) education system does a rather admirable job of enforcing these values and perhaps the British educators could do worse than look over to their cousins across the pond for a few lessons.

Meanwhile Britain's fractured society remains a source of concern for Cameron's present administration. The Guardian reported on the 16th August:

In a speech setting out his analysis of what led to the riots, Cameron highlighted those families across the UK who were dealing with multiple complex social health and economic problems. Lifting them out of extreme worklessness would be regarded as a measure of his success in his wider agenda of fixing Britain's broken society, he said. Cameron said he would put "rocket boosters" on attempts to rehabilitate those 120,000.

However, this is easier said than done. Society needs to be restructured at least partly from the core; the politicians in the government and the media have to put aside partisan issues while debating social programmes and be united if England and other similarly afflicted global societies are to be repaired. The powers to be should learn important lessons from the riots and attempt to institute policies to provide an andidote to the poisoned society. Economic issues will no doubt go hand in hand with the success of these programs. Utilitarian solutions for a lot of issues are very important. Big decisions need to be taken throughout the world or else we face a very bleak future indeed.

The New Boys: Sir Alex Ferguson's summer signings 2011-12

2011-08-02T17:22:00.000-04:00

Standing left to right: David De Gea, Phil Jones and Ashley Young

David De Gea: Sir Alex is obviously very impressed by the young Spanish stopper to have stumped up such a sizeable fee for him. De Gea has the unenviable task of stepping into the sizeable gloves of the legendary Edwin Van der Sar.

While his pre-season performances have exuded the calmness and composure needed for the Manchester United job, De Gea knows that Manchester United fans are not easily satisfied and any gaffes will lead the fans to want Anders Lindegaard, the present No 2, who has put in a series of extremely impressive performances for the Red Devils in the pre-season tour of the United States. It took Sir Alex 6 seasons to replace Peter Schmeichel and that fact will not be lost on the knight of Old Trafford and the current system of meritocracy at Old Trafford means that he will not be gun-shy in replacing De Gea with Lindegaard, despite the transfer fee.

Whether De Gea's first season puts him on the path to the hallowed ranks of Alex Stepney, Peter Schmeichel and Edwin Van der Sar in the hearts of the Old Trafford faithful or the ignonimity of Fabien Barthez, Mark Bosnich and Massimo Taibi is going to be one of the more interesting storylines of Manchester United's season.

Phil Jones :Phil Jones was having a terrific season with Blackburn Rovers last season before his season ending injury against West Ham. Initially thought to have been brought in as Nemanja Vidic's understudy as well as extra cover for the increasingly injury-prone Rio Ferdinand, he could have a role in the Manchester United starting line-up from the beginning of the season if he is given the holding midfield role. Phil Jones has received rave reviews from Sir Alex Ferguson and if he settles into the role of the midfield destroyer, Manchester United will have made yet another briliant relatively inexpensive signing.

Ashley Young : Some Manchester United fans were scratching their collective heads when Ashley Young joined Manchester United this summer. A tricky and pacy player, Young started his career as a traditional winger before morphing into the role of the second striker. There is a possibility that he might find himself thrown into the starting lineup mix on the left wing, supplanting Nani who is being constantly linked with the likes of Juventus or he might find himself in the excellent rotation of Manchester United's winger. Either way, he has to prove that he is ready to be a part of the biggest team in England and shake of the "slacker" label that he received at Aston Villa for some seemingly lackadaisical performances.

Transfers updated until 5:21 PM EST 8/2/2011.

Conclusions from Manchester United's loss in the 2010-11 Champions League Final and thoughts at the end of the season

2011-05-31T05:02:00.005-04:00

a) There is always disgrace in defeat. Barcelona are a really good team who are fantastic at their strengths. However, they're not as celestial as a lot of sports hacks have had us to believe. Manchester United played a formation that played to Barca's strengths which made them look that good.

b) Sir Alex Ferguson is one of the greatest managers of all time but he got his tactics all wrong at Wembley. Clearly lessons were not learnt from the defeat at Rome. Manchester United should not have gone 4-4-2. We were outnumbered in midfield and there was no plan to negate Messi, Xavi or Iniesta. Manchester United made the mistake of setting up a formation that did not have a defensive midfield anchor. Fletcher's absence cannot be should used as an excuse as we knew about his absence with almost half the season to go. Chicharito has had an extraordinary first season in England but I don't see any way in which he could've contributed against a briliant Barcelona side against whom a mismatch in midfield was unadvisable. Putting in even a half fit Fletcher or Scholes would've helped our cause tremendously. In the end, our midfield was overrun in 2009 and 2011 and it is a shame that Sir Alex did not adapt. Chicharito was a spectator for most of the game and received no service at all from the midfielders.

c) At the risk of blasphemy, I venture to say that if Jose Mourinho was the manager of Manchester United, this would not have happened. Jose would've used negative mind tactics and negative tactics a la Copa del Rey and with this Manchester United team he would have surely beat a Barcelona side or at least challenged them more. Sir Alex should've instructed his players to be more aggressive and throw in a few challenges and rattle Barcelona.

d) Manchester United need to sort out the midfield area. A 37 year old Ryan Giggs and Michael Carrick aren't the answer to the midfields of the powerhouses of the world. Paul Scholes announced his retirement today, leaving us with no natural creative midfield player. This year's success was the product of a great team effort that was magnified by the ineptitutde of our traditional rivals. Sir Alex will surely not be silly enough to bank on Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City and Liverpool to have periods of incompetence that seemed to plague them during the season. Summer purchases are a must or else Sir Alex's intransigence and the Glazers' alleged tightfistedness will cost Manchester United its place in the club elite. David de Gaea seems to be on his way to Old Trafford and is a very promising keeper. The midfield has to be strengthened and a defensive midfielder and a creative midfielder is a must buy. There are a lot of promising young Academy players but I'm not sure if relying on the likes of Cleverley and Pogba is the smartest idea. I could be left eating by words, and I will not regret it if they turn out to be the next Class of 1992 but I think that it is risky to just bank on them, especially with only one summer of free spending available to all the teams of the world.

e) Leo Messi is a darn good player. An excellent one too. Definitely one of the best five in the world in his present form. However, he's not close to being definitively the greatest player ever (TM). It is impossible to even compare him to Maradona because he plays with the likes of the uber talented Xavi and Iniesta who possess more football IQ than the entire Argentina squad of 1986 sans Diego. Also, I do not agree with the assertion that Messi is even the best player of his generation. Cristiano Ronaldo can lay a very strong claim to that title in addition to several players. Cristiano Ronaldo has excelled in the international stage in addition to playing great in 2 different teams. Messi has only been able to showcase his talents in the Barcelona setup. This isn't a knock on Messi's abilities. It is just a caveat to people eager to christen him as the second coming of Jesus.

The comparison with Diego Maradona is insulting to several other all-time great like George Best and more importantly Pele. While I cannot obviously make an objective comparison between Bestie and the little man who looked like a porn producer in his suits during the World Cup, I can say that based on historical evidence, Pele towers over Maradona and Messi will struggle to ever match up to the briliant Brazilian.

f) Despite the defeat, this was Wayne Rooney's coming-out performance on an international stage. While I am confident that he can step up his game even more, this was his first good performance in a non-English Premier League big game. Undoubtedly, his sponsors will be rubbing their hands at the possibility of Shrek's increasing marketability but from a footballing perspective, Manchester United's fans will love that the Premier League's only "world-class" English player resides in Old Trafford.

g) On the subject of Old Trafford strikers, the omission of the Premier League's joint highest scorer Dimitar Berbatov in favor of a broken down Michael Owen shows how little Sir Alex trusts the Bulgarian. The £31 million striker's importance in the earlier parts of the campaign should not be underestimated but it is now clear that he has fallen down the Old Trafford pecking order. Despite his superlative technical skills, the Bulgarian has never really fit into the general pattern of Manchester United's lightning quick play. While his hattricks this season will not be forgotten by the Faithful, his misses throughout his Manchester United career will not be forgotten either. His seemingly lackadaisical attitude has obviously not endeared him with the fans. Berbatov's stay at Old Trafford seems to be snake-bitten; he appeared to be settling into the team earlier in the season but Chicharito's emergence coupled with Wayne Rooney's resurgence banished him to the bench. The FA Cup semi-final against Manchester City was a litmus test for his temperament and he failed miserably. I would be surprised to see him in a Manchester United jersey next season. A summer move to an Italian giant or a mid table English team would do his talent justice.

Berbatov's fall from grace in Red Devil land cannot be complete without mentioning the Red Devil who, through his fantastic performances, composed the elegant Bulgarian's epitaph. Take a bow Javier Hernandez. Already being hailed as one of the greatest buys of Sir Alex's long and fantastic career is evidence enough of how well he has settled into the Manchester United side. There is still a long way to go with regards to his linkup play and creation of chances but the Manchester United scouting department seem to have unearthed a gem on and off the field in the baby-faced Mexican. Some of his goals this season were reminiescent of a young Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and a young Pipo Inzaghi and his work-ethic and attitude seems to have won over the hearts of his teammates and the fans. The future is bright for Chicharito Hernandez.
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Finally, congratulations to Edwin Van der Sar, Gary Neville and Paul Scholes for their briliant services to Manchester United.

Edwin, I wish we had bought you after the Great Dane left but you were absolutely briliant.

Gary Neville, you embodied the spirit of the Manchester United fans and you were truly Fred the Red.

Paul Scholes = Legend!
Thank you for the magical
moments. Football is losing a
genius and Manchester United
is losing one of its true legends. A world class player and a great role model, it was a privilege to be a fan growing up watching you play.

The Class of 1992 is almost history. It is now time for new beginnings and fresh faces. The defeat to Barcelona is only a temporary setback. This was the season of Number 19! The 4th European Cup will come soon enough. Glory Glory Man Utd!

May 10, 2011 Part 1

2011-05-10T05:33:00.006-04:00

I have been on a monthlong hiatus from the blog. I intended to share some thoughts about my visit to the Valley and I thought I would make that my "post of the month" before the month became overwhelming. Finals month is never good and this April was particularly bad.

I was terribly shocked at Bryan Hendrickson's death. Very few people at Lafayette knew that Bryan and I had been reasonably close since sophomore-junior year and Luke's text about Bryan's suicide came like a bolt from the blue. Bryan had an unrealistic vision for the world. youZit was a damn good cause but it would never fly in the real world of schedming corporate types. I think suicides leave more questions than answers and I do not think it is ever an option, however unbearable life can become. Every cloud has a silver lining. Life brings forward new challenges and experiences everyday. Giving up should never be an option. Bryan was a great kid and a good friend throughout our interactions. I am sorry that we were not in touch after graduation and I wish I could've helped him.

Visiting the Valley was emotionally taxing because it was taking a trip down memory lane and the bad decisions I made. But the Valley is fun. It has a life of its own and hanging out with my boys is always awesome. I think that someday I can share why some events in the valley will forever remain in my mind but I realized that despite the stagnation, there is a beauty to the place that is inimitable. Going back to places like Big Woodys and CHT is gradually becoming impossible because all I see is people who have refused to move on with their lives as time passes them by.

S & K this song reminded me of you both. Shockingly. I think it is the nostalgia.

Or maybe because you're trying to hard still to be 19. I'd love to be back there but that's not an option. Sometimes it feels like both of you try too hard. Even when you said "Jeet!!" at Big Woodys, it sounded..somehow...too 2010 for me to relate to.

Just driving back sometimes gives me the chills. Especially when the Hawk comes on. But that really is a story for another day!

Why is soccer failing to catch on in the United States

2011-03-30T16:32:00.002-04:00

Disclaimer: Written surreptitiously in class

Soccer is a global phenomenon that connects several countries. However, it has not yet gained in popularity in the United States. One of the biggest reasons is cultural factors. Before the recent and ongoing influx of the Hispanic population, there was really no culture of soccer in the United States. Soccer had been largely viewed as a very British sport and America was founded on an anti-Anglo culture. I was reading the excellent The Elusive Fan written by Philip Kotler, Ben Shields and Irving Rein and they analyze why soccer is a really popular sport in the youth level but fails to translate into capturing national interest at the adult level. Professional soccer in the US seems to have the blandness of a youth event which extremely hurts the popularity of the game. Any sport that becomes popular permeates the lower class consciousness. At present soccer is very much ensconced in the middle and upper class. Until soccer permeates lower class consciousness, it will never attain the importance that basketball and football does.

The United States men’s soccer team has failed to create a sense of connection with the fans. Also, American sports is about celebrity athletes – Kobe Bryant hitting a game winning basket in the dying seconds of Game 7 is what excites fans. Soccer is wrongly perceived as a socialist game where there cannot be any standout positions. There is a dearth of identifiable icons in American soccer and the best American players – Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey are not marketed in a way that creates public interest. There has been a search for the big American star for several years but there have been several reasons why it has been unsuccessful. A large portion of the blame has to be attributed to the intransigence of the MLS board who refused to allow players like Landon Donovan to leave for higher profile clubs overseas when they were in demand. The MLS has not really thrived under a salary cap system worldwide and some of the most well-supported leagues have an uneven distribution of power. While all American sports are based on a principle of equality and allowing all teams a fair chance at a draft, this system does not translate to soccer. Instead, allowing a team owner to splurge out money for several big stars could raise the profile of the game in the country. I'm ignoring the failed Beckham experiment in this post because Beckham's impact should not be paradigmatic of the effect of starpower on American soccer for various reasons that I shall discuss in a different post.

In addition to this, American soccer lacks storylines because of the lack of effectiveness in communicating with fans and faulty media distribution in general. Media rights should be sold to channels that broadcast games and highlights on a regular basis. Soccer games hardly get airtime and most casual fans are more familiar with overseas players than MLS players. The present structure of the MLS is not at all conducive to growth of the sports. Teams should be vested with the power to negotiate with overseas clubs instead of the MLS. There has to be a revamp of the American soccer system before the sport becomes more popular.

Soccer has several historic rivalries worldwide – River Plate and Boca Juniors in Argentina, Manchester United and Liverpool in England (among others), AC Milan and Inter Milan in Italy and the political and culturally charged Barcelona-Real Madrid rivalry in Spain. American soccer has not yet had any answer to that. Part of the reason why soccer is so popular in the rest of the world is because it inspires tribal loyalty among a lot of its fans. For a lot of people it mirrors real life. In Scotland, the Rangers-Celtic derby is still extremely emotive because of the Catholic-Protestant divide. American soccer rules and restrictions hurt the development of the teams. The MLS suffers from undermarketing and lack of benchmarking which would greatly help the visibility of soccer in the United States.

Finally, most Americans see soccer as a slow-paced and low scoring game which is almost the antithesis of basketball. Obviously the rules of the game cannot be changed but better marketing can help differentiate the product for young American adults who are more globally aware of their surroundings. American soccer has had several brand driving moments of late, most recently Landon Donovan’s goal in the World Cup against Algeria. The American soccer sports marketers could definitely capitalize of than brand building moment to improve the profile of the game in the country.

Parallels between the United States' occupation of Iraq and Vietnam

2011-03-23T03:42:00.008-04:00

Modern day nation-building is often influenced by policies, motives and the implementation of those policies by the invaders. The ideal state is “legitimized by its ability to deliver public goods to the population contained within its recognized borders through a differentiated set of centralized institutions ”. Comparing the different policies that different political regimes followed in different countries can provide us with a comparative analysis of the policies that were more or less successful in the various nations.

The ‘Reverse Course’ was the change in US policy in Japan. It was directed towards appeasing the more conservative elements of Japanese society and creating pro-American sentiment in Japanese society. This policy succeeded to a great extent and Japan was a valuable Pacific ally to the United States during the Cold War.
In his book, In Retrospect, McNamara talks about the transition of power from Eisenhower to Kennedy. In a meeting with Kennedy on January 19, 1961, Eisenhower discussed about the problems in South East Asia and particularly focused on Laos. He says that “Eisenhower and [Secretary of State] Herter both got a certain inner satisfaction from laying a potentially intractable problem in Kennedy’s lap ”. McNamara says, however, that there was evidence that at that time, Eisenhower might have felt confused with how the situation should be dealt with at that time and may have acted differently when evidence like the Dien Bien Phu crisis presented itself. He notes that the meeting made a “deep impression on Kennedy and all of them ” and influenced their subsequent approach to Vietnam. McNamara admits that the members of the various administrations should have questioned themselves on “whether the fall of South Vietnam would trigger the fall of all of Southeast Asia, whether it would constitute a grave threat to the West’s security, what kind of war would develop in Vietnam if America was to involve itself there, whether they could win the war with U.S. troops fighting alongside the South Vietnamese and whether the aforementioned question needed to be answered before they committed American troops to Vietnam ” In 1961 Kennedy and his advisors, along with Diem’s advisors instituted the Strategic Hamlet program. It was seen as a means of combating communist insurgency. However, the program failed because the Vietnamese did not wish to be forcibly relocated and because they did not want to die for ideologies that they were not interested in.

McNamara talks about several meetings between 1961 and 1964 in which he met South Vietnam’s President Ngo Dinh Diem. These meeting were sometimes held in locations which were known to the Vietcong and therefore there were several attempts to assassinate McNamara. He has been criticized for holding such meetings but McNamara says that these meetings were their only source of information and allowed them to convey Kennedy’s thoughts to their colleagues in Vietnam and receive recommendations from them about the course of actions that they were taking.

McNamara and Dean Rusk used to give frequent reports to the Congress and the press about the progress of the Vietnam War. There have been subsequent allegations of the government misleading the American people about how the war was progressing but McNamara says that the information that they gave were meant to be accurate. However, in hindsight they proved not to be so because the generals did not know how to ascertain the progress of a battle without battle-lines and therefore used erroneous indicators such as enemy casualties and weapons which did not, in reality, gauge the progress made in battle.

In 1963, after visiting Vietnam, McNamara and Maxwell Taylor handed in a recommendation to Kennedy that opined that while a coup would be unsuccessful, Diem should be made aware of American displeasure of his policies. They made a rough timeline for the withdrawal of American forces from Vietnam by 1965. McNamara insinuates that intransigence on Diem’s part to assure America of certain conditions led to some of the conclusions in the report. It is tough to judge if McNamara realized then that Diem was not a great leader but simply the best option that America thought she had in South Vietnam, or whether that realization came from hindsight. The recommendations of the report helped the Kennedy administration because it allowed it to dissociate itself from Diem’s anti-Buddhist activities. After Diem’s assassination, Kennedy increased the number of US troops in Vietnam. Later in November 1963, Kennedy was assassinated. The Gulf of Tonkin incident led to an escalation in US involvement in Vietnam. McNamara says that while there was no deception, he agrees that he knew that Congress had not “understood the breadth of those powers when it overwhelmingly approved the resolution on August 7, 1964 ”. As a result of the resolution, Johnson was able to expand US forces in Vietnam from 16,000 to 55,000.

McNamara criticizes some of General Westmoreland’s policies. He said that Westmoreland “simply developed a strategy to suit the Army’s preferred modus operandi, force structure, and a doctrine ”. He believed that the American’s better firepower would enable them to destroy the Viet Cong through attrition. However, the Viet Cong used guerilla-style attacks and their superior knowledge of the terrain to counter US attacks. As a result, there was a stalemate in the war. His successor, Creighton Abrams used a less offensive military strategy in which he aimed to teach the South Vietnamese how to defend themselves against Vietcong attacks. This led to less US casualties and increased US success in the war.

L. Paul Bremer was the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) which was supposed to oversee the reconstruction process. Even though the CPA was authorized under UN Resolution 1483, on 22 May, 2003 , it was for all practical purposes a functionary of the US Federal government and not responsible to the UN Security Council. Bremer replaced Jay Garner who was the Director of Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA). The ORHA’s ambiguous mandate made it unclear as to whether it was an aid and reconstruction body, an interim governing authority, or the civilian adjunct to a military government, ultimately reporting to General Franks and the Pentagon . The problems that the ORHA faced was that it was poorly staffed and that the scale of problems seemed for overwhelm Garner. The ORHA were blamed for numerous problems ranging from the lack of security in the newly formed Iraqi republic to the lack of electricity in Iraq. Garner and the ORHA were also criticized for tolerating the presence of several senior Ba’athists in positions of power. Bremer’s tenure in Iraq will be discussed in detail below but it was not as successful as the Bush administration intended it to be. In fact, there can be a case made for the argument that Bremer was as bad of a person for the job as Garner was.

Bremer mentioned that having lived in three countries occupied by the Germans during World War II, he knew that “governments in exile tend to be viewed with suspicion by those who had remained ”. Despite this knowledge, he appointed only exiles to the Iraqi Leadership Council (ILC). He admits to this mistake by saying that “focusing solely on the ILC as the presumptive nucleus of a new representative Iraq was going to create similar concerns among average Iraqis who’d stayed and suffered Saddam’s brutality ”. As an aside, he also remarks that the ILC lacked proper balance between Sunnis and Shias and was overtly biased in representation towards the Kurds and had no Christians, Turks or women. He never mentioned the biases that the exiles may have had. It was extremely surprising to note that despite knowing about the “bolder ambitions” of the exiles, he did not change the composition of the council.

Allawi said that “the CPA was only explicable in terms of a cover for sorting out issues in post-war Iraq because the Americans had no exit strategy. The CPA’s reluctance to internationalize is criticized by Allawi, Packer and Ricks. Packer says that “Bremer saw no reason for internationalize Iraq as time went on, and whenever a colleague – usually British – brought up the UN at a meeting, Bremer would roll his eyes as if the subject were a waste of time ”. In a damning criticism of Bremer and the CPA, George Packer said that it was
essentially forcing the White House and Pentagon to go along with initiatives taken in Baghdad. The CPA was going to fill in all the blanks left empty black in Washington by the war’s visionaries who had imagined that freedom and democracy would appear spontaneously in Iraq.

Bremer presided over some controversial policy initiatives during his tenure as head of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). CPA Order No. 1 was De-Baathification of Iraqi society. The Baathist Party counted among its ranks a lot of Iraq’s educated people. Despite admitting to not knowing too much about Iraq, Bremer decided to select which Iraqis must stay and which Iraqis must go. The CPA Order No 1 created severe divisions in Iraqi society. Allawi said that De-Ba’athification was equated with ‘de-Sunnification’. He said that de-Ba’athification was “central for the plan to remake Iraq into a new democracy, and to produce a new political culture that would replace the authoritarian and nationalist models of the past ”. Bremer’s defense of this policy indicated that he believed that his policies could change the ancient Iraqi culture. He underestimated the deep roots that the Ba’athist party had developed in its nearly thirty-five years of power in Iraq. Ayad Allawi campaigned against de-Ba’athfication, claiming that people joined the Ba’athist party as a means of obtaining state perks and keeping their jobs. A lot of the advocates of de-Ba’athification were people seeking revenge for acts committed against them during Saddam’s reign or were people who were ideologically opposed to it. However, de-Ba’athification did not “eliminate the presence of Ba’athist sympathizers, or include the egregious cases ”.

CPA Order No 2 was “Dissolution of Entities”. In Bremer’s words, it was -
These included the Defense Ministry, all related national security ministries and offices, and all military formation, including the Republican Guard, Special Republica Guard, Baath Party Militia, and the Fedayeen Saddam.

Several critics of this order said that it lead to Sunni backlash against the US troops. Ricks writes that Petraeus complained of Bremer’s “clumsy micromanagement ” and of him “developing plans without talking to affected U.S. commanders ”. Bremer defends this decision by saying that a Kurdish leader named Jalal Talabani told him that the decision to disband the army was the best decision that he had taken during his time in Iraq. However, Bremer fails to provide the readers with a more representative view of how the decision played out in Iraq. Bremer also says that this decision was a jointly coordinated with the Pentagon and that it was approved by Washinton, CPA and CENTCOM . Iraq’s security was severely compromised by the disbanding of the army and street crimes were on the rise. Bremer, Allawi, Ricks and Packer acknowledge this although Bremer refuses to blame this on the disbanding of the army. Bremer claims that the army had dissolved itself during the war and that it would be impossible to create a new Iraq that would include the Kurds and the Shi’a, who traditionally did not trust the army, if the old army was not disbanded. However, the disbanding of the Iraqi army was culturally insensitive. Allawi says that the army had a near-mythical role in Iraqi history . He says that one of Bremer’s unstated reasons for disbanding the army was the “belief held in many neo-conservative circles in the USA that the army in Iraq was both an instrument of control and the propagator of an ideology that was aggressive and disruptive to both stability and peace in the Middle East ”. Allawi says that the twin orders of de-Ba’athification and dissolution of the army were seen as important factors that launched the insurgency in Iraq. The Sunni Arab community was extremely affected as dissolution of the army caused their principal source of livelihood to disappear. These two orders, compounded with the CPA and the United States’ government’s resistance against any law that had a religious basis caused fears in Iraq that in the new Iraq, there was no place for the Pan-Arab, nationalist Iraqi. The people who were instrumental in forming both these policies did not consider that a well-equipped Iraqi army might be useful in combating insurgents. From Bremer’s own admission and from his memoirs of his time in Iraq, it is clearly evident that he supported both these policies. However, Allawi said that the blame or credit for the policies should lie elsewhere because both these policies were developed before Bremer assumed office.

Bremer also implemented several economic policies during his time in Iraq. While he speaks of these policies as major steps to helping Iraq become a modern and stable nation, Allawi said that the “raw and unfettered Darwinian capitalism that the more radical of the CPA were trying to promote was totally unsuited for Iraq in its current bankrupt state ”. The Iraqi private sector was deeply divided in its opinions of Bremer’s economic policies. The CPA did not fully understand the dynamics of the Iraqi government and by the end of 2003, “Iraq was governed by a hodgepodge of authorities: the formal and increasingly remote occupation powers at ‘the Palace’, the Governing Council that detested the restrictions placed on it by the CPA and the Cabinet that was controlled by the CPA’s purse”.

The biggest difference between the Rumsfeld, Casey, Abizaid administration and the Gates, Petraeus and Odierno brain trust was that the latter’s vision to change the war in Iraq was by using classic counterinsurgency theories. The immediate effects of the surge have not been so good because there were increased attacks on US troops. However, of late, the number of attacks on US troops has significantly decreased, as Ricks reports. Robert Gates being appointed the Secretary of Defense in the place of the resigning Rumsfeld aided Petraeus. Like Petraeus, Gates believed in the Surge and authorized a change in US strategy.

According to Allawi, Americans had a misconstrued view of Iraqi society after the 9/11 attacks. Most of these views were gleaned from exiles and exit-strategies were based on reports like ‘The Transition to Democracy’ that was compiled by Chalabi and Makiya. Before the invasion of Iraq, most Americans and most of the members of President Bush’s council did not know much about Iraq or its history. Bremer mentions his lack of knowledge about Iraq in the beginning of the book. Post 2006, America’s knowledge about Iraq is extremely politicized which is often extremely different from reality. Allawi said that “the United States had absolutely no idea as to how to actually administer the country, even though the issue of post-war governance of Iraq had been discussed well before the invasion ”.

Here-in lies the biggest difference between the administrations of Bush Sr. and Bush Jr. George H.W. Bush realized the pitfalls of entering Iraq after the first Gulf War. He did not wish to have to rule Iraq and reconstruct the Iraqi nation-state. However, Bush Jr. decided to invade Iraq without realizing the consequences that his actions would have. The several unintended consequences of the decision to topple Saddam’s regime have been discussed at length in this paper. It has also caused America to be directly involved in a complicated political situation in the Middle East.

Allawi said that the CPA did not meet its stated goals. It was unwilling to completely overhaul the Ba'athist legacies but instead tried to solve a major problem by removing prominent figures of the Saddam Hussein regime, thus alienating Sunnis. Iraqi society, according to Allawi, was ‘monolithic ’ and ‘impervious to change ’ and only held together by ‘threat and use of extreme force and brutality’.

After the overthrow of Saddam’s regime, the fissures in Iraqi society only got wider and it became increasingly tough to govern the Iraqis. Allawi notes the failure of the intelligence forces of the Coalition during the insurgency. In the epilogue to his book, Allawi slams the Bush administration saying that they drew their “inspiration from radical conservatism and an unapologetic defence of western – mainly American – values ”. Because of their almost caricature-like view of Middle Eastern culture that made them believe that it would create instability in the world if left to its own devices, the United States should intervene and impose democracy in Iraq. However they failed to take a lot of factors into account – those within Iraq and extra-Iraqi factors that included Arabian countries that did not take kindly to the changes in Iraq. Compounding these problems is that there is no ‘American’ Iraqi party but simply people who want to exploit America’s power in Iraq to their advantage. This is why they have failed to and have ‘lost peace’ in Iraq.

Ricks says that the most important events in Iraq are yet to come. Part of the reason justifying this comment is the consensus that there will be Americans in Iraq until at least 2015 . That means that the war is just about halfway through being complete. The long-term consequences of the war are yet to be felt and the success or failure of the surge is not known. The success of the surge will be determined by how much it has been able to change the fundamentals of Iraqi society, whether the surge can be sustained and if Iraq transitions into a successful democracy like Japan did. Success of the surge will vindicate Petraeus’ methods but failure would vindicate those who are in favor of unilateral use of force. Also, the power structure of Iraq will of particular interest to the United States and the rest of the world. As Sunnis become politically and militarily more powerful, Shia political elements will look for allies . Some experts predict that this would point to an increasing Iranian influence which would destabilize the fragile power structure of the Middle East. Another source of concern is Iraq turning into a military state. Ricks says that “Kilcullen, who had moved on to advise Eliot Cohen at the State Department, worried that the classic conditions for a military coup were developing – a venal political elite divorced from the population isolated inside the Green Zone, while Iraqi military outside the zone’s walls grew more capable and also became close to the people ”. With so many possibilities, it is not presumptuous to assert that the most important events in the life of the new Iraqi state are ahead of us instead of behind us.

Save the Oceans!

2011-03-11T05:07:00.001-05:00

When I sailed with my father, the vastness of the ocean amazed me. To a two year old me, it represented endless possibilities and adventure. I fell in love with her brilliance on a beach one evening in Seychelles when I watched the waves wash away the footsteps of a young couple holding hands and walking away from the beach. At that point of time I was too young to fully comprehend the incredible nature of the moment which mirrored time. The ocean has seen so many lovers and so many broken hearts come by her shore and then walk away with her tides trailing behind them. Some footsteps take longer to be washed away but eventually all footprints left behind are replaced and forgotten. Just like our lives through the journey of time where we desperately spend all our lives trying to leave an imprint which inevitably fades away as time washes away all our actions, good or evil.

Swimming against a strong tide or feeling the waves dance on your toes only to have it turn into a strong wave that threatens to wash you away mirrors life. Fighting it and standing against them strengthens you. Si vis pacem para bellum. In other to earn the right to live with dignity and peace, you need to struggle for it.

Pearl Jam Oceans from Pearl Jam on Vimeo.

There is only one Ocean! Save it for the present and the future generations. The Earth is a unique storehouse of life and even with our advances in technology, we have not yet discovered all her secrets or the origin of the greatest miracle of them all - life. I believe that there exists a life force among all living things and there are greater beings that are the result of our combined energies circling the planet and protecting the life force and the balance of nature. What we're doing is causing a disturbance in the balance of this life force and as a result Mother Gaia (/god you believe in) is trying to restore balance through unnatural phenomenon that is causing great harm to all her children.

From an atheist's point of view, we are disturbing the biotic potential of the planet and thus ruining the ecological balance. Whatever your belief system is, you should respect the gifts of nature. The reason why Earth is habitable is because of her uniqueness and right now we are tethering on the brink of ruining it. The sea covers more than 70% of the Earth's compass. We are causing unbelievable damage to the oceans by trying to exploit la mar economically.

A dead ocean means a dead planet. The oceans regulate the climate of the earth and provide the air that we breathe. In return, we destroy her lifesystems by overfishing and by spilling oil and defiling her purity. Very soon there could be no oceans. And no life.

You did not kill the fish only to keep alive and to sell for food, he thought. You killed him for pride and because you are a fisherman. You loved him when he was alive and you loved him after. If you love him, it is not a sin to kill him. Or is it more?

In his iconic book, the Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemmingway talks about man's place within nature. Santiago kills the marlin out of necessity but we, the human race, are turning into the graceless shovelheaded sharks incapable of controlling our greed and hunger and senselessly mutilating the oceans and all that lies within.

Thoughts on Green Bay Packers Superbowl XLV Win

2011-02-16T16:43:00.001-05:00

Congratulations to the Green Bay Packers on a great season ending with a Superbowl win! The game had a truly great performance by Aaron Rodgers who passed for 304 yards and 3 TDs. Aaron Rodgers probably realized a childhood dream last night and I am sure that it was very fulfilling to answer a lot of his critics. Aaron had had a very interesting journey in the NFL so far. I was really surprised to see how far he had fallen in the NFL draft and in my opinion back then, the Packers had drafted a great quarterback-in-the-making. Then of course came 4 years of anonymity behind America's ultimate ironman Brett Favre. And then, of course, the Favre retirement saga. Aaron Rodgers has developed into an incredibly accurate QB with a great arm. Also, very importantly, he has shown great leadership skills and kept his nose out of trouble - something that is absolutely important in a franchise leader.

Throughout the entire debacle created by Brett and the Packers front-office (I feel that both were to blame. Brett probably deserves more of the blame, but Ted Thompson, Mike McCarthy & Co should've handled the situation far better), Aaron Rodgers has been a class-act. Replacing a legend is tough enough, but Aaron had a task far tougher because he had the shadow of Favre looming over his shoulder all the time. The final question from a grand moment in NFL history, the Packers winning another Super Bowl title: Will Green Bay's past quarterback hero in Favre, and its current and future one in Rodgers, ever be able to make amends? The Packer fans will forgive him for his arrogance and his grandstanding. If not this year or next, definitely in a few years. But can Rodgers and Favre ever be friends? The problem in repairing the relationship is that any attempt by Brett to reach out to Aaron will be seen as being manipulative or grandstanding and Aaron has every right to be annoyed at Brett. It isn't quite as bad as Steve Young and Joe Montana but it is something that needs to be worked on. My personal take on the situation is that the old masters - Favre and Montana had a natural human reaction to their usurpers and being pampered athletes who had been mollycoddled for a very wrong time, handled the situations in the worst possible ways.

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Apart from getting the proverbial monkey off Aaron Rodgers' back, this Superbowl win could herald the start of a Packers dynasty. The core of the team is very young. On the offensive side, Greg Jennings, James Jones and Jordy Nelson are excellent young receivers who will continue to improve. In Jennings' case, he could end up being great. Donald Driver is the only receiver among the receiving corps who will be retiring soon and while his contribution to the Packers' organization has been fantastic, he has ready made replacements in James Jones and Jordy Nelson. Jermichael Finley is, in my opinion, the most physically talented receiver among all the tight-ends currently in the NFL (better than Antonio Gates)and will continue to improve as he matures. That the Packers were such a deadly offense in a year in which he missed more than half the season speaks volumes about Aaron Rodgers who will be the Packers' starting QB for the forseeable future. There are some questions with regard to the offensive line and I am sure that the Packers front office will address them in the off-season and in the draft.

Defensively, the Packers were decimated throughout the season but were great throughout. Clay Matthews looks like the real deal and Tramon Williams has emerged as an excellent young cornerback. Charles Woodson cannot be relied upon for much longer, especially in cornerback but a shift to free safety could prolong his career. Nick Barnett, Sam Shields and several other players who form the core of the defense were really good this year and barring unnecessary roster turnover, the unit should be really good for several years to come. On the line, BJ Raji seems like a great draft pick and Cullen Jenkins was very solid. Some reinforcements would be however, welcome.

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In a conversation I had with a friend, I realized my allegiance to the Packers could be slightly incongruous with my devotion to Manchester United. The reason I have been drawn to the Packers is the sense of history and community surrounding the team. Ostensibly, the Packers are the opposite of Manchester United - the poster child for global sports franchising. The bigger difference is in the attitude of players. Packers have had players who are grounded and don't have big egos (apart from Brett Favre) whereas Manchester United fans have revered its flashy, cocky arrogant heroes who weave their magic at Old Trafford. From King Cantona to David Beckham to Cristiano Ronaldo to Dimitar Berbatov, Nani and Ryan Giggs to name a few. The only modern Old Trafford legend who is low-key is the ginger prince Paul Scholes. Obviously there is a cultural difference in the attitude of the fans - American sports fans typically dislike cocky players whereas soccer/futbol/football fans love them.

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I wrote this during my MKT 212 class so you have to pardon some of my fragmented thoughts and sentences.

2011 Movies-to-watch Wishlist

2011-01-16T15:52:00.004-05:00

I hit a bit of a dry spell last year as far as movie-watching goes largely because I was busy with graduation and then moving into Long Island, getting my car etc. Obviously I watched Inception in the theatres but apart from that the only movie I can remember that I watched at a movie theatre is the A-Team and that too because I almost got into a fight in the restroom.

Disclaimer – Yours truly had an extremely pleasant disposition. The fight was an extremely isolated case largely because the guy was being extremely obnoxious. I mean who talks loudly on a cellphone DURING a movie. I thought I should ask him to desist and he took exception to me saying that which is why he confronted me etc etc. What happened? Just gave him a piece of MY mind.

I digress. Coming back to my original point about movies released last year, I’m definitely going to watch Robin Hood, The Fighter and Black Swan but apart from that I really don’t think that I missed much because last year was a slow year for movies. However this year seems to have some promising movies that I am excited about watching:
• The Green Hornet: Don’t really have crazy high expectations for this movie but it could be interesting. Seth Rogen is flirting dangerously with the Jim-Carrey-hackneyed-humor-that-appeals-to-a-smaller-niche-every-year and he doesn’t even have half the same number of good movies as Mr.Carrey does. On a sidenote, I think people really underrate Jim Carrey’s skills in non-comic movies. I think his performances in the Majestic and 23 were extremely good.

• Pirates of the Caribbean 4 On Stranger Tides: Very excited about this movie. Honestly this movie has to suck big time for it not to be enjoyable and I think that the presence of Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush and Penelope Cruz guarantees an enjoyable experience for the casual and objective movie-buff and definitely a fantastic experience for someone who is probably going to go dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow to the movie (this is the year I get in touch with my inner nerd).

• The Roommate: Only February release I am interested in or else I wouldn’t have bothered spending money on this. This hits close to home for me. For those of you who know me from Lafayette, you surely know who I am referring to here.

• Thor: Because Marvel Comics movies have been excellent of late. And because Natalie Portman is in it.

• X-Men First Class: See Thor. Also, X-Men movies have been fantastic in general and I am interested to see how good they will be without Wolverine adding to the movie. Besides, it isn’t a Bryan Singer directed movie so there are plenty of question marks about it.

• Captain America The First Avenger: Just explained why. Besides, I was a comics buff and maybe these 3 movies could convince me to buy Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2.

• Green Lantern: Lets see if DC Comics can get into the 2011 comics fun. While Marvel has released excellent movies of late, DC Comics has probably been better. The new Batman movies have been Oscarworthy (Dark Knight>Slumdog Millionaire) and the Spiderman series has been excellent. Of course DC would want to make up for a pedestrian Superman movie and hopefully Green Lantern will herald the start of a new franchise. But Ryan Reynolds….really? Poor choice in my opinion.

• The Hangover 2: Because the first one was f*n hilarious.

• Kung-Fu Panda 2: We all like cute talking animated pandas who can kick butt......right?

• Transformers Dark of the Moon: This is a movie made for theatres with all the special effects. Definitely will not contain Oscar-worthy acting but I bet the special effects will be incredible. The conspiracy theorists will love this one!

You shall be missed...even if you are a complete bitch on the set!

• Winnie the Pooh: Remember the “Do not lose your dinosaur” bit from Stepfather. I didn’t. Just saying. Doubt I’ll get a movie buddy for this one.
Seriously! How cool are May, June and July going to be for movie buffs?

• Happy Feet 2, Puss in Boots and The Greatest Muppet Movie ever made – See Winnie the Pooh.

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Haven't even seen Part 1 year although I am sure I will watch it sooner than later. Just want to get this series over with. The movies really ruined the books in my opinion.

Late update:
• Priest: The trailer looked cool and I always watch at least one movie based on which trailer I like best from the first movie of the year I see.

I’m sure I will not be able to catch all these in the theatre just because I will probably be doing my internship and I am sure that I will be convinced to go to some random movies during the school year and being me, I will say yes. But the above seems fun.

Hope you guys are having a fun 2011! Leave comments (unless I am speaking to myself, which I probably am).

Happy New Year!

2011-01-10T14:20:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year to you and your family! May the year be prosperous and bring forth new adventures. Looking forward to sharing some stories this year with you all!

(See I even provided you a coloring page to make up for my late New Year wishes...courtesy ActivityColoringVillage.co.uk)

Reactions to Dead Until Dark, sports updates.

2010-12-21T10:37:00.002-05:00

I'm not going to lie - I'm sometimes a sucker for cheap and trashy fiction to balance out the "deep" book I'm reading. A few weeks back, I picked up the first 3 books of the Southern Vampire series. Obviously that was a bad time because it was finals-week/week before-period.

Anyways, now that I am back home, I'm pretty much back to being a bum and working out. And I just finished Dead Until Dark. By the way, this is no way the first of a however long series of "reviews". This is more of a one-off thing just coz.

1) The book is nothing like the show. The first season on TV had more for guys and the show definitely has better character development than the book does.

2) Having said that, the book is impressive for trashy fiction. I can see why any woman would love it - it touches on several things women traditionally care about. When Bill tells Sookie - "You can get more skilled but you can never get better" implying she is perfect in a way, that is what every girl - however "cool" or "un-cool" she is, wants to hear after her "first time". Incidentally, I fail to see why girls remember their first time at all. It constitutes a lot of pain and blood and not in the fun way and unless you're getting boned by yours truly, you're probably having some 16 year old bang you who has no idea what he's doing. JK.

3) Charlene Harris gives a FANTASTIC commentary on Southern relationships and the Southern social structure - their views on gays, outsiders etc. Just because a book does not contain the abstract erudition of a Rushdie novel does not mean that it has no intrinstic value.

4) Alan Ball - True Blood's director, has to be credited for reshaping the content to make it more relevant to modern day society. I like that he has prolonged Lafayette Reynolds' character. Not only is Nelsan Ellis a fantastic actor, but he can also infuse a societal element to the show.

5) I am yet to definitively put my finger to which social/political/socio-economic/ethnic group the various "supes"(/supernaturals e.g.:vampires, werewolves,maenads etc) metaphorically are. I've decided that the books treat them as purely mystical creatures whereas the shows slightly politicize certain supernatural groups.

I'm excited to read books 2 and 3. Who knows...maybe I could make this a series of reviews.

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* I hate the weather-induced interruptions in Manchester United's schedule. Not only does this make a schedule logjam from the New Year, but it means that we lost our opportunity to catch Chelsea when they were slightly of-form. On the bright side, we have a real winter break and hopefully we will not be worn out by the end of the season and it will help us in our push for European glory.

* How bad of a week is the Giants' punter having? And their special teams unit in general. And even their defense! How could they let the Eagles come back from that deficit. I just enjoy hating on most Philly teams and with the whole Cliff Lee and now the Miracle in the Meadowlands, I'm not really getting too much of an opportunity to do so.

* I weighed in at 182 pounds. Someone's hitting his weight targets! I'm going to take a few pounds off the side before I bulk up again.

Hearts and thoughts they fade....

2010-12-20T13:33:00.006-05:00

Its not my fault you are stuck on a shelf. I've moved on. Maybe you should've too. Now look what's left for you....

This is when I thought of when I talked to you today.
Hearts and thoughts they fade....

Nightmare, visas & Community Shield 2010-11

2010-07-30T09:04:00.009-04:00

I know I know! I reneged on the promise of daily weekly updates but my life has been hectic. I had intended to write this on the night of my visa appointment but I procrastinated as usual. My visa was approved which means, this Fall, J$$howw is hitting the Big Apple woot! The visa guy was awesome. He was a BoSox fan so I had fun with that. He still thinks (unlike Bill Simmons) that the Red Sox can still make the playoffs. That'll be interesting to see.

Speaking of interesting and fantastic, Avenged Sevenfold's new album Nightmare is simply briliant. Its got to be their best effort thus far and put into the context of the Rev's death, the album should be forever special in the hearts of metalcore fans. I'm thinking of going to an A7x concert on the 29th of August. If I do, catch me there! I'll be signing autographs - just kiddin! It'll be great to hang out with the old crew again.

I'm not going to be going into a lengthy pre-season discussion about Manchester United's prospects this season but all I can say is that I am excited about this young man right here.

Chicharito Hernandez scored in his debut and his speed and his awareness could make him one of the signings of the season! There's been a lot of talk of Özil coming to United and while that would be interesting, I don't think that it would be a disaster if he isn't signed. I think our squad looks great and I'm excited for the new season.
And yes, I know I owe everyone something erudite and essay-ish and I'll get to that by the end of the week. Ciao....enjoy the week.

About my inactivity and life updates

2010-07-21T13:48:00.002-04:00

Folks, I'm sorry for not updating more regularly. I've had a lot on my plate these past few months....actually these past four years. Honestly, Lafayette College was a rollercoaster ride but it was fantastic while it lasted. I think I've come to a great country where a lot of people understand and appreciate me and my personality. I'm really sorry that I haven't updated my blog more regularly. This was a fairly popular blog when I was in high school and I intend to start writing again.

I have recently been accepted for the MBA in Finance at Hofstra University so I'll be in Hempstead from this Fall. Its really near NYC and I'm dying to explore the City that Never Sleeps!

I'm currently deciding which of my shirts to take, what car to get on a lease and things like that. Keep y'allz updated. If you still have a RSS Feed for my blog - thanks! And tell your friends J$$howw is back and not just with airy fairy stuff!

A Tricky Summer - Evaluating Manchester United's 2009 summer transfer dealings thus far

2009-07-07T02:24:00.010-04:00

This is my first sports related post (actually my first post) in a while. Partly because I felt it was absolutely necessary to comment on some of the happenings in the sports world and partly because I felt that I owed an apology to a great man whom I will be mentioning at length in my grad-school essays. On January 11, 2006 yours truly wrote in this blog:

But sadly, it seems that Sir Alex has now simply lost the plot. United are,
despite Sir Alex's excuses of building a young team, being outclassed in every
competition. Chelsea are runaway leaders in the EPL and United's out of Europe.
Sir Alex's signings in the past few years (with the exception of Rio Ferdinand,
Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Christiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Edwin Van Der Saar
have been big flops. Look at the money spent on players like Veron (bald
incompetent piece of bulls**t), Forlan (nice guy though!) , Barthez ( grrr...he
let the ball in through his legs!!!), Kleberson(duh...), Liam Miller( on loan to
Leeds in the 1st division-that's all I can say) and Eric Djemba Djemba (Ummm so
who's this dude?). All this and the recent acrimonious bust-up with Roy Keane.
OK, Gary Neville's a good skipper, but he's no Roy Keane, we saw that in
United's match against Arsenal where he couldn't be half as inspirational as
Keano. So is it time for Sir Alex to go? ESPN Sportsline 'in-house' experts feel
so. With a cut-throat new owner in the form of the Glazers and the possibilities
of another trophiless season, the future looks really bleak for Sir Alex.

Congratulations Sir Alex, you proved me and the doubters wrong. Since then Manchester United have gone on to win 3 Premier League titles (thus knocking the Scousers of the proverbial 'fucking perch'), a Champions League title, a World Cup and a bunch of minor trophies that we spoilt fans don't even count (like the Carling Cup). Turns out that the experts at ESPN Sportscenter (it used to be Sportsline back then) know a tad bit less than you. In my defence, Djemba-Djemba and Veron were bulls**t but Gaz did turn out to be a pretty good captain. And my Alan Hansen-ish comment about "excuses about building a young team" makes me look extremely stupid in hindsight. Arsene Wenger - therefore there's still hope for your vision but the window of tolerance is decreasing. The Premiership is getting ; Citeh with their money (oil.....cough cough!) and Sparky at the helm could very well challenge your perennial 4th place finish (or so it seems now) and i don't know if the supporters will tolerate a non-Champions League finish.

Back to the Red Devils. Cristiano Ronaldo went from being a showpony to being a briliant player , an even bigger prima-donna and a smug little piece of shit. In his shadow, Wayne Rooney has developed into being one of the more underrated talents in the world. The fact that Rooney wasn't mentioned in Real's crazy summer splurge shows that the world has seemingly forgetten the clinical briliance of a man who unselfishly let Cristiano Ronaldo steal his spotlight. All that will change this year because Wazza seems to be ready to take centrestage this season at the Theatre of Dreams.

Unless fans have a ridiculous short-term memory, few will forget his electrifying debut against Fenerbache. However, since them most fans have been more wowed by Cristiano Ronaldo's glamorous style of playing than Rooney's game which is a perfect mixture of skill, determination and graft. With Cristiano Ronaldo gone, Rooney can play his favored position and be at his lethal best throughout the season. My bold prediction is that Berbatov and Rooney will form Europe's deadliest strike duo and Madrid will soon be calling (this time unsuccessfully) for the 'other' R in Manchester United's R n R connection.

Which brings me to Real Madrid's summer splurge. The Galacticos II project is well and truly underway. Kaka, Ronaldo and Benzema have all gone to Real Madrid, who have made a mockery of the international crisis. However, Perez has clearly not learnt from the mistakes of his previous failed "Galacticos" project. When Beckham was brought to Real Madrid during the summer that Makelele was sold, Zidane famously commented - "Why put another layer of gold paint on the Bentley when you are losing the entire engine?" Real failed to win a European Cup or a league title in the remainder of the Galacticos I era. The failure to shore up their defence or add a player in the "Makelele role" will cost Real greatly during season. Real's only defensive addition was Raul Albiol and their 4 starters on defence are Cannavaro - a has been whose abilities have sadly been diminished, Ramos - an extremely poor man's Sergio Ramos, Metzelder - probably the most solid defender in the back 4, which tells you how bad they are in the first place and Heinze, who is an above average defender on his best day. The Diarras will be tested but neither has shown the qualities to be a top international defensive midfielder. Iker Casillas is definitely a top goalkeeper but there's only so much that a goalkeeper can do when his back 4 leaks like a two-bit whore after a good night's work. Neither Kaka nor Ronaldo are known for their tracking back abilities and neither is whoever their striker might be - Benzema, Raul, Nistelrooy, Huntelaar or Higuian. Besides, Cristiano Ronaldo's and Kaka's exorbitant salaries will definitely cause a great deal of resentment in the dressing room, especially in the minds of the younger stars who will want a better and more improved deal. Casillas' reaction, in particular, is going to be interesting. Observing Ronaldo's attitude in a team where he is not the centrepiece is going to be very interesting. Unlike Manchester United, he is obviously not going to be deployed as a winger who goes tends to drift towards the centre but more as a traditional goal-scoring winger. His chemistry with Nistelrooy was never fantastic at Manchester United and I'll be surprised if he gels well with a prototypical forward like Raul. Real's embarrassment of riches also means that they will have to off-load players like Sneijder, Robben and the unsettled Van Der Vaart. Selling the latter could be a major mistake because Real do not have a creative midfielder in the Zidane mould and Van Der Vaart is probably their best option in the midfield, even if they do get Alonso. Faliure to buy a Cesc Fabregas or a Xabi Alonso could therefore be the difference between being a ineffective parade of superstars or a lethal attacking team (albeit with a weak defence). More on Real as the season progresses.

Manchester United, meanwhile, have been left with 80 million that they seemingly cannot spend. Sir Alex was reportedly outbid on Benzema and will probably be outbid on Ribery by Real, if Bayern do decide to sell. The media is running amok with stories about Manchester United's new financial impotence to outbid Real and predicting doomsday for the club because a perceived faliure to replace Carlos Tevez and Cristiano Ronaldo. While Ronaldo's departure might have a significant impact on the team, Tevez has never struck me to be that important of a place. He did play a key role in our 2007-08 campaign but his propensity to run around the park aimlessly like a headless chicken is extremely annoying to the fans who fell in love with King Eric's casual panache. The media frenzy over Benzema is surprising and even more suprising, to me, is the reaction of the Old Trafford faithful, some of whom are questioning Sir Alex's incompetence (!!!) in the transfer market (not quite unlike what I did in 2006 but then I've changed!). Why spend 40 million on a player who is unproven outside of the French Ligue 1? Benzema could be a star or could be like Veron, who could never adjust to the pace of the English game. In fact, that is another risk that Real are running this year. It is highly unlikely that all their transplants will be as effective in La Liga as they were in the league in which they previously played in.

The signings of Antonio Valencia and Michael Owen were fantastic - in my opinion. Valencia is will provide excellent service to Wayne Rooney and, in my eyes, is the perfect upgrade to Park. He has Park's industry combined with a certain degree of talent. Besides he is an absolute dynamo who will track back for defence. Besides, the last time someone gave O'Shea as much trouble as Valencia did in the Wigan game, we signed him up and he turned out to be a half decent player! For those of you who have no idea who I'm talking about, it is Cristiano Ronaldo back when he was an 18 year-old in Sporting Lisbon.

Michael Owen should be Sir Alex's shrewdest piece of business in years. He is a 29 year old former European player of the year who isn't past his prime. True, he's had a bad history of injuries over the past two years and his commitment has been questioned but who would like to play in the circus that Newcastle had become. Also, having mumps does not make you injury prone. I feel Michael Owen can contribute greatly from the bench this season. From what we saw in the game against Malaysia XI, he seems to be well on his way back to being the Michael Owen who was en route to becoming England's greatest ever striker. Personally, I'd love to see him score a last minute winner at Anfield and celebrate in front of the Kop!

Mame Biram Diop looks to be a fantastic striker and a great buy. If he is half as good as his videos make him out to be, he's going to be briliant. Another 20 from Molde maybe? Gabriel Obertan is an interesting signing - Laurent Blanc and even Obertan himself questioned his own mental makeup. However, it is undeniable that Obertan has a great amount of quality in him because one of the world's greatest evaluators of French soccer talent - Arsene Wenger was extremely interested in securing his signature. Interestingly, Wenger was never that keen on Benzema and I am curious as to whether that was because of the price tag or if The Voyeur saw something potentially bust-worthy that the rest of us didn't. I'm excited to see what the Academy can do with Obertan and Mame and if they can be made into good finished products. Our next crop of youngsters are extremely talented and have a great deal of potential - Macheda, Wellbeck, the impressive Petrucci, Posebon (on loan for the season) and now Obertan and Diop leading the pack.

A footnote about Cristiano Ronaldo and Tevez - I admit I was a bit disappointed at first to see Cristiano leave and I expected him to somehow put Manchester United down in his first interviews as a Real Madrid player. However, he has said nothing but positive things about the gaffer, his teammates and about his time at the club which is in sharp contrast to the way Carlos Tevez has behaved since he has left Old Trafford. True, Carlos was given a bad deal by the boss but so was David Beckham and Becks was a Manchester United legend. Besides the way it stands now, Tevez has swapped Manchester United's bench for Manchester City's bench - a move that will definitely not go down too well with the Manchester United fans. Contrary to what was the public perception at the end of the season, the player vilified as being a me-first player during his time at Old Trafford, Cristiano Ronaldo, will be applauded by the Stretford End faithful if/when he returns in a Real Madrid jersey whereas the 'ultimate-team-player-who-would-die-for-the-shirt' Carlos Tevez is going to be booed mercilessly next season at Old Trafford.

A random blurb - I realized that the reason I'm becoming a Manny fan is because he is baseball's answer to Eric Cantona. Think about it - the aloof attitude, the seemingly effortless briliance and the charisma that dazzles the fans. More on baseball and football later.

Christmas Eve/Calcutta 12/24/2008

2008-12-24T08:12:00.008-05:00

Why is Christmas Eve so special?

I was having a conversation with my friend Greg Wells and he told me how he feels that Christmas Eve is a very special day in the year. Incidentally, lot of people throughout the world share this view - not just for Christmas Eve, but also for other 'eves'. For example, Friday evenings are almost universally looked forward to (unless you happen to be unfortunate enough to have to work on Saturdays). This is because an 'eve' or 'the day before' holds so much promise of enjoyment for the day/event ahead of it that the anticipation oftens makes it a more enjoyable experience than the actual special day/event.

Very often, the day before a wedding is more enjoyable for the would-be-bride and the would-be-groom than their wedding day (unless you happen to be Britney Spears and your wedding lasts a day, in which case you probably don't care!). Or for a more mundane example - virgins regard sex to be a bigger deal ("Putting pussy on a pedestal" - Forty Year Old Virgin) than it really .

I don't mean to be a sourpuss and say that Christmas isn't that great after all. What I mean to say is that very often planning and waiting for an event can be just as much fun or maybe even more fun than the real thing. For me personally , the buildup to Christmas has usually been very exciting - sometimes even more than Christmas itself.

Which brings me to the second part of my thought for today - Christmas Eve in Calcutta. Many people decry Calcutta as being squalid and stolid. While I agree that some parts of Calcutta can be, well, really squalid, I take offence to the "stolid, dead city" comments. Calcutta is the only city in the world which celebrates festivals of various religious (and commercial, if you consider Christmas to be a commercial holiday) faiths with equal vibrancy. Even my family's maid, who has the vaguest idea of Jesus Christ and who thinks that Christmas is Santa Claus' birthday (personally I find this idea funny and have no intention of disabusing her of the notion) celebrates Christmas! I doubt if you'll find as many enthusiastic people even in front of the Basilca in Rome! Heck the people were so excited that they would have easily got themselves run over by my car (notice how I cleverly shift the blame on the car) had my mother not been making me go slower than the proverbial snail (and even then on Lindsay Street.......). I love Christmas shopping in New Market despite there being obviously better malls to go to nowadays(where I invariably land up in, thanks in part to my mom) because it attracts an incredibly eclectic bunch of people. You can see the Anglo-Indians, the Chinese, the traditional Bengalis (i.e. middle aged women in saris who have as much of a chance of knowing Christmas carols as I do of beating Usain Bolt in a footrace), the non-traditional Bengalis and even women in burqas shopping for Christmas trees. Where else in the world would you find such an assortment of people!

Yesterday, I went shopping for Christmas presents and I heard strains of Jim Reeves' White Christmas being played. Incidentally, for those of you wondering about the weather, playing "White Christmas" in Calcutta is extremely ironic in Calcutta because we haven't had a White Christmas since the Ice Age! But the ultimate annual Christmas irony in Calcutta, in my opinion, is that the best Christmas cakes are sold at Nahoums , a Jewish confectionary. There is such a tremendous sense of togetherness in the city and an all-encompassing sense of elation throughout the city that I feel that if Buddy the Elf and Santa Claus needed some Christmas spirit, they shouldn't have been in New York, but in the streets of Calcutta.

The title of today's blogpost should be familiar to anyone who is a fan of Trans-Siberian Orchestra because it is the wording is reminiscent of 'Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24' .Paul O'Neill of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra explained the story behind Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24 in an interview published on ChristianityToday.com:

... We heard about this cello player born in Sarajevo many years ago
(Vedran Smailović) who left when he was fairly young to go on to become a
well-respected musician, playing with various symphonies throughout Europe. Many decades later, he returned to Sarajevo as an elderly man—at the height of the Bosnian War, only to find his city in complete ruins. I think what most broke this man's heart was that the destruction was not done by some outside invader or natural disaster—it was done by his own people. At that time, Serbs were shelling Sarajevo every night. Rather than head for the bomb shelters like his family and neighbors, this man went to the town square, climbed onto a pile of rubble that had once been the fountain, took out his cello, and played Mozart and Beethoven as the
city was bombed. He came every night and began playing Christmas carols from
that same spot. It was just such a powerful image—a white-haired man silhouetted
against the cannon fire, playing timeless melodies to both sides of the conflict
amid the rubble and devastation of the city he loves. Some time later, a
reporter traced him down to ask why he did this insanely stupid thing. The old
man said that it was his way of proving that despite all evidence to the
contrary, the spirit of humanity was still alive in that place.

(Thank you Wikipedia for your spirit of sharing, which saves me search time!)

It is exactly 94 years since the Christmas truce of 24th December, 1914- the almost unbelievable day on which soldiers of rival countries fraternized with each other during World War in no-man's land on the Western Front. The world has moved on and we have become more realistic (cynical?) and today we find ourselves at the brink of a war that might involve weapons that are capable of unimaginable. I do not ever want to come back home and, like Vedran Smailović, find my city destroyed and my childhood memories shattered. The troops of various countries throughout the world - in troubled areas like Afghanistan, Kashmir and Iraq, do not deserve to be away from their family and friends on Christmas Day. They do not deserve to face the possibility of dying on Christmas Day, when they should be at home, celebrating with their loved ones. I doubt if many of them are looking forward to a White Christmas - for inclement conditions make fighting more dangerous.

Today, Christmas has a secular and universal meaning- one of family, togetherness, sharing, caring and goodwill. These aren't ideals to live up to just for one day - these are ideals that we should abide by everyday. Think of Vedran Smailović and think of the millions affected by the conflicts in the world today. We, the members of global community, owe it to them to stand up united against people who threaten to destroy the fabric of civilization through their violence.

We are at a very important time in our history and how we act will determine the course of our history henceforth.

To me, Christmas is about hope and belief. As a kid, I believed in Santa Claus and because I believed that he was keeping a list, I tried to be nice all year. And I hoped that I would get the presents I wanted because I was such a nice boy throughout the year. What we hope for today can become real tomorrow if we believe it to be possible. Just imagine that there really is Santa Claus somewhere in the North Pole, keeping tabs on us and rewarding us at the end of the year for being "nice"!

Merry Christmas everyone! Have a great day!

Changes

2008-12-22T15:13:00.003-05:00

Dear Readers,
Over the past few days I have been looking over the blog and reminiscing about it. When I first started this blog, I had no idea which direction it was headed or why I intended to take the trouble to write a blog. All I knew was that I felt that somehow my high school curriculum and activities had stifled the writer in me so much that I had a placed a self-imposed writer's block over myself that I was struggling to remove. I guess the blog started off as a mouthpiece for my post-St.James' School sentiments including the posts that sparked off the once infamous Blog Wars and then I decided to share my two cents about the sporting events around the world that interested me.
None of these posts were masterpieces (nor do I presume any of the subsquent posts were) but sometime during these years, something happened because of which I felt that I could write again. I do not mean writing stupid essays for high-school paperswhere the bar that is set for the class reeks of mediocrity, and where creativity and ideas are discouraged - I mean that I could connect with writing again and feel the emotions that pulse through any well-written literary work. This blog has been very therapeutic in that regard. But a negative effect of this invigoration is that I have digressed to writing about abstract topics instead of sharing opinions and views with you all.
This is going to change. I am going to continue writing essays and I always will - but I have decided to share my views about contemporary issues, and with more regularity.
I am grateful for all the encouragement that I have received from you all thus far, and I am humbled to receive praise from you all - especially because a lot of you are very talented authors yourself.

Cheers and Happy Holidays!
Soumyajeet Ghosh

PS: I would like to tell you folks one last thing. I have started working on my first book - whether I will finish it next year or in 20 years remains to be seen but I do hope it comes along well. I shall keep you all updated about it.

Monsoons in Bengal & Economies of scale

2008-06-28T12:59:00.004-04:00

Sitting on a rock in southern-most tip of India, Cape Comorin, à la Swami Vivekananda and watching the monsoon clouds thunder into the mainland, one can almost picture them to be terrible but benevolent invaders, in their chariots of storm driven by black stallions, coming to free the oppressed inhabitants of the land of the fire-breathing summer king. Yet, in a few weeks, the overflowing tears of Mother Ganges bear witness as liberator turns into oppressor as the invaders inundate the land and destroy the seasonal crop…..

The poet’s eye catches only the romantic magnificence or the wanton destruction of the Indian monsoon. Many a prosaic article about monsoon can begin with an ode to monsoon followed by a tear-jerking account of the misery and occasional ruin that the season leaves behind but very few capture anything more than the grandiose events of the season.

Yes, there are economies of scale in the monsoon season that the poetic eye, in its search for opulence, often misses – watching the scorched and drooping roses in Kalimpong, starved of rain throughout summer, rapidly lapping up small droplets of rain and then opening up their petals in gratitude; sitting in a village and watching small children splash about in small pools of rainwater to break the monotony of the croaking frogs and chirping crickets while village women carrying huge pails of water deftly step through mud and slime and make their way home; or spotting an crow try its best to shake off the water from its feathers, indignantly cawing all the time, while a stray duck swims around indifferently in a nearby pond. However, to experience natural economies of scale, one need not travel to relatively obscure rural places or have to be lucky enough to spot one in person – all you need to do is watch children sail their paper-boats through the muddy puddles of Calcutta. The wide eyed children watch the boats maneuver through the eddies of the microcosmic sea, often playing god to prevent a boat from capsizing or setting it back to course if it does fall over. The peals of laughter from the children that result from the unmitigated delight that they experience from this extremely inexpensive source of entertainment – paper boats whose ability to sail the ‘high seas’ is due to deft childish fingers and the same uneconomical amounts of rain that provide the glitzy glamour to the season that people love to talk about. People often say that one must learn to appreciate the small things in life but sometimes big things help to precipitate a chain reaction that makes these small things possible.

Tears of a Clown

2007-10-12T10:31:00.000-04:00

The sky had always fascinated him throughout his sordid childhood. The different hues it could take – ochre, blue, magenta never ceased to amaze him. He saw so many shapes in the clouds – huge castles, proud horses drawing carriages across the sky, giant dragons, knights in blazing golden armor and princesses from fairy tales that he had heard from his mother; it was as if someone wanted to tell a new story every day. He had always envisioned an artist constantly at work, replacing canvas after canvas with unyielding diligence. During sunset, however, the artist seemed to run out of certain colors, with almost embarrassing regularity; that was when one could see harsh streaks of bluish black at its edge. He always felt that this was when the sky betrayed her true self, exposing a grimy, almost pathetic side, before wrapping herself with a magnificent star-sequined cloak.
Nobody cared about his real name, perhaps he had forgotten it as well – it seemed a lifetime ago that he had attended his mother’s wake. Everyone called him Smokey because he was a clown and Smokey Robinson had a smash hit on the international charts when the big circus manager Charlie met him. He seemed to be a rather easygoing guy, occasionally preoccupied but otherwise easy to get along with.

Now there's some sad things known to manBut ain't too much sadder thanThe tears of a clownWhen there's no one around[1]

No one realized that Smokey was quite upset of late – he failed to shed his facade even after the shows. Circus folk joked that Smokey was the only really happy clown they knew, the rest seemed to become grumpy the moment they took their clown suits off. But none of them really knew Smokey. It is strangely surprising how much the sky mirrored his own feelings; his face, generally wearing a bemused smile was painted with an extremely happy, almost grotesque, smile for the shows where he would play a different character on different nights. It was in the little private moments before the show that he had before performances when he was himself again, full of pain and misery at living an existence were being laughed at was his sole objective and having nobody to call family.
“Five minutes Smokey”, called the new trapeze girl, causing him to snap out from his reverie. He dusted himself and got up lightly on his feet. “So you like Smokey Robinson? I think he’s really good”, continued the girl who seemed to be quite a chatterbox. The show was really good that night and everyone seemed to be in a particularly high spirits. Smokey usually avoided the post-show festivities but he seemed quite carried away by the spirit of those around him. As he was joking with the Jinks the wizard and Charlie the ring-master, the new trapeze girl came up and said – “Hey, remember me from morning?” Some people around him sniggered – “Smokey’s got a girl!” Ignoring them, he struck up conversation with her.
Her name was Malaika, which meant “angel” in the language of her father’s people. Her father had come to America after fleeing from Congo after Patrick Lumumba’s assassination and had subsequently met her mother in a hippie commune. After a whirlwind romance, she was born. She supposed that she was a pretty child, because her mother had given away her other brothers and sisters to orphanages.
They made quite an odd pair – the young graceful gazelle-like trapeze artiste and the slightly ungainly, buck-toothed older clown. They were indeed different both ostensibly and by nature, but there were certain intangibles that connected him and her. Both Malaika and Smokey had just one possession from their families – Smokey had a worn out cassette player where he played all his songs and Malaika had a moth eaten smiling teddy bear. She often jokingly compared Smokey to the ever-smiling teddy bear as said that was why she picked him out the first day – he seemed as happy as her teddy bear. Somewhere between the jokes, the two people came to love each other. Smokey could not wait for the evenings when Malaika, teddy bear tucked under her arm, and he danced to Smokey Robinson and the Miracles crooning from his cassette player.
It was Christmas Eve. Smokey was the happiest in his whole life. Malaika and he had thought of finally leaving the circus, marry, settle down and have a family. “Finally”, he thought, “I am going to have a place I can call home and a family who love me”. Since morning, everything seemed so much more beautiful to him that day – from the chirping of the birds to the flowers outside the camp. The grass seemed to be greener, as if hundreds of blades had sprung up overnight. Even the tired, overworked animals seemed to be reinvigorated. Smokey and a couple of the circus lads had gone to get food for the circus celebrations that night. As they were joking about some deadbeat hippies that they had met on their way, someone said – “Things ain’t quite the same without the crazy hippies high on crack in the woods raising hell….”. Smokey suddenly had a fleeting unreasonable and irrational fear as he felt that everything had gone too quiet all of a sudden. Perhaps it was all those years of having patient disappointment and sadness as his only companions that made him sense their presence.
Malaika spotted him back in the camp and gave him a smile. “I’ll be back in a few minutes”, she said, as she climbed up the rungs of the ladder to the circus ring.
Then she flew.
Smokey’s insides felt as if someone was repeatedly thrusting dull icy daggers through him. Somehow time seemed to have slowed down. An inhuman yelp of anguish welled up inside him, but the paint on his face prevented any expression.
As his angel flew way the clown stood, with the smile frozen on his face only betrayed by an expression of horror which, if captured on a photograph would probably seem as if the makeup man had done a lazy job and left a part uncolored.
“There was no safety net, fell more than fifty feet…poor girl, broke her neck…poor Smokey”.
Memories pick the strangest of times to show up. In his mind’s eye, all that Smokey could see a sobbing ten-year old looking on helplessly as his father hugged his ‘new’ family as he was left behind in a correctional school. He had asked his dad – “When will you take me back?” His dad had replied – “Behave well, and I’ll take you in a few days”. He later found out that he had been left in an orphanage.
There are often times when certain incidents just don’t register in a person’s mind. And all Smokey could muster was – “What happened?”
………………………………………………………………………………………………

Today the princesses and knights were missing in the sky; the artist had finally taken a day off and painted the canvas with a dull grey. The blue skies seemed so many miles away.
“Five minutes Smokey”, called the new trapeze girl.

Just like Pagliacci did,I try to keep my sadness hid.[2]

..… The applause sounded so serrated that the shards seemed to pierce his eternally bleeding heart.
Somewhere out there Malaika, with a teddy bear tucked under one arm, was dancing while Smokey Robinson & The Miracles crooned from a cassette player in the background.

[1] Smokey Robinson & The Miracles. "The Tears of a Clown." Make It Happen. By Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson and Hank Cosby. 1967.

[2] Smokey Robinson & The Miracles. "The Tears of a Clown." Make It Happen. By Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson and Hank Cosby. 1967.

Summer Reminiscences

2007-06-19T06:48:00.002-04:00

An Indian marriage on a midsummer's night may seem to be a romantic idea for the Shakespeare lover but definitely not for those who have to sweat through the fine dresses. An afternoon after attending such a wedding, I was attempting to beat the oppresive heat of a classic Indian summer while lying on a hammock in my terrace and watching the sun set (Did the Sun get a huge discount on shining bling jewellery in the Zeus' summer sale this year? It definitely shone brighter than the stars that pugilists used to see after a Joe Frazier haymaker). Glancing at the sky, which was now a pleasant orange-ish red, I realized that the sky quite resembled a blushing bride during the ceremonial first look; and despite its insufferable heat, I found poesy in the perennial tormentor's daily escapades. Neither monsoon with its dramatic escapades nor autumn with its festivities can claim dominance over the great Indian summer - arguably the Supreme Emperor of Seasons in India.

Whenever I think of the an Indian summer, I remember the idyllic days when I used to watch Garfield and Friends and The Scooby Doo Show while having the season's special 'Himsagar' or 'Langra' variety of mango. Each year, the fiery afternoons seem to me to be Gaea's tirades against humans for disrespecting her; each year the tirades seem more and more unbearable and therefore we human beings, her wayward children try to resist her more by turning on more of our air-conditioners in an attempt to make the room cooler. Drawing from the Indian poet Humayan Kabir's enunciation of a typical Indian afternoon in his poem 'Trains', life completely stops - dogs forget to bark, the crows forget to caw and all the human beings and the animals go into a stupor. Even the soccer crazy urchins do not dare to play in the hot sun and risk its wrath. After the hot afternoons come the relief of the evenings. One of the most memorable essays in Bengali about summer evenings that I've read is by the poet Laureate Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore compares the atmosphere of the summer evenings to the doused embers of a coal oven. After the sun sets, the ground seems to be glowing with the heat that it has absorbed in the mornings. The evenings, however, traditionally offer a bit of respite from the scorching sun. A soft breeze whispers by, occasionally brushing by a person like a balm on the head of a feverish person. Summer evenings in Calcutta are a wonderful time to walk about and feel the life of the city. Be it vendors trying their best to peddle their wares; illicit lovers trying to make out in the shadows of the huge shopping malls and trying their best to avoid the moral police; weary students trudging along with huge backpacks with their huge backpack, in quest for the Holy Grail ( which in this case would probably mean the IITs or any of the numerous engineering or medical entrance examinations of India); gossiping women; the occasional person-taking-his-dog-out-for-a-walk; the usual 'adda'(talk) in the neighborhood tea-stall - the wonderful flavor of Calcutta hardly ever seems so prominent.

Despite the chiaroscuro of the season, and despite the wonderful images that the season conjures in my mind, the most vivid of images that will come to me at the very mention of this season will be that of me throughout my years in St.James' School, waiting for that bell to ring signalling the end of the last-day-of classes before summer break.

Have a great summer break folks!

The Log Cabin

2007-05-19T02:08:00.000-04:00

This is a short story I wrote for the Lafayette ISA Worldwise Magazine 2007:

Innumerable memories seemed to circle him like a grim halo as he walked towards the old weather beaten log cabin. The fir trees bowed their heads in the New England wintry gale, as if grieving for the loss of a loved one. The contours of the transient countryside seemed to echo his thoughts; the harshness of winter seemed to be gradually fading away towards a mellower spring: gone was the arrogant strut of old, it was replaced by the slightly limping gait of a man leaning on his cane. The prodigal son was returning home. The door creaked out a mournful welcome even as some scurrying rats stared at him indignantly, as if saying that he had no business to disrupt their daily activities.

A ubiquitous cloud of melancholy seemed to hang over the rooms. “What am I back here for?” he wondered. The first thing that he spotted was the rocking chair, sitting unobtrusively in the corner. Instinctively, he expected his grandmother walking up to it with her ball of yarn and spinning needles. “No”, he thought, “they’re all dead. Besides, why should a person as successful as me be here?” He continued walking, however, through the cabin, and his eyes swept the bare fireplace and the wall beside it. Animal heads stared at him through their petrified glassy eyes and beside all these paraphernalia was his beloved old rusty gun. Mom still left it there, he chuckled to himself. That gun was the symbol of his manhood and of his most cherished memories. He smiled as he reminisced about the old days, the days of innocence and hunting and the days with Rusty, his brother.

He walked outside and by the river. The words of the priest at Rusty’s funeral still echoed through his ears. “Why Rusty? Why did you do this?” The waters of the river seemed so black, so repugnant, and so dirty! He involuntarily took a step back. He couldn’t believe that anybody would end their life in the dark, ugly river. Rusty was his brother, his best friend, his only friend. They had hunted together all those years; they had shared everything, why didn’t Rusty tell him what was wrong?

A sudden movement caused him to turn around and saw a deer stare at him momentarily before disappearing amidst the thicket of bushes. He remembered one of his glorious hunts. His bullet had struck the deer in his hind leg. As Rusty and he were about to kill it, he had noticed the terror in its eyes. Fear, cold fear, powerful fear! He had felt so powerful, as if he was a terrible God who had the power to capriciously take the lives of his subjects, his underlings. Perhaps that was the first link in the iron chain of events of his life had bound him. Fear had been an important part of his life- an important ally in all his business deals. He often likened human relationships to an expensive glass ornament; there is too much fear of it breaking for anyone to be comfortable holding it.

He entered the cabin again and he saw pictures of all his family members. A sudden smugness enveloped him- he had outlasted them all, he had proved his mother wrong. He wasn’t the black sheep of the family. He remembered all the years in office and his rapid ascendancy to power. One by one, he had dealt with all the people who opposed him and then even got rid of the few friends he ever had. He remembered Mark’s disbelief when he heard that his best friend had betrayed him. He could still picture Mark’s tearful visage after he ruined Mark’s life; Mark: his mentor .Love had meant nothing to him when he could get power instead. He was the perfect rags-to-riches story. It all came down to fear; they were scared of him and his ruthless actions and therefore they feared him and they respected him. But still, what was wrong?

He remembered his father asking him gently, “Son is it worth it? Why will you steal from your brother?” And he could hear Rusty say, “Dad, he didn’t do it. I must have dropped it somewhere”. Poor Rusty, too trusting to the end, he thought, as he clutched the trinket that he had stolen from Rusty that day. He had carried it around throughout his life for it symbolized something special to him.

Why was he looking for words he had never spoken, why did he feel that so much was unsaid, and most of what he had been said and done should not have been so. Had he lived a façade throughout his life? He felt repelled by himself. He felt that the room was too stifling for him. The river water did not seem so unclean anymore. He went out of the log cabin and went down towards the river.

Flash

2007-01-05T00:37:00.000-05:00

Just another flash and it was gone. Yet it left behind hope and aspirations for a better future.

Welcome 2007....goodbye 2006!

So we witness the birth of another New Year and the death of the old one. We, the human race, shall alone hold the privilege of determining how it shall be remembered as we go with it - hand in hand, from its infancy to its grave.

So we stand here today , masters of our destiny, able to carve it as we please - as a dish fit for Apollo or a meal fit for a street dog. Or are we?

Many of our decisions throughout the years have reflected hastiness and the fact that power seldom lies in the hands of people who are fit to wield it.
We are, infact, staring down at the bottomless pit of our own destruction because of certain things we are doing. 2006 saw political assassinations and war. The world is edging toward impending doom - World War 3 is on us. All people in power seem to be echoing Marc Antony's war cry -"Cry Havoc and let slip the dogs of war." Not just that, people are distancing themselves from virtues of the golden days long gone by; people hardly stop to reflect on their lives. Everything moves in a flash - just like the years flying by.

I'm a conservative writing what is ostensibly a liberal article. I come from a densely populated post-colonial city in a third-world country where western civilization is gradually creeping in and the people seem to be imbibing the vices of what is interpretated as Western Culture. Adam and Eve had to taste the forbidden fruit - how can we resist vice?

Auswitz,Iraq, Darfur.........
Indecisions......to fight or not to fight....

To fight......3000 US troops have died in Iraq. No one counts dead bodies in Israel, Palestine or Kashmir....

Not to fight.........September 1,1939 - The inaction of the League of Nations allows Hitler to invade Poland and kill millions of Jews.

Sometimes it sucks to be a Head of the State.....I mean sometimes he/she has to choose between the Devil and the deep blue sea!

Its all in the flash of life, which we are all part of. The flash that today has the technology to clone, wipe out a whole species and then bring it back to life. The flash that is gathering pace.....

This poem was written by a terminally ill young girl in a New York Hospital .

SLOW DANCE
Have you ever watched kids
On a merry-go-round?
Or listened to the rain
Slapping on the ground?
Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight?
Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?
You better slow down
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.

Do you run through each day
On the fly?
When you ask How are you?
Do you hear the reply?
When the day is done
Do you lie in your bed
With the next hundred chores
Running through your head?
You'd better slow down
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.

Ever told your child,
We'll do it tomorrow?
And in your haste,
Not see his sorrow?
Ever lost touch,
Let a good friendship die
Cause you never had time
To call and say,"Hi"
! ! You'd better slow down.
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last .
When you run so fast to get somewhere
You miss half the fun of getting there.
When you worry and hurry through your day,
It is like an unopened gift....
Thrown away.
Life is not a race.
Do take it slower
Hear the music
Before the song is over.
--------------------

2006 has passed on....the last embers are however still glowing, very soon the new fire will quench it....

Happy New Year folks........Welcome to 2007!

A Paean to Autumn

2006-10-31T03:58:00.001-05:00

As I was walking to the gym, I felt someone playfully tugging my hat. Looking up in astonishment, I found the wind gambolling about amidst a sea of briliant colors. So I decided to skip m regular workout session and take a stroll through the picturesque Lafayette College campus.
Nature, God's greatest artist, had painted the leaves as a sign of Autumn's arrival. The wind was like a Pied Piper, flitting through different trees; the leaves seemed to come out decked in their splendid ball gowns of fiery red, mellowed orange, yellow and dirty brown. At first, they were capricious, rapidly changing partners and crazily swaying to the brisk pace of the windsong. Eventually, they slowed down and finally waltzed gracefully down to lay down and die. The trees, stark and bare in contrast to the briliance of color, seemed to sadly shake their barren boughs, as if they were kings remonstrating their subjects, the leaves, for having gone astray. The sky sometimes had an angry and dismal look, quite like the one described in many of Charles Dickens' novels. I could almost see Great Expectations recreated - Pip seeing the recaptured convict Magwitch being taken back to the hulks.
However, despite the fact that I was entralled by the magnificence of Nature, I felt that this was Nature's way of flaring up and of showing us its splendour before a cold and stolid winter set in.......
As I was walking back to my dorm, an old poem, whose existence in the seldom-looked-into archives of my mind I had almost forgotten, occured to me.............

TO AUTUMN

1.

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.

2.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep,
Drows’d with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

3.

Where are the songs of Spring?
Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

- John Keats

Memories

2006-09-10T00:19:00.001-04:00

Memory - all alone in the moonlight.
I can smile at the old days,I was beautiful then.
I remember the time I knew what happiness was.
Let the memory live again.
- Barbra Streisand Memory
Leaving home seems a natural progression: parents have children and raise them. The child graduates from high school and leaves home to earn a fortune with a song on his lips and a backpack with a week's worth of food. Well, life does not pan out like a fairytale and leaving home is certainly one of the hardest things a person has to do.
My first most vivid and broad impression of things seems to me to have been gained while playing with a teddy bear and gazing through the window of my old house in a sleepy neighborhood in Calcutta.

It is amazing how recollections of one’s childhood escorts back memories which, despite being beyond images, are the sweetest to recall. These recollections are shadow images- trying to recall them is just as futile as trying to recall an insignificant dream in the middle of a boring lesson in school.

I believe, though I do not remember, that I was considerably perturbed at the thought of having to get into an alien environment when I was first told that I was to go to a prep. I think that at that particular time of my life, I was like most 5-6 year olds, pestering my parents to get me the newest toy. I remember one particular incident in that prep. I had cut my hair shorter than usual and I found out on the next day that most of the children found it to be very funny. At that time, the most important thing to me was that I needed to blend with everyone. I was obviously not delighted at this development and I refused to go to the prep until my hair grew back.
As I began to grow older and reached adolescence, my perspective about life began to change. Instead of trying to do the same thing as other people, I tried to stand out as being the person who did things differently, even if it meant acting very stupidly. Perhaps it was the effect of listening to Jim Morrison, Michael Hutchence and Kurt Cobain that made me feel that being rebellous was cool".
I don't really know how much I have really changed since I was a kid. Reflecting on Dolly Parton's comment in the song "Those Were the Days"- 'Oh my friend we're older but no wiser. For in our hearts the dreams are still the same'. I totally agree. I felt the same plethora of emotions when I left my first home to go to a new locality and when I left my school to join college. Certainly leaving home behind is another thing. Its like stepping into a brave new world.

This is my new "home away from home" - Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, US. At first, when I got here, seeing the vast expanses of virgin woodlands, I was wondering whether I had come to the middle of nowhere. I was so wrong. Sitting atop College Hill, Lafayette College vibrates with life and throbs with energy day and night. In India, one associates the United States with sex, drugs and partying. What they fail to see is the driving work force in the Americans and the several things that have impressed me in my first two weeks of stay here. I've learnt a whole lot of life skills- like doing my laundry (even though the college has fancy washing machines which really aren't all that difficult) and waking up (with 'some' assistance from roomate). Being an international student is difficult because the smallest of reasons will make you feel uncomfortable. I'm glad that I have made some amazing friends who are trying to make my transition to US college life as smooth as possible.
Excited as I to discover the road ahead, there are sometimes when I fall prey to the old disease of homesickness. Especially when I remember that Durga Pujo is coming by. I've realized that I've now entered into a whole new chapter of my life, perhaps a very complicated one; however I cannot help but wistfully remember the days gone by when I had no cares. Those days had-
A glamor to it; a perfection, like Grecian symmetry
- Scarlett O' Hara Gone with the Wind

Pirates of the Caribbean

2006-07-28T14:25:00.001-04:00

Firstly let me raise a toast to the intrepid Captain Jack Sparrow ( Johnny Depp) who has captured my imagination with two inspirational performances.

‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest’ opens with rainwater clattering into bone china and the film itself turns out to be a bit of a storm in a teacup. Picking up where its successful predecessor left off, it sees the charismatically amoral pirate Captain Jack Sparrow once again embroiling young lovers William Turner and Elizabethin a supernatural nautical escapade, this time involving an outstanding debt to Davy Jones , a maritime Mephistopheles with a beard like the back half of a squid, a crew of humanoid devil-fish and the kraken itself at his disposal.
The movie is not without excitement or wit, but as the two-and-a-half hour running time wore on, I increasingly felt a cinematic deja vu. Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio’s screenplay takes familiarity with the first film for granted, but is conspicuously unconcerned with internal cohesion, wheeling on characters from the backstory without giving them anything interesting or constructive to do. Davy Jones gives good sneer even from behind a molluscan carapace and Captain Jack Sparrow remains great fun, all swaggering slur and tipsy mince. But Will Turner( Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth (Kiera Knightley) are wet before leaving land. For a while, with all the great sound effects and flashy cinematic cuts, I almost missed the fact the Kiera Knightley cannot act to save her life! As the film heaves from one muddily motivated set-piece to the next, it takes on the sinking feeling of a vessel adrift, sending out flares.

The movie, I believe, has greatly romanticized piracy. Believe me, not all pirates are like Captain Jack Sparrow, who was (is?), a rather good man. Many (not all) pirates were black hearted scoundrels, looting, plundering, raping and pillaging their way through the seas. Even now, sea piracy still plagues the seven seas and beyond. Partly due to the decline of the European Navy's ability to project their power, especially the Royal Navy, piracy in recent times has increased in areas such as Asia (especially the South China Sea), parts of South America, the waters of the Indian Ocean and the south of the Red Sea, with pirates now favoring small boats and taking advantage of the small crew numbers on modern cargo vessels. Modern pirates prey on cargo ships which must slow their speed to navigate narrow straits, making them vulnerable to be overtaken and boarded by small motorboats. Of course, some people are forced to piracy for purely socio-economic reasons and these people and good people who seldom harm the sailors. It is rather unfortunate that these are the very people who are caught!!!

Arr...I've got to get me bottle of rum now. So its avast for now. May the winds bring good fortune to you all!!!!

Fear of the Dark

2006-07-08T17:02:00.000-04:00

When the light begins to change
I sometimes feel a little strange
A little anxious when it's dark.
Fear of the dark,fear of the dark
I have constant fear that something's always near
Fear of the dark,fear of the dark
I have a phobia that someone's always there
---- Iron Maiden-"Fear of the Dark"
Why do we fear darkness and death? It is nothing but the manifestation of our fear
of the unknown. Most of us human beings have a curious habit of being afraid to explore, to innovate and try to understand things which we do not know about.
Albus Dumbledore, late(?) Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft makes a very good point when he advises the young Harry Potter to refer to the Dark Lord as Voldemort and not as He Who Must Not Be Named as fear of the name just increases fear of the person.
Very similarly, the world is scared to break taboos and long established norms and that gets us into more trouble. After all, since Biblical terms, the forbidden fruit tastes sweetest.
I honestly believe that we are tottering at the brink, the very edge of civilization-or rather what we thought civilization was. The world is fast changing and if we don't adapt ourselves we will soon find ourselves outdated.
So, open your eyes wide shut and have a good look around and maybe you'll find that the world's a whole lot different from what you believed.
PS: I haven't been writing but believe me, my creative juices haven't dried up, I was just a wee bit busy.

Football Crazy

2006-06-08T03:22:00.001-04:00

The quadrennial showpiece is finally underway-and what a tournament it promises to be! Despite some rather uninspiring performances to start off with, the world is in a tizzy. Even India ( Note: Calcutta, I believe has a street named Brazil Lane....)!So what gets a cricket crazy country like India so worked up about soccer? Nowadays its standard to find a teetotalller behave like a drunkard with a particularly bad case of a hangover at night. I don't blame them-some of the best matches start at midnight.

So what does yours truly think about the World Cup. Being a hardcore Manchester United fan, I have decided to support the country they belong to. However going by the performances in the opening games, I would pick Portugal, Germany, Spain and the Czech Republic to be the teams to watch out for. I think these are the only four teams that have really taken the match to the opposition. I just saw England's win over Trinadad and Tobago, and honestly I think the match and England's performance sucked majorly. Except the last ten minutes, they really couldn't play inspiring football. OK, Stevie G's goal rocked, but I think he's being played in a rather uncomfortable position. Wazza (Wayne Rooney) is back...so.......let's hope for the best. (Note to all Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal,etc,etc..... fans: See eventually you gotta depend on a ManU player..shame isn't it. Oh by the way, remember the last time England won the World Cup. It was way back in 1966 with one Bobby Charlton playing the key role. Wonder which club he played for? Hmm) . Brazil looked pretty boring as well;Ronaldo-omigosh! If a footballer can be that fat,why the hell am I going to a gym? And Ronaldinho isn't playing as well as he's made out to be. France is simply insipid. Henry looked absolutely off-color. The only way they can do anything in this tournament is if Zidane works his magic coz he seemed to be playing fairly well, if truth be said. Spain- great! Its kool to see the younger players getting a chance. I don't think the old school simply has the stomach to win the trophy. But Ukraine and Sheva sucked. They gotta pull up their socks or else their inaugral World Cup will be an extremely short one. Argentina seem to be fairly good-but I think they can do better. I know they don't have another Maradona (Don't believe the shit about Messi being the next Maradona), but with players like Crespo and Ayala, they're very good. Ditto with The Netherlands, coached by one of the greatest players never to have one the World Cup-Marco Van Basten. The only problem with the Dutch is that they lack experience and that looks like being the telling factor. And the hosts Germany. Well Klinsman was my favorite player in his time and he seems to be doing a pretty good job as a coach too. I still seriously doubt that Lehmann will be better than Kahn, but otherwise he seems to have moulded a great unit. I tip Ballack to be the player of the tournament,unless of course Wazza stealsl the show! And the surprises- Australia. Looks like the Hiddink effect has worked Down Under.

Anywayz lets hope (at least I am) for an England show. For now, however, signing off at the halftime of the Sweden Paraguay match, your amigo has to bid buenas noches ( My Spanish is improving!)

Hasta Pronto!

The Quota Curse

2006-05-27T11:07:00.001-04:00

One of my friends sent me this SMS:
" Arjun Singh can hav sex wid his wife max 3 days a week coz 4 d othr 3 days his wife shud b reservd 4 OBCs while on sunday 4 SC/STs."

In my opinion, the UPA government has sounded the death knell for Indian academics by increasing the reservations. They have worsened a system which was horribly wrong to start with. The Mandal Commission was fueled by political motivations and so is this new commission. I really do not understand how one can justify reservations on the basis of a (caste) system which was invalidated ages ago. There are several SC/ST/OBCs who are stinking rich and so many higher castes who are poor as church mice. My ex-chauffeur was a Brahmin and he struggled to make ends meet while my neighbor is a SC and stinkng rich and has a son who, despite being mediocre in studies, is studying in IIT.

Folks..is this the way to stop brain drain? The government has turned a deaf ear to the protests of people like Rajiv Goswami and has successfully managed to suppress the anti-quota movement. I guess even great instituitions like IIM and ISI will deterioate because of the reservations due to which undeserving candidates will get through over the deserving ones.

I request all those who read this article to continue to proest in whatever way possible against this horrible system. The world's greatest movements- the French Revolution, The Indian War of Independence, The American War of Independence; were all people's movements. There is no way anyone can deny us what is our right. Therefore we should not give up- we should fight on....

Last Rose of Summer

2006-05-02T14:46:00.001-04:00

I was playing a rather melodious song of the above title by Friedrich von Flotow a couple of hours back. I had ALSO been out earlier today for my bit of the traditional marriage shopping aka "biyer bajar" for my cousin's (sister) wedding and while I did pick up some good stuff, there was NOTHING ROSY about the summer heat I faced. Calcutta, normally brimming with life, was dusty, uncomfortable, irritable due to the heat and in constant fear of the perennial power shortage.
I think this summer is one of the worst I have experienced. The heat is simply scalding and there seems to be no hint of rain. I think the climatological factors have a huge effect on Indians being very lazy. And I don't blame them. Here I am, holed up in this air-conditioned room of mine, while the poor people have to slog it out on the streets. This is one time of the year that is terrible for them. They cannot afford an air-conditioner and many cannot even afford a fan. So obviously their work output is very affected.
If one ventures into a sleepy bylane, he/she could mistake it to be uninhabited. All the people doze off in the extreme oppressive heat. Even the dogs seem to forget to bark and the crows seem to forget to caw. The cars, taxis and buses seldom disturb these bylanes, and even if they do, they too seem to momentarily absorb the soporific effect.
For those of you who have a romantic idea of the Great Indian Summer, let me tell you that it is nothing of the sort. It is not a time filled with color or warmth( ok a little bit to much of warmth....) and contrary to popular belief, the grass doesn't stay green and the flowers don't look colorful at all. This year, the papers say that we are facing possible drought.
With the whole world going loco, the worst thing that can happen to Calcutta is to have dear old Momma Nature unleashing a heated tirade on us. So keep your fingers crossed folks and sing a rainsong. Lets hope for a wetter tomorrow!

Ciao!

LATEST NEWS

2006-03-25T13:58:00.002-05:00

The ISC is over!!!! - a statement made by an overzealous candidate almost every year who makes it sound as if a great war has been won. The immediate belief that occurs in almost each of the poor souls of the students tortured by the brutal taskmasters in the ISC council is that a world of freedom, friendship, instant karma and all the very psychedelic things one could think of, awaits them. To me, well ISC just rushed by. Echoing one of my batchmates sentiments, the ISC went by way more quickly than I expected. When one has been hearing about 'boards' in a hushed funeral-like voice from his seniors from the ripe age of 5 or 6 years, he tends to think its a huge thing. Well ISC was really polite and unobstrusive (seriously, no sarcasm intended!). I guess the only time I was really flustered about ISC was the last month.Anywayz.....
Well, a LOT has gone on since I last signed off. Saurav Ganguly....well I simply can't abuse the selectors on my blog any further so the only thing I will do is quote Tennessee Williams-"High station in life is earned by the gallantry with which appallingexperiences are survived with grace." I think Saurav's conduct has been fabulous during this troubled time and I'm sure he'll get over it.
NEWS FLASH: TEAM CHAPPELL errr..... Team India capitulated royally in the Mumbai test.
IN-HOUSE RUMOR: Is Chappell a gay pedophile? Why does he want so much 'new' blood?

I'd like to congratulate Bret 'The Hitman' Hart on being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. I think this is an acknowledgement of the Hitman's greatness both inside and outside the ring. I think this is just a fitting award to be given to one of the greatest men in sports entertainment history.
Speaking of sports, Manchester United seem to be quite on a roll. Looks like the old fox Fergie still has some tricks up his sleeve! Attaboy Fergie!
Well...ther's lots more.....but I guess this is wher I'll sign off today.
Asta la Vista,
I'll be Back.....

THE LAST POST BEFORE.......

2006-02-15T15:11:00.000-05:00

Folks, this is my last post before the ISC. I'm sorry this sounds rather omnious, because it is. Wish me luck. To all the ISC 2006 candidates who are reading this (you shouldn't be.....), lots of luck.

Cheers and best wishes to everyone,

Yours Truly (Honestly!!!)

Soumyajeet Ghosh

How Cheap has the WWE become?

2006-02-09T15:10:00.001-05:00

But the recent SmackDown episode did not honor his legacy, it exploited his
death. I hope it will end, and the sooner the better. For by exploiting his
death we achieve what I thought wouldn’t be possible: We cheapen his life.

Mick Foley
( Former WWE Champion, Hardcore Legend,
Bestselling author)

There are some people whom one has never met but he/she still feels that he knows that person and know that person is simply wonderful. Eddie was such a person. The story of his struggles and how he overcame it was simply inspirational. I believe he was an amazing family man too.
I have been watching WWE ever since I was a little kid. Even when WWE went off television in India for sometime, I made sure I followed what was happening through the Net. WWE used to be great fun when I was a kid. Watching wrestlers like Bret Hart,Mr.Perfect,Yokozuna, Hulk Hogan, Owen Hart, Shawn Michaels, Razor Ramon and later The Rock,HHH, Steve Austin,Mankind, Kane, Big Show, The Hardy Boyz, E&C, Dudleyz (amongst many others) was simply great. But somewhere down the line WWE simply lost the plot. Bra and panties, mudfights, divas flashing their breasts, the Montreal Screwjob.....the list is endless. But I think WWE hasn't ever gone as low as it did in the last episode of Smackdown! when Randy Orton said that Eddie was in hell. I don't know if this is scripted or an on-the-spot shoot, but it was the most tasteless comment I've ever heard. Foley's comments are poignant to say the least. Vince McMahon has gone too far and I think he should make an apology to the fans. In line with what Andrew "Test" Martin said on his website about Eddie's family feeling horrible, I would like to ask Vince about how his children would feel if, after he died, someone told them that their daddy was roasting in hell (which would perhaps not be too untrue, if the heaven and hell thing exists).
When a person dies, we try to honor his/her memory and remember whatever good he/she had done and not malign them. Shame on you Vincent Kennedy McMahon. How could you allow this?

About the Jacobean Models of Perfection (or Prefection)

2006-02-04T15:19:00.001-05:00

"No one is perfect... that's why pencils have erasers."

I believe that many of the boys who do become prefects do not deserve to become one. Thats not just for this year, but for every year. However, one must remember that teachers cannot see the insides of a boy's mind. I have often heard many teachers complaining that X or Y has changed his "colors" after becoming a prefect. You see, apple-polishing/buttering is very commonplace not only in school but also in office. People do try every means to achieve what they want to. I think sometimes a little bit of sweet talking isn't bad because it is equivalent to telling a white lie....but people do take it far, just like the starlets who sleep with balding old men to get a role in a movie. Well, besides that, I do agree with some of the comments that say that prefects tend to be obnoxious. I cannot recall the number of times certain prefects, of my own batch and other batches, have brayed brazenly about their own 'virtues' and their 'achievements'. And in most cases, these achievement pertained to simply participation in myriad events or perhaps winning some gimmick contest in a fest. I'm sure people will twist my words around and detect some unintended malintentions towards some people but if you all read what I have said and take it in face value, I'm sure that you will understand the point I'm trying to get across. I have never agreed in principle with Barron Pierre de Coubertin's assertion that it is the participation that counts. I know that in a contest there will be only one winner, but that doesn't mean that simply participating in various activities, without perfecting yourself in any one of them , can be regarded to be "achievements". Doing so is simply a celebration of mediocrity to the highest degree and merely being mediocre shouldn't be a person's aim, should it? Many of these self-proclaimed achievers often thing that they are perfect. I say that these people, in their ignorance, surprise me with the versatility with which they fail in so many different ways. But all prefects aren't all that bad, if you give them a fair chance.
Teachers are above all, human beings with their own idiosyncrasies and opinions. ( If I've hurt any person's sentiments with this statement, I apologize) You must all remember this before crucifying teachers for every action they take-especially in the selection of prefects. One must remember that they aren't really spoilt for choice as all the boys have their own failings too. An Old Chinese proverb says- "Even the best needles are not sharp on both ends". I'm aure that teachers also have to keep certain factors in mind while "voting". I'm sure that most of them try their level best to provide the school with good prefects, though how successful they have been I cannot vouch for that.

World is as busy as a bee!

2006-01-31T14:57:00.000-05:00

I guess I haven't been updating the blog as regularly as many people want it to be ( of course there are people who hope that the blog never existed at all).
A message to the people who created/were inspired by the student rage/ragelevel2/melee island/whatever.... blog, get a life! I mean, you ain't gonna be able to harm me even one bit. And hey, enjoy yourselves doing something productive so that later on in your school life, you don't have to glorify yourself shamelessly. Your blog sucks, if you had any brains you'd realize that you people achieve nothing by making shitty comments.
A lot has indeed been going on in the world. The Iran nuclear crisis, Saurav Ganguly being left out of the ODI squad despite playing extremely well, the airport staff of Mumbai, Calcutta and Delhi going on strike and lots more. A very interesting thing that struck me about India's vote in the Iran crisis and the sirport unions' strike was that it was the Left front who was again the spoilsport in India's mission to be on par with the leading nations of the world. In the 21st century, communism is more irrelevent than it was in 1917. Even China, a 'red' State, has begun to encourage free-trade. So isn't it time India's moves on? Saurav Ganguly?? Well I'm tired of seeinf the injustice meted out to India's finest captain. Anyway, I guess that Chapell liked the scores of the top 5 Indian batsmen in the first innings. You know why? Coz if the scores are written side by side, they look like a call girl's telephone number, something which the old pervert is very familiar with.
However the most important thing for me now is ...... Here comes ISC. To be poetic- "The hour of judgement is nigh!" This will be (hopefully) a fruitful culmination of two academically unfruitful years of studying Science and developing an apathy towards it . OK, I've got my grudge against the ISC syllabus but there's no one to hear so why bother....... Yeah so all I can do now is like try to make a last ditch effort to salvage something good out of it!

The popularity of "DROP" !!!!!!

2006-01-14T12:21:00.000-05:00

Ah me....... the word "drop" seems to have,all of a sudden, gained a lot of importance in our lonely planet. There's the "drop" issue of Calcutta's very own Dada Sourav Ganguly from the Indian cricket team ( modifying a quote from Shakespeare - " To be (in) or not to be (in) that is the question." And now, India is debating if Dada should "drop" down the order. The news channels seem to be outraged over the "drop" of the two specialist openers. The Indian cricket team needs to "drop" some catches to officially allow the "drop" syndrome to set in. If India lose badly to Pakistan, Greg Chappell will need a big parachute to survive a "drop" !!!
Muttiah Muralitharan has "drop"-ped a hint that he's going to retire.
Hey wait it doesn't end here. Right here, right now, in Calcutta, India(OK the preceding phrase is the effect of watching too much WWE/WWF) , the school students are experiencing the "drop" syndrome like anything. Students in reputed ISC schools are "drop"-ping subject like raindrops in a heavy thundershower. In the hallowed halls, the latest buzz is...."Psssst..I've "drop"-ped so and so subject...what have you "drop"-ped?"
Until a couple of days back, a lot of snow was "drop"-ping in various parts of the owrld, making the meterologists wonder if the world was "drop"-ping back into the Ice Age.
Manchester United seems to be undergoing a "drop " in form and fortune. They lost 3-1 to Manchester City today . One wonder if some people should be "dropped" from the squad and the coaching staff.
Finally, I "drop"-ped a lot of water from the window today by mistake and (luckily) it
"drop"-ped on one of my neighbor's head. I nearly "drop"-ped dead in surprise to see Pakistan's total against India. I "drop"-ped from my sofa ( oh the shame!!) when United lost. However I cannot "drop" to sleep yet as I have 3 chapters of Physics to go!!
Do "drop" a comment before you read, gentle reader, and let me know about the "drop"-pings in your life, except of course how many bird "drop"-pings fell on you today.

Cheers !!!!

Sir Alex Ferguson- Past his expiry date?

2006-01-11T03:31:00.001-05:00

Sir Alex has been one of the most, if not the most, phenomenal managers in soccer. His achievements rank right up there with Matt Bushby, Bill Shankley, Alf Ramsay and all the other great managers of the game. He has indeed transford Manchester United from being a mediocre side to becoming one of Europe's (and perhaps the world's) best soccer teams.
I remeber almost hero worshipping him when I was younger. As a matter of fact I took to chewing gum as a means of aping him!! Manchester United's 1999 UEFA Champions league final win was absolutely amazing. I remember being over the moon when Ole Gunnar Solskajaer scored the winning goal. Think about the quality of players the club has had under his stewardship - Roy Keane, Ryan Giggs, Gary and Philip Neville, David Beckham, Andy Cole, Nicky Butt, Wayne Rooney, Christiano Ronaldo, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Bryan Robson, Steve Bruce, Mark Hughes, Paul Scholes, Teddy Sheringham,Peter Schmeichel , and the list goes on.....
He has succesfully managed to bring out the best in all these players. Look how badly Beckham plays for Real Madrid and think about how effective he was for Manchester United.

But sadly, it seems that Sir Alex has now simply lost the plot. United are, despite Sir Alex's excuses of building a young team, being outclassed in every competition. Chelsea are runaway leaders in the EPL and United's out of Europe. Sir Alex's signings in the past few years (with the exception of Rio Ferdinand, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Christiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Edwin Van Der Saar have been big flops. Look at the money spent on players like Veron (bald incompetent piece of bulls**t), Forlan (nice guy though!) , Barthez ( grrr...he let the ball in through his legs!!!), Kleberson(duh...), Liam Miller( on loan to Leeds in the 1st division-that's all I can say) and Eric Djemba Djemba (Ummm so who's this dude?). All this and the recent acrimonious bust-up with Roy Keane. OK, Gary Neville's a good skipper, but he's no Roy Keane, we saw that in United's match against Arsenal where he couldn't be half as inspirational as Keano. So is it time for Sir Alex to go? ESPN Sportsline 'in-house' experts feel so. With a cut-throat new owner in the form of the Glazers and the possibilities of another trophiless season, the future looks really bleak for Sir Alex.

I hope not, but with Manchester drawing with a lowly National Conference side in the first leg of the third round of the FA cup, well.......

Anyway Fergie, best of luck!!!!!!

The Raja Of Dung

2006-01-07T15:26:00.001-05:00

Here we go again!!! Barely into the New Year and Indian cricket controversies have started before the cricket has begun. I was surprised to hear of Dungarpur being selected as the Indian team manager, but I wasn't surprised to hear hs comments. I mean, come on, its the Raja of Dung Raj Singh Dungarpur. Here are a few of the 'notable achievements' in his illustrious career:

1) He was Lata Mangeshkar's ex-boyfriend who couldn't get her to marry him
2) He got kicked out of the Rajasthan Cricket Association because he didn't pay his fees in time. (CHEAP SOB!!!)
3) He removed Srikkanth from the captaincy coz he was too close to Kapil Dev ( Guess the old wineskin wanted a 'piece' of Kapil)
4) More recently, the guy runs down one of cricket's all time greatest players and India's most successful captain- Sourav Ganguly. Then, after airing his comments, he says that the sound bite was doctored. Yeah right!! Like who would want to doctor a clip with his ugly face in it?
5) Did a disastrous job as prez of BCCI. Removed Sachin Tendulkar from captaincy and gave Azhar the job instead-after Azhar had been reprimanded a couple of days back for disobeying the captain's orders.
And the list goes on..........................................................
All right u sonofabitch, listen up. Ganguly brings a degree of passion on the field and passion is something that had been lacking in Indian cricketers for some time till Sourav became skipper. Sure, Rahul Dravid's doing a great job, but that doesn't lessen Dada's achievements. You, of all people have no right to comment on these legendary cricketers. You never even made it to the national team and played pathetically in first class cricket and here you are- criticizing a guy who has scored more than 15,000 runs in international cricket and has revolutionized Indian cricket. And shut the fuck up about integrity. We all got to know how much integrity you have when you removed Sachin from the captaincy. Oh by the way, I guess a couple of nights with the Pakistani whores and a 100 bottled of Viagra have spruced you up but in case u intend to drop into Calcutta to have a few rosogollas....be warned.......... And best wishes for getting a heart attack or something in Pakistan or hopefully u get AIDS from the whores- now wont that be fun????

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!!!!

2006-01-01T15:47:00.000-05:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EACH OF YOU AND YOUR FAMILIES!!! I WISH YOU ALL THE VERY BEST IN ALL YOUR ENDEAVORS THIS YEAR.

Soumyajeet

As Another Year Goes By....

2005-12-31T23:53:00.000-05:00

When the night returns just like a friend
When the evening comes to set me free
When the quiet hour
That wait beyond the day
Make peaceful sounds in my dream
Took a drag from my last cigarette
Took a drink from a glass of old wine
I closed my eyes and I could make it real
And feel it one more time
-Neil Diamond If You Know What I Mean

As we usher in yet another year, we barely realize that the old year has reached the desolate end of its tryst with mankind. Never again will 2005 be written as a current date. 2005 has passed on to the realm of the years that have been. I would, however, like to reminisce about the happenings of 2005 that mattered to me.

I think 2005 was a pretty good year for me.I couldn't have asked for a better last year of quizzing in St.James'. I was made a prefect. A lot of things happened this year which were great for me. 2005 was my last year in my alma mater St.James'. After 14 long years in the school, it was really hard to say good bye. I really want to thank St.James' for all the great memories I have had in it.

The year has been pretty bad, however, for the sports teams and players I supported. Manchester United are struggling to hang on to the legacy that made them one of the European powerhouses of the 90s. Sourav Ganguly is in no-man's land and things look like they are getting worse.

Every year, new things come about. Some of them are good, some aren't. Whatever they are, we like to experience them together with our family and our friends. However that is not the way it turns out to be. In 2005, the world lost, amongst others, the charismatic Pope John Paul II, the inspiring Rosa Parks, the flawed genius George Best, the great Latino Heat Eddie Guerrero and the briliant Kerry Packer. Moreover, the spirit of the Earth, Gaea, lost many of her children to needless wars in countries like Iraq and Palestine. The tsunami ravaged victims struggled to come to terms with the effect that nature's fury had on them. St.James' School lost a wonderful person in Mrs. Indrani Dasgupta when she died in an unfortunate accident in a river at Rudraprayag. 2005 will be a memorable year for me for I came to know many things. I learnt that life is sunnier when you learn to share. Its good to know a lot of people but its a fantastic feeling to know you have a friend whom you can trust and our your heart out to.

I'm trying to relive the great moments of 2005. I'm trying to swivel the dregs in the bottom of the teacup to see if there's anything left. However I'm prepared for the New Year and all the fresh challenges it brings.

Here I am - this is me
I come into this world so wild and free
Here I am - so young and strong
Right here in the place where I belong
It's a new world - it's a new start
It's alive with the beating of young hearts
It's a new day - in a new land
And it's waiting for me
Here I am

- Bryan Adams Here I Am

The Blog Wars begin

2005-12-30T14:17:00.001-05:00

It is really pathetic that the students of Calcutta have the time and energy to publish cheap blogs ridiculing and badmouthing their students and teachers. Its very sad to see students of St.James' School are in the "forefront" of this movement. We Jacobeans proudly stand huh? What the fuck are you all up to?

The content of the now extinct Student Rage blog, its new avatar- the ragelevel2 blog and the bitchyjacobeans blog seem to be part of the daily gossip of Jacobeans. I know that since I'm writing this, all the blogmasters will be "in rage" and "bitch" about me. Like I could give a rats ass bout what u write bout me. Grow up......

Now these blogs are being used as a campaigning forum for prefectship too!! Whoa! And since these people think they have done such a great and mighty thing that they send invitations to their friends to see the fruits of their labor!! Duh.....

I know most of you who are going to read this will be formulating the best way to abuse and slander me on your fabulous blogs so that some other worthless scum like you can snigger and feel great. You can write anything bout me , I JUST DONT GIVE A FUCK.... and tell you all what if you got the balls, tell me whatever you feel face to face mano e mano. I'm much above anyone who bitches bout me and the people I'm talking about know who they are......

And by the way, u dont like fags huh? So why do u talk bout them always? Thinking bout them all the time aren't you all. No wonder James is getting to be a gay school and worse.

Yeah, so bring it on, I know so many of you hate my guts. You think I dont know about it? I get to know each and everything you all have to say bout me.

So u punks who are screwing up your knickers and gettin ready to open ur accounts and type out shit bout me..... if u got the balls.............

COME GET SOME . SOUMYAJEET GHOSH IS CALLING YOU OUT.

CHRISTMAS DAY 2005

2005-12-25T13:32:00.002-05:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE !!!!!

So what made this Christmas day so special??? Hmmmm was it all the SMSs I got or was it Dada being taken into the team or was it well......the "nice" thing that happened ( Pssst its a 'secret'!!)

OK keeping the 'secret' aside, lets look at how the day shaped. Firstly lets talk about Sourav being taken back into the team. 'Sach is life for Ganguly' read the headlines in The Times of India. Well, if Sachin did speak about Sourav, then my respect for him has been doubled. In the first place I think Sourav is the cricket great he is now largely because of Sachin. It was during Sachin's captaincy that Sourav flourished the most. Remember Sachin calling Sourav his 'secret weapon'. It was also heartening to hear that Rahul Dravid stood up for Sourav. I think Rahul Dravid owes it to Sourav for giving him a number of chances to prove himself when he had been written off from the one-day game. Now that Sourav is in the team, barring any dirty tactics by Chappell (who incidentally didn't speak in Dada's favor), he is going to play in the first XI against the one of the world's toughest pace batteries not to mention the likes of spinners like Danish Kaneria. The pressure will be on Dada to perform in the most hostile of conditions- having a coach, manager and motherfucker...sorry accompanying selector (you know that smooth talking SOB Kiran More) who hate his guts and a deadly bowling attack to face when he's not in top form. Anywayz best wishes to Dada and hope he scores a century in his 'comeback' test.
Now about the SMSs. They were really nice to get but since I replied to each of them...Hutch India just made a HUGE profit.
And to the special 'nice' thing that happened....I wont tell coz its a secret between me and......

Spread the cheer,
Soumyajeet

P.S.: The food at ITC Sonar Bangla was really good

Where are you Christmas?

2005-12-22T14:16:00.001-05:00

Where are you Christmas
Why can't I find you
Why have you gone away
Where is the laughter
You used to bring me
Why can't I hear music play

My world is changing
I'm rearranging
Does that mean
Christmas changes too

Where are you Christmas
Do you remember
The one you used to know
I'm not the same one
See what the time's done
Is that why you have let me go

- Faith Hill
Where are you Christmas

Where are you Christmas? Why is it that I do not feel the same about Christmas as I used to? When I was younger, I couldn't wait for Christmas and the carnival at school. I'd dream of Santa Claus coming near the Christmas tree I made. Now all of these ideas have gone and have been replaced with hard cold practical reasoning. Is is because I've grown up that I have imbibed the cold sarcasm of the adult world or is it because the world has become a worse place. Just a couple of days ago, I read that children in Britain would not be allowed to sit on 'Santa's' lap because of the increasing number of pedophiles. Santa, one of my childhood heroes has to be suffer this ignominy? Why I remember how excited I used to be even to shake a mock Santa's hand.

In case I'm making it sound that the world has changed the concept of Christmas for me, I'd be very wrong. For even my own mindset has changed. Would I ever dream of utilizing mistletoe, say 5 years ago?No I wouldn't .....Well then??

........ I read a beautiful story about Santa Claus a couple of days back. It said that Santa does not have to wear a big red cap and a have a potbelly to be Santa. We can all be Santa Claus. Just give a poor child a box of chocolates on Christmas Day and you'll be his/her Santa Claus.

It's no wonder that Faith Hill concluded the song thus:

Christmas is here
Everywhere, oh
Christmas is here
If you care, oh

If there is love in your heart and your mind
You will feel like
Christmas all the time

I feel you Christmas
I know I've found you
You never fade away
The joy of Christmas
Stays here in silence
Fills each and every heart with love

Where are you Christmas
Fills your heart with love

End Of Days

2005-12-16T14:23:00.001-05:00

I cannot believe I've finally left school.....I cannot come to terms with the fact that there will be

no Summer term, no Puja term,no Christmas term or no Winter term for me anymore. I've just finished my last day of my glorious time in St.James'.
How can I forget this place? I've spent nearly one and a half decades here. I've grown up here. This place was like a second home to me. I've always felt that showing one's emotions is like displaying the pages of a book you don't want others to read.But today, controlling my emotions was the hardest thing I had to do. I did control my tears but I was hurting inside and...well.....to be honest, I still am.
For any Jacobean who's reading this post, I would like to remind you of how wonderful a school you are privileged to study in . I always wondered why my seniors shed tears on the last day of school...well, now I know..........

St.James'- my alma mater today we part. I venture out of your welcome confines and into the big bad world while you remain as you are, caring for the little children who come to you and helping them mature into people who begin to dream big. I wish St.James' and its wonderful staff the very best and I hope that with every passing day, St.James' progresses in leaps and bounds. Ecclesia Et Patria.

Adios old friend,

A Jacobean for life.

MESSAGE TO CALCUTTANS REGARDING DADA

2005-12-15T15:02:00.001-05:00

Well I gotta hand it too the Indian selectors....they r the most fucked up buch of pseudo-sanctimonious sons of bitches in India. Hey lemme quote Sherry ( our dear old Navjyot Singh Sidhu)- " There is an abundancy of two things in the world- one is hydrogen and the other is stupidity. Hey why drop Sourav Ganguly when's he's playing well . And if what Pawar said was true and he indeed did not know about Dada being dropped, these people are in SHIT!!!! Newaz, seeing the response against the injustice towards Sourav in the Eden Gardens, I was proud to call myself a Calcuttan. Today after hearing what Kapil Dev and Ajit Wadekar had to say, amongst others, I'm glad that India is finally united. But hey, Sourav isn't that much in distress. This may come for him as a blessing in disguise coz the team
(a) May buckle under pressure
(b) Is gonna definitely be trashed by Pakistan. I'm looking forward to Shoaib Akhtar killing Gambhir and Murali Karthik and Woolmer making a fool out of Chappell.
Therefore after all this happens, think of the public reaction especially since they're pissed of at Dada not being included.
SUPPORT DADA. VIVE LA DADA

However one thing I'd like to add-. Despite being a HUGE fan of Sourav, I didn't like seeing people booing Dravid or Tendulkar, especailly because the match was special to Tendulkar as it was a record match for him. Hey come on people- Dravid the kind of player who will walk on broken glass for his country and Sachin..well I don't need to go into any details but I'd like to remind you all that he was the only reason Indian cricket stayed alive during the mid 1990's before Sourav and Dravid came in.I could see the hurt in Dravid's face when he got booed off. You don't resurrect one hero by burying other heroes.

So exercise your discretion before u trash a legend, even Greg Chapell-coz for all his 'misdeeds', you have to admit he was a great player. Criticize where criticism is due, or else Calcuttans are going to be branded as narrow minded people who practise regionalism.

Peace!!!!

SCHOOL's OUT

2005-12-15T14:26:00.001-05:00

Well, tomorrow is the end of my 14 years in St.James' School Calcutta.Its weird thinking that after nearly half a decade this is the end. I'm finally growing up and steping into the big bad bad world. Well..... its been a great ride and I've grown up, both literally and metaphorically, in St.James' and I hope I do my talents justice in life and do evry1 proud.
Well...farewell to ams then I guess!!!

THE BEGINNING

2005-12-15T14:17:00.000-05:00

Here starts the ramblings of Mr.Soumyajeet Ghosh and the world is doomed to hear him out
- Thus spake a wise man of the east