Today, dear countrymen, I stand in front of you as the Prime Minister of the Republic of India.

As I stand here, I can only think of a few things – how awesome we are. India is a great country built with great principles by great leaders. We the people are even more great. It is important that we realized the importance of the values that have been put in our bodies by great people like Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi.

On such an auspicious day, I would like to recall that the Congress party is committed to seeing a united India. We invite youngsters from all over the country to join the Youth Congress and become more aware about India. They can contribute to this great growing nation with their knowledge and ability.

We know that our neighbours have made our lives very difficult. But I promise you we will not sit back and watch. We will do something about them. But today let me ask to the people of India – does Pakistan matter? It is a small piece of land. Look at United States – a big piece of land. Or China – even bigger piece of land. They should matter more to us.

In my mind, Pakistan doesn’t matter to me for five seconds…not even one second. If you notice, the attitude of the world has changed today. Pakistan is not a one-day job. It is more of a test cricket job. It needs more time to sort itself out. 

Today, the Real India is engulfed with poverty while Fake India lives on in the cities enjoying their Pepsis and popcorns in multiplexes. We need to bridge this gap between Real India and Fake India. It is the Congress Party’s commitment to see this gap reduced. We have always believed in ideology of uplift of Real India which consists of poor and downtrodden.

Let’s hope for a great future for this country. I wish you All The Best.

Speech inspired from Rahul Gandhi himself.

Ramachandra Guha writes in The Telegraph:

In this narration, I have skipped one item, number three, in part because I think it the most important, and hence best dealt with last. This pertained to a visit to the Mahatma by the ministers of the new government of West Bengal. What Gandhi said to them is summarized in the Collected Works.But there is a slightly longer, and somewhat more vivid, account in Manu Gandhi’s book The Miracle of Calcutta. This informs us that when the Bengal ministers sought his blessings, Gandhi told them, “Today, you have worn on your heads a crown of thorns. The seat of power is a nasty thing. You have to remain ever wakeful on that seat. You have to be more truthful, more non-violent, more humble and more forbearing. You had been put to test during the British regime. But in a way it was no test at all. But now there will be no end to your being tested. Do not fall a prey to the lure of wealth. May God help you! You are there to serve the villages and the poor.” [The Telegraph]

The words of Gandhi – a gentle reminder to people in national service.

Kambakht Ishq.

Just like all previous purposeful mistakes I’ve made in my life, I added one more to the list when I landed in a cinema hall (albeit on a social outing with family) to watch Kambakht Ishq. And this is what happened.

Dog.

B***h.

B*****d.

Not everyday do you get to know what it feels like to be punched by Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson in a one-on-two match. Even worse, I’m way too weak and vulnerable already.

So how is Kambakht Ishq, you may ask. How does it feel like to see a dog have his bowels emptied, the excreta picked up and packaged into a double-cheese burger and given to you as your ‘junk meal’?

Yes. That bad. And add the dog’s ’soft-drink’ to complete the package.

The ringa-ringa-roses begin in a church, where even God was pitiably forced to witness the testament of a failed wedding, Kareena Kapoor’s in-your-face non-acting and stuntman Akshay Kumar’s attempts to save the men of the world from evil women. I pity you, God. I do.

Before the ‘I do’ is completed and poor old Aftab Shivdasani (who apparently still exists to give goofy smiles and fill the ‘chaprasi-disguised-as-supporting-actor’ roles) is completely deprived of any sex life with beau Amrita Arora, you have a failed wedding with cakes being hurled in all directions for no purpose whatsoever when they should have seriously considered donating them to thousands of engineering students who could use it as cannon fodder.

As life goes on (and so does the dog-b***h claptrap), Kareena amazingly drops her ringtone-watch while doing her first surgery EVER into Akshay’s stomach. The visuals pop up in an x-ray and Kareena decides that she must fake love to retrieve the watch while Akshay apparently ends up falling in love, sacrificing all the principles on which his life was based in the movie.

In between, you have Hollywood icons Sylvester Stallone and Denise Richards do cameos. Javed Jaffery and Kirron Kher waste their talents in poorly-scripted roles. Shivdasani and Arora are just plain fillers, while Akshay’s wacky sidekick is a hyper-lame imitation of many other previously successful Bollywood sidekicks.

Add to this, Kapoor’s questionable and self-righteous attitude towards people who watch movies clearly speaks volumes about the escalated power that Bollywood brokers in the country today. A day doesn’t seem to be far off where the ’stars’ hardly bother about pleasing fans, but impose themselves in a rather Orwellian way of doing things.

Make movies. Make better movies. Let the people decide.

And as far as this one goes – avoidable. Completely.

After a rather painful and completely unexpected Super Eight elimination in the ICC World Twenty20 Championships, the bits, pieces and a meaningless match against champions-elect South Africa are the only sources of minimum redemption and face-saving hope that Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his fallen heroes can pick up. The barrage of criticism that has followed the exit of the Indian cricket team from the prestigious event in England is, not to say the least, shocking.

The media, in particular, has again demonstrated typical opportunism and singled out Dhoni for the utter failure of the defending champions. Undoubtedly, Dhoni has made errors not suited to his cricketing brain but to lambast a man, who has sacrificed his entire batting career for the thankless job of the Indian cricket captain, for defeats in two matches (one by a close three runs) is shameful to say the least. The media is clearly still nursing the wounds of that clash with Dhoni regarding team spirit and Virender Sehwag. In the wake of that ugly confrontation, they have been presented with a roaring opportunity to get even with the Ranchi cricketer. And boy have they have made use of it.

TV channels are running amok with excessive replays of specific errors made by Dhoni in the key defeat against the West Indies and experts from all spheres of life are castigating him for tactical errors. How unfair. To single out Dhoni and give a clean chit to the likes of Suresh Raina and Gautam Gambhir is extremely unjust and what is even more ridiculous is that this inevitably makes captaincy in cricket indirectly or even directly responsible for the poor form of other players. And this even defies logic.

As expected, opinion polls are waiting breathlessly at the end of the tunnel of Dhoni’s journey with many fans and news websites pondering whether sacking Dhoni could pave the way for a new era in Indian cricket. Whether India are better off without his ultra-cool demeanors on field and excessive rotations of the batting order.

Well, the simple answer is No.

To pass a judgment on the career of Dhoni based on a single tournament smacks of rhetorical nonsense of the worst kind and there is clearly no single stand-out successor to Dhoni in Indian cricket’s current scenario. The likes of Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh are better off captaining their respective IPL teams while the leader in a Rohit Sharma or a Suresh Raina is clearly an infant who needs time to blossom.

If Mahendra Singh Dhoni is fast becoming the problem, then he is also the only solution. In him lies the brain to intellectually sort out the wrongs of the current Indian set-up and it is he who has the calmness to realize his and the team’s mistakes and rise out of the ashes. And mind you, it’s only his first major failure. The immediate apology offered by him at the end of the game speaks volumes about Dhoni’s level-headed nature and mental toughness and he is one man who knows and feels the pain of an early exit and collective failure. And what it means to a billion people.

Keep the faith. This isn’t the end of ends. This is a new beginning.

Dear Reader,

A heads-up post. A return to blogging is on the cards. A new and improved Trailblazer shall start posting as soon as I can. The time-out happened because of certain personal matters, a sudden and inexplicable lack of motivation to blog and a few professional alterations that are still to be sorted out.

I am absolutely gutted that I could not cover two key events (Well, one way more important than the other rationally but I dont think the world will agree with me) that I would’ve relished covering – the Indian General Elections and the Indian Premier League.

Looking ahead to the future then, I can only promise a new and improved The Cape of Good Hope.

Regards,
Trailblazer

PS: The language is crude, yes. The writing is ordinary, yes. The depth is non-existant, yes. If nothing, forgive me.

With general elections less than a month away, BJP leader Varun Gandhi’s alleged hate speech in Pilibhit was shameless propaganda from the Gandhi scion in an attempt to win a seat from Uttar Pradesh. The BJP-led NDA would do well to immediately repudiate Gandhi’s remarks and expel him from the party, if they are to give an indication of being mature enough to win the Lok Sabha elections.

News channels spun into a frenzy as the Hindu-Muslim fire had been ignited once again. While sense has prevailed and most leaders including Muslims from the BJP have condemned Gandhi’s remarks, the Shiv Sena has his back with their claims of ‘nothing wrong’ having been said by Gandhi. The silence of more influential leaders like Narendra Modi and Prime Minister-in-waiting L K Advani is baffling though as their quick denouncement would do a world of good to the tattered image of the BJP.

Varun Gandhi’s ‘clarification’ is unapologetic and absurd, doubling the necessity to expel the leader.

“I am a victim of political conspiracy. It was not my voice, not my words,” Mr Gandhi told a press conference in the Indian capital, Delhi.

[BBC]

Even if we were to suppose that he is a victim of a political conspiracy, just how is it not ‘his voice’ and how are those not ‘his words’?

If you haven’t registered for voting, there’s still time. Vote, to make a difference.

In the event of the dastardly attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Pakistan by suspected terrorists, the Pakistani media is responding with archetypal hysteria and is resorting to blame games bordering on apathetic insanity.

Former chief of Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) Gen(R) Hameed Gul said India is trying to weaken Pakistan.

Commenting on the attack on Sri Lankan team, Gul told Geo News that India wants to declare Pakistan a terrorist state and firing on Sri Lankan team is related to the that conspiracy. [Geo TV]

Even the Sri Lankan government is resorting to questionable conspiracy theories by suggesting that the LTTE might be involved in the attack, hence diverging from Pakistan-sponsored and home grown terrorism.

“I have heard the LTTE mentioned on the airwaves. There is considerable speculation, but we will await the outcome of the investigation before we comment,” Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona said. “We are reassured that Pakistan authorities are conducting a probe to arrest the assailants and bring them to justice,” he added. [The News Pakistan]

Fortunately, all cricketers are safe according to latest reports. Eight Pakistani security personnel lost their lives in the ‘Mumbai-style’ attacks. It is a shame that Pakistan failed to provide adequate security to the cricket team. Given the undeniable importance of cricket in the subcontinent, this attacks bears heavy on Pakistan’s so-called initiative against terrorism on its soil.

Irrespective of how Pakistan tackles this episode, the future of Pakistan cricket is thrown into complete uncertainty as there is unlikely to be any cricket tour to the country in the forseeable future.

Well, I have finally completed the move from Blogger to WordPress. Albeit, I am yet to get a domain name. The page from Blogger will auto re-direct here.

The new feeds are available for subscription here. Blogger subscribers need not re-subscribe, as the feeds on the old TCGH will re-direct to the new feed.

Thank you for your time.

If there’s one significant line that is worth keeping in mind at the end of a draining re-run of tormenting and heavily clichéd themes-filthy rich guy, simple town girl, impossible love, fill-in characters, overdose of drama, Hindu-Muslim clashes in a small neighbourhood- it is “How can a monkey be a Hindu or a Muslim?“. And the irony is that just right there even a neutral’s view of the Hindu-Muslim conundrum is converted into a drab chestnut. And one wonders whether it is eventual boredom that will lead to the end of the problem as even mutual hatred joins the list of clichés. At least in movies.

A rich young man plans to ensure a smooth return for his grandmother to her family home in the crowded streets of vintage Delhi. He becomes a part of the neighbourhood to such an extent that he is no longer just the admired-from-a-distance, sweet NRI with a crooked Western accent. He falls in love (you don’t know when it happens, how it happens and why it happens), meddles in the personal lives of a few orthodox well-wishers and ends up being beaten to death, like a man who dares to mess with the rigidity of conservatism would. But he does come back alive, of course.

Rakeysh Mehra’s previous efforts have been way better than what he has brought out for the cinegoer this time around. Mehra’s intrinsic focus on how he will patch raw beads into a beautiful necklace lose pace as early as the beginning of the movie. A typically chaotic introduction to innumerable characters, who then keep popping in and out of the screen at unexpected times and an effort to stitch together the culture beauty of Purani Dilli for the audiences leads to a jamboree of confusion that one just cant comprehend. Rakeysh Mehra probably observed the average Delhi life, made a checklist and somehow infused every point from that list into a package. Plot – doesn’t matter. Sense – who cares. Audience – bewildered.

In the middle of it all, you are taught how to slap with resounding acoustics, how to change channels from the TV remote without using your hands, how to jump from one building to another in a congested neighbourhood like a fleet-footed chipmunk chasing a banana-filled truck, how to see through a monkey’s eyes and how to be insane about Indian Idol. The starcast gives a thoroughly average performance. Nobody in particular stands out. Except Sonam Kapoor’s natural Chandni Chowk ki chhorri looks.

The music is impressive, but that is the least one can expect from a man who has just bagged two Oscars for some rather ordinary work in Slumdog Millionaire. A R Rahman’s work in D-6 however is truly worth savouring, as are Prasoon Joshi’s lyrics. But the movie is very disappointing. In an effort to build a cultural beauty and to demonstrate how long-drawn communal conflicts can be erased by projecting a common enemy, Mr. Mehra misses the point, the plot and gives us a rather average Bollywood flick. The dots just dont connect.

Verdict: Avoidable

[Image courtesy: Showhype]

Sidenote: Congratulations to A R Rahman and Resul Pookutty for their phenomenal wins at the 81st Academy Awards.

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