Revisiting 2008

Another year passed by. An eventful year for all of us, for the whole World. I have gone through a lot of different scenarios of life, but forgetting the bad one I want to proceed. I want to continue my journey towards my destiny. I want to come back in blogsphere. But my New Year resolution is to open a site for Kharagpur. KharagpurOnline.com will be live soon and throughout this year I want to make it a success.

I was in India beginning of this year and then moved to Chicago for 7 months. It was a memorable experience specially in my professional career. In true sense it was happening with a mixture of good and bad. Then I came back to India again for 2 months. My Bro get married and those days were something to cherish. At the end of the year I am back in US again, but in a different location, Longmont, a small city of Colorado which is surrounded by mountains.

Throughout the year the following external events impacted me immensely.

Global Economic Recession: The slowdown of 2007 has taken a shape of recession worldwide, specially in US. India was immensely impacted by the crash of share market. The Sensex has gone down by 60% in 2008. Many companies have become conservative in their business, because people across the World are panicked. Companies like Lemman Brothers, J P Morgan in US have been bank crafted. Many more big MNCs are in verge of bank crafty and huge job cut is going on every month. Not only financial, banking, infrastructure, retails markets, it impacted IT too. Many project has been withdrawn, many have been downsized. Some of my close friends are out of project. We lost a project to our competitors. People across the World are worried about their jobs and most importantly the speculation is this recession will take a form of huge depression in 2009.

Terror Attack in Taj Mumbai. Image source economist.com
Mumbai 26/11 Terror attack in Taj: In last few years Terrorism was always a menace. All countries tried to combat against those devils, but it came in new form every year. Terror attack in Taj was shocking. Those breathtaking hours were a horrible experience for the whole World. In last few years how many times we told its Pakistan behind every terror attack. Don’t the normal Pakistanis understand that its against their goodwill and against Islam!!! The claver boy Musharaf was able to fool the while brains of white house by his tricks, but it had to open someday. But now its tough to control the growing terrorist activities in Pak Land. Common people in India and across the World are living in danger and politicians hardly bother about taking some effective preventive measures and we elect them every time. Shame on us, Indians!!

Cricket 2008: This was a wonderful year of Cricket. The year started in disappointing way for Indians but in last part of the year Dhoni’s team did many magics, like beating Aussies and England in Test series, ODI series vs. England. But the main attraction of this year was IPL, 20-20 championship. I was in Eden Garden(Kolkata stadium) cheering for Kolkata Knight Riders. It was amazing experience. But the most happening part was retirement of two legendry cricketers; Sourav Ganguly (Our very own dada) and Anil Kumble. Both contributed to Indian cricket immensely. Dada was close to my heart, inspiration in many forms, and my passion for cricket. I will miss those days in future but at the same time I am glad that he took a majestic retirement from Cricket World.

Change of Power: Democrats are back in power after 10 years beating the Republicans in USA. Obama, won the election and become the first black President of USA. It will have many impacts on Indians and Indian politics. The nuclear deal is now a question, H1 cap will not be increased, and outsourcing will be impacted. But at the same time Obama claimed that India will be one of the best partners of USA. This will be interesting to watch how they manage it. Will it impact the Global economy!! Will we have much better relation with US!! Will we be able to combat terrorism jointly!!

There are few more incidents which I like to mention. The foolish WB political parties made mess on Tata Nano project in Singur after messing with Nandigram. The ruling party of our state withdrawn support from the National Govt for the Nuke deal, which is a funny mistake that one can ever do. I feel shame for this as I belong from that land. Indian shooter Bindra won Olympic gold and bronze medal by Indian boxers was a proud moment for Indians. Viswanathan Anand won World Chess championship. India sent first ever moon mission was successful. Chandrayaan-1 success makes India fifth to reach Lunar Orbit

I hope 2009 will be a different year, a successful year to all of us. Hope all of us will be successful in our own mission. Happy New Year.

Chak De, Chak De and just Chak De

The Chak De effect is still on.

Yesterday India won first Cricket World Cup Tewnty20 final in Johannesburg. It is a great moment for us Indians. I want to congratulate Dhoni and Indian team for a spirited and wonderful performance. Special thanks for defeating arch rival Pakistan two times in this tournament, both the time they kept their nerve cool in close nail biting contests. We are now the World Champion and nothing can make us happier than this.

Yes, I am happy, happy the way the boys fought, the way they kept their temperaments cool, demonstrated perfect attitude and gesture. I am happy with the captaincy of Dhoni, an honest and cool Captain. He apologises in front of media for his mistakes (done after first match), donate t-shirt to his fan(after final), and cheer up the weakest member of the playing eleven(Joginder Sharma). What more we can expect from a new young captain.

He is not rigid like the wall, not whimsical like mr chappal, not tensed like the pakis, not arrogant like the Freddies. I can remember those days when he used to come to Kharagpur to play small tournaments which was played with tennis balls. He came from a lower middle class family of Ranchi, Jharkhand. Jharkhand state is close to my home town Kharagpur and one of the local don (Ram Babu – who is now enjoying life time imprisonment) used to organize cricket tournaments at the time of Durga puja. Dhoni played one innings brilliantly and DRM (Devotional Railway Manager) promised him a group IV (lowest rank) railway job, his father is also a group IV railway worker. That small boy is now the leading the World champion team.
Thank You Dhoni. You are our ideal leader, inspiration for millions of youths.

Thanks to Yuvi (the most aggressive player of the tournament, six 6s in an over and fastest fifty, 2 MOM), RP (My man of the series – I don’t know how Afridi got it!!), Pathan (Hero of both the Pak match), Rohit (MOM against SA), Gambhir (highest scorer of final, second highest of the tournament), Uthappa (for 50 and bowl out pak in first match), Sreesanth ( for agressiveness and outstanding against Aussies), Joginder (for two great final overs), Viru, Bhajji for their mature guidance and whole team India (except Agarkar – who virtually turned India’s game to other side couple of times in this tournament). It was a dream journey for the young team. Thanks for entertaining us.

I thank Misbah-ul-Haq for being the tragic hero and making both the Indi-Pak game so close and exiting. He lost his nerve in the nail biting contest. My sincere sympathy is with him but not with Pakistan team, whose captain claims that “All Muslims of the World” are Pak supporter. Probably Shoaib Malik forgot the hero of the final is an Indian as well as from the same religion. I don’t know when they will grow up.

Even our Chak De hero Shahrukh Khan was there ( in New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg) who represent India and not any community. It is a matter of great coincidence or a deep influence or utter surprise I don’t no, Indian emerges triumphant in three major tournaments in last 2 month, Neheru Cup Football, Asia Cup Hockey and Now World Cup T20 Cricket, after the release of movie “Chak De India”. They simply outplayed opponents in these championships.

Prabhjot, Rajpal, Tirkey, Baichung, Pradeep, Subrata are our heroes and it’s the time to cheer for them. But I doubt how long they can keep their consistencies.

It is not possible that a movie will influence the performance of a team, but can motivate some players. Last year we came across same kind of situation when the student mob protested in the “Rang De” fashion against the Indian Govt for anti-reservation issue. Similarly there are discrete incidents where “Lage Raho” rejuvenated some of us for 'Gandhigiri'. But I think one movie can not change the society or nation or team drastically. What do you think?

PS: This pic is not taken by me. source: ABP news paper.