are we really getting better as a county?

i wasn't even shocked when i read that a Rs. 300 crore memorial is going to be built for Dr. YSR Reddy on 1412 hectares of forest land bang in the middle of the Nallamalla forests, which apparently is also adjacent to a tiger reserve. i guess we all have become so used to the sheer ridiculousness of things that probably nothing shocks us any more.

i am not sure how great this man was and there is no point casting apprehensions on a person who now can't even prove them wrong. He was a politician and certainly not the best there has ever been in this country. So i do not understand the need to spend so much money, disturb a wildlife habitat and hurt the environment!!

and i cant even begin to imagine how that 300 crore rupees can be better utilized. if somebody still wants to 'immortalize' the man, they could probably start a good welfare scheme and name it after him. India needs education and food and not memorials, statues and concrete parks.

indian bowling attack

i'm watching the build up to the champions trophy match between India and Pak. Too bad that sehwag and yuraj aren't playing today. but even among the players available, i am not sure we have been making the best choices. RP has not been doing great in the past few matches and so i feel we should have gone for Praveen Kumar. he is underrated as a bowler. he is a street smart cricketer and gives his best all the time.

interesting to see who will lead this team if god forbid dhoni dint play. there is no yuvraj the designated deputy, shewag isnt there too. Bhajji? i doubt. My best guess would be dravid!

anyways, the match has started now...happy viewing and hope we do well...

Lagaan - Blast to the past

on a lazy sunday evening, bored with the internet i was channel hopping on TV and happened to stumble upon the movie "Lagaan" playing on one of the channels and i caught on. Ofcourse I have watched it many times before but guess thats the point i am trying to make.

Anyways, I got watching and thats when i began thinking that this is such a good movie!! And also the great work Aamir had done first acting in it and then also believing in it enough to produce it himself, which also got me thinking about his contribution to modern day hindi cinema through movies like this, Taare Zameen Par etc. Guess that can be a topic in itself for another day.

So yeah Lagaan - it is a nice heart warming story, set in this pre-independent village in India with its own charm. The accentuated language, the typical "issues" some of which are prevalent even today - like untouchability etc, the movie also i think has a great look and A R Rahman's music is out of the world. And the theme of the story itself - the story of hope and winning against odds. I personally am a sucker for under dog triumphs and thats the biggest reason i love this movie. And to add all this, this is one of the very rare instances of India's two greatest passions - bollywood and cricket combining so beautifully and successfully. This was released in June 2001 by the way, and I am sure quite a few of you will relate to watching it in theaters as students with ur college gang and having a ball when the match begins!! I also googled for the reviews the movie got when it released (before it became such a huge hit) and none of them seem to have anticipated the impact that this one would go on to have. Some reviews even ridiculed it on quite a few factors. But boy, did they have to eat their words!!!!

At close to 4 hrs it is awfully long though, which doesn't seem to go well with me these days due to apparent lack of patience to sit through 5 hrs (including the ads on TV). Lets see how much of it i will catch today, but this one sure goes into my collections!

PS: Man, been so long since i blogged, i sure need some discipline in my life!!! guess will try writing short pieces from now on, till i really build some patience to write long posts.