CWG Delhi 2010, why should we support it?

After more than a month of CWG bashing few of us are realizing that bashing organizing committee of CWG is not going to change anything.
We get so critical of others who failed in their responsibility. What about us? As a citizen, few things are expected from us as well. Least we could do is to support our country and back our athletes. And if we don’t do that then aren’t we standing shoulder to shoulder with the Kalmadi’s?

People have raised the argument that:

Organizing committee’s corruption has siphoned taxpayer’s money. Hence there is no point in supporting the games.
Hello!!! Nobody is asking you to back OC. Do hell with OC. Let them go to hell after the games are finished. Nobody is going to remember them. But people are going to remember the games; the world is going to remember the games. If it doesn’t go well, it is going to be a blot on Brand India. It’s our games, not Mr. Kalmadi’s. We should pray to make it a success as it is for our own good. Nobody is asking us to go and work there. Just give your whole hearted support. Don’t entertain the negative discussions that are happening. Very recently I got a chance to see the pictures of venues of the various events. Those pics are breath taking. We missed them because we were focused on negatives only.

If everything goes fine and games are successful, people will forget that corruption of this magnitude has taken place. And the culprits will go scot free.
We are living in a country where a new scam surfaces almost every six month. And each and every scam unearthed is bigger in magnitude than the previous one. How many culprits you remember have been nailed and punished properly? Lalu in animal husbandry, Soren, Telgi, and many more. None of them are riding on success of any games or event. Still they are out of law’s stretched arm. I am not advocating the culprits here. My point is, success of the games is not linked to the prosecution of the scammer. Let the games be a huge success. This is going to benefit India as a whole. Be a bit selfish here. Having a good game will help you hold your head high.

Such a huge sum of money could have been used in better education and other things that Indian people need.
Do we have any idea what is the magnitude of the funds government allocated for education/ agriculture/poor cause in their latest five year plan? The corruption taken place in CWG is not even 100th fraction of it. If the huge sum of five year is not good enough then how come the corruption amount of CWG would help?

Media keeps harping on 70,000 crores being spent. Just to give you correct figures - only Rs 670 crore has been spent directly on the games -- on building stadia. The rest of the money has been spent on infrastructure development of the capital, which is not directly linked to the games e.g. Rs 3,000 crore for extension of Metro, Rs 18,000 crore for augmenting DTC bus services and Rs 3,700 crore on flyovers and bridges, Rs 2,000 crore on power plants.

Do we say the same for other sports which are well organized like cricket or tennis? These sporting events also cost a bomb. Let’s scrap everything then. Rather than advocating a better management of games, we are asking to scrap the games. We are solving the wrong problem here.

Organizing Games hasn’t helped India in any way.
Isn’t the tourism industry of India is hugely benefitted by the games? Wasn’t Delhi Metro was implemented in Delhi on priority for CWG? Wasn’t there immense emphasis on making Delhi green? Wasn’t CNG was brought in to Delhi?
CWG has transformed Delhi - Delhi Metro was fast tracked for the same - It now carries more than 20 million people every day. More than 50 new roads and flyovers were built. Delhi is much more greener now. CP has got a new look. There is a fleet of 5000 new buses instead of killer Blue line just because of CWG - which has benefited millions of people.
They all (and many more) were stepping stones towards making a strong case in favor of Delhi as a city eligible to host games.
Events of this magnitude are big money spinners. They help business and in turn the economy.

Never say goodbye

When you say goodbye,
Dont look straight into my eye.
My eyes will never get closed after,
If closed, they will never open to see the sky.

No austerity please...

Yes you read it right. Its nice to know that our parliamentarians are willing (unwillingly pushed) to cut costs of their living. Madam Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi travelling in a economy class to set an example for their colleagues. Although the intention for this exercise is noble, i fear that it can affect 'aam aadmi' (common man) in a bad way.

Just imagine how it will affect the seat availability in a domestic flight. These days we can get the affordable air tickets (in low cost carriers between major cities of India) ranging between 3-5 thousand rupees. And we are happy with that. If politicians, VIP’s and officials start eating up that low fare seats, we will have to fall back on trains (which are already run at their overload capacity). We surely can’t afford a business class tickets.

A ripple effect would be on aviation sector. Earlier they were getting their economy seats filled through common man and business class via business people (CEO's of various companies) and government officials (Politicians, IAS officers etc) who get ticket reimbursed by govt. Now airlines will suffer a decline in business class bookings, however economy class will be full as earlier. Aviation sector is already facing heat of recession. A loss in business is the last thing they want at the moment.

Spirit of Cricket R.I.P.(ed) courtesy R.I.P. (Ricky Integrity Ponting)

Prospect of winning 16 test matches in a row is a lucrative one. But how far a person can go to achieve that? Answer lies with Mr Ricky Integrity Ponting. They got full support from field umpires. When two umpires were not enough, third umpire also chipped in with handy contributions. Add to those, Mr integrity started playing 4th umpire and helped field umpires by taking decisions on their behalf. Bad umpiring decisions are not new in cricket. And often they lead to dramatic turnarounds in balanced matches. Third umpire was introduced to reduce those human errors. But this time 3rd umpire also faltered. If that was not enough to win match, Mr integrity shamelessly started claiming false catches.





Aussies have been bullying their guest teams for years. As soon as a tour starts they start building psychological pressure on the touring captain. Sourav Ganguly lead a young team that was not afraid of giving tit for tat. And got good success. Since then people thought that there is only one way to deal with Aussies. Give them what they give you. When Anil kumble was named captain of the touring Indian team, Aussies might have taken a sigh of relief because the man in question was known for his good conduct and is regarded as a gentleman in the cricket world. Its easier to bully a polite person than a brat. And the way Aussies behave on the field, it was clear that they wanted to win at any cost. At any cost.....But at the end the cost they are asked to pay is simply too costly, probably they had not estimated that cost before.

India did not stoop to the level of cheating to counter Aussies ways. They kept playing their game with dignity and honesty. No shouting back no swearing at opposition. All Kumble did was to give one remark at the presentation ceremony..."Only one team was playing in right spirits" That's all. Check Mate Mr Ponting. That's modern Gandhigiri. All the antiques aussies performed during those 5 days suddenly started looking foolish and kiddish. Their own supporters and former players started questioning them. And Mr Ponting was questioned by media about the missing sportsman spirit in Aussie team. They have buried down their sportsman spirit under down the pile of 16 Test matches win. He will take some time to see when and where they lost touch with the spirit. All he could say,"Whoever has the doubt on my Integrity should not be in this room". Wow what a way to answer the serious questions that are directed towards your character.
Any one whose integrity is being questioned, should he be leading a Number 1 Team of the world?

Any answer to this Mr. R.I.P.?

What are the AIDS Activists doing?

Few days back there was a news on all the news channels. A pregnant AIDS patient checked in the Government Medical College in Meerut (India) for delivery. To the surprise of the lady and her husband, she was refused to get in the maternity ward. Doctors refused to get involved in delivery process and the poor couple somehow managed the delivery in a discarded ward of the hospital.

This disgusting incident happened just 70 Km from Delhi. As we know Delhi, the city of AIDS activists, a city where there are more AIDS activists than AIDS patient. Surprisingly no social butterfly came in front and said anything comforting for the poor couple. The same AIDS activist become proactive when any globally recognized AIDS activists comes to the country. They are first to line up for receiving huge donations. I really wonder what they do from the money the get. Going to social gatherings is all they do? Isn't it their responsibility to do the ground work at the grass root level? If at all we want to remove AIDS, we have to go in depths.

As per the Supreme Court Law, no hospital can refuse to admit an AIDS patient. News channels as they always do, carried the story whole day (And forgot about it from the next day). Everybody blamed the heartless doctors. Even a child knows that AIDS doesn’t spread by touching. How come the enlightened doctors (who are supposed to be the most informed) don’t know it?

The days passed but the feeling of disgust kept running at the back of my mind. Last week i talked to my brother who did his MBBS from the same medical college of Meerut and without any delay i opened this topic in front of him. Then came up the story of other side. The story no news channel tells (Because they wan to show something that raises questions, rather answer queries)

Being a government hospital, only poor people come there for treatment. Very often they don’t even have money to pay for the medicines and the operating cost of the treatment, leave alone the doctor's fee. Even if these doctors waiver off their fee, who will pay for the medication. Most of the medicines that are made available for free to the govt hospitals are already black-marketed by the hospital authorities. And the hospital can’t offer any thing to the poor people. Coming back to the point, in 1-2 cases if the patient is very serious, some doctor may come forward to bear the expenses, but he can’t do it
for the 100's of patients that visit the hospital daily. And if this trend is set, many people who can bear the expense would try to look like poor and get the benefit of free of cost treatment at the expense of kind hearted doctors.

Case of AIDS patient is very different from ordinary patients. Very few people know that there should be a separate ward for AIDS patients. And that ward has to be properly equipped to avoid any infection to hospital staff and other patients. The above mentioned hospital is not equipped with such a ward. So technically it cant handle AIDS patients. In addition to this, for the delivery of HIV infected lady there is a standard kit used. That kit costs Rs 500. Again needless to say poor people can’t afford that and individual doctors can’t make this available for each patient. In some case patients don’t reveal that they are HIV infected (Fearing that doctors will refuse the treatment, or from the fear of social stigma). And poor doctors have to do a lot of test and treatment that involves dealing with patient's blood/urine/semen/saliva hence they are at constant risk of getting HIV infected from such dishonest patients. Last statement shocked me to the core. Imagine what a price a doctor might have to pay for the kindheartedness he shows in his profession, "A Death Sentence".

I would like to ask those selectively active AIDS activist, what are they doing for such cases. I hope someone of them comes to this page and spreads the word. We desperately need some infrastructure to fight with this disease. Protection is better than cure. Agreed!! But in the present circumstances only awareness won’t do. What about those who are already infected. If a doctor is not properly equipped, why will he go close to the patients and treat them?

Why men love gadgets more than they love gals...

Guys, I don't take any responsibility if following characteristics don't match the characteristics of your gal. Although i would like to take pride if their characteristics do match.

• Gadgets follow the instructions word by word.
• Gadgets turn on with in a second.
• Gadgets dont ask questions.
• Gadgets dont stop working if you dont get them new accesories every month.
• With time, gadgets become smaller and smarter.
• With in 10 mins you can know exactly how would a Gadget behave in which situation, just by reading the instruction mannual.

Chain-Mails

One of the things on top of my hit list is chain mails. I really get annoyed when i receive any mail that claims that it can get you good fortune/money in ur account or some thing like that. If i get that as spam its other thing, but if i get those from those enlightened people who i think are from a better educated lot, i feel like slapping them.

Most mails generally have the picture of some God and it says,"This mail should be forwarded to atleast 5 people within next 30 mins else the God will be furious at you and may bring you misfortune, however if you forward it to 10 people, you may get love/ 15 people, you may get promotion blah blah blah".... and since this much is not enough to inspire people, these mails contain the testimonials from some fake names. One would say, "I forwarded it to 5 people and received the good grades", other would say "i ignored it and lost huge amount in business". Whenever i receive such mail, i immediately send this mail back 10 times to the sender. How do people believe such things. As if god has nothing to do, but to look into the mail box of each person and reward them based upon how many times he has forwarded the particular mail. Seems God has become tech savy.

Second catagory is the mail that says,"Bill gates is sharing his fortune with you. Forward this mail and You will get $250 or so for each forward, and $240 for each subsequent forward and blah blah".. Again this type of mails also enclose testimony of people who accept that they got money depposited in their bank account. Some say that they got $2000 deposited in their HDFC account in Pune(India). I wonder how they deposited Dollars in Indian account. Another important point to note here is, these mails dont ask for bank account details Surprisingly without asking about the account details somebody put money in their accounts. And some wise people keep forwarding mails in expectation of big bucks.

Another kind of chain message was doing round in yahoo messengers. It said,"Yahoo people are sealing the unused accounts, so keep forwarding this message to ensure them that you are still operating the account". I have a question here. Cant the Yahoo guys simply track who is logging into the account to get assured of account's activity. How come only forwarding the particular message will notify them abt the account's active status? Some people say that Yahoo will give Nokia cellphone to everybody who forwards the message. Come on man!!! what's the logic behind it? At least think before you believe anything. If they start giving out nokia phones like this, they will go bankrupt in one day.

Now since you have gone through this article, Send this article to

• 10 people, and probably 5 of them will come and beat you up.
• 5 people, and nothing will happen to your life.
• Dont send it to anybody and you will have a nice day.
  

Cheers!!!