Bliss

Here's an attempt at writing a sonnet...however it doesn't follow the conventional structure..purists stay away from my blog...haha A queer coexistence Doubts with confidence Gloom with exuberance Chatter with silence Both real, none pretense A smile so ecstatic Yet at times, so plastic A moment full of magic One with zero logic Like others yet maverick Define yourself, they say A funny question, you see You too feel this way Or is it just me?

"Bhartiya Hockey Ka Satyanash"...The newspaper carried this headline in extra large font and in red color about a year or so back when the Indian hockey team failed to qualify for the world cup. Our ever so righteous media, both print and electronic, expressed their indignation on the current state of our national sport in the highest decibels possible. The only comfort was that at least  for once they were doing full page features and hour long reports on any sport other than cricket or soccer(lucky only when the world cup is on). The over the top anchors chided the politicians(everybody's favorite punch bag and often deservedly so), the sports federations and the players for all that was wrong. Cut to now, in May the team won the Azlan Shah tournament and in July the team won a series in Belgium drubbing the hosts 6-0 in the last game. Given the consternation our media saints displayed at the team's failure one would have thought them to come up with similar exubera

I wonder if there ever was a time in history when the mantra of optimism was so bandied about as it is these days. From books to talk shows to SMSes and of course movies, everywhere the ‘think positive’ drum is being beaten with such enthusiasm that even the staunchest pessimist would have felt inclined to say “all is well” at least once. It seems as if these three words are panacea for all the problems in the world. But it is easier said than done because my heart needed a great deal of  wheedling to believe that all was well when I saw a little finger sized, creepy, olive green lizard on my bedroom window. No amount of shooing from me or my mom could shoo it off. Even my mom’s tried and tested trick of hitting the area around it with a stick failed to budge it and it remained still as if dead. Mom gave up and returned to her chores. I tried to continue studying but found myself with book in hands and eyes on the motionless creepo. What did it think it was, Snoopy or what!! Now, snoo

Cricket is to India what soccer is to half of the world. Its not that we don't love the Beautiful game but an India-Srilanka final definitely takes precedence over an Italy-Slovakia game. So while the world was getting its headache from the vuvuzelas we discovered our very own vuvuzela, with a much higher irritation quotient, in Neo Cricket's ad sense. It was not a case of ads between the match but the other way round and when they did show the match half of the screen was still filled with ads! Fine, its understood that ads come up after wickets fall. wickets fall-we cheer-players cheer-enthused commentary follows which is music or molten lava to the ears depending upon your loyalties-and then finally the ads come. But no! Not so with Neo Cricket. Say if there is a chance of a catch out. The ball is in the air-the fielder positions himself-the ball barely touches his hands-God forbid but you blink-and there is Shahid kapoor selling you a fairness cream! Its only after the play

The name is Serena, but the thought of playing against her hardly brings any serenity to her opponents. After all playing against someone who has 36 career titles to her credit is no cakewalk. When she is in action one can see the skill and power developed through years of discipline and slogging on the court. But all this fails to catch our intellectual writer-cum- fashionista Shobhaa De's attention because she is too busy noticing Serena's "lady corsets, diamond danglers, deep cleavage and neon color". Tch - tch  too bad Shobhaa ma'am. How could any woman encroach upon the prerogative of being successful, beautiful, rich and stylish(in her own way) when it is exclusively reserved for you? Must have felt so vindicated in gleefully tweeting that Serena's ouster "serves her right"?After all the pleasure of writing off a star like Serena must be much greater than writing about IPL cheerleaders' "fannies". It is also much more fun than e