T20 | Media Faux Pas

The minute Kapugedera hit that six there at St Lucia, West Indies, all hell broke loose for the Indian Team back home. Electronic media crucified MS Dhoni and conjectured the reasons of failure as fatigue and parties of Indian Premier League. The screens started blazing with the images of Indian cricket team members missing it on the field juxtaposed with the images from the parties that they have been to during last Indian Premier League season punctuated with loud background scores. Once again one of the most amateur media of the world started playing fowl.

As fans, yes, we all are dissappointed. We would have all loved to see Dhoni and team playing in the finals and also winning it once again. But its a game - you win, you lose.If you win - you celebrate and get on to next big challenge. If you lose - you retrospect, gather everything again and bounce back with fresh energies and get on to next big challenge. So you win or you lose you always get on to next big challange because it does not end with this one game where you may win or lose. What matters is with what ferocity you bounce back and get on to next big challange. And Dhoni and his boys have proved it time and again that they have great bouncing back ability. And I am convinced that they will surely bounce back. Give them time. Comfort them. Dont destroy the magnanimous spirit of these boys. They are the ones who toil from dawn to dusk in the field to get that smile on millions of faces. They are the ones who give reasons for celebration to millions of cricket fans. Now you can't even stand them smiling. Picking up words out of context, framing them into sentences and serving them to public is highly irresponsible, sad and exposes the paranoia of electronic media.

As for Indian Premier League factor, it is not only played by Indian players but also foreign players, Sri Lanka, England, Australia all did well despite of playing not only IPL but also International series just before IPL. If there needs to be a reason for the losses it has to be bouncy tracks, for which Indian cricket team needs to practice. I dont think that any one of the player that steps out onto that field puts franchise over country and gives anything less but more than what he gives in club cricket. They have done it in past. They will do it in future. All this criticism is born out of the desperation to fill in the vaccum of 24 hour broadcast bandwidth when there is no other sensational "news" or others are doing it why not us.

It was the same media which was singing odes to Dhoni's captaincy and teams credibility just a week back. But now they are being court martialled by the guests on various shows on prime time. Videos and images from parties and events in past being played on the screens in split screens while the guests and host pronouncing their sentences. I was apalled by the coverage of a brawl that took place in a pub in West Indies between Indian cricket team members and some nuts who claimed to be fans of Indian cricket team. What outraged me more was the language used by the so-called national news channel with highest viewerships. A real fan celebrates with the team and comforts them in their loss. And dont they deserve to live a life of their own. when does going into a pub and lightening the mood during stress became a crime so big that it engulfed the space on national news broadcast. We all have chilled out and loosened up when we flunked our exams. Does that ever mean that we loved flunking.

In trying times least we could have done was to comfort the players, reminded them of the times that they have done us proud which would have filled them with new energies to bounce back. Instead we chose to lash out our own frustrations on them which would fetch nothing but the destruction of the sporting spirit. We all need to be mature and media more responsible. Its a game. Be a sport.

In Love with Hyderabad

Its 3:00 am and you can still hear the thunder of fireworks in Hyderabad. Its Diwali. Lately I have quite fallen for this city. More than two years now, it has become just like a second home for me or third or fourth, well that's another story. But yes lately I have started feeling that it will be difficult for me to leave Hyderabad. What has become home for me now was an alien land for me about two years back. The roads and places have become so obvious as the count of fingers in my hand.

Like any other Indian Metropolis one can see the footprints of development all over the city, though in a very Indianly manner. You can see the long running fly-overs through the city surrounded by the advertisements, of gated communities, apartments, villas and so on, providing everything on earth that one wants to see in and around their homes; of restaurants that promise you the tastes of heaven and hell; of jewellers that swear by the authenticity of pearl and purity of gold; of shopping malls that are eager to offer a discount of 70% + 30%!; of the rock-nirvana-moksha-salvation-and-what-not band that will be performing on weekend at the nearest Night Club; of springboards that overseas education consultant would give for your career; of the school that would carve a leader out of your child; of latest Telugu Blockbuster that recently completed 100 days in theaters.

But the city has its own flavor, different from any other big Indian city. The unique local urdu dialect is one thing that can identify a Hyderabadi. I still remember the cab driver trying to woo me to check in into a hotel of his choice on my first day in Hyderabad saying ,'baki hotelaan to bhar ge saab'. The literacy rate is better. If Telugu, which I still dont understand much is the first language of this city, you can conveniently take English for the second language. City boasts of some of the very good colleges, universities and independent institutes that include Indian School of Business, Hyderabad University, Osmania University, Jawaharlal Nehru Technical University, IFLU, ICFAI and many more.

If history sings odes to the hospitality of Nizams so do the Tajs - Banjara and Krishna, Novotel, Mariott, ITC Kakatiya, Novotel, Ista and others of contemporary Hyderabad. Culinary delights and the famous tastes are well preserved to savour upon in the present day kitchens of Hyderabad House, Paradise, Bawarchi and their likes where you can get some of the best Haleems and Biryanis of the world. I wrote Biryani after Haleem because I am quite a conneissur when it comes to food, though self proclaimed, but those of you who have had a chance to have Biryani at Old Delhi or Nai Ki Mandi in Agra or Karnail Ganj in Kanpur would agree with me. If you are a foodaholic and like trying new places there is no stopping in the twin city starting from Haridwar at Sindhi Colony, Sree Dhaba at Paradise Circle, Tandoor, Haveli, Bombay Vihar all three at Life Style; Ohri Jeeva at Somajiguda; Sahib Singh Sultan at City Center Mall;Angeethi(I loved the New Year Buffet there), Punjabi by Nature, Zafraan Exotica(Roof-Top) in Banjara. At this point I think I will write a separate post about food joints in Hyderabad, so lets leave it here for food. Difficult for me yet necessity.

Hyderabad has numerous tourist attractions, of which Husain Sagar Lake has gained much importance personally for me serving as place to reflect, rejuvinate and relax. Small parks on its periphery are nice place to spend quality time in solitude, though you will find that Hyderabadis are addicted to outings, specially the couples, but who says that solitude cant be enjoyed in the crowd. I love sitting there alone. The other place that I like in Hyderabad are some of the dargahs in old city like Dar'ul-shifa,Badi Bargah and also the Maula Ali atop a hill near Secunderabad. I have developed a bond with them.

Markets in Hyderabad are no different than any other metropolitan city. Crowded and Busy. If you need books go to Kothi. If you need pearls go to old city. Looking for IT coachings, go to Ameerpet. Need some apparels just walk into any one of the numerous malls. Just like any other Indian city.

Festivals have their own charm. The mosaic like cultural fabric of Hyderabad has its own way of celebrating festivals. Ganesh Chaturthi and Visarjan(Immersion of Idols of Lord Ganesha in water) is something which we dont see much in North India, the city celebrates it with elegance. Visarjan takes place in the Husain Sagar Lake . Birla Temple stands on a hill overlooking the Lake from a distance. Dussehra does not have much of Ram Leela and burning effigies of Ravan and his henchmen as in North India, but is mostly observed with the quite Durga Puja. Diwali is observed with fireworks thorughout the day and night. Ramazan is marked by the numerous Haleem joints that open up from iftar till saher for complete month of fasting. Moharram is observed with grief and sorrow. The traditional Bibi-Ka-Alam procession on a caparisoned elephant to mourn the martyrdom of Imam Hussain, grandson of the Prophet, in the battle of Karbala during 7th century AD is carried out from Alawa-e-Bibi situated at Dabeer pura, a place near Charminar on the tenth day of Moharram.

Work takes one to unseen lands and if you are in IT industry you are in for a change now and then, but I am sure that there would be a very lesser number places where you will feel home away from home. That's what Hyderabad is, Home away from Home.

Ammar Husain Zaidi

Calm

Its all distasteful;
sour as if
the lime of the toiling skin
after a daylong work
dripped into it;
yes life tastes sour;
uneasy calm,
a lull or is it
before the storm,
heavy and quiet
are the eyes,
gazing in disrest,
like himself, a soldier
resting after a quest,
his hands are soaked in blood
robe is torn,
but he has to stand
gathering the leftover blood
to fight again,
but how long will he stand,
how long will he fight,
he has to fall,
fall along with those
heavy eyes, once strong legs
And,when he will fall
eyes will rest,
so will he,
quiet it is quiet it will be....
it would be calm but
not that uneasy one...


Ammar Husain Zaidi

Will Smith, Happiness and Gandhi

"It was right then, that”, says Chris Gardner in his train of thoughts in ‘the pursuit of Happyness’ (no that’s not misspelled), “I started thinking about Thomas Jefferson in the declaration of Independence, in a part, about our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and I remember thinking, how did he know to put the pursuit part in there…”. And that’s where I, started thinking really, how did he know to put the pursuit part in it, but before I could think further, Chris Gardner continued, “…may be happiness is something that we can only pursue…”

When the first time I saw the movie, I was fascinated by the character, Chris Gardner, played by the veteran actor Will Smith, plainly because he displays courage to endure the hardships of life in the pursuit of happiness and finally emerges as a winner.

But it was second time that I got to know something that raises a question to us as a nation in present day world. Something that we as a nation need to ask ourselves, Are we happy? Or does India need a Will Smith to remind us what Mahatma Gandhi said on 15^th August 1947, in Calcutta, “I would like to work for an India, where the poorest shall feel that it is their country and in whose making they have an equal say, where there is no rich class of people no poor class of people,where all communities shall live in perfect harmonyt.This is the India of my dreams.” Perhaps Mahatma was giving a mantra to Indians, which they should remember, that they would work for an India of their own dream and in that dream pursue their own happiness.

Chris Gardner goes on to say, “Thomas Jefferson mentions happiness, a couple of times in the declaration of Independence…, they seem like a strange word to be in that document.” Strange it may seem, this strange thing is something that we forgot to think of, while guaranteeing all sophisticated things like sovereign, socialist, democratic, republic and lot many to ourselves as citizens of India. How can we forget this strange thing called, Happiness, which every soul on this earth pursues? A beggar sitting on the side lanes may not be able to tell you the meaning of any of those sophisticated things but he would definitely understand happiness, and he can tell you what he does for the pursuit of his happiness. And we forgot that word.

In the 60^th year of our freedom, we are still fighting to get our right to the pursuit of happiness. For some, this pursuit is food, for some it is a debt free life, for some it is some other thing. We may be shining at a brilliant 17000 on sensex but is that proportional to the Happiness Index of our nation?

We all are like Chris Gardner and like him, when we see rest of the world, we think, “They all look so damn happy”, and ask ourselves, “Why couldn’t I look like that”, and then we find ourselves asking them, hesitatingly , “What do you do and How do you do?”. Although the answer was given to us long before we grew old enough to understand the meaning of ‘pursuit of happiness’ on 15^th August 1947. All we could have done was just protect that dream. On this day let us stand together pledge that we would incorporate the unstated right to ‘pursuit of happiness’ in Mahatma’s speech into our system.

Ammar Husain Zaidi

Written on 2nd October