Spain
is witnessing its golden age in sports. I would cut to the chase and reason
with a theory that could point as to why it is so. Surely, it is not just
coincidence. The theory goes- A country’s generation born close to an Olympics
benefits immensely. And if the country continues to aspire for sporting
success, there is a good chance, it will produce champions.
It is 2012 and it has been 20 years since the 1992
Barcelona Games.20 years is a generation. We can also figure in that 1982 FIFA World Cup was held in Spain. The
Olympics needs sporting infrastructure, and this sporting base is used by
future sportspersons. The exposure breeds familiarity, practice pushes perfection,
academies produce prodigies. In simple words, reaping what you sowed.
Now it is an observed fact that taxpayers keep on footing
the bill after Olympics are done with. Athens is still burdened by the massive expenditure
when it hosted in 2004, so is Atlanta from 1996. Infrastructure built for big
ticket sporting events can actually go to waste. But the same stadiums can be
used to breed academies or used to host events of relatively lesser profile,
which keeps the money coming and encouraging sportspersons to excel all the same.
The sportsmen and women make nations proud on the
world stage. The link between hosting an Olympics and becoming a sporting power
can be made for South Korea and Seoul 1988. South Korea however is a tiny state
and it is easier for them to use the facilities built. They have carried the
momentum all the while getting new sports and disciplines. Some nations go the other way around and host an
Olympics after becoming a sporting giant, like China did at Beijing 2008.
Coming back to Spain though, I suggest that it’s because of the push that the country got from Barcelona 92’and their pursuit of sporting excellence, that they are
reaping success. Spain has always had a great football league, and yet they were
under-achievers on the world stage. With an unprecedented successive Euro-World
Cup-Euro treble by Spanish football team, they now have staked claim to be the one
of the best teams ever.
Also the Catalans do not consider themselves to be
part of Spain. A thing that surfaces every now and then at Barcelona’s Camp Nou
at the time of El Clasico. That independent identity feud aside, Spain noticeably
is not justproducing champions from Barcelona and Madrid. They are also coming from
Oviedo, Seville, Valencia and Málaga.
Moreover and importantly, it is just not about
football anymore. Spain has champion teams in basketball, handball, futsal and watersports.
They have Gemma Mengual
in synchronised swimming ; Sergio Garcia and recently Azahara Muñoz in
golf .They have won the Davis Cup 5 times since 2000, and have had Rafael
Nadal, David Ferrer, Fernando Verdasco, Sergie Bruguera, Carlos Moya, Aranxta
Sanchez Vicario , Conchita Martinez in tennis. Motorsports has Fernando Alonso’s
double world championship in Formula 1.Moto GP has the talents of Jorge Lorezo, Dani Pedrosa and Nicolás Terol among
others. Even if we discount Miguel Indurain’s 5 consecutive Tour de France titles
between 1991-95, Spain has had Oscar Pereiro and Carlos Sastre winning in
Tour de France in 2006 and 2008 respectively.Spain were hockey silver medallists
at Beijing Olympics in 2008. The list is long and impressive. Read more here.
To conclude with an analogy, the museum benefits Gaudi, Gaudi benefits the museum.
Players need stadiums, stadium needs players.
Spain benefits with both in its golden age of
sports.
Shanghai is a city, a metropolis, a financial
capital, a global economic hub. Shanghai is in China but the word Shanghai is a
signifier for India.
Shanghai is an attempt by the political class to
divert our attention from the immediate problems to a promised future, a
transformation. We are sold the dream of a swanky Shanghai like city where
prosperity envelops all. And it is all planned for the future. A future,
which when it comes will not hold them accountable. A future near enough, but
far enough so that people forget as well. Rome was not built in a day they say.
But it was also not build by the using the famed Indian jugaad.
Shanghai is a dangling visual smokescreen. Take a
look (at the image below) at what happened between 1993 and 2010 in Shanghai.
It is this transformation to a gleaming economic hub that rivals the first
world that so seduces the transforming third world. Shanghai is a metaphor.
It is the Promised Land that the politicians like to
promise in a safely distant future .This future is rounded up into nice sounding
numbers – 2016, 2020, 2025. And when time inches towards these years they push
it back to another nice sounding year – Twenty Thirty, Twenty Forty what say?
Because somehow,we never think of future being imperfect and dystopian. We always hope the future to be better. We have done so from the past. We continue to do so
now. Where is the progress, is this the progress we hoped for and were promised
in back in 1995. Wasn’t 2012 supposed be the year when every village in India
was electrified? And now, in 2012, we
are still debating nuclear power when we are so many megawatts short of
electrifying even our cities that it is embarrassing. Who do we hold accountable?
Any social commentator would agree that India of
today, of 2012, throws more bewildering contradictions than say it did in 2000.
We are young and aspirational, but then we are also sceptical. We have tastelessly designed flyovers and an underbelly right beneath and around it. The malls are
swanky and the earth just outside it is murky, the road leading to it potholed.
We have grandiose and leaky socialist schemes in a capitalistic economy. Cross
subsidy that skews the supply-demand and market dynamics. And then there’s an
audacious proposal of regulating a democratic medium like the internet. The
models and actors in ads get paler and whiter even as thankfully, it is a
sultry Freida Pinto and swarthy Irfan Khan who have a foothold in Hollywood.
As a nation we have regressed in the last 10 years
– the traffic, the civic amenities, our open values, what we can see on
television, what can be said on it and what is beamed on it. We can all bring
out the largest democracy cloak, but hey we are not a mature one. We can’t
laugh at ourselves; we are offended by things which we should bother too much
with. The people with sense of humour are on Twitter and those numbers don’t
total to many a number.
The irony is inescapable when we are promised maglev
trains when people are crushing themselves in Bandra-Churchgate local trains. It
makes us smirk at the politicians who do not know the ground realities that the
middle class go through, we are sceptical when we are promised a Shanghai in
India.
If you can’t save a Kolkata, if you continue to see Bangalore crumble,
if you go on as usual as Mumbai bursts to seams, what are you promising to
convert to Shanghai ? Cities
cannot be transformed easily and briskly.5 years is not enough, 10 years should see considerable
progress but 20 is enough if you have the will, even in a democracy. Maybe we should emulate Hong Kong or Istanbul for
a change. We should let our states compete and build up their cities.
Competition wakes us up. If we have 3 Singapores, city based economies, it is
progress. Singapore has no natural resources; it is a power because of the
commerce and talent it draws.
We do not need just one Shanghai. We want our Pune,
Mangalore, Jaipur and the likes to grow up and shed that non-metro feel. Take
advantage of the fact that they are not as messed up as the metros are and
realise that therein lies an opportunity. Become the new-age metros. That would
do two things. We will have better up-and -coming cities and it will stop the
migration to metros and stretch their infrastructure.
Shanghai is in another country, another time zone
and another 2 decades ahead of us. Shanghai is a pipedream not worth chasing.
As much as any 20-someone
will crib about life, it is the most open ended and action packed decade of
anyone’s life. It is a contradictory, sweet and sour decade. You will fail and
succeed, not in equal measure. It will teach you things which you will not forget
easily.
Some of the truths that
make their existence known are that your college degree doesn't mean squat and
without it, you most probably will squat. The quarter life crisis hits you when
you least expect it. Maybe at 24, but that doesn't mean that you will live till
96 to witness the next time Haley's Comet comes around.
Home is a studio apartment
with the most important asset being your Internet connection. You slowly
realise that unsuccessful talented people are everywhere. Then you notice that
the successful people are in their 30s, so that gives you hope- I can still
make it.
That feeling you got at 17
that i know everything, is no more. And if you still are with your
childhood sweetheart, then have you not dated enough people. Right through your 20s
you will be slapped, jolted and reminded by the fact that you actually don’t
know nothing. And personally speaking, it’s good for you to be told so. This is
where you are gaining knowledge, which will eventually give wisdom.
You hop skip and jump
careers, unsure where your true calling lies. You shift, sometimes give up
because you know now that your best is not good enough. Hopefully you will end
up with something that you can tolerate to do for a living and don’t lose your
creativity.
But hey, you are in the
best shape of your life, sometime in your 20s. And unless you go under the
knife or a long dormant beauty gene which doesn’t exist, kicks in; this is the
way you will look. You are free to take care of it or spoil it with your
lifestyle. It’s your choice- you are an adult.
I repeat, you are an
adult. And unlike a while back, your actions have consequences. There is no
free lunch no more. You budget irrespective of your bank balance. Your
uniqueness is slowly blending into bourgeois homogeneity. 20s is when you
really understand brain-drain and know that politics affects everything. When
you feel you could have been born in the 1960s and be part of movements and because
you can’t, you seek solace in the wise lyrics of Bobs- Marley and Dylan.
Heck, now even decade gone
by gets you into trips of nostalgia. You remember some of your oldest friends.
See how your lives have diverged. Some are into domestic bliss and others
are clueless even on the 10thanniversary
of their 18th birthday bash.20s is when you want someone to talk to, and also
someone you can afford to avoid. The friends made in the 20s are the friends
you will have for life. Girlfriends and boyfriends not quite so.
The 20s are when regular
coitus interferes with anything creative you always wanted to do (gratuitous
Sheldon Cooper reference). Whereas the lack of it makes you a depraved soul
with other outlets to vent (No you can't form a Fight Club, who do you think
you are? Tyler Durden?).
Also, this being in 20s is
too generalised as well. 20s people are not homogenous. There are sub divisions
in that – 21-23, 24-26 and 27-29. And they don’t like each other particularly
well either. It is because of the surveys that all of them are shunted together in
a group. Each one is different. Sure they all look alike but scratch the
surface and they are anything but. They are
distinctly different once you go past exchanging pleasantries and actually talk.
Sure they say 20-something
is hard, it’s tough.For the crazy enough, even
psychedelic.But so what? Stability is
nice, but entropy is nice too.Being 20 something is
quite something.
This Earth Hour 2012: 8.30pm, Saturday 31 March, celebrate your action for the planet with the people of world by switching off your lights for an hour, then go beyond the hour.
Rahul always made runs that stood for more than their face value. 13,288 runs is a colossal achievement, facing 31,258 balls in Tests even more so. It shows his struggle and determination backed by water-tight technique to overcome adversity. Sidvee points out in his blog as to what makes an ideal Rahul innings “ The pitch must be spiced up or crumbling or smattered with cracks. A crater would be ideal. Or even a sandpit. He must not be offered predictable bounce. It ‘s all too insulting.” So, it should be a minefield of a pitch and then we will see the real Rahul come forth . Invariably this happens overseas.
As a batsman, Rahul contributed where India used to be its weakest – playing overseas. For far too long , ever since it started playing Test Cricket , they have been poor travellers with abysmal away records in Test matches on bouncier, livelier and bowler friendly tracks. He hit his first hundred versus South Africa at the Wanderers against an attack with the combined menace of Allan Donald, Shaun Pollock, Brian McMillan, Lance Klusener, Hansie Cronje and Paul Adams. That 148 and 81 in second innings came agonizingly close in India winning its first Test in South Africa. Bad light on Day 5 helped South Africa escape defeat. Ever since, Rahul has taken great pride in his overseas batting record. Innumerable times he has walked in to face the cherry when India would be one down for next to nothing on the board and countless times he has weathered the storm and anchored the innings amidst the more flamboyant stroke makers of the batting line-up.
When Rahul took guard, India could sense an air of stability to the proceedings. You could take the eyes off the score during lunch and the he would still be there after tea, holding on the innings, running the opposition down with his classical technique and immense concentration. He had that determined intensity about him, about which Matthew Hayden quipped “ All this going around is not aggression. If you want to see aggression on cricket field, look into Rahul Dravid’s eyes.”
And yet that was on the field. Off the field, he was the assured, well read, articulate ambassador of the game. As Brett Lee, the jovial Aussie quick put it “ If you don’t get along with Dravid, you are struggling in life.”
Rahul is a man with a keen sense of history of the game. It is these qualities and the mountain of runs he scored at no.3 that he was called up to speak at the Bradman Oration in Adelaide in 2011, becoming the first non–Australian to do so. His astute oration every inch deserved the standing ovation he got after an address of 38 minutes that touched upon all the pressing issues that cricket faced and how he thought things can be improved. He clearly distinguished himself as a thinker of the game during this.
Success never came easy to him. There was a long phase in his early career when he just couldn’t convert 70s and 80s into hundreds. He kept trying and perfecting the technique in his formative years till he made that leap from being good to great .It should come as no surprise that most of Rahul’s superlative innings with recall values are all played overseas.
His 190 and 103* in the same Test in Hamilton, 148 in Leeds,217 at Kenington Oval, 233 and 71* in Adelaide, 270 at Rawalpindi, 81 and 68 in Kingston Jamaica in 2006, 93 at Perth and 112 in Kingston again in 2011 and his 3 glorious ones against England in his last tour of the Old Blighty.
I especially remember the 146 at The Oval in the last test of the series as India were hurtling towards a 4-0 whitewash.
Rahul Dravid was forced to open the innings in the absence of a regular opener. He carried his bat for an unbeaten 146 against a potent pace attack. The whole of Oval rose to give him a rousing ovation. Ten minutes later as, he came out again to bat after England enforced the follow on, he got another standing ovation. The Oval crowd could not help but admire the man as he fell for 19 to a tired shot. Those three ovations were for three different things that Rahul displayed-The first ovation was for his exceptional skill, the second for his resilience and the last was out of genuine respect and heartfelt affection for him.
Rahul’s love affair with England began with his debut at Lords. Since then he became the highest run scorer in the 99 World Cup held in England , had that exceptional summer of 2002, captained India to a series victory in England after 20 years and finally, the last purple patch of his career in 2011. In between he revisited England to play a bit of county for Kent and MCC and turning up for ODI’s for Scotland.
The English respect a thorough gentleman and they can spot one with ease. Rahul is undoubtedly one. David Lloyd went on to pay him a compliment on air, when he walked off when he felt that he has nicked one from Stuart Broad;hence saving the umpire the blushes and controversy. Lloyd said “ Rahul is honest as the day is long” I am sure he was referring to the long winding English summer because the days in winters can be really short !
I never had the opportunity to watch a Test match with my dad. I never saw Rahul play in a stadium, although I came close once in Sharjah. He would be the player that any father would like to take his kid to and ask him to aspire to be like. For Rahul is a perfect role model. Even in his endorsement deals he brought that humane touch and a sense of calm and assurity. When asked about his nickname ‘The Wall’ he joked self-depreciatively that the media had set him up for puns , so that when he fails, they come up with lines like ‘another brick has fallen ‘ or ‘the foundations are weak’! He had it in him to take a lashing and crack a few jokes.
It is often forgotten how he was viciously chided as not cut out for the one-day format during 1997-98. Rahul’s is an exceptional example of how he mastered the ODI format, when critics and fickle fans never ceased point out his slow scoring rate. But he kept at it, becoming remarkably successful in ODIs, excelling in the middle order with 82 fifties to his name. Just to cite his consistency, he went 120 matches without scoring a duck. He has kept wickets ,so that India could field a balanced team, opened when no one would put their hands up for it and captained with tenacity. Apart form all this, was his reputation as a catcher in slips with his world record tally of 210 catches in Tests. He takes the catches so smoothly, you can’t hear the voice of the ball hitting his hands.
Akash Chopra writes that he made look things simple. When everyone was being getting beaten all ends up, in a domestic game, there was Rahul, always taking a long stride forward to the balls that were pitched up, and then either playing with the sweetest spot of the bat or allowing it to go to the keeper. Chopra recollects “ Every now and then , one of us would ask the keeper if the ball has stopped moving. But the answer would always be that Rahul is making it look like that .”
We won’t miss him now. Not immediately atleast. We will see him play and captain Rajasthan Royals, taking over from Shane Warne. But we will miss him immensely the next time India is one down for nothing when playing overseas.For then, when the team is in trouble, there would be no Rahul to turn to. No one to bat for India, as if life depended on it. And that is why Rahul is Dravid. Like no other.
Friday. 12, March 1993 was the day that shook Bombay; shook Bombay to the core because until then Bombay never thought it was susceptible. Today marks 19 years since that day.
For those of you who were little kids like me back then, Anurag Kashyap’s Black Friday based on Mid-Day journalist S.Hussain Zaidi book , is a must watch to really get an understanding of the repercussions of those serial blasts .
The film shows the chaos and after effects of that fateful day, what led to these serial bombings and who were the people behind one of first acts of terrorism in India. The immaculate planning by Tiger Memon, the fund aiding and support of ISI, the arms smuggled into Bombay, the fleeting appearance of Dawood Ibrahim are given appropriate footage to create the necessary impact. The film traces the purpose of the blasts; it shows the state of mind of the people involved, their rigorous training and poisoning of minds while they are made to listen incendiary audio cassettes.
Black Friday had remained in the cans for more than two years after its completion but the product is still very fresh and more so relevant than ever before. The narration is interspersed with news footages and archives from the 1990s.The span of incidents that occurred during Dec. 92'-May 93' are sequenced unconventionally as it goes forth, then back, and then further back then forth again.
It was banned because it takes the names of people who were involved in the chain of events, presents the truth as it is without kowtowing to any individual, religious groups, political organisation or nation.The film is for an intelligent, aware and open minded audience who are willing and eager to know the truth and understand the gravity of this incident.
Black Friday shows the minutest of details about the incidents if viewed with suffice attention. Morethan anything else for our generation should watch it to learn about our recent past, tounderstand how communalism sprouted, how intelligence agencies operate, how everybody is vulnerable because there is more to the world than meets the eye.The events 19 years ago affected us then and continues to have an effect to this day.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind - M.K. Gandhi
The new Formula 1 season begins next week Down Under.The hard work and long hours that the teams and their mechanics have been putting in during the winter testing for the new car will be up for all to see in an extremely competitive display.
The weapons for higher speeds are being hoarded, teams are pushing for new technology and fine tuning the aerodynamics. Some cars will be the light of the field, while some may find all their hard work go up in smoke or exhaust plumes, if you may.
This season is a potential blockbuster for a surfeit of immediately visible facts. There are 5 former world champions challenging the current champion Sebestian Vettel for the title which is an unprecedented situation. There is much enthusiasm about Kimi Räikkönen’s return to the sport magnified by the impressive showing of his Lotus-Renault team in testing.
Apart from that the teams are closer bunched together than ever before. The mid–level cars can potentially take a step forward and challenge for podium on their good days. Pirelli must be complimented for making the tyres and making strategy important again and they are expected to keep up the good work this year.
Counting from 2007, we have had 3 seasons out of 5 decided in the last laps of the final race – in favour of Kimi Räikkönen in 2007, Lewis Hamilton in 2008 and Sebastian Vettel in 2010. That 2012 would be such a season that would be on my wish list. More drivers winning races, more drivers getting up the podiums, middle level teams and rookies fighting tooth and nail for the share of spoils. If the whole grid is closer together, it makes for substantial overtaking on track .With that, mix in some tyre and fuel strategy and lap after lap of adrenaline pumping action is guaranteed. This year, the cars with their platypus nosed design might not be the most aesthetically designed machines. The reason being the change of rule for the height of the front nose and several teams insistence on continuing with their 2011 chassis. McLaren’s design doesn’t feature the platypus nose and it looks better than others. Whether it is a faster and better car than the rest of the pack would be fascinating to see.
And so for the upcoming season, the wishlist includes :
Closer qualifying, even closer split second racing.
Jean-Eric Vergne, Paul di Resta and Brunno Senna score podium finishes.
Felipe Massa winning a race. Can we please have the fighting spirit of the Felipe of 2007-08 back?
Michael Schumacher, Mark Webber, Fernando Alonso and Kimi Räikkönen being regular challengers for the podium.
All top 8 drivers win atleast a race each. That is both drivers from RedBull, McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes. If not, then 8-9 distinct winners of Grand Prixs through out the course of a evenly contested season.
Wet races in Monaco, Spa, Singapore, Japan and Brazil. Rain separates the men from the boys. Ask Jenson Button , who won the epic Canadian Grand Prix in torrential Montreal rain in June last year.
The RedBull is not the best car and the most innovative design feature lies in some other car; maybe Torro Rosso or Lotus Renault.
The championship is decided in the last race in Brazil in a 3 way shootout .
Formula one 2012 Race Schedule
Australian Grand Prix / March 18, Melbourne – Albert Park
Malaysian Grand Prix / March 25, Kuala Lumpur - Sepang
Chinese Grand Prix / April 15, Shanghai – Shanghai International Circuit
Bahrain Grand Prix / April 22, Sakhir – Bahrain International Circuit
Spanish Grand Prix / May 13, Barcelona – Circuit de Cataluña
Monaco Grand Prix/May 27, Monaco - Circuit de Monaco
Canadian Grand Prix/June 10, Montreal- Circuit Gilles Villeneuve
European Grand Prix/June 24, Valencia – Valencia Street Circuit
British Grand Prix/July 8, Silverstone – Silverstone Circuit
German Grand Prix/July 22, Hockenheim- Hockenheimring
Hungarian Grand Prix / July 29, Budapest- Hungaroring
Belgian Grand Prix/Sep 2, Spa – Spa Francorchamps
Italian Grand Prix/Sep 9, Monza – Autodromo Nazionale Monza
Singapore Grand Prix/Sep 23, Singapore – Marina Bay Street Circuit
Japanese Grand Prix/Oct 7, Suzuka, Suzuka Circuit
Korean Grand Prix/Oct 14, Yeongam, Korean International Circuit
Indian Grand Prix/Oct 28, Greater Noida, Buddh International Circuit
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix / Nov 4, Abu Dhabi, Yas Marina Circuit
United States Grand Prix/Nov 18, Austin, Circuit of the Americas
Brazilian Grand Prix/Nov 25, São Paolo, Interlagos
