Break the law. No arrest

For those of you who always wanted to break the law but stopped due to fear of arrest, 2009 brings with it joy. How apt is this news just after the Mumbai Blasts
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/3916035.cms?TOI_mostcommented

Investment for Tax savings

One question everyone is looking an answer to is "Where should I invest ?". For those of you LIC has just come with a very promising scheme "Jeevan ashta". Its a single premium policy with assured returns of 10% ( considering the bonus on maturity). The interest income is tax free and the amount invested can be used for tax deductions. Also there is additional life coverage ( thought not huge). All in all its a double delight. A must for low-medium risk investor in these turbulent times. Go for it.

Public Smoking

India is unique. Public smoking is banned but not peeing in public ? Lets get practical.

Mumbai

After some drilling exercise and some expensive meetings , the politicians and the leaders are gradually wrapping up the Mumbai blast story. No effective action taken yet. How can I forget , there are more important things to do. After all 2009 is coming. So lets forget the past and live the current moment. Isnt that what you want Mr Leader of India ?

Mumbai

I am still waiting with little hope when there will be some action against the nation which sponsored Mumbai Blasts ? What about u ?

Why do u have to make things so complicated ?

Getting quality entertainment was never easy. It cant get harder. After 8 hours of "No Work" at office ( " No Work" is more tiring ) I thought of doing something interesting. But as many will tell you its never easy to do interesting things when you are in a new place surrounded by new faces. The only resort was to watch a "Movie".

So ,S and myself went to the nearest INOX and decided to watch "No Smoking " . We could not have made a worse decision. I had made an informed decision by deciding to watch "No Smoking" since one of my friends whose recommendations I trust had told me that "No Smoking" is a pretty neat movie.I am not listening to her recommendations again. Directed by Anurag Kashyap (of Black friday fame ) ,a star cast which included John Abraham, Ayesha Takia, Paresh rawal and a off track story line , the movie promised to be good.

I used to debate that Indian directors dont make movie on off track subjects because there is no audience for that kind of stuff. Well now after repeatedly getting disappointed I am convinced that bollywood directors are best at making the usual romantic melodramatic happy ending movies.Did Anurag not see his movie before releasing it to the audience.? And if he did then did he "understand " what he made. ? Paresh rawal is Baba bengali or something in the movie who frees people of their addiction to smoking by killing their family members or cutting their fingers.He works in a dungeon which cannot be accessed by anyone. He is supernatural.the movie is supernatural.Nothing is real about the movie. The movie has a chilling distance from its audience. The director shows what he wants unmindful of his audience.One can keep scratching one's head but one cant keep track of the events of the movie. The only good thing about the movie is the visuals. Yeah , If u like John then its a treat for you. You can see a lot of him.

All I can say is that if Bollywood wants to be different then for God's sake stop taking half measures. If you want to make an unreal movie then set the right tone. What good is a movie if after 2 hrs of intense concentration and spending over 500 bucks one could not understand the movie. For S , yeah she liked John.

50-50 or 20-20

Cricket and Sensex have undergone more changes in last 3 months than anything else in India.. We saw India winning a test series in England after 21 years. Sensex hit an all time high. It crossed 19k. But the biggest miracle happened when India beat the world champions Oz in the semis of twenty20 to enter the finals and eventually defeated their biggest rivals Pakistan in the finals to win the first twenty20 world cup. We won the world cup after 24 years and almost everyone believed that tis world cup was no less than the one we lifted in 1983 under the captaincy of the legendry Kapil Dev. Just when we thought that Indian cricket will dominate the world in the coming years , Oz proved us wrong in grand style. I have been watching lot of cricket lately and there is no doubt in my mind that Indians are no less talented than Aussies. I even once did a one to one mapping of the players of the two teams. Both the teams have immensely talented players. What is it which makes us crumble against Aussies? The answer is clear. They defeat us in the mind before they defeat us on the field. It is not the lacking in cricketing skills which cost us the Future Cup.It is surely lack of mental strength. Lets face it. We are not mentally tough. I do not know if Indian team and BCCI have done anything to address this issue. Why is it that everytime Aussies lose quick early wickets they bounce back to put a formidable total on the board. In similar situation Team India just collapses. The difference is evident. Character. We need to have trainings not only for batting, bowling and fielding but also a significant amount of time needs to be dedicated to make players mentally tough. I think thats what make the difference in a tight match. Players need to be inspired. They need to be made fearless like warriors. Rahul's resignation of captaincy took everyone by surprise. He could not do well in this series and we have started talking about his retirement or whether he should be dropped from the side. This kind of thinking clearly demonstrates that we do not have any respect for our heroes. For those of you who want Rohit Sharma in Rahul's place please go through Rahul's batting in the One day series in England. His batting in England could have inspired a poet. I think we Indians are a little impatient in this regard. We are very judgemental too. Dropping players for a couple of games might be ok but asking about their retirement is too cruel.We need to understand that the fear of getting dropped may not get the best out of players.
With the series already lost I am still optimistic about the one t20 game at the end of the series. If India can win that it will make me immensely happy. At times it is better to be master of one thing than Jack of many :)