Brand Value vs Cricket

IPL 2.0 has been full of action - both ON and OFF the field; On the field because of some hard-hitting, tight bowling and some "not-so-good" fielding and Off the field because of Mr. fakeiplplayer, "seedhi baat : clear hai" ad-s and media hype. To be true IPL2.0 did not start off on a very good note - opening ceremony was shady, matches weren't interesting and so on. At that time the only interesting thing was the controversies of KKR and fakeiplplayer. Gradually the tempo was generated and we had a few nail-biting last ball finishes ( some which went beyind the last ball as well ).



For me though ( being an ardent KKR fan ), IPL2.0 has been a major disappointment. What buchanan has done to the team reminds me of a similar scenario, when Greg Chappell took over as the coach of the Indian cricket team. Coincidentally, both the times Ganguly was on the receiving end. What was more disheartening was that a novice like McCullum was taking over KKR's captaincy. Not only that, Dada was also sent down the order. Well, I would like to meet Bhookha-naan one day and kick his bloody @$%........ let us not digress from the topic.



Most of us would be up-to-date with the latest happenings of IPL2.0. People from WB must be following fakeiplplayer and the greatbong. But, what I saw yesterday made me wonder whether IPL2.0 was really about cricket ( budding young players meeting experienced customers ), or was it more of an business idea - the long unnecessary strategic breaks might have answered my question. Yesterday I saw a person selling almost duplicates of IPL jerseys - the addition was that CSK had a picture of Dhoni, MI had one of Sachin, but the one and only KKR had the picture of ...... ( any guesses ) ..... SRK. I mean come on, even people selling jerseys on the streets have ironically shown out what kind of business has been going on in KKR. Since the entertainment value is so high, I would not like to comment on IPL as a whole, but KKR has been a base for business oriented and dirty politics. I will agree to the fact that the performance of the team as well as the players has been dismal; but when the owner is a narcissist, coach is a dictator, captain a disappointment and players, rebels - you don't call that a TEAM.

KKR has been a joke this time which is evident from the fact that other teams are weighing their chances ( to reach the semis ) if they still have one more encounter with Kolkata.



P.S. Everyone is writing about IPL2.0: I thought I might as well give a shot at it. Please click on the images to see the larger picture ;-).

Marco's Bike

DISCLAIMER :- Any character portrayed in this post is purely coincidental and do not bear any resemblance to people living or dead.


How important was the day when you bought your own 2-Wheeler - very memorable, isn't it ? Well I was ecstatic; but the moments of joy and happiness were confined to my soul self.

A bike company once asked its target audience "To Live Off the EDGE". Marco, who had been living on the edge for sometime now was certainly interested in getting one of those.

Here I present to you a small incident in the life of Marco. Marco ( fond of fish ;-) ) did not have previous experience of driving a 2-wheeler. One fine morning, Marco's parents come to know that he has decided to buy the bike. Worried as they were, this came as news to me and all his friends. Be it lunch-table discussion, coffee breaks, whatever, Marco was the center of discussion, or rather Marco and his bike were the major points of discussion.

Now since I was in the same city as Marco was, I decided to take a ride on this 150cc bike. Initially, he used to come to meet us "not" on his bike: his reasons being a minor/major malfunction in the vehicle, or his roommate has it. But, when this became a regular excuse all of us started having doubts ......... well there were a few very genuine and wierd doubts - i'll keep that to myself.

Nobody in my friend circle had seen his bike; and very recently I have come to know that he has sold it off. There goes our source of Entertainment....
The mystery still remains whether Marco really had a vehicle, or was he just Living Off The Edge.

Yo-Yo Bhookha Naan :-)

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090425/jsp/entertainment/story_10871443.jsp

Reflections of a wandering mind...........

If you looked back on your life, what would you remember ?

Has this thought ever crossed your mind ? Interesting question isn't it ? What if I add to it by asking what would be the first thing that would come to your mind ?

First of all it is difficult to imagine a situation which will compel you to look back into your life. Even if you do your subconscious mind takes you into a world of your own; you tend to think what has been in your mind for a while.

Think of a situation where your life is coming to an end. When you now go into a flashback mode what will you remember ?
I am giving you a few options. I hope I will get an answer to this question.

1)Family ( any member in particular )
2)Better Half / spouse / girlfriend / boyfriend
3)Your corporate powerplays / walk up the corporate ladder
4)any life changing incident ( do describe the incident )
5)your favourite possession
6)money you earned
7)any regrets
8)unfulfilled dreams
9)food
10)Others....please specify

I hope you will take some time off from your busy schedule and answer this question. Please leave a comment how do you want to Reclaim Your Life.
I will update this post as and when I get comments.




P.S. - Inspired by Tata Safari Dicor advertisement.

Random......

Random - what does this word mean ?
According to http://www.dictionary.com "random" means 'proceeding, made, or occurring without definite aim, reason, or pattern'. So I can also call it aimless.

What does "blog" mean ? Dictionary says 'an online diary; a personal chronological log of thoughts published on a Web page; also called Weblog, Web log'. The word chronological determines that it is an arrangement / order of events. My personal idea was that a blog is an online diary where you can opine.

Now you must be thinking what is the context; or is this one of my other "DADA-isms" - not really.
I have started blogging recently and am an ardent follower of a few blogs ( written by my teachers, friends and relatives ).
Coincidentally, three of them who are regular bloggers have the name "RANDOM" attached to their blogs. I presume its coincidence as they created their blogs without each others' influence.

What initially baffled me was how the three of the "very-recent" bloggers had the random keyword in their blog. But as I kept on pondering I started getting into micro-management. "How can a blog be random ?" was the first question that came to my mind. If you arrange your assorted thoughts what you get is a coherent idea. Of all the blogs I have read, none seemed aimless; in fact they all portrayed the perception of the author. When you tend to blog what do you do - do you think of the title first and then describe it, or do you get a chain of thoughts and you tend to confine it within certain boundaries to suit your opinion. But, in both the cases you are trying to capture your thoughts and defining them into your perception.

"Randomness" is endless, so how do you define your chain of thoughts as random........is a question I am still asking myself.


Have my "random thoughts" compelled me to play a "random stroke" ? Whatever it was it will certainly create some "random noise"..........




P.S. Credit goes to Shobhit, Supriya and Avik who's blog I follow very diligently :-)

Are you going to finish strong ?

I got this link to one of the most inspiring videos I have seen off late from Vaibhav, and I could not stop myself from writing about it.

Here's the link : http://www.maniacworld.com/are-you-going-to-finish-strong.html

This person called Nick Vujicic starts off with a few jokes about his missing limbs and arms and the deliberately falls down. He asks a question to the audience how he should get up. Gradually his tone becomes serious and he asks the people in front that whether he should stop trying to get up.

What happens next is something you need to watch to get the feel of it. It reminded me of the story of the spider who tries to build its web, but every time falls down for some reason; but, it never stops and climbs up again and again till the cob-web is finished.

Something to really ponder upon........