Innocent Guilt!

I suppose that will qualify as an Oxymoron, or will it? Either way, the Brazilian electrician, Jean Charles de Menezes, has been brutally killed by the London police who "mistook" him for a terrorist. This article in The Hindu sums up the situation nicely.

Am I wrong in assuming that under the law, any "accused" is considered innocent until his/her guilt is proved. Wonder whether the same logic is applied when dealing with "terror suspects". I shouldn't think so..

Something to believe in..

Was listening to a song called "Something to Believe In" by Poison.

A deeply touching song which once again emphasizes the futility of war. I wonder how many such lives were wrecked due to the Vietnam war. And still you see the Iraq war happening. Can somebody tell these people that nobody ever "wins" a war. Guess its too late to talk about it now . Sigh!

What about the contest!

As much as the Englishmen might hope that they can upstage a not-so-invincible Austrailan side in the current Ashes series, one would have to say the chances of that happening are pretty bleak if the first test was any sign of things to come. The inept batting display especially in the second innings is a real cause for concern. All the top order batsmen, with the exception of Kevin Pietersen, were clueless when confronted by Shane Warne's guile. And that is of course after most of the damage was inflicted by the peerless Glenn McGrath.

As much as I hate to admit it, the combination of Warne and McGrath is probably one of the best that will ever be and Australia will definitely struggle to fill in their shoes once these two hang up the boots. Even the other real superstar in their team, Adam Gilchrist, is not going to be around for too long. Ideally for England, the first two names mentioned above should not be participating in the next Ashes series for them to have a realistic chance of victory.

However, stranger things have happened before. England can definitely boast of a very lively pace attack with Harmisson, Jones and Flintoff. All of them will have to be at their best right through the series for England to do well. England has dominated in the last two years against most of the other test playing nations and one hopes they have the ability and the spirit to bounce back from defeat against an opposition which is in a different league altogether compared to all the other teams England has beaten. From a neutral perspective, an English victory in the second test will really liven up the series and might produce a memorable Ashes contest for a change.

Hope....

Every time I sit down to blog nowadays, there are hundreds of things running on my mind and I am really not sure what I should write about.

Dedicating this post to one of my colleagues who's struggling with Blood Cancer right now. Just a couple of months back, we all(I and my friends at work) enjoyed a memorable treat from him at The Legends of Rock. This was after we got to know that he was engaged. Everything seemed to be perfect for him and suddenly one day, he showed symptoms of jaundice and after a month's treatment his condition grew steadily worse. When a blood test was done, it was finally diagnosed that he was suffering from ALL (Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia) and AML (Acute Myelocytic Leukemia), which I believe translates to Blood Cancer for a layman like me. The latest I heard is that he is in CMC Vellore receiving treatment.

I still don't know how to react and cannot even begin to imagine how his family would be feeling. Life is so unpredictable and this is another instance to show why one can't take anything for granted.

Whenever I think of this unfortunate situation, I am reminded of the movie Anand. It is arguably the best movie I have ever seen (I do not as a rule like to classify movies/books, etc..).
The two songs "Kahin Door Jab din dhal Jaaye" and "Zindagi kaisi hai paheli" in this movie are probably two of my all time favourites.

Although I am sure I would not be spending another evening with my friend Rajesh in The Legends of Rock, there is always this word called hope. As we say in Hindi "Ummeed ke sahaare hi zindagi hai". Unfortunately, it seems to be coming true literally as well as figuratively in my friend's case.

Living as One..

The big news and talking point since yesterday has obviously been the terrorist attack on the Ayodhya temple. Amit Varma has covered most of it in this blog-post.

As our politicians prepare to debate on the whole incident and blame each other as well as Pakistan and god knows what not for the attack, I was reminded of one of the most beautiful songs ever written - Imagine by the one and only John Lennon.

At this moment, these lines from this song seem so relevant:

"Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one "

As I write this post, I should also mention the fact that I was very surprised to get two comments on my previous post within 24 hours of my posting it. Not that I am complaining at all. It feels good to know that there are people who actually like reading stuff that I write (I can't imagine why they would visit my blog otherwise!). Ok, thats enough self-admiration!! However, its my duty to thank all my blog-readers and request them to keep visiting this blog..
Meanwhile, I shall keep rambling on.....

Many Ramblings..

It seems such a long time since I wrote anything on my blog that it almost feels as if I am starting afresh.. So many things have happened in the past two weeks or so..

I managed to meet two of my best friends - P & T- in the last two weeks after 2-3 years.. Needless to say, I had a blast and it was absolutely wonderful to meet both of them.. Both these occasions also resulted in me meeting all my other school and college friends in Bangalore.. Btw, P is my best friend from school and T is one of my best friends from college.

I wonder why I feel completely void after such meetings with my friends.. There seems nothing to look forward to after such moments.. Although this is a feeling which I get over within a few hours or sometimes days, the feeling always comes back to me some time or the other.. The time I spent with T and B(T's classmate and my friend frm college) at JukeBox(a pub in Koramangla) was probably the highlight of that weekend. We were remembering the good old days we spent in ACTech.. This meeting also sparked off a discussion among my friends as to why college friends seem so special to most people.. I think I can safely say that for most guys who stay in the hostel, your friends staying with you become your family and in most cases, the bond exists throughout your life, even if you aren't in constant touch with them later on..

Moving on to the other major happenings, a lot has happened in the world of sports over past month or so. Perhaps the biggest news would be B'desh's victory against Australia.. I don't think even the most outrageously optimistic B'deshi could have dreamt of them beating the Kangaroos that too in English conditions. Hats off to them for pulling off an incredible victory.. The way the Natwest Tri-series has unfolded has really set the stage for The Ashes.. For a change, England will go into the series believing they can beat Australia.. It indeed is a series to look forward to, though I still feel that Aussies will nip it again this time.

On to tennis - Roger Federer showed us once again who the best player in the world is.. The ease with which he beat the No. 2 and 3 players in the world, i.e, Lleyton Hewitt and Andy Roddick, during Wimbledon is almost scary for the rest of the players in the circuit.

Brazil outclassed Argentina in the FIFA Confederations Cup Final and proved that they are the team to beat in next year's world cup.. Their strike force is so awe-inspiring right now that Ronaldo himself is unable to guarantee a place for himself.. Mexico was the team which made the others sit up and take notice by beating Brazil.. They seem to have a very good side and are capable of pulling a few upsets on the big stage..

This post is already a lot longer than what I intended when I started off. And unless I stop here, I'd pick up some other topic and start writing. I shall save that for next time.