Friday, January 28, 2011

Amritsar Trip - Learned. Experienced. enjoyed.

Type Amritsar into Google and you would get the Golden city name with images of the Golden Temple. But it is not only Golden Temple, there are two very significant places Wagah Border and Jalianwalah Bagh. 

Amritsar is a must visit place for young children who read about the Indian history and to develop the pride of being Indian. I understand that this sounds a bit like lecturing and already known facts being juggled but actually its only after visiting the place I can surely say it is sure going to give you goosebumps when you visit both the places.

Following are few photographs that must be there on the internet but sharing them here:
The Indian Gate at Wagah Border

The place in jaliawalan bagh where Dyar gave the orders to kill the innocents.

The wall that took 28 bullets


Although the city is a relatively small one, people are very cooperative and there is a general feel good factor among one and all. I have visited a few temple and shrines but Golden temple is very different. The experience is surreal to say the least. 

It just takes a weekend plan to get away from busy Delhi to reach this place. On a different note food is great here. For the non vegetarians to dig on special chicken. There is a Dhaba called Shankar dhaba on the route to wagah border, do not miss the Malai chicken there and the lassi is also a must at any place but people will guide you to the most famous one easily.
P. S: We also caught our very own Siddhu Paji along with the budding MP from Himachal before their Lal chowk campaign. Courtesy a friend Nilesh Taunk below is the photograph:






Monday, January 10, 2011

The Dawn of the Eastern Sun!!

Sourav Chandidas Ganguly has had a brilliant cricket career filled the Grandeur and Drama just like a Karan Johar-Yash Raj movie; but it has come as a big shock when two days of glamour filled auction could not create a buyer for the splendid Captain.




Photo courtesy: www.bollywoodmantra.com/
So why did no one show interest in the Man, the Maharaja of Bengal!!

In order to find the actual reason I have gone through quite a few articles on the net and few newspapers but no clear ideology seems to have come out and almost everyone is shocked.

KKR had made the scene almost clear of not retaining him after not retaining him. Most people then had commented that he could bought at a lower price in the auction and to retain him the management needs to sacrifice much cash. Unfortunately he could not find a taker in the other nine teams too.

Times of India has mentioned in their article 'Black Sunday' marks the end of Ganguly's IPL innings: “it was baffling why teams like Pune, Kochi and Deccan Chargers — who had plenty of money in their kitty — refused to go for Sourav even though they didn't have enough Indian batsmen on their rosters.”

Almost whole of Bengal has started their Monday in protest against the humiliation of DADA! Even die hard SRK Fans (some of my very good friends) have staged their protest across the social networking platforms. Few things:

• Why did Mr. Ganguly raise his base price? Obviously, He must have thought that he would not find many takers. The idea is if his base price was low even then he could have fetched a handsome amount had the teams bid for him so keep the price high to at least take home a good, “respective” amount.

• What next for KKR? By now I am sure the Management has started to feel the tension of finding low ticket sales and chances of empty Eden(My God!)

One good option is to use him off the field as mentor, Coach or advisor but this will not work. Why? Answer is here

First, I had thought that the teams were making right choices looking at the horizon of three seasons, the fitness levels and availability of fresh talent in the pool at lower the prices. But that is only one side of the business. What about the brand KKR?? Without the Kolkata Knight Rider will not make any sense. It is a fact that without DADA the K in KKR will be lost.

I read on Twitter, SMS doing the rounds - "My name is KOLKATA and I don’t play without GANGULY. No Ganguly, no KKR, I was sure that this “chingari” is going to become a big flame and now Mr Khan has resorted to damage control with some kind of offer to Ganguly in the management team but I am sure Dada will not accept it.

So much for playing with heart and performing at the peak levels in the IPL seasons; In the end all that matters is Money Honey!!