In the beginning it was 'Dev' as most of my friends call me here. Then I thought 'BlueStorm' sounded better; also it maintained total anonymity. But soon enough, I got bored with that, too. Then, inspired by some 'bongs-to-the core' bloggers I too wanted a slightly 'off the track' but very much bong alias. And, the first thing that came to my mind was Sukumar Ray's famous novel for children 'Ha-ja-ba-ra-la'. There was a phrase called "Beral-er Talobyo-sho" in that story. In Bengali 'Beral' means 'cat' and 'Talobyo-sho' is a letter in the Bengali alphabet which is pronounced like 'shh'. There is no 'shh' in the word 'beral' but this phrase was used in a very dreamy and hypothetical context in the novel and hence had become very popular.
Later, I realized this alias will give my non-bong friends a lot of headache; they might not even be able to pronounce it.
Therefore, I'm using my own name (as it is pronounced in pure Bengali) in my weblog.
I actually spell it in a slightly different way but in the blog I've spelt it exactly the way it should be pronounced - 'DEBOLIN'.
P.S. - No, I haven't missed an 'A' at the end of my name. I know that 'DEBOLINA' is a very common name among Bengali girls. But I am 'DEBOLIN' ....without an 'A'. So please don't get confused about my sex. I am a cent percent male.
Later, I realized this alias will give my non-bong friends a lot of headache; they might not even be able to pronounce it.
Therefore, I'm using my own name (as it is pronounced in pure Bengali) in my weblog.
I actually spell it in a slightly different way but in the blog I've spelt it exactly the way it should be pronounced - 'DEBOLIN'.
P.S. - No, I haven't missed an 'A' at the end of my name. I know that 'DEBOLINA' is a very common name among Bengali girls. But I am 'DEBOLIN' ....without an 'A'. So please don't get confused about my sex. I am a cent percent male.
Terrorism is a problem. A Global problem.
Best solution to any problem : just identify the root of the problem and destroy it in order to get rid of the problem permanently.
Starting from where Gujarat ends, up to the border from which Israel begins…… Do continuous carpet bombing for a few weeks……the amount of worldwide terrorism will come down drastically ( by 80-90 %). Laden, Dawood, Omar,Masood, Mazhar all will be Annihilated.
And as far as the remaining 10-20 % is concerned, that can be dealt with much ease after the root is gone.
Labels: Fun, Miscellaneous, serious
We,the Indians, have yet again let a test-series slip away from our hands and to make matters worse, that too on home soil.
A team, far inferior compared to the Ashes winning England squad, without Marcus Trescothick, Simon Jones, Steve Harmison, Ashley Giles and Michael Vaughan came out with flying colours by levelling the three match series 1-1 beating us comprehensively at the Wankhede Stadium.
The high-profile and globally feared(?) Indian batting line-up, comprising of The DemiGod, The Wall and The Nawab of Nazafgarh broke down like a card-house in front of what was being termed as a C-grade bowling line-up by many experts of the game.
Rahul Dravid, the Indian skipper, committed a suicidal mistake by choosing to bowl first on a track which has over the years been a nightmare to bat on on the 4th and 5th days. The Rahul Dravid - Greg Chappel super combo keeps a batsman of VVS Laxman's calibre out and go out in the field with only 5 specialist batters. Laxman, who has had the reputation of being the saviour of Indian cricket in difficult situations on numerous occasions had to sit in the dressing room as a mere spectator watching the 'MIGHTY' Indian batting line-up collapse for a meagre 100 runs. The in-form Mohammad Kaif,who scored a match-saving wonderful 91 in the second test at Mohali had to make way for Yuvraj Singh who coming back from an injury, scored 37 and 12. Doesn't the question 'Why did Laxman and Kaif have to sit out?' make sense?
Still, no questions will be asked, no fingers will be pointed. Why? Because :
1. Come on, people...Dravid is just a new captain. Give him some more time.
2. These are Chappel and Dravid's experimentations which will take Indian cricket forward and will be beneficial in the long run.
3. Rahul is such a nice guy.....Such a 'yes Sir' man deserves more chances.
and....
4. Rahul Dravid is NOT Sourav Ganguly. So he can be spared.
Four good enough reasons not to question Dravid's abilities as a test captain. Aren'y they?
<<<<< Don't we remember how the media and many ex-cricketers were after Ganguly's life after he chose to field in the World Cup 2003 final and we lost? >>>>>
If Sourav wasn't good enough to be in the team and if the team management has a same yardstick for performance evaluation for all the players, then why the hell is Virender Sehwag doing in the team? One innings of 76 after his double ton in the first test in Pakistan....nothing in between.
Sachin Tendulkar fails in eight consecutive innings after his 35th ton and nobody says anything. Whoever was questioning his form after his failure in the first innings has shut up suddenly. He too can be spared because he has a shoulder injury.
According to BCCI officials this shoulder injury was there since September last year. Then why the hell was he in the team all this while? Couldn't they take necessary action then only? May be playing with a hidden injury has aggravated it. But it could have been avoided, no?
So Tendulkar, by virtue of being Tendulkar will take a break from the game for at least a couple of months and will be back again with a bang (a great innings or two) followed by a l-----o------n-------g series of single-digit scores, until his next injury gets detected. Fair enough. Isn't it?
A team, far inferior compared to the Ashes winning England squad, without Marcus Trescothick, Simon Jones, Steve Harmison, Ashley Giles and Michael Vaughan came out with flying colours by levelling the three match series 1-1 beating us comprehensively at the Wankhede Stadium.
The high-profile and globally feared(?) Indian batting line-up, comprising of The DemiGod, The Wall and The Nawab of Nazafgarh broke down like a card-house in front of what was being termed as a C-grade bowling line-up by many experts of the game.
Rahul Dravid, the Indian skipper, committed a suicidal mistake by choosing to bowl first on a track which has over the years been a nightmare to bat on on the 4th and 5th days. The Rahul Dravid - Greg Chappel super combo keeps a batsman of VVS Laxman's calibre out and go out in the field with only 5 specialist batters. Laxman, who has had the reputation of being the saviour of Indian cricket in difficult situations on numerous occasions had to sit in the dressing room as a mere spectator watching the 'MIGHTY' Indian batting line-up collapse for a meagre 100 runs. The in-form Mohammad Kaif,who scored a match-saving wonderful 91 in the second test at Mohali had to make way for Yuvraj Singh who coming back from an injury, scored 37 and 12. Doesn't the question 'Why did Laxman and Kaif have to sit out?' make sense?
Still, no questions will be asked, no fingers will be pointed. Why? Because :
1. Come on, people...Dravid is just a new captain. Give him some more time.
2. These are Chappel and Dravid's experimentations which will take Indian cricket forward and will be beneficial in the long run.
3. Rahul is such a nice guy.....Such a 'yes Sir' man deserves more chances.
and....
4. Rahul Dravid is NOT Sourav Ganguly. So he can be spared.
Four good enough reasons not to question Dravid's abilities as a test captain. Aren'y they?
<<<<< Don't we remember how the media and many ex-cricketers were after Ganguly's life after he chose to field in the World Cup 2003 final and we lost? >>>>>
If Sourav wasn't good enough to be in the team and if the team management has a same yardstick for performance evaluation for all the players, then why the hell is Virender Sehwag doing in the team? One innings of 76 after his double ton in the first test in Pakistan....nothing in between.
Sachin Tendulkar fails in eight consecutive innings after his 35th ton and nobody says anything. Whoever was questioning his form after his failure in the first innings has shut up suddenly. He too can be spared because he has a shoulder injury.
According to BCCI officials this shoulder injury was there since September last year. Then why the hell was he in the team all this while? Couldn't they take necessary action then only? May be playing with a hidden injury has aggravated it. But it could have been avoided, no?
So Tendulkar, by virtue of being Tendulkar will take a break from the game for at least a couple of months and will be back again with a bang (a great innings or two) followed by a l-----o------n-------g series of single-digit scores, until his next injury gets detected. Fair enough. Isn't it?
Does Netaji deserve this?
0 Comments Published by Apocalyptus on Tuesday, March 21, 2006 at 3:58 PM.
More than 60 years after his 'controversial death', when one by one the interesting truths have started coming out (see this site...), thanks to the Mukherjee Commission and Mr Anuj Dhar in particular for the initiatives taken in this issue,
some psychotic moron(s), pathetic bastard(s) show(s) the audacity to call Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose a 'traitor'.See here ...
Labels: Fun, Miscellaneous, serious
I take great pride in declaring myself as ‘THE BIGGEST SACHIN FAN ALIVE’.
Still, I feel…..
This is not the first time Sachin has let the fans down. In fact, he keeps doing so in most of his outings. One hundred and then a series of single digit scores, then a couple of 20s and 30s and again some single digit scores, finally a hundred again followed by some single digit scores. This has been the kind of cricket he has been playing ever since he has changed his batting style (from aggressive to ‘neither aggresive nor defensive’ mode), post World Cup 2003.
I’m not too sure whose idea it was to have his way of playing changed. But to be
ruthlessly honest, it’s doing no good to Indian cricket. His rate of success and contribution in India’s wins were more significant when he used to play his naturally attacking game.
Everytime someone asks him why he has changed his game, his reply has been : “I have been given a certain role to play by the team management and I’m doing exactly that.”
Is this the role the team management wants you to play? Playing out 21 deliveries for a mere single, that too against an inexperienced bowling attack?
Sourav Ganguly’s weakness with short-balls has been talked and written about a lot.
What about these?
1. How can one who is considered as ‘Bradman-Part II’ by many get bowled through the gap between the bat and the pad so regularly even by mediocre and very very young and inexperienced bowlers ?
2. How can one who has played 132 tests and 365 ODIs chase w—i—-d—–e harmless deliveries outside off-stump and throw away his wicket ?
3. How can one who has spent close to 17 years in the international arena have very very oddly visible weakness to the rising deliveries outside off ?
This is certainly not ‘our Sachin’.
With only 2-3 years (at max) of cricket left in him, unless he reverts to his old way of playing, I don’t see him lasting for too long in ‘Team Chappel’. Even the strong and Pawar-ful Mumbai lobby can’t save him if things go on like this.
PS:
However, I don’t think the Mumbai crowd had overreacted. Had it been his only failure in recent times, the ‘booing’ could have been termed as ‘unfair’. But it was his 7th consecutive failure in tests, after he scored that record-breaking 35th ton against Sri Lanka.
If someoe in a family fails in the same subject again and again, other family members are bound to react in some way or the other. It was just like that.
They love him, they love his game, the expect a lot from him but he has been letting them down quite often these days. Therefore, the reaction was to come at some point of time or the other and it did. Nothing unfair.
Still have the hangover.....
0 Comments Published by Apocalyptus on Monday, March 13, 2006 at 11:49 AM.
I'm still not able to come to terms with this :
http://content-ind.cricinfo.com/rsavaus/content/current/story/240507.html
What a match !!!
Simply unbelievable !!!
However.....
No doubt it was a cliffhanger and a remarkable match in its own right. But, ‘the greatest ODI ever’? Naaaah…….don’t think so.
Even without taking anything away from Gibbs, Ponting, Hussey, Smith and others I just can’t agree to the fact that it was the ‘greatest’ ODI ever.
Cricket is all about bat v/s ball, not bat v/s bat or ball v/s ball.
If a one-day match which had teams scoring 434 and 438 could be termed as the ‘greatest ever’, so can be a match which had teams scoring 45 all out and 38 all out. Is that really good cricket?
In our childhood days when we used to play gully cricket, chasing targets of 150 in 10 overs wasn’t a big deal. Nor was defending a team total of 25 successfully.
Now, if the quality of international cricket comes down to that level, then it’s just not good for the game, is it?
True, I took a while to come to terms with what happened at the Wanderers on Sunday but it wasn’t because I thought it was the ‘greatest ODI ever’….it was largely because it had set me thinking. Honestly speaking, what I believe is , if this is the way cricket is going to be in future then it’s just not good - neither for the game, nor for the lovers of the game.
It’s no longer a game between batsmen and bowlers. Batsmen are dominating all the proceedings. The thrill is missing.
If there are 87 fours and 26 sixes hit in a span of 100 overs, where will that cheers and joy and thrill and excitement come from everytime the ball crosses the rope?
It just reduces the value of each boundary.
Boundaries are just not 4/6 runs, they are special shots, executed by talented skillful professionals and cheered by the spectators. Rise in quantity takes down the quality.
If longing for the days when 240/250 used to be considered as good totals means being ‘old fashioned’ , then I don’t mind being one.
Playing a classy cameo on a difficult pitch, bowling a dream spell on a batsman-friendly wicket … these are the real beauties of cricket, the great game (not so ‘great’ nowadays). These things are vanishing from the game and we, the ones who love these are getting deprieved more often than not from what we actually want to see in the game.
I would love to see matches like this (imaginary, of course): Aussies scoring 249 (Ponting 100, Pathan 4/37, Patel 2/29) at Perth and with McGrath, Lee, Kasprowicz, Symonds all charged up, India chasing it successfully in 49.4 overs for the loss of 7/8 wickets with Sachin not out on 102 and McGrath taking 5/41….where there would be good batting as well as god bowling performances. Once the batters would be on top, once the bowlers.
This is what the beauty of cricket is. Period.
http://content-ind.cricinfo.com/rsavaus/content/current/story/240507.html
What a match !!!
Simply unbelievable !!!
However.....
No doubt it was a cliffhanger and a remarkable match in its own right. But, ‘the greatest ODI ever’? Naaaah…….don’t think so.
Even without taking anything away from Gibbs, Ponting, Hussey, Smith and others I just can’t agree to the fact that it was the ‘greatest’ ODI ever.
Cricket is all about bat v/s ball, not bat v/s bat or ball v/s ball.
If a one-day match which had teams scoring 434 and 438 could be termed as the ‘greatest ever’, so can be a match which had teams scoring 45 all out and 38 all out. Is that really good cricket?
In our childhood days when we used to play gully cricket, chasing targets of 150 in 10 overs wasn’t a big deal. Nor was defending a team total of 25 successfully.
Now, if the quality of international cricket comes down to that level, then it’s just not good for the game, is it?
True, I took a while to come to terms with what happened at the Wanderers on Sunday but it wasn’t because I thought it was the ‘greatest ODI ever’….it was largely because it had set me thinking. Honestly speaking, what I believe is , if this is the way cricket is going to be in future then it’s just not good - neither for the game, nor for the lovers of the game.
It’s no longer a game between batsmen and bowlers. Batsmen are dominating all the proceedings. The thrill is missing.
If there are 87 fours and 26 sixes hit in a span of 100 overs, where will that cheers and joy and thrill and excitement come from everytime the ball crosses the rope?
It just reduces the value of each boundary.
Boundaries are just not 4/6 runs, they are special shots, executed by talented skillful professionals and cheered by the spectators. Rise in quantity takes down the quality.
If longing for the days when 240/250 used to be considered as good totals means being ‘old fashioned’ , then I don’t mind being one.
Playing a classy cameo on a difficult pitch, bowling a dream spell on a batsman-friendly wicket … these are the real beauties of cricket, the great game (not so ‘great’ nowadays). These things are vanishing from the game and we, the ones who love these are getting deprieved more often than not from what we actually want to see in the game.
I would love to see matches like this (imaginary, of course): Aussies scoring 249 (Ponting 100, Pathan 4/37, Patel 2/29) at Perth and with McGrath, Lee, Kasprowicz, Symonds all charged up, India chasing it successfully in 49.4 overs for the loss of 7/8 wickets with Sachin not out on 102 and McGrath taking 5/41….where there would be good batting as well as god bowling performances. Once the batters would be on top, once the bowlers.
This is what the beauty of cricket is. Period.
Warning : Double Standards?
2 Comments Published by Apocalyptus on Tuesday, March 07, 2006 at 7:02 PM.
Greg Chappel keeps making one derogatory comment after another about Sourav and all he gets from the BCCI is a mild warning. Even after the ‘leaked e-mail’ controversy, when all his allegations against Sourav were proven to be untrue, the BCCI didn’t take any disciplinary action against him. He was just ‘warned’.
Harbhajan Singh, unable to cope up with the unfair goings-on in and around Indian cricket, opens his mouth in support of Sourav, suggests Chappel is trying to impose “Divide & Conquer” rule in the team. He too gets a strict ‘warning’ from the BCCI. Now, BCCI is deciding to what extent the right of voicing one's own opinion should be
allowed, and that too in a democracy. Good. Very Good.
Yuvraj Singh, precisely the man whose talent was spotted and always backed by Sourav and (unfortunately) eventually for whom Sourav had to make way in the team expressed his admiration and gratitude towards Sourav. he said he felt Dada should have been in the team because he still truly deserved it. Admiring someone or expressing gratitude to someone is totally a personal gesture and it shouldn’t affect the team or the members in any way. But again, he too was strictly ‘warned’ by the BCCI.
Democracy?
Kiran More gets involved in a bribe controversy. Abhijit Kale loses the case and gets banned for his life. Since More was one of the accused, he should have been , at least temporarily , suspended from his post while the proceedings were still on in the court, but he wasn’t. He didn’t even get a mild, polite ‘warning’.
More says he won’t let Ganguly get back in the team even if he performs well in the domestic circuit. He doesn’t get any ‘warning’ this time also…....while he should have been kicked outta whole thing and banned for life for bringing this personal vendetta (with Ganguly, GOD knows for what reason) in public.
So, what’s BCCI’s stand here?
Democratic Rights for only More and Chappel (the latter is NOT a citizen of Democratic India) but not for players.
If this is not DOUBLE STANDARDS, then what is?
