Date: 12th March 2010… … Tic… Tic … Tic… Its 6 pm on the clock!!!

Streets all of a sudden went bland, offices were empty and the only sight visible was people gathering in their drawing rooms with popcorns, chips and other boozing options to watch the Grand IPL Opening Ceremony 2010! It was a sight for which fans waited for a year… Phew!

The ceremony opened in a grand style! The first day of the IPL 2010 had all the facets of a high octane occasion, except for the die-hard fanatics of Deccan Chargers, who lost the game to Kolkatta Knight Riders in a nail-biting finish!

D Y Patil stadium in Mumbai was glimmering amid tight security. Knowing the fact that IPL returned to India after a gap of two looooong years, made the event even more ravishing and enthralling! There was no single seat which was not seen unoccupied, especially when the event was happening in one of the extreme cricket craziest places in the world – MUMBAI! Adding lots of cherries on the cake were the exhilarating performances by Deepika Padukone, ABBA, to name a few!

Talking about the match, KKR batted first and the first over of Vaas turned out to be a nightmare for the Kolkatta Knight Riders. Two wickets in first over! Gross! Speculations started growing that KKR will lose this match by a huge margin. The belief further strengthened when Deccan Chargers managed to get one of the best starts a team could ever imagine off. Gilchrist was seen at his level best. But just when everything was going on at the right pace, KKR bowlers turned around the tables and went on to win the match in their favor… It was an accelerating finish with goose bumps…

This is just the starting guys! Hold on, the rest of the IPL is yet to follow! Cheers!

Big hits, sixes all over the boundary, thrill, action, excitement, cheerleaders, big banners, advertisements, booze, fag, bollywood beauties, million dollars, betting, TRPs, smart cricketers in smart jerseys… That’s what we call IPL! A perfect amalgamation of glamour with cricket!

Let us dig into the past and freshen up our memories on what actually happened in earlier IPLs. Sit back, relax and cherish some of the strange or what we call “Kewl” Controversies!

• Sree-Harbhajan slapgate: Remember SreeSanth getting a huge slap on his face by his Indian teammate Bhajji during a clash between Mumbai Indians and Kings XI Punjab? Of course, who can forget that? The controversy still prevails in their blood and holds the tendency to give us goose bumps ever single time we think about the incident! Poor Bhajji had to face a ban for the rest of the series!
• It is India, country of gods and religion! And here we are, playing in the midst of half naked, creepily dressed cheerleaders, distracting audience as well as players from their primary motto! Of course, the issue was bound to create controversy! And it surely did. Vijay Mallya brought in the concept of cheerleaders in action, and soon everyone followed! The political leaders even went on to call them “worse than bar dancers.”
• The presence of “racism” in IPL was seen as one of the critical facets in IPL. Two UK cheerleaders claimed that they were called “Negroes” and were ruled out of IPL matches!
• Who can forget the famous battle between Sourav Ganguly and KKR coach John Buchanan? Also, his theory of multiple captains (four formula) played a huge role in creating controversies in previous IPLs! I mean, that theory was really weird.
• KKR was also decked with another issue: a clash between Shah Rukh Khan and Sourav over various issues, including team selection.
• The funniest situation was when the last and second last teams of IPL1 went on to the play the finals in the IPL2. Here we are talking about Deccan Chargers and Royal Challengers Bangalore!
• In another controversy, the owner of Royal Challengers Bangalore sacked its CEO Charu Sharma and took the captaincy from Rahul Dravid after a poor performance from their so called Test team in the first session. Rahul Dravid replied back with full anguish and went on to become one of the best run getters in the second session of IPL! The performance helped him to gain his slot back in the One Day Internationals, but it didn’t last long!
• Ya! I remember one more! Kolkata Knight Riders owner Shah Rukh Khan was barred from visiting team’s dressing room! That created a lot of controversy!

Guys, you have more to share? Do let us know! The “Comment Feed” is waiting for your replies! HOWWZZAAAT?

Let us face it guys! The crowd is lacking the buzz, the rush for IPL tickets is low and people are not even discussing about IPL3, the way it was being discussed in the first two IPLs!

Okay, let us discuss some of the facets that may come into play in making IPL, a NOT MUCH talked show of the town! Have a look:

• The first factor would be the threat of terrorism revolving around one of the biggest sporting events. With the plus point that it is happening in India, the negative point can be that India never lags behind when it comes to unexpected terrorist activities, which may happen anytime, anywhere!
• It is happening in March: The most unwanted phase of a year for students! Guys, they face their exams. Will their parents allow them to stick to their TV screens from 4pm to 12am regularly? No!
• The ticket prices are hiking every single moment. While the price of one ticket for the Hockey World Cup held in Delhi was as low as 50 bucks, the same may go as high in thousands, especially when you have some of the craziest fans in India, who can kill anyone just to get a glimpse of their favorite cricketers.
• We all know that Pakistani players are not participating in the IPL3, but don’t you think that their presence would be missed in the matches? The stupendous batting of Shahid Afridi, the killing bowling of Umar Gul, to name a few, would surely be missed this time!
• What next? The marriage between the IPL3 and YouTube may not be seen in a favorable light as not many audiences would show patience while the video is buffering and your favorite player is on the crease! At least, I won’t!

These are some of the factors! Let us see what the future has in store for the fate of IPL3!

Hey Cricket Crazy people! Do you have some more similar instances to share? Feel free to share with us!

An attacker, this time a man of Indian origin has been accused of brutally murdering an Indian toddler just few days back in Melbourne.

Reports say that Dhillon Gursewak, 23, cabbie, has been charged for barbarously killing a three year toddler and shares NO relations with the child! He used to reside in the same house in David Street. Also, sources confirmed the involvement of his wife in the crime too. The culprit, however, was refused bail.

The victim, Gurshan Singh Channa from Punjab was there in Australia with his parents since January, where he was callously killed by the criminal. Following the missing complaints from the parents, an aggressive research lead to his corpse which was lying dumped at the Wildwood Road.

It was said that the family was due return back to their country, but the destiny had something else in stored for them. Police has confirmed that the exact cause behind the crime is yet to come out and confirmed that the body found at the Wildwood Road showed no signs of trauma.

The circumstances are different as compared to other attacks which recently happened in the Aussie country! Therefore one should NOT take this one in the context of racial attacks. Till the time the police confirm any motive; people must not jump to any conclusion!

Cricket and India are two terms which go hand in hand! Since the inception of the IPL, it could easily be said that fanaticism for cricket has gone to the next level. With the masses already crazy for the sport, it becomes easy for the implementation and thus, creating brands for these teams.

The best example for this is the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). The brand strategy implemented has made the team the richest amongst all its contenders. This is despite its streak of poor performances at the IPL matches. The team has been deduced to have a brand valuation worth of US$ 42.1 million in 2009. This is as per Intangible Business which is a leading international brand valuation firm in UK. The study was conducted in association with MTI Consulting.

So what makes this team so valuable inspite of its delineating performances? What is the key factor for this team to create an image amidst all the winning glory being taken by its competitors?

The answer is simple…Play It Right! Winning is just one aspect of a game in sports. The more important factor is that the team must be known. The team should be easily related to by the locals and the masses. This is where branding comes in.

In case of KKR, be it the FakeIPLPlayer blog or the reality show for the cheerleaders, the audience had something or the other to lookout for. It has to be agreed that controversy is good for a healthy team. However, it has to be ensured that there is a balance being maintained. More so, it should be in the news for the right reasons.

Another important factor is that KKR already came into existence with certain pre-requisites. These include the team owner Shah Rukh Khan and the captain Sourav Ganguly. Here, the important factor was for the audiences to connect which was easily possible with the two icons of the country. They are someone who are brands in themselves and strike a chord with the general public. So, with them in hand, it is not very hard to create an effective marketing communications or a public relations strategy.

It has to be remembered that the public memory is very short…so it is easy and expected to forget who won or lost a game, but brands are something which remain alive forever. So if a brand is alive, so is the team and its commercial success. Because change is constant!

All in all, brand values could be defined as a forecast predicting the capability of a brand to generate income in the future. It is study which looks into the past performances to generate trends for the future.

Note - The above story is based on the previous two seasons of IPL and it is yet to be seen on how the team performs and where it stands in the coming season.

We all know that political parties have been backing Sachin Tendulkar for his merit to get Bharat Ratna! But do we know that parties change and so do people?

It was not long back when Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray criticized Sachin Tendulkar for the “Mumbai For All” remark. He even blamed him for hurting the Marathi psyche! And now when Sachin has attained one more landmark and scored the highest individual score in the history of One Day International, Mr. Thackeray is stored with all praise for him! He even went on to say that he is a Bharat Ratna himself! Is it what we call height of “Hypocrisy!”

I was wondering how people change their colors like a chameleon! Just because Sachin made a huge record, the Shiv Sena chief started praising this Maharashtrian all over again! Jai Maharashtra!

The question whether Sachin deserves a Bharat Ratna or not is an altogether different facet. I mean who are we to comment whether this gem of cricket really deserves a Bharat Ratna! Renowned personalities like Sourav Ganguly, BJP leader Gopinath Munde and Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan have already shown their support in Sachin’s favor. But does our little master really needs anyone’s nod to be applauded with a Bharat Ratna? I mean, he has done so much for the country, made gallons of runs in both forms of the game and has represented India on a global arena; does he really need a recognition at this stage?

Agreed that adding Bharat Ratna in his kitty of awards would add another feather in his cap but why is this debate making so much of news in the media? Why are we exaggerating the topic to such an extent that it in itself is overshadowing the contribution of Sachin Tendulkar in world-class cricket? Every media channel, every newspaper is focusing on this issue and making huge TRPs, but is it really required to stretch the topic like a Bubblegum?

Let future answer all the speculations whether Sachin will get a Bharat Ratna or not! Why are we fighting like cats and dogs on whether the genius should be awarded with the same or not!

Let us leave Sachin alone for a while, isolate him from all the controversies and allow the poor fellow live a peaceful life! Please don’t make him pay this BIG price for contributing his entire life for Indian Cricket!

As I went to drop my son to Board examination centre today morning, I was among the many parents following part of what seemed like a procession of vehicles. I saw a mother feeding her daughter while she did her last minute revision, another group of three friends who were being clicked by their mother and then still another set of parents hugging their son with smiles that are only reserved for very special occasions.

I have always wondered about this Indian tradition of board examination and the parents leaving and picking up their children from examination centres. Well, today being a parent of one, it suddenly hit me that a child appearing for board examination is kind of coming of age for the child and the family. A seasoned traveller by habit, I suddenly felt the desire to be around my son while he is preparing for his exam. I decided not to travel till such time the exams are over. I do not remember the last time I had done it. My wife, a teacher and one who does not like to take a break from work for even a single day, applied for five days leave (examination days), a month in advance so that she could drop and pick up her son! Proper arti (prayer) is done on the examination morning with sweet dahi (yogurt) offered as if the dear son is parading off for a war! And the one appearing in examination gets phone calls from all his near and dear ones wishing him luck for his examinations. If all this is not coming of age, then I am not sure what else can it be?

This coming of age is beyond the physical growth and changes in a child. It is about the child getting an opportunity - for the first time in his life to be out of the comfort zones of family and school. Till now, the child had been appearing for all examinations in a known school with known teachers sitting with known classmates and answering questions that are prepared by their subject teachers. With board examination, he goes to a different school that is the designated examination centre, has invigilators whom he does not know, gives test for which the questions have been set by an independent body.

He knew that this is the first set of examinations that will see him stepping into the competitive world. The child knows that he has to now compete with kids outside his peer group to excel. Earlier, he used to take pride in being amongst top three in the class. But now, things require him to compete with kids from across India and world.

And your heartbeats are on the way up till the time the child is out of exam centre. You ask how he did and his answer without a beat and with a smile is that he has done well. And he did it alone. He has indeed come of age. It is a reminder to parents like me that the bird has now grown up and is now getting ready to fly. It is time to celebrate!

The reported comments by M.F. Husain that he loves India but the country rejected him is most unfair and shows his disrespect towards India (and its citizens). This is especially when India gave and made him everything that he is today. How can he say that India rejected him? If he says that 90 per cent of Indians loved him, then he should have trusted them and continued to stay in India.

How can he say that the Indian Government could not protect him? Most of the disputed paintings were painted by him in the 70s and 80s. He could not have lived in India for more than two decades without the support of secular minded people and its government. He was assured security by the Home Minister himself. And the security undertakings by the Indian Government are good enough for Governments across the world to send their teams to participate in the Hockey World Cup. But it seems that Chidambaram’s assurances are not good enough for M.F. Husain. If the Government of India can protect Dalai Lama from the might of the Chinese Government, then it sure is capable to protect M.F. Husain too.

India is a country where writers like Taslima from Bangladesh and freedom seekers like Dalai Lama are living in refuge. This is after they have been forced to leave their respective countries due to religious persecutions. Why did Husain not have faith in the country that gave him so much for the past 92 years of his life? Why should he leave the country just because of statements issued by some people who raised objections to his painting of nude Hindu goddesses? Democracy does not only give him freedom to paint but also others to comment on it. And what did they do? Did they physically harm him? They simply filed court cases against him. If he believed in what he did, then he should have stayed back till such time that he was honourably acquitted by the court. What did M.F. Husain run away from - against court cases that were filed for the wrongs that he had supposedly or allegedly committed?  The Supreme Court of India had already taken decision in his favour in some cases and few others are still pending. So, he should have trusted the judicial system to run its full stream.

He laments the fact that nobody from India called him when he was in exile. He is a private individual who went out of the country on his own and could have come back likewise. Who stopped him from coming back to India?

He calls for his freedom in the name of self-expression. And forget about M.F. Husain, but can anybody and everybody do all that they wish to do in the name of self-expression? Especially, when he comments that he did not wish to hurt anybody’s feelings and seeks refuge in the name of self-expression and modern art. Permission of this attitude can create dangerous precedents in a multi-cultural, multi-religion and a multi- faceted country like India. This could cause havoc to peace and amenity amongst various religions, communities and castes. He should have kept in mind that acts like these trigger extremist elements in India. When an individual moves higher in the social strata; his responsibilities towards the society increase.

Talking of self - expression again, it is not that he had any dearth of ideas for his paintings! Extremes of all kinds are wrong and that includes self-expression of M.F. Husain as well. How could a senior, seasoned artist like him assume that nude paintings of Indian Goddesses will not subject him to questions? And even if he did wish to exercise his self-expression, he could have gone ahead and kept the paintings in his private collection.

His latest comments are amazing and to quote him - “I enjoy complete freedom in Qatar. Now Qatar is my place. Here no one controls my freedom of expression. I am very happy here”. Well, I am not much aware of the amount of freedom of expression that the state of Qatar offers but for sure there will be no supreme court to protect him if he is to conduct similar acts while living in Qatar.

I am proud of being an Indian and how different cultures and religions co-exist with each other. But artists like M.F. Husain who owes everything of their being, entity and fame to India should be questioned on the extent to which self-expression can be taken in a multi-polar society like ours. We have still not evolved as a country where everything is not permitted and appreciated by the society. And thank goodness it is that way.

This month is all about mending the relationships between India and Australia. First it was Kevin Rudd, then Shane Warne, and now Stephen Smith, during his visit to India has affirmed that some of the attacks were racial in nature, which has provided ample damage to Australian reputation as a whole.

The minister on the facet that The Australian Institute of Criminology would soon provide reports on these attacks that would assist the Aussie government deal with these issues in a better way. He went on to elaborate that these attacks have a hint of racial tone which is really shameful and contemptible!

Canberra had earlier denied the involvement of any hint of racism in the spate of racial attacks that happened in Australia.

Smith commented that the government has worked immensely hard to address the whole issue. He commented that they need to be transparent towards the whole issue and affirmed that a lot of things would be performed in the future to portray the Aussie image in a better way.

He also said that applicants who work on part time are at greater risk.  Therefore they should be careful while traveling in Australian premises, especially at night.

Earlier, various measures have been performed in attempt to mend the tensions created between the two nations, courtesy the racial attacks happening in Australia on a regular basis. It is true that the relationship has been hampered in a major way but that does not deprive Australia from gaining the position of being one of the applauded study destinations in the world!

In the end, Smith commented on strengthening the relationships between both the countries!

For all the netizens out there, the term “Hinglish” is definitely not new! For those who don’t know, Hinglish is a combination of English and Hindi used while communicating. It is known that English is the most widely spoken language whereas Hindi is the second largest spoken in the world. When it comes to India, it is one of the most populated countries in the world. So, it is but obvious that Hinglish has a higher level of preference in India.

Hinglish is now the second most commonly used language in India. And according to Professor David Crystal, it might not be long before it becomes the Queen’s new English. He says that there are more than 350 million Indians who widely use Hinglish in their daily lives as a common mode of communication. This number is far beyond the total number of people speaking in English, both in the United States and the United Kingdom.

What led to the emergence of this concept? Firstly, Indians are known to be the brainiest in the world. There are people who might debate on this statement…but it is a fact! Indians are found in every part of the world. And so, with Indians come the Indian language which obviously is mixed with the local language. This local language in most cases turns out to be English.

Secondly, connecting with the world has its own perks! The Indian culture is slowly and steadily gaining popularity outside the subcontinent. These mainly include Bollywood movies which have been found to be quite amusing, thanks to its song and dance sequences. These movies are a good source of Hinglish.

Thirdly, with the advent of globalization, Internet was introduced to Indians. With Internet came online social networking in the form of Orkut scraps, emails, chats which introduced us all to another form of Hinglish. This included using English script as a medium to communicate in Hindi. A few years back, this trend might have seemed to be very weird and probably quite difficult to comprehend to what is being communicated. This is the most common form of Hinglish used by one and all. This is to such an extent that there are some who find it quite a task to actually read in Hindi. And so, it is not very hard to believe that Hinglish would soon spread through the Internet.

In India, English has had and still enjoys a status in itself. This is due to the Colonial history that the country has. It continues to be the language of the elites and the classes. And it is the only language that binds Indians together where there are many different languages and numerous dialects.

And for the GenX urbanites, it is the new mantra of being cool! It is agreed that India lives in its villages. However, this concept is spreading beyond the urban to the semi – urban India as well.

Above all, time will tell the concurrent impact that it would have on the Indian society as a whole and its implication on a global platform.