Were anyone of you fortunate to hear Suresh Kalmadi speak during the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune today. I say fortunate because such speeches will be orated and heard only once in the entire history of the games. Thank God for that.
I think the preparation for the games really got to Mr. Kalmadi. After all he and his johnies had to get Pune ready for the games(read my last post). I have a hunch that in all this anxiety he forgot the real welcome speech at home. And so when his turn came up to address the spectators and athletes and he put his hands in his pant pockets he must have realized that his speech paper was missing. But the man rose to the occassion. One glance at his coat pocket and Mr. Kalmadi was confidence personified. Out came Congress Party's manifesto for the next general election (so what if the general elections in India have not been announced so far, manifesto's are always ready. Just a tweak here and there). This was gold for Mr. Kalmadi. He did not need the speech now. With manifesto's he could go on and on so what if it was sports event.
And so we were given a rare preview of what Congress Party plans in the days to come - Create more and more Olympic gold medalists for India. And bless who all would be behind this. No we do not need coaches, equipments, oppotunities - right we only need the usual suspects- Manmohanji, Soniaji, Jaipalji, Gillji, Vilasraoji and all the Jis' you can think of. There are so many of them, add whichever you like and a Olympic gold medal is assured.
One of the highlights of Kalmadi's Commonwealth Congress Youth Games Manifesto something speech was that every now and then he broke into some local lingo just to break the monotony of our misery. But think of the plight of the althletes of the 71 nations who were all ears to Mr. Kalmadi. Whenever Mr. Kalmadi drifted away from English and spoke in the local language they must have felt like they were experiencing some frequency disturbance in their earpods. After all it was "All garble no sense".
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Thursday, October 9, 2008
The Games People Play
Well the games that I am refering too here are the Commonwealth Youth Games that are about to be hosted in Pune, India in a few days from now.
I am resident of Pune and have been witness at very close quarters to all that has been going on in the name of preparations of these games. Actually things started heating up about 6 months back when it suddenly seemed to have dawned on everyone involved (Pune Municipal Corporation, Suresh Kalmadi {if anyone by chance reads this post let me tell you that Suresh Kalmadi is the sitting Member of Parliament from Pune and a great sports buff(oon)} and all other actors of this sattire) that Pune's infrastructure needed a facelift .
So for 6 months now poor Puneites have been subjected to relentless infrastructure improvement drives. And as our politicians keep on saying unabashedly "to gain something, you have to sacrifice something" we have been sacrificing our piece of mind by way of frequent power cuts, road blocks, traffic jams and false promises from the Pune Muncipal Corporation(PMC) that work will be over soon, which while i am writing this post still continues.
A lot has been written in local newspapers about the pathetic and pointless exercises that the PMC has undertaken to make the city ready for the games. Any amount of criticism has not swayed the PMC from its mission of seeing that work is 'not' completed in time for the games.
The real question is could really this infrastructure overdrive have been completed in time or are these games just another forum for our politicos and their fraternity to amass common(mans)wealth.
Its anyones guess what the truth really is, but then all is forgotten when you press the peddle and zing past on those new semi cemented roads of Pune. Finally its part of the game.
I am resident of Pune and have been witness at very close quarters to all that has been going on in the name of preparations of these games. Actually things started heating up about 6 months back when it suddenly seemed to have dawned on everyone involved (Pune Municipal Corporation, Suresh Kalmadi {if anyone by chance reads this post let me tell you that Suresh Kalmadi is the sitting Member of Parliament from Pune and a great sports buff(oon)} and all other actors of this sattire) that Pune's infrastructure needed a facelift .
So for 6 months now poor Puneites have been subjected to relentless infrastructure improvement drives. And as our politicians keep on saying unabashedly "to gain something, you have to sacrifice something" we have been sacrificing our piece of mind by way of frequent power cuts, road blocks, traffic jams and false promises from the Pune Muncipal Corporation(PMC) that work will be over soon, which while i am writing this post still continues.
A lot has been written in local newspapers about the pathetic and pointless exercises that the PMC has undertaken to make the city ready for the games. Any amount of criticism has not swayed the PMC from its mission of seeing that work is 'not' completed in time for the games.
The real question is could really this infrastructure overdrive have been completed in time or are these games just another forum for our politicos and their fraternity to amass common(mans)wealth.
Its anyones guess what the truth really is, but then all is forgotten when you press the peddle and zing past on those new semi cemented roads of Pune. Finally its part of the game.
What's in the name
Well do not even for a moment think that "direct desai' as this blog is named has any aspiration to promote the Desai behind it.
Actually I tried a number of options like - Frankly Speaking, Undiplomatic, Guileless, Candid Talk, Outpsoken and many such of its type. But I soon realised that this was going to be fruitlless exercise since all these names had already been taken by I assume people like me, who wanted to communicate something that was straight, honest and direct. Right "Direct" was the word I was looking for and I felt if I added another word that began with "D" it would go well and so Direct Desai was created. So much for smart thinking !!!
Actually I tried a number of options like - Frankly Speaking, Undiplomatic, Guileless, Candid Talk, Outpsoken and many such of its type. But I soon realised that this was going to be fruitlless exercise since all these names had already been taken by I assume people like me, who wanted to communicate something that was straight, honest and direct. Right "Direct" was the word I was looking for and I felt if I added another word that began with "D" it would go well and so Direct Desai was created. So much for smart thinking !!!
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