Michael Jackson – The truth behind Dubai controversy!

I must confess first that I am one of a billion fans of Michael Jackson. Why am I talking about Dubai controversy here, well you believe it or not, I was there in Dubai when MJ stirred this small controversy in a big shopping mall called Bar**** Centre by entering woman’s toilet! Probably I only can tell the world what really happened in there! So take my words; what I am going to write here is truth, only truth!

Michael has been going through unbelievable pain and self destructive journey. The major controversy that shut his career forever was the child molestation scandal. That haunted him like a ghost. Despite the court never charging him for the 1993 accusations, the media continued to hack at the singer. The complainants, Jordan Chandler (then 13) and his father Evan Chandler, refused to pursue the case, instead preferring to settle with $22 million in settlements. Michael Jackson, who faced a 25-minute strip search by the police during the case, was left distraught, tired and humiliated.

Media never let him go. Painted in a very unfavorable light the singer found it hard to stay away from the glare of the mad media. This is the man who entertained a generation with his ever die music albums, this is the man who invented new waves in pop music with high pitch singing style punctuated with squeals and titters, this is the man who stunned billions of people world wide with backward-gliding moon walk and feverish, crotch grabbing dance moves. Does he deserve all what he got in the bad light? No media respected him or give him a ear to listen; they even questioned his marriage with Lisa Marie Presley (Elvis Presley's daughter) dismissed as just another ploy to distract the world from child molestation scandal, in result a man who faced thousands of people on the stage world wide shrunk in to himself without seeing the day light. He spent lion part of his last days in his freakish Neverland residence indulging in a copious mix of drugs and self-loathing. The madness has taken over!

When I was living in Dubai I heard MJ had bought a plot in Bahrain, after a week or two a friend of mine informed me that MJ is in Dubai doing shopping. No doubt Michael Jackson is one of the easiest recognizable human being on the planet! His appearance rings a bell or two even among the farmers in remote villages of African islands. Nobody can blame him wearing “Parda” (A long religious dress for women in Middle East) to hide himself from the public eyes. And parda is most suitable and convenient dress ever one can get to hide. The small flap piece that covers half of the face will convert Michael Jackson to a complete woman, and nobody would dare to stare or suspect him especially in the Middle East, teasing women is a bigger crime than we all think over there, it can fetch capital punishment! MJ was shopping along with his two children, kids were wearing weird looking clothes to cover their faces as well, and now that is attracting some unwanted attention rather than distracting it! MJ is King of Pop and world renowned artist; agreed, but he too has basic requirements of a human being like me and you do. Naturally when he was wearing a female dress he should go to ladies toilet not gents toilet! A female shopper screamed when she saw MJ fixing the hair in front of a common mirror in the ladies toilet! Security personalities arrived almost immediately. Everybody surprised to see Michael Jackson in first place and that too in a Parda! Just like his tragic life, MJ invited something which he was trying to avoid desperately – the whole shopping mall stood around him; some of them are taking pictures with Mobile Phone Cameras. Police arrived instantly for MJ’s rescue; the female who screamed continued to make some more noise as if MJ had raped her. The Police in Dubai need special appreciation for calming the situation down, they spoke to the lady shopper in her own language. After a 10 minutes conversation she agreed on something and left the mall. MJ and kids were trying to get out of the Mall with the help of Police; suddenly the lady appeared again and asked Police an assist to get some lapse money from MJ!!! Now this is seriously funny. Can’t point a finger at this poor lady who has been wrongly convinced by someone that MJ is a soft target to blackmail! At least that is what she or the one advised her understood through the media. Police completely ignored her demand and took MJ and kids to safety.

It was like almost whole world wanted to have a little fun with Michael Jackson, they never let a single opportunity go without poking at him, and we made this legend’s life a living hell with constant ridicule, attacking, already broken man and questioning his very will to survive. A 11 year old from Jackson 5 gone through everything in a span of 50 years; fame, money, biggest embarrassment, romance, failure, scandal and destruction! It's also just pathetic how, on the day of his death, the world turns around and showers praises on a guy we loved throwing dirt at.

'I just want to say to fans in every corner of the earth, every nationality, every race, every language: I love you from the bottom of my heart. I would love your prayers and your goodwill, and please be patient and be with me and believe in me because I am completely, completely innocent. But please know a lot of conspiracy is going on as we speak,' pleaded Michael to the world when the child-molestation trail was on.

His 50 concerts in London were very ambitious even for Michael himself. I truly doubted his ability to perform well at this age and health condition, I am happy it didn’t happen, all those Tabloids in UK and US will be just waiting for the concert to finish to throw some more mock at him, MJ never would have survived another media assault!

I rate Michael Jackson above Elvis simply because of his power packed talent. The lonely King of Pop, who only in death found what he was looking for – some respect! I was happy to see finally some media is actually praising this man which they never did when he was alive!

BCCI – Wolves in sheep’s garb!

Most sort after cricket team bite the dust and bitten it pretty hard. The media celebrated their part quite brilliantly by all sort of criticism and disparagement to the BCCI and cricket team as whole. One can’t deny this uncanny ability of press to make a hero to zero over night. The poster boy Dhoni became a whipping boy, raising star Suresh Raina turned out to be flat pitch bully, rocket launcher Ishant Sharma converted in to run scorer for the opposition! What else, the whole “Dhamaka” we saw last time around with glossy smiles and bhangra steps are settled down like a tempest? Now it is like loser’s battlefield. One can hear and feel the agony and grief if sharpen the ears and mind.

Every defeat and glory has the reason. We applaud and cheered MS Dhoni last time when he won the T20 World Cup and now here after two years we are looking at same MS Dhoni in revulsion for his amateurish way of playing cricket and numerous mistakes he made in the field. Fair enough, the Indian captain made some silly mistakes that even a 5^th grade would hesitant to do but the culprit is not only him, there are few behind the scene hiding and grunting like a beast – still itching for more… BCCI!

IPL was big success, the mercury of over all excitement and anxiety had rose to the top and broken the tube. In IPL we were in a specific comfort level despite of all those hoopla and hype that surrounded the game, whoever wins the cup stays in India! We are late to realize the fact Indian Premiere League is only to entertain us public but in world level cricket we can’t afford to stop raising our bar, need to work harder and better to stay in the competition. South Africa lost the match in semi final, but I would still believe in their ability to beat any team in the world, to evaluate my view look how fast South Africa evolved from ondeday match winners to T20 specialists!? Pakistan came back strongly to fetch the cup this time; washed off all the sin they did in 2007 final match! Srilanka proved to be a tough team to beat. While other countries were preparing for the T20 World Cup Indian team was in a dream zone where they had flower path all the way from Mumbai Airport to the Wankhede stadium the place where ultimately politicians took central stage. It supposed to be felicitation function for jubilant Indian cricket team; the shrewd politicians with special kind of genes in their blood never miss an opportunity to utilize the situations to magnify their own brilliance. The millions of people watched that function all over the world had this kind of bewilderment; did India win the title because of ruling party?

Instead of ridiculing Dhoni and company for the embarrassing defeat let’s try to look at things in a different angle, India was having full of fresh players last time, all of them are young and enthusiastic, few of the old players got chances to show their merit as well. Indian T20 team was real underdogs in 2007. Won the title and lived in the dream, when players were busy receiving appreciations along with some ad endorsements tempt to ignore a simple fact that other nations are practicing and sharpening their skills in T20. Wake up call rung twice, by the time the players realized they are too far behind the team is out of the race!

Fatigue factor is a main issue that Coach Gary Kristen rightly touched up on. But right after making this statement coach turned to look over his shoulder to see how many players are behind to support him faced the reality in its worst form. None of them! Instead Captain MS Dhoni came up to contradict coach’s view “too much cricket is not an issue here” as expected few former players too came forward to support Dhoni. We witnessed it in IPL and T20 World Cup, players are really tired of over cricket, it shows in their body language and the way how they are playing cricket, but the smiling villain BCCI is not convinced yet or pretending to be not aware of this whole situation, they send Indian team straight from England to West Indies. Only for four oneday matches. Trying to be good BCCI extended the helping hand by saying if anybody needs rest they can opt out from the team. The players in their right frame of mind will never dare to do that! Not even Dhoni this time, he is smart enough to pulse the change of tide, add to the misery not everything he does turning out to be just right now days! While pocketing a lot of money from all directions; some one should remind BCCI about a story of a goose that lays golden egg!!!

Shiney Ahuja – Rapist or been Framed -up?

Rape case is always been headline catcher for centuries, what if a celebrity involved in it? The television channels will be celebrating it like a carnival with different interviews and their own versions with top of the range creativity, few channels with reputation of being Sherlock Holmes will be doing their own investigations with hidden cameras fitted every where even on some highly enigmatic undisclosed body parts!

Shyney Ahuja is one of the raising handsome actors in Bollywood. Very much married and has a two year old kid. Why should he rape his house made when there are plenty of angel looking actresses are around him with complete willingness? One can contradict the view of mine with a simple theory of wild - hunter always likes to hunt! Yeah, right! There is no entertainment when the prey is ready to be hunted, thanks to Animal Planet for this information!

The victim, a resident of Vasai suburb in neighboring Thane district, used to commute by local train to Shiney's home daily for doing household chores along with two other part-time servants. One late night when nobody was there at home Shiney raped the girl repeatedly and threatened her to kill if she discloses this to anybody!

Frankly, Shiney Ahuja is in a deep shit already, as if it is not enough for him; in another alarming disclosure, as per general physical examination, the victim could be aged between 17-18 years making her a minor as per Indian laws. DNA samples taken by forensic experts from clothes and other personal belongings of the actor and the victim were sent for tests.

Medical tests conducted earlier had confirmed the girl had been raped!

Shiney Ahuja’s version came out as expected – it was consensual sex. But the teenage girl’s primary test doesn’t support his version!

Sex, city and crime is regular themes of Bollywood, there were number of sex involved controversies those enriched the stars like Jack Shareef and Power Kapoor, but all of them were consensual sex and no rape has been reported till now. This is something new and extremely terrifying!

Now Shiney's wife came for her husband's rescue with the statement to the press says "My husband is been framed-up by someone probably because he is a soft target. I know Shiney for 15 years and he will not commit a crime like this! He is my man!"

What ever the case is, there will be two opinions to everything regardless of good or bad. Let’s see who all are supporting Shiney Ahuja and who all are not;

Pritish Nandy: The matter is under investigation. I strongly believe in justice taking its own course. However, I feel too many people are jumping to too many conclusions. Let's not judge Shiney until the investigations are concluded.

J Yeah, right. But Shiney is a suspect and he is in police custody, will you agree that? Or will you say that too people’s hallucinations?

Mahesh Bhatt: The news has shocked and shamed us. The Shiney we at Vishesh Films worked with in Gangster - A Love Story and Woh Lamhe is not the demon that surfaced in the media on Sunday night. If what is alleged is proved in the courts, we must condemn the dastardly deed with all our might. Our outrage cannot be selective.

J Mr.Mahesh Bhatt, your intention is right though we doubt about the outrage you are talking about.

Anurag Basu: I'm in a state of shocked disbelief. This has got to be conspiracy to malign him. Shiney has done two of his best films with me. We've bonded over a long period of time. Never ever has there been even a hint of bad behaviour from him. I wouldn't have tolerated it. It's not fair to try Shiney on television. Let the law decide. I'll believe it only if Shiney himself tells me. He has worked with some of the most beautiful heroines. No one has ever had any grievance against him. I feel this is a trap to malign him.

J Shiney himself agreed to the police that he had consensual sex with the girl in order to escape the rape charge, we know you won't even believe that until he come to your house and tell you that he had consensual sex with the girl, still you will be insisting to show it in real how it happened to be convinced completely! And we don’t think any heroines will complain against him either!

Sudhir Mishra: What can I say? The Shiney that I know and the Shiney that I hear about now are two different entities. Though he has been a little upset with me for six months because I was working with others actors, we're very close. Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi was not just the film that launched him it was also a turning point in my career. It bonded us for a lifetime. I just can't believe that the Shiney, who is being accused of this behaviour, is the same person I know. There were so many women on the sets. They never had any complaints about Shiney's behaviour. In fact, Shiney did a film with my assistant Ruchi Narain called Kal: Yesterday and Tomorrow . Shiney was always a thorough gentleman. I'm sure there's some misunderstanding here.

J What kind of misunderstanding? The girl raped Shiney with a special tool and media aired the wrong news?! Mr.Sudhir, you are indirectly insulting your assistant Ruchi Narain, now there will be some suspicious eyes on her too! For your kind information; no rapists will be walking around on the streets with his zippers opened and looking for a prey nor do they write it on their forehead!

Mukesh Bhatt: I'm appalled by the way the electronic medium has already labelled Shiney a rapist. You can't do this to a man who has a family, career and a bright future. Do these byte-hungry channels realise how his career would be affected by all these premature and careless reports? Punish him by all means, if he's guilty. But let the law decide that. How do we now what really happened? Anyone can say anything about someone in the limelight. Suppose they had consensual sex? This behaviour seems so out of character and so absurd.

J Agreed. Don’t call him rapist till it is proved. But not anyone is accusing anybody simply because he is in the limelight. For example we are not accusing you for some wrong doings just because you are part of Bollywood!

Kunal Kohli: I worked briefly with Shiney in Fanaa. This is indeed very sad. Rape is the worst crime a man can commit against a woman. If he's guilty, then it's really very shocking and shameful. Any rapist should be dealt with in the severest way.

J Diplomatic or honest?

Shilpa Shetty: It's shocking! I can't believe it. We don't know for sure what transpired between Shiney and the girl and we really can't say what the truth is. But if it really happened, it's sad.

J Mam, the girl got injured by a man’s nail, tooth and ****. And police primary test says it is Shiney the man who raped her. Now what you gonna do? Be sad? That’s it?

Chitrangada Singh: I worked with him in two films. It's very shocking and unfortunate. Though I didn't know him personally, I felt he was a nice guy on the sets. Kept a bit aloof. Quiet and ambitious. He got along with people just fine. I hope the investigations are fair. And that someone doesn't get punished for being a celebrity. He seems to have said it was consensual sex. I think it takes courage to own up. I hope he stays strong through this. People do make mistakes. One has to pay for wrongs done. But the punishment should be fair. And if there's rape, justice has to be done to the girl.

J He said to the police it is consensual sex not because he got a lot of courage to own up, it is the only way out for him!

Latest news broke out while I am typing this article, National Commission for Women (NCW) chairperson Girija Vyas urged the Maharashtra government to try the case of Shiney Ahuja in a fast track court, she has come to Mumbai to meet the victim and also expressed her willingness to meet Shiney's wife Anupam.

Shiney has been booked under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sec 376 (rape), Sec 346 (wrongful restraint) and Sec 506 (threat to kill) among others.

The ultimate truth will surface very soon. Keep visiting this blog for more than just news!

India's World Cup Defeat – A butterfly effect!

There is stunning similarities between 1987 Indian one day World Cup defeat and 2009 T20 World Cup defeat. In 1987 Kapil Dev’s devils failed to retain the cup they had won so gloriously four years before in England. As installed as favorites the defending T20 champions India were eying for consecutive world cup title; but this time they were carrying hopes of a billion, unlike last time where nobody had put their money on India especially with the absence of Fab Four! Same cycle India had gone through 26 years ago as nobody had believed in a team that Kapil Dev led to their first world cup victory in England!

As I was not grown enough to watch or memorize a live match that took place in India and Pakistan in 1987, last night I had a chance to watch some of the recorded highlights of Indian innings, had a Goosebumps to see some striking similarities in few bowled outs and run outs! Those old fellows must have had the feeling of déjà vu when they were watching the last match that South Africa defeated India!

Almost all the countries have come to terms with niceties associated with Cricket’s newest and shortest form with so much of matches being played over last couple of years. T20 is not as former Pakistan captain Javed Miandad referred, carnival cricket or slam bang cricket. T20 has scope for matters of strategy, cunningness, and tactical planning. Not all Tom Dick and Harry can play T20; it requires massive power, timing and most significantly a huge chunk of luck! Seemingly a small error can get overblown in a result that goes down to the wire as we witnessed several times in IPL.

In India even Muthayya Muralidaran of Sri Lanka used to get mobbed, stunned spin wizard said nothing this sort happened to him in his own home country. I am not talking about Muralidaran here. Indians have this weird propensity to raise a mediocre player to the status of Super Man and praise him left right and center, build a temple and do whatever possible to magnify his good things and rip him apart when he make couple of errors of judgment. Definitely Dhoni is intelligent enough to know this strange behavior of Indian cricket fans well before. “I was told by a senior a few years ago. He said if somebody is appreciating you, don't hit seventh heaven. If you fall on floor, it wouldn't be good for you. So adopt a central path. I try to do so," Dhoni was visibly disturbed and upset by the large portion of the crowd which booed him in presentation party. I suspect that senior is none other than his predecessor Sourav Ganguly, he too had a nasty time to go through.

It was Dhoni’s over confidence that caused the defeat against South Africa in last super eight games though it was a meaningless match. Dhoni retained the same team including the real culprits of the previous game. He wanted to prove a point or two to his critics the defeat against England was just ” a bad day”, look I gonna beat the best team in the tournament South Africa with the same team, he even celebrated the win when India restricted SA for as little as 130 runs. Well, opposition had some other plan in their mind and executed them beautifully, Dhoni was once again on losing side when the game was over, giving more and more chances to the critics to stone him! By the way the Indian captain is known for taking risks isn’t he?

It is not surprising to see the captain is getting most of the brickbats; there are so many other factors also to be counted besides Sehwag issue that left bad taste in everybody’s mouth, Coach is not been targeted much in blaming game of former players this time around, may be because Gary Kirsten is less flashy character than the former coach. Then Dhoni was the one praised far above the ground by every one when he won the inaugural T20 World Cup for India!

Indian Cricket fanatics started shouting for Dhoni’s head just like how it happened to Kapil Dev 22 years ago when his team failed to retain the World Cup. Critics are busy to find and list down the mistakes that Dhoni did in this World Cup similarly what happened to Kapil Dev in 1987! The media reported Kapil Dev had indifferences with Sunil Gavaskar which later on both of them denied identical to the allegation about the rift between Dhoni and Sehwag, Kapil Dev was suffering from decline of his own form as a bowler similar to Dhoni’s own batting form. Kapil Dev couldn’t continue as Indian captain anymore after the world cup defeat….

Let’s hope history won’t repeat all the time or at least this time! Butterfly effect can cause a fraction of a change in same incidents. Remember Dhoni is yet to lose a test match as captain!

Thanks for visiting my blog, thanks a bunch for those who left the comments, I made slight improvement on the layout and included visitors counter as per the advice of a friend. Hope you all will like it, please continue to visit and leave comments.

Faded Blue - The conclusion!

You got to admire Indian skipper for admitting the fact that from here on it gonna be a real test of character not only for him but the team as whole. A team that supposed to defend the title got out from the tournament prematurely was extremely embarrassing for every inidians not only for the portion of the crowd which booed the England players in their own home ground but also every Indians around the globe who watched the match in television channels! Nobody could have imagined it would be this bad when Sourav Ganguly said before the T20 World Cup in England real test for Dhoni will come very soon, first it was West Indies and now England tried and succeeded to defeat India with short balls, as they said “ perfume balls”! The whole Indian team including coaches and other staffs need a reality check for hyping it up instead of pumping it up! Let Sachin’s tongue turn gold as he is the first one to predict this Indian team will win the cup again! The Indians couldn’t win even a coffee cup if that is what Sachin meant in any stretch of imagination; instead they looked up and panicked to see the short balls going like meteoroids! I heard Suresh Raina complained to the captain and coach for being targeted by short balls; don’t be surprised if he files a case to ICC against England players for throwing short balls at him!

It was like " a midsummer night's dream" the victorious Indian team arrived in Mumbai after winning the inaugural T20 cup. Well, a lot of water had flown under the bridge after those happy days of 2007 when Dhoni lead a bunch of youngsters to triumph in South Africa, now even Dhoni’s strongest supporters in the team are having two minds to support him!

Dhoni hailed as a thinking captain, always seemed to have the Midas touch about him, everything had taken for granted that he simply can’t do wrong, even his miscalculation became right calculated and swept on by the euphoria in the wake of his stunning deeds. However his recent inability to carry Cehnnai Super Kings in IPL-2 despite of having a boasted team besides his repeated failure as a big hitter in slog overs contributed to a sharp decline in his cricketing fortunes if not endorsements.

Dhoni will come under increased scrutiny in coming days, the Captain who can’t do wrong did everything wrong in this T20, rather strange decisions one should say like how he promoted Jadeja ahead of himself or Yuvraj, omission of better all rounder Irfan Pathan to replace with RP Singh who just can’t bear to stand in front of the stumps for batting etc. I am sure Dhoni would know his team is ill-prepared for the tournament after the wretched issue over Sehwag that cast a shadow besides back to back cricket that drained player’s body and mind alike.

When the billions of Indian cricket fans were shell shocked over their team’s premature exit from the T20 World cup, it was no surprise for former England captain Nasser Hussein. In his view the Indians exposed in conditions that afforded movements besides their notorious inability to handle short pitched balls. In short India had succumbed under unfriendly pitch that behaved like a drunken bitch!

For sure Dhoni had made some blunders this time, sending Jadeja for stabilizing the innings as he said in presentation party is a good thinking, but he failed to measure a most important fact, how long Jadeja would take to stabilize the innings?! By the time he stabilized the innings the game was over, the opposition won the match! The batsmen who came after him were under tremendous pressure to score the runs. Yuvraj bored of standing inside his crease and came out for a change, wicket keeper rattled his stumps in a flash, Dhoni came and hit hard squire cuts and powerful lofted shots to score some singles when a four or six was the order of the moment! Sticking the bat out of the off stump hoping for the ball to come and hit is not a crime, but you can’t expect that ball to go for a six! It is undoubtedly a big crime that deserves capital punishment! Finally Dhoni gave up and took singles to give the strike to Yousef Pathan hoping he would hit three consecutive sixes to win the game!

Despite of odd victories in abroad the stirring performance in Australia and few outstanding batting displays; Indians are still ill-equipped to bat in conditions other than at home. The Indian performance in abroad was never been consistent enough for us to believe that the Indian cricketers have come of age!

Take a leaf out of Australians!

Indian cricket team had a big issue over the team selection over a period of time, till former Australian captain Greg Chappell has taken over the most difficult work in the world as Indian cricket coach! He re-wrote the rules and regulations for choosing the players for the national side. Later on his larger than himself ego had clashed with even bigger egoist former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly resulting omission of both!

Nobody knows the yardstick for a good cricketer before when a player get selected for national team, now every body became selectors; courtesy to IPL. Public knows who is better spinner than who, and who is better batsmen to play at No.3! Even they can advice you which player is suitable for all three format of the game and who is the best only for T20! The biggest problem here is how to get rid of an established player from the team based on his current form not the sky touching past credentials of a player. India always struggled in this part; they are just not capable of doing it due to the public erection of emotions and strikes that may take place in India. Thanks to the fabulous four for stepping back from T20 by identifying the game as new generation’s cricket!

Let me introduce you a country that can throw away any cricketer, regardless of their status, stardom or experience, criteria is just simple, current form! There are no strikes in the country because of selectors sacking the players, no slogans and no burning effigies. Andrew Symonds gone for fishing instead of attending a team meeting and Cricket Australia asked him to continue fishing. When Symonds had done enough fishing he came back to CA to apologize to take him back to the team. CA has taken him back with one and only warning, the repetition of the mistake can cause him elimination from the national team forever!

Symonds can skip a meal, sex, and Play Station, but not liquor. So when he has been asked to chose from two - play cricket or have beer - the obvious pick for him was what you guessed; the second one! One can easily justify his decision if you are following his career in recent times, he still can play cricket in IPL or Lancashire if he wanted to but unfortunately there is no substitute for alcohol.

Now there is another established player under fire for not scoring runs and bad strike rate. Micheal Clarke – Australian vice captain! He is one player who got a lot of female fans in Australia and England; his innocent blond lady look earned him a lot of male fans too. This amazing feat doesn’t seem to be affecting him at least in his professional life; he wasn’t good enough for T20 from the beginning when he started playing T20 and does he now?! So there is a consistency through out his T20 life. Well done boy. I remember a story of an ex-military man who always claims he is still strong as before. When someone asked him how he could be as strong as before, the 80 plus ex-military man answered he couldn’t lift a rock weighed a tone that located in front of his house and still he can’t!

In 18 Twenty20 internationals, Clarke has scored only 189 runs for an average of 17, but the bigger worry is his strike-rate of 106. This compares to Andrew Symonds (strike-rate 169), Simon Katich (146) and Mitchell Johnson (164).

Even Mike Hussey, hardly a dasher, has a strike-rate of 134.

Australia has always struggled in Twenty20 and Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland admits the time has come for a major overhaul.

India got to learn a lesson or two from Cricket Australia, not the batting or fielding this time for a change, to take a firm decision on player’s selection and rejection!

Freida Pinto – A lost love story!

As soon as one become a star there will be hell of a lot controversies coming and hitting from all directions. It was not different in Freida Pinto’s (Slumdog Millionaire fame) case as well, shot into fame over night. In London, US and India she became one of the most recognizable faces! Thanks to the brilliant Oscar winner movie Slumdog Millionaire. Being famous and being recognized by the crowd was a beautiful feeling for her in the beginning as she was one of the millions walking down in the street without drawing any attention till last year. Dany Boyale turned her struggling professional life upside down to provide the fortune along with her co star Dev Patel in the same movie.

Freida Pinto never revealed her private life in any interview, suddenly a news broken out that she was married to an Indian called Rohan Antao in Goa in December 2007, she kept the wedding as a top secret because as aspiring actress in Bollywood, spinster stand a better chance to strike big in glamorous world than that of a married one!

Rohan Antao seems to be heartbroken after Pinto ended up the relationship in January 2009. The fame, money, glitters are blinded Pinto to such an extend; she can’t even recognize her own husband in a fine morning. The couple had been together since 2004, Rohan stood by her through thin and thick, each and every time she fails to impress Mumbai movie Directors, he gave her the shoulder to ease on. He was her encouragement and support, they both studied in St Xavier's collage in Goa. When she took up modeling as a profession he provided her everything she required, physically, mentally and financially. According to one of their common friends; "Freida and Rohan fell in love at college and were extremely close. They were great together. The marriage was an impulsive decision and both of them went to a designer to get the gown made. Rohan was with her throughout her years as an actress when she was not at all famous. He supported her during the filming of Slumdog and the pair even celebrated the film's success at the Toronto Film Festival together last year. However, she just stopped calling him around the time of the Golden Globes awards, when the film started to make waves internationally. He is completely shocked at being dumped and is heartbroken."

A great story for a full masala bollywood movie is already here, just like some greats said in the past the real life is stranger than fiction! A poor fellow who loved his wife with his heart and tears, supported and pushed her to fame, hung around at each studio doors where she had interviews and screen tests, smoked hundreds of cigarettes while waiting for her to come back from the shooting locations after the modeling assignments, at the end he has been dumped like an ice stick right after she achieved all what he wished for! Can’t strike a tragedy in one’s life worst than this!

Freida Pinto’s Indian agent, Meenakshi Gehani, said: "We do not want to comment on this matter. However, if she is married then whoever is claiming it should produce a marriage certificate."

Frieda met Rohan for the last and final time to beg him not to spoil her shooting star career; she was ready to give anything he asks for except herself. Money, wealth, flat or luxury car. The dejected lover wiped off his tears and walked away from her, in that long quick walk not even once he turned around and looked at her! He was the one once running her website and handling her publicity to launch her career hoping and dreaming to be a proud husband with her in red carpet and flashing lights when she become famous one day!!

The latest news is Freida is in love with 5 years younger, Slumdog Millionaire co-star Dev Patel! Both were denied the news before several times though the press had caught them lip locking and cuddling in beaches and cafes! Now Freida had confirmed she is dating 19 year actor Dev Patel describing him as a lovely boy! “ the friendship blossomed after the movie, it got even stronger now! This is all new to us”

For some unknown reason Bollywood bad man Gulshan Grover doesn’t seems to have such a good liking towards Freida Pinto. In recent visit to LA Gulshan Grover told his white friends that Frieda Pinto’s overnight success is not a big deal, in fact he went on claiming; each and every Goan girls resembles Frieda. But after seeing Freida’s steamy pictures in so many western glamour magazines; none of them were ready to believe Gulshan, they tried to correct Gulshan in return saying she is one hot chick, and deserve all the success she is having now! Mmm, now I know the yard stick for an American actress to be a successful one!

Dev Patil’s mother also seems to be very happy. “First it was the film and now everything else seems to have slotted into place. Life can't get any better for him. "Freida is really beautiful and I am really happy for them."

In February 2009 Slumdog Millionaire co star Anil Kapoor claimed that the couple were having a secret relationship, now we know Anil bhai was right on the money! OK, Mr.Anil Kapoor, what all the other stories you knows about them? Like, how often they share the bed, which position she prefers, what all they talk in free time, why is she laughing loud whenever they are together…

What ever the case we wish a much better life for Rohan Antao, and really hope he get some brains to avoid the mistake that he did with Pinto in future!

Dhoni v/s Sehwag – Truth revealed!

As I said before there is a fire underneath that thick white smoke.

There is certain smugness about Indian cricket that financial brawn work better than brains. So much so that instead of putting Sehwag through the fitness check scanner, the administrators simply went by the word of the player who in his part guilty of hiding his injury. If BCCI is having any sense at all, should be warning Sehwag for hiding his injury and give an example for the other players, some disciplinary measure should have been taken to avert him from doing so in future. But it is most unlikely to happen in Indian cricket as most of the cricketers are bigger than the game itself.

In Sehwag’s case BCCI has taken a stand to count all Sehwag’s talent, experience and record to wash off his guiltiness that he did to such an extend to pollute the team atmosphere in dressing room.

Sehwag has been a prolific batsman who gets runs in any surface that too in no time, agreed, but he should have set a good example by opting out from the T20 World Cup by admitting his injury that got struck in IPL. I am assuming Sehwag was little scared of the media for blaming him playing for money in IPL without looking after his fitness, where more important match is ahead to represent hi country. When he knew he was not fit for cricket, Sehwag should have done a favor to the Indian cricket team by opting out rather than going to England with the team and make unnecessary dispute with the captain.

Dhoni was furious for a million reasons, no captain worth his salt will tolerate a player who is so important in team planning and strategy hides his injury. This is the lone reason Dhoni had to have verbal fight with Sehwag, by knowing the attitude of Sehwag he will never step behind when a fight brake out, putting forward all his own reasons to contradict the view of captain and team.

Dhoni also need to be blamed partially for his childish behavior with Indian media. Rather than fighting with the journalists to show the world how he fought with Sehwag in the dressing room and distributing embarrassingly nursery quality piece of paper with nasty handwriting to reveal how bad his own hand writing is, he would have drew more dignity by coming clean on this issue with a proper press meet with calm and cool temperament.

Nobody shed tears after they learnt Viru is departing from England but only one player! He is none other than Rohit Sharma, ironically it was the tears of joy. He get chance to open the batting without any pressure or threat, and till now when this writer is typing this article; he has been doing marvelous job with the bat in opening slot. Grabbing the opportunity with both hands in absolute greediness.

Now Dhoni had revealed great news for the millions of Indian cricket fans that he is not planning to come at no.3 throughout the tournament. It seems like one of his thousands of experiments gone badly wrong. Good thing is he realized it before it gets too late.

The lack of openness, players being unapproachable and unprofessional ways of dealing the media, lack of BCCI’s insights all contributed the shadowy scenario that you find beneath the glossy and polished surface. Now the tempest has settled down, not many damages are done as everyone in opposition had expected. Let’s start a smooth and comfortable run in T20 World Cup especially after entering in super eight with 100% success rate!

Mysterious Injury of Sehwag!

T20 World Cup - first round of the game is over, pictures got clearer by now. We know now who all are going to play in super eight or who all are packing up and going back home. Australian team looked as if they are bit confused to play a ball or leave the ball. Apparently the coach of Australian Cricket team had asked their top order batsmen to hate the cricket ball as if it secretly had sex with their loved ones, poor fellow was hoping at least by convincing the team members this way; batsmen would hit from their view whenever they sight a cricket ball, but coach had mysterious problem here to solve which he ignored conveniently or missed it completely, when opposition team had fast bowlers operating from both ends, Aussies boys are not even seeing a ball to hit, they see a red round object with white stitches around only when they get bowled out! Sigh…, well; they are not quite prepared for this. So blame the lack of preparation.

While all these bizarre things are happening with Australia, there is an Indian batsman who just woke up in a fine morning to realize that he is badly injured for quite some time and can’t play T20 World Cup 2009 any more! Virendar Sehwag ruled out from the T20 squad due to shoulder injury that he picked up in IPL semi final against Deccan Chargers!

“There is little I can do. At the moment I would leave for London with my wife (Aarti) and son Aryaveer," Sehwag said. To my ever suspicious journalist friends, under line the word “there is little I can do!”

Will you blame someone who thinks "then why the hell Sehwag has been picked up for Indian squad for T20 World Cup!?" This is exactly what a journalist friend of mine asked the coach Gary Kirsten. The answer was very convincing for Gary himself and was constantly shaking his head as if he himself is making it sure first. According to Gary Kirsten the injury what Sehwag had developed is very strange and it can happen one in a 1,00,000,00 sports persons!!! So unfortunately our Virendar Sehwag simply happened to be that one in last 1,00,000,00 sports persons!!!! It is not over here folks, listen to Gary’s further explanation “A Grade 1 injury is less than five per cent damage to individual muscle fibers. It's a mild strain however, if the patient continues to play, the condition will worsen. If ignored, a Grade 1 strain has the potential to become a Grade 2 strain or even a complete rupture.”

My question here is then how Sehwag’s so called A Grade 1 injury became Grade 2 when he didn’t play a single match in T20 WC? He was not doing anything with his shoulder after IPL other than lifting his son. If every one knows that the injury can worsen up if he play further cricket then why has he been included in Indian T20 WC squad?

There is smoke, thick white smoke, yes, you can be dead sure about the fire underneath somewhere! Indian Captain MS Dhoni got a task in his hand, he need to explain to media why Viru has been ruled out, look after the team’s performance, improve his own batting form and fight with internal politics. Captain cool dude became a hot tandoori in last press meet, where Dhoni literally lost his temperament and had a verbal fight with a jurno! Yeah, right. You know these journalists don’t you? As I mentioned in my previous posts; they simply don’t know what to ask and whom to ask. Instead of asking a question to physio of Sehwag they asked Dhoni! What do they expect him to reply?

Right after the fight and heated discussions in the meeting room the whole Indian team came to the press meet to show their unity. Captain Dhoni said “we are as united as ever” and left the press hall leaving all the journalists open mouthed with stun. They were waiting for so long with “N” number of questions that they wrote in a white paper to ask Dhoni. Obviously the press people got pissed off by Dhoni’s act, and that is exactly what Dhoni was wishing and expecting!

Dhoni should have asked Viru to attend the press meet and clear the cloud if there is no bad blood between them, which would have been much better idea than bringing the whole team members to the press meet and keep them behind like zombies to show the solidarity!

Thanks for all your encouraging comments; they are the water and minerals for this blog.

A tale of Andrew Symonds!

Andrew Symonds is one of the best batsmen in world cricket today who can easily rip apart any bowler by bat or by baath (talk – some areas they call it sledging!) If he is spinning the ball then you got a nuisance also along with the twirl especially when you are in batting side. But his side will just love him for doing so! He can floor any streakers who comes on his way too!

Symonds had a lot of problems from the day one. He is not that bad though the bad speculation and bad mouthed fellow cricketers tarnished his image. He is not a drunkard like many of you think, he drinks only in special occasions just like me and you do, no body can blame him for having special occasions literally every day isn’t it? And he drink only four Fosters beer, (just to start with) is that a sin? What is the problem for his fellow Australians if he mixes tequila with beer? And they talk about his fights in the bar. He fights only with guys who stare at him; it can be baseball players, football players or simply the bearers who just happened to be in wrong side of the bar. So what?

The biggest problem that Symonds faced in Australian dressing room was his own team mates, there is no Hayden, Gilchrist or McGrath in the team any more and the new bunch of young players looked at him as if they are watching a horror movie! At least this is what they heard about Symonds when they were playing for Australian Junior Cricket Team or their parents asked them to stay away from a person who’s got weird hair cut or ever white lips!

One late evening right after the Australian win against Pakistan; when all the players are returning to their hotel room, one young lad got in to Symonds’s nerves by simply avoiding and ignoring him like cow dung! Raising up to his reputation Symonds chased this young fellow till his room, the budding player was horrified and closed his room door to shake the whole hotel building, Symo knocked and kicked the door, end up making only some noise without the desired result, the young lad was terrified like a hostage surrounded by armed terrorists, shivering like a wet rat! Straight away Symonds complained to the coach. Coach called the young player to his room; he always kept a comfort distance with Symonds even when sitting there in the room.

Why did you run when you saw Symo? Why did you avoid him like plague? Don’t you think it is an insult to a great cricketer like Andrew Symonds? This time Symonds looked at the coach in anger to punch on his nose. Not because of anything but when coach said the word “a great cricketer” he chuckled unnecessarily! The answer from the newbie was surprising for both coach and Symonds!

“I was late to play my Xbox!”

Though Symonds astonished by the answer but the coach found it completely convincing enough and let him go without any punishment or further questions.

When Symonds gone to play IPL in South Africa, he was like a free bird, the Deccan Charger’s coach Lehman, captain Adam Gill Christ were very supportive, and the owner of the team offers a great liquor party every time they win, they offer same party every time they lose too, now this is exciting.

Gilly apparently advised Symo to have a tension less, glamorous life like how he and Heydo (Mathew Heyden) leads. No pressure cooker situations from Cricket Australia, no hectic schedule through out the year, make a huge amount of money that usually you make by playing the whole year for Australia, play only a month or so and relax in your favorite beaches with few babes, get drunk rest of the year. I am dead sure the last sentence has definitely motivated Symonds to make some deliberate problems in the dressing room and opt out of Cricket Australia intentionally! If the money he gets from IPL is not good enough; he can still make a lot from Lancashire by playing seasonal cricket!

IPL was like a party time for Symonds, just what doctor had ordered. He felt as if he was in a different world especially right after the Chappel Cup in UAE against Pakistan. He has been questioned for laughing out loudly, picking his nose, scratching his balls etc. He was tired of answering all these unwanted and unnecessary questions. Top of all he not supposed to get drunk during his stay with the team, now that is unbearable and heart breaking. When he went to South Africa he was like Alice in wonder land in IPL world, beer and girls are the basic thing you get there to start from, then you may improve game by game, every night is a party night. The bosses of IPL believed in a simple theory of “entertain the entertainer in order to get entertained!”

Though Symonds is planning to retire from international cricket by end of this week, he may get better and more devastating in domestic level for years to come. There are two types of people in the world, one who wait for their faith, another who creates their own faith!

"Dhoni v/s Sehwag" Assumption or Real?

There are a lot of speculation over MS Dhoni’s statement to the media when media asked him about Sehwag’s recovery from the injury that he developed during the IPL; Dhoni’s reply was as cool as cucumber

"May be you should ask his physio to issue a press release"

This is where he had gone terribly wrong. It was as if someone is asking an innocent and Ahimsa person; can you give me a stick so I can beat you up left right and center! Unfortunately being an Ahimsa dude Dhoni had gifted not only the stick but also with sharp thorns on it!

Immediatly Dhoni pressed the panic button and made a press conference to clear the cloud.

"This message is for the people of India and for Indian cricket fans worldwide and comes from the whole team, recent reports in the Indian media of a rift between me and Sehwag amounts to nothing but false and irresponsible media reporting,"

Mr.Dhoni, we hope you know the media better than anybody in the business, even you were a favorite kid of media at a point of time. They were just waiting for little bit of controversy or sensationalism to blow out of the proportion with a pinch of salt. To make a sheep a fox or vice versa is not a big deal for the press in any given time. So a statement that you said in the press meet is godsend for them.

On the other side of the coin; did we witness a curious case of “spilling the beans” here? Is there any substance in this gossip?

One could easily say yes!

Dhoni was tired of praising his deputy in each and every press conference he had recently, though Viru couldn’t show his real metal during IPL outing; his International cricket was on the rise; bettered his own position in ICC ranking as well. I would say it was media’s fault all together, why are they asking to Dhoni about Viru’s black mole on forehead or his deodorant brand all the time, not being gay partners it is very difficult to explain folks. If it let it go this way, press may ask next question why Viru is spitting on the ground always when he is out there to play cricket and making his own fielders to step on it to loose their balance resulting miss-fields or why is he losing hair despite of his uncluttered mind?! Instead why can’t you guys ask Dhoni something more interesting for him, about his lady body guards to protect him from ladies fans who suddenly appears out of blue to rush at him from all directions to press their boobs to suffocate him (it can cause a brutal asphyxiated death) or construction of his own temple in his native village? If not all these questions I mentioned above; at least you should have asked about his hair style that resembles electric shocked Simpsons.

On other side Viru is a man with steel testicles not bothers to fight for the captaincy or egoism just like his batting style, when it happens you can scream about it, if it is not then what the fuck, leave it and concentrate on the cricket what others play!

When I said something fishy going on in Indian cricket camp; my friend told me that is what they should not do while playing cricket, other wise it will be hard to find the difference between Andrew Symonds and the whole Indian cricket players?! I puzzled and stared at him in horror to know that he was referring Symond’s bunk over at a friend’s place for fishing during the practice session that earned him punishment from CA. Yeah, you are right; my friend was holding chilled Fosters can. Another real Australian!