Spoken words

Nature can be beautiful, refreshing and kind. But on another day it can be brutal and devastating. Bihar is already a state that is writhing in poverty and disparity. As if the people of the state were not already suffering a lot, here comes another reason, almost every year...Nature.!.! Either its the extreme cold and heat wave that kill hundreds or Floods that just sweep a few more away. Floods is just one of the many of such rituals in Bihar. Floods strike, people are relocated, floods subside and people go back. Usually the floods every year are minor, and somewhat necessary to the agricultural sustenance. But this time it has been a massive catastrophe...! Not seen ever in this region since 1950. The problem is that the river Kosi didn't like to stay where it is. All rivers change their course over a period of time. But most do so gradually and take take decades to alter their path. River Kosi, however does so abruptly. It overflowed apparently due to a breach in a dam in Ne

Some of you might have heard this story...anyway here it goes.... " In the 1936 Olympics, Helen Stephens won against her bitter rival Stella Walsh, in the 100 meter sprint. Helen won the race in 11.4 seconds. Fans and supporters of Stella Walsh protested that no woman could run that fast.Thus doubting whether Helen was a woman or not. The tests that followed concluded that Helen was indeed a woman. After about 40 years Stella Walsh got shot by a bullet, and her autopsy revealed quite a shock. In fact it turned out that it was Stella Walsh who was not completely female. " In another such case : " German "woman" athlete Dora Ratjen competed in the 1936 Olympics and came fourth. In 1938 she set a world record at the European Championship. Later it was found out that Dora was actually a man, named Hermann Ratjen, forced to do so by the Nazis. He then went back to be a man, and was happy with his original identity. " So down the years, gender testing in majo

Yes, that is the final medal count of India. None more can be hoped or wished for. Its definitely a lot better than what most of us expected out of this event. Seriously, how many would expected such a result...?? Our aspirations definitely did go up and down during the course of the tournament. We began to expect a possible Gold from every Indian, after a medal was won from a formerly invisible Indian sportsman...! A country of ONE Billion population just managing 3 medals, speaks a lot about us as a sporting nation. But taking nothing away from those chosen few - Abhinav , Sushil and Vijender , who saved us from major blushes, i believe the country should have done a lot lot better. When i see small countries like Jamaica* ( 6G 3S 2B ) whose population is probably just half of that of Chennai**, i cant help but think whats wrong with us? They had such an authority over a particular event that the whole world was amazed. Winning is one thing, but resetting the bar of success is

Its August 15th , our Independence day. But do we really feel, what it is supposed to invoke within all of us. A feeling of patriotism..?? Or is it just another reason to get a day off from school or work...?? Well, the really regretful fact is that we just don't feel that in us anymore. The reason being that we don't realize how precious something us, until we lose it. The younger generation is obsessed with money, and care little about social and national interests. The love and concern for the country and the country men is apparently absent in the youth of today. We just have it all to easy for us. Freedom was just handed to this current generation, so we don't know what it means to us. That sense can only be inculcated in young minds, through regular doses of patriotism. And by being patriotic doesn't mean dragging little kids out on cold mornings, parading them around the ground, hoisting the flag and then give them sweets. Just imagine what kind of impression i

It seems my prayers as well as of the prayers of the one billion population has finally been answered. We have finally a reason to celebrate a sportsman, and that reason is not cricket. An incredible win at the 10m Air Rifle event and it must have taken more than mere prayers for Abhinav Bindra to achieve this. India finally clinches an Olympic gold after 28 years and its first ever in an individual event . Really it came as a pleasant surprise when i happened to see the news on television. At a time when everyone least expected, we have made it to the medals tally on the just the 3rd day of the games...!! For those of you who missed it, here is the points table of the finals of the 10m Air Rifle event. And see how close the competition was...!! Amazing..! 1. Abhinav Bindra (India) 700.5 2. Zhu Qinan (China) 699.7 3. Henri Hakkinen (Finland) 699.4 4. Alin George Moldoveanu (Romania) 698.9 5. Konstantin Prikhodtchenko (Russia) 698.4 6. Peter Sidi (Hungary) 698.4 7. Stevan Pletikosic

That is the motto chosen by China for this edition of the Olympics...! And what a truly spectacular opening ceremony the Chinese put up..! Their years of tradition and culture reflecting in their efforts. The whole world was awed by the way they set off one of the most awaited sporting festival of the year...!! The effects, stunts and the fireworks were some of the most incredible stuff that I had ever seen. It was a sign of what they are capable of. It was a sign of even more breathtaking performance by the Chinese athletes...! Fielding one of the largest contingent, they are determined to prove a point to the world...!! They are here to show that they can beat the world, the best of the best. Watch out world : Here come China...!!! It must have been truly spectacular moment for each of the 10,500 athlete to be present in the middle of such fan fare. Being watched by 100,000 at the National Stadium and billions through their TV sets. They were the central focus, and not the world lea

Just ONE more day for the Olympics - one of the greatest sporting event of the world. To bring glory in Olympics is one of the highest honor that a sportsman or sportswoman can achieve for his/her country. For most of them at least, sports is the only cause for existence. Their commitments and their country's support ensures that they succeed in their attempts. When the right amount of passion is put in to it, scooping a bucketful of medals comes as no surprise. When most big countries eagerly await their countries to top the list, we wait for ours to at least come up on the list.... Anyway, for us Indians, as usual its time just to pray for at least ONE or TWO medals. Even a bronze will do. We will make them a hero, give them a couple of awards, a good government house and job ( unless they already have all that ) and a few days of fame. End of story. And then what? Soon the Olympian will be lost from the memories ( like many have ), till some news comes up that he/she is de

The Solar Eclipse ( Eclipse - Greek for "abandonment" ),is one of the most feared phenomenon in almost every part of the world. Probably because the all seemingly powerful sun is rendered helpless by the moon. Since people attach great importance to such power and might,the entire event turns into a time of fear. But seriously all the superstitious beliefs were conjured up at a time when people didn't know what caused this "unholy " event to happen. But now we do know why it happens. However even today, at a time when people are digging up water on Mars, all this stigma attached seems very ridiculous. One thing for sure - the fear of the eclipse is a world wide phenomenon and cuts across various cultures and traditions, irrespective of their education background. Certainly though, a certain precautions need to be taken during the eclipse... for scientific reasons of course. So i fired up my favourite web browser (Mozilla - FireFox 3 ) and went to and did some r

As if we didn't have any problems within the country, now we have the neighbour skirmishing the borders. Hmmm... well, we all know that the neighbour and the terrorists are waging the "war " with the same goal on mind. After all, we all know from where the terrorists get their technical expertise from. Whether they are working together at this particular time or not, is not for me to deduce. Highly possible though. Somehow the human minds work well while planning and executing evil. Create chaos within the country to demoralize us, and then attack from outside. And i may go as far as to suspect that probably they had a hand in creating the political confusion as well. Ummm.... well...Maybe the idea is a bit far fetched, but thought provoking indeed. Somehow the external aggressor can be tackled comparatively quite easily, because you know when and where they will strike. The internal chaos may be hard to predict and control. The reason for that is the availability of