July 21, 2008

What is 'Left' ?

July 21, 2008 Posted by Vijay , No comments
Ahead of the crucial Confidence Vote that the UPA has to win, to continue it's 5 year full term, the common Indian citizen is in a daze. Dazed, at the turn of events over the past 3 weeks. Finally, Manmohan Singh had enough of politicking, much against his true nature, and just like he set up the great Indian liberalisation, he has probably foreseen the importance of the Indo-US Nuclear deal, and done all that he can to set the ball rolling.

Unfortunately, the Left is stuck in the past, and refuses to understand the aam aadmi agenda of their own coalition. After repeated attacks at the Gocernment's inevitable decision to hike fuel prices, the Left parties insisted that the Nuclear deal was more of heeding to imperialism from the U.S. Well, funnily enough, China doesn't seem to oppose the India specific Nuclear Agreement, being a Communist state by itself. Left keeps arguing that India would be subservient to the U.S. just so as to tackle growing Chinese dominance as a World Power.

One wonders what has become of the Left. The Left parties have left the aam admi behind and made matters worse. A month back, the crude oil prices were on the boil, and in a few months' time the Indian Government run Oil majors raised major concerns of their supplies running out and not having sufficient amount to purchase further crude from the market. The Government subsequently raised the prices, inevitably so. The Left, insisted, this was against the common man. Common man, my foot ! How can the common man have access to food,if the transports in the country don't have enough fuel to reach them ? Ridiculously, the citizen loving Left, protested, and organised strikes, paralysing major transports in the country. During such frivolous strikes, does the common man have a choice of transport ? A choice of working or buying food from the market ?

July 8, 2008

Warrior Rafa Dethrones King Roger

July 08, 2008 Posted by Vijay No comments
An epic final which was like a blockbuster movie. And in the end, a deserving winner. That is what the Wimbledon 2008 final proved to be. It was show time again, with the World No. 1 Roger Federer, up against the ever improving Rafael Nadal on Centre Court. If last year's 5 set thriller between the same two champions was awe-inspiring, the final this time around was breath taking.

It had drama, suspense, excitement, brilliance, perseverance and emotions. Rafa led Roger 2 sets to love, and had taken the fifth set to a tie breaker after a rain delay. It seemed divine intervention as far as Roger was concerned. Rafa had 2 championship points in the 4th set tie break leading 5-2 and serving for the match. Federer incredibly managed to save them both and took the match to a final set decider. With the last set at 2-2 and deuce, rain again came down on Centre Court, and the players took another break. Would this be a divine intervention again for Federer or for Nadal, who got agonisingly close to winning the coveted crown ?

The time was ticking past 9:00 in the late evening at Wimbledon, but the 2 champions fought on, until Nadal broke Federer in the 15th game of the final set. Nadal, the champion that he is, closed out the match at 9-7 in the final set, dropping to the floor, emotions still running high. An unbelievable match, which is truly a tribute to the relentless shot making and ahtleticism of Nadal, against the grace and genius of Federer.

Rafa has been snapping at Federer's heels for more than a year now. Federer has had a moderate year so far in 2008, and the aura of invincibility seemed to be disappearing after a straight sets loss to World No. 3 Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open semi finals. Federer has only won 2 events this year. For someone who is used to winning 2 Grand Slams before the second half of a year, Federer is empty handed this year, with only the U.S. Open to play for. At 26 Federer is not getting any younger, and Nadal is ready to take the mantle of the best player from Federer.