Yesterday, I just came across an article while leafing through the newspaper, written by some engg student. She’s experienced something similar to me! I just thought even I’d write about my experience and the pros and esp the cons of reading! Reading of course is a very good habit. It helps us improve our language and vocabulary. It accompanies us as always and helps us out of the boredom. Especially, when am left all alone at home with nothing to do and reluctant to watch the idiot box and its stupid soaps. But!

Some books by our favorite authors tend to captivate us too much and keep us so engrossed that we start relating to one of the characters in that book and it sometimes is toooooooo much man!

Like how a week back one fine evening, I was reading ‘The Fourth Estate’ by my favorite author Jeffrey Archer lying in my bed and unusually I fell asleep with the book in hand. My mind had been wandering as usual even though I was napping and snoring nicely. Suddenly I woke up hearing the door bell ring and I strolled all the way sleepily to the door and found this boy from the nearby departmental store standing there at our doorstep carrying a mineral water can. I stood there blinking without knowing what I should tell him or how I should be reacting. I never realized that my mom was at home until she came out of her room and yelled at me.

Mom: What are you waiting for give him the 50 rupees and let him go?

Me: (confused) But where is the money?

Mom: You mean you don’t have it or you won’t give it?

Fine. Get my purse.

Me: But aren’t we in debts? We don’t have our credit cards too. How will u pay him now? Ask him to take the can back.

Mom: We? What? Debts? What debt? What’s it? Were you day-dreaming? Get back to bed then.

I stand there still for a moment. Mom gets her purse, pays him, shuts the door and goes back into her room to sleep. I still stand there in the middle of the drawing room blinking.

What’s up with me? I’ve been dreaming like a fool! Why should I act like this?
As I go back to my room and look (!!!???!!) there is this book “THE FOURTH ESTATE” lying on my bed. Oh shit! I’ve been reading it all day long and started liking this newspaper baron character called Keith Townsend, who has been a gambler all his life taking risks to achieve his only aim of controlling the biggest newspaper empire in the world. But he has risked too much without covering his back that has lead to too much of debts. I’ve just read till that and dozed off before reading the climax part. I’ve got engrossed to that character so much that I’ve end-up dreaming that my family is in some precarious situation! But you know at last my Keith came out of his situation with the help of this shrewd bank officer E.B. She’s a very nice lady!

Oops see what reading has done to me! It sometimes does lead to precarious situations like this! [:P]

The Parliament fiasco

Well am not that interested in politics. Or I don’t understand those political stunts that much! That’s the right way to put it! But I’ve ended up writing this because of my dad!!:(
And of course the behavior of our members of Parliament that seemed to be no better than that of the mischievous kids of kinder garden. I was stunned to see MPs springing to their feet and shouting at the slightest provocation, caring little for the speaker.
This write-up may bring out controversial comments (because politics is being discussed) due to conflict of opinions but I’ve got nothing to say about it coz again every time I write I just write whatever I feel and opinions do differ don’t they!

I was forced to watch this trust voting session by ma dad yesterday and finally I just ended up with a migraine.

The members were just making a mockery of democracy at the Parliament House yesterday. Mr.Chatterjee , the Speaker handling the crowd asking them not to disturb the Session or the counting of votes was miserable to watch. Every now and then he had to call out ‘Mr.Minister please go to your seat’. It was worse than a scene in a K.G classroom.

And this cost-for-vote scandal that took place, it has just brought disrepute to the whole nation. At 4 p.m, 3 of the BJP MPs brought bag full of cash and alleged that the UPA govt was using money-power to win the trust motion. They say they were bribed to prevent them from voting against the govt but I don’t see any sense in it. Somebody bringing a bag full of money and complaining that he was bribed?? Why did he accept the money firsthand? Why dint he go to the police immediately? Why was he waiting to bring it to the House till 4 p.m? And how did he manage to bring it inside the House? Isn’t there any security checking there? Even if the bribery had taken place, there are better ways to handle the case. Not like this at some moment when the whole world is watching our nation, during a session of the reputed Parliament House. Were they really bribed or did they do it to curtail the proceedings of the House? God only knows…!

The second worst sight was when the Prime Minister was delivering his speech. The loud uproar of the opposition members and the way they were chanting slogans against him not even allowing him give a reply. Finally he had to submit the write up of his prepared speech to the Speaker. The PM’s speech was a surprising one for me. He had given counter to Advani saying Advani’s astrologers have let him down this time and better he change them for his sake and India’s sake. That was a hilarious note and I least expected a speech like that from Dr.Manmohan Singh coz he usually never involves himself in these word wars. He also added that Advani had used cheap adjectives to describe him in his speech!! (I cant comment on that coz I couldn’t see Advani’s speech coz of powercut. But I don’t doubt it anyway coz we all know Advani is likely to do things like that. Can we ever forget the Gujarat riots? ) The PM is really a changed man these days as the news channels called him yesterday. The votes were casted electronically after the PM’s speech. And in seconds the board showed 253 for the govt, 232 against and 2 abstained. Some 54 MPs hadn’t voted coz they wanted to do it manually in slips but before that several unmindful members walked up to the PM and Sonia Gandhi and started congratulating them! Again the Speaker found it hard to settle this commotion and it took another hour to finish the manual counting and declare the results. The UPA (United Progressive Alliance) won the trust vote by a margin of 19 votes. They had secured 275 votes against 256 of the opposition and 10 members were abstained from voting. The Congress members were cheering and congratulating each other and people were found bursting crackers and celebrating near the residences of the Congress leaders. I wish they realized its no time to celebrate and gloat their pride. There are a lot of serious issues like the inflation to be solved for the welfare of the nation and I wish they understand that still they are in the answerable position!!

The Prince of Kolkata…

Sourav Ganguly turns 36 today. Let’s wish him a very Happy birthday and pray for his success in all his future endeavors!!!

I’ve juz gathered some facts about him and posted in my blog to pay a tribute to ma favorite cricketer and the best ever Test captain of the Indian team. He was the most passionate, shrewdest, intuitive and the most determined captain with the highest success rate till date. Under his captaincy, the Indian team achieved remarkable heights, including the Test series win against Australia at home in 2001, reaching the World Cup Final in 2003 and winning both the one-day and Test series in Pakistan the next year. He was un-partial and a very supportive leader and pushed young players like Yuvraj and Kaif to perform better(once Sourav remarked that Kaif is his favourite coz he handles the bat very well even when he s asked to play at 7^th position!! :)) It’s always been a treat to the eyes to watch the left-hand batsman on field.His 5-year reign as India's most successful skipper came to an end sumtim in 2005 and also had to face a lot of cheap and unwanted criticism from sum critics and ex-players coz of the Greg Chappell issue and his bad form then.
He was tagged as an arrogant person and wat nt!! Maybe his form was bad then but still he deserved a better treatment and respect! He juz sucked up everytin, never fought back at those idiotic people and made his back into the team after a year for the series in South Africa in 2006-2007 and proved the critics wrong!! “His comeback proves how strong mentally he is. It's not easy to make a comeback but he proved the critics wrong by his fight back with a bang", the former skipper Azaruddin himself has remarked about Dada.

Facts about Sourav…

• Sourav Chandidas Ganguly made his entry into this world on July 08, 1973 in Calcutta.
• A typical Cancerian, Sourav was very mischievous as a child.
• He is a natural right hander and does everything, except bat with his right hand.
• Sourav learned to play with his left hand from his elder brother, Snehasish, from whom he learned to play cricket.
• Sourav was 1st selected to the Bengal Ranji team at the expense of his brother.

• Sourav earns around 7 crores a year just from endorsements and charges 1 crore for each advertisement!
  

• Sourav’s first sports passion was not cricket. In fact, it was football and he admits, that even today, he’d rather watch football than cricket on TV.

• The first thing he does after checking into a hotel room is place a photo of his wife and daughter on the side table.
  

• Sourav is a very religious person and prays before every match.

• There is an apartment complex in Kolkata, India which is named after Sourav. It is called the ‘Sourav Housing Complex'.

• Ganguly was appointed the Captain of the Indian cricket team in February, 2000.

• Saurav Ganguly has the distinction of being one of the few players in the World to Score a century and take 4 wickets in the same match. (ODI)

• Saurav Ganguly along with Tendulkar forms the 4th Best Opening Pair in the History of One-day cricket.

• Saurav Ganguly and Tendulkar were involved in a World Record Opening Partnership of 252.

Quotes by Sourav….

I would like to be remembered as someone who has taken Indian cricket forward…someone who tried his best every time when he went out to play for the country.

- Dada

I wouldn't ever do it again. I am a very mild person, not really expressive.

- On chances of waving his shirt again

If I am not in a good mood, I will keep to myself. I am terribly sensitive. Over the years, after I got hammered, I have hardened. I still react explosively especially when something wrong happens to anyone, even to fellow cricketers. I hate people treating others badly. But if I do not like someone, I will quietly keep away.

– On how he is as a person

Nobody is a born captain. Most of the time, I have gone on instinct.

- When his captaincy was criticized.

I know what I am. People can label me as they like but it upsets me to hear the word arrogant being used against me. I am not arrogant. Not at all.

- On being called arrogant.

He’s a champion at everything. I really admire him. I am very impressed with the way he approaches life.

- On Rahul Dravid.

The thing I like most about Sachin is his intensity. After being in the game for so long, he still has the same desire to do well for India in any international match. I tell you what, this man is a legend.

- On Sachin Tendulkar.

Wild in the nyt…

It was a dark and cloudy night. A girl in her mid-twenties stood beside her work table looking out through the window. Her inner desire to catch a glimpse of the first raindrop that hits the ground, impeded her from pursuing her work. She loved the sound of the clattering raindrops and usually dreamt of dancing in the rain with her Prince charm someday. She considered it as a trait of femininity to love the rains. As the clouds poured down like millions of arrows thrusting at the earth surface, she gazed at the beautiful sight. A tear drop streaked her cheek as her thoughts zoomed around the lonely life she lead. Suddenly she heard a thundering noise from nowhere. It was a long, deep, hollow, haunting noise. The trees out there looked like some huge, ghostly figures in the dark to her. Maybe she was imagining too wildly she thought. She heard the noise again – the same weird noise. Maybe it came from the crematorium behind her house she thought. She crept slowly to her bedroom and looked through the window. She couldn’t make out anything in the dark. It was a cold night yet she was sweating and a chillness run down her spine. She hadn’t eaten anything since morning and was ferociously hungry. Yet she couldn’t bring herself to eat anything solid because of the creepiness inside her. She changed to her favorite grey nightgown and went to bed leaving the lights on. The creepy noise was haunting her mind that she lay wide awake in her comfy bed. At midnight the lights went off suddenly. Panic-stricken she tried looking for the candle and matches she usually left at the bedside table. She couldn’t find them. The place was filled with darkness. She heard the loud, haunting noise again. She let out a loud cry……A nightmarish scream….

At daybreak, a friend of hers from a nearby town tried telephoning her but the line was dead…..

I am no writer of any sort. Tis is the first time ever I've tried something like this. Well if u liked my work thanks a lot. Am sorry if u dint like it. Maybe at least u found it amusing:):)
Whomever you are, I'd really feel good if u would let me know ur comments!!:)


Signing off,
Krithi