Waka Waka - FIFA World Cup 2010...lets drool......2

The first round of the Waka Waka Football World Cup 2010 is over & we are already witnessing the fall of giants......some real big names already out!!!!

While Messi has been mesmerising for Argentina & Fabiano is finding his fabulous touch for Brazil, Podolski is firing missiles for Germany & Ronanldo cantering for Portugal. Not far behind, Iniesta is quietly shaping the Spanish armada while Forlan is raising Uruguay's hope, & on the other side, Gyan is building Ghana's aspirations & Robben is scripting the Orange flavour of Dutch football.....its all so very fullfilling.

The first round has already witnessed exits of European giants, France & Italy, the last World Cup finalists. Honestly, both of them were listless & did not deserve to proceed. The players looked out of sorts & were clearly playing from memory. The other notable exits were the host South Africa, though they won their last game against France.

In pre quaterfinals now, there are a few potential big names, who will be booted out. Some very explosive games are on cards, with Germany facing England & Spain taking on Portugal. On paper & current form, Argentina, Brazil, Holland & Uruguay should make it to the quaterfinals easily. Matches between USA & Ghana, Paraguay & Japan would be interesting to see in terms of new teams coming up.
I would like to believe that Germany would defeat England easily on current form & confidence, while Spain vs Portugal could be a close match, with the team holding its nerves better would go through.

This world cup seems to be dominated by the Latin American countries, with Brazil & Argentina leading the way, & I wont be surprised, if three out of the four semifinalists are from that region. I think, its good for the game, as these teams display skills & ballplay thats a treat to watch, as opposed to the European style which is more power centric.

Looking forward to keeping wide awake over the next fortnight, & ogling at the best of the football...

Bhopal Gas Tragedy verdict....a national shame !!!!

7th June 2010, Chief Justice Mohan P Tiwari pronounces judgement on the worst ever industrial genocide - The Bhopal Gas tragedy, which occured on the ill fated night of 3rd Dec 1984.
The sentence : Two years in prison for eight convicted, including Keshub Mahindra, former Union Carbide India Chairman....all of them granted bail immediately after the sentence. No word on Warren Anderson, the then Chairman of Union Carbide Corporation, USA, who had fled the country within days of the tragedy, with the help of the conniving political cohorts.

The public outcry immediately after the verdict was only expected. Over these years, families of the victims, were hoping for some justice to come their way, & now they have serious reasons to feel completely let down.

The political circles & the so called human rights activists, as expected have been taking up this issue to only score brownie points against each other. Media meanwhile continues having a field day......bringing up debates after debates, with people participating from the page 3 circle, who blessed with gift of the gab, are happy rasing storm over a tea cup.........in the confines of a airconditioned studio. The affected families, meanwhile continue to languish......as if it was their birthright !!!

The Congress & the BJP spokespersons as usual continue to trade high decibel tirades & politically correct statements against each other on various channels. Each looking at digging out old skeletons, none interested in attempting to even remotely address the plight of the victims.......I find them all, as criminally inclined as the Union Carbide officials........like scavengers, never missing at any selfish gains.

Consider this :
India's population would be roughly 1.15 billion today. Let us assume that 70% of the population can afford to donate Rs 5/- per month to this cause.
This means, we have 350 million INR per month or 42 billion INR available as ready revenues.
I believe, there were more than 25000 deaths in this industrial tragedy. For ease of calculations, let us assume, there are 25000 families in Bhopal, who have been directly or indirectly affected by this tragedy.
An equal distribution of this fund means each family gets Rs 14000/-. Let us give a monthly stipend of Rs 10000 /- INR to these 25000 affected families in Bhopal towards their monthly family expenses. Of the balance money, Rs 2000/- can be spend on doing a life insurance coverage for each individual & the balance money could be utilised in rehabilitaion of the land.
I am not very good with mathematics, but, a simple calculation tells me that we can actually put forward a genuine rehabilitaion program in action.

Would anyone of our popular & noteworthy finance wizards, PM Manmohan Singh, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, P Chidambaram, Pronob Mukherjee or even Yashwant Sinha, look at taking up a concrete & constructive project like this please ????????? am sure they can construct a much better plan than me!!!!!

Why do we have to wait for the corrupt politicians to take centre stage? Why do we need to beg from anyone, when, we can take care of our own????
While the Congress, the opposition, the page 3 gentry are busy scoring thier brownie points, all others are talking of extraditing Anderson!!!
Even if our Govt is able to pull the diplomatic strings with US to bring him, what will happen??? A case registered & then a trial would start....knowing the judiciary, the tenure of that would run into a few years. Anderson who is already 90 years of age now, would probably die by then....or in no shape to take any punishment......all this at some crazy sum of money spent.......money which is going to drain from our tax paid revenues.......is it all of any worth?????

All we need to do is unite, believe in our capabilities & not let others decide on our fate & future.
If we unite at our end, we can force even the mighty Americans to extradite Anderson for justice. The culprits of this mass genocide cannot & should not escape justice. But before that, let us work constructively towards  the rehabilitation of the thousands, who are waiting.......& waiting eagerly for that one ray of hope... let us give them a reason to rejoice, to look at life with renewed vigour, with zest & happiness.

Rim Zhim Rim Zhim.....Paus ala re

Finally the monsoons have arrived in Mumbai & the city is heaving a sigh of relief from the sweltering heat & grime. Hopefully, the water table in the cachement areas should now show some improvement. Hopefully, areas parched for water can now look forward to some regular water supply.
The landscape has started to bear the lush green look & thats a feast for the eyes. The dry brown look that seemed to threatening a few days ago along with the rising barometer, is now thankfully a thing of the past.....for now !!!

One can now, look forward to lazy evenings by the sea side, sipping hot tea along with wada pao or samosa, after a cool drench in the pelting drizzle. This indeed is very tempting & fun.....am sure, like many Mumbaikars, I will do that a few times over the next couple of months....just allow the downpour to wash away the tensions, the fatigue, the grind......& then break into a zig over a puddle like a child, gaze into the grey horizon flashing an occasional crack of lightning, opening up to croon my favourite numbers, oblivious of stares from the passerbys.....hehehehehe, guess, these small sparkles of happiness keeps us going....

However, we Mumbaikars, would obviously also have to bear the brunt of the other side. Rains means, long traffic snarls, choked pipelines & gutters making the city dirtier.....its all a big challenge, especially the daily commuters to work.

At my residence, I have a new problem to address. last year, the bedroom wall would become damp in the rains & that had damaged some of my furniture. It has been raining quite heavily since yesterday evening & today, morning, I saw water seeping in !!!.... there seems to be a leak in the wall & heavy rains means water seepage...shucks man......now one has to speak with the building society people for permission to get the repair work done... to find a good mason / plumber(they are in super demand now).....to supervise, so that the problem is sorted out once for all.....I think I have my hands full over the next few days...& to make matters more interesting, I am quite under the weather.....down with a bad throat & running temperature....all of this when I have pile of deadlines at work to combat..... life indeed is so very interesting.