INDIAN CRICKET - HAS THE BELL BEEN TIED TO THE CAT?

Hi friends.. After a gap of two months,here is my next blog about the happenings after the debacle of the Indian team in the Carribean.

First, a humiliating defeat in the hands of an unexperienced but well determined Bangladesh. Followed by a record score against Bermuda lighting up a ray of hope.Finally,a demoralised exit from the tournament due to the loss to one of the favourites,SriLanka.Last of all, the resignation of Indian coach,Greg Chappell.

A single question ponders over the minds of billion Indians - WHERE IS INDIAN CRICKET HEADING FOR?

The Board of Control for Cricket in India(BCCI) has finally sought to some urgent but most welcomed methods to bring Indian Cricket back on track.

The following are the key points announced in the recent BCCI meeting:

• The coach of Indian Under-19 team,Venkatesh Prasad appointed as bowling coach.
• The coach of India A team,Robin Singh appointed as Fielding coach.
• Ravi Shastri appointed as the team manager for upcoming Bngladesh tour.
• Change in the method of salary: The normal method of annual salary as Rs 50 lakh for group 'A' cricketers,Rs 35 lakh for group 'B' and Rs 20 lakh for group 'C' has been slashed.
• Payment based on performance has been introduced ie., if a batsman scores a Duck or if a bowler doesn't shine then it will affect his salary.
• The wages per match which has Rs 1.6 lakh has been slashed to Rs 1 lakh and an incentive of Rs 3 lakh will be given only if a test or one-day series is won.

Now the biggest factor which is supposed to be affecting Cricketers' performance - "ENDORSEMENTS"

BCCI has laid down following conditions for ads by players:

• A player has appear in a maximum of 3 Advertisements only.
• No advertisement can host more than 2 players
• Prior permission has to be sought from BCCI for acting in Advertisements.
• Players should not act in any advertisements for a time span of 2 weeks before any series.

After all these reforms by BCCI, let us hope that Indian Team regains its lost fame and come up with a good show.

ALL THE BEST FOR THE REFORMED TEAM INDIA

INDIAN CINEMA AT WORLD STAGE - A PANORAMA

The recognition of Indian Cinema in the world arena started from the time when Satyajit Ray's "Pather Panchali" astounded the world audience.After that,there was a red carpet welcome to indian films throughout the world.Though indian directors were looking for commercial successes,people like Satyajit Ray,Adoor Gopalakrishnan,Mrinal Sen and many more etched sensational and eternal movies which will exist till the art of movie making exist in this world.

"LAGAAN" directed by Ashutosh Gowariker was nominated in Best Foreign film

category for Oscars.This year "RANG DE BASANTHI" was nominated for the same category.A.R.Rahman's three songs, of which "Lukka chuppi" and "Khalbali" from RANG DE BASANTHI ,are also nominated this year.This shows the reach of Indian Film and Music in world Arena.

Year 2006 saw some really great movies from Bollywood which were trendsetters. Let us see about two of those movies of condradictory views but powerful thoughts:

RANG DE BASANTHI

-A new generation Awakens

Rang De Basanthi film deals about a foreigner who decides to shoot a film about Indian Freedom Struggle after getting inspiration from her grandpa's diary which he wrote while serving as jailer in India.Here she meets four young guys,through her friend,leading carefree lives . After a lot of persuasions,these guys,her friend and another hindu activist decide to act in her movie.At this juncture,their close friend and the indian girl's fiance who is a pilot dies in the aircraft due to faulty spares in the plane.The defence minister makes it up as an accident and put the blame on the pilot quoting him as a rash pilot.

Under these circumstances,these guys decide to become real national activists and plan to kill the defence minister and executes the plan to perfection.Unfortunately,the government hails defence minister as martyr and mourns his death as a national loss.So these young people decide to make the country aware of the real scenario via All India Radio and there they are getting killed by the commandoes of Indian Police on the orders of the ministers.The film ends with a child laying sapling for a better India in the future.

This film really kindles the spirit in each and every young gun to take part in national movement and has awakened the new generation.

LAGE RAHO MUNNABHAI

LAGE RAHO MUNNABHAI is a sequel of blockbuster "MUNNABHAI M.B.B.S" directed by Rajkumar Hirani and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra.

If Rang De Basanthi is a serious story,Lage Raho is a laughter riot with a great message as its predecessor.

The famous Munnabhai spends all his day listening to Radio to the voice of Janavi.He eagerly wants to meet her at any cost.At that time,a quiz programme on Gandhiji is announce and the winner will have a personal chat with Janavi at the studio.Munna with by his normal "DADAGIRI" means wins the competition and meets Janavi.He lies to her that he is a history professor so Janavi asks him to give a lecture on Gandhiji.He goes and reads about Gandhiji in library.

Now, the actual tuning point occurs.Gandhiji himself comes to the rescue of Munna and he delivers an excellent lecture.As days passed,the residence of Janavi is being evacuated by Munna' s subordinate Circuit on the orders of a builder.Munna and others protest against the builder asking back the keys of Janavi's Residence.The builder threatens Munna that he will tell the truth about him to Janavi.Munna is in a fix.Now once again Gandhiji comes to his rescue.On his advice,Munna confesses to Janavi and she leaves him.But Munna continues the struggle to get back the home in a different way which he calls "GANDHIGIRI"-a confluence of Gandhism and Dadagiri and finally get backs the keys as well as Janavi's hands.

The story may be simple but it really portrays the power of Gandhian values and how it can be implemented in current scenario.

LONG LIVE GANDHIGIRI

Seeing these kind of films,we can be rest assured that the Indian Film Industry is turning in a healthy and positive direction providing world class entertainment for the generations to come.

ENVIRONMENT CONSERVATION - THE NEED OF THE HOUR

Hi to all.After my first two blogs,I thought of changing to a different area of interest & importance-WILDLIFE & ENVIRONMENT CONSERVATION.

When we look around and marvel at the beauty of nature and God's magnificient gift of Flora and Fauna, do the question really comes in our mind whether our future generation will also be gifted to view this masterpiece of God?

We want the answer to be "YES" but what is the actual scenario?

Instead of increase in the population of species of Animal Kingdom, the list of endangered species is growing at an alarming rate.

Some of common species under the danger of extinction are:

1.Tiger

2.Whale

3.Peacock

4.Lion

5.Vulture

6.Penguin

7.Rhinoceros

and the list goes on........

As a species existing in this beautiful earth ,it is an important duty of every human being to take care of well being of other species.Do animals hunt people ruthlessly or for fun? But man does.Even five-sensed species knows the importance of Ecological Balance and keeps the food cycle rolling. What we people boasting of having six senses do? Killng animals and birds for money , fun and endangering each and every species' existence in earth. Noone realised that this will affect them in return.

If animals and birds condition is like this,What is the state of our environment? Trees are being cut for Urbanisation.Increase in Industries increased Pollution. Usage of ChloroFluoroCarbons(CFCs) has created hole in the ozone layer which protects us from Harmful UV Rays of Sun.

WHAT IS THE SOLUTION?

The only Solution is - People should realise the need for environmental conservation and provide their contribution in one way or the other for its cause.

There are a lot of Societies such as the World Wildlife fund whose logo is at the top who are dedicated to the cause saving wildlife and conserving environment.

Even India has its own contribution from people like Sunderlal Bahuguna,who started the CHIPKO MOVEMENT and some people who set up their own forests and natural habitats for wildlife.

But,is this enough??

Definitely NO..Each and every people especially strong and energetic youth should involve himself or herself for the protection of our natural counterparts. There is a need for lot more Sunderlal Bahugunas in this world.

We should include WILDLIFE & ENVIRONMENT CONSERVATION as an important goal in the Vision INDIA-2020 and work for it.

COME.. LET US PROVIDE OUR FUTURE GENERATION WITH A MORE BEAUTIFUL AND SAFE EARTH TO LIVE ON.

CHANDRAYAAN-1 - A SPACE ODYSSEY IN THE MAKING

"One small step for man, A giant leap for mankind" - Neil Armstrong

Indian space research has toiled hard all these years and now here it is ready to take the small step to scale the moon for which the curtain raiser is the lunar project "CHANDRAYAAN-1".

Chandrayaan-1 is India's first ever mission to moon for high resolution remote sensing of lunar surfaces in various possible regions of light spectrum.It has been proposed to carry a 10 kg payload weight and 10 W power and space agencies of various nations like NASA,ESA,Bulgaria,Sweden,Germany,France,etc. have sent their scientific payloads for inclusion in Chandrayaan-1.The launch will be in the month of February 2008.

This project was announced by then Prime minister Mr.Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Independence Day of 2003.This project will be shortly followed by various other ambitious projects like Mars Exploration,Manned mission to moon,Finding possibilities of life in other planets,etc.

This mission aims at placing a 525kg satellite in a 100 km polar orbit over the moon.This satellite will be lauched by India's indigenous Satellite launch vehile, Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle(PSLV).First the space vehicle will be placed in the Geo Synchronous Transfer Orbit and later tranferred to the proposed lunar orbit based on the in-built propulsion systems.This will be operational for 2 years providing enthralling information about our natural satellite,Moon.

The main objectives are:

1.To find out the chemical and mineral composition of North and south regions of moon which are permanently shadowed.

2.To evaluate the origin and evolution of moon.

3.To searh for Water ice on lunar surfaces especially at the poles.

4.To deduce the chemical composition of lunar rocks.

5.To map height variations in lunar surfaces.

THE MODEL:

The following are the proposed scientific payloads for this project:

1.Terrain Mapping stereo Camera(TMC)

2.Hyper Spectral Imager(HySI)

3.Lunar Laser Ranging Instrument(LLRI)

4.Low Energy and High Energy X-Ray Spectrometer(LEX and HEX)

5.Solar X-Ray Monitor(SXM)

Earlier the project was developed as an orbiting mission but now along with it, a small impact probe has been added to try out a hard landing on moon surface on the request of our esteemed President,Dr.A.P.J.Abdul Kalam.

By this time ,the team faced a problem.When solar eclipse occurs, earth will come between sun and moon (also,b\w sun & the spacecraft launched),so the probe may not get its power from sun and it needs a back up which will increase the weight of spacecraft.But since the next full solar eclipse is on December 2010,it has been decide to launch Chadrayaan-1 by February 2008 so that the project will be completed by February 2010,well ahead of the eclipse.

There are some more problems which are being efficiently addressed by our highly skilled scientists.We can be sure that the launch take place at the proposed date and give India, a new dimension in the field of space research.

I am happy that i have provided a bit of information on a project which is going to make Indians hold their heads high in the world arena.

Let us all join our hands in wishing the CHANDRAYAAN-1 team of ISRO, a grand success of their endeavour.

HARRY POTTER - THE MAGIC FEST

Harry Potter, the brain child of Joanne Keith Rowling or Popularly known as J.K.Rowling, has redefined the world of children novels.

Rowling has taken us all into a spellbounding world of magic with her unique characters and narration.

For those who are not familiar with Harry Potter, these novels involves the life of a wizard boy, Harry ,his seven years of life in th magic school,Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and his Bravery against the dark arts and the Dark Lord, Voldemort.His two great friends are Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger.

Six Parts of this series have already been released and the seventh part is ready for publishing.Five parts have been made as movies with fifth part yet to release.All four movies have been Box office hits.

Cast:

Harry Potter:Daniel Radcliffe

Ronald Weasley:Rupert Grint

Hermione Granger:Emma Watson

The seven parts of the Harry Potter series are:

1.HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE

2.HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS

3.HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN

4.HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE

5.HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF PHOENIX

6.HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE

7.HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS

Explaining the story in this blog is a herculean task.I recommend u all to read these books.It will surely take u to an enchanting world of Magic and very peculiar characters n creatures we have come across.

Here ends my first blog.Will come back with some more fascinating facts about Harry Potter and his magical endeavours.