Mumbai and the Indians

My neighbor is playing  ” All things bright and beautiful, all creatures big and small….All starts bright and wonderful, the Lord God made them all.“

And guess what, I am now reading how Mr. Raj Thackerey and his MNS played an important role in the recently concluded General Elections , 2009 or  #indiavotes09 like its more popular. What I found interesting in the new emergence of MNS as a stronger ‘Sena’ than any that ever existed is that it turned the fate of existing ’so called’ sarkar-raj upside down, allowing the Congress and the NCP to make small break aways especially in Mumbai and Thane. When Raj headed out of the Shiv Sena after claiming to have found his passion in salvaging the Marathi Pride, no one would have thought that the MNS can stand tall on a very electrifying performance in the polls. Though the Shiv Sena seems to be flagging under the soft-spoken Uddhav, while Raj is the new Pinch Hitter, the cosmopolitan image of ‘ the city i d like to be in right now’ (Mumbai) seems to be up against an odd chalenge. Raj might have asked for the ‘ChhatPuja’ to be stopped in Maharashtra, or Marathi Boards and Hoardings be put everywhere or the North Indians be damned for the ill fortunes of the city, but one thing is for sure……he is hereto stay!

Speaking of Mumbai, I was ardently supporting the Mumbai Indians this IPL. Cant help it, I grew up watching Sachin Tendulkar grow…sometimes your loyalties grow with you and you are not even aware. Even though I consider Hyderebad to be my hometown, and since I work in Bangalore…it was not a very very hard decision for me to support the Deccan Chargers once the Tendulkar Brigade were ousted. Now that the IPL is finally over, and I get back 1900 hrs to 2330 hrs of my everyday life…i look back at what the IPL has done, and I tell you it is tremendous. Even though the competition was shifted to a different country altogether, it did not deter the fans to emotionally connect to their franchise, which is by far the most vital factor in such an event. Kudos to the SouthAfrican people!!! The first season an exciting affair when the team which was the least expected to win took away all the glory, and the second season topped all the excitement when the ‘last two teams’ from season one fought it out for the Gold…boy o boy!! Another highlight of the second season was that the typical ‘it is a big-hitters game’ notion was shed to a small extent, when the cold weather, frozen-hands-dropping-catches and some quality spin bowling changed many a games at crucial junctures. Hyper-commercialization was slightly controlled this year, with the television viewers being lucky to see the ball actually leave the bat and reach the fence, and then began the ‘ZooZoo‘ ads, tell me about controlled broadcasting!!!!

O great! Now my neighbours playing..” There shall be showers of blessings, this is the promise of love….“  So let me stop at this note. Dont forget to check out my HomePage : http://www.sidharth.me/