Aamir Khan's New AD

Aamir Khan's new ad for Tata-Sky is a brilliant ad. It is a fantastic ad and an innovative one at that. I really enjoyed Aamir's acting. Only he can act like this. Hats off to Aamir.

P.S - Now only I came to know that Tata and Sky, UK have a joint venture in DTH. More than 2 years, since TATA SKY was launched, but I wasn't aware about this fact.

International Left-Hander's day

I was pleasantly surprised to note that today is the International Left-Hander's day and that too the 17th annual celebration of left-handers' superiority. It is a shame, being a left-hander, not to know about the International Left-Hander's day.

Forgotten Khashaba Jadhav

While browsing the net, especially on Abhinav Bindra's Olympic feat, i happened to read an article on Khashaba Jadhav, independent India's first individual Olympic medal winner. He won a bronze medal in the bantam weight category of wrestling in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. It is shocking to see the contrast between Jadhav's victory and Abhinav's victory. The article was written by Rod Gilmour in his blog for the Telegraph, UK. khashaba Jadhav's medal winning efforts at the Helsinki games must truely be a remarkable effort when compared to Abhinav Bhindra's gold medal winning effort at Beijing, considering the era in which Jadhav was competing and also the strata of society from which he came from. Truely, a remarkable feat.

Some more articles on him at Rediff.com and sify.com

Gold Medal for Abhinav

What a historic moment for India today. Shooter Abinav Bhindra's Gold Medal in Shooting must rank as the greatest sporting moment of India till date. What a day it was today. I was just about to leave for office at around 9.20 am. Suddenly, the Shooting Finals event was being telecast live on DD-Sports. Just before that, i knew that Abhinav was placed at the 4th spot with a score of 596. I watched with bated breath as Abhinav started moving up from 4th position to 1st slowly but surely with consummate ease. The tension was gripping. In the last round he was placed on joint first place with Henry Hakinen of Finland. I was just glued to the Television with the firm belief that come what may, barring a disaster, Abhinav should definitely be among the medals. I was just praying that he keeps his nerve and shoots a decent one. Suddenly, when I saw the Bullseye being hit, I jumped with joy knowing for sure that he won the Gold.

What a moment! I was lucky to have viewed the event live on TV. This man is made of nerves of steel. He just did not show any emotion at all after winning the event. What a world class performance. The whole nation salutes you son.

In the evening, when I was watching NDTV, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that NDTV Sports correspondent Anusuya Mathur could not control her tears, when she saw the Tricolor being hoisted for the first time in 28 years in Olympics. Truely, a great moment to be cherished for ever.

Last place finishes at Olympics

Jonathan Crowe's DFL Blog covers the last place finishes at the Olympics.

I fancy the names of a few indians in the list.

Indians at the Olympics - Blame game has started

Come Olympics, the entire nation wakes up and expects great things from our hapless athletes. Once the games are closed, everything is forgotten and everybody is back to their own routine. Instead of identifying the reasons for such poor performance and trying to find solutions to it, we just crucify the athletes who failed.

We should learn from China. China was not even in the periphery in most of the sports some 30 years ago. They went about executing a plan which included building infrastructure for sports, imparting training, getting all the children involved in one sports or the other and today they are reaping the fruits of the seeds sown years back. We instead of following the chinese example simply critize the atheletes who participate in the olympics against all odds. These athletes have the motivation to take to such sports, which do not provide them any financial security, just for the sheer love of sports.

Atleast now it should be realised that Olympic medals cannot be won by doing nothing about infrastructure, training, involving all the children. Our culture is not a sporting culture. Most of the children are encouraged not to take to sports, lest it spoils their studies. It should be made mandatory for every child to take to sports, at the school / college level. Thats where, I believe the solution lies.

As sports lovers, we should look at the performances of the various world class athletes who take part in the Olympics, rather than getting disappointed with the performances of our athletes. I am looking forward to watching Swimming, cycling, gymnastics, athletics especially Michael Phelps and the kenyan athletes, who take part in the middle / long distance running events.

Yesterday, I happened to watch the Cycling road race, which took place, on DD. The spanish armada consisting of Alberto Contador, Alexender Valverde, Carlos Sastra, Samuel Sanchez, Oscar Freire took on the Australians led by Cadel Evans, Stuart O Grady, Micheal Rogers, the Schleck brothers Andy and Frank and Kim Kirchen. It was really exciting to watch though slightly different from watching Tour de France. The people you get to see alongside the roads when watching Tour de France were missing here. The course though looked eye-catching. Thanks to cycling, one gets to see such scenic beauties, which one normally cannot see otherwise.

Coming back to the race, it was really exciting to watch riders who normally compete with their compatriots on the basis of the cycling teams they represent, take on their team mates from the other countries. It was especially funny to see the Schleck brothers, who shieldedarlos Sastros through the mountain stages in the Tour de France from Cadel Evans, attacking Sastros here. For once, it was different. But unfortunately due to our own DD's rather strange kind of programming, one could not see the finishing live. At that point of time, a live interview with Mr. Suresh Kalmadi was being telecast. I just can't understand the timing of the interview. Who wanted to listen to such interviews, when some exciting live action was taking place. Thank God, Tour de France was telecasted on Ten Sports.

I am looking forward to the individual time trial event, where Fabian Cancellera, Stefan Schumacher are expected to win.

Beijing Olympics 2008

What a spectacular opening ceremony. It was really amazing to see Li Ning "run" around the rim of the stadium and lit the Olympic Torch, followed by a dazzling display of the torch being lit around the world. Hats off to China for providing such a spectacular opening. Hope the 29th edition lives up to the reputation of being the best ever olympics.