When I hit the Sankey tank in those rare mornings of walking "exercise", I spot this lady. She is in a saree and wears slippers (not the Cinderella kind, but regular uncomfy Bata ones). I have know clue as to who she is. The morning light does not allow me to register her face (Just so that you don't think I am one of 'those' people who look!).
While I huff and puff like a fast extinguishing breed of steam engines, gulping in cold air and spewing out hot air from the furnace, I see this lady breeze by. Mind you, I am in my latest pair of jogging shoes, shorts and T shirt so that nothing 'slows' me down. But here she is in a Saree and horrible slippers just breezing past. It is incredible that the speed she generates every time she comes in in spite of her dress.
The reason this struck me was that it is incredible that a middle aged lady can be so fit and run around like this in a saree. What would she be if she had the benefit of training, coaching and proper attire? She would be the Desi version of Flo Jo! And how many of these women are we missing out who could have done us proud somewhere. May be in the Olympics, may be in the Asiad...so many possibilities!
I only hoped that she was running home to wake up her child from her deep slumber to get ready for school. May be there was a running competition for the little girl and mom's the best coach she could ever have!
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Sunday, January 6, 2008
How Umpires rob the Money Paying Public
It is with mounting anger, frustration that I writing this note. So pardon the French!
It is a Sunday. I am watching a cricket test match between India and Australia. Like many idiots in this great land of ours, I too got up at 5ish to see India battle it out down under. The first bummer was that India was not batting when I woke up. That was because the Aussie captain thought it was worthwhile to bat on. He had a plan. He did not want to lose. And how could he lose? He had a good bowling group and more importantly he had two complete jack-asses being umpires.
I cannot imagine in the recent times when you are watching a match and the Umpires taking it away from you literally. It is the days of the neutral umpires. So there is no nationality or jingoism that is clouding the decision. It is just plain bias, incompetence that comes into play. How many times do we endure this? In the old times, when people watched and we were all jobless and in a poor market third world country this was okay. We had to say the Gods were not kind. But not today! We are still a poor country but the market is not small. There is money involved in advertisement. When incompetence rules the roost, it is robbing the public a good contest. If the Indians lose because of a bad performance, we will watch the next match because of the proverbial curse called hope. But if it is the same umpires continue to officiate, why would I watch something other than cricket....why would I watch two selectively blind man do their thing? Why would I advertise in a set-up and useless contest?
It is a Sunday. I am watching a cricket test match between India and Australia. Like many idiots in this great land of ours, I too got up at 5ish to see India battle it out down under. The first bummer was that India was not batting when I woke up. That was because the Aussie captain thought it was worthwhile to bat on. He had a plan. He did not want to lose. And how could he lose? He had a good bowling group and more importantly he had two complete jack-asses being umpires.
I cannot imagine in the recent times when you are watching a match and the Umpires taking it away from you literally. It is the days of the neutral umpires. So there is no nationality or jingoism that is clouding the decision. It is just plain bias, incompetence that comes into play. How many times do we endure this? In the old times, when people watched and we were all jobless and in a poor market third world country this was okay. We had to say the Gods were not kind. But not today! We are still a poor country but the market is not small. There is money involved in advertisement. When incompetence rules the roost, it is robbing the public a good contest. If the Indians lose because of a bad performance, we will watch the next match because of the proverbial curse called hope. But if it is the same umpires continue to officiate, why would I watch something other than cricket....why would I watch two selectively blind man do their thing? Why would I advertise in a set-up and useless contest?
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