Kevin '07 - A New direction for Australia.

It is 8.45 pm in Melbourne, ABC's polling computers have given the federal two party vote to the Labour and it seems, Kevin Rudd is going to be the next Prime Minister of Australia. His plan for a 'New Australia' seems to be a fabulous way forward (link). There is a federal budget surplus which will support his endeavours. The picture will become clearer within the next few weeks when the ministries will be finalised. The stock market will likely correct from here based on a perceived negative reaction of an all in all Labour govt., both federally and at the state level, something that hasn't happened in Australian history since 1969. There will be some negative elements in the market that would want to welcome a Labour govt., pressurising them to be lenient against any reform that would reduce their profitability, by shorting the broader market.

Howard, seems to be losing his seat in Bennelong, which means that even if the liberals were to win, Howard wouldn't be the Prime Minister. Michael Turnbull, in his acceptance speech, is focussing on the 'egalitarianess' of Australian society, something that the liberals are not known for. New messages already. Labour has been given an extraordinary mandate, hopefully they will not abuse it. With a booming economy, it should not be that difficult to do.

Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal

After seeing the movie, I had to see which league Southall Football Club plays for...

This is the 'general history' page where the results are tabbed. link

This is their current standing. Link

So they took a bit of poetic license... The acting was reasonable. Bipasha Basu looked like she was in an ad for H & S during the one and only 'item #'. She got her supergirl moment after being 'Clarkedale Kent' through out most of the movie. Jon Abraham looked athletic and though he can't act, he atleast seemed the part. Boman Irani had a few of his usual outbursts which were badly dubbed and I'm tired of seeing Raj Zutshi playing a Surd (unless ofcourse he is a surd, which when I saw him on the sets for a serial in the Hauz Khas ruins he wasn't). In general the supporting cast lacked depth. They could have given the rest of the team some dialogue, instead of using the same extras over and over again. I felt bad for the crying Bangladeshi who gets hit and beaten up. However, the storyline was good, in the sense that, it touched upon themes that any Indian sports person wannabe would be familiar with. I'm not talking about the racism aspect, but the total dysfunctionality in the team. Similar to what they showed in Chak de India. But why is the movie special enough for me to enter a blog entry about it?

There is a very important part and that is the apathy towards sports in India was very well portrayed. Not by the movie, though the movie did a good job but by the viewing public. Indian cinema is very interactive in that sense. You immediately know the public's response within a few minutes. Though it took only 5 minutes for the desi senti dialogues to start in the movie, it took a while for our small audience to start commenting. Show Bacchan getting shot 10 times and surviving, 'oh so very realistic' but show a football club topping their league and we become deconstructionists and realists. Someone should mention to them, that SHFC topping their league has more of a chance than surviving multiple gun shot wounds. Belief, about sporting achievement doesn't exist. There were 'ye kya hai' comments, singing with disbelief as we approached the finals, whilst we won our league matches.

The intermission allowed us to ponder the drawback of sports infrastructure in Delhi and it's schools , not to mention the psychological aspect of sports..ooohh... and I regaled everyone with my Baichung Bhutia stories. (He was a junior playing for the senior team when he studied in TNA Gantok. He looked good even then).

Good to see Dalip Tahil as the OCD clean freak, hat wearing, Johnny Bakshi aka 'dunne' (dung ? no 'done'), he did a good job of playing a sleaze ball. Some one should put him in a heroes role for a change. Also good to see some hindi speaking, with some ascent, BBCD actors bringing up the eye candy in the movie. Good though that they can speak hindi, not the eye candy part, though that isn't a bad thing.Unless they were Indian actresses, putting on an ascent ? I would be impressed by their dedication to their craft, but these days everyone has an ascent in India, so nothing new there.

So the plot was sort of cliched with Jon Abhraham having some BBCD moments, but ultimately showing his 'indianess' by seeking his father's blessing whilst on the field. We beat 'Aston' and the club is saved. I can only assume the evil financier (wanting to build a mall over the field) behind the white women was a Patel...

All in all prognosis ?

Immigrants over 40 will like it
Immigrants below 25 won't

I'm happy they are making movies about sport in India...

Now if only the Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans and Indians could get together and defeat Australia in cricket... now that would be worth watching !!

The 7 am post on blah blah blah

I have returned from my friend's wedding, and I must admit there must be some degenerative changes in my liver which has forced me to sleep for the last few days endlessly. Ok for a medical doctor to be saying such nonsensical things is tantamount to negligence but let's face it, I'm being funny and this isn't a legally established forum for medical advice.

What is going on these days ? There is Kevin 07 currently in Australia. For those of my imaginary readers that know where Aussie land is, I desperately want labour to win, to I regain some self respect in what used to be one of my favourite countries. No disrespect for the US, but a population of 20 million, coal or no coal, exports to 'Chindia' or not, cannot afford to go the US way as far as privatisation is concerned. Howard and the liberal shave systematically sold the country to the highest bidder, and the benefits of our booming economy are in the hands of non-Australians.

The conspiracy against Sub continental cricketers continues. Murali didn't make his record amidst and media blackout, that's right, media blackout. Shane Warne seems to forget that he owes his record to Murali who didn't come to Australia, in 2004, he would've overtaken Warne's tally then and could easily have beaten Walsh's record before Warne. However, his recent immortality post retirement affords him to forget his past and now that he is such a celebrity who can do no wrong, he doesn't see any problems in raking the mud against Murali, that too during a series which is named after both of them. Some one should tell him that it's poor form to make comments like that, during an inaugural series, but lets face it, Australians aren't one for tact, and the Australian cricket team as successful as it is, isn't the best at being gracious losers, or gracious for that matter. Gilchrist is an exception, maybe the bowler Clark(e ?).

Call Symonds a monkey and its racism, call Murali a monkey and it's friendly banter, I'm sure you get the idea. The problem is that no one can beat them right now. Anyway, call Symonds a monkey and he plays better, call Murali a 'chucker' and he avoids the country... Mental strength, the sub continental players need to develop a bit more of it, I think.

It's like the US, no one in the world can say or do anything against the US, or won't, for whatever reasons. The same way no one can beat the Australians, and as much as Australians love their cricket, 20 million Australians can't compete with 1 Billion third world Indians in revenue generation. I just wish the Indians didn't realise that and actually beat Australia for a change. However, pigs don't fly, at least not in India, not yet :)

Farce # 1 ?!? - India's presence in F1

I wonder who comes up with these names ? Mr Mallya how many Rupees did you pay the person who came up with the name for your minority holding in team "Force India" ? I agree having an Indian presence above that of our beloved 'I must only come third from the bottom' Karthikeyan is a good thing. However, shouldn't we come up with a better name than 'Force India' for an F1 team carrying our national colours ? OK shall we be referred to as 'Force India' or 'Force India F1 Team' ? Is it a play on Formula 1 ? With Spyker's poor performance in 2007, don't we run the risk of being 'Farce F1 team' ? Let's try an maintain a perspective that is balanced. All new teams in F1 face a tough challenge and Force India is no exception. I agree we shouldn't short sell ourselves and it makes sense for a marketing ploy (for this is what is really is, there isn't a car manufacturer backing Force India) to milk this opportunity to overcrowd the Indian airways with slogans of 'Force India'. Since Indian advertising has no base in reality what so ever, Ads claiming Force India to take F1 by storm (get it Force / Storm ) will fit well into the landscape. So where is the authentic Indian F1 fan left ?

Fairy Floss F1 Flukey Farce India ? However, there is one unassailable fact, which may have been literally translated into the name which will accompany the tri-colour... The Indian economy is booming, so much so, that the frivolous circus that is F1 now has an economic presence that is distinctly Indian. With a track being made in Delhi, (?) There seems to be a lot of spare money floating around within the subcontinent which isn't going into cricket nor into Bollywood. It is yet to be seen who the sponsors or the drivers of the team will be. With Chandok testing for Redbull and Ralf testing for Force India (really you need to have a two syllable name) we have to wait and watch to find out if Force India will be piloted by two foreign drivers. If so, I wonder how successful their marketing campaign will be. If Ferrari continues to supply the engine then we will be 'Force India Ferrari F1 Team'

This reminds me of the Sanskrit conjunctions we used to do in school. Let's see who can come up with the longest name so that for a given space we have the smallest font. Fox Force Five anyone ?