The Maverick Chronicles

I was just watching an episode of 'The Big Fight' on NDTV 24*7 on Sunday morning which featured Sanjay Nirupam (ex Shiv Sena now Congress), Akhilesh Dubey (Legal VP,MNS,dats a mockery),a SP MLA and some academic of South Indian origin and DMK MP Ms. Kanimozhi joining via VC. The debate was on the entire incident after Abu Asim Azmi was slapped after taking his oath in Hindi. In the entire debate, the one thing that struck was that the North India politicians from SP & Congress were vehement on Hindi being spoken & accepted as the National language. Just because Hindi is the language of choice of the 2 major BIMARU states in India and just because 40 crore Indians speak that language it doesn't entitle it to become the National language. Though, I dont support Raj Thackeray, I am firm in the belief that the influx of the North Indian migrants into Mumbai is bleeding the city I love, and its imperative for us to protect the Marathi language.If people can come in Mumb

Though I am not a huge fan of the Shiv Sena supremo, I firmly stand behind him when he says Sachin should concentrate on cricket and not politics. Though, I am all for a globalised world and free movement of labour and the opening of the world economy and all that crap, I firmly believe that Mumbai my beloved city is bleeding to death because of the unchecked influx of migrants from the North. Though, the comment by Thackeray is of political nature, I however think that Sachin should not pass such comments when the entire issue is one which has been blown out of proportion. Its very easy for Sachin to pass such statement when more than half the time he is touring the world playing the silly game of hitting the ball with the bat and rest of the time leading his comfortable super duper rich lifestyle unlike the common Mumbaikar who has to deal with everyday Mumbai grind and the crumbling infrastructure.

The Maoist goons held the Delhi-Bhubaneshwar Rajdhani hostage for 5 hours before government forces could secure the train and bring relief to the nearly 1200 passengers trapped in the train. Now what is really surprising is that with the ease the Maoists are openly launching such logistically difficult operations. This is really not possible without the help of some elements which have a good understanding of the administrative apparatus. There are claims that the Maoists which earlier used to be supporters of the ruling party in Bengal, are now apparently being supported by the Trinamool congress. The Bengalis have over the period of time managed to with their attitude and liking for Communist rule managed to make the state an unlikely place for carrying out business. In fact, the entire eastern side of India as compared to North,West & South has seen fairly less development and will continue to do so with this sudden surge in Naxal challenge. The Bengal incident is clearly an off

Today at 19:48pm IST, Bharti Airtel called off the much hyped $23 billion deal for the merger with South Africa's MTN after a nearly exhausting 4 month long discussion process in which even the key cabinet ministers and the Indian PM and the neighbouring dog were pushing for the deal. This was the second time in the year Bharti has had to taste dirt in its quest for becoming a dominant player in the world telecom market (geography and customer number wise). It was going to be a very complex deal with which the South African government was not very comfortable with. As per the proposed structure, Bharti would have acquired 49% stake in the deal while MTN would have acquired 36% stake in Bharti Airtel. Both the share holders were not happy with deal primarily the Bharti share holders. And this was apparent enough. What with the much delayed 3G auction coming up in India as well as the MNP to go live by the year end, the capex pressure on India's largest telecom player was huge n

Since a long time international experts and foreign affairs mandarins have acknowledged that Pakistan is a basket case. Now, I would ideally not use this slang for any nation or a person for that matter, but Pakistan warrants this adjective. Its not only an economic basket case, but also a cultural and political. The funny part is that even though seesawing on the brinks of bankruptcy regularly it still has the capacity or the will to pursue disruptive activities towards it larger and peaceful neighbour, India. Its a different story altogether that India's leaders have always failed to match up to their Pakistani counterparts' slyness and treachery. But sometimes you have to just sit back and admire the way Pakis manage to tread that fine line which enables them to get away with its various acts of terrorism while on the same time pretend to be one of the allies in the War on terror. I mean are the Americans actually that dumb? I mean everyone knows that the Yankees are dumb,

The entire last week and before that the hapless Indian television audience have been witness to the media circus over the Jaswant Singh & the BJP face-off. And guess what was the melee all about? Jaswant Singh, a has been in the country's politics scene (like his party now) , who committed the cardinal sin of eulogising Mohd Ali Jinnah, the founding father of our friendly neighbour. It started with the BJP's parliamentary board expelling JS for authoring a book which had the gall to praise or patronise Jinnah, the root cause of evil as per many of the inhabitants of this country. Now not much is know of JS except that he is from Rajput and an ex Indian army Major. He has served as a Finance minister, Defence Minister as well as a External Affairs minister during the Kandahar incident. Now, in his latest book, Jinnah:India-Partition-Independence,he has claimed Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru's centralised polity was responsible for the partition while giving a clean chit to Jinn

With the country split across the middle from the common man on the streets to the rickshaw driver to the kitty party crowd to the corporate chieftains to the all powerful netas of our great country depending on where you are looking from, the brothers are literally having a gala time hogging the limelight over a non issue. This dispute over the supply or the non supply of the KG basin gas has suddenly brought more fodder to the breaking news generation after the H1N1 scare. Anil Ambani, media savvy like always initiated the debate, with a press conference at the meet of his group company RNRL to air his views with accusations at Murli Deora, the Union Petroleum minister of having sided with his estranged elder brother. This was a completely frustrated move which could be as direct as possible having accused a union minister nonethless. This just goes to show that no one, not even a Union Minister of the ruling government can escape the wrath of the super rich & powerful in this c

Unconfirmed reports are emanating from the media that Villa is finally going to become a La Blaugrana player. Though loyal Barca fans like me were anticipating the move, it was not confirmed whether the Valencia marksman would come to the Nou Camp after Valencia declaring he was not for sale to the Los Merengues. But then Laporta has declared mid week that Villa is indeed coming to Nou Camp.Reports claim that the deal is valued at €40mn. This though, might see the exit of Etoo to create the liquidity for the Villa deal. Now, this really makes La Liga the undisputed centre of attraction in European Football taking the spotlight away from the Premier League which had dominated the sport since the last few years. Also the El Classico this year would be the one of the greatest ever if not the greatest. I mean, just imagine the players lining up on both sides of the pitch. I am going crazy out here. Though im a hardcore Barca fan, I still feel any neutral person would also agree that Barca

Today's news has me worried..Nahhh!!! I dont mean the same ramblings & the post mortem like analysis of the budget by some so called experts who are going on like drones on the budget..I refer to the news that Mumbai's lakes have almost bottomed out and the Western suburbs have only water left for 23 days more.The almost 60 lac denizens of the western 'burbs are going to have a tough time ..the civic body for a change is trying its best to handle the situation with cutting off water supply to under construction buildings and reducing the supply to hotels,swimming pools & parks, but too little too less.The water supply for Mumbai which comes from six lakes within Mumbai’s precincts has grown over the last 130 years but so has the population in Mumbai (now that is another story which can lead to many heated debates), which essentially lays lot of stress on the city's infrastructure.These six lakes being Tansa, Modak, Bhatsa, Vaitarna, Tulsi, Upper Vaitarna and P

An era has come to an end with the sudden & sad demise of one of the greatest music artists of all times, if not the greatest. The King of Pop-Michael Jackson died today due to cardiac arrest. His death has come as a shock to millions of his fans especially the generation of the 70s & 80s who have grown up or danced to his tunes during their growing up years. He single handedly revolutionised or innovated the concept of Music videos to promote music and were his music videos entertaining or what. Who can forget videos like Thriller, Bad, Remember the Time, Black or White,Billie Jean, Earth Song, etc.He transformed music videos and his lifetime record sales tally is believed to be around 750 million, which, added to the 13 Grammy Awards he received, made him one of the most successful entertainers of all time I am personally saddened by his demise as we have lost a genuine superstar. He was in his heydays one of the most coveted live performers of all times. He was one of the fe

So the much awaited rains finally hit Mumbai on Saturday. The Rain gods were not in a generous mood though as sporadic drizzles hit the island city with some areas witnessing heavy rainfall while others experiencing mild drizzles. Yet again the MET failed as they had predicted rains would hit next week. Overall, it was a much awaited relief what with the sweltering heat draining off the Mumbaikars. Hope this resolves the water supply issues plaguing the city denizens. That raises questions on the preparedness of the civic body to handle the dreaded monsoons. There have already been few mails being circulated around where it seems the BMC has already identified certain days in the next couple of months when the city will expect heavy rains and also high tide situations urging offices, colleges & schools to remain shut. This is an excerpt of the mail doing the rounds: Floods - 2009 : Mumbai Floods in Mumbai are attributable to simultaneous occurrence of rainfall and high tides. If t

With the ink on the Kaka transfer news barely drying out, Florentino Perez has grabbed his prize target: Crisiano Ronaldo and whisked him away from the Theatre of Dreams. Manchester United have accepted a world record bid of 80 million pounds for Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid.United confirmed this morning they had accepted an £80million bid for the world player of the year, with a world-record deal expected to go through by June 30.The news had been expected given Real stated last night talks were under way and now it is only a matter of finalising the player's personal terms before he completes a dream move to the Bernabeu.Real president Florentino Perez had already vowed to do "everything possible" to sign the 24-year-old and, unlike 12 months ago, Sir Alex Ferguson did not even attempt to talk Ronaldo round, knowing the former Sporting Lisbon player had his heart set on a move. Now, I hate to say this but there was a news item in yesterday's papers, that Ronal

If you people remember there was something called as the Do Not Disturb call registry which was launched by the TRAI (telecom watchdog in India) in late 2007. This was setup to check the menace that unsolicited tele marketing calls was causing to the mobile & landline owners in India. Now this was launched amidst much fanfare with telecom customers heaving a heavy sigh of relief assuming that finally they can have that peaceful siesta or a private dinner with their special ones. But circa 2009 and the telemarketers are still at it. So yours truly having registered for the DND call registry as soon as it was launched was still getting calls from all types of phone totting telecallers. So one fine day after getting repeated calls from a sales unit of another telecom company, I complained to Vodafone about the same. Now as usual, the advisor on the other line patiently took down my complaint. Then asked for the details of the number the call had come from, in a manner which the local

As per my last post tagged under Football, I had blogged about Florentino Perez's mission to renew the era of the Galacticos at the Bernabeu. I had mentioned that as per reports in the Spanish media, amongst the many targets, Kaka would be one of them. It did seemed impossible at the moment with Kaka having declared vehemently time & again that he was a Rossoneri for life. But such is the lure of money especially when it is truckloads of Euros being offered to the beleagured Italian billionaire,that all claims of loylalty go flowing down the drain. I personally feel sad as being a hardcore Rossoneri fan and especially a Real baiter, its sad to see him go. Also as a fan of Barca, I fear the title race this year would be much closer. But Kaka wont find it easy to settle in at Real, what with huge egos in the Bernabeu dressing room especially since he wont be the last of the Galacticos that Perez wants to present to the Basques. Heres bidding Kaka a memorable farewell and gratitud

My 11 year old nephew has come to my place and he suddenly asks me which was my favourite animated series when I was a kid? Now that set me thinking, hmmmmm.... Now there were quite a few cartoons I used to watch when I was a kid, especially since cable television had just come into India (referring to the early 90s). But I don't know why, suddenly GI Joe sprang to mind. My nephew was not sure what GI Joe is considering this is the age of the Dragon BallZ, Bey Blade and other Japanese nonsense which you cant really make head or tail of but yeah,the kids nowadays are stuck to them like glue. So to tel him about GI Joe, I googled it and low behold, I was surprised to see the 1st search result showing up as G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009) at imdb.com (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1046173/). I went on the imdb page and was delighted to see that the GI series is being made into a blockbuster action movie. Now, this is something which the Action movie buffs like me would like to see i

As reported by various media sources and the Madrid based newspaper Marca, it seems Florentino Perez the presidential aspirant & hot favourite to become the Real Madrid president has his greedy eyes set on none other than Andres Iniesta. Iniesta tops the wishlist for Perez for his all new look Real Madrid. Though, Iniesta has vehemently denied the rumours and pledged his loyalty to Barca, it would be the greatest coup since Perez managed to lure Figo to Real in 2000. Though I don't think its remotely possible that Perez would be able to pull off this coup, there are other names being bandied around as potential Galacticos viz. Ronaldo (the usual suspect!), Villa (quite possible considering Valencia's financial situation), Kaka, Cesc, Ibrahimovic and Messi. There are also reports that Ribery has already signed the deal to move to Real till 2014 but the news is being kept under wraps fro him to concentrate on the Bundesliga season. Nonetheless, its going to be an interesting

Here is the first amongst many signs of the Music Director from Chennai reaping the rich benefits of Slumdog Millionaire. Though the score for the film was hyped beyond oblivion and the movie itself was ordinary to say the least, the artistes (atleast some of them) with the Oscar winning movie have plastered themselves on the global stage. Lo & behold, Mr. Rahman has been signed on as the glolbal brand ambassador for Motorola replacing David 'Golden Balls' Beckham. Now, this comes as a bigger shock considering the brand presence that Beckham commands across the world though it might be waning now that his football career is coming to an end, the Milan loan notwithstanding. Though these reports are appearing on almost all the Indian websites & blogs, I haven't seen any announcement by Motorola officially neither in the broadsheets since yesterday. So I assume its a April Fool's prank being played by someone. Any sane person would not see truth in this story as B

The Automobile industry around the world is in doldrums along with the rest of the world economy. The most recent victims being General Motors and Chrysler. Now, the Obama administration has declared that it won't allow the American auto industry to vanish. That's some claim, I must say what with crisis written all across the number plate for the industry. The Obama administration has already told Rick Wagoner, Chariman & CEO, GM to go. In the last four years of Wagoner's leadership,GM lost $82 billion.Of course, Chrysler is again in the pits.How it wished Mr. Iaccoca was here to save it, but even he would have been helpless in this situation now. The automobile industry has had this coming since a long time especially the Americam automakers. Even when the world economy was booming, the Top 3 US auto companies were churning up losses left,right and centre. But Ford transformed itself one and a half-two years back after staring at bankruptcy whereas GM thought it coul

With the news article hitting the print that MAN U having approached TATAs for a sponsorship, finally the world seems to have come a full circle. Long gone is the disdain with which Western nations & their businesses used to look down upon at the Indian businesses and on a more broader note, the Asian countries. It's a win-win situation for the TATAs and MANU. The football club is looking out for sponsors (having earlier approached SAHARA group also) as the current embattled AIG group not willing to renew their shirt sponsor deal what with the entire American population baying for their blood.The TATAs can negotiate very hard to get a worldwide presence on MANU's top stars and with the Premier League being the most braodcasted football league in the world, you can just imagine what it would do for TATA group's branding efforts. Being a fan of both these entities, I could just not control imagning the Red Devils with TATA logo on their shirts. Here is my impression of th

So finally the day has dawned upon the aspirational Indian: The Launch day of the TATA Nano. The car every two wheeler riding middle class family man was waiting for. The car will hit the showrooms today.There will be three versions-The base version,the one promised by Mr. Tata and other 2 higher versions. The higher versions it seems would have all the goodies but the power steering it seems is going to miss out.The bookings are going to commence on the 9th April till the 25th April. The Nano will be sold to the first 100,000 buyers at a price to be announced later . The delivery of the first lot of Nano cars will begin in early-July and that applications for booking of the car would be available in 30,000 locations in 1,000 cities across India. Of course, there are some Indians in this great country of ours who will be kicking themselves sore and cursing their political parties for losing the Nano project from their state. While the land of the traders & businessmen would be p