Saturday, March 22, 2008

PeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeenP

You must be thinking what this is, isnt it? But seriously, this was the best eye-catching topic name that I could come up with for an article on the most mudslinging, bitching, politics-filled show on Indian television right now - Roadies 5.0.
The show is filled up with more instances of slang use than other things. Its difficult to hear even a single line said by the contestants without this sound. And in 90%+ cases, its done to mask the F-word. From reactionary comments to bitching, the contestants use it as if they got truckloads of it and want to dispose them off. I understand that in the current Indian society, it sounds cool to use this language. And probably its our generation getting personified screen there.
But seriously, it seems that this current edition of Roadies has taken bitching, politics etc to a whole new level all-together. The show had started out promoting itself as the place to find the toughest roadie. In the auditions too, what was tested mostly was the strength of the contestants in handling situations and confidence in performing tasks.
However, tasks are the least interesting events on the show now. In fact, the current group is performing so badly, they have already been branded a group of non-performers. The best performer by far was Vikrant. But he was voted out due to some expert strategy by Snehashish and Nihal. And then, very cleverly Snehashish was voted out. Shambhavi has been getting lucky a lot of times. She got the advantage once and then the roulette thing. She will go a long way because of this. It was precisely because of bad luck that Ankita is out. And in the last vote out when Ashutosh gave the immunity to the group of Shambhavi, Anmol and Aayaz saying that Aayaz was the closest to getting the immunity, so he deserves it; it was fully clear that they had planned to vote out Prabhjot from the show. Vote-outs have indeed become the most interesting part of Roadies.
Coming back to the tasks; be it money task, or immunity or advantage; this batch of Roadies have been doing very poorly. They fared miserably in the ball-out immunity task with none of them hitting the stumps. In fact, at some point they started indulging in sledging and commenting about one-another's looks rather than concentrating on the task. And be it the tennis task in Bangalore or the banana task in Goa, they have been pathetic. Most of the points scored during the tennis task were from double faults or mistakes by the trained players. And yet they seemed too happy. But come to using foul language, and they are champs there.
The show is indeed getting away from the bracket it was earlier in. I used to watch the earlier Roadies to see people who had guts to complete tasks. But now, I mostly watch it for the vote-outs, masala and stuff. And most of the viewers will agree with me that this has become the thing to WATCH OUT FOR in this current edition. The auditions were far better and much more interesting. I just hope that Raghu can make it interesting in the International leg. Otherwise a good show will become just some other late night show.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
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Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Saluting India's victory of Commonwealth Bank Series

Finally! Finally after three lost chances in 1986, 1992 and 2004 when they didn't even win a single match in the best-of-three finals Down Under, India has managed to upstage the Aussies. It finally ended one of the most turbulent tours for India, a tour which was at a point in danger of ending prematurely. The racism row involving Bhajji and Symonds; the on-field bickering; all seem to have been forgotten in this wonderful victory of India. The impact, importance and extent of the victory for India could be easily seen from the wild celebrations at the Gabba that were triggered by the fall of the wicket of James Hopes. The wicket of Hopes finally ending any hopes of Australia of snatching the match from India and keeping the series lively.

But unlike previous times, this victory was not fashioned solely by the so-called seniors in the team. In fact the lion share of the victory goes to the 'Young Brigade' of India. It was Praveen Kumar who started the Aussie downfall with the highly prized wickets of Gilchrist(1st over) and Ponting(3rd over). And then later when the Hayden-Symonds partnership was beginning to threaten India, a single over of Bhajji turned around the match in favour of India. Hayden was run-out and Symonds was out lbw. It turned out to be the most important over of the match.

Before that it was Tendulkar who played the anchor role again to steer India to a competitive score. He was unlucky not to score a second succesive century missing it by a mere 9 runs. Uthappa, Yuvi and Dhoni chipped in with important and quickfire contributions. India missed a golden chance to score big in the final overs when they lost their way somewhat in the overs 40-45.

But then, All's well that end's well. India have won the series 2-0, and that's what matters. Coupled with the colts victory of the U-19 WC at Malaysia, and it already looks like the next generation of Indian cricketers has arrived and they have that hunger for victory which we so badly missed earlier.

The entire nation is celebrating this superb time for Indian cricket, and so am I. When Dhoni's boys had won the T-20 WC I had jumped on the floor and danced on the streets with my roommates and others in the locality. That's because there is nothing more binding for the people of India than cricket. Now when the boys look to have turned to be men, showing the character and will-power to upstage the Aussies at their own den, I bet that each and every Indian has a smile on his face.

Finally I would like to sign off with statement. When Ponting had said before the start of the Best-of-three finals in the Commonwealth Bank series that the third final would not be required, I bet he wasn't expecting this result. Cheers!

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Abhishek Saha
Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India
A NRB (Non Resident Bengali) or rather a 'Probashi Bangali'; born in Kolkata, brought up in Jamshedpur and now trying to make his mark at IIM Lucknow.
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