City of lights

Well, I am not talking about "real" cities of lights like Paris or Las Vegas here. I am talking about my very own city beautiful, Chandigarh. I have been staying here for last 15 years. In last 15 years, I have been to most parts of it. ok ok, I still dont know where is International Dolls Museum or where Capitol complex is but what the heck. That doesnt really matter. I think most of you would concur with me if I say that the one of the best thing about Chandigarh has been its quality and density of girls. Err, I am again going off the track.

Well planned roads have always been Chandigarh's USP. Residents here as so used to straight lines that find it tough at other places (at least I struggled in Bangalore). Whenever, I used to tell anyone that I am from Chandigarh, their first line used to be compliment about good roads. I still remember college days when I used to vroom across these straight roads on my little Puch (and Vespa later on). Along with these straight lines, the thing we liked most were green roundabouts that had dotted all the intersections here. These intersections always gave me a great chance of getting ahead of those high flying kineys as girls used to get slow down there. The way I used to zigzag across the traffic maze, it always made Keshto wary sititng behind me and Gogs will still remember his high flying slam and dunk. I used to feel like Gladiator showing off my high centres of gravity and small turning radius [:p]. I used to go as fast I could and then take a turn without taking hand off accelerator and without pushing the breaks. It was real fun.

(Photo courtsey: Tribune Website.)

Now, after being away all this while from these lovely roads, the thing which I am missing most are those free flowing round abouts. Owing to tremendous pressure on city's traffic, administration has gone ahead and converted all those roundabouts into traffic light signals. The places where we used to drive like sinosoidal curve have now been changed. Now, you must stop, wait and then wait and then wait and more wait and then finally crawl through it. Traffic lights stand on these intersections teasing you, counting down the seconds to take off but green light will fizzle so quickly that even Jim of American Pie fame will be proud of his timings and you are left with another red countdown. Even if you manage to get past one signal, another awaits you after next 1 KM and then next. There was stats that a cigratte takes 2-3 mins of your life. Dont know how much of my life has been wasted waiting at these traffic signals now and how much would I be wasting more? It becomes so frustrating that one feels like going Bangalore way of driving on cycle tracks (yes, we have dedicated cycle tracks here) and pavements but then we far more cultured (in traffic sense) than any other place in India that we prefer to wait for next green light. I am missing my old chandigarh (but it doesnt mean that I am not loving its new Avtaar. that story later)

P.S. The thing which is most frustifying is the way kiney girls cover their faces behind kilometers and kilometers of veils. Je kar eh Nakaab na hon tan banda roz savere B21 the gaana gaanda jaave. "Ni, tere hoye savere darshan. Ajj din vadhiya langunga"

Olympic fever.

In ancient times, Olympics were greek way of settling scores without shedding blood where Greek athletes used to compete with each other for glory and pride. Iranians always wondered how could these greeks fight their asses off for crown of Olive leaves!!!! For greeks it used to be a celebration time.


Times changed, the festival which was lost in the annals of history was revived again. Entire world would wait for it. It became the biggest celebration of human race. But some how, world's second largest population got never invited into this party. Two weeks of sports extravaganza was always used to be gloomiest period for Indian athletes (other than hockey magicians). How can you expect that when most of the times, it never figured in medal tally itself and countries with population less than Chandigarh's used to win bountiful. Initial days of hope used to give way to disgust and guilt. So near but yet so far cases like PT Usha and Milkha singh used to make even more heart wrenching and Olympic show used to only get limited to closing ceremony.


In 96, Paes broke the Individual medal drought in Tennis with bronze. Malleshwari followed it up with a bronze in 2000, entire India was kinna content that we at least registered on medal tally (ahead of Pakistan:)). In 2004, Rathore moved up the pedestal with a silver and India was again very happy. Imagine a country of billion people feeling in cloud 9 with 1 medal.


2008 Beijing. Expectations were high as that it will be special this time. Although hockey teams were absent for the first time in History but we had star shooters, ace tennis players, slew of weightlifters, upcoming archers and baddies, veteran jumper. People were expecting count to exceed.


When Bindra shot a perfect 10 to win India's first ever Olympic gold, entire India became euphoric. We had OUR GOLD MEDAL. Govts started en cashing on euphoria by announcing gifts, cash prizes which made even cricketers jealous. Initial Hysteria got over and it started sinking in that remaining athletes have started crumbling under pressure. Feeling left out, India again started withdrawing itself out of Olympics. In came Akhil Kumar like a pleasant breeze. India started believing in itself and Akhil. This guy was so full of positive energy that his fellow boxers also got sprinkling of it. All three breezed into quarters. Suddenly, three medals were in sight. Media was making Indian hysterical and Politicians were making it mad. Pressure took its toll on Akhil and Jitendar. Both lost in QF but Vijendar kept his nerves to reach semis (Unluckily he lost). In the meanwhile, Sushil Kumar in repechage style, won a bronze out of no where . India was over the moon. Three medals were the best ever showing India had. Above expectations. A show stolen by lesser known mortals. Now, kids know the names of these medal winners. Superb display.


Right now, as I write this piece, our byte hungry media is going crazy hounding each and every one related to all three medal winners. Politicians are falling over each other to award these guys. Bipasha wants to go out on date with Vijendar. Last I heard, Haryana CM has ordered approach road to Vijendar's house to be built in a night. Dont take me wrong, its very good to appreciate and award special efforts but all this reeks of opportunism. No body gives a shit what these athletes would have gone thru, what should be done to build upon this start, how can we match China. All they want is cheap publicity. Earlier it used to be cricketers, now its Olympians. Bloody glory hunters.


I think main reason behind this media circus is scarcity of real winners in Indian sporting arena. Cricket used to provide a shallow cover for our olympic under achievements. Now thats also not the case. Ever wondered why don't we produce olympic winners? reasons are aplenty. system, culture, resources are the ones more famously and frequently quoted.


But is it fair to put entire blame on politicians or system? A quick look at medal tally will show that there are so many countries which are very poor or are ruled by corrupt dictators but still have more medals than India. Ever wondered why? I agree that politicians should also be blamed but point to ponder upon is that how many of our athletes practice day and night with single minded dedication of achieving Olympic glory? How many of our swimmers practice 16KM swim on daily basis? I agree that quite a lot of people don’t take sports as carrier choice but there a lot who do (go to any local/national level competition and you will see crowds of participants. ) but how many of these athletes have taken up sports with aim of winning Olympic? Most of them come to participate and win a certificate which might land them a job in railways or other govt. PSUs. I am not trying demean these hard working athletes but I don’t think that entire blame should go to system or politicians. Athletes also have some responsibility.


On positive note, things are looking better as Indian athletes are COMPETING now instead of just participating as was the case in 80s and 90s. But its time to have bring more Akhils into system who instill belief into entire team and nurture Vijendars. Time to encourage more Sushils who are ready to work aways from media glare. Time to bring in more resource rich Bindras who dont rely on system to shoot down gold.


Do comment your thoughts as well.

Trip down the Landra Tangori Road.

I was looking for sector 76 in Mohali. Some body told me that its on Landra Road. I got bit nostalgic listening about Landra. It was almost 8 years since me and father went down that way looking for Tangori.
A frail looking sardarji told us the way from Landra "bau ji, is raste te sidhe chale jao....kuch 20 25 minute dan rasta hai itho. Engineering college sadak de sajje paase hai ik building chhotti yahi". My dad kick started the scooter. Sitting at the back seat, I was trying to imagine my future college. My Chemistry teacher had painted a very grim picture of the college. "Tangori??? othe ye barkha pai jaye tan kishti te jana painda hai." he used to deride it like anything. Even then I had opted for this college over quite a few government colleges like Firozpur, Gurdaspur and Bhathinda (supposdely i was interested in doing Electronics and Communication engg and Mechanical was the best these colleges could offer me). My mates at Thapar had also asked me go for ECE (I had wasted my dad's money at Thapar by opting for Civil there) Its been over 15 minutes and there was no sign of the college. Couple of minutes later, we saw a building. "ohi lagda hai!" said my dad. "hai?? nahi oh tan poultry farm hai!!!" I said after a while and both of us were laughing like anything. Another ten minutes on those dodgy roads and we reached there. It was a 1.75 building college. One for classes, .5 for workshop and another qaurter of unfinished one. We filled up coupld of forms and started our 23 Km trip back to home. On our way back, we were thinking that its a decent choice which is on verge of something big. Sort of high risk high returns thing. Four years passed and I was Er. Ashish Sharma. Our college had grown with us. Now, it had 5 buildings and a decent ground. Only thing which had gone worse was Landra Banoor road. From potholed road, it had become dust bowl. I and my scooter were happy to that we don’t have to tread through these paths again. Well, at least my scooter was lucky on that front.
I didn’t realise that I had reached Landra while searching sector 76. Inadvertently, my bike turned towards Tangori. On right side, CEC was still there but loads of colleges had sprung up along with that like mushrooms. B-school, Pharmacy college, general education college, engg college. You name it, they had it in that small area. I was wondering if they have these many rooms there to accommodate these many diverse studies. After driving a while, I started noticing major differences. Road was bit wider, it had lesser potholes and loads of billboards and flags had replaced lush green views on both sides. Emaar MGF, Unitech City and pearl City. These were the names of builders who had decided to change the landscape in favour of developed Greater Mohali. Damn, these builders had bought entire stretch and beyond. PUDA like IPL had played this township card very well. They had sold the rights of acquiring these lands directly from Farmers to these modern day imperialists and had drafted these sectors out of nothing. These townships were suppose to come up in next 3-4 years and were already selling the flats/plots/villas before laying the foundation stones itself. Somebody told me that they are making this road a four lane highway. Woahh…superb business proposition. This would take that area into different orbit all together but I was felling a bit sad as well. This had taken stolen the virginity from those fields. Papa trackers were replaced with JCBs. Farmers with security guards, greenery with lines of bricks ready to be walled. Farmers I saw on the way were looking a bit down. I am sure they were small land tillers who didn’t get their chance to wash their hands in that dhan ganga which would have flooded the area. These acres were sold for crores.
Once I crossed the railway line, scene was back to normal. Greenery was back and so were hordes of buffaloes that now seem to react for your horns. Positives of developments I must say. Then I reached SUSCET. College was deserted (it was Sunday silly!). Nothing much had changed since our convocation apart from ground which was lush green now. Security guard there was bit sceptical of my intentions. “Who would come to this desert on Sunday?” he must be thinking. “Ki labda hai bai?” he asked. “kuch nahi.” I said ‘Aiwe hi apni mitti labhda aaya si’ I thought. I told him that I am an ex-SUSCETian (hope that’s we are called). I asked him “If I could I roam around?” “yaar bamb bumb na rakh dayi” he said apprehensively. That statement summed the situation. Swords which were brandished 8 years back have been replaced by guns and pistols. Year on year, quality of batches must have gone down. Rayats, landras, bhaddals seem to winning this one. These colleges either had money or power. Our college mgmnt seemed to have neither. Irony is that Tangori’s polytechnic was now more famous than Engg college. I picked up my helmet and started moving back. That moment I saw the placement board placed at reception. Infy, TCS and many others. Big names were there. May be I was wrong. May be its bad to make perception based on security guard’s tales. May be our college was on the way up. That was pretty good silver lining behind the clouds. On that positive note, I started my long journey back to Chandigarh. Uff…it still is very costly affair going on your bike alone, Keshto J

P.S. Gogs, if at all you are planning to hitch hike with Manu and Chetan, then go ahead bindaas. That Landran petrol pump is now closed down.