The perennial dilemma

I often wonder, when membership to an organisation is voluntary and there are apparently no tangible benefits at the end of the volunteering period, what do most people think about the organisation and volunteering for it? My answer is that people are apathetic or indifferent. But, they still expect the organisation to keep working for their benefit. On top of that, their expectations from that organisation is as if they are paying it to see that the organisation represents them effectively.

There are many such examples. Students' bodies, co-operative societies, housing society committees, and many more. Despite of hundreds of request, very few students turn up for volunteering and staying with the organisation for a year. But then, if some problem crops up, there will be hundreds of them hounding this organisation to get the problem resolved. Here comes the dilemma. When people look at the organisation with not too much interest, do not participate in its activities and still expect the organisation to take care of them, what should the organisation's stand be? Show the same apathy to the people? Tell them that since none from your group are participating, your group doesn't deserve our support? Teach them a lesson, once and for all. Or keep persuading people to participate and reap the likely benefits? And still work for them, stating that see, you don't participate, but we are still there to help you! The dilemma continues...

International Bloggers' Community Award

Radhika, writer of the Rads Blog-a-Zine has awarded me the International Bloggers' Community Award. I don't know why, but I have received it. Thanks, Radhika for considering me for that award. What I have to do now, is award this to atleast seven (7) people on my blogroll. Seven people? It is difficult, don't know if I can ever find those many. Let me try. But before that, those who get the award, have to do the following-

1. Link the person who tagged you
2. Copy the image above, the rules and the questionnaire in this post.
3. Post this in one or all of your blogs
4. Answer the four questions following these Rules
5. Recruit at least seven (7) friends on your Blog Roll by sharing this with them
6. Come back to BLoGGiSTa iNFo CoRNeR (PLEASE DO NOT CHANGE THIS LINK) at http://bloggistame.blogspot.com/ and leave the URL of your Post in order for you/your Blog to be added to the Master List
7. Have Fun!

Here are the questions, and besides them, my answers-

• The person who tagged you: Radhika
• His/her site's title and url: Rads Blog-a-Zine some info on stuff you might like... @ http://rads-blogazine.blogspot.com
• Date when you were tagged: July 8, 2009
• Persons you tagged: I tag the following (note: The order of appearance has nothing to do with the importance I ascertain to the blog)-

Preposterous girl
Sandhya Iyer
Virtual Crossroads
Kaushik Narsimhan
Vikas Vinze
Sandeep Deshmukh
Iris
Swanand

Okay, for those who are tagged, do as has been said in the post!! For those who I haven't, sorry, it is just an oversight! No bad air between us!

P.S. By the time I posted this, Preposterous girl too had tagged me. I thank her for that!

Amritraj is tennis's Arun Lal

Vijay Amritraj and Arun Lal have two things in common. Both are commentators, and both decide the person/team they are going to support during the course of the match. Why does Star Sports have Amritraj as a commentator? He isn't as famous as John McEnroe. He hasn't won a Grand Slam at any level. Ramesh Krishnan is better than him. He atleast has won the French and Wimbledon juniors' titles. In India, people would know more about McEnroe's achievements rather than Amritraj's. And why doesn't Amritraj stick to giving balanced views of the play, rather than gettting hyper about every stroke that his favourite player plays.

I was watching the epic Wimbledon final. The match was awesome and is fit to go into the annals as one of the best matches ever played on grass court. No player was relaxing for any moment, giving their hundred percent for every point. But, our Amritraj had planned to support Andy Roddick. Every bit of his commentary was brazenly pro-Roddick. About Federer, he was completely unenthusiastic. If Roddick barely managed to take a point, Amritraj was touting it to be a master stroke, whereas difficult shots and beautiful returns by Federer were mentioned as if they were ordinary shots. Even Alan Wilkins, who was Amritraj's partner, was giving a balanced view, though Wilkins too was inclined towards Roddick.

In the fifth set, Amritraj even went on to say- "If Federer hasn't broken Roddick even once in the past three hours, where is this match going?" If it wasn't enough to say it once, Amritraj repeated his statement once the set went past 6-6. Well, eventually Federer did break Roddick's serve. He broke it once and that's what mattered to be crowned as Wimbledon Champion.

In cricket too, Arun Lal does the same thing. Sometimes, he himself doesn't understand what he is talking about. After the T20 World Cup, Arun Lal demanded that Dhoni should resign from the captaincy. Two weeks back, the same Arun Lal was praising Dhoni's 'coolness' in the IPL games.

Why are we supposed to hear to such mediocre commentary? As cricket has its Sunil Gavaskar, tennis too might have someone. I'm not sure who, but probably McEnroe would be a better commentator than Amritraj. We viewers should write to Star Sports and force them to remove Amritraj. After all, customer is the king!

Leaderless India?

The Bandra-Worli Sea Link has been thrown open to use for the general public. On 30th June 2009, Sonia Gandhi found time to do the honours. A good question to be asked is, what post does Sonia Gandhi hold? She is free of all constitutional responsibilities (except those that are thrust upon her while she is an M.P.) and hence not liable to any actions in case of government failure. But, the Congress likes to give her the credit of every "success" that either the central government or a Congress-ruled state government achieves.

An engineering marvel like the Sea Link should have been inaugurated by someone who holds a Constitutional post. The President was in Mumbai two days ago, she could have done the honours. Or the Prime Minister, who is the captain of the team that shapes the nation's future. But no, the government of Maharashtra felt that Sonia Gandhi has a standing that is higher than the President or Prime Minister. But, we have not protested against this. We are silently accepting all this. Why is there no protest? Why aren't there any protests visible? If the BJP would have called the RSS chief to inaugurate such a facility like this, imagine the uproar that would have taken place. But then, Congress is secular, while BJP is communal.

And the old wily fox, Sharad Pawar, also an off-shoot of the Congress culture sucked up to Sonia Gandhi and requested Chief Minister Ashok Chavan to name the bridge after Rajiv Gandhi. The CM, being a second generation Congressman, promptly agreed to the suggestion, in a bid to please his 'high-command'. The arguments put forward by Sharad Pawar to support his request were equally ridiculous. He said that Rajiv Gandhi was a 'son-of-the-soil' as he was born in Mumbai. Rubbish!! Mr. Pawar, are you forgetting the other leaders who have worked tirelessly for the benefit of the state of Maharashtra. Those 105 people who were killed when this very Congress wanted a bilingual state of Gujarat and Maharashtra have contributed more than Rajiv Gandhi. The only thing that I agree about Rajiv Gandhi was that he ushered in a technological revolution and had recognised the necessity of modern technology. But, he is the same Rajiv Gandhi who infamously agreed to amend the constitution to annul the Supreme Court's judgement in the Shah Bano case. He is the one who made the statement 'when a big tree falls, the earth shakes', thus backing those Congressmen involved in the anti-Sikh riots.

I would say, there were more worthy leaders than Rajiv Gandhi after whom the bridge could be named. Going back in history, there is Kanhoji Angre, the famous commander of the Maratha fleet. He tormented the English and Portuguese with his attacks on their ships. Since this bridge crosses the sea, his name should have been a favourite. Then there were Lokmanya Tilak, Acharya Atre, Shankarrao Chavan, Yashwantrao Chavan, Ahilyabai Rangekar, C.D. Deshmukh, and many more from politics. J.R.D. Tata from business. Homi Bhabha from science. Tata and Bhabha have been pioneers in their fields. Air India was Tata's baby. Homi Bhabha kick started atomic energy research. Both were Mumbaikars. There are many more social activists, famous cricket personalities, litterateurs who have contributed to the well-being of the people of Maharshtra. Anyone of them could be chosen. But no, the Congress doesn't know anybody beyond Nerhu and Gandhi. Thankfully, they aren't naming anything after Sanjay Gandhi now-a-days.

An India that dreams of becoming a super power, doesn't look at leaders apart from the Nehru-Gandhi family as worthy to be remembered through engineering and technology marvels. This picture doesn't look good. Though, it would have been nice if the sea-link was simply called Bandra-Worli Sea Link.