A passage through time

After coming to the exam, you cannot say that instead of having for 100 marks, lets just have the paper for 60 marks, and decide the result.
I accept, if I am appearing for an examination, I should be prepared for "all situations".
Atleast when the exam is so crucial and it cannot be re-done. Worst so, you cannot say that few people will write the test for 80 marks, and few people will attempt the question paper for only 60 marks, and we will decide the result with complex calculations.(Bad comparision?)

Over to Duckworth and Lewis for the complex calculation.

There should be exceptions atleast to finals of "big" tournaments. You cannot decide the "world cup winner" by D/L method.
If the match cannot be played 50 overs, let it be postponed to the next day. Even in the situation where both teams played 38 overs, it was an incorrect evaluation.

Labels: cricket

I am embarrassed, because a fellow country man, that too a "very respected visionary"(I donot think that big anyway) is "trying to save embarrassement" to a very few people by not singing the national anthem, in a meeting attended by the President of India.

I am more embarrassed because there are a sizeable number of people who want to run him for the Presidency.
If you are embarrassed of singing national anthem, why call the President? I am not saying that you should be playing your national anthem every day or shout on the top of your voice, that I am patriotic. But, when there is a need for the national anthem to be played, do it with some dignity and respect it deserves.

Unfortunately this issue is reported only in Deccan Herald on Apr 09.

Every one who reads news papers try to "share" or "exchange" the knowledge/information with other. Which might mean that they are eager to display that they are "thinking" about the happenings around them, and that they have an opinion about those happenings.
A news paper might publish a lot of news every day in news paper. It may not be humanly possible for people to "discuss" about all the news that they publish. The dicussions might get confined to very few.

The big question is how do we decide which are important, which are not?
While, normally it is for people to decide which is important for them, or think about how the news affects their lives, it is common for people to discuss about the "prominent news" or "headlines" as are properly termed.

So, it is the news papers which are determining, what people should be thinking and discussing. This is not reducing the burden on people, but killing their own thought process.

This is my "poor translation" from the one of the posts in a media blog(This post was in Telugu)

While the author's comments are about some other issues, I found the comments very relevant, and I have always felt the same about all the news papers and more so about the "24 hour news channels".

While with news paper, you have few other pages to read apart from "main page", with 24 hour news channels, you do not have an option to listen to "other news" apart from what they show.

I donot watch the news channels these days. I stopped watching news channels. But while flipping channels, I happen to see how degraded the news quality have become. They "impose" "news" on you.

First they try to find "who is to be blamed" (I am talking about cricket)

Greg Chappel is easy target. Conduct a "trial" without the "accused" being in the picture. The irony is "every one" is an expert there. They extend their microphone to every one including a child on the street(unfortunately they never come to me.)
I have a way out to write here in blog even if they didnt not give me a chance to appear of National television with some comments :)

Then they find their own justifications, or get anonymous news, news from "trusted sources" etc.(like Greg Chappel accusing senior players)

They ask "Senior players" for reactions. There are some "anonnymous" comments from some "senior players", and there is a "famous" interview of Sachin where he made some "comments"

Now the discussion starts as to "whether Sachin is justified in doing it?"

well... As I said I donot watch news channels these days... but these are just "headlines" which I watch in between my other favourite programs.

Labels: media

These days I read news papers, and try to figure out what the news actually could be, by looking at the heading of the news.
There are some funny things which appear like "Sport of pain" for the Indian defeat in "Port of Spain" in Caribbean.
I opened a news web site sometime back and see this heading "Quake hits Pak, tremors felt in India"
I was wondering if there is any pun in that headline.
But unfortunately its only about at earth quake...

Labels: media

I too watch cricket.
I am also disappointed with the performance of "Team India"
I also participated in discussions ranging from "who should be sacked" to "what is the root cause"?(I know I am used to RCAs, blame it on my work)
I also made recommendations about who should be included in team.

But, there is an end to it.

Media is still obsessed with it. Apart from the fact that they lost obsene amount of advertising revenues, they are trying to let people concentrate on Indian cricket(not cricket as a sport).
They run shows all through the day with titles like "Should Sachin retire?" "Should Dravid continue as captian?".
They have SMS polls, expert views, discussions, etc. etc., to keep dirty minds busy.

I was flipping channels, and since my TV remote control is not very responsive, and I had the opportunity to see one such programs for more than one minute.

There were expert comments from "Rohan Gavaskar". Give me a break folks... this guy havent even played a dozen games of international cricket(Not very sure though. I am not very good at cricket statistics), and can be labelled as an expert panel member. What a great relocation package...

Can I pass off as an expert in any area? Let me think and come back. With so many news channels trying to fill up for the 24 hours of programming they need, I am sure I will find some palce as an expert. Let me try...

Labels: cricket, life