The story of a fantastico city- the diamond city

It astonishes me to see how this city has escaped the limelight of so many industries. The cities like Bangalore and Pune have embraced young population with their full heart but its astonishing to see the young population of Surat who are so complete in themselves are yet to create a roar. After spending time at almost all of these IT cities I am still wondering why do one feel more young in a city like Surat which is probably half the size of Bangalore.

The city may be known as the Diamond city for the existence of diamond business but in my opinion it does have a soul that sparks shiner than a diamond. It entails the perfect combination of a happening town and a lavishing city. What does one expect from a city? Good food? Good People? Good Conveyance? A healthy living standard? Clean environment? Land of opportunities? Surat has it all. 

Food- As far as food is concerned, I think it's a paradise for vegetarians. I literally yearn for the Khaman of this City. I tried Locho which was tasty as well. Then there is variety in frankies, golas, Paans and what not. Who would have thought there can exist something like Ice Paan? And those ice-golas are just lip smacking. 

Location- It's six in the morning and I thought the city would still be sleeping. But heyyy... the U-Turn is on roll. Can you imagine the youth of the whole city has stepped out on the roads to rock n roll with a crackling band? And just 10 kms outside the city is the Dumas beach. Although not the best of the beaches but decent enough to pull out crowds. 

Infrastructure- The city boasts of more than 100 flyovers. I am not sure if there are so many flyovers even in cities like Kolkata, lets not talk about Chennai. I literally traveled over flyovers when I had to reach the station. And the maintenance is so good that you sometimes don't feel that the city is being administered by an Indian Municipal body.

Living Standard- A major chunk of the city has migrated to the new part of the town which boasts of lavish societies with exclusive clubbing and related facilities within. And I literally got the shock that such apartments are available at a rate of as low as Rs. 2500/sq ft. What else would one want?

Land of opportunities- Being a city of Gujrat, it is needless to say that setting up a business is very smooth in here. Although it remains untouched by the industry that rules the country but it still offers numerous opportunities to make the best out of everything.

In the end all I would recommend is to give this city a visit. I would request the government to identify the potential of this city and bring it to the likes of Bangalore and Pune.

Khel Kabbaddi

Bangalore is new to me and so are the people who have become my flatmates. A body-builder sport freak guy from north working for an IT company, a normal average looking person too much engrossed into himself, a bunch of youngsters who have just completed their engineering and are enjoying their freedom out of their home town. You meet so many new characters when you stay at different places which so become a part of your memory. You stay connected to some while some meet you by accident at some random place and you fail to recognize them. These new interactions always add a new perspective to your world. Their interests and opinions make you think why the way they are. 

One such guy is a hatta-katta Punjabi munda who is hot-headed but still cool by nature. Never thought that there exists such sport enthusiast in the north. All my life I believed that only people from the East are into the hobby of following sports. He was a surprise to me. On the other hand I had never been such a sport enthusiast and hence understanding that guy was a little difficult at times. But one day he introduced me to the game 'Khel Kabbaddi'. My instant reaction was, 'Who in the world thought of commercializing such a sport. This would never work and they are only wasting their time and money'. I never could imagine that Kabaddi can be an interesting game to watch. Playing can be but certainly not watching men fighting for that few points. I started watching and to my surprise - it was intense. It was fast paced. It was quick. It was engrossing. Simply put- it was fantastico. Soon that Punjabi munda started presenting the reality to me. I realized that this sport is being hugely followed in the north. I may not be wrong about country-wide following but the aggressive following in the northern and central states of India was enough to pull it through. And it was damn interesting to watch.

Soon I had my favourite team and a favourite player. We started playing bets on which team would win which of course I lost most of the times.  

This certainly made me realize if there lies such a potential in sports other than Cricket then why are we still holding back. I am not asking to nationalize all the sports but there are clearly many sports in addition to Kabaddi that can be made cool by proper packaging. I am sure the sponsors will show interest to such new sports. And anyways cricket doesn't attract the same craze as it used to be. People are happy checking out scores on cricinfo or cricbuzz rather than watching full 50 over match, although t20 is going to stay in my opinion.

With the rise of our Desi Sports all I can cheer now is 'Khel Kabaddi'. I hope the new season will be as interesting as the last one.

The media of political discourse

The political discourse has changed. It should have evolved with rising social connectivity but unfortunately it hasn't. However the impact can still be observed in the numerous political discussions that happen on social media. The impact is however on the quantity and not the quality. This makes me think if the media is actually playing its role or it is simply a hoax and doesn't have any impact.

It is not denying that each of us has made up in our mind that a particular person or a particular party is the one that is going to bring the change we are looking for. Some of us are so leaned towards an extreme that no matter what we always stay with the political ideology of our choice. While some still try to judge everything from an objective point of view. I get worried when I see arguments that go beyond my logical understanding. Of course it would be wrong to say that my political understanding is correct but there is always a manner in which political discourses should be lead. I am worried about that. 

Recently I asked an acquaintance a question, "Isn't it wrong to follow news solely on the social media? It is biased as we always choose to follow pages that suit our political understanding". The reply made me think for a while, "what if I want to stay biased". So all the hullabaloo about the rise of information age and ignoring the press media isn't that white. Can we ignore the traditional media after all? No we can't and we shouldn't but then the onus lies on these traditional media that they should not try to bias with their own bias. It's better to bias oneself my one's own bias than to fall under the bias of what some people call 'selective journalism'.

Under the pretext of these biased news media has online Facebook pages like the Logical Indian, The Frustrated Indian, The Viewspaper or the Firstpost have emerged so strongly. Now who protects the sanctity of these platforms. They are equally vulnerable to biases - a bias which is leaned either left or right.

It is said that if a lie is told thousand times it becomes the Truth. I see something very similar happening in our political atmosphere today. If we take one incident and repeat that incident thousand times even an intellectual will think that the country is going in totally wrong direction. The problem in such scenarios is that the real problems remain untouched and the issues which are non-issues get the maximum attention. Maximum attention means that all resources are diverted towards solving a problem which wasn't a problem at all.

I remember an interview of the star reporter of Times Now - Arnab Goswami. He was asked a very simple question that within the realm of journalism it is often dictated that the presenter of news should never bring his/her opinions in the discussion. That's the most fundamental rule of journalism. But he was totally against this idea. According to him if you have an opinion let it be. Have a strong counter argument if some street-smart Politician is manipulating the viewer with his cryptic words. And then let the listener decide what is wrong or what is right. Many may disagree to his viewpoint but that doesn't stray them away from making the Newshour show one of the most popular show in the country.