Cricket Fever….. ..

Just last month everyone was talking about the 20-20 series which got the lost fame to Indian cricket when we won the series and became the 1st world champions in the 20-20 series. Not so sure how many had their money on Indian team but I am sure it must have paid well for them J
There was lot of celebration and pomp when the victorious indian team arrived in India. My brother-in-law attended this function which was at wankhede stadium and while he was there, he had called us to tell that he is having a good time at that location. Just a few days later Australia came to India for the India-Australia series and till now we have lost 4 times and won 1 time with another one gone for a wash out. Well I am sure by the end of this series, many of us will forget the victory we had just days back.

But I always wonder how worth is it for us all to spend time watching this game, which has only paid the teams and the organisers a lot of money and most of the times just frustration to all the Indian team lovers. Rather this game has become a national event where everyone is allowed to comment on everything. But I think there should be conscious efforts by us to look at other sports as well and look at getting better at these games. It is not that we don’t have talent and they are not recognised, but it is about providing them with good infrastructure for practising & improving their performance to reach the international competing levels. The kind of money poured in for Cricket is maybe 100 or more times than any other games in India.

Hope we can look at developing other games too in our country apart from cricket since the chances of only 11 or about 20 players playing out of 1 billion population is something too little to think off for the budding sportsmen of the country.

Other sports in India need better marketing too & media (print & television) has a big role to play in this. I am sure there is no lack of talent but it is about grooming them properly and giving them chance to showcase their talent at least locally if not globally.

Poor Ending to a Lovely Program….

I, my family & few of my friends were a die hard fan of Zee Sa Re Ga Ma Pa. We use to be glued to our TV every Saturday and would love to listen to the young talents which had gone thru rigorous selection process to be left with last 3 finalists.

The final was to be on 13th Oct at 11 pm Singapore time. We all had planned for this finale and all of us were tired we were keen to see who was going to win and how it all would happen…. But it was going to be a drag and the most depressing final of all. All the time the Organisers had various ways of getting a new experience at each episode. But at the finale it was as if they did not put any effort in creating a grabd finale.. The program was very disconnected and uninteresting. There were too many ads in between and it was as if there was hardly anything left for them to show.

Worst thing of this program was when Himesh the Ugly, boasting & arrogant music director and singer started talking & praising everyone for no reason and at a wrong time. Ultimately when Aneek was announced as the winner, instead of letting the winners talk about how they felt, it was Himesh all the way opening his mouth. It was such a pain to hear him talk and not listen to the young talents expressing about their feelings on the victory and their journey.

My request to Zee Sa Re Ga Ma Pa producers for future shows will be to leave out Himesh out of the program. He is trying to get too much of footing for the wrong reasons. He is hardly spent much time in the Indian film industry but he is trying to act smarter than the legends in the industry like Asha Bhosle, Kishor Kumar, sonu Nigam.. and lot of other singers who have given better songs and music to us.. I guess the popularity and fame is getting to his head…. Watch out himesh .. time can run out for guys like you.. without.. you knowing it.. !!!

Moon Cake Festival Or Lantern Festival Or Mid-Autumn Festival

This festival, also known as the Lantern Festival or Mid-Autumn Festival, commemorates the 14th-century revolution led by Yuan Zhang who smuggled notes inside moon cakes and used lighted lanterns as a signal to launch the revolt. One of the highlights of the festival is the Moon Cake Fair where hundreds of festive stalls line the streets of Chinatown selling an astonishing variety of moon cakes, traditional paper lanterns, decorations and other delicacies. Children parade down the streets with their brightly lit lanterns in the Children’s Lantern Procession. The Chinese Garden becomes a fairyland of lights and colours for the Lantern Festival, and there is also a range of cultural shows and performances including lion and dragon dancing, Chinese instrumentalists and craftsmen.

One gets a cool flavour of this festival in Singapore at the Chinese Garden. The place is walking distance from the Chinese Garden MRT. The entry ticket is SGD 12 per person for adults and SGD 8 for children above 3 & upto 11 years. The whole of Chinese garden is lighted right from Chinese Garden MRT & usually there are different themes followed during the festival for the lighted showcase that is an attraction for all young and old at this place.

We, my family, Faisal's family & Chandrasekhar we all went for this wonderful festival & had a good time on friday evening. One good thing was there were decent food varieties available at the place. I remember last time I had almost starved walking around the place & couldn't find a place.

We took quite a number of photographs.. Few of them I have attached here. Rest I have uploaded on picasa.

Hope you can plan for this, its open till 30th September... Since it is lighted show one has to go in the evening. Hope you have a good time..capturing the Festival lights..with cameras...