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Kalmadi, learn from Ueberroth

admin — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 07:48:08 +0000

THE acronym snafu — situation-normal all fouled up — sums up the status of the New Delhi Commonwealth Games, scheduled to open on October 3. With the deadline for handing over the different stadia and the Games village being extended to August 31, there is a palpable sense of frenzied desperation to get everything completed by then, a mood reinforced by televised images of incomplete stadia, leaking roofs, seeping walls and debris.
Media reports of a young diver injuring herself while trying out the facilities will not exactly inspire confidence among international champions who would already be wondering whether winning even a gold medal at Delhi is worth it. A Commonwealth gold need not be equivalent to even an Olympic bronze since sporting powerhouses like the US, Russia, China and Germany will not be participating. Which explains why 10 international sports champs will skip the New Delhi Games, starting with the fastest man on earth, Usain Bolt.
The New Delhi Games could even end up becoming a case study on how not to host a major sporting event. New Delhi’s bid to host the 19th Commonwealth Games was accepted in 2003 when the BJP-led NDA coalition government was ruling India. The commitment to hosting the Games appeared to be diluted from the summer of 2004 itself when the Congress-led UPA formed the national government.
The UPA’s sports ministers — first Bollywood actor Sunil Dutt and then the diplomat-turned-politician Mani Shankar Aiyar —did not seem to be that enthusiastic about hosting the Games, with the latter questioning the rationale behind spending thousands of crores of rupees of taxpayer funds on a mega sporting event when there were other priorities.
Mr Aiyar’s proposal that the work on the Games be supervised by a special apex committee was not accepted and he was replaced as sports minister in 2008 with M S Gill, a bureaucrat who had served as the country’s Chief Election Commissioner. Different agencies were then entrusted with the responsibility of building the stadia.
In short, no one seems to be in overall charge and the confusion we see today is a reflection of non-stop bickering over the last 5-6 years between the sports ministry and the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) headed by Suresh Kalmadi. The government of India and the IOA could have learnt something from the successful staging of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics despite the decision by the city of LA not to spend a cent of municipal funds on the event. In 1978, the US Olympic Committee accepted the recommendations of a headhunting firm and appointed Peter Ueberroth, a very successful 41-year-old business entrepreneur, to take charge of the LA Games. Ueberroth’s strategy was to first generate funds and he started by organising a one-shot blind-bid auction for the TV rights to the LA Olympics. He was advised that this would not generate more than $150 million but ABC won the TV rights with a bid of $225 million. Ueberroth then pruned the number of sponsors to 30 so as to give it a touch of exclusivity that would persuade individual corporate sponsors to shell out much more, the minimum being $4 million.
Just two months before the LA Olympics was to begin, the Soviet Union announced that it would be boycotting the event, something that was always on the cards after the Western nations had boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics in the wake of the USSR’s invasion of Afghanistan.
Ueberroth sent envoys to China and East Germany and himself visited Havana where he persuaded Fidel Castro not to influence other countries in the region to boycott the LA Games even though Cuba had to follow the Russian lead. Ueberroth also persuaded Romania to participate after meeting its Olympic officials in Switzerland. The first privately-funded Olympic Games generated a surplus of $215 million, mainly due to Ueberroth’s inspirational leadership.
The LA Olympics project office was a converted helicopter factory and all staffers were required to lunch together in the canteen that had been set up in a disused aircraft hangar. As Ueberroth told Time magazine, “We felt the responsibility of the country was at stake. It was frightening… In the US, there is a spark of can-do, can-work, can-accomplish — you can do things without being on the government dole.” He was Time’s Man Of The Yearfor 1984.
Mr Kalmadi could logically argue that, unlike the US, it is only cricket that excites India’s fans and sponsors. If so, the government of India should give full freedom for private initiative while stepping in at the right time when there is a breach of the law. The IPL is a case in point. By intervening only after Lalit Modi’s tweet on the involvement of Union minister Tharoor in the Kochi franchise, the government of India has given the unfortunate impression that its action was motivated not so much by public interest as by ministerial pique.

The snafu-hit Commonwealth Games were never a priority for UPA-I, changing sports ministers not helping the matter
A page from the book of LA Olympics, 1984, organiser Peter Ueberroth could have eased the pain of IOA chief
The entrepreneur first generated funds for the games, convinced boycotters to participate, and made a $215-m profit

Written by Raghu Krishnan
Economic Times

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Motumaster lyrics from Udaan: Hilarious!

admin — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 06:46:37 +0000

Lyrics of Motumaster-Iski Maa Agar Isse Song

Iski maa (bhai kiski maa)
Iski maa agar isse, pait mein hi maar deti (maar deti)
Toh Bihar mein akaal na hota (akaal na hota)
Orissa mein, Orissa mein baad na hoti (baad na hoti)

Maa perplex thi (perplex thi)
Baap complex tha (complex tha), complex tha
Arrey radio ke zamaane ka yeh pehla multiplex tha (multiplex tha)

Paida hua yeh jis din paida hua – 2 times
Iss ke baap ne gaon mein ladoo batwaya – 2 times
Woh aakhri din tha jab isske gaon mein kisi ne kuch khaya (kisi ne kuch khaya, kisi ne kuch khaya)
Paida karte iski maa jo zor se chilai
Leke Ashok Chakra sarkar daudi daudi aayi

Doctor ne baap ko side mein le jaake daanta – 2 times
Bola kahan se layi yeh gastronomical jwarbhata – 2 times
Darzi ne bola inchi tape apne bagal mein chaape – 2 times
Kamar toh naapte magar hum kamra kaise naape – 2 times
Hoo pathar ke paalne mein jab yeh leta rota tha – 2 times
Sara gaon isske baap ke aasuon se bartan dhota tha
Bartan bartan bartan dhota tha ..

Gusse mein isska baap (oho)
Parliament gaya (aaha)
Bola nirodh kyun, late invent kiya (oho ..) invent ..

Har baal ki khaal ki yeh chaal bhi kha jaaye
Iske haath padh jaaye toh mahiney saal bhi kha jaaye
Kisi behal ka bacha jo haal bhi haal kha jaaye
Bemaut marte mann ka yeh malaal kha jaaye
Lalu kalaal kha jaaye
Naxal baari ki naal kha jaaye
Bachpan ka dhamaal kha jaaye
Budhape ki shaal kha jaye
Haya toh chodo baheya ki chaal bhi kha jaaye
Agar parosa ja sake toh khayal bhi kha jaaye

(butter chiken, butter chiken ..)
Hoo ladoo gopal hai poora chopal hai
Khada toh itarsi baitha Bhopal hai
(baitha Bhopal hai bhai baitha Bhopal hai
Bhopal Bhopal baitha Bhopal hai)

Iski jo paad hai khansabo ko daad hai
Baap murdabad beta muradabad hai
(iski jo paad hai khansabo ko daad hai
baap murdabad beta muradabad hai, baap murdabad beta muradabad hai)

Hey isski jo dakaar hai bhopu bhi bekar hai
Gud gud iske pait ki, pait ki sarkar hai
Vote do bhai vote do, poora hi phod do

Iska jo size hai iski maa ka pyaar hai
Hajam kiya iss ne apne baap ka karobaar hai
(baap ka karobaar apne baap ka karobaar hai)

Chirken ka muse hai par ya varan hi lose hai
Udne na dena isse dooms day ka fuse hai
(dooms day ka fuse hai bhai dooms day ka fuse, doom
dooms day ka fuse dooms day ka fuse hai)

Khachua bhi isse faster, motumaster
Gas ka plaster, motumaster
Hai naak bandh phaatkar, motumaster
Chod baant baant kar, motumaster

http://www.top10bollywood.com/

Yeh motumaster hai total disaster
Total diaster hai motumaster
Motumaster chal daaro paas kar
Chup be, bastard

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Who’ll say sorry to this chap? SK or SD??

admin — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 05:46:15 +0000

Saw this car, just after batra hospital on MB road, around 12 am, 5th july. Deeply embedded in one of those thousands of holes dug up in delhi. A simple question: ‘who’ll say sorry to this guy, mr kalmadi, or mrs dikshit?’ i am not against “trouble today for a better tomorrow”, but then, is it too tough to have proper signages and lighting done, to warn motorists of the danger lurking in the vicinity?? with the monsoons hitting us finally, this can only get worse in the coming days.

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fir Gill do Hockey ko!

admin — Mon, 24 May 2010 06:45:47 +0000

It is with amusement and alarm that i read the story on the reinstatement of Indian Hockey Federation, with KPS Gill back in the news. Few would deny that the ex-supremo of Punjab Police did all he could, to kill all respect for himself by handling the national sport of India in a completely bizarre and shoddy way. People like him, after the days of crowning glory being past them, tend to stick to one such body or federation, so their flow of income continues till eternity. Or atleast till they are alive. Through the years, mismanagement and a complete lack of empathy has resulted in Indian Hockey going through the doldrums, with past records and the golden era of Indian Hockey being the only yardsticks by which we continue to justify Hockey as the national sports. Constantly figuring towards the bottom in past few editions of world hockey championships, with players complaining that they dont get salaries, and with federation begging for inflow of funds, it is a sorry state of affairs for hockey, and politics and faulty sports administration are the only reasons which can be ascribed to the downfall.

For once, I hope that IHF/Gill and HI are both dismantled, and a professional sports management agency or individual gets to handle Hockey for an year. The results will be out there for all to see.

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Be fair, BCCI. Atleast hear out Modi

admin — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 06:13:54 +0000

It has been with a lot of fascination that i have been watching and reading the Modigate/IPLgate that has grabbed the collective imagination of the nation. The sweet li’l tweetings and everything that followed has been immensely more fascinating than the spectacle of IPL itself. Without getting into any of the murky dealings that Modi has been accused of, ranging from fabricated bidding, granting rights to friends and relatives, match-fixing, betting, parties, money laundering, ownership in teams and other such stories, i would only want to say that Modi has managed to create, during a time-frame which goes into mere planning at a number of corporate and government bodies, an entity which is worth a few billion dollars, and a body which throws a nation out of gear for close to 2 months every year. To bring about a somewhat alien concept of commercial club league to India, and succeeding in creating something so brilliant, that each and every critic got silenced, is a mark of genius. And in Lalit Modi’s defense, his perspective needs to be listened to. I am more than 100% sure that there are some murky secrets and vested interests of BCCI officials, UPA ministers, NCP ministers and a few others, who have all collaborated to ensure BCCI puts the entire blame on one individual, in the hope that other more powerful people do not get exposed. But if my judgment of Modi is correct, he will not remain silent. He has so far lost more than anyone else, and when drowning, he will ensure he takes a few others down. I hope he does. As that will perhaps help people realize how politicians have been sleeping with sports in this country for way too long, and the same set who are crying illegality and immorality in all of Modi’s dealings, have been doing the same, and much more, through their lives. And if the nexus does not get exposed now, it will perhaps continue the same way for a few more years to come. Until a Modi-like chap comes again, and manages to do the unthinkable. A man so supremely confident of his vision and his ability, that nothing can stop him from beating all odds, and achieving the vision he set out for. I wish there were more such administrators in India, or at least in Indian sports. Perhaps not be as flamboyant and as counter-establishment as Modi was, but those who have the balls to stay by their vision, and go out and make it happen.

If nothing more, for me, the icing on the cake would be if Modi joins ICL as the Chairman, and makes it a far bigger entity than IPL. That will be yummy, really!

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