Why can’t I not have an opinion as Celebrity?

Is the question Katrina Kaif asked, joining the growing list of new age celebrities who are challenging the journalists who have been forcing them to express their view on topics of national interest.

If you have watched any of the Film promotion interview, the journalist ask the actors not only questions about their role and experience of working in the film, but also ask these celluloid stars to comment on the current affairs. The same comments are distorted according to the journalist talent for words and are both published and telecast to catch the eyeballs of the public. Dodging of these questions is also made into revenue generating articles and episodes.

People of our country can make a person a hero, if he/she represent or support their view; otherwise you see them use the filthiest language to belittle the person. A person who had been worshiped ,could quickly disowned by the same fans. Rajnikanth is biggest example for it.

Actors need to be respected and left alone, if they don’t feel like commenting on a topic. Channels and Magazines already have many means of keeping the TRP high, like wardrobe malfunctions, commenting on the dress worn for award nights, linking of co-actors and tearing their private life.

On the other hands, actors should also maintain consistency of not reacting or commenting on current affairs or take political sides by favoring any person or party. They shouldn’t be using their star value to influence people.  If you still want to use your stardom to payback your benefactors, then chose the right forums for it. By choosing to be careless of forum, you are asking for trouble, as well as allowing people to generalize your fellow actors.

Journalist can’t be entirely blamed, as they are forced to such dirty tricks by their paymasters. If this trend has to be ended, it is in the hands of these actors to think and act judiciously. You dont have to be the next MGR, Jayalalitha or NTR.

Roger's Muddled thought

Roger Federer, the player with most number of singles Grand slam titles in open era for a male player, has decided to skip the French open 2017 and most of clay court tournaments to concentrate on the grass court seasons.

This decision to skip a Grand slam in a year, wherein he is having a dream run has really surprised me.  Unless injured, I don’t see any other reason for him to skip a Slam. He could have his own reasons or being advised by his set of advisers for skipping the French open, wherein his record is not enviable as other slams. I though disagree with his reasoning and if I was he, would have given my best shot to win the slam.

Roger should consider, this year’s French open as his best chance to add to his tally of 18 slams and improve his record in the Clay. Roger’s improved fitness and with many of top ranked players not showing the consistency, he should consider only Nadal, his nemesis and king of clay as the biggest threat. His recent success against Nadal and improvement in his game should instill the required confidence to defeat him once more, if required and go on to lay his muddy hands on the trophy. This could be a double delight for Roger as well as his fans. Winning this year’s tournament, could have enhanced his legacy.

Roger is not getting younger and I am not sure, how many more opportunity he will get in French open to add to his sole trophy.  If, he doesn’t go on to win any more French open, it would continue to question his supremacy of tennis over all surfaces.

I don’t know , if it is too late to reverse the decision, if not I would urge him to reconsider and play these muddy tournaments to have a happy retirement and leaving nothing for critics to dig upon.

IPL- Edition of X Factor

IPL –X has caught my attention unlike few of gone by seasons. For an innocent viewer & lover of any game of cricket, this season has provided the much needed entertainment, wherein we had got to witness plenty of individual brilliance, collective contributions leading to many close encounters.

We are in the last day of league matches and we are yet to identify teams which will play the Playoffs. This proves the competitiveness of this league.

Mumbai Indians players have put their hands up and made them counted in whatever opportunity they have got and repaid the faith the team management had, thereby making the selection process look brilliant. They have become the first team to comfortably qualify and top the table.

The Knight Riders and Sun risers have been brilliant on most of the days to earn a spot in the playoffs, but will have nail biting time and wouldn’t know their fate until the King’s XI versus Rising Pune Giants match gets over. This match could shake up the table position.

Whichever be the teams playing the playoffs, there is one fourth possibility of new team being crowned the Champions. I for the, underdog have been supporting the Preity’s Kings and hope they qualify for the playoffs and go on to be crowned Champions.

Rising Pune Giants under the leadership of Smith, also stand a chance to claim their maiden title. Their title winning effort could further spice up the post edition discussions of future conduct of the league.

The X factor of IPL will continue even after this edition comes to a closure. There are plenty of questions lingering in the minds of IPL fans, about the future of the teams and the fate of players, who have played their hearts out to create fan base for their team. I expect plenty of actions in the boardrooms before we move to the next phase of IPL.

With lot of excitement and expectation, I look forward for remainder of this edition and course it takes to remain a competitive league, which has something for anyone associated with it.

Its NERAM

Contribution to the world of Arts & Literature by the Varma community from Kerala has been significant. I, Adarsh Varma have been both proud and dejected of this history. Proud, of the fact that I belong to family which has made telling contribution, and dejected because my contribution towards the continuation of this legacy has been a big ZERO. But one person in my family who has been relentlessly trying to contribute has been Shabareesh Varma and it is his NERAM now to shine.

Has his NERAM come?

 

I and Shabareesh are of the same age and have always found him to be hyperactive, witty and incredibly talented from our childhood days. He seems to have an ambition of making a name for himself in the world of cinema, which brought him to Chennai to do a course in the field of Sound. He was also lucky to have liked minded friends who too wanted to contribute to world of cinema. Despite being in the same city for 4 years i haven’t been to see him and he absents himself from even our family get together as he use to spend his NERAM in labs working on the providing quality sounds to films. His association with the film industry enabled to get him a break in a film titled “NERAM”.

 NERAM is a bilingual starring ‘Thattathin Marayathu’ famed Nivin pauly. Shabareesh would be the second hero in this film and has also sung 2 songs for this film. The promo song which has been sung by him is a peppy number has really created hype for this film which is getting released in the month of May. I am sure that this jolly song will give him the break is wanted and I hope his performance in the film will bring in more meaningful role his way.

With more film under his kitty I expect him to establish a strong presence in the industry which will help him in getting a chance in direction which I hear from other relatives is his preference. Film world is a place for survival of the fittest and I hope Chabbi as we call him is strong enough to survive and make good movies which is appreciated by critics and film goers.

I am happy to share his song through this blog and wish him a wonderful career ahead. Shabareesh you are a flag bearer for our next generation.

Folks enjoy this song and share your comments. Please also watch this film in theaters ….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuuypjzzqRw&feature=youtu.be

The Beggar

Today while travelling from thrissur to pazhainoor by bus i happened to witness an unpleasing act by my fellow passengers; this was repeated by another set of passengers in my return journey. On reaching home i shared my unhappiness with aunts and uncles and found out to my dismay that it has become a routine on this route.

What was it are you wondering? If you are a keralite and have travelled in this route you might have seen it too, who knows you too would have done it.

People of kerala have become immensely rich that they have started tossing coins from their seat in bus to the creator of mankind the GOD ,thus making him a beggar seated inside a place called temple which was considered a place of worship by our ancestors, what made the scene even more ugly for outsider like me was that of temple personal catching these coins showing his desperation to increase the bank balance of his boss(read as god). 

Hundis were placed in temples for worshippers to drop their offering to the almighty, slowly it became a collection centre where some people deposited god's share for helping them realize their wishes or as advance money for the help he is going to do. I accepted these activities as this money was used for conducting various rituals at the temple thus maintaining the positive vibration of that place. People should realize that by tossing the coin they are not pleasing rather belittling the very source of his existence, god has never demanded you for shares so if you don’t have the patience to get down from your vehicle and drop your offering please don’t throw coins and disrespect him and thus disrespect yourself.  

Was that a Great Advertisement?

Darren Sammy portrayed himself to be most relived man in world today after his team avoided a defeat at the hands of Indians in the third test which was a dead rubber. None would have expected such a finish on the final day after what was dished out on the first four, but that is test cricket as experts would say -where every session is important. The captain of the team which had scored close to 600 runs and had a healthy lead of more than 100 during his post-match presentation said this was great advertisement for game of cricket and which was agreed by many people who would have watched he turn of events through this test.

Great advertisement- was it? No! I would never call this match a great advertisement to the game, instead I would like to point out that the West Indian team is not a worthy opponent against whom we could expect thrilling matches, they despite having first innings lead twice in this series have let their opponent crawl back and secure the series 2-0.Media and cricket board sponsored commentators through their repeated expert view can create a pseudo feeling of greatness about these kinds of matches and sell the game.

Analyzing the history of any competitive sports would point to us that no nation can dominate any popular competitive sport for lengthy time, the decline of one nation has seen the rise of set of other nations which would have enabled that sport to move forward in terms of competitiveness which in turn would increase the passion among fans and thus increasing the popularity. Unfortunately for cricket no new nations have taken the mantle from leaders like West Indies and Australia in moving the game forward. Had countries like Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Netherland, Kenya, and Scotland put a strong team which they have failed to do, we wouldn’t have seen a year like this where teams like India and England had to play back to back series against each other. Money generated today have neither being used properly in expanding the game in newer countries nor have it been used to expand the infrastructure of existing nations.

Fatigue and boredom has set amongst the fans watching meaningless series being played by the same set of nations. Excitement would be temporary with small tweaks of changes like introduction of power play in one day games or bowling with different set of balls from two ends, day and night test and test championship which has been proposed would ignite the interest amongst fans for quite a while but cannot sustain the interest unless we see development of game in more nations with the funds being generated today. Boards would not require advertising the game when we see more nations with equal strength competing against each other nor back to back series in the same year.

Who Cares

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I recently read a quote in Facebook on different stages of buying petrol

“1. Denial 2. Anger 3. Bargaining 4. Depression 5. Acceptance ... The 5 stages of buying petrol “

Around this time a year ago, Government of India announced to the citizens of this country that they no longer would be regulating the fuel prices. This bold and historical move was met with hue and cries from the opposition party who claimed that this would increase the inflation rate making the life of common man miserable. Despite all the protest, the government went ahead with the decision and thus the oil companies where given the right to decide their own pricing.

State run petrol companies which supply 90% of the fuel that is being consumed in India have thus so far raised the prices of petrol 7 times in the last one year with the blessings of the government. Every time the prices were raised, we the common citizen got to witness the same drama played by both opposition and ruling party.  Every time there was hike, opposition parties calls for Hartals and strikes which were considered powerful form of protest,which had little or no effect on the government but did/do create lots of inconvenience to AAM JANATA.

Talking of these aam janata, are they really being affected by the price hike?
If you go to any petrol bunk on the day when the price hike is announced you would find huge line of smart commoners awaiting their turn to fill up as much fuel as possible with the intention of saving few precious pennies from their earning. Looking at this scene you would feel pity, but soon this pity would turn into anger and helplessness, as you could find these same people which include the state run transport buses wasting fuel at transport signal. What happened to their smartness? Today, vehicle are technically  so advanced that you just have to press a button to start the engine, despite this  I find the people lazy to turn their engine off at signals where they are brought to stand still for more than 120 seconds.

Despite various efforts taken by NGO’s, government agencies, petroleum companies to educate the public to act smart and save the fuel, their reckless attitude continues.
I have got mails which says petrol are priced cheap in foreign countries and blaming our government on imposing on us this heavy price but have we thought about how much we our self are to be blamed ?

I am not here to give you the gyan on how to reduce the consumption of petrol but here to say that ,there are persons like me  who are bothered by this frequent price rise and its effect on my bank balance.I don’t wish to contribute my earnings for you to waste……