Happy New Year

Wherever you are, know that I will always love you
Wherever you go, know that my spirit soars over the land to protect you
However you live, I will always have a prayer for you
No matter the moment, or the day, or the year…
Time will always stand still when I think of you.
As hairs grey, and spines stoop, as wisdom wanes and passion thins
As darkness falls and life fades…
I wait not for the dawn of hope… for it will come as surely as each New Year… let it come for you, and you alone

Good Auld Pune

Christmas in Pune is like getting sucked into the vortex of a whirlpool. I’ve come up for a breath and a quick post before I get sucked in again, not surfacing till the fourth day of the New Year… at least.
At times it is like a never-ending party. At times, a moment of zen, and at times, like good ‘ol Pune.
The city is growing at the speed of thought, changing in ways that are more than noticeable. Yet beneath it all lies the heart and soul of a town that just refuses to grow up. Thank God.

Missing Messi

Lionel Messi is playing not more than 90 minutes away from me and I am here stuck at work. That is a sacrifice worthy of Christmas. Yes, I know, it’s Christmas this and Christmas that, but forgive me.
Christians mourn the period before Good Friday because that is the day Christ died for all. The period to mourn is advent – before Christmas. We messed it up so badly, that God had to send his Son to die to rescue us. So I don’t feel so bad about Messi. And once you listen to this carol, neither will you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtWSR89UhRg&feature=related

A Pune Christmas

Pune Camp was as cosmopolitan as it got till the 1990s. You had Muslim butchers who openly supported the Pakistani cricket team. You had Iranians, Palestinians and Africans who claimed streets for their own. You had the Brahmins who sneered at cow-eaters and cheered during Ganpati. You had Parsis, who baked bread and ran restaurants. And you had the Christians. Who went carol singing during Christmas like it was the most natural thing to do. The thing was… it was.
That’s what made a Pune Christmas beautiful.
And every carol singing troupe must surely start with this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stEjTFMb940

Journalism beaten, but alive

Sycophantic journalism finds it full oeuvre in the Gulf. I have a simple test for the only journalism that I respect – the one that makes life hell for those who are entrusted with the lives of society. If you have not been arrested, beaten, threatened, or in India had your face blackened, been garlanded with slippers, you’ve failed as a journalist.
Two Sakal journalists getting beaten for trying to expose a construction scam in Pune was a reassuring reminder that in some places that type of journalism still exists.

Like this classic is a reassuring Christmas must:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_W7p35SzuI&feature=related

Breaking up is hard to do

The modus operandi is frustratingly simple. Frustrating for the government who has to deal with someone on a fast to death. Simple for the faster.
If Andhra is broken up, before long, the other states will follow with their own fasts unto deaths.
I have long propagated the breaking up of India into a confederation of states. However, by holding a nation to ransom, is not the way to do it. I would let a few fasters die. Either that, or a few states will die.

So, today, a carol that offers the drumbeat to a new age:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb0hAPimGrU&feature=related

Biased pricks

Gary Lineker (Spurs) anchored last night’s Champions League coverage with Graeme Souness (Liverpool), Steve McManaman (Real Madrid) and Trevor Francis (Nottingham Forest) on Al Jazeera Sport.
Even then, I did not expect the bias against Manchester United that I heard.
All they did, all night, was write off Manchester United. Their biggest faux pas was ignoring Gabriel Obertan’s dazzling skill to set up Owen’s second. Not even a passing reference to him leaving three Wolfsburg players for dead.
Which is why today’s Christmas tune is a healing one – the original Band Aid, when Africa was in vogue:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jEnTSQStGE

The Katlics have arrived

The D’silvas (Rensil) and D’souzas (Genelia) are leading a Manglorean-East Indian-Goan renaissance in Bollywood. Can a Fernandes and Lobo be far behind?
Their parents are unlikely to have been able to converse in pure Hindi, and neither was it a priority.
For that generation, getting out of India - to Australia, Canada, US or UK was the goal. This generation has realized that they are Indian and India has it all to offer.
Importantly, these desi Katlics have broken into the mainstream. Which brings me to today’s Christmas tune from one of the greatest - The Boss:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSgEDKjmT5o&feature=related

My Christmas treat for you

Here is a special Christmas treat for all who stop by. I will post a link to a video every time I post a 99. It will feature my favourite Christmas carols as performed by the stars… and a few others also. Of course, they are MY favourites, but as you have come to know if you stop by every other week – my judgement in these matters is to be trusted.
The only time divas are any good is at funerals and Christmas. So 99 kicks off the yuletide party season with the sexiest of them all….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBagqdscIdQ&feature=related

Headline headlines

Three days on the trot for Tiegah. Beggars belief, even for a sports maniac like me. I hate golf.
Nevertheless, the combination of a name like Tiger and bird-lenient golf jargon is a headline writer’s dream.
The one that has been mentioned most by newspaper columnists (the ultimate accolade for a journo is when a fellow scribe praises you, yeah, screw the reader!) has been the New York Post’s – Tiger admits he’s a Cheetah.
My favourite this week is from The Sun – Best English Group Since The Beatles – for the World Cup group England were drawn into.

One for the sist’aa-hood

All of Tiger Woods’ women are white. Wonder what the black sist’aas feel about that. Them booty not good enough for Tiegah!
Actually, I remember Denis Rodman on a talk show saying he never bonks black women because when he was a nobody, them black women gave him the go by, but after he got rich, they flocked to him; as against white women who recognised him for who he was - a nigga with a giant cock! These by the way included Madonna and Carmen Electra.
Watch you gotta say sist’aas? Are you really just the money honeys?

Of humanity and idols

I no more support adultery than I do Tiger Woods’ philandering (and the birdie jokes are too obvious to be funny). Tiger is a serial philanderer, Agassi did drugs… I’m relieved that these guys are human, after all.
The big money bandwagon has squeezed the humanity out of geniuses, forcing them to live ‘perfect’ lives not for themselves, but for the masses that idiolise them.
If you’re not going to cheat on your wife, then do it because YOU choose not to… not because of your image. My favourite stars are all ‘human’ geniuses – especially the Brazilian Socrates.

All together now: It's Christmas time!

There is just something about Christmas.
It’s like good times on acid without the hangover, dehydration or guilt. Though all three are liable to find life in January, when the December madness has passed.
But for the moment, let’s just sink in to the season of good cheer and giving – like drowning in sinking sand, except its chocolate.
I could be dead broke, heading for jail, not a single joy in the world, a deadbeat job, and yet, on December 2, when I hear that first Christmas carol…. hope springs eternal… like a fountain of scotch. Seasons greetings!