In print, no more

I am a diehard print media person. But, life throws you these curve balls, despite me doing my best to complicate things on my own… so my print publication is going online.
For the first time in 12 years I will not be working for something that is not printed and distributed before being read.
When people who met for the first time used to ask me, “So, What do you do?”
May answer would be, “I decide what 100,000 people will read first thing in the morning. What do you do?”
Not anymore, at least not in print.

What the Goa boys are saying...

Indian women are by and large uncomfortable wearing a revealing swimsuit. Display of skin in public is by and large considered uncultured. Which is why Indian women go to Goa. In Goa, the rules change, especially for the young singles. Away from the prying eyes of a society that knows them and their family, the babes shed their prejudices and their clothes. Within reasonable limits. These limits have been changing, or so the Goa boys tell me. Until recently the Goa boys look to lay the foreigners predominantly.
That is all changing now. It’s the Indian chick in demand.

99 words to describe England's football team when only one will really do - turgid

Dumb, despairing, desperate, pathetic, puke-worthy, plain, cringe-worthy, heartless, broken, piss-poor, class-less, drab, dreary, depressing, disjointed, dull, callous, cold, hopeless, miserable, gloomy, measly, faithless, stuttering, wooden, dour, acerbic, bitter, blind, dastardly, bastardly, dicey, sleazy, pitiful, pointless, degrading, debasing, distasteful, disgusting, contorted, futile, grim, cowardly, listless, stifling, suffocating, spineless, spastic, spasmodic, futile, childish, miserable, sad, despondent, crap, shit, soul-less, dirt, garbage, dastardly, deviant, diabolical, nasty, noxious, nauseating, nerdy, nervy, knobby, knotty, tacky, filthy, degraded, exasperating, infuriating, maddening, vexing, annoying, galling, irksome, irritating, tiresome, tedious, wearisome, bothersome, worrisome, difficult, incommodious, obstinate, pigheaded, inflexible, mulish, obdurate, insolent, squalid, seedy, sordid, dodgy, shady, slimy.

Economic gibberish

What I really regret not doing is my Master’s in Economics from LSE or Harvard. Or from somewhere where, the metrics of the global economic system grind out the numbers that feed the accepted norms.
I have the concept but not the research and the grammar, the syntax of the whole thing. I just don’t have that, in economic terms.
For example, the stock market is now no more an indicator of real economic growth or health. It is running parallel and can only harm not help in putting food on your table.
Time to redefine creation of wealth.

...in heaven

So this is heaven.
Wake up, have breakfast, potter around till lunch, then watch the first of the day’s World Cup matches.
Potter around some more. Order coffee and settle in for the next match, played early evening.
Wrap up whatever pottering around it is you do, get dinner in front of the TV with lots of desert and watch the last match of the day.
Unfortunately, I’m off the sauce, or else it would really have been like dying and going to heaven.
But, that’s what life is like these days. Everyday. For the next 30 days. Heaven!

I am...

I am impressed that other sports, cricket in particular, have the balls to conduct tournaments that clash with the football World Cup. I’m biased, but cricket looks like some pissy shit compared to what’s going on in South Africa.
I am disgusted by how people become football fans and some even experts (read Facebook postings), just because the World Cup is on. Fookin’ posers!
I am disappointed with England coach Fabio Capello’s decision not to play a central midfielder and go with a punt-or-cross attack.
I am a selfish bastard. This last one is just by the way.

Vuvuzela-ed out!

And so it begins. A million people, I estimate, will be writing a billion articles on the World Cup. But, you will find mine only here. And on the website of the paper I work for. But, to maintain the figleaf of anonymity, I don’t link the two.
The world cup, as in the matches, have started on a discordant, ear-splitting, atmosphere-destroying note. I have written about this before here, and as always, my prophetic vision comes to pass. Or, in this case to ear.
The vuvuzela is making watching the matches on TV a pathetic experience. Truly sad.

Robin and Rafa

The Swedish press have rightly gored into Robin Soderling. He had the bull by the horns, more than once, in his French Open final against Rafael Nadal. He just did not have the big match mentality to put him away. He needs a coach who can give him that.
Meanwhile, unless Rafa thinks the sight of him pulling his underwear out of his ass-crack is entertaining, he should loosen his shorts. This has gone on for years now and it’s got me thinking that maybe he enjoys it. Maybe it’s like part of his on-court persona. A lucky charm.

Crazy schedule

I sensed it the first time I saw the schedule of warm-up matches before the World. I should have said it then. But, hey, I’ll say it now. Have all the team managers gone mad? Do they have to be putting them through such a hectic schedule one week before the World Cup, risking injuries to key players?
Consider the fallout… Arjen Robben (not sure), Didier Drogba, Martin Skrtel and Rio Ferdinand.
I have to question the wisdom of teams going to the most important sporting event of the decade playing warm-ups one week before the tournament begins.

Disgusting!

India plays cricket with Zimbabwe and it speaks of the sickening double standards of our collective national conscience. More people are dying and suffering in Zimbabwe than anywhere else in the world. Yet, the game must go on. And with cricket a game becomes soul-destroying stuff… an opiate on the nation.
India will not take part in the T20 event at the Asian Games because of prior international commitments. Is there anything more important than winning a gold medal at the Asian Games? There is. The Olympics. But don’t hold your breath. That will clash with the great IPL.