Its been a long while since I posted about cricket. But I can’t keep my thoughts away from this game for too long. So my posts too can’ remain away from this game.
Recently ICC chief David Morgan said about bringing some changes to test cricket in order to bring interest of the followers, to the traditional format of the game, who are at the moment hooked to the T20 cricket. The most talked about change is reducing the test game to a 4 day affair from the current 5 day affair. Well I don’t think that it will help much as most don’t like test cricket for most of the test games are draw and reducing it to a 4 day match will increase the no. of draw games. For this change to work ICC will have to bring in more changes like, as mentioned in todays TOI letting each side bat only for a day and reducing no. of overs in a day to 80 overs. If the side batting first is bowled out inside a day then the other side will bat the remaining day and the next day which is scheduled to be their batting day. And the most important one if the side batting second failed to reach its target and is not bowled out then declare the side batting first as the winner instead of declaring it as a draw.
Well this idea looks exciting for me but it has its disadvantages like we will hardly get to see the kind of innings Gambhir played against New Zealand in the second test earlier this year to chalk out a draw for India and let India be in the lead. After all these types of innings are the real kind of test innings. We also will not get to see a triple century to see unless someone like Sehwag plays a whirlwind innings at the top of the innings and yeah that will mean Lara’s record of 400 will remain unchallenged.
The T20 version will always remain the audience favourite as it gets winded in 3 hours (unless you are like me as I was recently got bored by too much of T20 cricket) while test match lasts for nearly 8 hours * 5 days. There will be more ideas of this kind in many peoples mind and whichever idea ICC adopts I hope it won’t affect the real test values.
Many traditional followers believe that test cricket shouldn’t be tinkered but if we want the interest in test matches to improve we have to change it. Just hoping it doesn’t tinkers the real values of test cricket as I stated earlier.
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Well in the last 3 days a lot has happened in the political circled of Mumbai due to the online admission process of class XI. The process is really good and on the paper really helpful for students reducing their stress that they are subjected to due to admission process. But since it is the first time the process will face some problems. And these problems are frustating the kids who passed out the class X examinations this year. The opposition parties are now trying to encash on this frustation of the students and their parents. And I hate this.
Whenever any ruling party gets a good change in any process or any any good reform, the opposition party instead of giving constructive criticism always provide destructive criticism. In this case Shiv Sena and MNS disrupting MKCL office and some submission centre due to the server problems. What they ignore is the fact that since its just the first year that they are implementing such systems there are bound to be some problems. Like when the online procedre was adopted for engineering admissions the first batch had to face some problems but later on the next batches had to face less problems.
Moreover those students who filled forms online at centres opened by the political parties, have found that the names of colleges entered by the staff at these centres are not in the order of preference they had indicated. This has added more chaos to the situation. The government has provided 3 more days to correct the mistakes.
For now I hope that this admission process go on without any further problems and this process is continued for coming years too(ofcourse wih less problems).
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The whole internet yesterday was abuzz with the death of Michael Jackson. MJ, the king of pop died at the age of 50 and will be remembered for both his talent – of singing as well as dancing, and also for the controversies.
Since everyone was writing something about MJ or paying tribute to him except me, I thought everyone has been affected by his death except me. Even twitter is abuzz with him. Everyone is twitting about him(yeah I too twitted but just once and its same that I have written above.). Well for me, not the death but all this thing has brought an altogether different feeling as he was one of my favorite pop icon (though I liked only his songs in his initial years) with his thriller and black or white being my favourite from pop genre and still here was I doing nothing -neither writing any post about him nor talking about him with my friennds.
I haven’t been to twitter earlier and signed up for it just yesterday and found out what the netizens have been doing. As I said the twitter has been very much alive with the news of MJ’s death. My favourite tweet in these two days has been by Robin Sharma – ‘While Michael Jackson was alive, the world mocked him. Now he’s dead, the world celebrates him’ How true!
Here my tribute to the late pop sensation MJ
Well I was undecided of what to post as a tribute to him. In the end just posted the song thriller. Here are the Lyrics
[1st Verse]
It’s Close To Midnight And Something Evil’s Lurking In The Dark
Under The Moonlight You See A Sight That Almost Stops Your Heart
You Try To Scream But Terror Takes The Sound Before You Make It
You Start To Freeze As Horror Looks You Right Between The Eyes,
You’re Paralyzed
[Chorus]
‘Cause This Is Thriller, Thriller Night
And No One’s Gonna Save You From The Beast About
Strike
You Know It’s Thriller, Thriller Night
You’re Fighting For Your Life Inside A Killer, Thriller
Tonight
[2nd Verse]
You Hear The Door Slam And Realize There’s Nowhere Left To Run
You Feel The Cold Hand And Wonder If You’ll Ever See The Sun
You Close Your Eyes And Hope That This Is Just
Imagination
But All The While You Hear The Creature Creepin’ Up
Behind
You’re Out Of Time
[Chorus]
‘Cause This Is Thriller, Thriller Night
There Ain’t No Second Chance Against The Thing With
Forty Eyes
You Know It’s Thriller, Thriller Night
You’re Fighting For Your Life Inside Of Killer, Thriller Tonight
[Bridge]
Night Creatures Call
And The Dead Start To Walk In Their Masquerade
There’s No Escapin’ The Jaws Of The Alien This Time
(They’re Open Wide)
This Is The End Of Your Life
[3rd Verse]
They’re Out To Get You, There’s Demons Closing In On Every Side
They Will Possess You Unless You Change The Number On Your Dial
Now Is The Time For You And I To Cuddle Close Together
All Thru The Night I’ll Save You From The Terror On The Screen,
I’ll Make You See
[Chorus]
That This Is Thriller, Thriller Night
‘Cause I Can Thrill You More Than Any Ghost Would Dare To Try
Girl, This Is Thriller, Thriller Night
So Let Me Hold You Tight And Share A Killer, Diller, Chiller
Thriller Here Tonight
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I was just surfing the internet when I passed by this beautiful poem by Charlotte Smith. I thought I should share this one with you.
The Sea View
The upland shepherd, as reclined he lies
On the soft turf that clothes the mountain brow,
Marks the bright sea-line mingling with the skies;
Or from his course celestial, sinking slow,
The summer-sun in purple radiance low,
Blaze on the western waters; the wide scene
Magnificent, and tranquil, seems to spread
Even o’er the rustic’s breast a joy serene,
When, like dark plague-spots by the Demons shed,
Charged deep with death, upon the waves, far seen,
Move the war-freighted ships; and fierce and red,
Flash their destructive fire.—The mangled dead
And dying victims then pollute the flood.
Ah! thus man spoils Heaven’s glorious works with blood!
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The option form provides more headache to the students than the actual exam as many students who got average marks in the CET doesn’t get admissions as they end up filling the options incorrect. Moreover now even the 10th students have to fill this option form for getting admitted to the 11th. The biggest advantage of this option form is that the student won’t be needed to go to each and every college filling their form but has to fill just one form. When I had to fill this form for admission to the engineering colleges, the students didn’t know much about how the system would work out as it was just being used for the third year in succession and students would make some mistakes. These mistakes nowadays most students avoids as they understand the system works out. But still most students make some mistakes in the first round and hence they are not alloted any seat. The common mistakes that these students do are
- No.1 mistake they do are that they go after the reputed colleges even if their marks are just average.
- The other mistake they do is they go for the cut off list of last year. The cut off list is just for getting the idea about roughly how much marks are needed to get admitted to a particular institute but that alone cannot form the basis of filling the options as every year the level of competition is different.
- The last mistake is that student don’t understand how the admission is going to take place. For instance during our academic year there was 50% reservation for minorities in minority institute but no other reservation based on caste like sc, st, obc etc. While there were no reservation in non-minority institutes for minorities, there were reservations for various castes in these institutes. So open students had access to 30 seats in minority institutes while in non-minority they had access to less than 10 seats for a branch of 60 seats. These things should be understood before filling the option form as it helps a lot.
Many students who don’t commit these mistakes get admitted even if they had got less marks than most others. I am one of those students as i had not scored good marks either in CET or in AIEEE(83 in CET and 32 in AIEEE). I know most of the students want to go to the reputed colleges but we should also take into account the marks that we have got. And in the end the college hardly matters as what matters is the certificate that you’ll get after completing your degree and that doesn’t bear the name of your college.
Well a lot has been said about this quota. Many have supported it(mainly because many belongs to ssc camp) while some oppose it. Some has even went to the Court to challenge this ruling by the government. So the big question is whether it is justifiable or not.
The facts that support this ruling are
- If we calculate the no. of students belonging to the ICSE & CBSE pattern is mere 8-9%(I heard it in the news. I don’t take the responsibility of this data to be correct
). Hence this 10% quota is enough for each student belonging to these schools can easily obtained admissions in any college. This is not acceptable to these students as this limits their chances of entering into the prestigious colleges. I don’t blame them as no one wants to go to high school attached junior colleges for their discipline is just the kind of as it is in the high schools and they have uniforms. Students after wearing these uniforms for 12 years don’t want to don uniforms anymore. - Nowadays many schools do away with their registration index no. of SSC boards and just for obtaining higher fees they register with ICSE and CBSE boards and parents too don’t mind spending more money on their kids to get them admitted into these schools. This trend is going on increasing and if it continues to be so then after some years down the line there will be more schools under the ICSE and CBSE banner and less under the SSC banner. My point is then why these schools don’t have colleges for these students. The no. of colleges under the CBSE and ICSE banner still remain less. Parents too don’t take this point into account as they know their wards will be able to score more marks in CBSE or ICSE pattern because of their leniant paper checking.
- The third fact as I stated above is the leniant paper checking that provides the CBSE/ICSE students an edge over the SSC students. Well They argue that their syllabus is harder as it consists many topics of the HSC pattern. But that is totally different thing. Just compare this fact- their topper is always 97-98% and the SSC topper is always scores 94-95%. This difference always remain even in the average students case. If the SSC board just follows suit, making its paper checking as leniant as the ICSE and CBSE boards then there will be a bigger problem of all students having good marks but no one getting the admission. Just consider this, Birla College a famous college in Kalyan (thats where I lived) had a cut off list of 89 % last year. If the SSC board too make their paper checking process leniant then you would find these cut off list closing at 93-94%. And this is just the college which is in the suburb. What about the reputed colleges in Mumbai.
Now the point that I think that goes against this GR
- There were reports in the newspaper somedays back that this reservation is unconstitutional.
So what? I think this reservation is good thing but if those reports about this reservation being unconstitutional are true then this scheme should be scraped and some other system should be brought in place of this reservation. Speaking about my view, I thought that last years percentile system was a better option but the parents of the ICSE/CBSE students successfully challenged that rule and I thought the government should have gone and challenged this ruling in higher court as it was aimed at briging the students at the same level.
P.S. This subject is highly debatable. If you have views that are contradicting my views then you are encouraged to add comment and present your point of view.
Updated : Well the SSC results are out and am surprised that the topper got 98.61%. Gone are the days when the SSC topper used to get 94 %. The state board too seems to be going the CBSE/ICSE way with liberal checking. I don’t think it is good for the students as I mentioned earlier. I am not against standadisation of all boards. I think that is what is needed. Moreover yesterday Kapil Sibal, the HRD minister said the need for one board and I like the idea. But he also mentioned about having optional class X examination so as to reduce the pressure on the students. I don’t like this suggestion as it will leave students untested till the class XII. If we want the standard of education to be maintained and enhance further the students should be evaluated regularly about their knowledge. Though schools have their own exams after every three months, these exams don’t test the students the way calss X and class XII exams test them. To reduce the mental torture that these exams put the students through I think let find some other alernative path. Maybe something like having the students as well as parents going through counselling compulsarily before these exams.
About the higher education, I ave heard about the Yashpal comittee and though I haven’t gone through all of their recommendations, some of their recommendations are exciting such as having one body instead of several bodies like UGC, AICTE etc., reviewing the status of deemed universtites regularly, awarding institutes like IITs and NITs universtiy status. I am looking forward to more news about the recommendations about this committee as well as what the government does about htese recommendations.
For a long time Indian Sports relied on just one sport for their entertainment. After Independence nearly for 3-4 decades it was hockey. Then in 1983 the Indian cricket tem won the World Cup and coincidentally the Indian Hockey started declining. From then on for us the Indians sporting heroes only meant cricketers making big names.
But in the last few years it all seemed to be changing. It all started in 1996 when Leander Peas won a bronze medal in Olympics for India. He then continued his good work in doubles with Mahesh Bhupathi. In last few years that mantle has been passed on to Sania Mirza and alongwith cricket and hockey (which always bursts into kife for very short span) tennis appeared a sport where Indians started to make news around the world. Then in last couple of years boxing started taking bigger strides with India having a youth world champion in this sport. Many Indian boxers also started earning some medals in some prestiguous events.
All along this while badminton remained a sport that is often neglected coz of not having much winners or top class players in the country.Well there were some successes like P Gopi Chand’s All England title that would have brought interest in this sport but somehow BAI failed to capitalise on these successes. What needed was a constant winner who could win tournammnets at a regular basis. We had Prakash Padukonewho was No.1 player but that was along time ago.( and I am not able to judge the effect of his wins as I was not present in this world at that time ). But now we have Saina Nehwal who yesterday wonIndonesia Super series, the first Indian women to win a Super Series event.(if I am not wrong,) Well A big win and she is winning such big events consistently. And her ranking is testimonial to it. She is Ranked No.8 in the world and after this win would be ranked No.6 as reported in TOI.
Well for me definitely a new champion arrived on the horizon for Indian sports.
One of my blog readers, who like me also answer to the name of Mohit, while commenting on my page ‘I,Me, Myself’, informed me about this blogger meet that is going to take place in Pune.
This bloggers meet is actually blogging unconference. A blogging unconference is a an event where a relevant audience comes together to talk discuss on all possible subjects related to blogging. So bloggers who take part in this meet will be able to discuss about their common passion i.e. BLOGGING. They will also be able to discuss about the problems that they are constantly facing while blogging. Sounds really exciting, isn’t it? Well for those who fear it will be boring classroom like experience, well don’t worry coz its rather a interactive session where people will interact and will also help in making the blogging experience for the rookies more pleasurable.
P.S.: – I wanted to attend this meet as I found this meet interesting and was excited to attend it but due to my prior commitments (read my classes) I couldn’t attend it. So I decided to spread the word.
For more details on this meet visit this site http://blogcamppune.eventbrite.com/
Thanks Mohit for informing me about this event. I would like if you inform me even next time about this event. If possible I would definitely attend this event next time.
