spirit / ashamed ?

11 July, 2006 it was just another day in our life (till evening) . arnd 6:00 - 6:30 pm we were having penalty shootout (organised by JOSH group) contest in our office premises. we were practising (playing) football having gala time. we had no clue what had happened few miles away. few mins later we went up and came across the shocking news ... 2 blasts happened in mumbai .... 5 died. i did not take it much seriously as i didn't know if it was just a rumour coz every1 seemed to be normal few mins back. then we started browsing news sites n the number of blasts, victims went on rising from 2 to 7 ..... 8 blasts in a span of 11 mins time. yet another event shocked mumbai and the spot chosen was the lifeline of mumbai ... the railways. luckily every1 in my family was home n i had spoke 2 my dad just few mins ago so i was quite ok but was worried @ one of my college friend who stays @ meera-bhayander rd. area n also few of office pals whom i met @ 5:30 when they were swiping out. the blasts took place exactly an hour later which means they wud be in the nearby area. i tried calling them but all the lines were jammed.

finally i left for home @ 7:40 pm and reached home arnd 8:45 pm so luckily no hassles for me at all. kudos to the office bus :D its a royal luxury in such times ;) just kidding. after i reached home, i went online ... just like i do every other day :) lotsa msgs started popping up. few of my friends who wanted to reach their family back here in india but they cudn get thru so i was tryin for a while. but no luck till past 9 pm. being online is a good way to communicate especially when al the phone lines r enggaged / jammed. my sis had also called but i wasnt home then. one of my friend told me that all the friends who were expected to be nearby jogeshwari were safe at their relative's place. so a sigh of relief. next day i came to know that they were just a train behind the 1 that was blast. who can even think that a missed train can really make a difference of life n death but ask those who missed that train.

i was checking the news on TV .. lot of stills, videos, interviews .... ppl were blaming the police, RPF , govt ..... yes i agree that its but natural to react in this way but somehow i feel even they cudn't have done much of a difference. it was the local public who came to the rescue of these victims.

today i got loadssssssssssss of mails ... came across newspaper's headlines ..... mumbai back on track ... mumbaikar's spirit ...... ppl r resuming for work .. this n that ... lotsa celebrities gave their opinions about the SPIRIT ....... but if u think carefully its only people like you and me who didn't really suffer the tragedy went back on work just like any other day ... but will things be the same for those who actually suffered the tragedy... those who lost their loved ones those who suffered serious (permanent) injuries. will life ever be back to normal for them ? will compensation really help ?
yes of course i agree that they will come over it someday but its gonna take some time.
but when everyone else is talking about the spirit, i feel "we really dont have any other choice" we are just trying to hide the facts but hiding facts wont change the situation. its a real shame that such incidents are happening quite often. i seriously dont know why we treat failure of the system as spirit of mumbai ? its high time we should realize its the helplessness of the city rather than the spirit. i think we are getting used to such incidences ... we are ignoring severe incidents (like yday) under the tag of SPIRIT. "ab to aadat si hai mujhko .. aise jeene mein ....."

but during the news i also saw many volunteers forming a longggggggggg queue to donate blood to help the victims in every possible way .. many local students also gave shelter to needy ones in their hostels ... lots of food, water n basic necessities being distributed ... even the media (news channels, radio stations) acted as a messenger for needy ppl, they also gave out the good amount of info as to which victims have been admitted to which hospitals, their contact numbers etc ..... only these small fraction of people DESERVE the SPIRIT tag others were just being a part of the crowd. my hats off to that fraction of mumbaikars.

but despite all the trauma, the mess was cleared overnight and things were back on track (for u n me)

i hope someday the situation will improve and we can really show the true spirit of mumbaikars and stop being a part of crowd.


- ameyas7

what a header

finally azzouri s made it. they were a good team but i am not sure if this entire worldcup was a fare game. just toooo many foul plays. its really depressing when u see worldclass players making all such false appeal, all sorta drama n even intentional injuries.

starting from quarter finals
argentina vs germany: first of all argentina's goal keeper got injured. franco came as a substitute. no doubt that germans were strong but u never know what twist the game wud've taken had the keeper been there :(

portugal vs england: portugal player c. ronaldo sets a trap for rooney n rooney's out. beckham gets injured. 10 vs 11 still england made it to penalty shoot-outs but were not fortunate enough to make through.

brazil vs france: zizou shows gives a cross to henry (amazin pass n well collected by henry) it had to be a GOAL n it was. brazillians had all the stars but their main problem is they lack co-ordination n their defense is _POOR_ there was no1 to cover henry when he scored against the brazil. how cud they make such a big mistake. but they din have that golden touch throughout the tournament. Ronaldo must retire now. Ronaldiniho has great skills but he cudn't make a way for his team. although i must agree that brazil was the only team which truly showed sportsmanship under any circumstances.

italy vs ukraine was a good match though.

semis
germany vs italy: it was tuff1 n both the teams were strong enough but azzouris scored 2-0 in the last few mins of extra time. n it was good1.

portugal vs frrance: i thought it'd b piece of cake for french to get portugese down. but they were equally good. or mebbe the french wanted to keep themselves away from the rowdi game from portugese lol.

n then the grand finale
azzouris vs france: the most disappointing match in many ways. french were given a penalty in first few mins of the game. frankly speaking it wasn't a foul. but zizou took then shot n it had to be GOAL. later on Materazzi scored on french. that was real good1 ... i must agree. then there were cuple of misses. Zizou made a superb header but Buffon saved it. both were too good.
n then few mins later Zizou gives a headbutt to Materazzi n he was given a red card. every1 knew by that time that the game was over for french.
it was pretty much irresponsible from Zizou. especially considering
1) it was his last match of his outstanding career
2) captain is supposed be more responsible. he shd be the last 1 to jump off the boat should the boat drown.
3) it was worldcup finals. the stakes were toooo high for something stupid like that.

but he's a good guy n im sure if Zizou has done it, there must be something serious that happened between those two n no1 knows it yet. i'm still waiting to listen to his side of the story. i just cant take that he made such an irresponsible act for no reason. but then if one thinks rationally, no matter what the reason he shouldn have done it n red card was pretty obvious.

it is the talk of the town n every1 s sayin that it was a major blunder on his part but we fail to understand what went through his mind. he was under tremendous pressure. score 1-1, worldcup finals, his last match of the career, missed header, Henry was out(substituted) , the pressure to win the match n Materazzi incident simply added sparks to cause the explosion.
but i still doubt if it was a burnout from the match pressure. Zizou can deal with such a situation with a very cool head. so only he n Materazzi can explain what went wrong. but even after all this noone can deny his talent. he was simply a one-man army.

overall it was entirely messed up worldcup 2006. but good entertainment for last one month.

n on the tennis front Roger Federer wins the wimbledon title. this guy gets better n better every match. kudos to him.



- ameyas7