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Friday, January 24, 2014

Idiosyncrasies of 2014: Politics & Football in the same sentence!

2014 has gotten off to a rather eventful beginning, good or bad there's been something that's called for a crazy reaction in varied aspects.

The Political Drama (an Indian Feature Film)
Arvind Kejriwal - AAP - Political Supandi
All the Drama in 2014 was (is/going to be) courtesy one person, whom Uddhav Thackeray called an 'Item Girl', the same man who wasn't sure of his JD before taking up a Job (as Delhi CM) and now is behaving like a Finance Graduate (assumed he'll be an Investment Banker) and is being asked to sell Insurance, the one and only Arvind Kejriwal, aka AK!

This reminds me of my Business Strategy class, where a market which currently follows an Oligopoly, the barriers for entry are very high (pardon me for only taking excerpts and not actuals), so it isn't ideal to enter this market. Now drawing parallels to India Politics, Congress & BJP are the two largest parties with umpteen other regional parties helping each of them by forming a coalition. When AK had to enter politics, he either had to take the Donkey's Route of starting with one of these parties and then going up the ladder to eventually be in a position to impose his ideas on them OR think out of the box. That was the exact moment when he suddenly noticed himself on crossroads of Anna Hazare (and his routine hunger strikes) & the power of social media. He used this opportune moment to propel himself as a Third Front (an option which India's always going to 'soon' have for the last 69 years).

I don't have an issue with any of that, as that's him thinking out of the box. But where I disagree is:
1) Going on a Strike, being the Chief Minister (CM) of Delhi
2) Getting Delhi to a literal standstill and trying to strike another chord by calling himself an Anarchist
3) Half the social media population trying first doing the 'cool/in' thing by voicing their support for his party AAP, only to later start wondering what went wrong?
4) Another bunch who call this a 'Revolution'. I'm guessing the word revolution is preferred as it isn't yet Mainstream (pun intended)
5) Trying to undermine the blunder of the racist & sexist remark by a couple of the party members
6) Lastly, a few ppl proclaiming that "at least he's doing something and not sitting in an office like the other politicians". I mean seriously, that is his 'freaking job' to sit in an office and govern Delhi (statement credit: Swathi)!

The Football Hullabaloo 
Juan Mata - Chelsea FC - CFC - MUFC - Miss you Mata - Jai Mata DiIt's obvious that being an avid football follower (and a True Blue, Chelsea fan for all of 14 years) this month usually is eventful for the January transfer window. Eventful yes, but this time around it was something to be sad about (as a Chelsea Fan). A player who had been a star for the last 2 season (a fan favourite) for Chelsea in the form of Juan Mata was sold to a rival club (Manchester United).

For all those who don't know/follow football, now you know what all that Twitter/FB buzz about 'Mata Mata Mata Something Mata Mata Mata' was all about. However this surely did shake things up quite a bit.

Rossell, Barcelona, FCB, Neymar, ControversyIf all that wasn't enough, one of the biggest clubs on the planet (in the form of Barcelona) suddenly plunged into controversies (legal turmoil) over the transfer of one player, Neymar. The President of the club stepped down and all kinds of questions are now being asked. This club that once stood for it's integrity, boasted about being transparent, always believed that they were more than just a football club when they tied up with UNICEF, are now in Murky Waters!

So much for football buzz.

Others Titbits
There was however a silent silver lining for Bangaloreans. In a good first small step forward, the heart of the CBD of Bangalore (Bengaluru) (6 major roads including Brigade Rd, MG Road, CMH Road etc) will have Free Wifi from today (24th Jan). This isn't a change in a paradigm, but at least it's a positive step forward (however the infrastructure still needs a cartload to be worked on)!

If you're wondering why I wrote this post, then you weren't the intended target audience (and that's the safest statement I've made in over a 1000 words ;))!