Finally - An Olympic gold for India in the Individual Event

The Olympics have begun... This has been labelled the greatest of all show events in this world... And all of us in India have been waiting with bated breath and praying all the while that an Indian wins a gold medal... This has never happened in an Individual Event ever since India started participating in the Modern Olympics... In fact, India has managed only 4 individual medals going into this Olympics... What a turnaround it turned out to be! Abhinav Bindra won India's first ever Individual gold medal in the 10m Air Rifle event... It was a very thrilling moment for all the Indians...

After having qualified for the finals in 7th place, Abhinav decided to show is prowess in the Finals... All through the finals, he hit scores of 10 or over... This helped him move to 3rd place after 5 shots in the final... Consistent shots moved him to the second spot... With just one shot remaining, the scores were tied between him and the leader throughout the event thus far, Hakinen... And Abhinav performed admirably under pressure shooting a near perfect 10.8 while the Finn wilted under pressure to shoot 9.7 and in the process lose the second place to the defending champion from China...

This has been a dream start for India and I hope that this would open up the floodgates and India would manage to win more medals in this year's Olympics...

Am back...

I have been idle for the last 3 months. Although, there were a lot of things that interested me and had my thoughts stirring, I was unable to put them all to paper and post the blogs... Now, I feel that it is high time that I start writing my blog again... So, hold on to your breath... And keep looking at this space for more.... With a lot of exciting events lined up in the days to come, I am looking forward to blogging actively... See you all soon....

India's Day of shame!

9th March 2008. A very important day in the history of Indian Hockey. India was playing the final match of Olympic qualifiers against Great Britain. It needed to win this match to qualify for 2008 Beijing Olympics. They were the favorites to win this despite losing to the Brits in the league match.

However, the script was entirely different. The Brits played with a lot of grit & determination scoring 2 goals in the 1st 10 minutes of the game. The Indians were clueless & defended badly. Though no goals were scored after that, it ended the one dream that every hockey lover in India has!!! Winning an Olympic gold medal!!! India managed to achieve the unbelievable! Not qualifying to the Olympic games. This is the first time India has not qualified in 80 years. Considering the legacy that the Indian Hockey has, it is the most shameful day in the history of Indian hockey!

Allegations have been flying thick and fast after the result with the blame game having started on who is to be blamed for the debacle. Things would hopefully improve after this debacle with the administrators of the game being more professional and working towards the betterment of the national game of this country! God save Indian Hockey! Hope I would live long enough to see the revival and be proud to see Indian team win Gold at Olympics.

Aussies Grounded!!!

Nobody could believe it when it happened... But it was completely true... India's tour down under ended in a very high note. India won the CB One Day series defeating the hosts 2-0 in the finals. This was Team India's first triangular series win in Australia.

But this victory would be savored for a long time to come for more than 1 reason. It had been a long hard trip for the Men in Blue especially with all the controversies surrounding the test series (remember the Australian win in Sydney!). All the talk about Bhajji making racist comment. And the pressure to perform on the young Indian team. And deliver they did! In emphatic passion, they defeated the Aussies in both the finals.

Way to go Team India! Is this the beginning of the era where the Indian domination is going to start?!?!?!

India Wins Under-19 Cricket World Cup!!!

The Indian Under-19 Cricket team created history today by winning the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup. This was the second time that India won the world cup held for the junior cricketers of the world after lifting it for the first time in 2000. Interestingly, both the times when India have won, the tournaments have been held in Asia (in 2000, it was held in Sri Lanka).

India have been rewarded handsomely for some consistent performance all during the tournament. India is the only team to have won all their matches in this entire tournament. Their performance has, in fact, been so emphatetic that until the semi-final match of the tournament, they had lost less than 5 wickets in each of their matches.

The BCCI has responded by awarding each member of this victorious Indian team a sum of Rs. 1.5 Million. Congratulations! to the young stars of Indian Cricket. Wait to hear more about these guys in the years to come...

Taare Zameen Par!!!

Never have I gotten so emotional watching a movie! This is one such movie that has been brilliantly shot which tells every parent how precious their child is and always being number 1 is not the most important thing in life.

The movie also shows how important it is to understand a child and encourage the child to pursue his/her passion.

Everything about the movie is great. The cast, dialogues, direction, music & the lyrics. There are a couple of songs (Maa & the title song) that stands out even after you have left the movie hall.

A must watch for everyone! As the tag line of the movie goes, every child is special! Love all the children.

First Caucus result is out!!!

Against all odds, Obama and Huckabee win the Iowa causus for democratic and republican nomination for the presidency battle in the US. This was the first test put in front of all the front runners for the presidential election this Autumn.

On the democratic front, Obama emerged a surprise winner much ahead of Hillary Clinton, who was placed a poor 3rd, with nearly a 5% lead. This was a completely unexpected result as a record number of caucus goers voted (most of them first time caucus voters)! Although a lot is not expected to be read into these results, the result did come in as a rude shock to Hillary who was considered to be the front runner of the Democratic party.

In the last 24 years, every person who has won either the Iowa Caucus or New Hampshire Primary has gone on to win the White House with the exception of 1 person. No Points for guessing who that is. Yes, all of you guessed it right. It was Bill Clinton!!! Will Mrs. Clinton be able to repeat the same thing??? Or would she win the New Hampshire primary??? Only time will tell! Watch this space for more...

The first test for the US Presidential hopefuls!!!

Continuing with the coverage on US Presidential elections, the first test for all the hopefuls will happen in the next 2 days. Iowa would be the state which would conduct the first caucus which would set the pace for the selection of candidates from both Democratic and Republican parties. Though not considered to be one of those most important states in terms of number of votes, everybody is still looking forward to the results from Iowa. Many believe that this would be the pace setter for the rest of the campaign.



As per the opinion polls conducted by various agencies, Hillary Clinton and Mike Huckabee are leading the Democratic and Republican race respectively.

Hillary Clinton has a narrow lead of 4% over Obama while John Edwards is placed 3rd, a further 1% less in the democratic front.

In the republican front, Mike Huckabee is leading by a huge margin.

Who is gonna win??? That's the most important and intruiging question that everybody wants answer for... Look out to this section for more on this...