The tipping point for hockey!

Finally it has happened! India fails to qualify for the Olympics in hockey after losing to Britain 2-0 in Chile and has hence been disqualified to go to the Beijing Olympics. http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/007200803101757.htm The once national game of India has been reduced to a group of mismanaged, under-coached, de-spirited bunch of players. Blaming the players immediately may not be the wise thing to do. But they should still do an introspection of what went wrong. The government on the other hand should create an incentive laden sports program that encourages kids at high school level to participate in various sports not just for getting a government desk job in sports quota but actually represent the country at international events.

We have had enough of cricket, [I'm a cricket fan and still play cricket now in my 30s] but too much of anything is too bad. Having seen the sports scene in the US at high school levels, not just the participation by the studetns, but by their parents, supporters, fans, media and community makes me wonder when will such a thing happen in India.

China beats India again!

China has just added another category in the things that it beats India on. CORRUPTION!

Read this.

Given the nature of government [or the lack of it] it is obviously more prone to corruption and red tape and political dis-empowerment of the citizens. So it is no surprise that China leads in the corruption index as well. But the real question is how much of China's corruption actually affects the common man there. For example corruption exists in so many western developed nations but happens at a high level. The ripple effect of it probably doesnt reach the common man or if it does, the effect on the common man is not as serious as it is in India.

In contrast, although corruption index ranks India 8th, the common man, the poorest citizens are depraved of their rights mostly due to corruption at the grassroots level or due to their general illiteracy.

My first ever marathon

Ahh.. finally... I get it done... what seemed like eternity at mile 22 is now a reality!!! Yes I did it! 26.2 no no.. 26.793 miles to be precise

Finally, I crossed that line to conquer 26.2 miles of asphalt on my foot in just under 6 hours. phew! what a relief now. I can try to beat the time taken to do it next year.. but as many of you may be wondering, 'what? when? how?' I think the most important question you should ask is why? [credit: a signature line from 'comfortablynumb'] Yes why was I running that distance is the question I will try to answer in this post. After reading the whole thing, may be you will support me or you will do it yourself...

First let me get the when and where out of the way..

I did the 2007 Dallas Whiterock Marathon on December 9th and took 5hr and 51mins to cross the finish line.

Also a little bit of how?

A group of us, runners, started to train with the local sport [mostly running] goods chain Run On. It was a great group to join and train and will most probably join them again for next year. It was an intensive 6 month training summer through fall and then ending with the marathon... contd.

And now to get to the reason of why I did it...

It is getting difficult to be an Indian ...

That was the comment from a lady whose papers were denied for attestation at a recent visa camp in Dallas. It also echoed the sentiments of some other people who had also gotten there to get their visa or paper work done... Most of the people were simply very patient putting up witht he extremely inefficient visa camp process. These visa camps are organized every month by a volunteer Indian Association for the benefit of thousands of Indians living in the surrounding areas who would rather pay an extra $10 per transaction rather than go to Houston on a weekday for the same work. It is $10 extra per transaction which means if you were to get an attestation on two sheets of paper with the same information, you have to shell out $10x2=$20 extra in addition to the regular fees that are charged. What a rip-off!!!

Attestation of a couple of legal documents [transfer of PoA] is exactly what I had in mind on the day before the camp and I was weighing in the options of going to Houston vs Visa Camp in Dallas.

More international recognition needed!

Recently a 14 year old boy Om Prakash Gurjar from the Indian State of Rajasthan received an international peace prize from the KidsRights Foundation. The KidsRights Foundation, based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, works in support of the world’s most vulnerable children who are on the edge of society, such as child prostitutes, AIDS orphans, child slaves and street kids. They focus on five basic rights: the Right to Education, the Right to proper Housing, the Right to Health care, the Right to Nutrition and the Right to Attention. It is good to see that Om has brought the World's attention [although for a brief moment in Internet time] to a very serious problem still in practice in many parts of the country. It remains to be seen as to how the State government and the Central government react to the problem in lieu of the above award.

Ravi Kandikonda