Life is a circus

A tête-à-tête with a circus clown…

How is the circus life?
Tough! Less people are coming to watch the circus these days and survival is becoming a challenge every day.

Why did you become a clown?
I like to make people laugh. Seeing a smile on the faces of people is a wonderful thing.

But if your life is so tough how do you manage to be content by making people smile? And more importantly how do you manage to make them smile if your life is sad?
Hmm… interesting question. The people who come to watch a circus do not share the sorrows of their lives with me. But I am aware that they are here to forget all that and have a good time. A clown’s important task is to make them forget all the pain and keep them smiling from the moment they enter the circus tent till the moment they step out. You know sandalwood? When you rub a sandalwood piece it gives out a nice smell. We clowns remember this and even when our lives are not so happy we make sure to make our customers happy. At the end of the day, we neither know the suffering of people coming here nor we share any of our problems with them, so what really matters is the sharing of a few smiles which gives me a peaceful sleep at night. I think everyone should be like a clown in their lives – expect less and give more.

I walked out a bit wiser from that short conversation. A joker is important in a circus and a pack of cards as well. Are you a joker in your life?

Maa(r) ki bhasha

Move over reality shows; IPL is here to bring the TRPs’ down for the tear-jerky soaps and song-and-dance shows. But IPL is itself turning out to be a huge reality show; agreed it is ‘real’ but it is becoming more of a show these days. Where is cricket you ask? Well cricket is definitely there but the media attention is more on the stuff that sells in public and cricket for sure takes a backseat in this. Harbhajan’s tight slap to Sreesanth, the we-are-the-moral-police brigade hitting it out at the teeny-weeny costumes of cheerleaders, racism accusations within the cheer-girls squads, public spat between the team owners and team captains, ICC code-abuse with owners in players’ dressing rooms etc. IPL has been there, done that and seen all.

After watching a weeping Sreesanth on TV I really thought that he was crying ‘coz his team owner Preity Zinta had hugged Yuvraj and not him ha ha. But later the news trickled in through the news channels that Bhajji had hit him just after the match. How could Harbhajan Singh walk away with just… JUST… a 5 international matches ban? Yeah I agree he lost 3 crores for not playing in the remaining 11 matches for IPL but that was not enough for a person whom we all (probably all) supported during his racial-abuse allegation in Australia. After this incident I doubt whether I was right in showing my support to this guy who after the whole fracas stays calm and says to the media “It is a family matter please don’t interfere”. BCCI with all its money power had (definitely had) turned the Aussie incident in Bhajji’s favour and had set a very wrong precedent in doing so. After all the ‘we-are-still-brothers’ hugs and photo-ops I feel that 5 match ban was a very shoddy display by the BCCI… shoddier than the Bangalore and Hyderabad defeats. Harsha Bhogle had written a nice article in his Indian Express column, on this issue (will put up a link if I get it).

Initially when the IPL started off with a spectacular opening ceremony I checked the teams and was uninterested ‘coz it was hard to fight over national pride and root for a regional team especially when your favourite players are playing in different teams. But 2 days into IPL I was (and still am) rooting for Mumbai Indians. The basic concept of IPL (apart from the players and organizers drawing in huge moolah) is people rooting for their regional teams and not donning national colours for support. Such concept is more likeable by people akin to Raj Thakarey. Seems Yuvraj (captain of Mohali team) has not understood this when he complained that the Mumbai people were not supporting his team even when the team had our national team players. Aawww… I feel so sorry for this poor a$$hole. Especially when his team has advanced to semi-finals stage with the help of international players like Sangakarra, Pomersbach, Shaun Marsh etc. and he has not played well in any match so far. I feel happy that I never supported Mohali team (and I don’t like Preity Zinta as well); and even though Mumbai Indians didn’t reach the semi-finals stage I am glad I was rooting for a team which had players like Tendulkar, Jayasurya and Pollock who defied the T20-is-for-young-players tag and played well with all matches reaching a nail-biting finish. I should have supported Royal Challengers too for Katrina Kaif (latest Desktop Goddess) ;-), but then team owner Vijay Mallya, the beer baron, probably had all his players drunk before the matches and the team was defeated tamely on many occasions. Or else he did not get the Kingfisher models, we see on his calendar, out in the stadium to woo the other team players and distract them :D. One thing I don’t like about most of the teams is their dress colour… Jaipur team’s colours are the best I feel… easy on eyes.

IHL (Indian Hockey League) was a great attempt to revive the dying support for hockey and find budding players. IPL has outclassed IHL for mainly 2 reasons, loads of money involved and cricket being a more favourite sport than hockey. The national game might have gone for a toss but IPL is here to stay baby and it definitely is in. In case you might want to check the different sites of the teams...

Chennai Super Kings (Chennai)
Deccan Chargers (Hyderabad)
Delhi Daredevils (Delhi)
Kings XI Punjab (Mohali)
Kolkatta Knight Riders (Kolkatta)
Mumbai Indians (Mumbai)
Rajasthan Royals (Jaipur)

Royal Challengers (Bangalore)

Life is a fairytale

Saturday, 10th May 2008 will go down in the annals of history as freedom day. Probably!

Sir Teabing was responding to Sophie's query:
Meaning that history is always written by the winners. When two cultures clash, the loser is obliterated, and the winner writes the history books - books which glorify their own cause and disparage the conquered foe. As Napoleon once said, "What is history, but a fable agreed upon?"
It remains to be seen who will be the winner and loser; or will history just repeat itself?