Men in Blue - The Rock Stars

This article is specially dedicated for the Indian team who has been rocking for the past couple of years under the captaincy of Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Dhoni has lead India in 59 One day internationals out of which 35 matches were in favour and 18 was against and 6 matches resulted in no results. His test record is far too impressive. He lead India for 5 test matches and won 4 out of them leaving 1 test drawn. Under the leadership of Dhoni, the Indian team has set a country record for most back-to-back ODI wins (9 straight wins) and has emerged as one of the most formidable teams in international cricket.

India was known to be an average one day team before the T-20 world cup on 2007. India arrived at South Africa for T-20 world cup with no expectations and so they had nothing to loose. All the senior players were rested and youngsters were given opportunity to prove themselves. Surprisingly they proved what young legs could do to change Indian cricket. The young bloods under Dhoni went on to upset many biggies of International cricket which includes Australia, South Africa, Pakistan etc. In the words of the Great Sachin Tendulkar, he rates this team as the best he has played with so far.

The major factor that differentiates today's India is their fielding. Under the fielding coach Robin Singh, they are doing a great job. Its nice to see youngsters flying around to stop runs which we only used to see with team like South Africa, Australia.

It was until the T-20 cup that India had heavily depended on the Master Sachin Tendulkar for victories. But today we have more match winners in the form of Virendra Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar etc.

Injury has been one of the major drawbacks of the Indian team, as they were always short of some senior players each time.

Even though India didn't have much to do in the Champions trophy, I would strongly say they are the number one side in the world without any hesitation. My dream team includes;

1. Virendra Sehwag
2. Sachin Tendulkar
3. Gautam Ghambir
4. Yuvraj Singh
5. Suresh Raina
6. Mahendra Singh Dhoni
7. Yusuf Pathan
8. Irfan Pathan
9. Harbhajan Singh
10. Zaheer Khan
11. Praveen Kumar

The Game of Cricket is one of the few aspects of Indian peoples life that shows the unity of the whole country. Probably the game of Cricket should be the national game in India.

Amit Paul – My Indian Idol

Amit Paul is one of my all time favorites, “A singing maestro” the runner up in the third season of Indian Idol.

Amit Paul is a Bengali-Indian singer from Shillong, Meghalaya. His career started by being runner up in the Indian Idol season 3. He has become a budding Playback Singer in the Hindi Film Industry. Amit Paul was born in Shillong, Meghalaya, India in 1983 to Bengali parents Deepak Paul and Jaya Paul. After school and college, Amit remained in the family business of garments sales. From an early age, he had aspired to be a playback singer, but was never formally trained. He is able to sing in many languages including Khasi, Nepali, Assamese, Bodo, Bagaaniya, and Telugu.

Amit Paul gained his fame in the third season of Indian Idol, but he had initially attempted to try out for Indian Idol Season 2, but he did not make it to the venue in time. To ensure his entry into Season 3, he was 12 hours early for his audition, but this was only thanks to a chance call from a friend who was already at the auditions in Mumbai.

He began his career in Indian Idol as a romantic soft singer and gained less attention when compared to others during the initial stages of the competition. He was voted out during the galas and his fans including me were stunned. But he came back in rocking way singing “Dil lena khel hai dil dar ka” remarkably well. This was a perfect answer to the critics against him for his soft voice. He was one of the wild card entries and then there was no looking back.
Amit Paul gained the title “Lover boy” after singing “Nasha hai pyaar ka nasha hai”, a beautiful song from Mann. All judges praised him a lot and his fans can't resist to wait for next master touch. The next outstanding performance was the song “Kora Kagaz Tha Yeh Man Mera” which was asked to sing by Adnan Sami, the fastest Key board player in the world. To be frank there were no words to express my feelings for this song. “It was a master piece”. Udit Narayanan went down to the ground after hearing that. Even the legendary Javed Akhtar said “I have listened to lots of voices in my career and Mohammed Rafi, RD Burman, Kishore Kumar and now Amit Paul. That was one of the best comments a judge could give without expressing his excitements. Anut Malik said “Whatever happens whether you Win or Loose, you are my Indian Idol. One of my all time favorites was during the finals when he sang “Bull Ki Jana Mein Kaun”. This was extraordinary that even the Judges, Javed Akhtar, Anu Malik, Alisha Chinoy, and Udit Narayan stood at their feet for giving him a good round of applause. Even today I can't resist myself from hearing it again.
Unfortunately he was voted out in the finals by his best friend Prashant Tamag who was much lesser 'Sureela' when compared to the Maestro. I still remember the shocking day when John Abraham raised Prashant Tamag's hand.

After Idols, Amit Paul reappeared on Indian television in the new game show Ek Se Badhkar Ek on Zee TV. This saw Amit Paul being paired with Rajshree Thakur as a singer-dancer combo. The pair lasted until the 9th week, when Rajshree had to quit on doctors orders.
Due to ill health he had to backup from the singing competition K for Kishore which he could have won easily.

Amit Paul has performed worldwide in a number of concerts since completing Indian Idols. His overseas tours included U.S.A., U.K., Hong Kong, South Africa, Kenya, Singapore, Kuwait, Nepal and Bangladesh.

Amit has begun to realize his dream to sing as a playback artist. His debut in Luck By Chance with the soft, romantic number "Pyar ki Daastan", with Mahalaxmi Iyer as his co-singer. Reviews of the track have been mostly positive, and the song has done well in the charts. Several of his songs are under production.

The influence of Amit's singing in Meghalaya was unbelievable. The populace within the state of Meghalaya has long been divided. The discord between tribal and non-tribal members of the state has resulted in harsh words between the two, as well as outbreaks of violence. Amit Paul's success brought fame to the region, and created a sense of unity between the divide. His success has allowed both sides to come together and brought a sense of peace to the state.The Meghalaya Government made him the state's Brand Ambassador of Peace, Communal Harmony and Excellence.

One question, Do you think the system of public votes should be encouraged during the final stages of a reality show ? It's really heart breaking when your favorites gets voted out in the final stages.

SK Raina - An Enormous Talent

Suresh Kumar Raina

Raina was born on 27 November 1986, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India. Raina has been a member of the Indian cricket team for ODIs since July 2005. Even though he was selected for the Test squad in the early 2006, has yet to make his Test debut. Domestically he plays for Uttar Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy and Central Zone in the Duleep Trophy. He is primarily a left-hand batsman, a superb fielder who is known for his ability to hit the stumps from the infield and an occasional off-spinner known for breaking partnerships.

An aggressive young batsman who has dismantled bowling attacks across the country. His consistent performances at the junior levels landed him a spot in India Under 19 squad. His 620 runs in six games, in the 2005-06 season, propelled Uttar Pradesh to Ranji Trophy glory and a couple of composed knocks, when given the opportunity in one-dayers, got Rahul Dravid to gush: "Raina has shown what a phenomenal player he can turn into."

Raina had a difficult start to his international career, being dismissed for a golden duck by a doosra from spinner Muttiah Muralitharan. With the return of Ganguly from suspension, Raina was omitted from the starting XI for the tour of Zimbabwe. He continued in the Indian team mostly as a supersub, but got another chance to become a regular member of the Indian middle order during the 2006 tour of Pakistan, after vice-captain Virender Sehwag returned home injured. He was only required to bat in one match, in which he helped guide the latter part of the successful run chase in the fourth ODI.

His electric fielding added boost to the one day side and cricketers started rating him as the future of Indian cricket. However, his early promise turned into a false dawn - he couldn't manage a half-century in 15 innings and lost his place in the one-day side on the South African tour. He played two ODIs in January 2007 but was not recalled until a year later, when India named their 16-man squad for the CB Series in Australia. Raina finally played to his true potential in the Asia Cup, slamming two centuries and finishing the second-highest run-getter.

On 25 June 2008, he scored his maiden hundred against Hong Kong during Asia Cup. His 66 balls hundred was at the time, the second fastest century in Indian ODI history. He scored 84 of 69 against Pakistan and 116 of 107 against Bangladesh, in next two matches. Hence, he won man of the match award successively for three times.

Raina played for Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League in 2008 and 2009. His bowling has proven more useful in the shortest version of the game: in 2009 he had the fifth best economy rate in the IPL among those bowlers who delivered more than 20 overs.

My Dearest Buddies..

This is the first post in my blog... Thought of writing something very precious in my life... The first thing came to my mind is my friends..

Friends... Each individual in this world should be a part of this wonderful feeling "Friendship"

Let me narrate how we first met. During my first day of college.. My own Devagiri college.. I was a little bit afraid..it was a boyz only college and I have heard a lot of the term "Ragging" I expected no limitations... All the seniors started starring at me and mentioned "Aarada evan".. I became a bit nervous... Then I understood what made them stare at me.. I was dressed in a stylish manner with my shirts tucked in... I looked around and saw no-one like me...

After sometime one guy came stood besides me... He was as cool as ice and he was dressed as if he is going to stab someone.. I told myself "A senior" and he is here to rag me.. We had a conversation, soon after some guys passed he called them up and introduced me to them.. To be frank my nervousness increased.. I asked him "Boss, which year are you?" He started laughing and said "Hey buddy I am in your class?" I got furious and jumped at him... Even today they used to talk about my dressing on my first day at college..

We got our gang in less than a week. My Dear Buddies Sanooj, Jijeesh, Rajesh, Rabeesh, Sreenath, Nikhin and Ajmal...


3 years of Degree life.. it was quite fast. Let me summarize it..

First year life was dedicated to cricket.. We rarely go to class.. Most of the time was spent to play cricket.. It was great... Lotz of memmories.. I wish I could go back!!

Second year was quite interesting our Management decided to change to co-education.. All were excited!! We too!! Our management were stunned to see the results of co-eduction. Attendence was 100% ahh!! not in classes but in the campus..

Final year was dedicated to studies, we had to, else we will not pass through that was the ultimatum given by our tutors..

After 3 years we planned that we shouldn't split up.. We were not able to find jobs together.. only option left was higher studies.. We decided we will be together.. and then began the most dramatic moments in my life.. My PG studies..



More stories to be followed......