Good Vs Great

I thought, I would write about the movie that we saw in the Theater, "Heyy Babyy". Before that, I want to write about my thoughts on "Chak De India, again". I think, I put the comment in my previous blog saying, Chak De India is a good movie, It is a beautyful movie, and I do not deny that. However, there is a large difference between a GOOD Movie and a GREAT Movie.

Chak de India, in the perspective of business oriented, CHOPRA's is that, Lets have a movie about Patriotism and India and have our trump card SRK which will earn us lot of money. Chak De India, however, what I felt was an effort to revive "Indian Hockey". The game which is more or less is getting written off, due to the Largely Popular Cricket. There are key things which I felt was missing in the movie.

Firstly, If It was and I feel it was, all about Hockey then, I guess Director missed the point of showing, How Hockey is still important than Cricket. Yes, He did showed why it is important for the players, but what about the crowd? What is the beauty of the game itself?

Director also missed the point to show, key areas of Hockey itself. If you come out of the movie, what do you learn about Hockey? "PASS"...everyone knows about PASS. He tried to show the one on one defense, but he failed to show how to overcome that defence from Opposition.

I saw one beautyful movie, called "GOAL", where the COACH explains one player, the importance of "PASS". He see, the player is talented but is not passing the ball. He calls that player and then he says, "Try to catch this ball before it reaches the Goal Post". Then Coach Kicks the ball very hard and player (the hero) who was real quick still cant reach the ball. Coach does that 3 times. Finally he ask the Hero, "Son, What did you learn?". He replies "I am not quick enough to catch that ball". Coach replies, "No Son, The fact is that BALL TRAVELS FASTER THAN YOU". Point is, if there is a player ahead of you, you better pass the ball because, before you reach to the goal post with that ball, it would be too late. If you pass the ball, it will reach faster.

In my list I have all time best Sports Movie called, "REMEMBER THE TITANS". I also had scene one better movie called, "Coach Carter". I can go on and on and write about the small small details which could and should have been included in the Sports Movie, Chak de India. Things like, you dont give a piece of paper to your assistant coach and let assistant coach tell the players who would be there Room Mates. You as a Coach do that honour yourself, You make that point very clear to your players.

Forget about the Hollywood standards, the movie Chak de India does not even beat, Bollywood flick, "LAGAAN". Lagaan covers the core concept of its movie and also being a Sports Movie touches almost every aspect of Cricket. Be in Hatrick, Spinner, Sledging, Century, Coach Role, Observing Bowlers key moment, Match Fixing and many more..

So, Chak De India is a good concept, it is a good movie However, it is far far away from Legendary Movie or considered to be called as a GREAT movie.

We saw another good movie called, "Heyy Babyy". Note the Extra Y in the Movie Title.
This movie, in the first one hour, makes you laugh that much that you just get tired of laughing. It is clearly a winner against PARTNER. Akshay Kumar Rocks in this kind of comic roles, He started it from, Hera Pheri, excelled in Garam Masala and reached the pinacle in Heyy Babyy.

It is a situational comedy movie with brilliant one liners used. Sajid Khan the director of movie is known for his one liners when he was Anchor, and he uses those key one liners in the movie to make you laugh. Plus the Concept of having a Babyy in the house where 3 bachelors live, itself will generate the comedy.

The movie looses the tempo in between but it again catch up in the climax. All and all, must watch for comedy fans. Also, It is just not comedy, there are some good emotional scenes (gurls may need hanky).

But again, going back to the Title of this Blog, It is a GOOD MOVIE, not great movie. Surprisingly for me though, Fardeen had a better role and acted beautyfully than Ritesh Deshmukh. Specially his 10 minutes as PARIMAL TRIPATI ( remember, Chupke chupke) was awesome.

Aha, One more example of Good Vs Great was my performance while playing PING PONG( Table Tennis). I challenged my friend, Rohan that I will beat you 5-0. Considering the fact that I am not a great, Table Tennis Player, whoever has played with me and Rohan had beat me since last 3 weeks in the 5 game series. Now, that was a example of Good Vs Great. Great is when you say, You would do it, Execute it, and Deliver it.

Something which was also done by Rahul Dravid in the second One dayer on Friday. He won the toss(which he did in First game too), but made a wise and better decision to bat First. Openers had a 100 run partership. and Dravid came into bat at 180 for 2. and played the match winning knock of 90+. Going back to my previous blog, Whenever Dravid comes into bat, when India has scored more than 100 runs or let me rephrase it, Whenever India is in a good position, he bats differently. He bats with different mind frame. Same Rahul Dravid, but once the runs are on the scoreboard, he played run a ball, and helped India pass 300.

Normal or Good Rahul Dravid would had India score the runs in between 300 - 320, but Aggresive and Great Rahul Dravid made India score 320+ and those 20 runs was the difference of India winning and England Loosing.

Red Sox realized that they are now in the August end and gotto produce more runs to win the games. Against all the White Sox game (all 4 of them) they scored more than 10 runs and swept them comfortably. Another Example of Good Vs Great.

However, Manchester United was not so great in their win against Spurs but they got vital first win of the season.

Aha, Did I missed anything, Oh yeah Hyderabad Blast and my view on it...May be sometime in the weekday, I will try to post one more, Time to catch some sleep, before the Cricket Begins..

Myth about PATEL's

Whenever I introduce myself by saying, "Hi, I am Viral Patel !!!", More often or not I get a shocking and weird responses. Not because, my name is pronounced in a very different way, here in America, but also due to the fact that I am doing a "JOB" rather than a "Business". There is a general belief that, "PATEL's are business oriented people". Patels have Motel Business. Patels have grocery stores, but PATEL in IT, is a surprise and shock for others.

I do not deny the fact, over in America or overseas, Most of the PATELs are Businessmen. However, Back in my country, PATELS are farmers. Even if you go to many villages, in Gujarat, you would find most of the PATELs are not doing the business but they do Farming. Many of them are poors too.

I looked back and asked around to my elders and we know our History till late 1500 (We have proofs of that) and we were all Farmers back then. I believe, we never gave any preferences to "STUDY", and hence people who were money oriented and wanted to travel across the countries to earn the money and reputation, Had only one area left, "Business". I firmly believe that, when a human being does not have many options, he succeed in what he can do. More or less like, If you find yourself in the middle of the sea, even though you dont know how to swim, You will learn it, to save yourself from the death.

One of the good things, PATELs have is a blind faith in the fellow PATEL brother. They support each other nicely. The moment one Patel introduces to another PATEL, his eyes shines and his heart pumps up.

So, What about the MYTH. The Myth is that "PATELs are businessmen", I would rephrase that statement and say, "PATELs are not naturally business oriented people". Patels dont have natural skills of being Businessmans.

I would give you an example. Most of the Subways around my place are owned by the PATELs. If you go to any of the DESI (PATEL) owned Subway and order, 6 inch VEGGI sub. They would intentionally put only 2 slices of tomatoes. Considering the fact that, out of all the vegetables (Onion,Lettuce, Green Pepper etc), Tomatoes are expensive.

So If a Store is selling around 200 subs , one piece of tomato saved per Sub, will save you atleast 20 Tomatoes and overall profit gain would be 10$. If you calculate per month and then per year, thats almost, 4000$.

By above means, Surely, they earn a lot more than American own Subways. I am sure there are so many other little techniques by which they make more money. but since they are not "Naturally" Business oriented people, they forget the First Key Point of Business. "Make the Customer Happy !!!".

I understand, if you order Chicken sub, you put little less vegetables, Customer still would be happy, but for a Veggie Sub, If you put the one less slice of most tasty and fruitful ingredient , that customer, someday is going to notice it. And If he has the option, He would surely, go to the other store.

There is also a reason behind that, "Saving" fundamental of one slice of tomato. Majority of this people (PATELs) have migrated from India. Before Coming to America or UK, there Primary objective of living was "FARMING". As we all know, Farmers generally are not wealthy people. They had scene the lack of money throught their life span. They value single Penny a lot.

The PATELs are many times get blamed for this Money Saving Fundamental into the characteristics of "PATELs being THRIFT". I have been called many times, "Viral, You are the only PATEL , we had scene who spend a lot of money" during my college days here in America and It was very hard for me to explain them that, "the Patels I know, back in my country, India, spend almost this much amount of money and they are not thrifty or greedy individuals". After staying here in more tha 6 years now, I realize why PATELs are getting blamed.

So, I feel the same way, as True Muslim feels in India. Due to few bad Muslim people, all the people from Muslim Religion gets blamed. I many times get blamed because of those "PATELs of Overseas".

Need to write about, Second one day game between India and England, Red Sox getting the lead back, Bomb Blast in Hyderabad, beautyful movie "HEYY BABYY" and glorious performance of mine in Table Tennis and Bowling in the weekend...but God knows, When will I get time.

Captain Dravid and ICL

During 1994-95, In the Kanpur match India were 195 for five, chasing the West Indies total of 257 for six in 50 overs, when Nayan Mongia joined Manoj Prabhakar, who along with Sachin Tendulkar had opened the Indian innings. The two —Manoj and Mongia —instead of looking for quick runs, with India having to score 63 runs for a possible win off 43 balls, were content in picking up the odd single or the two and the asking rate, which was around seven when the fifth Indian wicket had fallen, rose first to eight and then to ten. But the two Indians made no effort to go for the West Indies bowling and were content to just bat along. Manoj Prabhakar ended the match with 102 runs to his name off 154 balls (his second hundred in one-day internationals) while Mongia scored just four off 21 balls as India slumped to a loss without even giving a game fight.

I supported Cricket Baord's decision to Drop, Prabhakar and Mongia. Today, In the year 2007, When I saw the game, There was no difference in the attitude. Throughout our second inning, the moment India lost the first two wickets, There was no effort to win the game.

Infact, I know people would hate me for this, but whenever India have lost key wickets and Dravid has came to bat, India has always always batted like that. They think, Lets Save the Wicket and If Time Comes, we will go for Win. With that Attitude, more often or not, Time Never comes and More Often or not, India looses.

India was stronger one day side, when Dravid was keeping the wicket and Ganguly was the captain. Reason was not Dravid was Wicket Keeper, but the Reason was, Dravid was batting at number 5 Position. Invariably, Dravid cameinto the batting when India have good score on the board. If India has 100 runs and then Dravid comes into Bat with 20 overs are gone, He bats differently.

I am not criticizing Dravid as a Batsman but his perspective changes. His Effort, His game plan everything changes, when he comes onto bat,@ 10 for 2 or 100 for 3.

When India is 100-3, Match is not won or lost, and Dravid would still be a key, but then Dravid would blossom and India would win more matches. The Situation Demands Dravid to bat at number 5 and finishes the game.

Yesterday's game, Same Thing Happened, The moment India lost, Ganguly and Gambhir, Dravid and Tendulkar became defensive. They thought, if they can see few overs together, they can launch later on. Bad Attitude.

You play according to the merit of the game, Same Situation Put, Ponting and Hayden and they would attack the opposition and win the game for Australia. Sachin and Dravid are better batsman than Hayden and Ponting but what lacks is the Attitude and Game Plan.

Dravid, whenever has batted at any position, if comes in when not even 30 runs have been scored, India has failed to reach over 250. At least in most of the occassions it is True. It is definately true when India is chasing the score of above 250 runs.

What makes it more disappointing is, Younger Generation Players are looking and learning. They look at their Captain and want to immitate it. The way your captain leads, the way your captain thinks , the way your captain bats, leads the rest of the player. The moment, Dravid ties down, that ties Tendulkar, that approach is carried forward in Yuvraj and Karthik. Dhoni also slows down.

It took lot of effort from Ganguly to insert that killing instinct into Indian Team. The joy and winning desire Ganguly inserted into the likes of Yuvraj/Kaif/Dhoni/Zaheer is disappearing. India might be playing good technically or improving but they attitude is going down badly due to our Captain, Dravid.

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The Attitude of Dravid is much better than Attitude of BCCI. BCCI has so far ruling the Indian Cricket more like EAST India Company or Congress I. They are just sucking the blood of Indian Players and money from Indians. In Turn, They are not giving anything back.

how many new stadiums are created, How many good fast bowlers they are able to produce, After Sunil and Sachin Tendulkar and dravid, Why we are not seeing any more youngstars?

I am not saying Indian Cricket League is an answer to BCCI but ICL has definately post few questions to BCCI. I am in full support of ICL.

What makes me support them is my belief of Businessman's are not good people but they are good people compare to Politicians.

ICL would be a group of professional people. BCCI, has failed to invite foreign professional to play in India. Over 100 years now, English County games are being watched and one of the many reason being, people from all around the world are playing there.

Top Class Bowlers, like McGrath, Warne, Murli, Saqlain, Wasim, Kapil everyone has played in the County games and learned a lot. That also improves the class of youngstars and I am sure many Indian Players who have decided to join ICL, would learn a lot.

My only question left for ICL is the GROUNDS? To Promote the game, they need to organize them in the Metro's like, Bombay, Delhi, Chennai and Calcutta.

I would be in full support if ICL goes global, Have those players play in India in the month of September, Let them play One month in England , one month in Australia etc and Let them make a parallel League of their Own.

Lets See, What Kerry Packer couldnt do, Can Subhash Chandra do or not!!!

Chak De India !!!

Dont get me wrong by watching the title of the thread. Its just not about movie. It really is about India. It is always about India for me. "100 mein se 80 beimaan-phir bhi mera bharat mahan !!!".

Lets talk about movie first. It is a good movie. It is a movie from always RICH Yash Raj joining show the truth Shimit Amin. I loved Ab tak Chappan, It was more glorious than RGV's Dark Movies. One of the most beautyful thing about "Chak De India" was it wasnt much hyped movie, even when the movie starts, It shows, What is the current situation as far as Hockey is concerned in India. For Some Punjabi and Muslim Families, Hockey is more than a religion.

The other best part of the movie, is the reality shown. When India team reaches to the Australia, the kind of facility that they see, not even half of them are available in India. But Wait a minute, I guess this script must have been got written in the early 90's. I think as far as I know even Bombay Gymkhana has better service arrangement for Hockey and I am very sure, For National Team Practise and everything, it gotto be better, Can Someone check the facts before making a movie !!!

The Comment from the villain of the movie, that Cricket is Cricket and Hockey is nowhere near to it, is a FACT. In fact the Origin of Hockey came into when Middlesex Cricket Club players wanted to keep themselves fit enough and motivated during the winter season in the last 1700's. India had a so called big name, in Hockey winning the world cup only once. You want to blame Cricket, Oh Wait, Blame Kapil Dev, The moment he scored the first ever century for India against Zimbabwe and won the world cup in 1983, Hockey was gone, long gone.

Cricket has much to cheer about as Dravid and his team won the Test Series in England. Big Boost ...What a joke !!!.

England did not had Harmison, Jones, Hogard, Flintoff. In fact to be honest, they were having their second line bowling line up, It was pure Luck that Rain saved the First Game for India. Luck also played crucial when India won the toss both the time. In Second Test Match when India won the Toss and put the English Batsmen's on the backfoot. England got out below 200 and India won the game. In Third Test Match, We had a Flat Pitch, India again won the Toss and batted for first two days to make sure that Draw is a possible result. Dravid ensured that Draw is the only possible result when he batted for 12 runs in 96 balls.

Many of the Cricket Pandit has criticized Rahul's Decision of not enforcing Follow-on. I actually Support him there, As a captain, you take a look at your bowlers, They have just bowled 100 overs. Pitch had nothing to offer, With What Courage you go upto them and ask them to bowl another 120 overs? What if during that 120 overs, England just manage to get the score 100 +, and India is 11/3 chasing it, Would you take that Risk ??? I wont and So is Rahul so, Well-Done.

However, I would tell him one thing, Rahul. No Captain can win you matches and neither support of the players, when your captain score 12 runs in 96 balls. Specially the manner in which you scored those runs. You are the best batsman in the Indian Line up, (ya ya , Sachin Supporters would kill me, but Rahul is a better test match batsman than Sachin Tendulkar) and you got no right to look more than ordinary with playing defensive and defensive struggling shots.

Enough of Dravid Bashing. Time To Praise, the Man of the Tournament, Zaheer Khan. Awesome Come back. He swung , He Pitched up the ball, and more importantly, he bowled at the correct area of the pitch. Venkatesh Prasad, is giving some good tips, for sure.

One of the most critical decision came for Dravid, when he preferred, Team Man Kumble before the team itself. India scored about more than 600 runs in the First Inning, There was a time, when any captain would atleast think of Declaring. Specially when he looks at the scoreboard and see, the RECORD in the makings, No one has scored the century, yet the team score is 600. Shall I declare??? and Then You see one of your best team mate, Kumble, around 70 not outs, Chance of him getting the 100 is a possibility. The Person who has given 17 years of his life to Cricket, Never scored a century.

Tough Decision, Team First or Team Man First??? Finally, I support Rahul there also, Good Decision, you gotto go with the Team Man First. Plus I never believe, you have any reason to declare in the First Inning. Unless you have scored 1000 runs, I wont declare in the 1st Inning. Specially when you know, you are going to get the all 5 days of play and you are 1 up in the series.

Finally, Celebration Time, India will celebrate her 60th Birthday of freedom.

Lets End this, with JAI HIND !!!

Indian Rupee ....What it can do !!!

Let me ask a question first.
What type of economic strength is preferable to India?A) A strong Indian economy fueled by its cheap labor due to a weaker rupee against dollar, where the Indians end up working in shifts, late nights, whole nights and what not… only doing low profile jobs which foreign companies want to offload to India, so that they can concentrate on high end works and become even better. For instance in IT field, providing BPO services, support and maintenance work for products…
OR
B) A strong Indian economy fueled by its strong innovations and products, no matter whether the rupee is strong or weak against dollar.. where Indians work only in regular office hours of 9 to 6, developing cutting edge technologies and solutions, selling our world class products both inside and outside India. For instance in IT field, imagine operating systems, compilers, databases etc all coming out of India..
I do not deny the fact that the IT boom in India came to a large extent because of (A). Well and good, we have had the benefits of our cost being cheap in western markets due to a weak rupee against dollar.. We have had our share because of this advantage in the past 2 decades..
But at the same time doesn't it make sense to move towards (B), instead of crying foul against rupee becoming stronger against dollar?
What a pity! Indian IT companies are feeling bad because rupee is becoming stronger against dollar! Reason, their profits will go down when the value of rupee is stronger, as every single dollar that comes into their account now means lesser rupee than earlier..(if for instance earlier they used to get 47 rupees for every dollar that comes in, but today its about 40!)
But isn't this a matter of celebration? Our rupee is gaining importance internationally and is becoming stronger again .. How many of us know that in 1947 when India got independence 1 Rupee was 1.2 US dollars?
These Indian IT companies instead of relying on a weaker rupee for their profit should now look at coming out with innovative products and technical solutions. What have these companies done in the arena of core system products? Why don't we have any operating systems, compilers, database systems, development platforms etc coming out of India ? Why don't we develop tools like photoshop or flash? We have talent, but they all are working in American companies on these products... Cannot our Indian IT companies setup at least small teams to develop such products?
Instead they are planning to make their employees work on saturdays too! So that their profits can increase due to extra hours the employees put in... As if India doesn't have any other option other than cheap labor, workaholic labor!! Are there no brains in India who can setup companies developing products and make money just by printing out more serial numbers and burning their product DVDs?
If Indian companies continue to depend on its weak currency, then how would Indian economy survive in a world where all currencies have equal value? Survival of the fittest... Only greater innovation can help us in that case...
We need to have knowledge and technological advantage if India wants to become a superpower, not low cost based cheap labor advantage! Let the Chinese do it...
I hope that rupee becomes more and stronger so that Indians are forced to use their brains and come up with innovative products and next generation technologies, than to provide low end services…
We need to create a situation where other countries line up to buy our F-16s, to buy our operating systems, to buy our mobile phones and I-pods, to buy our Boeing, to buy our Mercedes…
A stronger rupee means we can easily afford foreign trips!
"A stronger rupee means Indians can buy things anywhere in the world on par with developed economies! We don't have to spend crores of rupees then to buy a Boeing! We don't have to pay tens of thousands of rupees for international air travels! A stronger rupee means greater international exposure! There won't be a difference between buying a Maruti and buying a Mercedes! One can go on a trip to the Grand Canyon just like the way one goes to Ladakh or Nepal! How do you think Americans are able to tour all over the world? Because they earn more? No. But because their currency USD is stronger... And this is where a strong rupee will lead us to! "
I am not saying providing low end services are wrong... It gave us a very good start in the 90s. But that should definitely not be the bread and butter fueling our economic boom indefinitely in the future... For the simple reason that it can't continue to do so any longer... other low cost destinations, cheaper than India are already coming up in the world… Let us move ahead… become more innovative.. . the journey has just started… This is just the beginning of all the beginnings.