The ISL Indian Super League – A game changer for football.

The ISL is begun in India and it is a great boost for football in India.

It follows the IPL tradition and cricket has been given the fillip after the advent of IPL.

Similar future is forecast for ISL and youngsters in India would get the opportunity to play with world renowned players.

The youngsters would get motivated to take up football as a career as the ISL would enable them to get a decent living.

The game of cricket was lucrative and well paying unlike football and hockey, hence only cricket attracted youngsters.

With the new format the players in football would not only get rewarded but it would promote good competitiveness amongst our youth.

The ISL has begun with a big fanfare in Kolkatta the place for football with a grand opening ceremony in salt lake stadium followed by the first match between the home team Kolkatta and Mumbai.

The match was fun and interesting with 3 goals scored by Kolkatta and Mumbai despite trying hard could not get a goal.

The attendance was over 70000 and the stadium was full to its capacity.

The ISL is promoted by Ms Nita Ambani, thanks to her as this would nurture the football talent in India.

The IPL was a brainchild of Lalit Mody and Nita Ambani has emulated this model for Football with 8 teams participating in the tournament.

The would be plenty of Football in the next two months and Indian public would get to see world class players playing here in our grounds.

There had been a fillip for Kabbadi few months ago and that too attracted wide attention.

There is a game yet to be boosted, and that’s Hockey where India has been performing much better than cricket since many years, but has lost its sheen in recent years.

I wish some good Samaritan in India starts a similar league like IPL or ISL to give a boost to Indian Hockey in order to restore it to its old glory.

Truly India is shining now; the attention given to sports would stimulate the large population into taking up sports professionally and bring fame and recognition to this great country of 1.2 billion.

If small European countries can excel in games and sports why not our country.

A great country like China with a large population like ours could mobilize its youth into sports and win recognition in sports as is seen in recent Asiad games then why should our country lag behind.

If our country recognizes sports and rewards them suitably then more youngsters would be serious in taking up sports as a career.

TRULY INDIA IS COMING OF AGE AND WE SHOULD BE PROUD TO BE INDIANS AS THE COUNTRY WOULD BE SOON A SUPER POWER IN SPORTS LIKE IT IS IN THE IT INDUSTRY.

Mr. Narendra Modi our Pradhan Sevak

After the nation completes 67 years of independence, on the 68 Th Independence day our Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi addressed the country as the Pradhan Sevak which reflects his intentions as a leader who is serious in our nation building.

For once after so many years a National Leader – our Prime minister spoke ex-tempore and did not read from a prepared written speech. His speech evoked great feeling of being Indian and at last we can consider lucky that the nation is heading towards a fast track of growth under a dynamic leader.

The Prime minister spoke without a bullet proof barrier and after the speech broke all security cordons and came and met the young kids waiting at the front part of the gathering.

The Pradhan Sevak has touched many points which are neglected and were never considered as important in our country.

Some of the points mentioned by him are listed below:

Stress on Manufacturing: Make our country proud by making things here, and make the “Made in India” a reality and make it happen. The manufacturing sector needs a boost and all industries are required to be encouraged. There is a need to introspect and everybody should at least make one thing which is imported to be made here. He proposed zero defects in our products manufactured here, and zero effect of our goods on the environment.

Safeguard Girl Children: Girl children are being killed in our country and sons are preferred over daughters. It is the daughters who care for their parents and not sons so it is imperative that girl children are protected and given good opportunities similar to our sons. The female to male ratio is 940/1000, not good and hence a concern. He has appealed to doctors who perform abortions killing girl children to stop such activities.

Toilets for all: Gandhiji, our leader fought for our independence and always wanted cleanliness so can our country not respect his sentiments and desire and provide a clean toilet for all.

All schools in our country should have toilets which are clean and hygienic. The schools should have toilets separate for girl children.

The Industries in our country should under corporate social responsibility ensure all schools in our country has a toilet for kids and this should be accomplished in one year’s time before the next independence day.

The villages are not having toilets and women have to wait until dark to g             o for toilets in open fields. This country should understand the need for toilets so that women can be safe and use them easily.

Skill India Initiative: There is a scarcity of skilled personnel and often we find that we do not get a plumber, electrician, when we need. So there is a need to develop a pool of skilled personnel thro skill training institutes. This is a skill India initiative. This would enable people to find employment and unemployment problems can be reduced.

Moratorium on Caste and Communal clashes: This country has been plagued by frequent caste and communal clashes and these have been impeding progress in our country. He has appealed to all to put a stop of these clashes and has said that in the next ten years there should be no caste or communal clash anywhere in our country and our focus should be on the prosperity and growth of our nation.

Life Insurance and Savings for Poor People: The people of our country have a mobile but not a savings bank account. He proposed that savings habit be cultivated in our folks and provide them debit card. This is a Prime Minister Jan Dhan Yojana.

Also he proposed that every family has at least an insurance of Rs one lakh.

Digital India: Our country imports a lot of electronic goods so we ought to start the manufacturing them here in India. Today E Governance is order of the day; the country today is united by mobile revolution. The mobiles can be used for all transactions and should be made popular. 

The Lok sabha and Rajya Sabha members have been urged to take up at least one village per year and make it a model one.

The Planning commission has been scrapped immediately and a new organization is proposed.

The bureaucracy has started attending office regularly and punctually, this made news recently.

He said this should have not been news at all, that this became news showed the condition to where the bureaucracy has stooped.

I cannot recall over so many years listening to an inspired speech and am happy that we have at last a guy who is sincere and serious to lead this country to growth and prosperity.

Let’s give him all the support and start the nation building process immediately.

T2 Mumbai International Airport - Swanky and stylish.

I had recently travelled abroad and I had to fly through the new International airport.

Approach: The Approach road is good. I came from the Saki naka side and the area around the airport was clean and good.

There are two roads leading to the terminal, one closer to the airport and the other one is parallel to the first one.

As usual the one near to the airport was crowded and vehicles were parked there for people to alight.

I preferred the second one where the road was clean and less crowded.

I had to wait a while for finding a trolley to cart my luggage, this needs improvement.

As soon as I entered the terminal I could locate my carrier and went towards it for checking in my luggage.

After taking my boarding pass and I proceeded to the security area and waiting hold.

The entire airport is well designed and has wifi facility.

I did use this facility but my what’s ap was not working so used my mail facility, which worked so could send mails. The wifi in Heathrow also did not support whatsap.

The arrangements inside are good.

While coming back I landed in the same international airport.

The exit thro the plane was good and there were toilets along the transit and were as clean as any other facility in the airports worldwide.

The walk to Immigration is long so there are vehicle facilities for seniors.

The immigration hold is big and there are adequate windows where one can pass through with ease and in no time. It’s better than Miami where I had to wait at least 15 minutes.

The baggage claim area is just after the immigration, so one gets to the luggage retrieval area immediately.

Here the wait is painstakingly long, and it took one hour for my luggage to come to the conveyor belt. This needs improvement as the turnover of luggage should be quick and efficient.

The Customs clearance is again not a problem as one needs to scan only cabin or hand luggages, thus sparing us from lifting the bigger luggages on to the scanner.

As soon as we come out, we have the option of cabs booking and one can book the cab and go to level 1 by an escalator. If you have somebody receiving you then you can exit at the level of the customs area, and take your private car.

The exit to cab area is good, and waiting area for the cabs well designed.

I found the overall experience of going through and coming through the T2 Mumbai International Airport good and comparable to world standards.

Hope the Authorities keep up the cleanliness and maintain the toilets spick and span.

The Airports are the first point of entry for a traveler and it they ought to be good and appealing to travelers.

Congrats to the team which made it happen and wish them luck in keeping it truly world class.

At last we can boast of world class facility.

Reservations based on caste in India.

Since 1950 the constitution of India provided initially though only for 10 years, caste based reservations.

Since then we have been continuing with it.

The question now posed by some people, is reservation based on caste system relevant after so many years in our country.

If we see the general population of our country, it is sad that even after so many years of this system, there is abject poverty and people are living in difficult conditions.

In major cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai etc there has been large influx of people from rural areas and despite the fact they live in big cities, the general education level amongst slum dwellers is rather poor.

What is that prevents the population from taking advantages of opportunities to advance one’s standard of living.

It starts from education.

As the people find it difficult to eke out a living in our country, there is least priority for education and parents of poor families do not encourage education for their children, They are happy if these children earn a living so that household expenses are met.

It’s ironic that children are made to do jobs at young age, see the number of people employed in dhabas and garages across our country.

You can find them in every place across India.

As long as these children do not attend school, they would end up doing small jobs and their lives would not improve.

Despite the fact that there are reservations in education, these children do not come forward.

If this is so after 67 years of Independence, how can we think of doing away with the reservations in education?

As the population of lower caste is high, it is this segment which is also a majority in the poor section.

The lower caste people need to be motivated to take up education and then they would automatically improve their chances of a better employment.

That there is quota for lower castes in employments in government organizations is a big boost for this section, and this would definitely help this section to study more and further. Ironically the progress is not much.

What we see is that the affordable community in such section grabs these reservations and is exploiting these opportunities.

It’s time the government considers the income level along with the caste reservations, so that the creamy layer is discouraged from grabbing the opportunities.

The basic reservation should continue but however if the person from this section has earned sufficient wealth then he or she should be debarred from such reservation and asked to compete in the open criteria.

Accidents can be avoided.

The classic principles of accidents are as follows:

1.       Unsafe conditions.

2.        Unsafe Actions.

While we are debating these points let’s consider the meaning of these principles.

Unsafe Acts are those which are caused by the person ignoring safety rules and meeting with accidents.

Unsafe Conditions are those which allow accidents to happen, because of poor design.

Unsafe Conditions are the main reason for causing accidents worldwide.

It is the duty of the manufacturer who should ensure that there are no unsafe conditions in their appliances and it should be idiot proof.

The guards of machines should be such that a person cannot put his fingers into the covered areas thereby injuring his or her fingers. We are aware of these rules while designing equipment.

It is only the responsibility of the makers who have to ensure these designs.

Industrial accidents are viewed very seriously in our country.

The Factory inspectorate penalizes establishments for not providing the safety guards etc, and the employee is very well protected against such accidents. The employer has not only to pay for the injured person’s treatment but ensure corrective actions are taken to stop such accidents in future.

If the government is so strict in enforcing such stringent rules to safeguard employees- which are correct- then why accidents on the railways are brushed aside as trespassing.

I read a report in the The Times of India about the recent accident of Ms Monika More in Mumbai.

She was trying to board a train which had just started and in the course of her run to get a foothold, she slipped in a trench along the platform in Ghatkopar station, and slipped. The fall was bad and her hands got under the wheels of the train. This resulted in the severing of her both hands.

The girl is in the hospital fighting to survive, but has lost both her hands. The hospital could not retrieve her hands.

This speaks of a great tragedy in our country. Very often the accident victims in the railways are not attended to immediately. Poor facilities are available on the railway stations, lack of infrastructure and ambulance often delay in rushing the patient to a hospital. This delay not only affects the likely treatment but very often leads to death.

The Railways carry millions of passengers on the suburban network in Mumbai.

They get huge revenues from passengers.

Often the courts have highlighted the poor facilities on the railway stations but to no avail.

There seems to be no concerted attempt to mobilize these facilities and save lives and limbs of passengers.

The Ghatkopar incident is that of an unsafe condition.

How can there be a sudden gap in the platform along the boarding side of the platform.

The railways say that there are equipments below the pit, hence cannot be covered with cement.

If that is so what prevents them from making a frame of angles and covering the pit with plates so that nobody would fall and their equipments can still function.

Previously the trains had fewer compartments, now days the trains have 12 and 15 compartments and the railways should realize the danger of these hazards as the train stops very near the pit.

Can the government wake up now at least and ensure that such death traps are avoided.

Unsafe conditions cannot exist anywhere and have to be plugged immediately.