Jab Hamein Police Maar Rahi Hai...

In few thing, no one can beat our dear neighbor - Pakistan. Watch this amazing speech by one Imran Khan supporter. The lines I like best are:

Jab Hamein Police Maar Rahi Hai
To Hum Inqilab kaise lainge

(When the police is beating us - How can we bring about a revolution)

Try to say it with the most innocent and child like face - and you will get the picture...

Tamil or Tamizh!

One of most fascinating Indian politician, Kanimozhi has been arrested in the 2G scam. And that leads to the big question. How due you pronounce 'zh' in her name? No - it is unlikely that you will get it right on your own... (unless you happen to be Tamil)

I faced this problem originally few years ago while working in Mumbai. I had good friendship with a person from Coimbatore - whose name had this 'zh'. I could not get it right after several attempts. Finally - he told me to pronounce it as 'L'

I have seen people pronounce it as 'R', 'L', a deep 'Z', a quick 'YRA' or even 'S'. Here is what I got in a quick Google search!

I got to work in Chennai recently for few months - and I managed to do it finally!

So here is a quick guide to pronouncing 'zh' ... (It is the way I figured it out! Spare me if I have got this wrong)

1. Say 'LA'.
2. Notice the way your tongue moves.
3. Your tongue touches upper part of your mouth. Then you move the tongue forward while maintaining contact.
4. Here is the tough part - touch your tongue to the upper part of mouth and try to say 'LA'. However this time you have to move your tongue backwards instead of forward.
5. I bet you will not be able to do it first time. Try it few times. Try it fast.
6. You will not get the 'LA' sound. You will manage some weird utterance.
7. Congratulation. That sound happens to be 'zh'

Exercises
1. Tamil is actually 'TamiZH'
2. Repeat 'KanimoZHi' five times.
3. And now try saying Anaithinthiya ThamiZHaga Munnetra KaZHagam. And hey you have to do it fast!

Dhoni - The best captain ever ???

Sachin Tendulkar, our most accomplished player for over two decades has averred that Dhoni is the best Indian Captain he has played with. Sachin has played under captaincy of Azharuddin, Ganguly, Dravid and Kumble apart from Dhoni. He himself has captained for a brief time.

So is Dhoni the best captain? Or is he just an average one who has a good record because of extremely talented teammates and lots of luck! After the world cup victory many people who earlier did not believe in Dhoni have began to change stance. There are very few people who now say that Dhoni is a bad captain. And yet, many do still believe that Dhoni can never do what Ganguly did for the Indian team.

Let us take a quick look at statistics. In ODIs, Dhoni has a success rate of 56% while Ganguly has a rate of 54%. The difference is not much. Infact all the other captains are also somewhere in this range only. The tests record though is revealing. Dhoni has a WIN : LOSS : DRAW record of 14:3:7 - which is best among all captains in history. Ganguly is a clear second at 21:13:15. The next best is Azhar - who has a record of 14:14:19. That should clearly establish the order of captain's excellence.

However statistics rarely reveal the whole truth. Ganguly brought a whole new way of thinking into the Indian team. Before Ganguly, Indian team player's used to be gentlemen. If it was a tight game, you could rest assured that India will lose. If India was winning, we were quite capable of snatching loss from jaws of victory. Ganguly brought an element of street cricket to dressing room. I hope every one remembers his London dance show. We were known as lions at home. The tiger of Bengal sledged and harassed Australians at Australia! Ganguly is credited with identifying and nurturing several youngster's who form the core of Indian attack now. Moreover when we look at record of Ganguly - we have to remember that he was forced to play a part of his career with Chappel on his head.

Dhoni inherited an already well formed team. But he carried the process forward. Under Dhoni also, we have shown that capacity to win from tight situations and defeating opponents in their own backyard. Most players have managed to give their best under him. He makes maverick decisions - but is trusted by his players. As a captain he is considered to be fair. And of course he got the world cup for India - a thing Ganguly missed by a whisker in 2003.

We can safely say that India has benefited by both these sporting greats. Dhoni is going to face many more challenges in future. One of them will be the to win back the T20 world cup again. Also he has to lead the team as anchors of Team India like Tendulkar walk into retirement.

Perhaps the last word is provided by Ganguly only. Ganguly announced, "There can't be any doubt about it. Dhoni is the greatest captain of our country."

But I think it is just humility!