Between the lines...

In school days we spent lot of time in sporting activities but as we move to higher classes we get progressively less and less time to indulge in sporting activities. This is the time when family and social responsibilities start taking more and more focus in our lives. Once we start doing job our lives become more leisure and sport and physical activities take backstage.

I love sports and active life but ever since I started my service I have never had enough time to indulge in these hobbies. In Cyprus life is little relaxed and it is easier to find some time for recreation. In addition to hobby and time you need company of like minded people(which is always in short supply) to enjoy the time. Fortunately I have such company. For quite some time every weekend some of us go to Limasol forestry park with families. We started forestry park trips for picnic but soon we discovered that there is good scope and interest for playing games especially Volleyball.

Forestry park offers complete package for weekend outings. It is lush green area on north of Limasol town and has facilities for Kids games, Volleyball, Basketball with flood lights for night action. Every weekend we go there to play Volleyball. While Kids are busy in playing,fighting and playing, women can sit and chat in peace and men are free to enjoy their time.

Ever since we started playing Volleyball regularly, we feel physically more fit and our game has improved a lot. Usually we play by forming teams by randomly dividing the players but occasionally we had matches likes Indians V/s Romanians, and married V/s Bachelors.

Regular players are Atul Sharma, Ashish Thukral, Ravi Sharma, Balwindr Singh, Ajay Mantri, Amit Chamoli, Vinay Mandalam, Shakti Shandilya and the author. Some of other players are Vinojh baby, Amandeep, Arvind Jain etc. Notable past player is Anuj Gupta(we didn't forget you). While some of the players has improved their game a lot other have made little progress. Collectively we have lot of fun and always look forward to our next Volleyball match.

Some times we go to Beach to play Beach Volleyball. Now a days Beach Volleyball is more popular as soon we are going to have Amdocs Cyprus Volleyball tournament which will be played on Volleyball. Almost all the members from our Forestry park Volleyball group are participating in the tournament and I am quite sure some of them will be part of winning team. Its late in night, I must sleep now as tomorrow morning at 6:00 AM I have to go for Volleyball practice.

With the advent of satellite tv, hundred of new TV channels came into picture. There are channels of all kind, serving audience of all kind.
Around 15 years back people have no choice then to watch what is being aired on one or two channels available that time. We used to wait for certain programs like Chitrahaar and weekly movies. One channels used to serve all kind of content the news, sports, entertainment etc. Suddenly people have lot of choice in terms of what they want to view. There came into picture channels serving specific segment. One such category of channels was new channels, 24 hour news channels.

These News channels made news very accessible, fast and more detailed as there was more time to broadcast details of news. But on the other hand it is not easy to create so much news content and news channels has to work hard to fill the 24 hour air time on daily basis. In one way this was good for society as it increased public awareness, exposed corrupt politician and civil servants. In turn this made public more aware by educating them about issues of public importance.

But there is also a downside to this. Presence of multiple channels in the same category gave rise to fierce competition between different channels, competition for breaking news, competition for shocking and sensational news, crime news etc etc. Further this resulted in the dilution of quality of news. News channels started broadcasting useless discussions, street scenes, highlighting useless issues. Certain channels devote substantial air time to useless issues and speculations about lifestyle of celebrities like Ash-Abhishek marriage, India's early exit from world cup cricket etc. This type of news and most of the serials (specially the K-ones) are just eyewash and brainwash and are creating a generation which leaves in pseudo-reality.

In summary
upside of hundreds of news channels

• General public has opportunity to showcase their talent


• Choice to viewers


• Detailed analysis of news


• Easy availability of news


• Exposure of corruption


• Spread of public awareness


• Uniting people against injustice e.g. Jessica lal murder case

downside of hundreds of news channels

• Degradations of content quality


• People spent more time watching television


• misuse of media power e.g. trial by media


• No time for socialization

In the end I will say good and bad goes together. What do you say ?

Labels: scooters

This marriage took place after more than two years of marathon romance between the couple. It is second marriage for both of them. Couple seems to be deeply in love and once while travelling by a British airways flight Liz slipped into Arun's seat under blanket and flight attendants has to intervene on complaints from fellow passengers.

Now some unpleasant news is coming out. Arun's father Vinod claimed that he and his wife were insulted and humiliated during Arun-Liz's marriage in Rajasthan. He blamed Liz for shameful events that day and said it is because of her obsessive appetite for lucrative publicity.” Liz Hurley also returned the 35000 pound wedding gift from Vinod.

Now Vinod announced that he is disowning both his sons, saying they were complicit in his humiliation.
So I am wondering this marriage untied two persons or separated two persons(father-son)? This is celebrity life style my Friend. Things are glossy from outer side but dig it little and you will see dirt and filth.