RIP Diego Maradona

 This 21 year old thin, tiny guy from Argentina was the new star in the horizon amongst the more established Brazilian, German and Italian stars like Zico, Socrates, Paolo Rossi in the 1982 World Cup Soccer being held in Spain. He was Diego Maradona.

Argentina the champion in the previous version missed to see Maradona in the World Cup held in their own soil as the coach thought at 17 he was too raw to play in a high profile tournament. But in 1979 FIFA Youth World Cup held in Japan, Maradona emerged as a star as Argentina won the cup defeating Soviet Union in the Finals.

In 1982 Maradona was no stranger to the world of soccer, having already carved his niche. The Quarterfinals was in a league format with Argentina, Brazil and Italy clubbed together in one group, the group of sudden death from which only one team can qualify for the semifinals. In the all important match, Brazil, the overwhelming favorite Samba team needed just a draw to qualify to the semis. But Argentina and Brazil, both lost to Italy which stopped their juggernaut, especially the fancied Brazil.

Maradona was a matured 25 year old and 1986 was His World Cup. I deliberately used (H in Caps) for His famous "Hand of God" goal which sealed England's chances in the Quarterfinals. Maradona scored a controversial goal against the English team, apparently touching the ball by his hand just before scoring the goal. The British press went berserk to which Maradona responded - "It was the hand of Diego (God)".

Arguably, apart from Pele, Maradona wearing his famous no. 10 Jersey when on a dribbling mode was unstoppable and dangerous proposition to any opponent. It also often made him victim to professional fouls to break their flow, causing frequent injuries.

He played in the next World Cup in 1990 when he took his team to the Finals again, before Argentina lost to Germany in a close encounter. I still remember a visibly crying Maradona at the end of the final, as he couldn't bear the loss of his team.

Maradona had an uneventful World Cup i in 1994 World Cup held in the United States, failing a drug test. He was always in the news ever since, mostly for wrong reasons with allegations of drug use and a messy married life. But he was still unstoppable on soccer front, working as a Manager. Death finally stopped him once and for all today. At 60, he still had yards to go. Rest in peace, Hand of God.

In Memory of Chiranjeebi - Story of an Odia Imposter

 Who said that we Odias aren't smart ! This is the story of an Odia con artist who fooled many and successfully flirted with multiple women on Facebook, until one day he lied exposed.

Once upon a time, I was part of a group of Odias on Facebook. A common friend, a good samatarian, an active member and Admin of that group who liked my blogs and other posts on Facebook added me to that group, because I was expected to add variety by contributing my blogs. So I did religiously. But soon I suspected that hardly anyone followed my blogs in that forum. 

Majority of the members were ladies whose taste hovered around exotic Odia food, Bollywood and occasional Odia songs, pickles, mundane talks about their day to day activities, gossips, especially character assassination of their villainous mother-in-laws and sister-in-laws. I could sense that hardly anyone bothered to read my blogs, barring a few humorous ones which earned me some frugal "Likes". Being the odd man out in a group where majority were girls, I thought of quitting. But kept on procrastinating my decision as I found their gossips spicy enough for me to stay glued to the group.

There was this guy, a member and a very active participant, non-controversial, liked by one and all. But eventually he turned out to be a BAHURUPI (multiple personality), a master of the game he was playing. Unknown to all he created an account in the name of "Chiranjeebi Dash", a good looking stud with a handsome picture and added him to this group. His profile page said he was a pilot in Indian Air Force, flying fighter jets across the globe.

Soon at least half a dozen married ladies from the group swooned over and went crazy about this new kid in the block. Bored with their mundane life as housewives, a la instant kick from caffeine shruggs off jaded nerves, they discovered new found excitement in chasing the mirage of this perfect man - Tall, dark, handsome (with stolen profile picture), a dashing young pilot with a sense of humor who humored the girls with poetry and romantic Shayaris quoting choicest Urdu couplets. 

One day he perfectly placed himself in a position of abject sympathy, as the fictitious Airman announced the loss of his fictitious girlfriend to cancer. To give credence to his character, he had already created a Facebook profile of a pretty girl (obviously stolen). To add more myth surrounding our pilot Chiranjeebi a fictitious sister of him was added to the group. His fictitious sister boasted about her loving Air Force brother Chiranjeebi. If I remember correctly her name was "Anwesha Dash", a very appropriate name chosen, for everyone is still in ANWESAN (quest) of that girl. 

His best laid plan to create a wonderful scenario which appeared so realistic in the virtual world of Facebook started to yield results. No less than half a dozen girls in that group instantly bought his story and were all over him. They literally got into a cat fight to grab his attention, making a beeline of their melted hearts showering him with sympathy. Before they realized, their compassion had transformed into infatuation, infatuation to love. 

One of the girls promptly offered a gift of an expensive Parker pen to the pilot. Another girl was on the verge of leaving her family to fulfill the void left at the man's heart now that his girlfriend (fictitious) is gone. The ladies were ready to give up their everytning for someone they never met before. In the wildest of their dreams they didn't know that their man in Shining Armor, their hero was a conman. 

At this point I was starting to get curious to know about this guy. Couple of times he mentioned about flying to US Airforce base in Colorado on some training mission. I requested him to share his telephone number while he was supposed to be in US. He was evasive - "this is a top secret mission, we are not supposed to give our contact number". He agreed to gave me his India number and told me that I may call him once he returns back". Something didn't sound right. Nevertheless, I called him after a few days.

On the other end was a hoarce voice, coughing - "Brother, I am in Egypt now, just flew my fighter plane straight from Russia. It was snowing there. Here it's damn hot. The sudden change of weather caused me a bad cold. Sorry, brother. Can't talk any longer. Too tired and want to call it a day". "No problem. Take care" - I replied. 

But my suspicion only grew. Our dashing man Chiranjeebi Dash avoids to talk, and when he talks it is a coarse, shadowy voice from some shady place in Egypt at the other end. Something ain't sounded right. I thought of disclosing my findings, but was apprehensive that it will fall into deaf ears of these women who were completely smitten and mesmerized by their pilot hero. So, I kept quite.

A few days later, a real Odia pilot was killed along with 4 more Airforce guys as their flight crashed near Gwalior. Our Chiranjeebi immediately announced that the unfortunate Odia pilot was his friend and he was supposed to be in that flight but somehow was lucky to have missed the ill fated flight by a whisker. The girls went gaga over him, their infatuation grew many fold. They profusely thanked God for saving the precious life of their SAPNON KA SAUDAGAR (Dream man).

At this point I gave Chiranjibee the benefit of doubt and wasn't suspicious anymore. Though I was on right track, after this incident I blamed myself for being inordinately skeptical, with my suspicion hitting a road block. It was vindicated that my Sherlock Holmes skills has its limitations. A real guy is dead. The aircrash has been reported in all the major Indian newspapers. Poor Chiranjibee is mourning his friend and I am needlessly getting suspicious about someone who just lost his friend and not long ago lost his girlfriend. I felt offtrack.

Or so I thought. Chiranjibee remained the blue eyes boy of these Odia girls, until his luck finally finally ran out after a year. This man posing as the legendary pilot got caught one day by another member of the group while trying to change phones and modulate his voice to play the character of Airman Chiranjeebi. Caught red handed, he admitted of playing the role of a fictitious character to flirt with the girls. Now folks were able to connect the dots and his victims figured how they were taken for a ride for couple of years by this imposter. Poor ladies, their Knight in Shining Armor they so long fantasized had turned into a crook.

Years later I happened to meet this guy during my trip to Odisha. I confronted him, urf the fictitious Chiranjibee and asked him right on his face - "Should I address you with your real name So and So, or as Chiranjibee, the dashing Air Force pilot ?" He sounded embarrassed, "BHAI, KAHI CHUNA MARUCHA. GOTE KHARAP BELA THILA - Bro, why you are adding salt to the wound. It was my bad time". I replied - "You had a good time. Many men would love to be in your shoes. After all, who can make half a dozen women go crazy simultaneously after one person ? Only celebrity can and you had your celebrity status for quite long time".

That Facebook group is no more there, probably defunct now. From what I heard, this guy has been blocked, unfriended by some of the ladies. Yet the memory of the Indian Airforce Pilot Chiranjeebi, as the name goes, lives on.

US 2020 Elections and its aftermath

 The night after the day of US Elections I was fast asleep. In the wee hours my phone kept on ringing. Drowsy after a long day I hesitantly picked up the phone. At the other end I could hear the sad voice of a boy from our village - "BHAINA, KANA TRAWMPAW KU HAREI DELA - Hey Brother, you defeated Trump ?". "But why do you care ?" - I asked in an intriguing tone. He retorted back - "BICHARAA HAARI GALA. NA HELE PAKISTAN UPARE BOMA PAKEI THANTA - The poor guy lost. Otherwise, he could have dropped a bomb on Pakistan". I replied dismissively - "Oh, Trump told you so ? That's good to know".

In meantime, there was a Presidential election that was held in Tanzania on October 28, less than a week before the US Elections. Outside their country, nobody cares, nobody bothers about their elections. Poor Tanzania !!!

Come American Presidential elections every other 4 years, it gets its fair coverage in India. But this year, the extent of its following, especially on social media surprised me. What surprised me more was the widespread passion of the Trump supporers back home rooting for his victory. If Trump would run in India, he need not do any campaigning - he will win hands down.

But who am I to sermonize? I was also one of those tens of millions who passionately followed the elections, bidding for the Democrats, including Joe Biden, now the President Elect. But in my view following are the reasons which generated an extra interest in this election back home.

First, the flamboyancy of Trump's character. His unconventional, bullying and tweeting tactics made him a great salesman - his sales pitch bought instantly by his fans which shrugged off their jaded nerves, giving them the instant kick of multiple cups instant coffee. Secondly, the misplaced belief of our foreign policy experts on social media that Trump was on the verge of declaring Pakistan a terrorist state because their Supreme God Sri Sri Modi danced in "Howdy Modi" event in Houston holding Trump's hands.

In spite of all these histrionics at Houston, 72% of Indian Americans including me voted for Joe Biden. What a vision in foreign policy by Modi to take sides in am election in a foreign country and openly declare standing next to someone up for reelection - "AB KI BAAR, TRUMP SARKAR - Next time, it's Trump Government" ! Can't find any thing more appropriate to describe this than a myopic, tunnel vision in foreign policy.

I have been following Elections in USA since 1976. Every time a Republican comes, he screws up the governance. Then a Democratic President comes and goes on to rescue it. The Right wingers across the globe are big on rhetorics, failures at governance. I can write an essay about it, but here is a brief summary.

1. George Bush Senior - He screwed up the economy and lost to Bill Clinton in 1992. When Clinton left in 2000 the economy was booming.

2. In 2008 George Bush Junior went for ill fated Iraq war and economy was on a freefall. Obama rescued the economy and left with an economy in good shape in 2016. 

3. Now under Trump both economy is bad and COVID-19 is worse.

I can go on and on, on this. In meantime Trump is behaving like a petulant child whose candy has been snatched away from his hand. The Nostradamuses and Alhabadi Astrologers on social media who predicted a Trump victory have gone underground.

Yet Democrats need to do some soul searching to do. Though better than the Republicans, they are no lily whites either. Gone are the days they used to be the party of the blue collar, middle class working American. Many of them have become elitists and because of that they have lost a chunk of votes in the Rust belt. They need to get back to the basics and be the champions of the middle class.

The shy supporters of Modi and Trump

 Frank Luntz, the famed Republican pollster apologized on National Public Radio for his failure to call the US 2020  Election correctly. His estimate was a conservative, but a comfortable win for Joe Biden. Though Biden is almost there, the Election was far closer than he predicted, Trump really giving the Democrats a run for money.

Frank was frank enough to own his failure. Per him, the discrepancy in his prediction was due to those shy Trump voters preferred not to express publicly their choice for Trump, being afraid of getting ridiculed. Those unaccounted shy voters made all the difference to calculations in the pollsters prediction.

It immediately rang a bell. I have observed, at least on the social media there are many shy supporters of our Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who are afraid of being ridiculed in public. They don't want to be branded as a Modi BHAKT (a religiously blind follower). At the same time, there are obviously plenty of those not so shy supporters of Mr. Modi roaming all over the social media.

I mock at both Modi and Trump, as they go hand in hand. They even danced together hand in hand in the much publicized "Howdy Modi" event last year (much publicized in India, the American media barely took a notice the event being held in their own soil in Houston). I also mock at their hardcore, blind supporters as BHAKTs in a generic way, never being specific to any particular individual.

Nothing riles someone more than being labelled as a BHAKT. But there is some misunderstanding here as I have never said in any of my blogs or posts anything specifically about Mr. X or Ms. Y being a Bhakt. Not sure why people take it so personally in that case. I would like to make it clear that my views are highly generic, not any specific to any particular person.

There is a saying in Odia "MANDIRA RE KIYE, NA MU KADALI KHAINI - Who is there in the temple, reply comes, I haven't eaten any Banana." It simply means, somebody trying to defend himself when there is no accusation". But if my mockery of Modi-Trump duo makes anyone uncomfortable, they are free to ignore my posts, unfriend me or even block me. 

I am reminded of this famous song from a Guru Dutt movie and modified it in this context.

 

BHAKT NE KIYA, KYA HASI SITAM

NA TUM RAHE NA TUM

NA HUM RAHE NA HUM.

Roughly transliterated....

The devotee has done charming injustice,

Nor Me or you,

now are what we used to.