BedTea.in | Ravi Matah's Blog

Pundit Octopus Paul, who had become a sensation after successfully predicting matches at the World Cup, died peacefully in his sleep at the age of two years. Stefan Porwoll, general manager of the Oberhausen Sea Life centre in Germany – where Paul made his predictions – confirmed the news. 

Paul the Octopus

“He died last night, a peaceful and natural death,” Porwoll said. 

“Management and staff at the Oberhausen Sea Life Center were devastated to discover that oracle octopus Paul, who achieved world-wide recognition during the recent World Cup, had passed away overnight,” the aquarium said in a statement. 

“We grew very fond of him,” said Sea Life general manager Stefan Porwoll. “He passed away during the night peacefully,” he said as the marine life centre flew flags at half mast and all employees wore black armbands.  (more…)

MELBOURNE: A 16-year-old boy from Melbourne on Friday pleaded guilty in a children’s court for his involvement in the stabbing of Indian student Nitin Garg, who died in January.

News of Nitin Garg’s death had shook the nation as this was the first racial related death reported in Australia.

The teenager, whose name has not been revealed, has been charged with committing a robbery by stealing Garg’s mobile phone and making a false statement to police in which he denied that his friend had killed the Indian.

The young boy pleaded guilty in a children’s court on Friday. (more…)

I had brought out in my earlier blog on CWG that the day these games are over the deals done by members and the OC of the Organising Committee of the Commonwealth Games will be probed.

Scintillating dances, laser show and a musical extravaganza on Thursday night marked the finale of the Commonwealth Games. The fourteen bands of the Indian Army gave a splendid display of music and their marching was excellently synchronised.

CWG Delhi 2010

The fireworks outside and the sounds of music inside the Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium had barely died down, when the Officials in the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General and the Central Vigilance Commission began the assessment of the cases of corruption relating to the arrangements of the Commonwealth games.

India had stood second in the medals tally with a total of 101 medals in the Commonwealth ganes which their highest ever achieved. India’s gold medals tally stood at 38 medals which is the highest ever achieved by them and stood second behind Australia who have won a total of 177 medals.

A day after the Commonwealth Games came to an end Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met athletes at his residence on Friday. But Organising Committee Chairman Suresh Kalmadi and the Organising panel members had simply not been invited.  Sports Minister MS Gill was present, sitting beside the Prime Minister during the photo shoot. (more…)

India has reacted sharply over news in the Australian media of a racist email scandal involving top Australian police officers. The Australian High Commissioner to India, Peter Verghese, was summoned by the Ministry of External Affairs on Saturday after top Victoria Police were caught circulating offensive mails on an Indian electrocuted on a train.

 A demarche was issued to him on this matter and it was conveyed to him that such an entrenched bias among sections of law enforcers towards the Indian community is a matter of serious concern.  We sincerely hope that apart from taking action against concerned officers, Australian authorities will also take necessary and effective measures to address concerns about safety of all people of Indian origin in Australia.

The officers in Victoria circulated video footage of the electrocution of a man who was travelling on the roof of a crowded train in India and suggested it could be a way to fix Melbourne’s Indian students’ problem, according to a report in the Herald Sun. (more…)

Mumbai: Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar was on Wednesday dropped from the Governing Council of the Indian Premier League as the BCCI met here for its 81st AGM, at which it was also decided to revoke the expulsion of its former chief Jagmohan Dalmiya.

The IPL governing council has been reconstituted and former India captain Sunil Gavaskar is not part of the new team, and as a consequence of an amendment to the constitution, the term of the  council has also been reduced from five years to one year.

The major overhaul of the IPL was on the cards for a long time and the Board also took the decision to withdraw their suit filed against Jagmohan Dalmiya in the Bombay High Court. Dalmiya had been expelled by the BCCI in 2006. (more…)

Melbourne:  After a lull in racial attacks against Indians in Australia, a 21-year-old man from the Indian community was brutally assaulted by a group of teenagers with baseball bats after they asked him “Buddy, are you Indian?”

The man, whose name has not yet been revealed,  was walking to Sandown Park rail station here when four teenage boys on bikes approached him, three with baseball bats, police were quoted as saying by local newspaper ‘Dandenong Leader’.

One of them asked him “Buddy, are you Indian?”

Police official Jo Hayden said the man was hit from behind, fell and was kicked while lying on the ground. Two passers-by took him home. (more…)

Johannesburg:  The Warriors were confident of posting a big score after having won the toss at the Wanderers and had posted 45 runs in the sixth over when R Ashwin got Jacobs out lbw while he attempted a reverse sweep and that wicket at that stage cost Warriors the match. Davy Jacobs was going great guns till then and his team was sighting a total of 170 – 180 runs. But the collapse was soon to follow and they could manage only 128 for 7 wickets in the 20 overs.

Murli Vijai

Jacobs took the attack straight away to the opposition, hitting two boundaries off Doug Bollinger in the very first over. The Warriors’ skipper followed it up with a cover drive in the next over of Albie Morkel.

After Jacobs fell, Muttiah Muralitharan throttled the Warriors with his skill, and L Balaji maintained the pressure with a disciplined spell in the middle, keeping the Warriors to 128, which was never going to be enough. And it wasn’t. This is the last time this group of players will turn out for Chennai, and they gave themselves a nice farewell present.

The frequent fall of wickets, after the prized scalp of skipper Davy Jacobs, at regular intervals, derailed the once steady-looking Warriors’ innings as the home side struggled to put up a challenging total in the final. (more…)

News media in other countries are sceaming ‘Call the games off’ and players from a few countries have refused to participate citing filthy conditions and lack of infrastructure facilities. Athletes are due to arrive at the Games Village, New Delhi today. More than fifty athletes have withdrawn their names in recent months and it is a national embarrassment as they have refused to participate.

JLN Stadium Over-bridge

And to add salt to the wounds, the over-bridge outside the Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium collapsed where in about thirty workers were injured, four of them critically. And now begins the blame game – one calls it bad assessment at the planning stage, others say bad execution.

Yesterday, when the news of the over-bridge at Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium falling down was released on the TV channels, twitter was in full flow in condemning the organizing committee; tweeples from all over the country cried ‘shame’ on twitter and these tweets went on for more than three hours.09

The last minute preparations in completing the jobs at hand have lead to various problems for the CWG committee and add to their woes the rains have played havoc all over North India. (more…)

News travels fastest on twitter and in the first-of-it’s-kind  news  we have a four day old @babyinayat whose mother Gursimran Kaur from Jallandhar (India) tweeted that she has delivered a baby girl, thus breaking the news of the first ‘live’ baby being tweeted in the world. Twitter is now the fastest media for news in the world. Four days old Inayaat is the new sensation on twitter. She had to be famous on twitter as both her parents are active on twitter and went on tweeting before, until and after her birth.

Gursimaran and her husband Sumit Aneja aka @SumtheBum , both of whom are active on the twitter networking site, had  been tweeting about the expected baby’s arrival earllier also and four days ago she was a bit upset as the doctors had given her 20th Sept as the due date and that she wanted to have the baby earlier. (more…)

Too much is happening on this auspicious day. The month long festival of Ramzan ends and Eid-ul-Fitr is being celebrated by Muslim brethren all over the globe. In the Maharashtra State in India, Ganesh Chaturthi is celebrated with great pomp and vigour. Fortunately, wiser sense has also prevailed on Pastor Terry Jones of the church of Florida who has agreed not to burn copies of Quran as earlier decided by him.

Eid is celebrated with pomp and gaiety and breakfast is had with dates, which are considered a ritual, and sweets. Elders and children, wear new clothes and the smiles are visible everywhere. They greet one and all, irrespective of caste, colour and creed chanting ‘Eid mubarak’.

During the festival Muslims exchange gifts, and greet everyone as a mark of solidarity and brotherhood. It is believed that the Prophet of Islam saw the moon on this day and said, “O God make this moon a symbol of peace for us’, thereby the Prophet expressed the true spirit of Eid to promote spiritual harmony and a peaceful environment in the world. (more…)