Observers, Referees and Instant Replay in Ultimate

This was written in http://www.indiaultimate.org/2013/08/observers-referees-and-instant-replay/

There have been some passionate pleas for some kind of officiating for the sport of Ultimate and equally passionate pleas for why Ultimate needs to be as it is i.e. self officiated under the aegis of SOTG (Spirit Of The Game). I will not rehash their reasons either way, but lets take a look at where the sport is headed if we take the direction of officiating.

Officiating round one, Observers. What are observers, referees who aren’t actively officiating but rather waiting to officiate, if I am right, they cannot make a call on their own, but they can be called upon to resolve disputes. At first sight Ultimate would have set itself apart from all other sports, players would still manage the game and observers would come into play only when required. Perfect world! well if we lived in a perfect world we wouldn’t need observers in the first place, the observers would start getting called for every foul call, and why not, we have observers why not just use them. A good example is how we have a third umpire in cricket, it was initially just for the tough decisions, but nowadays its used all the time even when the verdict is beyond doubt. So what would start off as something to be used on occasion would end up being used all the time, especially in games where the stake is more than just the weekend bragging rights, the observers would end up becoming referees who are called to officiate every dispute. 

My prediction is within a short time of allowing observers they would be elevated to becoming referees.

Officiating round two, Referees. A referee is someone who is responsible for a game to be played within the rules of the game. The good and bad of referees are well chronicled, every other sport has gone through them. Ultimate would rehash all the refereeing problems faced by the other sports. We would also reach the same conclusion all the other sports have, the game is no longer being played according to rules of the rulebook but rather what the referee can see and deems fit to enforce. To solve the many refereeing problems all sports have decided to use technology in the form of instant replays, referee challenges etc. Be it cricket, soccer, baseball, american football or tennis they are increasingly relying on technology to make the game fairer and faster. Ultimate would follow the same route.

Officiating round 3, Technology. Referees need help as they can only referee what they see and are limited by vision, the right place to observe the foul and their own emotions. Who better than technology to help them, enter instant replay, DRS (decision review system), chips coded into discs and everything else technology can help with.

Reinventing the wheel of officiating, thats what is going to happen to ultimate if it chooses observers, it will lead to referees which will lead to instant replay, so my suggestion is, if Ultimate is going to go down the path of officiating then why not skip the intermediate steps and go directly to all time instant replay virtual officiating, it will be different in a cool way. Let each game be covered with multiple cameras and let somebody in the booth make the call, lets get ahead of the curve here instead of following the curve.

Why are indians so up in arms over everything

Indian Diplomat gets arrested in NY for her fault, all of India is up in arms, over reaction, insecurity, call it what you may, but its something the world better get used to, because we indians are pissed off, its been a long time and our respect is way over due but the world keeps treating us as an fourth or fifth world country. India is so used to being handed the short end of the stick that everything looks like a affront to our respect.

Let me start with something that hit me traveling from India to America, why are the first leg flights from and to India sub-standard to the second leg ones to and from USA, the aircrafts are older, the meal selection is worse, the alcohol is below par, the service is poorer, why, dont we pay as much or is it just because we are not as respected as people from other countries. Have you noticed the terminals and the gates they put the India flights into, stinks of discrimination, you think this doesn't play on the minds of every indian?

India sends a mission to mars, every article in the international newspaper has a section talking about the poverty in India, the aid india receives from UK, the water problems in India, as if to question, how dare they send a space craft to mars when they cannot feed their own people. Its looked on as a miracle, a wasteful expenditure, we are not a wanna-a-be, we have arrived, the sooner the world gives us our due we will start acting like one.

Have you guys compared the quality of goods, for the same brand, that we get in India versus say perhaps the US, same Nike shoe, the better quality one goes to US and the poorer quality one comes to India. The chinese themselves proudly say, they manufacture something for the US and down the street manufacture a cheaper version of the same for the poorer countries like Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, India, come on, whom are you grouping us with, we are the the 10th largest economy in the world for crying out loud.

Every time we are due for recognition the world always brings up Pakistan, do we bring up Cuba every time US stands up, or Taiwan every time China stands up anywhere, Pakistan is a bug in front of an elephant, you are demeaning us by even saying India and Pakistan in the same sentence.

We all know what the BCCI does to other countries is wrong, but what the heck, those same countries have been treating us like shit until now, no wonder that every Indian is actually happy every time the BCCI flexes its muscles.

So when India made a big hue and cry over Devyani's treatment by the US, we know she was in the wrong and all things being equal we would have accepted the treatment melted out to her, in fact demanded worse, but with the world looking down on us every time, it is naturally assumed that she is being treated so since India is not respected. Of world, I don't want to tell you the achievements of India, the fact that I need to tell them you irritates me, we are a major force in this world and better start treating us so, otherwise be prepared, because we have a billion people and they are pissed off, you don't want to mess with us.

My First Ultimate with DOD

first wrote this for http://www.indiaultimate.org/2012/05/my-first-ultimate-with-dod/

Hi,

I come from America, I have a proud “Made in USA” tag (one of the few things actually made in America), I am black in color (yeah color for me is color) and I was smuggled into India in December of 2011 by Adarsh, he said he brought me from amazon.com and the invoice said I was sold by Ultimate Disc Store, well thats all I know about my history (for more of my ancestral history click here), all I remember is he shoved me into a bag with a ball, the americans didn’t mind, but the bag was opened in Abu Dhabi where some zealous security guy looked me over as if I was a WMD (weapon of mass destruction, at least call me an UFO) and took away the ball ( he said it looked like a bomb, go figure!!!). I was in the dark until I got to this place called Bangalore and then this Adarsh guy locked me up in a closet for a long time with his other bats, racquets, balls and other sports stuff. I asked him why, why bring me all the way from USA and lock me up and he said “We dont get good quality frisbees in India so we have who ever goes to the US to get us some, and they are precious, so we save the new ones as Game Discs”.

One fine day, a Saturday, it was early morning, 6 am to be exact (who wakes up at this hour) I was taken out of the closet and taken to National College Ground, Basvangudi, I looked up horrified to see this bunch of people (they call themselves Disco-O-Dewanee, DOD, they played every tuesday, thursday and saturday, at the National College ground, Basvangudi, Bangalore and they are a crazy bunch of people.)  throwing many of my brethren around, they would throw them high in the air, over their head, from the left, from the right, backhand, hammer, scoober, flick, I almost swooned, but Adarsh was holding me tightly and I felt safe, he woudnt allow these barbarians abuse me, he handed me over to another guy and they marveled at my smooth shinning skin, my  figure, my contours, my color and they passed me around as a revered object, my precious, one of the guys threw me, I screamed and everybody shouted at him, I was supposed to be the Game Disc, I felt important and elated, finally I was out, I was respected and I was revered, I as going to be worshipped, things were looking up, alas literally!

They broke up into two teams, red and blue, the game started, one person picked me up and hurled me towards the other side, and for a second I lost my breath, and then everything was calm, I could feel the wind by my face, I could see the world move beneath me, I could see the first rays of sunlight as they skimmed the concrete of the metro tracks, I was spinning, cutting the air, creating eddys, oh Bernoulli! I was free! up up and away, to infinity and beyond, I was an UFO, and then, I crashed, I fell to the ground, I rolled, somebody shouted “stop the roll” and some girl kicked me. I was bruised, but nobody cared, they picked me up and flung me again, they started running around and passing me around, somebody dropped me and the other team took over, thus they went up and down the field until one team got to the end zone, and they they started all over again. pardon my french, but was this my raison d’etre?

Sometimes they played nice, short safe passes and sometimes they hucked me with reckless abandon, and the girls were no exception, they were as brutal as the guys, aren’t girls supposed to play soft. I was amazed at their effort, I would be sailing out of anybody’s reach, far far away and somebody would dive across and bang me to the ground, I would be falling to the ground, preparing myself for the inevitable and somebody would dive and catch me inches from the ground risking their fingers. For all the talk in the huddle about playing short and safe passes, at the slightest opening everybody just hucks, crazy people!! just because they can run, and boy can they run. I dont know if I am spinning or everybody else is spinning around me. I never now if it is some designed play or they are just running around without the least idea as to whats needs to happen. It was fun to see so many people so committed to a game and still have fun.

Then there were these other people in the ground, people standing, staring out into the horizon, or should I say playing cricket, this one time I smacked one of the cricketers bang right on his head and it was nice to see all the ultimate players berate that poor soul, as he committed the cardinal sin of coming in my way. There were these soccer players who would suddenly rush into the ultimate field, and more cricketers, runners, badminton players, basketball players, its amazing how many people fit into one field. There were these occasional fights with the other people using the field and usually the ultimate players came up on top. This one time I almost fell into a swimming pool, really, a swimming pool, beside an ultimate frisbee field, come on people! But this is India I was told, lots of people, and you the best you can with what you get. The ground is hard, with stones in between, the weather is hot, there are all sorts of people everywhere, but when the disc goes up there is only one thought on everyones mind, am I going to catch it or am I going to defend it, everything else just folds into the back of the mind. Thats Ultimate.

I think I am an ultimate frisbee now, scratched all over, rough around the edges but a smooth criminal. I love it when I am hucked into the end zone, I spin, I bounce of the air, I go short, I go long, sometimes I curve right, sometimes I dont, sometimes I am on my back, sometimes I am a blade. I play tricks on these players as well, I turn left for no reason, stop mid air, or turn right, with the slightest of breeze, thats enough to mess up these guys, or I find a pocket of air and drop just when they are about to catch me, I love the expressions on their faces, sometimes they cant believe that they made a throw and sometimes the agony of missing a throw/catch is heart rending and its always exhilarating to be plucked out of orbit for a score. I wish I had a camera attached to me, I could show you.

The game ended, finally some rest, everybody gathered around and had sugar cane juice, talked about how awesome I was and how perfect I was. I was to be preserved, I was returned to Adarsh for safe keeping until next saturday, I am after all the Game Disc. every disc dreams of being an UFO, I now feel every disc should dream of being an Ultimate Game Disc.

Mahatma Gandhi, the wrong choice for Father of India

India got independence from the British in 1947 and Gandhi is credited with being the architect of the independence movement through his Non Co-operation, Civil Disobedience and Quit India movements. One must accept that Gandhi was the biggest leader of the independence movement, he could be credited with making the independence struggle a struggle of the people, he had a mass appeal all over India, and was closely followed by millions of indians. But did he deserve to be called the architect of India's independence, and conferred with the title of Father of The Country, I think not, here is a different look at the man, the myth and the marketing.

A little back drop to 1947, world war 2 had ended in 1945, and in a true sense to "In a war there are no winners" even though the british found themselves on the winning side they had lost, Britain was devastated, the economy had crashed, the country was in shambles and more important the self belief of the people who had conquered the world was shattered. Britain had to let go of all the countries it ruled, the more problematic first and India was top on the list. India presented itself as difficult to rule, in part due to its distance, size and population and also in part to its fierce struggle for independence. One can argue that but for Hitler and world war 2, Britain would have the resources and self belief to continue their rule over India and thus one of the real causes for India's independence was Hitler.

India's independence struggle was fought under many leaders, Gandhi shone brighter than others but one cannot and should not neglect the influence of many many who fought for India's independence. Gandhi was most easily recognized as he survived the struggle, to the alive go the spoils, it didn't help that many of the others who had a far greater influence on the reason India got independence died in the struggle or were marginalized. For example, even though Subash Chandra Bose's army lost, it captured the imagination of all indians and galvanized many to take up the cause, it also affected the indians who were a part of the british police and army, and thus weakened the british grip on India. Perhaps that was the final straw in the british giving up on trying to rule India, but Subash Bose wasn't alive to claim the spoils. Hence to lay the title of the architect of India's independence on the shoulders of Gandhi is a travesty and a disservice to the others who gave it all for the struggle for independence.

Gandhi is credited with the non-cooperation and quit india movements, two movements usually credited with India's independence, but the non co-operation movement of 1920, though a huge success was called off by Gandhi before it could achieve anything. Perhaps if the movement had continued we could have had a general uprising and achieved independence earlier and given Gandhi all the accolades but it wasn't so, you could say Gandhi stuck to his principles or you could say he feared losing control of the movement, only Gandhi knows, but it was a failure. The Quit India movement was launched in 1942 at the height of world war 2, but owing to the centralized nature of decision making, once the leaders were arrested the movement fizzled out by 1943. Yes Quit India played a part, everything does, but one cannot call it the reason why India got independence.

India's struggle for independence since 1920, when Gandhi entered the scene, is littered with the mistakes Gandhi made and which might have delayed India's independence. He supported Britain in world war 1 without any gains for India. He called off the Non Co-operation movement at its peak, he got fooled into calling off the Civil Disobedience movement for an useless gandhi-irwin pact, he refused to start the Quit India Movement during world war 2 saying he didnt seek India's independence out of the ashes of a destroyed Britain. Gandhi believed and negotiated with the British and every time walked away with far less then what was demanded, sometimes it seems the british kept him around just because they understood him for the fool he was.

Gandhi committed even worse mistakes with his choice of people. He propped up Nehru, a weak leader, he alienated Jinnah, he sidelined Subash Chandra Bose, marginalized Lal bahadur Shastri, Sardar Patel and Ambedkar. He not only impeded India's independence struggle in some cases but also caused a weaker India after independence.

We shall not detour into his personal life, his debaucheries, his weird opinions on sex and love or his love affairs, nor his naive decisions of sending money to Pakistan, nor his actions during India's partition. His other achievements though do fall apart under closer scrutiny, perhaps he was just at the right place at the right time, he did his salt making and weaving and formed a brotherhood of people scratching each other backs who conveniently built him up as a leader and father of the nation.

If not him, who, well the struggle for independence was marked with so many great souls that it would be a shame to single one person out, but, but if we were to consider the formation of India as a country, after independence, the person who rightly deserves that title is India's first home minister, the iron man of India, Sardar Patel. He single handedly forged an united India from all the princely states set free after the declaration of independence. If not for him, India would not have been a country, he rightly deserves the title of Father of the Nation.