“All the Hindus stay on this side and send the others to Pakistan".
The BJP has got their own Gandhi!
“They have scary names - Karimullah, Nazarullah - its scary to see them at night When my cousin who is seven-eight years old, saw
Samajwadi Party’s candidate’s photo, she said Bhaiya (big brother), I didn’t know that Osama Bin Laden is fighting from your constituency".
"This is not a hand, it is the power of the lotus. It will cut the head of… Jai Shri Ram".
"If anyone raises a finger towards Hindus or if someone thinks that Hindus are weak and leaderless, if someone thinks that these leaders lick our boots for votes, if anyone raises a finger towards Hindus, then I swear on Gita that I will cut that hand".
Varun Gandhi, BJP's candidate from Pilibhit, UP.
Whether Karimullah and Nazarullah are scary names or not, by his cheap and lowly remarks, one name Mr. Gandhi has insulted is Gandhi, well, Nehru-Gandhi.
And probably Varun Gandhi wanted to prove his party right on at least one issue. The BJP has always accused Nehru-Gandhi family of treating India as their own property.
He, a member of Nehru-Gandhi family, thinks India is his own property and hence tells 'others' to go to Pakistan!
I was a bit amused by his party's reaction: BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi snubbed Varun, saying his speech is "a manifestation of his family's past Congress culture" and that his outburst "did not reflect BJP's traditional culture".
Well, for the BJP there is nothing new in what Varun Gandhi has said. Earlier BJP used Uma Bhartis and Vinay Katyars to do these talks; Varun Gandhi's speech is just a manifestation of that culture.
So Mr. Naqvi is fooling no one except himself.
The BJP’s Gandhi!
Posted in A few stray thoughts.
– March 17, 2009
If they don’t have bread…..
………let them have smart phones!
That must be what L K Advani thought while preparing BJP’s IT vision, which declares: “Every BPL (Below Poverty Line) family to be given a free smart mobile phone, which can be used by even illiterate users for accessing their bank accounts”.
How smart is that?
Advaniji, thoda sa problem hai, they need at least two things before they can use smart phones to access their bank accounts; they ned electricity to charge the smart phones (smart phones are not that smart, they still need electricity) and some money to deposit in the bank account!
But then if they have these they can very well buy phones themselves, so Advaniji don’t worry about smart phones, provide basic infrastructure.
Posted in A few stray thoughts.
– March 17, 2009
A question without answer!
Today I came across two pictures (shown above).
The first one is of Rubina Ali, who played young Latika in Slumdog Millionaire, along with her mother at her slum at Dharavi.
The second one is of the same girl, along with her co-stars, on the red carpet at Oscars.
Looking at the second picture a question came to my mind. What must be going through the minds of these kids, who were born and lived in slums, to stand on red carpet amongst the best of glamorous world? A world which must be so different to the one they live in?
I am sure I can never even imagine, let alone find out, what exactly was going on in their mind.
Probably, they just may be thinking they were just destined to be there on the red carpet as they were destined to live their lives in those slums. (In fact Rubina Ali, when asked prior to going to the ceremony said: “I’m very happy that I’m going to the Oscars; my friends are saying, your fate is so good".)
Yes, apart from destiny nothing comes to mind.
What else it can be?
As I was thinking about this, I remembered a very difficult time I had answering questions by elder daughter during my last visit to Mumbai.
Living abroad for all of her eight years life, she has not come across the jhopadapatti scenes of Mumbai. While driving along the slums near Sewri, she saw two kids bathing in the roadside nulla.
She asked: Why are they taking bath in the dirty waters, don't they have a bathroom?
I tried to get away by just saying: "Beta, no, they are poor".
Not one to give up questioning, she asked: "Why are they so poor, don't their father work?"
(I knew where it came from, on occasions I had to tell her I had to go to work because otherwise my company will not pay me money).
The question silenced me.
I had no idea how to tell an eight year girl that the father of those slum children must be working very hard; much harder than her own father has ever worked.
It was just their destiny, their fate.
With all the advances in human development we have not found a solution to vanish such wide gap in destinies.
And what about God, who comes across as just and fair in all religious scriptures? With all his fairness why He produces humans with such diverse destinies?
The question is profoundly philosophical; the answer need not be one.
If we get one, that is!
Posted in A few stray thoughts.
– February 23, 2009
Rehman: A Graceful Star
There are celebrities and stars. One can love them and occasionally hate them. But one certainly comes to admire some of them.
The admiration may not be just because of the level of skills the star posses in his/her field, but how the stars make an impact on you as a human being.
If I have to declare my best admired star, it is no contest. Anil Kumble is the obvious choice.
In my opinion, in a world where perceptions have become more important than facts, as a star, he never got his due. There is no one in Indian cricket history who has won more matches for
In fact that is not the prime reason for his being my most admired star. It is the grace and simplicity Kumble showed in handling his stardom during his entire career which is un-matched.
Close second comes A. R. Rehman. There is no debate in Bollywood about who is the best contemporary music composer in the industry.
Still in an industry where one up-manship is probably a prerequisite for success, Rehman has all through handled his stardom with admirable grace and simplicity.
That is why I was happy to witness his international success through his contribution in the film Slumdog Millionaire.
Frankly, if I am in mood to listen to Rehman's music, I will not switch on 'Jai Ho'. Though I am not very musically inclined person, I feel he has composed far better music before (well, 'Dil hai chota sa, choti si asha' remains my first choice, both for the music and lyrics).
Though I am not a religious person I have no hesitation in maska-lagaing God when in need; there was a small prayer on my lips today morning. It was a very simple prayer, 'Ya Allah, ek award to de de'.
Well he got two.
Well done Rehman .
His simplicity and grace was evident in his acceptance speech; and also the message.
He said: "I want to thank everyone. The essence of the film is optimism and hope. All through my life I had the choice of love and hate I chose love and I am here".
I hope the message travels more than the glory of Oscar.
Posted in A few stray thoughts.
– February 23, 2009
A tale of two cartoons
Last year a western newspaper published a cartoon in which prophet Mohammed was shown as a terrorist.
An outcry against the cartoon was seen as protest against freedom of expression, so much so that various western publications duplicated the cartoon to make a point.
This week the New York Post carried a cartoon depicting President Obama as a chimpanzee.
There was an outcry against this cartoon too; and rightly so (in my opinion).
And the New York Post apologised in couple of days.
What do you call this? A freedom to practice double standards!
Posted in A few stray thoughts.
– February 21, 2009
A few stray thoughts….
And, for the first Saturday after the world cup debacle, a few stray thoughts
I do believe that the world cup is really boring without
The famous Marathi humorist, the late P. L. Deshpande once said that cricket is only game which is more talked about than played. How true it is! Even our shameful defeat has not stopped us from talking cricket.
Even Narayana Murthy, normally a sober person, can't stay away from it.
I even sympathize with our stars after I saw them on TV returning from the World Cup tour. Even Sachin Tendulkar's BMW didn't look like a BMW.
And I am not sure if Shewag would have had to pick up his own bag from a police van if he had to return twenty days later.
I don't know if I was pleased when I read that Ganguly got a warm reception when he arrived in Kolkata. Why should
And what business is it of Ian Chappell to suggest retirement to Sachin Tendular? That is prerogative of advertisers.
I wouldn't be surprised if mirrors become the fastest selling commodity in
And I wonder if the advertise can live without Sachin even after he retires.
It is also a sad day for Indian cricket because Kumble has declared his retirement. No one who has won us more matches than he did in last decade.
That certainly doesn't mean he shouldn't have retired.
The lesson future coaches of
I entirely agree with Shewag's papa. Fifty overs were not enough for his son to defeat the opposition. This must be on Vengsarkar's mind also when he complained about the format of the world cup.
If BCCI is really worried about loss of revenue, I suggest they arrange a one day series against
The way the Pakistanis are playing it would not be difficult for Papa's boys to defeat them in 50 overs.
This would also bring back Dravid and Dhoni in Videocon ads much faster.
And I am glad that Mumbai won Ranji Oneday Tournament. If not my country, at least my city made me proud. Though Rajasthan victory may have been better for Indian cricket.
And this final point of view:
In these tragic days of cricket in the sub-continent, we have to appreciate Bob Woolmer's family. They lost the world, but the dignity they have shown in this crisis is remarkable.
Posted in A few stray thoughts.
– March 31, 2007
Pakistani beards
Here are two interesting comments on
M J Akbar in The Asian Age -
"Their captain, Inzamamul Haq, could triple his personal endorsement revenues
if someone eased that look of permanent pain on his visage. He also has the
slightly irritating habit of confusing the Almighty with a cricket coach
(irritating, I am sure, to the Almighty as well, which might explain the
results). Apparently, he thought that massive quantities of ghee-strewn parathas
and meat followed by a long sermon on religion from a cleric were adequate
preparation for a World Cup match. It was entirely appropriate that a 'joke'
team,
Irfan Husain in Daily Times,
"With their thick beards and constant prayers, Inzi & Co give every indication of being guided by a Higher Power. Alas, the said Power is as indifferent to
"Frankly, judging by our cricket teams' recent performances, there seems to be no improvement caused by their piety. When the amateur Irish team ? a collection of some of the biggest boozers in the cricketing world ? can thrash us so easily, can we really believe that our outward religiosity makes us better players, or, indeed, better human beings?"
Posted in Cricket.
– March 29, 2007
What luck?
This is what our high profile Chief Selector, Dilip Vengsarkar looks at the team's performance:
“Nothing but bad luck,” . “Who would have believed that
It would be a pity if those who control Indian cricket start blaming luck rather than analyzing the performance. By the way, though our loss to
We had to win against
We had no business losing to
Hence, to properly analyse the performance the mai-baaps should forget about
In the same interview Vengsarkar says: “Let us accept it as a wake up call that could serve us well. We have to look at the positives from the experience and I think we should back the team. This is the time when they need us most. I am sure they will regroup and do well in the international fixtures in the coming season.”
Now that he has got a wake up call, I hope he walks the talk and remain awake. And yes, he better find some thing better than mere luck to rely on.
Posted in Cricket.
– March 29, 2007
Why fuss over sms?
Greg’s SMS divides Indian cricket” reads the headline on Cricketnext.com.
Rajan Bala made public a sms he received from Greg Chappell. The sms and subsequent communication between Gerg Chappell and Rajan Bala bring forward following points:
Greg Chappell: “Even in the last selection meeting, I fought for youth. The senior players fought against it and the chairman went with them out of fear of media, if youth did not perform,”
“Karthik will be a very good batsman and by the way, he is a potential leader. You are also very right about Yuvi [Yuvraj Singh],”
Chappell: claimed that senior players in the side resisted the inclusion of younger players and chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar sided with the seniors fearing a media backlash in case the young guns failed to fire.
Rajan Bala had written in his column, which Chappell apparently agreed with was this: “The problem with Yuvraj is that he believes he is a star when he is only a rising one.”
Chappell had also confided with Rajan Bala that “Suresh Raina is a must. But he was not wanted.”
What is so controvesial about this? Wasn’t Chappell happy with the team which was selected for WC07? In the interview to rediff he was clearly sounding happy about the team.
Well, Chappell may have expressed his interest in Raina and selectors certainly didn’t agree. So what? There are five selectors, a captain and a coach; a total of 7 persons sitting together to select 15 players. There would be 7 x 15 = 105 opinions. It is not human that all the 105 opinion are same. All 7 members cannot get 100% of what they want. So Chappell might had to compromise on Raina.
So what? In any case, Raina’s absence can never be sighted as a cause of the poor performance of the team. Even if Raina was in the team he would have warmed benches giving company to Irfan Pathan, Dinesh Karthick and Shrishant.
So why this fuss over leaked sms?Greg’s SMS divides Indian cricket” reads the headline on Cricketnext.com.
Rajan Bala made public a sms he received from Greg Chappell. The sms and subsequent communication between Gerg Chappell and Rajan Bala bring forward following points:
Greg Chappell: “Even in the last selection meeting, I fought for youth. The senior players fought against it and the chairman went with them out of fear of media, if youth did not perform,”
“Karthik will be a very good batsman and by the way, he is a potential leader. You are also very right about Yuvi [Yuvraj Singh],”
Chappell: claimed that senior players in the side resisted the inclusion of younger players and chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar sided with the seniors fearing a media backlash in case the young guns failed to fire.
Rajan Bala had written in his column, which Chappell apparently agreed with was this: “The problem with Yuvraj is that he believes he is a star when he is only a rising one.”
Chappell had also confided with Rajan Bala that “Suresh Raina is a must. But he was not wanted.”
What is so controvesial about this? Wasn’t Chappell happy with the team which was selected for WC07? In the interview to rediff he was clearly sounding happy about the team.
Well, Chappell may have expressed his interest in Raina and selectors certainly didn’t agree. So what? There are five selectors, a captain and a coach; a total of 7 persons sitting together to select 15 players. There would be 7 x 15 = 105 opinions. It is not human that all the 105 opinion are same. All 7 members cannot get 100% of what they want. So Chappell might had to compromise on Raina.
So what? In any case, Raina’s absence can never be sighted as a cause of the poor performance of the team. Even if Raina was in the team he would have warmed benches giving company to Irfan Pathan, Dinesh Karthick and Shrishant.
So why this fuss over leaked sms?
Posted in Cricket.
– March 28, 2007
In English or Bhojpuri Confusion is confusion
Shishir Hattangdi, former Mumbai cricketer wrote in diary in Mid-Day: "One needs to hear these experts and commentators talk about solutions rather than just pointing out the problems".
My question is: Are there any cricket experts left in India? There are no AFS Talyar Khan, K N Prabhu and Sundan Rajan on the scene. Rajan Bala used to write with authority in The Asianage, but now disappeared. Harsha Bhogle and likes are mere commercial writers. Good English, nothing more. The likes of Khalid Ansaris prefer to wear their patriotism on their sleeves rather than writing with journalistic detachment. There are writers like Prem Panicker (rediff.com), very passionate about cricket, hard cricket. Dwarkanath Sanzgiri (Saamna) writes objective pieces in Marathi. Ayaz Memon, sometimes, throws up meaningful analysis. But these are very few in comparison to the cricket craziness of this vast nation.
24 x 7 News Channels have made mockery of cricket journalism. Tens of channels with hundreds of programs without a single knowledgeable cricket correspondent on the scene. They rope in former cricketers (Vinod Kambli as an expert!) who prefer to play to the gallery without being objective in their 'analysis'. TV channels have turned cricket journalism into a filmi gossip avatar.
The result: Too much hype. Megalomania, to use M J Akbar's words.
So which experts Mr. Hattangdi is depending on?
The fact is, Indian cricket's problems lie in what we considered as solutions.
Problem No. 1: Greg Chappel. Why? Because he is Greg Chappel. The moment he signed on the dotted lines of his contract with BCCI, he was made into a celebrity. We thought he was a solution and in the process created a problem. He isn't a bad coach. He clearly had good intentions. We was working hard. But the problem is, in the process, he became the favorite whipping boy of Indian cricket. We blamed him for everything what went wrong and in process forgot to analyse properly. Not entirely his fault, but fault none the less. We simply cannot afford to carry forward this fault.
Problem No. 2: Which is actually, myth no 1. Our perception that we have the best batting line up in the world. We do not. Period. Solution: We do not need best batting line up in the world. We simply want our batsmen to apply themselves.
Problem No. 3: Myth No. 2: Our batting win matches. Basic cricket rules tells us that it is not batting, but bowling which win matches. We can't consistently defy basics of cricket.
Problem No. 4: Fielding. Rahul Dravid said before the world cup that he is aware that our fielding is weak but our batsmen will make up for 30-40 runs we might give up because of bad fielding. Wrong. Batsmen cannot make up for those 30-40 runs. They should not be asked to make up. Fielding is fielding. In modern cricket to be successful the team needs to field well. And there is nothing such as 'smart field placement' with bad fielders. Munaf Patel at covers, as Prem Panicker pointed out, is no smart field placement any way.
Problem No. 5: Middle overs. We play badly in middle overs. We bowl badly, field badly. Give too many singles. We bat badly as well. Lose too many wickets and don't take succeed in taking singles. Modern day one-day matches are won or lost in overs between 20th to 35th. We are simply bad in these overs in all department of the game.
Problem No. 6: Our obsession with celebrities. Let me take on the poster boy of cricket celebrities. Sachin Tendulkar. It is high time someone tells him the last match winning innings he has played in line with his reputation (and he has, deservedly, mighty reputation) was way back in 1998 against Australia in Sharjah (Does any one remember Sharjah any more?). Well it was so long ago that a child born then must be on Shivaji Park ground preparing for entry into competitive cricket!
And well, let us make it clear to Irfan Pathans and Mahinder Singh Dhoni or even Yuvraj Singh that they are merely junior cricketers. To become celebrities, there need to be a sustained and consistent performance for years.
Problem No. 7: Too much and too early planning for world cup. For last couple of years it was all about world cup planning and blah blah blah. When the time for world cup came all the planning went for a toss. Nothing explains it more than the confusion the selectors, the coach and the captain were in while selecting world cup eleven.
Greg Chappel gave an interview on the selection to rediff. Good English. So good that I should have actually print it out, went to a beach and read it again and again .. and dream of Rahul Dravid actually lifting the cup, Sachin Tendulkar or Shewag (why not) getting the player of the tournament award and Shrishant getting the best bowler award and Dinesh Karthick on his way to get this years ICC's upcoming cricketer of the year award.
It was so impressive English that Harsha Bhogle went ga ga over it. Here is his take on it: "For the most lucid understanding of the thought behind selecting Indian teams in recent times you need look no further than Greg Chappell's impressive soliloquy on rediff.com. For all of us, passionate, impatient, critical, indulgent followers of Indian cricket, it offers a wonderful insight into decisions we spend hours agonising over. Chappell is articulate and so, the best spokesman for his views, like Chidambaram and Shahrukh Khan tend to be as well. .. There is a feeling of reassurance on reading it. First, the awareness that Chappell is not a whip-cracking ringmaster but one voice in a chorus because clearly Dravid and Vengsarkar have as much to do with this team as Chappell does. . But more important, because you come away with the feeling that the thinking is right. That is half the process of winning; the other is converting that thought into action for the two go together as Tagore told us in his immortal prayer".
Impressive English. My only problem was to judge whose English was better. Chappel's or Harsha's.
Cricket is an English game. But English, even good English, doesn't make good cricket. Good cricket makes good cricket.
As the Indian campaign in the world cup progressed, the good English which impressed so much prior to Dravid's boys played their first world cup match sounded like Bhojpuri once we actually played in the world cup! What lucid understanding? What thought behind selecting Indian team? What wonderful insight? What articulation? What reassurance? What awareness? What right thinking?
Confusion is confusion, whether in English or Bhojpuri.
And confusion is what was dominant in Indian cricket prior to and during the world cup campaign. Nothing explains this more than the fact that we had three tried and tested opening batsmen, who amongst them had played more than 800 matches and scored more than 30,000 runs. But still we were not sure who will open in the world cup; we were not even sure about this just before, what eventually became our last match in the world cup.
Let me put my neck out and say that Rahul Dravid is the best No. 3 batsman around in the world cricket. Saurav Ganguly plays spin better than anyone else in Indian team. Yuvraj Singh is a good finisher. So at least our first five players have been a settled issue. Sachin-Shewag-Dravid-Ganguly-Yuvraj.
This didn't happen, is what in my opinion sums up the mess we created and in process lost out.
Experimentation, which now every little young thing on TV Channels tells us what led us to this mess, was not really bad. It is only that we experimented even with things which should have been considered as settled was the problem. It just went too far ahead and in process shattered many dreams.
Posted in Cricket.
– March 28, 2007
