tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-131283982024-02-21T07:22:54.830+05:30twenty2yardson a crooked pitch, playing with anything but a straight batthe lazy knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12776924873209244313noreply@blogger.comBlogger82125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13128398.post-3002394552190761912015-01-01T06:02:00.002+05:302015-01-01T06:03:18.334+05:30The lightness of being MS Dhoni<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisF1FZiq4j3bB-c6vSnc-KZ6AFwNp6RivIemR3nyTjHkccozEBhF20_PR2iHGDyJaQqa-V7prdpOpXJFZeeyLaLTg85kZxvlJusTikngaERg9zZUTj82cTzUS3v2m4RWRaWjIe0w/s1600/MSD.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisF1FZiq4j3bB-c6vSnc-KZ6AFwNp6RivIemR3nyTjHkccozEBhF20_PR2iHGDyJaQqa-V7prdpOpXJFZeeyLaLTg85kZxvlJusTikngaERg9zZUTj82cTzUS3v2m4RWRaWjIe0w/s1600/MSD.jpg" height="320" width="272" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>(Image courtesy - Hindu Business Line)</i></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 107%;">In a nation given to hyperbole, loud celebrations,
gaudy displays of wealth and a heightened sensitivity to taking offence, it is
often difficult to find public personalities with a calm and dispassionate </span><span style="line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">demeanour</span><span style="line-height: 107%;"> about them. MS Dhoni’s is a uniquely ‘un-Indian’ personality in that regard. In the nine years that he played Test cricket (and even beyond that in the other
formats of the game), rarely has he looked temperamental, angry, pumped up or
excitable. Not for him the fist pumps or big jumps after reaching a batting
landmark, nor the high pitched exultation after a catch or a stumping or even
the shrill shriek of joy after winning a game. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With Dhoni comes a remarkable sense of detachment. His
joys are saved for elsewhere, places we will never know. Places where this
intensely private man has not allowed the media circus that constantly follows
him entry. You can bet that Dhoni loves the game but unlike the millions who
follow it in India, for him the action stops inside the field. You almost get
the sense that cricket is like a daily routine for him, akin to going to
office. We all wake up in the morning, put on our best clothes, go to work and try
to do the best job at it. All our lives we chase our dream jobs. We put endless
hours to acquire skills that would lead us there. We study, reach colleges,
pass interviews, test the limits of our ability to handle stress. Once in our
jobs, we constantly tinker, improvise and add new skills. Offices though are not
the places we live in. Our smiles, our laughter, our joys and tears are
reserved for another environment – home. You would find many a cricketer for whom
the stadium was his home and it is certainly true that the game deserves men of
different kind. Dhoni though belongs exclusively to the former category. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You would be hard pressed to take a look at Dhoni’s
face and judge the situation of the match. Captains are animated – they furrow
brows, wave arms frantically, brood during a game, show expressions of
frustration or delight, constantly speak to their bowlers. Yet, Dhoni was
rarely into this gig. Whether his bowlers were spewing filth and getting
spanked all around the park or whether Ashwin was running through a side on a
slow pitch in India, his face had the same calm and stable expression. Wicketkeepers
are even a noisier lot – their shouts and appeals are dominating noises of the
stump microphones. And yet, rare would be that Dhoni appeal that would be none
genuine. Rarer still would be the flourish or celebration after a catch. It is
hard to believe that Dhoni carried out two of the chattiest and frenetic roles in
the game of cricket for a number of years while simultaneously being the
quietest person on the field.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Only two instances come to mind when Dhoni brought
emotion into the game and neither was an express cricketing act. The first was
when he paraded the entire team in front of the media before the 2009 T20 World
Cup after reports had surfaced that Sehwag was faking an injury due to rifts
between him and Dhoni. The second was earlier in 2014 on the England tour when he
publically called out James Anderson to be punished after the altercation between
him and Ravi Jadeja. Both in a way presented a crossing of line for man who had
viewed every happening on the cricket field as transient. Both tested his
credibility – the first as captain and the second as an eyewitness. And in
both, Dhoni was prepared to stake his reputation, do the unexpected and get his
point across.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It would be wrong to bucket Dhoni as a successful home
and a losing overseas captain. Leadership is a by-product of those of being led
but more importantly it is also an outcome of the time in which it is
exercised. Dhoni’s legacy will not so much be the numbers but the man
management skills he presented. The majority of his captaincy was spent leading
men who were either contemporaries or mentees of Sourav Ganguly. Both Dravid
and Kumble, who preceded him, commanded the respect of that group. Dhoni had
bloomed in the Chappell years – a period Indian cricket likes not to remember.
For him to have led the likes of Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman, Sehwag, Harbhajan,
Yuvraj and Zaheer without any drama and take them to the number one spot in the
Test rankings speaks to an amazing ability to manage upwards, show individuals
respect while still maintaining the collective interest of the team above all. Of
all the leadership challenges, change management can often be the toughest and
Dhoni was right in the center when the Indian team undertook that journey as
the greats retired and new men came to replace them. Sometimes, we often view
the number of overseas defeats in the last three years and perhaps overlook the
fact that it could have been much worse. No doubt India throws up a lot of
cricketing talent but it takes a plucky captain to persist with talent when
others are calling for heads. Murali Vijay, Virat Kohli, Ishant and Rohit
Sharma (if he does manage to salvage his Test career) would perhaps have had
stormier careers if not for Dhoni’s faith in their ability.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Of course, Dhoni was not the perfect captain. Away
from home, his lost confidence in his bowlers too soon. Too often, with the
opposition in trouble, he would back away quickly, put fielders out and wait
for the innings to fold. The safety first attitude ironically only brought
India risk and the number of test matches lost after letting the opposition off
the hook are many. At one level, watching the bowlers go at four an over, you
would sympathize with Dhoni. However, at another level, you wanted him to go
for the kill, to literally hold his bowlers by the collar and holler at them a
bit, to have the field up and that extra slip in place and not the let the last
5 wickets put up 300.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">True to his nature, Dhoni leaves without fanfare. He
has seen through the storm, got a new team in place and brought it to a
position, where, if the bowlers can keep their brains for a day, overseas tests
can be won. His successor is an anti-thesis of him – aggressive, brash, charged
up and not at all shy of letting the opposition know that he wants to win.
Virat Kohli can afford that luxury. This is a young team waiting to be led and he
has a clean slate to define his legacy. When the times were messier though,
when the eras overlapped, when the new and young mixed and when India needed a
stable hand to avoid combustion, we had Dhoni’s calmness to assure us. Indian
cricket was lucky to have him at the helm. There might well be a time when we
just start missing him. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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the lazy knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12776924873209244313noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13128398.post-49759812963358660512013-10-13T20:43:00.002+05:302013-10-13T20:45:02.220+05:30An age passes by...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE4qDA_Spa0WIRsLFpBlm4Uztio5Vg9rafT4ETEQJ8-Npj1YJLeLwD72jTgB1UF-jiNPH40fkTts5dZg-ZhqHvXEcYeKL0dyfwLRK7OZH5c3bcrKUsv1M1eyZmLlCOBJSjlGV3TQ/s1600/SRT+pic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE4qDA_Spa0WIRsLFpBlm4Uztio5Vg9rafT4ETEQJ8-Npj1YJLeLwD72jTgB1UF-jiNPH40fkTts5dZg-ZhqHvXEcYeKL0dyfwLRK7OZH5c3bcrKUsv1M1eyZmLlCOBJSjlGV3TQ/s320/SRT+pic.jpg" width="245" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Over the last fifteen to eighteen months it was gradually dawning upon me that it was only a matter of time. The reflexes seemed slow, the dismissals were more loose, the body appeared tired and the aura seemed to be diminishing with every passing game. I knew the moment was approaching. It was with a foreboding sense of an unpleasant arrival that I would watch each Sachin Tendulkar dismissal in recent memory. After the defeat to England in the home series last winter I had a passionate discussion with an uncle and a cousin bemoaning how Tendulkar was stretching it out too far and that it was perhaps time he realized that we did not want his last memories being those of failure.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">And then I thought to myself – what has the world come to, when the devoted seek the discontinuation of their idols. I was six when I first watched Tendulkar bat. He flayed Abdul Qadir for multiple sixes in an unofficial game on the 1989 tour of Pakistan and watching the game on a tiny grainy black and white television set, I was instantly drawn to this young aggressive kid who seemed to hold no fear. I remember crying after India lost that game (my wife would testify that even at 30 I come quite close to achieving that feat after every significant sporting disappointment) and my father went on to impart one of the most important lessons of life right then and there – victory and defeat are part of the journey, learn to take them in the stride and move forward. Those words helped in assuaging my hurt every time I saw Tendulkar get out cheaply or India lose its way after he had all but won it for the team (Chennai 1999 anyone?)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">As a young boy I only wanted to see Sachin on the field. I wished he could bat at all positions, bowl most overs and field everywhere. I would be thrilled if he would take a key wicket, effect a run out or take a remarkable catch. I would hear commentators laud his batting but more importantly appreciate his willingness to be part of every moment in the game. Tendulkar for me had to be in the middle of every real or imagined cricketing scenario. If I was daydreaming of India winning the World Cup, it had to be him lifting the trophy or hitting the winning run. If it was a fantasy of defeating Australia away from home it had to be him hitting that crucial test century. Through him I explored the geography of the world. Places like Perth, Old Trafford, Auckland, Nottingham and Jo’burg became familiar names to be lived in animated discussions with school friends. Even obscure small towns like Benoni in South Africa have their place in the mind of an obsessed cricket fan because Tendulkar blazed away an attack there. I perhaps never confessed this to my wife but on our honeymoon last year I took her along to the Sydney Cricket Ground on our first day in Australia to see a Big Bash game. It wasn’t the T20 I was interested in, it was the venue. Sydney was where Tendulkar scored his first century in Australia in a 1992 test. He would come back there to score an epic 241 in 2003 – a knock in which he eschewed all offensive off-side strokes till he reached a hundred simply because he had been dismissed caught behind driving at the ball in the two tests before. In 2007, he was back again at the SCG scoring a memorable century in an acrimonious test. SCG was SRT’s favorite test venue – and how I could I miss an opportunity to experience it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">In many ways Tendulkar symbolized different things to the different generations that saw him play. To young kids like me who grew up while watching him play, he was the hero who did no wrong. Our innocence gave way to cynicism as we came of age and learnt of practices like match fixing as well as generally realized that the world was not as simple or so straight forward as our young years promised it to be. And yet through that evolution Tendulkar remained the pole star, the man who was the standard of behavior. To an older generation he was the carrier of excellence, the lone bright spot amongst a team struggling to assert itself in the 1990s. With him rode our hopes and when he was out, many a TV set were switched off. To the vintage connoisseurs of the game he was an attacking reincarnation of Gavaskar – the same diminutive stature but now packed with an aggressive turbo engine that could charge at the most feared of the bowlers and take them apart. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The first half of his career coincided with the boom in satellite television in India. He was the icon Indian cricket needed at that moment. The saturation achieved in the cricket calendar and the TV coverage of the game would arguably have come slower had Tendulkar not been around. He symbolized in many ways a growing, emerging self-confident India, free of its earlier burdens and not hesitant to stake a claim. To an extent he also reaped the benefits of the spread and popularity of the game with many of the young kids who grew up idolizing him joining the team and contributing to many of the victories that would have surely made the second half of his career more sweeter.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">There are too many Tendulkar moments to compile and too many to mention. A nostalgic and heavy heart stops me from listing them out tonight. The videos will always stay around but what are irreplaceable are the visual memories of the atmosphere of those innings. Those evenings of a young childhood watching him battle an Australian attack and a desert storm to single handedly win two games back to back. That excruciating winter afternoon when his back and India’s lower order gave way in a thrilling chase in Chennai. The cozy comfort of a warm blanket on an early January morning watching him make his Sydney classics or simply the crisp spring air that blew around as he tore into Wasim, Waqar and Shoaib in March of 2003 at Centurion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
</span> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">When another one of my idols, Rahul Dravid retired, I lazed around and never got down to writing a tribute. I promised myself casually then that I would definitely write one when Tendulkar goes. That time has now come. Tendulkar for me represents something larger thank cricket. He was in many ways the last link to a memorable period of my life long gone. A childhood that in some ways found an extension as he kept playing game after game, year after year. That period of fascination that began when I was aged six seemed never to have gotten over, until now. Today, I feel a sense of ageing. Today I feel the grey hair on my head and I feel 30. It is as if a link with a distant time, preserved carefully, has been eased away. Tendulkar will no longer be on the cricket field. Things will now be a quite different.</span></div>
the lazy knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12776924873209244313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13128398.post-84889682312090660242012-07-20T16:50:00.000+05:302012-07-20T16:51:33.496+05:30The 'Spiraling' London<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So how do you begin to describe London? A city that goes
more than a thousand years into history, has seen tragedies and renewal, hosted
events of great proportions, been home to the first parliament of the modern
era, been the colonial capital of the world and still continues to be a
financial nerve center and a cosmopolitan menagerie in a Europe growing
increasingly wary of external cultures.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A city of spiral staircases. That is what I would call it
based on my experiences over a rapid weekend tourist tour of some of London’s
major sights. To get a view of London city, you have to embrace the spirals.
And it is not just a simple of matter of a few steps to get from one floor to
another. To get a real bird eye view of London, you can circle around on the
London eye or you can take, in my opinion, the slightly more romantic option of
climbing 300 stairs of spiral case and reach the roofs of some of the city’s
oldest standing structures.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Right at the center of London stands the St.Paul’s Catherdral.
It is believed that a shrine to St.Paul, who was the most influential of early
Christian missionaries, has stood at the sight since the early AD years. The
current structure, modeled on the great basilica of the Vatican, was
constructed in the 17<sup>th</sup> century, after the Great Fire of London
destroyed the then existing building. Located on Ludgate Hill, considered to be
the highest point in terms of altitude in London, the cathedral was designed by
Sir Christopher Wren, one of the principal architects behind the reconstruction
of London post the great fire of 1666. The cathedral was to be the showpiece of
the reconstruction efforts and was completed within Wren’s lifetime, achieving
consecration in 1708.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ludgate Hill is not the only aspect that provides height to
St.Paul’s Cathedral. The church has three levels that you can choose to climb
to capture a view from the heights. And here is where the spiral staircases
come in. Take 259 spiral steps and reach the Whispering Gallery that runs
inside the dome of the church. At 99 feet above the ground, you can soak in a
grand view of the cathedral underneath or whisper something into a hole in the
wall for your partner to hear from another hole many feet away.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCvHmlDscHtaTdHVvi8q3xgpQWvciii-N33XE-I_8VKDTFbXR40XaH1taY14seaCJOUe8Ptl4qhyphenhyphenopHNLvf1kaE2ZoU31yzzv7QdqwJwpKwmbpBKOUm-8IYPZzPKgB2UdJHNFyFg/s1600/IMG_0938.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCvHmlDscHtaTdHVvi8q3xgpQWvciii-N33XE-I_8VKDTFbXR40XaH1taY14seaCJOUe8Ptl4qhyphenhyphenopHNLvf1kaE2ZoU31yzzv7QdqwJwpKwmbpBKOUm-8IYPZzPKgB2UdJHNFyFg/s320/IMG_0938.JPG" width="239" /></a></div>
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<i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">A view of the Cathedral below from the Whispering Gallery</i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If that is not good enough, you can take another 119
narrower spiral steps to reach the Stone Gallery, which forms an outer
perimeter of the dome. From here you a get 360 degree windy view of the city.
Even on a cloudy day marked with incessant London drizzle, the great sights such
as Big Ben, the London Eye, Tate Gallery, the Shard and Tower Bridge are easily
visible. I had the privilege of standing at the gallery on a particularly
typical cloudy and windy London day and had trouble holding on to my SLR camera
as I tried to click away.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7myVhSB6i_JQZVHJC8okoKjdiBEBHGwe8tB3M8O11cQs8vtI5qN7EUPUYU1Pnq1BXrAMZJNTW44YmtzhgYEsGd1mUvK8-bhx1GfT92nKfhaZ6GlgJdJ5qJ8e0OTKHsVYMwbWjiQ/s1600/IMG_0942.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7myVhSB6i_JQZVHJC8okoKjdiBEBHGwe8tB3M8O11cQs8vtI5qN7EUPUYU1Pnq1BXrAMZJNTW44YmtzhgYEsGd1mUvK8-bhx1GfT92nKfhaZ6GlgJdJ5qJ8e0OTKHsVYMwbWjiQ/s320/IMG_0942.JPG" width="239" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>The steps leading up to the Stone Gallery</i></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB9SP3iAv1-YtD3BOso9yidLCCo-l9js5aOIPOOHZ5-GYcYRF8UkPox7cN_4FkSrR5nQbX-iiE_D9L0AkVLkt092nMnizrmUrEKzg9UxKDKTScMbRRz-jjkguk71fMUNvH7_GXWA/s1600/IMG_3041.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB9SP3iAv1-YtD3BOso9yidLCCo-l9js5aOIPOOHZ5-GYcYRF8UkPox7cN_4FkSrR5nQbX-iiE_D9L0AkVLkt092nMnizrmUrEKzg9UxKDKTScMbRRz-jjkguk71fMUNvH7_GXWA/s320/IMG_3041.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Millennium Bridge and Tate as seen from the Stone Gallery</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6hxfxmtv2UMXu2YiX6iu9AVfsr8nmwELqWMOOLiCdqlw07ag0hIHY7F3npqjmakdN2phyphenhyphenjvAY4X2h6VCcNC2qrmsU0bn5FZnkCcZyd9f1lOJb4uL9xmzZUGneHLIfDmrOs9CR2w/s1600/IMG_3046.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6hxfxmtv2UMXu2YiX6iu9AVfsr8nmwELqWMOOLiCdqlw07ag0hIHY7F3npqjmakdN2phyphenhyphenjvAY4X2h6VCcNC2qrmsU0bn5FZnkCcZyd9f1lOJb4uL9xmzZUGneHLIfDmrOs9CR2w/s320/IMG_3046.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">At the Stone Gallery</i>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And if vertigo has not struck you by then, soldier on and
take another 128 steps on a narrow steel spiral staircase within the deepest
interiors of the cathedral to reach the Golden Gallery. Located on the peak of
the dome at 85 meters above the ground, the gallery has radius of just about 4
feet and finds it difficult to accommodate two people side by side. On a windy
afternoon, managing your footing in that space can be quite tricky. The view of
London from there though is worth the effort!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif9tYO8hOME3RBKeu1eRcx1O-TPrEVpwS2bHzApZ01a8oyGX4nQJc4Mo_5JtZpX9SgGCMIBeW3Q-Jvrt77FSNxKl2Q3SSbf8oDBYBongrQlSYht-qKRC4TPbmCULtXJrS_W5JAkQ/s1600/IMG_0946.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif9tYO8hOME3RBKeu1eRcx1O-TPrEVpwS2bHzApZ01a8oyGX4nQJc4Mo_5JtZpX9SgGCMIBeW3Q-Jvrt77FSNxKl2Q3SSbf8oDBYBongrQlSYht-qKRC4TPbmCULtXJrS_W5JAkQ/s320/IMG_0946.JPG" width="239" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>The steel spiral that leads to the Golden Gallery - highest point of the Cathedral</i></span></div>
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<i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The Tower Bridge and the river Thames as seen from the Golden Gallery</i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At a slight distance from St.Paul’s Catherdral lies the next
set of spirals. The great fire of London in 1666 destroyed virtually the entire
town and presented a massive challenge towards reconstruction. 3 years after
the fire, as a new London city came up, it was decided to ‘preserve the memory
of this dreadful visitation’ in some manner. Christopher Wren was the architect
again coming up with a design of a single stone column that stood at a height
(62m) which was the exact distance from the spot where the fire had originally
started. Built into the core of this structure, simply called ‘The Monument’,
were 313 narrow spiral stairs that take you to a caged viewing platform at the
top which offers panoramic views of London. On my climb, I came across young
kids, old couples and young men and women all making their way slowly up the
half lit staircase in an orderly fashion and it made me wonder why we can’t
ever get the Archaeological Survey of India to open up the climb to Qutub Minar
in Delhi again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>The Monument now stands in the middle of a busy office district</i></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheodEV-dvkvqcC6-x5qVuKayuO7WSGGOcIIwx5EkiV7e7ErPiH9a1BqScM7up6Fc4S1Kn47y5JXWgWLhJPW-M6JTvuRR7Z1pQkly3WwyBNqLYT8rDXHqCra2jIrCggAES_soGEmQ/s1600/IMG_3048.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheodEV-dvkvqcC6-x5qVuKayuO7WSGGOcIIwx5EkiV7e7ErPiH9a1BqScM7up6Fc4S1Kn47y5JXWgWLhJPW-M6JTvuRR7Z1pQkly3WwyBNqLYT8rDXHqCra2jIrCggAES_soGEmQ/s320/IMG_3048.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The sculpture at the top of the Monument depicts the concept of fire</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTSf2ptZGLo5rctxOTnvI_FroCTnNB9eWy134hBFPyQw3m40WFd-oysaCuylyUPYeQAhpjOTQNna-84fBs3um-db-Svi6a8TmqoJTRQl3jJA23rWCe9j-cwoi69jKA6aVDbHnrfQ/s1600/IMG_3818.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTSf2ptZGLo5rctxOTnvI_FroCTnNB9eWy134hBFPyQw3m40WFd-oysaCuylyUPYeQAhpjOTQNna-84fBs3um-db-Svi6a8TmqoJTRQl3jJA23rWCe9j-cwoi69jKA6aVDbHnrfQ/s320/IMG_3818.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">And finally the spiral that contains 313 steps</i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Climbing up the monument is considered quite a feat and upon
your descent, at the exit, a staffer hands you a mock certificate that states
that the holder has climbed the steps to the top!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The spirals continue in many pockets of the Tower of London
as well, the oldest structure in the city whose foundations were laid by the
first English king, William the Conqueror in the 11<sup>th</sup> century. The
Tower was notorious through the ages for being a place of banishment and in
certain unfortunate instances, even the site of executions (The most famous one
being of the second wife of Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">London’s modern architects don’t seem to have forgotten the
old inspiration. I made acquaintance with a spiral that leads to the cafeteria
on my very first day in the office building. The stairs do give your head a dizzy
tour and can pose a challenge for those challenged by the heights, but when you
are exploring history that is four centuries old or trying to grab a bite of
food in the middle of a busy office day, I think it is probably pointless to
crib and more sensible to adopt a stoic English pose and just climb on.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTUCEtGD8U8JnYTwfVcKs3n08SsIIqTZna4dOlWuj-7oi_o6UWe2gaRRQ_Bi92RrR4CL15KonHR84WeAXAPuHZKqUNttvlwDm4loAsd6-kSM36r55ZJGxnHTZJHpUXc6p6HBhCAA/s1600/Spirals.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTUCEtGD8U8JnYTwfVcKs3n08SsIIqTZna4dOlWuj-7oi_o6UWe2gaRRQ_Bi92RrR4CL15KonHR84WeAXAPuHZKqUNttvlwDm4loAsd6-kSM36r55ZJGxnHTZJHpUXc6p6HBhCAA/s320/Spirals.JPG" width="239" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>Not to be outdone, the architects at my temporary office also added a touch of whirl</i></span></div>
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</div>the lazy knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12776924873209244313noreply@blogger.com3London, UK51.5073346 -0.127683151.3492066 -0.4435401 51.6654626 0.1881739tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13128398.post-36304845843574229842012-01-03T16:32:00.002+05:302012-01-03T16:36:48.592+05:30Marching on Australia<span><i><b>This article first appeared on the Big Show in December 2011. The link to the original post is <a href="http://www.bigshow.co.in/?p=1454">here</a></b></i></span><div><span><i><br /></i></span></div><div><p style="margin-top: 15px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 19px; text-align: justify; "><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; "><span >I</span></span><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span >n military circles it is often light heartedly remarked about Russia and Afghanistan that invading armies over the centuries passed by the skeletal remains of previous empires that had tried and unsuccessfully attempted to conquer those lands. In the cricketing context, it is perhaps an exaggeration to compare the unforgiving vastness of western Russia or the rugged and inhospitable mountains of Afghanistan with the pleasant and warm lands of coastal Australia. The analogy though begs the question – Is Australia the most difficult country to tour, especially for the sub-continent teams?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 19px; text-align: justify; "><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span >Statistically, Australia remains the team to beat at home. Its winning ratio over the last decade (2001-2011) is a staggering 74%. The years of total dominance in the first half of the last decade contribute significantly to this healthy number. This record at home becomes more respectable when compared with other major countries – In the same period, South Africa has a winning ratio at home of 57%, England of 61% and India itself of only 47%. Neither are Australia’s numbers bloated due to runaway successes against minnows. Its winning ratio at home in the analyzed time period against England and South Africa combined has been 67% (2 out of every 3 tests). Interestingly the only test series to have been lost at home have also been against these two countries – The 3-1 Ashes loss last year against England and a 2-0 defeat against South Africa in 2009.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 19px; text-align: justify; "><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span >For the sub-continent giants Pakistan and Sri Lanka, there has been little joy Down Under. Pakistan has lost all 6 test matches in the last decade and while Sri Lanka has only managed to draw 1 and lost the other 3. Yet, amidst all this carnage of numbers, one anomaly stands out. Against India, the Aussies have won 3, lost 2 and drawn the remaining 3 – that gives a win ratio of 38%. Against no other country at home has this number dropped below 65% for the last decade.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 19px; text-align: justify; "><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span >MS Dhoni’s team faces the expectations of maintaining this competitive posture and given the ‘perceived’ troubles with Australia in the recent times even go ahead and retain the Border-Gavaskar trophy that has been in their possession since the home series of 2008. Six months ago, this script seemed a fairly promising adventure; post England, the tale is now one of redemption. For India all the marketing jargon of ‘final frontier’ is now secondary. They must first prove to themselves and then to their fans that the ability to meet opposition head to head on foreign soil, the single biggest achievement of Indian cricket in the first decade of the 21<sup>st</sup> century, is still alive and burning.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 19px; text-align: justify; "><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span >On each of their previous two tours, India punched above their weight. Man for man, their batting perhaps matched that of the Aussies but never have the bowlers looked as threatening as the home side’s. In 2004, Zaheer Khan showed a glimpse of his brilliance (5/95) at Brisbane before departing for the rest of the series. In 2007, he again flattered to deceive and after a 4 wicket haul in the opening test at Melbourne, missed the rest of the tour with an injured ankle. Another premier bowler, Harbhajan Singh, also missed 3 tests on the 2004 tour with an injured shoulder and made more noise off the field than on it on the 2007-08 trip. In Australia, in 4 tests, Harbhajan has taken 9 wickets at an unflattering average of 73. On both occasions, India discovered new bowling talents in Irfan Pathan and Ishant Sharma, rookies who came back home with enhanced reputations, but it was one man who held their bowling effort together and kept the Australian batsmen honest. For a spinner, Anil Kumble had two outstanding tours of Australia in 2003 and 2007 taking 24 and 20 wickets respectively at averages of 29 and 34. On both occasions, he was India’s leading wicket taker by a distance. In a country where away spinners leaked 46 runs for each wicket (since Jan 2006), Kumble with 44 wickets at an average of 35 is the leading wicket taker amongst spinners in Australia over the last ten years.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 19px; text-align: justify; "><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span >This time though India go without their holding and strike bowler of the last two efforts, which makes it absolutely imperative for the fragile ankles of Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma to last the distance in the Test matches. It would be a surprise and not an expectation for India’s bowlers to consistently bowl out Australia and it is their batsmen who would have to land the heavy blows to keep the team in the bout. It is on the continued success of Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman, Ganguly and later on Sehwag that the positive results away from home were achieved. In Australia, Sehwag, Laxman and Tendulkar average above 54 while Dravid, despite a poor last tour, still averages 48. The batting order will feature two first time travelers this time – Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli, with Rohit Sharma who impressed in the ODI outings in Australia in 2008, as the first backup. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 19px; text-align: justify; "><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span >Unlike England, if India is to make a match of it in Australia, their batsmen have to make up for the deficiencies that their bowlers will perhaps frequently display. And therein lies the weight of India’s burden. Dravid has had a wonderful year and looks assured and settled. Laxman had patches of brilliance and Tendulkar has been laden with artificial mental burdens of late. Sehwag has only now struck form (and how!) and Gambhir averages below 30 in his last 25 test innings with no century to show. Buffering this line up are Kohli and Dhoni - for the first, this can be a career defining tour if he manages to avoid the fate that England dished out to Suresh Raina; for the second, this would perhaps be a visit where he may be required to play above his test average of 38. Indian batting faces a collective challenge which would demand the shedding of indifference and inconsistency and the adoption of bold and certain postures. The pitches would be quick, barring Sydney and the engine of Indian batting would have to chug into life quickly and swiftly. A slow start would only create the danger of a repeat of this summer, when more than the English bowlers, the lack of certainty and confidence of the batsmen did them in.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 19px; text-align: justify; "><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span >Facing India would be an Aussie side that has tasted victory against both South Africa and New Zealand recently, has discovered a new found depth in bowling riches and would in all probability have an in form Ricky Ponting awaiting India. The gaps would remain at the top and at the bottom – an opening combination that contains a Shane Watson unable to bowl at full effectiveness denies Australia the comfort of a quality all-rounder, and a rookie spinner in Nathan Lyon may not pose too many uncomfortable questions to the Indian batsmen. Barring that, Australia will come hard with (speed) guns blazing at India and will perform the basics in fielding and catching well.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 19px; text-align: justify; "><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span >For India, the story is familiar and yet slightly deviant. Their batsmen must win the big moments for them but this time they will perhaps be afforded lesser buffers of luxury by their injury prone and inexperienced bowlers. History can often be a strange companion. It can comfort, as the statistics in the opening part of this article indicate, or it can sow doubts and suspicions, as the memories of England this past summer may testify. India have fought Australia to a stalemate during their last two trips Down Under; its critical, for the sake of their immediate Test match future, that they leave a more promising legacy behind on this trip that what exists in the harsh battlefields of Russia and Afghanistan.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 19px; text-align: justify; "><span style="line-height: 115%; "><o:p><span > </span></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; "><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span >Statistics Source: espncricinfo.com</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 19px; text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size:10.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p></p><p></p><p></p></div>the lazy knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12776924873209244313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13128398.post-31817380336302871092011-08-13T22:32:00.007+05:302011-08-13T23:07:33.735+05:30Beyond the Bashing<div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE8qXo6vTLPghq7Ogx4rgcVYoRaukmrHAr1SsuS9ao1RCRpUuQ9SzSJeWOZJwTLoeQmqEz-A5wNCfk0ts80OQbqIz5Zq5ksWSzPd0yulfnidxImCminWSqX43Ee7OgKkHgqN08fg/s1600/Eng+v+India.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 256px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5640392497397445474" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE8qXo6vTLPghq7Ogx4rgcVYoRaukmrHAr1SsuS9ao1RCRpUuQ9SzSJeWOZJwTLoeQmqEz-A5wNCfk0ts80OQbqIz5Zq5ksWSzPd0yulfnidxImCminWSqX43Ee7OgKkHgqN08fg/s320/Eng+v+India.jpg" /></a>
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<br /><div align="justify"></div><em><span style="font-size:78%;">(picture source: Cricinfo)</span></em>
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<br /><div align="justify">As I write this the covers are being pulled on the square at Edgbaston and MS Dhoni is preparing for another ‘loosing captain’ speech (his third in a row, an unusual event in itself) and searching for reasons to offer for a loss that was as big and humiliating as the margin suggests – an innings and 242 runs. India now have been wiped clean 3-0 by an ascending England that completes a remarkable one year of test cricket for the hosts and raises perplexing and troubling questions for visitors.
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<br />The last time India performed with such abject hopelessness in an away test series (or any test series for that matter) was Down Under in the winter of 1999. The Sachin Tendulkar led team was demolished by a rampaging Australia under Steve Waugh and the extent of the defeat then bears a close resemblance to the ones we are seeing now –
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<br />• <a href="http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/63865.html">Adelaide</a> – Lost by 285 runs
<br />• <a href="http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/63866.html">Melbourne</a> – Lost by 180 runs
<br />• <a href="http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/63867.html">Sydney</a> – An innings and 141 runs
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<br />It was a tour equal to the current one in terms of complete batting failure with only 2 centuries and 3 half centuries being scored in response to a batting flood from the Aussies. And despite the tireless efforts of the Karnataka trio of Srinath, Prasad and Kumble, the team never even won a session against the Aussies, let alone coming close to threatening them with a draw or a loss.
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<br />View the results of the current embarrassment in England and notice the pattern – Defeat by 196 runs at Lord’s, by 319 runs at Nottingham and the latest by an innings and 242 runs. The bowlers have tried and have been handicapped by injuries but the batting has opened the floodgates and let the invaders through. The three test matches have seen only 2 centuries and 7 seven half centuries and in neither case have the hundreds been big enough or the fifties been accumulative enough to push the total beyond 300.
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<br />The difference though lies in the expectations and the historical performance. No one gave the 1999 team a chance against the Aussies. There was not much you could expect from a team that had a support cast of MSK Prasad (opening the batting mind you), Hrishikesh Kanitkar, Devang Gandhi and SS Das for the likes of Tendulkar, Dravid and Ganguly. It was a complete collective batting failure with no opening stands of note and no stand out middle order performances. During the intervening 12 years though, India have done enough to wipe the stains of that humiliation and improve their reputations from easy cannon fodder to worthy contenders on overseas tours. Between 2000 and 2011, out of 54 tests played away from home (excluding Zimbabwe and Bangladesh), India won 15 and lost 21, giving them a win ratio of 27%, which while not comparable to an Australia or South Africa, is certainly much higher than those of any previous decade in Indian cricket.
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<br />During this period, the team was served by the bowling efforts of Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble, but the foundation of the victories and match saving draws were often laid down by the batsmen. It is India’s batting core of Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman and Ganguly (assisted during the later part of the last decade by Sehwag and Gambhir) that enabled it to post significant overseas victories (<a href="http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/63999.html">Headingly 2002</a>, <a href="http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/64060.html">Adelaide 2003</a>, <a href="http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/291353.html">Perth 2008</a>, <a href="http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/366628.html">Hamilton 2009</a>, <a href="http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/463147.html">Durban 2010</a>) and often save games that could easily have been lost with a batting collapse (<a href="http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/63998.html">Nottingham 2002</a>, <a href="http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/64059.html">Brisbane 2003</a>, <a href="http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/291354.html">Adelaide 2008</a>, <a href="http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/386496.html">Napier 2009</a>, <a href="http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/463148.html">Cape Town 2011</a>). This picture is perhaps appropriately reflected in the batting averages of the Indians away from home (admittedly not excluding Zimbabwe and Bangladesh this time) – Tendulkar expectedly leads with 55, followed by Gambhir at 57, Dravid at 53, Sehwag at 47, Laxman with 44 and Ganguly at 41. Each of them has, over the years, played a part in the setting up totals for bowlers to defend or responded to opposition’s attack with equal gusto.
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<br />It is based on the above that we must confront the critical hypothesis that now stares Indian cricket in the face as it awakens from the shambles of the England tour – India was and certainly for the near and medium term future shall remain a batting team. The bowling quartet (and a quartet it will be, for there is no genuine seam or spin bowling all rounder on the horizon) shall always possess one or at most two (if we are lucky) world class bowlers and not more. Kumble’s mantle passed onto Zaheer and from him it is now a toss up. Ishant Sharma perhaps possesses the best talent to claim it but is yet to stamp himself as a match winner as Zaheer did in 2007. The spinners will be effective at home but will remain predominantly stock bowlers outside and the seamers will never run through batting sides as the English and the South Africans now do. We will not have a Steyn or a Morkel and our seamers will always need receptive pitches to make the opposition batsmen hop.
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<br />It will therefore be the batsmen who have to bear a good 2/3rds (and at times even 3/4ths) of the burden of responsibility for winning games. They will need to compensate when the bowlers are hacked around during the first innings of a test match and will need to give enough to the bowlers to defend in the 2nd and 4th innings. This has been a pattern quite obvious in our recent one-day successes and will have to be the template if we are to be successful as a test side going ahead. Unless the soil of our pitches where Ranji games are played dramatically changes, we will need to look at our top 6 to win and save games for us.
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<br />It is here that India’s problems lie, not just as of now with the batsmen failing to fire in England, but also in the future as each of Dravid, Tendulkar and Laxman will not last beyond the next 2-3 years. Behind them, warming the benches is a lot that has justifiably failed to inspire confidence thus far. The spot vacated by Sourav Ganguly in 2008 is still up for grabs. And neither Yuvraj Singh (overall test average of 35 and an away average of 29) nor Suresh Raina (test average of 32) have managed to cement that slot as their own. Both have been patchy and inconsistent and have shown major shortcomings against the short ball and an inability to graft when the pitch is not to their liking. Yuvraj is now out with an injury and Raina, who after his knock at Lord’s could have made this his breakthrough series, has frittered away the chance and seems set to lose his place in the playing XI. That leaves four other young men who currently are lined up in the queue with an eye on the future – Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane. Kohli has started disappointingly and shown a visible discomfort against pace and bounce, even on docile West Indian pitches; Rohit Sharma has perhaps the most amount of talent but also the most fickle temperament; Pujara is only 3 games old and needs more chances and with the batting failures of England, Rahane may well find himself a part of the squad in the upcoming test series at home and in Australia.
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<br />The cupboard is not exactly bare for India’s batting but it’s a bit like sending cadets out of a military academy to replace experienced field commanders in the middle of a war. The transition, given the problems of the new crop of batsmen away from home, has to be phased and will necessarily involve pain such as that experienced in the last three weeks. It is critical that India’s new generation steps up to the mark in test cricket or else more such hidings may be in the offering. Test cricket is about the quality of effort and display of temperament and less about statistical rankings. The loss of the top spot must hurt but it is time to be realistic. A weak bowling and a declining batting line up will not take us back to the top of the summit. A more realistic short term goal would be stay in the top 3, keep in the hunt with the likes of England and South Africa and groom a new batting line up that can perform away from home. It is good to aspire for the numero uno slot but India’s priority in the near future has to be a Jardinesque obsession with building a strong XI that can play well away from home. The results and the rankings will take care of themselves by consequence.
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<br />Much would be written and lamented about the three tests lost. The bowlers were always suspect but the batting failure is inexplicable and as Ganguly has said, it seems more of a mental block than an issue about adapting to the environment. The batsmen, as has been pointed out, have been having a sub-par year and have not crossed 400 even once in the 7 test played in the calendar year thus far. It is not as if India did not have their chances in the series – they were 158/2 at Lord’s replying to England’s 474, only to get bowled out for 280 odd. Even after England recovered from 124/8 at Nottingham, the batsmen only had to score 350 in the first innings to get a sizeable lead. Instead the last 4 wickets were lost for 20 odd runs and the Houdini act enabled England to grab the psychological advantage. India turned up at Edgbaston conditioned for defeat and that is one mental spell that champions must immediately break out of.
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<br />The fourth test returns to the Oval in London. A ground where the blue of Indian fans will match the blue of the English as at Lord’s. A ground also where the pitch will seem flat and the batsmen may finally manage to play through the line of the ball with lesser risk. A 4-0 whitewash prediction was sacrilege when the series began but now seems realistic. India have been shuffling players, managing injuries and patching up their batting order. To use another military analogy, England has been pounding the heavy artillery while the Indians are still getting their battle formations in order. It is up to the batsmen to pull the team out of the current abyss. It is perhaps too much to expect a victorious turnaround or even a simultaneous coming to form for the top 6, but in this bout where India have been a mute punching bag instead of a living animated boxer, a batting effort exceeding 350 may well be a starting counterpunch. </div></div>the lazy knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12776924873209244313noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13128398.post-13537010899747244312011-08-03T20:26:00.003+05:302011-08-03T20:31:17.706+05:30A Right too far'Oh my love, it's a long way we've come <br />From the freckled hills to the steel and glass canyons <br />From the stony fields, to hanging steel from the sky <br />From digging in our pockets for a reason not to say goodbye' <br /><br />U2 - The hands that built America<br /><br /><br />Noise is the hinge on which the doors of democracy open. It is the one characteristic that distinguishes it from any other alternative political system. Not for no reason was Eastern Europe referred to being under an ‘Iron Curtain’ during the years of the Cold War. And not for no reason do we see the rich and supposedly destined for greatness China going all out to block internet chat forums, Facebook and Twitter whenever civil disturbances raise their feeble head in the country. Noise denotes life, liveliness and interest. When combined with opinion it reflects participation. Democracies cannot run on mute and unlike our television channels, in our systems of governance we have to listen to all kinds of noises, wherever they emanate from and howsoever unpleasant they may be.<br /><br />Developed and to some extent emerging democracies are increasing hearing new and perturbing voices. Voices they always believed the locomotives of their nations were far too superior to produce. Voices that are increasingly shrill and radical and are making those in the seat of power squirm uncomfortably. There is a direction that they are coming from. You only have to turn to your right and try and see far ahead, beyond the immediately obvious. <br /><br />On 22nd of July, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_Breivik">Anders Breivik</a> single-handedly committed the deadliest armed attack in Scandinavia since the end of the Second World War. He blew up the façade of the Prime Minister’s office and then went on a shooting spree at the youth camp of the ruling party killing 69 and injuring many others. Before Breivik’s arrest the initial suspicion fell on Islamic terrorists and for good reason. Scandinavia has been under threat since the publication of the Prophet cartoon by a Danish daily a few years. It could have been entirely plausible that revenge had finally been sought for that perceived insult in the quiet of Oslo. <br /><br />All convenient theories were however torn to shreds as Breivik laid down his automatic weapon and surrendered to the police on the island of Utoya where for more than hour he had emptied bullets on defenseless teenagers. Something that not just Norway but all of Europe and dare I say all of the developed West had overlooked or believed not to be of major consequence, had occurred right in their midst – Right wing home grown violence and terror. <br /><br />Breivik’s action were an eventual culmination in practice of an ideology that has been spewing hate in theory (and internet chat rooms) across Europe over the last few years. As ‘indigenous’ population stagnated and migrants from poorer countries started entering the workforce, Western Europe’s much vaunted multiculturalism has increasingly felt the pressure coming from a Right that believes the ‘original’ nation is under siege. While till the turn of the century this debate was purely a fight for scarce resources and jobs and at one level even justifiably about illegal immigration, post 9/11 and the Afghan war, the toxic ingredient of Islamophobia has been added to the already unstable compound of frustrations. <br /><br />These emotions are not confined to Europe alone. North America has also been experiencing a political divide that sharpens by the day. In the US, on the one side stands the Republican party that is shrill it is denouncement of everything that represents government. Ironically it cites the fiscally broke welfare states of Western Europe as examples of what US should not become and what its opponent, the Democratic party is hell bent on doing. The Republicans have never known to be anti-immigrant but their often harsh and illogical stance on illegal immigration (specially through Mexico) and perceived bias towards affluent and middle class suburban whites and Christian conservatives, has pushed the minority vote of blacks and Hispanics away from them. The Democrats meanwhile are ranged on the Left, resisting overt attachment to faith and counterbalancing the concerns of those who are ‘non-white’ in America. The political dialogue is mostly sharp, accusatory and bordering on the unpleasant. And it did not take long for a country where owning a gun is at times as easy as buying groceries from the nearest store, for violence to emanate from someone owning allegiance to the extreme right. In January of this year,<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Tucson_shooting"> Gabrielle Giffords</a>, a Democratic member of the US House of Representatives was shot at in an assassination attempt by a man who claimed that the government was ‘mind controlling’ the country and listed Hitler’s Mein Kampf as one of his influences. The shooting was clouded by what preceded it. Giffords had barely managed to get re-elected the previous November and during the campaign her office had been ransacked once and her constituency had been shown in the crosshairs of a gun in an election map put up on Sarah Palin’s website. As speculation over the cause of Gifford’s shooting continued, the political rhetoric only went up.<br /><br />No society is free from violence and no society is completely open enough to accept everything and everyone it comes in touch with. But society itself is collection of individuals that have not always consented to living together with each and every one of them around. Unless we are ready to live in gated communities and by extension in gated colonies and gated nations, we will always have someone in every generation joining us as a new neighbor. Our fear of the outsider will only confine our world view, for the universe is large and our shells too small. <br /><br />It is a question that we in India have grappled with as well. Our major metropolitan cities today are bursting at their seams and anti-migrant chants are not hard to hear. In Mumbai, self proclaimed cultural defenders have taken to attacking those they perceive as coming from outside and robbing locals of their jobs and draining the city of its resources. While the fight for our cities is a relatively new phenomenon, the tussle to own the heritage of the land and the country has been ongoing since the collapse of the Mughal Empire. Hindu nationalists have claimed the land as belonging to the nation’s largest faith on the basis of simple numbers and a view of history that begins only from 1000AD onwards when Muslim victories started resulting in permanent inhabitation of the conquered land. But India is much older than that and while Hinduism may have originated here, were the Aryans or the Indus Valley settlers the original squatters as far as history can logically see or did they too travel a distance before setting camp in the north-west of our subcontinent?<br /><br />Within this debate are layered contexts of migration and movement? Both my father’s and mother’s family moved from comfortably settled and well to do households in Pakistan to the newly independent India during Partition. How much entitlement that does legacy bestow on people like me to call Delhi as ‘my city’ or more importantly to deny anyone else the right to enter its gates? And do I get that entitlement by virtue of birth or by ancestry? And how long does the bloodline have to run before the footprints of migration are erased forever and I become an accepted part of this city and the country?<br /><br />Both Europe and the US, thus far, have experienced controlled and peaceful influx of outsiders, unlike India. Their engagement with multiple religions and cultures has been at the level and extent of their own choosing. Globalization has expanded boundaries of economies and nations while also expanding insecurities. The Indian sitting in far away Bangalore is no longer a mystic yogi for the average American but a potential job stealer. The turban wearing bearded man from the Middle East is not a carpet seller but a potential suicide bomber. The natural human response is to build walls, to appropriate resources, land and culture for those found ‘home grown’ enough. But every passing generation is layer upon one that came seeking a home. The blacks in the US came from Africa, the whites from England, Germany, Ireland, Russia and Eastern Europe. England was a Viking raiding territory before being conquered by Romans and then by the Anglo-Saxons. Germany was inhabited by fearful tribes before organized empires emerged in the middle ages. <br /><br />The problem is not with nations defining boundaries or rules for admission, for that is how the modern civilized world must live. The problem lies in the politics of hate or more clearly the politics of the ‘other’. A strand of polity that solely focuses on the supposed negatives of the ‘other’ corrodes the moral correctness of the accuser. The need to banish the outsider and protect the native has now been combined with the need to protect the native culture and religion. This is the translation of the extreme right. The extreme left translated it as a battle between the earner and the seeker. Both demonized one against the other and both have not proven shy of pressing the trigger of a gunshot to make their voice heard. And while governments of the day have maintained that these mini-volcanoes of hate are too small and too dormant to release any harmful lava in the mainstream, incidents like those in Norway only reflect how day to day political speech is influencing those on the margins. It sounds uncomfortable but an Oslo bombed by an Al-Qeada trained Muslim would have been a terror attack but an Oslo shaken up by a Breviek becomes an act of a loony nutcase. As we never tire of saying, terror has no identity, religion or language. If it does not discriminate between the victims then why the discrimination between perpetrators?<br /><br />The onus is on the center to balance the scale and push the hardliners to the margins. Both the Left and the Right have a place in polity but the language of political discourse needs to consider its message and those that interpret it on the outside. The shrillness and vitriol of words can soon be matched by deadly action as demonstrated in Oslo. Nations cannot open their gates with accepting arms to every outsiders, but they also cannot run around rubber stamping their citizens as owners and dependants. The creation of the planet preceded the creation of the species that now inhabits it. That should settle all disputes claiming ‘original ownership’ of land.the lazy knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12776924873209244313noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13128398.post-69063543266216693442011-06-05T19:06:00.004+05:302011-06-05T19:09:58.314+05:30Manufacturing Enemies<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_GGW2362QjXckHKEPh2ScyG3q4O_eEQghFDc5cwiP_42wUdRTkiiEu8p0WRFDG8pz3yrNKQ7bcNgvYELHf-Xlmrg_c4s8iO4ejvgRUPDtc3HlQrH5WfByw_IDN1MQQGuFDEi15g/s1600/mediaManager.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 209px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_GGW2362QjXckHKEPh2ScyG3q4O_eEQghFDc5cwiP_42wUdRTkiiEu8p0WRFDG8pz3yrNKQ7bcNgvYELHf-Xlmrg_c4s8iO4ejvgRUPDtc3HlQrH5WfByw_IDN1MQQGuFDEi15g/s320/mediaManager.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5614729792077252546" /></a><br /><br /><br />In Delhi’s political circles they are mourning the demise of the Left. And it is not just the caricatured ones from ‘civil society’, JNU and NGOs that experience this sadness. It is perhaps equally true of the Congress and its government in the UPA. For the first five years of its perch in the cockpit of governance, the party and the alliance faced internal turbulence on every issue directed at it from its own friend cum critic, the Left parties. From market liberalization (insurance and retail), to the scope and breadth of NREGA (something many journalists were quick to cite as a reason for the 2009 Congress victory) to ultimately the decisive (and fatal) clash over the nuclear deal three summers ago. Neither the Left, nor the UPA has really recovered from that collision, despite a return to power that spoke as much for the vanquished as it did for the victor. <br /><br />The Congress since then has been on an auto-pilot. The Prime Minister, having braved a confrontation that many thought him incapable of causing and having achieved what he believed to be a significant domestic and foreign policy victory, seems to have lost energy and drive. It appears as if the 2009 polls for him were the end of a race and not a pit stop that many observers assumed it to be. These days he resembles an unwilling sportsman, forced out of retirement (or in his case being forced against retirement) to lead a team where disinterest is the prevailing feeling. The Congress seems to have mistaken the period between 2009 to 2014 as one that simply requires the completion of the formality of staying in office. The real pie is the next election when Rahul Gandhi is expected to take over the reigns and a new era of posturing can begin. UPA II then is the foster child the parent is not too keen to engage with. It is a necessity to be borne but the imagination is hidden for better times expected to come ahead. That perhaps explains the indifference and apathy running through this government since its inception. The Prime Minister has been low key, but unlike his first term when this was an asset, in his second term where allegations of corruption have abounded and ministers have been speaking about everything except their work, this silence has conveyed helplessness to favorable and weakness to the less charitable of his supporters.<br /><br />The problem with playing a waiting game is that two critical elements, time and circumstance, always remain out of control and can turn and twist causing discomforting pain to even the most numb of bodies. In a sense, the UPA’s problems are seeded in its first term when a blind eye was turned to dirty secrets that many thought would either never come out or were underestimated with respect to their potential impact. But both the Telecom scam and the shenanigans of the Commonwealth Games have put the ruling coalition on the mat from which it is still wriggling to escape. It has not helped that multiple public agitations, high profile in nature and media coverage, have never really allowed the government to shift the focus away from the misdeeds in the corridors of power.<br /><br />To use corporate jargon, the ball has been dropped. And several times over. As evidence slowly crawled of irregularities in Telecom and CWG deals, standard bureaucratic responses were dished out. There was little attempt, in the face of political compulsions, to decisively act and grab the initiative from the opposition, which despite its own disarray has managed to find a voice that it lacked in the UPA’s first term. The result has been that both the government and the party have been made to defend on the backfoot, right from the disastrous announcement of Telengana in the winter of 2009. <br /><br />Democracy demands governments to possess a thick skin, but also combine it with a large heart and a sense of magnanimity. While the right to free speech requires us individually to listen to a lot of things we would privately consider as trash, governments must not only put up but also accommodate with groups, persons and views that may seem unrealistic at best and churlish at worst. Given that outcomes in our system only appear after years of grind in the bureaucratic machine, intent becomes more important than immediate action. And this government has done every action to let the voter question its intent. When the well heeled and well off middle class agitates for a stronger anti-corruption law, they must be co-opted and not discredited. When a gimmicky godman ‘fasts’ a few hours of the day demanding the return of black money, death for the corrupt and courses in Hindi, there are certainly more deft ways of taking away his sting than by forcibly evicting him and his supporters from the middle of the national capital. Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev will not stand up in polls but the UPA has now given itself the tag of being a government against peaceful protests, howsoever whimsical and misdirected. <br /><br />The arrogance of power can often lead one to believe that the reaction is temporary and will not affect electoral outcomes. But in a democracy as chaotic as ours, it is foolhardy to rest on such cushy assumptions. Shifting caste identities and a perceived stamp of corruption from Bofors decimated Rajiv Gandhi’s super majority in 1989. For the Congress to think that anti-corruption anger is a middle class drawing room phenomenon and that a disunited NDA along with a beaten Left present no challenge three years from now is to adopt hubris at par with the NDA’s India Shining posturing of 2004. The electorate threw a surprise out of nowhere then and it is perfectly capable of doing it a second time. The initiative has been lost, the momentum was never there and now along with scandal comes the tag of being insensitive and brash. The government stays in office, its electoral fortunes may point north in the coming days but is moral compass is pointing a firm south.the lazy knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12776924873209244313noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13128398.post-63009897941922566122011-04-03T21:48:00.003+05:302011-04-04T20:04:06.555+05:30A moment of Belief<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC0DthZYzfqU69k29hqy7JLmREqgCrhucQlnJzli8e6pVVu19iyC4t8TAekN_vK4kDV3E9mhXmYrV0-uBUAPqWT-yYWF3_qO8EJOUW5CLQ-jBIZKxuAtI0_kd_kp-JAww2OiwTNQ/s1600/World+Cup+2011.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 248px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC0DthZYzfqU69k29hqy7JLmREqgCrhucQlnJzli8e6pVVu19iyC4t8TAekN_vK4kDV3E9mhXmYrV0-uBUAPqWT-yYWF3_qO8EJOUW5CLQ-jBIZKxuAtI0_kd_kp-JAww2OiwTNQ/s320/World+Cup+2011.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5591393631126969890" /></a><br /><br />(Picture Source : Cricinfo)<br /><br />As young boys, me and my cousins would scramble up to the roof of my grandparents’ single storey house in Chandigarh in our growing up years and engage in our favorite pastime. Much to the chagrin of my grandmother, we would not care a fig about the weather, most of our time together being spent during the months of the summer vacation, and run helter skelter on the roof making our presence felt to everyone down below. All we needed was a large wooden plank that served as the wickets, a smaller one that was our bat (on some occasions we managed to get a real one) and a rubber or a tennis ball. Each of us would choose a team, there being a fierce competition for who would take India. The entitlement would eventually be decided by draw of lots. We would call it our very own World Cup and the one who had chosen India would try his mighty best to justify the burden of carrying the nation’s name. 1992 went, 1996 went and so did 1999, by when all of us were in our teens. And by common consensus we had jokingly come to believe that it was easier for India to win the World Cup on our grandmother’s rooftop than in the actual cricket field. <br /><br />For a generation of Indian cricket fans that grew up loving the game and following its team during the 1990s, every Indian victory was meant to be savored. For much like the legion of fans that preceded it in the earlier decades, it was more used to watching the team lose than win. We were devoid of cognitive images and memories of that small golden window between 1983 and 1987 when the world cup winning Indian team perhaps enjoyed its most confident period of cricketing performance since Independence. The 1990s had Tendulkar, the match winner and a number of dedicated performers such as Kumble and Srinath and saw the emergence of Ganguly and Dravid towards the later part of the decade. But the 1990s also had a list of test defeats all around the world, from the crushing clean sweep in Australia in 1999 to the heartbreak in Barbados in 1997 to the drubbing inside 3 days at Durban in 1996. The one day games were littered with instances of matches being lost once Tendulkar was dismissed. Barring the sandstorm series in the summer of 1998 where Tendulkar demolished the leg spin of Warne, Sharjah remained an arena identified with disappointments against Pakistan. Three world cups came and went with none seeing the team as serious contenders. The closest it came was in 1996 when a high charged triumph against Pakistan was followed by a disgraceful exit in Kolkatta. <br /><br />The Indian cricket fan in that period did not take victory for granted and has suffered from perennial pessimism having seen multiple winning positions (17 runs needed with 3 wickets left against Pakistan in Chennai in 1999 being a prime example) being squandered to hand over the glory to the opposition. Thoughts of victory were entertained with extreme caution. Laudable efforts of a Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid or Kumble were welcomed with grave apprehension of the imminent collapse of a brittle lower middle order and a tail ineffective with the bat. Australia and South Africa were envied for their ruthless efficiency and dogged determination to win, Pakistan for its multitude of match winners with ball and hard hitters with the bat and Sri Lanka for showing us our inadequacies too often with the bat, ball and specially in the field. In the middle of it we had Tendulkar to savor, the rising graphs of Ganguly and Dravid to admire and the perseverance of Kumble to respect. Team victories were outnumbered by the losses that wounded the confidence. One of the most galling apart from Barbados in 1997 was in the 1999 World Cup against Zimbabwe when an India sans Tendulkar threw away a winning hand and the tail capitulated to grab a loss that all but ended any hopes of effective progress in the tournament. <br /><br />For this generation of fans, optimism always came with a rider. The game was never considered to be over till the final run or wicket was taken (purists would say that is always the case!) and each Indian victory was meant to be cataloged in memory. It took a decade of gradual achievement, the emergence of new match winners and a captain who transformed the attitude of the team for the confidence to be planted. Saurav Ganguly became captain, a hopeless looking India performed a miracle against Australia in 2001 and a campaign in the 2003 World Cup that threatened to get derailed right at the start was transformed into roaring wave eventually to be stopped by an equally strong Australian juggernaut. The belief would grow gradually with victories in Australia, Pakistan and then England. Tigers at home and lambs abroad was a phrase we all knew the meaning of since our middle school days. It took monumental performances from the trinity of Tendulkar, Laxman and Dravid backed up by an untiring Kumble and the re-emergence of Zaheer Khan to chip away at the doubts that arose before every overseas performance. A new set of performers, emerging from the mofussil map of India, took over the reins towards the end of the first decade of this century. A new leader, exuding an almost un-Indian like calm amidst the frenzy of a cricket game, took over the reins of a team that believed in its strength (the high quality batting lineup) and was aware of its limitations (a thin and unpredictable bowling and an uninterested fielding). Yuvraj, despite his blip last year, Raina, Gambhir, Sehwag, Harbhajan and Zaheer – a new set of match winners whose rise coincided with India winning more games than losing. Dhoni’s ODI win % is close to 60. A decade back no Indian fan could have imagined this to be true for its team’s captain. A rising confident country broke its economic shackles in the early 90s. Its cricket team took a decade or so more but the reins are truly snapped now. The Indian fan now believes. There was guarded optimism in place of the superstitious pessimism when the team was tagged as favorite in the latest edition of the World Cup. <br /><br />This World Cup and its final is now the new index by which the fan would measure this team. Our minds will be pulled towards the memories of 2nd April, 2011 time and again – a World Cup final, a toss lost, a required run rate of 5 and a half, Sachin and Sehwag lost within the first 7 overs. Those demons of old made hovered dangerously when Gambhir and Kohli began rebuilding the chase. But this is a different team and these are different men. An innings of high quality and balance by Gambhir, a statement of confidence by the captain and a run chase that should serve as a template in the multitude of cricket academies all over the globe. On this night, the team soaked the pressure like a sponge and showed a deep well of self belief. The Indian fan has finally been gifted for his attachment, sometimes tempestuous, to the nation’s most popular game. An entire generation now has its moment of glory to savor. The World Cup can indeed be won by India, and not just on my grandmother’s rooftop.the lazy knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12776924873209244313noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13128398.post-83342869914765320942010-12-22T08:17:00.005+05:302010-12-22T08:22:29.986+05:30Torn at the shreds<span style="font-family:arial;">2010 stands the risk of entering Indian history as the year of graft. It was a year where incidences, coverage and adjectives of corruption reached hitherto unseen limits. Instances of illegal money making were sector and space neutral. They ranged from sporting events, a cricket league, telecom licenses to the usual bad boys of real estate and mining. Some of the stories uncovered had a ‘I told you so’ ring to them, as with the 2G spectrum and license saga. Some like the Adarsh society, came out of nowhere and created a tsunami that swept all before quietly retreating into the calmer waters of middle page news. Like the scandals, their perpetrators or suspects too respected the Indian heritage of diversity. Politicians led the way, followed closely by organizers, mining barons, industrialists, high flying highly visible sport administrators and in a bit of surprise for the public at large, generals and journalists. </span>
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<br />What stood out in 2010 was the eagerness of the corruption scandals to devour their victims, many of whom would not have been mistaken to believe that the storm was one they could ride out. Many are still battling the choppy waters, refusing to abandon ship, not realizing perhaps that the hull and the mast have suffered irreparable damage. In terms of resignations and exits, the year was certainly one of the busiest. Notable among the martyrs was a greasy Union Minister whose stubborn resistance against facts for over two years seemed inspired by a Sunil Gavaskar innings, a loquacious Minister of State who required only 140 characters to be felled, a Chief Minister who would have much wished that he could escape with the American president he was seeing off minutes before being given the pink slip, a cricket czar whose one error gave his numerous enemies the tiny sliver of opportunity they had waited all along and two senior journalists who could not keep their egos within the confines of the press club.
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<br />Towards the end of the year, the leaked Radia tapes provided a new form of online voyeurism, to which this author himself claims affliction. They provided much amusement for the listeners and much embarrassment to the conversing parties. At a higher level they brought home a painful reality we have been afraid to admit for long – the country is being run by an elite of oligarchs and politicians for whom universal suffrage is only a constitutional formality. It was not the influencing of appointments and rewards that should be a cause of worry as much the blatant system of monetary patronage of all classes of our political life. The revelations tarred all. The politician’s debauchery was only vindicated, the industrialist’s mildly affirmed and the journalist’s discovered. A smaller scale of the loot would have made the public more cynical, the current scale can only cause disillusion. The executive ran from one hiding corner to another and the legislature decided to spend time shouting for political points than discuss the corrosion. It would only be the judiciary, battling its own demons of graft more than ever before this year, that would give a call and question both the actions and inactions of the executive offices.
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<br />The Union enters the second decade of the 21st century struggling to live up to the ideals of its founding fathers and the spiritual guidance they left in the Constitution. It gasps to find substance over form. It aspires to seek its place in the world but undermines its own values at every stage. It experienced political liberation six decades ago and an economic liberation two decades ago. It will never be able to live up to its promise for all but to meet the aspirations of most, and not just a privileged few, it needs to experience a new moral discovery and liberation.
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<br />Much as it is tempting to focus on the big bang of graft that swamped all the other noise around us, the year also brought some redeeming affirmations. A high court stretched the logic of justice, summoned courage and tackled an issue that politicians, religious leaders and the society at large had refused to entangle. In their own words, the justices set foot upon ‘a piece of land where angels feared to tread’ against the advice of ‘sane elements’ who had ‘advised them not to attempt that’. They pleased none of the three litigants completely but caused much satisfaction to the man on the street. It was evidence that our noisy and chaotic democracy could find some way, even if it took decades, of tackling inflammable, contentious and religiously dividing issues. A peaceful resolution of the property dispute at Ayodha is as much a litmus for India’s social integration as Kashmir is for its political. In the valley meanwhile, the Indian state dithered, bore the brunt of stones and calls of ‘azadi’, heard calls of sedition issued from an air conditioned Delhi auditorium from a wasted socialite but in the end summoned the one quality that is the hallmark of statesmanship and is much needed for internal stability – a generosity of heart. The pain lingers but Vajpayee’s framework of ‘insaniyat’ survives. However much Pakistan, Arundhati Roy and the Hurriyat Conference think to the contrary, that framework does not stand in contradiction with the Constitution.
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<br />In Delhi, a nation held its breath and had almost collapsed out of anxiety as a mismanaged sporting event threatened to erode all the gains of the new economy. The post liberalization urban generation, used to playing with global standards of quality, watched in horror as the task of constructing stadiums and organizing athletic events turned into a business school case study of mismanagement. The world saw our lack of project management skills and for once the excuse of the slow moving democracy could not act as a cover for our exposed skins. The much heralded Indian jugaad, codified as our Sports Minister repeatedly stated, in the Punjabi wedding drama, came into play. The games and the participants, while they were on, won the city’s appreciation. The cost went to the tax payer and more damagingly to India’s image.
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<br />While Delhi went comatose in the last two months of the year, engulfed in a verbal fog of 2G, spectrum and tapes, one of the last caste outposts of the country fell and a politician swept to power on basis of a positive political perception. It will not eradicate caste from our political or social lives but Nitish Kumar’s victory will remind others that tangible development efforts have a longer shelf life than voting coalitions. Lalu Yadav discovered that this year. Mayawati and the Left seem set to discover it in the coming two. Nitish’s victory may also do the country one more benefit, if the BJP so chooses to encash it. It opens up a roadmap to victory for the wilting lotus, if only it decides to open its eyes. Gujarat and Bihar are indicative of the distance between India’s west and east and also of the political distance between the where our largest opposition party is and where it ought to be. </span>
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<br />In this sad and at times depressing year, one can be cynical and say the winner of the year was the Chief Minister of Karnataka – the only man who successfully managed to brave the corruption windstorm and keep his chair, if not his image and integrity. But a happier event towards the end of the year provides an escape from that gloomy conclusion to this post. The greatest Indian sportsman reached a landmark many of his contemporaries and those to come in the future will view as the Mount Everest of batting accomplishment. Sachin Tendulkar completed fifty test centuries, scored a one-day double hundred and at age thirty seven pulled a fair distance away from his current crop of challengers into a summit of his own. Like always, he stood out in contrast to the negativity around us. He bore the burden of showing the discipline, fortitude and dedication that many in our public circles chose to abjure. He bloomed when many expected him to gracefully wilt. He summoned reserves of energy when the competition began to tire. He explored no short cuts and summoned no privileges. He lived up to the one lesson every dedicated teacher and parent instills into their ward – there is no substitute for hard work and honesty. It is a lesson worth recalling this new year.</span>
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<br /></span>the lazy knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12776924873209244313noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13128398.post-24837289978418172432010-09-02T10:06:00.001+05:302010-09-02T10:08:06.502+05:30Conversation on a Round<p>So how does a nation, a community and a society react to uncertainty, scarcity and risk? Specially when the feeling of not having enough for everyone is something that it is not used to. A curious atmosphere prevails in the United States as I write this. The second summer of the great upheaval has unraveled and is about to end. Newspapers still carry pessimistic outlooks, report rising unemployment numbers and flattening economic activity. Economists hold their silence on what the near future holds, whether it is the upward climb of the V or the second drop of the W. Many commentators worry about the rising spending and many want more of it. Around the town in New Jersey where I stay, roads are being rebuilt or expanded, all under the aegis of the Obama Stimulus plan. It seems America worries. It has travelled a dark tunnel but is unsure whether to take the time spent walking as a sign of sufficient distance having been covered. It broods but does not want to show. It hopes but is not sure of the outcome.<br /></p><p>Individuals and societies seek refuge in the familiar when uncertainty strikes. One of the most striking comments made by Hank Paulson, the Treasury Secretary under George W. Bush at the onset of the economic carnage of 2008, was that unless the government stepped in decisively, the crises had the potential to permanently alter ‘ the way of life’ as many Americans knew it. ‘The way of life’ – so what is that way of life whose alteration every American perhaps fears deep down? We all have our stereotypes of burger grilling, SUV driving, holidaying, moderately (and sometimes devoutly if it is the South) religious suburban American. But is that the familiarity that the American craves? Or does he search for a feeling of reassurance that, left to the world and his ability, things will take care of themselves?<br /></p><p>On one of my rounds at a golf course close to my hotel, I meet Waldo. A middle aged American in his early 50s, Waldo is actually a Chilean, who spent all of his growing up years and some of his adult ones in his native country. At the risk of being slightly race and color conscious here, I would admit that on the ‘face’ of it, you would never imagine Waldo to be anything other than an American. So perfect are his features and his English. As we tee off and get more familiar with each other, a fascinating conversation commences. It begins with a trifle discussion over professional golfers keeping notes that they refer to when they play in the tournaments.<br /> </p><p>‘It’s a bit like Sarah Palin reading notes from her hand’, jokes Waldo. I respond with a light laugh, careful not to assume any political preferences, lest I am drawn into a right wing vs. leftist debate. ‘Did you see her speaking today in Washington?’ he enquires.<br /></p><p>Sarah Palin spoke last Sunday at a rally organized at the Lincoln Memorial, a rally titled ‘Restoring Honor’, that was essentially a Conservative platform to discuss and outline what is wrong with America and what it needs to do. Palin wasn’t the main speaker – a Fox News conservative host named Glenn Beck was and the rally attracted a host of people with a common underlying theme of piety and patriotism. Politics appeared thickly disguised and any criticisms of Obama and the Democrats appeared veiled. Waldo though was not convinced – ‘I saw her speaking, I saw the others too. They talk of religion, of Christianity, but it is almost as if they think that it is the path to everything. It is almost as if they want us all to go back to Christianity’. He stopped here as I sinked in a 5 feet putt. ‘They almost sounded xenophobic. It was not really like this before…’<br /></p><p>Waldo perhaps has reason to reminisce. His story, like many others, begins at an American University – Ohio to be specific, where he recounts the enormous diversity he saw and how it amazed and delighted him at the same time. He recounts the story of a roommate who was from Bolivia but had the facial appearance of a native Indian. That roommate did a Master in Physics and went on to work for the Pentagon, and went back home temporarily, only to be derided by his countrymen as his ‘clan’ was lower in the social hierarchy. ‘It is the land of opportunity’, Waldo concludes. ‘People still judge you by your accomplishments but we seem to be headed somewhere wrong.’ And what is that wrong?<br /></p><p>If there is one reality that the economic crisis has brought to the surface, it is that income disparities are far wider in America than many of us sitting in the developing world believe to be. The top 0.1% of the American population took away 6% of the total wages for 2007. The top 10% of the population accounted for almost half of the total wages. These are levels believed to have been last seen only in the years preceding the Great Depression. ‘We do not realize,’ says Waldo, as we make our way to the 7th tee, ‘but we are going the way of the developing countries – something we always wanted to avoid. The unemployed do not have jobs and are struggling, the rich are getting richer.’ Waldo incidentally is an indirect beneficiary of the much maligned US banks. His wife works in one of those. ‘We never had any difficulty in getting access to funds,’ he admits, but goes on to add honestly ‘there are people who struggle. And then we see all the executives who lost millions of dollars walking away with the bonuses’.<br /></p><p>One of the things Americans rarely do outside of their operating systems is ‘save’. The personal savings rate of the average household in the US slipped to as low as 1% in 2008 before recovering mildly on account of post recessions adjustments to 5% in 2009. Radio and television programming is filled with advertisements of agencies offering ‘debt reduction’ services. And these are not mortgage debts, but credit card debts. And the rider? The agency only wants you to contact them if your debt is over $10,000. Just to add some context, the per capita income of the United States is $46,000.<br /></p><p>Of course consumption is not bad per se and neither is the capitalist system, even if equitable distribution is not the greatest strength of the capitalist society. It still, compared to most other economic systems, rewards each accordingly to his/ her skill and ability. As we reach the green on the 7th, I tell Waldo about a term that was a favorite with my Economics teacher in school – Conspicuous Consumption. We have been quite familiar with it in India, with the socialist economy deriding the rich and the liberalized free economy now bemoaning it as a consequence of unleashed new wealth and that too not all legal.<br /></p><p>‘I heard Osama bin Laden speak after 9/11 on TV,’ says Waldo. ‘His message and method was incorrect but you can see the frustration the Arabs feel. They have all the easy oil money and the only way they know to spend it is the Western way. The way of consumption. They are enraged at why even with the resources, do they have to follow the western way of life. ‘<br /></p><p>‘Strangely,’ he summarizes, ‘it is a rage against money’.<br /></p><p>I share with Waldo the Indian middle class concept of trying to live within one’s means, of the importance of savings and piggy banks instilled in Indian kids by their parents and how we spent the first forty years post our independence deriding both consumption and money. Gandhi, I tell him, famously said in the context of Western civilization, that he would keep the windows of his open so that winds could blow in from all directions but he would ensure the foundations of the house are strong enough to prevent it from being blown away.<br /></p><p>‘He really made things difficult for you guys’, responds Waldo chuckling. We are now on the 8th fairway and I further learn that the golfer next to me was once an artist. ‘I realized over time,’ says Waldo ‘that I had spent many years of my life in fear. Fear of hell and post life. My paintings were an outlet, an expression of the fact that such fears should not exist. That our life is here. It is about what we decide to do with it here. A friend later told me that an Iranian man saw a painting of mine at a small exhibition I had and remarked that this was the message of his religion as well. I felt glad hearing that. At some level I felt I had managed to find a connect with someone from a completely different world and different culture.’<br /></p><p>As we reach the 8th green, the light goes dark. The sun has set and it is just about 8 in the evening. We would play the 9th hole in dwindling dusk.<br /></p><p>‘So I tell my kids,’ says Waldo, ‘that go out and see the world. Open your minds. Do not be xenophobic. You have nothing to fear. And the more you meet people and cultures, the more you would find similarities.’<br /></p><p>‘You know,’ he says as we walk towards the 9th green, ‘when I was growing up in Chile, we used to identify neighbors by their political affiliations. The corner house belonged to a communist, the next door one was social democrat and so on. Now we identify people by the cars they own.’<br />I tell him that Gandhi once wrote that a man should be known by the quality of his mind and not by the quantity of his possessions. Waldo nods in agreement. We both make par at the 9th, shake hands and walk towards the parking lot.<br /></p><p>‘Thank you, it was very interesting speaking to you. I hope I did not talk too much’, he signs off.<br />Our cars are incidentally parked alongside. He opens his boot, puts in his golf set and waves a final good night to me. As he does that, he points to his BMW SUV and says with a sarcastic laugh,<br /></p><p>‘Conspicuous Consumption’<br /></p><p>The next day I go to a golf store and buy a brand new set of golf irons for four hundred dollars. </p>the lazy knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12776924873209244313noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13128398.post-12079932284434674562010-07-13T01:24:00.011+05:302010-07-14T23:23:43.496+05:30Ladakh: Barren yet abundant<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Driving a few kilometers out of the town f</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">rom Leh on to the NH1 towards Srinagar, you are forced to ask yourself a question – how can barren, dry, vast stretches of mountains with not even a speck of grass on them look so beautiful? </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">That is a question that reverberates all through as you breathe, touch and feel Ladakh. The answer is not immediate; the beauty itself is not immediate. Yes, there is snow (slightly unusual for this time of the year) on top of many peaks, but it is not so much the snow as the empty tracts of mountain land that ap</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">peal to the eye. They stand, always at a distance of a long sloping ridge and gradually exercise their pull. It i</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">s only after a few moments that you realize you are seeing a natural marvel. That barren dry lands can be as beautiful as the bountiful green ones. The peaks of Ladakh stand silent and in isolation, but</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> are a pleasing sight for eyes that have grown accustomed to watch</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">ing real estate jungles and ghastly u</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">nbridled construction on the denuded slopes of Indi</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">a’s other famous hill stations. In Ladakh, you almost wish that you would s</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">ee nothing, that at every turn you would be greeted by even more emptiness. In Ladakh, you will alway</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">s feel a sense of space.</span></span></div> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmPRS9KqFRSn7lzi5ZrW32_8_7SdjBy9w48oTgs4m5u8-rwWuAfGwjvqGnPZ5wanuW4I50OXejKOk9wtZr3lZhCqYMdggfuMRyMmIb4-nr8bkwJlXMrOPsT10cwtD04n_I4j9fSA/s320/Picture+364.jpg" style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5493114604182003778" /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I arrive in Leh escaping the blasting heat of Delhi on the 10</span></span><sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">th</span></span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> of June (yes, this blog was a little late in coming). For those of you not adventurous enough to drive all the way from Manali to Leh, the only alternative left to reach here is through a flight. A word of advice on that – get your tickets booked at least a month in advance or be prepared to</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> pay through your nose like me. For some strange reason, only three airlines (IA, Jet and Kingfisher) fly to Leh which leads to rates being driven up artificially. And although the lady at the check in counter a</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">t Delhi airport told me that the flight was ‘overbooked’ (what the devil is that supposed to mea</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">n? Is it a blueline bus that it is overfull?? ), I have heard from others who have tra</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">velled that often flights do carry empty seats. Thankfully, the same scarcity does not extend to lodging in Leh which has a multitude of hotels belonging to different categories. The rate for each category is fixed a</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">nd that provides the assurance that you are not being ripped off with a bad deal. A more advisable th</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">ing may be to book a customized travel package that takes away the headache of finding a hotel and tryi</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">ng to arrange a transport. In many ways, Leh is a delightful break from other Indian tourism sectors. It provides mental relaxation from the dreadful activities of haggling for taxi and lodging rates. The Leh taxi union supplies cabs to all hotels with fixed rates and reasonably good drivers. B</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">ooking an entire package that has an itinerary for each day can save you the headache of arranging transport f</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">or each day. Either way, you can be assured that you won’t be ripped off.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">It is unusually wet for this time of the year for Ladakh. My driver, Zakir, who drove me around for the entire duration of my 6 day stay, tells me that it hardly used to rain in the summer months. In Ladakh, the only precipitation is snow. Rains are unknown</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> in this dry desert. The only greenery that you will see shall exist in the periphery of the rivers – Indus on one side and Zanskar on the other. The habitation and agriculture is also centered around these water source</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">s. The only two things that exist anywhere away from the water sources are Buddhist monasteri</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">es and army cantonments.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">It is difficult to miss the influence </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">of either. Ladakh had a largely Tibetan population in history which was Buddhist to begin with but has now starting converting towards Islam. I was a little surprised to see two mosques bang in the middle of Leh’s central market. A substantial portion of the population is still Buddhist and the influence of its cult</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">ure over the last many centuries in visible in the multitude of monasteries built on hilltops dotted in Leh’s periphery. A Japanese monk in fact was so moved by the town’s beauty that he got a Shanti Stupa built on a small rising just at the edge of Leh. Today, the balcony of the stupa provides a complete view of the town and the mountains beyond. Most of the Buddhist monasteries were built in the medieval centuries which is a remarkable effort given the fact that the region remains b</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">uried under snow for almost 3-4 months of the year making any kind of physical labor near to impossible. In a sense, La</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">dakh is a pilgrimage site for th</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">e devout Buddhist with its multitude of monasteries dotted all around. This is confirmed by an old American rabbi, whom I bump into at </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">the market on the second day of my trip. The rabbi and his wife are on a Buddhist expedition, seeking to explore the various sites in the region. We chat up a bit and he is kind enough to let me explore his I-pad. He is exploring religion and I technology.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaj_lg3qajH_jPCXTuPJeCDU0oUPvT699Zybf6ftOVA1AejrrDkRNJ5uKTeOtfireiOgmEGBo49oEaU6g0hnRVIdIbk-sS7XHvLctfGSBt3ub6i6nb5fQgKfWxdC9xiT8r0ZcRQQ/s320/Picture+167.jpg" style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5493115191740633954" /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The unseasonable rainfall means that the upper reaches have received snow and as we drive towards Pangong Lake on the fifth day of our trip, we start seeing patches of snow on the hills just outside of Leh. Pangong is a 13 mile long fresh water lake with a third of its area located in China. The five hour drive to the lake from Leh is long and tiring and requires one to cross the Chagla Pass, which the Border Roads Organization (BRO) claims is the third highest in the world. As we cross, the pass is covered with about a foot of snow. A BRO truck with migrant laborers from Bihar and Jharkhand has had a rear wheel stuck i</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">n the snow and the entir</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">e traffic gets held up for half an hour. The migrants, unsuitably clad for snowy and conditions, are asked to jump off the back of the truck to give it a push. Many of them dive straight into the snow lying on the side of the road. There is much consternation among them and amusement among the</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> tourists watching it all happen.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic_PFnuZZExfZbif-LulBwzsdXy7TiHUvZcvA_lI-cxphQbmaESsvn6JQfWwgJ6C6PnyJ09zB0c8wodpDggE_1eQZHSrrEaJO9sQyvL1GOVeo9vOPe35IdOj0_-sCQEV-mMpX6cQ/s320/Picture+443.jpg" style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5493115647761328370" /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">It is a partly cloudy afternoon as we finally reach Pangong, which means that the color of the water oscillates between green and blue. The lake is a bit of a pit stop where you can either stay for an hour, frolic a bit in the cold waters and then head back or you can choose to spend a night in the lakeside camps (consisting of Swiss tents mainly). The only source of refreshment is a small stove lighted by a ladakhi under one of those Swiss tents where you can heat yourself up with some tea or coffee or even sample some Maggi. You would be advised to carry your food when driving along Ladakh; like the topography the stomachs can get pretty barren as one swings up and down the mountains.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH3X8Q3tfa5wJWIY0KYbDCRBkevibdWhIZmoU_pSvczBOAoKu-NlZ-3DjubNNd8Kh2nj0CnBU0ilbBl-RUQ9z1msn1M-zal3gy_bEzwe2N0q4e2Ps-I6JX88CKQa-jPotJ6pcXZw/s320/Picture+579.jpg" style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5493116112937798642" /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The Army is essentially the lifeline of the area and unlike the Kashmir valley, olive green is not a hated color here. Many of the locals in fact derive their incomes by plying jobs for the army during the harsh winter months when no one else sets foot in the area. My driver is one of those – he drives officers around the many cantonments in the area during winter and thus avoids having to move out from Leh to lower altitudes, something that I heard many inhabitants are forced to do. The Army also controls the airfield, which is operated by the Air Force and </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">is the one transportation route that connects Ladakh to the rest of the country during all seasons. At many places, the olive greens are also traffic managers, Khardungla Pass being an example. Khardungla is claimed by the BRO to be the highest motorable pass in the world at about 18000 feet. Like Changla, Khardungla too was under snow as we approached it. The pass lies on the road that leads towards the ecologically beautiful Nubra Valley (a famous tourist stop) and the world (in)famous Siachen glacier. The narrow road passing through Khardungla can experience quite a traffic jam, as we witness on our drive, with half the vehicles driving through towards Nubra and half wanting to turn around and go back to Leh. It is the jawans managing Khardungla that co-ordinate the traffic, somehow able to halt the returning vehicles and letting the passing ones through. Since we are returning back to Leh, that gives us about an hour at the pass which I use to feed myself (Maggi) and try and climb through the snow to the board that proclaims Khardungla’s feat of being the </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">highest motorable road.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBtyA6qVKnUo1wFg2n8mX81IxsPmRrqgA_lSQiekgs3i7rqvrfT_Q-6QGAmbT4v1qSETER8sKD7lPhaBIueNP5epL3uwr2MBNNqCyhwMLvsS11IfxXpH_Tv27VMKKRfHU1jqZEgQ/s320/Picture+698.jpg" style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5493116511658294482" /></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The next day I am back at the airport for my overpriced return flight back to Delhi. Because you are flying out of a security sensitive zone, you are required to personally identify your baggage before it gets loaded on the aircraft. I would think that it would be more prudent to do this exercise also for those who land into the area, but no such thing happens on the flights into Leh. Despite the table top runway apprehensions (and Ladakh is a short runway, not really a ‘table top’) the flight takes off smoothly and lands in just under an hour in Delhi, which greets us with 40C hot air. By the time I am home after a ride in a rickety prepaid airport cab, the coolness of Ladakh has worn off. The air conditioner has been switched on. Somehow I don’t crave the cold of Ladakh after being back home, I just crave the emptiness. </span></span></p>the lazy knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12776924873209244313noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13128398.post-42581118741113217452010-04-16T19:17:00.006+05:302010-04-16T19:23:42.445+05:30Tweet a Whistle<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Are you as mystified and puzzled by this entire Shashi Tharoor – Lalit Modi drama playing out on the TV screens as me? It is now into its fifth day and the matter has assumed such proportions that shoving aside the Women’s Reservation Bill, the Union Budget, Price Rise and the Dantewada massacre, the Opposition has deemed it fit to adjourn parliamentary proceedings over. The controversy ridden Mr.Tharoor found the Lok Sabha quite unlike Twitter where he holds forth without any interference from any pesky followers (you have to be Chetan Bhagat to perhaps have pesky followers on twitter). He was shouted and hounded and now it seems nothing short of his blood or the Prime Minister’s appearance will bring our legislature back to normalcy. Lalit Modi on the other hand has been displaced from his comfortable seating at Koel Poorie’s garish feathery red couch into the slightly uncomfortable embrace of Income Tax officials who, in a sudden awakening of Rip Van Winklesque proportions, have unearthed that there might be some hanky-panky with the way a lot of our IPL franchisees are owned. </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">So why if I may ask are we subjected to such craziness just the week after Sania and Shoaib? To me this is a classic case of ‘blow the horn and ask for details’ later. The last few days all I have seen in both the newspapers and the TV stations are loud tickers, headlines and </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">allegations</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> (That’s how the Times of India writes the word, italicized – it emphasizes that at the end of the day all they publish in their broadsheet are just allegations). Disappointingly, even the Indian Express, that beacon of investigative and uncomfortable journalism, has only been half heartedly reproducing the same text and claims and counter claims. As always, TV news anchors, specially those who wear indignation and self-righteousness on their face every night at 9pm have been quick to take sides and loudly proclaim conflict of interest and impropriety.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">So all we know is that Kochi won the bid, Modi says that Sunanda Pushkar and others own ‘free equity’ in the franchise, the media takes over and says that Sunanda was the one we photographed Tharoor going around with and as per our grapevine the two are close ‘personal’ friends, Modi says Tharoor asked not to question the ownership, media says that means the Minister used a woman for proxy and benefited from the franchise win and that all that talk of mentoring the franchise for Kerela was a hogwash, Tharoor denies, IPL Kochi denies, Rs 75 crs are calculated and the opposition wants a CBI enquiry. In between all this, the BCCI, completely caught unawares by a storm rapidly engulfing them, censure Modi on Day 1 and then in their own time tested way start dealing with the affair completely non-transparently and off the record. The self righteous news anchor says Tharoor cant hide behind self-righteousness (a bit rich coming from him, don’t you think?), another anchor says the Minister should have known that getting involved in the bid would expose him to such questions and so we all await the next act of the drama.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Much like the Times of India, all I hear are allegations and insinuations along with calls for the Minister to resign. So let’s take it step by step. Tharoor encouraged the Kochi franchise we all know, he himself admitted as much on the day of the bid. The franchise has given what they call ‘Sweat Equity’ (and I must admit it is time that journos open up Google and read up what </span><a href="http://sify.com/services/legal/fullstory.php?id=13401287"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Sweat equity</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> means), not just to Pushkar but to a host of other individuals along with Rendezvous Sports themselves in consideration of management and other services. We also know that Tharoor knows the lady in question, they have been publically seen and he has never sought to deny his close personal ties. These are all the facts that we know. The rest are the allegations, which if we talk only of Tharoor, boil down to this. The Minister used his influence, either as an MP or as a member of the Union Government, to influence the sale of the franchise to Kochi and in lieu of the same, the franchise allotted ‘free equity’ to his proxy which, given the value of the bid made by the franchise comes to a cool Rs 75 crs. So let’s take the debatable questions here – </span></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">a)</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> a) </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Can a franchisee offer free or sweat equity to its owners/ members? Yes, as per law they are legally permitted to do so. In fact the ESOPs offered by the companies to their many employees are also an indirect form of sweat equity where labour is rewarded with ownership.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">b)</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> b) </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Should franchise ownership have been declared openly by Modi? Yes, because it is in everyone’s interests to know who owns and has a pie in the IPL but also No, if Modi as an IPL governing council member was bound to confidentiality by the franchise agreement.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">c)</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> c) </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Is Sunanda Pushkar a proxy for Tharoor? Maybe or maybe not. There is no definite answer to this question because it is a matter of perception. Had she been a Rabri Devi to a Laloo Yadav, the answer would have been an unequivocal yes. But if the lady has a professional background that can be proven (which is itself subject to unclear answers), then the yes get a bit diluted. Make up your mind on that. The only doubt I have, is if Tharoor was so clever as to outwit Modi and get Kochi a franchise over all others, then why would he be stupid enough to get his consideration allotted to a woman who could so easily have been discovered by the media and others? I can agree that he is politically naïve, but is he so plain dumb?</span></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">d)</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> d) </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">key question</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> though is – Did Tharoor subvert a fair bidding process and get Kochi a deal over other deserving winners? And this I believe is the crux of the argument. All other allegations of consideration, sweat equity, influence peddling and seeking to keep the details under wraps stem from this one basic point. Did the Minister in any way use his office or rank to bulldoze the BCCI to allot his people a franchise over the Adanis and Videocon? The answer may lie in the silence that surrounds this question. Modi, for all his noise and claims, has not even once brought this up. Surprisingly, the media has not asked this as well, choosing to focus on Sunanda Pushkar and the Rs 75 crs. It is easy to understand the silence though isn’t it? The moment Modi says that the bidding was subverted, the entire structure of the IPL comes crashing down on both his and BCCI’s head. For what that means then is that the IPL Commissioner and the game’s governing body allowed ‘auction fixing’ instead of raising a noise or postponing it all together. (They did postpone it earlier though when the BCCI believed that Modi had set too strong a set of conditions to allow fair bidding for the new franchises, and perhaps therein lies the answer to this story). You can see why Modi will never say this and why the BCCI will always maintain that the auction was an honest affair. Circumstantially then it is evident that the allegation of influencing and subverting a ‘sealed bid’ auction, certified as fair and proclaimed as a success by both Modi and BCCI, being guided and fixed by the junior Minister for Foreign Affairs is a bit thin as of now.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.25in"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The only charge which then holds is that of someone holding consideration on his behalf. If the auction was not subverted, and if Sunanda is indeed a marketing dodo in her own capacity (would the media have raised this question if she was not a half attractive woman who was purportedly ‘seeing’ a publically visible Minister?), then what pray is the consideration for? Blessings? </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.25in"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Mentorship? Perhaps future insurance for government benefits? But then should it not have been given to someone in the state government from whom all the clearances and ‘benefits’ will be required? Can you think of an answer to this question? </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.25in"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The other charge that remains is of being associated with supposedly ‘fishy’ people and exposing oneself to conflict of interest. Since when have we started pillorying any Indian public face for being connected with people perceived to be ‘fishy’? Or have we ever questioned any politician for the conflict of interest that arises that when they get into sport bodies? Last I saw, all of them were going along fine. Media anchors and owners have conflicts of interests, giving prime time slots to their blood relatives – we never question them or bring them down. </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.25in"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Of course I could be wrong and Tharoor could be as neck deep in muck as Harshad Mehta, but I wonder why our newspapers and news channels don’t get away from ‘allegation’ reporting to perceptive and analytical reporting. </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.25in"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">As for Lalit Modi, he clearly has bitten much more than he can chew and is now living on borrowed time. The one entity you do not want to confront head on is the Indian government and this is Modi’s second attempt at that after his run in with the Home Minister over the holding of IPL II in an election bound India last year. I have a suspicion that the script has not played out entirely the way Modi wanted it to and that he did not anticipate that his own neck and finances would end up on the chopping block before Tharoor’s. I also wonder whether many in the BCCI will finally see this as a chance to ease him out of the IPL or atleast cut him to size. </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.25in"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Congress may be embarrassed, Tharoor maybe nervous, the Opposition belligerent but the only entity that has been harmed by this entire Modi triggered affair is the IPL. Questions will be asked and comparisons drawn with the </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Stanford"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Stanford sleaze</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. The tournament is estimated to contribute almost </span><a href="http://www.livemint.com/2010/01/21234139/BCCI-set-to-earn-record-Rs200.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">40% of the revenues to the BCCI</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> in the current year. No one wants a golden goose to be strangled, least of all some of India’s leading politicians who sit in the IPL governing council. Tharoor may survive if Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi can summon the patience, Modi it seems is a whistle blowing liability the BCCI can ill afford.</span></span></p>the lazy knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12776924873209244313noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13128398.post-54996558815999047742010-04-02T18:34:00.009+05:302010-04-02T19:22:56.183+05:30This and that...and tit for tat<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Unlike a lot of other posts that you have read on this blog, this one is going to lack a theme. These are just ramblings. I have been meaning to write but events have been out pacing me and the sudden heat that has come over North India a little too early has sapped my stamina and patience a bit. So have the mosquitoes. Summer comes and I turn into an anopheles swatter. For the first time in many seasons I did not even have the energy to stay up late and watch Barcelona and Bayern Munich play in the Champions League. </span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">What keeps me going though is Lalit Modi's circus. The 8pm daily dose of bat hitting the ball is not exactly just and pure cricket but it is entertaining none the less. And I am a sucker for it. This season I am specially hooked. Because it allows me to watch Tendulkar in action for a few more weeks. I have been watching him since he hit <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Z9KzQEpMZ0">those sixes</a> of Abdul Qadir in 1989 and this frankly has been his best year - perhaps even better than <a href="http://stats.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/player/35320.html?class=2;season=1998/99;template=results;type=batting">1998</a>. Another player whom I sit in front of my television to watch is Anil Kumble, who ironically is India's best T20 bowler at the moment, at a ripe age of 39. Besides Kumble and Tendulkar, giving the timeline and conventional T20 logic a bit of a spin is Jacques Kallis, who seems set to keep that hideous looking orange cap on his head for the remainder of the tournament. And while T20 is compulsorily required to be all about sixes, fours and batsmen carting the bowlers around, I have taken a few sighs of satisfaction at how decent totals like 160 and 180 have been competitive, at how the slowness of the Indian tracks is causing the likes of Gilchrist, Symonds and other hitters to struggle, at how, once again, a lot of young Indian players (Saurabh Tiwary, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Umesh Yadav, Rajgopal Satish) are making their presence felt and emphasizing the fact that a team in the IPL is as much about the 7 Indian players who take the field as it is about the 4 overseas ones whom the owners have splashed cash to purchase in the high stakes auction. You only have to be supporting the Deccan Chargers to realize the importance of that last point. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">But I also have my irritants about the IPL - and you shall notice almost none of them relate to cricket. Why do we need advertisements between deliveries in an over is beyond me. The only time I look forward to them is when Sivaramakrishnan has mike close to his mouth. Also, I have realized that the mute button on my TV remote has a perfect positive co-relation with the appearance of Navjot Sidhu on the screen. This time around he has a new mate in Boria Majumdar at Times Now, who after a losing his patience and opportunity to speak in the first few episodes has now decided to keep rattling along just as Sidhu does. The end result is that there is more pandemonium in that show than even in zero hour of Parliament. But of course, Sidhu would not know about that. His was one of the lowest attendances in the previous Lok Sabha. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">What I also fail to understand is the complete loss of proportion when it comes to describing the action on the screen. Either the commentators have written contractual obligations that say that every wicket is a moment of success, every six has to be described as a DLF Maximum and every catch is of 'Kamaal' or they have simply forgotten how to use adjectives. I wonder what the case really is since I have noticed both Harsha Bhogle and the slyly sarcastic Ian Bishop refraining from gratifying Lalit Modi's principal sponsors too frequently. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The only silver lining with respect to the IPL coverage is CNN-IBN's late night show with Cyrus and his silly jokes and Harsha Bhogle with his matter of fact analysis that escapes most of his colleagues in the commentary box. The others either shout and scream ala Messrs Sidhu and Bor(e)ia or just seem disinterested (NDTV, with their 'expert' Ajay Jadeja going on a holiday in the second half of the tournament). </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Other than that, the last few days have been about the highly relevant national icons Mr.Amitabh Bachchan and soon to be the second Mrs.Shoaib Malik. Now as far as Mr.Bachchan is concerned, I can understand his anger. Even I would be irritated if despite all the acting achievements, advertisements and other performance, people deliberately fail to recognize me and get themselves photographed with me. Mr.Bachchan is a free citizen and he has every right to endorse every brand that he likes, whether it is Mulayam Singh Yadav's (and earlier Amar Singh's too) Samajwadi Party or BJP's Narendra Modi - Ok, let me rephrase that - whether it is Uttar Pradesh's development under a benevolent sarkar (UP mein hain dum, crime yahaan hain kum!) or Gujarat's vibrant tourism. The Congress should mind its own business and let the Bachchans alone! What sacrilege to even ignore and question such a national icon!</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">As for Shoaib and his new wife, I am too bored to write anything. I have never been a fan of both of them, have never admired either their looks or their sporting performances. My only reaction when I heard of this union - rotf...lmao...</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">tepid aint it....i told you its the summer...it does that to me...</span></span></div>the lazy knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12776924873209244313noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13128398.post-88494819777593115012010-02-25T16:32:00.001+05:302010-02-25T16:37:37.896+05:30Sweet Revenge<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">One screaming hot afternoon in Chandigarh, I settled down in front of my grandfather’s eight year old, curve screened Salora television set to watch a game of cricket. The date was the 21st of May and I had reached the city to spend the summer vacations after celebrating my birthday on the 19</span></span><sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">th</span></span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">. The spirits, you can guess, were high. I was in the room to the back of the house, occupied by a cousin sister who worked with a local newspaper and who every summer would be kind enough to share it with me as I spent the days bouncing around Sectors 46, 47 and 33 of Chandigarh with a set of three cousin brothers. My sister’s room was the boiling pot of the house – even the kitchen with all the cooking, burning and frying happening in it, struggled to match the temperatures and heat that could be reached there as it was serenaded by the sun post noon since it faced west. This natural anomaly was compounded by the fact that the only mechanism to control the heat was a cooler which for some quirky reason that my grandfather struggled all his life post retirement to discover, would blow cold air only from one half of its screen while spouting the atmospheric hot one from the rest. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">At half past three, a delayed start to compensate for the equally blazing hot weather in Chennai, the game was all set to begin. My grandfather and I, bathed in sweat and shirts off, considered the Indian prospects while my grandmother slept comfortably in a much cooler room in the front of the house that was far away from any rays of the sun. This was 1997, India was playing Pakistan in the Independence Cup (there was a slew of them in 97 and 98 with all the four cricketing nations of the sub-continent celebrating half a century of good riddance from the British and in case of the Bangladeshis, from the Pakistanis) and this was the big ticket clash. Both teams had a win and loss under their belt by then. Sri Lanka had already qualified for the final and this was the last league game and a virtual semi. The expectation was high, even though those were the days of the disappointing 90s when victories over Pakistan had been scarce. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">In the second over of the match, came perhaps the only moment of joy of the entire evening for the Indian fan. Shahid ‘Ball Chewer’ Afridi, skied a catch that was comfortably held by Ganguly at mid-off. The danger man was gone and there was a feeling of anticipation and relief. The next few hours belied all. The languid and fluid Saeed Anwar, still in his clean shaven avataar, played havoc with the bowling. Subject to an attack that comprised of the laboring medium pace of Kuruvilla, slow predictable left arm spin of Sunil Joshi and the fizzing leg breaks of Kumble, Anwar embarked on a feast. There were the side dishes as well such as eighteen overs of part time medium pace dished out by Tendulkar and Robin Singh. And of course, the icing on the cake was the lanky seamer from Karnatka who over the course of his career helped many an international left-handed batsman such as Jayasuriya, Anwar and even Curtly Ambrose to improve their career averages – Venky Prasad. Anwar reached a quick fifty and then fell down with cramps in the 18</span></span><sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">th</span></span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> over, post which Afridi came back to run for him. He reached a 100, conserved energy and drank fluids, had three big partnerships and hurt Indian egos no end. Despite all the bonhomie and friendship during those IK Gujral days of 1997, this was nothing but a plain and simple humiliation. Anwar overtook Viv Richards’ record of the highest individual one day score and a prospect of India letting a Pakistani batsman hit 200 against them in a one-day game looked very real. Six shy of that, Anwar looped a soft catch to Ganguly again at short fine leg. I was 14, had watched a lot of cricket by then, but was still fiercely parochial and patriotic and took pleasure out of Anwar being denied a double. What happened in the rest of the game was immaterial. Dravid hit a valiant hundred, was denied a runner by Pakistan who very quickly forgot how Anwar had made his runs and India fell short by 35 and were booted out of their own Independence party.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Which is why, sadistically, yesterday’s knock of Sachin Tendulkar’s is a such a big jewel for any Indian fan to flaunt. Pakistan are no longer the team of the 90s, India has far more match winners in their team than the bare looking team of 97 and cricket has come a long way in the last 12 years. But still, if there was one person whom you wished/ fantasized/ prayed for overtaking Anwar, it was Tendulkar. Tendulkar, who did it batting a full fifty overs, at a better strike rate, without a runner and still came back to field in the second innings! You may call me a meano or a jingoist, but for a young fan who sat through each and every shot of that Anwar inning, this was revenge as sweet, sadistic and cynical as it comes.</span></span><o:p></o:p></span></p>the lazy knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12776924873209244313noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13128398.post-46831940425832007382010-01-26T20:29:00.003+05:302010-01-26T20:33:51.600+05:30The last twenty<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqT7rapcaq6hbzhJMT7EBqJKySUT6CV9a_l-lLIU5tRtqyTtu3ez5_bOfxLAO73d0RlLSgZwvpvuxh1-qY6LhRW0PqKadgZ3RSUulXedDUvh7C1VHkIWOr4GGtJM1mAjcilDs_8Q/s1600-h/republic-day.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqT7rapcaq6hbzhJMT7EBqJKySUT6CV9a_l-lLIU5tRtqyTtu3ez5_bOfxLAO73d0RlLSgZwvpvuxh1-qY6LhRW0PqKadgZ3RSUulXedDUvh7C1VHkIWOr4GGtJM1mAjcilDs_8Q/s320/republic-day.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431063575153795010" /></a><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I began my Republic Day by watching the new Mile Sur video on a news channel. Aptly titled ‘<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nq31OjsQ124">Phir Mile Sur</a>’, it’s the same composition with the old underlying tune but suitably modified to reflect new trends in Indian music (multiplicity of instruments and fusion being prominent) as well the new faces on our Hindi movie scene. The makers could perhaps have attempted to reduce the Bollywood flavor of the video and introduced a more nuanced regional perspective (but certainly not S.Sreesanth, as one friend demanded on Facebook after seeing the video earlier on YouTube!). ‘Phir Mile Sur’, despite some tackiness quotient, is a decent reflection of how much India has changed over the last two decades. When the original was released, the year was 1989-90 and the nation was in a vortex of internal instability. A coalition government had just taken oath in New Delhi after the grand fall of Rajiv Gandhi’s super majority. Kashmir was beginning to simmer and Punjab had been festering for almost a decade. Then there were the recurring disputes of the Northeast and on top of all this was the Mandal genie released by VP Singh in the autumn of 1990 leading to self-immolations, massive protests and civil unrest in Delhi (I remember my school being closed for a few days when the situation had gotten seriously tense). For someone who would sit alongside his father and watch the state drafted news bulletin every night on gloomy Doordarshan, the words ‘Khalistan’, ‘Militancy’, ‘Encounter’, ‘Unity and Integrity’ (a favorite of the Prime Ministers of those days), ‘Tarn Taran’ (Punjab’s most violent district) and ‘Curfew’ very quickly became a part of the lexicon. And I did not even have to run to a dictionary to understand what they meant. The context of those days provided all the meaning. In the backdrop of all this and the economic uncertainty that followed a year later along with Rajiv Gandhi’s bloody assassination, India needed a ‘Mile Sur’ to make some attempt, howsoever feeble, to remind us of the clichéd ‘Unity in Diversity’ model of our political sustenance. </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Two decades later, the uncertainties have changed with one critical difference. Most of them are external and not internal. The language of ‘Unity and Integrity’ has now been replaced by that of ‘Development and Growth’. The old distant terrorism that urban India knew of only through DD’s daily news is now a phenomenon that we have recognized as a daily classless danger to be lived with and confronted. Our internal contradictions of the 80s, like old skin, have been shed and our new fault lines will be a friction of ideas centering on how growing aspirations in a rising economy should be catered. Separate smaller states will be demanded, not only because they promise a symbol of identity, but because they hold the promise of overturning the economic neglect and offer opportunities for ‘sharing of riches’. The gun toting Naxal may be wiped out but discontent in rural India will not be unless we achieve a greater allocation of benefits and decide on how best to acquire land equitably. In that sense, perhaps India still needs a ‘Phir Mile Sur’ not to remind us that we share one political legacy of unity but perhaps to hold out the assertion that as the efforts of that legacy begin to bear economic fruit in the coming decades, we all are entitled to our legitimate slices of the pie. </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">So how much have we really changed in the two decades after that depressing autumn of 1990? I was recently watching a YouTube clip containing highlights of the games from the Hero Cup held in the winter of 1993. It’s an event cricket historians seem to have forgotten. It still remains the last time India won a five team one-day international tournament. It was also the first time that the BCCI sold television rights to a satellite TV channel (Star) instead of Doordarshan leading to litigation at one end and cricket’s TV boom at the other. On the clip I saw, the boundary hoardings consisted of the following prominent brands – Hero Puch, Modiluft, Peerless, Directors Special, Vimal, Kelvinator, Coramandel Cement, Yamaha and Pennzoil. That covers a decent number of sectors of the industry in terms of representation. Notice the one that it doesn’t – Telecom; because telecom would only be deregulated towards the end of the 90s and would go on to change lives in a remarkably similar way as the diminutive little Maruti 800 did. Notice another omission –no cola companies in the above list. While Pepsi came back into the Indian market around 1990, Coke wouldn’t come till 1993-94 and the real advertising war between the two giants for the large Indian middle class purse would begin only mid-90s onwards with star power being recruited and campaigns often turning nasty. </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The cricket example above though, is only symbolic. Just as telecom is virtually a separate sector of the economy today in terms of the sheer impact it has on lives, the economic reforms of 1991 have perhaps singly overtaken any other event in defining the India of the last two decades. The reforms opened opportunities, mostly in the urban centers, brought global brands to India, gave a fillip to the economy and enlarged our wallets. Larger wallets in turn meant that the world started looking at us as a mass of people with an economic aspiration to spend and a social aspiration to climb. It is no wonder that every significant consumer as well enterprise product and service company is present in India today enamored by a market that promises top line growth of double digits which is no longer possible in a saturated market back home in the US or Europe. Good or bad, the one basic outcome of the reforms was that money was no longer a bad word. Consumption was suddenly an aspiration and not a moral sin. The political empowerment of India with the coming out of multiple political parties in the 1990s would be accompanied by an economic empowerment that would in some way, though perhaps not entirely and effectively, permeate every section of society. We only have to look at ourselves to realize the extent of the shift. </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">In 1991, my father’s office still had round dial telephones and there was no aspiration in my family to own a similar one at home. My father drove a white Premier Padmini (Fiat as we knew it then) that perhaps had the most awkward gearbox ever seen in a car on Indian roads. Computers and software were something you didn’t even read about in the newspapers let alone see one in your school or own one at home. TV still meant Doordarshan which would close its telecast between 11am to 2pm and 3.30pm to 7pm every day unless there was a cricket match on. Vacations anywhere in excess of 500kms meant budgeting a total of 4 days for to and fro travel by train. There were no brands of denim jeans. The only shoes you could wear were Bata, Liberty or Action. The only toothpaste you would use was a Colgate and the only soap you would use was a Hamam. The only fast food outlet in Delhi was Nirulas, the only rum my grandfather could drink was the army canteen issued Old Monk (a favorite passed on through generations) and the only decent whiskey available to him was Red Knight made by Mohan Meakin in Solan. Need I say more!</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I sometimes wonder if we ourselves have grasped the impact of the last two decades. Time is never a constant and every decade or so, some nostalgic blogger like me would reflect on the years gone by and how life has changed. Every generation feels it has passed through the most impactful change. As children of the economic liberalization of this country, my generation can at least claim to have witnessed the transition first hand. How impactful it would turn to out to be for the longer destiny of India is something that as always, history and posterity can dwell upon at leisure. </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">P.S. – The Indian Express this morning carried a <a href="http://epaper.indianexpress.com/IE/IEH/2010/01/26/index.shtml">beautiful five page feature</a> on landmark judicial cases and the personalities behind them that influenced both the working and the interpretation of the Indian Constitution. Stretching across the 60 years of the document’s existence, it highlighted the men and women, jurists and lawyers who sought to enforce the tenets of our governing document in our day to day lives. Express began the series with a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kesavananda_Bharati_v._State_of_Kerala">case</a> that it called the most important ever in the history of Indian constitutional law. In early 1973, a 13 member bench of the Supreme Court (the largest ever gathering of justices summoned to debate a judicial matter in the country’s history till date) decided by a wafer thin majority of 7-6 against the State and in favor of a temple priest. The judgment was historic in that it placed the Constitution above the Parliament and entailed that there was a certain ‘basic structure’ of the Constitution that Parliament could not alter even with an amendment. This basic structure included among other things the fundamental rights of life, liberty and equality. In the coming three decades, the Courts would use this principle to drive the primacy of fundamental rights (most recently in the Sec 377 case last year where the right to equality was sighted) and uphold the rights of the ordinary citizen against the high-handedness of the executive. That single judgment made the difference between the Indian Constitution being a living, thriving document impacting the lives of its citizens or being a set of rules of a banana diplomacy that a despotic government could change at will and a compliant judiciary would endlessly blink over. </span></span></p></div>the lazy knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12776924873209244313noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13128398.post-87385936473261292009-12-27T00:07:00.007+05:302009-12-27T06:47:05.964+05:30Nothing Idiotic about this<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">A couple of decades later, well after he might have hung his boots, Raju Hirani’s filmography could well be defined by cinema historians in a single phrase – Movies with a heart. His two Munnabhai ventures and the latest ‘idiotic’ expression (you could very easily call it Munnabhai 3 for that matter) are less about love, friendship and relationships and more about listening and following that instinctive beat on the left side of your ribcage. I must admit I was a bit of a skeptic when I saw the first Munnabhai movie. I sensed that Hirani hit the right issues but showed too mushy and melodramatic a way out. I guess it was just a bit of my realistic cynicism that initially rejected the ‘</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">jadoo ki jhappi</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">’. I saw Munnabhai MBBS thrice before turning around partially. By the time I saw Raju Hirani’s take on Gandhigiri (going to the movie alone with the parents away on a break from me) I was a convert. Through the movie, I was amazed at the refreshing take that Hirani brought on Gandhi, an individual I greatly admired but cynically (again) believed had moved too far away in history for India to reclaim him on anything other than currency notes. With his third flick, Hirani touches upon a topic that has been covered briefly before – Bollywood’s angst ridden unemployed hero of the 80s finding no use for his graduation degree, Munnabhai himself deriding medical education that treated real patients as lab guinea pigs and Aamir Khan’s own recent directorial debut that focused on the mad desire of the parents of school going kids to see them topping their classes. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">3 Idiots goes a bit further and takes on the foundations on which our higher education and dare I say much of our endeavors post that rest. Before I make another critical comment on the same a disclaimer may be in order. I am very much myself a part of that system. I have been through my share of Board exam criticality talks, my mother taking a break from work during the exams themselves to ensure my three meals a day and remaining nutrition wasn’t affected during the lead up to the papers, my father silently enquiring about my preparations and then my evaluation of the performance during both the Boards and my CA exams. I have run around coaching institutes during my CA days, borrowed and copied notes, learned a lot of mumbo-jumbo by rote (forgotten almost all of it by now) and primed myself by pasting a planner with exam days and key preparation milestones on my room wall next to the study table. I might not agree with what our manner of learning produces but I must be fair enough to attribute my current position (whether good or bad) to it. </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I was reminded of the same during a conversation with a couple of colleagues and my boss on a wet summer night in New Jersey about five months ago. On a dinner table populated by Engineers + MBAs and a lone B.Com + CA, I was the only one arguing against the rat race that our kids enter into high school onwards and how engineering colleges and professional degrees often are seen symbols of societal validation to be attained rather than merely as routes of academic knowledge occurring on a journey aroused by interest and liking. I wouldn’t want my kid to go through an engineering college if I could help it, I remember saying that night. Obviously it didn’t go down too well with the engineers present. It was then that my boss reminded me that it was no use if you thumbed the rat race but still remained a turtle in life. You may not like it Aftab Khanna he told me, but you are here sitting here in America because you worked hard and came out the same competitive professional system that you now very happily curse. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Yes, America…the ultimate symbol of your having arrived in your career. Remember our mothers telling us during those high school and college days about so and so’s son going to the US, sponsored by his ‘</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">kampany</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">’. I must confess I was lost for an answer on that dinner table at the end of the argument, wondering if I was failing to see the greys in the jigsaw and making the same mistake of thinking in a linear fashion, albeit in the opposite direction, as I shunned everything about our higher education. It was only later that night that my tubelight hit a fuse in the brain and I thought – Heck, I could have done anything other than CA, excelled at it and perhaps still landed in the US by the time I was 26. So much for an American visa!</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Which is what Hirani tries to communicate with his Idiots. Its presented quite simply through the contrast between the rote learning, spectacled bookworm and easy going protagonist who can find simple solutions to everyday problems by being able to ‘apply’ his knowledge beyond the books. Its a movie without many layers and in a straightforward way it critiques the mad rush of the educated young of the Indian middle class towards societal validation masquerading as ‘success’; a message captured in a single line that a father says to his son when presented with an alternative career decision, ‘</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Guptaji kya kahenge?</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">’. Hirani makes a call to listen to the heart and go after ‘excellence’ (a fluid, hard to define word) rather than marks and easy acceptable choices. It is a movie as much about self-discovery as about summoning the will to stand for your choices. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">But it is the movie’s critique about the assembly line of GPA, marks, ranks and job chasing professionals that shall arouse the most questions, especially if, like me, you are very much a product of that system. Is success measured by the size of that pay cheque, the suburban apartment or house and that big luxury car outside that house? In an India increasingly experience an upward mobility of a huge mass of its people, it’s a question worth putting forward. In a debate where, over the last two decades, we had chosen Amitabh Bachchan’s ‘</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">bangla, gaadi and bank balance</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">’ over Shashi Kapoor’s just ‘</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Maa</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">’, Hirani and Shimit Amin’s Rocket Singh that came out a couple of weeks ago, make a pitch for a middle ground for morally driven achievement driven by passion rather than naked hunger of wealth and ‘success’. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I remember my school principle, a lady whom I deeply respect and admire for the simplicity and clarity of her thoughts remarking repeatedly that the there was only slot at the top and it was tougher to stay there than getting there – a remark I heard every time she saw the ‘Ist’ rank on my report card. I was a bit apprehensive to be open about it then, but I silently disagreed with her. Over the years I have seen enough people make good in life who had been written off in school examinations. A close friend who flunked a class X subject and then gave ‘compartment’ exams a few months later with borrowed notes is a young confident lawyer receiving global offers. A cousin written off by many in the family as hopeless was just waiting to be thrown into the big bad world on his own away from us cynics to chart a course that has literally taken him places. The best Chartered Accountant I worked with during my three years with a global accounting firm was someone who missed figuring in our Institute’s merit list by half a dozen marks and who at an age of 28 can easily teach a thing or two to many senior partners of the firm. There might not be certificates to prove examinational excellence for these people, but in their own right they have found a measure of success, all because somewhere they perhaps found a calling. Yes, it’s tough being at the top and you can’t survive in a competitive world by just standing and not moving your hands. But surely, our children can be allowed to chose their battles, be given the freedom to explore fields to compete. That I guess is Raju Hirani’s message for many of us wondering where we have landed up and where we are headed (a mid life crisis possibly?). Perhaps its not worth chasing what we are running after. Perhaps the chase lies on a road we locked years ago in a corner of the study table. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Almost a decade ago, inspired by the many armymen in the family and flush with seeing images of the Kargil war I had developed a slight interest in the Services as a career option. In a pre-internet age, I remember responding to an Army newspaper advertisement that carried a small chit that you could mail back to Army HQ for a detailed brochure. My mother saw me sending the mail, was not too enthused but didn’t say anything openly. My father, who had been used to hearing his son announcing that he wanted to be CA (or a journo) for a few years now, didn’t respond initially. A few days later, on a car ride, he softly brought up the subject of my letter. I don’t mind your joining the forces, I remember him telling me, but make sure that you do it with a full heart. I want you to excel in what you eventually do, he told me,…I want you to aim for being the best amongst those around you and you would easily reach the top. He would have liked Raju Hirani’s 3 Idiots I think. Much like Raju’s heroes, he was a man with a big heart. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">P.S. – Quite liked Kareena Kapoor for once btw. Cute like someone I know... ;)</span></span><o:p></o:p></span></p>the lazy knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12776924873209244313noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13128398.post-56377457488601399162009-12-01T20:56:00.005+05:302009-12-01T21:19:15.059+05:30Amritsar and Accountants<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggegCh4Bbo2HeznQf6WJwCHSCaNYdH6aUCAQ6D2BfQDtbcV_Af39EBqftHkSH2kdDOqV8x6U8QGE9syA7RQeUoSHByC_jY4Vyu3HFrNFKTXFhNT1z6F66cqog-DKB0OnBcflaHOA/s1600/28112009(006).jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5410291270859080514" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggegCh4Bbo2HeznQf6WJwCHSCaNYdH6aUCAQ6D2BfQDtbcV_Af39EBqftHkSH2kdDOqV8x6U8QGE9syA7RQeUoSHByC_jY4Vyu3HFrNFKTXFhNT1z6F66cqog-DKB0OnBcflaHOA/s320/28112009(006).jpg" border="0" /></a> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">I was in Amritsar over the weekend and let me tell you that all the things people said about the wonderful food you can get in that city are true. I am neither a foodie nor a food expert (I am assuming you can be one with being the other) but even my limited senses of taste and tongue were left with a craving of partial satisfaction. I wanted one more dinner or one more lunch. Thanks to a friend, whose brother’s wedding I was attending, I sampled quite a bit of the local stuff. The theme for one of the lunches at the wedding house was itself ‘Amritsari food’ and in there I sampled Sugarcane juice (after ages!), <i>kulcha and chhole</i>; <i>thin, crisp pooris with aloo ka subzi</i>, some amazing carrot pickle, sweet but sublime <i>phirni</i> and an amazing <i>gur ka halwa</i> that I now regret at having just taken a single serving of. On both the nights of the wedding functions (<i>sagan</i> and the <i>baraat</i> night), the variety of non-vegetarian food on offer was tempting and hard to ignore. I had some succulent lamb kebabs and amazing rogan josh (a Kashmiri and not Amritsari dish though). The chopped up mutton served dry and fresh from the <i>kadhai</i> needed three servings to satisfy the buds and the meal was capped off with <i>gajar ka halwa</i> for dessert. Now I am a bit of prick for <i>gajar ka halwa</i> since I have been used to having some every winter at home made by my mother. <i>Gajar ka halwa</i> as a wedding dessert has rarely appealed to me. There is too much <i>khoya</i> to compensate for sweetness and the carrots are always a pale red in color. On this occasion though, the sweetness was just right, the carrots juicy red and the dry fruits were spread liberally to create a brilliant dessert. I found myself recommending the same to practically everyone I talked to later that night.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">If you are in Amritsar then you have to do two things for sure – visit the Golden Temple and the Wagah border (apart from the eating that I mentioned above). My friend, who was co-ordinating transport for almost 50-60 out of town guests, bemoaned the fact that most of his <i>baraatis</i> wanted to rush straight to the temple from the railway station. The poor fellow struggled in vain to persuade them to offload their luggage at the hotel first and have a meal at the wedding home. Now I am not sure how it works, and perhaps I do not even care enough, but there was this strange sentiment amongst those headed to the temple to not take liquor or non-vegetarian food prior to visit. I saw the poor mutton being abandoned and the bar being deserted by men who couldn’t separate themselves from either the night before (And post the visit they were back to mutton and whiskey at night). </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5410292193761857842" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3j2DhA0KFs9W7xLnpgTPBqnc4oS84hUA-GHT9KC-l3g_IYMnlc32CBV4srLe8Ef93RW_XVlQHudvzUCADVppMp9AOLNMe9rXwuui-Ro5pkUrz6o92mBocD9uoPsnxslPw-pNCJg/s320/28112009(002).jpg" border="0" /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Wagah though makes no pious demands from you. All it requires are strong vocal chords and a little bit of enthusiasm. We went there on a Saturday expecting huge crowds and sure, the seats were filled. Someone in the group arranged for VIP access (that typical and shameful Indian privilege) and we got quite decent seats to watch the action from. Both the BSF and the Pakistan Rangers men turned up dressed in their regal uniforms, though the BSF guys had some trouble maintaining their elaborate head gear that kept slipping on them occasionally. The announcers from both sides worked their audiences and cries of ‘<em>Bharat Mata ki jai</em>’ and ‘<em>Hindustan Zindabad</em>’ went up the air. It was pop patriotism at its best. The audience was egged on to out-shout their Pakistani counterparts and many in the crowd took it open themselves to lead the slogan shouting. The entire martial spectacle obviously rouses emotions which quickly get dispelled the moment it is all over. Everyone rushes in a stampede like fashion to get a glimpse of the border gates, get photographs clicked with the BSF guards and then it’s back to usual grind of littering garbage at the bus stand, leering at women and being the model Indian citizen. Two things about Wagah that day though – First, while the Indian stands were packed to the seams, the Pakistani stands were half empty. Now I imagine it might have been because it was the day of Bakr Eid but I wonder if there are larger signs to be read into the same. The second – Indians of all faiths and colors and foreign tourists alike, no one had a problem shouting ‘<em>Vande Mataram</em>’ that evening. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">*************************************************</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">It is election season once again (no I am not talking about the Jharkhand polls. Ha! Caught you didn’t I? You barely knew there were polls going on in poor Maoist infested Jharkhand). It is election season for the ‘vibrant’ and ‘esteemed’ community of Chartered Accountants (this is not an attempt at self-aggrandizement but simply words that I have picked up from one of the myriad campaign mails that have flooded my inbox over the last two days). Being a professional community, the campaigning is also professional. SMSes, emails and telephone calls are passé. They are the lowest common denominator. Candidates resort to innovative vote catching methods. One of them is alumni meets. A candidate tries to align himself with some entity or a CA coaching institution and an invitation is sent for an alumni party calling all to attend and of course in return for a free night of socializing, light ego massage, food and drinks (depending upon average age profile of alumni and the social sophistication of the candidate) the attendees are expected to vote for the implicit host. Some of the candidates with more elaborate social connections organize musical nights to promote their agenda for the development of the profession. I was told that during the last election one candidate had girls standing outside the polling booth and handing over flowers to everyone coming out of the booth who had voted for him. How the girls managed to figure out who the voter had cast his preference for in the secret ballot is something that was not explained!</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">This takes me back to the last CA elections held in the winter of 2006. The firm I was employed with then had one of its senior partners standing as a candidate for the Central Council. The council is the supreme governing body of the profession and has equal representation from all the five zones of North, South, West, East and Central. Our region was North and six candidates had to be chosen out of a field of maybe ten to twelve. A large number of the resources of the firm were sent to polling booths on the voting day and I found myself with a senior colleague in a small town in North India overseeing a small election stall in the local town school. Only one observer was allowed in the actual polling room, the principal’s office, and my colleague was stationed there along with representatives of five of the other candidates. Being a small town, the number of eligible voters was limited; around 50 odd if I remember correctly. There was much bantering going on in the voting room with tea and snacks being served for the local representatives camped there. My colleague, slightly uncomfortable with the celebratory mood would keep coming out often. Voters came in at a trickle – 4 or 5 every hour. By late afternoon, I had wrapped up my stall and was all ready to scoot back to Delhi the moment voting got over at 6 in the evening. However, it was then that all the drama really began. With half an hour to go for the voting to end, my colleague and I were strolling in the school lawn when two of the local agents of the candidates came to us with a proposition. Only around half of the eligible votes had been cast. There was no point in ‘wasting’ the ‘precious’ remaining votes. Let us all oblige each other and split the remaining votes equally between the six candidates whose representatives were present. Signatures on the voter sheet could be forged and the school principal who was the returning officer for the town could be convinced. Quite obviously, we were taken aback. Our first and natural instinct was to refuse. ‘<em>Nahin aaya koi to nahin sahi</em>’, I remember my colleague remarking to the others. Ten minutes later, after a huddled conference between the other representatives, pat came another offer. We could take majority of the remaining votes for the Central Council (as many as we wanted!) but the North India Council votes had to go to their preferred candidate (a voter votes both for the Central as well as the Regional Council). We were cajoled to talk to our ‘seniors in Dilli’ and discuss with them. Voting had finished by now and the ballot box was yet to be sealed. My colleague and I, slightly disturbed, decided to call Delhi and inform the election managers of this offer and our intended response of refusal. Incredulously, the senior manager we spoke to responded by asking us, ‘What do you think? Should we accept this?’ Upon hearing this, my colleague insisted on speaking to the partner in charge of the campaigning, who promptly asked us to refuse any such deal making and leave the place immediately after sealing of the ballot box. Our response disappointed the local agents. They were guarded and muted in their remarks. I could sniggers of ‘<em>Yeh Dilliwale kya jaane</em>’ and exhortations of how ‘<em>aadmi aadmi ke kaam aata hai</em>’. Ballot boxes sealed, we rushed straight into our car and headed back home.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">It is easy to understand the attachment small town CAs have for the elections. Infact, this holds true for most CAs outside the corporate or the Big 4 set up. As someone running his own practice, it is of immense benefit for you to have friends in the right places in the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI). They ensure that your firm’s name comes up for empanelment for bank audits, that any disciplinary proceedings against you are ‘taken care’ of and that you constantly keep getting invitations for technical forums and seminars and other ‘social’ events. For many self employed CAs such an association carries the prospect of visibility, professional networking and improved social standing. How such deal making and shenanigans help the profession is something that I am yet to find out. All the campaign mails received by me thus far have been individual focused. So and so has been serving the profession for X years (usually above 15), has been on various committees of the Institute for X years and has done such and such while on such committees. In a year when the profession took its severest hit ever in the form of Satyam and its missing cash balance of Rs 5000cr, no one talks of the reform both the system of studies of CA (the new course requires students to choose between graduation or CA; if you want to pursue it post grad, be prepared to spend a minimum of 5 years) or the conduct of the members of the profession need. No one talks of how frauds like Satyam can be avoided and where the auditors are going wrong. No one talks of regulation and the Institute’s role. All you hear of are personal bio-datas, social gatherings and mud-slinging at others. Given all this, is it any surprise that Satyam happened and that the man who signed that Balance Sheet for many years and has been in jail since January, was a member of the Central Council and that had Satyam not broken out he would perhaps have become the President of the ICAI a month later? </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><?xml:namespace prefix = o /><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"></span></o:p></p>the lazy knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12776924873209244313noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13128398.post-47913802502856117822009-10-09T21:42:00.004+05:302009-10-09T22:47:09.132+05:30The Obama Nobility<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">So Barack Obama’s love affair (or rock star story, as cousin of mine in the US put it) with the globe continues. What began with a rapturous reception in Berlin in the summer of 2008, when he was still a candidate running for the Democratic nomination has now reached the hallowed halls of Oslo and culminated in a Nobel Prize. The Nobel Committee has cited the President’s effort at multilateral diplomacy and reconciliatory foreign policy as reasons for the prize. They have also stated that the award is not prospective (for what the current US President may achieve) but retrospective (for his diplomatic efforts over the last year). Based purely on cold logic and his presidential and senatorial resume thus far, Obama’s claim seems quite thin. But the Nobel has a patchy track record when it comes to peace awards. Many past winners have been awarded after decades of work – Jimmy Carter in 2002 after his two decades of trying to (and partially succeeding in 1978) promote peace between Israel and its neighbors; Nelson Mandela at the very fag end of apartheid in South Africa. But equally many other winners have been greenhorns - German Chancellor <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willy_Brandt">Willy Brandt</a> in 1971 was awarded just after entering office like Obama, but his policy of engagement with Eastern Europe is said to have contributed, along with Mikhael Gorbhachev’s <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">perestroika</span> efforts (another Nobel Winner in 1990) to the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the eventual end of the Cold War. Many awards have gone to those who haven’t really been the symbols of peace (a belligerent Teddy Roosevelt in 1906, for example) and many true worthies like Gandhi have been ignored. </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">So did Barack Obama, the individual – Harvard graduate, lawyer, community worker and first time Senator from Illinois, deserve a Nobel Peace Prize? No. But ponder this a moment – Did Barack Obama, the elected President of United States, deserve a nomination, if not the actual award for what he has stood for over the last two year since he threw his hat into the ring of the Democratic primaries? Perhaps yes. Here’s why – </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Obama’s Nobel is as much his as it is of the Office he occupies and equally as much of those who voted to put him in that office. He is effectively, at the moment, a symbol of reconciliation of both the United States as a society and United States as the pre-eminent political power in the world. For a nation, that till four decades ago, was battling riots in the streets of its Southern states over whether blacks should be allowed to enter the same universities as whites, it is a reflection of America’s evolution as heterogeneous society and its final acceptance of ability over identity that Obama, an African American representing 13% of a segment of the population that till a few generations ago was officially existing as slaves, is now occupying the highest executive office in his land. Of course, you can turn around say that simply belonging to a disadvantaged community is no criterion for a Nobel prize. If tomorrow, Mayawati was to move into Race Course Road, we wouldn’t be petitioning the Nobel Committee for rewarding her in Oslo – we would perhaps all be applying for Norwegian or any other visa ourselves! </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">But Obama’s significance, as I had mentioned in a <a href="http://twenty2yards.blogspot.com/2008/11/triumph-of-intangible.html">post</a> just after his victory in November last year, lies not in the fact that he won because he was black but in the fact that he won without putting himself forward as the ‘Great Black Hope’; he pitched himself as the Great American Hope and when the issue of race did present itself in the form of some embarrassing comments by his pastor in Chicago, the Democratic candidate went ahead and made a remarkably delicate but prescient <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/03/18/obama.transcript/">speech</a> outlining why race as an issue was a problem of not just whites but also of the blacks. On most domestic issues that tend to divide America down the middle, Obama has adopted a non-partisan approach, shying away from the arrogance that control over both houses of Congress can breed into presidents. On abortion, the president gave a brilliant address at Notre Dame University during summer outlining why despite being pro-abortion, he was willing to acknowledge that the other side has relevant arguments of consideration. On healthcare, he has been critiqued by left wing Democrats of trying too hard to get Republican backing for his legislation and thus opening the gate for irresponsible fear mongering being spread by the conservatives.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">This approach has replicated itself into foreign policy where multilateralism is back into the dictionary of US foreign policy. Obama has held to his promise of reaching out to both Europe and more importantly to the Muslim world as well as to Iran. Has it borne fruits? Where are the results during the first ten months of the President’s term? On the ground, Obama’s ‘change’ has been limited. Washington remains partisan domestically in the Congress, North Korea still thumbs its nose at the US and Afghanistan is still a quagmire. So where is the peace and the world without nuclear weapons? Of course, it’s a bit unreasonable to expect Obama to solve all our problems. </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The difference is in ‘<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">perception</span>’ and ‘<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">recognition</span>’ – intangibles which the George.W.Bush years in the White House have proved can swing global opinion and create nuisance for tasks undertaken, to give Bush (but not Dick Cheney) the benefit of doubt, with good intentions. Obama has attempted to change the global perception of United States both towards its allies and towards the conflicts it faces in Muslim nations. He has re-emphasized the importance of engagement over belligerence that rides rough shod over any opposition. More importantly, he has lent an ear to a world that had started to believe that America had put cotton in its ears as it undertook a cowboy march through Iraq and Afghanistan. We may not agree with Obama’s policies but we certainly can’t ignore that he himself acknowledges that he and his administration do not have all the answers and that he is willing to listen. </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">That approach is refreshing breath of honesty coming out of a White House that claimed to know all for the first eight years of this decade. In that sense, Obama has shifted the moral compass of the United States and its outlook towards the world from the vision of Alexander Hamilton to that of Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson, perhaps the most erudite man ever to occupy the White House, believed that the United States would be a beacon of leadership in the globe not because of its commercial and military strength but on the basis of the moral strength of the vision of its founding documents – the most significant of which (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Declaration_of_Independence">The Declaration of Independence</a>) was authored by Jefferson himself. Jefferson, while being inward looking on occasions, favored engagement over belligerence and had a constructive global vision of his nation. Obama’s popularity to an extent is because of his recognition of the limits of Hamiltonian diplomacy and the requirement on part of the United States to urgently correct that perception. </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">As he faces three more certain, and four more potential years in the White House, Obama would do well to use the Nobel as means of momentum to a vision he has articulated. He would do well to remember the weight of expectations that he now faces as the honeymoon starts to get stale by the pressure of passing time. He would do well to treat the Nobel as a call to action. The prize is an endorsement of what he stands for but Barack Obama faces a challenge to leave a justification for posterity. For that, he would do well to read the words of another great US president – in the summer of 1864 as the American Civil War neared a battle of attrition and the Union started to gain a sustained advantage over the Confederacy, Abraham Lincoln admitted honestly in a <a href="http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/hodges.htm">letter</a> that “</span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><i><span style="line-height: 115%; color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">”, </span></span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-mso-bidi-font-style:italic;font-family:Arial;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">- in a justification of how he had married his personal vision of abolition of slavery with his higher responsibility of preserving American unity as the President; an accomplishment which historians often cite, came about only by the President’s sustained and deep commitment to the vision of a united America even in the deepest times of despair when the conflict seemed never ending and unity a lost cause. If Barack Obama sustains his marriage to his professed vision, he would do well to live up to a premature global honor that on this occasion has rewarded ideals and vision over factual accomplishments.</span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></o:p></p>the lazy knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12776924873209244313noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13128398.post-50897077657722765702009-07-31T03:08:00.002+05:302009-07-31T03:12:13.445+05:30Decoloring the Picture<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;line-height:115%">It is believed that the first forced migration from the African continent to the New World took place around the 1530s with the Spanish hunting for labor to tend to their plantations in the Caribbean and American territories of modern day Texas, Florida and South Carolina. Four and a quarter centuries later, the black color from Africa and its consequences tend to dominate the political events of this nation. African Americans constitute roughly 12% of the US population and yet their impact on the national conscience is much more disproportionate. The fact that race continues to be an uncomfortable issue in the United States has been borne out by two recent incidents. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;line-height:115%">The first was the arrest of Harvard professor <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/5903044/Barack-Obama-telephoned-police-officer-in-black-Harvard-professor-arrest-row.html">Henry Gates</a> by the local police. Trying to force the jammed front door of his house, Professor Gates appeared to a neighbor as someone trying to break into the house. She did what any normal American would do – call 911. By the time the police arrived, Prof Gates was in his house. This is where the story gets fuzzy. The police claim that the academic started a confrontation and hurled racist invective and abuse against the Police sergeant who came to the house. The professor claimed that despite proving his identity he was harassed and ultimately arrested. Adding color to the situation (pardon the pun) is the fact that Prof Gates is black, Sgt. Cowley of the Cambridge police is white, as was the concerned neighbor who dialed 911. The Massachusetts Governor (also black), criticized the police, saying that such discrimination was a fact of daily routine for blacks. What really gave fan to the fire was President Obama’s reaction to the situation. Speaking at the White House press conference on Health care, Obama was asked to comment on the situation and instead of side stepping the question in a way any normal politician would have done, he took it on and called the conduct of the police as ‘stupid’. Republicans, Police Unions and right wing commentators jumped on him. Accused of commenting without knowing the full facts, he was called irresponsible and asked by the Police Unions for an apology. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;line-height:115%">I guess there are natural fallouts of speaking your mind openly as a politician. Obama is discovering that slowly. He is a front on talker, someone who likes to engage issues rather than side step them. A few weeks back he spoke at the convocation ceremony of the Notre Dame University in Indiana. A university run by the Catholic Church, Notre Dame is anti-abortion while Obama is pro. Students protested against the invite to the President and he was heckled during his speech by a tiny section of the crowd. Obama trod on, talked of listening to voices of disagreement, talked of how sensitive abortion as an issue was to the Americans and how reconciliation would only be achieved by listening to the other side and finding a middle ground. In the incident of Prof Gates, he was quick to realize that he had overstepped the line of tactful distance that a Chief Executive must often maintain. To his credit, instead of hiding in the White House, he came out in the open, confessed that his comment was inappropriate and has now tried to reach out and attempt reconciliation by inviting both the academic and the policeman in question to the White House for a round of drinks.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;line-height:115%">The second incident is related to Sonia Sotomayor, Obama’s pick for a Supreme Court seat that goes vacant soon. Since Supreme Court judges in US hold office for life, very rarely does a President get an opportunity to appoint one (The most famous Judge in US history, John Marshall presided as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court for 34 years and swore in more Presidents than any other). The appointment of any Justice has to be confirmed by the Congress and each candidate is summoned by the Judiciary committee to a hard round of grilling. Old verdicts, opinions and stray comments are dug up and questioning is challenging (depending upon which party is in opposition). Sotomayor, a Hispanic, has been questioned for some of her own comments from a few years back (she had remarked once that a wise Latina woman can deliver a better judgment that a White man) but almost in parallel, one of her most influential judgments was reversed by the Supreme Court this summer in a narrow 5-4 verdict. The ruling related to the Fire Department of New Haven city that had cancelled the results of a promotion test after the black candidates were found to have scored too low a score to merit promotion. The city feared a lawsuit by the minority candidates due to its impact on the minority (there have been such lawsuits in the US before where courts have struck down such tests). The city’s concern lay in the principle of ‘<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disparate_impact">disparate impact</a>’ enshrined in the US employment law that prevents employers from adopting practices that are neutral on the face but discriminatory in application or effect on a protected community. It includes within its purview, a substantially different rate of selection for promotion or hiring that works to the disadvantage of any sex, race or other group.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;line-height:115%">17 White and 1 Hispanic firefighter, who were denied promotion, protested through a suit against the city Mayor alleging reverse discrimination. The district court upheld the cancellation of the test and so did the appeals court where Sotomayor was Chief Justice. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricci_v._DeStefano">US Supreme Court though struck the ruling down</a> stating that city had no ‘strong basis in evidence’ to show that it would have attracted lawsuits had the results been certified. The Court walked a fine thin line in the judgment and acknowledged that discrimination prevention can also lead to discrimination. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;line-height:115%">Sotomayor of course would go on to be confirmed. Obama enjoys a comfortable majority of Democrats in the Congress. But the fact that America still faces questions of race and how to overcome its historical and potential future impacts is a sign of how despite the economic advancements, social borders remain fuzzy. While attitudes may have warmed and black and white walls of discrimination may have been tore down, at its edges, along the greys America still finds the question of race standing at the corner, and mostly finds it terribly uncomfortable to reach out and address it.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 13px;">***************************************************************************</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;line-height:115%">This is a bit late in the day but I wanted to draw attention to the Delhi High Court’s landmark judgment on Sec 377 of IPC. For all the abuse that modern India throws at Jawaharlal Nehru it is worthwhile to ponder that the court invoked Nehru and the <a href="http://parliamentofindia.nic.in/ls/debates/facts.htm">Objectives Resolution</a> that he moved in the Constituent Assembly in 1946, as India’s wisest men sat to frame a Constitution for the country. Quoting Nehru, that ‘words are magic </span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;line-height:115%;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">things; often enough, even the magic of words sometimes cannot convey magic of human spirit and of a nation's passion’, it turned the wheel back to <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>clause 5 of the resolution that stated the following as the foundation stone of this country – <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;line-height:115%;mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;color:black">“</span></i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;line-height:115%;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">WHEREIN shall be guaranteed and secured to all the people of India justice, social economic and political : equality of status, of opportunity, and before the law; freedom of thought, expression, belief, faith, worship, vocation, association and action, subject to law and public morality;<span class="apple-style-span">”<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:9.0pt; line-height:115%;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">These words would go on to transform into the fundamental rights enshrined in the constitution. While in India, we may not remember him enough, it took <a href="http://sherryx.wordpress.com/2009/07/03/indias-pink-revolutionnehrus-glorious-legacy-brings-one-more-freedom-to-india/">a Pakistani blogger</a> across the border to put the issue in perspective by claiming that ‘Nehru’s glorious legacy had brought another freedom to India’. In the India of 1950s, Nehru was called as the country’s friend, philosopher and guide. To this day, his words and actions stand as guardian angels of the democratic spirit he wanted his country to so dearly possess and embrace.</span></span><span style="font-size:9.0pt;line-height:115%"><o:p></o:p></span></p>the lazy knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12776924873209244313noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13128398.post-17289925859642925782009-06-25T21:18:00.000+05:302009-06-25T21:19:13.520+05:30Vignettes<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;line-height:115%">Summer was waited for eagerly here in Jersey. Sunday was June 21, the solstice day when summer is officially supposed to begin. Of course when you are from India you really don’t need a day in the calendar to tell you that summer has arrived. The first drop of sweat that falls from the forehead in mid to late March is enough. However, here, in cold and damp Jersey (it rained all of the last week with a thunderstorm thrown in between), they can be allowed to be romantic about the sun. Temperatures in the summer barely cross 30 degrees Celsius. For the American it’s warm, for an Indian its heaven. The one difference here though is the sharpness of the sunlight, particularly the post rain sun. I have been advised repeatedly to use a sun screen. Considering it too feminine, I desisted; was advised again and finally bought one from a Wal-Mart. Since then, only once did the weather and my work schedule given me the opportunity to apply it on the weekend. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;line-height:115%">Americans might end up screwing up wars and their foreign policy but the one thing they get right with deadly accuracy every day is their weather predictions. So much so that there is a dedicated weather channel, called ‘The Weather Channel’ (TWC). Newspapers carry detailed forecasts every day and TWC and its affiliate websites carry hourly forecasts as well. Most people are simply interested in knowing whether their weekends would be sunny. The weather guys may not be able to give sunny weekends but they do give the right forecasts. During all of my stay here, not once have they got it wrong. The weather channel in itself is an interesting concept. I caught a live telecast the other evening from Nebraska where a tornado/ twister was rummaging its way through an open field. The weather channel correspondent had found a convenient spot far away at the edge of the road and was shouting excitedly in the mike. Indian reporters get this excited only when the government has fallen or if they have seen Shah Rukh Khan. I wonder if anyone has thought of a weather channel in India. Give the multiplicity of floods and cyclones we have every year, there will be plenty to cover. The tragedy of the weather disasters may get lost on them but our channels would surely provide us with much comic relief. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;line-height:115%">If you thought that right wing fundamentalism and violence is an exclusive Indian phenomenon, then think again. Over the last month or so violent attacks by individuals attached to or proclaiming right wing conservative ideologies have seen a sharp rise. Last week a pro-Nazi, holocaust denying 88 year old barged into the Holocaust museum in Washington D.C. and killed a security guard before being overpowered himself. A week before that a prominent doctor who ran an abortion clinic and provided late term abortions was shot outside a church in Wichita, Kansas. Abortion providing doctors in urban centers like Chicago have also complained of their clinics being picketed and their staff threatened with dire consequences (Abortion perhaps is to the American right wing what Conversion is to the Indian right wing). The Wichita murder drew applause from far right groups who are anti-abortion. Some of the leaders of such groups claimed that the murderer had served god by eliminating a ‘child killer’. These incidents had the saner television channels (excluding Fox of course that is more right wing than the right wingers themselves) debating whether America was tolerating too much of ‘Domestic Terrorism’. Part of the reason for the growing activism of the fringe groups is the current predicament of the mainstream political right wing conservative formation – the Grand Old Republican party (GOP). After its drubbing in the last elections in November, the GOP has stumbled from one embarrassment to another. It is groping for a leader and an issue to take on Obama. John McCain, perhaps the most balanced figure in their ranks, is now moving towards the sunset of his political career. The party has faced one embarrassment after another – today the Governor of South Carolina, someone who was close to clinching the Vice-Presidential nomination last year and was thought to be a potential Presidential candidate for 2012, came out after a week of absence. His staff had been explaining to the press that the Governor was out hiking on the east coast while the man in question was in Buenos Aires to carry out a clandestine affair. He is the second Republican office holder to come out in the open in the last couple of months admitting an extra-marital affair. The extent of the chaos in the GOP can be realized from the fact that their most public face these days is Sarah Palin. She has been seen at fundraisers, commemorative functions for Ronald Reagan (where she spoke a speech plagiarized from a text written by another Republic leader) and has been picking a fight with the late night host David Letterman for cracking jokes at his daughter. In many ways, the GOP is facing the same predicament that the BJP faces in India. There is the burden of an electoral defeat, lack of clear leadership and absence of direction. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;line-height:115%">America is a country of extra large sizes. The smallest size is large. At lunch I have to implore the servers to give me a ‘small’ serving. Half of the small glass of coffee or tea that I take goes waste because it is, well too large. Some of the sizes of the soft drink glasses at fast food outlets are obnoxious. I am not sure the Americans see it but outsiders do. My sister in law, a Canadian, was quick to point out the consequences of such huge servings, ‘That’s why so many people in this country are obese’. One place where the Americans understand the meaning of small are the hair salons. I only had to say three words to the barber, ‘Short, really short’ and I was out in 15 minutess with a very satisfying haircut. Only if they appreciated small elsewhere. <o:p></o:p></span></p>the lazy knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12776924873209244313noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13128398.post-44033591784095868382009-05-18T02:21:00.004+05:302009-05-18T07:56:42.953+05:30Flight and Crash of the fanciful<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7f_zYKAkFQr39G3qpSiHaVNatPeCb1DK3iUfEkxqHWpfNOyn5WsL8U-ZXn_zjMGb2KZt65INcMZJOsSLFoKJymyeij3neiy8pedTIL3N90E7lTpW-zwNA6wIb9JSa0mNSN5DXBQ/s1600-h/photo.cms.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 261px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7f_zYKAkFQr39G3qpSiHaVNatPeCb1DK3iUfEkxqHWpfNOyn5WsL8U-ZXn_zjMGb2KZt65INcMZJOsSLFoKJymyeij3neiy8pedTIL3N90E7lTpW-zwNA6wIb9JSa0mNSN5DXBQ/s320/photo.cms.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5336901040294527650" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">On an early summer day in the year 1526 a light, swift fighting force backed by about 15-20 pieces of field artillery faced a monolith of an army in the dusty fields of a tiny hamlet in North India. Underestimated, unknown but highly mobile with a well trained cavalry, Zahir al-din Muhammad Babar’s Mughal army routed the forces of Ibrahim Lodi, whose chief weapon on the battlefield was the elephant. Scared by blasts from the Babur’s artillery, the tuskers ran amok all over trampling the men of their own army and paving the way for the fall of the Delhi Sultanate. It would be the last time when the elephant would be used as a major fighting weapon in any action on the Indian sub-continent.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">1526 is how far back you would have to go in Indian history to see when the ‘elephant’ suffered its last defeat in the field of battle. 2009 is when the elephant has suffered its first defeat in electoral politics. It would be fascinating to be a fly on the wall in Behenji Mayawati’s mind right now; to listen to the thoughts churning there, to behold the surprise. The BSP has been used to winning thus far, albeit at a very gradual pace. The grand majority in UP two years back heralded a new sunrise of the party. It was expected to move beyond its core constituency of Dalits and solidify a rainbow vote combination that also included the Muslim minority and the Upper castes – a combination that could propel Mayawati not just in UP but also in other states where such low hanging fruits existed. That she wanted to assert herself nationally was visible through the number of public meetings she addressed in different parts of the country. Mayawati was in Maharashtra, MP, Rajasthan, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh – all states with significant Dalit populations. She was the dark horse, the unannounced leader of the third front, the kingmaker of the new Lok Sabha, the woman who would decide India’s destiny, a woman whom the even the Economist found worthy of mention. (This author himself, thought she would at least get 30 seats in UP alone). </span></span><a href="http://virsanghvi.com/vir-world-ArticleDetail.aspx?ID=288"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Prominent political commentators</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> predicted her hold over the proceedings to follow post elections.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Well now Mayawati and her elephants have been tripped by an electorate that hates nothing more than being taken for granted. Behenji lost her mandate for exactly the same reasons for which she had first won it. You cannot enrich yourself at the cost of your voters and simply assume they would follow you on empty promises of identity and protection. The Congress lost its vote bank in north India because for years it simply assumed that it would be followed blindly; that it possessed a hereditary right over the votes of the marginalized. Behenji too simply assumed that Dalits and Muslims of UP would stay solidly behind her and that by calling out the Dalit identity in other states she would cast her die for the dream national role. In the end, all those fancy statues and stone parks in Lucknow have come back to haunt her. She may cry all she wants about a conspiracy hatched by her rival parties but the reality is that she has been dumped for non-performance. As the editor of a prominent national daily said on counting day, India wants to vote for aspiration and not for settling scores. You would have a difficult time winning over people’s aspirations if your entire energy is spent in satiating your megalomania. Mayawati won 21 Lok Sabha seats, 2 more than last time and clocked a national vote share of 6.17% - to use a colloquial Hindi term, with these numbers, for Mayawati </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">‘abhi dilli bahut door hai’</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. </span></span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Behenji’s vote share though is third behind the Congress which received 28% of the total votes and the BJP which tallied a disappointing 18%. Why a party that was a strong, natural alternative to the Congress a decade ago is now a full 10 percentage points and 85 seats behind the leader is a matter that both the bigwigs at Delhi and Nagpur must address through their frequent </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">‘chintan baithaks’</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. A strong right of the centre national alternative is needed for a Congress but a right wing fundamentalist alternative will get whipped election after election. While his rhetoric may have worked in the case of Varun Gandhi, the party itself managed only 10 seats in the state of UP – the same number that it had in 2004. In the riot torn Kandhamal constituency of Orissa, which was ‘perfectly baked’ as per the BJP’s model of winning elections on the back of polarized electorates, the party’s candidate lost by over a lakh of votes. He too will get much time to do </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">‘chintan’</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> in his jail cell where he currently sits.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Has the BJP learnt nothing from 2004? It had a host of issues and a lot of time to play its cards right six months back. Then it allowed two men to completely derail its campaign – Narendra Modi and Varun Gandhi. From standing outside the Oberoi when the encounter was still going on to using the ‘gudiya-budhiya’ rhetoric, Modi did much to divert the agenda away from development. The school bully image was at complete contrast to the quiet manner in which Rahul Gandhi went about his campaign – both Mayawati, who ridiculed him for sleeping in a Dalit’s home and Modi, who never stops taking potshots at the Gandhis, have been proved ineffectual. In Gujarat, which the saffron party was supposed to ‘sweep’, 8 candidates personally chosen by the Chief Minister lost. His gain from 2004 in the state is just one seat. The only state where the BJP did better than 2004 was Bihar – and even though he hugged Modi in far away Punjab, Nitish Kumar didn’t allow Modi to enter the state before all the votes were cast. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Nitish has won as decisive a mandate as Modi ever has; then why the Modi model of rioting and development and not the Nitish Kumar, Shiela Dixit and Shivraj Chauhan model of good inclusive development should be the answer to India’s problems, is something that any supporter of this ‘Hitler with a beard’ is yet to explain to me.</span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">If anyone in the BJP is interested in paying attention, in the lack of that explanation lies their route back to power in Delhi.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Indian elections can often turn out to be an exercise in humility for its participants. The Left, which held a stronger veto over the previous government for four years, than even the one that Soviet Union held at the UN for forty years, now stands with its back to the wall and facing the unthinkable possibility of losing the next assembly election in Bengal. The many aspirant ‘Prime Ministers in waiting’ will now do just that – wait. Their despondency was summed up by Sharad Pawar who, first took his hat out of the ring, a day before the elections, and then was the first one on the day of results to concede that the Congress had the right to decide who would be the Prime Minister. </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">As far as the victor of this election is concerned, the Congress will do well to consider the hubris that led to the downfall of its rivals in the last two elections. It will face anti-incumbency and vote fatigue in different states after 5 years, the only insurance against which shall be performance. Its gamble to stand on its own feet in UP paid off and underscored the point that often in elections, winnability is simply about providing a fresh alternative to the voter. </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">As far as projections go, no one saw this ‘landsweep’ in favour of the Congress. Yours truly had stuck his neck out in March and predicted a tally of 148 seats for the party with Andhra, Rajasthan and Maharashtra being the bellwether states. He had also predicted of a long political summer of negotiations and side changes and deal striking with the most probable scenario being the return of the UPA with a little help from the Fourth Front and splinter groups of the Third Front. </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Proved wrong. Period.</span></span></p>the lazy knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12776924873209244313noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13128398.post-13309242961792726522009-04-28T04:30:00.014+05:302009-04-28T20:20:16.457+05:30Warming on the East Coast<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1405OhC_kOUjxDt-lcfBoNjQBacqjh5hopS7WXO4ISg1uAUiVUpEEuwOq52055YpOC0NRZter8SnUO0-p9-6bR_5o28nrrtHxikF7AX7k9EVB_FiaIb6IgCaZkQHH0UGJGVIM-A/s1600-h/IMG_6254.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1405OhC_kOUjxDt-lcfBoNjQBacqjh5hopS7WXO4ISg1uAUiVUpEEuwOq52055YpOC0NRZter8SnUO0-p9-6bR_5o28nrrtHxikF7AX7k9EVB_FiaIb6IgCaZkQHH0UGJGVIM-A/s320/IMG_6254.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5329729385943062146" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">We get such days only 10-15 times in a year, said my cousin as we negotiated our way through a choc a block Boston Central Park which was teeming with men, women and kids indulging in all kinds of activities ranging from simple sun bathing to baseball catching, dancing or just walking. Its a sunny sunny day on the North American east coast with the day temparatures hitting the late 20s and early 30s degree celsius. As an Indian i wonder what the fuss is all about, in fact the high temparatures disappoint me. I was hoping for slightly cooler climes. I am sweating in Boston in a simple tee and my jeans. Its a bit like spring temparatures back in India. Boston and North East America arent grudging their sunshine though. A cousin sister gently rebukes me not to 'lagao nazar' to this heralding of early summer.</span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Boston is one of North America's oldest cities. The city was founded by colonists from England way back in 1630. Part of the reason for its early growth was access to the sea and a thriving harbour, which still exists today. The harbour was also the site of the famous </span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_tea_party"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">'Boston Tea Party</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">' in 1773 when American protestors dumped British tea into the water as a protest against 'taxation without representation' (why a protest was called a party was a matter of much curiousity and amusement amongst my high school pals during our class ix history class). The city was also at the forefront of the revolution - the first major battle took place just outside of the city at Bunker Hill with the British suffering heavy casualties in a phyrric victory. Boston produced several principal figures of the revolution as well - </span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Adams"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">John Adams</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, the cantankerous lawyer who led the push in the Continental Congress towards Declaration of Independence and went on to become America's second president; his cousin Samuel Adams who was one of the first opposers of British rule in Boston and was also a signer to the Independence declaration; </span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hancock"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">John Hancoc</span></span></a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hancock"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">k</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, a principal businessman of those times who was also a close friend of George Washington; and of course </span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Revere"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Paul Revere</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, the man who rode at midnight sounding the warning 'the British are coming'. Boston has done well to preserve its historical heritage - there is a 'Freedom Trail' - a path outlined on the sidewalks that snakes around the old part of the town and leads visitors to important monuments, including the graves of Revere and Sam Adams.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">My cousin lives in South End, which is to Boston what East Delhi is to India's capital - till now a run down place not looked too nicely upon but now enjoying a period of resurgence. South End has pockets inhabited by higher income groups which are surrounded by lower income government subsidized housing. The locality recently experienced settling in by homosexual couples (in 2004 Massachussets became the first </span></span><a href="http://gaylife.about.com/od/samesexmarriage/a/legalgaymarriag.htm"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">US state to legalise same sex marriages</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">). So the logic is that since gay/ lesbians couple cannot have children, most of their income is disposable and they like to spend it on good clothing and eating. This has seen the sprouting of many new eating joints and other commercial establishments which has improved the profile of the area - so much so that now my cousin and his wife are out hunting for a house to buy and finally settle in there. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">On the same topic, same sex marriages continue to divide America - Supreme Courts of states on the liberal North East coast have passed judgements approving these unions. Politicians have tried to veto it. In Vermont, the state legislature over ruled the Governor's veto and allowed the unions to be legalised. Some states like New Jersey offer 'union' but not marriage recognition - a convenient way to skirt the argument that marriage can only be between a man and a woman. California, the state of Harvey Milk and an early pioneer of gay rights recently had a referendum where the public rejected the legislation to legalise gay marriage. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The influence of the strong Christian right and conservative groups can be seen in this ideological fight in the US. Its northern neighbour Canada passed a national law two years back legalising such marriages. European nations such as Belgium, Netherlands and Sweden too recognise such marriages. Even the much derided South Africa, considering its grave HIV problems legalised these unions three years back.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The riches of any town in the US is based on the value of its land, I am told. The more valuable your land, the higher taxes those inhabiting them pay and the more revenue the city council generates. Poor neighbourhoods mean poorer values and poorer cities. I am visiting the almost four hundred years old Harvard University campus. Being one of the oldest institutions of America, the university enjoys a lot of clout and a non-profit entity status - which means that it is exempt from paying taxes on the huge real estate it occupies. That has resulted in lower revenues for the council of Cambridge, the town that Harvard is officialy located in. So the neighbourhoods around Cambridge are not as affluent as the University that sits there. I am told its a great place to see and walk around only as long as you confine yourself to the campus. I have heard that line being said to young women for a few spots around my city of Delhi.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Train delays are all too common in India. We are used to our trains stopping in the middle of the countryside with passengers having no clue as to where they are and why they have stopped. On my way back to Boston, the Amtrak train looks all set to take more than its scheduled time of 4 hours. Just before New York, one of the overhead lines have tripped and the electricity has failed. We are informed over the PA system of the train that there might be an 'unspecified' delay since a diesel engine may have to be called to tow the train in case the power isnt restored. I am laughing and giggling in my seat everytime this announcement is made - Go get Laloo and learn a thing or two! A bullock cart towing an electricity train....now wudnt that be exciting.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Eventually they do fix the electricity and we move. I miss my first connecting train to New Jersey and spend another three quarters of the hour waiting for the next one. Its almost half past eleven when i reach the my suburban station. With no shuttles or cabs available i have no option but to work a sweat and walk the 2 kms to my hotel. The roads are deserted, the houses are dark and quiet and all through my walk i see only a handful of cars passing by but not a single soul on the road. I am not sure i would be lining up for more of such bravado walks. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">P.S. I am not missing the IPL too much here in the States. You dont get live streaming or TV telecast, but I did miss out on the fakeipl player blog. Read a bit of it yesterday and it is simply hilarious! Poor KKR - wat a season they are having. And SRK as Dildo?!! rotfl! They are wondering who is writing it - some speculate it is Harsha Bhogle, some say Aakash Chopra. Both are too nice and civil gentlemen to indulge in this. Given all the SRK and KKR bashing going on there my guess is its Aamir - Dildo...Bhookha Naan, BubLee, Little John, Lordie.... :D :D </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:13px;"><br /></span></div>the lazy knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12776924873209244313noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13128398.post-46022522094088122912009-04-23T05:17:00.001+05:302009-04-23T05:26:49.178+05:30A for Amreeka<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Deep down perhaps every Indian middle class young boy harbors a dream of visiting America. It is shaped in many cases by a desire to replicate relatives in the family who have been to the land or in most others by the exposure to soft culture of Archies, Hollywood and Mcdonalds. If you are a graduate techie being turned out of those myriad engineering colleges of India, then the US of A is your ultimate onsite destination. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Unlike the <a href="http://twenty2yards.blogspot.com/2008/08/leaving-on-jet-plane.html">previous occasion</a>, this time my journey to the airport from my house is smooth. That’s because my flight is before the mad rush hour at midnight and beyond and also because the day is dry and there aint any rain to clog Delhi roads. Check in is slow and it takes me 15 mins for reach the counter from the end of the line. It takes another 10 for the check in counter official to weigh my baggage and get my boarding pass out between his chuckles and jokes with a colleague.</span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">There are somethings even a swanky modern airport cannot change. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The immigration officer is interested to know what Accenture (my employer) does. By now I am tired of giving this explanation – despite the huge sums that we spend on television advertising, people still do not know us. Or well at least the average common man doesn’t. Even the urbane ones who might be watching English news channels where our advertisements are a regular feature are clueless when the name is mentioned. Neither have past full page ads in newspapers been of any help. I am also tired of referring to the firm as the one with Tiger Woods ads. No one seems to have a clue about Woods. So now, I just let it be – I politely inform the immigration officer of our scope of services. He asks whether we are still recruiting. I sense this as an inquiry of an interested father for his kid than that of a customs official. He says the outlook is improving and that things shall change in the next few months. As evidence he points to the upward movement in the ‘market’. I want to believe him, I am flying to the States – someone must be needing my services.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Emirates has an in-flight entertainment system that simply captivates me. There is a good variety to choose from amongst movies, TV shows and songs (the 13 hour flight from Dubai to JFK had about 20 new movies on the menu along with countless older ones, including Hindi classics such as ‘Golmaal’ and ‘Chupke Chupke’). There is an informative section that tells you about the movement of the flight and metrics such as altitude, speed, time at the destination and the distance travelled. What takes the cake are the two cameras installed on the exterior of the plane whose live feed can be seen on the screen by passengers – the first camera is on the nose and the second on the underbelly. It’s a treat to switch either of those on during take off and landing. I didn’t miss my window seat on both the flights courtesy the cameras. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">New York is cloudy and damp when I land. The last few minutes of the flight witness my attention being captured by an engaging conversation on the seats to my right between a US national of Somali descent and an white American lady from Florida. The Somali is bemoaning the state of his nation, his inability to meet with his Syrian wife and kids and the plight of his family back home. Conversation turns then to the scourge of piracy affecting the seas of the coast of Somalia and the lack of action by the international community to correct the state of affairs in the nation. It is difficult to escape the passion of the Somali as he stresses the failures of his nation and more so of those who could have prevented them from occurring. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">‘Khanna as in Vinod Khanna?’ asks the woman at the prepaid taxi service counter at JFK upon seeing my passport. She is of Thai origin and finally helps me with a reservation after two of her colleagues tell me that their cabs don’t travel to the town where I am staying (Parsipanny in Jersey, an hours’ drive from NY). She informs me that she met Shatrughan SIngha at the JFK once and is aware how actively both the above mentioned actors are involved in politics. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">There is a debate going on in America after President Obama subtly switched his stand on torture investigation and stated that Justice Department officials who approved of torture techniques may be investigated. It’s the first indication that the Bush administrationmay be hauled for its brave efforts to ‘change the world’. The Republicans of course are up in indignation and Dick Cheney has issued a war cry. On my cab drive, we are listening to a radio station which is blatantly Republican. The radio jockey after interviewing a dumb bimbette who claims she made her two daughters to run up and down a mile long road on a cliff so as to stop them from fighting each other, then proceeds to take calls. A caller says that torture is not what is done to Al-Qeda but what was done to victims of 9/11, that watching people jump from burning high rises is torture. This jockey then in a grave somber tone that sounds straight out of a campaign race proceeds to tell ‘American people’ that they are not safer than they were pre 9/11, that the current President has no stomach to fight enemies of the nation and that torture is done with the aim to achieve the ultimate good of ‘extracting information’. Next morning at breakfast I watch a Fox news telecast that is debating the same – it has three panelists on the show, two of whom are blatant republicans while one tries to strike a middle ground. The anchor again reminds us that torture yields information that is essential to save the country. The President is castigated by the Republican leaning panelists of succumbing to left wing liberals while deciding to investigate tortures. Listening to this debate, you wouldn’t be surprised that Americans are so reviled in the countries which are the worst sufferers of Islamic extremism. You would also not be surprised that despite 8 years of ‘war on terror’, the US still has no clue about the root causes of the threats faced by it. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></o:p></p>the lazy knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12776924873209244313noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13128398.post-71169268782943601412009-03-26T21:41:00.009+05:302009-03-27T12:09:38.937+05:30Roll the dice gentlemen!<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">Posted by Aftab Khanna, who on the gentle goading of </span><a href="http://notytony.blogspot.com/2009/03/ad-nauseam.html"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">Tony Sebastian</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">, has finally decided to try and foresee things <strong><u>before</u></strong> they have happened<br /></span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#3333ff;"><em>“The trouble with free elections is, you never know who is going to win” – </em></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brezhnev"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#3333ff;"><em>Leonid Brezhnev</em></span></a><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Comrade Brezhnev might well have spoken for all us sitting at our homes in front of television screens and twiddling our thumbs as the great Indian tamasha gets underway once again. Opinion polls have been banned this time around – thus sparing the politicians many an anxiety and depriving our pollsters of their moments under the arc lights. The election process, one cant help but feeling, is poorer for the same. It was fun seeing spokespersons of major political parties denying all the poll findings if they were against them and then crucifying the pollsters on counting day when results went in their favor. Conversely the party projected to win would end up being cheated by the pollsters and suffer a reverse at the hustings. The spokespersons would go on to deride the very same polls that they were trumpeting a few weeks back.<br />India is a strange democracy and stranger still are its elections. It’s a country where the Intelligence Bureau instead of gathering evidence of upcoming terror strikes (I am sorry for making them sound like a music concert, but that’s the regularity and seriousness they acquired under the UPA) actually goes out and collects intelligence against the political rivals of the incumbent. The IB is the oldest pollster in the country and perhaps has a higher accuracy rate than even the likes of Prannoy Roy and Yogendra Yadav. You would have heard the old cliché – Indian elections are notoriously difficult to predict. It got a shot in the arm in 2004 when all the opinion polls (and surprisingly even the exit polls) got their results completely wrong. The electorate is so fragmented and so diverse that to reach the correct prediction is to play a game of snakes and ladders on a thousand square field. Yet there are some who carry the burden of psephology (would you believe it, MS Word 2007 does not even have this word in its dictionary; pollsters rival only investment bankers these days when it comes to earning discredits) and enlighten us as to the fate that awaits us ahead.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Yours truly is not a bearer of this burden – simply a patient of swivel chair (that’s the one I sit on) analysis. Hence, as <a href="http://notytony.blogspot.com/">Sir Tony</a> would agree, in an extraordinarily courageous display of pre-emption, he now goes ahead and puts his neck on the line and attempts to gaze into a very hazy crystal ball.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><strong><u>The Congress:</u></strong> The grand old party of India is losing allies as its vehicle chugs along the bumpy electoral road. Lalu Yadav may have been temporarily estranged (both him and Mulayam would come back to the UPA to demand their pound of flesh in a post poll scenario) but it is the loss of the PMK in Tamil Nadu that would perhaps hurt the party the most. It would struggle to retain its tally of 10 seats in the state and its alliance partner DMK seems to have already thrown in the towel. The party seems set to gain in Punjab and Kerala and would lose in Haryana, Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam and Tamil Nadu. Key to the Congress’ fortune would lie in the states of Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh (with the last two being <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellwether">bellwether</a> states in my estimate). The party would need to rout the BJP in Rajasthan, retain more or less the same seats in Maharashtra and minimize its losses in Andhra to even entertain hopes of government formation. Anything under 140 seats and the Congress would be at the mercy of Mamta, Mulayam and, in scenario nothing short of a nightmare for them, perhaps Jayalalitha and the Left.<br /><strong><em>Projection – 135 to 148 seats<br /></em></strong></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><strong><u>The BJP:</u></strong> The Bhartiya Jalopy Party would be hoping for a repeat of the fortunes of 2004, not of their own but of the Congress! The Congress went into the polls then with no one giving it a fig leaf’s chance and trumped all the analysts and pollsters. Unlike the Congress in 2004 however, the BJP has failed to stitch together coherent alliances and seems set to pay the penalty. Its loss of Naveen Patnaik would cost it in Orissa (though like Lalu, the BJD too would come back to its erstwhile ally if push comes to shove) and the party would suffer reverses in Rajasthan. It seems set to more or less even out gains in J&K, HP, Gujarat and Jharkhand with marginal losses in MP, Chattisgarh and Maharashtra. Key to its fortunes would be to achieve damage limitation in Rajasthan and hope that Nitish Kumar swings Bihar their way with at least 20+ seats. But it’s still a tough shot for the BJP to emerge at the same levels as 1999. It would need to surprise us all a bit – sweep Gujurat, Karnataka and MP massively, raise its tally in Maharashtra and most of all, grab at least 20 seats in UP. That seems asking for a bit too much from Mr.Advani. The party’s only route to power is thus to cobble up around 140 seats on its own, hope that Jaya sweeps Tamil Nadu, the TDP alliance sweeps Andhra, Naveen Patnaik takes Orissa handsomely and all of them return to the NDA fold – if Mr.Advani and Mr.Jaitley pull that off, then I for one at least wont grudge them their 5 years of power.<br /></span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><strong><em>Projection – 120 to 135 seats</em></strong><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><strong><u>Third Front:</u></strong> Can the reincarnated ‘<em>Teesra Morcha</em>’ grab power from under the noses of the UPA and NDA? Despite all their media blitz and ‘shor’ this cabal of regional players (accept it, the Left is a regional player) faces some quite steep hurdles. The Left is all set to slide from the high of 59 to around mid 30s in the new Lok Sabha. Naveen Patnaik, if he chooses to go with the Third Front, may not deliver the same seats as last time (11 of 20), since he fights alone and faces anti-incumbency both at state and parliamentary level. Third Front’s door to power rests on several shaky hinges – Mayawati has to outperform in UP and come close to a tally of 50, TDP must win around 30 and agree to stay with the Front and Jayalalitha should also reach a tally of 30. With these numbers and around 35 seats of the Left, the Front would hit 140+; that’s a range at which both Lalu and Mulayam (sure to underperform and return with lower numbers) may decide to grab a bite at power and change camps. If Naveen Patnaik too takes the third turn, then with numbers in excess of 150, the Third Front dream can hope to face the dawn of realization. The Congress may then be called upon to support the front from a position of weakness and we can all happily return back to the days of 1996.<br />But will it happen?? Will Mulayam join a front with Maya? More importantly will Mayawati reach near that figure of 50 in UP? Will both the TDP and Jaya outperform? And will the Congress agree to bide time and prepare for 2014 and extend outside support?<br /><strong><em>Projection – 110 to 125 seats</em></strong><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">So what are we looking at after the polls? Make no mistake, India might well face a long summer with political parties slugging it out in the lack of a clear mandate. Deals would be struck, sides will be changed and there will be plenty of entertainment on offer. One won’t be surprised if there is a complete deadlock for a few days and the new Prime Minister gets sworn in only around late June. Here’s how the scenarios may pan out –<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><strong><u>Probable</u></strong>– Congress reaches around 140; Lalu and Mulayam, both emerge weaker but rejoin the UPA and a Third Front constituent joins in while a couple of existing and dispensable allies are ditched. The alliance scrapes through to 272.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><strong><u>Somewhat Likely</u></strong> – Congress on its own is around 125 - 130 but the Third Front, let down by Mayawati’s inability to effect a decisive sweep, is also not strong enough to stake an independent claim. In a grand reconciliation the Left decides to bury its differences and carries along a couple of its Third Front partners to the UPA, once again supporting from outside. In such a case, Manmohan Singh might have to end up paying for his anti-Left tirade of the last 12 months.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><strong><u>Slightly less likely</u></strong> – Mayawati trumps everyone, sweeps UP and establishes presence through wins in Punjab and MP. She commands the Third Front along with Jayalalitha who also decimates the DMK in Tamil Nadu. The Congress, stranded at around 120 is left with no option but to cede momentum to the ladies.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><strong><u>Less likely</u></strong> – The NDA sweeps Gujarat, MP, Bihar; improves marginally in UP and Maharashtra and minimizes losses in Rajasthan and Orissa. It reaches a tally close to 200; the Third Front breaks up, the AIADMK and TDP with around 30 seats each finally propel Mr.Advani to Race Course Road.</span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Of course, I could be massively wrong. The least likely scenario may well turn out to be the most likely after the votes are counted. Predictions in Indian polls, more than astrology, can go horribly off the mark. Hence, you are advised to add a pinch of salt to your popcorn, as you read the same. And in case you feel badly let down by this author when the results finally come out, you are welcome to return to this post and smash some eggs on its face. </span>the lazy knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12776924873209244313noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13128398.post-62421653008999792292009-03-13T20:21:00.010+05:302009-03-24T22:34:17.598+05:30A Dirty Rag<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; line-height: 18px;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; line-height:150%"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:10.0pt; line-height:150%;font-family:Arial;color:black">If you ever needed evidence that the institution of ragging needed strict regulation, then ladies and gents you have it right here before you. A young boy, a year out of school, with dreams and aspirations in his eyes, yet to come of age and discover the cynicisms of this world has paid the price with his life for upholding the grand legacy of this so called annual tradition in our colleges. This sadly is what ragging has come down to in our ‘professional’ institutions; what kind of members such institutions shall contribute to their professions is a question to ponder over. Doctors/ Engineers/ Lawyers who would not think twice before banging someone’s head mercilessly into a concrete wall. People who see nothing wrong in subjecting those junior to them (in age, perhaps not in mind) to the worst of psychological humiliations and physical abuse.</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%; font-family:Arial;color:black"> </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%; font-family:Arial;color:black">People who are able to conjure up strange notions of power within their fiefdoms of college hostels and exercise that power brutally. People who get away every year with the tacit approval and lack of action by the institutions they supposedly claim to study in. Welcome to the grand tradition of college ragging, under the guise of which we have been passing off abuse and harassment – and now murder.</span></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial;color:black"><u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; line-height:150%"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:10.0pt; line-height:150%;font-family:Arial;color:black">The Supreme Court came out with its anti-ragging guidelines in 2001 – the very year that I entered college. At that time I remember it sparked of a debate in the college circuits. Delhi University students were bristling with self righteousness and proclaiming how ragging was an ice breaking institution that was high on the fun quotient and necessary to initiate their</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial;color:black"> </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><i><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%; font-family:Arial;color:black">‘</span></i></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial;color:black">fucchas’</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%; font-family:Arial;color:black"> </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%; font-family:Arial;color:black">and foster camaraderie between the freshmen and varsity. Of course, they had a point. On the very first day of college that year, Hindustan Times photographed five varsity students of Hindu College making three freshmen to go on haunches, put their hands to their ears and become what our schoolteachers used to say in an age long gone by,</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%; font-family:Arial;color:black"> </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><i><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%; font-family:Arial;color:black">‘</span></i></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial;color:black">murgaas<i>’</i>. That photograph, of five laughing seniors and three bended juniors made the front page of the newspaper the next day and all around my class there was one sentiment – how idiotic! Couldn’t those fools see that they were being photographed? (The seniors in the snap were temporarily suspended)</span></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial;color:black"><u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; line-height:150%"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:10.0pt; line-height:150%;font-family:Arial;color:black">Every year our colleges put up notices ‘advising’ students against ragging. Every year stories come out. There are the first set of stories – the polite ones, the tellers of which will come up and claim what a wonderful tradition ragging is. Stories of vulgar songs being asked to be sung, stories of sexually driven young boys who have had limited interactions with the other sex asking their juniors to ‘go and propose to that girl’. These are stories whose veil you would never care to lift. You would smile, pass them on as signs of coming of age, ignore the signals and turn a blind eye.</span></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%; font-family:Arial;color:black"><u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; line-height:150%"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:10.0pt; line-height:150%;font-family:Arial;color:black">And then there is the other set. The one that flows out of our medical and engineering colleges. Ask any student who has passed out of such an institution and you would know where I am coming from. I have heard tales of people being asked to strip, humiliated because they belonged to a particular caste, being told in the middle of the night to fetch liquor from outside for their seniors, people being slapped, caned, pulled by their hair and beaten up and girls being asked to dance nude. Now I know I sound a bit of an idealist on this blog at times, but please pray tell me in what civilized world does all the above count as steps of ‘initiation and building of espirit de corps’? And if indeed such acts are vital to break down walls of inhibitions that juniors possess when they enter college, then why don’t the same rules apply when our kids enter kindergarten or high school, when recruits enter the army or when we join a job after getting out of our colleges? My question is quite simple - would you accept your workplace tolerating your boss slapping and stripping you and pulling your hair? Would you laugh off lightly if tomorrow your kid’s head is smashed into the school wall when he enters kindergarten?</span></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial;color:black"><u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; line-height:150%"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:10.0pt; line-height:150%;font-family:Arial;color:black">I can see where the strength and reasoning for ragging is derived. Colleges are places without codified rules of behavior. There are no codes of conduct, no uniforms and no class teacher to make you behave. It is a place for losing your innocence, for venturing into the big bad world after coming out of the protecting environs of your home. Young kids, specially in hostels, come across a diversity that they perhaps have not seen before in their lives. There is a sense of community and belongingness, driven by the feeling of everyone being far away from home.</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%; font-family:Arial;color:black"> </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%; font-family:Arial;color:black">The hostel is your home. Your mates your brothers. A sense of authority prevails over those who enter the premises under you. A culture of patronage and protection – all under the garb of fostering ties and interaction. There is a sense of power hitherto unknown. Combine that power with regional and caste biases, a thrill at the ‘adventure’ on offer, a closeted sexuality demanding exploration and a knowledge that you are ‘one in a mob’, that ‘everyone does it, so why shouldn’t you?’ What do you get? Lifelong friendships – maybe. Camaraderie – maybe. Murder? Ah well, that’s just an unfortunate byproduct. So what if some people are abused and their heads smashed? We must have our dose of the cocktail of power.</span></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial;color:black"><u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; line-height:150%"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:10.0pt; line-height:150%;font-family:Arial;color:black">The only explanation of ragging that anyone could offer me was – ‘Because I also got ragged’. Every batch claims it was more progressive than its seniors and that they ‘didn’t rag as much as they had suffered’.</span></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt; line-height:150%;font-family:Arial;color:black"><u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; line-height:150%"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:10.0pt; line-height:150%;font-family:Arial;color:black">The colleges, of course, can only shrug their shoulders every time an incident happens. In the recent case, the principal accused was a repeat offender – yet hadn’t been reprimanded even once. Institutions won’t act due to influence, fear of negative publicity and police scrutiny. The students won’t complain because they have to spend their academic life with those who harass them. They will simply bear the pain and insults and smile on gamely. And this ‘grand tradition’ of crass display of power derived from coercion will continue to roll along unabated.</span></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial;color:black"><u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; line-height:150%"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:10.0pt; line-height:150%;font-family:Arial;color:black">Well, I am afraid but as the recent incident demonstrates this is a matter where we have exhausted all limits of self regulation. Unfortunately, Indian courts, police and the executive will now be called to enter into our colleges – not to frame educational policies and reform the functioning, not to demand an increase in budgetary allocations, not to call for improvement of infrastructure, but to police the students. And that, if you have passed out of a college in this country, along with the death of</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial;color:black"><a href="http://ia.rediff.com/news/2009/mar/10hp-ragging-victim-was-beaten-his-head-was-shaved-off.htm"><span class="apple-style-span">Aman Kachru</span></a><span class="apple-style-span">, is a matter of utter collective shame.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:10.0pt; line-height:150%;font-family:Arial"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p></p>the lazy knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12776924873209244313noreply@blogger.com4