Sachin as an MP - the myth, facts and opinions

Sachin Tendulkar will begin a new innings as a Rajya Sabha MP.

The Myth

Constitutional expert Bhupendra Chaube (no seriously, he is THE expert. Read the details here.) sent a barrage of tweets yesterday. 

"Will we now see " god " of cricket in parliament? Cong proposes sachin tendulkar's name to the rajya saba"

"But frankly, what is it that Sachin can do in Politics at this stage? Bal Thackeray wont forgive him if he takes up cong membership"

"Imagine, Sachin speaking on a contentious issue like Bofors, That will be something"

The extremely well informed Bhupendra Chaube also happens to be the National Bureau Chief of CNN-IBN - you would think all the above is true or might even happen. Now let's get back to some civics lessons that we learnt in school. 

The Facts

The actual strength of the Rajya Sabha is 245 members. 233 of them are elected from various states (by the elected representatives of those states, MLAs/MLCs). 12 of them are nominated by the President (technically the government of the day recommends to the President). The criteria for choosing these members is: 

"...amongst persons having special knowledge or practical experience in literature, science, art and social service"

These members need not be members of any political party. They are not obliged to join any political party. Infact, these members cannot even vote in the Presidential election. The full list of such nominated members is here. Barring a very few exceptions, we can see that this list is filled with people who are genuine experts in their fields. On a side note, the biggest aberration in this list is that pompous Mani Shankar Aiyar (who needs to be boycotted for reasons mentioned here). 

As you can see, the list has some eminent personalities (artists, scientists, musicians, writers etc) that we easily recognize - M.F.Hussian, Lata Mangeshkar, Dr. Bimal Jalan, Dr. C.Narayana Reddy (from AP), Dr. Raja Ramanna, Prof. M.S.Swaminathan etc. When I took a look at the list, I also realised that there are so many experts on which we had no idea about :(. More reading beckons on these experts. 

Most of these members have not joined any political party. Sadly, most of these members haven't participated in any debates; haven't asked any questions related to their field; and their fields haven't benefitted much from their elevation to this position. This calls for a healthy debate on some guidelines to be set for such nominated members. This cannot be a honorary post by any means. But that debate is for another day. 

So the government of the day is entitled to nominate persons having special knowledge in the aforementioned fields. Sachin Tendulkar does not fit into any of those fields. I am not sure if the above fields are binding by law though.

We therefore now busted the first two myths by the constitutional expert Bhupendra Chaube. It is the government that proposes, not any party. And Sachin hasn't joined any political party (as of now). Being a nominated member of Rajya Sabha does not amount to joining politics. Mere speculations by people in responsible positions will do no good - but we are digressing. 

The opinions.

Now let's come to the third myth. It is not necessary for every member to talk about every single issue in Parliament. Sadly, our members of Parliament are not as intelligent as these news anchors to have a strong opinion on anything and everything under the sun. Second and most importantly - why should Sachin (or anyone who is an expert in another field) not have an opinion on Bofors? Why the contempt that people from one background cannot have an opinion on other aspects of public life? 

Sachin Tendulkar met Sonia Gandhi yesterday. Only ESPN-Cricinfo mentions that he met the Prime Minister too. No other news outlet mentioned this. After these meetings, the announcement came that Sachin has been recommended to the Rajya Sabha. In this backdrop, it is but natural to assume that the appointment had political overtunes. Is the Congress party trying to gain political mileage with this? I have no doubt in my mind that it is trying to do it. Soon it will take credit for giving representation to the aspirations of the youth etc. 

Does Sachin have political aspirations? Is he joining the congress party? We don't know yet. If he does, my personal respect towards him as a person will come down a bit (not that it matters). The exalted position I (and many) hold him as a player will not diminish even by a wee bit. 

But what will he do in the Rajya Sabha? This is an opportunity for Sachin to voice the problems of sports exclusively. He has been nominated from this field, and this is his golden opportunity to bring about changes in sports (and not just cricket) in the country. Will he be able to take such a lead role? His past record as a leader does not inspire confidence for sure. But shouldn't we wait for a while before judging him? 

Should he have accepted the invitation? Frankly, upon first hearing this, I was disappointed. But upon reflecting, there is really no reason to judge his decision currently. We will know if it was the right decision or not, 6 years from now. 

The outrage though is primarily because the depths to which the congress party has plunged the polity in our country. Anyone who is remotely seen as being associated with the party automatically have to face a huge backlash. Like some fellow tweeters commented, the outrage has some political message in it too - anyone associating themselves with the congress now will be seen as taboo too. It is important to debate the pathetic leadership that bought us to this stage. 

The outrage against this perceived political affliation towards Congress aside, the other disturbing thing is the outrage against him personally. He never asked for the demi-god status many of us accorded him. No one is perfect in this world. His actions in asking for tax rebates etc might not be inspiring but surely those are no cause to pour bile on him? Some question if he will play or attend the Rajya Sabha when it is in session. Don't we all know that it is not mandatory to attend the house every single day? This Prime Minister himself doesn't do it, why this unfair expectation from Sachin then? 

By being a member of Parliament, Sachin has now entered the sphere of public service. He is and must be accountable for his stint in the Rajya Sabha. If he doesn't perform, let's question him about it. But I'd suggest that we a little bit patient about this too. 

And lastly, the media

TV media as expected went agog with this news. They were entirely successful in conveying the message that Sachin can now be equated with the congress party. Congress party might even gain electorally with this, given the huge amount of fan following he has (any additional votes are welcome to the congress kitty!). Even regional media front-paged/headlined this news item. Though, it was not a banner headline in the newspapers. 

Along with Sachin, actor Rekha and activist Aga (who is a member of the Sonia Gandhi led NAC) were also nominated.Fat chance that many even know about Aga (or for that matter there is a nomination process!). Those who follow me on twitter know very well about MAA Music channel :). Today morning, the anchor on MAA Music was thrilled at Sachin's appointment and views this as an honour to him by our government. Congress ka goal achieved :D 

Rahul Dravid retires...

Finally, I would like to thank the Indian cricket fan, both here and across the world. The game is lucky to have you, and I have been lucky to play before you

Thus ended Rahul Dravid's retirement announcement. And it was at this moment that it sunk in - that he will not play for India anymore. Many articles have been written, many eulogies have poured in. An earlier speech by him in Australia prompted me to write a blogpost about him in detail. I really have nothing more to add, than to thank Rahul Dravid - as a Indian cricket fan, I have been lucky to see you play (at Hyderabad, vs New Zealand in a test match!). 

The modesty of the man is quite evident in this press conference after the announcement. He says he was nowhere as talented as the youngsters of this generation are!! 

Take a look at this blogpost - this person writes about the importance Rahul played in the records of other batsmen. What did he do? He stay put at the other end. He gave the other batsmen strength. And in the process, he too scored centuries and reached milestones, but they are not talked about for the other batsmen went on to score more than him! That is his biggest contribution - he stay put. 

And ofcourse, who better than his wife to give us insights into his preparation! This article by her is just brilliant. It is a must read for all. 

And finally, the usual suspects will anyway pay glowing tributes. The best tribute came from this article from a fan - fascinating really. Please read that too. 

Ofcourse, the talk of who will replace Rahul Dravid has begun. Only the number 3 position in the batting line-up will be replaced. Not Rahul Dravid. 

Thank you once again Rahul Dravid, for all those memories. We will miss you on field :(. 

Rahul Dravid's speech

There were many times I wondered what will be going through the mind of players when they are idle on the field :). And yesterday, I got my answer. And I can vouch that it cannot get any better than this. Rahul Dravid's speech at the Bradman Oration was making rounds, and at the end of the speech he had this to say:

"Before I conclude, I also want to talk briefly about an experience I have often had over the course of my career. It is not to do with individuals or incidents, but one I believe is important to share.

I have sometimes found myself in the middle of a big game, standing at slip or  even at the non-strikers end and suddenly realised that everything else has vanished.

At that moment, all that exists is the contest and the very real sense of the joy that comes from playing the game.It is an almost meditative experience where you reconnect with the game just like you did years ago, when you first began. When you hit your first boundary, took the first catch, scored your first century, or were involved in a big victory.

It lasts for a very fleeting passage of time, but it is a very precious instant and every cricketer should hang on to it."

Actually I am doing great injustice to his fascinating speech by just quoting his conclusion right at the beginning itself. But since it answered one of the basic questions I had in my mind, I wanted to mention it first :). 

We all know the greatness of the player called Rahul Dravid. His record speaks for itself. 36 centuries, 13,000 test runs, 10,000 ODI runs (that too in a format he is accused of being slow!!) is a record that many cannot achieve even in their dreams! However, this speech he delivered yesterday gave us an insight into his brilliant thoughts about the game and what greats like him think about it. 

First, he talks about the inspiring stories of cricketers who come from remote places and gives a short glimpse into the team's dressing room and tells us that 15 different languages could be spoken in that one room. While all of us were deriding the impact of television, he explains to us how it played a major role in taking the game to the masses and erasing the "princely" tag attached to it forever. And he also explains how the increase in revenue helped stabilise the life of many cricketers (international and first class). 

The striking aspect is his positive tone throught the speech. We have heard the cacophony on TV studios and instant judgements by journalists on whether test cricket is "dying" etc. Rahul Dravid devotes an entire section in his speech to talking about this aspect. We heard it from TV "experts" before, but when he says there is too much cricket and hence a spectator-fatigue, it is time for concerned authorities to sit up and take note. And I liked the way he talks about how the audience at the stadium is very important to the player, and why the audience is not just about generating revenue. It gave me delight to hear him say that a cheering crowd amplifies their resolve to perform well. And I particularly feel good because me along with friends went to watch a test match recently and cheered our throats out :). 

His thoughts about the future of the cricket needs to be taken seriously. We need to hear more from the likes of Dravid, Kumble, Sachin, Laxman etc on this game. Not from Arun Lal and Sanjay Manjrekar! 

Right at the beginning, he derides how loosely the words "war", "battle" are used when referring to cricket, which at the end of the day is a sport and not a battlefield. This speech should also make the media realise how fallacious their usage of such words is. He was speaking at their National War Memorial and had this to say:

This building, however, recognises the men and women who lived out the words – war, battle, fight - for real and then gave it all up for their country, their lives left incomplete, futures extinguished

How true, and how dignified of him to actually make a mention of this and bring the media back home to it's feet. 

Also notice how he says "Cricketing world will watch" instead of saying "World will watch". After all, cricket is actively played in just 9 countries. But then as usual our media won't learn right? Their headline - "World will watch India-Australia series" ! 

Anyways, let's not digress :). This entire speech here, is a must read for all cricket lovers. It has honesty written all over it. It gives us a glimpse of the thought process of a man who has given Indian cricket a lot of treasure. After he retires, am sure we will come up with many "Is X the next Dravid" when X scores a couple of centuries at No. 3 position in tests. But we, who have been fortunate to have seen him exhibit his art, know there will be no other Dravid. Thank you Rahul Dravid :) 

That's all, Your Honour! : Mar.27 - Apr.2

1. Maybe not a billion, but surely tens of millions of citizens were rejoicing since last night. The reason - Indian cricket team won the World Cup last night :) :) . We won this cup after a gap of 28 years (6 World Cups have passed by since we won in 1983). We came close to winning in 2003, but lost out very badly in the finals against Australia. We had a very disastrous World Cup campaign in 2007, when we got eliminated in the first round only. Since then, Team India has shown new initiative and new enthusiasm in getting back on track. The team won the T20 World Cup in 2007 (though we lost early in the subsequent 2 World Cups). The team then rose steadily to become the top ranked team in Tests too. This was a stupendous achievement given the difficulty in playing Test cricket. We then went onto become the top ranked team in ODIs too (I think currently we are second). This slow and steady rise has also ensured the hopes of fans also rise :). The initial round of this world cup saw India winning 3 matches, losing one and tieing one. Sachin Tendulkar (yes, even after 21 years in International cricket, he was our best batsmen!), Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer Khan were in top form in this tournament. However, we lost to South Africa due to a disastrous batting collapse and the tied match against England was due to some very shoddy bowling and batting at death. This had sceptics again wondering - we are winning against small teams and losing against the top teams. Amidst this background, we took on Australia (which won the last three World Cups!) in the Quarter Finals. Some superb performances by team members ensured that we beat them comprehensively. Next came the big match - Semifinals against arch rivals Pakistan! This match was hyped to unbelievable levels by our media. The Prime Minister of India invited his counterpart from Pakistan to view the match (more on this "diplomacy" in the next point). Amidst this pressure, Team India again came out with flying colours. Sachin Tendulkar was adjudged the Man of the Match for his 85. Each Indian bowler took 2 wickets. The win again reinforced belief in team effort. And then the finals - another superb team effort. Dhoni, who did not click with his bat in the entire tournament stuck form at the right time. Along with Gambhir, who made a superb 97, Dhoni ensured that we won the match with enough wickets to spare. From a first round exit in 2007 to winning the cup in 2011, the team has come a very long way. In the early 2000s, Sourav Ganguly exemplified leadership, and inspired confidence in the team to very high levels. It was during his time that "Team India" was born. And that spirit was continued by M.S.Dhoni and the results are now there for everyone to see. We won T20 World, are on top of Test rankings and we are now World Champions! What more can a cricket fan ask for :).

2. "Mohali diplomacy successful" screamed some headlines. They followed that headline with "Pak PM invites Sonia" and "Pak PM invites Team India to come and play in Pak". Now, is this what successful diplomacy has been reduced to? We invite them, they come here and invite us - and all is well? Pakistan is yet to take any serious action on our terror related complaints, and here we are - ever ready to showcase that we are willing to forget all those lives lost. A separate blog post to detail the PM's obsession with Pakistan to follow. Until then, enjoy the world cup victory your Honour!

V. Anand is not Indian?!

There is an International Congress of Mathematicians going on in Hyderabad. This Congress was inaugurated by the President of India. As part of the Congress, World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand was invited to play chess with 40 mathematicians. He also gave a very nice detailed interview on how he is excited to be playing with these 40 mathematicians.

The ICM also decided to honour Anand with a doctorate. Surely he deserves it - infact in my opinion this is a belated move. Anyways, now enters the dragon and here's where we all have to hang our head in shame.

The Ministry of Human Resources questions the nationality of Anand and therefore does not give permission for this doctorate to be awarded. Read the shocking details in this news item here: http://www.hindu.com/2010/08/24/stories/2010082462451200.htm

The ministry sat on the file for months, questioned his nationality, chides the organisers for "holding a special convocation ceremony just to accommodate the convenience of foreigners" (Anand was to awarded this doctorate, along with another professor from Harvard).

This is a national SHAME. Is this how we treat our world champions? Is this the respect our bureaucracy accords to those who have been pioneers in their sports? He had to wait all day for some crook in the ministry to decide whether he was an Indian or not (and this even after the passport was submitted) - can it get anymore embarassing? Anand is reported to have said "I want my country back."

Reason enough for us to hang our heads in shame.

That's all, Your Honour! : July 25-31

1. In Haryana, 1 lakh quintals of wheat was left to rot in open area, for lack of storage space! This is not the frst time grains have been left in the open due to lack of storage space. This time, the loss in terms of money has been around Rs. 15 crores. Actually more than the money, the number of people who could have had hearty meals itself runs into lakhs. Food Corporation of India is the agency responsible for preserving grains. It comes under the Agricultural ministry, which is headed by Sharad Pawar! Speaking of rot, let's move to the next point.

2. Corruption Wealth Games. Some call it Congress Wealth Games too! Well, the actual name is Common Wealth Games. This time, New Delhi is hosting them in October. And guess what, some stadiums are not yet complete! In 14 out of the 17 venues, electricty installations have not been checked. That's right - not checked! The inspection agency that was supposed to submit monthly reports has not submitted even one report! The construction work was begun very late and then it was cited that since there is an urgency in completing the projects, the rates need to be hiked up! Banned contractors were given contracts, testing criteria was fudged with, and safety precautions have gone for a toss! The saga is never ending ... Indian Oympic Association Chairman Suresh Kalmadi and Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dixit are busy trading charges. The Union Minister of Sports says this is like a wedding, where everything will fall in place in the last minute!! A whopping sum of Rs. 35,000 crores has been spent so far on this games, and we don't even know why so much was needed in the first place! And the costs still don't seem to abate..like we said before, the saga is never ending!

3. Bypolls to 12 Assembly seats in Telangana were held this week. These were necessaited because 10 TRS MLA's, 1 MLA each from TDP and BJP resigned from their seats. And suprisingly, TRS won 11 seats and BJP retained its lone seat (supported by TRS). And not only that, the margin of victory also increased manifold for all the victors. 3 TRS candidates infact had more than 70,000 votes majority. TDP lost its security deposit in all the 12 constituencies and Congress lost it in 4. And the biggest shock for Congress came when it's state President, D.Srinivas lost from the Nizamabad seat (for the 2nd consecutive time). Though this can be seen as a resounding demand for a separate state in these constituencies, we just have to wait for the Sri Krishna committee to submit it's report.

4. After a relatively calm period for about a week, the stone pelters are again back in Kashmir. A total of 5 people have so far been killed in the clashes between police and the protestors. These protests were organised by the Hurriyat faction led by Syed Geelani, whom the state and central government don't lose an opportunity to invite for talks, while he encourages such vioelnce!

5. After the wikileaks episode, Indian media started wondering if it will have any impact on our talks with Pakistan! Yeah right, like there is something very new in the "fact" that ISI supports Taliban and other terror groups! Even if ISI accepts that, will our Prime Minister stop the talks?! That's all, your honour!

Our World Champions...

Koneru Humpy - World No. 2 in Chess
Saina Nehwal - World No. 3 in Badminton
Viswanathan Anand - World Champion in all forms of Chess
Pankaj Advani - World Champion in Billiards
Leander Paes and Mahes Bhupathi are world leaders in doubles Tennis

The intention here is not to belittle the achievements of our cricketers, but just look at the kind of sports the above mentioned folks are champions in. Those sports are the true world wide ones. And all these players are still playing and peaking well. And thankfully too, there is not too much media glare on all these achievers too :). We get to know their achievements, and that's where media is thankfully putting a full stop! In a way it is good - let them peak and achievre glory. Media and its blitzkrieg can wait for another day and time.

Really proud of our true world champions :)

No cricket team for Asian Games

Actually, Gaurav Kalra writes about it beautifully here. Summarizes everything so many of us would want to say to the BCCI. As always, BCCI doesn't give a damn about all these medals and stuff - you see, they don't bring in money value my friend.

That's all, your honour! :May 9-15

1. Viswanathan Anand beat Topalov to retain his Chess World Championship. He is the world champion in a game that is played in almost all countries of the world (and not just 8 :D). Over the past decade, he has single handedly demolished the Russian domination of the game, that has originated in India! For this particular world championship game, Anand and Topalov played 12 games in all, and till the 11th game the scores were tied at 5.5 each. Anand won the last game, playing with black that too. Interestinglu, Anand had to travel for 40 hours by road to reach the venue, because of that volcanic ash effect! He was given an extension of just 1 day, and though he lost the first game, he bounced back strongly in the second. In this interview in The Hindu, he discusses in detail about strategies during this championship. However, his victory coincided with Indian Men's cricket team exit from World Cup T20! (btw, the women's team went upto the semi-finals!)And obviously this put sections of media in a soup :D... what to concentrate on now! Arban Goswami even asked Anand what he thought of Dhoni's statement that late night parties of IPL were responsible for that fiasco! That's right, Anand was asked what he thinks of Dhoni's assessment! Anyways, this rediff article lists out Anand's achievements and it doesn't take a genius to figure out why he is a genuis!

2. For the 3rd time in 3 years, the same story repeated in Hyderabad. Two terrorists come on a scooter/bike, shoot a policeman and then flee away. Always close to the anniversary of the Mecca Masjid blasts. This year was no different. Two terrorists came on a scooter, shot dead a constable and fled away. The constable, V.Ramesh was manning a picket along with 4 others, and guess what none of them had weapons with them! They were manning a picket just 1km away from Mecca Masjid. May 18 is the anniversary of the blast at Mecca Masjid in 2007; 2 times in the past the terrorists have adopted the same strategy; and we still don't equip those manning pickets close to Mecca Masjid! And now the police are having to tread carefully while investigating because apparently they harrased a lot of youth when the blasts happened, in the name of interrogation. The massive search a couple of weeks ago resulted in the arrest of an LeT operative, but the lowering of gaurd post that arrest led to this fiasco.

3. Next week, the UPA government completes one year in office. NDTV already set the ball rolling by talking about performance of just 2 ministers in its poll here. It is quite evident how incoherent the government has been over the past one year, and yet I bet the media will search and search for positives and then try to present a "balanced" story! Wait and watch, your honour!

Bunch of retards

It is just difficult to get over this picture and the related news item on it, in today front page.

http://www.hindu.com/2010/05/06/stories/2010050658440100.htm

The background is simple. Sports Minister M.S.Gill mooted a proposal that the heads of different sports bodies should have a fixed tenure of 12 years. That set the retards in the picture loose.

First off all, who talks of a fixed tenure of "12 years" ??? Indian sports bodies are all riddled with ineffeciency and are mostly headed by nincompoops. Don't trust me? In the picture, just see who head some of the association. Jagdish Tytler heads The Judo Association. V.K.Malhotra heads The Archery Association. Praful Patel heads the Football Federation. Suresh Kalmadi is heading the Olympic Association since time eternal. And these people, who belong to different political parties are up in arms agains the sports minister for just mooting a proposal. Not even implementing, for just mooting it.

And look at Kalmadi's statements - " If you fiddle with the autonomy you get into trouble. If the IOC imposes sanctions, it can bring to a standstill all sports activity in the country". Someone should remind this person that the "sports activity" in this country is not moving anyway, so what is it that you will bring to a standstill you retard?

On top of that he warns, "If you fiddle with the autonomy..." Autonomy, my foot - Dude, your association runs on tax payers money,not on money that you personally invest to give such threats. You all should be ashamed of yourself for the present condition of sports in the country - instead what do we get - your threats! The most unfortunate and shameful thing is that these bloody threats will work, and these fit for nothing people will continue to head these bodies till someone in their family is read to take over and make more money. Who cares what happens to Judo players, archers, and football stadiums in this country?

PS: Sorry for the language, but these guys deserve much worse than what I wrote.

Saina Nehwal ranked 5th in the world!

In what can surely be termed as a very proud moment for Indian Sports, Saina Nehwal, the badminton player, has been ranked 5th in the world. Early last week, she became the first Indian woman to reach the semifinals of the All England Badminton championship. And even there, she went down fighting and it definetely was not a walk over for the opponent. Here's earnestly hoping she continues her wonderful game, and doesn't get swayed away like her other famous Hyderbadi sporstperson! May her tribe grow :)

200 not out...

Sachin Tendulkar became the first man in ODI history to hit a double century. He remained not out at 200, at the end of 50 overs. Superlatives are not enough to describe the innings, and I am in no way qualified to even write 1% as beautifully as he played (read cricinfo for some really nice articles). Will just list out some facts about this innings. Figure out for yourself, why #sachin is god!

1. In 2962 ODI's this is the first time, 200 has been scored.
2. He took 147 balls to score 200. Amazing team player, number of balls show how well he rotated the strike
3. 25 fours, 3 sixes
4. 81 singles
5. No by runner. That's right, no by runner in the entire innings.
6. And lastly, this is how he reacted after reaching the milestone. No fist pumping, no chesting thumping. Just this.

That's all, Your Honour!:Jan10-16

1. For years now, all right thinking citizens have been crying from the rooftop that our sports system is screwed up. And those who led the various sports federations in the country did not belong to that group. Two incidents this weeks further reinforced this strong belief. Hockey players went on a strike with some demands, which Hockey India was not keen to solve. Their demands - give us salary, give us performance bonuses and have a contract system. That's it. Those were the demands. Nothing more, nothing less. And for this, the amazingly managed Hockey India did not have money! It is plain impossible to believe that the governent of India does not have money. On top of this, Hockey India, in all their wisdom asked the players to play for their country and not for money. The levels to which the administrators can stoop, really has no bounds!

While this was happening, India's lone gold medallist at Olympics, Abhinav Bindra was waging a lone battle against the National Rifle Association of India. The reason - he was not chosen for the Commonwealth Games! Abhinav clarified that he did accept to take part in the trials and they were cancelled when he came to take part in them, and he had to go back to Europe to continue his training. Nothing mattered to the NRAI. I mean, the lone gold medallist of the country is treated like this, just imagine the plight of the others. If you are wondering what the government has been doing about this, well our Sports minister is M.S.Gill. Need I say more, your honour?!

2. First he blames global warming, then he blames the states and finally he blames his lack of knowledge in astrology! Sports is not the only field that was screwed up this week. Our dear Agricultural minister, who incidentally is also the President-elect of the International Cricket Council, when questioned about why sugar prices are going up so drastically and when they are expected to come down, in all his wisdom tells us that he is not an astrologer to predict the rise and fall of prices! The next job posting for the Minister of Agriculture will specify this requirement too - Need to be conversant with astrology. Within two days, Pawar announced some half baked measures and said the prices will come down in 8-10 days. If he could really have done this now, why did he not do this last week, your honour?!

3. Remember a Prime Minister called Deve Gowda. There is a slim chance you might. If so, please erase that part also from your memory. Infact, I would request future historians to ignore his year as Prime Minister. Wondering why this request? This week, this fellow called the CM of Karnataka and the Advocate General of Karnataka as "bloody bastards". Yep, you heard it right. The media did not misquote him, he said this to TV media, and hold your breath, agreed on live TV the next day to have used that language and did NOT feel bad about for he had to use such language because he was angry with CM for ignoring the farmers. And just to add salt to injury, he repeated the word again on national TV and appreciated the national media's concern for the language he used. Now, do we really deserve to record his year as Prime Minister of this country, your honour?

4. I wrote a separate blog on this here, but wanted to mention that here too. Shivraj Patil has been made the governor of Punjab. Shame on the Congress High Command. That's all, your honour!

PS: Speaking of "your honour", the Delhi High Court ruled that the office of Chief Justice of India also comes under the RTI. Landmark judgement indeed.

20 years and counting...

There is no need to stress on the fanatic nature of the Indian cricket fan. And in recent times, there is no need to stress on the fanatic nature of the Indian media! A "great" player today will become "the dream that died soon" in no time! Some men have remained aloof to all this non-sensical stuff. And it is only them who went on to become icons and legends.

Topping that list is Sachin Tendulkar. His records are a delight for any statiscian, about that there is no doubt. They undoubtedly contributed to his longevity, but what conributed more to his success (and our pleasure) was his approach and attitude towards the sport. His dedication on the field (we quite often forget his bowling heroics too J ), his balance off the field, his resolve in coming back from lean periods, and his down to earth manners have all contributed in large measures to his success. That is what we have to learn from this man – focus on your job and glory will automatically follow.

To the spectator, any shot of his is such a pleasure to watch, but my personal favorite is in the picture below. It still perplexes me as to how such a shot can even be played! Many of us can not even dream of such a shot.

That he has entertained us for 20 continous years is a fascniating reality; and that one day he will stop playing is the harsh reality. Until then, let us enjoy the gems he produces time and again. Because, we might not get to see anything close to the genius of Sachin Tendulkar in our lifetime.

God is on our side :)

Before you think this is an article on religion, no J

Last night someone put a message on twitter. Whoever wins, GOD is still on our side! This was referring to Sachin Tendulkar's awesome (u know, we all ran out of superlatives to describe him) innings in Hyderabad! Australia hit 350 runs. We were chasing it.

Indian team hit 347 runs. Sachin Tendulkar hit 175 runs in that. Just imagine. More than half the score came from him. More importantly, the manner in which he played his innings was fascinating. It was a treat to watch. I can go on with more superlatives, but I guess we all get the point J .

People keep saying this was Sachin of the 90's. I disagree. He was always like this. And obviously your game changes with time, so there is just no point comparing. We just have to sit back and enjoy the magic he spins from time to time. We are just lucky to have been there to see him play! Like the guy on twitter said – GOD is on our side!

Trivia: Yesterday, it was exactly 20 years since he was named for the Indian squad to Pakistan. And he came up with an innings of his and our lifetime.

Injured? Retired hurt?

As usual, our media is asking questions like " Has Dhoni lost his Midas Touch?", "Is this the beginning of the end" .. etc etc.

I don't think anybody lost any touch. The problem is there for all of us to see. Most of the players we have are moody! We don't know when they will click and when they will not. We don't know when they will get injured, and how long they will take to recover from them. Getting injured so many times is never part of the game. Once or twice is acceptable, but why doesn't anyone question why Zaheer Khan misses so many tournaments because of injury? This is not the first time Yuvraj is out because of injury. If too much cricket is the cause of injury, then why not reduce it by a bit. Ohh no, but then Lalit Modi cannot be the Czar of cricket, so that option is ruled out. So play year long, yet play safe and play consistently. Isn't it asking for too much? Isn't it time to phase out the schedule properly so that we actually produce more Sachins, Dravids, Kumbles, Kapil Devs, Dadas? They played for long with far less injuries and much better consistency.

Here comes the consistency part. Within an year of being touted as "the future of Indian bowling/batting/cricket", many players like Ishant Sharma, Rohit Sharma, R.P.Singh, Munaf Patel, Sreesanth, Irfan Pathan etc etc have all hit a disgusting low in their short international careers. Is the hype getting onto them? If so, why don't we also help them in making them aloof from such a hype. Sachin, Dravid, Kumble, Dada, Laxman have all held their game together for however long they have played. What is their secret, and what is missing from the present generation? Why cannot such help be provided to these cricketers?

Luck may have played a little hard on us in this champion's trophy, but then to bow out from the initial rounds of World Cup, T-20 second world cup and champions trophy is reason enough to shake up things by a bit. It is a fact that we are amongst the top 3 teams in ODI's, why lose that status because of reasons that are in our control? It is time we put a full stop to players getting injured and then retired hurt.

Congratulations Saina!

Well, I just wanted to congratulate Saina Nehwal for her awesome victory in the Indonesia Open. To be in the top 10 in a famous sport that is played in most countries of the world is no mean achievement at all. She is currently ranked number 7 and has clearly set her sight to greater heights. And I don't think those heights are difficult to scale if she continues her unflinching focus.

Maybe the lack of distractions due to stupid advertisements has helped her a lot. All along, she has let her game do the talking, unlike her other famous peer from tennis! And to top it all, she has had an excellent coach in P. Gopichand. It is also to Gopichand's credit that he set up an academy post retirement and is giving his best to groom more players.

Go Saina go! We are raring to see you climb higher!

And so we exit this “World Cup”

I woke up this morning, and all channels were going gaga over India's exit from this "World Cup".

The first thing that came to my mind was Boris Becker's second Wimbledon victory! After winning it for the second consecutive time, Becker said that this was much sweeter than the first one, because the burden of expectation was much much higher than the first one, and to win under such conditions was much sweeter :)

When we won the World Cup in 1983, the team did play consistently well till the 1987 WC (we lost in the semi-finals then). Maybe the young brigade this time found it just too much to handle the burden of expectations this time (especially with our media).

TIMES NOW reporter was walking while reporting, with some fans behind him. His voice is choked with emotion ( like India just lost a war; actually it was more like he lost his job for unfair reasons :D). And then he tells us - "The honeymoon period has ended; this has been very disappointing; this has been a very disappointing way to end the honeymoon"

A disappointing way to end the honeymoon??? What would have been a "satisfying way" of ending the honeymoon, Mr. Reporter? Lose in the Finals? Or if we lost in the semi-finals, it would have been a not so disappointing end to the honeymoon? And ohh by the way, Mr. Reporter, there was no need for you to ask the question "Should M.S.Dhoni be replaced? Is he the right man for the job?" You and I know very well that there is no one else who can lead Team India better than Dhoni now. Maybe you should find a way to control your false emotions!

Before talking about the losses, I want to make one more point. Why can't the BCCI handle things better??? Why doesn't it step up when the situation demands?? The recent stand off between the team and the media could have been handled much better than it was. Why do you have to burden the captain with strategizing for the match and also strategizing on how to face the media?! You could see there was negative energy around, so what just was the BCCI doing?!

And now for the losses. Dhoni himself agreed that his calculations in today's match went wrong. Apart from that, I also think the team was not in right frame of mind while coming into the tournament, and the fight with the media didn't do it any help either. The IPL fatigue, the Sehwag issue, the lack of practice before yesterday's match - all hurt the team.

Anyway, given that this T-20 World Cup is going to happen next April, the champions will not have too much time to celebrate ;-). The 4 year World Cups are so much better. You wait for them in anticipation, if you don't win in one, you have to wait for a full four years, and it gives you time to plan better. Atleast the Cup should be once in 2 years. Definetely not within 10 months of the previous one!

I don't feel any strong emotion after this loss... for given that another "World Cup" is coming up just next April, I think we need not wait too long before the same media will get a chance to sing paens for this team! The defeat is disappointing no doubt, but then it is not the end of the world, is it?

ot