India Down Under 2007-08

Yet another Indian cricket series has started and this time it is the much awaited series India Down Under (Down Under is a colloquialism referring to things Australia, because in a world map the country Australia is situated down south under all other countries and hence the expression.) A cricket tour by the Indian team to Australia has always evoked great expectation and interest among the masses for various reasons. There is always a great pleasure in finding out how the great Indian batting line up face the all powerful Australian attack. Most often than not a test match between India and Australia is considered as rendezvous where there will be a great competition between the Indian batsmen and the Aussie bowlers. Even the players consider this as a perfect venue to test their playing skills and mental abilities. Also, of late, there has been a common perception that India is perhaps the only team in the world who holds the strength to challenge the Aussie domination in cricket. Two of the recent Twenty20 wins by India over Australia has strengthened such a view as well.

This series is undoubtedly a historic one because of one most prominent reason and it is that this is going to be the last series down under for not only one of the greatest batsmen of all times - Sachin Tendulkar, but also for the other greats of the game like Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and the Very Very Special (VVS) Laxman. So the series is watched closely by the cricket lovers all over the world. It had always been a great feeling to watch all these great players fighting it out at the MCGs and the SCGs and the WACAs. But as all good things have to come to an end at some point of time, this has also reached the final phase. It is quite disheartening to understand that we wont be able to see these great men at work again there in Australia.

This is also a golden opportunity to the cricket fraternity in India to gauge the efficiency of some of the young members of the Indian Cricket team like Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni. These young men are going to be the torch bearers of Indian cricket for the years to come. Australia is a place where the technique and skill of a player is tested to its fullest and it is more so when we consider the case of a batsman. It has to be seen whether the technique and batting skills of these young guns match with that of their elder team mates.

When this article is being written, the first test at MCG has already begun. It is the customary Boxing Day test match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Victoria, which is incidentally the home ground of the legendary leg spinner Shane Warne. We are certainly missing this genius Victorian this time around and this series can certainly be called the beginning of the post-Warne India-Australia clash down under. Decades and centuries are often named after legendary human beings who had written their names in the annals of the history and Shane Warne is undoubtedly one of the legends of the game and therefore it is only appropriate to to term this as post-Warne era.

The second and third tests will be played at Sydney and Adelaide respectively and Adelaide is certainly the ground where the Indians are having good memories of the win in the last series played during 2003-04. The wonderful innings played by Rahul Dravid gave us a great victory to cherish and the Indians would do good to reiterate that memorable performance. Also, one could scarcely forget the Sydney match of that series which incidentally was the last match of another great player Steve Waugh. Sachin Tendulkar's very hard fought double century is still quite alive in the minds of all cricket lovers.

So altogether this series is expected to be yet another cracker of a series with a lot of things at stake for the Indians especially the senior pros of the team as this is going to be their last tour down under. Let us all keep our fingers crossed and wait for a great series with a lot of fair fight, flair and fire.

I Mourn the Death of Benazir Bhutto - The Daughter of the East

Benazir Bhutto
21 June 1953 - 27 December 2007

I mourn the untimely death of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. 'The Daughter of the East' bravely fought a battle to restore democracy in her country and to bring back lost human rights for her fellow citizens and has attained martyrdom. My heartfelt condolences for the bereaved family and the democracy loving people of Pakistan and the world.

An Excellent Product Idea

Train travel is quite a beneficial form of travel especially for a person like me who has got a personal blog and therefore is always on to the look out for new subjects to write about so that the blog is always up to date and running. For the past month or so I have been a frequent traveler plying through the railway lines of the state twice in a week and this journey is certainly not in search of a subject for my blog, but often gives me some food for thought and sometimes some really good subjects to right about as well. One such recent travel had given me an occasion to get acquainted with a person with a rather smart new product idea. He was a train vendor and he has got a very unique and sensible product with him. While writing this piece, I hope he will pardon me if I borrow some of the words that he himself has used while marketing his product.

We all, at some point of time or the other, would have been a participant in a long queue to obtain some application form from some Government offices. And we all pretty much know the agony we have to face to get that simple piece of paper and, as if the long queue alone is not enough, there are also different issues raised by the officials there, as if their sole intention is to deny us the easy access of that application form. More than that most of us are absolutely oblivious about the places from where we would get a particular form. So to sum up, to obtain a form we have to first know the place from where we could get the form and for that you have to ask a multitude of people who would certainly give you multitude of answers, get to the place by traveling some distance since some forms will be produced only from one center throughout the state, then stand at the queue, then have a verbal scuffle with the officials there and of course wait for the officialdom to take pity on you and finally give you the required form. This is a real ordeal which most of us have faced sometime or the other. This is where the product that we are going to discuss about comes into play.

The vendor in the train claims that he or his family members no longer go to Government offices for getting any of the forms, instead he is carrying about 150 different types of forms with him always so that he can use it whenever he requires it. If you are thinking at the frivolousness of carrying about 150 forms with you always, then wait a minute. He is not carrying it in the physical form instead he is having a CD in which the soft copies of all these forms are there. And that seems to be a pretty good product idea, isn't it ? So anyone needing any form can readily get it form the CD and print it out and use it. If you don't have a printing facility, then just get into a DTP center find the form and take the print out. To further strengthen his case the vendor also states that many government departments accepts forms taken as print outs by the user himself and gives the example of many departments having online forms . He further claims that he had spent about a year and about one lakh rupees for traveling and collecting this much forms from different places and put them all into a CD. Checking the veracity of this statement by him is not at all something that would interest us, but the product is certainly something that would arose anyone's curiosity. Now, the vendor says that his product can be used not only by individual users but also by DTP centers by providing the service of getting lay users the form he needs and charging a price for that. The price of the product is Rs.50 but the vendor says that as an introductory price he is charging only Rs.30.

Two things have to be given utmost credit here - first is the new product idea and the second the new entrepreneur. Here is a product idea that no one had thought about before, for which there is going to be good demand as the product is worthy enough and the price is quite reasonable. Here is an entrepreneur who dared to think big, think about a new idea and not only did he thought about it, but he also transformed his thought into action and that too transformed it successfully. Now it is up to us to decide whether to buy his product and stay away from the long queues that we are so much used to, or continue squandering our time waiting in the queue believing with (waning) hope that we would reach the destination counter sooner rather than later.

You Got it Wrong Mr.Mush

Mr.Musharraf, as we are learning to call him after he jettisoned, rather, mournfully relinquished, his army uniform, had got things absolutely wrong. He introduced Emergency, proposed the Provisional Constitution Order (PCO), expelled the Supreme Court Chief Justice Ifthikar Choudhary, curtailed the human rights of the population and proclaimed himself as the sole ruler of the Muslim country. All these factors have only resulted in reducing his popularity among the masses and his credibility in the eyes of the international community. Again, speaking about his popularity, it was never quite high for him to get worried about any diminution of it, but it had got still worse and reached a level where there had been wide spread mass protest against his autocratic rule with the emergency in place.

If one would contemplate the places where Mr.Mush had gone wrong - for that matter a very close perusal of the facts is not needed, instead anyone with a little of common sense can hardly miss his failure points - it all started with his declaration of Emergency on November. This was certainly a move to counter any decision the Supreme Court might had taken against his re-election on October. With the declaration of emergency he has defeated every possible move of his critics to rule him out of his incumbent position as the Head of the State. One of the most unpopular decision he had taken is the introduction of Provisional Constitution where by curtailing the legal human rights of the people and this came under a lot of criticism from inside and outside the country. He banned protests against him, banned all private television channels, arrested people who were protesting against him, put lawyers under house arrest, anointed hand picked people as judges in the Supreme Court and so on.

Now Mr.Musharraf is speaking about lifting the Emergency and conducting "free and fair" elections. With the absence of an autonomous election commission and with the judiciary playing to the tunes of Mr.Musharraf, one could hardly expect a fair and transparent election. There are scepticism that President Musharraf would dare to do pre-election and post-election rigging to manipulate the election result to suit him and would baptize the political party that supports him , the PML(Q) to reign at the Parliament. But the pro-Musharraf administration is saying that they have done everything possible to conduct a free and fair election with election observers from different countries already present there at Pakistan.

The most significant issue about the present situation there at Pakistan is the absence of human rights. There is no law and order, there is no proper judicial system to take care of the legal rights of the people and there is no environment for the freedom of speech and expression. The international community is not doing enough to change this situation. The human rights groups in Pakistan are fighting hard to reclaim their lost right, they should be given moral support by all countries who believe in freedom and democracy, international human rights agencies should pressurize the international community to act in favor of bringing normalcy back in Pakistan, there should be enough mechanism in place to showcase the human rights activism happening in Pakistan to the international community where by this struggle can increase the confidence of all human rights activists across the world and the international agencies working on human rights viz. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, OHCHR etc. should come forward to take up this issue to the world stage.

There are a lot of things to be done to bring down the arrogant dictator Mr.Mush from his position as the President of Pakistan and also a lot of things to be done to bring back democracy in that country. Pakistanis should see this as an golden opportunity to wipe off Pakistan military's age old demeanor of usurping power from the democratically elected government. Of course one can't help but think that the end is near for Mr.Musharraf's dream run as the Chief Executive of his country and he has himself to blame for that because he always got everything absolutely wrong.

LDF Government’s Governing Woes

Some people have got the idea that bad governance is tantamount to no governance. But this writer feels that it is a very wrong presumption and believes that it is always good to have a government running a bad government rather than a government without any governance at all. This argument can be proved effectively by using the example of the present government headed by the Left Democratic Front (LDF) in Kerala.

The government that came into existence after getting a big majority in the legislative assembly, has failed miserably in generating any hope in the minds of the people about any good governance. More importantly the government is now mired in a lot of controversies, corruption charges, factionalism, contempt of court charges and so on. But the most important factor that had affected the common man was the dreadful condition of the roads in Kerala. It is often being said in Kerala that the condition of the roads had never been so terrible in the history of the State. Still worse was the Government’s reaction to such a shoddier state of affair. That the government is incapable of taking even a tactical decision like maintenance of roads, leave alone strategic ones, shows the inept and clumsy nature of the LDF government.

The CPI(M), which is heading the coalition government is itself now mired in factionalism that they can hardly find enough time to give proper consideration to their governing duties. The condition of other parties of the LDF front is not any different either. Moreover there are conflicts and hostilities between the parties of the front as well. The recent spat between the minister Sudhakaran of CPI(M) and the CPI Secretary Veliyam Bhargavan is a good example for the same. Day by day the woes of the government are increasing and the internal feud is not making things any better for the them. The recent controversy of the Sabarimala aravana is a shocking example of the internal fight within the LDF front. The Devasom committee members, of course from different parties, are fighting among themselves thereby forgetting the need for a better governance of the temple affairs. This has become an indelible stigma on the government about which, disgustingly enough, they are not worried about.

The latest trend of this government is to blame everything on the civil servants to hide its incapability of doing things and lack of political will. It even got to the extend of the resignation of the former Chief Secretary Lizzie Jacob. There are also political pressure on the government to remove capable officials from their present positions when they are doing something against the whims and fancies of the ruling parties. Removal of Suresh Kumar IAS from the Munnar Mission and MGA Raman from the jail DGP posts are examples of the same. These deeds of the Government haven't done any good to their credibility, if they had some. The pig-headed stubbornness of the Government is all the more evident in it's callous denial of any enquiry into any possible foul play on the same issue.

The life and property of the common man has no security in the present day Kerala. We all are aware about what happened at Changanassery, where there was a clash between the SFI and ABVP students and people from outside and a dutiful Police Officer attained martyrdom while doing his duty. There was no real probe into the issue and before the Police could arrest any perpetrators the Home Minister, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan from Trivandrum has declared that the ABVP is behind the attack. Any sensible person would know that both SFI and ABVP people were involved in the attack and the Minister had declared as he did there was just to save activists of his party from getting arrested. Worse, the Police had arrested some very innocent people on charges of instigating violence and killing the Police Officer. The sad plight of those innocent people are really worrisome and creates a big question mark in the minds of the common men about the safety he or she has in the present scenario with the LDF, headed by CPI(M), in the Government. Though the Home Minister is not interested in doing anything to maintain peace and tranquility in the state, one could only wonder what drives his inner self to bring a lot of so-called "reforms" in the different jails in the state. One cant be blamed if he/she thinks that it is only better to be at some jails rather than being in the outside world in the present day Kerala state because this ministry has done a lot of things for the betterment of jails than anything else. Kudos Home Minster, Kudos.

One single Minister who stands out from the rest, even if more often for wrong reasons, is Mr.Sudhakaran. Within a short span of time as Minister he has become notorious with his childish remarks and joker-like expressions. He is certainly the buffoon of the cabinet and always makes some issues or the other for the lay people to laugh at. Though there are less number of people who doubts the person's integrity, there is a feeling among the masses that he is not eligible for the post of a Minister because he often makes the mockery of his position in the eyes of the public and to the outside world. A state like Kerala can hardly afford such a frivolously silly Minister. He often conceals his inefficiency through his loud stupid remarks on the officers and all his critics. Such a person is not at all fit to be a minister and its a ill-fate of the Malayalees that we have to endure such a ludicrously sick person as our Minister. It would be better for Mr.Sudhakaran to resign his position as Minister and take some position in his party - CPI(M) where he might find some people who can bear with his stupidity and might even have the great heart to hail him as the greatest candid leader ever and also anoint him as the savior of the downtrodden and the voice of the voice-less common man.

This Government has stretched the limit of the endurance of the common people - there is no governance, there is no order, there is no peace, there is no development, there is no security for the life and property of the common man, and of course there is no aravana at Sabarimala. This writer, with the hope of being the "voice of the voice less", though for a very small time period, just wants to tell this government one thing - if you don't know how to govern, then just GET LOST.

Hey Selectors, Where is the Wall

If there is, at any point of time, a national debate on the subject of selecting the best batsman Indian cricket has ever produced, I don't think there would be a great debate. Because statistics and memories of people together will tell that it is Sachin Tendulkar. The Master himself, is one of the greatest cricketers of all times and is also considered as the greatest One Day cricketer ever. Now the question comes on who will succeed Tendulkar on that list of India's greatest batsmen. Arguably, it would be Rahul Dravid, surpassing the great Sunil Gavaskar, for Dravid is the Great Wall of India, widely considered as the greatest Number 3 batsman India ever had. But this fact creates a major doubt in this writer, which he guess can be answered only by the Selectors of the BCCI - Where is the Wall ?

It can only be considered ridiculous that such a great batsman has been overlooked for selection in the ODIs against such a strong opponent like Pakistan. Of course its true that India has won the series against Pakistan and we all are happy about it as well, but still the omission of the great Rahul Dravid from the team is a sad fact. But of course the other side is that this omission has given Rahul the great opportunity to fight back and slam a ton and a double ton in the domestic circuit. He again gave evidence on why he is called the Wall. He was not taken aback by his omission from the national team, instead he fought back with valor and proved a point or two.

There is no doubt this great cricketer, one of the greatest sons of the country, will bounce back and make his impact felt on the international arena once again, for he is a man of class, temperament and enormous abilities. It is only a right decision by the selectors to include Rahul Dravid in national team for the test series against Pakistan and I am sure that he will also figure in the test team against Australia down under. The bouncier tracks of Australia demands batsmen of right technique and right temperament which Rahul Dravid has in plenty. His overseas record is also something that is worth mentioning - he is one batsman whose overseas record in test matches is better than the record in the home matches.

Some times the BCCI selectors make such bizarre decisions that we feel that they are rather insane and inane than being sensible and prudent. Otherwise what reason on this earth do these people have to drop the great Rahul Dravid from the National side. Yet, now they have made the right decision by selecting him for the test matches against Pakistan and thus sense has prevailed again. Lets hope that Rahul Dravid can once again show his mettle as a great Test Batsman and there by prove his real worth to the selectors in the micro level and to the world in a macro level.

The Tale of Sacred Knight

Dreams of lanky Sacred Knight,
Were filled with shades of pallid hue,
With exalted mind and crippled thoughts,
Lived a man called Sacred Knight.

In his youth, often in despair,
He longed for an honest bosom,
But in old age, with astute self,
Lived a man called Sacred Knight.

With his spade he dug the graves,
For the deceased souls' long rest,
Amidst all unknown, silent corpses,
Lived a man called Sacred Knight.

Symbols of misery, he bore on his face,
Like a young widow's gray hairs,
With a smirk, though in despair,
Lived a man called Sacred Knight.

Pleasures of Bachelorhood

Being a person born and brought up in my own locality, I always get the privilege of getting invited to almost all marriages happening in and around my place. More often than not, I make it a point to attend them as well because my mother is someone who believes that it is very important to attend those functions as a sign of giving respect to those who had taken the effort of coming to our home and inviting us for the wedding. The most interesting thing that I frequently notice in a wedding ceremony is the way in which a very peculiar form of “marketing” happening in almost all these wedding functions and it is of course, done by the mothers of those “hope-to-be-bride-soon” girls.

I safely presume that my female friends and readers will forgive me on this, as this might seem offensive to some of them. In the wedding gatherings the mothers bring their daughters in the finest of attires and garbed in the most glittering ornaments and they also meticulously choose the right persons to introduce their daughters to (these right persons, incidentally are those young men or the parents of those young men presumably considered as the most eligible bachelors around). For some reasons yet to be discovered, these mothers find it absolutely difficult to accept me as one of those most eligible bachelors - undoubtedly to my delight and happiness, as I’ve no intentions of getting married in the near future - and this apparently has prompted me to have introspection and more importantly to delve deep into the reasons behind a young person’s constant desire to remain a bachelor.

One of the greatest pleasures of bachelorhood is that seemingly innocuous freedom of enjoying the beauty of a lady with the faculty of vision, unperturbed by the possessive attitude-laden close surveillance of one’s significant other. I strongly believe, by virtue of my common sense, that a married man, who is already under the fearsome control of the “close surveillance” of his wife, is the best person to approve the veracity of the above statement, though the probability of such an overt approval is minimal for obvious reasons. It is always said that one should get married to realize the real joy of remaining a bachelor, but by then, obviously one will cease to exist as a bachelor and hence any hope of enjoying the fruits of bachelorhood would thereafter sadly linger in his heart as an unfulfilled pipe dream.

The pleasure of being independent, being away from the bonds of family responsibilities could be yet another reason for a bachelor to ardently seek bachelorhood. The autonomy to do things as he wish, the liberty to travel where ever he desire, to tread through paths which are supposedly more perilous, though innovative, to spend time on things logically considered irrelevant by the majority, to utilize money on things of interest although alleged as an act of squandering by the external world and so on and so forth. This independence, treasured by most could be a very strong reason for a bachelor to impede a drive, from inside his consciousness and from the outside world, to jettison his tag of bachelorhood. We all cherish it so much so that we feel more inclined towards complying with this inner drive of remaining single and feel, more often than not, that there is more enterprise in staying on as a bachelor than being bonded in the demanding nuptial chains.

The ability to encounter and solve problems is one of the most exhilarating aspects of human life. Though often unconsciously, we all enjoy facing problems in our lives and the hard work - physical, mental and emotional - that comes together with facing and solving problems makes ordinary lives of people something worth living. Being a bachelor gives you the best chance to stride into paths that are believed to be rather problematic though challenging since there are no marital strings attached to your life that would pull you back into walking through ordinary paths often treaded by ordinary people accustomed to playing safe games in life. Youth is the period in one’s lifetime where there are larger chances that a person would take decisions that are bold and possibly decisions that are capable of changing the way he would live rest of his life and perchance capable of changing the way this whole world would live thereafter provided the extreme decision he would take is a revolutionary one. So it seems to be pretty normal that a young man would seek to remain as a bachelor during his gallant youthful days. This argument could be sometimes wrong for I have heard married people saying that you have to be more courageous, gutsy and intrepid after marriage hence married life provides more opportunities for you to face vivid problems and hence more opportunities of solving it through physical, mental and emotional exertion.

Bachelorhood is certainly the most colorful phase in one’s life - when you live your life with the least possible constraints, by enjoying the concern, care and affection of your parents, by savoring the moments of taking the most delicious food prepared by your mother (particularly so when the talent and interest in cooking is just a rarity among modern day girls and hence any expectation of the same from modern day wives is as absurd as absurd can be), and by benefiting from the freedom of taking extremely daring decisions without caring for even the slightest of concerns.

Having detailed the different reasons that are prompting me to stay on as a bachelor, which might hold good for some other bachelors too, I should confess that if I ever get a proposal from a girl similar to the girl at the ophthalmic center where my mother goes for treatment – that tall, fair girl with brown eyes who is smart, gifted, exceptionally graceful, intelligently loquacious and elegantly well dressed – I would perhaps be forced to rethink on my status quo as a bachelor. This is firmly because life at certain times needs a positive change, a change from the fearless life of a bachelor to a responsible life of a married man, for human life can hardly be considered complete unless one gets to encounter all facets of worldly life at some point of time or the other - my married friends would acknowledge, I reckon.

A Young Girl's Sacrifice Awakens a Novice Poet's Benevolence

Strange dire cries out of woes,
Made those modest minds to think,
A Poet in his extreme vogue days,
Feigns deaf to human cataclysms.

Perhaps of prejudice of some kind,
Or predicament of the puzzling mind,
A novice, young man of words,
Brings no pathos in his songs.

Dear young girl, my heart goes for you,
As so still and calm you stood at storm,
To maintain the past, high esteem,
Of those people of your own blood.

O' pious little soul, are you content ?
But broken dreams are broken dreams,
Days to come will bless you with bliss,
By the sacred Thee's own grace.

(Dedicated to my friend, who was forced by the circumstances to marry the guy who was supposed to marry her elder sister, as her sister eloped with her lover on the day before the wedding. I salute her resilience and courage and her love for her parents)

Dhoni’s Daredevils Reign Supreme

It was a befitting finale for the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 when the traditional rivals India and Pakistan met at the New Wanderers, Johannesburg for a great cricket match of skill, temperament and nerves. No one could have asked for a better final than what we had witnessed on Monday. Two teams fought with courage, played with valor and above all showed great sport-man spirit throughout the match. It was a grand match with a rather bizarre but appropriate finish.

When the Indian captain won the toss and decided to bat on the batsman friendly pitch of the Wanderers all thought that it is a right decision, but the Pakistani bowlers had another intentions. India, though handicapped with the absence of Virender Sehwag due to an injury, was a formidable batting line up with the in-form Yuvraj Singh, flamboyant MS Dhoni, flashy Robin Uthappa and skillful Gautam Gambhir, not to mention the “new kid on the block” – Rohit Sharma. The induction of Yusuf Pathan in the opening slot was much of a surprise for all as everyone expected Dinesh Karthick to be the replacement of Sehwag. Yusuf Pathan was not able to make a big impression with the bat though he was able to play a big booming six and mighty four through square of the wicket in the first few overs. But it was the physically diminutive Gautam Gambhir who was at full flow. The southpaw timed his drives through extra-cover, cut the shot balls through the square, pulled away some half trackers and slogged a six through mid wicket in his wonderfully paced innings of 54 ball 75 which included 8 fours and 2 sixes. At the same time Yuvraj Singh and the “captain-courageous” MS Dhoni were not able to weave their magic in the game. The Pakistan bowlers kept the strangle hold on the Indian batsmen all through the innings and Umar Gul was particularly brilliant with his accurate bowling. It was because of the last minute attack by Rohit Sharma that India reached a respectable score of 157 for 5 in their allotted 20 overs.

At the outset, though the score 157 doesn’t look really appalling, it was a defendable total against Pakistan who, like Indians, are traditionally bad chasers under pressure. But to keep the batsmen under pressure India had to take wickets in regular intervals and they did exactly the same. RP Singh gave India a great start by taking the wicket of Mohd.Hafeez in the first over itself. But that over was followed by a rather undisciplined over by Sreesanth in which Imran Nazeer made 21 runs. Again RP Singh swung the pendulum back in India’s favor by getting rid of Kamran Akmal with a superbly bowled in swinger that beat the batsman both for swing and pace. But the real turning point of the match was the run out of Imran Nazeer by virtue of a throw from Robin Uthappa. From then on Pakistan lost wickets at regular intervals. There was an excellent bowling spell by Irfan Pathan that was really helped by some unruly batting by the Pakistani batsmen. Younis Khan, Shoaib Malik and Shahid Afridi all perished due to bad shot selection. But the audacious batting by Misbah ul-Haq gave some hope again for the Pakistan team and some worries to the Indian camp. His last minute blitzkrieg of shots was a real illustration of his guts, skill and determination. But his eagerness to finish off the match with a rather weird stroke resulted in his downfall together with the Pakistan’s aspirations of winning the championship. MS Dhoni’s boldness to give the last over to Joginder Sharma has to be appreciated and it is a real testimony to his daring captaincy. When Sreesanth pouched the skier from Misbah, it was all over and India had won the first Twenty20 championship.

This version of cricket is here to stay and one can’t deny but accept that this is a very enthralling form of cricket. Indians have a lot of positives to take from this tournament; may it be the gallant captaincy of MS Dhoni, the emergence of Yuvraj Singh as a key batsman, the great come back to Indian international cricket by Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh and Virendar Sehwag, the coming of age of Gautam Gambhir and Robin Uthappa, the new find of Rohit Sharma or the manifestation of RP Singh as a strike bowler. The young Indian team, despite the absence of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid, has played wonderfully well and lifted the Twenty20 cup when they were scarcely under any reckoning when the tournament started. The Indian team really deserves this trophy as they had defeated the World Champions Australia, the host South Africa, the very formidable England and of course the arch rivals Pakistan. The onus is now on this Indian team to take this momentum forward and keep the good work going into the coming series against Australia and well beyond. But till that series it is time for all Indians to salute this impeccable Indian team and celebrate this great victory. If it was the Kapil’s Devils in 1983, it is the Dhoni’s daredevils in 2007.

Hip Hip Hurray!!!!!

Deep in the Thoughts

With waning hopes I did stand,
Beside the green children of the earth,
The night with desolation closely knit,
Reminded me of that melancholy song.

The same song, that once I heard,
In my dubiety, or in my despair,
Which bade of desires, ruthlessly rude,
And of dreams, so treacherously wild.

Mundane things no longer allure me,
Neither the deceptive will-o-the-wisp,
And scarcely does a lass of charm,
Drives me onto great fascination.

Yet, when I would be in my grave,
No man or woman would ever weep,
Spring would bring them bountiful pleasure,
And autumn, some annoying remorse.

I Can't Help But Praise

I wandered like never,
For a forbearing ear to hear,
The praise, I always bore in mind,
For a modest lass of charm,
And her affection, half revealed,
And scarcely, half hidden,
In my inner self, a new lustre,
As if my words were never,
So truthful, never so honest,
And now, when I have found,
An ear, dwelling in Middle East,
My vocabulary, seems too lean,
I am strained, to ask them -
Those grey-haired wise men,
To lend me their words,
To convey to him, the boon he got,
And then to him, I could express,
The praise, I always bore in mind.

(This poem was written in 2004 as a gift to one of my sisters on her betrothal. She is now living with her family in Muscat.)

Shashi Tharoor – Indian Pluralism’s Greatest Advocate

When I was a very young man, for me, Shashi Tharoor was just another Under Secretary-General of the United Nations. But my father, who was a voracious reader, introduced me to a Shashi Tharoor who was a writer, a journalist and above all the greatest advocate of Indian Pluralism. My own conviction that pluralism is India's unique identity and its greatest asset as a nation makes me think in line with Mr.Tharoor. His intellectual opinion on pluralism are rather robust, informed and born out of his experience of growing up in the pluralist backyards of Kolkata, whereas my humble opinion on the same is naive, callow and rooted in my experience of working with a linguistically heterogeneous group of colleagues in Chennai.

Shashi Tharoor's awe-inspiring style of painting words together in a magical way to create an awesome picture leaves readers in a world of enlightened optimism. His staunch belief on the pluralist society of India is very well reflected in his statement that ‘the only singular thing about India is that you can only speak about it in the plural.’ Unlike many of the contemporary writers of modern India, Shashi Tharoor is quite sanguine in his outlook vis-à-vis future of India and this very same optimism is all the more evident in all his writings and profuse in all his speeches. He believes that this great nation doesn't impose any prohibition on its citizens where, ‘you can be many things and one thing - you can be a good Muslim, a good Keralite and a good Indian all at once.’ He goes on further saying that India offered the world a sight of its pluralism when a ‘Roman Catholic political leader (Sonia Gandhi) making way for a Sikh (Manmohan Singh) to be sworn in as Prime Minister of India by a Muslim (President Abdul Kalam) — in a country 82 per cent Hindu.’ This excellent analogy made by Mr.Tharoor has prompted me to have introspection on finding out the source of my conviction on Indian pluralism.

As I have explained in the former part of this article, my humble opinion on pluralism is a not a result of my upbringing, but is rather based on my professional and personal life experiences in the cosmopolitan locales of Chennai city. My colleagues Jagadeeswaran, Dilip and Abilash used to speak with each other, joke with each other and quarrel with each other in Tamil, which fascinatingly enough, was not their mother tongue. Their mother tongues are Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam respectively but are born and brought up in Chennai and hence know Tamil more than their mother tongues and love to engage themselves in the intricacies of that language. They scarcely reminisce the difference in their linguistic backgrounds and hardly believe those to be conspicuous. Hence pluralism in India has its roots in general human life and gains its nourishment from laymen's (or to be less sexist, laypeople's) ordinary demeanor.

Shashi Tharoor portrays Indian pluralism through simple but elegant examples and argues about its ubiquitousness in Indian society through citing the emergence of Irfan Pathan as a prominent player in the Indian cricket team. For Tharoor, the existence of Irfan Pathan itself is 'a testament to the indestructible pluralism of our country' for, he is a Muslim and that too a Pathan 'whose forebears belong to a slice of land that is no longer territorially part of India'. To quote Mr.Tharoor, Irfan Pathan exemplifies the fact that 'India is a country where it is possible for a 19-year-old from a beleaguered minority to ascend to the peak of the nation's sporting pantheon; and even more that he represents an idea, an immortal Indian idea, that our country is large enough and diverse enough to embrace everyone who chooses to belong to it, whatever be their caste, creed, color, costume or custom.'

Mr.Tharoor, though an international diplomat and has spent a good part of his life outside Kerala, is a very proud Keralite and boasts of it's multi religious-yet-plural society, it's social development, it's high literacy, it's women empowerment and it's secular credentials. Shashi Tharoor, in his articles and speeches emphasizes the 'openness and diversity of the Malayali heritage.' He has enormous faith in what he call as the 'Malayali Miracle', and that miracle is certainly the ability of the Kerala society to be open and tolerant towards many religions and castes, to be accommodative of various religious and ethnic set of people, and to be able to overcome caste discrimination and oppression through education, land reforms and political democracy. Kerala has always been the embodiment of social equality, educational development, peaceful co-existence and above all a safe haven for pluralism to flourish.

Shashi Tharoor’s inimitable style of writing with deft words and his peerless manner of speeches with RP (Received Pronunciation) accent will indeed make one wonder about the immense level of skill and tact this excellent international diplomat par excellence possess. But his inherent belief in Indian pluralism combined with his innate wisdom makes him one of the greatest intellectuals of our time and above all a great Indian and a true international citizen.

Ambivalence

Thousand miles to rove,
Or may be some more,
Benign designs, so benevolent,
Sprouting in my mind,
Thy soul, that misleading hope,
Brings no peace, but despondency.

Desires' very old demeanor,
Of sinking hearts to depths,
Have left no glee, but scorn,
For men's honest memories,
My zeal too, no exception,
Brings no peace, but despondency.

My solemn rhymes, quite young,
Those, I wrote in the gentleness,
Of my youth's pleasant innocence,
Now I, being decrepit and weak,
Weeps and reckons that my memoir,
Brings no peace, but despondency.

Setting Priorities on the 60th Birthday

Winston Churchill once opined - "India is merely a geographical expression. It is no more a single country than the Equator." After 60 years, since she has got independence from the clutches of her imperial rulers, India now stands at the threshold of a new era. Wrong Churchill was, and in these 60 years India has proved it beyond any doubt. But in this new world order, where Cold War is history and bipolar world, a thing of the past, opportunities are bountiful and so are challenges. The emergence of China and India as two economic powerhouses has changed the permutations and combinations of international affairs. Now we Indians are fighting with the Chinese for having the lion's share of this new Asian economic resurgence. At this point of time it will be worthwhile to consider some of the areas in which India could focus which would help it to become the super power it aspires to become in the future.

Poverty Eradication

In his Independence Day speech the Prime Minister proclaimed that the independence for India would not be complete until poverty is eradicated in the country. Statistics of the Planning Commission in India shows that 27.5% of the people in India are living below the poverty line in 2004-05, which was 36% during 1993-94. This remains a major challenge for the Indian Government. Some of the reasons for this relatively high level of poverty are over reliance on agriculture, absence of property rights, unemployment and under-employment, the caste systems etc. There should be increased public spending on poverty eradication methods, assistance should be given to self-help groups and NGOs working in the rural areas, industrialization should be given top priority, land reforms are to be undertaken and the employability of the people should be increased with adequate training and education. There is renewed optimism that poverty eradication will get an impetus with the trickle down effect of the growing middle class of India.

Infrastructure Development

Infrastructure is the basic building block of any development. Development of infrastructure in India leaves much to be desired. One of the most important factors that pull back India's giant leap forward is the lack of infrastructure development and in this aspect we are no comparison to the Chinese. There should be a concerted effort towards the improvement of infrastructure facilities in India, may it be the railways, roadways, aviation, telecommunication, oil and natural gas pipelines, shipping or power generation. There should be a conducive environment for an increased public-private partnership in this sector.

Education

India is the home of ancient organized education and its Gurukul form of education was well known all over the world. In the first few millennia, India had some of the greatest universities of all times - Nalanda, Thakshila, Ujjain etc. But the arrival of the British imperialism had destroyed the very base of Indian education. At this time when India is celebrating her 60th Independence Day, there is a dire need for improvement of this state of affairs. Education is surely the prime responsibility of the Government and as in the case of poverty eradication there should be increased public spending in the same as well, there should be a mechanism to ensure that education is available to the weaker sections of the society including women and the backward classes meanwhile caste based reservation should be abolished, education should not be the privilege of the few but its should be made available to all who needs it, media publicity and advocacy should be given for the publicity of education, job-oriented education and training should be established by the state, merit should be the only criteria for a student to get admission in the professional colleges, destructive and disruptive politics in the educational institutions should be abolished and art and literature learning should be made mandatory in all forms of education, as these studies forms the basis of creation of compassion and love in the hearts of a human being.

Investment and Employment Generation

Investment and hence employment generation should be a priority sector for the central and the state governments. Employment generation is the best way for eradicating poverty and investment by the state as well as from private parties should be established. A combination of investment in the agrarian sector as well as in industrial sector will be the best bet for India. At the same time there should be investment and employment generation in the tertiary sector as well. Indian companies are investing globally and are acquiring global firms and that is certainly a good sign and it shows the strength and competency of the India Inc. The economics of investment in infrastructure by the government and its subsequent effect in employment generation will augur well for the economic development of the country.

Energy Security

India's energy needs are increasing in a very fast pace owing to its increasing population and staggering economic development. India is having strong reserves of coal but depends on import of oil and natural gas from other countries. Ever increasing crude oil prices in the global market is therefore a huge challenge for India's energy security. India's oil reserves are mainly based on offshore Bombay and onshore Assam fields and those reserves are not all adequate for meeting India's needs. Therefore there should be efforts towards managing this situation by looking for renewable sources of energy. The Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline will be a great achievement if the respective Governments are able to break the deadlock. India's new endeavor towards nuclear co-operation with the United States is certainly a good move towards realizing energy security.

Health care Sector

One sector that needs much greater attention is the healthcare sector in India that is at a declining stage right now. There should be improved care and development in areas like child and mother care, rural health services, medical education, medical tourism, AIDS awareness and family welfare programs. An improvement in these areas is a very important factor in determining the actual development of a country. Medical education is a very important sector in the domestic as well as in the international arena, the job opportunities that this sector provides is enormous and there should be efficient education and training programs to exploit this opportunity. Medical tourism is another important area where we have the competency and resources and the government should take effective steps to utilize this opportunity as well.

Monetary Policies

Recently released official figures shows that India's foreign exchange reserves has reached $213.35 billion as on 30th June and the country's reserve position in the IMF is $460 million. This is a very favorable position and hence it calls for a very positive utilization of these reserves for public spending in infrastructure development that in turn will result in higher economic development. But high inflation, which stands at 4.41% in July, is a worrying factor for the government. This high rate of inflation is primarily because of the high prices of the food items, but with the good monsoon that India got recently this high inflation will get reduced in the months to come. The high volatility of the monetary ratios makes the indulgence of the RBI a very important factor in maintaining economic growth and development.

Corruption

Corruption is a universal malady and India is no exception. One of the sad facts about corruption in India is that it’s not a unique phenomenon seen only among politicians but it can be seen in all walks of life. We, in India have corrupt politicians, bureaucrats, judges, professors, doctors and NGO activists. Corruption is an indelible stigma of our nation that has to be jettisoned as soon as possible.

Terrorism and Chauvinism

Terrorism and chauvinism are two vices that India would want to remove with utmost urgency. Terrorism poses a threat to the whole world and India is one among the nations that are hot targets of terrorists of different hues. May it be the al-Qaeda, LTTE, or any other terrorist organization, all have their malicious eyes on India and wants to sabotage the peace and tranquility of this great nation. We have to prevent them with iron hands and our armed forces are ready to tackle any challenge from the terrorists.. Chauvinism is yet another problem that modern India is facing. In a democratic country like India there is no place for any sort of chauvinism. We, the people of India will prevent chauvinism that poses any threat to the democratic fabric of the nation. Our strength lies in our Unity in Diversity and we have always maintained our unique identity in this world because of the same and hence we have to together thwart any sinister designs of people with chauvinist attitude.

Sports

Another important area that the Indian Government has to focus on is sports and games arena. As of now cricket is the only game in which we are standing in good stead. There was a time when there was no equal to the Indian hockey team. But the situation has worsened over the years. Now sports sector in India is in utter disarray and calls for an immediate action from the Government. Being the host of Olympics is a distant dream and doesn't seems to be happening in the near future. In comparison, China is hosting the 2008 Olympics and the arrangements for it is going on in full swing and Beijing is getting ready for welcoming the World. The Government will have to establish world class facilities for grooming young sporting talents in the country, separate programs for finding out these talents should be done in state level and district level, sports organization should find ways to promote different sports among the youth, scholarship should be given to budding talents for sharpening their skills and Government spending on sports facilities development should be enhanced.

In this occasion of India's 60th Independence day, all of us can set our priorities for the future. The setting of priorities is important not only for the Government but for every single one of us, for we are a diverse group of people with one unique identity and the combined effort of this diverse group results in the national development in the macro level. As Shashi Tharoor has put it, the singular thing about India is that you can only speak of it in the plural. This pluralism is our unique identity, we have different caste, creed, color, cuisine, culture and language, but one soul - of an Indian.

How much privileged is I !!!!

Blue skies of yore,
In my remembrances,
Still, thick and alive,
Like my nursery rhymes.
Friends, acquaintances,
And scores of affable kin,
Came in opulence -
Left in hasty hurry,
My life, it traversed,
Through tepid experiences,
And along knavish paths,
Thwarting sinister walls;
Misery,penury,desolation,
Dismay,distress and catastrophe,
May befall on me,
In the mysterious morrow,
Name and life of exaltation,
I may get or I mayn't,
Of fate and fortune,
Ceased I, to worry,
Glimpse of insane people,
And men in pairs of crutches,
Makes me think in bewilderment -
How much privileged is I !!!!!

Cricketing Thoughts of Life

At a time when I should be actually looking to go down the track and attack the pace bowlers and spinners with same disdain – looking for a real take-off in my career - I am now forced into looking only for survival against this swinging red cherry in these overcast conditions – as my time is not favorable. But the state of affairs is very different for my other batting partners and my team mates. They are taking advantage of their good form and are making tons and double tons. I am on the defensive owing to my poor form and my opposition knows that a bit too well and hence their captain is using all his available strategies against me; for him this is an opportunity to test the efficiency of all his resources. Even part time bowlers are being used against me, they are swinging the ball both ways, changing the pace of the ball, bouncing me, yorking me, bowling half-volleys just outside my off-stump trying to induce a wrong shot from me and to top it all sledging me – problems in my life are just burgeoning.

My condition is such that I have to restrict my shots only to the on-side and have to leave alone balls coming outside my off stump, on that corridor of uncertainty – I can’t go outside my native place - since of late, I’ve been getting out by edging balls pitched outside my off stump to the wicket-keeper or to the slip cordon and that means any invitation by the bowlers outside the off stump has to be neglected. Balls outside the off stump are left alone, bouncers are negotiated by swaying away or ducking under, yorkers are dug out, and slow balls are defended smoothly. So this is my “restricted shot making strategy” – any balls on the pads are to be played away for runs and anything on the off side has to be left alone.

A very difficult scenario this is, but at this occasion I am made to recall the innings played by Sachin Tendulkar at the SCG on 2004, he played almost in the same way, because in that series he was not at all in good form and was edging balls to the wicket-keeper and to the slip cordon. And in that final test he was determined to play a long innings, he offered no shot to the balls that came outside his off stump, and played at only those that were on his pads. And of course, he made a double hundred there - a great innings of resolve, will power, grit and restricted shot play. This is exactly the sort of innings I should be playing at this time for, my form is poor, and the playing conditions are hostile.

But surely these conditions will change shortly; my good form will come back making me again a very proficient player all around the ground – there would be a steep rise in my professional life. Then there won’t be any restrictions on my shot making, balls coming outside my off stump will be played according to its merit, shot balls will be hooked and pulled away, slow balls will be picked up early and will be hit outside the park, will use the pace of the fast bowlers to send the ball screaming across the boundary line for fours and sixes, spin bowlers will be dispatched across the ropes by dancing down the track and the opposition will be made to do the leather chasing. But till that time comes, I would be strictly following my “on-side strategy”, as this life is a like a five day test match played on the bouncier tracks of the WACA, each day will test your character, your persistence, your concentration, your guts, your skill to learn from mistakes and also your problem solving technique.

United States' Imperialistic Ambitions

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines Imperialism as “the policy, practice, or advocacy of extending the power and dominion of a nation especially by direct territorial acquisitions or by gaining indirect control over the political or economic life of other areas”. We, the inhabitants of the sub-continent are not at all oblivious of what imperialism means and its impact on the lives of the subjugate people. The British ruled India for about a century and established their imperial rule over the princely states in India. Since that time, much water has flown under the bridge and the world, as a whole, has changed. British imperialism is a thing of the past, but a new world order has emerged, where the United States and their allies are the Imperial masters and their neo-imperialist ideas and endeavors are engulfing this new world.

At some point of time in the history, the United States itself was a subject of imperialist subjugation. But there has been stupendous economic development in the United States since its independence on July 1776. The economic supremacy of the United States resulted in it being the greatest super power in the world. With the economic domination came imperialistic ambition also for the successive governments in the US. What we had seen in the Latin American countries, the Caribbean and now in West Asia and the Middle East are the same aspirations of the United States in different hues. One of the latest instances of American imperialist ambition in its full form can be very well seen in its ludicrous attempt of savaging Iraq using military force and overthrowing of the ruler of Iraq- Saddam Hussein. Political observers see this effort of the United States as a malevolent attempt to secure a dependent client state military base at the heart of energy producing region of the world.

No ambivalence should prevail on the fact that the military exercise of the United States in overthrowing the government in Iraq has to be ridiculed with greatest contempt. But I don’t intend to acquiesce to the authoritarian rule of Saddam Hussein in Iraq and his dictatorial methods of governance either, but I am simply questioning the moral and legal authority the United States proclaims to have in initializing a military assault. The pretexts on which the United States started this war have all been found baseless and unsubstantiated – there are neither Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) in Iraq and nor are there any evidence of Saddam Hussein having malicious connections with Osama-bin-Laden and his al-Qaeda. One of the most important contradictions of the United States’ hostility towards Saddam Hussein lies on the historical fact that the US was covertly supporting Saddam in his war against Iran before the Kuwait war. Saddam Hussein himself is no pious soul; one would find it absolutely difficult to forget the gruesome act of genocide perpetrated by him against the Kurds using the poisonous gas during 1988, which being one of the many dastardly acts he had committed against humanity.

Possibility of the existence of WMD with Iraq, an excuse with which George W Bush got the congressional approval to resort to war against Iraq, turned out to be absurd and so preposterous was his claim that Saddam is having connections with al-Qaeda. When the former turned out to be a big farce, the latter resulted only in increasing recruitment done by al-Qaeda from Iraq and the subsequent threat coming out of it. But if one would think that the United States got defeated in realizing its imperialist ambitions by committing these mistakes, it would be bizarre. With the war in Iraq and with the military ambush in the Afghanistan, the United States became successful in establishing military bases in both these countries. With the US having control over Iraq, the world's second largest known oil reserves, it has significantly enhanced its strategic power and influence over its major rivals and hence has satisfied its imperialistic ambitions to some extend vis-à-vis the Middle East.

Now the United States has two more countries to conquer in their ‘axis of evil’ group – Iran and North Korea. But the US will only tread safely on these two countries as they are having nuclear capabilities in their armory and that, as Noam Chomsky would put it, is a very dangerous lesson that the world is learning. The new lesson will read like this – ‘if you as a country want to shield yourself from the clutches of American Imperialist outrages, you had better imitate North Korea or Iran and pose a plausible threat to the US.

The Touch of Perplexity

In a sleepless night of March,
I was looking into the dark,
Blunt hopes and aspirations of my past,
Had burnt my self into thin ashes.

An uncanny lake of desire and reverie,
And a land of mighty storm,
I saw a glimpse of benevolent souls,
In the quietude of that graveyard.

The dark cloud of greed and pride,
And prejudices of mourning minds,
Everything looks so dead and still,
The haze of hatred makes it vague.

Upon all these malignant thoughts,
A heart with truth strives to live,
In this huge, bellicose world,
Staunch men are often ignored.

India in England - Boss

The ESPN-Star network has started a channel exclusive for Cricket, for the cricket crazy nation-India. And now as India is in England for their much awaited cricket series, the exclusive cricket channel, Star Cricket proclaims – India in England - Boss.

Being a young man of 24 years, I am able to recollect only two instances before this time that India has toured England for a test series. At the same time I am very much aware of the series of 1989-90 that had given world cricket one of the greatest batsmen of all times – Sachin Tendulkar. After that there had been two more series that India played there in England and no Indian cricket fan can ever forget the 1996 series that saw the emergence of the games’ two greatest sons – Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly.

Anyways past is past and so rather than basking in the glory of our past performances, it will be better off for us to discuss about the present series. Two tests are over and the third one is due for 9^th August at the Oval. Excitement was not at all missing in the first test at the Lords and in the second test at Trent Bridge. Infact there were plenty of it, so much so that it was quite hard to believe the old saying that test matches are a boring event that provides no excitement, no thrill and no exhilaration. For India, the Lords Test match was not at all easy by any stretch of imagination and to be frankly plain, it was a close shave for the team. The beleaguered Indian team was saved by the timely knock of wicket keeper batsman, MS Dhoni and of course by the rain Gods. It was really hard luck for the English and they have outplayed the Indians in all departments of the game. The match saw the so-called great Indian batting line up falling like ninepins and the inexperienced English bowling attack making their mark in the international scene.

But all changed in the second test at Trent Bridge which saw the Indian team coming out with great courage, spirit and sense of pride to demolish the England team with wonderful batting and bowling performances. 91 runs made by Tendulkar and 79 made by Ganguly showed that the old war horses still have the capacity and capability to stand tall and demolish any sort of bowling attack. But the most stirring aspect of the match was the performance of the Indian swing bowlers, particularly Zaheer Khan and RP Singh. They swung the ball both ways and created trouble for the English batsmen who are used to batting in the swinging conditions. Though Sreesanth was wavered at the beginning of England second innings he came back quite well in the latter part of that innings. And all appreciation should be given to the two left armers of the Indian team for making India victorious in the second test at Trent Bridge, which happens to be the third oldest test venue in the world after the Lords and the Eden Gardens.

Now that the first two tests are over all eyes will be looking towards the Oval where the third test will start on 9^th August. Both teams have played with the same eleven for the first two tests and there is possibly going to be some changes in both teams for the third test. England will be looking to accommodate their proficient swing bowler Mathew Hoggard who is coming back from an injury, but their problem will be on taking a decision on whether to change their well performing trio of pace bowlers – Anderson, Sidebottom and Tremlett for Hoggard. India will have to make a decision on whether to continue with the struggling Sreesanth or include Ranadeb Bose who has performed very well in the practice match by taking a five for. Whatever may be the team combination of both teams, all are expecting to see a very intriguing test match at the Oval.

Even after the Oval test match India will be in England for the 7 match one-day series between the two teams. That one-dayers are also expected to be a fascinating contest between the bat and the bowl and also will potentially provide an insight into the batting and bowling capabilities of each and every single individual in the two teams. So as of now we can all enjoy this enthralling battle between two of the world’s greatest cricketing nations because still India is in England - boss.

A Rendezvous

Once in my walk I met a man,
He was so lean,tired and haggard,
I asked him what name do he hold,
But he said he lives in lonely souls.

I walked with him,quite some distance,
Probing so deep to know his ancestry,
Our road was filled with murky air,
And I was thinking who he is.

He is the friend of tide less sea,
And of the moon in starless nights,
But always he keeps vying with,
The souls who are happy in a jamboree.

Who is he, my crony or foe ?
I still haven't got my answer,
This dubious thought permeates my mind-
Human life is a mysterious tale.

(This poem was selected by the International Poetic Library which invited me to the World Poetic Conference at Washington DC in 2002)

Countering Terrorism and Respecting Civil Liberties

Terrorism has provided quite a few challenges for the civil society to face and its different manifestations have given different nations and governments a lot of headaches to worry about. May it be the Al-Queda, LTTE, JKLF or any other name it may take, all means disruption to normal human life and endangerment of peaceful human co-existence. The reasons behind the formation of these terrorist organizations are manifold but at the same time they all stem from one basic reason – absence of respectful living conditions in their homeland.

There have been efforts from all over the world and from a good lot of intelligent people to identify the reasons behind the birth of a terrorist and so I am not going into the same lest there will be re-inventing of the wheel. Here the subject in discussion is the importance of the fine act of balancing between countering the threats that terrorism puts forward and respecting one of the most important aspects of a society viz. civil liberties. There is only a fine line between the two and hence it is very important to move forward pretty cautiously on this subject. This was made pretty evident in the way in which the Australian Government has handled (or mis-handled) the whole episode of the arrest of the Indian doctor Mohammed Haneef.

Dr.Haneef was arrested under the charge of “recklessly” providing support to terrorists in committing a heinous crime of a dreadful bomb blast at Glasgow, Scotland. The world, and to be more precise the US and its allies, is so frightened and alarmed by terrorism that they tend to forget about the great human values of freedom and liberty while handling cases of suspected terrorist plots. Dr.Haneef was arrested as his SIM card was found in the jeep of the terrorist that they used to drive into the Glasgow airport. He had given the SIM card to his cousin who is the prime accused of the Glasgow bomb blast, when he left Britain and that has ended up being the reason behind his arrest and subsequent torture at the Queensland police station. The court has found out that there are no evidences to support that Dr.Haneef is involved in the terror plot and hence gave him bail. But the Australian Immigration Minister, Kevin Andrews using his constitutional power has cancelled his Visa stating that there were enough evidences against Haneef. This deed of the Minister didn’t go well with the Australian media and human rights groups. They started protesting and the effective campaigns done by them against the in -humane handling of Haneef by the authorities resulted in his release. The efforts put in by Haneef’s Lawyer Mr. Russo cannot be forgotten either.

Dr.Haneef’s release is certainly the victory of the Australian media and their continuous support in uplifting the importance of respecting civil liberties. The Australian government should have kept in mind that Haneef was just a suspect in the terrorism plot and was not proven in the court as the perpetrator of that crime. Present day world needs a more careful handling of terrorism related issues and the bizarre execution of in-humane anti-terrorism laws cannot be the rule of the day. Civilized societies should behave more gently and compassionately and should always bear in mind that civil liberties is the most important aspect of a peaceful and harmonious life in this globe.

Kerala Politics at an All Time Low

Politics in Kerala had been different always in comparison with other states. A state, which boasts of its high social indicators and development, Kerala also used to pride itself on the array of great politicians the state has contributed to the society at large. But of late things have changed, matters have worsened and political conscience has waned.

To its credit, Kerala always had efficient politicians crowning different positions in the national scene. May it be VK Krishna Menon, the Defence Minister in the Nehru Government, AK Gopalan, the Opposition Leader in the first Indian Parliament, KR Narayanan; the Tenth President of the Indian Republic, or AK Antony, present Defence Minister of India, the list will go on. But recently there has been a terrible decline in the conduct of politicians from Kerala that has become an indelible stigma for the state and its people.

Two instances of politicians, and that too Ministers getting involved in charges of outraging the modesty of a woman were reported in the recent years. In one instance the woman involved was a senior officer of the IAS cadre. That makes it a very serious issue, which could send the message to the society that even an IAS officer is not safe in her office and could even has to face such ludicrous behavior from the ministers. Hardly did people come out of this shocking revelation that they were made to listen to another of such incidence that involved another Minister and his dastardly act in a private airlines en route to Chennai. Legal enquiry is still going on in this case and it would be absolutely naïve to presume that the Minister in question has committed the crime. But anyways these are certainly signs of declining decency in the political field of Kerala.

Corruption in politics is a universal phenomenon and Kerala is no exception. The disclosure of two big and tainted financial deals done by the CPI (M) party members has taken corruption to another level in Kerala. The subsequent violent protest by the student and youth organizations affiliated to CPI (M) viz. SFI and DYFI against the newspaper Mathrubhumi, which has revealed the corruption episode, is a dark episode in the history of democracy in India and also a malevolent attack on the freedom of speech and expression. There was also an occasion where the same organizations had a protest march against the newspaper in which they shouted slogans threatening the life of the employees of that newspaper. Legal actions should be taken against the leaders of such organizations and they should not be allowed to make such malicious attempts again in the future.

Group politics is also not a new thing for Kerala politics. It always made headlines in Malayalam newspapers and when it was in the Congress (I) there were always colorful stories for the newspapers to publish and for the public to mull over. Nasty comments made by rival groups used to flood the pages of the newspapers and other magazines. The expulsion of K.Karunakaran from the party signaled the end of group politics in Congress (I), at least for the time being. Hardly did that end, group politics started to appear in CPI (M).Now vernacular newspapers are pretty busy reporting the same and are pretty successful in doing so as well. Wherever the truth lies about it, there is no one denying the fact that Group politics has brought disgrace to politics in Kerala.

One of the most important ingredients required for the efficient working of Democracy is a strong opposition party in the legislature. At this time Kerala is facing a deficiency of the same and it is hampering the proficient working of the democratic set up of the state. Inability of the opposition to constructively criticize the actions of the Government and beneficially indulge in their policy decisions is a big reason for the decline in the rate of overall development of the state. Healthy discussions in the Legislative Assembly on policy issues of the government have become things of the past. Unwanted boycotting of the legislature by the opposition party on small issues is tantamount to making fun of the legislative system and is like making mockery of the trust assigned by the common people on the legislative members.

Lamenting on the worse condition of Kerala politics alone doesn’t make much sense. Instead it is the moral responsibility of the youth and the younger generation to make amends in the present condition and move forward in building a scenario where justice is done to all, democracy is working at its best and politics is less of tainted money, treacherous politicians and immoral ministers. It is always better late than never and here it is the right time for all who believes in democracy and truth to come together and fight for the betterment of the state, the society and the country as a whole.