A kiss for Rakhi Sawant

By John Cheeran
There are no free kisses as Rakhi Sawant rightly says.
Ladies and gentleman, there should be no forcible kisses among you henceforth.
But I’m surprised by the lack of support that Rakhi has received at her seconds of distress.
The man in question Mika had no business to kiss her on lips.
This assault on the modesty of an Indian woman during a birthday party is unforgivable.
Just because Rakhi Sawant prefers to have less number of clothes while doing item numbers and has a great body mean that she can be treated as a jalebi that can be bitten into anytime?
And the silence of so-called upholders of female dignity on Rakhi Kiss is deafening.
Rakhi has said in her defence that: “Mika has kissed me forcibly, once before this. I was dancing on an awards nite in Punjab, and he came on stage and kissed me. At the time, I forgave him because he was a friend.
At yesterday’s party, (at Some Place Else in Mumbai) I was introducing Deepti Nagia, the director of my music video, to him, but he started smooching me. He smooched me twice.
Usne mera gala pakda aur bahut zor se kiss kiya. He bit my lower lip twice and broke my ear-ring. I don’t know why he did this to me again.
I am an Indian woman, I will not allow a liplock - a peck on the cheek is okay.”
Yes, Rakhi is an Indian woman!
Where are the rest of them?
Why don’t they come out in support of their distressed sister?
By the way, is Rakhi upset because she has lost the chance of burning the charts with a virgin lip-lock kiss in one of her albums now that Mika has done it without giving any royalty for it? Everything has a price even if it happens at Some Place Else.
I’m penniless and let me blow a kiss to dear Rakhi.

Ghana comes up with Black Magic

By John Cheeran
Ghana’s performance against the Czech Republic was a revelation. The 2-0 win does not reveal the extent of the threatening football Africans unleashed especially in the second half of the game.
If not for a stupendous show from goalkeeper Peter Cech, who foiled a many a Ghana move, the Czech defeat would have been terrible. Also, the Africans wasted a penalty kick.
Yes, of course, the Czechs were forced to play without injured strikers Jan Koller and Milan Baros, they looked a shadow of the team that put three goals past the United States.
But the Czechs committed a few tactical mistakes. First, they chose to push through the middle and the tall Ghana defenders were easily able to win the ball from Pavel Nedved and company.
The Czech should have attacked through both flanks and showered the Ghana penalty area with crosses and lobs. This would have put enormous pressure on the Ghana defence and the story could have been different then.
Second, Czech defence was porous and they let through balls slice open their last line of defence with ample room for Ghana strikers Asamoah Gyan and Sulley Muntari to shoot home. Third, the Czechs were too eager to get the equalizer after conceding a goal in the second minute of the match. In the process they were hurrying through their moves and not skillful enough to control the tempo of the game. A more calm and confident approach would have given them more openings in the Ghana penalty area.
In the end, Germany 2006 got its first taste of black magic.

Don’t cry for Argentina! Cheer them

By John Cheeran
The ease with which Argentina demolished Serbia and Montenegro spells trouble for rest of the teams angling for the World Cup.
Serbia and Montenegro is not the strongest of teams in this World Cup; and soon after this World Cup Serbia and Montenegro are to go their separate ways to mount their different challenges for the 2010 World Cup.
Still six goals from Argentina should catch our attention. All of them sublimely executed. The second goal in the match scored by Esteban Cambiasso is the best goal in the tournament so far, and likely to remain so. It was a supreme team effort finished off by a superb touch. That goal had the longest foreplay for a goal, with the move beginning in the Argentina half and lasting around five minutes to the utter frustration of their S&M rivals.
Finally Saviola fed Crespo, who stepped over the ball and backheeled it for Cambiasso to fire into the roof of the net past a static Dragoslav Jevric.
Argentina has a difficult path ahead of them into the final. But the Latinos have enough talent and ammunition to crack formidable opponents such as Germany and England likely to come up in quarterfinals and semifinals.
Don’t cry for Argentina! Cheer them.

How Lara defied India in St Louis

Gros Islet, St. Lucia, June 14 (Agencies)
Brian Lara hit his 32nd Test century to give West Indies a closely-fought draw in the rain-marred second Test against India on Wednesday at the Beausejour Cricket Ground.
The 37-year-old Lara hit 120-only his second Test hundred against the Indians-as West Indies, following on 373 runs behind of first innings, finished on 294 for seven in their second inningsto leave the four-Test series level at 0-0.
Lara reached his hundred when he square drove Irfan Pathan for the ninth of his 10 boundaries and drew level with former Australia captain Steve Waugh for the third highest number of Test hundreds.
India's Sachin Tendulkar, who was prevented from making this trip byinjury, heads the list with 35 Test hundreds. Compatriot Sunil Gavaskar issecond on the list with 34, and Lara and Waugh follow.
The West Indies captain battled away for a little over 6-1/2 hours and faced 307 balls to give West Indies their lifeline. He added 129 for the fourth wicket with his predecessor Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who scored 54, and put on 71 for the fifth wicket with teammate Dwayne Bravo, who made 47.
Anil Kumble was the most successful Indianbowler with three wickets for 98 runs from 42 overs, and Munaf Patel took twofor 50 from 21 overs.Virender Sehwag, who scored 180 in India's mammoth first innings total of 588 for eight declared and snared four wickets in the Test, wonthe Man-of-the-Match award.
West Indies continued from their bedtime total onthe third day of 43 for one, after a complete washout of the entire fourth day,and suffered two setbacks in the first half-hour.No stroke Kumble, who became Test cricket's fourth highest wicket-taker, completely bamboozled Daren Ganga with a googly and bowled him for 26 offering no stroke.
Sarwan, the West Indies vice captain, whose batting helped the home team clinch the preceding limited-overs series, again failed, when he was caught behind for one off awell-pitched out-swinger from Patel to leave West Indies 52 for three. Lara and Chanderpaul showed level heads however, to defy the Indian attack for the restof the morning, and carried West Indies to 130 for three at lunch.
Lara had inside-edged a drive at a flighted delivery outside the off-stump from Kumblefor two to the fine leg region to bring up his 50. After the interval, Lara andChanderpaul, easily West Indies' two most experienced batsman, continued merrilyalong their way.
Chanderpaul swung Anil Kumble behind square for his sixth fourto reach his 50, but trying to hit a full toss from the leg-spin bowler overmid-wicket he was caught at mid-on for 54. He struck half-dozen boundaries from113 balls in just under three hours.
Lara continued to bat with grit and arrived at his landmark. He looked set for a much larger innings, when the umpire Asad Rauf dubiously adjudged him lbw to Sehwag to a ball that television replays clearly showed pitched outside off-stump and spun away.
His departure energised India, and bearing in mind West Indies' capitulation in their second innings ofthe first Test, the visitors moved in for the kill. Bravo had shown great application for close 2-1/2 hours in which he struck three fours and one sixfrom 124 balls before he was caught at short leg turning a ball from Kumble intothe hands of the fielder.
West Indies were 277 for six, and 19 overs still remained, when Ian Bradshaw sauntered to the wicket. He spent 40 minutes and 40balls over one run before he was adjudged lbw to Patel in a final burst, but most importantly, he had exhausted enough time to save West Indies from blushes.
The first Test at the Antigua Recreation Ground ended in a tense draw, with theWest Indies' last wicket pair of Edwards and Collymore surviving the last 19balls of the match. The series concludes with Tests at Basseterre (June 22-26), and Kingston (June 30-July 4).

World Cup: Beating the deadlines

Editor's note: I love Barnes's flourish up to a point; I would have loved to be in Germany to go through the agony Barnes and his mates are going through!
All the same, I feel, this is an eye-opening read for those journalists who are tourists in Germany during the football World Cup.

By Simon Barnes
Doing sports journalism well is the aim of most of us in the trade.
When it comes to a World Cup, doing it at all is the height of any realistic person's ambition. The odds are stacked against you from the start: getting to the groundis in itself a triumph, involving long-distance train travel, intense crowds and erratic busses.
Then come the usual excitements of delivering copy to a silly deadline: yesterday was an exception and a real treat, in that I was able towatch the game before writing. That means you actually know the result before you start: useful in a game in which Australia, 1-0 down, scored three times in the last eight minutes.
Normally, we are required to file "on the whistle", which means you write while the match is actually going on. I usually start hitting the keys afterhalf-an-hour: after that, I grab the match in stolen glances. My opposite number on The Guardian, Richard Williams suggests that this is why we deserve thesalaries we get paid: because we are so willing to make ourselves look idiots on so many occasions.
I shall be back to this on-the-whistle stuff tomorrow, if I get the ticket I am wait-listed for at the Germany-Poland game. World Cups generally undermine racial stereotypes: any one who thought that people from the Far East were inscrutable had his mind changed pretty rapidly when watching Japan and South Korea play in the last World Cup.
Which brings usto German efficiency.
Most journos work from a laptop that has a battery life of about fours hours. That's not quite enough to be comfortable when covering a football match: there is very little margin for error. For example, yesterday I foolishly lost 500words by stubbing my finger on the wrong button in my creative frenzies.
After that I had problems sending the stuff over by phone. I could have done, then,with a working power-point. In press boxes across the world these days, there are always power-points. You plug your laptop in and so you are safe.
Naturally, they provided power-points at the World Cup stadiums: it's just that they don't work. Not if you are British, and are using a British continental adaptor. In Munich, the sockets had rubber collars that pinged your plug out: in Kaiserslautern, they had hard plastic collars, and you couldn't plug in at all. I can plug in at hotels and in the work-rooms: but in the stadium itself, no.
This does not reflect well on German efficiency. But let me boast about my own efficiency. Today, since I was not going into a match, I went into Mannheim and bought myself an extension lead.
This, being German, I trust, will plug into the German stadium sockets: and I can then plug my computer into my new lead. And I must say, I am more proud of this lead than of anything I have written from the tournament so far.
I think I should get an award for it: extension lead of the year. Believe me, every piece we write from the event, however bad, is a triumph.

Why should Dalits become journalists in India?

By John Cheeran
The Hindu on last Saturday, June 3, 2006, devoted its edit page for bemoaning the lack of Dalit and OBC journalists in Indian media.
Let me state a few things on the subject.
I’m a Syrian Christian from Kerala and a journalist. I don’t enjoy any of the reservation benefits. I’m an upper caste Indian!
I have worked for a reasonable period in New Delhi as a journalist.
When I worked for an organization, where the writer of the The Hindu piece, Siddharth Varadarajan also worked in the past, they did not ask my religion or caste.
I was in fact interviewed by an upper caste Hindu. It would not have mattered little to him whether I belonged to upper or down caste!
That is to say in the defence of media managements that they do not discriminate on the basis of caste. But if Varadarajan wants to have a special recruitment drive for OBCs, SCs and STs that is a wonderful idea. I suggest an exclusive newspaper for Dalits too.
Quite often the advocates of OBC, Dalit agenda have referred to B.N. Uniyal’s so called survey where he failed to find a single Dalit accredited journalist in India.Varadarajan also refers to the Uniyal’s discovery.
There is little meaning in such a theory.
The key thing here is accredited journalist. Though I have been a journalist for the last twenty years, I have no accreditation from the government. Does it take away from my credibility as a journalist? There are many like me. In any newspaper organization, only one per cent of its editorial staff takes out accreditation from the Press Information Bureau.
That basically means Uniyal’s media sensus was a bogus one.
And then, how many journalists are bold enough to wear their Dalit or OBC background?
There are many OBC journalists in New Delhi who will not like to be identified as OBC journalists.
One of my friends, who is an OBC journalist, is holding the No.2 position in the editorial rung of an All-India, English language newspaper chain.
Even his paper’s coverage was not pro-reservationist.
I also wonder how many of his colleagues know him as an OBC journalist.
So much for Varadarajan’s theory of recruiting more OBC, Dalit journalists.
And let me ask Varadarajan why should anyone, including Dalits, become journalists.
There is hardly any money, job security or avenues for growth in the Indian media.
From a Dalit’s perspective he has little to gain from choosing journalism as a profession.
The preferred job sectors of Dalits, much like the rest of the upper caste Indian society, are IT, other allied engineering branches and medicine.
Dalits and OBCs can enjoy the fruits of reservation in these fields while both in college and in office.
What does places such as The Hindu, The Times of India, The Indian Express and the DNA offer to Dalits or for that matter to any educated Indian?

India reach tipping point in West Indies

By John Cheeran
With two more days remaining in the first Test, India is still with a chance to redeem itself as a playing unit. Indian batting has showed signs of awakening with top order coming good in the second innings at Antigua.
There is, however, more work need to be done. Skipper Rahul Dravid has to ensure that India bats through on the fourth day so that Indian bowlers can attack West Indies with enough runs on the board.
For that to happen opener Wasim Jaffer should play more positively. He has scored his second Test century and made amends for his failure in the first innings.
Jaffer should play his strokes giving Dravid enough time to shift his batting gears.
It is also quite important that Dravid does not lose his wicket early. In basic terms he should crack a hundred to infuse life into the struggling Indian campaign.
The fatal flaw with Indian batsmen still continues.
Virender Sehwag and VVS Laxman, both comfortable against the West Indies bowling, however failed to put the attack to the sword in the second innings.
Now India’s strategy should be two-fold.
Dravid and Jaffer should occupy the crease but they should also show the urgency to score runs quickly which would enable India to go for an improbable win.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni could be the catalyst for this batting experiment.

Kerala’s different DNA

By John Cheeran
Kerala has a different DNA compared to the other states in the Indian Union.
Kerala’s playing bone is truly different.
It does feel the lack of heroes and that is quite evident now with the spread of World Cup fever virus. There is only one World Cup and it is the football World Cup.
Central and Northern Kerala have put up huge banners and billboards on street corners, at their clubs and homes, supporting defending champions Brazil and former winners Argentina.
Brazil and Argentina do not need Indian supporters but unofficial fans associations have sprung up in Kerala for these two national teams.
And you may note that at the same time there are no takers for Rahul Dravid and company with their ship sinking in the West Indies.
Maradona and Pele are bigger and truer heroes to the raw youth in Malappuram, Trichur and Kozhikode. Dravid and Sehwag, they are far, far away.
The only thing that is common with Kerala and Latin America is football.
It is also crucial to remember that it is not sheer love of football that pulsates in these places. It is a romance, it is a fellow feeling for two nations that are still on the margins of the First World.
Though they can admire the gutsy approach of an England, Holland and Germany on the football field, they do not and cannot worship them.
Love is only for Brazil, love is only for Argentina.
No wonder two writers who have captured the imagination of Malayalis in recent times are Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Paulo Coelho.

Good night, good luck Dravid!

By John Cheeran
This definitely is critical hour for Indian skipper Rahul Dravid.
Since winning the first one-day match against the West Indies, the Indian team has lost critical opportunities to wrap up the one-day series.
Now they have lost the initiative in the Test series as well.
Indian team is struggling to seize the upper hand in the series. Suddenly West Indians are batting with gay abandon and their fast bowlers have put some of the finest batsmen in contemporary cricket on the mat.
I have no quibble with Dravid and coach Greg Chappell for going into the Test with the particular combination they have chosen.
It’s not reputation that should matter but current form. Hence resting Irfan Pathan and Harbhajan Singh is a move that can be defended in terms of the logic of sport.
The crisis in Antigua has been precipitated by Wasim Jaffer and Virender Sehwag. And by those next in the batting order such as Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif and VVS Laxman. One of them should have played a longer innings to give support to skipper Dravid. That did not happen, as always in the past.
By no stretch of imagination you could call the current West Indian bowling attack fearsome. Guys like Kaif and Laxman should reap maximum benefits when team management turn to them to prove their utility value.
It is a pity that even the inclusion of an extra batsman could not fetch India a 350 plus total in the first innings of a Test.
Going into the third day of the match, West Indies has snatched a valuable lead of 71 runs; it certainly appears that they will consolidate their lead to 150-175 in the first innings.
The dice is heavily loaded against Dravid and company.
If Indians are taking this Test match into the fifth day, that alone will be an achievement of sorts in the backdrop of the last few weeks.
More sleepless nights are in store for Indian cricket watchers as well as for Indian players.
Good night, Good luck!

Cracking the Da Vinci Code

By John Cheeran
There are Christians in Kerala, India, but none is bothered to crack the Da Vinci Code out here. Why?
A few Christians I have spoken to, during my trip to Kerala, are eagerly awaiting the release of the movie. Meanwhile bookshops are doing brisk business in selling the paperback editions of Da Vinci Code.
It has been surprising that a few other states with a sizeable Christian content in the Indian Union have been vocal in raising their objection to the release of the Hollywood movie. Catholic church is leading the crusade against the movie and they are demanding a disclaimer saying that the movie represents a fictional account and is removed many miles from reality.
The reason why the Christian Kerala is cool with the movie is this.
All Catholics are Christians
All Christians are not Catholics.
Kerala’s social scene is dominated by Eastern Orthodox churches and they are not too keen to act as the moral police in the Da Vinci Code affair.
Kerala has had its storms over freedom of expression in the past. The stage version of the Nikoz Kazantzakis novel Last Temptation of Christ led to widespread outcry but now with no local involvement in the Da Vinci Code, Kerala is just not bothered.
The two prominent factions of the Eastern Orthodox church are engaged in a fratricidal war and they have no time for the sensitivities of the Catholic Christian Inc.
It may be the good fortune of the rest of Kerala that they will be able to watch the movie as and when it is released.

Lifting the veil on sex sites

Editor's note:
I'm chasing the monsoon in Kerala; hence the break in updates. It has nothing got to do with the pasting Rahul Dravid and company got in the one-dayers against the West Indies!Meanwhile a friend has sent me an interesting opinion by an Iranian on lifting the veil on sex sites..
Read on

Let there be light
Visitng 'Sex sites,' hardcore puritan nations come out unclothed

By Iqbal Latif


Ideological legislation restricts the freedom to access sites considered as bad for the faithul in countries like Iran, Saudi and Pakistan. This legislation of 'human attitudes‚ more often than not leads to exactly the opposite effect. Even Adam, everyone‚s biological father, slipped when he was enticed to eat the forbidden fruit by our common mother, Eve. It is coded in 'human genetics‚ that this intelligent being is designed to do more of what is prohibited. Google report produced ample evidence of that closet mentality. Google found that of the top 10 countries - searching for sex-related sites - six were Muslim, with Pakistan on the top.

The other Muslim countries are Egypt at number 2, Iran at 4, Morocco at 5, Saudi Arabia at 7 and Turkey at 8. Non-Muslim states are Vietnam at 3, India at 6, Philippines at 9 and Poland at 10. Google lifts the veil now and most of the hardcore puritan nations come out unclothed!! Sexual frustrations lead to choked sex sites on Google within most of the Islamic crescent! Even though homosexuality is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia, the kingdom ranks No. 2 for searches for "gay sex," behind the Philippines.

A suppressed and sexually disoriented mind cannot produce too many research papers and new ideas. The top ten countries, where access to sex sites is the highest, with the exception of newly freed Poland, are amongst the bottom of the countries from where new scientific research emanates. Rather, in sciences, the top nine share only three Nobel prizes. Convoluted suppressed minds make no new inroads. How strange that it is the infidel, corrupt west where most of the advancements are being made, we, the puritans, sit on the bottom but in closets are the most corrupt. This dichotomy may result in raging anger within the 'nation of Islam‚ but it needs to be highlighted. A safe deduction can be made that sexual suppressions are inversely related to higher performance in sciences.

Too much suppression and guilt arising from the need of 'sexual emancipation' is not turning out to be so good for many of the Islamic countries. Rising libidos may be associated with rising tempers and violent attitudes. Toleration and leniency comes with emancipation and free mind. One of the main avenues of development, if not the only, is the freedom to meet and interact with the opposite gender; to restrict these meetings under the auspices of 'state‚ so as to control 'corruption‚ of mind is the worst offence against free man. Giving him his freedom to act the way he wants, as far as he hurts no other soul is his basic unalienable right. Much as we may disagree with the social ills of the bents of sexual impressions in this day and age, we all definitely need to defend the right of freedom; when one‚s freedom is suppressed, other avenues of suppression creep in conveniently.

However, the Google report clearly signifies the closet rebels we all are. Pakistan, Iran and Egypt top the lists of nations where most attempts are made to visit porn sites. Much as we consider this to be ungentlemanly conduct, let us agree that this rebellion of sorts, perhaps discovered inadvertently, points to the colourful nature of our shackled populations. What a great colourful revolution goes on inside the minds of Saudis, Iranian and Pakistanis when they visualise what is not available to them in a normal manner. The trends are very clearly established. It is nice to see a rebellious set of chained millions refusing to accept the legislation of morality by state. This is the indication of freedom and shape of things to come in this society. It also indicates that the concept of eradicating corruption on the face of this earth is so wrongly implanted.

Google lifted the veil this week on one of its best-kept secrets: which nations search for what. Who looks up democracy most avidly? Who types in "drugs" or "sex" most frequently? And consider the list of cities that most frequently look up "amour," the French word for love. Paris, allegedly a romantic haven, is absent from the top 10. The top three berths went to Rabat, Morocco; Algiers and Tunis.

Much as they burn their own country and demonstrated most vehemently, Pakistanis look up "despicable Danish cartoons" more avidly than anyone, according to Google. They also lead the rankings for "sex" - with their neighbor and nuclear rival India seldom far behind.

"Guns" is a word easy to associate with the United States. But the rising incidents of violent kidnappings and murders in Latin America has perhaps driven searchers to the Web for answers. Buenos Aires leads the cities index for "guns" searches, and Argentina as a whole outranks the United States, with Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru also in the top 10.

In closed culture, the lack of woman definitely leads to 'soaring libidos and higher sexual desires.‚ Wherever guardians and keepers of moral values reign supreme, sexual irritations multiply. Google, the world‚s most popular Internet search engine, has found in a survey that mostly Muslim states seek access to sex-related websites and Pakistan tops the list.

According to IHT report, the Google system can also be queried one country at a time, to determine, for example, how frequently people in Afghanistan , Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia are looking up "democracy." The Bush administration is unlikely to be pleased by Google's reply for each of those countries: "Your terms - democracy - do not have enough search volume to show graphs."

The essence of the story perhaps is: 'Just do it,' don't feel shy and inhibited. The basic problem for our backwardness and featureless society is not only our nerve-racking tryst with sexual characteristics, but our two-facedness in not accepting our weaknesses openly. That is the bane of our race; it is for this that the closer we are, the more 'clandestinely evil‚ we get. Bringing it out in the open is the challenge these puritan societies like mine face. The real immorality and vice is about doing things in security and hiding one‚s own surroundings; being an evil in a closet but an innocent lamb outside. The Google report just amply demonstrates that.

If one loves beauty and has his 'own demons of perversion' then let him accept that side of his nature and be open about it; that is how his demons will escape him. Knowing your Achilles' heel will help make you convert your limitations to strength; in this world, is it not all about changing the character of your mischievous sprite to beatific? On the other hand, 'society‚ at large should give in to popular will and be more open and more permissive. A lenient and tolerant society will search 'Google sex substance‚ with pride and not with guilt; this 'comical‚ Google testimony evidently points out nations that legislate on morality create far more confused minds. Let the spirits fly, let the party begin. Let ... there ... be ... light!!

Appreciating beauty is very human, just love it... Providence loves those who love fellow beings; maybe this is the first new revised commandment of this modern era.

Divine grace and Tendulkar

By John Cheeran
Though Saatchi and Saatchi is confident of Sachin Tendulkar's star status, the star himself is not sure of his footwork.
Tendulkar has sought divine intervention to get back into form according to reports in the national media.
Priests traced the trouble to "sarpa dosha" or evil snake effects in the planetary alignments of the 33-year-old, The Times of India said on Monday. To correct the evil, Tendulkar, draped in white silk, and his wife Anjali began two days of prayers at the Subramanya temple complex in the southern Indian state of Karnataka.
"The master blaster's loss of form and injury problems were traced to adverse planetary positions for which corrective rituals are taking place," the report said.
Recovering from a shoulder surgery a year after being treated for a tennis elbow, he missed the recent one-day series at home against England and will also sit out of the five one-dayers in the West Indies later this month. He was, however, confident of being fit for the four Test matches against the West Indies starting on June 2.
"I hope to be back in the Indian team soon,"Tendulkar said after the temple visit.
Is there anything wrong in seeking God's help to sort out cricketing matters?
There should not be.
In a crisis, every human being prays to God. I do pray.
But I also concede that certain things man has to do; man has to take full charge of himself.
I thought cricket was one such field where men are pitted against only men. I have a doubt now. Recent developments and poojas force me to ask whether Tendulkar has become the Tendulkar we know, only thanks to the planetary positions and divine grace.
Yes, divine grace has blessed Tendulkar. But what about those bowlers who are troubling Tendulkar consistently these days? I must say they have succeeded in their dharma.
Those bowlers are also blessed by the divine grace. Or is it that in the last four years bowlers of the world consulted their spiritual gurus and corrected their planetary positions?
Truth must be something like this.
God has blessed Tendulkar for the last 33 years. And Tendulkar has made the most-- runs and money -- out of the divine grace.
Now to believe that Tendulkar's form has waned only because of the planetary position would be preposterous.
It would be a tragedy if Tendulkar himself believes so.
It would be Tendulkar's end as a professional cricketer. It is a pity that after all these years Tendulkar cannot admit that he must be losing his powers of concentration and big time play owing to the advancing age.
There are fitter, faster and wily bowlers than when he started out his career. Tendulkar is young in years but he is a veteran in international cricket. It would be naive to think that Tendulkar will be able to bat with the freedom and assurance when he was absolutely young at the crease years ago.
The solace, however, is at the other end of the crease. A four year older Brian Lara, at 37, still bats well for West Indies. But Lara's secret to success is that he enjoys his cricket, has no eye on the record books and on the fine print of the marketing deal.
Lara, whenever he visits India, has no qualms to say that Tendulkar is the best batsman in the world even when the Indian legend is struggling to live up to the rigours of international cricket.
By showering praise on Tendulkar Lara has won the pressure game. Now when India take on West Indies I'm sure Lara will speak with his bat and outclass Tendulkar.
And by the way, how often Tendulkar has said Lara is the modern batting great of the game?Or how often Tendulkar has come out and praised rival cricketers?
Tendulkar definitely needs assistance beyond cricket but I'm not sure whether he is getting it from the right sources.
Let there be more runs for him.

Save the Children!

By John Cheeran
World is a wonderful place indeed.
As debates abound about the futility of the lifetime and the rationale of Intelligent Design, God sometimes dominate the topic.
Men and women lament their losses when tsunamis strike but a report by Save the Children researchers say that an estimated 2 million babies die within their first 24 hours each year worldwide.
That is, silent but deadly tsunamis are sweeping across the globe relentlessly.
And who is watching over us?
Read more from a report by the Save the Children organisation.

Sub-Saharan Africa remains the worst place in the world to be a mother or child, with Scandinavian nations again taking the top spots in the rankings by the Connecticut-based humanitarian group.
Sweden heads the list, with Niger last. The "Mothers' Index" in the report ranks 125 nations according to 10 gauges of well-being -- six for mothers and four for children -- including objective measures such as lifetime mortality risk for mothers and infant mortality rate and subjective measures such as the political status of women.
Charles MacCormack, president and CEO of Save the Children, said the report card "illustrates the direct line between the status of mothers and the status of their children.
"In countries where mothers do well, children do well," he said in a written statement accompanying the report.
But each year, according to the report, more than a half-million women die as a result of pregnancy and childbirth difficulties, 2 million babies die within their first 24 hours, 2 million more die within their first month and 3 million are stillborn.
Causes of death in the developing world were dramatically different from those in the developed world, the report said. In industrialized nations deaths were most likely to result from babies being born too small or too early, while in the developing world about half of newborn deaths were from infection, tetanus and diarrhea.
Japan was among a number of nations highly ranked mainly because they offer free health services for pregnant women and babies, while the United States suffers from disparities in access to health care.
The report said almost all newborn and maternal deaths take place in developing nations -- 99 percent and 98 percent, respectively. The newborn mortality rates were particularly high in countries with a recent history of armed conflict, including Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Ranking at the bottom of the scorecard were Liberia, Afghanistan, Angola and Iraq -- countries where armed conflict and cultural practices impede newborn survival.
"It's tragic that millions of newborns die every year, especially when these deaths are so easily preventable," says the report.
"Three out of four newborn deaths could be avoided with simple, low-cost tools that already exist, such as antibiotics for pneumonia, sterile blades to cut umbilical cords and knit caps to keep babies warm."
The Mothers' Index -- which excluded some nations that lacked sufficient data -- highlights huge disparities between the nations at the top and the bottom of the list.
The report highlights the three areas it says have the most influence on child well-being: female education, presence of a trained attendant at birth and use of family planning services.
Educated women, the report said, are more likely to marry and give birth later in life, to seek health care and to encourage education for their children, including girls.
The report said that family planning and increased contraception use leads to lower maternal and infant death rates.
Many women and children in developing nations, it said, die as a result of births that come at the wrong time -- too close together, too early or too late in the mother's life..

Tendulkar, the dollar sign

By John Cheeran
I do admit that marketing men know the worth of anyone in public life much better than journalists.
Hence I'm not amazed that Sourav Ganguly has not been chosen by Indian media planners to peddle Pepsi or Coca-Cola during this sizzling summer.
I'm told that media planners did not give into Sourav's clout even in West Bengal while finalising their strategy for the ABP Country.
Some of my fellow journalists might be railing against this injustice but I couldn't agree with the ad kids more.
Be that as it may, Saatchi and Saatchi's move to tie up with Sachin Tendulkar surprises me. Tendulkar, currently recovering from shoulder surgery, has signed a three-year deal which can be extended by another three years, with Saatchi's Indian arm ICONIX.
That is, not only during this World Cup, even in the 2011 World Cup, which is going to be staged in the Indian subcontinent, Saatchi hopes to sell the Indian hero.
Reports said the deal was worth around $40 million, a huge jump from his previous five-year endorsement deal worth $17 million, which ended late lastyear.
Tendulkar is struggling. Is his image strong enough to endure the turmoil at the wicket? It should have been a tough call for ICONIX to make.
To pay Tendulkar for the rights to use his image much more than when he was in peak form is a baffling but bold move by any yardstick.
I cannot foresee Tendulkar retaining his place in the Indian side in the post-World Cup scenario.
Right now, Tendulkar is finished as a quality Test cricketer. What keeps him in the Indian side is his fifty-over exploits. There too, Tendulkar has failed to conceal the cracks in his game. Everyone in India is impatient with this fast fading icon and a poor string of scores in the WorldCup (he has to come good in the Super League, since the group matches give two opportunities to crack centuries against teams who do not deserve to be there)will finish him off as a messenger boy to big-time advertising.
May be, ad kids do know better than me.
May be I'm plain wrong.
But by all means this has been an interesting turn of events.
Tendulkar's star status is directly linked to his place in the Indian side. I'm sure, having signed Tendulkar, Saatchi and Saatchi will be eager to ensure that Tendulkar remains in the Indian side. Temptation time for National selection committee.
I have no choice but to recall Indian team coach Greg Chappell's statement regarding Ganguly in this context.
Chappell told The Guardian that he did not realize that how important a place in the Indian team was for Ganguly's financial well-being. Much the same can be said about any player, and that includes Tendulkar.
Another crucial thing is that unlike legendary Kapil Dev, the Mumbai batsman lacks charisma. There cannot be any doubts on that score after all these years.
The day Tendulkar bids farewell to competitive cricket, marketing men will find it tough to project him as a brand. There cannot be an evolution for a finished product such as Tendulkar. And with the 2011 World Cup happening in the Indian subcontinent my money is onhitherto unknown stars in the mould of Mahendra Singh Dhoni to carry the message.
I hope to be around to be proven wrong by Tendulkar.

Let Kabul go to hell

By John Cheeran
Almost a month ago, Reuters were looking for journalists to become chief correspondent in Kabul, Afghanistan.
I too had received the opportunity alert for the same slot.
Though I was jobless then, it did not take me long to say, no, thank you to Reuters.
It is better to starve without a job than be a victim of senseless Taliban.
When I read about Indian engineer Satyanarayana's murder in Afghanistan, I recalled the Reuters opportunity alert.
Though I felt sad for poor Satyanarayana and his family, I was relieved that I at least made one correct decision in a decade or so.
It is true that Satyanarayana did not join a company based in Afghanistan but in Bahrain. But even then he would not have been oblivious to the fact that his company will be doing business mainly with perilous places such as Afghanistan and Iraq.
No amount of money is worth losing your life in such a gory manner that is happening in Afganistan and Iraq.
It is better to commit suicide in India rather than letting the enemy slit your throat for his religious thrill.
And no news is worth reporting from Kabul and Kandahar at the cost of your life.
Let Kabul rot, I can't care less.

Phir Milenge, Pramod

By John Cheeran
I’m not a blind supporter of any political party.
Pramod Mahajan’s death is not a loss that affects only BJP but India as well.
Mahajan’s death, felled by his blood brother’s bullets, is the ultimate political tragedy in independent India’s history. India has lost more illustrious leaders than Mahajan but the circumstances in which Mahajan had to bid farewell, battling for 12 days at the Hinduja Hospital, resembled a Shakespearean tragedy.
Brother turns against brother. Fratricide.
Mahajan was considered to be the ace fixer for BJP. A negotiator with never fading smile, it baffles me that Pramod could not win through an argument or that he left an argument unresolved with his brother that led to his downfall.
How fickle life is. How mysterious is God’s will..
On that fateful Saturday morning, Pramod was at the safest of place on planet earth.
At home, with his wife.
What tragedy could have befell on him when he was reading the morning papers?
It is always difficult to guess other man’s designs. We all can only submit ourselves to God’s will.
Phir Milenge, Pramod!

Kaavya lies between the lines

By John Cheeran
If I had $500,000 I would have just quit my job and stretched out myself on the floor and gone to sleep.
Guys and gals slog it out, cheat each other and eat each other only to survive; not for mega sums like $ 500,000.
The fact that Kaavya Viswanathan cheated her readers for money (she received $ 500,000 for How Opal Mehta Got A LIfe) and fame proves that those who are well educated and lead a good life are worse than rest of the society when it comes to dishonesty.
Even when Kavvya was caught by Harward Crimson, she maintained her elaborate lie that she just internalized whatever stuff she read from Megan McCafferty’s books.
I consider Praveen Mahajan less of an evil for admitting what he has done rather than in a denial mode.
Readers should be wary of writers such as Kaavya; readers should also be wary of those book agents who tom-tom the arrival of new wordsmiths.
Kaavya should be able to realize that world will not fall apart if she does not write anything other than an apology for her copycat act.

It happens in Dubai again!

Editor's note:
Third world workers are having a rough time in Dubai, considered to be the place where you can make quick bucks...Read here a report that Gulf Today published on April 27, 2006

DUBAI: Agitated over the continuous deduction of the salary for punching cards before end of work shifts, more than 3,000 labourers belonging to a major construction company went on a rampage on Wednesday evening smashing buses and damaging and ransacking the company's site office located in Mina Seyahi off Jumeirah in Dubai.
The enraged workers also beat up some on-site employees of the company and blocked the rush hour traffic on the Dubai Media City road for more than two hours. They demanded better living conditions in their labour camps and an increase in basic wages. Riot police and officials from the labour department had to be called in to disperse the protestors who allegedly damaged five buses causing considerable losses.
According to workers, trouble began around 6pm when they queued up to punch out after their day's work. However, a site manager's action of deducting a worker's salary for punching four minutes before time triggered the protests that soon turned violent. "First of all, are paid less salary and added to that is the deduction of the salaries for silly reasons like punching out early.
No worker would gain anything from punching out a few minutes before time,î said one of the protesting workers. He said that majority of the labourers earned less than Dhs1,000 because of low basic salaries and deductions.
"Even after putting eight hours of work in the hot sun, we are paid poor salaries. Most of the unskilled workers are paid around Dhs600 per month," said a worker. The situation was brought under control around 8:30pm when labour officials promised to resolve their problems after consulting the company.
Labourers belonging to the same company had resorted to violence early this month when they broke window panes and the furniture in the labour canteen in their Al Quoz labour camp.
When contacted by The Gulf Today Assistant Director for Follow-up and Investigations, Immigration and a member of The Permanent Committee for Labour Affairs Lt Col Rashid Bakhit Al Jumairi refused to comment on the issue.

How Kaavya Viswanathan Got Caught

By Dinitia Smith, NYT
Kaavya Viswanathan, the Harvard sophomore accused of plagiarizing parts of her recently published chick-lit novel, acknowledged yesterday that she had borrowed language from another writer's books, but called the copying "unintentional and unconscious."
The book, "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life," was recently published by Little, Brown to wide publicity.
On Sunday, The Harvard Crimson reported that Ms. Viswanathan, who received $500,000 as part of a deal for"Opal" and one other book, had seemingly plagiarized language from two novels by Megan McCafferty, an author of popular young-adult books.
In an e-mail message yesterday afternoon, Ms. Viswanathan, 19, said that in high school she had read the two books she is accused of borrowing from, "Sloppy Firsts" and "Second Helpings," and that they "spoke to me in a way few other books did."
"Recently, I was very surprised and upset to learn that there are similarities between some passages in my novel, 'How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life,' and passages in these books," she said.
Calling herself a "huge fan" of Ms.McCafferty's work, Ms. Viswanathan added, "I wasn't aware of how much I may have internalized Ms. McCafferty's words." She also apologized to Ms. McCafferty and said that future printings of the novel would be revised to "eliminate any inappropriate similarities."
Michael Pietsch, publisher of Little, Brown, said that Ms. Viswanathan planned to add an acknowledgment to Ms. McCafferty in future printings of the book.
In her e-mail message, Ms. Viswanathan said that"the central stories of my book and hers are completely different."
But Ms. McCafferty's books, published by Crown, a division of Random House, are, likeMs. Viswanathan's, about a young woman from New Jersey trying to get into an Ivy League college - in her case, Columbia. (Ms. Viswanathan's character has hersights set on Harvard.)
Like the heroine of "Opal," Ms. McCafferty's character, Jessica Darling, visits the campus, strives to earn good grades to get in andmakes a triumphant high school graduation speech. And the borrowings may bemore extensive than have previously been reported. The Crimson cited 13instances in which Ms. Viswanathan's book closely paralleled Ms. McCafferty'swork.
But there are at least 29 passages that are strikingly similar.
At onepoint in "Sloppy Firsts," Ms. McCafferty's heroine unexpectedly encounters herlove interest. Ms. McCafferty writes: "Though I used to see him sometimes atHope's house, Marcus and I had never, ever acknowledged each other's existence before. So I froze, not knowing whether I should (a) laugh, (b) say something,or (c) ignore him and keep on walking. I chose a brilliant combo of (a) and (b). " 'Uh, yeah. Ha. Ha. Ha.'
"I turned around and saw that Marcus was smiling at me." Similarly, Ms. Viswanathan's heroine, Opal, bumps into her love interest, and the two of them spy on one of the school's popular girls.
Ms. Viswanathan writes: "Though I had been to school with him for the last three years, Sean Whalen and I had never acknowledged each other's existence before. I froze, unsure of (a) what he was talking about, or (b) what I was supposed to do about it. I stared at him. " 'Flat irons,' he said.
'At least seven flat irons for that hair.' " 'Ha, yeah. Uh, ha. Ha.' I looked at the floor and managed a pathetic combination of laughter and monosyllables, then remembered that the object of our mockery was his former best friend. "I looked up and saw that Sean was grinning."
In a profile published in The New York Times earlier this month, Ms.Viswanathan said that while she was in high school, her parents hired Katherine Cohen, founder of Ivy Wise, a private counseling service, to help with the college application process.
After reading some of Ms. Viswanathan's writing, Ms. Cohen put her in touch with the William Morris Agency, and Ms. Viswanathan eventually signed with Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, an agent there. Ms. Walsh said that she put Ms. Viswanathan in touch with a book packaging company, 17th Street Productions (now Alloy Entertainment), but that the plot and writing of "Opal"were "1,000 percent hers."
Alloy, which referred questions to Little, Brown, holds the copyright to "Opal" with Ms. Viswanathan. In the Times profile, Ms.Viswanathan said the idea for "Opal" came from her own experiences in high school "surrounded by the stereotype of high-pressure Asian and Indian families trying to get their children into Ivy League schools."
Tina Constable, a spokeswoman for Crown, said a reader had noticed the similarities between the books. That person, she said, "told Megan. Megan alerted us. We've alerted the Little, Brown legal department. We are waiting to hear from them."
It was unclear whether Harvard would take any action against Ms. Viswanathan.
"Our policies apply to work submitted to courses," said Robert Mitchell, the director of communications for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard.
"Nevertheless, we expect Harvard students to conduct themselves with integrity and honesty at all times."
Ms. Walsh, the agent, said: "Knowing what a fine person Kaavya is, I believe any similarities were unintentional. Teenagers tendto adopt each other's language."

Mahajan fights the most important battle in his life

By John Cheeran
Blood turns against blood.
Fratricide is only a degree lower crime than parricide.
Pramod Mahajan, Bharatiya Janata Party leader and a former Parliamentary affairs minister has been shot at in Mumbai, and even after a four-hour surgery at the Hinduja Hospital in Mumbai his condition remains critical. The shots were fired by his brother, Pravin Mahajan. Mahajan, the Bharatiya Janata Party's General Secretary was hit by three shots.He was hit twice in the stomach and other struck him in the chest.The motive for the attack is not known.
Whatever the reasons that led to this turn of events, it is a severe blow to both Mahajan family and the BJP.
But what times we live in! It is not just terrorists alone one has to watch out for.
Time calls for better anger management techniques to the solace of all.