When the world walks past Tendulkar!

By John Cheeran
Folks, I have got some news for you.
Sachin Tendulkar is turning gray.
Tendulkar has become old, he no longer has the verve of youth with him. It is just not his elbow, mate.
Like the majority of the old men, Tendulkar now needs comfort, security and stability in his cricket. Is he not finding it in the Indian dressing room?
Apparently, he is not.
His statement calling for balance in everything team management does say just that.
Tendulkar has said that the time for experimentation with strategies is over and now the management should adopt an inflexible approach to game and players.
I find Tendulkar’s statement that “batsmen should know what is expected of them” the most striking thing of all.
Batsmen should know what is expected of them!
Really, I’m ashamed to tell that a batsman’s role, especially in limited overs cricket is to get as many runs as possible in as short a time. It is pity that Tendulkar, the man with most number of centuries, pretends that he does not know this.
Or is he saying that he should be let to open the innings whenever India plays, wherever India plays? Why is Tendulkar suddenly afraid of a floating batting order?
It is quite obvious that Tendulkar is not speaking just for himself.
With Indian top order batting does not distinguishing itself with stellar shows in the recent matches in West Indies and in Malaysia, it is no secret that some of the big guns are fearing that coach Greg Chappell might bring in fresh blood for World Cup.
The presence of Dilip Vengsarkar, a fellow Mumbaikar, as the selection committee chairman also has emboldened Tendulkar to speak out against the broad philosophy of skipper Rahul Dravid and Chappell.
In the little time Vengsarkar has got to get his act together he has expressed his wish to have his own say, that is being the counterpoint to Chappell and Dravid.
In all times, a player, even if is the great Tendulkar himself, will do good to take care of his game and leave the rest to the team management.
After all, no one is asking Tendulkar to guard over Siachen and Kargil.

Abandoned lives

By John Cheeran
Just like many other things, child labour too is banned in India but it flourishes in many forms not just because it is forbidden.
An AFP report from New Delhi says that a new law will ban children from working as servants or in the catering trade.
The Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act 1986 prohibits employing children under 14 in hazardous jobs such as those in glass factories and slaughterhouses.
About 12 million children among a population of 1.1 billion people are employed in India, according census figures quoted by AFP.
This figure is likely to be only bigger, if one is to listen to NGOs.
The new law, if applied forcefully, may reduce the instances where child labour is employed. The philosophy behind the new law is to give children back their childhood.
It’s a noble idea, giving children their childhood.
And it puzzles me that when the crowd of couples without kids are increasing day-by-day, on the other end, there are children abandoned by their parents. Apparently children do not sprout on tree branches, I suppose.
The new law, which is being implemented from this week on, only points to the failure of the nation, and a failure of Indian society. We have not been honest enough to cut down on population explosion. And somehow we have resigned to the belief that children are God’s and God will take care of them. What men and women have got to do with it?
It is only men and women who have got that everything to do with abandoned children.
We should able to realize the value of not only dollars and rupees but even kids too.
The callous, or to put it in much more refined way, the stoic attitude of those poor parents who are forced to leave the God’s gifts to Lord’s own care should be tackled by the government.
An unwanted child is a potential criminal and threat to society as researchers have pointed out in the United States. Malcolm Gladwell’s Tipping Point talks about how crime rates dipped in New York. The root cause was that abortion was made legal in the US and there were a drastic reduction in unwanted births…
So bottom line is, think before you plan a baby. If you are not able to take care of your children, don’t bring them on. Irrespective of whether you are rich or poor.
Let not push our children through Dickensian alleys.

Hey Ram, Ram, Bahujan!

By John Cheeran
Kanshi Ram, the man who dragged Bahujans into the courtyard of Indian politics, died on Monday morning in New Delhi. And with his death, a lingering controversy has leapt into flames again.
To whom Kanshi Ram belonged to and to now whom his body belongs to?
Is it to Mayawati, the reigning deity of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) or Kanshi Ram’s relatives?
Kanshi Ram belonged to the oppressed classes of northern India.
Among all the Rams in Indian politics, Kanshi was the most political and original. He conceptualized and launched a political party that re-shaped the contours of Indian politics by giving the Dalits the bargaining power hitherto they could not even dream of.
It is remarkable that the BSP has not been a passing phenomenon but has stayed a critical factor in Indian political equations. BSP, will, surely outlive Kanshi.
Kanshi’s political genius was that he carved a niche for himself and his brethren a rightful place in Indian society.
And in his detachment to the politics of office he came closer to Mahatma Gandhi than anyone else in independent India. What a pity it is that, towards the end of his life Kanshi Ram had to realize that even caste cannot hold a community together.
Today, Kanshi Ram's relatives are accusing Mayawati of slow poisoning him to death. Bahujans are fighting over the rights to bury him in Indian capital now.
Is blood thicker than water then?
In Kanshi Ram’s case, Delhi High Court shall enlighten us.

Read this before you go to Dubai..

By John Cheeran
I received this email just the other day. I thought I should share it here with you especially when many of you are keen to make mega bucks in the Middle East, or to be more specific in Dubai.
Now Read this email from a Dubai resident..

Truly Something to read and think about current situation in DUBAI !
Ahlan Dubai....... Welcome Dubai.......
With so many Indians hopping the next flight to Dubai (or UAE in general) to make their dreams happen........life would turn out to be a shocker here. The common problem for youth in India is that they want to make too much money in too little a time.
They are willing to leave India on the first offer from any country of repute (or even without repute) without considering the pros and cons.
As for the millions of UAE aspirants in India .........guys hold on do a self assessment based on the under mentioned facts:-
Just don't multiply the AED salary by 13 and convert the same in to rupee earnings. That would be the first of the many mistakes are likely to make. The conversion if at all should be done for savings and not gross earnings.
If you a married person, consider the cost of family accommodation in UAE and more importantly in Dubai. The minimum requirement of a one BHK (bedroom, hall, kitchen) flat would cost you a minimum of AED 4,000/- per month (not per annum, guys) any where in downtown Dubai. Add a minimum of 10-15% annual increments in rent. Don't expect the salaries to rise by even half that %.
If you are smart enough to realize that you can look for apartments outside Dubai (Sharjah, Ajman, RAK) to save AED 1,000 - 1,500 per month in rent , please allow yourself three to fours hours for commutation every day (given the present traffic situation, which can only degrade with influx of millions of immigrants every year).
Add that to a normal 10 hours day would mean you would end up spending around 14-15 hours a day on job......and you thought family life would be so much fun in Dubai.
Be prepared to shell out AED 100/- for a routine check up at doctors in UAE.
If you are lucky you will not fall ill, but god forbid if you do, then you will have a big hole in your pocket.
If you aren't used to summers of north India and hail from places like Shimla, then you are in for a treat of your lifetime. Temperatures can run up to 50 degrees on a normal sunny afternoon and such days are pretty regular. And did I mention the humidity levels of 95%........I am sure I did.
If you don't have children you are lucky......bcos if you a 2-3 children going to school......add at least AED 12,000 (per annum per child) to the cost of living in UAE·
You thought that petrol here is cheaper and so would be the taxies .....try taking a cab from airport to your hotel ........the meter would touch AED 75-100/- before you will be able to make yourself comfortable in the Camry.
You might have the fanciest of all cars available here, but when it comes to parking the same, you might regret buying one. Imagine roaming around the streets of Dubai for 1 hour just to find a parking space...........alas.....even that's not free.........don't forget to display your parking ticket .......else a fine awaits you.
Last but not the least of all woes is a triple call rate to your loved ones in India. INR 30 per minute from U.A.E to India whereas as INR 8 per minute from India to UAE ........it must give you an idea what awaits you in Dubai.
Don't you dare think you can use skype in Dubai.........guys its banned and its illegal........even sites like Orkut are banned here.......so much so for the communication.
So if you are fascinated by the growing number of glam malls in Dubai .....the ever-changing skyline ............all the hype and glory that surrounds this place ...........the bollywood stars flocking to Dubai every Thursday night .........the cute cars ........the chic cafés ........
BURJ DUBAI........BURJ AL ARAB ......Dubai Marina; think twice buddies !!!!!!
(Remember what is yours is what you take home after a lifetime in Dubai).
No matter how long you stay here you will still be an expatriate ......no UAE passport .........no home.
Once u r here u wud swear, there's nothing like home!!!

Note: Do you still want to go to Dubai?

Editors ignore India's water crisis

By John Cheeran
Pipes never run dry in Indian editors' homes.
No wonder then that none of the Indian newspapers carries stories on the water crisis that drain Indian lives.
But The New York Times and International Herald Tribune have carried a three-part series on India's water crisis. NYT's correspondent Somini Sengupta has done a good job of piecing together India's battles with flood and drought.
How I wish the desi editors and and desi media cared for such stories.
It is a pity that it took an American (read imperialists, or great satan, or whatever Prakash Karat and Mullahs let you call them) newspaper to focus on one of India's most pressing problems. Those media barons and politicians who threaten us that foreign direct investment in Indian media will hurt the national interest should read the three-part series in The New York Times.
India's water woes, indeed, is a news that is fit to print.
Kudos to The NYT.

Che Guevara and India

By John Cheeran
Recently I had opportunities to travel through Kerala, that Marxist bastion in India.
Some of the sights I caught while travelling in bus in Cochin was the posters proclaiming Democratic Youth Federation of India's (DYFI) district meeting.
Well, it shows DYFI's organizational skill that they can conduct district meetings in style throughout the state.
My only quarrel with DYFI is this. How long you guys plan to cling on to comrade Che Guevara?
Is it not ridiculous to hold your district or state level meetings by selling a Latin American revolutionary icon in India? Don't you have a single revolutionary among you, past and present, with whom an Indian can relate to?
It's the tragedy of Marxists in India that they have failed to produce a single revolutionary who can inspire the Indian youth.
So everytime they have to approach people, they rescue Che from dust and oblivion.
Long live Che.

Can Vengsarkar play it straight?

By John Cheeran
Dilip Vengsarkar must be either a very, very brave man or a foolish bumble bee.
To actively pursue the post of National Selection Committee Chairman and eventually slide into that chair is somewhat unusual for an illustrious cricketer such as Vengsarkar.
It is a post least favoured by cricketers such as Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev and Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi. And they are no mean cricketers.
They know the difference between pontification on cricket in general and team selection in particular. They are quite different from each other.
It is a post that will consume you, and eventually make you the number one enemy of the nation.
Those who have been ignored will hate you, those who will be dropped may even hire goons to fix you up.
And the Champions Trophy selection has indicated that in selection matters even the new chairman will have to follow the broad lines of the prevailing youth philosophy.
Vengsarkar might tell eager journalists that the door is not closed on anyone, not even on Sourav Ganguly but he will have to be realistic in his assessment of individuals.
Whether Kiran More or Vengsarkar if you do not bring runs and wickets to the meeting room, you will have to stand outside the Indian team's dressing room.

The importance of what Aznar said

By John Cheeran
Jose Maria Aznar, former Spanish prime minister, has spoken what many wanted to ask the Islamic empire for a long, long time.
Aznar has boldly defended Pope Benedict XVI's comments about Islam, saying the pontiff had no need to apologise and asking why Muslims never did.
I fully endorse Aznar's views.
The fact that Aznar is no longer the Prime Minister has given him the freedom to state some unpleasant truths regarding the tolerance level of Islamists.
"Why do we always have to say sorry and they never do?" Aznar told a conferencein Washington on "global threats" on September 25. This question apparently has found resonance not just in Europe but even in India, a country where the majority Hindus are facing terrorist threat from a section of Islamists, funded by oil rich nations in the Middle East, which has no time for democracy.
Earlier on Saturday, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso was quoted as saying that more European leaders should have spoken out in support of the Pope after he made his disputed comments on Islam.
"I was disappointed there were not more European leaders who said 'naturally the Pope has the right to express his views'," Barroso was quoted as saying to the Welt am Sonntag newspaper.
"The problem is not the statements of the Pope but the reaction of the extremists," the paper quoted him as saying. Referring to the Moorish conquest of much of the Iberian Peninsula from the eighth to the 15th century,Aznar said: "It is interesting to note that while a lot of people in the world are asking the Pope to apologise for his speech, I have never heard a Muslim say sorry for having conquered Spain and occupying it for eight centuries."
Aznar,who was the Prime Minister from 1996 to 2004, took Spain into the American-ledwar in Iraq, against massive public opposition. Addressing the conference in Washington on "global threats", Aznar said: "We are living in a time of war... It's them or us. The West did not attack Islam, it was they who attacked us."
"We must face up to an Islam that is ambitious, that is radical and that influences the Muslim world, a fundamentalist Islam that we must confront because we don't have any choice.
"We are constantly under attack and we must defend ourselves," he said. "I support Ferdinand and Isabella," he proclaimed, in reference to the medieval Catholic monarchs who drove the Moors out of Spainin 1492.
Barroso said the caution on the part of European leaders was probably due to "worries about a possible confrontation" as well as a "certain form of political correctness. "We have to defend our values," he said. "We should also encourage the moderate leaders in the Muslim world - and they're the majority -to distance themselves from this extremism," Barroso was quoted as saying.

Politics of Pope

By John Cheeran
Credit should go to Pope Benedict for initiating an unpleasant but necessary debate on violence and religions.
Certain sections in society are living with a belief system that they are beyond reproach. It is they who are demanding an apology whenever others express an opinion which they consider is right.
Why it is so? A cartoon, a speech...
Let there be more such cartoons and speeches..

A trophy for Sathyan?

By John Cheeran
Many had stopped by at this blog to pay their respects to former Indian football captain and doughty defender V.P. Sathyan. I thank them all and would like to leave them with an idea of having a trophy in his name in Indian football.
It is easy to sponsor a trophy but tough to stage a tournament worthy of Sathyan's illustrious name and deeds.
Last week, deep in Kerala, an intra-district school sports games had instituted a trophy in Sathyan's name. The football event for under-12 school kids staged in Malappuram district is a small step to honur one of India's finest footballers.
At Sathyan's hasty retreat from life, it was whispered that Kerala Football Association was planning to stage a benefit match for him. What's happening to that proposed match? Is it on?
I'm keen to know.
I suggest KFA should actively pursue the idea of having a tournament to honour Sathyan.
In a tournament-starved Kerala, there would not be any lack of spectators for the event. And it would be a great crime if we just wait for KFA to do everything in this regard.
Sathyan's former team mates, and all active and veteran footballers especially in Kerala should hold a brain-storming session to discuss the feasibility of the project and make things happen.
I request anyone who care to read this to comment on the issue.
Footballers may die, let not football die.

Pakistan: A rogue nation, a rogue XI

By John Cheeran
I had slipped away from my desk for a while and interesting things have happened by then and now.
There was drama at the Oval and it fits with a pattern that Pakistan cricketers disgraced themselves on the fourth day of the Test in England. Yes, Darrell Hair has quite a reputation but like the old ad for Lifebuoy soap, wherever Pakistan is, there is trouble.
For them as well as others!
Pakistan cricketers have displayed tendencies similar to suicicde bombers of the Middle East; by refusing or (delaying!) to come back on to the field so that play could resume, Inzamam-ul Haq has proved that what a poor learner he has been as a captain of an international side.
Hair is not the finest of modern umpires, (Peter Roebuck has reminded the readers of Hindu that he should have been cut from the ICC's list years ago, a point Arjuna Ranatunga and other Sri Lankans would readily agree with) but the Aussie umpire had a point to trigger the crisis.
The original sin has been the ball tampering and Pakistan fast bowlers are the masters of manipulating the cricket ball. They have done it in the past to deadly effect; it has to be noted that Pakistan needed to win at Oval at any cost to redeem their pride after losing the second and third Tests. And it is a pity from the Pakistan viewpoint that they frittered away their chances of winning the Test with a great show of injured pride. It was nothing but cricketing suicide..
There is a defining difference between India and Pakistan.
India is a thriving democracy that has withstood threats to its stability and integrity in an admirable fashion whereas Pakistan is a disease that can spread to the subcontinent and even to Mideast.
Pakistan's biggest export in recent times has been terrorism. In a nutshell, Paksitan is a rogue state.
And it shoud not come as a surprise to us that Pakistan cricket team appears as a rogue outfit. No sport team can remain in vacuum and Pakistan's ills as a nation are very much evident in their cricket team.
Again, another occasion when I thank the British for partition!

Future looks bright except for journalists

By John Cheeran
It is impossible to criticise media organisations.
Newspapers and magazines can criticise anyone. But there will not be any space when criticism is directed against the conscience keepers of the nation.
So how do you bring to light the mischief that goes on in media houses?
Leave alone exposing the frauds in the media, how do you argue for better wages and working conditions for journalists?
It is a difficult task indeed.
Editors in India have no time for reforms in their backyard but preach for quick reforms in rest of the world.
Among the illustrious Indian editors only B.G. Varghese did come up with a proposal that sub-editors should be paid a decent salary, much more than what reporters earn, so as to improve the quality of newspapers.
But B.G.'s proposal was never implemented.
I write these lines after reading Philip Knightley's piece on the Indian media scene in the recent issue of India Today weekly. Knightley's comments are interesting. Let me quote him from India Today. " New newspapers blossomed and today, India is probably the only country where readership is increasing. The future looks bright, except for journalists' wages. They (wages) have never been good and were often paid late. Indian proprietors, like anywhere else, believed that working for their newspaper was sufficient reward."
Yes, Mr Knightley, future looks bright except for journalists.
It was a rare comment in an Indian publication that highlighted the plight of journalists. I have a doubt, though.
Was it a lack of attention from the India Today Copy Desk that let Knightley's critical comment see the light of the day?
It is remarkable that it has taken an outsider to highlight Indian journalists's bleak future as far as salaries are concerned. In this era of Editor-cum Publishers in Indian media, wages of journalists are not news.

Life and Play

By John Cheeran
Are cricketers worthy of their hero status?
May be, cricket writers and fans have equated cricket with life but cricketers in their infinite wisdom have neatly separated the two.
Cricketers pretty much know, better than you and me, when and where cricket begins and ends. So it is not all that difficult to understand the discomfort of South African cricketers in staying on in Sri Lanka in the aftermath of a mine blast that killed seven.
Strife is everywhere.
Sporting life is a dangerous one, at least that's what we believe. If so, cricketers should be more willing to face adversity than we, mere sporting witnesses.
Indian cricketers are silent and have not voiced their apprehensions in the wake of Colombo blast. In the past there have been noises about how unsafe Pakistanis for cricket.
Yes, Pakistan always is a dangerous place, especially for Indians. It is difficult to make a judgement of the current crop of Indian cricketers' character in their response to the Unitech tri-nation one-day series saga.
Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) must have briefed the Indian team management not to make an issue out of security and just carry on playing.
India is vulnerable to terrorism as much as Sri Lanka is. And especially with the Indian sub-continent having gained the rights to host the 2011 World Cup, the BCCI will have to be very tough on security standoffs.
There is no doubt that Indian cricketers must be betting on their survival chances both against bombs and a resurgent Sri Lankan team. It is better for Indian team skipper Rahul Dravid and company to remain tightlipped on both counts.
Living is a much more dangerous game than playing.
God bless you gentlemen.

Thoughts on breaking free

By John Cheeran
Another August 15.
India, that is Bharath, is celebrating its freedom from the British today.
Only when the last of the British left, we realized that it is a really tough job being free.
Over the last 59 years Indians have come to deal with their freedom in an admirable way. There has been considerable progress.
More schools, more buildings, more cars, more television sets, and more sorrows.
Indians have gone forth and multiplied, have done many wondrous things. We have raised the tri-colour, we have celebrated Holy, Eid and Christmas; we have rioted and killed each other; we have rescued each other during calamities and when we were overcome by a terrible wave of human kindness.
Indians have been credible, and incredible over the years.
I'm afraid that Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi's idea of freedom and my idea of freedom are clashing at each other now.
Gandhi wanted India for Indians; now the process of globalization has begun to chisel at the boundaries of the nation states.
Who is an Indian in 2006?
Indians are desperate to flee from the wild party at the dusty street corners to the silicon valley in San Francisco and then get tormented by nostalgia to return home. If India had been under the British rule, with voting rights in the Parliamentary system, we should have been ruling the English by the sheer strength of numbers. Biharis and Tamilians would have stormed Soho. One could have shuttled much more easily between London and Ludhiana.
But we made the British leave India to our eternal regret.
If you ask me what India gained on August 15, 1947 it is this --- freedom from our neighbours.
Partition gave us a great cricket team in Pakistan and gave world the dirtiest nation state on earth.
Thanks to Mohammad Ali Jinnah, who designed and executed (yes, executed) the idea of Pakistan, there is a fence between us and them. And it matters a lot, a lot.
When you think of India's freedom and August 15, 1947, it is tough not to think of Pakistan. Look at Pakistan.
Their bloody problem has been that they cannot accept India for what it is.
Why can't Pakistan celebrate freedom on the same day as Indians do?
Didn't the stroke of midnight bring forth twins?

What makes suicide bombers tick?

By John Cheeran
What makes suicide bombers tick?
The question attains significance in the backdrop another mid-air massacre scare.
Immediate answer is that religious fanaticism. But dissenting voices, especially the Left, point out that Islamist fascism (the Left is afraid to call Islamist fascism by its name) is a response to the West’s interference in the Islamic empire. Left argues that suicide bombers have political grievance against the West or more bluntly put, the United States of America.
The really interesting point is that Osama Bin Laden and Communists have a common enemy now, USA and George Bush.
Robert Pape of Chicago University has come up the thesis that Islamic suicide bombers are not driven by an intolerant religious ideology but by their political grievances against the West. Pape says the American military presence in a few of the Muslim countries is the reason for the global jihad.
Pape’s argument is built on an inadequate worldview.
Why, then, have Islamic terrorists targeted India and Indians? Has Indian army been deployed in any of the Islamic countries?
So it is not any political grievance that is the issue but religious hatred.
Also what keeps the animosity alive between India and Pakistan? It is not border dispute; it is not Kashmiri nationalism but the difference between two predominant religions in the sub-continent. Even an illustrious Indian editor, MJ Akbar has written in his book, Under the Shade of Sword, that Islam guarantees the martyr (read suicide bomber) who annihilates the kafir (enemy) paradise.
Suicide bombers are recruited to the Global Jihad Inc. by offering stock options in paradise and unlimited mating opportunities with vestal virgins for sacrificing a ‘miserable’ life on this earth.
To the great credit of the majority of Muslims, they haven’t bought this theory.
But it remains that Jihadis are spurred by religious glory.
To deny that would be being blind to reality.
It is not poverty and poor living conditions that supply suicide bombers for terrorist outfits such as Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hizbollah and Lashkar-e-Toeiba. It is the hatred of the Other.
The poorest of poor in Africa and India do not transform themselves into suicide bombers; they lead their lives in quite but dignified ways.
But cash-rich Palestines (well oiled by a generous Middle East) and Lebanese are ready to book their dates with vestal virgins up there.
It is true that Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) pioneered the terrifying concept of suicide bombers.
LTTE is still fighting their battle with Sri Lanka. But even they have ceased from carrying out such despicable attacks.
Let’s be honest. Let’s look facts in their face.
Let’s separate terrorists from human beings.

Oxygen, rain and development

By John Cheeran
On Saturday's Indian Express, a Soma Wadhwa (Express could not even get her byline right...)has lamented the way Malayalis fritter away opportunities for development.
Badhwa must be one of the finest journalists in New Delhi and is lucky to paste her thoughts on the Op-Ed page of the paper.
I happen to be a Malayali. I read her enlightened effort but I'm not enraged. I send my sympathies to her as well as other journalists and politicians who are obsessed with dragging Kerala to the paradise of development.
For Wadhwa, development is Nokia and BMW. She writes that both these industrial giants intitally scanned Kerala for setting up plants but pitched tent in the neighbouring Tamil Nadu eventually.
She has tried to argue that Kerala is not making use of its literate youth. Is that so?
May be or may not be. But she makes reference to Bengal (which is a bigger geographical reality than Kerala and hence should not have been picked for comparison) and points out that Buddhadeb's state has 259 private projects under implementation while Kerala has only 115 projects in the pipeline.
Thank you for the information. So what's wrong with less number of Industrial ventures?
Some Malayalis might share this concern for development with Badhwa.
But the whole point is just that.
Kerala 's secret is that it can be the No.1 in Human Development Index ranking without opening up for the miasma of huge projects and pollution. I know Malayalis who have various blueprints up their sleeve to convert Kerala into another Mumbai, New Delhi or Bangalore, the melting pots in contemporary India.
And I shudder at their foolishness.
Please spare Malayalis the urban angst and the crime syndicates.
Ten years ago while getting sloshed at the Delhi Press Club, a young bureaucrat, who was on an official visit from Kerala to the capital, told me and another friend that the most precious thing in the state is its oxygen. That friend from Andhra told me that if you want to breathe pure air in India you have to come to Kerala.
No industry but lots of oxygen. Lots of H2O that cleans up not just the landscape but mind as well.
I prefer to go to mountain rather than waiting for mountain to come to me. In the age of globalization why should one insist that the so called development (read job employment opportunities) should come to us (Kerala)?
Malayalis have gone in the past to the ends of the earth in search of job opportunities and prime place being the highly inhospitable New Delhi so that they can preserve the silent valleys of Kerala.
So that every year, like the banished King Mahabali, Malayalis can return to Kerala to have their annual intake of oxygen.
To fellow Malayalis, who thirst after development, let me say this. More industries do not necessarily mean more job opportunities for you. Jobs are meant for those who are skillful and competent. If you are skillful and competent every job is yours provided that you are ready to flee from Kerala.
So that, one day you can come home..
Thank you Wadhwa, but spare us the development...

Cola revolution in Kerala

By John Cheeran
It's been a tradition in Kerala that you have to mix your rum with Coke or Pepsi before gulping it down.
In the good old days it was Thumbs' Up that did the trick. Since Marxists have declared that 'Let there be no Coke and Pepsi' I have no choice but to go back to good old Thumbs Up now.
It is a small mercy that the CPI (M) government has not banned other soft drinks that are manufactured and marketed from the Coke and Pepsi stables.
Marxists are much like Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote.
They prefer to tilt at windmills instead of real enemy.
The day's ace Marxist, Comrade V S Achuthanandan, is happy to declare war on Coke and Pepsi, which are but only two prominent symbols of the larger bottled drinks market.What about Thumbs Up, Limca, Fanta and other assorted stuff?
What about the pesticide content in these drinks?
And what about the mineral water market?
I have two suggestions to the Cola Comrades in Kerala.
Allow Coke and Pepsi to be in the market with a statutory warning that says drinking Coke and Pepsi can be injurious to your health, much like the warning on cigarette packets. And those who are in cahoots with multinationals, let them die drinking Coke and Pepsi while we comrades can shout slogans against globalization.
But, I believe, none of the liquor bottles in India carry a statutory warning though drinking booze is quite a dangerous habit than drinking Coke and Pepsi.
I'm afraid that the CPI (M) Politburo will not endorse my statutory warning suggestion. So I'm coming up with another idea that might find many takers in the Politburo, led by Prakash Karat.
Since Marxists are very much into market philosophy with the party running television channels and amusement parks, I suggest them to start a new, people friendly Cola, manufactured, marketed and tested by comrades.
CPI (M) can brand it Marxist-Cola and can claim to world's first people friendly soft drink. Marxist-Cola presents a win-win situation for CPI (M).
It can take the battle into the turf of multinationals and beat them at their own game. And by running its own bottling plants and having an own marketing arm, the CPI (M) can feed its cadre by reserving jobs for them.
But one thing -- Politburo should direct both the VS and Pinarayi Vijayan campfollowers to be united at least in drinking the Marxist-Cola.
Please welcome the Cola Revolution.

Suspense is terrible, but Ganguly hopes it lasts!

By John Cheeran
So they are killing him softly.
National selectors have named Sourav Ganguly among the 30-member probables for the Champions Trophy to be held in India in October.
All of us are now familiar with the final pages of this tear-jerker and the END is there in bold letters. I hope Ganguly is literate and sensible enough to read that and not be fooled by the capers of Kiran More and company.
Ganguly's supporters, however, are ecstatic but I can't hold back my amusement.
As Oscar Wilde said, "the suspense is terrible, but I hope it lasts."
The suspense will definitely last now till September 7, the deadline to prune the squad for Champions Trophy into 15.
Kiran More, chairman of selectors had a convenient argument trotted out for picking Ganguly in Bangalore yesterday. "Every year we discuss various issues before picking a team. Here we just picked the best 30 that we have," said More. "He [Ganguly] is a contracted player and I think he's good enough to be among the probables."
But selectors, if they were really keen to take a peek into the future, have not done the right thing by including Ganguly in the list.
One should fancy youth over experience (or is it the ability to make mistakes), especially in one-day cricket. And Ganguly should not figure in the final 15 for the Champions Trophy.
He does not deserve to be there if cricket is any yardstick for selection. Ganguly had a terrible stint with Northamptonshire where he had a first-class average of 4.80 in six innings.
However, More said that his selection was not just based on his county season but was a combination of the previous domestic season and past performances.
I find it strange that on one hand selectors have brought in youngsters and at the same time accommodated an out of form cricketer who is desperate to revive his financial stature by usurping the India spotlight.
The long list includes three uncapped batsmen, 19-year-old Mumbai player Rohit Sharma, Subramaniam Badrinath and Tejinderpal Singh and now what role Ganguly can play in Indian cricket?
Bringing Ganguly in is a political move to keep both Dalmiya and the Calcutta batsman on back foot. By including Ganguly among the probables, Sharad Pawar camp is apparently giving the signal to Dalmiya lobby that they are the real supporters of Ganguly and inturn trying to make life difficult for the Cricket Association of Bengal President.
Also, this could be the way of coach Greg Chappell and captain Rahul Dravid to tell those skeptics that they are above board when selection of the former Indian captain crops up.
Yes, Chappell and Dravid have not forbidden selectors to ignore Ganguly absolutely. He has been considered, he is good enough to be among the 30 but not good enough to be part of the real Indian dream.
Can there be a more damning indictment of a former Indian captain?
But to tune in to the reaction of Ganguly lobbyists is highly hilarious.Let us hear former East Zone selector Sambaran Banerjee. "I hope he will be included in the 15-member team also - at least going by cricketing ethics and etiquette. I think it is very significant that in the regime of (coach) Greg Chappell, (captain) Rahul Dravid and (selection panel chair) Kiran More, he is back in the team," Banerjee said.
What does Banerjee mean by ethics and etiquette in cricket?
Does it mean that selectors should reserve places for certain individuals in the Indian team, in deference to their past displays?
List of Probables: Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Suresh Raina, Irfan Pathan, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), Harbhajan Singh, Ramesh Powar, Dinesh Mongia, Ajit Agarkar, Sreesanth, Munaf Patel, Rudra Pratap Singh, Anil Kumble, Zaheer Khan, VVS Laxman, Venugopal Rao, Robin Uthappa, Gautam Gambhir, Piyush Chawla, S Badrinath, Rohit Sharma, TP Singh, Shib Paul, VRV Singh, Parthiv Patel (wk), Dinesh Karthik (wk) and Sourav Ganguly.

Judgement day for Ganguly

By John Cheeran
Today is the judgement day for Sourav Ganguly.
Be ready to hear Ganguly's announcement of retirement from all forms of cricket, if National selectors do not include him in the 30-strong list of probables. This list of worthies is for the Champions Trophy one-day tournament to be staged in October in India.
If Ganguly is ignored from the list of probables, this is it. The END.
His dream of playing in the 2007 World Cup will remain only a dream.
I do not expect India to win the Champions Trophy but my bet is that Rahul Dravid and company will at least make it to the semifinals. And a semifinal place for India should ensure the survival of the present bunch of one-day players with Suresh Raina and Mohammad Kaif fighting for their World Cup berths in the side.
Ganguly was finished as a Test match player at least three years ago, and he continued to play Tests for India only by abusing his privilege as the captain of the side. Ganguly has struggled for runs in both versions of the game since he has been booted out of the squad by coach Greg Chappell.
He had an abysmal run in Ranji Trophy and his latest adventure in English County cricket for Northamptonshire was nothing but a disaster. Kiran More and his colleagues must be crazy to even think of Ganguly as an India player now.
Ganguly, one should remember that, even betrayed his former mentor Jagmohan Dalmiya to stage a comeback through this list of probables.
Ganguly's spin doctors did not rest idle even after the email fiasco and defeat in the elections to the Cricket Association of Bengal. It came as a shock to me that Reuters ran a highly uncalled for speculative story that quoted an Indian selector not willing to be identified as saying that Ganguly still has good chances of coming back into the India squad.
When did Reuters buy shares in Indian cricket, or for that matter, in Ganguly's food joint in Calcutta?
This is the time to think cricket and delete Ganguly from the system. Not even Dalmiya would shed a tear for him.

Honour the Other

By John Cheeran
Terrorist is the most infamous or most familiar word now.
Terrorist is the name of the new John Updike novel that tackles the modern plague head on. And terrorist is the choicest abuse among footballers as was proved during the World Cup in Germany.
French football icon Zinedine Zidane was abused by Italian Materazzi as "son of a terrorist whore." Just the other day, Dean Jones, the former Aussie cricketer and now a television commentator lost his job for describing South African cricketer Hashim Amla a terrorist.
Both Materazzi's and Jones' remarks attained severity since it was directed at Muslims. Zinedine Zidane and Hashim Amla are Muslims though it is debatable how devout Zidane is.
To be a Muslim and be branded a terrorist for keeping a beard is no joke in this surcharged times. It, really, is bad to be at the receiving end of such prejudice and racial slur.
Though everyone is free to pursue his or her private agenda, it is better to honour your rivals. It is not just sheer coincidence that two great games -- cricket and football --are afflicted by the terrorist sound bytes with in a short span of one month. It is a reminder of the world beyond the boundaries of sport.
Sport often embraces religion for success on the field and that can be construed as the positive influence of faith. But one man's faith does not leave enough space for the other. It leads to intolerance, it leads to strife.
It is high time players and commentators become aware of the susceptibilities of those around us and stick to the rules of the game.