A man who made sure he got into the history books

A pathetic blog post title? Probably yes. But then there is no perfect term to introduce Nathuram Godse, is there. I mean he will be in the history books inspite of any government at centre/state. :-) 
 { Yes , probably the play 'Mee Nathuram Godse Boltoy' has influenced me to post something on the issue] .
 I wanted to post something like this for sometime ,now.

His is one name everybody in India has heard. He will definitely not find too many people who beleived in his cause in India, except in Maharashtra probably. From all possible evidence, Nathuram Godse was an educated man,against untouchability , against partition. Now I definitely am not a RSS supporter or anything of the sort. When Gandhiji actually went on a fast  and demanded that India give 55 crores to Pakistan, it was the most stupid thing to demand. The then Indian government actually gave in. That was when Godse actually decided on Gandhiji's assassination.

          The thing is , it should have been obvious that Pakistan was going to use that money against India [what with the war in Kashmir et all] . The demand was just not practical. As an educated person ,taking an unbiased review of the situation then,[without mentioning the forbidden R word], I simply feel that I could not side with Gandhiji on this issue at least. There are many things I respect Gandhiji for ,but the fast thing I hold it against him.  I am actually intrigued. Did  the government actually pay the money after Gandhiji's death???
 
           It's extremely difficult to take sides in a situation where , 2 individuals are keen on following their own path.  Nathuram Godse killed for an idealogy, Gandhiji died for one. The choice is yours to make!!!
 

Blogroll Expansion

It's been a long time since I listed out the people I blogrolled in recent times.

Neel Tiwari : Fellow MESCOEite. Writes about evolution and all unimportant things :-).

Saurabh Jain: Another MESCOEite.Genius. Just discovered that he blogs too. Musings on life...

J Ramanand: Senior COEP quizzer. Mastermind India winner [need one say more] . Writes brilliantly.

BV Harish Kumar : Senior COEP quizzer .

Neil Mehta: Fellow PICT Quizzer.

Varun Pandit: FRIENDS Fan. From VIT. Been a while since he blogged though :-(

Harsh Ketkar: From VIT.Blogs @ Cafe Esoterica..

G vs G : Round Two

After Saurav's disclosure about apperent differences between "Team" India , Greg Chappell played it safe. He did not go to the media. Did not wash dirty linen in public. Accepted truce for the time being, in the interests of the "team". Now after the test he wrote a  private mail to the BCCI president,Mahindra.  Now the BCCI itself was in media spotlight during the AGM. Somehow the letter leaked out. The media then was in a frenzy. Lots of opinions, "inside infirmation" added to the feud. It may be said that after all this it will be naive to think that Chappel and Ganguly can work together.

To top this reports suggesting alls not well in the dressing rooms are also there. Check  this ,and this out. Here , Bhajji is the first player to openly speak out on this issue.

So who should go? Unless the wily BCCI patch up [highly unlikely event] things between G & G ,it  is obvious that one of them has to go. Now Saurav had taken India to new heights, under his leadership. As captain his recrord is superior. But for the past yr or so , his record as  a batsman has been abyssmal. That is just not what we expect from international batsmen. With Yuvraj , Kaif waiting in the wings, it is going to be a struggle for Saurav to hold his place in  the team. And if we look ahead, ie for World Cup '07 then there is only one answer for us, Ganguly has to leave.

In fact he should not have waited for all this. That is why I always respected captains who leave on a high, Taylor, Hussain being the most recent examples. As Gavaskar  had rightly said "When a player retires people  should ask "'Why" and not "Why not?"". Saurav deserves a respectable exit , though he himself is responsible for the mess and so might be dumped.

If it does come down to making a decision , heart says "Saurav should stay", but the logical verdict should be "bye bye Saurav.."  . Hope the right decision is made , though we Indians are notorious for thinking thru the heart..

The fallen prince....

Saurav Ganguly has a lot on his mind right now. His outburst, in the media is definitely not good news for Indian Cricket. Whatever his current form, for a captain to actually say all those things publicly is ridiculous. One would have thought , an  experienced captain like Saurav should have understood that.  I have been a fan of Saurav's captaincy over the years, and still think he is an excellent captain. But still going and stating dressing-room talk in the media is despicable.

               One man who must be bamboozled by the entire affair, is surely Greg Chappell.  We can safely say that he has learnt his lesson on "How Indian Cricket works.." the hard way. Agreed ,even he has been having a horrid run as coach of "Team" India and the"Commitment to excellence" seems far from fulfilled.
         
               It would be naive to write off Greg as a bad coach, just after 1 series. His biggest challenge  remains , to get the team together now. Ganguly's outburst has not made things any easier for anybody. His form has been abyssmal. Even though he did get a century, it took him forever to acore those runs, against an attack which is below-1st class level for sure. As a player , on current form, I doubt if Ganguly can get a place in any team other than Zimababwe, Bangladesh and of course INDIA !!! 

             I beleive that once a captain has been selected for a tour, he should be backed through the tour ,otherwise don't take him in squad in the first place. So Ganguly's frustration can be justified ,but I really don't think it justifies ,telling thise things to the media.

For once the PRINCE OF CALCUTTA has fallen in my eyes , and probably in many a fans' eyes...

Unfair comparisons??

I was not going to post anything unoriginal on my blog. But this email, which I am sure most of u must have received from one source or other, really intrigued me. I wonder if it is fair to compare.
Anyway this is the mail

  inches of rain in new orleansdue to hurricane katrina... 18
  inches of rain in mumbai (July 27th).... 37.1


  population of new orleans... 484,674
  population of mumbai.... 12,622,500


  deaths in new orleanswithin 48 hours of katrina...100
  deaths in mumbai within 48 hours of rain.. 37.


  number of people to be evacuated in new orleans... Entire
city..wohh
  number of people evacuated in mumbai...10,000


  Cases of shooting and violence in new orleans...Countless
  Cases of shooting and violence in mumbai.. NONE


  Time taken for USarmy to reach new orleans... 48hours
  Time taken for Indian army and navy to reach mumbai...12hours


  status 48hours later...new orleansis still waiting for relief,army
and electricty
  status 48hours later..mumbai is back on its feet and its business is
as usual


  USA...world's most developed nation
  India...JUST A DEVELOPING NATION..


 

Well this was pretty much the gist of it.Would love to view ur take on this , guys!!

 

This happened to me

There is a nice empty concrete road in front. It is not raining[for once!!]. Very little traffic.I was on my bike. Some idiot, who was ahead along with a pillion, suddenly decided that he wanted to take a left turn. Now the person was on the right side of the road , and when he simply swerved left, we were on a collission course. SCreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeech......... I braked. The front part of my bike  barely touched the guy's vehicle.There was a crack on my headlight glass. Could not help  it.A couple of rickshaws braked inches from my vehice.
            Now ,the pillion fell off the vehicle. There was a ganesh pandal just next to the road. The karyakartas  of the mandal came running ,shouting at the guy. The rider of the bike panicked. His friend was sitting on the road on his bum.... The rider simply took off without his mate. The guy just stared incredulously at the vision of the moving bike , and more importantly at the vision of his  being injured bcos of the mob  which gathered.:-)
           I remembered the good old story of the bear and 2 friends. I will not go into details of the story. I remember the moral of the story clearly "A friend in need is a friend indeed,....." Corny eh!! :-)
Coming back to the tale ,I just kept staring at the poor guy. He was alone.Stranded.Facing a mob.His "friend"  was ,I suppose safe and sound.  The people were holding the guys collar. Threatning with police cases ,et all.I could see where this was going. I decided I had to do something for the guy. I mean why should anyone be angry with the pillion!  I just went told the mandal guys that, the man will pay me and thats that. I did not wish to pursue the matter further.
The guys reluctantly agreed to leave the fellow.
              When the crowd dispersed I just told the man to slap his "friend" once  and if he was smart really don't have anything to do with the guy again.. I can't help but laugh at the experience. How people react under such conditions is really what defines their character..

Dada's predicament

My first attempt at some dry ,typical faltu humour on my blog.Also shows my frustration as a cricket fan :( --

We all know the corny Sardarji joke
"What will a Sardar say when he sees a ''kele ka chilka'  ?"
----> "Arre aaj fir se fisalna padega!!!"


Similarly what will Saurav Ganguly say on the day of a final featuring India
---->"Arre aaj fir se haarna padega!! " 

The bad run of India in finals continues !!!! :-(

The Super Challenge--- The Ashes

"One hand on the Ashes.... "  

proudly proclaims a leading daily in England. Football for once has not been overshadowing cricket in that country. Well the sudden spur in passion about cricket  has come about because of the current Ashes series.

What a spectacle!! It's been exhilarating to watch all the tests. A treat for any cricket buff ! England probably are playing the cricket of their life, and Australia are not. 

When India was playing well down under , I remember Sunny Gavaskar making a comment,  something like " Australia were never really  tested under Steve Waugh". Now that is interesting , as Steve Waugh's Australia won 40 out of the 44 odd test he captained. A whopping victory per cent. The only time in that period , the Aussies were really pushed hard was , once in India [the Harbhajan-Laxman-Dravid series] , when New Zealand came to Australia[Shane Bond splashed on the international scene],and again when India played Australia in Australia.
 
Of these , Australia lost against India , barely managed to draw the other 2 series. Now the thing is the Aussies always try and outplay the opposition from ball one. They will give it all they have. If the opposition ,say India, performs with its full talent , the Aussies have no answer to that.In this case the opposition is England . Gaurav Sabnis make a similar point here.

Though the thing to see is if England have it in them to play consistently at their peak for a considerable period. If they do manage to beat the Aussies, they will have to prove that they can play like the best for years,a la  Aussies.

Though one thing is for sure, Aussies won't give up. Last test comin up people!! Don't miss it!!!