One of those

pieces by P Sainath that make you stand up and take notice!
(Link via pragmatic)

Another

inspiring story that sports brings to life. This time a Pakistani Skier (Link via iyerdeepak).

Seems like the

press likes the budget!

Tendulkar

becomes the first batsman to score 200 in Onedays!

Options to deal with

state sponsored terrorism are outlined in detail by raman here. If only the leaders had the will to tackle the problem!

Seriously?

This is a status message of one of my friends on facebook

India may never win anything in the winter Olympics...so let's feel proud that someone else thought about depicting an Indian dance

How does a team of another country using an Indian song make you proud? The reasoning behind that is even bizzarre. If India were to win a medal it won't make you feel proud? So weird!

A wonderful piece

bemoaning the lack of honest opinion in cricket. Of course, exceptions such as Sehwag exist. Some quotes!

Sehwag single-handedly has done enough to warrant being appointed spokesperson for every match India plays. Picture this: as the winning captain of the Delhi Daredevils in an inconsequential game in the second IPL (his team had already qualified for the semi-finals), Sehwag was asked by a hyperventilating Ravi Shastri how his team motivated itself for the match.

"There is always an incentive to play hard. The team management has promised $50,000 for each win. So there is an incentive," said a poker-faced Viru.

His views on an upcoming tour of New Zealand and the kind of pitches he expected: "If they give us bouncy and seaming tracks, they will struggle against our attack, because their batsmen are not technically sound."

He has also demonstrated that he is equally proficient with foot-in-mouth as he is with tongue-in-cheek, as when he branded the Bangladesh bowling attack "ordinary" the day before India went down like ninepins in Chittagong this year. But get past his arsenal of clichés - the "of course", the "obviously", and the "see the ball, hit the ball" - and Sehwag never fails to elicit a chuckle or raise an eyebrow with a straight-faced gem.

Another...

Exceptions arrive like a bolt from the blue now and again, the element of surprise having more to do with rarity than relevance. Anil Kumble's impeccable impersonation of Bill Woodfull after the ugliness of the Test match in Sydney early in 2008 stood out - not only for its nod to an epochal event but for the power of the words, and for Kumble's intent to express an opinion. Reminding us that in this world of audio and visual marvels, words can be magical too.

Bollywood at Olympics

See the video here for winter dancing of the US team to Bollywood music!

Sehwag wins

another tribute. Read the wonderful piece on his 293 here

Some excerpts

Leg-side fields didn't matter: Sehwag stepped out, made room and chipped over extra cover, even first ball after a break. Or he reverse-swept past point, from outside leg. In one day he hit 40 fours and seven sixes. The longest he went without a boundary was 12 balls. Violence, power-hitting, streaky shots - none of those, no sir. Just gap-finding of the most delightful kind.

A cricket ground has never looked so prone. To watch Sehwag bat that day was to realise that nine fielders can cover only so much. It is a simple thought that at any given time about 90% of the field is exposed and safe. Yet we need an uncluttered mind like Sehwag's to drive that point home. Batting seemed dangerously easy that day. Batting was pure, infinite joy that day.

One more!

Sehwag ended the day 284 not out, having beaten the attack to pulp, and said he played each ball on its merit and tried only to hit bad balls. "Yeah, right," you and I might say. "Yeah right," his team-mates said. "In the dressing room they told me I was hitting the good balls too, but if you look at it my way I hit only the bad ones," he said the next day. That's what this innings was, an exercise is redefining the "bad ball".

An article on how

since 1997 India has been too soft on terror attacks sponsored by Pakistan. Is covert action the way to go? Israel and to some extent US use it effectively! Can India use it?

One of the influential

judges in India retires. Salil Tripathi has a nice piece on Ajit Prakash Shah.

An interesting

piece on love of current times in India!

Laxman

has played 2937 consecutive dot balls. What can I say!

Good way to

decide ha!
But what if even when you toss your mind only thinks about the head or tail! Then any of the options is fine I guess!

Love for Cricket

We think we follow cricket assiduously. But read this.

An excerpt

GS Sundaram, Bachelor of Arts, Gopalasamudram, Tamil Nadu, India, passed away well before innovations like limited-overs cricket reared their heads. I suspect he might not have enjoyed them. He lived his life in a more leisurely era, one that never considered time worth saving. He never ever watched a game of Test cricket in his life, and yet he managed to instill an intense passion for cricket in my father's generation. They, on the other hand, had an easier time getting us excited about cricket. They just had to switch on the TV.

Simply amazing!

Issues with

Indian Justice system in Arunachal Pradesh? Ramachandra Guha's piece on Sarit Chaudhuri and Sucheta Sen Chaudhuri.

Development or Human rights?

Isn't it always a trade-off? A nice piece on the Orissa case. You decide which way should you go. I, personally believe we need to go towards industrialization. However, the path towards industrialization should be treaded carefully!

Something of serious

concern to India. But who is listening!

Viru on his fatal stroke

I don't know how many times I said sorry to the coach
Virender Sehwag rues the shot that ended one of his best Test hundreds, and led to a collapse in the Nagpur Test

Not sure if that is enough! He shouldn't have played such a stupid shot. But it might to be too hard to criticize a guy who scored 109. Anyway, off late Sehwag has been more circumspect compared to his old self. But not much has changed in his batting style. Its good to see this change. I hope it will make him a better batsman for the team!

I never expected this

What can I say! Even Pakistan understands the importance. Kapil Sibal will you take notice of this!

For once, we can learn from Pakistan, where in 2006, the government announced education pay scales that, in purchasing power parity terms, are better than those obtained in most advanced economies!

For full article see here

A Wakeup Call?

for the Indian Government on the Afghanistan front! Lets hope so! There is a lot at stake for India to ensure Afghanistan remains settled.

Life

Has been forever since I cribbed on the blog. Now its time for one of those posts.

Over the last year things have improved substantially. However, some problems remain. I am not really sure what is the way forward or if there is one! Only time will tell.

BT Brinjal

As far as this article is concerned isn't a bad option. I feel like it might be true. But you never know!

This is how it might begin

An article on Badri's potential debut!

A good governance step

I am pleasantly surprised seeing how P Chidambaram is doing the right things as Home Minister! (Link from pragmatic)