The bad effects

of Common wealth Games might not just be the ill-effects of corruption. See this piece by Salil Tripathi.

Supreme Court slams the Government

I can actually see the members of the organizing committee telling to themselves, just hang in there for a month, we would have made a fortune. In one month's tme nobody will care about how much we stole!

Anyway, the full piece on the courts verdict is here

The problem with Pakistan is over?

Shocked? So was I when I read the title of this post by Nitin Pai. But there sure is some truth what Nitin conveys.

Excerpts

These are options that are within India's reach today. If the astute minds in New Delhi's strategic establishment were to concentrate on a shift from direct engagement of Pakistan to a direct engagement of Pakistan's scaffolds, it is certain that a number of strategic options -- ranging from the geopolitical to the geoeconomic -- can be developed. India has spent fifteen years in the futile attempt to reassure the military-jihadi complex. Given the reality of the all-round failure of the idea of Pakistan, it is time to reframe the problem. It's time to go after the scaffolders.

Its too simplistic

to say Dhoni gets lucky as discussed here by Sriram Veera. He is a very shrewd captain and the number of victories he has gained for India and Chennai are a testament to that!

A nice post

on how Common Wealth Games represent all that is wrong with Indian government something entirely different from the rising India (private enterprise)

Chennai

A nice collection of Chennai photos up here.

 

Funny

Viru on Sushil Kumar, the world cup gold medal winner

I never dared to break the glass of his house while playing cricket as I used to be extremely scared of him.

One man who could restrain Virender Sehwag's big-hitting was India's world champion wrestler, Sushil Kumar, who grew up in the same locality as Sehwag
Cricinfo Quote Unquote

What can be done about Kashmir?

As I pose this question, I feel despair. As a kid I was taught to believe that Pakistan was the perpetrator and everybody in Kashmir (if given a chance by Pakistan!) will choose to live with India. It was only when I was older that I realized the situation is far from that. There is a sizeable population in Kashmir that wants to be independent rather than join India. Well, thats the truth you like to believe it or not. So, now what should India do? Well, nothing it does will ever be enough. But inaction (as we see in the current crisis) is not helping either. I wish there were a magic solution to this problem!

Salil Tripathi has a very illuminating post in his livemint column  here.

Some excerpts

Many Kashmiris do seek a different freedom—neither this, nor that; neither India, nor Pakistan; or, as Mercutio says in Romeo and Juliet: “A plague a’both your houses!” A recent report of the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London, drawn from surveys of Kashmiris on both sides of the Line of Control, shows, with hard numbers, that Kashmiris want to control their own destiny. But some loud voices see being with Pakistan as azadi. They want to replace one occupying power with another.

Do read the entire post!

India All Time XI

Pretty close to what I opted for! But man what a team :)

Why burning the Quran

is a stupid plan!on the Filter Coffee blog

25+? Do read this

post here.

Some excerpts:

These youngsters shake me out of my cynicism too. They’re willing to give. Not money, but time. Which, if you think it over, is in the truest sense giving of oneself. They believe. In causes, in people. And in the future. After all these years of seeing the seamier side of life, it’s refreshing to see these young people forego their own pleasures. To teach poor children, to clean public spaces, to help with their own blood. I admire their energy, their selflessness. And I am humbled.

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Nor am I suggesting that senior citizens (a term used by the young, I believe, to refer to any person over the age of 25) are devoid of value. We oldies get a lot done too. I’m proud to have contemporaries who still have mental flexibility, tolerance, energy and compassion. These qualities are not the prerogative of youth. Or perhaps they are. Perhaps youth is defined not by a figure but the very possession of these qualities. And the country of old men exists only in the mind.

A very detailed

piece on the failure of lower levels of Indian bureaucratic system

Oh Boycott!

Only you can say something like this and get away!

What else can you say about people wanting to tell the world about the trivia in their lives?

Geoff Boycott clearly isn't a fan of Twitter

Have to agree with him on this one!