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.