Street protests that calls for subversion of the law

It is bad enough that our Judiciary system is pathetically slow, and has an abysmal rate of conviction, and that too after a couple of decades has passed. We should be thankful that the understaffed, onerously slow moving judiciary finally manages to get someone convicted.

 

And once that happens the tamasha starts.

 

Of late, people have taken a vicarious pleasure in subverting the judgments of the Courts.

 

Take the case of Yakub Memon, who was a mastermind of the Mumbai blasts two decades ago. He was given a fair trial, appealed, lost, appealed again, lost again, filed a review petition, lost, sought pardon from President, denied, appealed against that, lost, sought pardon from Governor, denied, appealed against that, lost, went back to President, denied, appealed..............................am sorry if your mind has started spinning by now, but that is more or less how his case went. Though many might say that he did not deserve all these chances, there is no denying that he got a fair trial, and deserved to get the Capital punishment, as long as Capital Punishment exists in this Country. One would expect all right thinking Indians to respect the judiciary, but heck no! Out came the NGOs, Social workers, Left Liberals, Media and scoundrels who made such a noise that the judiciary was made to look a tyrant, when in reality it was Yakub who was the heartless villain. One might have given a benefit of doubt to the protesters that they genuinely believe Capital Punishment is wrong, and it has to be done away with. I have no objection to that. They are entitled to their view point, just as I am entitled to mine. But they don't have the conviction of belief. If they had, they would have followed up after Yakub's hanging, and tried to have the law changed. But we haven't heard a peep from them since then!!!

 

Same is the case with the release of the Juvenile convict who was released yesterday after serving his sentence in the Delhi Gang Rape case. I do agree that he should have got a longer punishment morally. But we need to abide by the law of the land. As usual there  was lot of noise, with street protests against his release. This is absurd. Everyone knew he cannot he held back under the current law, and even if the law were to be changed, it cannot be applied retrospectively. If the protest is for ensuring the law to be changed in the future, it is fine. But the tone and tenor of the protests do not indicate that. They wanted Supreme Court to disregard the law of the land, and pass a verdict that is illegal. This is dangerous. Of late we are witnessing lynch mob mentality amongst Indians, encouraged by the media (for selfish ends of increasing their TRP ratings and to boost their relevance which is fast eroding), and this should be addressed and rectified at the earliest.

 

The laws are there for a reason. It may not be perfect. But as a democracy, we need to abide by the laws that are in existence and should not give space to those who try to subvert them for their personal opinion, personal ends or even political ends. Because, then it will lead to anarchy. We can't let it happen.

The Gloves are OFF

Buddhirakshasan, my insider in Delhi is more accessible these days as he is on Whatsapp. We caught up with each other after a long time.

 

Hi BR

 

Hi Swamy.

 

What is new?

 

The Iron Fist is being revealed by BJP. The velvette gloves are off.

 

I thought they were still on when Modi invited Sonia and MMS for a cup of tea recently.

 

Even I thought so. Modi did offer to smoke the peace pipe, but Sonia spurned it.

 

Because of National Herald Case?

 

No no. If it had not been for NH case it would have been something else. They just want to obstruct any law being passed.

 

BJP must be upset with the non passage of the GST bill.

 

Hmm... I am not sure. GST will bring lot of short term pain and is not a panacea for all the ills that is facing our economy. True it has its advantages in the long term, and is a game changer in a way, but I guess Congress blocking it is being enjoyed by BJP, as it gives them a chance to paint the Congress as obstructionist and anti national.

 

Hmm.......What about the NH case?

 

Looks like this has the Sonia and Rahul really worried.

 

The case may not be concluded for a decade at least, considering the current speed of our judicial process. So Why worry?

 

Swamy, it is the perception. The mother and son thought they had a halo around them and they are above everything else. They having to appear in a lowly magistrate court as accused on such an open and shut 420 case will completely expose them. They will no longer be held in awe by even Congressmen. When the mighty falls, they fall with a thud, and people take considerable pleasure in trampling them under their feet once they are down and out.  

 

Hmm...

 

And the Case against them has lot of merit. With a non Congress Government in power, the judiciary may not be as favourably disposed towards them as in the past.

 

So it is because of this that you say the Iron hand is out?

 

Not quite so. Look at the CBI raid on the Principal Secretary of Kejariwal.

 

What about it? It is against a corrupt officer? What is the big deal?

 

It is the timing. They could have done it after the winter session. But they chose to risk Parliament being stalled by going after the guy, which made Kejariwal mouthing inanities.

 

Hmm.......

 

Kejariwal played his cards badly. By accusing the BJP in support of a blatantly corrupt officer, he has exposed himself and is shorn of his USP as an anti corruption crusader.

 

BJP must be rubbing their  hands in glee.....

 

Exactly. Sonia and Rahul would have got more political mileage if they had quietly presented themselves before the court in a dignified manner, and AK would have had his image refurbished if he had distanced himself from the raids. But both played right into their hands.

 

Looks like next in the line is Mamata on the Sharadha Chit Funds scam

 

Well..I am not sure. BJP has given up West Bengal, and don't stand to gain anything by taking Mamata head on. But she has 12 Rajya Sabha MPs, which can come in handy. My guess is that they will leave her alone, and remember that Mamata is a more seasoned politician, who has been hit with worse in the past and has triumphed. BJP will surely be wary of taking her on. Better to leave the sword hanging over head.

 

Thanks BR. GTG

 

Bye Swamy

Indian Batting - A cause for Worry

Indian Cricket Team should be really worried.

 

Their batting is in shambles. We always knew that there will be a difficult period of transition when Sachin, Sehwag, Dravid and Laxman calls it a day. But the next generation batsmen had sufficient exposure under them to carry the baton.

 

Batting has two components - Technique and Temperament. Without the latter, the former is of no use. During the past few years we have seen India backing players who are talented over those who has good temperament. People like? Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Ambati Rayudu were given a long rope. The surfeit of One Day Cricket, where bowlers have to operate under severe restrictions, and which essentially favour batsmen who can tonk the ball around without much technique gave all these players a sense of overconfidence. The super stardom and the money that went along with being an Indian ODI player lulled them to complacency, and they hardly worked on their technical short comings or temperamental flaws.

 

Take the case of Suresh Raina. It is known even to a Club bowler that Suresh Raina doesn't like the short ball, and he is very suspect during the early part of the innings. Also his defense is suspect. What has he done about it? Nothing. Steve Waugh had a similar problem during the later phase of his career. He was popping up catches on the leg side if the balls were directed at his ribs. But he worked on it and developed his own technique of just loosening the grip and fending it to fine leg for singles.

 

Rohit Sharma is exceptionally talented. There is no doubt about it. Just watch him bat when he is in full flow and you will amaze at his technical correctness and the time he has to play the shots, which is the hallmark of a good batsmen. But the number of times he has got out to soft dismissals before either fully set or just when his innings is about to take off is very high to give comfort to the next batsmen padded up.

 

Less said about Shikhar Dhawan the better. He tries to emulate Sehwag, but Sehwag was a genius. I would rate Sehwag a better batsman than even Sachin. Dhawan has obvious weakness against balls angled across him outside the off stump. One would expect him to work on leaving these balls. But no. He continues to perish the same way innings after innings. Contrast this with Murali Vijay, who has really worked on his game outside the off stump, and is perhaps the most dependable batsmen in India today.

 

Kohli has issues outside the off stump while Ambati Rayudu, though talented missed his best years serving a ban.

Rahane and Pujara have been not given the kind of support they deserve. They have been kicked up and down the batting order, pushed in and out of the team, to accommodate some of  the favourites of the Captain. This has unsettled them.

The sad part of Indian batting is their utter inability to play spin. Of the two completed Tests in Mohali and Nagpur, India struggled to reach 200, and that too only with the help of tail enders. And this against a novice spinner like Harmer, a part time utility spinner like Dean Elger and an erratic leg spinner Imran Tahir, who bowls at least 2 boundary balls per over. Most of the Indian batsmen are walking wickets. A long spell for all of them in domestic cricket is the way forward. Look at how Murali Vijay, Pujara and Jadeja has benefitted from playing Ranji Trophy.

India used to blood youngsters once - Sachin played when he was 16, Kambli and Azhar were barely in their 20s, Laxman Sivaramakrishnan was a teenager when he routed West Indies, as was Maninder Singh. But somewhere down the line, we have refused to take a calculated risk and rope in young batsmen into the team. By the time they do make a breakthrough, their attitudes have hardened and they are reluctant to adjust their game. The big money from IPL also serves as a disincentive for them to correct themselves.

Whatever happened to Unmukth Chand, Mayank Agarwal, Sanju Samson, Vijay Zol and their ilks? Why don't we give at least a couple of them a decent run? They cant definitely do worse than the tried, tested and failed current crop.

 

Want to know how to play Spin bowling on a Square turner? Watch Sunny's last test innings.

For all those who are criticizing the Nagpur Pitch, all I have to say is to watch the video of the India vs Pakistan Test 1987, Bangalore, especially the 4th Innings.

 

The pitch was a square turner, worse than Nagpur. Pakistan batted first and scored 116. India replied with 145, only Vengsarkar scoring 50. Pakistan replied with 249 setting India a target of 221. Till then Spinners had a field day, and had taken 27 of the 30 wickets to fall. They will go on to take another 8 wickets in the final innings. Pak spinners Iqbal Qasim and Tauseef Ahmed were turning the ball square. But they had to content with one man, playing the last innings of his illustrious career. I had the fortune to watch it on the hostel common room TV.

 

Sunil Gavaskar, the greatest batsman (in my opinion) India has seen walked out intent to win the match single handedly. The devils of the pitch did not matter. Not a single ball beat him and he played 320 balls and all the others put together 342 balls. He scored 96 priceless runs. He was right forward, or right back. He left the ball spotlessly. He played with Soft hands. He punished the loose balls. It was a chanceless innings.

 

The legendary Imran Khan put Rizwan uz Zaman and Mansoor Elahi, two young batsmen on Silly point and Silly mid on. One of them asked "Skipper where can we expect a catch?". Imran replied "Oh Don't bother, you are not going to get even the semblance of a catch. I put you there so that you can just watch from close up how to play spin bowling. You wont get another chance"

 

He brought India tantalizingly close to victory. As I said it was a chanceless innings. And it was in reality as he was wrongly given out at 96, caught by Rizwan of Qasim, when the ball had gone off his forearm.

 

We were about 12 who were watching the innings. Some of them strong anti Gavaskar guys. But everyone had a tear when he got out. He got out when still 40 short, having scored 96  of the 180 till then. It was his greatest innings. He defied everything Qasim and Tauseef threw at him and blunted all the tactics of the wily Imran. It was his swansong, but what a song! He never complained about being given out wrongly. A mild look of surprise and off he walked, just 4 short of a most deserving century.

 

If I were the South Africa coach, I would get a copy of that video and ask Amla, Du Plessis and even ABD to watch it for 3 days non stop so as to drill into them what and how it is to play spin on a vicious track. (what the heck! even Ravi Shastri, the current Indian Team Director, who was a part of that 1987 team, should play the video over and over again to the Indian Batsmen)

 

To put that innings in perspective, I give below the score card.

 

Pakistan in India Test Series - 5th Test

India v Pakistan

Pakistan won by 16 runs

Test no. 1073 | 1986/87 season

Played at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore

13,14,15,17 March 1987 (5-day match)

	Pakistan 1st innings		R	M	B	4s	6s	SR
	Rameez Raja	c Vengsarkar b Kapil Dev	22	42	27	4	0	81.48
	Rizwan-uz-Zaman	b Kapil Dev	0	3	1	0	0	0.00
	Saleem Malik	b Maninder Singh	33	99	60	5	0	55.00
	Javed Miandad	c Shastri b Maninder Singh	7	49	32	1	0	21.87
	Manzoor Elahi	c Azharuddin b Maninder Singh	0	2	3	0	0	0.00
	Imran Khan*	c Amarnath b Maninder Singh	6	23	19	1	0	31.57
	Wasim Akram	b Maninder Singh	0	6	3	0	0	0.00
	Saleem Yousuf†	c & b Shastri	0	12	8	0	0	0.00
	Iqbal Qasim	b Maninder Singh	19	40	28	3	0	67.85
	Tauseef Ahmed	not out	15	89	72	0	0	20.83
	Saleem Jaffar	c Vengsarkar b Maninder Singh	8	53	50	0	0	16.00
	Extras	(b 2, lb 1, nb 3)	6
	Total	(all out; 49.2 overs)	116	(2.35 runs per over)

Fall of wickets 1-3 (Rizwan-uz-Zaman), 2-39 (Rameez Raja), 3-60 (Javed Miandad), 4-60 (Manzoor Elahi), 5-68 (Saleem Malik), 6-68 (Imran Khan), 7-73 (Wasim Akram), 8-74 (Saleem Yousuf), 9-98 (Iqbal Qasim), 10-116 (Saleem Jaffar)

	Bowling	O	M	R	W	Econ
	N Kapil Dev	11	2	23	2	2.09
	RMH Binny	3	0	25	0	8.33
	M Amarnath	3	1	7	0	2.33
	Maninder Singh	18.2	8	27	7	1.47
	RJ Shastri	11	1	19	1	1.72
	NS Yadav	3	0	12	0	4.00

	India 1st innings		R	M	B	4s	6s	SR
	SM Gavaskar	b Tauseef Ahmed	21	91	73	2	0	28.76
	K Srikkanth	b Tauseef Ahmed	21	44	29	4	0	72.41
	M Amarnath	b Tauseef Ahmed	13	87	78	1	0	16.66
	DB Vengsarkar	c Manzoor Elahi b Tauseef Ahmed	50	94	84	7	1	59.52
	M Azharuddin	c Manzoor Elahi b Iqbal Qasim	6	30	30	0	0	20.00
	RJ Shastri	c Saleem Malik b Tauseef Ahmed	7	28	15	1	0	46.66
	N Kapil Dev*	c Saleem Malik b Iqbal Qasim	9	20	18	2	0	50.00
	RMH Binny	c Tauseef Ahmed b Iqbal Qasim	1	23	29	0	0	3.44
	KS More†	not out	9	22	13	0	1	69.23
	NS Yadav	b Iqbal Qasim	0	7	6	0	0	0.00
	Maninder Singh	c †Saleem Yousuf b Iqbal Qasim	0	5	10	0	0	0.00
	Extras	(b 4, lb 4)	8
	Total	(all out; 64 overs)	145	(2.26 runs per over)

Fall of wickets 1-39 (Srikkanth), 2-56 (Gavaskar), 3-71 (Amarnath), 4-102 (Azharuddin), 5-126 (Shastri), 6-130 (Vengsarkar), 7-135 (Binny), 8-137 (Kapil Dev), 9-143 (Yadav), 10-145 (Maninder Singh)

	Bowling	O	M	R	W	Econ
	Imran Khan	5	0	26	0	5.20
	Wasim Akram	2	0	9	0	4.50
	Iqbal Qasim	30	15	48	5	1.60
	Tauseef Ahmed	27	7	54	5	2.00

	Pakistan 2nd innings		R	M	B	4s	6s	SR
	Rameez Raja	b Yadav	47	112	94	4	0	50.00
	Javed Miandad	c Srikkanth b Shastri	17	60	37	2	0	45.94
	Rizwan-uz-Zaman	b Shastri	1	13	9	0	0	11.11
	Saleem Malik	b Kapil Dev	33	74	62	4	0	53.22
	Iqbal Qasim	c Srikkanth b Yadav	26	69	47	3	0	55.31
	Imran Khan*	c Srikkanth b Shastri	39	129	100	3	0	39.00
	Manzoor Elahi	c †More b Maninder Singh	8	54	53	0	1	15.09
	Wasim Akram	lbw b Maninder Singh	11	14	12	1	1	91.66
	Saleem Yousuf†	not out	41	107	90	4	0	45.55
	Tauseef Ahmed	c Yadav b Shastri	10	75	62	1	0	16.12
	Saleem Jaffar	c Gavaskar b Maninder Singh	0	4	5	0	0	0.00
	Extras	(b 7, lb 8, nb 1)	16
	Total	(all out; 94.5 overs)	249	(2.62 runs per over)

Fall of wickets 1-45 (Javed Miandad), 2-57 (Rizwan-uz-Zaman), 3-89 (Rameez Raja), 4-121 (Saleem Malik), 5-142 (Iqbal Qasim), 6-166 (Manzoor Elahi), 7-184 (Wasim Akram), 8-198 (Imran Khan), 9-249 (Tauseef Ahmed), 10-249 (Saleem Jaffar)

	Bowling	O	M	R	W	Econ
	N Kapil Dev	12	2	25	1	2.08
	Maninder Singh	43.5	8	99	3	2.25
	RJ Shastri	24	3	69	4	2.87
	NS Yadav	15	3	41	2	2.73

	India 2nd innings (target: 221 runs)		R	M	B	4s	6s	SR
	SM Gavaskar	c Rizwan-uz-Zaman b Iqbal Qasim	96	320	264	8	0	36.36
	K Srikkanth	lbw b Wasim Akram	6	32	16	0	0	37.50
	M Amarnath	c †Saleem Yousuf b Wasim Akram	0	2	1	0	0	0.00
	DB Vengsarkar	b Tauseef Ahmed	19	75	66	1	0	28.78
	KS More†	lbw b Tauseef Ahmed	3	30	27	0	0	11.11
	M Azharuddin	c & b Iqbal Qasim	26	81	75	3	0	34.66
	RJ Shastri	c & b Iqbal Qasim	4	49	27	0	0	14.81
	N Kapil Dev*	b Iqbal Qasim	2	14	13	0	0	15.38
	RMH Binny	c †Saleem Yousuf b Tauseef Ahmed	15	61	48	0	1	31.25
	NS Yadav	b Tauseef Ahmed	4	8	10	1	0	40.00
	Maninder Singh	not out	2	20	16	0	0	12.50
	Extras	(b 22, lb 5)	27
	Total	(all out; 93.5 overs)	204	(2.17 runs per over)

Fall of wickets 1-15 (Srikkanth), 2-15 (Amarnath), 3-64 (Vengsarkar), 4-80 (More), 5-123 (Azharuddin), 6-155 (Shastri), 7-161 (Kapil Dev), 8-180 (Gavaskar), 9-185 (Yadav), 10-204 (Binny)

	Bowling	O	M	R	W	Econ
	Wasim Akram	11	3	19	2	1.72
	Iqbal Qasim	37	11	73	4	1.97
	Tauseef Ahmed	45.5	12	85	4	1.85

Match details

---

Toss - Pakistan, who chose to bat
Series - Pakistan won the 5-match series 1-0

Player of the match - SM Gavaskar (India)
Player of the series - Imran Khan (Pakistan)

Umpires - RB Gupta and VK Ramaswamy

Random Thoughts

Enemy Within

Mani Shankar Aiyer, of Congress Party goes to Pakistan and on a TV Channel makes a statement that Pakistan has to get rid of Modi and bring Congress back in power for the peace between two countries to be established. Asking an enemy country to support usurping the democratically elected Prime Minister of India, in my opinion amounts to treason and sedition. Why is Doval not arresting him and locking him up for good? Also a few days before that Salman Khurshid, another anti national, praises Pak PM and trashes our own. Congress has been quietly endorsing such activities. When I was with Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, I used to joke that my biggest competitor as a Sales Officer was my own people in the Supply Department, who will do their utmost to delay or not execute orders. When we have people like these, why do we need enemies?

 

Hypocrisy

When Terrorists attack third world countries and hundreds of lives are lost, the Western Countries calls for restraint in response, and gives only lip service to combating terrorism. When the same happens on their backyard, as it happened recently in France, or in England a few years back or in US a decade back, then it is a different ball game. Emergency is declared, war planes take off and purported terrorist hangouts are bombed to bits. There is no talk of restraint or such bullshit. A death is a death anywhere in the world. Assuming it is not, is sheer hypocrisy.

Idiots at BCCI

The mood of the people of the Country and the Government is anti Pakistan, except for a few bleeding heart stupids in the media and in public life. There is no way the Government would have allowed a Cricket Series between India and Pakistan, either in India or anywhere in the World. Then why oh why did BCCI began a dialogue with Pakistan regarding a Test Series, if it were to be played in India. This idiocy gave Pakistan to take the moral high ground, and refusing to play us, when all along they have been reduced to begging us to somehow play them. Pakistan Board is broke financially, and only a series with India will bring it some much wanted cash. When Pakistan has been identified as the root cause of terrorism, and when Duval is doing his best to  frustrate them by ignoring their tantrums and isolating them totally, the BCCI goes ahead and makes such a gaffe. I sincerely wish the PM or Duval would call Shashank Manohar and Anurag Thakur up, and give a public dressing down in Eden Gardens stadium watched by 100,000 people on the ground and millions on TV. They deserve nothing less

 

Oh for a Classical Wicket Keeper!

One of the saddest fall out of One Day and T 20 cricket is the demise of genuine classical Wicket Keepers. With teams opting to have batsmen who can be ball stoppers (I refuse to call them wicket

keepers) to don the gloves, there is no incentive for a youngster to work on his keeping ability. I have seen wonderful Keepers like Kirmani, Alan Knott, Bob Taylor, Sadanand Viswanath, Nayan Mongia behind the stumps and it is a pleasure to watch them take the balls with soft hands or effect a smart leg side take standing up. Their keeping to spinners was an art by itself. But the turn of the century saw the advent of the so called batsmen wicket keepers giving way later to batsmen stoppers. It is a tragedy that Sadanand Viswanath was lost to cricket due to personal reasons - he was a live wire and a class act. The match fixing scandal that put a cloud over Nayan Mongia was a big disappointment. He was superb standing up to spinners. Everyone hails Dhoni as one of the best. Perhaps yes as a Captain and a lower order batsmen. But his keeping was/ is atrocious. He gets up early, is not behind the stumps all the time to take the throw, has hard hands and never goes for the catch low in front of first slip. If anyone thinks that Uthappa or Ambati Rayudu should keep wicket for India, then they should have their head examined. Even the so called more proficient wicket keepers are found wanting in technique, be it Saha, Karthik, Parthiv or Sanju Samson. Perhaps the best wicket keepers in the world are Prasanna Jayawardhane of Srilanka and Dinesh Ramdhin of West Indies. And they both are not regulars. Sarfraz of Pakistan is adequate, at best.

Bharatha's of this world are priceless

Born with Gaja Kersari Yoga, I have always been or aimed to be the leader wherever I am. If I am not, it makes me very uneasy.

 

Naturally born leaders in the Ithihasas like Sri Rama became my heroes. However, Age has brought with it the much wanted wisdom, broader perspective and a fine tuning of the mindset which makes me appreciate the contribution of non leaders too.

 

There are many silent contributors in our epics, and in our work place who deserve much more respect and recognition than we give them. They do silently efficient work all the time, without being in the limelight, thereby allowing the leader to focus on other issues. They are the workhorses, who take considerable load and whose maintenance cost is very less. They run the Organization. The nurses in the hospital are one example.

 

Though I have been fascinated by Ramayana since childhood, somehow I had never given a second thought to the character of Bharatha, until recently that is.

 

Bharatha stayed under the radar, but his virtues are unparalleled. Perhaps his devotion to Sreerama is even more than that of Lakshmana.

 

On hearing that his mother has conspired to banish Sree Rama for 14 years, and thus giving him the Kingdom on a platter, he berates her no end and flatly refuses to accept the Throne, which rightfully belonged to his brother. It took lot of convincing from Sreerama to make him go back to Ayodhya, but only on the condition that he will rule as a Caretaker alone. He also eschewed all the comforts of the palace, and chose to live a simple life like his brother for the 14 years.

 

Bharatha was a brilliant and wise king. During his 14 years, the GDP of Ayodhya grew 10 times! Thus he ensured his brother got to rule a much richer, stronger and prosperous kingdom on his return from Vanavasa.

 

Once Sree Rama was back, he quietly slipped back to his role of supporting him in his duties, and to his credit, not even for a moment did he have any thoughts of wanting the Kingdom for himself.

 

If ever one wants an example for Nishkama Karma, he has to only look up Bharatha.

 

Though India's original name Bharatham has nothing to do with the Bharatha of Ramayana, it is a fitting tribute to him that, though inadvertently, we call our great country Bharatham

Straight ball on a Square Turner

One of India's famous Spin Quartet, Bishan Singh Bedi, once said that "On a Square Turning Pitch, the  most dangerous ball is the one that doesn't turn', which indirectly means 'don't get carried away by the prodigious turn that you are getting, but bowl the straight balls (or the arm balls in the case of Off Spinners and Left Arm Spinners or the Top Spinner in the case of Leg Spinners). more often. This is because the batsmen is expected to play for the huge turn, and can be caught napping if the ball goes straight through.

Ditto, on Seaming pitches, bowlers should not try to swing or seam much. Doing so might end up beating the bat very often, but all that will result in is a few oohs and aahs, but not regular wickets.

That Bedi was spot on is evident from the recently concluded Mohali Test, where more South African wickets fell to Straighter balls than to Viciously biting and turning ones.

This is true in other areas of life too. One tends to get carried away with success, and overdoes things which can backfire at a later stage.

Recently, I pulled off a  deal for my Company. I managed to close the deal with a major investor to set up a $ 11 Million New Company. Everyone expected me to have a major position in the new company, and it was a fait accompli. But I decided to walk away, satisfied that I have achieved what I set out to, and allowed others to run the Company. This caused considerable confusion, and panic amongst my colleagues and subordinates, who were baffled why I did what I did. They expected the big turning deliveries on a square turner but I bowled them a ball straight as an arrow.

Last heard, they were scratching their head. Let them for a while, till I explain to them why I did it.

Let us find out whether the award returnees have real balls!

Much has been written about the farce of the so called 'famous' writers and film makers returning their awards, citing lack of Freedom and rising intolerance in the Country, under BJP rule.

Though the social media has panned all these hypocrites, and exposed them for the charlatans they are, the Government has been muted in its response, except for some hard hitting speeches by Arun Jaitley and Venkaiah Naidu.

I was surprised to see Rajnath Singh asking these 'worthies' to engage in a dialogue with the Government! Pray why?

It is noteworthy that the Congress party which orchestrated this award return drama, did not bother to stand by them.

Why didn't Sonia or Rahul not return the Bharat Ratnas awarded to Nehru, Indira and Rahul? We would have gladly accepted them, for they were all unworthy of getting the highest honour of the nation, in any case.

How I wish the Government had called the bluff of these writers and film makers!

They should have given them one weeks time to return the Citation, the Cash award with interest accrued till date, the cost of translating and printing their books by Sahitya Academy in many languages, and the Royalty paid to them so far. If they refused to do so, then cases should be filed against them under IPC 420 for cheating the public.

Now, THAT would have set the cat amongst the pigeons and we would have found out how many of these commie left pseudo liberals have real balls!

Good bye, my friend!

I am very sentimental, and am attached to personal belongings that have been with me for a long time, especially if they were with me during my difficult times.

I hang on to slippers and shoes till they are worn out, no matter whether I have couple of brand new ones already purchased and used sparingly.

Ditto with my tennis racquet or pen.

I hate to change my car, unless absolutely required nor house. There is a comfort in reaching out for something with which you are very comfortable.

It doesn't mean that I don't embrace newer things. Quite the contrary. It is just that I like to surround myself  or wear things which are comfortable.

It is why I was extremely sad when my old iphone ( I don't even remember the version - I think it is iphone 4), purchased in August 2011 finally decided that it has had enough of me and decided to malfunction. I have been urged by all around me to change to a newer version even 2 years ago, but I resisted. And this in an era where people change mobiles every 6 months!!

My IT supplier, who knows my habits, jokingly told me to go for iphone 6s, while light heatedly passing a remark "better take it, as it is the best bet to last ANOTHER 4 years!!"

So with a heavy heart, I have to bid good bye to a dear friend. You have been with me through times good and bad, and have been very reliable. On my part, I have treated you with respect, and even today, after 4 years and 3 months, you look as good as new. If only your power switch didn't malfunction!! Sigh!

Of Vows and Consequences

Ithihasams are replete with instances of many legends being forced to support adharma or a non rational act, just to uphold a promise given by them.

Take the case of Dasaradhan. He gave a boon to his wife Kaikeyi for showing presence of mind during a critical battle, which she redeemed at a later stage with tragic consequences. On the eve of Sreeraman's coronation as Crown Prince, she used the boon to insist that Dasaradhan banish Rama for 14 years to the jungle and to crown her son Bharathan as Crown Prince. Much against everyone's wish, including his Prajas, he had to accede to Kaikeyis wish and send Sreeraman to the Jungle. Did he forgo his responsibility to his Country and People for a boon given long ago, but was totally unjust and asked for a selfish purpose? Was his promise more worth than what was good for the Country?

Young Devavrata took a Bhishma Sapadham so that his aged father Shantanu can marry a young girl, Satyavathi. He relinquished his right to be the King and vowed to protect Hastinapuram against any usurper. Should he have done this to satisfy the whim of an aged man, who thought only about his personal pleasure? Did not the Country and people lose out the wisdom of a great warrior like Devavrata (Bhishma)? And much later, he was forced to side with the Kauravas, against Pandavas in the Kurukshetra war, thereby fighting against an Army that was waging a war for Dharma.

Karnan was known for his Dana Seelam. Indran, knowing fully well this sterling quality of Karna, comes in disguise and asks him to donate his Kavacham and Kundalam. Knowing his life will be in peril in the imminent War, Karnan does offer them as alms to Indra, thereby letting down himself, his close friend Duryodhana and the Kauravas. Karnan also gave a word to his mother Kunti that he will not kill any of his brothers other than Arjuna. Though he had chances to kill the other four, he let them off each time, honouring his word, but falls prey to Arjunans arrow in tragic circumstances. Another case of mistaken priorities perhaps?

While I am one for honouring one's word (what are we, if we cannot honour our words!), it should not be at the expense of the greater benefit to the mankind, or ones Country or ones Organization or ones Family.

Did not Krishna ask Yudhishtira to utter 'Aswathama hatha: Kunjara:' which ensured Drona keeping his Weapons down, so that Dhrishtadhyumnan can kill him? This turned the war in favour of Pandavas and greater good prevailed.

Success at last!

My father always accused me of not being tenacious enough. He was also unhappy I was not ambitious and a bit of an under achiever.

I am still not ambitious and believe firmly in Nishkama Karma.

Though early in life I got things easily without putting in the hard yards, the last decade and a half has taught me many lessons, and the results were not quite in line with my efforts. I had to struggle for even small successes, which never came when I wanted, but after a prolonged struggle. So much so that when the goal was finally attained, the feeling is one of relief than joy.

Today is one such day.

I conceived a big project in 2010 for my Company and thought it will become a reality in 2011. Everyone associated with the project gave it up for good by 2012 but I kept it alive. It was sheer obstinacy at times. I was ridiculed and I could sense people making snide remarks behind my back. Finally there was array of hope on 1st January 2015. Again hopes rose, only to fall by April. But I plodded on, made painful progress step by small step and finally, last weekend everything fell in place and today a new company with a Capital of OMR 500,000 was finally registered to manage a OMR 4 million project. This company will offer Drilling Tools on Rental and the Investing Partner is a very successful businessman and a real gentleman, which augurs well for the future.

I should be feeling on top of the world but I am just too tired. But there is a satisfaction in this tiredness.

This journey of 5 years taught me patience, perseverance, tenacity and the value of plain honest hard work.

And it was pure Nishkama karma.

My father is no more, having died in 2004. But I am sure from somewhere up there he must be feeling content in his own enigmatic, understated way.

A Few Unasked Questions in Indian Politics - 1

Aravind Kejriwal pulled out of the Coalition Government with Congress after 49 days, citing Congress not backing him to get the majority for passing the Jan Lokpal Bill. Now that he has a 67/70 majority for the past 7 months, why is he not even talking about Jan Lokpal?

Why is everyone giving so much importance to AAP, when it rules only Delhi, which is a truncated State at worst, and a glorified Municipality at worst?

Similarly, why is so much space given to Congress party, which has only 44 members in the Lok Sabha?

Communist Party of India, whether Marxist or not, is virtually wiped out in India. But still they have a say in everything which is tom tomed by the Media. Why should be suffer non entities like Sitaram Yechury, Brinda Karat or Prakash Karat who cannot influence even 1% of the national voters?

We have followed the British system of Parliam

entary Democracy. Why have we not adopted their system of having primaries to elect candidates to stand for election in a Constituency?

We used to have a single days polling 30 years ago, and prior to the introduction of Electronic Voting Machines, and results announced the very next day. Why should we have the elections spread over 2 months, and counting done only 3-5 days after the last day of polling?

Why are we not taxing Agriculture income? There are farmers who are multi millionaires who get away without paying tax. Why?

What is the true meaning of Secularism?

Why do we talk of only Muslims and Christians when we mention Minorities? What about the true Minorities - the Parsis, Jains, Sikhs etc? Why should we have only a Muslim Minister for the post of Minister of Minority Affairs always?

Why are we not modernizing the Judiciary? Why are there so many vacancies in various Courts? When will we get to see a Case being tried in less than 3 years?

Why should Supreme Court which should focus on only mainly high level Appeals interfering in simple domestic violence case like that of Somnath Bharthi or giving anticipatory bail to Teesta Setalvad, thereby wasting their precious time?.....................to be contd............

Pattu Noolil Vazha Naaru Cherkaruthu (Dont try to add Plantain Thread to Silk Thread)

Once upon a time, a young boy called Prabhakaran was learning the Sasthrams in Gurukulavasam Sampradayam. Despite being exceptionally gifted, the Guru used to be extremely tough with him, though to lesser gifted students he was patience personified. The Guru used to abuse and beat Prabhakaran. Though baffled, Prabhakaran bore all these sufferings and ignomy with dignity and became versatile in all Sasthrams. Even though the time for him to complete his education was over, the Guru did not let him go. One day the Guru beat him on the thigh so harshly that it started bleeding. Prabhakaran couldnt take it any longer and went away from his classes for the day. Hurt, he wanted to take reprisal on the Cruel Guru and managed to find a place in the loft above the Gurus bedroom with a big stone, with the avowed purpose of killing him in the night. In the night, he heard the Guru remorsefully tell his wife that he was being tough on Prabhakar, only because he was exceptionally talented, and he didnt want him to be complacent, which he feared would happen, if he were to praise him. Hearing this, Prabhakaran was overcome with grief, and falls on the feet of the Guru, but revealing to him that he had intended to kill him. Though the Guru pardoned him, Prabhakaran took the issue of his intention to murder his Guru to a court of learned people, and sought a suitable punishment. Since even thinking of harming a Guru is unthinkable, murder was unpardonable in their eyes. The punishment given to him was to cover himself with rice husk (Umi) and set fire to it, slowly burning himself to death. Prabhakaran accepted the punishment and set about to carry it out. While he was slowly being burned to death, he thought "My this janmam is ending now. Let me at least create something eulogizing the God, which will be my contribution to my Guru and to the World' Thus he started creating and reciting the poem 'Sree Krishna Vilasam'. The brilliant poem was never completed. When he reached the 12th Sargam, his body got completely burnt and the last verse was 'Pasya Priye Konkana....."

Much later, the legendary Poet Kalidasan tried to complete the Poem. He took off from where Prabhakara Kavi left off 'Pasya Priye Konkana' by adding the word 'Bhoomi bhagaan'. At that time there was a divine voice (asareeri) "Pattu noolinondu vazha naaru echu koottan purappadenda" (dont try to add plantain thread to silk thread). Kalidasan was a genius, and one can imagine how good Prabhakara Kavi was by this incident. A peeved Kalidasan stopped his attempt to complete Sree Krishna Vilasam, and to this day it stays unfinished. Kalidasan felt a bit of jealousy and inferiority complex at this, and vowed to create one like this and thus was born 'Kumara Sambhavam', Prabhakara Kavi started his Poem with 'Asthisrayarassa thara sumeru nama', while Kalidasan commenced Kumarasambhavam with ' Asthyutharasyam Dishi Devathathma Himalayo Nama Nagaadhi Raja:'

The long and short of it is that it doesnt pay to add Plantain thread to a Silk Thread. But we continue to do so in many areas and in many countries with disastrous results.

I was reminded of this story when I see the Brazilian Football team of today. As an avid fan of Brazilian football of the 1980s when they played with the Latin American flair and swagger, so aesthetically pleasing, with wonderful results to show, I am dismayed at their current status. All their top players play in the more straitjacketed European football, which gets reflected in the Brazillian national teams performance on the field. They have tried, with disastrous consequences, merging the drab European Style (Vazhanaaru) to their Natural Style (Silk Thread), and the result is there for all to see.

Ditto with Indian Hockey. With the advent of Astro Turf, we went for a series of European coaches to adopt the ugly physical European style, and in the end we are neither here or there.

The Cricket Team almost fell into the same path. Wright, Chappel, Kirsten and Fletcher tried to mould India to another Australia or England, with emphasis on system than natural talent. Fortunately for India, our Silk threads ( players like Sachin, Ganguly, Dravid, Laxman, Kohli, Kumble, Zaheer) were much superior and we didnt lose out like our hockey team. Now it has dawned on the powers that be that it doesnt pay to buy Vazhanaaru coaches by paying huge sums from abroad.

We do see this in many Organizations. A team of brilliant people (pattu nool) will be saddled with a few mediocre ones (Vazha naaru) bringing down creativity and productivity

Kalidasan was wise enough to stop on hearing the Asareeri, but our Vazhanaaru people chug on merrily,........ and there lies the tragedy.

Astrology and Newton's Law of Gravity - Interesting

I was reading the Force of Gravity between two objects on a Science Text Book, where it was mentioned that

Fgravity  is directly proportional to the Product of Their Masses and Inversely Proportional to the Square of the Distance between them

F = G*(M1M2/D*D), where G is the Gravitational Constant

It set me thinking.

Can we extend this principle to our Astrology, which is based on the impact of each planet on us (who lives in Earth) or rather their Gravitational Attractions and Mass?

Guru / Sukran			Rahu
Ravi/Kujan /Sani/Budhan	RAASI CHART
			Lagnam
Ketu	Maandi		Chandran

We know that Sun, Moon, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Mars, Mercury - in that order, has the influence in descending order on our life as per our Astrology.

I did some research and my findings are as follows, which is astonishing to say the least. The Mass of Each Planet is in the First Column, and the Distance in AU (1 AU = Distance from Sun to Earth = 149,600,000 Kms) in the second column, and their Force of Gravity on the last. I leave it to you to wonder at the wisdom of our Forefathers. Also this explains why they did not take into consideration the impact of Uranus and Neptune (Many a Skeptic of Astrology has raised this query saying our Solar System has 7 planets other than Earth (Pluto excluded) but our Astrological chart don't take into account Uranus and Neptune). It is also clear why we attach so much importance to the movement of Sun, Moon and mainly Jupiter.

	Mass 1021 Kg	Distance in AU	D2	F=KM1M2/D2
Sun	1,988,550,000	1	1	11,878,802,280,000
Moon	74	0.00257	0.0000066049	66,474,829,293
Jupiter	1,898,600	4.2	17.64	642,940,871
Venus	4,868	0.28	0.0784	370,911,796
Saturn	568,460	8.52	72.5904	46,779,638
Mars	641	0.52	0.2704	14,160,790
Mercury	330	0.61	0.3721	5,297,737
Uranus	86,832	18.21	331.6041	1,564,214
Netptune	102,430	29.09	846.2281	723,063
Earth	5,973