Too many cricket world champions!

You can barely count the number of cricket playing countries, on your hands. And there's already two world champions fighting for their recoginition! Ponting says Aussies are the real world champions. And Indians just can't take it lying down. That will belittle their position as cricket's latest world champs, though in a faster version of the game!
Aussies are known for playing mind-games before the start of any series. And this time Aussies need more than the mind-games to defeat the rejuvenated Indian cricket team!

Games politicians play!

T20 brutally murders ICL!

T20 has left an impact on all cricket lovers which will
take many many thrilling ODIs to erase!
One reason could be India won the trophy against
all the odds and in a fashion which suits true champions.
This form of cricket is exciting, more unpredictable and gripping till the last ball...
Just the kind of stuff audience would love to watch in the stadium.

This may not be the pure form of cricket, but the way Indian team adapted to this form really touching. And all the credit to our new captain, who's calm-composed unlike his batting style.
But I do have a slight doubt that the captaincy has taken away the explosive nature of Dhoni's batting. He's become more cautious and more calm!

While the whole country is soaked in the glory of T20 victory, one thing went unnoticed.
What's happening to ICL? When T20 World Cup began, ICL was all over the news channels and papers. But as India progressed to higher stages of the championship, people prefered to ignore everything about ICL. May be cricket fans are more obsessed with the Indian cricker's victory than who governs the cricket. And rightly so!

Beware! We're ruled by beheaded people!

Lord Rama continues to haunt politicians.
Ayodhya's Vedanti alleged to have issued a fatwa against Tamilnadu
CM Karunanidhi, who made a sarcastic remarks aginst Lord Rama.
And soon he retracted on his statement, blaming the media.

His fatwa to behead Karunanidhi would have made no impact in this country where fatwas are just making a debut. But it does raise doubts about the sanity of these heads who rule us, who influence our politics.

Can the judiciary be above the law?

Satyameva Jayate
(Truth only triumphs)

We have been taught in schools; we have been reminded at all the govt offices which are supposed to provide justice. And we have been harshly reminded that there’s no truth in those two words!
Is judiciary above the law?
Can you separate the judge from the individual?
More questions and no answers!
That’s what Delhi High court’s sentencing of four Midday journalists brought us to.
They were sentenced for the story on former CJI Sabharwal.
The tragedy of the judgement is that the High Court sentenced them not for the false story, but for pointing a finger at an ex-CJI! That amounts to the contempt of court!
The ideal situation would be to investigate the allegations made against Mr. Sabharwal and make a judgment on the correctness of the story.

You cannot demand sanctity.
You have to command sanctity through your conduct.
We have been reading the mythological stories of how even Gods had to prove their innocence when allegations were leveled against them. Lord Krishna had to prove his innocence. And the best way to bring sanctity to the chair of CJI is to investigate the charges against Mr. Sabharwal and prove his innocence.

That will add more sanctity to the highest chair of the Judiciary.
That will command more respect for the judiciary in this country.

And that will surely keep the fourth estate of Democracy, the press, on high alert!
(Ironically the above cartoon couldn’t be published in my paper because some journalists thought it may be risky. And I’m posting it here at my own RISK!)

Twenty20 cricket, a big hit with youngsters!

Twenty20 craze is a big hit,
mostly among youngsters!

Something might still scare Dhoni, three ex-captains!

You are just around two and half year old in the team,
and imagine you are made the captain of the team!
And add to that, you'll be leading three ex-captains!
That's Dhoni for you!
The coveted designation may have come to Dhoni too early,
but he seems to be on the right road to be a good skipper.
Now pray that his batting doesn't get affected

SMS voting could be the solution for Indian democracy?

Youth of the nation love their right to vote...
Vote to elect Indian Idol, vote to elect the Voice of India,
vote to elect blah blah...blahblahblah!
And India, inspite of being the largest democracy of the world,
still struggle to cajole half of its voters to caste their vote!
Our youth just hate the word ELECTIONS!
The solution could be sms voting, which the tv shows have exploited to the fullest.

Gods are in dilemma over Ram Sethu controversy!

Ram Sethu is putting even the Gods in dilemma.
It's such a shame that politicians play with people's faith
for their political gain. Though Congress tried to distance itself from the ASI affidavit about Lord Rama, other political parties are in no mood to give up such an explosive issue. Last I heard was from Tamil Nadu's self-proclaimed atheist Karunanidhi, who is questioning the existence of Rama. He asks 'where did Rama learn Engineering'!
Haha! Funny politics!
But there's little tragedy involved in these sarcastic comments.
Can any Indian politician afford to make such sarcastic comment on any other religion? May be a point to ponder over!

Suresh Kalmadi teaming up with Vijay Mallya to bring F1 to India

Illustration done for Dilip Cherian column in Midday
The column talks about how Suresh Kalmadi is teaming up with Vijay Mallya to bring Formula One to India. I used the concept of showing these two as kids who are crazy about cars.

Rahul Dravid's fall: crack or conspiracy?

Rahul Dravid has succumbed to the pressure of the captaincy, they say.
He was showing the pressures of leading Indian cricket team. He couldn't bat as fluently as he used to. And in India every cricket lover is a cricket pundit, who'll put each of his decision to trial! Rightly, Rahul decided to quit. And Rahul, the batsman is more precious than Rahul, the captain.
But there's another theory doing the rounds, of Rahul falling to the conspiracy of a lobby. We may never know the truth, Rahul being a dignified cricketer, who will never reveal anything connected to his personal decisions. This little truth is already buried!

Mob trial!

Are we in banana democracy?
The mob is taking over our legal system.
They don't bother to take the accused to the nearest police station.
(Even we'd seen police giving torture lessons in public!)
This may lead to a situation where even the innocents get lynched by the mob withour trial!

Ram Naam satya Hai!

Ram was a part of history or he's just a fictional hero?
The debate continues...
But it has been an integral part of our psyche. We grew up listening to the stories from Ramayana, trying to learn a few morals along the way.
I'm not sure of any historical evidence which can substantiate Ramayana's historical slot. But it's been foolish on the part of the Govt to touch such a sensitive issue. Especially when the saffron parties are waiting on their toes to pick up any religious issue which can keep them busy, politically.

Twenty20 is here to stay!

Twenty20 cricket has been projected as the thing of the future in Cricket.

It is entertaining and it's unpredictable which helps to make any game interesting for the audience. I do feel sad that, when the cricket pundits sat together to chalk out the T20 format, they completely ignored one tribe called bowlers. In fact they went on to make their job more tougher by introducing 'free hit'!

But this new format of the game will help lesser known and less experienced teams to surprise the giants with some shocking results. Shorter form of the game will surely help them to groom their players in a certain way to match the requirement. And the biggest advantage is they don't have to sustain their performace for a long duration unlike Test cricket and One Day International.

Frankly this format is too entertaining to ignore just as an experiment.

Being a lover of quality cricket, I have my own doubts about Twenty20 uplifting the quality of the game. But if this format can bring in more crowd and add in more competitive teams, let's say AYE to it!

Democracy tries to make a failed re-entry in Pakistan

Pakistan is in mess again. Democracy seems a far
possibility in our neighbouring country. While Musharraf is reluctant to welcome former PM Nawaz sharif into the country, there' s a talk of another former PM Benazir Bhutto striking a deal with the General!
The truth could be shocking when it's unveiled, sometime in the future.
As more drama is being staged on Pakistan's political stage, two countries are following the each movement carefully. One is Pakistan's neighbour India, another is Pakistan's ally USA!

The Chinese toys, adults play with!

Your kid could be under attack from Chinese toys.
Toxic attack! US suddenly woke up and made a panic call!
Indian markets have been bombarded with cheap Chinese toys in the recent years.
And India has a strong reason to be concerned!
India has been importing another kind of toys from China, SEX TOYS!
Do people care about the toys adult play with?

What do Indian cricketers need to defeat England?

Funny piece on India's preparations for the NatWest decider one day international.
Some of the suggestions are hilarious!

Alistair Pereira, ambassador for Anti- drunken driving campaign!

Alistair Pereira who killed seven migrant workers sleeping on the pavement by drunken driving is behind bars. Media is speculating about why his case was cleared in hurry while other celebrity cases like Salman Khan and Puru Rajkumar cases are still languishing.
After the Pereira incident, Mumbai police took drunken driving cases seriously and started a campaign to discourage drunken driving on the Mumbai streets. And the statistics shows that the campaign has been a huge success. Mumbai Police did use Pereira case as a kind of banner for their campaign.
But Salman Khan or Puru Rajkumar would have been still a more effective

Cricket mania

Lord's is waiting for the finest hours of cricket in the ongoing India-England oneday series.
This series has been a great cricket feast for the lovers of the game.
If you thought the sixth one day match was the best, dont hurry yet.
Lord's could be waiting for a fitting final

Sanjay Dutt's thirthyatra!

Mob fury!

It's raining catches, dropped catches!

India's pathetic fielding performance continues.
It's a pain to see some of the senior cricketers dropping
the mandatory catches in the one day matches against English team.
I feel these dropped catches will prove to be expensive in this series

KITNE AADMI THE!

Kitne Aadmi The?
Ram Gopal Varma wouldn't like to hear that query in any theatre now!
Ram Gopal Varma ki Aag (Reminded me of MALEGAON KI SHOLAY which was shot in Malegaon by Malegaonkars and for Malegaonkars!) is a total disaster.
Infact disaster could be an understatement according to some film critics!
For me, the idea of remaking Sholay was a disaster from the very beginning.
Any filmmaker with a little bit of self-respect and little more of talent wouldn't
want to make that blunder. Any attempt would be an statement, an arrogant statement.
And I thought Ram Gopal Varma hasn't earned enough accolades yet, in Bollywood to make that statement.
I still remember watching his telugu Shiva during my college days.
And it was fresh out of a crazy movie addict's restless mind. There were loads of promises
Some people get better with more movies and RGV got more arrogant with more movies.
More movies? Yes, when he started 'the factory', that's all anybody can expect from him, more movies!
Time to bring down that 'factory' board, Mr. Varma.
Become a crazy movie addict again, not just foreman of this factory