Let’s nationalise Cricket in India!

India is now a top contender for the best Test and one day cricketing team in the world.

• Is it because unlike other sports in India cricket is less controlled by the government? – But then there are so many politicians in BCCI!
• Is it because we have the best talent in the world? – Or is it because world over people are tuning into football and no one is bothered about Cricket?

If a country, like the USA with a third of our population can win a hundred plus medals every year at the Olympics, why do we have to get in there every year at the bottom of the pack? Shouldn’t there be three times more potential medallists among a billion Indians?

So where’s all that talent??? Probably languishing in some desk job because they were was not supported by their family or the system(rather the lack of it!)

While Indian budget for all sports in India this year is about Rs.1,000 Crore INR, BCCI’s Income itself Rs.700 Crore (it was 1,000 last year!) and this doesn't include the Indian Premier League Cricket who are earning Rs.8,200 crore just for ten years media rights!

If cricket is earning more that what’s being spent on all other sports combined, how will all other sports and sportspersons thrive?

Shouldn’t the BCCI be nationalised? Yes, there’ll be more corruption. But, won’t the state of other sports be much better?

Srilankan Tamils being excuted naked and blindfolded by Srilankan Army

Video released by Journalists for Democracy, Srilanka and shown by Channel 4 News, UK. Be warned the contents are shocking to say the least. Srilankan Tamils being stripped naked, blindfolded and shot dead from behind



Does any one deserve to die like this without any dignity? Much less, killed by their own army? How can any two communities live in peace after people are executed like this? This isn't rooting out Terrorism but planting more seeds for acrimony and more violence!

Why aren't any of the war crimes charges against the Srilankan government being investigated?
Why is India providing tacit support for such barbaric acts?
What is the Srilankan governement still doing in those alleged 'concentration camps' where independent media is yet to be allowed free access?

Spare a thought for the innocent Tamils in Sri Lanka

So Prabhakaran the Terrorist has been killed. Happy? Rejoicing?

Ever thought of the thousands of innocent Tamils who were slaughtered by the indiscriminate use of artillery and chemical weapons by the Sri Lankan army during the Genocidal war?

If not spare a thought, they’re Humans like you too…

Which government that cares about it’s people, would drop bombs over hospitals and crowded places, just because it suspects terrorists are in their midst? You wouldn't shoot at the passengers and bomb the whole bus, if you had to rescue the hostages!

Ever thought why the western nations which went running to Kosovo and Israel ignored Sri Lanka? Is it because it was battle between the Sinhalese Buddhist majority and Tamil Hindu minority?

If you didn’t spare a thought for them as a human, maybe you can as a Hindu!

Ever thought why Pakistan which spawns terrorism worldwide and China which has ignored terrorism elsewhere are helping Sri Lanka? The Sri Lankans who slept with the Americans to give them Trincomalee port to combat India during the Cold War have now given Hambantota to the Chinese who are building a billion dollar port for the Chinese Navy! So China forestalls all discussions about the genocide at the UN and supplies weapons to the army.

Chinese weapons,  Indian intelligence, Sinhala Armed personals and racist Sri Lankan leaders came together to perform one of the most cruel war that has cost the lives of many thousands innocents – LINK: The Telegraph, UK

Yes, the people who are supposed to protect us are sleeping though this hostile development… If you didn’t spare a thought before, maybe now you can as an Indian!

Everyone who are responsible for slaughtering an estimated 70,000 innocent Tamils over the last 25 years and another 7,000 over the last 4 months alone and the continuing ‘white van abductions’ of Tamils in the ‘liberated’ areas will pay for it someday, whether it’s the racist Rajapakse brothers and their political cohorts, the murderous Gen. Fonseka or the traitorous Col.Karuna…

So what if LTTE’s leader who was terrorist to many and a freedom fighter to those who mattered was killed today? Even if the LTTE is finished with him, LTTE was not the only militant organisation that fought for the rights of Sri Lankan Tamils. If naxalism and armed struggles can exist in a pluralistic democracy like India, how long would it take for the FREEDOM struggle to begin again from the smoking embers in Sri Lanka?

Is Prostitution Wrong?

Is it wrong to take up Prostitution voluntarily?
-This question is NOT about the men who solicit prostitutes
- A woman takes up prostitution by choice, why should the society have any problem with it?

Maybe I'm the exact opposite of people in the MNS and Ram Sene, I think if an adult is old enough to vote and decide the fate of the country, the adult is old enough to decide his/her own fate and how he/she lives his life.

If the person makes a wrong choice as an adult, maybe we as a society failed to infuse the right values into the younger mind when ideas and convictions were forming.

It is wrong to force someone into prostitution! It is wrong to rob another person's life or property! Why should it be wrong to sell your own body or take your own life?

China: Death for two in tainted milk case - When do we see such headlines in India?

A Chinese court has handed down death sentences to two men implicated in a tainted-milk scandal that killed at least six infants and sickened hundreds of thousands of others.

The Intermediate People's Court in Shijiazhuang issued the first verdicts in a nationwide scandal surrounding milk powder tainted with the industrial chemical melamine.

Two men, Zhang Yujun and Geng Jinping, were sentenced to death. Zhang ran a workshop that allegedly was China's largest source of melamine used in the tainted dairy products. Geng was convicted of producing and selling toxic foodstuffs.

The court sentenced Tian Wenhua, the former head of the dairy company at the center of the scandal, to life in prison and fined her nearly $4 million. She was found guilty of making and selling fake or substandard products.

Her company, the now-bankrupt Sanlu Group, was fined more than $7 million. Six other former Sanlu executives were sentenced to jail, for five to 15 years.

The court had announced it would also sentence 21 defendants implicated in the scandal later.

Some parents are disappointed that no Chinese officials have had to face formal charges.

The scandal involving tainted milk broke in September, although Sanlu authorities knew of problems with their company's products months earlier.

Middlemen who sold milk to dairy companies had watered down the raw milk and then mixed it with melamine, which gives an artificially high reading for protein.

Melamine is normally used to make plastics and fertilizer. If ingested in large amounts, it can cause kidney stones and kidney failure. The Ministry of Health said it was likely the tainted milk scandal with Sanlu Group at its centre killed at least six babies. Another 2,96,000 infants suffered kidney stone and urinary problems.


When would we see such quick judgments against corruption happening in India?


Cross posted from Indian Medicos 

Adventures of a Chennaiite in Petrol illadha kaadu

(Jungle without Petrol!) (Read like Thanni illadha Kaadu:)

30 June 2008 9 AM: Me and Hari on the phone

Me: I need my camera to upload the pics of yesterday's BHUMI meet, at least 80-90 people must be waiting for it

Hari: I'll give it to you at Gandhi Mandapam at around 10 when I go to my office...

10 50AM, Call from Hari: Prahal see you in 20 minutes! (see the time this fellow goes to office and his punctuality)

1105 AM, Me travelling through Kotturpuram, Call from Hari: Hope you've not left home, cos I'm stranded on the OMR without fuel.

Me: So what you gonna do? Let me get fuel for you...

Then began the hour long search for Black Gold! I first bought a 1 litre mineral water bottle and started in search of the bunks near Adyar Signal to my surprise all were closed. When I asked the guy inside if there was some strike he said po po!

So I went in search of petrol bunks toward Thriruvanmiyur. Got caught in a major traffic jam near a petrol bunk on the way to Indira Nagar, so I started drinking the water not wanting to waste 13 bucks :P. Suddenly the traffic moved and the bottle slipped from my hand and started rolling towards the pavement. In cinematic fashion, it slowly rolled, escaping all the speeding vehicles to reach the pavement without a dent!

After a while I managed to get in to the petrol bunk wondering what to do with all the water, only to find a long snaky queue of people with all sorts of containers. as I passed around the water to all the waiting 'auto karans' I realised none of them knew why there was no petrol at other bunks or why they were trying to get fuel in large containers in preparation for doomsday! As I joined the long line of ignorant people cursing Hari, that 'Nanari payan' calls me to ask what's taking me so long :-/

After, half an hour waiting through conversations of 'expert' economists I finally got 50 bucks worth of 'black gold!'

Later learnt, it was only a supply chain disruption... But is the day when water and fuel will be rationed like this far away?

Defintely related!: Subsidising Regression

Rapists should be Castrated!

More than 20 Indian Women get raped every hour (This is the Official 2006 Stats, It must be higher now) Considering almost 80% of the rapes aren't even reported that's almost 100 women every hour!

A Google News Search on 'Scarlet Keeling' throws up almost 3000 news items.
Why are we as a nation (or is it just our media?) obsessed with the rape and murder of this one under-aged girl who was high on alcohol and drugs bar-hopping at three am, far far away from her home and family?

It's reasonable to assume that most of these 100 Indian women suffered for no fault of theirs.
Who will get justice for all these women? Why doesn't the media take up each one of their cases?

The conviction rate in India is also shamefully low (8% I think) it's like the government and the law enforcement agencies are actually encouraging men to go on and rape hapless women.
Life sentence is not a sufficient enough deterrent, I don't think Rapists should be put to death either. To make them realise the trauma they made the women go through, they should be let go as free 'men' after they are castrated and/or their dicks amputated!

PS: (Update) If rape is punishable by death (as is being suggested) and so is murder, it might make these animals want to kill of their victims... think about it!

What's so special?

Marriage an inevitable part of life for most people...

But, Is the change in people post-marriage, inevitable too?

How does a single event, important though it might be, alter the dynamics of every other relationship... Both Family & friends? How is it that suddenly some new relationships become more important than many older ones?

Do people realize the change?

Will I change too?

Will I realize the change?

One answer

Is being polite more important than being truthful?
Is lying to yourself less important than lying to others?
Is a friend's request more important than being truthful?
Is any price too much to pay for being and doing the right thing?

India in Isolation

The largest democracy in the World, surrounded by chaos. How long can we live in isolation as our neighbours continue to suffer?

Afghanistan, continues to reel under Talibanisation years after the Talibans were driven out of most of their land by the Americans. The Americans are fighting those they armed to drive out the Soviets.
Pakistan has spent more years under military rule than in Democracy, a heavy price to pay for maintaining a huge army to match India. Wouldn't peace between brothers have done a lot more good?
Nepal in Transition... Democracy without elections. Maoists in power. A king without a Kingdom.
Tibet where's that? Can China's importance and might make us forget the aspirations of this forgotten country and it's people?
Bhutan, peaceful, yet a blast from the past.
Burma under Military rule for Decades. How long will India take the side of the Military rulers? If peace loving monks can protest and die for democracy, can't India lift a finger to help?
Sri Lanka, the war wages on. Once bitten twice shy but can't we mediate peace?
Bangladesh, the only place where Military rule is probably doing some good... rooting out corrupt politicians. Why aren't we more friendly with these people? Why do they provide haven for terrorists who harm us?

Does a country of a Billion that ignores it's neighbours deserves a Permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council by right of it's size alone?
Is the American way of 'fighting' for Democracy wrong?
Is the Indian way of remaining a mute spectator right?