Small States : How far can we go?

Telangana is simmering right now. December 30 has been announced as a 'bandh' day. In other states the demand for separate states is rearing its head once again. The Telangana isuue is more thorny compared to other issues as in this case the rest of the state is not in the mood to accept reorganization of the state. Violent protests seem inevitable at least for time being. If central government agrees to this demand it faces trouble on two fronts: one, the rest of Andhra wont remain peaceful and two, the remaining states in India will witness similar protests and movements. If we look at the performance of smaller states it has been mixed bag. While Uttaranchal has done well, Jharkhand has been disaster. Small states also mean small number of legislative assembly seats which encourages defection and hence instability. Goa bears testimony to this fact. We already have states on linguistic basis. Almost in every large state there is demand for one or two smaller states. Some of them are highly unreasonable. As far as Uttar Pradesh is concerned the travesty cannot be missed. While 'Harit Pradesh' comprises prosperous districts of western Uttar Pradesh, the 'Bundelkhand' talks of most backward regions of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. In case of Poorvanchal there is no popular support and a handful of leaders are crying themselves hoarse on this issue. I don't have any idea about similar demands elsewhere in the country.

The government should decentralize the institutions and facilities in the states in order to make them easily accessible. In Uttar Pradesh, most of the institutions are centered in Lucknow. Clearly this is highly inconvenient for people from both ends of the state. But instead of carving out new states we can build similar institutions in east UP as well as west UP. Not many need to meet Chief Minister every now and then, so one thing which I am sure we don't need in Uttar Pradesh is a bunch of inefficient chief ministers. While decentralization based on zonal division of Uttar Pradesh will ensure easy accessibility, the size will ensure stability. Similar reasons can be given for other states also. Please don't play divisive politics in the name of statehood. Sardar Patel united 500 states into one India. Don't undo his unparalleled achievement.

Where is the joy in being child?

During my days of literature study I read various poems, both in Hindi and English, exhilarating joys of childhood. But if you have a look at today's child, you will vexed at the burden he/she is under. The number of courses a child undergoes during primary education is astounding.Most of them are useless and serve no purpose. Some students excel at those courses (which is bound to happen in a populous country as India) and those who don't are deemed failures. The teachers don't teach nowadays. They 'finish'. Yes, they finish syllabus and in that process the desire to learn in most of the students. I remember my history teacher virtually reading through the course text books when I was appearing for council exams in class Xth. The reason: syllabus should be finished and the students should secure high marks. If in the process you learn something... OK added bonus. There is no learning in practical environments. A typical child is expected to know history, geography, civics, mathematics, science (Physics, Chemistry and Biology in class sixth) and a plethora of books in languages (literature and grammar).

What this humongous syllabus ensures is that 'chapters' are finished and contents are 'crammed'. Most of the high scoring students are not able to apply concepts on their own. And yes, everyone conveniently forgets the stuff in no time (in some cases this could be as less as few hours after the exam). If this torture was not enough we have a myriads of exams and tests to plague a child's mind. As expected, majority of students need extra tuition to keep pace with this madness. 8 hrs of school and then 3 hrs of tuition. Add to it the commute time, and you must now be wondering that your job is not that hectic. I don't know about you, but I as a final year student pf engineering surely don't want to be child again. At least I have choices (to some extent) in doing courses and areas I want to work on.

Where's the fun in growing up?

IIT JEE theatrics

Kapil Sibbal minced no words when he made his intentions clear for JEE eligibility. Mr. Sibbal has made it clear that the reason for this change is mushrooming of coaching centres throughout the country. His logic is simple. Coaching institutes train students and hence they (students) don't pay attention to class 12th exams. This in my opinion is a flawed assumption.

Most students in IITs (at least IIT Kanpur) have more than 80% marks in class 12th. Many of those who don't score more than 80% are from state boards who will go above 80 once the marks are normalized( I hope sanity will prevail). And add to it the fact that most of them have come from coaching institutes. Last time they changed the rules, apparently targeting coaching centres from a particular city, the results were not encouraging. Those institutes have grown from strength to strength in last 3 years. It appears those rules only helped them. I am sure these rules too will have no effect. What can you do if these institutes are able to attract cream of the country? The students they have in their premier batches are quite capable of scoring over 80% without much effort. Giving more weightage to class 12th will only dilute the quality inside campus.

Diwali Lights

Today is Diwali. It is the only festival which I 'celebrate' apart from Navratra. I have put quotes because notion of celebration varies to a great extent from person to person. It's not that I don't like other festivals. In fact I like Ganesha Chaturthi as much as Diwali but I feel more happy during Diwali. Perhaps, this is because of the weather at this time of the year. Latter part of October and early November are the best part of year for me. I like these two months very much, ostensibly because the chill in atmosphere is perfect to have a sound sleep. Morning sunlight appears to be bliss of God.

This Diwali is about to pass. The celebration was muted. Very few friends are here compared to last year. One of my friends dressed for the occasion reminding of the auspiciousness of the occasion. Some have preferred to celebrate Diwali at their respective homes which would have been usual course for me too had there been few more days off from regular schedule. As I write a lot of crackers are creating the din I hate most about this festival. Despite knowing the hazards these crackers pose to environment and to those who have respiratory problems, people continue to rejoice this way. All those laws about decibel levels and noise pollution seem to exist only in Uttar Pradesh pollution Control Board Advertisement which was published in today's newspaper. Some of these same guys (Yes I am referring to the IIT guys) will go and settle in West. There they will do all these things in a very controlled way (of course if they get any chance to do these things), but here it doesn't bothers them. Same thing is being done to Ganges. Under the garb of spirituality and tradition we keep on dumping our filth into Ganges. It is a travesty of sorts that we refer to Ganges as 'mother'. When I was kid environmental issues were choicest problem for essay writing on pressing issues. It seems in future they will be source of information for geologists working on ascertaining causes of disappearance of glacier fed rivers like Ganges.

The Game of Nations

The 60th anniversary of 'democracy', as the communists will have us to believe, was celebrated with much fervor and show of strength. China is rising as a world power and its GDP is expected to overtake that of the US in coming decades. They have ambition to be a superpower. And when your aspirations that pretty high, you don't want your neighbor to be as strong as you or even able to challenge you. That is where the India-China problem begins.

Tensions have heightened courtesy some 'incursions' and some really stupid statements in media on both sides. Add to it the statements made by chiefs of armed forces of India. These have combined to induce paranoia in minds of those who are concerned about India's hawkish neighbor. After going through a lot of articles related to this subject written by experts in defence and diplomacy I have found one thing common to all of them. They all acknowledge the superiority of armed forces of China but add that China wont attack India if sanity prevails over them. Considering that there is so much at stake (in terms of economy) and India of 2009 is much different from India in 1962 (even if fusion was fizzle fission is sufficient to be deterrent). China may have advantage as far as military might is concerned but the difference between military strengths of the two nations is not so much as to decimate India and lave China with minor scars. As one article puts it, "China of today is not the Maoist country that argued that power grew out of the barrel of a gun and that even if 300 million Chinese perished in a nuclear war 300 million would survive to build a glorious civilisation. Times have changed since the ideology of countryside surrounding the cities was advanced during the Cultural Revolution". However, India needs to increase its defence budget in order to match China's strength. This would act as deterrent and also remind China that we are not cowed down by its vacuous threats. Also, we should try to address our economic problems and combine together to achieve double digit growth in coming decade. On diplomatic fronts we should take up the border dispute issues with Chinese government. If Vietnam can stand up to them why can't India? Again quoting from the article, "There can be firmness in dealing with the LoAC or other issues where there are attempts at exploiting unequal advantages in situations. India has arrived at a stage in international politics when it has to demonstrate maturity in playing the game of nations".

In God's name

I remember a scene from 'Merchant of Venice' where Antonio, an altruist, castigates Shylock, a mean money lender for justifying his soulless and savage conditions by invoking religious scriptures. So many times in history religion has been used as a tool to achieve ulterior motives.

Be it Osama Bin Laden or closer home Mr. Jinnah or closer in time Varun Gandhi. However, it is not that religion is always used to achieve political gains. In Pakistan blasphemy laws have been blatantly abused to acquire properties of minority communities. In India as this editorial shows they are proving to be hindrance in infrastructure development.

It is appalling that we have more 'places of worship' than 'places of learning'. I am not saying that one does not learns anything in places of worship. In fact if we follow teachings of our respective religions in proper manner this bird named 'Utopia' would be found on earth. But what we have done is that some people planning to grab lands and other properties, public or private, are able to do so defying law in name of religion. We have 60,000 such illegal structures in New Delhi alone. Some of these obstruct construction of roads. You must have noticed worship places in middle of road. The demands of economy say that we must develop our infrastructure quickly if we want to be one of the developed nations in the world. These obstacles slow the pace of development and in the process increase the cost of project. I know religious sentiments must not be hurt for blind development but no one demolishes these structures. They are relocated. It is up to you to view it as demolition or relocation.

Let us put our country first. Don't be a drag in our nation's progress.

The Benefit of Hindsight

May be 'it' is human nature and therefore pervades this globe but I am sure that 'it' is present in large parts of India. This 'it' is the tendency of Indians to pass judgements with the benefit of hindsight. You may do well to remember how people were hell bent upon castigating M S Dhoni over his decision to promote Ravindra Jadeja. Now we all are admiring M S Dhoni for his captaincy in finals of Compaq cup. Virtually every bowling change he made worked (even listless R P Singh got Jayasuriya to cut one straight to Virat Kohli). Not just in cricket but look at any other walk of life. People were critical of the UPA before the elections, criticizing their failures to get partners in UP and Bihar. Rahul Gandhi was said to be too involved in Amethi and not venturing out in other areas of Uttar Pradesh. Now he is being credited with wooing voters from all sections of society. It may well be the case that Rahal was active in other areas or that the candidates won it on their own but no; we will pass our judgement because we have the benefit of hindsight.

Before the elections Advani, Modi and even Varun Gandhi were charismatic. Now, even the BJP holds them responsible for this debacle. The Indian government was a butt of ridicule for going slow on deregulation. Now we see all the virtues in this policy after India escaped the global financial crisis to a large extent. More recently a national newspaper carried an article on 'shifting political wind' in Gujarat. Now that the BJP has done very well in just conclude bypolls I want to look at their analysis.

Hindsight offers us more information to analyze situations but we should be magnanimous enough to acknowledge our shortcomings while passing judgements.

Simplicity in Indian Politics

Recently, there was a furore when two ministers of the UPA government were asked to vacate their five star 'abode' (they stayed there > 3 months). The minsiters claimed they were living on their own expenses. They have their declared assets in crores and it is not beyond their reach to stay in five star hotels and of course they should have right to do what they want with their own money just like we have.

But there is some difference between us and them. We are not public figures. We are not accountable to public. We can be extravagant. We can spend our money on expensive parties. We can purchase expensive watches, cameras, laptops, cars, clothings etc. We are not bound by any accountability to public or have to be a role model for public. We pay entertainment tax and that ends our responsibility towards nation. Although Gandhiji would have expected us to be austere in all walks of life when 40% of our population lives hand to mouth, who cares for his thoughts now. Not even government.

So much for self evaluation. These two are public figures who could have shown example to others by spending this money in a better cause. They can learn something from their party icon. However, to buy their argument of expenditure of self earned money we should be given access to their bills. Is it not highly likely that hotels who earn a lot by hosting foreign dignitaries will subsidise stay of External Affairs ministers?

"Chandrayaan-1 is dead, long live Chandrayaan"

The ISRO has formally announced 'loss' of India's maiden and ambitious Lunar Mission Chandrayaan-1. However, all is not gloomy about this. Considering many firsts it achieved by its launch itself and the probe which landed India's flag on moon, we should be proud of what it achieved. Add to it the fact that it was completed without any overrun of cost or time which is achievement in itself considering India's past record. May be we were over-ambitious with this project but then this is something which I am saying with benefit of hindsight. Only when final scientific report is out can we be sure of the causes. The ISRO team has done great job in this mission and expectations are high for the next mission in Chandrayaan-2. Lets hope that it turns out to be complete success. Amen.

Jinnah and the Pseudo Secularists

Last few days we have seen a huge interest in media about Jinnah. This interest has been triggered because of the contents of a book written by Jaswant Singh, who used to be a prominent leader of the BJP which is seen as the right wing party of India.

I am surprised at two things: first, why did Jaswant Singh is so eloquent in praise of Jinnah. I am not talking of his book because I have not read it but of his interviews. Second, why some sections of media are hell bent upon showing Jinnah as a moderate Muslim who was secular and would have never approved of the atrocities meted out to minorities in Pakistan.

Of many ghettos surrounding the Muslim community in India one is that they admire Jinnah or for that matter Pervez Musharraf. Do you remember that Bus during 2004 elections with painting of Vajpayee and Musharraf on it? That was also the time when we had uproar over Advani's remark on Jinnah. This was ostensibly done to win good will of Indian Muslims for the BJP. What happened in that election is history now. My personal experience (because I had interactions with a lot of Muslims in my school days and with some in college days) is that there is no admiration for Jinnah in majority of Muslims. But people like Jaswant Singh think otherwise. And for the second thing I will say so called 'liberals' or more appropriately the 'pseudo secularists' of India think that they are being progressive by showing Jinnah in 'true' light. I want to know if Jinnah did only one thing wrong in instigating partition riots and so is a secularist because of of what he did rest of his life why do this same section castigates Narendra Modi? Mr. Modi has done nothing wrong other than not controlling Gujarat riots. Is he a secularist?

The Great Indian Hype about Swine Flu

I wanted to write about this for quite sometime but found ignition in this article of Soutik Biswas. He talks about the attention swine flu is receiving these days in the Indian media. It is very scary to watch or read media reports about this 'epidemic'. Soutik Biswas also mentions the case of 1145 people infected of Japanese Encephalitis in Uttar Pradesh of which about 300 succumbed to this dreaded disease. Do you remember the attention given to this disease? No because as Soutik puts it "Apart from its name, there was nothing remotely global about this outbreak".

In a way it is good that media is making people aware of this disease but it is more terrifying rather than informative. An image in the same article shows masked girls sweating out in a gym. This is ludicrous if you ask any physio about it. One should be careful but not be intimidated by this disease. And why is it that media never gives same attention to other diseases which claim a lot more lives every year. Malaria, typhoid, tuberculosis require much more attention than swine flu. Are we in an age where even ailments are glamorized?

IIT Bombay : Choice or Craze

I recently read an article on the choices of this year's JEE qualified candidates. And the break-up of top 100 was startling. 69 of top 100 rankers have opted for IIT Bombay. This is a highly skewed distribution of top 100, considering the fact that there are at least 4 other IITs which are comparable to IIT Bombay. I thought of some plausible explanation for this phenomenon.

One factor is the number of selections from Kota. One of my friends told me that the coaching classes there paint a rosy picture of IITB and IITD at the expense of IITK and IITKGP. This time however, even Delhi has witnessed decline. May be that has something to do with placement performance of IITD in last two years.

Other factor of course is location. Candidates prefer cities like Mumbai and New Delhi to Kanpur. IITM takes a beating here because it is in South India. Most of selections from South India are from Andhra and students from that state are in considerable number even in IITK, so I suppose the number would be even more in IITB.

The third factor is the placement record. Clearly the placements are best in IITB.

That is what I could think of right now as reasons for this skewed distribution. However, JEE chairman of IITB offered the reason to be introduction of "minors". Minors were already in existence in Kgp and IITM and still Kgp could not get a single student in top 100. In my opinion this trend is very bad for other IITs. Each IIT has its own fort. Like CS department of IITK is best and same is the perception about Chemical of IITB. Civil is best in Roorkee. So anyone must consider his interest before deciding on any IIT and not the craze which these coaching wallahs create without having any experience of either industry or research.

P.S. : These are my own views expressed on the basis of perception and information from some of my fellow students. If you feel these are not correct feel free to drop a comment.

No cricket on this blog now

The cricket related posts have been moved here.

Twenty20 World Cup final

So, it is Pakistan vs Sri Lanka in the finals of the Twenty20 World Cup. I never thought Sri Lanka will make it to the final perhaps influenced by poor performance of Mendis in the IPL and under estimat8ng Dilshan's performance in the same tournament. Due to really poor display by India, Australia and New Zealand my predictions for this cup have gone awry. However, not many would have predicted Pakistan in finals and I chose them as my favorites in the tournament. So, all is not lost in my predictions and that gives me inclination to predict in future tornaments.

Coming to the final. If there is any player who can nullify the threat posed by Murali & Mendis, it is Younis Khan. Along with Misbah he can score runs at a decent pace against these two. However, Pakistan's best chance rests with dismissing Dilshan cheaply. He has been mainstay of Lankan batting. The Lankans rely heavily on him, Sanath, Sanga and Jayawerdene in their batting. It will be an interesting final as we witness yet another South Asian title clash. Congrats to Pakistan for making it to both the finals.

IPL and EPL

So the dreaded thing has happened. With all the hype and glitterati of the IPL, very few of us would have thought India will not reach semi finals. But then the only test playing nation Indians have defeated is Bangladesh. Yes, they are still better than 2007  World Cup squad. But they lost to West Indies (without a significant contribution from Gayle) and England. England is the same team which was branded "chokers", a group of snobbish players and a team lacking talent after their loss against Netherland. Now the same team whose players play insipid county cricket "bounced" us out of the tournament as the Cricinfo reports. At the beginning of this tournament i had no hopes from England but they have left Indian team in hopeless situation.

With all the glitz and glamour of the IPL Mr. Modi and co. wanted us to realise what good the IPL has done to India. May be the IPL has made life easier for an ordinary domestic cricketer but scheduling it so close to an ICC event was bound to leave players jaded. Remember all these Indian players were subjected to intense pressure in their respective teams for about 40 days. A bit of pressure is good but to have 14 twenty20 games within a span of 40 days is just too much. I never thought anyone in India will celebrate dismissal of Tendulkar by Warne. But commercialism did that too. Team bonding? What is that man? Now they want 2 IPLs a year and add to it the Champions League. Where is the time for test cricket or for that matter any form of international cricket?

India is fast turning into England of World Soccer. All hype and no value.

Future of Symonds

So Mr. Symonds has done it again. Just when everyone was debating his omission from Ashes squad, he made it clear what could have been on Aussie selectors' mind. After a sterling performance in the recently concluded IPL, both with the bat and the ball, his fans were expecting similar exploits in Twenty20 world cup. Today Cricinfo reports that Symonds' retirement seems imminent. It would be a huge loss for International Cricket if this happens. I am not a fan of Symonds in longest version of the game but for limited versions he is right there at the top. Australia will surely miss his services as an all-rounder. With Symonds gone Aussies only have two Davids (Warner and Hussey) as destructive hard-hitters. However, Australians give utmost importance to discipline and the way they played after loss of Warne in 2003 World Cup is enough proof to believe they will be a dangerous opposition to contend with.

Hometown Baghdad

Courtesy: chat the planet. Ausama, Saif and Adel (from L to R)

Few weeks ago I watched “Hometown Baghdad” on the NGC. It was a very moving documentary about the plight of modern higher middle class youth from Baghdad. The three protagonists are Saif, Ausama and Adel. They are easy going hedonistic people who are clearly battered emotionally by the strife and anarchy prevailing in their country at the moment.

The documentary starts with gory details of missile attack on college campus. The first part is sarcastically named “Brains on Campus” because a student’s brain is buried on the campus. Adel says how dangerous it is for the students to go to schools or colleges. The threat of attack by either US forces or Iraqi militants looms large. Still exams remain a tension, perhaps a welcome headache. Ausama plans to do higher study perhaps a doctorate from abroad and then come back to Iraq after the nation stabilizes. Saif is a dentist who again plans to leave Iraq but is crippled by Iraqi government’s policy of compulsory 3 years practice in Iraq before giving certificates. Adel too, has similar plans.

Power cut is very common in Baghdad. People live on generators. But if you think it is easy in an oil rich country like Iraq, you cannot be far from reality. Actually, they wait fro 9-10 hours in queue before they get any fuel for their cars. The only silver lining is that drivers befriend each other in this long arduous wait.

Songs of pain reflects the mental state of our protagonists. They use heavy metal to give vent to their feelings about the atmosphere surrounding them that of death, destruction, darkness and despair. The webisode on Symphony of bullets shows the dark humor. Adel listens to this exchange of fire and choppers hovering while reclining in his home as if he is listening to a melodious song. Ausama is a step ahead and he can identify Iraqi or the US bullets. He can identify a sniper’s bullet or the omnipresent AK bullets. Whenever there is gun battle they have nothing to do except remain at home.

Everyday life is pretty dull, depressing and intimidating. Adel and his friends go to an abandoned swimming pool in a resort whose owner has left Baghdad. These are some of the last places of entertainment left for the residents of Baghdad. Younger brothers of Adel are so much affected by the sanguinary scenes on street that their favorite game is playing with the toy gun pretending as snipers on street. Ausama’s mother is very worried about his safety. This is the situation in whole of Iraq. Death can come any moment and from any direction. The barbwires in every house point to the gravity of situation. Saif satirically comments that soon people of Baghdad will have tanks on their gates to protect themselves.

Hatred for the US forces pervades whole of Baghdad. Ausama shows his grandmother’s home that has been targeted by the US forces suspecting it as terrorist hideout. The scars of war are visible in that home. The glass panes ridden with bullet holes, desecrated paintings, broken locks and disappearance of family valuables indicate the amount of destruction done. Ausama’s uncle had been shot dead by the US forces. The frustration and anger due to this incident still rankles them. One of the ways used to release this anger is by graffiti which Adel demonstrates. They are particularly incensed with American forces calling themselves liberators.

Pessimism can be felt throughout the documentary. They advise their friends abroad not to come back to Iraq. They want to leave Iraq as soon as possible. Saif has no certificates proving his education in dentistry but still he wants to get away from din of Baghdad. His feelings become clear when he says forcefully, “I want to live”. Shia-Sunni conflict is very saddening for Adel and he does not want to talk about it. He is pretty aghast with professional killers abounding in Iraq.

The opinion about troops is divergent in Saif, Adel and Ausama. While Adel believes American troops maintain law and order and keep them safe from Shia militants (Adel is a Sunni but calls himself secular as do the other protagonists), Ausama is more critical of excesses of troops when they go about arresting people opposing American presence. Saif is sort of neutral about the presence of troops but will prefer Americans leaving Iraq. In the end Adel, the free-spirited guy endorses Jim Hendrix when he says, "I cannot choose my death but I can choose the way I live".

This documentary is an eye-opener for anyone not from places like Kashmir, Palestine, Iraq, Chechenya and others. However, it features only educated higher middle class youths fed on Western music. It would have been great if someone from lower strata of the society would have been included in the documentary. One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter and this makes war against terror difficult. Perhaps Ausama’s uncle was killed due to paranoia in the US troops due to suicide bombers but for his family this is an irreparable damage.

World peace is a coward’s dream but sometimes dreams of cowards are preferable to braveheart’s.

P.S. The webisodes can be found at Chat the Planet.

IPL2 Final and memories of 1992

Recent victory of Deccan Chargers in IPL2 brought memories of 1992 World Cup final. The similarities are many. Chargers were fourth team in the semi-finalists of IPL2. So were Pakistan. Deccan were put in driver's seat by two in two of Symonds while Wasim did this trick for Pakistan. With me the analogy does not ends here. Pakistan managed to sneak into semi-finals by an improbable victory against New Zealand through exploits of young Inzy and got a favorable decision in their favor by victory of Australia over West Indies. Similarly, Deccan achieved an incredible victory over Knight Riders through genius of young blood Rohit Sharma and nervousness of Mortaza. They were also helped in their cause by Punjab failing to chase even at less than run-a-ball. These knock-out stages can shatter the rosy dreams of the best team in tournament. This is what happened to New Zealand in 1992 and now Delhi Daredevils must be more than just 'disappointed'. 

Once one of my teachers said "Life is not fair". Very true, indeed  

ICC World Twenty20 favorites

I am bored with the IPL though not with Twenty20 and hence waiting for World Cup of which India is the first winner. However, this time it is going to be very difficult for India to retain the trophy. I have not read any preview about this tournament thanks to the IPL tamasha. So, I take risk and go public with my favorites in this tournament.

1. Pakistan Surprised! Yes Pakistanis are good at surprising their fans and critics alike. However I rate them as my favorites after watching them play in UAE against Aussies. They have wonderful attack in Akhtar, Gul, Tanvir, Ajmal and Afridi. Shoaib Malik gives them extra options. Afridi is in form of his life as far as bowling is concerned while Tanvir is very good in T20 and Gul was superb against Oz. In batting they have unlikely hero in Akmal who is is in sublime form while Misbah remains the danger man for oppositions. Salman Butt and Shoaib Malik provide impetus while Younis Khan provides stability. My only concern is that Younis doesn't get very slow in starting as he does in ODIs. In this format there is very little time to settle.

2. South Africa This is an all star squad but i keep them on number two due to their 'choking' abilities. Smithy, Gibbsy, AB, JP, Albie Morkel and Boucher form backbone of a very strong batting line-up. While Steyn, Botha, Abdulla, Morne form a strong bowling unit with options in Peterson, Kallis and van der Merwe.

3. India They too have a bunch of seven dangerous hard-hitters in Gambhir, Sehwag, Raina, Yuvi, Dhoni, Pathan and Jadeja. However, their bowling attack looks thin on paper. Zaheer doesn't seem to bowl as well in T20 as he does in other forms. Ishant and Praveen look clueless when under attack. RP Singh though looks good and with his experience of English conditions could prove to be India's trump card. Both Harbhajan and Ojha look good. Their biggest concern will be form of Viru and Gauti.

4. Australia Two years back every tournament had this team as favorite. Not now. Though they have lost sting of Haydos and Gilly, they still have in their ranks Symonds, Hussey brothers, Warner and Watson who can score runs pretty quickly. Along with Punter, Clarke and Haddin they form a pretty strong batting line-up. However, their bowling attack looks weak at least to me. I am not sure Johnson, Hilfenhaus, Siddle and Hauritz will bowl as well as they did in other formats recently.

5. New Zealand They don't have menacing stars except for perhaps McCullum but the way they combine as a team they can scare low rung teams and can on their day upset 'big four'. Ryder, McCullum and Taylor can provide the fireworks so much needed in this format while Mills and Oram along with miserly bespectacled skipper Vettori can stem the flow of runs against any team. Others though look ordinary.

6. West Indies Gayle, Sarwan, Shiv, Ramdin and Bravo can get runs for them and at quick pace but the rest will struggle in English conditions. Similarly bowling relies too much on Fiddy and Taylor. With Taylor not looking in best of forms it is going to be tough days ahead for them in this tournament.

7. Sri Lanka Their bowling remains their strength with Malinga, Murli, Tushara and Maharoof along with Mendis (if he plays). However, their batting looks iffy with only Sangakkara and Dilshan looking threatening although Jayasuriya and Jayawardhane can also do some serious damage. The last two have not been consistent and the injury lay-off of Jayawerdene is not going to help.

Others in contention are England and Bangladesh. To be honest I have more hopes from Bangladesh.

STOP RAGGING

This post of mine is out of sync with few earlier posts. No IPL, no elections. This is about something which I have witnessed. Ragging or interaction (one of the euphemisms used for it) is a grave problem plaguing our educational institutions. We have lost so many bright young minds to some sadist and diabolical manifestations of inner frustrations of other equally bright young minds.
One thing which is very clear is that ragging cannot occur without some support or negligence on part of college authorities towards raggers. I take example of IIT Kanpur. Here authorities are so strict on any physical abuse during ragging that no senior dares to even touch a junior while ragging. So if the college administration becomes strict the problem could be solved very easily. We have some colleges where ragging goes on for whole year. Also, medical colleges somehow have more ragging incidents reported than any other professional stream. The Supreme Court guidelines are very strict and hopefully they are implemented as well by the authorities. We should have a zero tolerance policy towards ragging. The punishment should be very harsh and quickly delivered. This will act as deterrent for future raggers.
Apart from this some steps should be taken at the student level. A verbal abuse may be innocuos to some person but for some other person it can be devastating. Most probably this will not qualify as ragging in law books. So emotional support from seniors and hostel inmates is very necessary. And as far as IIT Kanpur is concerned I have seen only a small number of seniors are indulged in verbal harassment of juniors. There are better ways for initiationof freshers like here at IIT Kanpur we have a Student Guide assigned to a group of freshers who are treated as 'buddies'.
Those who profess that ragging is a way to initiate fresher into college life and leads to strong bonds with juniors forget the fact that there are better ways to do the same things without spoiling someone's life or career. In my 4 years of stay I have seenmost of the seniors have been very helpful whenever a junior asks for some help even though they had no acquaintence. There are much better educational institutions in west where we do not have any ragging incidents. So why not the same thing can be done in India? Stop Ragging as soon as possible. No more Amans now.

The IPL predictions

Cricinfo recently carried the preview of IPL teams. So, now i have a fair idea of who are the players to watch out for in this edition. They pick Superkings, Indians, daredevils and royals for the top 4. However, any prediction at this moment is fraught with dangers. At least history suggests so. If someone had told you that Kings XI will make it to semi-final without Yuvraj performing well you would have not paid heed but that is what happened. We were all surprised by the performances of Shaun Marsh, Sreeshanth, VRV and Piyush Chawla. I think i will make prediction only after each team plays at least 3-4 matches. Any prediction should take into account that this edition is on South African pitches and the best way to do that is to watch the initial matches.

However, I hope no one gets injured this time in the IPL to miss national duty like it happened last year to Haydos, Sreeshanth, Tendulkar and others.

Joy for Afghanistan in cricket

The Afghans have done it. They have beaten favorites Ireland in World Cup Qualifiers after barely managing to get into Super-8. This victory just goes on to show how good this team is. Ireland did well in last World Cup beating Pakistan and Bangladesh who are test playing nations. The Afghans are new entrants to cricket. Most of the players started playing in refugee camps in Pakistan and it seems they have picked some mental strength from Pakistanis.
It still remains very difficult for Afghans to qualify for the world cup considering that their victories in qualifying phase were against Bermuda and Denmark who are already out of tournament so Afghans do not carry any points from previous stage. But at least they have given themselves a chance. Don't forget Aussies won in 1999 without carrying any points from previous round in super six.

Manmohan-Advani spat

Mr. Advani is at it again. I have lost count of how many times he has spoken of "weakness" of Dr. Singh. I don't know what he is trying to put across. We all know Sonia Gandhi made him PM when amidst drama of Sushma Swaraj she laid aside her candidature because of this "foreign origin" thing.
Now 5 years on Mr. Advani and his associates keep on reiterating the same accusation that he is "weak", "puppet" and so on. Can Mr. Advani criticise him on his work? I remember the opposition of the BJP to nuclear deal. Mr. SIngh then braved the threats of left parties and went on with the deal. Mr. Advani should explain us what is wrong in the deal or how NREGA is a failure or reservations in educational institutions should not have been done. There are many decisions which can be attributed to this government solely but instead of being crystal clear in his criticism he talks in air.
We all have seen how "strong" home minister he was. It remains to be seen how "strong" PM he will be(possibly).

Pakistan does it again

So, the pakistanis have found an Indian spy. Some news reports quote a Pakistan cop claiming India's hand behind the Lahore attack on Sri Lankan cricketers. Now Sri Lankan tour was decided only short time before (esp. the venues) and even then Indian intelligence agencies were able to carry out such a well planned attack that 'brave' Pakistani policemen were not able to kill or injure even one of the attackers. Not just this but attackers even jogged their way out. If this is true, clearly RAW is better than Mossad or CIA. Can anyone with a little sensibility believe that RAW is better than CIA?

Everytime Pakistan blames India it helps the real culprits (hardliners) to grow in strength and increases the hatred for India in Pakistani people. This is not to blame Pakistani people. Had i been born in Pakistan and raised with this kind of history, i would have held this belief of India as the enemy state. They have not spared even the greatest of all, Akbar. 

India and Pakistan can have cordial relations only when this propaganda and indoctrination ends.

Elections are good

So the 'shoe' hit bull's eye though it missed the Home Minister. Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar have been dropped as election candidates in Lok Sabha elections this time. These two had won with thumping majority in last election and were 'winnable' candidate this time but exoneration by CBI came at a 'wrong' time not only for Mr. Tytler but also Mr. Kumar. I am saying 'wrong' because Sajjan Kumar has been acquitted long ago without any reasonable hue and cry to be heard by our media. But this time due to elections round the corner and also Congress government in power, Akalis got a pleasant surprise. It may have been political expediency on part of Akalis but it should be welcomed. Though i cannot point finger at these two as they have been acquitted from court but there is something 'fishy' about them as large number of people are against them, most of whom are riot victims.

This is the power of vote because Congress can't afford to bear the brunt of Sikh anger in Punjab poll. Well, what would happen to Mr. Modi or Mr. Advani if Muslims start voting for the BJP?

Political drama contd.

Mayawati(40)
So the next PM-in-waiting is Mayawati, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. Right now her chance looks slim but keeping in mind the kind of PMs we got in past, she cannot be written off. Her best chance though seems to be on both sides, I believe it would be very difficult for her to ally with the BJP. Best condition for her would be that UPA falls short of majority by about 60 seats and then she along with left parties can bargain to be the next PM.

Sharad Pawar(10-15)
Surprising that even Sharad Pawar can be a contestent for PM's post with such limited reach. His chance is again much like Mayawati's. UPA should fall by about 50-60 seats and then he can be a compromise PM, provided left parties are willing. His candidature would be taken by the UPA with lesser pinch of salt than of Mayawati.

There are many others who have not come out openly with their candidature but with their past track record we can expect them to be having buried desire of being PM. I discussed this with my friend Saucy and may be we could have any one of them next time.

Political drama

So how many PM-in-waiting are we going to have this time? The pre poll alliances of two major national parties are in disarray. Congress has lost PMK. BJP has lost BJD. And third seems to be congregation of every possible front in India.

Lets look at prospects of our PM-in-waiting.

Manmohan Singh (235) It is very clear Congress will not be able to cross 200 seats in this election. Well, if they cross 150 it would be their best performance since 1991. It all boils down to its allies. They have several of them but stronger of them are in post poll scenario. RJD, LJP and SP are going to bag about 50 seats but they are not in pre poll alliance with Congress. In fact they have made a mockery of Congress during seat sharing talks. Now they are left with the DMK,NCP,TC,JMM etc. who even if they are on their best can't get over 35 seats. Now there lies the catch. Will Congress go to Left parties? Even if they go they will end up losing Trinamool Congress as next year we have assembly elections in West Bengal. 

Lal Krishna Advani(235) Greater troubles plague L K Advani who is not just having problems with allies but infighting (due to Shekhawat, Jaitley and others) assuming alarming height. They dont seem to be getting more than 150 seats either. Their allies SAD, Shiv Sena, JD(U) (at the time of writing they are still with the BJP), INLD, RLD,AGP can be expected to bag 35 seats. However their richer catch lies in post poll scenario. Though it seems unlikely at this point, they can bag TDP, AIADMK, PMK who could be fairly assumed to bag 50 seats. This makes the number to be 235. Now to make up the numbers they need to fall back on BJD and... yes you guessed it right BSP. And then we have our next PM-in-waiting. More about this in  next post.