Let the games begin!

Welcome to the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chepauk, ladies and gentlemen!
It's a new series, a new test, and a new round of engrossing duels between two good teams.

In what has been an appalling year and a half for the Indian cricket fan, right since August 2011, one hopes that the Indian team will turn the corner and come up trumps, against an Aussie side that is short on match experience in Indian conditions.

A tough test beckons the Aussies against an embattled Indian side, whose batsmen have been found wanting in the recent past.
The good thing for the Indians, though, is that the Aussie spin attack does not look anywhere near as formidable as the English one, which had Panesar and Swann.
The pace quartet of Pattinson, Starc, Henriques, and Siddle would still be a handful, even on Indian dustbowls.

I am glad that the Indians have made the right selections, with the long-due Gautam Gambhir being told to get back in form if intends to don national colors again.
Virender Sehwag must also have been sounded out, and one hopes it is not only his lenses which have been corrected this time, but also his attitude, which can be less cavalier, at least in the initial part of his innings.
India needs such outstanding talent to stay longer in the middle, and shine brighter instead of just glittering for a few moments before fading into oblivion and mediocrity.

Harbhajan Singh is another cricketer to watch out for, coming as he is on a second wind. There's much to look out for, as Chennai beckons us in the curtain raiser to a potentially exciting and well-contested series.

In the interest of Indian cricket, hopefully we are in for a good time...let the games begin!!

Happy(?) New(?) Year?

So it's a new year, I believe.
Yes, the calendars have changed.
Yes, the annual ritual of creating New Year resolutions and by now, breaking them, might also have been done away with.

However, aside from the difference in writing the dates (where the year column has changed from 12 to 13), is there anything else that is new or has really changed, especially for the better?

We were crying ourselves hoarse about the horrific gang rape of December 16 last year (which, by the way, was also not the first such incident). Probably, its brutality and the easy identification with the hapless victim that it could have been any of us or our very own mother/sister/spouse) is what set that apart from other such equally detestable and heinous crimes.

However, as I skimmed through the news over the last few days, I have rarely seen any day where such reports have abated.
Somewhere or the other, someone or the other, has been ravished and dishonored by some or the other pervert, insensitive lustful beast(s).

I have read about Hisar, Chandigarh, Mumbai, and what not - this, after December 16.
If some of us cannot control our testosterone levels even after such a hue and cry has been made, God save us!

Dear ladies of the Indian republic,
I am sorry.
I am sorry because simply  blaming others or the favorite punching bag - our system - is not going to  help.
I am sorry because I should be able to do a lot more apart from just bemoaning the sorry state of affairs, and getting on with my life.
I am sorry because perhaps it's the silence of the docile and genuine folks like me whenever a woman is harassed, which is meant to connote passive collusion or apathy for the perpetrators of such crimes.
I am sorry because I have learned to live with such incidents as a part of life.

But enough, is enough.
If this is to truly be a new year, the least I can and must do, is to ensure that I do all that is possible is in my hands to honor, respect and protect women.
I will not be a silent, impassive spectator whenever a woman is being harassed.
I will not look the other way when I find someone passing lewd comments against anyone.
I will not remain glued to my urgent/important tasks when someone's modesty could be in question.

That done, perhaps, shall make for a better (if not happier) New Year.
I'd like to wish all of you too, a similar, Happy New Year!

Bruised, Battered, Shattered..

Over the last few weeks, India has been gripped by two very disheartening and unpleasant events.
One has been on the cricket field (the recent debacles against England), the other has been on the streets of the National Capital.

I have lived in Noida and Delhi pretty much all my life, and I am ashamed to state that this is not the only incident. We have had gruesome, morbid, sickening reports of suchlike earlier too.
But perhaps what has got even the typically immune, impervious NCRite seething and agitated now, is the gross callousness and contempt with which such a case has been handled.
I believe there is only so much a cop can do - such as were we expecting, with the benefit of hindsight - that the cops should have been peeping into every moving bus?

Certainly not, if the screams of the unfortunate victim would have been scuffled by those hooligans, who were filled with nothing but lust all over themselves.
However, what was possible, was prompt action - what was possible was an exemplary punishment that wold forbid any such sick mind to think twice, thrice, heck even a zillion times before even having the gall to commit such a reprehensible act.

And this is where the problem lies - there have been far too many cases which have been found wanting for timely action, and where even if the culprits have been apprehended, they have begun to roam free again though bail, while the victims are maimed for life.
Another reason why people are fuming is because given the events of this case, many people believe that it could easily have been them.

9-9.30 is not an unearthly hour, not was the woman in any way in 'unsafe' territory, using public transport in the heart of the nation's capital. Which is why, the depravity of the act has hit even harder.

On the other hand, there is the small matter - I had written earlier about how India was as invincible as England and Australia have been in their dens (if not more). Well, 2004 has happened again.
Just as Australia took the series away in '04, we have had a walloping after Ahmedabad, and it's England now, who have turned the corner, and been deserving winners.
Well done, England!
However, I have hopes that the Indian fan will get more reason for cheer than doom in the coming years, as the team prepares itself for life without its Ram, Laxman, Bharat...I just hope this ushers in a new Ramayana, not a Mahabharata!!
Happy 2013 in advance!!

What A Wednesday!

Year: 2008.
Date: September 5 (Teacher's Day)
There came a movie, which truly taught me a lot about a gripping, thought-provoking story without being too preachy about terrorism.

Unfortunately, a few months later, there came along Ajmal Kasab, on November 26, unleashing terror on the streets of Mumbai, in one of the deadliest and most horrific terrorist attacks.

Year: 2012
Date: November 21
As luck would have it, Ajmal Kasab has been hanged to death, on yes, A Wednesday.

While there is never any joy in celebrating any individual's demise, this day is a day for some (mind you, only some) recompense for all those who have suffered through the hands of terrorism.
This is a day that shall help us believe that even if we were a few years late, justice was served, finally.

Let it be known that even if it is late, we can bring the perpetrators of such dastardly acts to book, through the oft-circumvented legal route too.

Most importantly, let it be known that India is not to be seen as a convenient, free-for-all place for any mischief-monger to wreck havoc on our soil.

Goodbye Ajmal Kasab, and Goodbye to all the Biryani jibes, and the Thankyou-Dengue-Mosquito jokes!