Freezing Thoughts

Hats off to the NSG, RAF and other commandos who were involved in flushing out the terrorists in Mumbai. Their services are not sought often, but then each time they gamble with their lives in performing their duty. Something most of us won’t even dream of doing. Thinking how an attack of this magnitude would have been possible, we have only ourselves to blame. Corruption, negligence of duty and lack of national feeling emerge as the three main reasons for these repeated terrorist attacks. Corruption and negligence of duty are very complex and deep rooted in the Indian administrative setup. It is impossible to remove them overnight. But this incident is an indicator as to how lethal their effects can be. Without blaming the system, if each one of us refrain ourselves from corruption and perform our duties well, the system will change automatically. It is easy to say “…let others start and then I will start...”. But then we must realize that we should do what is correct, and not what is...

(This happened to me during my 12th standard in Palghat. I wrote this story two days after the incident. Browsing through some old documents in the computer, stumbled into this. Just thought will share it here.) The bus was slowing down. Sitting in the last long seat, I had to hold the seat for stopping myself from falling in front. ‘Inertia of motion’, I thought. Though the last seat had this particular disadvantage, I usually prefer it. Sitting on it means a good view of both sides of the road. It was 6 AM, a beautiful April morning. Unlike the day to come, it was quite pleasant and breezy. It was summer vacation and yet I was on my way to tuition. I was entering twelfth standard and was to write the Engineering Entrance Examinations in one year, the vacation had little meaning to me. The bus stopped in front of a temple. It was a practice of most buses in this route to stop at all the temples that come their way during first trip of the day. The conductor wou...

A comfortable 6 wicket win at Cuttack has given a 5-0 scoreline in favor of India. They are evolving as a great unit and hope this helps the team to sustain the high standards for a long time. A lot has been (and is being) written and said on the Indian victory, why dont we focus on why England are losing ? The reason for their failure seems as simple as adding two plus two. Of the eleven players who are supposed to play, only 3 or 4 of them seem to be playing for a cause at a time. Only Pietersen , Shah and to an extent Flintoff seem to bat a bit. In bowling, again its just Broad and Flintoff who cause a little bit of trouble. The rest of them are just bowling as if they are at the nets. And is Matt Prior the best wicket keeper in England ? Surely there must be someone better playing for some county team. That someone will atleast know to appeal spontaneously, and not 5 seconds after the ball enters the gloves. If the poor quality of British cricket is disappointing, the advertisemen...

The Australian cricket team was a very professional outfit, which believed in just going out to the middle and performing ruthlessly and thrashing the opponents. They showcased themselves as a team that didnt believe in giving excuses. But last week has seen a dramatic turnaround in their behavior. Look what some of the players had to say: "The reason for our slow over rate was the problems with sight screens." - Matthew Hayden "I became bad after the Sydney drama, because I took to alcohol." - Andrew Symonds "I dint perform well because of food poisoning in India." - Brett Lee What are the others going to say about their bad show ?? Hope not these : "I got out to Harbhajan repeatedly because I had difficulty in differentiating between the ball and his turban. Its against the game's integrity. The ICC must do something about it." - Ricky Ponting "I know from history that India got independence from British, and how they ousted the fair s...

The Border-Gavaskar trophy is sitting pretty in the BCCI office after few years, and it is indeed a moment to cherish. The victory as such is important, and perhaps what is more important is the timing of it. Some legends are calling it quits, some are showing wear and tear of long years on the field, and the media is numbering their days. The team is clearly undergoing a transition. In such a situation it is heartening to find new entrants showing their mettle right away, seniors ready to take extra load of an out of form player and importantly, the emergence of a truly inspirational and influential leadership. Personally, I learnt a lot from some people of this Indian outfit. Will be happy to share it here and happier if someone reading this is also inspired. Licence to Kill : Gambir (Skill): Showed us how to hit-and-run a Kangaroo (I mean, the Watson collision incident !), but was punished suitably. It was good to show attitude to Watson, he deserved it. But a quick apology ...