NEW YEAR!
TSJ wishes you a Happy and Prosperous New Year
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Tista SenguptaWHOSE INDIA IS IT ANYWAY?
Yes Telangana, no Telangana! See the power to create confusion by interchanging yes and no, like the placing of the comma in the classic sentence, ‘Hang him not spare him’. On the slender thread of a comma hangs the life of a convict. Placed after him, the hapless man dies; but after not, the man is set free. Perhaps an anecdote of two squabbling women on a railway compartment explains the situation better. One of them wanted the window to be shut because she said she would die of cold otherwise. The other woman said she would die of suffocation if the window is shut. Up came the peacemaker among the fellow passengers, who suggested to keep the window open for five minutes so that one of the contenders would die and then keep it shut for five minutes so that the other would follow suit. Deny statehood, and Telangana would burn; grant statehood, and the rest of Andhra would burn.
Ours is a democracy where decisions are taken on the street; you hijack a city, and all your political demands are met. Where will you find such a democracy in the whole world; and the marvel is that it works and all the anarchy it generates finally brings some semblance of order and merit. So we have discovered an economic wizard, Sardar Manmohan Singh, mummy Sonia Gandhi, and for a change a home minister who speaks sense, and a trouble-shooter Pranab Mukherjee, who knows what India needs. The marvel that is Mayawati can cut the trunk of the tree she is standing on into three pieces if not four, as she has been demanding the truncation of her own state.
In the final analysis, the root of India’s problems are two: its underemployed politicians, and unemployed youth. It’s heartbreaking but true that agitations employ our unemployed youth – which is happening in Kashmir and the North-East – and give meaning to our politicians’ existence. Imagine a Raj Thackeray without vandalism or agitation. Our politicians are now entering into a state of competitive madness to divide India into as many districts as the country has. Remember, we were once a conglomerate of 500-and odd princely states before the British came and ruled over us. We shall soon be back to square one. Who cares? Whose India is it anyway!
Ours is a democracy where decisions are taken on the street; you hijack a city, and all your political demands are met. Where will you find such a democracy in the whole world; and the marvel is that it works and all the anarchy it generates finally brings some semblance of order and merit. So we have discovered an economic wizard, Sardar Manmohan Singh, mummy Sonia Gandhi, and for a change a home minister who speaks sense, and a trouble-shooter Pranab Mukherjee, who knows what India needs. The marvel that is Mayawati can cut the trunk of the tree she is standing on into three pieces if not four, as she has been demanding the truncation of her own state.
In the final analysis, the root of India’s problems are two: its underemployed politicians, and unemployed youth. It’s heartbreaking but true that agitations employ our unemployed youth – which is happening in Kashmir and the North-East – and give meaning to our politicians’ existence. Imagine a Raj Thackeray without vandalism or agitation. Our politicians are now entering into a state of competitive madness to divide India into as many districts as the country has. Remember, we were once a conglomerate of 500-and odd princely states before the British came and ruled over us. We shall soon be back to square one. Who cares? Whose India is it anyway!
Thursday, December 10, 2009
PAYAL GWALANILOVE, SEX AND TIGER
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But the tiger has dates to keep
And miles to go before he sleeps
And miles to go before he sleeps
When a person is (nick)named Tiger Woods, the chances are that he acts like a tiger in the woods. And when a person achieves success and fame right early, disaster awaits him in the shadows. Boris Becker whom the sports buffs adored at 18 crashed and tumbled into a mess of his own making, domestic and financial. Child prodigy Kevin McAllister of Home Alone fame started the slide with his first divorce at 20, with many more in the making. With the whole world doting on you, and with dollars to flaunt and morals to break, the illusion of immortality traps you.
This unprecedented career began in the summer of 1996. He has won 93 tournaments, 71 of those on the PGA Tour. Tiger became the first ever to hold all four professional major championships at the same time. He is the career player leader and the career money leader. In winning the US Open Championship, Woods became the youngest to complete the career Grand Slam and the fifth to do so, after Hogan, Gene Sarazen, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus.
The U.S. Open and Masters victories came by record margins – 15 strokes and 12 strokes respectively – and the U.S. Open triumph swept aside the 13-stroke major championship standard which had stood for 138 years, established by Old Tom Morris in the 1862 Open Championship.
Jaimee Grubbs, the cocktail waitress who is now well known because of her affair with Woods for three years, describes her first encounter: he just grabbed me, kissed me and what followed is material for a blue movie. Rachel Uchitel, another woman said to be involved with Woods, has gone to the extent of denying the affair, perhaps not knowing what is done cannot be undone by denials.
Now the pertinent question is how should Elin Nordegren, Tiger's wife and mother of their 2-year-old daughter Sam and 9-month-old son Charlie, take it. Do a Hillary Rodham Clinton? That perhaps is the strength of a woman and the crowning glory of a dignified married woman.
Forgive the Tiger but learn from him the laws of success – his focus, his passion, his drive, his indefatigable energy and his devotion to the game.
But the tiger has dates to keep
And miles to go before he sleeps
And miles to go before he sleeps
When a person is (nick)named Tiger Woods, the chances are that he acts like a tiger in the woods. And when a person achieves success and fame right early, disaster awaits him in the shadows. Boris Becker whom the sports buffs adored at 18 crashed and tumbled into a mess of his own making, domestic and financial. Child prodigy Kevin McAllister of Home Alone fame started the slide with his first divorce at 20, with many more in the making. With the whole world doting on you, and with dollars to flaunt and morals to break, the illusion of immortality traps you.
This unprecedented career began in the summer of 1996. He has won 93 tournaments, 71 of those on the PGA Tour. Tiger became the first ever to hold all four professional major championships at the same time. He is the career player leader and the career money leader. In winning the US Open Championship, Woods became the youngest to complete the career Grand Slam and the fifth to do so, after Hogan, Gene Sarazen, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus.
The U.S. Open and Masters victories came by record margins – 15 strokes and 12 strokes respectively – and the U.S. Open triumph swept aside the 13-stroke major championship standard which had stood for 138 years, established by Old Tom Morris in the 1862 Open Championship.
Jaimee Grubbs, the cocktail waitress who is now well known because of her affair with Woods for three years, describes her first encounter: he just grabbed me, kissed me and what followed is material for a blue movie. Rachel Uchitel, another woman said to be involved with Woods, has gone to the extent of denying the affair, perhaps not knowing what is done cannot be undone by denials.
Now the pertinent question is how should Elin Nordegren, Tiger's wife and mother of their 2-year-old daughter Sam and 9-month-old son Charlie, take it. Do a Hillary Rodham Clinton? That perhaps is the strength of a woman and the crowning glory of a dignified married woman.
Forgive the Tiger but learn from him the laws of success – his focus, his passion, his drive, his indefatigable energy and his devotion to the game.
Ragini Shankar Sinha JUSTICE SHOWCASED
Kudos to Justice Liberhan for his perfect timing. Remember 17 years and Rs 8 crore is the price of the blunder that we call Indian democracy. Had there been no demolition of a place of worship, there would have been no Liberhan Commission and no squandering of our precious national resources. Competitive madness compels our political parties to acts of vandalism, like burning of trains, demonizing and attacking our own people, and desecrating sacred places. In sheer short-sightedness, everyone blamed Justice Liberhan, and no one blamed the perpetrators of communal politics.
Just imagine, Justice Liberhan submitting the report in six months after the demolition. Then in a mood of defiance, there would have been half-a-dozen more demolitions. Had Liberhan submitted the report while the NDA was in power, are you knave enough to believe that Prime Minister Vajpayee would have put L K Advani and Uma Bharati behind the bars? The rickety Manmohan Singh government in its first avatar would have collapsed had the justice been indiscreet. Instead, he showed maturity in presenting the report when the political climate is ripe and the issue almost forgotten so that the nation can have an impassioned debate. This truly is the gift of Liberhan.
Secularism got a bad name and was projected as a western concept. Secularism is a home-grown concept like yoga, which the west adopted. Back in the pages of history, we meet a marauder from Tajikistan, who along with his gang came to plunder India but stayed on to become the emperor and patriarch of a dynasty. His name was Babur, and he was surprised to see empires collapsing before his tribal gang and hence stayed on to rule the land. Babur was no ambassador of Islam and his deeds (excesses) should not be taken as the benchmark of good governance, especially because he lived in medieval times.
The interesting lesson to learn from the mogul times is what emperor Akbar himself learnt. Akbar began his rule not as an enlightened ruler which he later became but somewhat like Aurangzeb. But not long afterwards, the emperor realized that to rule the country, you have to first rule the hearts of the people – which is the secret of secularism. Nevertheless, implemented by people who do not understand the spirit of it, secularism becomes a demon.
And it is time to leave behind the ghost of Babur and enter the 21st century. We can do so only if we dump the anachronistic politicians into the dustbin of history.
Just imagine, Justice Liberhan submitting the report in six months after the demolition. Then in a mood of defiance, there would have been half-a-dozen more demolitions. Had Liberhan submitted the report while the NDA was in power, are you knave enough to believe that Prime Minister Vajpayee would have put L K Advani and Uma Bharati behind the bars? The rickety Manmohan Singh government in its first avatar would have collapsed had the justice been indiscreet. Instead, he showed maturity in presenting the report when the political climate is ripe and the issue almost forgotten so that the nation can have an impassioned debate. This truly is the gift of Liberhan.
Secularism got a bad name and was projected as a western concept. Secularism is a home-grown concept like yoga, which the west adopted. Back in the pages of history, we meet a marauder from Tajikistan, who along with his gang came to plunder India but stayed on to become the emperor and patriarch of a dynasty. His name was Babur, and he was surprised to see empires collapsing before his tribal gang and hence stayed on to rule the land. Babur was no ambassador of Islam and his deeds (excesses) should not be taken as the benchmark of good governance, especially because he lived in medieval times.
The interesting lesson to learn from the mogul times is what emperor Akbar himself learnt. Akbar began his rule not as an enlightened ruler which he later became but somewhat like Aurangzeb. But not long afterwards, the emperor realized that to rule the country, you have to first rule the hearts of the people – which is the secret of secularism. Nevertheless, implemented by people who do not understand the spirit of it, secularism becomes a demon.
And it is time to leave behind the ghost of Babur and enter the 21st century. We can do so only if we dump the anachronistic politicians into the dustbin of history.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Karthik KrishnanSACHIN GENIUS OR BOGUS?
Sachin Tendulkar is a genius. But a recent survey by Harvard University concludes that it takes 10,000 hours of practice for anyone to become a Genius in their respective field.
Beethoven and Albert Einstein, most definitely. Sachin Tendulkar?.
Sachin Tendulkar, with 20 years of cricket behind him, has 149 Test matches and 435 ODIs. After some maths, Sachin has put in 4237 hours of actual matches. Given 4 hours of Practice before every match day, it gives him another 2336 hours of practice. With a little help from our beloved Calcy, the Master Blaster has practised cricket for - *trumpets* - 6573 hours.
Just read what Shane Warne said on Sachin Tendular:
You have to watch cricket in India to truly appreciate the pressure that Sachin Tendulkar is under every time he bats. They seem to want a wicket to fall even though it is their own side that will suffer. This is cricket as Sachin has known it since the age of 16.
If you believe Warne, you’ve got a Genius for India. If you go by Harvard, he is not a Genius. Go Fish.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
VIRAJ DESAI
virajd29@gmail.com
NOBEL FOR HOPE
What would you call a man who mesmerizes billions by his rhetoric? Call him Barack Obama, because there are very few on the world stage who could do that. The same Barack Obama has taken the world by surprise by winning the Nobel Peace Prize. The pertinent question is whether the Nobel Prize is given for performance or hope. Hope indeed is what he has raised; performance indeed is what he has to show. Nevertheless it is the right prize for the right man, perhaps a little premature. One sees the wisdom of the Nobel Committee only when one thinks of the imponderables. Should Obama’s fate follow that of Lincoln and Kennedy’s? To be sure there is no posthumous Nobel Prize.
The world, of course, is a different place than it was when Bush left the White House. The glimpses of recuperating American economy and extending the hand of friendship to Islamic world are certainly reasons for the cheer. But is it judicious that the Nobel that slipped Gandhi, the greatest personality of the 20th century, be awarded to Obama-just because no one is worthy of it is in sight?
The world, of course, is a different place than it was when Bush left the White House. The glimpses of recuperating American economy and extending the hand of friendship to Islamic world are certainly reasons for the cheer. But is it judicious that the Nobel that slipped Gandhi, the greatest personality of the 20th century, be awarded to Obama-just because no one is worthy of it is in sight?
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