Karthik's musings

Let Team India be

I guess the intensity of reactions after India's exit from the World Cup is quite easily predictable. However, I feel that we need not really create such a ruckus over what is finally just a sport. Okay, have passion for the game....even I do. I watched the complete match yesterday (okay, almost the complete match.....I slept after the 8th wicket fell!), and I do watch most of the matches, but then you still need to realize that itz just a sport.

And nobody is on a higher moral plane on this issue than Dravid. After all, he was the one who said when he was got as the guest editor of TOI on Feb-24 that "There are far more important things to be written about". He suggested that sports and entertainment need not be on Page 1 at all.

I also felt that Dravid handled the post-match press conference yesterday pretty well, in spite of the sensationalism-prone journos trying to irritate him.

Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking.
-Jackson Browne

Adieu Inzy

One of the best batsman coming from Pakistan who I have seen - and I have not seen Zaheer Abbas play - Inzy has played his last one-day innings.

Watch the farewell given to him yesterday.



There is nothing so unequal as the equal treatment of unequals.
-Ken Blanchard

Obituary: Iqbal Saab

Iqbal Saab - a very active person in various online music communities - died this morning of an heart attack. Since the time I have heard the news through the SKS/SJ music groups, I'm not able to reconcile myself to this news :-(

This is the tribute Naresh Khattar paid to Iqbal Saab while doing the hard job of breaking the news to the SKS community.

He was still in his 50s, and had lost his partner a few years back. A loss that he mentioned to me once that he used to find hard to bear at this period of his life. He was a public figure from Kochi, been its councilor and Mayor.

I am shell shocked and don't have words to express my grief. He scrapped me today morning at 5.15AM ( a routine that he has been following daily since he came to know of my sister's illness and the surgery) and I have yet to reply to that scrap :(

Some one who, by his own admission, been exposed to internet only for an year or so; he has been a quick learner. He revived the music groups on Talat and Naushad and have also been writing regularly on SKS, SJ and Lata Groups. Lately he had been very active on Orkut communities contributing everywhere. He also runs a most lovely blog where he had just yesterday uploaded a few Rajkumari songs and wanted me get back to him with feedback.

Praying fervently to that god almighty to give his soul the eternal peace and also give strength to his son and others in his family to bear this loss with fortitude."

I am totally shattered by this news :-( Just yesterday night, I downloaded the songs of Rajkumari Dubey that Iqbal Saab had shared, and put a comment in the blog thanking him. It is a very sad day indeed and HFM has lost a very passionate lover and a very active member of multiple communities. I was always amazed by the amount of energy Iqbal Saab had in learning all the latest happenings in internet and using them to the maximum to promote HFM.

Iqbal Saab has left a vacuum that cannot be filled. I pray to the Almighty to give his family the courage during these hard times. Let us all pray to God for the sake of Iqbal Saab.

If you are interested to know more about how active Iqbal-Saab was, check out his profile on multiply. It will be difficult to find another such music enthusiast.

Rein in the sport broadcasters!

Anybody watching the cricket World Cup on SetMax will agree on the unnecessary hurry consistently shown by the Sony folks in cutting out the game to show the ads. I agree that Sony has paid ICC a huge amount to grab the rights to telecast the World Cup, but that is no reason to take the fun out of viewing the game to the aficionados. After the last ball of an over is bowled, they do not wait for the commentator to even announce the score in their hurry to cramp in a few additional seconds of advertising. And if something interesting happened in the last ball of the over, then thatz left to the imagination of the viewer but some times they do take pity on the viewer and replay it in the beginning of the next over. But if they decide not to, please take it or leave it, dear viewer.

If there is one reason why I prefer ESPN-STAR Sports instead of SETMax, this is it. Even compared to Zee`Sports, Neo and TEN Sports, ESPN-STAR is the best. They actually telecast as if they understand the game and have a passion for it. The rest just come across as businessmen around to make some quick and easy money. And I'm sure a great cricket-passionate person like Harsha Bhogle has contributed in no small measure in this.

I guess itz time the Govt modifies the Sports Broadcasting Bill 2007 and regulates sport broadcasters to cut the game only after the ball has been logically concluded. They can probably give powers to TRAI to take to task the broadcaster in case of breach of this. The bottomline is that game has to be telecast in the right spirit, and if found in breach, the broadcaster needs to be fined.

And along with it if they decide to ban Mandira Bedi from talking about cricket unless she wears her "noodle-straps", my vote for Congress for the next 50 years is guaranteed.

A rising tide lifts all boats.

No English for Pakis!

Bravo Pakistan! The Pak Cricket Board has asked their players to not speak in English in news conferences. I feel this is a right decision...although I feel itz unfortunate it should have come as a mandate. I see no reason why one should be apologetic about his poor English language skills.

Itz a fact that one of the reasons Indians (or South Asians in general) come across as having not great communication skills is because we are invariably forced to communicate in an alien language....a language that you invariably will not use outside your work environment. Itz said that one of the best way to learn a language is to start thinking in that language, and most of us do not think in English. Now, there are two ways to handle this lack of comfort in English language - either you make an effort and get comfy with the language, or you put your foot down and say I will communicate in the language I am most comfortable in. If you are an IT professionsal, or somebody who is planning to emigrate to a English-speaking country, you do not have a choice but to follow funda#1.

But why on earth should the captain of a cricket team be forced to learn an alien language? I do not intend to say that learning an alien language is not desirable. If you have the desire to learn a new language, by all means go ahead and do that. But you should not be forced to do that, and you definitely need not lose your captaincy of the cricket team because you are bad in English.

The discomfot that you get when communicating in an alien language also shows up in the lack of self-confidence. No wonder most of we Indians are so hesitant to speak up when dealing with westerners. Also, as I had blogged earlier, this might just be one of the reasons for our not progressing economically.

Our good and evil deeds follow us continually like shadows.
- Bhagavan Buddha