Deano Returns !

Turned on Set Max to watch the World Cup - and whom do we see providing expert analysis ?
Dean Jones, of all people - now welcomed with open arms in India. Scratch your head a bit, and you'll remember that he was thrown out of Ten Sports for call ling South African Hashim Amla a 'terrorist'.

Now that no TV channel anywhere in the world is going to touch him with a bargepole, smart Deano knows where to go - our country , of course!

I mean, a lot of people have made careers ridiculing the community here (and I mean the propah folks, not even the riot-politico crowd) , and Deano knows this is the place to be right now. In fact, a few articles in the local media even wondered what the fuss was about, when Deano was barred from commentating earlier (Tone: "I mean, after all he wasn't so wrong really, what's the big deal, etc., etc"). By contrast, the Oz/Brit media was much more critical.
So SET MAX gets an expert commentator dirt cheap, "terrorists" be damned . Deano gets back to earning some money, and everything's hunky dory
To paraphrase Ajith: "Smart Boy!"

Talking of cricket, once upon a time, it used to be just a game. You woke up early or stayed late depending on where the game was played, enjoyed the game, and went back to sleep. Cola and TV companies didn't try and outdo you in patriotism. You hated to see the team lose but life didn't depend on it.

What's changed? Well, for starters this ad:
A pepsi commercial where fans scream in excruciating pain (ooh, ah, etc) standing in a stadium. Considering the state of our stadia , I don't blame them one bit. But that was just the beginning, the climax occurs when all member of Team India turn into tigers (honest!). Now, what why blame the poor janta for throwing stones when the er, tigers, start purring like pussycats?

The king returns

The king returns to Kuala Lumpur. People applaud, after all he scored 140 in his first match against the windies, very cruelly decided by Messrs. Duckworth and lewis. I mean, it could've been a win considering the Windies propensity to collapse when everything seems hunky dory.

My point isn't that though - The law of averages catches up with Tendlya and he fails against the Aussies. Now what do we hear, the same crowd ranting about how he 'fails to deliver when needed the most' . I mean, this bloke's scored 40 centuries, about twice the number than that of his closest competitor (which incidentally, is another cricketer who demands a little more respect).

Now try telling me that we lost all of those 40 matches ....

Trivia: Dinesh Mongia has played 52 ODIs without winning a Test cap. He's now placed second to Australia's Ian Harvey in the list

Selective justice, collective amnesia

Funny how collective amnesia can be forced on an entire nation...

The Mumbai bomb blast verdict is out, well, partially at least. The Memons are conicted after 13 years. We have TV channels jostling over each other with righteous indignation about the delay. Come to think of it, it's actually right as well - the case has taken long, and justice has been delayed.

Nevertheless, I've a few questions - didn't the blast follow the riots in 1992? How many people died in the riots? Over a thousand, according to official figures, with the unoffical count estimating at least double the figure - that's a bit less than 10 times the number who died in the blasts . That is not to count the number of women raped and thousands of families traumatised. As the media goes on and on about the blasts, one would think they'd have created an even greater brouhaha over the riots.

Actually no, they don't. In fact, to go a step further, they don't even mention it. Why? I don't know. But I do know that 14 years after the riots, we're not talking about convictions - we're not even talking about charges. Everyone has gone scot-free. Check this out - not a SINGLE person has been charged, let alone convicted. And they say it took too long to convict the blasts accused!

Now why wouldn't the media even acknowledge the fact that no one was punished for atrocities that took more lives, traumatised more, and took place a few months before the blasts? Why wouldnt they even acknowledge the fact that the riots took place? Will we ever know ?

Or maybe we already do..