... and another ....

Andhra's much popular 'YSR' becomes the latest in a long line of Congress leaders to meet his unfortunate end in a crash. The names of Madhav Rao Scindia; Jitendra Prasada and Rajesh Pilot come to mind .... tall regional leaders snatched in the prime of their political careers.

I was impressed when, defying all popular opinion, YSR led the Congress to a sweep of 33 out of 42 LS seats in this year's general elections, besides winning a 2nd term in the state assembly polls held concurrently.

The search operations for the wrecked chopper were pretty intensive, involving as they did IAF Mi-17s; Dhruvs; Su-30 MKIs (with an IL-78 for in flight refuelling); an ISRO terrain mapping plane with Indian and US reconnaissance satellites also playing a part. Ground forces included AP Greyhound special forces; Army and Central paramilitary troops besides the local tribals. Boats were also pressed into service on the Krishna river.

Brings to mind the question, is the Congress cursed to lose such powerful leaders ever so often? Because one doesn't see this happening with other parties a lot.

Elections 2009 - The Results

• The Congress' best ever showing since 1991
• The Left's worst in 30 years
• MMS becomes the only PM since Nehru to be voted back to office
• Rahul delivers & delivers big in UP winning 21 seats
• An impressive revival for the Cong in the Hindi heartland
• Congress strengthens in AP, Kerala
• BJP goes down significantly in UP, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana & Uttaranchal

And now my $ 0.02 ....

• I'm glad the largest alliance is far more stable than last time
• Power hungry politicians like Mayawati got a well deserved kick in the teeth
• I'm glad younger politicians like Rahul had a greater say in the Congress' showing
• The Commies' regressive & hopelessly outdated ideology has been shown it's rightful place
• People have seen the politics of division, religion & caste for what it is
• India has surprised me, & itself, yet again
• There is still hope for this country

And my wish list for the next 5 years ....

• Go full steam ahead on economic liberalisation, there won't be a better time
• Strengthen the Military ... purchase, develop & increase spending on national defense
• Show diplomatic initiative to bring around less than friendly neighbours
• Act tough with those countries that don't cooperate
• Go after the perpetrators of terror acts, Israel style
• Root out internal security threats like Naxals with a heavy hand
• Speed up infrastructure development massively
• Reform and build up the health & education sectors

I had prayed for this kind of a result and somebody up there was listening. I hope the Congress and it's allies respect this massive mandate & don't fritter it away.

All the best to the incoming government .... and Jai Ho for Indian democracy.

RIP Feroz

I 1st saw an Alfa Romeo in one of his movies.

He was using European dancers in his films before Bollywood cottoned on to the idea .... 20 years later.

The 1st authentic Uzi ever used in a Hindi movie was in Qurbani.

Nazia Hassan and Biddu wouldn't have been who they are if it weren't for him.

He used the Merc S Classes as the don's car & a Chevrolet Suburban as his entourage's, while others wouldn't have known beyond an Ambassador and a Mahindra Jeep.

In short, here was a guy after mine own heart. Living a lifestyle that revolved around fast cars, beautiful women & high living. And made no bones about it.

The news came as a shock. He was one of my favorites. And he'll be missed.

Cars in the time of recession

The economic slowdown hasn't had much of an effect on new car introductions in India. There's been one (or two) every month over the last few months. It's hard to believe for someone whose father had to pay extra 'black' money to buy his Bajaj Chetak ahead of turn back in the late 70s ..... but that's how things are in today's India.

This is what has appeared on the market, so far this month .....


^^Skoda's new '7 Star' Superb. Built on the VW Passat's platform, it appears a far better car & at around ~18 lakh rupees will give a tough fight to the Honda Accord here. The 20 lakh plus Toyota Camry can cry itself off the market. Not that Toyota India would care anyway, seeing how they've been treating the Indian market of late.


^^the stonking new 270bhp Honda Accord V6. Perhaps a riposte to the Skoda's launch. Honda's been doing pretty well in all the segments it's present here & this should continue it's hold.



^^Mahindra's facelifted 'Mighty Muscular' Scorpio. It's still built on the modified World War 2 Jeep's chassis .... but that shouldn't matter to the droves who buy it.


^^And finally, the big one, Merc's new M-Class. Hmmm, it's front seems to have inspired the Mahindra's facelift!

Victorious in NZ

The trip to NZ didn't start off well with the 2 straight losses in the T20s.

But, this team has stormed back into contention during the ODIs .... & how! Today's win marks India's maiden ODI series triumph in Kiwiland.


These guys have turned into white-washing specialists. The last few series have seen scorelines such as 5-0 against England; 4-1 against the Lankans & 2-0 against the Aussies. And we are the T20 world champs.

The arrogance of Yuvraj; the calmness of Dhoni; the brutality of Sehwag; the consistency of Gambhir; the demolition jobs by Yusuf; the incisiveness of Zahir; the pace of Ishant .... all of them have come together like never before & even as one watched, this Indian team has metamorphised into a supremely confident pack of hunters.

It's wonderful to watch, yes, but I just hope that they haven't peaked early & carry on like this for a long, long time ..... unlike the numerous false dawns that many an Indian cricket fan has often been witness to until not so long ago.

Honda CBR1000RR & CB1000R

.... were launched in India today.

The last 1 year has seen a lot of activity in the high capacity sports bike segment - what with the likes of Yamaha; Suzuki & Ducati having launched their biggest & best models here. So it would seem that the old saying - "when it rains, it pours" - is true.

The logical progression from here would be to start assembly of 500cc-600cc models & start localising 250cc-300c stuff here. India already makes some of the best bikes in the world in the 100cc-200cc range. This would be the next step.

Reality shows this season

Roadies 6

It's all beginning to look a little jaded for this show. They've tried to spruce it up a bit this year with more imaginative tasks & tougher vote-outs, but people have got so used to the format, that all they wanna do is save their spots for the next episode. All the spontaneity that could be seen earlier with people like Shambhavi & Bani seems to have gone out the window. Bobby though ....


.... is one of the cutest girls ever to have featured on Roadies.

Indian Idol 4

Saurabhi ....


.... should be the 1st ever female Indian Idol. She's the best among the last 3. I completely didn't follow Idol this time. Probably cause Arnab's away in the US. The same goes for ....

Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2009

The episodes (or at least the few that I caught) competed among themselves to see which could be more sillier than the last one. This show was at it's peak last year with contestants like Amaanat Ali & Raja Hassan. Sadly, this year the decline in standards is more than apparent. I don't even know who won the recently held final.

Dance India Dance

Zee's attempt to muscle in on the dance reality show genre. And I must say that the results are impressive. The contestants are able, the judges (Terence Lewis, Geeta Kapur & Remo Dsouza) know their choreography, the standard of performances has been high & Mithun da (as 'GrandMaster') has been more than a ceremonial showpiece. I'm looking forward to this one.

EDIT: my prediction was spot on .... Saurabhi did win Indian Idol 4. On an aside, it seems Idol has turned into a means for the people from the North-East to stamp their presence on the mainstream Indian psyche. Get someone from that region into the finals & people vote for him/her with their feet. This doesn't imply that Saurabhi didn't deserve it .... it just shows how much this region yearns for acceptance & awareness from people of other parts of this country .... I think.

Terrorised .... again

I've waited 3 days before posting to allow myself to cool down, to allow my feelings to subside, to allow the pent-up emotion within to vent itself so that my writing retains an iota of coherence .... something my thought processes haven't been able to do over the last 3 days since this happened.

Indeed, since Wednesday I've spent almost every waking hour thinking about what was happening in Bombay. The brazenness of the perpetrators; the number of locations attacked; the sheer number of special forces they've been able to hold out against & the extent of time they've managed to survive & hog media attention for their perverted cause.

I've been smarting over what seems like a personal insult - as if somebody's got into my own house & ransacked the drawing room. And I haven't even ever been to Bombay.

There is a sense of outrage; a desire for retribution -quick & massive; but above all there is an overpowering sense of hopelessness - that this too shall pass - that people will invariably go back to living their routine lives - that politicians will go back to their electoral games - & we shall all lie in wait for the next attack.

But we must not - we can not do this. Innocents have lost their lives - some of our bravest service men have been killed in the prime of their lives - property worth crores lies destroyed - the reputation of this nation has taken yet another beating. This was the scene on BBC & CNN on the 27th .....



Someone, somewhere sits celebrating. That they've managed to bring the financial capital of this mighty nation to a standstill. That they've yet again demonstrated it's absolutely appalling lack of strong leadership & absence of strong deterrent security in places where it's needed the most.

The most I could do was roll up the newspaper on the 27th & throw it at the opposite wall in anger. But the government must do something substantial this time. Something - anything - take back the no 1st strike declaration for nuclear weapons for instance or pursue a Munich style covert operation to get even with the bastards sitting & plotting in their lairs to the West of this country. Something visible, something tangible like that would go a long way in returning a semblance of respect to the pride of this country that has been ravaged at will & far too often in the recent past.

God bless the souls of the fallen. I salute the brave men who gave up their lives for the nation. May God bless this country with the leadership that is required at this difficult hour.

Dada to retire

After months (maybe years) of intense speculation during which everyone seemed to have had their knives out for him, Sourav Ganguly finally announced his retirement from international cricket today.

This man was one of the factors why Indian cricket is the force it is today. I try to go back & remember the many instances when he helped the team with things that took place on the field & off it. Taking charge of the team just after the match fixing scandal had broken out, he slowly but surely built up a team of believers. Most of the stalwarts of India's new generation of cricketers came through under Sourav - Bhajji; Yuvi; Irfan & Kaif to name but a few.

I could go on & on, but his biggest contribution was transforming the team's character into one that wouldn't waiver in the face of the worst kind of gamesmanship indulged in by the Whites & Pakistanis - and I respect him for that one reason the most.

So Dada - it was a privilege watching you play for the tricolor. All the best & thanks for the memories - including this iconic image of that surreal evening in London a few years ago ....


Like we used to say after every great performance of yours - "Jeeyo dada!". It surely is the end of an era.

It's a deal

The nuke deal with the US is finally through - as reported here, here & here. Not that it's the 1st one. We got another with France the other day as reported here & here. And there's another one coming up with the Ruskies soon.

It's amazing how time & circumstances change so quickly. The NSG was formed with the explicit intent of denying nuke tech to countries like India which had tested nukes & not signed the NPT. And now the NSG itself (under heavy US pressure) allows an India specific waiver which paves the way for all these deals. Good for India. Goes to show that power only respects power. Had we held on to the idealogical baggage like we did till the 1990s, things would have continued the way they were.

As for our dear neighbours, they're doin the old flap-flap. Carry on losers. It's India's day today & you know it.

Done deal?

All the news channels are going gaga calling it a historic day for India & an end to the nuclear apartheid. The NSG's unconditional waiver at Vienna means the Indo-US civilian nuclear agreement is almost a done deal now barring last minute hiccups in the US Senate where it goes under vote at the end of this month.

Credit goes to the team of negotiators led on the Indian side by Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon and on the US side by Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns. This was truly a major foreign policy & diplomatic initiative lasting over a long & convoluted 3 years.

There were spoilers of course, not the least of these being old snake-in-the-grass China. That is a country that India is more & more likely to run into in the future on various issues.

This deal will also mark unprecedented closeness between India & the US. The payoffs will be positive for both sides - India gains in advanced nuclear tech, while the US will win most of the contracts & dare I say, probably the MRCA contract too.

Whatever the hidden clauses, & whatever the compromises that Indian negotiators have made (which shall be revealed in due course of time), I'm all for this deal if it ends up benefiting the average guy on the street. Also, the improved relations with the US will prove a key factor in future. With a neighbourhood as hostile & dangerous as ours, we need all the friends we can get.

RAW is Jericho .... again

Chris Jericho is back. I'll post my thoughts on this sometime later.

EDIT: Okay, I have to get around to getting things done. Enough of procrastination in my life already.

Coming to Jericho .... well I won't say I'm not glad he's back. Things had been getting pretty stale of late. I think it all started with Eddie's untimely death. He was a genuine star. Somebody who could not only wrestle, but make people want to see him in action. Since then, it's been one unfilled void after another.

Benoit went, Edge went, Cena's out with injury. No more RVD.

Just look at the roster now .... Triple H, Shawn, Batista, Jericho himself, Orton, the Hardys - all of 'em good wrestlers, but all of them a generation old. Okay, maybe Orton belongs to the present, but who else?

Is there anyone to match the charisma of The Rock, the appeal of Austin, the brute power of Goldberg or the finesse of Bret Hart. No one. None at all.

And instead of investing time & money into developing new characters, all McMahon is doing is going back to the older guys such as Jericho with incredibly attractive offers of money & somehow plugging the holes here. For the time being only.

I think I can see what's missing here. It's the competition. WWE's zenith was during the 90s. They had The Rock, Austin & so many others. But they also had to contend with Nitro & ECW. That is what drove them to give out their best. And now that both these brands are done for good, the pathetic attempts at setting up RAW & SmackDown against one another with ECW running like a sideshow are only gonna come a cropper. Like they deserve to.

WWE could learn a thing or two from TNA. They've somehow survived this far, but the new talent on display there is truly impressive. I can only imagine what being in WWE could have done for Samoa Joe, Daniels, Styles, Dutt & company's popularity. Let's hope Vince & his family come up with something good soon enough. Else they stand to lose a lot of recognition from today's generation.

Jumbo-speak

"When you struggle to pick up five wickets in both innings, that's no moral victory to me. To me what matters is the result and I think overall we dominated the match over the five days. I've said it in Delhi and at the start of the Test. I'd like to re-iterate it here: toss, pitch and weather are things I don't want to think about." - Anil Kumble on suggestions that Pakistan had won a moral victory after having drawn the Kolkata test.

I like the sound of this. A tough talking, frank captain is something that can only be good for Indian cricket.

2 incidents of shoe theft in 2 months have left me pissed off at a certain class of people. The bastards deserve the life they live.

I pay 5 times the Income Tax that my female team mates pay, having invested almost the same amount on tax saving schemes.

All because I'm male.

If this isn't sexual discrimination, then what is? The fcuking retards governing this country need to get their priorities right. Hen pecked bastards, the whole lot of them.

Nuke-Shuke & all that

While the rest of the Indian News Media is engaged in debate regarding the possible next Indian President & how deep in shit she really is, there was a very interesting article on the Indo-US nuclear co-operation deal.

It was supposed to have been cleared much earlier, but negotiations had stalled over certain objections raised by the Americans (ignorant as usual, about geo politics in this part of the world). They apparently want India to declare a moratorium on testing & agree to some sort of limitation on reprocessing. I mean, here we are surrounded by hostile nations on all sides (except for Bhutan & maybe Sri Lanka & Nepal) which are headed by authoritarian, military regimes, two of them having already initiated wars against us & the Americans want us to declare a moratorium on testing! After us having already declared no-first-use!

Anyway, the cause for worry here was that some idiots in the union ministry were willing to accept whatever Uncle Sam wanted, but as this article states, there has been a change in India's stance & tactics recently which might even lead to something that is to the satisfaction of India's nuclear establishment.

Oh, & as usual, the article appears on The Telegraph .... while all that makes the headlines on the others is Mayawati/Amitabh/Rajnikanth & the like.

After the Air India - Indian Airlines merger & the Jet Airways buyout of Air Sahara, Kingfisher has bought into Air Deccan. Must say this was not unexpected .... the industry has been in consolidation mode for some time.

Interesting times for Indian aviation .... I think Indigo & Go Air should go in for some kind of alliance now.

Another one. The worst one in fact. And this time it's at a top place like Virginia Tech, not some rural high school. And they say that the shooter was Asian.

Could it have been a terrorist attack?

EDIT: The shooter was a 23 year old South Korean. The current toll is 33 including him. It's all over the internet & TV.

In Iraq one gets to see 100s die every week from terrifying suicide blasts & yet, those are treated as matters of routine. You can't help but compare & contrast the reactions of CNN/BBC etc to those incidents & this case. Maybe it's time this part of the world got it's own news network.

Agni 3

The 3,000 km range Agni 3 was test launched successfully today. Success at last for a very important part of DRDO's missile program.


What this means is India is 1 step closer to the holy grail .... ICBMs, which is the very next upgrade from here. China & the Middle East are now within range, & I think that should be good enough for the next 1-2 years at least, to put the fear of God into the Chink's hearts.

The winds of change

The BCCI's much-awaited 'review meeting' is over & it seems they've done some credible house-cleaning.

The best thing .... graded contracts are out. All players will now get the same match fees plus handsome bonuses on winning. Good, this should bring down some people to ground level.

Only 3 endorsements will be allowed for each player .... that too after the Board's approval.

Venky is the new bowling coach.

Robin Singh is the new fielding coach.

Shastri will be the team manager on their tour to Bangladesh & maybe even after that.

Chapell has been asked to continue his services in an advisory capacity.

Among the names being bandied about for the coach's post are those of Dave Whatmore, Sunny Gavaskar & Viv Richards. Personally, I'd prefer Whatmore. He's a proven performer.

A beginning has thus been made & a good one at that. Who knows, the 2007 World Cup disaster might just have been the wake-up call that Indian cricket sorely needed.