Time stops for cricket

I can't believe this! The Formula 1 German GP telecast on Star Sports is going to be DELAYED??

The race is already underway at Hockenheim - Michael Schumacher is in the lead, Kimi Raikkonen is OUT and Juan Pablo Montoya is fighting for fifth place - and I'm going to see only a delayed telecast?

Ouch. Cricket is sometimes a pain. And from what I saw of the score the last time, this is one telecast we could have done without.

Tips for driving uphill

OK, it's no secret that I'm a big Michael Schumacher fan. Unabashedly. I root for him in every race and this year, he hasn't let me down except for the Monaco GP. Now, he's gone and done it again.

Schumi has pulled off pole number 60 of his career. Driving on a greatly changed circuit - of course, none of the changes were made this year - in Hockenheim for his home GP, the undisputed king of Formula 1 pulled off what the other's couldn't: time in the crucial third sector.

For all the yammering from Chris Goodwin, the senior Schumacher showed that practice makes perfect. Though the McLarens and the BMW-Williams were looking extremely fast, and the Renaults had excellent traction out of the turns, what mattered is that Michael turned out a perfect qualifying lap.

David Coulthard has been racing ten years now but the difference between him and Schumi is plain to see. Ten years of racing, dedication and practice had left the German far ahead of his rivals, and Ferrari have just shown it can beat every other team when it comes to strategy.

My predictions for race day? Michael Schumacher, obviously. Juan Pablo Montoya doesn't stand a chance.

Dubya's records

From the Beeb, the US Defence Department has released records of the payrolls of the US Air Force for 1972, relating to the imbroglio of US President George W. Bush's service during the Vietnam War.

I can't wait to see what the outome is: that the USAF doled out money to someone who was absent?

It does happen, eh?

Golly. Burnout?

Ich bin sprachlos

U2 have been my favourite band for years. And now, a petty theft takescould potentially take the fun out of waiting for their next release.

Appalling.

Ishrat kahan?

When the news broke, everyone dismissed it as "rabid Hinduism". A conspiracy, an attempt to taint Muslims and Islam in general. Machinations of the state. Vested interests. Another debate between the fundamentalists and the secularists.

Now, the same parties that featured the earlier encounter are not running this side of the story. NDTV didn't even feature it on their website. Nor the TOI in it's print edition(Login required). But then again, the TOI is just so much paper and not so much serious journalism.

I got home yesterday just in time to catch Sreenivasan Jain do a hurried piece on NDTV. No guests. Just a telephone call with ACP Vanjara in Gujarat. And this morning, no reactions from anyone. Not the RJD, not the SP. Not the Maharashtra Police. Not even the "prominent social activists" who filed the PIL.

Of course, we had reactions from Ishrat's brother and the family lawyer:

In Mumbai, Ishrat’s 17-year-old brother, Anwar Sheikh, said he was not aware (of) such a website.
"Anything can be posted on a website," he said. "This could be the work of vested interests to malign my sister."
Sheikh’s view was echoed by Advocate Shakeb Khan, who has been representing Ishrat's family since the encounter.
"The information on it (website) seemed baseless," he added.

Baseless based on what? Oh sure, it's entirely possible that someone has hacked the site.....and I can't read Urdu anyways so maybe I shouldn't be talking.

Jivha

OK, first off, I really admire I'm insanely jealous of this guy. He's grabbed a name that fits him to a T, he's well read, he's opinionated, he's got a prodiguous talent for writing and seems to be capable of churning out reams of matter in a every day. A no-nonsense blog, very little decoration, no ads (paying for your domain name helps!!), clear, concise, prosaic verging on verbose, excellent grammar - not like others I've come across. Personnifies his name.

I don't know where he gets the time and the inspiriation, but to me, it looks like a case of been there and done that before you or I could even start. He says he's not a techie in the strictest sense, he's not a programmer or a geek, but he's managed to come up with a blog that I can read everyday.

Take a bow, Jivha, take a bow. And perhaps an encore or two won't matter either.

Where there's a will.....

.....there's money. And a fight. The late Priyamvada Birla has supposedly willed her entire business empire to a rank outsider. This story has been making the news for the past couple of days. Everyone is smelling a fish. With the amount involved, it's not a surprise that the whole clan is going to contest the will.

The first reaction of the Birlas, when the four-page will was read out in Kolkata on Monday evening, was "shock and disbelief". It's now turning to fury. They believe that an outsider has usurped, by questionable means, what by right is theirs.

What is interesting is that someone of her stature should leave such a simple will.

The Will

The will and its supposed contents have stirred a hornet's nest. Few people claim to have seen the will; but there were many who said they had heard about the contents.

Primarily, the will is said to be a mere three to four-line affair, in which Priyamvada Birla has passed on the ownership of all her assets to Lodha. There is a difference of opinion about the precise wording of the will. Some say the will also referred to Lodha's younger son, Harsh Vardhan as an inheritor in case of any eventuality to Lodha Senior. [TOI]

Watch this and this and this and this space for more news.

Two to fore!

Schumi, that is. And Rubinho. Team Ferrari dazzled at Magny Cours yesterday. What appeared to be a disastrous miscalculation was, again, cunning strategy on the part of Luca Baldisseri.

"Our chief engineer Luca Baldisseri came up with the idea over the weekend, so we had it in our pocket." "And during the second stint when we had some free space behind us, we thought we'd try it, and luckily it paid off," Brawn said.

Michael Schumacher not only ate away Fernando Alonso's lead, he overhauled him halfway through the race and held on to that position to the very end. Just when it looked like it was going to be another boring Schumacher event, the race got exciting. And it stayed that way until after Schumi and Alonso had crossed the finish line because Rubens Barrichello caught Jarno Trulli napping and overtook him at the final corner.

Poor Jarno. He got off to a flying start, held off Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello for the whole race, and blew it on the last but two corners. Raceday was a complete delight! The result: a podium finish that was looking likely to be a Ferrari sandwiched between two Renaults turned out to be exactly the opposite.

It looks like we're set for a very long Congress rule. Definitely one that will last well beyond Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka. And the way the Congress is going about it, there will hardly be any difference between us and Pakistan. The Congress has made it clear, by its behaviour in the past, that it's a party that just hungers for power. It doesn't matter about how it gets that, but it sure didn't like sitting in the Opposition one bit all these past eight years.

Take the latest incident, for example. Governors of four Indian states have been sacked. Why? Because they were appointed by the NDA and had RSS links or were active members at some time. That's turning out to be a criterion for automatic dismissal. In the near future, that criterion may well extend to just being Hindu. If you're Hindu, you're out. If you're Hindu, you'll probably be branded a criminal.

Take, for another example, the Prime Minister's latest pronouncement. Reservations for Muslims. And other minorities, granted, but on the whole, something to try and commandeer the Muslim vote-bank. A vote-bank that, in the days before Mulayam and Lalu and Mayawati, was the prerogative of the Nehrus.

I don't know why the Family keeps the "Gandhi" surname. They hardly ever acknowledge Feroze Gandhi; I'm sure he's a source of embarrassment to them, a blot on the Family landscape, the black sheep, an aberration in their DNA. But that's another story, I'll save it for another rant!

Now, Manmohan Singh - dutifully following orders, no doubt - is thinking of reserving jobs for Muslims and other minorities. Right, the good part is that it'll include Sikhs and Parsees as well, but for all the Family cares, these two don't exist. They're inconsequential. Given the percentage of the population (minority) that they represent, Sikhs and Parsees are just an inconvenient statistic, really. What really matters is the the Muslim minority - which numbers more than the Muslim majority in some Islamic countries, incidentally - is going to get an additional boost from the Indian state. At last.

At last?

Think again.

How many of you have noticed what happens when there's an empty plot of land somewhere near your house? Squatters move in. If you find out, a large number will be Muslims. Probably with the story that they were driven away from - wherever - because of some bias. They will purport to be refugees. Persecuted. You sympathise, you understand, you relent. You let them stay. For just a while until they find something better, they promise. The next thing you know, they've proliferated. Grown. From a few ten families to a few hundred. They've got everything: ration cards, voter ID, electric connections, phones, the lot.

And NOW, when you ask them to move, they don't. They agitate. Run riot. Complain of harrassment. Bias. Persecution. The same excuses they gave you when they moved in. And before you know it, there's a busybody from the NHRC there. And a local corporator - and a brother Muslim, definitely - or MLA. And MP - Congress, no doubt - championing their cause.

It'll probably take you another 50 years to get that plot of land cleared. If you're a Hindu, you'll be branded a fascist. A fundamentalist. A tyrant. And you watch out, you might just be slung into the slammer.

But no, the Congress clearly believes that being Hindu is dangerous. A shame. So they're out to erase all public memory of the previous Government. Take Arjun Singh's latest efforts. He's forced his way through the review of all text books that Murli Manohar Joshi had changed, and he calls it de-toxification. And pray why is de-toxification needed? Just because it gives a different perspective to history? Maybe the correct perspective? I don't know, but I sure would like to find out exactly what the dyspeptic old fogey is finding so poisonous about being Hindu.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not knocking anyone for being Muslim. Or any other religion, for that matter. As long as you accept to being treated the way you treat me, I don't care about what faith you follow.

But I am bothered about the fact that we've got a bunch of sore losers ruling us now. A bunch of pseudo-Commie bastards. A bunch of eunuchs who would have no qualms about selling the country for a song. A rag-tag congregation of sycophants. I'm scared of waking up one morning to find the Chinese in power. Or the Pakistanis/Saudis. Something like that.

I'm having nightmares. What about you?

Laloo(f)?

More showmanship from the consummate showman. L. P. Yadav is rumoured to be distancing himself from his coterie. An excerpt:

According to sources in Rail Bhavan, a letter classified ‘secret’, has been circulated among concerned Railway officers restricting them from entertaining requests for favours from any persons using the reference of Mr Yadav, his wife and Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi, other family members, RJD office bearers or any other cronies.

Lalu appears to be on his "scout's honour" this time around. Or is it just a matter of time before the Railway Ministry is relocated to Bihar?

A Mushie message

I'm waiting for reactions. Not from the suave Mr. Sarna, but from the village idiot. And his sidekick.

Of loops and holes

So Kaizad Gustad finally got bail. After a month or more. I agree he took a series of reckless decisions that ultimately resulted in Nadia Khan's death, but somehow, I find myself empathising with him. He did try and get Nadia to the hospital in the hope that her life would be saved. Had he followed the official procedure, Nadia would have died right there, on the tracks. Our laws and procedures are so old, so archaic, so anachronistic, but no Government ever thinks of amending them. There is absolutely no chance that anybody's life can be saved if the regulations are followed.

Personal experience: My grandfather suffered a fatal heart-attack after he alighted from a suburban train. He was dead by the time the Railway Police got there. Of course, they traced us and called us, but it was a good five hours before all this happened. Even after we reached there, his body was still lying on the platform. All material possessions were gone - save his watch and officework papers - without trace. After we completed the formalities - four hours - and were ready to take possession of the body, the police disappeared. Nobody to tell us or help us to take the body out of the station. No stretcher, no people, no ambulance.

It took over ten hours from the time of death, to move his body out of the station premises. The police personnel who dealt with us had disappeared. The new lackey on duty did not know - or care - about what we were asking him. He flatly refused to help because "everything that needed to be done from our side has been done." We were, in effect, free to do what we wanted. And no, we couldn't get the ambulance into the station premises. That would require permission from the railway authorities and since the bumpkin who handled our case was off duty, he couldn't do anything.

Another case: A friend was returning home from work by the company bus a few days ago. At an intersection - adjacent to a Police Station - the bus hit a car. The bus driver was at fault, and the car was rendered immobile; it had been pushed onto the road divider. The driver of the car got down and climbed into the bus. Then ensued a beating. All perfectly OK so far: Bus driver at fault, car with family, at risk, driver angry, all fine.

But the driver of the car stalled all traffic at the intersection for a good twenty minutes. The police station was just across the intersection. The driver happened to be connected to - or was - a Shiv Sainik/goon. The police didn't intervene, didn't try to clear up the traffic, despite being just across the road. Their excuse - after they finally arrived: they were not the Traffic Police and therefore their jurisdiction did not extend to attending traffic-related matters.

With this attitude, why shouldn't I wilfully lie, if it means I can hope to save someone's life? Sure, catch the offender for his transgressions, but leave it for later, right? All that came of the subsequent media publicity is that the shortcomings of our legal system were conveniently - and quietly - hidden away. Just because Kaizad Gustad guaranteed instant publicity to the police department, everyone jumped on him.

I can guess what would happen if it were you or me out there.