Musings

And so the girl dies in a land far away. Perhaps that is what she would have wanted; to breathe her last in a land that is not polluted by a Billion Bigots. Horror, shame and guilt overwhelm me; tears cloud my vision and emotion wrecks my heart. But I do not deserve these civilities. Emotion is for Human Beings not for beasts like me. In a battle that lasted an agonizing thirteen days, the girl showed an exemplary courage, an iron-will to fight, to survive. But the crime was so heinous and the violence so brutal that she did not stand a chance. A billion prayers could not save her for there was neither conviction nor clarity in those prayers. Ours is a society that objectifies women, commodifies them and trades in them. It is we who killed her and our prayers carried no weight. In her fight for life, the girl held up a mirror for all of us to see our reflection, to see what we have become. And what a ghastly sight it was; spittle ran down our faces,   there was devil ...

The God Of Small Things by Arundhati Roy is a sad book. It is dark, painful and most of all unforgiving. The book is not easy to read. It starts off with torturous verbosity, challenging and at times even antagonizing the reader. This is not a book into which you can ease yourself. This book from the very first page pulls you out of your comfort zone and never lets you go back. The characters rather than being introduced are shoved into you. A Venus Flytrap would have been a more appropriate illustration. The plot revolves around an eventful night when things go wrong; as wrong as they can go. The whole book never allows you to escape from this night; it draws you in, close enough for you to catch glimpses and be mesmerized but just as you are about to make some sense of it, you are yanked away, brutally. This cat and mouse game carries on throughout the book, yo-yoing forth and back, the reader, a mere puppet in the hands of the author. Throughout the book, the reader is...

Published on Sportscafe The 8-0 continues to haunt us and i guess it will keep haunting us for some time to come. It is always sad when a sportsman retires. These are people in the prime of their lives suddenly having to give up not only what they are best at but often the only thing they know. “This series was meant to be a fitting final trophy but has ended in tears. An era is over in more ways than one. So after all the misery and rage, Indian cricket fans will perhaps tune in to the Adelaide Test not hoping for a turnaround – the time for that has long passed – but for a final glimpse of their batting heroes. Who knows how many of them will turn up at the next Test?” This was Sambit Bal before the Adelaide Test. How prophetic these words seem now. The 8-0 has claimed two of Indian cricket's biggest stalwarts. To be honest, this was always going to be inevitable. It was always a matter of ‘When’ rather than ‘If’. Hard to blame the selectors or MSD here. Having said...

At the very outset, let me state that I am pretty confused. Hence, I expect no clarity in this article. Rather, it is an attempt to thrash out my ideas and hopefully try and figure out where I stand. Lance Armstrong – A fallen Hero! There are not many stories that captivate more than those that talk of fall from grace. The bigger the hero, the greater is the impact. Lance Armstrong was not just a hero; he was an inspiration to millions from across the globe.  Armstrong conquered mountains, overcame death; Armstrong defeated opponents, vanquished cancer; Armstrong battled exhaustion, endured pain. And in doing so, he won a million hearts, set in motion countless dreams and captured the imagination of many more. Armstrong, a hero, if there ever was one. Did Armstrong cheat? Did Armstrong take drugs? Honestly, I do not have a clue. What I want to explore though is how people’s perception of Armstrong will be affected by the accusations. To be honest, today, they are more than...

29.7.2012: There is a definite buzz in wimbledon today. There was an upset yesterday, a monumental upset. Rafael Nadal - Living Legend. The name which has come to be associated with grit and determination. A man against whom you had to play inspirational tennis to win a single point; let alone a match. Rafael Nadal plays tennis the way it is meant to be played. There are no freebies on offer. Every ball is chased as if his life depends on it - and then invariably returned. Outrageous angles are created, the existence of which we were never taught in school. And all this, when he is in cruise mode. But every once in a while, comes along a stubborn opponent; an opponent who is willing to fight it out, an opponent who commits the blasphemy of believing he can win, believing that Nadal, Rafael Nadal, can be defeated. The response: Nadal digs deep into his inexhaustible reserves, he shifts into top gear.  Tennis becomes subl...