The controversial ‘Pal’

This word “Pal” first came to me when I started reading one of the James Headily Chase books during my late teens. My father used to have big collection of that series. I could pick any and start reading, but at the end of the day, because of my everlasting laziness, I could read only one. But this word ‘Pal’ struck to my mind immediately. I studied my entire education career in Gujarati medium. So I had a dictionary and I got the meaning, which was “friend”. In Gujarati, Hindi or Sanskrit the meaning of the same word is “the one who protects”. So in other words he can be a friend too. Friend often protects us from various difficulties. But today there is one Pal which is unwanted to the government for years is going to take birth by either tomorrow or by end of the current parliament session. The Pal they were avoiding probably since independence, is going to exist soon. Off course against their wish. 

On 12^th of April this year, suddenly out of the blue I wrote a blog, as those days I hardly used to write any. The blog was written after Anna Hazare’s first fast was over. (Here is the link for the same: “I am not convinced” http://marivaat.blogspot.com/2011/04/i-am-not-convinced.html) Sadly few things I wrote in this blog have come true. Nobody wants corruption in this country. But those were the different days. Every morning we used to hear a new scam, bigger than the previous day’s. The five “wise men (and a woman)” suddenly came out of the dark and told us that they are our Messiahs and they will take us out of this corruption. The fight was imminent. To their credit, they generated the passion against the corruption from the public in general, which was fed up with the daily drainage of their hard earned tax paid money. In that blog I have questioned the very claim by those “civil society” members that they are the direct representatives of public in general. It is natural that once the euphoria takes over, you are tend to get enormous support but once it goes down, you feel yourself alone in your group. Had they tried first to educate the public on how corruption, small corruption, affects our life and then educated them not to pay bribe at any cost and be ready to face the consequences things would have been different. But as always, longer and tougher road is always deserted.  Within the “Team Anna” there are many who’s real faces have came out in public since 12^th of April. Even Anna Hazare was kind a “exposed” bv his own blogger Mr. Parulekar. People like me who were always against the tactics used by the Team Anna, came out strongly against the team. People like me who are in a group which wants corruption to go but not by pushing the government and blackmail it with “My way or highway” tactics. Especially when a swami speaks against you, especially when one of your members has not paid income tax worth lakhs in rupees, especially when one of your members is involved in fake billings of her travels and more importantly when you have said “Kabhi Kabhi Gadhe Ko bhi baap banana padta hai”.  Right from the first day for me the entire moment was selfish to gain public support by all those five-six people for their political aspirations. Who knows they were planted by government too, to pacify public from daily corruptions. 

Whatever reasons may be, we now have a draft of Lokpal ready. Just what I am getting from the various news channels that it is totally a 180 degrees different then what “Team Anna” had asked for. For me may be it is not the strong Lokpal an Aam Aadmi would have liked to have, but at least government has not bent down to the so called “Civil Society” members. The government at last has taken “a step”. At least this is a small step forward towards ending of the menace of Corruption. It was said and believed that corruption can’t be abolished from our country from ever. Since independence, all the governments, including those who are in the opposition today has denied or skipped this Lokpal. At least now we will have a watch dog. May be toothless, but still we have something to look upon.  We didn’t have RTI till early 2000s, but have now. Plenty of things have came out because of RTI only, despite it was said, will not be effective. But people have used it smartly and today we have new phrase called “RTI Activist” and “Whistleblower” bill will also likely to be passed along with the Lokpal. 

There were two major things which were not easy for the government to be agreed upon. First one is that  PM under Lokpal and second is CBI under Lokpal. PM with adhesives is in where as CBI is not. For me bringing PM inside Lokpal, even if with adhesives, should be looked at huge victory for Team Anna. We must remember that when the agitation started, Government was adamant of not having PM under the Lokpal at any cost. So what if it needs 3/4^th majority to start the case against PM? So what that only 7 years term of PM  can only be looked at? At least we have something to work for PM too. Regarding CBI. Yesterday, Mr. Manish Tiwari, and surprisingly I agreed with his personal views, said that why not make CBI autonomous and why can’t we have separate policing arm for Lokpal? Like currently Police and CBI co exists and working together sometimes, the third force, with experts from all the levels and business of country, can also co exist. I strongly believe that in these days, any government can’t ignore the feelings of Aam Aadmi just like that. Yes it is not easy to get into the ears of Government either. Team Anna is losing the plot by not remaining flexible enough. Once you are on negotiation table, you have to be like elastic. Sadly now, the draft is before us, its Government who has came out with more flexibility from its first stand, then the Team Anna. They still want their own draft to be passed. I am sorry but that is not possible in a democracy, no matter how the ruling government is corrupt or biased towards corruption.  

Last night on one of the news channel debates, Lord Meghnad Desai  had rightly said that “Lokpal is still an unknown quantity”. So, why can’t we have it first in place at least in its present form and then later decide to amend, if required? I wonder when our political parties will have such flexibility in their mindsets so that our nation can run smoothly. Anna and his team have decided to start yet another agitation since their draft is not accepted. I am sure this time government is in positive position in the eyes of those sections of people who wanted a mechanism to tackle corruption, as it has kept the promise to introduce the bill and may be passing the same in this session only. I can bet this time the government will not budge. They are in better position this time then on previous three occasions. On the other hand, Anna and his team should now stop agitating and start thinking on how to use, whatever Lokpal we have, smartly. People need work, bread, and happiness. Yearlong agitations will not give them any of these things. Better they keep themselves away from five assembly elections coming next year. I do agree with the stand of  most of the members from ruling party  that better they (Team Anna) come out clear with their political intentions. Back door entry is not good at all. Just because Congress or UPA is in power you will oppose congress and not minding other parties’ corruptions, where is the logic in this? 

I am not sure about other four stats going for elections next year, but at least in my state Gujarat, Team Anna will be as unrelated as the main opposition congress party is for last more than a decade and a half. Yes Gujarat government is not pure for sure, but the “Modi Magic” is still on and it is a duty of Congress to give us, the Gujaratis , strong and substantial evidence against Modi and his government regarding their corruption and not Team Anna. But the equation will be funnier when Congress will try to expose Modi Government’s corruption and Team Anna will protest against Congress in Gujarat, mainly because they didn’t passed Lokpal of their likings at the center. 

It is high time for Team Anna to re think.

Dessert Storm !!! 

”Team Anna being very cruel to Anna. I strongly protest. They all keep 75 year old hungry and have a gala feast at his”

-         - Digvijay Singh’s Tweet on 20.12.2011

Pont(ing) to be noted

 

As a cricket fan, again I am at a situation where I ask myself a question...”When should an established cricketer (read : great cricketer) retire?” It’s an open secret to my friends that one of the reasons why I admire Sunny Gavaskar and Sourav Ganguly the most is the timing of their retirement from international cricket. Both of them retired when people had a bit of a shocker and start asking “Why?” instead of “Why Not?” The million dollar question today is “Should Ricky Ponting retire?” I am not the greatest of followers of Australian Domestic Cricket Circuit, but still would like to give my few cents on why should or shouldn’t Ponting retire and what loss or gain Cricket Australia will have as and when they take a decision on this. 

First let me go back to two decisions I have mentioned in first para regarding Gavaskar and Ganguly. Both have initials of SG. I have been their ardent fan all life, in fact Sunny Gavaskar is my childhood cricketing “god”, like today’s generation has Tendulkar for the same reason. The day when Sunny Gavaskar decided to hang his boots I was in my first year of teen. Those days we had only Doordarshan and AIR to get updated with news. Couldn’t believe when news “broke” on DD that he is taking retirement. I literary stopped eating my dinner, stood up and washed my hands. For me it was end of cricket watching. But such things do happen when you are in your teen. When I grew up and started taking cricket as my serious passion, I started to admire Sunny Gavaskar’s decision more. We have seen many cricketers from the subcontinent and especially across the world, who fail to decide their right time to exit, and thus feel the kick on their backside from their respective cricket boards. Actually in case of “Dada”, the timing of his decision was off course timely one, but there were other issues as well unlike Gavaskar had in his time. 

Let us face it, Ganguly was not wanted at some point of time at the end of his career. Despite he was at his new peak the time was to inject “fresh blood” into the team. Dada was a cricketer with immense talent, but at the end of the day, he was having little bit lesser stature then Dravid and Tendulkar. I am desperately sure that there was some agreement between him and BCCI to have him his graceful retirement from international cricket. But the way he still is trying to prove the world that he can still play good cricket like Dravid and Tendulkar, shows he still thinks that he had to retire prematurely. No matter what public postures he makes or BCCI says, but as a cricket follower I feel this. Anyways, on the record, he retired when he was on his peak form and the matter ends there. He was all grace when he made his formal announcement, and after exactly 20 years on that day, I could feel tears in my eyes to hear such news regarding my cricketing hero retiring. 

Ricky Thomas Ponting, whose center point of this blog, is more or less on the same position as his former KKR team mate and Captain Sourav Ganguly was few years back. The only problem with Punter, as he is fondly called, is that he has very less “form” to show. He has been blamed for not showing up for Australia at crunch time, but then is Australia as a team except Ponting’s contribution doing better in any case? Same was the question when India had disastrous 2007 World Cup. India lost the first match against Bangladesh and blame was on Ganguly who was on the contrary, top scorer in that match. He was accused of playing slow. Here Ponting is blamed for his poor form effecting over all team performance, but in only few matches Clarke has done better and what about others then? Yes Ponting is out of form, but is he the only batsman who should score runs? What about openers failing? Hussey? Haddin? and inconsistent Captain? Clarke has “not so be proud about” average of 35.72 since December 2010. One of his three hundreds have come in winning efforts, one in draw and  he was clueless as others in that paltry 47 all out at The Newlands in Cape town, despite scoring a fighting century in first innings. 

There is a call from Allan Border that both Hussey and Ponting should be dropped from Indian series. I have admitted at the start of the blog only that I am not a follower of Australian Domestic Cricket Circuit, but is there any strong replacement? We all know no one can replace a player like Punter instantly. India still has not found amicable replacement for Dada. Yes Kohli has in his him, but till now he has not established himself. Three years have gone by since Dada has retired. Does Australia have a replacement for Punter who can at least guarantee to play punterlike cricket? Look at the series stature!! Its huge. Its Australia v India, and “Border-Gavaskar Trophy” is right now held by Indians. For last few years many Aussie commentators including Late Peter Roebuck has said that this series is as good as “The Ashes” if not better. If so then why taking such huge risk? May be Harbhajan is not part of Indian team, but why should we deprived of Ponting-Ashwin or Ponting-Ojha or  Ponting-Yadav or most awaited Ponting-Ishant battle? 

Forget good advertising for a series, but take a note of “experience” factor. I don’t know who was right and who was wrong in Katich-Clarke spat, but we can see Australian opening slot is vulnerable when Katich is absent. Hughes is total failure and surprisingly like past Indian cricket culture, he is probably in the team because his captain likes him and doesn’t like more of a “Test match specialist” Katich. Yes Warner has given you a hope that can rely on him, but yet if Watson is not fit, you need both Katich and Ponting. I have always believed that, problem with such “great” (talking about Ponting and not Katich here) players is, that they can find their form any time. Probably that’s why they are called “greats”. Plus as I said the stature of this series. Who knows, players like Punter thrives on such a big stage. As I said about Dada, who can forget his first and only double ton at Bengaluru? Remember India was four for nothing when he arrived. All great guns like Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman were back in the pavilion, but first Yuvraj and then Irfan helped him to get India out of the trouble. Who knows one good innings by Ponting, may be a slow hundred on Boxing Day, gives him the confidence he needs. New comer will certainly take some time, again lack of knowledge on Aussie bench strength stops me to write further on the implications of “what if Punter is dropped”, then its better to give Punter first two test matches. A century in both or either of two those tests, should guarantee his place in next two. 

Certainly as cricket fan, I would like to see a hard fought series between the two countries. I am not saying that if Ponting and Hussey are out India will have a cake walk. But yet these two gentlemen will certainly thrive and will do better against us. That will give us and the people at ground great value of our money. We don’t know what Ponting has gone through in last two-three days, since Hobart test is over. He also must have heard and read what others are saying about him. He is with the family members, must have talked with them. If he is courageous enough, then I am sure he will not retire on his own. If he feels, that he still got something to offer, he will not decide to retire, may be Cricket Australia have to force him to do so and set a stage for his “grand exit”. Who knows like Dada in his first press confy at MCG on the eve of “Boxing Day Test Match”, he will announce, “This is going to be my last test match series”. 

Even if he does that we can have Punter on board for this summer in Australia!! 

Dessert Storm!!

"I think one of the old boys will go,"

- Allan Border told Fox Sports show Inside Cricket.

Musical tribute to Dev Anand

"Dev Kabhi Marte Nahin"

"Jaayein toh Jaayein Kahan" - Taxi Driver (1954)

"Jeevan ke safar mein raahi" - Munimji (1955)

"Chup hai dharti Chup hain chaand sitare" - House No. 44 (1955)

"A meri topi palat ke aa" - Fantoosh (1956)

"Aakhon hi aakhon mein ishara ho gaya" - C.I.D (1956)

"O neegahein masatana" - Paying Guest (1957)

"Soja neendiya ki bela hai" - Nau Do Gyarah (1957)

"Hai Apna Dil toh Awaara" - Solva Saal (1958)

"Hum Bekhudi mein tum ko pukare chale gaye" - Kaala Pani (1958)

"Dheere Dheere Chal Chand Gagan Mein" - Love Marriage (1959)

"Khoya Khoya Chand" - Kala Bazaar (1960)

"Deewana Masatana Hoova Dil" - Bambai Ka Babu (1960)

"Jiya O Jiya kuchh bol do" - Jab Pyar Kisi Se Hota Hai (1961)

"Na tum hamein jaano" - Baat Ek Raat Ki (1962)

 

"Chheda Mere Dil ne Tarana Tere Pyar Ka" - Asli Naqli (1962)

 

"Abhi  Na Jaao Chhod Kar Ke Dil Abhi Bhara Nahin" - Hum Dono (1962)

"Sun le tu Dil ki Sadaa" - Tere Ghar Ke Saamne (1963) 

"Aise Toh Na Dekho" - Teen Deviyan (1965)

"Din Dhal Jaaye Haay Raat Na Jaaye" - Guide (1965)

"Yeh Dil Na Hota Bechara" - Jewel Thief (1967)

"Phoolon Ke Rang Se" - Prem Pujari (1970)

"Palbhar Ke Liye Koi Hamein Pyaar Kar Le" - Johnny Mera Naam (1970)

"Dil Aaj Shayar Hai" - Gambler (1971)

"Ae Maine Kasam Li" - Tere Mere Sapne (1971)

"Dum Maro Dum" - Hare Rama Hare Krishna (1971)

"Neend Chura Ke Raaton Mein" - Shareef Badmaash (1973)

"Ek Paheli Hai Tu Naar Naveli Hai Tu" - Heera Panna (1973)

"Hamara Naam Banarasi Babu" - Banarasi Babu (1973)

"Dheere Se Jaana Khatiyan mein" - Chhupa Rustam (1973)

"Kiska Rasta Dekhe" - Joshila (1973)

"Mein Aaya Hoon Leke Saaz Haathon Mein" - Amir Garib (1974)

"Ruk Jaana O Jaana Hum Se Do Baatein" - Warrant (1975)

"Jaaneman Jaaneman" - Jaaneman (1976)

"Raahi Tha Mein Awaara" - Saheb Bahadur (1977)

"Aise Na Mujhe Tum Dekho" - Darling Darling (1977)

"Nazar Lagey Na Saathiyon" - Des Pardes (1978)

"Ek Roop Kayee Naam" - Swami Dada (1982)

"Hum Kya Hain Yeh Tumne Jaan Liya" - Anand Aur Anand (1984)