The Maanga

Apparently, selling oneself isn’t a crime. So, the man writes,

The man looks like a fast bowler. With all due respect to Ajit Agarkar and RP Singh, when you start sprinting in to bowl, you want to be imposing. You don’t want a batsman, dashing for a quick single, to even contemplate the option of crashing into you. Indeed, if Harbhjan Singh ever slaps you, you want him to bounce off and miss ten matches because of a broken hand.

Besides looking the part, Gony bowls the part: he has pace and accuracy, he generates good bounce, and he seems to put a bit of thought into his bowling. He is a big find from the IPL, and c Dhoni b Gony may well be a feature of international scorecards soon.

Gony’s fastest ball in the tournament so far has been 136 Kmph and his average pace typical delivery is around 130 Kmph. No one reads NDTV Convergence, but no one reads The Hindu either.

People on the boat do think it’s always overcrowded.

After global warming, sub-prime crisis, mortgage meltdown, impending recession and food price inflation, we have moved on. Spelling out doom, unlike hope mongering, can’t be a single rhetoric done to death[1]. Therefore, next week, you will listen to a BBC World Special on the possibility of crude touching $200/barrel and what it might mean to your wallet.

However, it remains to be seen if the last person who gets on, feels that the boat is indeed full.

[1] — Please note the drift. I am feeling very clever.

Two Sundays ago, I opened the The Hindu’s Magazine to find a write-up on Madrid in the travel section. Since I was half expecting it anyway, I still read it. After being suitably annoyed by what was Sashi Tharoor’s last column, I think, I opened the travel section of the New Indian Express’ Sunday Magazine; Madrid was called strangely alien, yet familiar. A mild chuckle ensued.

Ten days later, I downloaded Pragati. And started reading something about liberal nationalism or cultural nationalism. I think.

Political thought, by definition, is reactive. And follows a simple requirement: survival. Everything else, one would think, is a derivative. For example, to seek freedom there must be an absence of it. Or something like that.

Firstly, there is Nitin Pai. Picking on something that the Prime Minister said in a speech. The man (Dr Manmohan Singh that is, not Nitin Pai) makes about 60 speeches in a month. Then, there is Varma boy — who thinks a man in some trouble on the road should be well attended to by the Police because he (the said man, not Varma) pays taxes in some form. Finally, there is the Jagadguru who has always been saying the reason for all ills of all people is Hinduism.

Three people, across the spectrum, have put forward an ideology(actually three[1]) that does not fully explain status quo. Does Nitin think a Prime Minister has to be judged by the speeches he makes? And three of them at that? Does Varma boy believe taxes are paid only because one expects certain services and not because of existing power equations?

Those posts were not even paid for. I assume.

[1] — Lali, one crash course in subject differentiation wanted.