Posts from — August 2004

Saw this restaurant at Brighton…

What on earth is Malaysian Tandoori?!!

While I was watching (on TV) Anju Bobby George trying her best to better her first attempt in the Long Jump finals, I was surprised to see India listed in the line-up for a women’s 4X400 m relay heat. After all, the media had proclaimed Anju was the last medal hope for India. So where did this Indian relay quartet emerge from?! Obviously… the media was being uninformed and nearsighted!!

When the race started, I expected to see the Indian girls put up at least a fighting display. But Rajwinder Kaur’s first run was so dramatic that it made me sit up. She came out of nowhere to finish the first leg in the second place, handing over the baton to KM Beenamol. Knowing that Beenamol is a great runner, I knew we were on to something good here. She did not disappoint… finishing her leg in the second place as well. Things almost went awry in the third leg when Chitra Soman proved to be the weakest link as she struggled to match the pace set by the previous two Indian runners. As a result, when she handed over the baton to Manjit Kaur for the final leg of the relay race, India was languishing in the fifth place. But the ‘Flying Sikhni‘ ran an amazing lap to surge to the third place. She slowed down towards the end when she realized that India would qualify because the fourth placed runner was too far to catch her. And yet… the Indians had broken the National record by almost half a second.

And while Anju narrowly failed to secure a medal, the women’s relay team has certainly raised fresh hopes. Now it remains to be seen how they fare in the finals! Lets see! :-)

Matthew Hayden remarked that players from the subcontinent are selfish. I do not disagree with him completely. Because I would be in denial-land if I did so. But when I read Hayden’s views a couple of days ago, I instinctively thought that it was due to the fact that Indians have the expectations of a huge country weighing down upon their shoulders. Added to this is the fact that with so many players making huge scores in domestic tournaments, the pressure is always on the players in the national team to ensure that they have scores in international tournaments to match the scores of the domestic-circuit players (which is unfair, really). In any case, being selfish is not a bad thing!

Harsha Bhogle states the same point in a much more articulate manner…

It is my hypothesis that in over-populated, and therefore insecure, countries the self will always dominate. Feelings of comradeship, of surrendering the self to the wider cause, can only arise in either a highly spiritual phase or where the performer has ascended to a level of personal calm about his achievements.

Where you are in a mob, and we are in a mob, self-preservation will always prevail; whether it is catching a bus, or getting out of a movie hall or getting admission to a professional college.

So too with Indian cricket, where unless you are selfish you cannot make a mark. We have 27 first-class teams and it is impossible for anyone to monitor individual players. At one level lower, it is even worse. Young players learn very quickly that it is their score, and not the manner in which it was scored, or indeed the situation that warranted it, that counts more than anything else.

[source: Indian Express]

Touché!!

While poverty is on the upswing in the U.S. …

The number of Americans living in poverty jumped by 1.3 million last year as household incomes held steady, the Census Bureau said Wednesday.

The percentage of the U.S. population living in poverty rose to 12.5 percent from 12.1 percent — as the poverty rate among children jumped to its highest level in 10 years. The rate for adults 18-to-64 and 65 and older remained steady.

The bureau also said that the share of aggregate income for the lowest 20 percent of Americans fell to 3.4 percent from 3.5 percent.

[source: CNNmoney]

… it seems to be on the decline in Asia …

Asia’s surging economic growth has helped to reduce levels of poverty in the region, a report has said.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) estimated that the number of people living on less than $1 a day fell to 22% of the region’s population in 2002.

That compares with 34% in 1990 and shows “considerable progress in the fight against poverty”, the bank said.

[source: BBC]

Hmmm!!

When I was a kid, we had a chapter in our English text book at school (I do not remember what standard/grade). It narrated the extraordinary courage shown by a discuss thrower named Al Oerter. At the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, Al Oerter had dislocated a cervical vertebra and torn cartilage in his lower rib cage. He was ordered by doctors to stop training six days before the competition. In the qualifying round, he cast off his neck brace, ignored the pain that crippled his form, and hurled an Olympic Record 60.54. Then he came from behind in the final for an unmatched third gold, saying, “These are the Olympics. You die for them.”

I was amazed that anyone could do such a thing… ‘coz frankly speaking I used to bawl out loudly everytime I scraped my knee on the playground. Al Oerter’s statement seemed to be the answer to my amazement.

I don’t know how many of you know the rare grit and spirit shown by the Indian heptathlete J J Shobha. And if you don’t… I have the media to blame for it!!

As you can see from Monday’s (Mumbai) edition of the dishrag, Michael Phelps gets an obscene amount of footage on the front page of a national daily while one of India’s two brightest spots at Athens (thus far!) this year has been relegated to a measly inset column!!

J J Shobha’s effort is what Olympic legends are made of! When I heard about her exploits, the first thing that came into my mind was that chapter in the text book and Al Oerter. I thought… kids would learn about the feat of this virtually unknown Indian athlete who knew the odds were stacked impossibly against her and yet she competed and having competed, found reserves of strength, courage and ability that one finds when faced with extreme adversity. I thought the Indian media, long deprived of sports heroes, would hail this girl as the hero and celebrate her achievement with joy!

But I guess that was asking for too much!!