Posts from — August 2005

Yesterday was a strange day. The [cliché alert]glorious uncertainties[/cliché alert] of cricket were on display in their Sunday best!

After ending Saturday with a sort of victory lap on their way into the pavilion, England were given a scare by the fighting Australians on Sunday. In the end, the victory came their way, but the Englishmen had to earn it every inch of the way. Two runs is too close for comfort, given the phenomenal run rates that the teams achieved in the match. With Flintoff bowling fast short ones down the leg, all it needed was a fumble from the not-so-reliable Geraint Jones, and the Pommies would have wished the Edgbaston pitch to part down the middle and consume them there and then!

And as if one exciting finish wasn’t enough for the day, the Indian team playing the West Indians far away from Birmingham, on the island of Serendip, felt they needed to prove they could do better. After having scored 262 (the highest score in the tournament, by far), one would’ve thought the Chanderpaul-less Windies batting line-up would crumble. But that’s not the way the cookie crumbled! In the end, if it wasn’t for the underrated Nehra, the West Indians would’ve calypsoed the the night away while the Indian team would’ve had to face the wrath of their ‘birthday-boy’ coach and indeed that of the entire nation when they would’ve landed in India with their tails between their legs and De Bono’s multi-coloured hats covering their red, embarassed faces!

Lessons from these two amazing games?

Australia needs to realize that their days at the top of the table are numbered… unless their ageing warhorses give way to at least equally effective youngsters. Until then, injured pigeons are injurious to Australian cricketing fortunes!

The Indian team needs to learn the lesson that has been staring them in their faces in almost all league matches of the Indian Oil Cup tournament. Five specialist bowlers are an absolute necessity. Dravid has been made to struggle with his fifth bowling options. Pressure cookers are effective only because the pressure is maintained at all times. It’s time the Indian team realizes this!

Yesterday night’s episode of “Tonight @ 10″, on CNBC TV18, discussed about whether Pokharan-II had been productive for India’s interests in the long run. The guests on the show were Bharat Karnad, Rajmohan Gandhi and Praful Bidwai. The host, as usual, was Karan Thapar.

After 30 minutes of discussion, Thapar asked the panel for their concluding comments on whether they felt India should go in for nuclear disarmament. Bharat Karnad was very forceful in refuting the need for any nuclear disarmament by India. Praful Bidwai was hopeful that his beloved UPA government would deliver on their promise of unilateral de-nuclearization (which was quite naive given the recent Indo-US nuclear pact which confers a de facto nuclear power status on India). Rajmohan Gandhi’s stand was baffling to say the least. He was all for nuclear disarmament… but only if Pakistan chose to do the same. And this was after he had passionately argued that having nuclear weapons does not necessarily grant us power, superiority or respect. When Karan Thapar pointed out this contradiction of sorts, Gandhi floundered, exposing the illogic of his arguments!

Not quite ‘Hard Talk’ with Tim Sebastian, but not too bad either!

This was the scene on a road leading up to Kalina, on Aug 1 2005 at around noon. To get a perspective on the size of that garbage heap, look at the size of the people walking past it on the right of the photo.

Today morning, just over 36 hours later, the same area has a scraped clean look. There was absolutely no garbage at that spot when I travelled past it on my way to work this morning. A lone JCB earth-mover standing nearby was an indication of the efforts put in by the BMC over the last 24 hours or so.

For once… good work, BMC!!

London has Thames…

Paris has Seine…

Mumbai has… errr… Mithi!!

Update: Please do check out this report on the neglect and pollution of River Mithi, which was presented to the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board last year.

This was earlier today. While I was on my way to work. It was raining fairly heavily and the roads were already water-logged. And with the high-tide expected at 10:20 AM, it was clear that the flooding would continue.

For the latest updates on the rains in Mumbai, please head towards Cloudburst Mumbai. For help on resources in Mumbai, please check out Mumbai Help. Quite excellent resources, both of these!