India win; only on paper

Hi All,

Sunday's clash between India and South Africa went right down to the wire and till the last ball it was still anybody's game. Even after the last ball was bowled, spectators had to wait with bated breath for the verdict from the third umpire. Apart from the nail biting excitement the match brought to me, I felt something else which I thought I should pen down and share with everyone.

A drawn result would have been more comfortable with me, for the kind of character that the South African lower order showed and for the not so extraordinary performance displayed by India. Before I get branded as a traitor, let's get something clear here. South African top order, sans Jacques Kallis, did collapse and probably deserved to lose. But help came from unexpected quarters and how. From about 180/7, the lower order ensured that the match went down right to the last ball.

The temperament shown by the SA batsmen especially Wayne Parnell is applaud able and worthy of a lesson for any lower order batsmen. The way he stood up to the challenge and nudged his team almost to the finish line will probably live in our memory for some time to come and serves as a constant reminder to the unpredictability of the cricket. Indian batsmen could take a leaf or two form Parnell's books.

P.S. Yesterday's MOM Ravindra Jadeja was also the same man who lost the match for us against Australia last year when India were chasing a huge total and Sachin made 175 and almost single handedly won the match for India.

Valentine in Love

Well, I was waiting for my wife to come back from office and I am still waiting. She is yet to leave from office. And then I thought of writing something – I have not written for a long time. And I wrote a small poem – Valentine in Love. Yes – I am waiting for my Valentine to come back home. Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day and it will be our 4th V’day together. 4th in 12 years of love in 28 years of life – little too less, I know. But think of it – from now on, it will just increase and will keep on increasing!

Saint Valentine’s Day all over the world is celebrated as a day of love. For young lovers around the world, this is like independence day (lol) or may be Christmas or may be Eid! And in our India? We have Pramod Muthalik and a few similar lead astray minds, who have converted this day into a scary day. People are scared to go out on this day – be a married couple or one in love – even a brother thinks twice before picking his sister from school, in fear that these molesters may intervene and assault them on road. How pathetic is that? I remember the case last year – in Mangalore. I saw the scenes on TV how these filthy ‘dead’ people beat those teen girls. I have never seen any girl getting thrashed like that – that too, a gang of those hooligans attacked a handful of girls in a pub. The government did not do anything – nothing that could bring these people on ground and teach them a lesson. Neither the effort from the mass could do anything measurable. The Pink Chaddi Campaign did not help, it seems. This year again, these good for nothing gundas have stood up saying they would boycott the celebration. At times I think who would take care of us? The army is busy standing on the border, shivering in cold nights and waiting for the foreign foes to attack us. What will happen to the enemy we have inside the country? Who will take care of these heartless nincompoops? No, the government will do nothing for us – it has never done, and it will not do anything, apart from saying in a press conference that strict action will be taken, only after there is a massacre – so, wait and let that happen first…

Well, this post is not only anti-Muthalik or his terror group called Sri Ram Sena, I just wanted to write about this thought that came to my mind when I saw a few common men being brave and abuse that fanatic in public. A couple of days ago, while Muthalik was chipped in an interactive session on Valentine’s Day celebrations organized by some Kannada TV channel, a few valiant ‘common men’ took pen ink and blackened his entire face, right beneath the nose of his Sena and police stranded for his security. I am happy that the crowd present there and the policemen did not try to capture any of those brave hearts. I loved his face, for once. And I really appreciate the people who did that – from the bottom of my heart.

Go on people. Go out with your Valentines and prove that love still exists and will continue to exist and will not be deterred by this toads in the well. And I wish to get some severe punishment to these extremists. If we can fight the Maoists and the LTTE so wide and open, we can easily throw these gangsters out of our society. The other groups that I mentioned had a thought in their uprising. That could have been correct too – but I have never read about those philosophies and hence, I am in no position to comment on them. But I know what Muthalik in Karnataka, Shiv Sena in Maharashtra and similar groups in other parts of the country are doing is wrong. Let us come together to fight these too. Why would the government protect them, while the police should protect us from these pests of the society? Let the names ‘Muthalik’, ‘Thakrey’ be an abuse. Let it be a curse and let every mother in India come up and say, ‘I would rather be barren, than having a son like this filthy fellow and all those who support him.’ Only then, when we would resolve our own issues inside our own country we will be able to develop and fight foreign invasions. We need to clean and sterilize our home, before trying to do that to our neighbors.

Phew! Chuk it!

Have a good time people and enjoy life. And yes, Very Happy Valentine’s Day!!

Tall leaders....?

Hi All,

We all know a political veteran passed away last month. Condolences came in thick and fast from every corner of the country and leaders, across the political spectrum, heaped praises on him and his ability to connect with the masses. Before i go into the topic, let me clarify that this post is not about this man.

Watching this spectacle made me ask one question to myself....how does one measure a leader's effectiveness. Who should be called a good leader and who is the rotten one.Should the number of years a person spent in politics be a figure of merit? Or should we take into consideration his/her volume of supporters after all ,as the phrase goes, there is strength in numbers...

I have observed that we Indians tend to get confused when asked to rate a leader and in good old Indian fashion play it safe and brand him a great leader. Especially when he is above his 60s at the time of death and had had a good fan following in his heydays. The media, for its part, starts to go on a sympathy overdrive for the very man they thrashed a few days back. And bingo....we have a 'great leader' who has just passed away. How sad...

So should we finetune the standards that are used to measure a leader's effectiveness and success. Pour in your thoughts....

The Tiger

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Tiger Tiger. burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye.
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
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These are the lines from the famous poem, The Tiger by William Blake. I heard these lines from my father when I was in my growing years. What a wonderful Poem! At times I feel the poet might have travelled to India and looked closely into the eyes of the Royal Bengal Tiger before penning down the immortal lines. The poem, no doubt will remain immortal; but will the subject be? If we do not care and do not take steps right now, the subject of the poem, the tiger will not remain with us for long. India is one of the countries of the world which has shown drastic and rather alarming fall in the population of tigers over the last few decades.

The country started the last century with a count of over 40,000 tigers spread all over. Now, after a hundred years, as human population rose in multiples extensively, the population of tigers has fallen down and the count as of today is mere 1411 – a shocking number! And I am afraid that the tiger populace may be falling further as I am writing this.

It is time that we stand up to the cause of saving the tiger – our national animal. Yes! Its time we do something. It is not only the duty of the government or the NGOs working towards establishment and sustentation of a poacher free country to bring back the tiger population. It is our job too – the mass; the common man; you and I can make a difference. If we realize the loss we will incur by expunge of tigers from our country and if we want to prevent that from happening, we need to take the oath ourselves, stand up and contribute. This is the time when we are needed and this is the time we can show that we care.

The situation is same outside India too and the world is feeling the need to act together and save the species. Different initiatives are on all over the world to save the tiger. India is fighting back too. It is just that we need to plunge into the movement and save our tigers ourselves, before they too, go extinct. The last of the Bali tigers was killed in 1937. The Caspian tiger was declared extinct after 1950. Javan tigers were not seen after 1972. The South China tiger is almost extinct now. The Royal Bengal Tiger, would soon also be extinct, if the poachers of Sundarban are not stopped. A major part of Sundarban has now been converted for human dwelling, decreasing the tiger habitat in turn.

The two major reasons for depletion in the tiger numbers are poaching and loss of natural habitat. With increasing human population and in a quest for more and more living area, we are converting natural tiger habitats to human residences – knowingly or unknowingly. Here is the need to spread the thought and educate the people who live in and around the natural reserves for tigers about the necessity. Cutting down of trees for paper and furniture and molesting the forest environment bringing up sky-scrapers also cause diminution of natural habitat of tigers (and for any wild animal for that matter) in turn provoking more and more reduction in the overall population.

Tigers are poached and killed for different parts of their body. It is illegal to use animal fur or any other part of animal bodies in many countries around the world. However, the demand for the same in the black market is high. Different parts of tiger body, ranging from the corpus, skin and nails to their teeth are in high demand in the illegal poacher market where these items are sold for millions of bucks. This is the reason, poachers and dacoits tend to kill tigers and get some easy money in return – the irreversible extinction of the animal from the planet is not what they would cry or mere think twice for.

This has to STOP!

And this has to stop immediately. The government has been trying hard to save the tiger but as we can see around us, it is not enough. We need to stand by the organizations that are working day and night towards saving the tigers and other near-extinct animals of the world and our countries. We have taken much from the wild and it is time we should return a bit back to them. If not, it will not be surprising if our children read William Blake and ask us what he was talking about. We only see a Dodo in clippings of Ice-Age; we only see a Kiwi on cover of shoe polish. Let this not be the only destination of our beloved, respected and feared tigers. Let’s hold hands and let’s stand up. We can make a difference and stop the downfall of tiger dynasty only if we stand together. Let’s roar – let the spirit be heard – let the tiger live for ages to come! Let us take a pledge and work towards saving the tiger – our national animal!

As Bapu (M. K. Gandhi) said, “Be the Change you want you see (in others).”
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Here are some links, if you want to browse through and know more about tiger and various activities going on around us to save our tigers.

The Tiger - a poem by William Blake

Tiger Reserves in India
SaveOurTigers – an initiative by Aircel, India
WWF India
ProjectTiger.nic.in
IndianTiger.Org

The above list is not exhaustive; but sadly, the tiger population may exhaust in no time, if we do not SAVE the TIGER NOW!

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The article published at: Thus Spake Tan!

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