Ganguly's so-called comeback

All the talk about Ganguly returning to form, finding his touch again and being back in the reckoning for captaincy has turned out to be overly optimistic, unreasonably wishul and, going by today's duck, myopic. A half century under bowler-friendly conditions in his comeback innings and a 20 odd in the next had everyone, including one kid-faced, over eager to fill Sidhu's boots as NDTV's main cricket expert, Ajay Jadeja jump the gun and call for Sourav to be reinstated as captain. I conceed that he did show grit in the first test, infact Ganguly's performance partly succeeded in embarrasing Greg Chappel as Greg always wanted Ganguly and Laxman out. True, the debacle in the one-dayers did call for experience in the team and Mr.Vengsarkar and his band did the right thing by selecting Laxman and Ganguly, but lets face it, we all know that Ganguly's selection was more due to public pressure than his performance for Bengal. Him being appointed captain on the basis of one good match will not only disturb Greg's plans but also spell doom for our chances in the upcoming world-cup. The media, which wheted the fans's appetite, kept a close eye on Ganguly the moment he landed in S.Africa. His performance in his first match (the warmup game at Potchofestrom) was keenly observed by fans back home. His 83 confirmed the belief that experienced players are THE way to go. Everyone conveniently ignored the fact that he was dropped when on 20 odd and convinced themselves that Ganguly's knocks were a sure-shot sign of his return to form. The old cliche "Form is temporary but class is permanent" was on everybody lips. Now, as is my prediction, we all will once again be overcome with a sense of Deja vu and witness how Ganguly's scores spiral downward. Lets be at our objective best for a moment and ask: Is Ganguly merely out of form or has he lost it altogether, as cricketers do when they hang their boots?

Prisoner of passion

So why did I choose this name - prisonerofpassion? Its inspired by one of the best songs of India's greatest rock band so far - Indus Creed (inactive now) which goes by the name 'Prisoner of passion'. The lyircs are truly brilliant. Here they are:

Stanza 1
Trying to understand just what we are,
Searching in the parlours and the country bar,
Then you showed me how to care,
You cleaned me up and made me a man again,
Suddenly you disappeared an I found myself back on the road

Stanza 2
Thoughts of you just tear my mind apart,
I want to end but dont know where to start,
Dream of all those times you showed me how to share,
Now its much too late to be a man again,
The bottle seems the only way

The chorus goes...
Coz' Im a prisoner of passion yeah!
Just a sucker for emotion
A prisoner of passion yeah,
on my own.

Stanza 3
Im searching for sanity that I know I'll never find,
Lost in the labyrinth in my mind,
Another weary pilgrim on that broken trail,
Stranded in a land where it never rains,
And the bottle feels like the holy grial

(Chorus)

(Solo)

Coz' Im a prisoner of passion yeah!
Just a sucker for emotion
A prisoner of passion yeah,
A fool without a notion.

Another "peace" overture

Yesterday (20th Dec), in Amritsar, our PM Dr.Singh somewhat indirectly responded to Pak Pres. Musharraf's four-point solution in which he (Mush) proposed in an interview to NDTV's head honcho Prannoy Roy. I agree with the line in today's TOI article -"the PM reacted...to Musharraf's offer...in what is seen as a move to blunt the General's PR advantage." Its true as the Gen is very candid during interviews and is approachable (many interviews are proof of that) and answers most of the questions posed with an open mind. This is not saying that I endorse TOI's viewpoint everytime though.

Sometimes I get the feeling that our PM merely wants to impress upon us the idea of him being sincere, forward-looking and peace-loving. Ask me, I feel this is all too cliched (in Musharraf's words - it is 'hackneyed') . If one can recall (as several papers have reported), our PM conveyed similar feelings last year on an earlier occasion in the same city! The "peace, security and friendship" speech was made in March while flagging off the Amritsar-Nankana Sahib (Sikh pligrimage place in Pak) bus service as well. Coincidence? I think so. What other reason can there be? He could not have possiblly anticipated that Gen Musharaff would put forward his four-point solution around this time and that he (PM) would respond to it while visiting the Gobindgarh fort in Amritsar to inaugurate some projects to woo the junta for the upcoming assembly elections in the Punjab.And Im sure the PM DEFINITELY did not not choose Amritsar, the border-city (Wagah closeby), for his speech so that his voice through the microphone can be heard across to the other side!


So what did Gen Musharraf exactly propose in his interview on Dec 5th?

1. No change in the borders of J&K (I think he meant no territories be acceded to either side)
2. Make borders and the LoC irrelevant (promote cross Loc movement for people and trade,maybe opening more points across LoC)
3. Staggered dimilitarisation (hinting at OUR army's presence in J&K to be reduced)
4. Autonomy or self-governance with a joint supervision mechanism (beats me!)

The moment this interview was shown on TV, our external affairs minister - Anand Sharma chose to play it down saying boundaries cannot be redrawn but New Delhi stands for peace. Our govt always criticises the General for negotiating through the media. I see nothing wrong with that. The proposals are significant proposals and the interview itself was a significant one as Musharraf offered to give up Pak's demand for a plebiscite in Kashmir (1st time ever.. on TV atleast) which we all know, is stated in the UNSC resolution, 1948. He also ruled out independence for either parts of Kashmir.

I hope some concrete moves are made in Jan when our Foreign Min, the bombastic bong (I love alliteration), Mr.Mukherjee goes to Pak and meets his counterpart Khurshid Kasuri. These proposals can surely be discussed.

My first blog :-)

Hello readers! Im Phani (strange name but you'll get used to it), a final yr. civil engg student, living in Navi Mumbai, India. Im a jovial, friendly, open-minded and patient person. Besides being heavily into orkuting, some of my other hobbies include playing the guitar, listening to music i.e. mainly instrumental, rock (I follow the Pakistani and Indian rock scene), pop and sometimes classical, playing Chess, watching and playing, whenever possible, Cricket. I dislike any kind of pretense, wannabes, flakes (thanks Adi) - a term we use for silly girls (I sound mannish eh? am not though), snobs and braggarts.

I'll mostly be blogging on current international and national (Indian) affairs like Indo-Pak relations, Kashmir, terrorism and also a lot on the Indian political scene. You can expect for an unbiased, non-partisan, objective and highly opinionated blogs. Im not pro-any political party. I'll be posting the source along with my blogs too whenever I can. One thing about the political scene that I need to illuminate, and I'm saying this at the outset, is that I believe its fatuous (thanks IMS) to blindly advocate the ideology and actions of any political party, not that Im cynical about all of their achievements, but because I feel there's a dearth of honest and forthright politicians in any party in my country.