Indian govt loses the plot

I am angry. I am ranting. I cant help but think that the Indian government has trivialized the Mumbai attacks.

The 'Mohali spirit': India, Pak re-engage ties

The message I take out from this diplomatic farce is that it takes only 2 years for the Indian government(not the public) to forgive Pakistan government for an atrocity of the scale of Mumbai attacks. God help my country.

An unusual Sunday

This Sunday was quite different from any I have spent in my stay so far in Bangalore. Today was the first time I took my cycle on non-commute/non-training ride. I was concerned about parking the bike safely in the city but I found poles/fences to chain the cycle at each place I stopped. I ended up riding 30 km through the city over the day including the Richmond circle flyover. :-)

I started the day with visits to two Music stores looking for notation stands. One in Koramangala and one behind Lal bagh. Then I grabbed a quick lunch at Indiana in Brigade road. I had plans for visiting friends in the evening. I had a couple of hours to kill. On an impulse, I decided to look for any books by John Arlott or Neville Cardus. Neither Blossoms nor Book worm had any. I have to continue my search for them. However I bought Dune by Frank Herbert, The Alexandria Quartet and Prospero's cell by Lawrence Durrell.

A visit to my friends in the evening and dinner at their place closed out an unusually active Sunday. Add to that this blog post and no office email check. This Sunday is going to be unique for some time.

Ind Vs Aus QF: Remake with a twist ending

All the India - Australia world cup  matches I watched till now ended with an Indian defeat. Most of them were one sided Indian losses. The others were close victories for Australia. Even when Australia did not have a champion team, they had the mental strength required to win tight contests. Half way through the quarter final, it appeared that the same script would repeat.

This world cup's Australian team was weaker than the 2003 team but Ponting played a determined knock. As Ponting settled into his innings, it felt like a rerun of the 2003 final. Thankfully there was no Damien Martyn at the other end and Australia scored only 260.

The Indian innings was going at a measured pace until Sachin was dismissed. Suddenly there was a flashback to the 1996 world cup match between the same teams where India lost the match after Sachin got out. Kohli and Gambhir put together a partnership that was slow but averted a collapse. At this point, India were making a steady progress towards the target. The dismissal of Kohli brought Yuvraj to the crease. There was still no cause for concern for the Indian fan as Yuvraj was in good form and generally plays pace well. Once Gambhir got run out and Dhoni fell cheaply, it seemed inevitable that India would succumb to the pressure and lose.

In this situation, the earlier Indian teams would either go into a shell and try to play out the fifty overs or go for the big shots and lose wickets. It was refreshing to see Yuvraj and Raina handle the situation. They did not go for premeditated shots. They did not get tense when there were a series of dot balls. Of course they were lucky not to lose their wicket to some good balls produced by the Australian attack. The 27 runs scored in two overs around the 40th helped but the Australian bowling was still good enough to force a result in their favour. To their credit, the played balls on their merit, kept the scoreboard ticking and saw India through.

An Indian victory in this match felt great. Indian have advanced one round more than I expected them to but the victory is not sufficient payback for the loss in the 2003 final. For one , the 2003 loss was humiliating for India. It was an abject surrender. This time Australia kept the contest gripping till the 45th over. Secondly, this QF victory does not measure up to a victory in the final. India can lay the 2003 final to rest only if they win the world cup this time. Heres hoping to that,