MAKING SENSE OF NEHRU CUP WIN

August 29 was one day football grabbed the headlines for a change. That too Indian football and not the deeds of a Real Madrid or a Manchester United.

The Nehru Cup triumph is undoubtedly celebration time for a country who is deep in the abyss as far as football is concerned. Just the dose of confidence the team needs to aim for taller deeds in the international arena.

The victory was all the more sweeter because it came against Syria, ranked 112 by FIFA compared to India's abysmal 151. An upset to savour, though it was a young Syrian side without six key players. Something more credible than occasionally winning SAF (South Asian Federation) tournaments against the likes of Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Does this victory herald a new dawn for Indian football? After all, the other teams in the fray were Kyrgyzstan (ranked two places below India at 153), Cambodia at 173 and Bangladesh at 176.

Far too early to say but coach Bob Houghton has generated hope. The triumph may result in more corporate interest and more money pumped into the game, but as long as it is not channelised properly, it will be curtains. A host of foreign coaches, from Ciric Milovan in the 1980s to Stephen Constantine recently have thrown in the towel, faced as they were with a brick wall.

Also there is less awareness about domestic football, especially in urban areas. Kids may have heard of Bhaichung Bhutia but that's about it. And Bhutia has been around for more than a decade. One hears people waxing eloquent about Ronaldinho, Cristiano Ronaldo, Man U, Barca et al, but when it comes to Indian football, it is a blank.

A strong, well-marketed professional league is a must. If the Nehru Cup in Delhi witnessed good crowds and if Malayalis all over Delhi could descend in droves on the Ambedkar Stadium for the Santosh Trophy final in 2004 to cheer Kerala to victory, Indian football certainly has passionate fans. It's all about giving them competitive clashes to fuel their passion.

Morevoer, local players badly need to play abroad. Corporate support and club tie-ups which enable them to get stints overseas will go a long way in bolstering Indian football.

Here's wishing for a day when we get to see bigger teams in the Nehru Cup (like in the 1980s) and India stands up to their might and does not get thrashed black and blue (like in the 1980s)

HOT CHICKS

"It has been approved here (in Washington, DC) by the President, and there (in New Delhi) it's been approved by the Indian cabinet. So why do you have all this running around like headless chicken, looking for a comment here or comment there, and these little storms in a tea-cup?"

Indian Ambassador to the US Ronen Sen on rediff.com

Distorting a story is an art we have perfected, we are adept at editing soundbytes to suit our headline and we know how to blow up Shilpa Shetty into Big Brother champ. Being journalists and spin doctors, we can recognise a barb at us when we see one. It's as clear as daylight that Ronen Sen's `headless chicken' quip was directed at our byte-hungry tribe. Who else could be "looking for a comment here or comment there?"

But then our venerable MPs (opposition BJP as well as ruling opposition Left) had predetermined that they should count their chickens before they hatched. Probably some journalists had presented them with a selective version of the quote.

Presented a convenient tool to create a furore over the nuclear deal, they promptly lost their head and created a ruckus in Parliament. In their tit-for-tat world, if they were headless, the aggrieved MPs wanted Ronen Sen's head. Unprecedented, MPs taking up cudgels on behalf of journalists, albeit unwittingly.

While MPs ranted about recalling the hapless Ambassador, there were people putting things in perspective on air. Who else but we headless chickens, the object of Ronen Sen's ire.

Comrade Prakash Karat thundered, "Our ambassador in Washington is working not for us but the US." Comrade, you may oppose the deal but stop this intolerant approach. It's unfair casting such aspersions on somebody who played a key role in complex negotiations, which resulted in India getting a respectable deal. Criticise the deal, but it does not become you to stoop to the level of George W Bush by speaking in ' either you are with us or against us' terms.

The Left has all along given the impression the deal is bad because of their blind anti-American stance. Can we get a well-reasoned critique from them? Wonder how they would have reacted if it was a deal with China. After all who said not too long ago, 'China's Chairman is Our Chairman.'

As far as the BJP goes, the same party would have bent over backwards to accomodate the nuclear deal if they were in power. But then they have to live up to their name of the principal opposition party.

The one parallel I can think of is from my hometown Thiruvananthapuram, where you can see a few pillars in Bakery Junction, meant to support an incomplete flyover. The LDF government simply had to halt the project, as it was initiated by the previous regime of the Congress-led UDF. Net result, the flyover remains a headless chicken.

ICL AND AFTER

The Indian Cricket League has displayed its colours, with a line-up of former internationals and a few domestic players. The common thread - all of them have little or no chance of making it to the national side. Same with the line-up from abroad. The likes of Inzamam-ul-Haq, Lance Klusener and Chris Harris are on the wrong side of their careers. The only consolations being the mercurial Brian Lara and Mohammad Yousuf, who only a year ago was on a record-breaking spree in test cricket.

In the ICL there is no single feaure attracting fans to a particular team, with all the teams being artificial creations. There is no nationality basis, no regional basis and no city/area basis from which sprang a Manchester United fan, a Los Angeles Lakers fan or a New York Knicks fan.

Will this declining army shake the foundations of world cricket? Three decades ago, another TV magnate did exactly that. But Kerry Packer had USPs galore. Money for the players and innovations like coloured clothing, white balls and night cricket. All of which are here to stay.

The lure of the Packer lucre attracted most of the leading players of Australia, England, West Indies, Pakistan and South Africa. But Subhash Chandra and the ICL does not have a single USP to boast of. Also, unlike then, the 'official' side has enough financial muscle.

The BCCI this week declared a net profit of Rs 232 crore for the previous financial year. So why is it running scared? Just plain fear that their authority will be eroded and the bottomlines slimmer.

BCCI could easily have co-existed with ICL, considering the 'rebel' league simply does not have the wherewithal to compete with international cricket, especially if it involves India. If there is a clash in timings, it's just a matter of BCCI making it clear to the players where their priorities lie. And of course, the money is where Team India is.

Even if the Board was so intent on banning the ICL stars, they could easily have come out with more moolah for domestic cricket and better marketing initiatives much earlier. We already have one-day tournaments and it's not too difficult to come up with Twenty20 events.

ICL had raised its head in May, giving the world's richest cricket body enough and more time to chart out a detailed counter-strategy. But in their quest for money, foreign coach and President Sharad Pawar's bid to be ICC President, domestic cricketers were nowhere on the radar. Out of their 232-crore booty, if the Board had acted faster on pumping more money into domestic cricket, some of the 'rebel' cricketers may not have taken the plunge.

The ICL launch is a necessary wake-up call for this profit-grabbing club, and if this lessens the huge gulf between international and domestic cricket, Indian cricket will be the beneficiary.

As for Kapil Dev, the board sacked him as National Cricket Academy chairman saying,"You can't have a foot in both camps."

One can argue Kapil was busy plotting for the ICL, while he was supposed to groom talented youngsters. But instead of harping at the speck in Kapil Dev's eye, will the BCCI ever look at the plank in their eye?

Shouldn't an organisation with such humungous funds be more accountable? How about running it professionally like England, Australia or New Zealand? And more importantly, shouldn't Sharad Pawar be paying more attention to the Agriculture Ministry? How about devoting more time to finding a lasting solution to farmer suicides in his own state Maharashtra?

DEFINING TAMIL FILMS

Here's my verdict in response to Zakster's bid to zero in on the 10 most defining Tamil movies ever made.


Chandralekha (1948) - Did roaring business across the country, both in Tamil and Hindi. Gemini boss SS Vasan spared no expenses for this costly spectacle. Remembered for the elaborate drum dance

Velaikkari (1949)- based on CN Annadurai's play, scripted by Anna. The film's release coincided with the founding of the DMK, and dramatised the fledgling party's anti-caste, anti-Brahmin ideology

Parashakti (1952) - Sivaji Ganesan's stirring debut. Karunanidhi pens long-winded Dravidian ideology dialogues, in line with DMK policy

Nadodi Mannan (1958) - Produced and directed by MGR. Period adventure fantasy with DMK symbols thrown in.
Commercial success was followed by a public reception for MGR by the DMK, taking him in procession in a chariot drawn by four horses, thronged by people. The chariot had the background of a rising sun on a lotus.
There was no turning back for the future Chief Minister

Apoorva Ragangal (1975) - Radical theme with an older man falling for a much younger woman and a younger man having a relationship with a much older woman. K Balachander gave Kamal Haasan his big break as a lead actor and Rajinikanth his first-ever film role

Nayakan (1987) - Mani Ratnam's Godfather saga with Kamal Haasan. Made it to Time magazine's list of top 100 films. Ratnam's imaginative song picturisation skills in evidence (honed to perfection in his later films) especially in the Holi song. Great music by Ilaiyaraaja

Roja (1992) - Breathtakingly simple and beautiful, Vairamuthu's lines Chinna Chinna Aasha struck a chord all over. The A R Rahman star was born, marking the end of Ilaiyaraaja's overwhelming dominance in film music. Ilaiyaraaja never composed for Mani Ratnam again. After the days of Chandralekha, the first Tamil film to grip the entire nation. A well-crafted drama coming in the wake of high-profile kidnappings in Kashmir.

Kaadhalan (1994) - Prabhudeva's dancing skills in Chikku Bukku Chikku Bukku (Gentleman) had already gripped the South. Here was the rubber man as a hero for the first time. With Rahman's music and Prabhdeva's twists and turns, Kaadhalan was a rage. Director Shankar's formula of extravagant song sequences and massive budgets took firm expression

Baasha (1995) - Loosely inspired by Amitabh Bachchan's Hum (also starring Rajini), Baasha's stupendous success ensured Rajinikanth became a demigod from just a superstar. Each Rajini release thereafter was a gala event in itself. He could afford to take his time, carefully choose his films and needed to have only an average of one release in two or even three years.

Kaaka Kaaka (2003) - Signature statement of the brave new world of Tamil cinema, as the post-Rajni and Kamal generation stood up to be counted. A brutal and gritty cop film which resisted a conventional end. Surya made his mark, amply backed by technical finesse and slick editing

This is my list of the 10 most influential Tamil fims, and they need not and will not match with the best 10 Tamil films ever made. Here I submit that I haven't seen enough Tamil cinema to come up with a rating of the very best.

A PIECE OF CAKE

Rising India, Emerging India or India Shining. Spin it whichever way, there's money to flaunt and splash, as a burgeoning middle-class lets itself loose.

In an EMI-driven era, getting a housing loan, car loan or a personal loan has become a piece of cake. But what took the cake for me today was an Indian Express story which said banks have started giving loans to doting parents for kids' birthday bashes. Marriages, it's easy to relate to, but bank loans and EMIs for birthdays!

Parents are free to indulge their kids, using their resources. But bank loans for birthdays? Seems more like the outcome of peer pressure for both parents and kids. And a means to network for both parents and guests.

Here's more courtesy Washington Post

Being in India, one is used to the dichotomy of grinding poverty and staggering affluence. But in this India of opportunities for the middle class, the gap between the kid blowing up three lakhs on a birthday and the kid doing cartwheels and twisting her body while begging near Connaught Place is clearly widening. Emerging India is indeed appealing and scary at the same time.

RIGHT-WING LAMENT ON LEFT-HANDERS DAY

Today's World Left-Handers Day, an event to celebrate for the likes of Bill Clinton and Bill Gates, along with a galaxy of sportspersons - Sourav Ganguly, John McEnroe, Rafael Nadal, Jimmy Connors, Brian Lara. And last but not the least HR Venkatesh.

The word 'gauche' which means clumsy/awkward has its roots in the French word for left-handed. 'Sinister' happens to be the Latin word for left hand. And we have phrases like like left-handed compliment, which is indeed an insult masquerading as praise for left-handers. Not to forget the traditional Indian habit of using the left hand to clean your bowels.

Mihir Bose's History of Indian Cricket (published in 1990)advances the theory that a major reason India rarely produced great left-handed batsmen was because society considered it unclean, a hand to be used for cleaning bowels. Six years later, Sourav Ganguly put his best hand forward, challenging the theory. And later emerged Yuvraj Singh for good measure.

But will the unrelenting gaze of society allow somebody to put the left foot first at an auspicious occasion? Or eat with the left hand? Tough going in a society where the word 'right' is a synonym for being correct.

Though a right-hander, I too have closet left-wing sympathies. And sometimes it comes out of the closet, like bowling and throwing the ball with the left hand. Being the son of a left-handed father, I too inherited 'leftist' traits. But then my natural inclination to write with my left hand was not allowed to flourish, because of a belief that a left-hander would be slower in writing, among other things.

Mercifully, I moved from left to right without too much trouble. At least I got to throw with my left hand. A sea change from what I've heard an earlier generation of natural left-handers had to endure. As kids their left hand was physically punished, so that their left-wing sympathies were clipped forever.

At least one area where left-handers are not merely accepted but also feted is sports. Being a minority here does make you unpredictable. Facing a left-hander serve in a tennis court can be unnerving just because you are not used to his angles. In cricket, Indian batsmen have traditionally struggled against left-handed pacemen.

The Right is overwhelmingly mighty, and the Left may not be able to shake off all prejudices. But then might is not always right.

And is there space for a right-leaning centrist like me? If Sourav Ganguly can bat with the left hand and bowl with the right, there is hope for the ambidextrous, irrespective of which side of the right-left divide they are on.

TEAM INDIA IN WONDERLAND

There is not too much to quibble about the Indian squad for the Twenty20 World Cup, even without the big three - Tendulkar, Ganguly and Dravid. After all, with or without them it's a foray into the unknown. Not just for the team but also for the cricket-obsessed public.

It's a peep into the future with Dhoni as captain. Even Sehwag and Harbhajan of the old guard who fell from grace, are not on the wrong side of time and can look at redeeming themselves. But one irritant remains that eternal enigma Ajit Agarkar, who's repeatedly teased only to exasperate.

The bigger worry though is inexperience, stemming from BCCI's tardiness in waking up to the Twenty20 concept. Australia, South Africa, England and New Zealand are far more adept at this form of the game. As it is, the likes of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa have moved ahead in brute slam-bang power in the 50-over game, which will serve them well over 20 overs.

Even Sri Lanka and Pakistan have played more Twenty20 international matches. India's lone match was in South Africa last year under Sehwag's leadership, when they scraped through to victory over South Africa with just one ball to spare. But mind you, India got those crumbs after being thrashed in the ODI series. And while chasing, there was no Pollock, Ntini or Nel to deal with.

Ironically the combined Twenty20 first-class experience of Tendulkar, Ganguly and Dravid does not add up to that of the most experienced Twenty20 campaigner in India - Dinesh Mongia who's the only one to play more than 30 such matches. Seems strange for a cricket-obsessed nation, considering Twenty20 emerged in English county cricket first in 2003.

But then the BCCI's never needed Twenty/20 to set the cash registers ringing so far. Which means players hardly got an exposure. It was finally in April 2007 that the BCCI belatedly organised an inter-state Twenty20 tournament with leading stars, keeping the World Cup in mind. But it passed by with hardly a ripple.

And for the Board to shake off its slumber, Twenty/20 needs public frenzy. The lack of which also explains why there was hardly a murmur after the team selection. Public interest can arise only through more international cricket, which can be propelled only by success in South Africa.

But then India is notorious for responding slowly to innovations in the game. Remember the humiliations of the 1975 and 1979 ODI World Cups, remembered for Sunil Gavaskar's notorious 36 not out in 60 overs (1975) and the loss to Sri Lanka (1979) who was then not even a test-playing nation.

All the same there's no saying what one can achieve, away from the limelight. India has history on its side. After all, there is that stunning upset win over the formidable West Indies in the 1983 World Cup final. If a repeat act does happen, then Twenty/20 will emerge as a rival to the 50-over game for fans' affections.

All Dhoni has to show from Twenty/20 is a second-ball duck against South Africa last year. He has miles to go, if he's to be the torch-bearer of Team India's future. And also for India to find its space in the future of international cricket too.

THE ART OF OSAMU TEZUKA

All I knew about Japanese comics or manga was that they were violent, with blood spilt left, right and centre. Something very `underground'. And a breed of violence which could also be balletic in its execution. Sample Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill and O-Ren Ishii or Cottonmouth, played by Lucy Liu, in the first part.

And then came the Buddha, an eight-part graphic novel series by Osamu Tezuka. An epiphanic experience for me, who had thought Japanese works were all about blood. Here was the life story of the Buddha told for an adult. A giant leap from the world of Amar Chitra Katha, my previous window to Buddha. And figures from history made the transition from black or white to grey.

Tezuka depicts a Siddhartha battling with himself and striking free of his inner turmoil, while carving out His Path. And his teachings are visualised beautifully, through tales such as Sebu the Ox.

Unlike an Amar Chitra Katha which condensed into one Buddha's life and teachings, eight long parts gives enough and more space for other characters to stamp their presence. And Tezuka brazenly takes liberties with history, fictionalising the journey of known characters like Devadatta, Bimbisara and Ajatasatru and bringing in his own creations like Chapra, Tatta, Bandaka and Migaila. Animals too make it as flesh-and-blood characters.

At the same time, violence too finds a place with different characters either succumbing to it or overcoming the need for it. And the author reminds us of the Asterix series by making his characters spout contemporary references. There's also the occasional four-letter word. Tezuka also tries out self-deprecatory humour, with digs aimed at himself.

So far, thanks to an indulgent friend, I have got my hands on the first five and I am keenly looking forward to the remaining three.

Going further I hope Buddha is just the beginning of my tryst with Osamu Tezuka. I came across another work of his - Phoenix: A Tale of the Future. And it's one of 12 volumes in his Phoenix series (all self-contained stories). Was a trifle disappointed there as I felt Tezuka let his charcters disappear into the background as he searched for the meaning of life.

Here are two 'magnum opus' works, Buddha and the Phoenix, but stunningly, this amounts to only a small fraction of the output of a man dubbed Father of Anime (Japanese animation) and the God of Manga.

According to wikipedia, the Complete Manga Works of Tezuka Osamu (published in Japan) comprises some 400 volumes, over 80,000 pages. Even this is not comprehensive. His complete body of work includes over 700 manga with more than 150,000 pages. The vast majority of his work has never been translated from the original Japanese and hence remains inaccessible to us.

Japanese Emperor Hirohito, who was in power for more than 40 years, and Tezuka died within a month of each other in 1989. But it is said Tezuka was mourned far more by the people than the long-time Emperor. Suffice it to say Walt Disney can be labelled Osamu Tezuka of the US.

RED'S THE COLOUR OF MONEY

A demolition drive gone awry(what else do you expect when the hunter becomes the prey), the Chief Minister and the state CPM secretary bad-mouthing each other in public, a professional college education policy which is an almighty mess, all this while Kerala is reeling under the monsoon, chikungunya et al and its commercial capital Kochi is a stinking mess with mounds and mounds of garbage.

What does the CPM have to offer? More grandiose words. CM VS now wants to fast outside the Prime Minister's residence. The only thing you can say is that it is " good television" visually and makes for a great headline. And you can count on VS to give expressive and long-winded soundbytes. On the flip side it's a nightmare editing his soundbytes as he takes his own time while uttering each word.

To sum it up, full of sound and fury signifying nothing.

But there are reasons for us to be grateful to him because of his "shooting from the hip" style. Would the revelations about CPM and CPI offices in Munnar being on encroached land have come to light? Not that he spilled the beans but at least his actions set the ball rolling for the media.

But he's still been an isolated voice, while the CPM's busy making itself a corporate giant. Kairali TV has three channels already, with a slew of promoters and shareholders including Mohanlal and Mammooty. No problem with making money, but what if responsible people in the party mouthpiece Deshabhimani take one crore rupees to help out a chit fund company facing a probe? And hobnob with lottery kings, while gobbling up two crore from him. And if this comes out in the open all the party secretary comes up with is "I'll fix you" to the Mathrubhumi (who exposed the story) editor. The Chinese approach to guided democracy, one supposes.

Now there are reports of their state headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram, AKG Centre, having encroached on Kerala University land.

The ironic thing though is that disribution of wealth is considered far more uneven in the CPM than in the Congress when it comes to Kerala. Bribes apparently go straight to the very top unlike in the Congress where every level has to be placated.

Here's a scathing open letter to CPM General Secretary Prakash Karat published on ibnlive
http://www.ibnlive.com/blogs/rajeshkumar/388/2211/any-jobs-in-cpm.html