On Omar

Omar Abdullah comes across as a confident young man, with lots of promise in the Indian political scene that is getting younger with each passing day. However, his first stint at the helm of affairs in the perennially troubled state of J&K has been anything but smooth. Shopian, Baramulla, blah blah... stone pelting, effigy burning, etc. And the latest is the 2006 sex scandal. I am hoping that he comes out clean. Amidst all the angry outbursts, accusations and denials, Omar made a statement that has stayed with me. He said, "In this country the accused is pronounced innocent until proven guilty. However, since this is a personal attack on my morality, I hold myself guilty until proven innocent."

The man surely talks hard. It remains to be seen if he delivers as he promises.

Doosra kissa

The Aussies are back at what they do best - kill the opponents' strength just because they cannot learn the tricks of the trade. At a recent meeting of the Kangaroos' leading spin bowlers (can't remember anyone except Warne knowing quality spin), it was agreed that bowling the doosra without chucking was impossible. Spin coaches in Australia would be advised not to teach the doosra (like they knew how to!), in a bid to encourage other nations to follow suit. Tch tch... such a pity that the erstwhile champions have to resort to such techniques to negate the opposition's advantage. Didn't Harbhajan, Murali and co. go thru a host of biomechanical tests in Melbourne to get cleared of chucking? Seems like the current crop of spin wizards are not looking in that direction.

Here's a note to all budding fast bowlers in Kangaroo land - you will soon be told that bowling reverse swing is not allowed.

My Maths Teacher

I was out shopping yesterday evening with my parents and this happened when we were at a shoe store in NOIDA's bustling Sector 18 market. As we turned from the wall that displayed all the shoes to move to another section I heard someone shriek, 'Hello Ma'm!'. It was invariably another of mom's students whom we usually bump into anywhere, anytime in NOIDA. What followed was a power packed, emotionally charged display of gratitude and happiness that left everyone in the shop amused, except the student of course. She kept shrieking 'My Maths Teacher', in disbelief, and would just not let go of mom's feet. She also dragged her poor husband (much to his embarrassment) to do the same (not the shrieking part). It was hilarious to watch most of the shoppers and sales boys forgetting their jobs momentarily. I guess some of them were thinking about their teachers, I sure was. I also couldn't help thinking that only a teacher can get such a show of affection. My mom was shaken up by the whole thing, especially that all things around her stopped moving, and made a hasty, slithery exit, but not before another round of hugs :)

One of my most sincere and effective teachers lamented in class about how teaching was a thankless job and nothing save the personal motivation drove teachers around the country to continue working selflessly. I guess things are not that bleak after all.

Sporty see-saws

The sporting world has seen some tumultous changes over the last few months. Long-standing champions have been shown the door and fresh blood has claimed podia across sporting arenas. Some make me happy and some don't, but altogether, this shift of dominance does augur well for the particular sport.

Watching the traditional Ashes rivalry going England's way is might pleasing. Let's be clear, I admire the Aussies for their professional attitude and brilliant skills. However, they have never been adorable winners and, barring Adam Gilchrist, are pretty loathable for their pomposity. They also are bitter losers, as was seen on India's last tour down under. So it was a treat to the eyes to see Ponting losing it big time on the field. The Aussie attack looked pedestrian and made an average English side look like champions in the second test. Save Michael 'Pup' Clark's battling innings, there isn't much that I would applaud them for. While the first two tests have not produced breathtaking cricket (apart from a couple of sessions) the drama on and off the field, and England's win has ensured that the next two tests will be keenly watched and contested. Even in the greater scheme of things, the Aussies are no longer the invincibles they have been over the last fifteen years. South Africa, but for their trademark choking at the final stage of every tournament, look like deserving successors though India is also tipped to have entered the big three.

There isn't a better time to watch tennis than this. While women's tennis is seeing a shift of power from the Russians back to the power packed Williams siblings, the men's circuit is nothing less than legendary. Tennis greats have hailed the current Federer-Nadal rivalry as the best ever. They say every champion has his/her nemesis - Sampras had Agassi while Steffi had Seles. Federer seems to have dug out the mother of all nemeses in the Spanish bull. This rivalry, however, is in complete contrast to the Aussie-English one The champion is as modest as ever, even going to the extent of acknowledging Nadal's greatness by saying, ' I am trying to win whatever I can before he starts winning everything'. Nadal, to his part, has always maintained that Federer is the King of tennis. Although it feels good to see a youngster power his way through to the top, I am always a Federer fan and for once, would like to see this fight go the champion's way. He has surely made the most of Nadal's absence by pocketing the French Open and the Wimbledon and I just can't wait to see Nadal back in action.

Another arena that has seen see-sawing fortunes for the players is motorsport. I understand little of the technical nuances of the sport and contend myself more with the points tally. Ferrari was making the sport so predictable by winning everything under the sun that I was beginnig to give up wathing the sport when out came Lewis Hamilton and his new look Renault Team. Though it couldn't prevent Barichello winning the driver's championship in the season ending race, it did make things interesting for the present season. This time round, its been a brand new Brawn, living its name and teaching the others a lesson or two in driving.

On a concluding thought, and this might be read as far-fetched and unduly patriotic, I am hoping for another upheaval in women's badminton where the Chinese will no longer look unbeatable. Go Saina!

Panchvi Pass?

Yesterday's papers ran a whole section on how a majority of high school teachers in U.P. and Bihar could not spell two moderately difficult words (by Class V standards), could not solve a simple area problem involving a rectangle, and so on. Many of them could not even sign their own names. All this in lands that boasted of the world's oldest and greates universities. How those big institutions came crashing down, refusing to be resurrected, is something I cannot digest. That apart, one doesn't need to guess as to the quality of education offered in these places. Thousands and lakhs of students graduating with high grades and degrees and what-nots, but with little or no education. Being a largely services-oriented country, it fails me to understand why the lakhs of qualified graduates and post graduates cannot yield a few thousand efficient teachers. The issues that swoop down my brain as I wrote the previus sentence are money and respect. We have seen and heard of cases where both are found wanting by teachers. The unfortunate and most inhuman case of a professor being pumelled to death in Pune brings to the forefront the ill treatment meted out to many teachers across the nation. Of course, exceptions do exist and will always do. About money, it is no secret that teachers are hardly paid what they deserve, pay commissions or none.

This also brings in another disturbing issue - does the Indian schooling system offer knowledge sans education? I observe the three Class X students who come home to study Maths with my mom. I find them quite intelligent and smart, and they also seem to be doing pretty well with their grades. None of them, however, seems to be loving the subject, and all of them slog it out only for the elusive 90 plus score in the end. I remember my very own days, when, for twelve long years at school, I had scarcely thought about what I liked and what I wanted to do after school. The courses were a mere formality that one went through and the final examinations meant a whole year of subjects and topics to be forgotten.

While the stress on examinations here to stay, grades or no grades, one way of improving the situation could be to offer more choices of subjects to students in high school. This could lead to an early development of interest in a particular area of study. While this suggestion, like most others, may seem promising to a few, it is the implementation that holds the key to its succes. The advantage here is that high school is not under the jurisdiction of the Board examinations and a body of schools can chart out their own syllabus. Many private schools in Delhi offer foreign language course to primary classes and most of my little friends are pretty kicked about learning them.

Studying the same set of subjects for twelve years is pretty tough. A friend exclaimed recently that school was the toughest part of his career. 'Imagine sixty students', he said, 'studying the same text and being expected to write the same answer to the same question.' That's one hell of a job, I thought. It is ironic that the same set of students are then expected to essay different jobs in life. I thought school prepared one for life!

With such a muddled approach to teaching and studies, it is no wonder that as a nation, we stay

The Delhi rain

My current physiological state of a depleted set of hepatic cells has meant that I have had to be confined to my home for almost two weeks now with things looking good for an extension of three more till things get back to normal. Having nothing much to do apart from sleeping, eating bland food and drinking the prescribed fifteen glasses of fluid in any form is a drastic change from my schedule over the larger part of the previous two years. However, it is a welcome change and one that I had always looked forward to, but for the restricted diet.

Sitting in the balcony every morning, I have almost memorized the city's bijli-paani woes and the MET department's desperate predictions of the monsoon hitting Delhi soon. To be frank, this time the MET dept. proved correct, for once. The first shower provided the much needed respite from the sweltering heat. Sitting in the confines of my room, I just had to look through the window and enjoy the raindrops pelting the metal on the balcony. The scent of moist earth, arguably the best scent i can imagine, remined me of my ancestral village that I had just left in deep anguish and pain.

My parents enjoyed their cup of hot tea while the kids in my block scattered away from their parents, screaming in joy. The security guards hurried to get into their raincoats, the rickshaw-wallahs scurried to get below a hedge- elbowing each other rather selfishly. The MET department would have heaved a sigh of relief and I could already imagine their pompous grins on the next day's frontpage, 'There! Didn't we say it would happen yesterday?'. The fruit sellers scrambled their little shanty shelters in place, the lone tailor sitting on the edge of the street hurried to shut shop, lest his machine gets spoiled.

Some cursed the rain, some welcomed it, some hurried for cover, others ran to embrace it. Interesting how different people reacted differently.