A Good Morning.

A quiet, clear, peaceful morning.

This is a very special morning, for I have been greeted into it
without any thought. My mind is calm, almost meditative, despite all
the challenges that might lie ahead. My body is well rested despite
all its niggles, and the breeze that pushes the curtain and blows over
me is soothing to say the least.

There have been a few mornings like this one, I'm sure, but today I am
in it. The absence of an agenda, the presence of peace - ah, heaven.

A train blows its horn in the great distance, a dog barks, a
motorcycle makes its way uphill, and birds call out in rough chorus.
I just get the feeling birds and dogs have mornings like this one all
the time. For now, the rat race can be ignored.

Any race can be ignored, particularly the human race. Wait a minute!
Did that come out right?

Why do we create things that don't exist, when we haven't quite
figured out how to enjoy the ones that do? Do we really need to pull
out four hundred grams of metal and plastic and share words with
someone half way around the world, just because we can? Do we really
need hybrid cars and anti acidity pills? Does everything material
really need to come with the hidden cost of slavery?

Why am I putting together cohesive thought when I can be thoughtless?
Ah, but I'm already a slave. Addicted to having something to do, I
cannot stop. To stop would be to die, and we're all scared not quite
so much about death itself, but really scared about all the things we
might be stopped from doing.

Will we ever, any of us, get to do all the things we want to do? We
choose in the meantime to somehow accrue the means to do all we want
to do, and add pretty little to the enjoyment of everything we have.
Yes, we're blind, but that is our choice! We love our choices, we
really do. We have to have the choice of being thoughtless or full of
thought, and we'd choose to be full of thought because we have a brain
and we have to make the most of it.

Exhaustion, forcing us to sleep, is the one thing we haven't yet
figured out how to beat, second to cheating death. It is ridiculous
to think about people with pacemakers having road accidents, but that
is our complex punctuation to our own will to change the way things
work. We haven't done badly when we can cross the Pacific ocean in
less than ten hours, and the seat in the sky at thirty five thousand
feet is mighty comfortable, but I wonder if that can compare to lying
on the grass, chewing on freshly cut sugarcane, with miles of green
around, and only birds and bees for company, having nothing to do.

Truth is, we need both. We need the hassles and we need the peace and
we need to constantly figure out some things just because there is
nothing we'd rather do than make sure we have plenty to "do". Once in
a while, out of control, we might fumble our way into a moment of
peace, but it won't last, because we will get up and reach out and
start a chain reaction that wakes the whole world up. This is the
world as we know it, and we don't really care what the truth is. The
truth, too, is what we choose to make of it.

We could have chosen to have a two day week and a five day weekend,
but we're not yet there. We're not yet where we can be so productive
that we can have most of the time for fun, and having to work so
little that our lives can be spent in idle peace. But we're terrified
of idle peace. We don't mind shots of it, but that's only to prepare
us for the next race ahead. So, we'll come up with something to
"work" on, no matter how much we have already accomplished.

We're doing okay, really. We're not the dominant species on the
planet for no reason. We'll learn soon enough about the mistakes
we've made, and when it's a matter of survival, we'll fix most things
that are wrong. If we completely screw up, we'll find another planet.
It won't be this sort of paradise, but by then, we will know how to
make paradise.

I love being a human.

- BSK.

Did we just lose the World Cup?

It was really sad watching Dhoni's men lose by 3 runs to England, and
lose their chance to make it to the semi finals of the World T20.

But we've got to salute our heroes for putting up such a good fight.
What? Fight? What rubbish! What kind of Indian fan would think of
putting up a good fight againt England was worth anything? We should
have put the FRIGHT into England and chased them out of their own
backyard. England are a rubbish team with no home stretch. India are
a brilliant team that oozes with possibilities.

So, how then, can we digest Gary Kirsten's statement that India were
tired after the IPL?

Anybody who plays competitive sport will know about having reserve
energy. The last time, India had plenty in reserve, being able to hit
the red-line and creating tensions for the opposition. This time,
there was the same, even better, ability, but nothing in the tank in
crucial moments. The last time, each time there was a challenge, we
rose to the occasion, throwing in a sucker punch. This time we
cowered and waited for it to blow over.

It takes a lot out of competitors, being in the field, at any time.
It is mental, it is spiritual in some sense, and it definitely plays
on the ability to handle fatigue. The body can heal and repair, but
it takes more than a certain amount of freshness to provide an
inspired burst of performance when most needed. That fuel in the
reserve tank cannot be replaced by physios, sports psychologists, or
vitamins and salt supplements. It is from the heart and mind and body
put together, in that special feeling of having the "oomph" to knock
out the opponent.

Simply taking physical rest can heal the body, changing uniforms can
change a few things mentally, and having a different team around can
bring about some new perspective. But it is very important NOT TO
PLAY competitively for a bit before a big competition. Only time away
from playing high intensity sport can replenish that reserve tank. It
isn't easy to pull out a 6 ball 36, a diving catch on the boundary
line, or a hat-trick of accomplished scalps when the reserve tank is
empty.

India were not just relatively tired as Kirsten put it mildly. Our
reserve tanks were empty after the IPL. Sportsmen are competitive and
they hate to lose. They will be just as competitive for their IPL
teams, as they will be playing in national colours. It doesn't matter
to Rohit Sharma if Raina is bowling to him or Anderson. To him, the
ball is there to be dispatched, and he will be hungry to whack it no
matter what.

When well rested and full of oomph, Dhoni can flick six a yorker,
Yuvraj can coolly thump Fidel Edwards with the easiest of bat swings,
and Zaheer can zone in on a left handed batsman six balls out of six,
and make it impossible to score. When down on the reserve energy,
Dhoni will run a single, Yuvraj will swing and miss, and Zaheer will
bowl a couple of indifferent wides before "settling down".

Lalit Modi is a pig not to see this, and is an idiot if he doesn't
know. The bast$%^ has not played any competitive sport, so he can use
phrases like, "professionals can adjust" and other such ill informed
crap to gloss over his organization's shortcomings, but the fact will
remain that the Indian fan has been treated to a frenzied IPL, a lousy
closing ceremony and an absolute shocker of a World T20.

Truth is, the fan is fatigued as well. There is no big shock
registering on us yet, simply because our reserve tanks probably ran
dry during the IPL as well. I'd never venture away from the TV during
any game I care about. This time round, I'd miss part of Chennai
Super Kings games, never really cared to watch parts of the India
England game, especially when England were batting, and I wanted to
miss the dot balls all together. What is the point of a dot ball
anyway?

In the middle of all this, the LA Lakers won the NBA championship in
the USA. My favourite team, they had plenty of oomph to push through
4-1 against Orlando, and they won at home! Now, that is a
professionally managed league, unlike the IPL which is run by a head
honcho with a lisp and no sense of sport.

I don't want any excitement for a while now. I am fatigued. I don't
really care what cricket is up next. We need TIME AWAY. Our players
need REAL REST, not the naps caught at airports. Let's ignore them
for a while and freshen up, and in the meantime, find a way to kick
out that rascal Modi. He's ruining cricket.

Australia truly Down Under

Among all the insults heaped upon us Indians, this one from the
Government of India, Ministry of External Affairs is one of the
sharpest.

http://www.hindu.com/2009/06/13/stories/2009061356391400.htm

Coming as it does in the wake of what are now obviously racist
attacks, except to the most thick skinned and delusional, this reeks
of nothing but absurdly wicked humility in the face of abject
stupidity on the part of a country supposedly existing in the
"developed" world. Apparently, "Posted on MEA website, they contain
several links to help them form a better idea of the conditions
there." Really, in all seriousness, does it look likely that
thousands of our students in Australia don't have an idea of
conditions there, but the MEA does?

S.M. Krishna wants our students to concentrate on studies! Clearly,
the moron hasn't lived in a foreign country, doesn't understand what
kind of pressure being an "alien" in a foreign land is, and has
nothing to offer by way of wisdom based on any kind of experience that
is useful to this scenario. Imagine asking a student that fears for
his life to "concentrate on his studies"! That is a bit like
concentrating on the song playing on your headphones when you are
being mugged. "Hear the violin in the background?" Hello, we're
facing the music, not enjoying it.

Now, we have guidelines for seeking admission in Australia! (Read the
article, quoted from The Hindu). Hellooooo!!!!! We don't seem to
have much of a problem getting admissions in Australia when our
students dump US$2 freaking billion into the Australian economy. What
kind of ill timed humour are these sickos unleashing upon us at a time
of trauma? Do we really need these bloody airhead bureaucrats and
academicians telling our students how exactly their admission forms
should be filled?

"Remember that you represent India in Australia"??? Seems to me,
fools, that the biggest PROBLEM is that we represent India - we look
Indian, we smell Indian, and from a racist's viewpoint, we ARE VERY
Indian! Isnt' that the biggest problem we face? Wouldn't it be wise
to advise our students instead to "try and blend with the student
landscape, instead of standing out like dumb Indians"?

To add insult to injury, we're telling our students there to keep
their accommodations clean? Isn't this a particularly insensitive
time to talk about stupid s h i t like this? I personally, am very
unlikely to be reaching for my vaccuum cleaner when someone is trying
to kill me with a knife, thank you.

"Your behaviour and actions should do the country proud", says Shiv
Shanker Menon, Foreign Secretary. Why would anyone under attack
really worry about how to make his country proud? He is bloody trying
to survive! Has any one of us seen anyone unarmed and under severe
attack doing something to make anybody proud? In other words, we're
asking people to do something for us, even as we can do absolutely
nothing for them in times of distress. Shiv Shanker Menon, you are an
abject idiot.

We're even telling our boys not to retaliate, when they have just
started testing out the effectiveness of that approach. What is wrong
when the Australian police aren't capable of defending them? In any
case, I wonder how many goons would be willing to attack you with a
screwdriver if you were likely to pull a gun and shoot point blank
into an ugly white face. Chances are, none.

It may not be a great idea to retaliate all the time, but it certainly
has its value and is sure to be a better option to concentrating on
studies. Try pulling out your text book and digging your face into it
when a screwdriver is being driven through your ribs. No retaliation?
Then what do we have nuclear weapons for? One law for the country
and another for its citizens? Now, that sounds really fair.

Australia does not have an effective police force. If they can't
catch a bunch of young goons and bring them to justice to save
national pride, they aren't worth the dung of buffaloes they should be
mounted on and paraded naked through villages of Bihar, just for
spectacle on a lazy afternoon. Aw s h i t, they can't even win
cricket matches anymore.

They are a country that is suddenly discovering the darkness of hate
that exists in some of their youngsters and are being forcefully woken
up to reality. Their damage control mechanism isn't half as clever as
Pakistan's excellent misinformation cartel, and not even a tenth as
interesting, for a simple reason - nothing of what they say is new,
unexpected, or effective in assuaging feelings and reducing tensions.
Reality hasn't changed for Indian students who are under physical
threat. Truly, Australia is Down Under.

Racism isn't going away anytime soon. But we can certainly be spared
the stupidity and the delusions in dealing with it.

http://www.hindu.com/2009/06/13/stories/2009061356391400.htm