|
|
|
|
|
| HOME | NEWS | DEAR REDIFF | |||
|
COMMENTARY
|
|
|
E-mail from readers the world over
Date sent: Thu, 15 Oct 1998 06:43:26 -0400 Even if Pakistan becomes a stable country, it will be no assurance for peace and good relations with India. A stable Pakistan will still have people and leaders who are religious bigots, fanatics, warmongers, India-haters and age-old dreamers -- who wish the total conquest and destruction of the Indian civilisation. They cannot tolerate the existence of a stable and prosperous India. They live, eat, breathe and do things everyday to hate India, to interfere in India's internal affairs and internal security. Pakistan's ambition is an old historical dream --"destruction of the Indian civilisation and the enslaving of India." For this, they may receive help from other India-hating, racist countries. So far somehow we have survived. The only way to convince Pakistan to accept Indian's existence is by establishing a strong strategy and plan which will make it clear that 'If there is no India (by Pakistan or some other power attack) there will be no Pakistan to see and enjoy it.' It may cost us dear, but we will survive and be free - not as Pakistani slaves (that is what they want - that we live according to their wish).. D S Sundaram
Date sent: Thu, 15 Oct 1998 12:30:25 +0530 I was left speechless, my heart was beating fast. Reason -- the coverage was really very exciting and each word seemed so true. After reading this, I wish I was a student of Dr A P J Abdul Kalam. The real greatness of Dr A P J Abdul Kalam is, his being a true Indian. These are the kind of interviews that newspapers need to carry in their editions. An Indian needs to know what it takes to be a true Indian. Vijay
Date sent: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 01:01:11 -0400 RSS and political workers in all parties will feel proud by your statement that you are a disciplined worker of the RSS, and will work day and night for the party whether you get a portfolio or not. As an old worker of RSS, I know we have this samskara of not sweating for a post or recognition but only for the service of the motherland. May glory be to you. Your conduct will inspire many into selfless service. Ravinder Gupta
Date sent: Sat, 10 Oct 1998 07:09:56 -0700 A classic example of a bunch of vote pandering Hindus and Muslims, who refuse to read the Satanic Verses to decide for themselves. Some guy in Iran calls it blasphemy and all the sheep around him nod in unison. I have read and reread the book so many times that I know which pages contain what. Every religion should be critiqued so that non-essential paragraphs can be taken out. In Hinduism crossing the sea was considered sacrilegious, times have changed and the only good Hindus now live overseas. Keeping vrath for your husband's long life is the biggest fraud that is endorsed and compelled on a newly wed girl. Take this and other such stupid acts out of Hinduism. Rushdie, you are always welcome to our house.
Date sent: Wed, 30 Sep 1998 16:26:41 -0700 (PDT) I access your site at least four times a day. Just to hear some news from India and from my state, Kerala. Seriously, if there is an issue about protests from people about a religious issue, you ought to have somebody with a little more maturity write it for you. D Jose seems to have made quite an effort to polish up his humour and reach deep into his shallow repertoire of cliches to make it look as if 'Ayyappa devotees' are cry-babies. While his article is embellished with liberal doses of pun ('spirits...spirituality...etc.'), it made the fatal error of baring its soul with an after-thought with a reference to communal impartiality in "Christians, too, have been using gold in churches." Sometimes it is the little things that stand out... Maturity is the order of the day. Not puns. Pretty good show, otherwise.
Date: Wed, 02 Sep 1998 11:49:22 +0800 Nothing to say, except even God cannot save India from the likes of C M Ibrahim. K Vasudevan
Date sent: Wed, 30 Sep 1998 23:38:53 +0000 Your article seems very interesting. Yes, I seriously agree with you. But I would like to turn your focus to the Bangalore issue which is the same. I hope you would look into this silicon city's problem also and try to come out with a solution. VSNL has to find a way out of its old problem that its server doesn't have capacity. Please e-mail me if you happen to publish something on this next time. My e-mail address is bhatkiran@hotmail.com.
Kiran Bhat
Date sent: Wed, 30 Sep 1998 05:51:58 +0530 It is a well covered story. In fact even VSNL Delhi has not been giving lines citing similar reasons, it's a matter of great shame that these corporates (VSNL and MTNL) which are considered to be the bluest of the blue chip PSUs, are the ones who are serving as an obstacle to the Internet revolution. The country has missed many chances, there will not be many more if we continue like this.
Sandeep Batra
Date sent: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 22:29:10 -0400 So, the subject of openers comes up again, not because of failures against Ambrose or Donald or McGrath, but against the likes of Streak and Olonga. The only time before this that I did write to you was a year ago, when there seemed to be so much sense in what you said about having Dravid or Ganguly open the innings. Why isn't it occurring to anyone to have Dravid open now? When the one time he was asked to open, against SA in Calcutta, was certainly not a failure? It is common sense that a ball is as new at 0/0 as at 3/1, except that the bowlers are nicely warmed up and the batting side is under greater pressure in the latter situation. This was precisely what Manjrekar had to contend with, when Sunil Gavaskar was openly advocating that he be promoted to opener, and the pressure clearly told on him. Not only are we refusing to look the problem of openers in the face, but we are repeating the same mistakes with Dravid, in tests and one-dayers, that proved fatal to Manjrekar's career. When will we learn? I do hope, however, that the selectors don't go the whole hog and follow Ashish Shukla's suggestion that we start with two new openers: that will hardly help the situation, especially when our next Tests are abroad in New Zealand. In spite of all his shortcomings, it is undeniable that Sidhu has received a raw deal in his career from the selectors, and, disappointments in Toronto and Zimbabwe notwithstanding, he is our most experienced Test opener. Also, what thoughts on the wisdom of replacing Azhar with Kumble as captain? Azhar has tended to make the same mistakes after 8 years of leading the side, and, like the rest of the side, is only an effective captain on home grounds. Now that Kumble is back to bowling as well as ever, surely he is the natural long-term choice for captain, as was envisaged when he was made Tendulkar's deputy last year? Kaushik Sunder Rajan
Date sent: Thu, 15 Oct 1998 08:01:58 +0530 India's poor performance in the one off Test really shows the inconsistencies India can go up to. One day they win a Test against the mighty Australians and the next day loose to Zimbabwe. It also reflects the usual lack of professional and tough psychological qualities. It is time we stop derecognising cricket as it is recognised in the media, and thereby reduce the commercial prices of Indian cricketers so that they understand the prices of their indifferent performances. This can be best done at first by stopping the telecast of ODI and Tests. Later if that does not help in derecognising, then even stop radio broadcasts. Amlan Ghosh
Date sent: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 17:31:42 -0400 Nobody should be surprised at the casual statements and downplaying displayed by our coach and captain after returning from Zimbabwe. Never mind that, in losing an eminently winnable match to a team like Zimbabwe, these two have helped drag Indian cricket to its lowest depths. Never mind that the opposition openly expressed bewilderment at Indian's strategy (or lack of) in the game. Never mind all that! What is more important is taking away their post-game attitude is -- that there is no fear of accountability in Indian cricket. But then that's been the case for the last 56 years -- so one shouldn't be surprised. What does hurt is that presently, India has, arguably, the best talent collection in the world. Talent that has what it takes to be world beaters - consistently. But sadly, the harnessing of this talent lies at the mercy of inept leaders like Azharuddin, unimaginative coaches like Gaekwad as well as the political whims and motivations of our board. What a shame! Let's list the blunders of our most recent debacle - the Harare test match: Going into the game without a 2nd opener by choosing Robin Singh over Jadeja, inserting the opposition on winning the toss, unnecessarily holding Dravid back on the first day with 6 overs to go, losing 3 batsmen (including the best batsman and the captain) to rash shots, not directing the bowlers enough in the Zimbabwe 2nd innings, not using Robin Singh enough having chosen him as the 3rd seamer, playing the Indian 2nd innings like a 40 over one-dayer and losing 3 batsmen (including the captain again) to wild shots, and the team displaying a general lack of planning and sincerity in their approach. And these are just the more obvious ones. One is not even counting the defensive field placings plus the dropped catches. Still the picture is of a dismal performance. Who's to blame? One can argue - it was the team as a whole. But that begs a second question - who's accountable? When a team loaded with superstars fails to display basic cricketing sense in a winnable situation -- something isn't right. Some reporter wrote in his column that the bookies' odds on the 4th day were 40-1 against Zimbabwe. It doesn't take long to link what happened on the field to this equation. And this is not without precedent. Remember Trinidad (May '97), Sharjah (Dec '97) and Bangalore (Mar '98)? Three matches India had all but won -- yet we lost due to suicidal performances! Who can forget Azhar's run out! Add to those: the one dayers in WI, the loss against Kenya (May '98), the bizarre turnaround in Toronto after going 1-0 up, and the third one dayer against Zimbabwe -- and you have a series of unbelievable defeats that could have easily gone the other way. Now contrast these results to this fact -- in the last two seasons, the Indian team itself has not rebounded from hopeless situations even in one game -- to win. Who's to blame? Who's accountable? One can say that betting does not exist in Indian cricket. And that all our defeats are genuine. But that is even worse! We are then admitting to titles like "paper tigers", "one man shows", "shoddy fielders", "inconsistent attitude" etc etc. Maybe we are... So why don't we set things right? Why don't we choose two regular openers, why don't we remove Azhar as captain and replace him with a far more consistent performer like Ganguly, why don't we play more tests, why do we play so many meaningless one-dayers, why don't we stop playing with the career of Prasad, why don't we chop off dead wood and start over..... The list is long ... The answer is short. Its all about money and politics. Right from Dalmiya and Raj Singh to selectors like Shivlal Yadav to players like Azharuddin -- their interests are vested. Everybody cares about everything else but India winning consistently. That is the reason sure starters like Laxman, Kuruvilla, Joshi and Prasad are paying the price for doing what they do. In the case of the last two -- they are also paying the price for hailing from a particular state. Disgusting! We seem to delight in Tendulkar's heroics -- and think that one man is enough to uphold our image and pride. What we forget is that cricket continues to be a TEAM sport and that our strategy should involve the other ten in the line up too -- not pretend they don't exist! Tendulkar was a mess in Malaysia and, saving that hundred in the first one-dayer, even in Zimbabwe. Yet we continue to think that he is the answer to all our problems! Contrast his inconsistent hot and cold performances with those of the man who replaced him at the top of the world rankings -- Steve Waugh. While Tendulkar is yet to win a "tight" test match for India, Waugh has been doing the same consistently for the last several years. That too -- outside Australia! So, who's more valuable? Who should be feted? Indian cricket needs a radical makeover. Nothing short of that will work. We need to start thinking of our cricket and not of how much the players can be exploited commercially. For soon, our inconsistency and ineptitude will catch up and things like sponsorship and fan adulation will all but dry up. And in the meantime, if Tendulkar's body were to fold under the strain, the end will seemingly come even sooner... Remember that Mr Dalmiya.
I remain,
Date sent: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 21:57:34 +0530 All the actors and actresses should be punished as per the law if found guilty. Such punishments should be widely published and informed all over the world as an example. No civilised person should sympathise with these people. What they did to the innocent animals is unpardonable and inhuman. Dr Madhu
Date sent: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 12:59:12 -0400 It was a real shame to see that such talented actors consider themselves above the law -- hunting for fun is a heinous, but killing endangered species just to see what the meat tastes like is abominable. I hope the corruption in India is not so bad -- and that justice is served.
Date sent: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 21:55:08 -0400 Wanton killing of innocent wildlife is the most perverted crime. The government should not buckle under any pressure. They should punish the guilty. Yeah Rediff... tell us like it really is. You make real cyber news.
Gauri Shankar Guha How Readers responded to Mani Shankar Aiyar's recent columns
|
||
|
HOME |
NEWS |
BUSINESS |
SPORTS |
MOVIES |
CHAT |
INFOTECH
SHOPPING & RESERVATIONS | TRAVEL | LIFE/STYLE | FREEDOM | FEEDBACK |
||