The position of IPL 2009 Teams on points table today is aligned more or less exactly as per onedayers.com initial predictions!! Are betting syndicates watching?

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Can Terror ever be removed from the face of earth? Really speaking, it is totally impossible to remove terror from the face of earth. Terror has been there from the origin of the earth. It is about transfer of property away from the deserved. It later on went on to become state policy, when terror was used to extend empires. Now, expecting mankind to unlearn the fruits of terror is neigh impossible. However, there maybe a possibility to keep the common man sufficiently away from the precincts of terror.

Who is a terrorist?

Well there are 2 kinds of terrorists:

(a)                Brand A (alienated): Ones who are motivated by reason other than direct gains (indirect gains to their family members and perpetrators are there). Here the victims usually do not have any option since the terrorist has no prior or future (proposed) dealing with the victim.

(b)               Brand B (societal): Ones who stand to gain directly from terrorism, with the victim going to lose some value. This being a resolvable position, usually the victim succumbs to the threat and chooses the lower (in his eyes) of the 2 or more proposed losses (scenarios).

Which is more dangerous?

Well the Brand A terrorism is pronounced to be more dangerous by most of the people, mostly, since there is not much room for negotiations with them. However, actually the second one is usually the root cause of most terrorism, since when consistently Brand B terrorism brings fruit to people, they move towards the Brand A Terrorism.

What is actually Brand B Terrorism?

It starts from anything like your landlord terrorizing you or your tenant terrorizing you. It could be a lendor or the lendee. It could be your boyfriend terrorizing you or your girlfriend. It could be your husband, wife, in-laws or every parent or child. And when the public recourse is full of leeches a lot of people succumb to this brand of terror. Here, are laid the roots of a terrorist. Anyone who learns that the world can give you something that you don’t deserve by terrorizing it, has become a terrorist. And sadly, the people expected to protect you have for their own reason become part of the whole deal and join in to take their piece of cake from the situation. And these are none other that the Police, the Lawyers, and others who are excepted to make life easy for you in these circumstances.

Can terrorism be removed?

Well, since any action against the Brand A community (possible terrorists) usually would justify the crucification analogy drilled into the heads of terrorist, since it would touch a lot of innocent people, you can’t possibly cure terrorism by force. And use of force would mean other people getting subject to force would harbor grievances against the force and may end up siding with the terrorists. Unbridled love can only stop terrorism. However, in this world with its shortages providing unbridled love to people, who are idling their time and have no positive value or contribution is tough. However, the means is to provide love to people who bring some value to the world, however, small it may be. And on top of it, protect them from those who are not ready to add value but who want to steal value. This is a tough call.

So what’s the deal?

It means, that to root out terrorism, we only need to fortify, purify and speedify our justice delivery system and to allow no tampering with it. Well that is so easy and yet sounds so out of reach at the same time….

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Yes and No!

Recap: B. Ramalingam (Ramalinga) Raju and Rama Raju the entrepreneurs behind India’s No. 4 company Hyderabad based Satyam Computer Services, a Global IT giant (No. 1, 2 and 3 are Infosys, TCS, and Wipro) have announced that they have been fudging their books. B. Ramaligam Raju was the Chairman of Satyam Computer Services, and Rama Raju (his brother) was the Managing Director. So, I present a simple analysis on how it would affect various relationships like company-shareholders, share markets, balance sheet figures/ analysis, public-private companies, foreign investors, mergers, employees, clients, lenders and finally Satyam itself. So off we go…

Will it affect the share market?

Satyam was listed in BSE, NSE, and NASDAQ, so surely, the score of armchair entrepreneurs who rely on the books to place their bets would surely be affected. Since books are their only means to analyze a company. However, it is the share market, which affects such companies and not the vice versa. So, accept for the share price of Satyam this should not affect the share market. Thumbs Up.

Does this mean that we can’t rely on the balance sheet figures any more?

Well, book building is not as new a phenomenon as newspapers would have us believe. It has always been the public company’s bane that it never reflects it’s true worth on paper. No public company will show an accurate account of what it’s worth. It is like a movie heroine who would always present a larger than life figure. Since, we do not complain about a movie heroine till she’s caught in her own web, similarly we would only criticize the company which over hinges or over leverages its worth. Usually, these company’s skeletons tumble out after persistent market downturns. So in no way are such company’s responsible for the downturns. So go on and rely on the balance sheets, but watch out for companies that regularly and consistently over perform, without having any special USP/ innovative products to justify the same.  Thumbs Up.

Do all companies cook their balance sheet to upscale their achievements?

Sad, but true for all public companies. Same as the reverse is true for all private companies (unless they plan to go public sometime in future). Thumbs Down.

Would this affect Indian software industry?

Employee POV:

Well employee morale surely goes down and this would reflect in their work. The competitors’ employees’ salaries also would get squeezed because of (a) excess manpower availability and (b) perception that the company’s margins are lower that what is shown. Finally, the IT profession, currently highly valued by public would go lower are some other careers come back in reckoning (is the marriage market listening?). Thumbs Down.

Investor POV:

Well from the investor POV (point-of-view) surely it would mean a temporary slowdown on Buying and Mergers. However, anyway, investors scrutinize such companies very thoroughly and would usually spot the fudging. Neutral.

Client POV:

From Client/ customer’s POV, it should not affect since the company did not shortchange it’s customers. However, some large project customers may be cautious about the continuity of the company. However, since a company is an Entity on it’s own. Hence it should survive this. Thumbs Up.

Lender POV:

It indeed is a troublesome thought that the company seems to be totally bankrupt. Which would mean, that it could get cash strapped enough, to be unable to pay the salaries in the short term. But if it manages this phase it can pull back, since it is not a product or a core-industry company but a services company. And services companies don’t have any heavy incubation periods. Or in other words there is no product life cycle it can get caught in. However, because of the same reasons the margins are usually low, since their assets keep getting revalued at current prices (salaries keep getting revised to suck any extra profits). Some people may disagree with this – but the truth is that if the salaries of the staff are not revised the top-management revises theirs, so rarely would you find extra cash with such companies. Thumbs Down.

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Religion is a belief.

A belief is a widely professed line of thought.

A strong thought does not need support.

A thought that needs support is like an effervescent bubble, it has to burst one day, like the thought of terrorism or the thought of regionalism.

In fact, support belittles the thought that it professes to support - like a religious terrorist belittles the God he professes to support.

That God is no God who needs support to exist.

Whether, you may believe or not believe, but please don’t try to support religion.

Think.

Think.

Think harder.

(the underlying message is : religion is not so small that it needs your support)

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I am as pained at the terror attacks as anyone else in India. And even sad at the failure to let the terrorists in so far in India to be able to hit at some well recognized places and hold fort for a long time.

Well, the similarity ends here as I see that most of the people who appeared on the television to air their comments are baying for blood. No I’m not so highly impressed as some others at the commando’s work. Since, all of the hostages got killed, due to probably the politicians’ pressure to get this drama off the national news channels. And helped by the public, who egged on for a T20 finish!

I am also not impressed by the national news channels coverage of the event, who in their enthusiasm were letting out critical information, and none of the political or police was ready to ask them to shut up till they clear the situation.

Even the comments of the captured terrorist, ( hailing from Faridkot in Pakistan) which were sensitive information, were turned into a jingoistic ballad about Pakistan.

And to top it, now the baying for blood stance of people who want heads to roll.. makes me think that the politicians had attacked mumbai. Well, there was certainly a gaffe by a few politicians, but certainly, making us believe that the situation was preventable, is akin to laughing at our own intelligence. The truth is that if well armed and well trained people fed on jingoist religious diet, are let loose within the common masses at any time, there are going to be casualties much before help arrives. Let us not force politicians to take decisions which are going to cost us dearer in terms of the spend out of our taxes. Whether the NSG is located in Mumbai or Delhi, they can’t reach any spot with 30 minutes to save the damage. So, what is the point creating unnecessary expense. And again, an IL 76 cannot be stationed on all locations and would not be required all the time except when you want around 200 commandos to report to duty.

And please, the protection asked for by some mumbaikars, should also be extended to each and every citizen of the country.. or let each person wanting to be over-protected pay extra for it. Did not 2 prime ministers of this country (Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi) given the maximum protection possible, get slain by terrorists? So what protection level can be given to common man? Let us be practical!

The only way out is to be responsive to situations. And give swift decisions and justice and then carry out the edicts.. Only this can deter terrorists.. as inaction allows more terrorists to be born.

And please cut the rhetoric.. don’t take us back from here..

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A lot of people in the past few years have asked for a better spend on Mumbai on the basis of the reason that a large part of taxes comes from mumbai. This came in the wake of regular flooding, but the words came to mean much later that Mumbaikars be treated as special ones, or different from the rest. And this rhetoric started from Shabana Azmi, Pritish Nandy and carried on by a few others including Shobha De. Now, I don’t bother much about Shobha De, but it hurts that Pritish Nandy or Shabana Azmi, can mention this…

And then Raj Thakeray saw this opportunity. He combined the rhetoric to an anti-bihari stance and he was sitting on a volcano. Only that he opened the mouth of the volcano and singed a city .. in one stroke.

The intelligentsia was dumbfounded.. it may not have meant this but they couldn’t go back without a foot in their mouth. And by the time the intelligentsia gathered their senses, Mumbai was burning!

And, even the usually vitriolic Balasaheb Thackeray was stunned. And when he gathered his wits, he had already lost half his vote bank! And others did make a mention here and there.. and Kamal Khan went on to get his 15 minutes of fame when others were badly placed for words..
He made a movie starring himself mouthing a few bold statements and got to feature on all national TV channels. In fact his trailor ran longer than his movie, deshdrohi.. was a testimony to the shallow attempt.

But it sadly went on to claim a life of a impressionable young fellow, Rahul Raj from Patna.. who supposedly came to kill Raj Thackeray and hijacked a BEST bus and fired a gun shot, but was shot dead maybe 20 kilometers away from Raj Thackeray. Phew! that was a close call, at least Mumbai Police would have us believe that..

And having Raj Thackeray carry on with business as usual creating a virtual state of similarly frustrated sounding youth. Well, for a Bihari to come to Mumbai has started sounding like a crime. Well, no wonder, when Indians are maltreated abroad, we see a Raj Thackeray there too defending his fiefdom. Well, I hope sane people can prevail over this uncalled for ban to suit one person’s personal agenda.

And suddenly being a Mumbaikar has started sounding bad!

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Milkha Singh was upset when Anju Bobby George said in an interview to Malyalam Maonrama Television channel “I am looking up to only world standard athletes - Milkha singh and Usha are only Asian level athletes.”

In 2004, Milkha Singh was pinning his Olympics hopes on Anju.  But, before 2008 Olympics when Anju said that no Indian athlete is a world class athlete, we suddenly have Milkha Singh remember that Anju Bobby George has not been able to surpass her previous best in the last 4 years.

And after the Olympics, Milkha Singh lambasting her and asking for an action against Anju by IOA (Indian Olympic Association) and AFI (athletics Federation of India) as she could not complete even a single valid jump

Milkha Singh and PT Usha reacted to the comment very personally, though the Anju Bobby George comment was in reply to a question, who was her idol in India.  And when she said none, since there was no world class athlete that India had produced, she was asked specifically about why Milkha Singh or PT Usha were not world class athletes. And she had to clarify.

The reality is that the world produces 100s of world class athletes every 4 years, and the nearest measure of those is an Olympics Medal. Now, when after 100 years of Olymics and some 2000-3000 world class athletes, no Indian is in that list, so should an aspiring Olympian be forced to chose someone below the top 2000-3000 athletes in the world, just because they are supposed to have an Indian to be their idol. Notwithstanding Anju’s performance in Olympics, even I await  world class Indian athlete. And Anju Bobby George didn’t categorize herself as a world class athlete as well. She’s also trying to be one.. And there is definitely any need to compare who’s greater.. we are all waiting.. I am not sure if anyone else agrees?

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I think it is silly discussing it here in Peter Booth’s article. There’s a court set up and they have to decide based on evidence. Peter Booth was not there, neither were you all or I. No point discussing the morality of Ponting or Tendulkar here. We all know who was not playing fair, but the racist remark allegation should be proved only in the court setup by ICC, not you or me. You can check out this article for statement of facts, just facts.

About Booth’s remark about who runs the game, obviously he knows who does right now, so no point lamenting. People have controlled various things at various times, so no pointing ruing what is today a fact. The cricketers earn their bread from the ones who pay the money.

Third point is we are discussing a racist remark not racism which is a much higher thing since it is about biases and prejudices which impact a race’s personal growth and is beyond things said in a fit of rage to each other. It is more likely to be a well thought of and continuous set of actions. Racism is something which is much beyond these silly discussions and banana courts (nothing to do with monkeys). It is much bigger and has a very ugly face, which most of the people indulging in cerebral punching here do not understand. Some of them here (going by the language they use) are much more racists than any person you know.

Please don’t leave racist remarks. I doubt if anyone’s personal knowledge about how another country works is credible enough to be celebrated. We in India can never understand that Bastard can mean your friend, similarly i don’t expect people in Australia to understand that monkeying around in India doesn’t mean a sadist is at work. That’s the only reason that a nation has risen to defend a thought that is alleged. (words don’t count here only the intended meaning)

People consider that the owned occupation of Australia NZ and USA by whites as racist, since it is about the rights of aborigines, maurees and Red Indians. but that is not something an Englishman would ever agree to. Living in another country is ok, but owning it 100% ahead of the original race?

I will leave you with this thought.

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Sania Mirza was lambasted for showing disrespect to the national flag.Now, the national flag did come up in the picture frame, near to her feet. Well, in a picture frame even the Eiffel tower can come under my hand!

The bottomline is that no one was sure, if her feet were close to the flag. Secondly, surely, it didn’t seem that she had noticed the flag, which could even be placed later as everyone keeps looking for a sensational story, and Sania is an easy target.

Now how do we pay homage to the national flag?

• By making sure that it gets hoisted honourably and purposefully, like when athletes or sportsmen win at prestigious events?
• By creating value all around the world through initiatives that help the world?
• By helping people relax through yoga all over the world, and through ayurvedic medicine?
• Or by hoisting it with no purpose but in the technically correct manner and beating a hollow chest by being 112th on the most world class lists of achievements?

If the last is not your take, Sania, is no culprit!

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Andrew Symonds was he called monkey by Harbhajan?
Andrew Symonds says yes he was called, whereas Harbhajan denies.
Inconclusive, since except Andrew Symonds no one knows that. Neutral.

What evidence is there regarding the abuse?
Sure, the video shows them (Andrew Symonds and Harbhajan Singh) having a friendly chat, and there was no anger on Andrew Symond’s face. The video is the only evidence as nobody could have heard the personal friendly discussion they were having. Sachin Tendulkar denies it while Matthew Hayden says he heard it. So, it’s one’s word against another. So no evidence. Neutral.

Is monkey a racial abuse?
Mostly, No! Well it matter about what we think about our forefathers - monkeys. I think here we would need a dictionary of racist words since a lot of words are confusing. Is Gay a racist word? Is bastard (uttered by Brad Hogg for the Captain Anil Kumble) racist? Well, one thing is certain. Monkey may be abusive to some extent, but ranks way below Bastard and F***er. Thumbs Down.

Is there a resemblance between Andrew Symonds and Hanuman - the monkey God?
Hanuman is the monkey God, and the paint on the face of Andrew Symonds strikingly resembles the way Indians drew their God. And that said, the image that comes to every Indian’s mind on seeing these images is the same. You check out these images yourself and decide. So, it is same as calling Inzamam an “Aloo” potato, or Harbhajan a “Turbanator” - hats off to Inzamam and Harbhajan since they grin and bear it! Thumbs Up.

Is the punishment justified?
Well, since there is no evidence of an abuse, and there is a debate on the word being a racial abuse, a maximum of verbal reprimand or a 10% match fees is the maximum they could have gone just to send a strong message. Racial abuse is a strong charge, and surely different from abuse, and cannot be made without strong evidence. Thumbs Down.

Are the issues (of bad umpiring decisions and racial abuse charge) linked?
Well they are getting linked by media and the crowds. A lot of people see it as a attention diverting tactic which is expected to move the focus from the bad umpiring to the racial abuse event, at least temporarily till the hurt of being cheated settles down. Bad tactic. Thumbs Down.

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