Interesting!

An excellent example of mutual butt-scratching (i'll scratch yours, so you better scratch mine) is the case of RS Sharma, the beleagured ex-police commissioner who's now spending his last few days in service as chief vigilance officer of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (sic).

After it was clear that Sharma had to go, Maharashtra Chief Minister Sushilkumar Shinde could have taken strong punitive action against him. But instead, he chose to take the innocuous approach of sending Sharma on a leave. And then Shinde proudly proclaimed in front of the media that he had taken "action" on the SIT report by asking Sharma to go on leave.

Since this was a much lesser punishment for Sharma than what was actually warranted, Sharma chose to keep his mouth shut since he had but a few days to go before retirement.

But the cries for Sharma's head were growing by the day. And they could no longer be ignored by Shinde. So, in the end, the state government led by Shinde had to initiate a departmental inquiry against Sharma.

As soon as the decision to initiate a departmental inquiry was made by Shinde, RS Sharma claimed that some ministers' (Maharashtra State Government) names had figured in investigations revealing links with the prime accused. It should be noted that Sharma could have divulged this information when he was quizzed by the SIT on November 8. But he did not do so!

And as soon as Sharma made this allegation, Sushilkumar Shinde had to whip out a mandatory denial today.

As soon as A stops scratching B's butt, B will stop scratching A's butt... and both A and B will suffer from itchy butts.

Marry-Go-Round

The topic of 'marriage' seems to be quite a hot one these days. Just this morning, I happened to notice a Metafilter post on the sanctity of marriage. Shortly after that, I came across Jivha's post on '
Does Arranged Marriage matter?'.

'Love Marriage' versus 'Arranged Marriage' is a topic that has been debated, ad nauseam, in the blogging world. With fierce and eloquent proponents on either side, no side has had the last word in the debate and no one ever will!

I have my views and I shall reserve them for a rainy day! ;-)

And then... continuing with the theme of marriages, they're having 12,000 marriages in Delhi alone, today!!

Holy Matrimony!! (I felt this was much more apt as compared to the usual cry of "Holy Cow!!") The mind boggles seeing this figure!!

Double take

I don't think these days are so boring and devoid of any exciting news that news sites need to repeat the headlines to fill up space! ;-) :-P

Dell Support goes back to US... no wait, it doesn't!!

After the early reports that Dell would be shifting jobs from Bangalore to US, the "I-told-you-so" brigade wore smug expressions on their face as if their predictions had ultimately come true... predictions that Americans would never take to the American accents forced out of Indian mouths.

But unfortunately for them, Dell immediately issued denials stating that there were no plans to shut shop in India and take jobs back to the US. The media, hungry for some news to quell the ever-growing unrest among the unemployed masses back home had reported the news, about customer complaints to Dell, without checking it out thoroughly.

So in the end... Metafilter posts like this one end up looking foolish!

Istanbul bombers mention Kashmir

The Abu Hafz al-Masri Brigade, the offshoot of Al Qaeda, which claimed responsibility for the dastardly bombings in Istanbul, Turkey, have referred to Kashmir in their statement that appeared on an Islamist website, Al Mujahidoun.

The text of that statement enumerates four demands that the terrorists have made from the US and its allies. Numbered three on that list of demands is the following...

3 - To purify all Islamic land from the filth of the Jews and Americans, including Jerusalem and Kashmir.

Hamid Mir, the Pakistani journalist who has interviewed Bin Laden, once said in an interview with Rediff that "Even Osama bin Laden told me in an interview that he is careful about India. He is not ready to comment a word on India. He is not ready to speak on the jihad in Kashmir. He says that if he speaks it will affect the Muslims of India. He says India is not his enemy, his fight is against America."

Obviously, now that position no longer holds as far as Al Qaeda is concerned. Kashmir is undoubtedly creeping up the scale of importance within the Al Qaeda. And that does not really come as a surprise. After the purging of Al Qaeda operatives from Afghanistan in the wake of the 9/11 bombings, these fighters arrived in large numbers into Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) where they felt safe with tacit support of Pakistani intelligence agencies. So it was obvious that the Al Qaeda fighters would be drawn into the "holy" fight against the "oppressive Indian occupation" of Kashmir, in exchange for their safe sanctuary in PoK.

But in mentioning Kashmir, I think Al Qaeda has weakened Pakistan's position on Kashmir further in the eyes of the international community.

On the other hand, India had better pull up its socks and be prepared as fast as possible, or else it'll have to bear the impact of "Operation Islamic Iron Hammer".

WTF?!

It seems the man who's on every Maharashtra politician and policeman's lips these days has contracted a life-threatening illness.

What I fail to understand is how the hell do all the high profile convicts and criminals suddenly have health problems when they're jailed. Some contract "life-threatening" illnesses or some just complain of uneasiness run off to hospitals instead of spending nights in the cells. Do they believe that the public is so naive that their pathetic attempts at avoiding jail are not known to people??!

Looking at it from a different angle... I wonder what the police do inside the cells that hale and hearty convicts suddenly fall so sick. With so many "low-profile" deaths (those of petty criminals... without any pull and power) occurring in custody, one does not have to really wonder!! And in high-profile cases, a "life-threatening" illness will always precede death. Remember the sudden death of biscuit-king Rajan Pillai while in police custody some 8 years ago??

Happy Children's Day

Never let go of the child in you!!

Basic mistakes

This is almost a perfect analysis of the troubles plaguing India's cricket team at the moment!

Lambs to the slaughter...

Wow! ... The Aussies made mincemeat of the Indian bowling attack!! 347 for 2 wickets in 50 overs is some score!!

As I post this, the Indians have started cautiously in their quest to overhaul the Aussie total. 36/0 in 7 overs. And Sehwag is on 4 runs off 15 balls!!

Is anyone brave enough to predict an Indian win here??

A new caste system

In Bihar, even horses have castes

'We decide the caste of a horse after a through check up of its colour, size, facial cut and behaviour,' said horse trader Ramadhar Singh. The first criterion is colour, followed by size, he added.
'A particular horse behaves as per its caste -- horses of Brahmin caste are handsome, calm and well-behaved,' said Maheshwar Pandey, a horse rider.
He said a Brahmin horse easily follows its rider's orders; a Kshatriya caste horse is strong, tough and angry; and a horse of the Shudra caste is considered ill-mannered.

ROTFL!!

Pathetic!!... What more can one say about this?!!

Srinath quits international cricket

Srinath quits international cricket

"I have decided to retire. I will make a formal announcement later in the day," Srinath said.

I think the time was right for him to quit. After a fantastic World Cup, he's going while he's still fairly at the top of his game. And I'm glad for that. It would've been sad if he had chosen to let his career drag along like some other cricketers have done over the years!!

I wish him all the best for his future ventures. I sure do hope that he utilizes his experience for the benefit of Indian cricket in some way or the other.

Oh please! Gimme a break!!

CNN reports that a study claims that millions have deleted all the music files from their computers fearing the RIAA actions!

More than a million households deleted all the digital music files they had saved on their PCs in August, a sign that the record industry's anti-piracy tactics are hitting home, research company NPD Group said.

C'mon!! ... gimme a break! I don't know who would believe this crap being dished out under the guise of a survey/study. Can't they tell that people have just stopped sharing their music online??!! Anyone with a shred of common sense ought to know that!! But then, I'm sure this is just a study sponsored by RIAA or its underlings!

The Google Deskbar

Google is at it again! It has released the Google Deskbar, a tool that allows you to "to search with Google from any application without lifting your fingers from the keyboard".

Sounds good! I'm already downloading it! :-)

Here comes the Mumbai Marathon

Move over Boston and London, Mumbai's here!!

On January 11, 2004, the first ever Mumbai Marathon will be run. This was announced at a press conference by the Dy. CM of Maharashtra and the Mayor of Mumbai. They also unveiled the route that the marathon would take. In fact, there will be three races run on that day... the normal Marathon, the half-marathon and a special 'Dream Run'.

C'mon, get your running shoes on, people!!

Fish farting

Apparently... the fish fart too!

Biologists have linked a mysterious, underwater farting sound to bubbles coming out of a herring's anus. No fish had been known to emit sound from its anus nor to be capable of producing such a high-pitched noise.

Ahaa!! Now this is something I did not need to know!! And they have even recorded it for your listening pleasure. Click here (.wav file) to listen to the fish fart!!

yuck!!

And the biologists, not usually known for their sense of humour, have named the noise as Fast Repetitive Tick (FRT) !!

How creative!!

Laloo prices himself

The inimitable Laloo Prasad Yadav will now charge a fee for appearing at his own party rallies!

The move, apparently, is aimed at filling up his party's dwindling coffers. But how will this move help in this regard is a good question. Especially since he'll be charging (Rs. 1.2 lakh per appearance) his own partymen for his appearances!!

Weird logic!

The new cry-baby of international cricket

Nasser Hussain seems to have passed on the mantle of "Captain Grumpy" to Stephen Fleming. Fleming, obviously irritated at his team's performance, took the easy way out by slamming early morning starts for the matches that New Zealand have been involved in.

"They've got it wrong, you can't start this early with wickets like this, there's no point. We've been on the wrong side of it twice and it makes the next game a lottery too," Fleming said.

"There's two competitions going on - one for us and Australia where it seams around and is tough to bat and India lay another one where it gets lower and slower then turns. I wonder who did that itinerary," Fleming said.

Well, well, well!! Look who's talking??!! A Kiwi!! But hasn't he forgotten the time when India toured New Zealand?? What kind of conditions did India encounter over there??! Damp and seaming wickets right throughout the series... [understatement] heavily loaded in the favour of the home team pacemen [/understatement]. Agreed that those wickets were okay for Test Matches... but we got exactly the same wickets for the one-dayers. Indians struggled and made noises about the conditions. But these noises fell on deaf ears. What was Fleming doing at that time? Just because it suited the Kiwis, he did not utter a word. And of course... it was just before the World Cup and what better preparation than thrashing the Indians just before the cup.

Fleming says that the games turn into lotteries with these early starts. But hey... what is one-day cricket if not a lottery?!! You win some and you lose some!

And did the Kiwis not reduce the Aussies to 65 for 4 in 15 overs in the match at Pune?? And that too bowling second... supposedly after the "juice" had gone out of the wicket!!... coz by Fleming's own admission, the seaming conditions ease out after the first 25 overs of the match! So how did NZ lose the match from there on??... The answer is... through inept cricket!! They dropped too many catches and displayed poor fielding. Maybe Fleming should look inwards and examine these reasons for his team's loss... rather than slamming the conditions!

Fleming should thank his stars that Indians played good hosts by not giving spinning, "dust-bowl" kind of wickets for the test series that recently concluded! Indians were well within their rights to do so, especially after the kind of wickets they encountered in NZ earlier this year!

So Mr. Fleming, could you keep your trap shut and get on with the game??!

Trouser Semaphore

Can communicate using the incredible Trouser Semaphore??!

The acquired skill known as Trouser Semaphore is swiftly gaining currency as the only way for people of quality to communicate in an age of rapidly escalating background noise levels.
...

Across the floor of a crowded cocktail gathering, you too would be able to convey your inner most thoughts and deepest needs to like minded individuals, using nothing more than flexibility of your physique and the rough pliability of one’s trouser cloth. Surely, there is no sight more moving than a man and three square yards of carefully tailored cavalry twill moving in perfect harmony.

Enuf said!! ROTFL