As anticipated, the political masters of Pakistan have finally directed its national cricket team to lift the boycott and play India on 15 February, 2026, as scheduled in Colombo . The Masters must've thought the money at stake is too lucrative to continue indulging in such kind of grumpy politics. Of course, they had imposed some pre-conditions that included making the 'handshake' a mandatory protocol, but the ICC looked the other way. So, the PCB takes it as protecting the 'spirit of cricket'. The Indian cricket board , the sponsors, the TV channels and millions of fans who do not necessarily mix patriotism with sports, if it's cricket in particular, must be deliriously ecstatic that all the revenues and hype and excitement shall be there for harvest thr oughout the ICC Men's T20 World Cup-2026 , co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka . Most of the Indians fans must also be ecstatic to have their heroes go on vanquishing the enemy neighbor and humiliating t...
My recent posts reflected a dilemma building up in my innards as to should I go on writing and posting those on apparently a dead wall. I’ve never been a pursuer of ‘success’ in the modern context where it’s a relative term, meaning (in my point of view, similar to Swagata Dey) that ‘success’ does not necessarily match the most integral term ‘merit’, except for some glorious examples in world history. In modern times ‘success’ just happens, maybe due to elements of luck, coincidence, rabid self-promotion, vital links in the network and accidentally appealing stories or videos or whatever, and that success can come overnight or may not come in one’s full lifetime. As far as my work during my service career and my writings since my childhood days are concerned, I do consider myself a success, in my way. Neutrality has been the defining feature all my life, both in my service career and writings, which gives me the freedom to air my views freely. Therefore, I tend to expect neutra...