From the News Room

Interesting things happen here.

The people here are not abnormal, not sadistic either. They are only enthusiastic and focused on getting the big news for their headlines. Particularly on a dull day when nothing wants to happen. Not that, again, they want bad things to happen.

So, when a story comes in about a terrible loss of property caused by something or the other the chief reporter goes through it and exclaims, 'Oh! This is good!'

'What do you mean 'good'?'

'No...no...I mean...well...this is another big loss suffered by our people and our country. But, we got our headline!'

Then, sometimes visuals about a big fire are late to be uploaded or downloaded. And, at the last moment the clips come in the editor shouts, 'Aag laga do!'(Put the fire on!) So that the news does not go dry.

You see, the people definitely do not mean what they say or do!

Khan Cricket

Shahrukh Khan, the superstar of Bollywood. A huge success.

And he buys a cricket team. Performance in the first IPL was so and so.

But IPL-2 is super duper flop. Kolkata Knight Riders have lost 7 of the 9 games played and is languishing at the bottom of the table.

What went wrong? Well it was a leadership crisis. If you did not have faith in Saurav Ganguly you should have just dropped him or put him out of captaincy. But you tried to introduce the concept of multiple captains which meant you had no faith in anyone. Leader has to be one who can lead a team of 11 members and who can inspire them to perform above par. And you dared to criticize Gavaskar, the living legend of Indian cricket.

A cricket team can be bought thanks to BCCI, but what is finally played in the field has to be and is cricket. That cricket you cannot buy and manipulate.

Despite having terrific players KKR is crying hoarse for a leader. They are just not inspired. They are dropping simple catches regularly and are losing what they should have won.

Just think of the fate of a ship out on a stormy sea managed by multiple captains!

Mandatory Democracy?

Thanks to Mumbai's poor voting, barely 40 per cent, few political leaders have demanded voting be made mandatory. Well, how do you enforce it? By getting the abstaining voters arrested or withdrawing basic facilities from them or making them pay more tax and money?

Voters understand their rights and would always like to exercise provided they benefit from this. How their expectations are met? With more and more lousy promises? The terror trauma of 2008 will take time to get erased. This can only be done by politicians becoming accountable--offering concrete solutions rather than mere promises.

We are not supporting abstaining voters; we are only trying to analyse this most serious trend for the largest democracy of the world. Trying to enforce democracy would be the joke of the millennium!

Before making such demands so-called leaders should first introspect, introspect intensely.