The Great Fix!

The news was not expected, to me at least. It was impossible to argue, in spite of lack of concrete evidence, that IPL is not rigged. It turned out to be worse than I thought. My feeling was that the tournament was fixed from the top i.e. the administration is fixing the results to suit them. And though I think that still is the case (Chennai’s team is owned by chief of BCCI, how fucked up that conflict of interest has to be!), it has emerged that even players were fixing the games. I do not think the trio currently in bind are the only ones. Two of the players are virtually unknown to have any effect on the results on sustained basis. The fixing goes down deeper, the so called super-stars have to be involved.

It is a batsman’s game. The fixing plan, as per Delhi Police, was bowlers will leak out pre-determined number of runs in a particular over. There was an elaborate system to signal bookies about the players where bowlers were going to ‘take a dive’. But if batsman refuses to hit the bowl, even if the delivery is mother of all lose delivery then what? Also, what if batsman is dumb enough to get out or mishit and gets caught? Also, if two of the bowlers in question were at best fringe players for their respective state teams. If they had this kind of precision to leak the runs then they would be fucking playing for India by now. The only way this plan would work is if batsman was also part of the fix. The bowler will throw a dumb delivery and batsman, knowing this, will hit for the boundary.

Can anyone please ask these questions to the cops? Oh right, the media and the press already work for BCCI and IPL, they will summarily bury this issue in a week or so.  

Even if these bowlers had not got caught, the signs of IPL being fixed are all over the place. The teams are structured haphazardly; the ownerships are shrouded in mystery and the source of funding is murky. If that wasn’t enough then BCCI administration was transitioning into a political organization headed by one of the most corrupt politician in the country. Do you think he really gave a shit about Cricket? He saw the opportunity to siphon money and he jumped in with his two feet. His cotire is who’s who of power and money and IPL was their call to duty.

The prices of teams were beyond wildest imagination. To give readers some perspective – NBA's Boston Celtics was sold to new owners in 2001 for around $340 Million. The team has highest number of championships in the history of NBA; they were the pioneers of employing black players and hiring a black coach. They won unprecedented 9 championships in a row, the feat hasn’t been accomplished again. They, in short, defined Basketball and NBA. On the other hand, Pune’s IPL sold for the same price with virtually no history in IPL and no solid future plan. And, I am discounting the fact that Boston is in US where $ is the currency while Pune is in India where Rs. Is the currency and $1 is equivalent to Rs.55 that means the you have to multiply $340 by  55 to get the valuation of team in Rupee.

Okay…I will stop here….what I meant to say is this shit is fucked up!

I have already ranted about how IPL is ruining Indian cricket. It was befuddling to see players like Sehwag and Gambhir throw away their privilege of playing for India, just so that they could earn more money playing in IPL. By the way, playing for India does earn them millions of dollars (again multiply it by 55 to get their real income in Rupee!) I argued that lure of money shouldn’t be a reason for them to act like this and I also said that this precedent will kill Cricket. I didn’t realize that these players have sold their soul for money.

To be honest all of this doesn’t matter as long as public is flocking to watch the games and flock they will! If we don’t demand honesty then we will only get crooks, if we don’t demand commitment then we will only get money mongers. We get what we deserve, nothing more nothing less!

Kai Po Che - An Alternate Version!

Recently tried to watch Kai Po Che. I didn’t finish it. I couldn’t. I could see how the movie will unfold within first half and hour. I was enraged. But it wouldn’t be sincere to criticize a movie without watching it. So I read the movie synopsis and guess what, I was furious!
 
The movie quality was excellent. The actors played their role sincerely and direction had a purpose. Overall a quality product. But the movie wasn’t a typical run of the mill love story for me to let it go. The subject wasn’t benign. The story is written by Chetan Bhagat, one of the most popular modern day English language author in India. I have never read any of his material but the movie he wrote was such a farce.
 
To say the truth was twisted is an overwhelmingly understatement.
 
When I first heard that the story is set at the backdrop of 2001 Gujarat Riots, I knew the ‘secular’ bias will creep in. It wasn’t simply a story of friendship evolving amidst riots. The riots were central and the bias was essential to the story line. The oft littered Om’s, Swastika’s, photos of gods and goddesses, the backdrop of Temple in every frame, seemingly innocuous, had a dark motive. These symbolism was essential in communicating the‘Hindu conservative’ upbringing of the central characters. The main antagonist, a politician, is a pop culture misrepresentation of BJP/RSS/Shiv Sena leadership. He was portrayed in most negative light – a coward, corrupt and a power hungry anti-Muslim opportunist who would take advantage of his ‘bhanja’ in his nefarious design. I mean Hindi films usually portray mafia underworld in a positive light! Special sequence was created to emphasize the divisive nature of this Hindu politician when he purposefully helps only Hindus after the earthquake. On the other hand, Muslims are showed in best possible lights with no religious fundamentalism whatsoever. The burning of 60 Hindus in Godhra by Muslim mob was fleetingly mentioned as if it was a natural occurrence.

I am not saying Muslims should have shown in a negative light but to clearly demarcate between politicians with Hindu leanings being hell-bent on destroying the lives of peace loving, hard-working, and poor Muslims is a disgusting way of defining the secularism. I don’t think there’s any country in the world where the concept of secularism is disfigured as it is in India. The majority is hostage in their own country! (No, I am not saying minorities do not belong to this country. India is their country too but they are not special because of their religion.)  


The story was loyal to how media and the so called ‘secular’ politicians usually present the reality. The nuance of Hindu-Muslim interaction, their wretched history, the current political pandering for Muslim votes and Muslim communities increasing insistence on not taking advantage of advancing economy is purposefully neglected. The blame was put on Hindus for the riots and politicians with Hindu leanings were shown as conspiring against Muslims. A new reality was created out of thin air and packaged as a serious take of 2001 riots.

In any case, since when the fuck did Indians started caring about truth or reality?

How about an alternate story line: Three Muslim friends start a cricket academy. They spot a raw talent, a young boy with penchant for hitting sixes. He happens to be a Hindu. They started training him hard. They ensure that his training goes well in spite of many challenges (like earthquake and stuff!). Then the riots started. Awfulness ensued but these three Muslim youth protect our Hindu boy and his family. They fight against other Muslims in saving these Hindus and one of the friend dies heroically for the cause. Rest of the two friends then exposes the Muslim politicians and terrorist who burnt the Godhra train.

Anyone wants to produce this storyline? I will write the script for free!

The Reality Of History

I am almost 1/3 way ‘kindling’ “The People’s History of United States” by Howard Zinn. (I am copyrighting the term ‘Kindling’ i.e. reading a book on Kindle!) First time I learned about this book when Mr. Zinn was making at my college for a lecture. The book's been on my reading list since then. The book is a factual history of people and for people. The ‘people’ are the working class poor, the downtrodden, and the sufferers. The book presents history as is, without white-washing (literally!). And it surely does an admirable job. The book was written to counter the ‘official’ history popular with the masses and taught in the schools. I don’t know how American history book present their past but it is safe to assume that sharp edges are sawed-off and bloody aspects washed clean. It is hard to teach kids that the ‘land of free’ is built by systematically removing native Indians from their own land or enslaving millions of soul simply because of their skin color. It ain’t sexy, you know!

The premise of the book is that the country always excluded majority population from ruling and in essence, is not a true democracy. The rich and the powerful interests always governed and laws are structured to serve them. The blacks, native Indians, woman (all of them) and poor whites were systematically disfranchised right from the declaration of independence. Even the Civil War of 1861 was stimulated more by economic interests of rich than actual opposition to Slavery. (That is not to say there was no opposition to slavery. The north-eastern states had banned slavery for almost 100 years prior to civil war but if it wasn’t for necessity of opening of southern markets and emergence of western frontier, the emancipation of blacks would have been delayed further.)

I am currently going through the Civil War chapter.

I agree with this premise but to argue that true democracy is an ideal state is utopian. It never happened in human history and will not happen ever. The way human psyche works and responds, there’s always someone at the top taking advantage of others who are at the bottom. Garbs could be different; they may be Kings, rich barons, military dictators, monopolist industrialists or Priests. Revolution may throw the existing system but inherent structure remains the same. The human ambition forces people to coagulate, build, destroy, annihilate and rebuild again. There is no cure for this.

I am not trying to defend the actions of European settlers (or invaders!). Without a shred of moral hesitancy, they summarily annihilated all Native Americans. The Founding Fathers of United States proclaimed a grand-standing constitution granting freedom to everyone even though they had slaves and allowed the practice of slavery, disfranchised women and voting rights were based on property owned. I am not saying that these acts should not be criticized.

But there is no denying that this is how the world works and will continue to work. Unjust and violent

Back to the book!

The Syrian Quagmire

The Syria crisis is turning murky and bloody. The civil wars are always a bloody affair so no surprise there. In today’s world, resources – human or natural, play important role in defining the world order. On the contrary Syria which contributes pretty much nothing to the world is playing such an important role in defining the future conflicts. The Syrian situation is interesting because wide array of actors with diverse interests are jostling over this ancient land. Apart from the Basher al Assad, the dictator of Syria, we have Israel, US, the Sunni block (Saudi, Egypt, Jordan etc.), Iran and the Islamic fundamentalist - Al Quida types terrorist organizations - jostling for power in Syria.

Why so much is invested in this piece of land? As I said before this country does not product anything of use. The answer is its proximity to Israel. But this is easy to understand, right? Well, no, in terms of complexity things go downhill from here. The country has been under rule of Assad’s for last 40 years and like other Arab countries, Syria maintains bitter acrimony with Israel. The Assads are Alwaite, an Islamic sect like Shia’s and Sunnis. But majority – 86%, of Syrians are Sunnis. In order to maintain their power they actively feed off Iran for weapons and money. Iran, a Shia state, shares the hatred of Sunnis with Assads. And in order to increase their power in the Arab land Iran uses Syria as a base. Please bear with me as I go deeper in this rabbit hole. The Shias, sunnis and Alwaits share hatred for Israel. So to prove their Islamic credentials they do crazy shit to mess with Israel. The sunni block supports the Palestinian movement. It’s in their interest for Palestine not to form so that they can keep fighting proxy war with Israel. Iran, instead of going through the Palestine cause, supports terrorist organizations like Hezbollah. This terrorist organization is based out of Syria and Lebanon with stated aim of wiping Israel of world map.

In short, the Shia and Sunni block is fighting proxy war with each other by fighting proxy war with Israel through anti-Israel causes and terrorist organizations.

If you are familiar with the concept of Derivative, we are in the territory of double derivatives and about to enter the triple derivatives!

The situation, already dark, turns catastrophically complex when US brings its interest to the table. The Americans are least interested in Syria. The Syrian civil war has been going on for two years already. But three issues bring US to the table. One, they have to insert themselves in the any and every Middle-East situation when Israel is in the play. The Syrian civil war is too close to home for Israel to not to take a role. I am surprised it took them this long to start moving. The Syrians has held the Lebanon hostage for more than 25 years and had made that country a launching pad for attacking Israel. I would have expected Israel to be a major player in Syrian player long time ago.

The second factor is involvement of Iran. US is setting up stage for war in Iran for last three to four years. Under various pretexts, the Americans have been ratcheting up the military presence in Gulf of Homruz. This is making Iran uneasy, to say the least! But they be damned if they reduce their stupid-ass war mongering rhetoric.  With Syria though, Iran cannot afford to lose Assads since they invested so long and so much in them.  With Iran in play in Syrian war, Americans has to jump in the fray to neutralize them. Perhaps, Iran is trying to divert US’s attention away from them.

The third factor is the Islamic fundamentalists creeping into the Syrian war. The remnants of Al-Quida are still active in pockets across the world.  These fundamentalist morons thought they will run with the Iraq war but Americans busted their chops efficiently and comprehensively. Now the ‘left-overs’ are trying to hijack the Syrian war. They have sided with anti-Assad forces, at least for now. And if Assad is to be thrown out then they are hoping to use Syria their home for their grand ambition.

Suffice to say American’s are not happy with this play. They want Al-Quida and Co. dead and buried and I don’t mean that metaphorically! The American response to Syrian crises is limited to providing food and occasional intelligence tips to the rebels. But it won’t be long before we see a concrete in place.

The US policy decisions will impact the future conflict in the middle-east. Involvement of Americans in this conflict will decide whether they have enough political will and band-width to wage full-scale war with Iran. If the Assads are thrown out then Iran will lose a key ally and that may force them to de-escalate their rhetoric with Americans but if that’s to happen then it means Islamic fundamentalist would gain upper hand in Syria and which in turn will draw further attention of Americans. The Americans cannot side with Assads since Assads are supported by Iran but US cannot necessarily side with the rebels either since that means they will be helping the Islamic fundamentalist. Talk about to be or not to be!

It is mind-numbing and impossible to predict how the glass will break but one way or another civil war in this tiny and useless piece of land will reshape the middle-eastern geo-politics.

The New Yorker recently ran an extensive article on the effect of Syrian civil war on civilians. Tens of thousands have been killed in the war so far. The war is already gruesome but it’s taking turn for worse. Assad’s don’t give a fuck about anyone. They won’t mind killing everyone if that’s to mean they can cling to the power. They have used helicopters, artillery and recently, chemical weapon on civilians. Sadly history of middle-east is littered with Assads. It’s the poor who die in troves and yet, fail to impress on any final outcome. This war is of war of empires and human life is least of anyone’s concern.

The Chinese Import

I am not sure how the Chinese incursion happened. The details are not forthcoming but it reminded me of a legend. Chandragupta Maurya had recently defeated his arch-nemesis – the Nanda dynasty. He was busy in organizing the grand ceremony of coronation. Invitations were sent out in all directions. The ceremony was meant to be more than just grand. It was meant to be a statement signifying change in geo-politics. Nanda dynasty was one of the strongest at that time and Chandragupta by defeating them had established himself to be a power center throughout Indian sub-continent. His invitation to coronation wasn’t necessarily an invitation to party but rather an order to submit to his power.

 As it happened King Purushottam, popularly known as Porus, of Sindh had other plans in his mind. Instead of accepting the invitation he proceeded to behead Mauryan ambassador. He sent the ambassador’s head as his response.

Chandragupta was not sure what to make out of this mess. He had no problem with King Purushottam, at least for now. So he decided to carry on with the coronation. Chanakya, the protagonist behind Chandragupta’s ascension to power, after hearing this incidence was furious. The legend has it that he walked in the middle of ceremony and ordered Chandragupta to stop the ceremony and gather army to attack King Purushhottam. Chandragupta did just that. He proceeded to defeat King Purushottam in a bloody battle. After that battle he accorded himself a grand coronation.

The moral of the story – you better take any challenge to your sovereign authority seriously. I mean dead seriously. There’s no messing around. When your freedom is challenged you response better be furious and apt. The message has to be clear to the instigator – you can’t f*&k around with us.

Unfortunately modern day India never got this memo. We treat our sovereignty with pinch of salt. You attacked us, no big deal; let’s have a peace talk first. You want to encroach our territory, absolutely okay with that; let’s have a talk about that too. Our message is we don’t give a s&*t about our sovereignty or freedom and neither should you! Otherwise, how on earth China continues to encroach in Arunachal Pradesh and Kashmir 50 years we fought war with them. They smacked us around in 1962 due legendary inaptness and criminal negligence of Jawahar Nehru and yet we refuse to learn our lesson, refuse to be vigilent.

The Chinese were simply testing the water. They probably wanted to see how we respond. They probably wanted to check our preparedness. They must be glad to see we failed in every front. Our armed forces failed to detect the incursion, our political class failed to show resolve, strategy or vigor and our society simply turned their back. IPL is on TV, who the fuck cares if Chinese invade us tomorrow, right?

Not sure how so many morons believe that India will be a superpower because I don’t see any characteristics of a strong society. India 2020, my a$%^!

We have IPL though, a grand achievement indeed!