After all the rumours that have been floating around for a some time during the Asia Cup, it seems Dhoni might finally decide to take a break from cricket. There are very strong signs that he’s going to ask not to be selected for the upcoming SL tour. We all know the kind of intense scheduling that the India team has been put through for the last one year. And Dhoni being the captain of the one day side and a key member of the Test team as well has handled a remarkable workload both mentally and physically. Add to that the burden of leading the Chennai Super Kings to the final of the IPL. It’s not the physical side that has taken a toll on Dhoni. In the last one year there have hardly been any matches where he has been unfit. Nor has he played with injury and thus undermining his own performance. He has shown remarkable fitness levels- hallmarks of a truly professional sportsman. With the kind of commitment and performance that he has shown I don’t think I’ll be alone in saying that he really deserves a break. Besides cricket isn’t such an easy game mentally. The off-field pressures of cricket in India are massive and to handle it all takes an almost saint-like patience.
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We talk a lot about imported products in India ranging from cell phones, TVs, and all sorts of electronic gadgets. But we tend to ignore some of the most obvious things which we happen to see daily. Things that may be seen by the side of the roads and newstands - Magazines! Vogue, Rolling Stone, OK!, Hello, Maxim, FHM, Golf Digest, People and Marie Claire and the list goes on endlessly. They all publish in India and they are so common in newstands here. But can we really call them imported products? Does the Vogue which comes out in India same as that in the US? On the contrary it seems Vogue is a perfectly Indian magazine. The content of the Indian version is India-specific, it is published and circulated within India only. It makes it as much like a ‘India Today’ except that the profits of the magazine sales go the people abroad.

In this article, the New York Times takes a look at the magazines abroad which have made a mark with a customized Indian version. Although these magazines are expensively priced(at about Rs.100) than the average Indian magazine, many of them command quite a large readership among Indians. And some of the content and ads matches with the editions abroad. But most of it is exclusively designed and published for the Indian reader. The interesting thing about these foreign mags is that though people get initially attracted to it by the brand name, they become a regular reader because of the content. Infact some of the content is as “racier” as the ones published in the US. And looking at the kind of aggressive marketing that these mags have adopted they are here to stay and even grow in readership, the only barrier being the price of a copy.

External Link: In India, Magazines That Translate Well

Whoever said running or jogging is an exercise and can’t be done for fun? If you’re one of those who wants to run but doesn’t feel upto it, well, think again. Being one of the most recommended exercises by many doctors, jogging or running has become a theme across India. Especially those living those hectic lifestyles in the cities. Apart from those health buffs who want to stay fit and those aiming for marathons around the world, there is a new group of people who have have joined the “jogging gang” - those who jog for fun! You can see them out there daily if you happen to get up early and jog yourself. Staying fit is not their sole motive. Nor competing in marathons. They are mostly working professionals looking to have a relaxing morning jog with an added benefit of staying fit.
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Ever got a driving license in your life? I’m sure most of you would have(including me) So I ask to those who have got their licenses, how many of you know the exact procedure to be followed in getting a license? Yeah I know many of you would have got it through bribing some official or the other. Bribes include the “extra” amounts that you pay to the driving schools as well because that money eventually goes into the pockets of those corrupt RTO officials. Alright I’ll be the first to admit that I did pay a bribe to get my license. I’m not too proud of it but I didn’t have much choice or time and my dad was getting pretty insistent I get it soon. So I just dropped into a nearby driving school, submitted my documents and paid up. But it was just yesterday that I hit upon this blog which put me to shame. It was a blog of someone who had got his license without paying a single paise of bribe! (Do such persons really exist in India??!! ) And to add insult to me, he had listed down the exact procedure of obtaining a driving license in India which I painfully did not know. It really was a good read.

Take a look at it here

Ah Ha! So anybody willing to try? Not that I blame you. I just wish I hadn’t gotten mine so fast!

P.S. If you had gotten your license without paying a bribe do post your experiences in the comments section. Your accomplishment would not go unnoticed. Not here!

A senior Bridagier rank Defence Attache R D Mehta and an IFS officer Venketeswara Rao were among those killed in a deadly suicide attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul yesterday morning. It is the first such attack of any kind on a Indian mission abroad and the deadliest suicide attack in Afghanistan since the US invasion of 2001. More than 41 people have been confirmed to be dead and about 140 of believed to be injured. However the Indian ambassador Jayant Prasad is believed to be alive and safe. The gruesome incident took place at the entrance of the heavily fortified embassy building complex in Kabul,Afghanistan. The Indian Embassy is located in the same street as the Afghan Interior Ministry and hence the street is cordoned off at both ends by security check posts. How the explosive laden vehicle actually got through those checkposts is anyone’s guess but it is suggested that these check-posts are pretty lackadaisical outposts and can be easily driven through.
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I wonder what has become of public sector banks. I was actually astonished by the number of people opting for private banks these days; banks like HDFC, ICICI etc. spring to mind. There were a few reasons which made me tear my hair as to why this was happening. Firstly these private banks have very complicated rules and regulations governing your transactions and bank accounts. Some even have limits one the number of ATM withdrawals you can do per month before you actually end up paying for them. I don’t think its reasonable for a common man to grasp all these rules and not risk losing his hard earned money inadvertently to the bank. Secondly, the kind of minimum balances required by some of these banks border on the ridiculous. I mean, honestly, minimum balances are the amounts that you never take out of a bank account. So you would want it to be as minimum as possible. The bank is meant to keep your money tenporarily and you’d be better of not donating money at rates of about 2% for this cause. Thirdly, and most importantly, have our public sector banks- nationalized government regulated supposedly “safe” banks- become just not good enough? One visit to one of the public sector banks confirmed the reason to me in striking clarity.
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In a welcome move, the Government Railway Police in Chennai have installed complaint boxes to lodge complaints against eve-teasers. Anyone using the suburban trains and MRTS in cities like Chennai know the kind of situations that some women face during their daily commute to the workplace or college. The scale of such events has done come down in recent times not least due to the boldness with which today’s women stand up to such miscreants. So in a way, trains have become much safer. But that doesn’t mean that eve-teasing is non-existent. Infact it still continues at “smaller levels”, which most women ignore in favour of getting to their colleges and offices in time. Now though, all they need to do is just write a short complaint and drop it into one of these boxes. They have been installed at the two major railway terminals in Chennai - Chennai Central and Chennai Egmore. And further the complainer can have the safety of anonymity as they are not required to mention their names in their complaint. But they are asked to mention details about any particular incident, describe the persons involved clearly and the place of the crime. It seems the boxes will be cleared thrice a day(really??) and swift action will be taken against the eve-teasers. And these boxes are not just for women. Any man who comes across any form of eve-teasing in the trains should not hesitate to lodge a complaint too. Lets make the best use of it and bring those criminals to justice.

Read more about it here

With the kind of religious sentiments I see echoed in the comments section of one of our posts here, I thought it would be appropriate to talk about one of the finest gestures by a religious institution. A church here in Chennai has invited a Muslim scholar to deliver a speech on “Islam in the modern age” which deserves applause for its sheer boldnesss.

“Talk” about being really secular. In a broad minded gesture, a church in Chennai invited a Muslim to deliver a talk on Islam on Friday.

A. Faizur Rahman, who is a student of comparative literature and an executive member of Harmony India, was invited by St. Louis Church, Adyar, to talk on “Islam in the modern age.”

Mr. Rahman, who says he has written a number of articles on Islam and Muslims, was particularly proud of his latest assignment. “It is quite broad-minded of a church to invite a Muslim for a lecture on Islam. I am glad to give the liberal view on Islam and the Quran,” he gushed.

The lecture, which went on for an hour and a half was followed by a rather intense question-answer session, according to Edward Aloysius, one of the parishioners of St. Louis Church. He adds that a group of senior citizens who are parishioners of the church banded together as the Wise Folks Forum struck upon the idea of inviting people from other religions to speak about the key features of their own faiths.

The first topic was Islam and other religions will soon follow, he added.

- The Hindu 21/06/2008

Let’s face it, today there are sections within every religion who preach religious fanaticism. They not only appraise their own religions( there isn’t much wrong in this) but also denounce other faiths. So it has all added up to create an atmosphere of mistrust amongst people of various faiths. The kind of mistrust that we are actually witnessing all over the country here. Hence this is exactly the kind of thing which would go towards eliminating it. Just imagine a Muslim scholar speaking about Islam and the Kuran to an entirely Christian audience. It would go a long way to removing the misbeliefs that plague the society of today.

And this is not just an one-off but part of a series of guest lectures where the church has planned to invite scholars from other religions to talk about them and have a frank discussion with them. Ofcourse the entire outcome of the whole process depends on the kind of people handling the issues, but with a good rational dialogue it can only promote religious harmony. I would welcome if things like these were to be encouraged rather than denounced for religious sacrilege which it clearly is not. Yes there might be points argued and  questions raised but there can be no better platform to resolve these issues than this kind of interaction. Air your comments on this. Would such a thing really work out in practice? Or am I just being too optimistic?

Who is John Abraham? What do I know about him? The answer to that is almost nothing till yesterday. Being someone who doesn’t watch Bollywood films and not familiar with Bollywood stars, I honestly didn’t know much about John Abraham except that he is an model turned actor. So when his interview was aired in NDTV this week, it was natural curiosity that took me to watch it.

Titled Euro Mania, it was a casual chit-chat with John Abraham with a special impetus on the ongoing Euro2008 and football. I was aware of his interest in football as he comes in one of the ads for EPL in ESPN and also being an official ambassador for Euro 2008. But the next one hour of his interview was very impressive- his attitude, his humility and his striking realism.

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And so it happens again. Yet another escape of an accused in the now (in)famous Satyendra Dubey murder case has once again left the Patna police looking like a bunch of nincompoops. It is the second time he(Uday Chaudhary) has escaped. And to add salt to the wounds, on both instances he ran away when he was brought to the court to be produced before a judge.

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