King of banality and second-hand insights

Shashi Tharoor re-asserts his claim to the throne with this statement -

Drinking Coke has not Coca Colarised India.

What astounds me is the conviction with which he utters these platitudes of nonsense. These are statements that even university undergrads would be embarrassed to utter. Only a paper like The Times of India cares to publish such drivel, which actually makes it a sort of a perfect match.

‘India have been dudded’

Excerpts from some reactions in the aftermath of the Sydney shocker.

Peter Roebuck writes in the Sydney Morning Herald -

India have been dudded. No one with the slightest enthusiasm for cricket will take the least satisfaction from the victory secured by the local team in an SCG Test that entertained spectators, provided some excellent batting but left a sour taste in the mouth.

It was a match that will have been relished only by rabid nationalists and others for whom victory and vengeance are the sole reasons for playing sport. Truth to tell, the last day was as bad as the first. It was a rotten contest that singularly failed to elevate the spirit.

Mukul Kesavan, in another brilliant piece wrote -

This was a Test match where the excitement was manufactured by incompetent umpires making weird decisions: the Indians players must have felt like lab rats being chivvied by mad scientists.

He also had some advice for Steve Bucknor -

If Benson was incompetent, Bucknor was incompetent and perverse. The moment that summed up this match’s inexplicably bad umpiring was Bucknor’s decision not to refer Dhoni’s appeal for a stumping against Symonds to the third umpire. What was he thinking? Bucknor and the Indians have have a long history of friction and this last performance by him is unlikely to improve things. He is scheduled to stand in the Perth Test: I’d be very surprised if the Indians don’t formally petition the authorities to substitute him. If I was Bucknor, I’d withdraw and use the time to see an opthalmologist: his dismissal of Dravid in the second innings suggests that he’s seeing things.

Prem Panicker on his blog on Rediff called the umpiring ‘the most atrocious in living memory.’

Wasim Akram called the Aussies ‘crybabies and hypocrites‘ when they have been cricket’s worst sledgers.

One of the lingering memories, personally, would remain Sunil Gavaskar’s inflamed outburst in the commentary box after Ganguly’s dismissal.

What utter nonsense, he thundered.
Sorry, Mr Benson, you’ve got it all wrong.

Filth, No More Blood

Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s knack for coming out with ridiculous comments doesn’t seem to have died with Nandigram. Here he goes again at a function to mark the anniversary of a CPI-M mouthpiece -

The reality has forced us to accept capitalism as the only way to get funds for industries. We are aware of the filth that is inherent in capitalism but there is no other way at the moment.

I have never understood this Marxist obsession with ideological purity, which obviously reduces all other philosophies to filth. I’m always reminded of E M Forster’s wonderful quote who called reformers like these ‘obsessed with purity and who cannot see that their obsession is impure.’

Instead of blood in the name of ideological puritanism, give me filth any day.