Viswanathan K's Thoughts

I always felt that Superman was the most “unreal” of the superheroes. Ok, all of them are unreal when it comes to their powers, but Superman was the one good guy who was also perceived as a good guy. Contrast that with the other superheroes: Batman was notoriously dark and brooding; Spiderman always got bad press (which is kind of ironic given that Peter Parker is a journalist!). Well, all that just changed: Superman renounced his US citizenship! Apparently, our superhero was supporting some protestors in Iran and was accused of being a stooge for the American government. So he felt the best way to refute the charge was to, well, drop his nationality. Apparently, even Superman’s physical powers are not enough in the age of tweets, Wikileaks and slander! Who needs Kryptonite anymore to take on Superman? That’s so amusing at so many levels! Note how he has problems with Iran but not with Saudi Arabia or Bahrain? Now isn’t that the same policy the US government has? Me thinks Superman doe...

After the Right to Education, the government has a National Food Security Bill in the pipeline: simply put, it would make food a legal right of every citizen. I don’t have issues with the motive of it. Well, ok, let me add the qualifier: overall, I don’t have an issue with it…since it undoubtedly has a vote-gathering component to it as well. But let’s set that aside for a moment. But first, the government should find a way to identify who is a citizen. In a country where “citizens” are imported from neighbouring countries to cast votes, why should my taxes be used to put food in some illegal Bangaladeshi immigrant’s mouth? Next, do we have a food distribution system that can deliver? Does the government plan to fix the leaky godowns and clamp down on the hoarders and middlemen who siphon off the food today? "To use such a leaky bucket to carry a subsidy would mean the fiscal burden would be huge," says Kaushik Basu, chief economic advisor to the Ministry of Finance. I agree w...

When I heard that Rana, who is going to be tried in the US for his role in 26/11, tried to use the “I did something at the behest of a government or its official authority” defense, I was surprised that there is even such a provision in American law. And here I thought that this kind of “I was just following orders” defense was thrown out ever since the Nuremberg trials of the Nazis! But since the law exists, does it mean anyone caught spying in the US can walk free because he worked for the Chinese or Russian government?! Talking of Nazis, guess where one of the IC-814 hijacking masterminds was recently arrested? In Chile. A South American country. The same continent where many Nazis “vanished” after World War II. And once you think of Nazis, the next thought is inevitably about Israel. The Israelis went into South America and kidnapped a top Nazi. Sadly, our government will only make never-going-to-be-fulfilled requests for extradition in a similar situation…

Shahid Afridi seemed to have taken the semi-final loss to India as well as a guy could under the circumstances. But then once he reached home, he started shooting his mouth off. Apparently, he doesn’t know that we live in the Internet age where news travels at warp speed. The genius thought that what he said here wouldn’t reach there and vice-versa! First he said, “If I speak truthfully, they (Indians) just can’t have the kind of heart a Muslim has or a Pakistani has”. If you look at that statement closely, he’s right. After all, we Indians don’t have the “kind of heart” which asks us to butcher 166 people in a country we’ve never been to. Not so for Afridi’s role model, Ajmal Kasab. He also said, “It is a very difficult thing for us to be together or to have a long-term relationship.” So Afridi, I guess we should all forget 26/11 and the terrorism that people with your “kind of heart” practice? Later, Afridi whined that “I think the value given to cricketers there is greater than what...

What a way to win a final! With a massive six, at the end of a superb innings under extreme pressure. By the end, Dhoni had a swagger. Like when he hit the first 6. And he even did a twirl of the bat after winning. Beat that, Australia. Bring on the pressure: that’s so not Tendulkar’s motto (at least not since Sharjah more than a decade back). MSD, on the other hand, seems to revel under pressure. As he said at the end, he took several decisions in the final that would have been criticized for all eternity had we lost…but we won. More importantly, MSD won it along with Gambhir. The guy can seem do no wrong when it matters the most. After a bunch of (mostly) boring group matches, the knockout stage was great. The Australia match was tense for the most part and we pulled through. The Pakistan match wasn’t anywhere near in terms of how close it was, but it more than compensated in terms of the emotion it evoked. And the final was way better than the other two matches: big total to chase ...