Search This Blog

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Hudhud .... Sashi Tharoor; Tarun Gogoi, Chandra Babu Naidu and children born !

To praise or not to ………. ? – the person knows and so does others in the party !!..... before you read further this is no photo from any movie – scene at Vizag beach during hudhud (photo of Indian Express) – don’t understand why this woman and the man were there at that time despite warning !

When a general of great talent and courage was recommended to him, Napoleon (or so the story goes), would always ask, "Yes, but is he lucky?" It is a question that could also be asked of cricketers. The history of Indian cricket is littered with players whose careers have been defined by extraordinarily bad luck, so that their opportunities and overall record have been blighted by disappointment and underperformance. Unlucky players are those whose manifest ability has simply not been matched by recognition and reward.

The most obvious kind of bad luck is the accident of birth at the wrong time. Think of the spinners Padmakar Shivalkar and VV Kumar, who had the great misfortune of being contemporaries of the immortal Indian spin quartet of the 1960s.  The accident of birth had nothing to do with Sadanand Viswanath's ill luck. He was rightly the first wicketkeeper tried out in succession to the redoubtable Kirmani, and demonstrably the most talented of the seven who would play for India in that role in the following decade. In only his third Test, against Sri Lanka, he equalled the Indian Test record of six victims in a Test. 

Astonishingly he was never picked again. It was said that his batting was not up to the mark, but a wicketkeeper who ended his first-class career with 179 victims in just 74 games (and accompanied them with a century and 23 fifties as well) was hardly undeserving of a more extended run. And then there is the ill luck of ill-timed injury. If Manoj Tiwary hadn't been unfortunate enough to crash into a billboard while fielding at the boundary on his maiden tour of Bangladesh at the peak of his dream first-class season, he might have made his Indian debut and cemented a place in the side. Instead he has slipped so far back in the selectors' reckoning that he is no longer even mentioned as an Indian prospect. 

But the all-time Mr Unlucky must surely be the one Indian who has played a Test without being able to claim he has played a Test. Connor Williams of Baroda was picked to open for India in the Centurion Test of November 2001, but the controversy that erupted over India's refusal to accept the designated ICC match referee, Mike Denness, meant that the Test was deprived of official status by the ICC. Williams scored a gritty 42 off 83 balls against South Africa's five-man pace attack, but despite playing a full-strength Test side away from home, his official record shows him to be uncapped. He was never picked again and now clearly never will be.

Excerpted from an article in Cricinfo and if you are wondering who the good writer is …………………….. it is Shashi Tharoor, a former United Nations Under-Secretary General turned politician who is in news now. Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday removed Shashi Tharoor as AICC spokesperson after the party's disciplinary action committee recommended it. The Kerala PCC leadership had demanded "appropriate action" against the Lok Sabha MP for his "pro-Modi stands", including unilaterally accepting the PM's invitation to be a brand ambassador of Swachh Bharat campaign.  Tharoor, who described himself as "a loyal workers of the Congress party", accepted his party leader's decision and said he was treating the issue as closed, making it clear he had no plans to rebel. By acting against Tharoor, the Congress, apart from satisfying its Kerala unit, has also advertised it will have zero tolerance against partymen who unilaterally take decisions on sensitive matters involving the Modi government.

B u t …….  Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitious 'Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana' (SAGY) but felt it would take more than 50 years to cover six lakh villages in the country. "Modi's Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana is laudable. However, it would take more than 50 years to cover six lakh villages in the country," the chief minister's office said in a release, quoting a tweet by Gogoi.

Then there is another active CM - expressing anger over different agencies not being quick enough in addressing the situation in the aftermath of cyclone Hudhud here, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu today said everyone must get their act right to provide expeditious relief to the affected people. 

Naidu told reporters that he has directed all agencies concerned to attend a meeting here tonight without fail and observed that telecom operators failed to take adequate precautions to prevent failure of service which has inconvenienced people.
Cyclone Hudhud which made a landfall in the port city on Sunday wreaked havoc, leaving it paralysed and causing extensive damage. Naidu said the agencies, including telephone service providers, should try to offer help to people who are in distress. With mobile networks down, the Chief Minister said the telephone service providers should answer why the towers did not function and were not restored expeditiously.

….. and Indian population continues to explode.  Firstpost reports that at least  245 babies were born in different hospitals of Odisha's eight cyclone-hit southern districts on October 12, when cyclone Hudhud made a landfall. The state government had asked the health department to admit women in advance stage of pregnancy in hospitals for safe delivery. The babies were born at a time when the entire region was being pounded by heavy rainfall coupled with gusty wind with about 100 kmph. The Health department had admitted 397 high risk pregnant women expecting delivery in these hospitals a day before the Hudhud hit the state. Besides, other pregnant women were also there in the hospitals.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar
14th Oct 2014


No comments:

Post a Comment