A Misguided Gandhi-Rahul

Yesterday I read the speech of Rahul Gandhi in parliament and was struck by its naivety. Here was the heir apparant for whom the regent Manmohan Singh  is keeping the PM's chair warm, talking as a novice. He talked of Anna's  agitation as undemocratic and then added that he favored a Lok Pal as a  constitutional authority.

 Gandhi failed to realise that a bill hanging fire for 44 years in parliament cannot  be passed till the civil society agitates.To label an agitation for a bill pending for 44 years on the table of the Lok sabha cannot be termed unconstitutional. Mr. Rahul Gandhi must explain, how else the bill can see the light of the day, as on their own the MP's will not enact it and make it law.

This term of the  Congress party  at the centre is marked by massive corruption , when cabinet ministers who are the custodians of democracy indulged in unprecedent looting. It is something that never happened before in independent India. Has Rahul anything to say about it ? Obviously nothing, for he himself is part of the cotorie  that installed an ineffectual prime minister in Manmohan Singh.

 The wheels of history wait for  no one and it will not be long before the effects of Rahul's speech and thinking show effect. Anna may be muzzled now but that famous novel of Hemingway' For whom the bell tolls' will have its effect.

Rahul Gandhi must not trifle with history. The Utter Pradesh elections which are due  soon will show where Rahul stands.

Rahul Dravid or Tendulkar who is Greater ?

India has been playing test cricket since 1932 and one can recount the names of Colonel CK Nayudu, Vijay Merchant, Vijay Hazare, Nawab of Pataudi, Sunil Gavaskar and more recently Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar who have made a name for themselves. One obviously would ask who is the greatest ?.

Most people would vote for Sachin Tendulkar, as he the maximum centuries in Test cricket (50).  But  despite a plethora of records he has one ingredient missing and that is; he is not a match winner or a match savior. In his two decades in the Indian team Tendulkar has been unable to sustain any winning spree. On the contrary there have been umpteen occasions when India were within reach of victory, yet floundered at the post and lost, because Tendulkar was not up to the task and failed. Neither was he a match savior and on many occasions India lost to the lowest ranked team in world cricket Zimbabwe with Sachin in the ranks. He is also guilty of missing a  tough tour like the West Indies in 2011 and earlier in 2007 on flimsy pretexts.

In my opinion the greatest Indian batsmen is Rahul Dravid. He is one man who is not only a role model, but has been the veritable ‘Wall’ who has blunted the opposition. His records and performance speak for themselves and this is one batsman who has never said ‘No” to either going on a tour or playing in a test. In fact his best records are on unplayable pitches like in the West Indies. His 34 centuries are proof of his ability. But one does not go by statistics, but by the manner he faced the opposition, in particular the pace bowlers. After GR Vishwanath, he is the one player who has a tremendous record of courage and bravery against the most lethal bowlers in test Cricket.

Dravid is a soft spoken and unassuming player. One look at him and a person can sense his dedication to the game. Over the last decade and a half his record of being a factor in an Indian win or a match saved has largely gone unnoticed. He is humble and dedicated. It’s about time we recognized him as the greatest Indian Test batsman of all time.

Can Sex Unite Races and People * 73

In the middle of the last century a gentleman named Dr Ward made news. It appeared he lived of prostitutes and that was the crime for which he was charged. Dr. Ward committed suicide, but one statement of his that all he was trying to do was to break racial barriers through the sex act, is food for thought. Thus, he felt that copulation between black and white and white and black would break barriers and the races can integrate.

On the face of it, this looks a very plausible hypothesis because Dr. Ward has simplified a complex chemistry and reduced it to a single act. In real terms this is not possible as there is another quality of human beings that cannot be ignored and that are jealousy and racial superiority, not forgetting religion. These are the divisive forces and till they are erased this theory cannot function. The sex act is a representation of this thought process and the chance that a man or woman who considers himself or herself as belonging to a chosen race or religion will accept sex as a common denominator is well nigh impossible.

Thus the Germans during the reign of Hitler and the Moslem invaders and much later the white race have ingrained ideas of sex and race. Thus though sex is extremely desirable it cannot form a basis of unity of the races in the world. One can say that Dr Ward was wrong.

Conquering warriors who subdue armies also love to conquer women ?

History recounts the great conquerors for almost 4000 years. The Mahabharata and the Ramayana recount the  heroic deeds of the great warriors, so do the Iliad and other western chronicles. The great warriors like Alexander and Chengiz Khan  won many battles and they had an undercurrent of invincibility. But along with this is another current that flows along side these warriors and this is the possession of women. Thus in all battles the great conquerors took women as spoils of war. Perhaps they got the same amount of exhilaration after winning a battle as they went about the physical conquest of the women.

Some of these thoughts are in my mind and I thought it best to share them with my readers. Love is certainly an ingredient, but the physical conquest of a woman is perhaps akin to a victory in battle, where the clashing swords and the guns create smoke and a surreal atmosphere.

But, what about the common man? Is he also prey to these thoughts. I am afraid this is so and the great captains of Industry and the lowly worker in their own way do follow the path laid down by the conquerors of yore. Victories over a woman will give immense satisfaction to a man. The ancients applied coercion, but that is anathema now and as such the challenge is greater now for women are no longer spoils of war, but need wooing and winning over. Man can certainly adapt himself to this change as it is part of the theory of evolution.