Assad Gets Ready to Face NATO

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President  Assad is  a hard nut  and is not likely to give up power easily.  He has activated  his links with Russia  and found a friend in Vladamir Putin the Prime Minister. Putin feels the USA is a pain in the neck and  also would like to restore parity with the USA like the erstwhile Soviet union. Accordingly he has sold 3 coastal batteries to Syria. As per last reports these batteries have been positioned on the Syrian coast against Naval invasion by NATO.

At the same time Assad has also activated his air defences  against NATO aircraft. The aim is not to give the USA and NATO powers a walk over as given by Libya. The crucial role is of Russia, which has vowed not to let the NATO powers a  free run on Syria. Vladamir Putin is also flexing his muscles and has also announced that the Russian  Aircraft Carrier  would be deployed of the coast of  Syria as a deterrent to the NATO forces.

The fat is thus in the fire and the West is unlikely to get a free run and a easy victory as in Libya, where Qaddafi was effectively bottled up and was ultimately captured. at that time Qaddafi  committed a cardinal blunder of not throwing his lot with Russia. He attempted to crush the rebellion on his own  and also made overtures to the USA which were ignored.

Another factor is the Arab league which is towing the line  of the West and has imposed sanctions on Syria. But the chance of an invasion by countries who make the Arab league is slim. Assad is now getting on against the demonstrators many of whom are being instigated by the West.  The West is looking for an opening to crack on Syria, but it won't be  easy. Assad is not Qaddafi and the factor of Russia cannot be ignored. 

Remembering Squadron Leader Mahinder Singh Pujji, a Sikh who Fought for the British

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Mohinder singh was a Sikh and   was  a fighter pilot in the RAF. He flew Spitfires andHurricanes. His is indeed a romantic tale and needs to be remembered.

 Pujji was born in Simla in 1918 and his father was a high rank government officer. Pujji loved flying and learnt to fly at the Delhi Flying Club in 1936. Later he did his law from Bombay University. However Pujji's love was flying. With the outbreak of World war II , Puji along with 24 other pilots volunteered to go to England and fly for the RAF.

Pujji was part of the IAF fighter squadrons and took part in missions over France and Belgium. Only on one occassion he was forced  down by a Messerchmit 109 and had to crash land on the coast of England. 

With the Japanese advancing in Burma , Mahinder Singh was transferred to the east. Here he fought the Japanese and was awarded the DFC.   Pujji  earlier had also flown in North Africa and had to force land in the desert. He was rescued by a platoon of British soldiers.

Mahinder Singh  after the war was a squadron leader when he left the RAF and became a civil pilot and gliding ace in India. In 1968 he migrated to England and settled there  He died in 2010 at the age of 92. He was the last surviving  Indian and Sikh ace  who fought in World war II for the RAF.  In 2009 the RAF honored him by  inviting him as a chairperson on the opening of  a  section of their museum  which dealt with Indians and other nationalities who fought for the RAF. I think Pujji deserves more recognition than he is given.

Tamil Nadu and Sikhs in Cricket * 72

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When you think of cricket in Madras state now known as Tamil Nadu most readers will be surprised to know that the first cricket family of Tamil Nadu for over 6 decades was a Sikh family.  No family has done so much for Tamil Nadu cricket as this Sikh family whose head migrated to Madras city in 1904 from Amritsar. This is quite an achievement ina pure Tamil language state.

AG Ram Singh

The family settled down in Chennai where the head of the family got a job. In 1910 AG Ram Singh an icon of cricket in Tamil nadu was born. Ram Singh took to cricket as a fish to water and he was soon selected for the Madras Presidency team.  The governor of Madras Presidency an Englishman once when being introduced to the Madras cricket team was surprised that a turbaned Sikh was their main batting and bowling hope. Ram Singh was an all-rounder and his figures show that he can be rated as one of the best all rounder’s in India. He had a first class batting average of 35 and a measly bowling average of 18.56 in 56 first class matches and 265 wickets.

Ram Singh made his debut in 1935 against Mysore and in that match he took 11 wickets and announced his presence on the national stage. It must be mentioned that he was only the second cricket player in India to complete a double of 100 wickets and 1000 runs   after Amar Singh. He was also one of the quickest to reach this magical figure.

Ram Singh was on the verge of selection for the Indian team for both the 1936 and 46 tours of England, but missed selection by a whisker. But his herculean deeds in the Ranji Trophy for Madras earned him a representation in 2 unofficial tests against Jack Ryder’s team in 1935 and Lord Tennyson’s team in 1938. In those days Ranji trophy was a knock out tournament and Ram Singh played only 27 matches spread over 14 years. He retired from first class cricket in 1946.

After retirement Ram Singh was the cricket coach of  Sir M Venkatasubba Rao Boys School in T Nagar, Madras. He retired as coach in the early eighties.

The Second Generation

Ram Singh had 5 sons of whom 3 took to cricket in a big way. They were Kirpal Singh, Milkha Singh and Satwendra Singh. All 3 played for Tamil Nadu with distinction. Kirpal was a right hand batsman and off spin bowler and he played 14 tests for India with a century of 100 not out on test debut at Hyderabad against New Zealand in 1956. At one time he was in consideration for captaincy of the Indian team, which then went to Nari contractor. Kirpal was a fear less player of fast bowling and hit a quick fire 53 against the might of Hall and Gilchrist at Chennai in 1959. He however faded away, but continued to be a force in the Ranji Trophy for Tamilnadu. He was the captain of Tamil Nadu for almost a decade.

Milkha made his test debut at the age of 18 and his test career was over at the age of 20. He never got a proper chance to play for India, which again points to the whimsical ways of the selectors. But in the 

The elder son AG Kripal Singh

Ranji Trophy Milkha was the main stay of the Tamil nadu cricket team for over a decade. He was also the first batsman to hit a century in the Duleep trophy when he hit 151  for South  Zone against North Zone in 1961.

The youngest son of Ram Singh  Satwendra  Singh would have made it to the Indian test team as well, but a scooter accident rendered him hors de combat and he did not play cricket after that.

The last member of the Ram Singh clan to play cricket for Tamil nadu was Arjun Kirpal who was the son of Kirpal singh. But in 1996 a scooter accident ended his dream of playing cricket before a Ranji semi final.

Ram Singh passed away in 1999 and Kirpal much earlier. Milkha is retired and stays at Chennai. The immense contributions of the Ram Singh family will be remembered as for 62 years at least one member of this Sikh clan represented Tamil nadu. Not a mean achievement.

My Take on Obama

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  I have been reading the debates going in the USA about Obama. Many people  refer to him as a Marxist or a communist in disguise and worse a friend of the Moslems (as he is one of them). Reminds me of the time when white supremacy was the watch word in the USA and organizations like KKK ran amuck, capturing and killing blacks. This facet of American history cannot be denied.

Times have however changed and the Black man has asserted himself, but that does not mean that he is any less a patriot or an American than the white man. A look at the history of the US army and its fights in Vietnam and other wars will show that as a percentage in relation to their population, more blacks fought for the US flag than the white man. But habits die hard and there is a lunatic fringe that just cannot accept Obama as a president of the USA. Weird statements and ‘revelations’ about his birth certificate, the fact that he is a communist are thrown about as if they are a gospel truth.

What is the fact really? How do we pin the ills of the past US Presidents (all white Men) who fought unprovoked wars all over the world and depleted the US economy with the result that it is in deficit of trillions of dollars. These costly wars served no purpose and in case in all of them the US never achieved its objectives. Take any war whether it is Iraq, Iran or Vietnam the US has swallowed the bitter pill If the economy is now going bust, how do you pin it on Obama?

Obama has inherited a legacy of wars and near bankruptcy of the economy and I feel he is doing a good job about it. Even his policy of calling a spade a spade in regard to Israel and Pakistan is commendable. The unfortunate part is that Obama’s middle name is Moslem and that is his drawback and fans the flames of a diehard minority in the USA. I want to know who the Americans want to replace Obama with. Another George Bush? Who will ensure that the US goes around with a begging bowl by unleashing some more wars?

Mother Teresa Institutionalized Poverty

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 Mother Teresa is honored all over the world, but what is the popular perception is quite different from reality. A look beneath the veneer some time shows a different color. So is the case of mother Teresa. I for one have never been convinced of her selfless devotion to the poor.

The fact is that she is untouchable as a great figure and criticizing her is like trying to criticize God himself. This popular perception is in a great part due to the Catholic Church. But a dispassionate analysis will show that Mother Teresa actually institutionalized poverty, she never wanted it eradicated.

 Let us look at her Nobel Prize for peace. To say the least this surprised even her ardent supporters as she never did anything to further peace in the world. Her acceptance speech in Oslo is worth quoting “Abortion is the worst evil and the greatest enemy of peace... Because if a mother can kill her own child, what will prevent us from killing ourselves or one another? Nothing”

She saw no relation between poverty and population and having more children. She had a simplistic view and propagated that having more children in India was Gods will. It didn’t matter to her that greater the population greater the poverty index.

Her ‘homes for the dying’ in Calcutta are much celebrated in the west. One of her own volunteers has described them similar to Nazi Concentration camps.  There were no chairs, no stretcher beds. In addition there were virtually no Medicare or pain killers available other than aspirin. Her so called homes were like human warehouses where 50/60 ill persons were crammed in one room and without any medical cover. Even the sanitary conditions were abysmal. 

 This is hard to reconcile when her global income was so vast that she could have equipped at least 1000 first class clinics in Calcutta. The fact she didn’t do it was deliberate and is overlooked .That is the reason some people say she institutionalized poverty.

 When she herself needed treatment she entered the finest and costliest Medicare clinics. She herself lived an opulent life style and spent most of her time out of Calcutta. She claimed that there were 102 family assistance centers in Calcutta. But an investigation by Aroup Chatterjee could not reveal a single such center. All I have to say is that what is apparent is not real and it's about time that Mother Teresa was properly understood.

Remembering IS Johar as 'Bapu' in Harry Black.... Tiger"

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IS Johar was a film star who had a penchant for doing comedy roles on the Mumbai screen. In  fact he was quite a draw as an actor in the fifties and sixties with his slapstick comedy roles. Bu the same Johar acted in some Hollywood films as well and there he did not play the role of  the buffoon.  

Many present day stars are longing to act in Hollywood films, but IS Johar outdid them nearly 4 decades back. One of his more memorable roles was in the movie ' Harry Black and the Tiger'. The film which was shot entirely in India starred  Stewart Granger and Barbara Rush  with Anthony Steele in an important role. but our own IS Johar put in a wonderful performance as the valet and tiger tracker of Stewart Granger.  The film was made in 1959 and IS Johar essayed the role of 'bapu' a valet to the hero. Johar literally lived the role as the film revolved around the plan to kill a man eating tiger. The shikari is played by Stewart Granger who has lost a leg in a German POW camp during the war. By luck he meets the very man who by cowardice  allowed thisto happen. He is married to the woman who Granger loves.    That is the love angle but basically the film concerns  a tale of a man and a jungle beast. the last scene where Johar and the Hunter enter  a dark cave to kill the tiger are spine tingling.  All credit to Johar who turned in a stupendous performance, that is remembered even now.  

  The film runs for 107 minutes and has 4 track stereo recording for excellent sound effects of the Jungle and the tiger. The director is  Hugo Fergenese and he has captured the essence of India on celluloid.  IS Johar was a nomination for the BAFTA award for the best actor in a supporting role. He lost by one vote.  It was rumored that he lost because he was an Indian. In those days the westerners were averse to giving awards to Indians. It's changed now and 'Slum Dog..' could get a number of Oscars.One can sit back and remember that IS Johar did India proud with this role. A bit of trivia aabout the film is worth knowing.

 Stewart Granger used his personal rifle for all the shoots in the film

Is Anna Hazare Being Too Naive

Anna Hazare is demanding a strong Lok Pal bill.  My question is as to what he means by a strong Lok Pal bill. Is he being Naive ? One thing should be clear that one bill  or head  of corruption for  a nation of 1.2 billion is nether feasible nor practical.  The demand to include the lower echelons of government are fine, but there are over 50 million in the government work force. Who will keep a tab on them?

Anna  has  noble ideals and they should be respected, but a single Lok Pal entity in a country like India  cannot be practicable.    We cannot create a superstructure and then see that it is not effective. I wonder whether Anna thought of pressurizing the government to strengthen the existing laws and stream line the judicial system. Why should a trial take over 20 years to reach its logical end. Take the case of the Bhopal gas tragedy. This ocurred in 1984 and it was only in 2011 the court could conclude the trial. The appeal process has still not started. So one can see  where the fault lies.

There is an urgent need to lay down a time frame for the trials and also the question of bail as a right needs re examination. Why should a man who has swindled hundreds of crorers be given bail? Why can't he be kept in jail till the trial is over.

 Bail is denied in serious crimes like murder, why not have these provisions extended to black marketeers, Swindlers and  the extreme corrupt ? This is what is the need and in case this was there  swindlers like Kanimozi would not get bail. This was the judgement by the trial court that earlier denied bail to Kanimozi and other accused. The supreme court set aside that judgement.

India is at the cross roads and it will be a good idea in case the government and Anna consider this aspect of the law as well. There is a crying need for a reform. A Lok Pal Bill may not be the end all and be all of corruption

Kanimozi