Great family..the guy was younger than me,....truth be told I felt jealous of him...But alas..... they're no more. If there is Someone up there in the skies, He seems to summon those dearer to Him early.
The one Who terrorized the rich & affluent, the Greatest 'Terrorist'
The One Who terrorized the Oppressors, the Legendary 'Terrorist'
And the one who terrorized the exploiters, the Ultimate 'Terrorist'
The most contentious issue in international sports these days is neither performance enhancing drugs nor match fixing. It involves the arguments over a young athlete’s participation in the Beijing Olympics of 2008.And the big question is whether a man with no legs should be allowed to compete with able bodied athletes, and probably beat them to the tape in the sprint events! The athlete involved is 20 year old South African Oscar Pistorius, "the fastest man on no legs", a double amputee who runs with the aid of carbon fibre legs named cheetahs. These artificial lower legs, while enabling him to compete, have also generated doubts that he has an unfair advantage over other runners!
Oscar Leonard Carl Pistorius was born without fibulae in both legs due to a congenital condition and his legs were amputated halfway between his knees and ankles when he was just 11 months old. Despite his physical condition however, the brave young boy had the heart of a sports man right from his school days. As a school boy he played rugby union, water polo and tennis. He also tried his hands at wrestling. After a serious rugby knee injury, he was introduced to athletics in January 2004 while undergoing rehabilitation, and never looked back.
IAAF has recently amended its competition rules to ban the use of "any technical device that incorporates springs, wheels or any other element that provides a user with an advantage over another athlete not using such a device". It claimed that the amendment was not specifically aimed at Pistorius, and his track performances are monitored using high-definition cameras to determine whether he actually has an advantage.
The most recent case with a parallel, coming to mind is that of Muthaiah Muralidharan. But Murali was not the first big star suspected of gaining an advantage from a deformity. Years ago a small boy born in a poor neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro was stricken by polio at the age of two. The doctors ruled that he may never walk. Not only did he walk, he also learned to out run his childhood play mates on those crippled legs and soon took to soccer as any kid in Brazil would do. The short boy nick named ‘the little bird’ went on to become one of the greatest stars of Brazilian soccer. But as a star he was also the subject of research as well as ridicule. His exploits on the soccer field were scrutinized and were the topic of research in an age when bio-mechanics was still in its infancy. His ‘banana’ kicks and the way he send the defenders on the wrong paths with his dribbles on the close encounters were all attributed to his bent legs. Some skeptics had even said that the greatest dribbler in soccer history might not have been aware of the path the ball would be going when he kicked it. To them Manuel Francisco dos Santos might never have been the legend that he was had it not been for his bent left leg!
And the great Indian leg spinner Bhagwat Chandrasekhar was similarly ridiculed about his polio afflicted right arm. Experts used to comment that Chandra knew nothing about what the ball would do once he had released it from his fingers. His astonishing strike rate in test cricket and his unplayable deliveries were aided by the deformity,according to them.
But unlike the great men mentioned above, Oscar Pistorius has a deformity which requires artificial limbs to enable him to compete. He affirms that his prosthetics do not give him an unfair advantage and lists the disadvantages that he faces, such as rain, which leaves traction hard to attain, wind, which blows the devices sideways, and the fact that he needs more energy to start running than others. Professor Robert Gailey of the University of Miami opines that the cheetahs, the artificial legs, return only 80% of the energy they absorb, about a third of what an organic leg returns. Pistorius has said that if the IAAF ever found evidence that he was gaining an advantage, he would stop running because he would not want to compete at a top level if he had an unfair advantage.
But do the bodies governing the international sports really ensure a level playing field for all athletes? Isn’t it a fact that the sports persons from the developed countries have access to technologies that give them a head start in any competitive sport? Have they closely verified how the Americans and the Chinese are able to sweep a major share of the medals up for grab in the Olympics? Is it purely sporting abilities alone that ensure their phenomenal success rate?
Many athletes who take part in the Paralympics were regular sportspersons whose disabilities were the result of some tragic accident in their adult life. But here we have a young man whose legs were amputated when he was just a toddler. If he had come this far from such a condition, he must be a real fighter with the heart of a true sportsman. Imagine the influence he can make on the lives of so many ‘differently-abled’ children across the world. That alone should be reason enough to allow him to run in the regular Olympics.
May be, if she survives, she'll one day grow up and become another beauty queen or a champion sports person or a President or another teen aged Mother.....
But killing of stray dogs could seriously jeopardize the lot of the Indian women.....
In the recent past, the actions of two ‘arrogant’ CMs from the North and the South of the country had made life difficult for two of
P Sainath is one of my favorite journalists. He had come up with another ‘op-ed’ on the topic in The Hindu last month. It told the story of Ms. KALAVATI BANDURKAR, the mother of seven girls and two boys in Jalka
Her husband's debt of over Rs.50000/- led him mortgage even her mangalsutra. But their nine acres yielded just four quintals that fetched Rs.7000/-. The day he sold his cotton, he redeemed his wife's mangalsutra with the money, went out to the field and killed himself. Kalavati, always a fighter, decided to carry on. "Farming is what we do," she says, as per the report, without a trace of self-pity. "We'll keep on doing it." She now runs a failing nine-acre farm and also works on the land of others for Rs.30 a day. In the off-season she earns just Rs.20 from fetching and selling firewood. Her last source of income is the milk from a buffalo she owns, Rs.60-80 a day and sometimes a little more. On these earnings, some ten human beings survive. Right now they sell all the milk. Even the kids at home don't get to consume a drop of it. She had worked hard and paid off most of her husband’s debts.
And this ever-smiling, matter-of-fact grandmother never got a paisa's compensation from government! The reason: the land they cultivate is not their own but leased from others!! So when her husband Parsuram, hit by debt and crop failure, took his life, his death was not recognized as a "farmer's suicide". The official logic: if there's no land in his name, he's not a farmer!!! She's annoyed at not being recognized as a farmer and thereby losing out on the compensation. "We do own 3.5 acres in Chandrapur district," she says. "But that land is still in our parents' names and has not yet been settled in our names." So technically, they are not ‘farmers’!
Please note the irony,……. the status so easily acquired by the Farmer Stars!
She pays only Rs.10,000/- a year to lease the nine acres, an indication of the poor quality of the land. It's hard work, but Kalavati has no complaints. What bothers her is that the costs of inputs are rising too much. “No more cotton for us. We have to do something else.” she says. Despite the hardships, it's said to be a smiling if very noisy household ruled by lively youngsters.
Ms. Kalavati Bandurkar is one survivor who asserts that she would like her children too, to go into agriculture. This is a rarity in our countrysides these days where people desperately seek jobs outside farming for their young. But she's already planning for the next season. "We'll stay with agriculture" she reiterates.
While emphasizing that nature had provided sufficient gifts for use of all man kind and the other species, Mahatma Gandhi had stated that there was enough for the satisfaction of every man's need, but not for any man's greed.
The vast wealth of our nation & the planet as a whole, generated due to the rapid strides in technology, science and engineering over the last few decades should be more than enough for all of us. But the structures of power within nations and between nations continue to reward the few at the very top while penalizing the majority at the bottom of the pile.
There is a saying that we tend to imitate the very people whom we criticize most. So why blame the 'super heroes' who had to teach a lesson or two to a variety of villains for the most part of their lives?
The Entropy of India Tends Towards a Maximum
I pity the plight of Rajastan’s ramp walking CM, reaping what her party sowed. But I feel that the political parties of left, right and centre should take a serious note of the happenings in Rajastan instead of trying to fish in troubled waters for the issue has the potential to spread to the other parts of the nation.
We are of course ‘unique’ and to the outside world
The situation has come to such a state that, the MPs and MLAs of ‘cadre-based’ national parties offer to resign en masse to show solidarity with their communities, A a direct fall out of giving priority to caste and communal considerations over leadership skills and loyalty to the ideologies of the party. Of course, I doubt whether any political party in
But what can be done?!
Years ago a visionary, a man of steel whom even Stalin dared not to touch, dreamt of uniting his feuding people under a single nation. But a few years after Josip Broz Tito faded into history those who succeeded him managed to bring down his dream.
How easy is it…… to wipe away the relationships?!……
Marshall Tito used to have a close associate…..a certain Pt. Nehru……..
And he too was a dreamer…..
Although I can’t agree with the kind of politics practiced by Ms Scindhia, unlike her detractors from within and outside her party I sincerely hope that she’ll find a way out of the present mess.
This devotion was implanted by the stories told by my dearest Grand Mother at a young age. I still remember listening to her vast repertoire of stories from the mythology, in wide eyed and open mouthed astonishment, as she was engaged in her daily chores. Hailing from a conservative family of traditional ‘temple dwellers’, my ‘Ammamma’ could quote at will from any major text of mythology.
And coming back to Lord Narayana, this Lord appeared to me to be friendlier than Brahma, the Lord of ‘Srishti’ and less fearsome than the Lord of ‘Samhara’ Shiva.
And he had that special skill to adapt to any situation ……
Let’s take a look at the evolution of His Dashavataras
In the beginning when the earth was full of water, He assumed the role of Matsya, to float along the infinite oceans…..
As the oceans dried up in certain regions and the land was revealed, He became Kurma and set out to explore the land.
When the vegetations and greater land area was required to be explored, He changed to Varaha, to roam around far more conveniently……..
Then He rose on two legs and became Narasimha……
When he realized that there was no point in having brute strength alone, He assumed the role of a full man, Vamana.
Then He set out to establish the Brahmin domination in the role of Bhargava.
After the Kshatriyas were badly mauled by the campaigns of Parashurama, He crossed over and became Shri Rama and showed Parashurama the way out.
And then ………
…………..then he saw the power shifting to the backward classes………
Centuries before Mulayam Singh and Lalu Prasad established their fiefdoms across the cow belt, the younger brother of a Yadava Chieftain had declared in the Mahabharata that in the entire Aryavarta, there was no one to rival the Yadavas and we know how the manipulative brilliance of Lord Krishna led to the systematic decimation of each of His formidable rivals.
Going by that trend, where will the Khalgi rise?
My wild guess is that in all probability it’ll be in an Adivasi family :-)
The fall had taken its toll……
If the scars were not apparent,
It was b’cos they overlapped with the previous ones…
It required something extraordinarily outrageous to shock me back to my senses…
…….to force me back into writing…
But can any one stoop this low?!
In most countries the primary education is not yet given the due importance and the primary school Teachers are lowly paid. And their biggest satisfaction and reward is when they see their favorite students climb up in life. I had always noticed the glow in their eyes whenever I paid a visit to them to convey and share some major happy incident in my life. They seemed to me to be happier than myself at times.
And coming back to what shocked me into this post.
This morning as I lifted the news paper, I saw another stricture for the embattled Iranian President from his godfathers. This time on Teachers’ Day he committed an “indecent act” of kissing the hand of a woman in public. He didn’t stop there; he went on to embrace her!
How outrageous?!
This is for the first time in
Some sympathizer of the President tries to downplay the incident by stating that the Woman, a Primary School Teacher, who is over 70, became emotional after receiving the award from her former pupil, and made the first approach bringing the President into a difficult position as he either had to reject her or give into shaking her hand.
Ahmedinejad, in spite of all his tough talk, seems to me to be emotionally unfit for Politics. And I thought the expression in his face, for once, resembled that of a little child.
If you haven’t seen the picture in The Hindu, take a look here
In spite of the invasion of the visual media, I’ve remained loyal to my Radio. It continues to air more thought provoking programmes than the visual media. One of my favorites from the radio is the early morning ‘Subhashitam’ of the AIR. Many learned scholars and noble men used to enlighten me and influence my thinking on a variety of topics connected with life at large with their talks on this programme. Often they’ll quote from a text and explain the context and sometimes they also talk on little incidents from the real life.
So here is some thing I heard recently….
It was touching, I felt; please take a look…..
Somewhere in
There were children from different regions and religions, castes and states and the various echelons of the society.
During a sprint event a little child fell down in the middle of the race and began crying aloud.
Hearing the cry those who were running ahead stopped and looked at each other. Then, to the surprise and discomfort of the judges, all of them began walking back, towards the child who fell down. One of the children lifted the crying child; another cleared the dust from its legs and third wiped away the tears from its face. Soon they were all on their feet holding each other’s hands and together they began walking towards the finish line, each of them spotting the beaming smile of a winner.
The incident mentioned lights up my hope……
…..but…….
there is a minor technical problem……..
the event was for the children…..
……who were mentally challenged……….
About half a dozen readers conveyed that they had smiled at my first post on the topic. That's nearly 40% of my readership, and that I suppose is reason enough for this post, my second on the same, :-)
Some years back, I had been to
She held a small shopping bag, probably a gift from her dad, who had gone to the parking yard to fetch his car and she was relishing her chocolate. She was also smiling throughout, a contented smile. But she was restless for some reason, even at that moment of apparent happiness and was eyeing us from time to time, as we sat staring at the map.
Finally she broke free and gave us a big and beautiful smile and she asked us, “Do you want help?”!!!
With children like her as the future citizens,
Regarding my post on the sports photographs, many readers wrote in expressing their interest in taking a look at those photographs. I had checked to see if they were available on the net, but couldn’t find them. I had typed them down from memory, may be the ones seen in some news papers or magazines long back. Just for the information of the readers, I’ll mention the details about those photographs. Let me know if you find them some where.
The first one was of the man who used to 'move like a butterfly and sting like a bee’; Mohammed Ali, the greatest of them all, struggling to light the lamp at
In 1993, when the Academy of Motion Picture of Arts & Sciences offered him a ‘Lifetime Achievement’ Oscar, he told them to wait till he was 80 for he was “still in the game and might yet win the bugger outright”! The Irish optimism, they call it.
But for the eighth time, the 74 year old veteran ended up being the ‘Best Man’. Well, is there a parallel! How many times, ... . .... ... .... ...
Each time I fell in the field, the flag went up, finding fault with me! ‘I was, probably, diving’, and the ‘Referee’ may not have missed that, He rarely misses any for that matter.
In spite of the ‘close miss’, O’Toole refuses to quit the race. Some borrowed Irish optimism and the role he played in 'Venus' make me feel that I'm still in with a chance of ...........
...............of ............................. of a proper fall :-)
