Last Week - Khushboo, Maniappan, Manjunath and The MIB

There was a time not so long ago, when I used to make 2-3 posts in a day in my blog. Over the past two weeks, the frequency has reduced drastically. The main reasons being that I have been put into a new role in my job. Also I have a feeling that the initial honeymoon period with my blog seems to have ended.

There was a time, when after every incident in my life, I would be wondering how to put it in my blog. As soon as something interesting happened, I would start to record the incident in words – in my mind – and make a blog out of it. I am beginning to sense that I am not doing that anymore; lets see how long my blogging habit continues.

After the Aurangabad trip, there were many things that I wanted to blog about. If I had been my usual self, I would have made a post out of every topic. I am in no mood for that, so am planning to put all the topics into a single post.

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Premarital sex - A few weeks back, there was this issue regarding a comment by Tamil cine actress Khushboo regarding premarital sex. During an interview, she commented that in the present days, when girls attain maturity at an early age, men should not expect their wives to be virgins when they marry them. She also added that youngsters should take proper precaution while indulging in any premarital activity to curb the spread of AIDS.

She was absolutely spot-on about the topic, and had she made the comment in any place other than Tamilnadu, her statements would have been welcomed and many AIDS awareness organizations would have lauded it, but she made the mistake of saying this in Chennai, where politics play a major role in any walk of life.

As soon as Khushboo made the comment, a number of political parties seized the opportunity to pounce on her. They said that the comment was against their “tradition”, they said that her comments has hurt the “sentiments” of many people. They even filed a case against her.

Khushboo found support and solace in Suhasini – Mani Rathnam’s wife and a famous actress - , Sania Mirza and Narain Karthikeyan. The attackers did not spare them too. Suhasini was made to publicly apologize for supporting Khushboo and Sania was told that if she was in support of premarital sex, then she would have to renounce Islam, since in Islam premarital sex is forbidden.

In a country where the numbers of rape cases never seem to drop, where a girl is teased sexually at the drop of a hat, I cannot understand why they need to make such a hullabaloo about this comment. According to me, such a row over the comment has happened since the comment has come from a female and also there are many political parties which are silently waiting for issues to crop up so that they can gain the maximum political mileage.

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Maniappan Ramakutty - the lone son of a couple who worked in a coir mill throughout their lives. He joined Border Roads Organization (BRO) and after his parents were not able to work anymore, he became the sole bread earned of the family. After marriage, his family included his wife and two young children.

He was committed to the welfare of him family and wanted to give his children the best of care, so when an offer came to work in Afghanistan, he took it with both hands, because overseas assignments offered better monetary returns. He was supposed to have come to Kerala to meet his family on Nob 8th, but due to the new assignment he could not make it.

He had promised to be back as soon as the assignment was completed. Little did he know that the promise was never going to be kept. Last week he was abducted by the Taliban militia, and for his safe return they wanted BRO to cease all activities in Afghanistan and return in two days time.

The government machinery was slow to react. In India, there was a confusion as to who was kidnapped, and by the time things became clear, Taliban issued a statement saying that the Indian was shot dead after the deadline set by them.

Even when Maniappan’s body was found in the road side, the Indian Embassy in Kabul said that they had not received any communication regarding the demand or the deadline. But at the end of the day, an innocent life was lost; and along with the life a number of dreams and happy moments for his family members became non-existent.

The country gave Maniappan’s body a hero’s welcome, the kind of welcome given to Kargil martyrs. His body was cremated with full state honors. Both the state and the center have promised to take care of the family, so that some of their pains are eased.

My heart goes out to Maniappan’s family – for the parents who lost their only son, for the wife who has lost her loving husband, for the 9 year old Akshay, who at such a young age lit his father’s pyre and his three year old brother, who would have not understood the gravity of the situation.

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Manjunath – An IIML passout, who dreamed to work with PSU’s, who wanted to make a change in the way PSU’s function, to make it more transparent and rid it of corruption that plagued every department and person, had to pay with his life for his endeavor.

Manjunath, a manager at Indian Oil Corporation and a native of Karnataka, was posted in UP. He found that a petrol station was selling adulterated fuel, his efforts to close the petrol station cost him his life.

The owner of the petrol pump, whose station was closed down for more than 2 months, had five bullets pumped into the chest of Manjunath, killing the honest officer who was performing his duty on the spot.

In India, you may have to pay with your life if you are planning to live a righteous life. I hope the long arm of the law catches up with the perpetrators and awards them the capital punishment. But then, this is India, there are so many criminals scouting freely. I hope this case does not have a similar fate.

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Men In Blue – The performance of the Indian cricket team during the series against Sri Lanka came as a revelation to many, including myself. I have always been a supporter of Dravid, a huge fan of his game, his calmness and according to me he is the real backbone of the Indian cricket. Sachin, Sehwag and Ganguly are great cricketers, but they are not the Indian backbone.

Dravid has given so much for the team. Always performed when the team required him to, donned the additional role of a wicket keeper, knowing fully well that it would add to his pressure and fatigue, but still he has performed, always coming out as a true sportsman.

I can never forget the way he celebrated his century in the Eden gardens, against the Aussies, when we were asked to follow on. The press and the media were going for his throat, since he had been going through a bad patch. Instead of talking back, like Ganguly, he chose to let his bat do all the talking, and he did talk in style. Never has the media or the press criticized his commitment and capability since that performance.

Currently, Dravid is doing a great job as the captain of the young Indian team. He is gelling well with the coach, and brining in a new enthusiasm amongst the players as well as the fans of the Indian cricket. Alas, the calm might not last long.

Politics play a huge role in cricket team selection as well. Ganguly was dropped after it was certain that he could not gel with the coach. Ganguly had always been aggressive and arrogant and had earned the ire of many people during his peak time. Now, when the people have got a chance to nail him, they are seeing to it that they are nailing him nice and hard.

With the current performance against the South Africans not going as predicted, and the coach continuing to experiment which has started to raise a few eye brows, it might not be a smooth going for Dravid.

Ganguly’s selection in the test team is based solely on politics, since it was impossible to hold a match in Eden gardens, if Ganguly has not been selected. The crowd would have made sure that not even a single delivery was thrown down during the match.

I don’t know for how long the regional politics will continue to mar our cricket. I feel the BCCI should do away with regional selectors, who try every trick to include as many cricketers as possible from their region in the national team.

A single selection committee for regional matches would ensure that only the best would get into the Indian national cricket team and that would definitely do a world of good both for the team as well as the millions of fans who pray and cheer for every Indian victory.