Sports and Religion – keep them separate

A couple of days ago, Yousuf Youhana, one of the 2 non-Muslim cricketers of the Pakistan cricket team (the other being Danish Kaneria) converted to a Muslim, much to the chagrin of his family and relatives, who believe that he was persuaded by some current and ex-members of the team. Whatever be the reason, this incident has brought up a very sensitive topic into the forefront of the current cricketing news – religion. I really don’t understand this fanaticism of mixing religion with sports (and to that matter, with any other important facet of life – more later on that).

Does the fact that you are a Hindu or a Muslim or a Sikh or a Christian make any difference to your performance on the cricket field ? Yousuf Youhana has been a prolific scorer for Pakistan for the last few years and so, I don’t see his religion having caused any hindrance to his scoring ability. Of course, the choice of religion should ultimately rest with the person but from what his family members have to say, it seems more out of compulsion rather than choice and that is what I cannot accept.

Time and again, we see the same incidents happening all over the world. Whether be it in secular India or conservative America, religion is always considered a stealth weapon for political victories. This clearly creates a divide among sections of people of the country and instead of belonging to one unified country, we belong to different religions within one country. Every religion is different and it should be respected for its ideals and values – but if you tend to identify a person for his religion and not for what he / she is, then that is where the problems seep in.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Danish Kaneria, the sole non-Muslim now in the Pakistan cricket team is converted too. That would be really sad indeed. Perhaps they could take a cue from their Indian neighbours – the president is a Muslim, the PM is a sikh, the second in command is a Christian and leader of the opposition is a Hindu !

Spread your wings, open ur eyes, turn on ur antenna – there are miles to go, wonderful things to see and great things to learn.

— Thyaga

Some useful Govt initiatives

We always say that the Govt. does not do this, should do this, should have done this etc. But this Blog for a change will be on a couple of Govt. of USA initiatives for the consumers. I think, that this is a really useful and cool thing to have.

(1). Do not call registry – I think this one is around a year or so old now, but I think many of us still don’t know about it. Even if we know, I think we don’t really know how it works. Basically, it is a database of phone numbers which the telemarketeers CANNOT call into. So, if you add your home telephone number into the database, then rest assured – you will not get any tele-marketeer calls. In other words, you can have your dinner in absolute harmony !

(2). Free Credit Report – this initiative entitles a consumer to a FREE Credit Report once every 12 months from any of the 3 Credit agencies – Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. I got to know about this service sometime last week. Although this is useful to have, there have been some worrying reports about this service – so, look before you leap :).

Take care,
T

New York Trip Photos

Finally, I have managed to upload the snaps of our New York Trip. I had forgotten to take the battery of my digital camera (getting old ?) and I coudn’t also purchase a new battery anywhere in NJ. So, we took all our photos on Appa’s Canon camera (analog). So, instead of just getting the films developed in a regular way, we also ordered a “Photo CD” for each film roll – this gives you a digitized version of the photographs as well. This is obviously a more expensive option than regular print development – but it has proved to be a savior.

The digitized snaps are actually very good – wonder what technology they use to do that. Anyway, I have uploaded some of our snaps from our trip to New York. Enjoy them !

Cheers !

Wrap up – 09/15/2005

Indian Cricket Team in a Flux

The last few days have seen some really dynamic activity happening in the Indian cricket team – mostly off-field than on. This very team, which epitomised unity and cohesion during the World Cup / Australian and Pakistan tour days seems to show signs of disintegration. For example:

1. A disciplinary committee has been set up to investigate the claim that some players within in the team mis-behaved during the recent one-day tournament.
2. An anti-corruption unit is investigating claims which said that the recent one-day tournament might have had some matches fixed and the anti-corruption unit also suggested that one swash-buckling Indian batsmen and 2 Indian fast bowlers might have been involved (no names were revealed).
3. Yuvraj Singh is picked ahead of Md. Kaif for the First test when current form clearly shows that Kaif should have made it into the team. Dada’s explanation was that Yuvraj had played well in the past in the Test matches – hmmm, what does that mean ?
4. After scoring a fantastic hundred, Laxman shot out against his critics. That is fine considering that he was under enormous pressure. But he also said that there were negative vibes “inside” the team as well and he wanted to silence them as well.
5. After scoring a hundred, Dada said that he was asked to step down on the eve of the First test. He didn’t tell the name of who suggested that but gave ample proof that it came from the coach Greg Chappel.

I don’t want to know who did what and why this happened – we need to get our head together and think straight. World Cup is not far away and if we need to have any realistic chance making it anywhere close to the finals (let alone win it), we need to shrug off all these petty issues and concentrate on 1 thing that matters most – play well !

Cheers !