Cricket's Hour of Shame

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While we have heard similar incidents of betting related scams and scandals in cricket before, the one currently rocking the world of the gentleman's game is more disgusting as it promises to wipe out an entire team. I have always wondered how the two small impoverished (culturally and economically - courtesy long periods of strife) nations keep producing talent after talent (i am referring to Srilanka and Pakistan - the former war-ravaged for decades and the latter, much the same and  perennially sitting on political powder-keg) inspite of their socio-economic conditions but the catch exactly lies in those s-e conditions it now appears. Very little incentive to be morally upright?

                   Well, whatever be the fate of the game, it leaves a numbing pain in the heart. Some really good talent may go extinct. But who cares. The scary thought is what would happen if other guardians of society give a go-by to conscience. What if the opposite of what was envisioned in Atlas Shrugged happens?
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The Joys of Good Forecasting

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Astrology is quite close to the top of my favorites in life. Outside of sleeping, eating  or  spending time with my family i spend most of my time studying currency markets or astrology.  The thrills of getting a market move right is just as consummate as getting the future of someone bang on.

                   In astrology we practice something called as 'Blind Chart Analysis' - an exercise where someone in the forum provides birth details of a person and then asks 'what happened to him or her at a particular time'.  We, members, try to predict that event. A good focused work certainly yields accurate results.

                    Sometime recently i indulged in such an exercise.  The birth details of a lady was given and another date was given and the query was to predict what might have happened on that day. A few of us did a good job. I had the honor of doing it most accurately when i wrote 'the actress's parent must have died in an accident at that hour....'.  The moderator declared this as the nearest to the fact.  The person in question was a Hollywood star and the person that died was her  father who himself was a distinguished actor and he died in a helicopter crash during a stunt scene. The beauty of  good astrology is it allows the analyst to say the person under reference was an actor, there was a mishap, there was a parent involved and it was fatal...

                     While publishing the correct entries, the moderator also provided complete details. After this detail was provided i realised it was possible to do a better job - that is, to narrow it to 'father' than vaguely saying 'parent' and it was also possible to say he was also associated with arts. Must be one of those times when i (or anyone) misses the wood for  trees!!

The Sin of Whistle-Blowing

  

Some of my fanatically regular fans and a few of my sensation-seeking-acquaintances have started wondering what on earth has befallen me and why am i 'found'  missing!!  I am not. I don't know if there is anything called as introspective sabbatical but if there is one, i must be somewhere there.

I am feeling this queer feeling of having done something in haste - pretty confused about a few things and puzzled about a lot many.  Let me live this moment of test.

God has his own ways - a closing-window often means an opening-door somewhere.

And there is enough to create a best-seller!!!
That is if i choose to...

Someone said - speak out. I say to myself : "If you understand me, i don't have to explain myself. If you don't understand me, no amount of explaining will ever help".

 

ps: Found this interesting article in TOI - posting it with plenty of reluctance - reference the link below:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/spirituality/speaking-tree/The-saint-and-the-scorpion/articleshow/6451408.cms