World Cup 2003 (Updated): (Cricket, of course!) March 1, 2003 might have been hogged by India and Pakistan but IMHO the true heroes of the day were Kenya. A non test playing nation having wins against 3 test playing nations (considering the forfiet by NZ as a win by Kenya) in one tournament and the World Cup at that and then qualifying for the next stage is surely something they can be rather proud of. And what is more intreseting about the Kenyan team is that it is the only African team with a true African character, i.e. no white player and still making a remarkably good progress. They have already beaten SA, West Indies, and India in previous tournaments. Cheers to them.

World Cup 2003 (Updated): (Cricket, of course!) #89 ahmedmadani: ``Hitting by Zahir Khan in head of our wicket kipper was very bad on moral of team, showed hindu team can do anything.``

Aamir Sohail saying that Pakistani bowlers should be aiming to injure Sachin Tendulkar to stop him from playing was very moral (believe me he said it with a very straight face and there was no hint of sarcasm on his face). Taufeeq Umar abusing Sachin on his way back was very moral. Taufeeq Umar also abusing Zaheer on his follow through was very moral (another matter that he got out the same over to the same bowler, reminds one of Aamir Sohail again in a previous game in a previous world cup). Saeed Anwar playing out his innings and not coming on the field after that was a true sportsman`s behaviour (not for first time, in fact suprised he didnt call for a runner). Bowlers not bowling and throwing balls and claiming birth defects and getting away with claims of being the fastest and the greatest is very moral. One can go on and on but guess they teach different moralities in the land of the pure.

p.s. how many brahmins have u met in real life???

Hey Dude, Underdogs got Teeth to Bite! I dont know if they are doing dope tests after every match in this world cup. If they are, I would be really interested in the results for Shoaib Akhtar. He bowled like a zombie and he batted like a zombie.

The Test Lovely :)), would be waiting for more.......

Mighty Lara is Back With a Bang !! #3 shah.

This is going to be the batting world cup. Agreed the Windies dont have the best bowling attack, but it is the batting that is going to win matches in this World Cup. Windies and Indians have the two best batting sides for this tournament, but the Indians haven`t traditionally done well in S.Africa and are in a tough group, so I am really backing the Windies this time around.

Mighty Lara is Back With a Bang !! #1 ``.....even though WI has little or no chance of winning this cup.``

Don`t you think you might be saying a little too soon. Remember Gayle and Hinds the fiery opening pair didnt even get started in this match. And then even God is Caribbean.

Antakshari Anoop, this was really nice. Did indeed bring back some memories. Our school patron was French so our school anthem had 4 languages in it, French, English, Hindi, and Marathi.

Ansari, Ganeshotsav mandal is a group of people who come together to celebrate the Ganesh festival. It can be from a really small building level mandal to quite a large scale one. They collect money, manage the pandal for all the days of the festival, and have some fun. And of course there is lot of music involved. This started in Pune more than 100 years ago and is really big all over Maharashtra, Bombay included, and also some other parts of the countries.

Pakistan Team for the World Cup 2003 Australia might be playing a little too much of cricket of late, there is a definite possibility of the burn out factor creeping in. Already McGrath and Warne are down with injuries. But then champions are made of different stuff.

Some years back a friend`s cousin had come from Pakistan and he told us that in the gully or mohalla cricket out there they tape the tennis ball and play and that is one of the secrets of the fast bowler assembly line. Does anybody know more about this????

My Little Bit of Hindu Romair:

#162: You are very right when you say that there is a great lack of knowledge about Pakistan in India. But instead of the Indian press being at a fault, I think it is the Pakistani media that is to blame. The reason that you or any other Pakistani citizen is able to know so much about India, and from different points of views, is because India has a very vibrant and free media (news, entertainment, print, electronic, etc.), which is hardly what you can say about the Pakistani media. So now if as an Indian I want to learn more about Pakistan, about what the people of Pakistan are doing, what are their views on a particular topic, there is hardly any avenue for me, so I have no choice but to go along with the stereotypical impression. Well, there are a few sites maintained by a few newspapers, but what do I get there? Most of them sound so much govenrmentspeak that it puts you off instantaneously. In the early 90`s with the beginning of cable television in India there was a great opportunity for PTV to fill in this gap. There were not many channels, PTV had a prime satellite band, and most of all Pakistani television serials were very much appreciated in India. But what did they do? They started showing news almost every half hour on it, and the news that would keep pounding it on you again and again that you are the biggest evil on this planet, very much propogandish. Now why on earth would I want to watch such a channel? Today cable operators have pushed even Chinese and Russian channels ahead of PTV, and this is not on goverment instructions, but plain and simple demand and supply. Its not as if Indians are totally unreceptive of things Pakistani, Adnan Sami today feels more at home in India than in Pakistan, Junoon and Strings have had reasonably good success in India. Actually most of the Pakistani musicians who have ventured into India have done reasonably well, infact some of them even sell more albums in India than they manage to in Pakistan.

About talks, let us be honest. What is there really to talk about if both hold on to their lines? Mushy sahab very graciously keeps inviting India to talks, but doesn`t forget to remind it that there can be no compromise on the Kashmir position, and he is not willing to talk about any other topic unless Kashmir is settled. Do you really think this can work? Giving the MFN status can actually be a great beginning. I know it is more of a technicality and hardly makes much of a difference anyway, but the sentiment it conveys is tremendous and remember money makes the world go round. If businesses in both countries have significant interests in each country, believe me it will be that much tougher for them to engage in a conflict and perhaps not even be the correct thing to do for the political masters who are very much dependent on them for the funds, their oxygen.

#179: Gujarat elections are indeed a very important event, much more than they would have been in a normal course. But I definitely do not think they are as important as you make them out to be. There are many checks and balances in the Indian system. I will give you an example. Modi the Gujarat CM keeps on saying the riots were a result of a reaction to the Godhra incident. By that definition, there should have been an even more violent reaction after the attack on the Akshardham temple. But this time it was more in Modi`s interests that no violence was repeated. He had to fight an election and win it, and there is only that much violence the people can take. After all Gujaratis are businessmen first, Hindus, Muslims, Parsis afterwards. And about India splitting, Churchill thought so even before India was born, so don’t worry about that too much. The danger of India splitting was I think at its peak in the late 80`s and early 90`s. There was very active insurgency in Punjab and North East, problems with the LTTE in the south, the economic condition was not too great either to put it mildly, and then the Babri Masjid tragedy happened. India came out fairly well out of all that, and I am sure it has a great future as does I am sure Pakistan.

My Little Bit of Hindu I have always wondered why Basant is celebrated on different days in Indian Punjab and in Pakistani Punjab. Does anybody know why???

Bollywood Gupshup Hey Ansari, it indeed is a small world. You will be suprised to know that Yookta Mookhey is related to me. Her cousin sister is married to my cousin. I know it is not the closest relation you could get, but still. BTW, where are u located now?????

The Endangered Species ``Women in west not only dress like men but hardly of any use for men either !!!!!!!!``

Talk about yourself mate!!!!!!

Bollywood Gupshup arjun_m: ...on the flip side, now every girl in rachana thinks she is aishwarya.

You could say the same about her ex-school (Arya Vidya Mandir) girls as well.

Ansari: Yes, Saathiya is a remake of ALAI PAYUTHE. It was supposed to be a biiiiig hit down south and made Madhavan almost a Hrithik Roshan of the south. Lets hope this one is as good. BTW, Shaad Ali is the son of Mussafar Umaro Jaan Ali and he has been working with Mani Ratnam since Dil Se and only now branching out on his own. About Dil Se I will agree with nooralain. It seemed to me a bit confused movie except of course for the songs. Thankfully, Saathiya has the same musical team.

Bollywood Gupshup Ansari there are lots of exciting movies lined up for December. The Eid weekend itself (December 6) there are three big movies releasing. First is the long delayed movie Kaante, then Sunny Deol and Sunil Shetty starrer Karz, and Akshay-Kareen starrer Talash. And then the rest of the month there are lots of other movies releasing as well like Saathiya and Makdee. But I am really looking forward to Saathiya, directed by Shaad Ali. He is Mussafar Ali`s son and had assisted Mani Ratnam in Dil Se. Saathiya has great music as well (by AR Rehman) and I think the best Adnan Sami song till date in Hindi movies, Aye Udi Udi.

The Endangered Species Umer I will have my go as well. I agree with rsridhar that there really is not any way or ritual by which you can convert to Hinduism. Really it would be great if you could tell us how did she actually convert, if you know about it. From what little I know, she needn`t have converted to Hinduism if all she wanted was to marry a Hindu guy. I think her getting married would have been good enough to make her a Hindu, and again if that was only the reason why she converted. But unlike others I really don`t have any problem with you saying her what you felt as long as you did not force her to do anything she did not want to do. You told your friend what you felt about her situation, and that`s perfectly fine, in fact many times better than gupshuping behind her back.

Bollywood Gupshup Ansari: Aishwarya is neither. She was on her way to become an architect, but couldnt complete the course. She got into modelling, and I dont think anybody is complaining.

This has been a particularly bad year for Bollywood, one of the worst I think, but December seems promising.