TERROR HITS MUMBAI YET AGAIN.

Days of torrential rain in Mumbai post-13/7 may have done well to wash-out the blood stains on the blast-stricken walls.But whether days of a desperate sun could evaporate the brimming tears in the eyes? And whether the prevailing winds could blow away the shock,fear and wrath of the Mumbaikars? Sounds pretty optimistic but the way  tragedy returns as frequently as festivals  do in Mumbai and provided the hopeless government that we have, perhaps it's time to to turn to 'natural phenomenons' to drive off doom days.

Sadly,Mumbai has not been new to the aftermath of such bloody assaults. Time and again it finds itself to be a 'dead meat' of a bunch of brainless souls who thrive on unreasonable destruction. While we house ourselves in the safety of our rooms,watch the bodies of the dead and injured on television and in course of expressing our natural-humane-pity, spew off words praising the 'resilience' and applauding the 'spirit', one can only imagine the fear that would have clinged on to the people that sorrowful night. They would have tiptoed back to their houses with shuddered hearts consoling their dear ones showing mock firmness,chanting nervous prayers and suspecting a bomb everywhere-in trains,vehicles,dustbins,tiffin-boxes.Who knew when and where the bomb n0.4 or no.5 would explode! The whole phenomenon of these ghast 'serial blasts' implies that the merciless maniacs do not leave any stone unturned while inficting their brutal blows.

Are we not sick of these fragile government policies to tackle terrorism? Only after a massacre such as this, the security gets beefed up that too in name of which a few pot-bellied policemen with questionable agility carrying an obsolete,rusty one-shot gun get added-up(the metal detectors confine to airports and the bomb detectors come into picture only after a blast),the on-going peace-process goes to a 'temporary' halt, fake promises ,hollow threats and lame excuses gallore from the part of some white-collared'street dogs' who have always barked but never bitten. There has been a growing outrage on the failure of intelligence. I wonder whether our intelligence is potent enough.Has there been an ocassion when the 'intelligence' has worked intelligently enough to prevent a plotted bomb-blast? Have those bomb-detectors ever acted on suspicion and detected a bomb without being exploded? However,this time, the verbosity of the corrupt leaders of an inept government has been staggering.Words that could make you grin,smirk and sulk.Words that reflected India's tame surrender against terrorism and its pityless ignorance. Few have even paded their own backs by calling this a first major blast in Mumbai after 26/11,as if there's a gap of some 10 years in between or as if the government expect such blasts once in every 6 months.

Time is fading and the frothy layer of rage and mild-agitation is fast meting as it has always done. The vivid images of that terrifying night will soon go blurred, Mumbai will return to its feet and yet another day would get added to the 'black-list' for candles to be burnt and silence to be observed once in every year. What more have we done all these years?  Had the government been pro-active,that 'Kasab' would not have been enjoying the pleasant food and shelter of ever so hospitable Indian jails.And before I express my anger further,the breaking news flashed at my television screen breaks me apart-The Death toll in Mumbai Blasts reaches to 19 as one more victim succumbs to his injuries.Trembling voices of reporters,mournful silence and unconsolable wails return to carry me away as I pen down with moist eyes.

THE CHANGING CARIBBEAN WATERS.

Where are the bands! Where are the portly trumpets and the stouty clarions and where are those sturdy old men playing them all day long, singing glory of Test cricket. Is this Cricket in Caribbean or what!

 The recently concluded test series reflected the sorry state that cricket in the islands has turned into.If not gasp an ardent cricket fan out of boredom,the series potentially could raise serious threats on the future of Test cricket. Even on TV,it was like watching a Jammu Kashmir vs Orissa Ranji trophy match being played in a exotic neutral venue with a few passerbys strolling in,a few school kids watching a free-ticket-show and the boundary boys scorching themselves in the sun rather needlessly,being the only spectators. Even the gestures after fall of a wicket lacked enthusiasm and the commentators seemingly went for a short-afternoon-nap in between the turn of the repeated lines.The matches,of course with little help from an ultra-defensive indian team, drifted drowsily to a known outcome and the players went through the silent waves. Surprisingly, I don't remember a bouncer from a West indies bowler that crashed into the helmet of an Indian batsman or one that zipped through the nose making him smell leather.And yes,I am talking of cricket being played at the lands of  Marshall, Holding,Walsh and Ambrose! How deadly were these men in their own den is no secret.


Gone are those days when cricket in West Indies was no less than a jamboree. People turned up in huge numbers as colourfully and cheerfully as they would on a Christmas eve and celebrated the dominance of West Indies cricket. They sang,danced,boozed and yelled  producing a din that could even awaken a dead. The calypso beats went wild at the fall of each wicket and people howled and screamed thumping their chests almost intermidating the opposition to their demise.

Things have changed rather pathetically over the last few years. West Indies cricket has failed to survive the test  of times. They were served by Sobers in early part of their golden era,Richards followed the trend then and Lara was their latest apple of the eye, on the other side they had the list of some jaw-breaking fast-men which was long enough to make any side and their supporters go arrogant.They lived on the present almost being addicted to the taste of constant success and never planned the future. Once the sages retired ,there was no one to fill in the huge boots.In other words,there was no one groomed to carry the lamp forward. They relied heavily on the fertility of the soil that kept cropping talented cricketers and never thought of the drought that was all but inevitable.

But lack of talent or talent not being furnished to a threshold point timely enough is only a half explanation to the descendency.One cannot help but feel that the crowding of remunerative events(club cricket) in a cricket's calendar has made modern day cricketers put professionalism over patriotism.The problem is not the significance of these events but their frequency which is eclipsing country cricket and providing the cricketers more lucrative options little too many. It is perhaps a more fundamental impact that goes beyond cricket, it has to do with human tendency to lick lips to a whopping sum of money ,being thrown at them,in  some serious dollars.

Chris Gayle's recent grudge against the WICB is an interesting and a telling story. There is little to wonder weather the ego-fuelled Gayle would have treated the board like he did had he not played an influential role in Royal Challenger's pleasant run in IPL-4 and thereby assuring a fixed birth for himself in many versions of IPL to follow.And the fact that the Jamaican also whirls his bat for Western Australia in Big Bash and earns huge as well is also instructive. Now,the board's decision to keep Gayle out of the side sends down the strong statement that Board is not for players but players are for the Board. The sustained suspension from the side on indisciplinary grounds culminates that its norms are not fragile, unlike its team and that they won't be comprosmised on the status of a player. However, fingers have been pointed on the Board for diluting the India's tour of West Indies completely by not including Gayle for no doubt, the name Gayle in the squad could have filled those stands which remained empty for the entire tour.

There is a famous saying that "whether it's the best of times or the worst of times,its the only time we h've got". West Indies cannot but wait for the dreadful winter to pass and let the spring return. They have to act and act quickly to fructify blossoms in a barren-turned land and let the great ancestors of the great land see West Indies rise to its peak once again before they give up their ghosts.