Pakistan cricket, a long-playing circus with clowns as heroes!

Raju Korti
The Pakistan Cricket Board and its players have fine-tuned the art of being in a state of permanent ferment. After their dismal performance in the World Cup, the Board was revamped only to consolidate the view that it is also a theater of the absurd. A clueless and lost 29-year-old Babar Azam who averages 47 Tests was replaced by 34-year-old Shan Masood who averages 28 in Tests. If you thought this was just keep-the-change, the real magic was performed by the new administration overhauled after the World Cup debacle.

The Board brought in Salman Butt who served a five-year ban and some time in jail after being proved guilty in a spot-fixing scandal during England's tour in 2016. However, this was so shameless even by Pakistan's standards that the Prime Minister's Office had to quickly cancel this decision. It also inducted former pacer Wahab Riaz as the Chief Selector along with Kamran Akmal and Rao Inftikhar Anjum on the panel. Perhaps the only intelligent piece of work here was Riaz had retired in August and the running joke was he would have selected himself in the national side. While Butt became a butt of public scorn, his partner-in-crime Muhammed Amir was fast-tracked into the side around the same time.

Butt, Kamran, Riaz and Anjum have all played together between 2004 and 2010 and with the exception of Riaz, all were found guilty of spot-fixing by the National Crime Agency in London and the International Cricket Council imposing bans on them. I have repeatedly reiterated in my blogs that while its Board works in a whimsical manner, its players act as parallel constitutional authorities. Between the players, there are cross-currents and animosities that surface every now and then,

To be fair to Salman Butt, he was a fairly good batsman and regretted his actions but the fixing taint put paid to his career. Waqar Younis recommended his return to the national team but Shahid Afridi, a confirmed braggart, thwarted his attempts. The same Shahid Afridi who conceitedly promoted his son-in-law 23-year-old Shaheen Shah Afridi as Pakistan's skipper for the T-20 format. The senior Afridi claimed that he had no role to play in his son-in-law's selection but in Pakistan, things are so blatant, you don't need to put two and two together. The deluge of public reaction in the midst of these developments, the cross-currents between the dramatis personae was sheer entertainment.

The PMO, run by a caretaker himself, had to admit in other words that Butt's appointment was an outrage. Neither PCB's (then) Chairman Zaka Ashraf nor Riaz had credentials to be in the Board. For the record, unlike Riaz, Ashraf has not played any first-class or List A cricket and was on the Board merely on his corporate experience. 

Instead of the much trumpeted overhaul, the Pakistan Board got more and more embroiled in machinations and insinuations. In my blog on December 31, 2022, I had written how the then Chairman Ramiz Raja, normally a subdued man, got into intemperate outbursts and in the bad books of the Board's new management committee which was headed by journalist Najam Sethi. One wondered whether Sethi, who had three brief stints in the past as president/chairman knew what he had walked into given the mercurial tempers that obtain Pakistan cricket.

I had also stated: "If as an avid cricket administration follower you tend to believe that governing boards across cricket playing nations, including our own BCCI back home, are self-styled and are run by whimsical people, look at what is happening in Pakistan Cricket Board. The PCB leaves no stone unturned to jealously guard its reputation as a long-standing joke, its chairmen replaced with every change of government. The unceremonious chucking out of former player and commentator Ramiz Raja is a case in point."

Now link this with the militant stand Ramiz has taken with the new dispensation and you will understand the point I am trying to labour over. The selection of Pakistan team for the gruelling Australian tour is going to be baptism by fire and it wouldn't be surprising that more heads may roll and/or become scapegoats. Their shattering 360-run battering in the first Test at Perth with captain Masood himself faring poorly and Azam continuing his mediocre run, has provided fodder to lose canons like Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Akhtar and mushrooming "experts" on the social media who are smarting like only they do.

Incidentally. nobody knows what exactly is the brief given to Mohammad Hafeez who took over from the disgraced Mickey Arthur as the Director of Pakistan men's cricket team. Since his appointment, he has been giving long interviews right, left and centre, justifying the team selection and believing that it can turn Pakistan's cricketing fortunes downside up. He has of course made some right noises but in Pakistan, right noises are smothered by those who want to muddy waters with their personal agenda and getting even with whom they nurse personal rivalry.

A couple of days before the Perth Test, he said he was thrilled to know that the Pakistan team is intent on defeating Australia on its own soil which is a pipedream in its present tattered condition. But trust Pakistan to put on not only a brave front but also go overboard. Before the World Cup, the Pakistan team kept parroting that it was in India to win the World Cup. Nothing wrong with that, of course, that it was unable to walk that talk. Hafeez's, as also some other player's conviction is mind boggling. They still boast that Pakistan can beat Australia in Australia (or for that matter anywhere!).

The run up to the selection itself was a towering absurdity. It is no secret there were dissensions within the team during the World Cup. Babar Azam chose to step down than being thrown out and the people brought in as part of this "overhaul" showed who is calling the shots and who is the director behind the scenes. The entire team has floundered badly and given the morass it finds itself in, the talk that it can still thrash Australia is a bravado only Pakistanis are capable of. Even the team's die-hard supporters are now finding it difficult to see Pakistan's resurgence.

Going back to my old blog: In Pakistan, nothing can ever go right in any sphere of life as murky politics creeps in at all junctures. It is a virtual free-for-all with players, organisers, governing bodies and self-proclaimed experts constantly engaged in leg pull and rabid criticism of each other. It is as confusing and amusing to know who is with who and who opposes who. 

Random and irrational changes often made at the instances of vested interests in the powers that be have had debilitating consequences on the players at all levels of the game. The structure of domestic cricket in Pakistan has been a non-stop roller coaster. School and club cricket at the top tiers have bled with inadequacies. Games have hardly got the marketing boost unlike in India (the other extreme end) and matches are rarely televised because of which, the players are compelled to pat their own backs. 

With such an abysmal state of affairs, little wonder the "best Babar Azam becomes Gobar Azam" in no time. 

Some thoughts about David Warner's swansong going off-key

Raju Korti
There is another reason for the Pakistan cricket team other than having to load their luggage and their rather unwelcome arrival when they landed on the Aussie soil. The retirement of David Warner is taking all the sheen away from the impending series. More so, after fellow cricketer and former team-mate Mitchell Johnson let loose a fusillade against him for seeking to bow out of Test cricket on his own terms despite persistent doubts of his place in the side. It is rather by default that an undermanned Pakistan which may not excite even the most ardent Aussie fan, might get a boost over what is being billed as Warner's farewell tour.

Warner who made his debut 12 years ago has evoked awe and contempt in similar measure either as a poster boy for his brilliance or for sins of commissions and omissions. Irrespective of the rumblings in many quarters about his performance in Tests in recent times, Warner has gone ahead with the customary Aussie bravado that he would go on his own terms and he would prefer the Sydney Test to be his swansong. Something unheard of across cricket playing countries elsewhere except of course India where pampered cricketers are allowed the liberty of a safe passage and retire when they feel like.

If his retirement is deflecting all the excitement in the present series, it is because of Johnson's scathing takedown on Warner's role in the ball-tampering scandal. A probe by Cricket Australia had adjudged Warner as the villain of the piece in 'Sandpaper-gate' that had Australian cricket's integrity hitting rock bottom.

It is not altogether surprising that the Johnson's furious indictment of Warner stems from a personal exchange the latter had and used it as a ruse to question a "hero's send off". To be fair to Warner, he has since atoned for that sin by serving a year-long suspension but appalled fans feel that giving Warner a choice on his Test retirement is nothing short of sacrilege.

Warner pulled out all stops to have his leadership ban rescinded and when they all came a cropper, he pulled out of the process, accusing Cricket Australia panel of dredging up unsavoury details about 'Sandpaper-gate'. In the midst of the recent furore, Warner's manager James Erskine has been doing all the fire-fighting to defend his client's character and get even with Johnson.

Understandably, Warner now pins his hopes on his bat doing all the talking as it did in the recent World Cup in India but except for that double hundred at MCG against South Africa in his 100th Test, Warner has struggled to keep going. Cricketers in other countries, by and large, are not always very charitable about each other, have known to harbour jealousies and are also known to speak out in the guise of being fair and objective. But on sheer facts and figures, one cannot disagree with former captain Ricky Ponting that the MCG Test would have been an ideal swansong for Warner who battled on through an injury-blighted series in India and through the Ashes.

As the situations stands now, it is runs rather than his past reputation that will decide whether Warner gets Sydney as his farewell Test. If reputation emerges as the yardstick of his selection, Cricket Australia would be setting a surprising precedent. Players' retirement in other countries are decided by their respective country's Boards. Remember how the Boards elsewhere, notably in West Indies and South Africa ruthlessly wound up their star players' careers despite their enviable past record. It is only in India that hearts rule over heads. Also remember that the durable Ian Healy was chucked out and denied his farewell 100th Test and was replaced by Adam Gilchrist. One small consideration that works for Warner is there are not many replacements who can make a compelling case for their selection.

Although one sees a quid pro quo in Johnson's outburst in his column against Warner, there is substance in his charge that Warner has struggled in red-ball cricket and not being graceful in accepting his complicity in the ball tampering issue. With his backdrop it was befuddling that Warner made out a public his intentions of retiring on his own terms. Erskine's defence that Johnson's column was aimed at getting easy headlines pales into insignificance. In a skewed logic, Erskine claimed that Warner's replacements Matthew Renshaw, Cameron Bancroft and Marcus Harris too hadn't done anything worthwhile to merit selection.

Warner believes he is still the best man for the job. May be he is, may be he is not anymore but Cricket Australia will finally preside over his destiny. One thing, frail though in his favour, is thankfully for him, Mitchell Johnson is not a selector.

The trappings of ageing and gracefully!

Raju Korti
Given the cynicism I was born with, I have, among other things, often wondered what people mean by the term "ageing gracefully." I mean, how does one age gracefully? Is it by one's demeanor, disposition or looks? The immediate provocation for this grossly grotesque existential question is what is happening inside of me of late as years advance in on me.

When people say I don't look like I am closing in on 68 as I appear much younger, my cynicism looks at it more as a consolation disguised as compliment. What is the big deal here? Anyone who plasters his face with a bit of fairness cream and dyes hair looks younger for his/her age. As for demeanor and disposition it is is inherently in a person. I am not convinced it makes for a great allowance as one's cultivated persona.

As for me, ageing has come with its attendant physical and mental ills. Despite my best attempts at "ageing gracefully" as people use the term pompously, I call this slow deterioration as brain fade. There are tell-tale signs -- slowing reflexes, forgetting things and not being able to be quick on the uptake anymore. It has essentially to do with loss of grey cells and unfortunately, cells do not age gracefully much as one would wish.

As a workhorse journalist with 44 painstaking years of grinding, I often prided on my phenomenal memory. I never took notes even in the most complex of interviews or situations that involved a maze of figures. I would sneer at colleagues who carried a notepad on the apprehension of misquoting people or making factual errors. At the cost of sounding a little impudent, I never faltered on any of these. The last one year seems to have slowly changed that perception. Although I am out of active journalism (a blessing in disguise with the atrophy in the profession), I continue to write and what has come to my realization is I now have to wrack my brains to cobble up ideas and even if do, I need an effort to put them cohesively. Even remembering a brief for a commissioned article, which once I thought was a cakewalk, has become tricky. I don't know if these are part of "ageing gracefully."

Don't for a minute think that my blog has patently negative connotation. It is not as if I expect to die the next moment with no guarantees in life. I continue to exercise regularly, eat healthily and strive to bring down stress levels. Having said that, I cannot also overlook the downside of ageing. It is a part of my in-built defensive mechanism that I try to overcome with whatever trappings my faculties can afford. My life inventory starts at the top with my greying hair and colouring them. The fact that many of my age have allowed nature to take a toll on their ageing parameters and still manage(d) to look just as fine, I have tried to defy through hair dyes and creams that improve skin tone, until my fantasies dropped down to Mother Earth with the conclusion that fairness creams look bright only in glossy ads on those who are already fair. Cosmetics have a limited role to play.

I do not know how many beyond their sixties look to refurbish their appearance but my admirations have always been reserved for those who try to deflect ageing with their mental agility and polishing their reflexes. I am taking this cue from my journalist friend Mayank Chhaya, who has kept himself busy up to his neck in constructive work and joyful pursuits (for whatever their worth). We had a light but assuaging chat that I hope will revive my sagging spirits.

So pulling up my socks and rolling up my sleeves once again to reinvigorate my dwindling resolve. To quote the rhetorical phrase, gearing up to "age gracefully". 

Defying age, staying energetic through collagen!

Raju Korti
In an era where Health -- and by a natural corollary, Beauty -- emerge as paramount prerequisites of human existence, the importance of collagen cannot be underscored enough. Billed as the next big thing, it is now ostensibly a life-giving elixir that can arrest ageing and refurbish your glow in all its unsullied guise and countenance.

Awareness about collagen, at least in India, is still in its infancy. It is now gathering steam gradually, thanks to those who are evincing interest in harnessing its benefits in the larger interests of mankind. It is not altogether surprising that the over-riding thought in the promotion of collagen as a versatile agent and its cost-effective character far supersedes its commercial considerations. Looked at it from that prism, the mankind will benefit much more from its perks than any other peripheral issue that surround it.

The kick of caffeine. Just add collagen!

For the uninitiated, collagen is a protein responsible for healthy joints and skin elasticity, or stretchiness. It naturally exists in one's bones, muscles and blood, making up for a whopping three-quarters of one's skin and an almost equal amount of protein in the body. It is thus the primary building block of the body skin, muscles, bones, tendons, ligaments and other connective tissues. With advancing age, the existing collagen breaks down and eventually, it gets harder for the body to produce more -- as it happens with most of our physical faculties. The conventional wisdom until recently was once the tissue got damaged, there would be no repair and one just lived with that inevitable infirmity. It is here that collagen chips in in the form of capsules and liquids. The use of collagen as beautifying agent should not be restricted to its female constituency alone. We all know that beauty, as one understands the term in today's context, has similar implications for the males as well.  

True to the dictum that necessity is the mother of invention, the scientific research hitherto lacking in most collagen supplements is now being more than made up with a simple formula -- Just add collagen -- and it will act as your bodyguard and help active ageing, give you a radiance packaged in a new avatar.
In simple words, it is fortification with a capital F.

Collagen intake has been made simple enough to be a part of one's daily regimen and lifestyle. One can have in it one's soup, coffee, beverages or any other food without drilling a hole in your pocket. As a beauty agent, it has no peers -- a gleaming skin, thicker hair come with increased muscle mass, better sleep quality, healthy heart, efficient brain function, robust liver, improved gut health and proper weight management. The reason is not far to seek. A typical 15 gram collagen peptide powder has just 50 calories with protein 12 grams. Fat and carbohydrate and sugar content, the major culprits, are zero. 

Stressful lifestyles and work have been known to take a heavy toll at a relatively much younger age. A disconcerting statistics is about the young between the age of 30 and 40 succumbing to heart-related complications. Collagen is known to keep the arteries and blood vessels healthy and unclogged, reducing substantially the risk of a stroke or heart attack. A study has shown that collagen powder brought down the risk of atherosclerosis (build up of cholesterol on artery walls). A spate of studies, mostly in Japan and the United States are slowly revealing this gifted and resourceful facet of collagen.

In India, the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) does not regulate collagen powder or any other type of dietary supplement. So there's no guarantee that your collagen supplement contains the quantity of collagen the label claims. If you buy from a reputed source/manufacturer, this risk is nil. Having said that, any new research is usually taken with a pinch of salt. Collagen is an important offshoot and byproduct of fish scales. Extracting collagen from marine product is both challenging and laborious but just imagine! A versatile and complaint product at the end of the day as a Mother of All Boosters going in with something as daily used as bread! Little wonder, collagen manufacturers are focusing on its use through your daily food intake. Much will depend on how the food-manufacturing giants associate with the cause. 

Another crucial element would be the benefit of collagen for sportspersons. Sports is no longer a recreation activity. It involves high stakes, both in terms of finances and recognition. High protein intake is germane to high energy and strength. Collagen can increase their longevity and serve their personal, national and international longer. Indeed, collagen powder has also been used by doctors to heal physical injuries faster. Clinical trials and studies are lending efficacy and credence to the remedial advantages of collagen. That regulatory government agencies like the Food Standard and Safety Authority of India (FSSAI) are aware and approve wins half the battle.

The one challenge that collages faces in its otherwise in its superior favour is overcoming the red dots as against the green. While veganism gains ground, and probably rightly so, the way forward could be to view collagen as a health benefit rather than as an animal product extract. Once this perspective makes headway, the line between the red and green dots will be blurred, and for the overall good. Nutritionists, dietitians, chefs and stakeholders in the food and beauty industry will do well to ponder and labour over how to inculcate this thought so that the issue does not boil down to Vegetarian vs Non-vegetarian but predominantly about health concerns. The entire debate surrounding the issue can be fine-tuned and tweaked with a rationale that can justify collagen not merely by its origin but by its overall utility. Once that happens, all other demerits could pale into insignificance.

It must be said to the credit of the manufacturers that they are paying due attention to this aspect of creating awareness to begin with rather than just leveraging its commercial benefits. As the Chinese proverb goes, "Even a thousand mile journey begins with one step." Collagen can traverse this distance faster with that one catchy line: "Just add collagen"! From bread to coffee and a host of other food items, the choice is yours.

Of political flux and addled leaders

Raju Korti
Politics is not a game, it is an earnest business. It is also a strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles and a conduct of public affairs for private advantage. What has been happening in Maharashtra since the last five years has been nothing short of a spectacular heap of garbage that rides on expediencies, helplessness and recourses that leave even the most wise, none the any wiser.

The dark clouds of jugglery of power, all in the name of one-upmanship and political acumen, has a strange but vulnerable subservience and servility to it. While this is being supported or scoffed at from individual vantage points, the absurd algorithms they throw up each time, must leave everyone stupefied and bewildered as newer depths in compromise are plumbed with alarming regularity.

The latest in the line is the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) faction led by Sharad Pawar urging the Election Commission to disqualify Deputy CM Ajit Pawar and his flock after their much anticipated adieu to the party. But this apparent obvious political manoeuvre is shrouded by the umpteen meetings the uncle and nephew have held for what can only but a desperate bid for reconciliation as each calculates it. Who blinks first? The nephew, whose early morning oath-taking experience turned out to be joke at the cost of a dazed electorate, or the uncle, labelled by an overawed media as "wily old fox" and a "master at deft manoeuvres"?

The desperation of both juts out from their stances and their responses, not sure what exactly they must do and are throwing their dices randomly in the hope they will fall to their advantage. A somewhat similar situation has been obtaining in in the Shiv Sena right since Raj Thackeray broke away from cousin Uddhav after the former felt that uncle Bal Thackeray pitchforked the latter at his cost. Raj did not dither as much and as long as Ajit did and swiftly set up his own outfit. The stunned patriarch had obviously not bargained for such a decisive action and in a matter of just one week, dropped his staunch demeanor to beseech Raj to come back in his party mouthpiece Saamna. That emotional outpouring did not help much either. The depth, or the lack of it, about the two estranged cousins coming together is as predictable as Ajit Pawar and Sharad Pawar joining hands together again. At times they have been smug and non committal and at times in denials that only confound confusion. This unpredictability means anything is possible when expediencies become the sole criteria of remaining politically relevant.

The pitch in both the parties is queered by issues relating to party symbol, mass defections and listlessness among the despondent rank and file. At the other end of this spectrum is the Bharatiya Janata Party which has been deriving pride and pleasure in engineering splits and flaunting them as strategic victories. If its leaders have not learnt the lessons from its betrayals, it deserves what it gets. While the political waters get muddied more and more, those who watch this from the sidelines, can only pity themselves and wring their hands in despair. Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying all the wrong remedies.

One of the reasons why I dislike politics -- despite the unavoidable evil that it is -- is that truth is rarely a politician's objective. Election and power and pelf are. People have not changed politics. It is the other way round and there can be no hope in heaven or hell of any course correction.

We all keep dying until we finally die!

Raju Korti
Death, or the thought of it, does not have to be always morbid in its wake. I remember veteran journalist, writer Dr Baburao Patel having said that a man who chuckles at the thought of his own death has to be the liveliest man alive. Reading dear friend Mayank Chhaya's post of August 14 and reacting to it so late might not well be in tune with a journalist's instincts in timeliness but this one has a long shelf life.

Wrote Mayank: "Someone informed my dear friend Sharad Bailur (a common friend) today that I have died. I have checked. I don't think so. But then, who can tell these days? People have been known to die and it is always in the realm of possibility. I will be the first to let you know if it comes to that."

There are a few things that stand out from this succinct post. One, death or even the thought of it, does  not have to be morbid as I have borne before. One can and should laugh it off. There is precious nothing that one can do about it. Two, like any old-fashioned journalist, one should cross-check all information when it comes to him. Even if it is about his own death. Three, it is also about the uncertainties of death. Death writes its own will, is self-styled and no one can rewrite it. Four, and finally, again the instinct of a good journalist and his sense of pride in "you read about it here first."

Death may have triggered and spawned a myriad poetries but ask me, As someone who has constantly lived in the shadow of death after an almost fatal bypass surgery in 2015, I count each dawn as a blessing or a curse, depending on how the day shapes up. I clearly remember the surgeon telling some of my friends: "Is ka operation to kar diya hoon, lekin guarantee kuchh nahi hai." This is the realm of possibility and uncertainty that Mayank writes with his characteristic humour. My family folk and friends believe talking about death is a taboo and not worthy of even dark humour.

Some time in the early eighties, I recall my newspaper had published the death of a Parsi Bawaji. Someone had made a prank call as his relative and informed that he had died. The newspaper published it in good faith without cross-checking. The next morning, the Bawaji landed at the editor's doorstep, seething with anger and seeking an explanation how his paper could commit such faux pas. The editor, an affable man, made no attempt to control his laughter. "Relax, Sir, you will live a longer life." That infuriated him even more. He didn't realize that if he had indeed died, he wouldn't have had the good fortune of listening to this profound piece of philosophy. 

In one of my interactions with Dev Anand, the actor once told me that "when it (death) comes, I will take it." As if he had a choice! But while we all believed that in our smitten naivete, it never occured to our imbecile minds that death does not discriminate between lesser or any other mortal. The operative word is mortal.

People who sound pompous when they say, "it's my life", conveniently forget that it's their death too. Death doesn't give anyone a power of attorney. Take it and leave! As far as I am concerned, being not dead is not the same as being alive either. There is no cure for birth and death, so just glide through the interval,
The End!             

Grappling with a Pakistan on the brink is far more dangerous

Raju Korti
Among the countless devious and dubious records to its credit, the one that I find perpetually congruous is Pakistan's penchant to exist in a state of constant flux. A country born out of tumult and chaos struggles to eke out a survival with never ending labour pains. That rough and tumble now threatens to explode in its own face. If you think this is sadistic pun given the country's fatal and neo-natal fascination for nuclear bombs, you got it right.

In one of my many blogs on Pakistan, in 2009, I had prophesized -- as if it needed great profundity -- that "incommoded under the superincumbent weight of its own political, religious, global and economic contradictions, the country was accelerating a death wish and it was only a matter of time before the brink would be on the wall. That "this matter of time" took 14 years is a surprise tribute to Pakistan's resilience in withstanding trials and tribulations of every conceivable hue, but its present economic crisis threatens its very survival.

It might be easy as an Indian to watch this drama unfold with a certain glee as Pakistan hurtles towards what appears to be an imminent economic collapse but the neighbouring country has always been a theatre of the absurd with problems of its own making. The fact is a destabilised Pakistan is far more dangerous because whatever stability one associated with it in the past, one could dismiss threats emanating from it as mere sabre rattling.

The trouble with Pakistan -- and its record is a testimony -- is it is a country run by fringe elements and that includes its army which has bled it white while religious extremism have had a free run with political establishments exploiting them for their own survival. As one of their own ministers said recently, Pakistan sowed the seeds of terrorism and is paying the price for it in its own backyard. Before that, prime minster Shahbaz Sharif admitted that having lost three wars to India, Pakistan had learnt its lessons and now wants peace. This is no belated wisdom. If you thought it has learnt its lesson, in the same breath, he put the resolution of Kashmir issue as paramount for any reconciliation. For Pakistani political establishment, Kashmir is a raison d'etre. but it is a remedy worse than the disease. The resolution of Kashmir, if at all, will make them redundant.

Do not be taken in by the reparative tone in Sharif's statement. As the impending economic doom threatens to envelope the country, India has to be alert to its attendant risks. In the midst of a disintegrated  economic algorithm - falling rupee, mounting inflation and debts, skyrocketing prices of basic commodities, rapidly dwindling forex reserves, erratic power outages, shortage of fuel and what have you -- the fringe elements, in their fanaticism and anarchic wont -- are seeing a chance. For India, the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) will be a massive challenge as its neither-here-nor-there population seeks a merger with India more for their own survival and economic well being and not because it has any affinity for India. In the present matrix, it is better off as a shock absorber between India and Pakistan's clutch plates. 

I might be wrong but I am inclined to believe that the present Indian government may not be so charitably disposed as the one during 1971 when refugees from East Pakistan trickled into India in the wake of a war that fractured Pakistan and brought Bangladesh on the world map. This refugee crisis, although happening under different circumstances, will not just be an economic burden but also a law and order issue. From the Pakistani point of view, this inadvertent merger with PoK -- notwithstanding the section in India which subscribes to forcible takeover of PoK -- will be a body blow to its esteem. Whichever way you look at it, it is a perplexing scenario.

At the moment, there are far more important things that Pakistan needs to come to grips with. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) seems to have taken a ruthless Shylockian approach in bailing it out, expecting a pound of flesh that just isn't there. Worse still, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, China and other countries that it believes are allies, have not been exactly compassionate. Beyond political expediencies and geostrategic compulsions, the world knows Pakistan cannot be anybody's baby. Hanging precariously from a cliff edge, Pakistan has no chance but to toe lines and allow itself to be exploited. From India's perspectives it could be a bad augury as China, which has been brutal with Uighurs, will use Pakistan's economic meltdown to its own advantage. The Line of Actual Control (LAC) will have reason to simmer again.

The situation today is far removed from what it was in 1962 or 1971. In the event of an armed conflict, the present Indian government will not soft-pedal and most likely retaliate with similar force. Let me reproduce what I wrote in another blog more than 14 years ago. It is still relevant with some noises in Pakistan wanting to use the N-bomb as an arm-twisting tactic to extract economic aid from the world: This what I wrote:

"Pakistan is clueless and/or impassive about tackling its own burgeoning domestic problems but never loses an opportunity to throw on India's face its readiness to press the nuclear button at the slightest provocation.
So what is it that makes this rather failed State, where non-State actors have been calling the shots for decades now, rely so furiously on the nuclear threat? Why does even something as routine as cancellation of talks for normalisation of bilateral relationship, makes it step on the gas and indulge in fulminations of a nuclear war?
Each nation has a doctrine to deal with possible nuclear threats. For Pakistan, it is majorly India. For India it is Pakistan and China. For the US it is Russia, China, North Korea and many more where it often pitches in as world policeman. On the brink given the problems that surround its neighbourhood and helpless because of an intransigent and crazy military establishment, this doctrine stares India in the face with alarming regularity. The threat of a full-scale military offensive was never as pronounced as it is now after the attacks in Pathankot and Uri but the Indian response continues to remain calibrated and somewhat frustrated. The dynamics of what accrues between the two countries in the wake of their tumultuous division and subsequent deep-rooted hatred has gone far beyond the realms of conventional diplomacy.
There is still a faint glimmer of hope to believe that the Pakistani military establishment realises it would be a blunder to provoke an attack that would spell end to its country's existence on the world map. But it will not need much for the country's army -- which has thrown all civilian and democratic norms to the wind -- to acerbate a war, learning little from the three lost wars in 1965, 1971 and 1994. What began as a bluster from then President Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto about staging a "thousand-year war with India" has now assumed a grotesque obsession to acquire nuclear weapons on the perceived threat from India.
I am sold out on the theory that Pakistan should be allowed to die under its own weight. A debilitated economy and the ferment in Baluchistan, Karachi, Punjab are proof enough of its dysfunctional politics. Pakistanis are themselves not very optimistic about the country's future as a secure, developing and modern country. There is a talk that Pakistan relies on the US but they know that this economic and military aid is not without its pound of flesh. For the Americans, Pakistan is no more than a conduit for their geo-political interests. Delhi and Rawalpindi know this very well. As far as China is concerned, it is obvious that there has been some buttressing of Pakistan at state level but on other fronts there is scope for lot of justified scepticism. There is little social, cultural or emotional attachment between the peoples of the two countries. The Chinese don't have to be intelligent to know that Pakistan is a convenient shoulder to fire at India. They do not contribute funding for health, education and other forms of development in Pakistan. In the continued stalemate with India, China is not known to have done much to serve Pakistani interests. My gut feeling is China will not do anything to underwrite or protect Pakistan if it comes to a full fledged war. They know that the best weapon against any enemy is another enemy.
Crippled with inherent problems of militancy, unemployment and low growth rate, Pakistan is forced to raise the nuclear war bogey in an attempt to show that its power emerges from its weaknesses within. Pakistan can administer to itself a lethal injection and does not need any external threat to use it."      

Suman Kalyanpur: An honour too late

Raju Korti
People who in private conversations call Suman Kalyanpur a Lata Mangeshkar clone are rank ignoramuses. I used the words 'private conversations' because they -- at least the ones I know -- know the asininity of saying that in public domain because it becomes obvious what drives them to say that. A clone is a copycat. Suman didn't have to copy Lata. Her voice was similar to hers and the dyed-in-the-wool music lovers of the 50s and 60s didn't really have to strain their ears in differentiating between the two sopranos. The difference was 'unnees bees', or as some cynics sometimes put it, Suman was the 0.5th xerox of Lata. So infinitesimal was this deviation that I can bet they will not discern it in perhaps the only duet they sang together: 'Kabhi aaj kabhi kal kabhi parson..' from the 1959 film Chand composed by Hemant Kumar. The striking similarity precisely turned out to be her disqualification.

I recall any number of stories describing Lata Mangeshkar's machinations in keeping Suman out of the recording rooms and although there never was any proof of that, those who vouched about it often cited the singing prima donna's monopoly in marginalizing even her equally illustrious sister Asha. It would be a separate chapter altogether to put the two sisters in a weighing scale and that is not germane to this piece but the fact that neither Lata nor Suman spoke about it openly only lends credence to the no-smoke-without-fire theories.

Having spoken to both on different occasions, I can claim to have some perception in the mental make-ups of both. I have a reason to believe both came from different social and economic strata. Lata, in terms of her career and dealings seemed rather insecure (understandably because of the dire economic condition she grew in) but that beats me because anyone with that talent didn't have to take recourse to the 'manipulative' methods she was alleged to have. Not anyway at least after the late 50s when her position in the industry was described as 'non pareil' and the unassailable supremacy she had established even in the wake of the formidable competition from her own sisters. In contrast, Suman who came from a well-to-do economic background did not have -- rather did not need -- the cut-throatism and chicanery to survive in an industry where networking and sycophancy are key qualifications.

Before you jump to conclusions, let me clarify. This is not a comparison of the singing prowess of two. Their respective career graphs and for all the tonal gold in their voices, are testimony that Lata always had an edge over Suman. Lata was vocal in every sense of the word while Suman was extremely self effacing and shy to the extent that she hardly spoke with even her co-singers. There is some substance in the observation that her purple patch came by default in the wake of the royalty dispute between the country's two greatest singers Rafi an Lata. However, it is to the credit of Suman that she was equal to the task and sang her crystalline pure best although the argument is that Rafi was the Highest Common Factor here and that Suman was just filling the blanks.

I personally do not subscribe to this patently unilateral view. You just have to listen to four Suman songs that I never get tired of listening to. Three are by Khayyam "Bujha diye hain khud apne hathon, Zindagi zulm sahi zabr sahi gham hi sahi" (both Shagoon-1964) and "Jo hum pe gujarti hai tanhaa kise samjhaayein" (Mohabbat Isko Kehte Hain-1965), and "Haal-e dil unko sunaya tha (Fariyad-1964) . Without going into the merits of the royalty dispute, please focus on the fact that these Suman specimens came when the discord between Rafi and Lata (or is the other way round?) had composers scratching their heads at wit's ends. Suman solved that problem and how! It would therefore be patently unfair on her to have been branded as second serve of Lata. Like any goo competitor, she put her best foot forward and stamped her presence.

For all the talk about the manipulative tactics she is supposed to have encountered, it speaks volumes of her dignity and grace that never once did she speak/spoke about it and was, in fact, highly respectful of her adversary. In programmes, she would keep her statuesque visage with a smile as resonating as her music. Class and refined sensitivity emanated from her demeanour and disposition, something one doesn't see in an industry where mediocrity thrives with juke box office. At a programme, I recall how one of our friends, a Geet Kosh compiler pointed out to her about the Hindi version of the Billy Vaughn's 'Come September' tune she had sung. She just smiled and nodded but responded by singing a few lines in the programme. If I remember correctly, the compere Mangala Khadilkar spoke more than what Suman sang in the programme.

A couple of times I tried to get through to her< I was told she had been living in Talegaon which is half way from Mumbai to Pune. That brings me to another parallel between her and Lata. I had spoken to the latter in 2004 when I was asked to write a full page newspaper article to celebrate her 75 years. I could sense the cynicism in her polite refusal as she felt that another Raju (read the late Raju Bharatan) had written "all kinds of canards about her and that she didn't risk another Raju (me) doing it to her again."  My regret was short-lived and evaporated in the wake of confidence that she would have approved the article as the best written on her ever. At the cost of sounding a little pompous and a braggart, I feel it was her loss.

It is not my case here to reel out her career, filmography and other aspects of her life which are far too well known. In Journalism, I was brought up on this (misplaced) philosophy that a copy has to be spicy to be readable. Suman with her simple, plain vanilla ways does not fit in that model but that belief is strictly for the birds. Writing impresses with depth, words, expression, lucidity and facts not just cosmetics or condiments. I personally believe that biographies of the unsung make for a more compelling reading than those who have already made a place under the Sun. I have read far too many to come to that conclusion.

The veteran singer has been receiving a flood of accolades as she eminently deserves after being honoured with Padma Bhushan but perhaps the most condescending one is, "better late than never." Awards and honours can be cruel at times. Like if a Rafi got a Padma Shri, there were also those who cabaret-ed on the celluloid to receive the same honour. Having said that, I have nothing against cabaret dancers. My misanthropy is about the lopsided and imbalanced views that obtain in the society. It is not as if my opinion about Suman Kalyanpur takes a higher trajectory with her Padma Bhushan. With people like her, awards just become labels and no more.           

Unpleasant though it may sound and feel, is it a mere coincidence that she gets her investiture almost exactly after  Lata's death? And what credit does it do to her? An honour delayed is honour denied. Lesser people got bigger honours long back. But Suman, despite the raw deal, retains her poise and seemliness. That silence is more golden never rang more true. I can vouch for that having seen her from close quarters. If only the showbiz and glamour industry, today run over by the crass and cacophony had the same mien!