Sport is war, so all is fair even if it's unfair!

Raju Korti
Sportsman's spirit, followed more in breach than practice, is fast blurring the thin line between fame and notoriety. The term, glorified as it sounds in the wake of cut-throat and ruthless competitive element that sportsmen display in their blatant aggression, refers to the quality of showing fairness, respect and generosity towards opposite teams, the umpires and the sport in general. Than the umpire or referee's decision is final, no matter how unjustified it is or looks like, has been confined to the dustbin with sportsmen succumbing to the lucre of money and fame.

"I am my own umpire"

Tournaments like the Indian Premier League (IPL) and their progeny elsewhere, are often euphemistically dubbed as "high octane" and "high stakes" where the only thing at stake is money with little or no sportsman's spirit. Accepting a win with humility and defeat with grace are mere figures of speech as sportsmen cross lines of decency and conducts that every sport calls for.

The other day, it was jarring to see Virat Kohli, hero-worshipped as "King Kohli", displaying a boorish behaviour that didn't do his "royal" reputation any good. Dismissed cheaply of what he was convinced as a no ball, he indicated he was not out and even charged at the umpire, swearing at him. Not content at that, he even had the audacity to knock the waste bin near the dressing room with his bat. The hawk-eye system clearly showed it was a fair delivery and was therefore out. He had to dock 50% of his match fees for showing dissent.

Kohli's show of this so called aggression is endemic of what most sportspersons of his stature and fame begin to think in their high-handed wisdom -- that they are bigger than the game that provides them with money and fame. To the self-styled Kohli, it didn't occur that the decision of the match referee -- mind you it was not that of the on-field umpire -- was final and binding. And it was taken considering all parameters, technical and otherwise. But what does one say when umpire's decisions are rudely questioned, dissented like teenaged brats?

The umpires are as human and their job requires as much concentration as the players. The players at least get all the adoration and credit, but an umpire's job is thankless. Rarely acknowledged when performed with all sincerity but castigated when the decision goes wrong. The very concept of an umpire is neutral, and yet, we all know how the concept of a redundant neutral umpire was brought in and their motives suspected. We made little noise against this very idea that was anything but sportsmanlike.

That sportsman's spirit is becoming a lost virtue is evident from the number of examples and citing them here would be stating the obvious. Remember how the entire Australian team formed a consortium to make the Sydney Test against India into a notorious "Monkeygate." Can you believe it? The whole team, not just an individual! The Sri Lankans bowling no balls to deny Sehwag his century, Greg Chappel asking his obedient brother Trevor to bowl underarm, the Mike Gatting-Shakoor Rana incident, the Lillee-Miandad incident, Sri Lankan Angelo Matthews "timed out" by the Bangladeshis -- and the list is quite exhaustive -- show that sportsmen often play on the ground leaving their spirit behind. The conviction is all is fair in sports, even if it is not fair. All in the considered belief that "there is so much money and reputation at stake." Cheating for one! Would sport not be sport if there were no money or fame involved? Ask those who believe that sledging and verbal abuse is a tactical mind-game.

This is not to say all sportsmen are unsportsmanlike. There are any number of instances when sportsmanship of highest class has been on display but the bad ones always bring the game to disrepute. To compound this, the players give their piece of mind on their twitter and other social media handles , sending their admirers and haters into a tizzy. The IPL which has been predominantly responsible for pushing the physical and mental limits of the players, has seen this in almost every of its edition.

Little is spoken about the rules of the game that are frequently tinkered with and changed -- justified though they may be in its progression. The impact player substitution rule, the wide referrals for DRS among others have invited animated discussions which sometimes makes one wonder whether administrators in their superior wisdom think that adverse publicity better than positive publicity. The "Mankading" is one such. There are two schools of thought on it. Unsportsmanlike for the manner in which the batsman is given out and fair because the rule says so. 

A couple of days back. Navjot Singh Sidhu got into a wrangle with his fellow commentator about the use of technology in the Virat Kohli's dismissal. The two argued tooth and nail for and against the dismissal. Interestingly, the broadcaster Star Sports itself tweeted saying the third umpire Mike Gough's decision was correct and fair. Which means what is correct and fair is a matter of individual discretion. No one, just no one is out of this fairness radar, including the spectators who have been vocal in their displeasure over Hardik Pandya being made the Mumbai Indians captain over Rohit Sharma.

Character, integrity, humility and honesty have been thrown in the dumpster. Would their be coaches to inculcate this? The words "fair contest" have become oxymoron. For the morons who swear by the winning-by-hook-or-crook rationale. The debate will rage on, missing the trees for the woods.

Cloud seeding: Pinpricking Nature with trial and error

Raju Korti
You just do not tinker with the Nature. It is simply what it is and not what it ought to be. For all its famed resilience, it has an uncanny knack of getting back at you hard, and though gradual, it can have disastrous -- or cataclysmic if you prefer -- consequences for the human race. The fact that Nature exists in all its myriad and multi-splendored forms, is as much dangerous as it is fascinating.

Cloud seeding process: Courtesy Wikipedia

In the guise of creativity and innovation, humans have been messing up with the genes and plants, and although most of us did not know that genes existed, we still had our brains figuring out that selective breeding could ensure that desirable traits would end up being prevalent in our crops and livestock. Tinkering with Nature, as in Environment, is a process that has started long back and it will be just a matter of time before its consequences are irreversible. One does not have to be a doomsday prophet to say this. The results are there to be seen. The cloud seeding experiment in Dubai is an example in point.

The Gulf country witnessed a downpour -- a luxury in a parched desert -- like it never did. There have been suggestions that the intense rains were triggered by cloud seeding, which is usually known to cause, at best, 25% extra rainfall. Cloud seeding, as it were, does not guarantee rains in the first place to the extent expected, but look at the magnitude of the havoc in Dubai (For Mumbai it is an annual phenomenon). The Nature returned with compound interest.

Nature is a universal force and can have far-reaching consequences in every sense of the word. Little wonder, experts are weighing in whether cloud seeding was the actual cause. A particularly remarkable perspective comes from Johan Jaques, a senior meteorologist at KISTERS, warning of "potential unintended consequences of meddling with weather patterns". The Newsweek quoted him as saying that its ramifications can also have a "diplomatic fallout" leading to weather wars. As if other unethical forms of warfare like the biological and chemical warfare were not enough.

Jaques explains that although cloud seeding aims to enhance and accelerate the precipitation process -- especially in areas which have seen very less rains, there is always the threat of excessive precipitation that can lead to excess infiltration flow with potential flash floods as result. He believes that the Dubai floods act as a stark warning of the unintended consequences we can unleash when we use such technology to alter the weather. For the record, there is no concrete evidence linking the Dubai rains to cloud seeding but the common chord is the tampering with natural weather process. As a student of Climate Physics, a curriculum I relentlessly suggest to be taught in universities, I am inclined to agree with his views.

Mr Jaques makes an irrefutable argument that anytime we interfere with natural precipitation patterns we set off a chain of events over which we have little control and "if we are not careful, unrestrained use of this technology could end up causing diplomatic instabilities with neighbouring countries engaging in tit-for-tat weather wars." Nature does not recognize international borders.

Cloud seeding is a costly experiment with no lucrative returns. In a country like India where budgets struggle to meet populist and genuine needs, such steps are not even considered expedient. It costs almost Rs 1 lakh for every square km of cloud and involves spraying of salt mixtures in clouds from the air that would result in condensation of the cloud and eventually case rainfall. A fringe benefit comes as it also washes away pollutants in the atmosphere. Just like the natural rainfall that cleanses the air. Last December, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde had mulled artificial rains as a solution to tackle air pollution -- a robbing-Peter-to-pay-Paul solution. You tamper with the Nature to cause pollution and you also tamper with it to correct it. How self-defeating is that? There is more pain and less gain!

The more man tries to exercise his control over the Nature, the more vengeance with which it bounces back. It is a complex algorithm which remains uncracked yet and your options as a researcher or a scientist remain restricted to studying patterns that are by no means fully conclusive. The very esoteric characteristic of Nature is to keep the trump card to itself and sometimes, it does not know itself when it will unleash it. You intrude/encroach upon one of its many parameters and you disturb the entire equation that has many imponderable unknowns whose value cannot be deduced correctly.

Humans will do a lot of damage, some irretrievable, before we ultimately destroy ourselves. In our infinite wisdom, we fail to discern that life will continue without humans. New forms of intelligence will emerge long after human experiments are over. And then who will remain to experiment what?        

Level playing field? Really?

Raju Korti
Reeling under the onslaught of the Enforcement Directorate, CBI and the Income Tax Department, the opposition INDIA block has submitted a memorandum to the Election Commission of India (EC), demanding a level playing field for a "free and fair elections. Its anguish though well understood, is misplaced if anything.

Level playing field? Really? The concept, as it is, is totally utopian in any context, least of politics where one-upmanship by hook or by crook is the only order of the day. The inherent irony is the INDIA block itself has no level playing field in its disarrayed fold. For that matter, level playing field is not possible in any sphere as long as there are human frailties. You won't find it in your work place, your social circles and even in your neighbourhood.

The Indian Constitution talks of "valid discrimination" despite Article 14 which has more exceptions to the pompous thought of everyone being equal before the Law. For the sake of brevity, I will not elaborate as these are regular bones of contention. With such an anti-thesis both in letter and spirit,  level playing field is nothing but a glorified term used when convenient.    

The term has been commonly understood as fair competition and originates from a football field (In US of A), where neither side has the advantage of running downhill against opponents who are handicapped by having to run uphill. A parallel term is found in Article 21 of the West German Basic Law that talks about equality of opportunity. The striking paradox it cannot be guaranteed even in the country where it originated. It is just a consolation of a beleaguered mind(s) -- individually and collectively.

 A level playing field might be a desirable prerequisite of any democratic process but political parties with contradictory ideologies will always be a stumbling block. If the INDIA block comes to power, which appears a distant dream as of now, it will be a case of predicate becoming a subject. Political histories of all countries have rarely been known for offering level playing fields. Two of the commissioners in the three-member Election Commission have been appointed by the ruling party. 

The poll arena might be rigged before the fight but the opposition too is not equipped to fight the ruling party's juggernaut. Elections cannot be fought merely on the basis of taking a high moral ground. It involves manoeuvres that make mockery of a concept that is far from practical. There cannot be any institutional mechanisms Constitutional or otherwise, that can offer any level playing field anywhere. 

The historical pendulum of victimisation and strategic manoeuvring will continue to shape electoral outcomes, leaving the electorate to grapple with the complexities of a political landscape where fairness will be sacrificed at the altar of power dynamics. It is a mirage we can continue to chase.