What a champion . . . ! ! !

In the far land of the USA, a young boy of India-origin made us proud – winning a marathon spelling competition. The 13-year old lad out -spelt his 11-year old American competitor to win the championship. It was reported that the runner-up girl was the first to applaud her competitor’s victory, after revisiting the penultimate round that confirmed her misspelling.

Kush Sharma did his tribe proud, but for the new-age generation, Sophia Hoffman’s gesture should lead it to feel victorious even in loss, and her applause to Sharma should get her more fans. She should be feeling like a champion. What a competitor!

When an eleven-year old has such maturity, should there be no soberer exhibition of emotions in other aspects of life? Like the arrogant pumping of the fist accompanied by expletive-laden display on hitting a century during a cricket match? It may be recalled that the great yester-year pacer Kapil Dev once commented why there was no such kind of display during his playing days – he says the current crop is so overwhelmed by the situation that such exhibition of emotion is actually because of the surprise for having achieved a feat – a wicket or a century. Seems so true.

The lesson is for everyone in the public domain – the corporate honchos, the politicians and bureaucrats, the teachers in schools and colleges, the celebrities, etc.

But it is not any game that is going on here in India – it is a war that is being fought. And it is the Indian electorate that has to learn lessons – it is given option of choosing from among the crooks by all the parties – take coal, CWG, riots, mining, etc. Again. Just crooks. The bad, the worse and the worst. Elect. Learn now. There is going to be a new button – NOTA.

In the excerpts of the interview in a TV channel, it is pitying to see Nandan’s innocence or ignorance –certainly not arrogance – to repeatedly announce “I am going to win the election”, attributing it to his experience as an entrepreneur, co-founder of Infosys, having worked with NRN, Aadhaar initiative, authoring a book, etc. Assuming his vision and ideas are from the bottom of his heart, and he wins, will he be able to bring them to reality amidst all the crooks that are there in his party? How much of MPLAD fund can he utilize to realize the promises? He may ultimately be seen as a square peg in a round hole.

By the way, can someone oppose a person contesting from more than one constituency? And also a sitting MLA contesting the Lok Sabha elections, and a sitting MP contesting Assembly elections? Also, how come one can contest from two, or more, constituencies? Does he or she not have to be enlisted in the electoral rolls in the said constituencies? And one cannot be enlisted in more than one constituency . . .

It is worth advocating sports professionals, and not politicians, manage sports bodies for better administration; what is one to say of sports professionals joining political parties? And film celebrities? Of course, there have been instances like NTR, MGR, Jayaprada, Sidhu, etc. None in administrative roles, though. But Bhutia, Mahesh Manjrekar? Chak De, India . . .