Bangalore Royal Challengers

Ye gods! What was the flamboyant Vijay Mallya up to? One would have thought he would have insisted on picking up stars known for their cricketing skills AND flair. But the team for Bangalore Royal Challengers [he let the name slip out at the press conference] reads like this - Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Jacques Kallis, Zaheer Khan, Mark Boucher, Cameron White, Wasim Jaffer, Dale Steyn, Nathan Bracken, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Shivnarine Chanderpaul.

Here's a lot that wouldn't look out of place at a funeral. Don't get me wrong, Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble are my favourite cricketers. And Kallis, Boucher, Chanderpaul and Bracken rank among the best today. But I don't see a buzz around this team, given that Mallya buys everything keeping image in mind. Somehow I'm finding it difficult to visualise thousands of swooning teenagers.

Of course if they win, it's going to be different. Let's hope they don't plan to do it by collecting singles.

Beef's no holy cow

Some farmers give aging cows to Hindu temples. At the Vedanaiki Solisvaran Temple, near the cow market, prayer leader Dharmasivan says temple leaders are too busy with day jobs to care for the donated cows. So the temple sells them in the market. Dharmasivan has seen a cow being slaughtered there. "We know it's wrong," he says. "We can't stop it."

That was WSJ journalist Daniel Pearl in an article he wrote, How Many Ways Can You Skin a Cow? In Hindu India, There Are Plenty, perhaps a few months before he was abducted and killed in Pakistan.

The piece sums up the many Indias in the country we call home. I love the irony of it all. Incidentally, the cow's probably one of my favourite animals. And it seems I'm certainly not the only blogger to think so.

Six blind men

"You need every edge in a terrorism investigation, and a blind officer with languages could be a powerful weapon."

Yes, you read that right. The Belgian police have taken on 6 blind men, because the blind have a more acute sense of sound and can thus be far more effective when listening to wiretaps. For instance Sacha van Loo can not just figure out whether the suspect the police is tracking is driving a Mercedes or a Honda, he can even tell you which number has been dialled, by just listening to number tones on a mobile phone. He's a linguist as well, which enables him to identify the nationality of kidnappers and terrorists just by listening to them speak.

Sort of reminds you of the Six blind men of Hindoostan, doesn't it?

A candlestick for Uncut

For a little more than two and a half years, my daily regimen in office has been: walk in, switch on comp, chat with colleagues and login to India Uncut, the moment the machine's warmed up. And so I'm chuffed that Amit Varma has won the Bastiat Prize for Journalism, 2007 for his columns in Mint.

I met Varma while covering the 2005 India-Pakistan test series. During the first test in Mohali, this long-haired friendly chap, mentioned he had a blog. Since then, IU has been a regular fixture in my life. His writing points me towards where I hope to go some day.

Here's his post on winning the prize. More power to him!

Writers & Editors

Writer Kurt Vonnegut Jr. scoffs at those who feel creative writing courses are infra dig:

"Listen, there were creative writing teachers long before there were creative writing courses, and they were called and continue to be called editors."

Read the entire piece at New York Times, which talks about how life need not be the only 'school' for writers.