Weather Forecasting - The Wrong Way

Weather forecasting is a tricky job. The experts and meteorologists know it. That the forecasting is statistical interpretations of observations made using various parameters is not appreciated by the common man. The poor experts, as a result, sometimes become the subject of public ridicule whenever the margin of error for their forecasts widens to a yawning gap.
Be that as it may, forecasting monsoon - its timing and accuracy is also a highly politically sensitive issue in India. Cautioning or warning the masses about impending drought conditions can trigger chain reactions. Hoarding of foodstuffs may take place, prices may rise causing inflationary pressures on the growth of the economy and share market prices may nosedive. So the politicians particularly those in power do not want such unsavoury news to disturb the status quo. The latest forecast on the monsoon by the Indian Meteorological Department reported in The Times of India was apparently subjected to such extraneous considerations.
Politics is deeply embedded in our minds. Be it education, sports, entertainment, scientific research or anything under the sun, the blessings of the omnipotent and omnipresent politicians are necessary for making progress. The rain gods and nature, however, do not play second fiddle to anyone. So hold your breath till dark monsoon clouds gather in the sky .

The Obsession of Media With Private Lives

Marriages are made in Heaven. But celebrations are made on the planet Earth. The prayers for it are made in the temple of Tirupati and the media splashes it as headline news. Finally, the audiences enjoy it as sumptuous morning breakfast or dinner and all live happily thereafter.
 The marriage of Abhishek Bachan and Aishwara Rai has come as godsend as the media looks hungrily for any news involving celebs and what better opportunity it could get than covering the ceremony. Having got a drubbing very recently at the sad turn of events in the cricket World Cup, 2007 with India Team letting them down, media expects it stands a chance to cheer its audience. What if it is a private and personal event? What if the host and hostess have already announced that there would be only few invitees. Those who call themselves investigative journalists ‘risk’ being shooed away from the premises (as it happened in the other celebs’ marriage of Arun Nayar and Liz Hurley with which the media was so deeply engrossed) just only to carry out their basic duty of reporting faithfully information to its audience! Who cares whether the readers of print media or viewers of television want such information in the first place or not and whether any other information they consider useful could have been provided by the media in stead.
  I think it just exposes our intellectual impoverishment. Is it not?  

Crisis Management - BCCI Style

The dismal dismissal of Team India from the cricket World Cup 2007 hit India like an earthquake.  Although it brought down in its impact the players from their high pedestals, the media and advertisers are still struggling to rally all the cricket fans who had developed aversion for the game after the ignominious defeats. Instead of learning any lessons from such experiences, columns in front-pages of dailies and prime-time news of TV channels are continuously being devoted to cricket - be it controversies surrounding Greg Chappel and Sachin Tendulkar or deliberations of BCCI working committee.
 Whenever public anger and dissatisfaction appear uncontrollable, the typical approach of authorities is to huddle together and announce a slew of measures that invariably include setting up of Inquiry Commissions or Advisory Panels or investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation. Once the adverse public reaction peters out, the reports of such inquiry missions become redundant and never see the light of the day.

 One of the few sensible decisions of the working committee of BCCI is to form a Cricket Advisory Panel consisting of ex-captains under the chairmanship of President and will include all office bearers. This is the first instance of BCCI trying to seek advice from those who know the game best. Very soon, as it happens with most organisations headed by politicians, I am afraid, we may be informed of forming of a cricket Advisory sub-committee and then of a cricket Advisory core committee and so on. Such strategies are intended to dilute and delay their unfavourable findings. The other strange decision is to appoint 3 coaches including one for bowling and one for the fielding.
 Sports and politics are strange bed-fellows. If India has to recover from the shock of its defeat in World Cup, experts and experienced players should be called upon to give their suggestions which should be implemented earnestly. The game should be freed from the clutches of politicians and bureaucrats who always have their own axes to grind and are part of the problem.
       
 

Putting All The Eggs In One Basket

 After India failed to make it to the Super 8 in the cricket World Cup 2007 and its humiliating defeat by Bangladesh, I thought there was going to be a long spell of soul-searching to identify our mistakes and weaknesses. Instead, the blame-game is being played with full fury. I wish if the players had used the same power in the fields, the fate of Team India would have been quite different.
 The media which was busy building hype about the cricket World Cup 2007 until Team India crashed out has landed itself in a ridiculous situation. Having put all its eggs in one basket (read cricket), the media does not know how to fill up its space when there is nothing of Indian cricket to write home about. So we continue to see in the front-pages of dailies the photograph of Rahul Dravid holding on to his towel at Kovalam beach. I thought India Team had already thrown away the towel at West Indies . Likewise, one national daily had devoted more than 50% of the front-page for ‘news’on Indian cricket today besides the four pages of daily news on cricket. All these appear to be desperate bid by some to put down cricket everybody’s throat. The advertisers, too, are also a worried lot for having put so much stake on cricket.
 The sooner the realisation dawns on the media, the advertisers and the fans that it may be wise after all not to put all the eggs in one basket, the better could be the performance of India in the world of sports including cricket.