TOI:
Come to think of it. MSD and company had everything in their favour. A fully fit batting unit, home conditions and an opposition racked by injuries. No Michael Clark, no Nathan Bracken, no Brad Haddin and mid-series exits of Brett Lee, James Hopes, Peter Siddle, Tim Paine and others — for all purposes, this was Australia’s B team.

Yet Ponting’s men played like true champions. What a shame MSD’s million-dollar boys couldn’t even take the series to the wire. Faced with circumstances similar to Australia’s, the Men in Blue would have probably lost the series 7-0 or 6-1.

Let’s analyse the larger reasons for our defeat:

1. We lacked batting consistency at the top: Barring MSD, no other batsman played with any degree of consistency. Sehwag offered two blistering cameos but failed to score even a single half century in six knocks. He is a genius but he needs to be shaken out of his comfort zone. Similarly, barring his magical 175, Sachin was a disappointment. True, he got a rough decision at Mohali but what about the other knocks? Gambhir started brightly with 68 and 76 but ended up with 6, 8 and 0. Yuvraj played one fabulous match-winning knock in Delhi but had little else to offer. With the new Fab 4 failing regularly, India were bound to struggle.

Now compare their performance with the three key Australian players at the top: Watson, Ponting and Hussey. Watson scored 5, 19, 41, 49, 93 and 49, apart from claiming a bagful of wickets. Ponting notched up 74, 12, 59, 52, 45 and 25, while Hussey made 73, 53, 81, 40, 31 not out and 35 not out. These three seldom allowed Indian bowlers to have an early view of Australia’s relatively inexperienced and vulnerable lower middle order.

The scores and the manner in which they came about also underlined the fact that while the Aussies were willing to walk the hard miles, we were happy smacking fours and sixes. They won games; we didn’t.

2. Our bowlers too underperformed: Barring Mohali, where the batsmen were guilty of losing the game, the Indian bowlers were mediocre throughout. The series only exposed our lack of bench strength. How we missed Zaheer Khan! Australia had a match-winner like Doug Bollinger in reserve; we had the likes of Ishant Sharma as part of our original strike force. Just see the difference.

Even spin, allegedly our strength, gave us no advantage. Harbhajan bowled relatively better in the latter part of the series. But only just. In Guwahati, he got a couple of wickets but Jadeja was getting more purchase out of the track. He was distinctly unlucky not to get wickets. The Punjab off-spinner had batted well in the earlier part of the series but failed to contribute even a single run when much-needed in the last two games. He is a good No. 9 batsman, nothing more. I still feel he should be dropped for a few games. Otherwise we will never find out how good or bad Amit Mishra and Pragyan Ojha can be for us.

3. India muffed the big moments: The series was very tight. But we handled the key moments pretty awfully. In Vadodara, when we looked like winning for the first time in the last over, we muffed it up. In Hyderabad, with 19 runs to get off 18 balls and four wickets in hand, we threw our wickets away. We lacked nerve.

4. The Men in Blue displayed lack of cricketing intelligence: On a seaming, damp pitch at Guwahati, everyone expected the batsmen to be a little circumspect initially. Certainly not Sehwag, who had not scored even a half century in the series. His early dismissal set the tone for the day. In fact, the lack of cricketing intelligence was evident in the way certain players approached their job. In Hyderabad, Nehra was caught trying to clear the deep when he should have just taken a single. Unwilling to learn a lesson, he again tried a similar stupid shot in Guwahati. With Praveen Kumar batting beautifully at the other hand, India might have ended with another crucial 15 runs. But it was not to be. Kumar himself was guilty in Hyderabad when a dive could have saved his wicket — and probably won India the game later.

5. Lack of grit: Unlike the Aussies, we displayed a lack of grit. Take a player like Cameron White. In Vadodara and Nagpur, he wasn’t at his best. But he stuck it out and ended up scoring 51 off 68 balls and 23 off 42. He was more confident at Mohali hitting 62 off 71. But nobody really expected him to play the belter as he did in Hyderabad smashing 57 off 33. The point is, he played as per the needs of the situation and never ever threw his wicket away. Can you say the same about Sehwag, Yuvraj and Raina?

6. The Aussies are a superior team: The Aussies are superior not because they are more talented but because they are more committed. The Aussies did not have players with a clutch of world records under their belts but they had plenty of match-winners and honest triers. Everyone gave their 110%. They have players who are hungry to perform. Which is why players like Bollinger grab the first chance that comes their way because they know the next might never come. Who would have thought that an unknown player like Clint McKay would come up trumps in the key moments of the Hyderabad match getting the better of Tendulkar? The series is a tribute to Oz bench strength.

7. One-trick ponies: India are filled with players who are good at either batting or bowling but are either average or below average as fielders. We don’t have a Ponting, a Hussey, who are both great fielders as well as great batsmen. To create a great ODI unit, you need at least seven players who are very good in at least two departments. How many such players do we have? Sehwag, Tendulkar, Gambhir and Yuvraj are all very good batsmen but they are all average fielders now. Sehwag and Tendulkar hardly bowl anymore. When they fail as batsmen they have no other way of compensating. It was a totally different story earlier when Tendulkar contributed significantly with the ball. So did Sehwag. Raina is a very good fielder but certainly not a great batsmen. As for our bowlers, each of them is either an average or a poor fielder. And Nehra’s batting – refer to his dismissals in Hyderabad and Guwahati – gives the impression that he is doing someone else’s job.

The point I am trying to make is, we don’t have classy, all-round players. Which is why though we look strong on paper, we are actually far less effective.

We need more cricketers like MS Dhoni. He may not have the batting talent of Sehwag or Tendulkar but he certainly plays to the need of the situation and invariably overachieves. India would have had a better chance at Guwahati, if umpire Tarapore had not blundered in giving him out leg before. Despite the series loss, I repeat, he should be made India’s ODI captain till the 2011 World Cup. The selectors need to give him more powers to create the team we need for the grand event.

8. One last point: What did we gain from this series? A lot. India have been lacking in bowling allrounders for a long time. Praveen Kumar and Ravindra Jadeja can go some way in filling that gap. Both can bowl 10 overs. If they start contributing with the bat regularly, India will be well served.

CHENNAI: The cyber crime police on Saturday arrested Will Heum (56), a Dutch national living in Chennai, for uploading child pornographic materials on the internet. Police recovered his personal computer and pornographic
materials from his house.

Heum is already facing a case in a Chengalpattu court for sexually abusing children of Little Home, an orphanage he had opened near Mamallapuram. He was arrested in May 2002. Out on bail and living in a rented house in Choolaimedu, he was uploading pictures of children being sexually abused, police said.

This is the first case of child pornography to be registered in the country under the IT Act, which came into force on October 27. Heum was booked under Section 67-B of the IT Act, 2008, which deals with digital child pornography, and remanded in judicial custody after being produced before the XI metropolitan magistrate court in Saidapet. The IT Act spells out a maximum punishment of seven years’ imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10 lakh.

It was a tip-off from the Child Exploitation Online Protection Centre in Germany through Interpol that led to the arrest of Heum, who has done bit roles in Tamil movies.

Initial inquiries revealed that he had uploaded video clips of foreign children. “We are interrogating him about the source of these clips. We have to verify the seized computer accessories to check if he had uploaded clips of Indian children too,” a police officer said.

“It was an example of good co-ordination between the city police and the international agencies. Cyber crime has no geographical barriers,” central crime branch DCP C Sridhar told TOI. The seized computer and accessories will be scanned for data at the new cyber lab attached to the city police commissioner’s office.

Heum was arrested in 2002 after a boy complained that he had been sexually abused. Heum came to India 30 years ago for “social work” after his wife’s death. He stayed in Mamallapuram, where he befriended several children and started an orphanage.

MUMBAI, India – Tata Motors said it will launch its ultra-cheap Nano car in Mumbai on Monday — a vehicle meant to herald a revolution by making it possible for the world’s poor to purchase their first car.

But few predict the snub-nosed Nano will be able to turn around the company, which has been beset by flagging sales and high debt, anytime soon.

The Nano, which is priced starting at about 100,000 rupees ($2,050), is a stripped-down car for stripped-down times: It is 10.2 feet (3.1 meters) long, has one windshield wiper, a 623cc rear engine, and a diminutive trunk, according to the company’s Web site.

It does not have air bags or antilock brakes — neither of which is required in India — and if you want air conditioning, a radio, or power steering, you’ll have to pay extra.

Tata Motors has been hard-hit by the global downturn. Commercial vehicle sales, its core business, have been decimated as India’s growth slows, and consumers have had trouble getting affordable car loans.

The company declared a loss of 2.63 billion rupees ($54 million) for the October to December quarter, and it has been struggling to refinance the remaining $2 billion of a $3 billion loan it took to buy the Jaguar andLand Rover brands from Ford Motor Co. in June.

Even the launch of the Nano has been scaled back.

The car is arriving six months late because of violent protests by farmers and opposition political party leaders over land, which forced Tata to move its Nano factory from West Bengal to the business-friendly state of Gujarat.

Company officials have said it will take at least a year to complete the new factory, and until then, Tata will only be able to produce a limited number of Nanos from its other car plants in India.

Tata Motors hasn’t yet given details on production volumes, but most analysts doubt the company will be able to make more than about 50,000 cars in the next year — a far cry from the 250,000 the company had planned to roll out initially.

Vaishali Jajoo, auto analyst at Mumbai’s Angel Broking, said even if Tata Motors manages to sell 250,000 Nanos a year, it will only add 3 percent to the company’s total revenues.

“That doesn’t make a significant difference to the top line. And for the bottom line, it will take five to six years to break even,” Jajoo said.

Still, in this new age of global thrift, the Nano sounds appealing to more than just the struggling farmers and petty businessmen across India that Tata initially had in mind for the car.

“What do you think the chances are that the Nano will come to America? Personally, I’d love one,” Steven Smith, whose first car was a Volkswagen Dune Buggy, wrote recently on the Nano Facebook page.

Tata Motors unveiled the Tata Nano Europa, a slightly more robust version of the Indian model, at the Geneva Motor Show this month, with a planned launch of 2011. But the company has no plans to bring the Nano to America anytime soon.

WASHINGTON: The US government’s controversial restriction on companies hiring skilled foreign workers with non-immigrant H-1B visas will continue 

for only two years, the immigration department has said.

As part of a stimulus package passed last month for revival of the economy, President Barack Obama signed a new law, named “Employ American Workers Act”, which makes it difficult for the companies having received government bailout funds to hire H-1B foreign workers. 

However, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), in a circular issued with its invitation of H-1B applications for the next fiscal, has now made it clear that the EAWA requirements are not permanent and would “sunset two years from the date of enactment.” 

EAWA, which prevents a company from displacing US workers when hiring H-1B specialty occupation workers if the company received stimulus funds, took effect on February 17, 2009 and it applies to any “hire” taking place before February 17, 2011. 

The Act defines “hire” as an employer permitting a new employee to commence a period of employment; that is, the introduction of a new employee to the employer’s US workforce. 

USCIS has said that it would begin accepting H-1B visa applications from April 1 for the next fiscal and would subject the applications to various terms and conditions related to EAWA.

‘A work of fiction based on a thousand true stories.’ That’s a line that hits you hard, which comes on screen before the movie begins. And when a truckload of dead bodies is emptied in a Muslim graveyard, the reality of fiction strikes a chord! 

Nandita Das who makes her debut as a director does not dwell on one telling moment. That’s the forte of this movie; it makes a point, then moves on, leaving you to draw your own conclusions. And FIRAAQ is a compilation of many such true stories, which has helped this work of fiction. One look and you can see that there has been a lot of research gone into this project. The people who have been highlighted, be it the Muslim husband and his Hindu wife who are preparing to relocate to Delhi; or the Hindu wife battling with guilt for not opening her doors to a helpless woman chased by a mob; or even the little boy, Mohsin, who walks aimlessly on the streets in search of his father, after his entire family has been murdered. 

CHECK OUT: Will Nandita Das’ film FIRAAQ meet with success?

The movie ends abruptly with the little boy walking into a transit camp, refusing to play with children his age and looking aimlessly at the camera as the lights go out.

The film is based on a 24-hour period; one month after the riots broke out in Gujarat. Most of the stories have no connection with the other; they are individual set pieces, designed to drive home the point of the hopelessness of hate and violence. Of its disastrous after-effects, of the deep, traumatic mental scars it leaves behind. It also drives home the point of ‘mob mentality’, which has no meaning or direction. 
CHECK OUT: FIRAAQ is not about mindless entertainment

Kudos to Nandita for tackling such a controversial subject. It’s filmmakers like these with steely resolve who surprise many with a conscience-tweaking product

Saiyaan chhed deve
Nanad chutki leve
Sasural genda phool

Saas gaari deve
Dewar samjha leve
Sasural genda phool

Chhora babul ka angna
Bhaave dera piya ka ho
Sasural genda phool

Saiyan hai vyapaari
Chale hai pardesh
Suratiya nihaarun
Jiyara bhari hoye
Sasural Genda phool

Saas gaari deve
Devar ji saamjha deve

Chooda babul ka angana
Bhave dera piya ka hooo

Bushat[2] pahene
Khayike Beda Paan
Pure raipur se alag hai [1]
Saiyan ji ki shaan

Chooda babul ka angana
Bhave dera piya ka hooo

Oye hoye hoye 
oye hoye hoye
oye hoye hoye

Watched this song yesterday for the first time and I am addicted to it. Already listened it for 50 times. Having such an addiction to a song after a long time. Last one i remember was with “Naina Thag lenge” from Omkaara.

Well anyways, lyrics are just too good. “Sasu ji gaali devien, devarjee samjha devien……” Too good and too real. I was discussing it with my friend she and came to know that “Gendaa”(Marigold, english name) is unique in the sense that every leaf/petal of the flower is a flower in itself scientifically. I also remember something similar. Anyways, If she is saying, it must be right. She knows about such complex things better than anyone else i know, so no arguments. 

So if I have got it correctly, song writer wants to say that every new relation a girl gets after marriage is like the leaf of Marigold flower, i.e. a flower in itself. And all these flowers come together in a single pack – “The Sasural“. Such a sweet lines. I wish they were true for every girl. Unfortunately they are not. It’s not a Marigold for every girl. For some it’s a “Gandaa phool” and not “Gendaa phool” .

Anyways, I think I must not spoil your mood. Listen the song if you liked the lyrics.