Window

I sit by the window looking out
And see myself reflected
Outside the glass looking in
Reality and illusion facing off
Or is the window the only reality
Separating two ghosts
Or perhaps imprisoning just the schizoid singularity
Of a self-absorbed existence?
A Rowlingesque Hogwartian mirror showing
My heart's deepest desire - myself -
A true inheritor
To the mantle of Narcissus

"No, thank you" says Ford

Each time I think the BCCI can't do any worse, they prove me wrong by creating an even bigger cock-up. Graham Ford was well within his rights to turn down the job if he felt that the compensation or the tenure was inadequate. If the dumb clucks in the BCCI chose to go ahead and announce his appointment as the coach of the Indian cricket team without waiting for his official acceptance of their offer, he can hardly be blamed. The BCCI babus suffer from incurable foot-in-the-mouth disease and seem to count each day that they do not appear on the idiot box as wasted. I never thought I'd say this but these buffoons have succeeded in making Dalmia's reign look like a golden era. When he was in power at the BCCI I had no love lost for him and celebrated his exit as a new dawn for Indian cricket. But Dalmia was a hard-core Marwari businessman who at least got things done. Sharad Pawar has made the organisation a standing joke, albeit a very bad one. The BCCI now resembles nothing so much as a Tower of Babel, where each of his lackeys tries to outdo the others in shooting his mouth off without verifying anything. This latest fiasco only reinforces the popular perception of the BCCI as a bunch of arrogant,power-drunk incompetents answerable to no one. Someone got it spot-on a long time ago when he said that the only thing worse than a public sector monopoly is a private sector monopoly.Let's pray for the early birth of Zee's ICL (Indian Cricket League). Surely they can't do any worse than this lot!

Why did the chicken cross the road ?

Children, not to mention many of us adults have been asking one another this question for ages. If you feel "To get to the other side" is too simplistic or too childish an answer, see here for some profoundly philosophical answers.

The Yanks are worried

The Yankees are worried - and it's showing in their cartoons. Have a look at these two from the International Herald Tribune.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1126/525746127_dd25b86969_o.png

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1188/525746131_859b8720d5_o.png

When issues move from ivory tower editorials to newspaper cartoons one can safely say that they've become topics the man in the street talks about. Score one point for us, chaps. They've lectured the world on the virtues of a free market for decades. The shoe's on the other foot now.To use their idiom, they've talked the talk. Now it's time to walk the walk. Without whining that the shoe pinches. (Pardon the mixed, even mangled, metaphors but the temptation to crow a little bit was irresistible))