Suresh Kalmadi

It is time for all Indians to unite and stand by Suresh Kalmadi on the eve of CWG-2010. He had done a yeomen service to the nation and that needs immediate recognition. All the criticism which is being heaped on him is totally unfair.


Kalmadi is an Indian first. He had a great vision to make India sweep all the medals at CWG without leaving even a single bronze to other countries, possibly without inaugurating the games. He had been planning it for several years and executing with gusto.

Most people from so-called developing nations lack the wonderful immune system we Indians possess. We are immune to anything and everything. Other nations realized their handicap. They are jealous. They cry foul about the conditions in Games village, floods, dengue, falling structures, security and anticipated nation wide riots on or after 24th September 2010 and so on. If they have no such grandiose situations back at their homes, how can India be held responsible?

Has anyone heard of Olympics getting conducted in the Clean Rooms of Silicon Valley? Little bit of dust, aroma and other things will certainly enrich the sporting experience. In the ancient Olympic Games village in Greece there is no evidence of any Glamour Room. Why should we have them in CWG village? Aren’t there enough open spaces in and around CWG village? Man is a product of nature and it is time he comes out of ivory towers and glass houses to freely commune with nature and become an integral part of it.

Well done, Suresh Kalmadi! Keep it up. Ignore your detractors. Aim for Olympics now and make India sweep all medals and take it to Olympic Heights.

Happy Birthday

Coming from an area that has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world, your Tarantula has every reason to celebrate its one year of survival so far, having announced arrival on blogosphere on 23 September 2009 at 22.30 IST. It happens to be an Equinox day. Does is portend anything? This is 75th baby step in the form of posts in both the Political and Apolitical blogs combined. Transitioning now from infancy to a toddler?

Present day life is almost entirely governed by Politics in one form or other. At first sight it appears that two blogs titles are one too many and one alone suffices. After all, arachnids weave two types of gossamer threads but tread only on one without getting entangled in the other! Authors are a stubborn lot and your budding blog-author Tarantula is no exception: desires to segregate political ones from not so political and hence the Apolitical blog too.

There is nothing in the world that pleases all; it is also true of these posts and some of them drew criticism. Healthy criticism is democratic and we shall honor and agree to disagree.

Incidentally, this happens to be the 75th post (44th under Apolitical and there are 31 in Political), which makes this a sort of Platinum posting!

Thanks a zillion for the nourishment supplied by you in the form of encouragement.

Why Take a Donation?

Everyone knows that several parts of Pakistan are ravaged by unprecedented floods in the last few weeks. Several days ago India offered a relief of USD 10 million which was promptly rejected by its best neighbor. Our PM offered more and announced relief of USD 20 million and still Pakistan did not stretch its hand to take it and tried all sorts of methods to avoid taking relief. US went on record instructing Pak to accept the relief. At last, albeit reluctantly, Pak accepted the relief today and our benevolent PM duly offered yet another USD 20 million to Pakistan!

Many people fail to understand the reluctance of Pak in accepting monetary help from India. The fact is Pak has a massive industry to manufacture counterfeit currency of neighboring India’s Rupee Notes of higher denominations and of other advanced countries like US. This industry is so important to Pakistan’s economy which also helps in bridging the massive budgetary deficit of its home grown and military and govt. sponsored terrorist groups. This industry alone provides self-sufficiency to Pak like nothing else.

No wonder India and US failed to understand Pak’s hesitance. Pak’s perception is clear: why accept 20M USD when it can print 20B USD or its equivalent in INR in a single day by burning midnight oil?