Prateek Kapil

The most debated piece of territory on earth is in the news again and the tensions are running high. The age old debate has been fired up again even if it was due to a trigger as insignificant as a petty land issue (which the warring parties themselves say can be resolved in a number of ways). Read the rest of this article »

Alfred Hitchcock once famously said, “the fear of a bomb lies not in its explosion but in the wait of it.” It is a perfect quote that explains why people commit hysterical mistakes to avoid their worst possible fears even if they may or may not come true. In the process, they end up feeding that fear and go in to a shell that they find difficult to get out of. Read the rest of this article »

This is officially the most ambiguous bigoted statement that you will ever hear or make if you are an Indian or a Chinese; ambiguous for a whole lot of reasons. Let us try to figure them out. Firstly, let us be clear on one thing - India cannot be compared with China because we cannot pull off an Olympics like the one Beijing has; at least not in next 25 years. However, if we do (hypothetical reasoning), it will take another 25 years for us to be medal contenders in it (Objective reasoning). Read the rest of this article »

7 years of President Musharraf got us an LOC ceasefire, a relatively inactive ISI, no infiltrators or state sponsored terrorism (or what it seemed!) and a decent Land, Water Air transport access. India in return helped a great deal in sustaining Pakistani civic society - the cricket boards were self-proclaimed brothers and they intend to remain that way; Pakistani singers were humming their way into Indian hearts; Pakistani comedians were laughing their way into Indian drawing rooms; beautifully made liberal Pakistani films were being released in India. Read the rest of this article »

Roger Federer is in the middle of the worst run of his career. The tummy bug that he caught during the Australian Open seems to have done more damage mentally than physically. Federer has won just two titles this year and his winning streak has been upset umpteen times to the level of monotony. This is uncharted territory for the dominant champion. Read the rest of this article »

In August 2006, when Indian Hockey star Sandeep Singh was accidentally shot while on his way to Delhi, all seemed to be lost. The incident had taken place barely days before he was supposed to travel to Germany for the World Cup with the national squad. Read the rest of this article »

Well! It’s official, the democratically elected Maoists (what Irony!) have abolished the 240-year long monarchy, and Nepal is now a secular and democratic republic. The landmark step was taken barely 12 hours ago near the convention hall in Kathmandu; where the newly-elected constituent assembly met to ink the watershed moment in the history of the Everest Nation. Read the rest of this article »

Imagining the Tenth Dimension, a book by Rob Bryanton, has put forth a new thinking about time and space. Here are the ten Dimensions as he puts them. Let’s start with a point which is a position in space - a dot in the vast collection of dots called space. When we join two points, we get a line and what we get is the first dimension. Read the rest of this article »

Rahul Dravid is a world class player, there is no doubt about that. Along with Brian Lara, he is the most tenacious player of his age. His 10,000 test runs encompassing some delightful stroke play coupled with a bunch of magnificent match-winning knocks, along with half a dozen of double hundreds and innumerable (gritty) knocks of 50s and 100s speak volumes and make him, arguably the greatest test player India has produced. Read the rest of this article »

In a world so obsessively possessed about non-proliferating nuclear arsenal, it is ironic that not a single man has died due to the so-called “Weapons of Mass Destruction” in the post world war era. There are incessant issues that have cropped up, threatening to leave the world segregated on nuclear lines. Wars have been fought, civilians have been killed and tensions among traditional rivals like US-Iran, Israel-Palestine, Russia-Europe have all been accentuated. Read the rest of this article »

Well, most certainly! That is how I will answer this question prima facie and so will you and thousands of others who have lived to see the corporatization of Media. While I maintain that corporatization is the best thing that can happen to a sector in this flat world, it has to be conceded nonetheless that ‘the-power-of-the-press’ brand of journalism has been somewhat left behind. Read the rest of this article »

The highly controversial Bush regime has a lot of critics. One group among them is that of new age documentary-film makers. Spearheaded by Michael Moore, this group has always been ‘at it’ when it comes to Bush-bashing. Whether it was Fahrenheit 911 exposing unknown territory in The September 11 attacks or Sicko where Michael completely takes out the State health department, these documentaries have been constructive revelations. Read the rest of this article »

This is a freak theory which I am going to prove today in my article . To begin with, lets picture the glorious days in retrospect. The school days - days when our school was a fortress with remote sensing teachers the not-so-forgiving principal and some back-biting students; Read the rest of this article »

Post 9/11, America declared a War on Terror. In a nutshell, it was a full-blown assault on Islamic terrorists and all those countries that were considered a safe haven for these fundamental forces. The very same Islamic terrorists, who, at one point of time, had been the key allies of the US in the cold war era. Come 9/11 and it all backfired. Following the attack, America made a call to all the countries of the world to help or aide it in this war. Europe and Australia responded and as a surprise to many, Russia did too. Mr. Vladimir Putin equated the United States’ problems with Islamic terrorists to his own in Chechnya-a Russian province suffering under the hands of militancy. Militants who want Chechnya to break away from the Russian territory as an independent land. As a result, Russia did not object to US setting up military bases in central and west Asia. The reason given was that the bases would help America keep a vigil over Islamic countries in the south. However seven years on, this unending war on terror has taken a backseat. Read the rest of this article »

Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro, (born 5 February 1985 in Funchal, Madeira), is a Portuguese professional footballer. He plays for the English club Manchester United as well as for Portugal. With Manchester United, Ronaldo plays primarily as a right winger and is one of manager Sir Alex Ferguson’s most prized possessions. Prized because he’s a protégé, a Legend in the making. Read the rest of this article »

Hockey, the National sport of India. Contrary to the grave reality, there was a time when immense pride associated with the sport in our country. It was a sport of the young and free India. Decades before Indian cricket came of age, Indian Hockey was the sole flag bearer of our country when it came to professional sports. Indian Hockey teams, belonging to both the undivided and divided era, brought unprecedented glory to the country. The consecutive Olympic golds, the consistent World Cup wins, the intricate skill and the twinkle toes - An Indian forward line attack was next only to the Brazilian ‘Football Samba’. Read the rest of this article »

KGB is the Russian abbreviation for Committee for State Security (Russian: Комитет государственной безопасности); which was the official name of the organization serving as the Soviet Union’s premier security agency, secret police, and intelligence agency, from 1954 to 1991. Later, the official name of this organization was changed to FSB, although the word KGB may apply to the secret police of various epochs. The KGB’s operational domain encompassed functions and powers like those exercised by the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) or by the twin organizations MI5 and Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) in UK. On December 21, 1995, the President of Russia Boris Yeltsin signed the decree that disbanded the KGB, which was then substituted by the FSB which is the current domestic state security agency of the Russian Federation. However, the word ‘domestic state security agency’ would be an outrageous over-statement for an agency that most (apart from the ruling Kremlin) consider ‘the new Russian Mafia’. Read the rest of this article »

SSP Chowrasia, a caddie-turned pro, won the EMAAR-MGF Indian Masters at the Delhi Golf Course and scripted an inspiring fairytale. He also pouched in a whopping Rs.1.6 crores in the process and more importantly, he can now play on the European tour for three years. This makes him a certainty at the elite event which features the best professional golfers in the world today. Having said that, it doesn’t mean the Indian Masters was a walk in the park (read golf course) for SSP. His competition in EMAAR-MGF Indian Masters included the likes of World No. 4 Ernie Els and the well-recognized Indian trinity of Arjun Atwal, Jyoti Randhawa and Jeev Milkha Singh. Adding to that, the unforgiving Delhi Golf Course with its difficult terrain and forest cover also did not make things easier for him. SSP also had to battle with the extreme cold and strong wind that day. This, however, did not deter the rookie who persevered with his simple game of playing short and straight. He drove and putted well and took home the title, pleasantly surprising those who were watching. Read the rest of this article »

Cricket can easily be called the most followed game in the planet, in terms of viewership, especially when you consider that half of the world’s population is in the subcontinent. However, it is not the most followed game if you consider the number of countries involved. On that count soccer scores over cricket. The basic point is - you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure out that IPL will never be Cricket’s EPL. Many argue that it does not intend to be. But then, what does it intend to be - a platform for domestic talent or a prime-time soap or a giant gimmick just as the super series that was played between Australia and the Rest of the world? Maybe, it will be a grand success hands down. The answer will unfold itself in April-May this year. But what will be its main hurdles? Let us have a look. Read the rest of this article »

From the day I started understanding the nuances of cricket and followed the sport, my dad would always chide me with the fact that I had missed the golden generation - the 80’s. He told me a story about how a great batsman continued chewing gum after being hit by a cricket ball on the jaw and hit the next ball for a six as far as upto 20 rows back. And, this great batsman was none other than the legendary, Sir Vivian Richards! Hearing this, would fill me with a great sense of envy and even a bit of anger. Lets be honest, who doesn’t like a smash, mouth in-your face batsman who thrashes bowlers to all parts of the park and does it with so much of consistency? I always wondered how Sir Vivian Richards batted. Now I know; having seen Adam Gilchrist bat, I can imagine how Sir Vivian Richards would have batted. Read the rest of this article »

Perhaps, the toughest conundrum that the “majority” of Gujarat faces today, has much to do with themselves. Are they Hindus serving Gujarat, or Gujaratis subservient to Hindutva? Or are they simply being hoodwinked (Moditva)? Much before a certain Mr. Modi decided to transform the state into his Hindutva laboratory alias ‘vibrant Gujarat’, Gujarat was actually a land of tangible vibrancy. Historically, Gujaratis were a race famous for shrewd businessmen, affluent civic society and exotic cuisine. They were candidly admired for their simplistic humor. Coming back to the present, the same cannot be said now. Gujaratis today are mere remains of what 2002 left behind or more aptly, what 2002 ‘could have’ left behind. I am writing ‘could have’ because the Gujarati Hindus could have saved so much more. But they didn’t, partially by choice and partially because of reasons untenable. What is important is, that they didn’t. Read the rest of this article »

Following his loss to Roger Federer in the US Open last year, Novak Djokovic had remarked that he would name his autobiography “The seven set points”. The statement came after the Serb failed to convert the seven set points that came his way. He admitted that he was mentally weaker than his opponent on the day. Many critics labeled him Choke-ovic. Read the rest of this article »

They say, America was founded by Prudes - a community of hard line Catholics who had had enough of their “promiscuous and fickle minded cousins” in Europe. Contrary to the recent image, America has always been a conservative and thoroughly religious society. So much so that they make it a point that an atheist is never (ever!) sworn in as their President. Religion has always been the X factor as far as American Presidential race is concerned, combined ofcourse with free market economics!
The particular religious affiliations of U.S. Presidents can affect their prospects, shape their visions of society, how they want to lead it and mould their stances on policy matters. For example, a contributing factor to Alfred E. Smith’s defeat in the presidential election of 1928 was allegedly his Roman Catholic faith. Read the rest of this article »

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A meeting in progression. Participants range from corporate honchos and business tycoons to top-notch executives. The suave, decent looking and “sophisticated” class of people are negotiating over a lucrative deal; a deal that manages to hig