Dhimant Chovatia

Cricket they say is a game of great uncertainties. No one would believe this more than people of two nations united by one tournament called the IPL. When it all began on 18 th of April, something told me that Royal Challengers will reach the final with Rajasthan Royals. While I had to get a lot of flack for not supporting according to me ‘hyped team’ of Deccan Chargers, I was sure they did not have the potential even to win this tourney.   Alas! The first sentence of this post proved right! But why did I not have the faith in Chargers? Well strictly personal opinion, but I still don’t see them as “MY HYDERBAD” team. All that aside, from number 8 to number one has been a story that I can put only in one single phrase… DREAM RUN.   From Hyderabad heroes being the champs of ICL 1 to Deccan being the last team of IPL 1, life for a Hyderabad cricket fan went one more full circle. As Gilly and boys prepare come back “home”, there is a buzz around the city. Go Chargers, Go Chargers,

Kutta ko le gayi bilayi, simh charave gaayee re! Saat ajubo se badhkar yeh prajatantra hai bhai re! – Baba Satya Narayan Mourya (The cat has taken the dog away and the lion is grazing the cows! Really the Democracy is above the  Seven Wonders of the World ) What is the need for someone like me to call Democracy in  India  a wonder? If you ponder over this heading for a minute or two before reading further, you might get 10 reasons of your own to believe so. I have made an observation which goes a little further than the so called “common man” might want to think sometimes. Imagine the following scenario: Disclaimer: The following paragraphs feature an imaginary story and therefore bear no resemblance with any situation in real life. This is a story of Mohammed D’Souza who belongs to a minority community in  Warangal  town of Andhra . Read in his words. I am a first time voter and am very enthusiastic about being able to make a contribution to government formation this time around. I ha

Impossible! That was the first word I heard when I presented the idea of a two party presidential form of Democracy to a friend. But when I sit down and think of what is happening in the country with more that 100 parties with those many agendas and 4 coalitions at the centre and countless at the state level, chaos is the only word that comes to mind. Horse Trading, Conditional Supports, Stalling of development, multiple ideologies working in different directions, money laundering and what not. A coalition government has been and seemed to have been involved in all this and much more. If a government gets elected on its manifesto and forms a coalition, there is no guarantee it will abide the same. Common Minimum Programs are more of vote bank politics and less of development agenda. Everyone should be happy! A good mantra if applied to a common man but a bad shastra if applied to political parties. Prajatantra me neta janta ka sevak kahelata hai, janata ka man janata ko raja kahkar