Dil Se

For as long as I can think back, I’ve had no connection whatsoever with this man Steve Jobs whose demise, at age 56 due to pancreatic cancer, has convulsed the world. I could never afford to own a Macbook or even pretend to understand its complex working conditions; its non-Windows programming showed me up as more of a technology retard than I really consider myself to be; I am yet to own any of his i-line gizmos, their price tags often mocking me and many others like me in this side of the world. In fact, Jobs himself showed a blatant contempt for the much revered, population propelled market called India, giving it a studied go by in so many of his legendary product launches. His first generation iPhone, which cost $200 in the West, cost nothing less than Rs 39,000 in India becoming an elitist status symbol more than a device meant to answer calls. The only time Jobs ever came to India was on a crazy spiritual journey in his formative years — one of the very few that proved to b...

The announcement of a somewhat new cricket team for the upcoming home series against England has many portents in its belly, some good, some worrying, some emerging and some fading out. For starters, it is still inconceivable to envisage a mighty Indian team in the absence of the Big Four. But with injuries to none less than Sachin Tendulkar, Virendra Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and our lead bowler Zaheer Khan, it is time to test our next rung of cricketers and that means testing our bench strength, testing our young guns and, finally, going into a long waiting-to-happen transition period. If one were to do a reality check here, much as we love to love and worship Tendulkar, fact is that the master craftsman of cricket has gone into the veteran zone from where his cricketing stints will only dwindle with age and injury recoveries taking their toll. He is close to 40 and if you have noticed, we have been seeing him more in social service and commercial advertisements than in the middle....