Dil Se

Ricky Ponting retired from Test cricket in a barrage of tears at Perth on Thursday.  Seventeen years, 41 Test centuries, an eventful captainship and a deep-set bond with the boys over this period, it was a legendary career  well-punctuated with success. While Ponting took the difficult decision to walk away from what was the only form of life he knew for close to 20 years, because he had started failing too frequently, Sachin Tendulkar, at a similar juncture in his otherwise brilliant career, is still struggling to dust away the rust, desperate to give himself and the millions behind him that one last syrupy innings he is so capable of, wanting to perhaps step out of the crease forever in a blaze of glory. The difference between the two greats of this era (though Tendulkar is mostly beyond compare for his contribution to the game), is as good or as bad as are the similarities. In the autumn of their iconic careers, both the legends have been struggling with r...

Stand-up comedy is just about making inroads into our evenings. The first-time performance of the world famous Melbourne Comedy Roadshow, in the Capital, Bangalore and Mumbai this Diwali was quite a rollercoaster, though one wishes that it was organised for a bigger audience. MEENAKSHI RAO brings you a report on one pile-up of laughter in a very Aussie way He is Irish, he says, peering out of his handsomely flowing silver locks. Oh, the land where all those stupid couples wait up whole night for their sexual relations to arrive, you are tempted to ask Dave Callan as he launches on to the nutcases he has met in India. Then there is Matt Okine from Ghana — a country in west Africa where clothing is optional and breast-feeding a public event, not to mention the fact that most non-Africans apparently need geography lessons in spotting this nation 15 or so countries away from the more visited Kenya. There are others too, like Alan David who looks amazingly like Alan from Hangover  ...