Is it a curse? Or is it locusts? No, it’s just cricket

Karan Thapar’s article Cursed cricket! (Sunday sentiments, February 20) was an interesting read. For ordinary Indians, cricket is a form of entertainment and relaxation.

Is it a curse? Or is it locusts? No, it’s just cricket

HT Image

Karan Thapar’s article Cursed cricket! (Sunday sentiments, February 20) was an interesting read. For ordinary Indians, cricket is a form of entertainment and relaxation. Cricket is the only subject under the sun everyone discusses with authority. Cricket fans appreciate the game so much that they never tire of watching replays and highlights. There is not much that can be done about Thapar’s sour mood. In fact, he should join the bandwagon instead of feeling lonely and left out.

Jayalakshmi Chellappa, via email

II

Cricket is a national time-waster, invading our lives like locusts. Newspapers, magazines and TV channels are swamped with cricket. The game itself does not irritate as much as the business and money revolving around it that destroys the spirit of the sport. We should reduce the hype and just cover the World Cup as a sporting event rather than a derby one.

RD Singh, Ambala

III

Cricket is just not a silly game but a curse on the nation. For the next five weeks, the country will be heady with cricket, and it will be given the widest possible coverage by the media. Terrorist networks, Maoist insurgency, natural disaster, even the railway and general budgets, will be put on the backburner. This, despite the fact that the Britishers, our erstwhile colonisers, now prefer football and cricket is mostly limited to the once-colonised.

Rakesh Agrawal, Dehradun

Many clues but no solution

With reference to Shohini Ghosh’s article A case of curious contradictions (Sunday Guest Column, February 20), the Aarushi Talwar murder case has become a mystery. The Talwars did not accept the CBI closure report and wanted justice and truth to prevail. Again, there is not enough conclusive evidence as of now to nail them either. The sooner the truth surfaces, the better it is for all.

Bal Govind, Noida

II

The Aarushi Talwar murder case has taken on murky dimensions, with the parents imploring the CBI against closing the case. The court has picked up some isolated points to squarely blame the Talwars. When circumstantial evidence can be misleading and the motive is elusive, blaming the parents and furthering their agony is not only cruel but indicates a growing impatience to fix the blame without proving guilt. The Talwars’ woes never seem to end with an irresponsible media running a parallel trial without letting them prove their innocence.

Ashok Goswami, Mumbai

Singh is no king

With reference to Indrajit Hazra’s write-up Social networked (Red Herring, February 20), Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s interaction with the media was a show, that too stage managed, with the sole intent of presenting him in a good light. Many of Singh’s utterances raised new doubts, instead of clearing old ones. And if he was indeed not edgy about a JPC, why did he allow the winter session of Parliament to be a wash-out?

Shaikh Rahat Jahan, Mumbai

II

With the government’s performance and credibility being attacked relentlessly over the past several months, one expected that the academician in the prime minister’s persona would rise to the occasion, put up a creditable professorial defence and assure the nation that every mistake made would be corrected during the remaining days of UPA 2. Unfortunately, Singh just chose to take refuge under his much-used and stale hypothesis of ‘coalition compulsions’.

Ansari Sahir Rafi, via email

Figure of speech

I agree with Manas Chakravarty’s views in Ola, Senhor Krishna (Loose Canon, February 20) that a good speech is the only mantra for a seat in the United Nations Security Council. External affairs minister SM Krishna, being fully aware about the fact, went ahead and committed the blunder.

GK Arora, Delhi

Paying a high price

Abhijit Patnaik and Kamayani Singh’s article Slipping on inflation (Tracking Hunger, February 20) rightly highlights the government’s failure to bring down inflation. The increase in the prices of essential commodities is causing discomfort. The government has also failed to crack down on hoarders responsible for creating an artificial
inflation.

Shaikh Sharful Islam, Delhi

It’s getting personal

Khushwant Singh’s write-up My birthday stories (With Malice Towards One and All, February 20) was a futile exercise. The huge space devoted to personal publicity was altogether unwarranted.

SK Khosla, Chandigarh

Two separate countries

The book review of The Life’s Too Short Literary Review 01, (Passage to Pakistan, Read, Feb 19), wrongly described the Kashmiri writers Basharat Peer and Mirza Waheed as Pakistanis. The error is regretted.