Sulking Saffron
As the BJP wakes up to the problems of dissidence and ideological confusion, what will the crisis add up to? And will the RSS worsen the situation?

Monopoly, So Long!
The Government's vice-like grip over telecom gets a jolt with the opening up of the long-distance sector without a limit on the number of entrants.

Kiss and Make-up
With a perceptible softening in Japan's attitude, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's visit holds promise of a return to normalcy and opens new doors for economic investment.

Fifth Column
by Tavleen Singh
Truth Omissions

Right Angle
by Swapan Dasgupta
Paying For Leftist Junk

Flip side
by Dilip Bobb
National Symbols

Sartorial Licence
Richard Celeste is an avid party goer...

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SPORTS, OLYMPIC SPECIAL
It's The Culture Stupid

India Today's games coverage begins by looking at a reluctant sporting nation

by Sharda Ugra

American writer Alice Walker began one of her poems with lines that can summarise India's efforts at the Olympics. She advised:
"Expect nothing
Live frugally on surprise."

Her words could be bittersweet comfort, something to see Indians through the Sydney Olympics. But, no: like a quadrennial virus, the Olympics set off a chain reaction of self-flagellation across the country instead. One billion people, they say in teashops, bus stands, talk shows, lounge rooms; one billion people and not a single Olympic gold medal in 10 years. It is shameful. It is a disgrace. It is our destiny. We are born losers.

Every four years the good and the great turn their attention to that which is outside the bright lights of cricket. Indian sport, the forgotten stepchild who, every four years is drawn forward, given a fine feast, a set of new clothes and told to walk on water. Naturally, there's a very loud splash, the wretched child is thrashed and sent back into the outer darkness until the next Olympics come around.

Now that Sydney's here, it is time to settle this once and for all. To stop the sniggers even before they begin and to understand that Indian sport cannot be treated like a one-night stand and, in the next instant, be slapped with the responsibility of carrying a load called national honour. Maybe that should become the job of beauty pageants instead. India has developed quite a sub-culture around the entire business, far more quickly than it has ever wanted to around sport. The government may spend between Rs 30-40 crore on Olympic preparations and the IOA can hire couturiers to design the team's uniforms, but medals can neither be purchased nor is there an Olympic discipline called Best Dressed Contingent.

Shakti Singh laughs at the flurry of activity and attention. The behemoth-sized shot putter says, "Only at the time of the Asian Games or the Olympics do people come to you and say, 'Tell us, what problems do you have?' Dus din ke andar athlete to tayaar nahin hota (You can't make an athlete in 10 days). We want a medal, somehow. Even though the base of the country is weak."

more...Chocolates don't make Champions

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Home Base
Baseball, America's bludgeony substitute for the rectangular willow, couldn't have found a better mouthpiece than Taylor Miller...
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Looking Glass
Delhi:
Children's centre

Calcutta: Restaurant, newspaper

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