Two days back ruchir joshi called sourav ganguly “the most punjabi of captains”. with his fearless body language, ruthless guts and street-smart brazenness perhaps nothing could describe the Indian skipper any better. he doesnt mince words when it comes to the opposition captains and he uplifts and defends his teammates (unlike a former captain whose “reported insensitivity” compelled a senior teammember to return home in the middle of a tour). over the past couple of years the team has evolved from a three-member roadshow to what is being called “Team India”. what a series and what a win!!

the vernacular newspapers are a storehouse of preposterous newsitems. a guy in a village in contai (in west bengal) downed 1 kg of ghee to win a bet for Rs.20000. and the day temperatures in this part of the country thesedyas is ranging between 35 and 40 degrees. what a jerk!!!! now he is in hospital recovering, while 5 people have been arrested in connection with this incident. supposedly this village runs regular competitions of this nature…e.g.eat 250 gms of chillies and win rs.15000 etc. the reason why this man indulged in the bet is unknown..perhaps greed or financial compulsion or plain stupidity. what is disturbing is the nature of such events. and this is not restricted to the interior villages where people generally tend to overlook the finer implications. in one school fest i saw a boy made to drink two bottles of a fizzy cold-drink and immediately get down for 50 pushups as part of a gameshow. thesedays television games shows are no better and encourage such (literally) unhealthy competitions. as of now i guess there is no permissible benchmark in place which would demarcate the extent to which such shows are allowed to risk the lives of the participants. although the final decision should always be made by the participants whether they want to put themselves through such a test, it should be obligatory on the part of the hosts to keep within the medically permissible limits (if any). i hope someone makes a move on this regard soon.