So two murderers have at last been convicted no thanks to our law enforcement agencies but solely due to public pressure. The son of the policeman was sentenced to hang while the son of the politician was sentenced to only 14 years in prison and will no doubt be released much before his date of release if his father has anything to do with it. His photo in the newspaper with a big grin on his face without the slightest bit of remorse or fear says it all. Meanwhile what about those who have managed to keep these bastards free for so long. It is not simply a case of fatherly love or misplaced sense of friendly loyalty. These are cases of subversion of the criminal justice system without which no nation can survive. Thus these were anti national acts and the perpetrators should be stripped of all post that they hold and sent to prison for a very long time. That this will not happen is the reason why a low level of anarchy prevails in India today. 'Sab chalta hai, it is part of the game' is a common refrain. If you were to point out that lying and cheating are criminal offences and not a game people, at least in the Hindi belt, will look at you as though you are completely insane. Punishment for politicians, civil servants and police must be double that of common people and they must be permanently stripped of office. But who will bell the cat?

Tuesday the 13th was a day of shocks. I have recently joined this new hospital in a small kingdom in the Middle East. The Health Minister was to inaugurate the hospital that morning. Shock no. 1 - she was bang on time. By 10 am all the guests were assembled and at exactly 10.15 am there she was as scripted. Contrast this with Indian politicians. Every year schools across Delhi have prize distribution days in May and children are kept waiting for hours in the boiling May sun by two bit politicians who are always more than an hour late. Every year tens of children collapse with heatstroke. If one has not died yet it may happen soon. Shock no. 2. Not a gun in sight. No Z squared security, no goons in uniform toting AK47s, no confiscation of cameras, no abusive restriction on car parking and not even a toy gun anywhere. The Minister came without any fanfare, inspected the hospital, shook hands with everyone and departed after an hour smiling charmingly all the while. The contrast with my country could not have been more stark or shaming. And they say the Middle East is the most dangerous place on the planet.

The Sensex has reached the dizzying heights of 14000 starting from around 3000 just after the dot com collapse. At the same time all the major indices have struggled to get up to the levels they reached around the time of the dotcom boom. Thus the DOW is just above 12000, the FTSE and the DAX have breached 6000 while the Nikei is still to get above 17000. Naturally the politicians are going around saying what a great job they are doing and how the economy will keep on growing like some dinosaur egg. About a decade ago the Nikei was trading above 35000 and the real estate sector in Japan was booming due to excess liquidity and Yakuza money being laundered into the construction sector. When the bubble burst the Nikei fell to below 10000 and Japan went into a long period of deflation resulting in bankruptcies and increasing unemplyment. Only today is Japan beginning to see the first signs of growth and the Bank of Japan has very timidly raised interest rate from 0 to 0.25%. Are there any parallels with India where land prices have increased by over 100% in the last few years. Plunder of the increasing tax collections can not be invested legitimately and land is the only avenue of hiding black money. I wonder if we will see a repeat of Japan. Only we have no Koizumi to rescue us.

So another humiliating defeat to South Africa. I am consistently amazed that people in India still want to watch defeat after defeat. It is no fault of the players that people exalt them to superstar status an build up expectations to unrealistic levels. I am sure that every batsman wants to score a hundred abd every bowler wants to take 5 or more widkets. after all there is big money to be made and that is the best incentive but unfortunately they are not good enough. Would any of the present team, except Dravid, be picked to play for Australia or South Africa? I think not. Along with the mediocrity is the lack of pridein playing for the country and giant bubble egos built up by public adulation and ready to collapse at the slightest criticism and being rotated out of the team. Apart from Gavakar the World Cup winning team of the 80shad no world class players but played with passion for team and country which brought them success. Another World Cup is a few months away. What are the chances that India do not make it out of the group stages? If that happens maybe the idiots will stop watching cricket on tv and allow us to watch some real sports such as rugby, boxing and American Football at prime time.