No one buys a fancy car to crawl like a tortoise. Yet hardly anyone drives fast to meet his maker. The young just wish to soar above the tedious and the commonplace. ‘Feeling alive’ is a worthy pursuit. Speeding is how you leave the rest of the world behind. You just do not want to leave it too far behind. How much speeding can then be decried as over-speeding? If you cannot give the Sun and the Moon a miss, you would be better off driving a bullock cart. If you can the jump the craters and navigate the breakers, Sir,…

By Abhinav Pancholi      Rahul Dravid is not a coach. He is The Choke. As a captain, he led one of the most listless Indian squads to an ignominious exit from the league stages of the World Cup 2007. His years as the captain of Rajasthan Royals saw spot-fixing getting rampant. In 2022, Jamie Dravid of Indra Nagar has coached India to a ten-wicket drubbing in the T20 World Cup semi-final at the hands of very merciless England, and then to a ODI series loss against the Bangladeshis at their home. In the deciding test,…

I am a proud organ donor who has taken the pledge for organ donation. The pledge was taken to celebrate my 51st birthday, and my wife Milly joined me in this noble cause since both of us are convinced by the urgent need for organ donation whereby one person can save eight lives. The pledge was taken by us as we want to live beyond, love beyond, and not just receive the gift of a life well lived, but gift it further. We humbly request all to take the pledge for organ donation or whole body donation. Thane Chiquinho…

One of the biggest unsolved mysteries in world football is what happened to Ronaldo just before the 1998 Football World Cup Final. Apparently the star footballer swallowed his tongue and had to be virtually saved for death by one of his teammates. He was originally not in the team sheet, but then was included in a revised team sheet in the starting 11. Ronaldo was off colour and France won the 1998 World Cup against Brazil with Zidane being the star for France. Ronaldo would however make a remarkable comeback by scoring…

Nadav Lapid is a free man who makes good films, and has the right to air his views. He was invited to Goa to the head the IFFI jury by Indian officials. His understanding of cinema is his own to savour and propagate. That he condemned The Kashmir Files as ‘vulgar’ and ‘propaganda’ is his prerogative as an intellectual as well as an auteur. To raise him to a pedestal, and allow him to use our mike and stage, though, is our own folly. IFFI is organized by National Film Development Corporation of India (under Ministry of…

Why this hullabaloo over the Oreva Company official’s description of the Mourvi tragedy as an ‘act of God’? When the local municipality handed over the repair, management and control of the footbridge to this company on a Rs. 300 stamp, lock, stock and barrel, did they not anoint the officials of the company as veritable Gods? Lest the divine halo might not shine brightly enough, they even signed away an official non-interference clause. Six days after the tragedy, one can only hope and pray that our decrepit,…

Tony, Carmela and Anthony Jr. are in a diner, hogging onion rings, while waiting for Meadow to turn up. “Best onion rings in the city, as far as I’m concerned,” declares T. You believe him, of course. Boss is always right. You have got to take his word on food. He was shown gobbling something or the other in almost every episode. Don Anthony is a connoisseur of classy females, and palatable food- the greedy and lust alpha male, veritably a bear. This also explains why the four Sopranos have taken the trouble of driving…

Garry Sobers scored more than 8000 runs at an average of 57, hit 26 hundreds, claimed 235 wickets at 34 runs per wicket, and bagged 109 catches. He has a simple enough explanation for this legendary fecundity. “For most of my international career, I was playing for two.” The other one being Collie Smith, who slept in the back seat of the car being driven by a very drunk Garry on a September English morning in 1959. The vehicle hit a truck, Collie was thrown forward, received spinal injuries, and tragically departed…

Dinesh Karthik is not just a perennial passenger and a cipher contributor, he has pathetic body language, which is enough to sink any sports team in the moments of crisis. In the match against Pakistan yesterday, he trod into the middle taking his usual busy strides when India required 16 runs off 5 balls. Akash Chopra kept parroting what a great match finisher DK was. Akash repeated himself so many times, that I wondered if he was trolling DK, or merely setting him up for a bad fall? DK was required to be take the…

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik turned 76 on Sunday. One of the longest-serving CMs in the country chose to skip his birthday celebrations this year as well like he did several times in the past since 2020 due to the COVID-19 situation. The Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) attributed the skip of celebration to his out of State tour on Sunday. Patnaik is scheduled to visit Hyderabad on Sunday to hold a one-to-one meeting with business leaders on October 17 at ‘Odisha Investors’ Meet’. Also Read: Naveen…