As Aseem Chhabra mentioned in the Mumbai Mirror, Canada and Sri Lanka would have celebrated an Academy Award win for Water. One would have to admit that, had the film won, one would have cheered, albeit through gritted teeth. What actually really gets my goat is this:

• When Deepa Mehta shoots the film in Varanasi, the crew is quite literally hounded out of town. Any attempts to find alternative locations in India are met with intense hostility and lack of support.
• The film's release is blocked in India, thanks to threats of violent protests and "punitive measures" by fundamentalist Hindu watchdog groups and political parties.
• The film is discarded as misrepresenting India, and the horrible Rang De Basanti is picked as India's entry to the Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Film category.
• After RDB is duly eliminated from contention, India flails around to salvage pride, and on Sunday, the Mumbai newspapers carry a quarter-page ad claiming that India is behind Water, all the way (I'll put this image up as soon as I scan it. -S.).

After doing everything to block the film's existence, we have the balls to stand up and say we actually support it? Some kind of support - threatening to cause bodily harm if the film was shot in India, damage to public and private property if it was released, refusal to offer a Censor Board Certificate to actually screen the movie, and finally disowning it enough to proclaim another film as India's representative in world cinema's biggest stage. You couldn't beat this down more if you spat on it and ground your heel on its face.

Shame on you, public India. Shame! Shame!

Real life imitates reel-life?

This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

The Hollow Men. I can't help but think that nothing could be more appropriate when describing the Indian cricket team that will wage Holy War in the West Indies to regain the glory of 1983. Keep this in mind, dear reader, as we shall revisit this 1983 business very soon indeed.

The team features stalwarts of India's recent cricketing successes, as well as the culprits responsible of an equal number of spectacular failures. Many names feature prominently in both lists, as is inevitable in the game of glorious uncertainties that is cricket. The list includes those who had been set out to pasture, but have returned as spearheads in their respective departments. It also includes those who are struggling to regain a shadow of their previous glory, alongside those who are being groomed to replace them should they not succeed. In the process, it leaves out those who have delivered the goods despite limited opportunities, as well as those who have been deemed as not having delivered enough.

Besides the obvious omissions of Suresh Raina, Gautam Gambhir and Ramesh Powar, one cannot but feel that VVS Laxman and Mohammad Kaif have been gypped. Yet, it is impossible to make a case for either of them in a loaded middle order, particularly now that the think-tank has dropped Virender Sehwag down the order. Viru, of course, should feel the edge of Damocles' sword. A string of cavalier performances with a distinct absence of application or cricketing acumen - which we have seen from him in the past - indicate that his focus is lacking. Will this show of faith by the selectors galvanise him into rediscovering the form that made him the Sultan of Multan? I'm not holding my breath. It is time consequence was applied to the senior members in this team.

Which brings me to where I was wrong, wrong, wrong. I was convinced that Sourav Ganguly was done. That his page in the history book was turned. Now I have to look to him to be the anchor of a batting lineup that boasts some of cricket's greatest ever players. With Rahul Dravid struggling and Sachin Tendulkar still feeling his way back, there's even more pressure on the youngsters - Robin Uthappa, Dinesh Kaarthik, MS Dhoni - to come up with strong performances towards the end of innings. Yuvraj Singh is gimpy, and Anil Kumble is a batting liability. The tail is much longer than the Indians would like to believe, especially if - and this is eminently possible - five specialist bowlers are played.

The bowling is weakened by Munaf Patel's injury woes and Irfan Pathan's mental demise. But Zaheer Khan's performance in South Africa, along with Sreesanth's growth as a bowler lend hope to the Indian fan. Ajit Agarkar has been given more opportunity than a bowler of his calibre should deserve. At this time, he is only holding up RP Singh's spot in the team - when the youngster figures out his form issues as well.

All in all, this team is a fait accompli. Regardless of who did what against which opponent, this group of fifteen epitomises the stark truth of Indian cricket, which Dilip Vengsarkar had stated within days of taking up his job as Chairman of the Selection Committee - we just don't have enough world-class talent in India. The raw material is undoubtedly available in abundance, but we do not have the systems in place to shape it into a finished product. Clearly, this malady extends itself towards putting together individual pieces into a cohesive, fully-functional team as well.

This is a team filled with extraordinary talent, but it is also a team that has shown itself to be capable of very ordinary performances. It takes discipline to win the most important tournament in world cricket, and our boys have shown how much they are lacking in that department. But this is still India, and hope springs eternal. We cheer our Men in Blue towards the hallowed ground, to take the final step that they could not in their last attempt, to find one more photograph of Rahul Dravid to hang beside the one of Kapil Dev taken at Lord's on one historic afternoon in 1983. Let us not doubt that fact - it was a historic event.

But read that fact as you will.