wo....now that happens again!!!!

The day is 12th march, 2006.

And there are two news items which tend to peek out of all the news of the day, in the quite realms of my room, at the end of the day. Here are the two links for all of you out there...

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/702946D3-8A83-4C52-8512-7AD35AA69E47.htm

and

http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/rsavaus/content/current/story/240507.html.

Now what is the underlying theme to both the above articles. For some of you like me, who are quite conservative about the use of energy required to see the links, let me first give a summary. The former article is a news post of al-jazeera online wherein the reason of death of the great tyrant Slobodan Milosevic has been speculated as that of a rogue drug ingestion. The latter is the bulletin post on cricinfo.com regarding the manner in which South Africa was able to chase successfully the highest ODI score till then of 434 ( a number which when I first saw, gave me an impression of being a rare "typo" on the net ).

I know it would be extremely hard to try and find any underlying thread of rationality between these two news but then since nowadays, the lonely haven of my room, has been quite the stimulus for being all the more irrational that I am, I did find something common.

• Both the news tend to point the fact that how "Power" in all its ethereal sense is destroyed over a span of time.
  
• When Milosevic came in power, in erstwhile Serbia ( I am using the word 'ertswhile' because after the war, there is sparsely anything to be called as a country ), the one thing which he did with utmost dedication was the killing of muslims. He was the reason why the over jingoistic western media, which forever tries hard to increase the load on a lexicographer, coined the term "Ethnic Cleansing".
  
• For all those who find the word very similar to some tagline of an HLL product, let me tell you all that its one of the worst things to be ever witness too ( am saying coz I had the misfortune to see something similar and still come out alive, since I hail from Gujarat....aka Narendra Modi's serbia).
  
• The underlying psyche of being the supreme ruler does tend to make people over zealous about the fact that they cannot be brought to book for this. Though all the while, there has been evidence sprinkled over history , that such acts have seldom gone unpublished or unpunished. But then they rightly say " absolute power corrupts absolutely". Milosevic was ultimately brought to book when Nato and USA ( another power and mischief monger ) did try to reign in the civil strife that was prevalent in the regions of what was now left of Yugoslavia.
  
• Milosevic died in a cell while under going trial for war crimes in international court of justice. An apt end to a saga riddled with blood. Afterall, which one of the publicity seeking leader would love to die in a cell, all the more closer to the roots of the civilization that they did defy.

• Now after this lengthy discourse on the dastard of a person, let me come to cricket. Well, to say the least, this Australia V/s South Africa match would remain etched in my memory for long and it was an honour in being a witness to the same.
  
• What did the match indicate? To me it seemed like even God was tired of seeing the clinical supremacy that Australia has brought into the game of cricket.
  
• The team which defined new meaning to professionalism in cricket at least in the last decade, had fallen twice in an year, to arch rivals. First, they lost the Ashes and then this. It was pleasing to see that now there would some even distribution of power, in the cricketing field, which otherwise had been more of a talk to decide who was the second best. South Africa, branded as perennial "chokers", just didnt look like an outfit they have always been. To be able to chase such a mammoth total and that too against the team like aussies, looked like david V/s goliath battle. But little did it seem that in the end , God does favour david. And so here He did it too.
  
• Absolute power of the kangaroos had been destroyed by the Proteas. Power did change hands here. Just like milosevic, that i illustrated above, Aussies have been dubbed, sometimes indirectly in there own words, as "Power personified". But the fort did fall.
  
• I know some of my peers would argue that its just one game and aussies still rule the game. But then that is what people said when they lost the ashes. Well, floodgates of failures, of winners, are hard to open but once the water does start trickling, remember...they are hard to close too.

I know i have said and written a lot here which for any busy person would not form the flavour of reading. But then i did say in my first post that, this space is just for venting off my inner feelings.

Thanks a lot to all those who did read. Do ponder on the above points.

Till then, take care,
j.