Debarth's Den

The massive success of the movie “Slumdog Millionaire” at the Oscars has proven one point beyond doubt – India’s potential to rise like a colossus on the world scene can never be overestimated. Certain personalities of no meager eminence (I would prefer to call them shortsighted cynics) in the country have been quick to label the movie as a blatant exhibition of the muck that pervades Indian society. Superficially viewed, all these people may have a valid point, based on the flimsy logic that such a portrayal may undermine India’s progressive image in the world. Here, I am tempted to quote Shakespeare, maybe a touch incongruously – “beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder”. Indians have to look at this picture of India through the eyes of the world. One has to understand that such a portrait, even if accepted as a deplorable-but-true depiction of India’s current social fabric, will also go a long way in showcasing India’s latent energies to the world. Although it would be irrational to...

It was one of my numerous trips to an offshore rig drilling for oil in a vast watery wilderness far, far away from the humdrum of the world. The rig floor rumbled with activity as the Travelling Block moved up and down. The drillers, the roughnecks and the roustabouts strained themselves to enable steady progress of the operation. My shift was yet to start and I had come up on the heli-deck for a breath of fresh air. In spite of spending close to eighteen years doing the same job, I never cease to wonder at the sheer crudity of operations on an oil rig. Notwithstanding all the effort put in by the crew round the clock, there is no certainty that our efforts are going to bear fruit, that is, it is still impossible to prove the presence of oil inside the earth until we actually get to it. If one traces mankind’s footsteps over the past few decades, it will be observed that He has indeed made huge strides in certain fields of science such as Astronomy, Nuclear, Electronics, Computers, Tel...

Roger Federer must be cursing the day a certain youngster from Spain decided to take up playing Tennis for a living. Just that one lad has forced Federer to come round to the fact that the road to supreme authority in any field comes at a price. There will always be that one last, thorny path that has to be walked before one can lay claim to the ultimate pedestal of fame. In Federer’s case, it has been just one thorn, in the form of an indefatigable, never-say-die Spaniard called Rafael Nadal. Just when he thought that the going was all too easy in his journey to becoming the greatest Tennis player of all time, that one guy has always blocked his path with the stolidity of a stone wall. Try as he might, Federer has been unable to shake Nadal off his back, and off his mind. Federer has always been the cynosure of all eyes in the male Tennis arena. The grace and equanimity with which he has been sailing through the toughest of moments in matches time after time had given him an aura of g...