The final battle lines are drawn. Its Rajasthan versus Chennai to decide the champions of the inagural Indian Premier League. Both won their respective one-sided pathetic semi finals. I never thought Chennai would reach the finals. But then, stranger things have happened in this IPL.

So, now my favourites change to the Chennai Super Kings All for just one reason. Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Let the battle begin.

Above picture from the IPL T20 website

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So, who will be the champions? I would fancy Rajasthan, but Punjab Kings XI is also a pretty balanced and strong team. Priety Zinta smothered each team member with kisses and hugs for every win. I can understand the Punjab team’s motivation to win the tournament anticipating more kisses and hugs by Priety. (No offense meant towards Priety Zinta. I have the highest regards for the lady. She had the balls to stand up in court and give evidence against the underworld when the so called heroes Salman Khan and SRK chickened out. Leading to someone christening her as ‘the only male’ in the Bollywood industry)

Anyways, coming back to the topic, Chennai and Delhi are clearly the weaker of the 4 teams in the semis. But then who knows, Dhoni or Sehwag might fire too. I feel its an evenly poised semi final line up. Anyone can be a winner.

What makes me the happiest is that both Kolkata and Mumbai are out. I cant stand SRK and so is my distaste for anything Mumbai Though am sad for Pollock and Jayasuriya. Pollock captained the team pretty well after Bhajji’s slapgate. But then Sachin screwed it up altogether once he returned. Thank God he was not given the Indian captaincy long enough.

So, who would you like to see win the IPL ?

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Everyone knows the aftermath of the testing, sanctions were imposed on India by the US, Japan and a host of countries. All form of technological assistance was frozen. And all forms of aid was cut.

10 years hence, the US accepts that India is indeed a nuclear power and offers an exclusive nuclear deal; the first such effort for a country that has refused to sign the discriminatory Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT). We are still bickering over the fine print of the deal. With elections around, i don’t see any party in power having the guts to go ahead with the deal. But one thing is for sure. Whichever party comes to power (either BJP or Congress) after the elections, is going to sign the treaty.

And for all those who worry that the timeline for the deal is expiring, can relax. India is too big a market for the US to ignore. The nuclear deal is just the beginning. India is planning to spend close to US$100 billion over the next 15-20 years to upgrade its military. And the US is not so stupid to antagonise any of the Indian political class and miss out on the cherry.

Ten years ago, on May 11, 1998, the Buddha smiled once again in the deserts of Rajasthan as the country undertook a series of nuclear tests in the Pokhran field range. The first-ever nuclear test by the country, code named ‘Smiling Buddha’, was also conducted in the same place on May 19, 1974.

The area of the tests is still kept under tight security. There are four gates spread over a 3.5 sq km area. The first is known as Kohinoor Gate and the last, Bhoochal Gate. But soon, footfalls in the sands which saw India’s strategic coming of age could increase as the government goes ahead with plans to set up a war museum in the Pokhran range.

“We are trying to set up a model of the Khetolai village in Pokhran where the blasts took place. A war museum would be set up here and the help of the Army and BSF has been sought to set up the museum,” said Ambarish Kumar, district collector, Jaisalmer.

Interestingly, then CIA director, George Tenet, in his book ‘At The Centre of Storm: My Years At The CIA’ admitted that India’s second nuclear explosion surprised the US. “In 1995, when the US got the hint that India was preparing for its second nuclear test, we managed to put pressure on India to stop it, but the US had no clue about the preparation of India in 1998 as our satellites failed to detect the preparations that were on in Pokhran.

Admittedly, it was our greatest failure and that gave us sleepless nights,” wrote Tenet.

Three laboratories had been set up for the purpose and the exact location where explosions took place later were being used for playing football and hockey. In all, 3,000 to 4,000 army personnel were involved, but hardly 100 knew the exact task they were involved in.

Full article here.

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