Four times the FIDE world champion. Undisputed Prince of rapid chess. Every inch a gentle man in word, deed conduct, you name it. But not fit enough to be considered a Bharath Ratna. Perish the thought! That is reserved for the highest service in artistic, literary and scientific activities as well as recognition of public service of the highest order.
Presumably that is why Gopinath Bordoloi (how many of you have heard of him and his public service of the highest order?) Gulzarilal Nanada (the service of keeping the Prime Minister's seat safe and warm a couple of times for the Nehru dynasty ) M.G.Ramachandran (Great!), V.V.Giri (must be for his services to the cause of population control!) Morarji Desai (for his scientific experiments in urine therapy) are all there among the 41 odd awarded. And of course Rajiv Gandhi, for all round service of the highest order. Look at the 'yojanas' 'programmes' 'airports' etc. etc.
Perhaps, Anand will be better off in some other Company. Most jewels have a sordid history behind them. Kohinoor for example. Or the Hope diamond. Or think about the blood spilled in the diamond mines in South Africa. If Anand suddenly finds himself in the company of all forty-one of them (fortunately only a few of them are around in flesh and blood) he may have to hone his Sicilian defence still further to defend his position. And existing literature on Chess theory may not be adequate. Most of them are Shatranj ke Killadis
Sachin Tendulkar may not have any such problems. He only has to tweet a few more times in Twitter and his followers will jump a few more lacs. That is enough for the Netas doing the highest public service in New Delhi to take notice. And if he tweets something in support of UPA or the Gandhis, before he can take off his pad or unlace his shoes, he will be a Bharat Ratna and an M.P to boot. And why not. He can tweet, better, play cricket better, is younger than Shashi Tharoor and a charmer too. And he is not a Madrassi brahmin. We have to watch out for the sentiments of DMK, you know.
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Synchronicity 1 I looked up in Wikepaedia information on the dialogue between Nachiketas and Yama. I had read Katha Upanishad long ago ...
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Radhakrishnan was a quiet, slightly effeminate boy who was with us in the High School at Ottapalam. He was never involved in the countle...
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On 25 th June 2009 I made a posting in my blog with the title 'Karnikaram' http://raju-swapnalokam.blogspot.com/2009/06/karnikar...
Vishy and Sachin are genuine 'Bharat Ratnas' since long and they do not require a political stamp of approval of doubtful value.Politicians, often,forget that common man, when needed, can distinguish seed from chaff.
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