Fat in the Firing Line

There has been a recent discovery that might lead to a 'natural' cure to obesity. The discovery of brown fat in adult humans. Hitherto this magic fat was found to reside only amongst children and adolescents, and animals (rats have it in plenty, apparently) - we all have heard about it - as puppy fat. The reason why it has excited the researchers is because brown fat is capable of being used to 'burn up calories'. It very literally gets consumed when the host gets busy; in fact it also gets used up to combat cold. So the really lazy blimps amongst us (superfluous use of lazy, you reckon?) can turn up the air-conditioning and call it exercising.

So what other kind of fat is there? Most adult bodies were so far thought to contain only white fat - the stuff of legends that wobbles over the six-pack and jig-jigs under every thundery thigh. This fat, unlike the brown variety is used by the body as reserve. It is probably the remnant from a time where ice-age meant that most mammals would starve for 6 months, hence needed a mechanism to ensure that they survived till spring (bears and whales still do it). This is the reason why white fat is so bloody tenacious - it sticks like a limpet to the tummy no matter how hard you exercise. Of course it also depends upon individual body-types. All of us who are adiposally challenged have painful memories of that person who would nonchalantly toss with a light laugh, 5 pineapple-cream pastries, 4 floating aalu parathas, a gargantuan slab of Dairy Milk and a tubful of ice-cream down the hatch and yet be rake thin. Yes, these misbegotten children of Beelzebub have more brown fat than white. Which is why when they walk they burn fat, when they shake a leg on the dance-floor they burn fat, when they frisk and frolic they burn fat; when they energetically shove all that food in they burn fat, and even when they feel cold they burn fat.

And no, there is no justice in the world for people with white fat. But finally there is hope. Researchers feel that if they are able to trigger the human body to produce more brown fat than white then it will become easier to control obesity. Will researchers be able to find a way to convert white to brown? This point is moot - its too early to comment.

One might say what is the big deal in being generously built? After all many cultures prize 'traditionally built' people, where the show of paunch is seen as a sign of prosperity. Well, the popular culture in most parts of the world now tends to portray slimness and athleticism as the healthier body-type. There is a growing body of evidence to suggest that extra weight attracts ill-health. Its better to be slim than be sorry.

And most importantly, it's the willowy guys and gals who get the most dates.

Now that we have our priorities in place we await the day when the wonder pill will give us the freedom from the tyranny of the gym, tearing the shackles of the guilt of looking in a lascivious way at a plateful of fries. Ah! the day of deliverance! When will the sea part again!  

Biggest Gain from IPL

For me the biggest single achievement of the IPL has been the camaraderie between players from different nationalities playing under the same franchise. Yes, there was something vaguely similar during the heydays of county cricket, but it was not as global in the way IPL is. Things will get even better in a few years after the key players do a 'circuit' of the major franchises.

This does not mean that the international matches will be any less competitive. But hopefully they will not have that savage edge that one sometimes witnesses nowadays. To take an example: would the Symonds-Bhajji fracas have happened had both played for the same IPL team? Answer: No!

Perhaps IPL will bring back to the game a degree of brotherhood that we used to see in the 70s and 80s? I remember that during those days it was not an anathema to see the fielding team clap and shake hands of batsmen when they reached personal milestones. In the recent past I recall only a handful of such incidents. I would still like to think that these small considerations add up to make cricket the game that I love. I like to see the concern that fielders show when a batsman is down, either felled by a ball, or through cramps or injured while running; I like the fact that batsmen turn to the bowler to request him to tie up the shoelaces; I like it when during breaks fielders heft and inspect and swing the bat in appreciation; I like it when during a sudden break the batsman strikes up an animated conversation with the fielder on some random aspect of the game. It makes me believe in civilization and in humanity. It tells me that sport can be just as competitive without it being necessary to make the opponent your enemy.

I would very much like to see this kind of cricket come back on the international arena.

When all is done and dusted OR Musings on IPL and Cricket

And so it has ended - this Lent-long vigil of mostly underwhelming and mediocre cricket. At the denouement there were so many distractions that the actual play appeared incidental. Perhaps fittingly the final - and this is from those who watched it and not from a prejudiced twerp like me - turned out to be mild; soporific, even.

Let's return to the original premise - that 2020 is the 'new' face of cricket, that it is the version  that youngsters and housewives are interested in. I hope not. Whatever little that one saw of IPL, the lasting impression was that a large part of the audience was not really interested in the game of cricket - they were there to be seen in the company of the film stars and other glamorous people; they liked to be part of the glitz and the festivities. One hopes to be proven wrong - I hope that most people watching IPL were there because of their love for the game. And it is in the hope that cricket shall prevail that I wish to make several random points; and an random points go, these appear here in no particular order:

1. For 2020s and IPL to be taken seriously by all (i.e. the godforsaken lovers of Test Cricket) it is imperative that the dumbing-down is stopped forthwith. (duh!) Well, that means no short boundaries, no cute breaks, no rechristening (pardon me, fair Christian folk!) of Sixes and catches and hits to the box. Let's not dick around with the game. There, I have said it.
2. That Sachin is an all-time-great player, but is not, is not, is not a leader of men in the traditional sense. (remember! I said random points). He is a fine example of arrested boyhood and also of an exemplary cricketing brain. But it does not, does not, does not translate to him being a great captain. And I say this as a devotee who writes to praise him, not bury him that let us not burden him with attributes that he does not have.
3. That in Mahi we have a captain who is grounded, clever, decently skilled, brave and amazingly lucky. It won't surprise anyone if he ends is career with a high win-loss ratio - let me stick this neck out - a ratio above 60%
4. That showing a battery of ill-clad white girls doing hoops is not innovation. In passing, don't know about you, but it struck me to be a deep case of racism to have only white, girls dance. (Hope you noticed the comma, pregnant with meaning between white and girls) 
5. That commentary is an integral part of all sports; more so in cricket - for it is blessed with a vocabulary so rich and eccentric that it is absolutely, insanely criminal to let loose upon the unsuspecting public the likes of Sidhu (it would be ok if he meets with an accident that robs him of his speech. Just saying, mind you, not wishing!), Morrison (drown him, please!), Bedi (Angad, not Ms noodlestrap - and I honestly do not know who is the worse of the two; and that is saying a lot!), et al. To be honest, even a seasoned speaker like Shastri was reduced to being a buffoon and an all-time great cricketer and a sober commentator like Gavaskar was annoying more times than decency warrants.
6. If there is to be innovation then bring it in the game. An example: allow one catching mitt to the fielding team - let the captain decide which fielding position should have it. This will bring a semblance of balance; after all, every rule favours the batting side nowadays. So it will be a treat to see 99 out of the 100 of those impossibly high, curling catches being bagged.
7. Let ricochets off the stumps be declared as dead-ball in 2020. There have been some cricketers who have mooted this idea - and I think it is only fair. If the administrators are reluctant to adopt this universally, let it be made operational in 2020s at least.
8. I'd like to see another change in 2020 - let the bowling team have the right to bring in their brand of balls. As long as it is a standard issue and meets the regulations I don't see why batsmen should have all the advantages of bringing Mongooses and Civets into the game without giving a similar option to the bowlers.
9. Captains finishing their overs slowly, for every 5 minutes delay they should be fined the equivalent of one over worth of runs scored at the highest run-rate that the batting team achieved in its 20 overs. And of course, also the stiff fines. If 2020 is meant to be fast and furious cricket where there is only time to react, then no side should have the advantage of getting free-time to think and ponder and delay
10. If BCCI is the coffer for the game and its shepherd, then let it be a good shepherd! Let it not be a bully that steamrolls cricket into a dish that is neither fish nor fowl. How I wish that BCCI would first fill the calendar of the years to come with test series, then ODI and then 2020 (if it must!). The rock, the pebble and the sand...then the cup of cricket shall not run over with bad tidings; it will sound a sonorous, melodious ring and spread unalloyed joy to all! Amen! 

Us Indians

Here is a lucid account of the status of water-sharing between India and Pakistan. The author, John Briscoe sums with minimum fuss the practical issues and also points to possible solutions. He cites the example of Brazil, and how it has chosen to be generous towards Bolivia and Paraguay, poor neighbours both; he hopes that India too will show such generosity.

I very much doubt it. We may be a tiny bit benevolent to Bangladesh or Nepal even; Pakistan is not a country that makes the milk of generosity flow in Mother India. For one, Pakistan has been foolishly aggressive. Kargil is impossible to forget - the TV has ensured that it will endure at least another generation of viewers. Second, unlike Bolivia and Paraguay, Pakistan is a dangerous country that is capable of causing serious harm to India. Brazil is lucky to be in an altogether salubrious neighbourhood.

As I pointed in my earlier blog on Bangladesh, India must repair the relationship with the rest of the neighbours. Being generous is only the beginning. The first few movements with Bangladesh suggest that perhaps we can hope for a better future there.

The second point that Briscoe makes - about the media in India - that is a serious and valid criticism. I am often dismayed at the lack of rigorous enquiry by the media towards what the various arms of the government do. The media in India is obsessed with trifles and on sensation; on melodrama and bathos; the level of debate on our weaknesses and our holy cows are so mild and staged, it makes me feel very ashamed indeed.

But the most devastating reality that I have had to face after reading the comments of the Internet community in India and Indians is that the young Indians today are so belligerent and so full of themselves - not ready to engage anyone who happens to differ in opinion. As an experiment try this: engage a couple of young adults, say 21 to 30, on any topical issue - be it the women's reservation, Pakistan and US, the state of infrastructure, food prices, education - chances are that they will not have a clue, or they will not be too concerned beyond their immediate issues. Any criticism of the current icons and any attempt to talk about the deep disparities in our society will immediately bring in the most vulgar kind of discourse: religious hatred, caste based hatred, language and region based hatred.

Sometimes I feel that the Internet and the TV have not brought the noble and the civilized in us. Reading the interactions and watching the audiences one would think that we are becoming closed and intolerant, unread and uncouth, shrill and surly.

Perhaps these are the sign of times? Perhaps this too will change and the tide will turn.