Friday, July 03, 2026

FIFA 2026'S TOP GUN

 After the group matches, the top 32 teams made it to the round of 32. Based on their world rankings and the group performances here is my prediction. 


The chart was prepared on Sunday, June 28, 2026 before the round of 32 began. Today, after 13 of the 16 matches have been played in round 32, there has been just one upset so far, pulled off by Paraguay over Germany. I do expect more upsets in the round of 16 depending on the regional advantage and political biases for the teams. I will post the final chart after the final of the tournament clearly marking the deviations.

It's been an exciting tournament thus far. Let the best teams win. 






Monday, May 11, 2026

CHESS PIECES DON’T MAKE PEACE

The Iran – Israel-USA war is now in its 72nd day with no sign of an end. The Hormuz double blockade continues. The oil prices have been hovering over 100 mark. The world economy may soon fall into a recession. Prime Minister Modi will address the nation and ask 1.5 billion people of India to practice fasting and frugality. I hope the government too will resort to some austerity measures. The war will help some nations to make gains in the short term but in the long run the entire ECO-system would collapse under the deep depression. First to go would be the small economies, then the large service-based economies, and finally the goods/commodity providers will perish in a food chain crisis due to the loss of appetite. Conservation and austerity efforts are crucial for these nations to protect their people during such harsh conditions.

The center stage this time is West Asia. IMO, India can and must play a lead role in cutting short this American mis-adventure in the region.  I am aware of India’s restrictions, priorities and preferences. But keeping them all aside for a moment, Indian government must weigh in the long-term consequences of this war in our backyard and try for a quick amicable settlement. India must favour Iran at this moment and together with Russia and China get the 7th fleet packing out of the Indian ocean. The trinity (India, China, Russia)  has the required numbers and power to show any imperialist the door. Africa has shown a decisive bent and bias towards Asia. They will come along too and together, we can, and we shall prevail.

 


Wednesday, April 29, 2026

The End of Dinosaurs - Part II

The uncle must sell killing machines to keep its land fertile and the landscape lush green. The uncle stands naked and exposed to the world alongside his Zionist agent. Yet the opposing actors are consumed by their petty rivalries and hate, too busy to see the collapse, and the vile eventuality.

Humanity waits at a crossroads, begging. What looms is not reform, not realignment — but total annihilation. 

Finally, the bloody game began. The uncle’s ledgers melted first, profit and savings then went up the flame. What once was lush green landscape is now a crater with a charred flag in it, which nobody  salutes. 

The petty actors? Their arguments fossilized mid-sentence. History won’t quote them. Geology will. 

No sequel. No post-credit scene.  Just the kind of peace that doesn’t need negotiating.

An eerie silence, with no doves left to carry the olive branches. The smoke-filled sky.  Ambers sparking and flashing occasionally beneath the heaps of ash look like twinkling stars, a counterfeit galaxy made of our cinders. 

Up above, the galaxy of celestial audiences witnesses the apocalyptic climax unfolding on earth. And the moon, always the pale voyeur, finally gets its front-row seat. 

Long it envied the greens on mother earth without ever actually turning green.  Tonight, it watches those greens turn black, then grey, then gone.  And for the first time, the moon doesn’t want what the earth had. 

It just keeps watching, because there’s nothing else left to see, just a reflection, a pale shadow of itself on earth.

Vote of Thanks

- To the uncle, for the lesson in naked truth. 

- To the Zionist agent, for running the storefront to the end. 

- To the petty actors, for the reminder that ego fossilizes faster than bone. 

- To humanity, for waiting at the crossroads, even when the road was gone. 

- To the stars and the moon, for keeping their seats and bearing witness. 

- To the earth, for every green it gave before it went grey. 

- And to the silence, for not needing an applause.

The End - with no encore or sequel

Tuesday, March 10, 2026

Donald J Quixote - The Knight Errant Returns

In the seventeenth century Miguel De Cervantes fictionalized the character of Don Quixote, a retired man obsessed with chivalric tales, who in a fit of madness transformed himself into a self-styled knight-errant.  He saw the world through the lens of his chivalric fantasies and misinterpreted and magnified the mundane objects and events into things of goliath proportion. Despite the absurdity of his interpretations, Don Quixote remained firm in his belief in the fantastical nature of his quests.

However, to counter the absolute madness of this maniac character, Cervantes complemented Don with a side-kick, Sancho Panza, a man with the earthy wisdom.  The author’s purpose in writing the sequel was to expose the psychopathic libido for grandeur in human mind with caution to one and all not to fall for it. He buried the character after illustrating the futility of his quests and the inevitable return to reality.

Now, Miguel de Cervantes must be turning and twisting in his grave as the character he created out of thin air has reincarnated in real life as Donald J. Quixote, a disillusioned, mentally unstable man obsessed with MAGA. His total dedication and unwavering disposition to his ridiculously misguided chivalrous fantasies have thrown the entire world into topsy turvydom.

His Quixote like delusions of grandeur have led him to believe he is the chosen one. Specially, after he survived a bullet ripping through his ear, his belief in himself as of being of divine origin and with super powers has escaped the boundaries of realism. The concerning aspect of this real-life Quixote is, he has no side-kick like Sanzo Panza. In contrast the people surrounding him are reinforcing his delusions of grandeur. Those around him only feed his sense of grandiosity and they can be seen huddled into collective prayer with Protestant pastors in the Oval Office.

Eventually he will either move into remorse, grasping his head and regretting what he has done, or sink into a deeper and more prolonged mania. Personally, I hope for a more poignant ending like his 17th century fictional friend in which he renounces his weird fantasies and unwanted bravado acknowledging the futility of his quests and the reality of his condition. I wish he regains a sense of redemption and acceptance, as he acknowledges the hollowness of MAGA and the reality of multilateralism.

Tuesday, January 27, 2026

गुस्ताख जुगनू

 शाम के ६ बजे थे

पर थके मंदे सूरज के चेहरे पे १२ बजे थे।

पर्च्छाइयां फैल कर धूमिल हो चुकी थीं।

थोड़ी देर और लगी होगी

थक कर चूर सूरज रजाई में कहीं खो गया था।

आसमान में गजब रंगीनी थी और हवा में इक नशा।

एका एक अपने अस्तित्व के अहसास से जुगनू झूम उठे।

काली सिया रात में आसमानी बादशाहत का जुनून जुगनुओं के सिर चढ़ बोला।

आग लगा देंगे।

आग लगा देंगे।

उत्पात अथाह था।

पर हर रात की है एक सुबह।

सूरज ने ली एक अंगड़ाई।

सुबह की पहली किरण ने

मिटा दिया था पागल जुगनुओं का वज़ूद।

STONED AND OUT

God and the devil are always at war with each other. God is almighty. Then how on earth the devil has been surviving this eternal war with God? 

Sounds funny! 

But it's not funny. The slimy devil has been playing God's cards against God, rendering God helpless in his fight against the vicious devil. 

How?

We all are his cards. He is in each one of us. We should see God in each other but the devil makes us see the enemy in each other. We fight and the devil wins, yet again. 😞

When I go to the temple, I see God with many folded hands begging me to seek him in each other and not in an invisible vacuum or stone. 

The devil laughs and tells God to keep dreaming and with a thunder he says, "they are stoned."😄

Sunday, June 02, 2024

The Maddening Crowd

Hanuman ji forwarded Shri Ram’s message to Ravan. Infuriated, Ravan set Hanuman’s tail on fire and Hanuman ji set whole of Lanka on fire in reply. Subsequently, this proved to be the t(r)ailblazer for the modern-day social media exchanges. 

Going ahead, God's messages to people were forwarded by the Prophet Muhammad and Jesus Christ. However, any negative response or questioning to those messages is construed as blasphemy and the responders are silenced promptly by use of violence. 

The postal service started in 18th century. Who would know the value of those yellow postcards and green envelops more than a sailor of early 80s? Thousands of miles away from home in the middle of lifeless seas, those letters acted as lifeline and connected us with our loved ones ashore. The feeling has been aptly described in Pankaj Udhas’s number, ‘Chitthi aai hai, aai hai, chitthi aai hai.’  Listen to the song after few pegs of whiskey for the best effects.

Moving forward, in the first electronic message from Baltimore to Washington, D.C., in the 19th century, Samuel Morse clearly understood the historic ramifications of the technology when he dit-dahed, “What hath God wrought?”. He warned the humanity and blamed God for the ill consequences of his invention. The technology gave wings to human basic instinct to communicate. In a short time, social media evolved from direct electronic information exchange, to virtual real-time gathering place, to retail platform, to vital 21st-century business and marketing tool. 

The instant success of social media can be attributed to real time thumbs-up responses injecting a dose of dopamine into user’s nervous system. Believe me or not, it’s better than Nescafe or cocaine when it comes to instant kick. On a more serious note, it has reconnected old friends, helped people find lost loved ones, and given people a platform to market themselves and their products. The life is unthinkable without being a cog in this giant wheel of social media.

But it’s not without the downside of it like any other technology. In a virtual world one is vulnerable to frauds and deceit. There’s a false sense of intimacy and connection. Besides, these gigantic platforms are owned by big tech companies and the big brothers are watching your every move you make and recording every pic you take or every word you say. A 1983 number, ‘Every Breath You Take’ by the band ‘The Police’ is ringing in my ears as I am writing this.

We have no curtains in this colossal toilet without privacy, just the strings. And how could one be free while one is tethered to mobile data? Naked and chained in a public place, that’s how it is to be out there.

The human brain which was once a fertile ground for thoughts and creativity has now reduced to an impulsive panel sending out impulses of fear, hatred, prejudices, and misinformation. 

Thought over-load!! Short Circuit!!!

Provoked by the foregoing thoughts a 1984 song by Queen, ‘I want to break free’,  is blaring in my ears now.  But it has been quite a while since this piece of shit I am writing has kept me away from my beloved mobile and my dopamine level has really gone low, and no longer can I control the craving to get back to the ignoble strife of the maddening crowd.

Wednesday, September 27, 2023

The Material World Is An Imagination Of A Conscious Mind

 The Material World Is An Imagination Of A Conscious Mind.