A & N islands: Immense potential and neglect at the garden of Eden

A much too familiar story for all beautiful but underdeveloped places in India. In the case of Andaman & Nicobar islands, this post on "Tourism" captures the ills that plague the administrative leadership. Tourism happens to be a significant economic activity of the islands.

At the fag end of the development spectrum lie the tribes of A & N islands. Jarawas, Onge & Sentinelese. Some of them like the Sentinelese are completely isolated from civilisation. A fantastic video on the first-contact (as claimed) made with them shows up in this informative post from Mathilda's Anthropology Blog . Mathilda comments on Sentinelese tribals' liking of coconuts and on the couple's preference for holding hands. Some readers talk of exploitation of Jarawas (pictured here and taken from Mathilda's blog) at the hands of greedy tour operators & administrative accomplices.

10 reasons why IPL 3 is more or less interesting: Pros & Cons

5 reasons why IPL3 is more interesting:

1. Its back in India after it was driven to South Africa for an year by the Indian elections. The Indian ambiance of media gossip, fan frenzy etc. were missing.


2. Some good recruits have moved in from the parallel ICL league. Shane Bond in particular.


3. On home pitches, one expects the in-form Tendulkar to be present in all of his swashbuckling glory. And it does seem like a set stage for Ganguly's swan-song performance.


4. It should serve the familiar heady mix of Bollywood & Cricket starlets to the crazy Indian fans, who would definitely find it a more wholesome entertainment than watching 3 Idiots for the umpteenth time at the same cost.


5. It will see a deluge of new Indian adverts & hopefully they will do their part in generating want,need & demand that the Indian economy needs badly. For that the commercials need to be really Creative & incisive.

5 reasons why IPL3 is less interesting:

1. Although the dopey, match-fixing Pakis will be out of this year's edition; one would surely miss their bowlers. Md. Asif, Shoaib, Sohail Tanvir were delightful performers in the first edition.


2. Conflict with the political establishment is expected to increase now that IPL3 is back in India. It will be a challenge for the organisers to keep at least one Indian tournament away from the clutches of Indian politicians .


3. Burgeoning inflation & unemployment will become major dampeners for ticket sales if the prices of tickets are not brought down.


4. The under current of a security-scare will continue to remain and the organisers need to tighten their plans preempting any threat, however trivial it may seem.


5. Cheerleaders might wear shalwar-kamiz in this edition in order to satisfy the moralists.