— A. Prasad

Ahmedabad

New willow order

• India have won the CB Series, outplaying Australia in every department of the game in the finals. The tri-series must be ranked as one of the toughest tournaments in the game, alongside the World Cup and the Champions Trophy. Most keen observers of the game would agree that if the umpiring in the Test series had been fair, India would have at least drawn the series if not won it. Clearly, we are now at par with the world champions if not better. It would make the trans-Pacific rivalry the premier contest in the game. India had also won the Twenty20 championship in South Africa, and the Under-19 team has recently won the junior world title in Kuala Lumpur. It looks as if our players have scripted a new world order in cricket. Or is this good run a passing phase? Can India win the 2011 World Cup?

— Farzana Nigar

Doranda

No Akbarnama this

• A handsome young Moghul prince Akbar is offered Jodhaa, the daughter of a Rajput king in marriage, as an alliance to buy peace for the Hindu state. Akbar accepts, and their love story (how he wins Jodhaa’s love) makes a beautiful movie — with not a trace in it of disrespect towards any community. Therefore, why this pother on the streets, and where is the warrant for a ban on Jodhaa Akbar in the four states? Does anybody care if history is distorted? After all, cinema has the right to be fictional. What one sees doesn’t always have to be real. Surely we are mature enough to be above such squabbles. To us it should be a cinematic experience soaked in lilting music. We have to see it in its fictive context; nowhere does director Ashutosh Gowarikar claim it to be history. Let us not keep a good movie from being screened freely and savoured.

... contd.