Federal Babel • This is with regard to Jaya Menon’s ‘Tamil & only Tamil? Only for masses’ (IE, March 14). Whatever the motivations of Karunanidhi may be, the idea of making Tamil the official language for proceedings in the high court is the most logical step. It should have been done long ago. I work in San Francisco, USA, and am acutely aware of the need to learn English (for world contacts) and Hindi (for Indian contacts). However, as a kid growing up in a tiny village, I experienced at first hand the agony of my fellow villagers, including my mother who barely understands English, in getting a grip on law and other proceedings. On the other hand, Justice Shah’s reservations are valid and must be addressed before moving forward. But the eggheads in the North must note that deciding what is good for the state is the prerogative of the state. The nation’s strength comes from federalism. — Pugal Kumarasamy, San FranciscoThat’s cricket• I am afraid, Shailaja Bajpai (‘Telescope’, IE, March 27) appears as excited as the viewers on TV over India’s defeat by Sri Lanka. Cricket, after all, is a game of skill mixed with a bit of luck. So, when Bangladesh, a dark horse, wins, it is time for us in India to applaud its bowlers and batsmen (and fielders too), rather than bemoan our defeat. Sri Lanka is a mighty team and if it wins against India, our attention should be on their brilliant all-round performances. We should print in bold the photos of their skilled performers, and give them our hand in friendship and celebration. Burning the effigies of our celebrated players or threatening the safety of their families are acts of childishness. What we must do is learn from our failures and try again, with greater determination and better team work. That is cricket.— Parimal Y. Mehta, BarodaGlammed-up game• The piece, ‘Sporting spirit’ (IE, March 29) was a beautifully written critique of the Indian cricket team — a common enough preoccupation these days. But what irked me in the article was the implicit assumption that cricket is a privileged game, compared to other less glamorous and poorly paid sporting activities like athletics. To presume that Indian cricketers performed badly in the World Cup because of distractions like ‘endorsements’, ‘fame’ and ‘money’ is to be unfair to them. We must understand that our cricketers also faced many adverse situations and had to perform despite them.— Richa Vij, New Delhi Letter of the Week AwardThe ‘newspaper-active reader relationship’ is of enormous significance for a serious publication. A good letter, especially a good letter that critiques us, is of immense value. It is to recognise this and to encourage quality reader intervention that The Indian Express is instituting the Letter of the Week Award. We now announce and publish every Saturday the reader intervention our editors deem the best. Selection will be from letters received that week. Letters should be e-mailed to letters.editpage@expressindia.com or sent to The Indian Express, 9&10, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi -110002. Letter writers will have to give their postal address with every contribution. The winner receives books worth Rs 1,000 and his letter gets pride of the place in these columns as well as on our website.
