Dear diary,

Got up in the morning again. I do, these days. Get up in the morning, that is. Gone are the times when I was the IPL boss and it was part of the brief to attend late-night parties and wake up late. Alas... (Note to self: have to practice getting up late again, now that the IPL season is back).

Also read this thing that’s all a rage in social, unsocial, economical and farcical media back in India: ab ki bar Modi sarkaar. That had to happen, of course. Despite all the critics saying critical things, I have never doubted it.

They had to call for Modi. And it had to happen this summer, especially after the last edition of the IPL turned out to be a bit of a fiasco under Rajiv Shukla’s watch. I have always wondered how Shukla could become the IPL chairman. Imagine the level of corruption under him. Imagine the paucity of administration and governance, the stunted – on fact negative – growth trajectory, the abject state of the economy, the fiscal misadministration. It’s a wonder how he runs his household kitchen successfully!

At best he was a fit candidate to be appointed the IPL couch potato. Ouch! Don’t tell it to Shukla, though; he might start a sting operation on me.

Anyway, where was I? No, not on the pitch, silly. I was barred from entering the ground after exiting it back when I exited it. Okay, I was talking about the high of reading that ‘abki baar’ line. Let me say it aloud once, ABKI BAAR, MODI SARKAAR!

As I keep telling myself, they better make the Modi sarkaar possible soon. What would it bring to the table? Good governance, for one. Fiscal stimulus, for another. Both are more game-changing issues than the UPA government’s change-of-gear Aadhar scheme or the IPL’s near gearless cheerleaders. Then there’s the management-related issues.

And what is the other possibility? Heh, the status quo, which, in other words, remains just that: status quo, which is to say the same-same feeling of blues you have had of late.

So, dear diary, I think the time for change has come. N Srinivasan and his cohorts in and out of courts should note on their BCCI-gifted notepads: the IPL is back, in the no-more-back-of-beyond Emirates, and so should I be. Back.

Now repeat after me, ab ki baar, BCCI mein Modi ki sarkaar.


Yours forever after,
Lalit Modi.