Sania Mirza is into the 2nd round of the Aussie open*
I think she is really cool. I have unfortunatel not seen her play in a long time, but I distinctly remember her forehand. It is quite brilliant. I really hope she does well and that her current rank (32) is not the highest she ever reaches.

However, even if she doesn't, she has definitely done what I had never expected to see. A woman Indian player thats worldclass - nothing against women, but a lot against India. Women and Sports are two areas that don't quite qualify as India's strengths. India has a fair number of things it should be ashamed of, and these are two of them.

We have clearly not improved much in sport in the last 20 years (thought a silver medal at the last Olympics is quite an improvement over the last many!), and India has not improved too much on the women front either. The male female ratio at IIT (undergrad category) was some 350 to 15 in 1995. Not sure if its improved too much since then. The director at IIMC had expressed disappoinment at our welcome meeting in the year 2000 on the same issue - a male female ratio of 210 to 30. But I sincerely doubt if anything has improved since then. Or if anything has been attempted to improve that at all.

If anything, I believe the BPO revolution and the western influence should help improve this in the next generation. Should I check for stats 5 years from now? Will the gender ratio in the country improve in this time? Will female foeticide reduce?

It is exasperating, but what does one do?

* Venus Williams is not
- posted by Rallix @ 2:05 PM