India sank at the Test level after their 4-0 drubbing by England, seen by followers as a result of India's ageing superstars, a shallow patch-up pool and India's addiction to the well loved One Dayers.

This was India's heaviest series defeat in twenty years, dethroning India from the top of the Test ranking and moving them down to number three behind England and South Africa.

The wonderboys, now mature men, who carried cricket to its pinnacle have mostly aged or retired leaving the restroom lockers bare of budding big time batters and bowlers.

Sadly like in most sports around the world 35 is the age when sportsmen have to back out and leave the pitches to the young ones, which India has a derth of.

Of course critics have slammed the BCCI and lament India's relegation to the catch-up classes. They accuse the BCCI of a lack of vision, lop sided scheduling and pray the rest of this year's matches will be rescued by the masterful magic of Dhoni, Ghambhir, Tendulkar and Kohli.

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The annual festival to celebrate Lord Krishna's birthday, Janmashtami, was celebrated in Mumbai with pots full of lucre, waiting to be won by the young men and women, Govindas, who form human pyramids to reach the Dahi Handi, a clay pot of curd hung high.

At main venues in Thane, Ghatkopar and Worli, prize money ranged from Rs.25 lakhs to Rs.1 crore.

The people pyramids are normally 7 to 9 layers high, but some contenders aimed to form a record ten layer pyramid.

Cultural shows are included in the festivities and feature folk dances, music, skits and one act plays.

Devotees gather the broken clay pot fragments that they believe keep away both mice and negative energies from their homes.

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Across India, Anna Hazare's supporters picketed the homes of surprised politicians, obeying Anna's call that they protest before their MPs to demand a stronger Lokpal.

PM Manmohan Singh was not left out. Some 40 people squatted near his Delhi residence, shouting slogans supporting their hero Anna. Congress MPs Pawan Kumar Bansal of Chandigarh and Manish Tiwari in Ludhiana were also unwitting hosts to protesting picketers. In Ghaziabad MP Rajnath Singh's residence was picketed, but Singh was not home.

In Mumbai over 50,000 people took part in a protest march. In Bangalore even American visitors marvelled at the peaceful protests, calling Anna Hazare 'simply fantastic'

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Arundhati Roy, the Booker prize-winning author wrote a piece in The Hindu newspaper entitled "I'd rather not be Anna", in which she launched a scathing attack on the aggressive nationalism behind the anti-corruption drive of the hunger-striking campaigner Anna Hazare.

Ms Roy condemned both the style and substance of Hazare's campaign questioning in particular, Hazare's use of the hunger strike and other tactics and symbols co-opted from his hero Mahatma Gandhi.

Roy admitted the government's bill was flawed and impossible to take seriously, but she ventured to state that Gandhi would have been dismayed by Hazare's vision of an all-powerful, centralised ombudsman, declaring it would result in two oligarchies instead of the one India already has.

Roy, a vocal government critic, was dismayed by the signal to the people of India that if they did not support Hazare's fast they are not 'true Indians.'

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Chennai the capital of Tamil Nadu, was formed as an early settlement of the British East India Company in the 17th century, when the then British administrator Francis Day struck a deal with local Nayak rulers for a sliver of land where the Fort St George stands today.

Chennai is now a vibrant metropolis with 4.6 million people.

To commemorate the birth of the city a week long programme is being organised by various public and private institutions along with NGOs, to extend the Madras Day celebrations that are a regular feature that began seven years ago.

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