Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!!!

Did you know that India is the only country in which all three: lions, tigers, and bears, are indigenous? I bet you didn't. Though you may be able to track down the animal here in India, you will have a considerably harder time finding anything related to any American sports teams that share their names. No Detroit Lions or Tigers, and very, very, very sadly, no Chicago Bears. There is absolutely no access to American sports, the only televised athletics is cricket, cricket, cricket, soccer, and very rarely golf or tennis, none of which are on my top 10 list of spectator sports. So naturally, this is the year that the Bears do what just a few years ago seemed impossible, win the division and end up in the Super Bowl. Boy, either we have crappy luck or it was us that was holding the Bears back for all of these years, not the offense.



I guess that it makes sense that American sports are not televised in India, after all, there are decency laws here for televised content, and with the chance of a brawl breaking out at an NBA game getting close to 100%, I guess better safe than sorry. We learned about these decency laws just a few days ago when our favorite channel, AXN, which broadcasts in English lots of great American shows like Fear Factor and Ripley's Believe it or Not (but also the Amazing Race), was banned for 2 months for broadcasting a show called "World's Sexiest Advertisements". Ummmmm, you would have thought that the title might have tipped off the network that it was a little too racy for a country that has broadcasting decency laws. The other English channel, Star World, is currently broadcasting The Sopranos, so it shouldn't be long before that channel is axed too. If you want to read all about what can and can't be broadcasted here in India, you can go to this link (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/917697.stm) and read all about India's Cable Network Act of 2000. It is quite interesting, even advertisements for baby milk, along with alcohol and tobacco, are banned. I never thought that baby milk would require the same regulation as alcohol and tobacco, I wonder if there is a minimum baby-milk-buying age.... Anyway, to assure that "public morality" is not adversely affected, we will have to go without the Amazing Race for a couple of months, I am not sure that I will be able to bear it. Which reminds me, GO BEARS!!!