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I AM writing to express my extreme displeasure after noting that your esteemed weekly (Issue 40) did not even have space to include a caption on India's nail-biting Test Match win over Australia.

I get the feeling that, from deep within you and your weekly are Aussie sympathisers or avoid positive publicity for Indian sports, which was quite evident from your coverage in previous issues involving the Commonwealth Games 2010 - where-in you graciously decorated the sports pages with undesirable pictures and articles.

Come on, be a sport or risk losing some readership, particularly Indian patriots like me. You could come up with a healthy excuse in your next issue, but I for one will not be amused.

On a lighter note, Krazy Kevin will be missed but as you know, there's always someone waiting on the block. Jai Hind!

Pat DeCosta Indian from GOA.

Editor's note: Sorry Pat, the big match result missed our sports page deadline. However, most fair-minded readers of any nationality would consider the build up to the Commonwealth Games a shambles.

MORE than a year has passed since Bahrain schoolboy Adam was taken from his loving family by his Qatari relatives. Can we all try our utmost to BRING ADAM HOME please?

Karen Ackroyd,

By email.

FIRST and foremost, I would love to express my appreciation and applaud what Sangeetha Alagappan does with her YouthTalk articles each week. It is more than a pleasure reading such young writing that exudes such maturity.

However, I find myself in a position of disagreement regarding her column about high achievers and top tier universities 'choosing the best fruit from a cartoon of polished apples'.

I appreciate her worries regarding how our peers are being pressured to start preparing to present themselves as early as 8th grade and I understand that the toll of applying to top tier universities can be somewhat unhealthy. But, let's put this in perspective, we are not machines, I assure you that Sangeetha.

I used to be as frustrated as you are and always moaned about the way top universities look at unique students with their grades and their accolades, but is there really any other way to pick their top students?

If we do not prepare our students to become top SAT scorers, basketball captains and extra curricular gurus, then what good is it to simply expect them to get an entrance offer to an Ivy League academic programme?

Sure, I know this kid is brilliant in debate, and his opinions are so amazing regarding political science that it just astounds me sometimes, but this kid that I know of was never a great student, lousy examination taker and simply never stood out as a potential candidate to sit in a undergraduate programme.

So according to you, Sangeetha, you expect a university such as Harvard or Yale to simply accept him 'holistically' because he is great as a human being and not as a student?

After spending almost a year and a half at Northwestern University in Qatar, I appreciated the fact that I pushed myself to an almost 2000 SAT score, to a 3.9 GPA and a resume that included extra-curricular activities (including winning a competition for fastest pie eating, yes!) because I feel like I probably would have wasted my time in a tough and strategic programme such as the journalism programme I attend at NU-Q.

If I had simply settled for average, I would not have survived even one lecture here. I see your standpoint and frustration, but your words towards the young readers are simply misleading at best.

Life often throws hard balls at you, and it's up to you how you step up to the plate.

If you're not up to a top tier university standard, simply don't apply. Yes, it sounds somewhat unfair, somewhat frustrating ... but it doesn't make it all wrong.

I appreciate Sangeetha's words about wanting more for the young readers, but my message is: if you really want it, fall in line.

Push yourself to excel in those standardised tests and participate in as many extra curricular activities as you can.

If you want that university acceptance letter, simply being yourself is not enough, because in life simply being one's self does not take you anywhere.

Thanks again, Sangeetha for your weekly words, and keep up the excellent work!

Ismaeel Naar,

Bahrain.