”Pralayam”

We have read in the Hindu mythology about “Pralayam” , nature wipes out everything in its path of destruction. On Dec 26th 2004, Costal towns in southern India and South East Asia faced one such natural calamity. Towns were wiped out in matter of seconds. Just as world seemed forgetting 26th Dec 2003 where people of Iran suffered a massive earth quake calamity, we have another disaster to digest. The calamity this time is in my neck of the woods.

It was on Christmas night, when my dad called me to tell there was a minor earth quake in Chennai. I checked the websites on Earth Quakes status and saw a mighty red square near Indonesia. We assumed this to be an after effect. But today we are now trying to cop up with what happened then. Tsunami waves from the so called beautiful ocean has swallowed life forms in matter of minutes. Most did not know what hit them.

It is time for us to join hands and provide help in what ever way we can.
If you have not done it, do it now, please make contribution with your credit card to the Relief and Rehabilitation, please visit the following link. aidindia.org

Game Day

First One Day - India vs Bangladesh, Dec 23rd 2004

My Website, www.srikanthd.com

My website [srikanthd.com] is having technical problems. The website is being serviced and should be back on line in about a week time.

The Collection Continues...

Weekend TV

During the weekend, I got to watch the Sun TV morning edition News. Man! …the news reader has set a new standard in Tamil Pronunciation. His Pronunciation was totally rotten and obnoxious to the core. Adding to the fun he sits wearing western outfit. I really don’t know why Mr. Doctor is not worried about this language insult by Sun TV. Oh! I hear, he only admits and treats Cinema patients.

What are the criteria for getting the news reader job in Sun TV? Very simple, the news reader MUST FAIL TO pronounce certain set of words.
How long people are going to take it? Is the News producer of the morning edition Tamil deaf? How can he/she cope up with such a poor news reader who makes 200000 PMW [Pronunciation Mistakes per Word]?

Audience already tortured by biased news item line up, adding to the agony this guy sits there [in absolute western costume] and takes the language in own hands. Crushes, Grinds and squeezes it at regular intervals.
If you cannot read and pronounce Tamil properly why the hell go for the news reader job? He can try to be Tamil-VJ; or write a Blog!, he would be automatically pardoned for his language sins.

The only reason I see that he is still around in spite of his obnoxious language is someone with power in Sun Tv is pushing for him. ! Ridiculous! As Tamilians in order to keep the language beauty intact we tend to scold Udits and Sukiwinders for spoiling our language, clearly ignoring elements like these, are we hypocrites?

On Visu’s Aratai aranggam on Sunday, a 105 year old women was on stage. Amazing, this old women can talk 5 languages; she and her husband were freedom fighters under Mahatma Gandhi. When Mahatma Gandhi was shot, there were nine others who tried to protect him died along; one of them was her husband. She clearly recollected the incident and told the story in English. This lady has 3 kids who went missing during the partition. They are yet to come back, she is been living alone for past 60 years.

She was living in a very bad and poor condition. She told “I cannot beg” for money. It seems she asked the government for a job to make her living, but nothing came from the government. Past 60 years she has been living alone.
Visu’s Aratai Arangam Team has admitted this 105 year old women to the Old age home Vishsharanty” , she is been taken care by many there. She looked bright and clear for her ripe age of 105 years. She spoke in clear Tamil, Telugu, Hindi and English. I am wondering how many people similar to her are still around. It was very moving to watch this on TV. In the midst of entertainment Television, I never miss “aratai aranggam” Kudos to Visu for this meaningful show.

Person with an "EAR"

TGIF

Gambir and Dravid made merry. Dravid became the first player in test cricket history to score centuries in all the test cricket playing nation. Congratulations to him, nice to see him on Turbo mode after the lazy show down ride against the South Africans.

Gambir who missed his first century by just 4 runs against South Africa, scored the ton, which will pull the plug for Akash Chopra. But for Gambir, a good dose of confidence boost for this young opener. I heard that Sehwag spent his day weeping (ROFW) for missing an easy 400, wire news from WI reads Lara was relieved. He record is safe as of now.

At close Sachin and Dravid were placed well, I am sure Dravid will score a 200. Sachin might create records, another 120 for 10,000 and a century to overtake the current Indian Batting consultant’s record. That’s all about cricket.

Yesterday on “Apprentice” on NBC, a 37 year old army guy who runs a software firm got the job. “Apprentice” is a very interesting TV reality Show, where the winner needs real managerial and other corporate skills to become a Trumpet [Mr. Trump’s pet]. Mr. Donald Trump, a filthy rich corporate giant, offers a top position in his corporate empire to the winner of this TV reality show. This show is different from the most reality shows where a person is paid a million to eat worms or stand in a pile of Crap, all this money just to prove their tolerance level.

This is a real corporate white color reality show. I follow this when time permits, and yesterday’s finale Mr. K got the job, he deserved it.
There is a rumor that Indian version of this show will be on Air soon. I am thinking for a name! , “ThozilaLi” , or if SunTv does it, they might call it “Kazaga thondan?” …who cares. For past 2 weeks, believe it or not, I have been missing major portion of Sun TV. Good, if this trend continues I think I will quit this dreaded habit of watching SunTV to kill time.

TGI-Friday: Today is our office Xmas Party, I get to eat bread and lettuce leaves while everyone will be busy gobbling grilled steak and other goodies made from various animal parts. There is going to be a live Jazz show by a local Dc club band. So from 12.00 noon, it is a paid holiday celebration.
This weekend we have football for 2 days…6 games to watch, of that 2 will be on HD. Playoffs round the corner, this year the playoff line up is very interesting. A tough playoff season with lots of heart breaks is guaranteed. Have a good weekend!

Exotic Tax Free! Zones

News: The International Cricket Council is planning to move its head quaters, reason - Tax implications. The ICC has an income of around $200 million and, under English law that warrents to pay tax. The government said it would offer concessions in a bid to persuade the ICC to stay in London, however there was wide spread condemnation from various Cabinet ministers of the goverment. Hence Government withdrew the consessions.
ICC will move to a location where they need not pay TAX.

BACK!

I am back; it was really brutal, wicked, and cruel and mean for past weeks now, Yes! It is winter time, it is so cold even the Sun [the real one, not the Serial Killer TV] shows up late to work with a nice Armani Jacket. I remembered my back breaking school days where we were forced to carry excess baggage in the name of school books. I am about 30 pounds extra now with my winter fashion on me.

My strenuous work for past month finally took its toll on me. I had a visitor, some form of virus that gave me a viral flu. Went to the doctor but he gave me short and sweet prognosis – He told me there is no medicine yet to handle Virus. Best will be to rest for couple of days. Alright, the only rest request I obey is the musical Rest.
[Check here] No way I afford to be on the bed for a whole day, I kept my schedule going. I had to stick with the over the counter medicines that are close relatives of my economics professor, like him they also made me very sleepy and more dull all through the week [weak rather]

At a point of time, while Sachin whacked his highest, the virus was busy whacking me , it made 105, and stayed there glued [like Rahul Dravid] during the weekend. Finally yesterday had some energy to regain and come out of medication.

I have been out of sync with world news, the sad news was demise of Shri M.S.Subhalakshmi, been hearing the voice of late M.S.Subhalakshmi from the day I started to recognize music. Her soulful rendering “kurai ondrum illai” to Venkatesa suprapAtham keeps me going while dealing the pressure of life. Music lost one of its greatest daughters.

All Other news was just the same, The Hindu pontiff was still in prison; India trashed Bangladesh, and went to win the test match.
During my sick leave, I watched a movie called “Kamaraj”, I have heard lot from my teachers about him during my school days. Simply an Amazing leader, I still remember hearing his funeral procession via AIR [Madras -1] with my late grand mother. At that time we were in Laxmipuram [a hamlet near Chromepet Madras]. I was about 7 years old then, I remember seeing My grand mother in tears, I asked why? She simply told me he was a great leader. I really did not get the emotion at that time. However, later during my school days I read and learnt about his great man, he was the last genuine leader who followed Gandhism as his life principle.

Finally, believe it or not, I had to go on an official visit to NewYork during my sick leave, Manhattan during Christmas! Season, is something everyone needs to see in their life. I will write more about it in my next Blog.

Are we ready for some Whacking! or ....

Baby's Day Out, Part 2 [Amazing 120db Pitch Control]

Blurred Vision

India Win the Kolkata test and the series.

India clinched a home series after about 2 years, last time they did was in 2002. Harbajan bowled a tight line to finish with 7 wickets; this was enough to fetch him the man of the match award and a new color TV.


Kumble was on par with Kapil Dev on wickets haul. Nitini [caught Dravid] became his 434th wicket. He joins Kapil in being the highest wicket takers for India. As per record books, Kumble achieved the milestone in 90 Test matches, which is about 40 -41 test match lesser than Kapil Dev. Did Kapil really take longer time to get his 434, is it? Let us open this can of worms. Do the number of matches played significant here?, I would like to see number of overs bowled by each bowler.
Kapil Dev bowled about 4624 overs to get 434 wickets, on the other hand Kumble has bowled about [+/-] 5161 overs for his 434 , the bottom line , Kumble has bowled 450-500 overs more than Kapil Dev. Number of Matches does not matter here. To equal this record, Kumble had to bowl a lot than Kapil Dev.

But having reached this mark nothing should be taken away from Kumble, who in general is not a natural spinner or tuner of the ball. He had to work really hard to reach his land mark. Congratulations to him. Sehwag was given man of the series, he got a 42 inch wide screen plasma!...TV wow!. I wish I could get one soon to watch his next knock. This guy rocks!...in his speech also. Sehwag has become our house hold guy now.

Gangully was seen walking around with his (4 year old?) daughter; these guys get very little time to spend time with their family. It was nice to see him introduce his little kid to everyone around. Just like my daughter, she was very shy to the core and stuck tight on her dad’s shoulders. Ganguly promised to win the Bangladesh series. I really do not care about Bangladeshi series, however it can help many Indian batsmen to come back to form, this includes also the God.

Finally the long cricket series and subscription has ended, I hope I will to get to sleep my full quota till the Pakistan series in February. Or Dam who knows may be I sit with my crown [aka head phones] and call it proudly a recording session!

Game Day, Second Test

India vs South Africa

At close of play South Africans have about 66 runs lead with 5 wickets in hand. The day started of slowly and Indians increased their lead and was bowled out just before lunch.

South Africa started and Hall survived a very close LBW call from Zaheer Khan. Hall was playing an ugly cricket on one end. He had to dance around for about 60 balls for his 21, but his captain on the other end played some nice decent cricket, he kept the score board ticking.

Slowly the deficit was erased. Just before tea Harbajan started to take wickets, this was kind of the turning point. I think Anil Kumble played a vital role in this. He pinned the batsmen really well and next over Harbajan continued push the pins deeper, he got the break through,. From 77 for no loss, scored moved to 81 for 2 at tea; Kolkata crowd was going nuts.

Jacq Kallis was very lucky, he was clearly out to a close bat pad edge, and umpire missed it. How could he miss such an easy decision?, GOD only knows the answer. Slater commented India missed Gilly who would walk for this. Kalils who nose cries loud even for genuine decisions had no problem standing there gleaming at the disappointed Indians Eleven.

Gangully was totally annoyed, I am sure he will be fined for his gestures. Who cares! Hey it was clearly out, given the nature of Kallis batting strength, Gangully had every right to perform a “Kali” dance. Kallis was 52 [for 1] a close.
The disappointment faded away soon as wickets keep falling at regular intervals.
VVS took a great catch to get rid of Smith. Smith was caught at 2 slip, however ball almost traveled some where near gully. VVS made a quick diving effort to send the South African caption out. The reaction time was too small to print. Smith played very well for this 71; in my opinion, Smith was the only South African player in the touring party with some batting class.

The Next catch was also a beauty, or may be lucky also. A quick thick edge which clipped the pads of Keeper Dinesh Kartik went high in the air to “Point” region where Sehwag had enough time to gobble it.

In the morning TV show, both the camps was asked about the days play, south African coach told they would score about 150 runs lead by end of days play.

While on the Indian side, Sehwag was the spokesmen, he told it will be hard and dangerous to play Harbajan and Kumble. By the way, Sehwag now talks in fluent English, few years ago he would switch to Hindi, but this time he had no problem talking to Slater.

Over all South Africans are ahead by 66 runs and have 5 wickets, in hand, I am sure Kallis will come with a lorry load of Fevico and super glue. Indians needs to come out in a positive frame and wipe the tail out. India can score up to 200 on this track on the final day. A good 5th day's play is on cards.

Game Day, Second “patience” Test

India Vs South Africa,(Dravid) Kol(Ran)kota

Viru and Dravid walked out and as expected both of them started to score at a very quick rate, Sehwag launched Pollock to a huge six to start the proceedings. However was out caught to an unplayable ball from Nitini. The fast scoring dream ended for India.

Dravid took about 15 balls to score his first 18 runs, but his next 15 runs came in about 20, 000 balls. Dravid instead of scoring fast decided to honor his sponsor; Messer’s Fevicol & co. Sachin got inspired by Dravid baulked down totally.
The way Dravid batted was a totally dull and did not have the slightest idea to play faster game. His only game plan was to stay there watching the ball; He was more or less the 3rd umpire on the field.

Sachin went out after playing on to a reverse swinging ball. He seemed to be dead out of form. Like early in his career, He has to attack from the word go, Sachin along with Dravid put on an agonizing dawdling partnership worth 45 in about 18 overs. It was around 12.00 midnight here, my agony multiplied.

Kafthan Dada walked with a loud cheer from the crowd. Seeing Gangully, all the English speaking commentators started to abuse his short ball weakness. I don’t think any commentators would use such a poor beating up language on any other captain around the world. He is vulnerable to short ball so what, Ricky pointing is also shaky for the first half hour of this innings, and so is Smith or the so called world’s best caption Stephen Fleming. Why this shabby treatment to Gangully alone? This has to stop.

Pollock completed a unique record of bowling 1000 maiden overs, of course with Mr.Fevicol [aka Dravid] glued to both the ends, 1000 maidens seemed to be small number to me. South African bowlers contained India quite well; Gangully got a poor decision from the 33 year old Aussie umpire.

Finally, Similar to Sachin’s Dismissal, Dravid was finally bowled. The boring, Tedious, monotonous innings ended. It was so boring, even the umpires clapped for this wicket.

VVS got some runs but was out by playing his usual careless shot.
The young Tamil Nadu keeper Dinesh Kartik played very well for his runs, unlike Dravid Irfan and Kartik were pushing for singles. At close Indians were leading.
Tomorrow Pitch will start to spin,. India needs about 150 lead to spin them out. However South Africans are also whole sale world dealers for Fevicol. So I really cannot guess the outcome of the game.

Finally the Hot News from the Wire:
After watching the Dragging Dravid innings ICC, BCCI, LCCI, TCCI, WCCI, MCCI are considering a new law. Like 1 bouncer per over, Dravid would be allowed to block 50 balls per innings. Anything more, he will be fined $200 per block. This money will be shared by all the useless cricket maniacs watching this innings via Dish network.

Game Day, Second Test.

India vs South Africa ,Kolkotta

Game Day, Whew! The Boring First Test! is over.

India vs South Africa, Kanpur

Thanks god Test Cricket is for only 5 days and not more. The game ends in a draw, the customary joke of the match award was announced. Andrew Hall was man [turtle] of the match. By the way he was given a new “color” TV, thanks to the commentating guru and messiah of Indian cricket Mouse-Raker who proudly announced this gift.
Why awards and presentations for a no result game?, national waste.

If at all there was some action during this desiccated game of cricket, I could only quote two events and not more, 1st Sehwag’s powerful knock, he really played a ruthless game and hit South African bowlers to every corner of the ground. The 2nd one was the black kite that flew over the stadium at regular intervals, creating some flutter in the crowd, Other than these incidents it was mere dull lack luster game of Test cricket. Hopefully aiming for more TVs, South Africans should not continue their slow turtle swim in Kolkata.

We need to remember that 20% of the game was lost due to bad light. Knowing about the winter and fog why should we schedule a game in these parts of the country? or may be it is high time for the BCCI working or non–working committee to appoint a geography coach.

Shriman Gangu Dada was called upon and messiah of Indian cricket asked him about the home town game, poor Dadaji no knowing about this own fate of playing that game, played his formal recorded message and lip synced to it. The turtle awards ceremony thus came to an end.

Now Turtles are marching towards the town where almost everyone is either a communist or a cricket maniac. Either way, if Smith and Co plays the game in the same dull mode, they will be booed by 100,000+1 well brewed cricketing nuts watching it. At times the Kolkota crowd usses different methods to relieve their ennui,
So Smith and Co! please change your methods.

Finally, the fact is I am a well brewed cricketing nut case, but today I have to admit that I did not have the slightest inclination to watch this game. I feel South African cricket is one of the most boring show on earth, coupled with tailored slow Indian bowling, this test match took test cricket into a new level of boredom. But help is on the way, yes! just one more game the turtle race will be over.

PS :USA is closed for the long weekend, Thanks giving weekend. About 8 years ago my wife and I left our home land India; today many things have changed in our life. We are proud parents of a lovely little girl Sriya. We still remember the day we left Chennai; we landed on a cold winter night in Minneapolis where about 20 inches of snow was already on ground. we took life as it came to us. We are thankful to God, our India, our parents, our friends and well wishers, and finally this great country USA. Whew! I am Unable to believe that I am older by 8 years now!. Wish you all a happy thanks giving.

Game Day, First Test

India vs South Africa ,Kanpur

Late Movie Review - Concludes.

I did not have the time and patience to write about the next half of the movie yesterday. Train was too crowded, but today being the day to thank the Gods, train was empty and I managed to create my Blog doodles during my 1 hour MARC [Maximum Agony for Rail Commuters] train journey. Here we go again.
For continuity sake [like Tamil serials] I have 2 lines from earlier part: So! Nazer goes to jail.

But Nazer’s party wins the election!, however Nazer is put in Jail. Ada Rama who will then be the Chief Minister? Fear not there is a formulae from Bihar.
Nazer distributes the “LoLlu” prasadam to his newly elected MLAs, decides to make his wife [Urvasi] as the chief minister. The home Chef ministry takes over the state ministry. -- Chef and Chief - The letter “i” is Nazer, who runs the show.

Urvasi , very innocent Tamil village girl with strong Malayalam accent goes to the governor to submit the letters from other MLAs and he appoints her to head the great Tamil Nadu. How Nazer was able to do all this from a jail? No big deal, a stereotyped bad jailer helps him and kills people at his will.

Nazer gets the Power! , it is Revenge time now Captain is framed for match fixing , he is arrested and put in the jail, his family is also taken for a ride.

Just to counter Nazer the movies now takes a 360 turn. Captain gets very very angry [Finally] and resigns his job [Duh]. The innocent marionette Urvasi goes to the governor and submits resignation for a lame reason [Even “Chinna Tambi” would give a better reason]

In the next 2000 feet [of film] he starts to contradict all the 5 points that he prescribed in reel number one. Election again in Tamil Nadu, but Captain an responsible IAS officer asks people to boycott the election! In about 2 hours we have 2 elections already I could not take it anymore. By now the motivation to watch the movie further had evaporated. I thought it is time to close the DVD else my DVD player, a gadget that can be termed as “entha kuppaiyum thAngum idhayam” was ready to burst into flames. To cool down my agitated DVD player,the stop button came handy.

As far as Tamil movie producers are concerned I really do not know how they would invest in such “craptacular” ideas. For the script they had, they could have done the entire movie using Microsoft Power Point slides still nothing much would change.

Late Movie Review

Thenavan , Yes! Yesterday I saw this “craptacular” movie staring the revolutionary Artist and a bumble bee cartoon as his co-star. The movie starts as usual with sounds going around all the 6.1 DTS channels, music and noise courtesy Yuvan Shanker Raja,like the talented Ajith Agarkar [wink wink] he gets another chance to prove his skill. Seeing the movie slogan, I tried one too, “Only if the pot [sati] has some food it can come to the XXL size spoon [karandi]”, the movie slogan was, “Man who tried to change the history” I really do not know what the heck they meant.

Anyways, Captain Kanth is introduced as a sincere IAS officer who cannot stand, sit or roll over corruption. The Prime Minster selects him for the post the chief election commissioner. , Captain accepts the job and creates a flutter in the media. He gives a 5 point program which will change the democratic process of the country. First 5 minutes of the movie was interesting as all of us including the media were waiting for the 5 point program, with loud drum grooves and slow motion shots, Captain lists them one after another.

1. a person cannot file nomination more than 1 constituency , the press rightly says it is anti democratic for such a notion, however Captain loudly say “No to it”

2. Every one has to vote else their ration card will be seized, power supply will be denied etc.

3. Some more things.

4. A Candidate should not have criminal background.

5. Recall power to the people,

Oh!, I assumed that this will go well, thinking that he will implement all this rules, but the Nazer the chief minister of Tamil nadu goes to Delhi and makes sure this law is never passed.

After struggling with 40 pages of fire filled Dialogues in the earlier scene, the so called Prime Minister nullifies Captains claims and gives him some more advice to keep cool. Ada cha I felt like entire 10,000 wala going for an all round”Busssssssssssssss”.

For a change a technical marvel in this movie, Captain’s co-star heroine is a cartoon, dressed with rich Indian attire; it comes and goes at regular intervals to sing rhymes composed by YSR.

I never bothered to check the songs out. However I spotted ready made Triton, Yamaha Arpeggios, beat patterns, but decided to close all my openings, why should the world know it, if I say it loud and clear I was afraid that my friends would not hesitate to brand me as “film show” expert. So I decided to skip the songs, also Kiran’s [Cartoon’s name it seems] dance gave an automatic XX rating to the movie. I prefer a XXX.

Ok, now the movie changes course, Captain after taunting about changes in the election process ends up with nothing, just burns couple of flower pots [bussvAnam]. Nazer takes over. He screams at the poll predictions, in the pre election polls he was doing worse than the Washington Red Skins. Only way to boost his ratings is to appear on the Sun TV or to get sympathy vote. He chooses the later to avoid “musudu kanna musudu. He takes a drastic step to blow up his own meeting, he does with a help of his party guy who happens to be a musalman. But!...Captain and his team were lurking around with single video camera, with the help of the 3rd umpire and some great replay angles better than Fox NFL Sunday , Captain finds the plot, stops the election counting at once.

Nazer goes to the Court; at this point I also felt that I should do the same. I wanted to take the producer to the court for making me watch this tantalizing crap in 16:4 enhanced DVD. , [before someone passes a nAtAmai decision to proclaim that words such as tantalizing, producer, me, passes , enhanced were added for “Petering”, let me confess they were added not to enhance the so called Petering effect, I just learnt to spell these words, that is the only reason I added them here.]

Captain in the court proves his point by asking the Muslim brother to take an oath on his holy book, he refuses. As per law of the country, he could have denied it and told he is being coerced on religious sentiments, but this is a Tamil movie, with a 1 page screen play[Those 5 points], they have also purchased blank films rolls for 200,000 feet, see! it cannot go waste, So! Nazer goes to jail.

[Interval…, to be continued]

Ridiculous

The major news of the weekend was the arrest of Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi, though I find it to be totally ridiculous I don’t like to comment much about it. Religion is something personal, I will keep to myself. Law will take its course; If found guilty he should be punished; Period. For the best I prefer CBI to take this case instead of local police.

However I was totally annoyed by Sun TV coverage of the incident. The police and law enforcement were trashed by the same TV during the “KolRan KolRan” stage drama but now they blow a different tune to put the law enforcement on a pedestal and pat them with kudos. Agreed someone guilty needs to be punished, I have no second thoughts in this regards, but Sun TV rather than calling him an accused simply branded him as a criminal right away. Come on! This is a highly sentimental and mind boggling issue to the Hindus around the world. Please respect those sentiments. There is no soul question these atrocities done by the Sun TV crew. This clearly shows the sneakiness, slyness of Sun TV and its owners. I simply stopped watching Sun TV news for good.

Gangully punished again by the match referee for slow over rate. Ridiculous!
It is high time for the ICC to get something like a SHOT CLOCK in NBA or NFL, 40 seconds per ball. If not it becomes a no ball, THE penalty is the batsmen gets to know about the no ball before it is being bowled. Why penalize the captain for everything. Mr. Clive Lloyd failed to consider the due factor, injury factor and other local conditions. Anyways we are Indians, even though we generate 60% of the revenue for this game we will be insulted and we have the right to remain silent.
Thanks to Jagmohan Dalmia and Co.

Alright another work week begins!

Happy Deepavali

Please check a nice article by Arun in his Blog. Yes! Deepavali is one such great festival every NRI misses. I have been missing it for about 9 years now; I made this poor choice to miss such a great festival. Adding to the it, for the past 9 years I was forced to go to work, but this time I have decided stay at home and celebrate Deepavali , except for the fireworks I think the look and feel of the festival is same here. Any special reasons, yes read futher.

RMKV Chennai to Inkberry Circle, Every one who watches Sun TV would know Cinderella “pattup-pavAdai”. My Daughter [going to pre-school] watches this advertisement at least once a day, like every other girl of her age naturally inclined to colorful Indian outfits at once wanted this lovely “pattup-pavAdai”, Added to the effect, The TV advertisement shows her favorite color, Purple, hence no appeal, she wanted it right away [So you see now why I hate Sun TV ads?] She asked me if could get this, however knowing it is hard to get it here, I said let me think about this and closed the issue.

She soon realized sitting here in DC her dad or mom would not get it done, hence Plan B, she called her grand parents in Chennai, and clearly gave her requirements with flow charts and a relational data model. The grand parents waiting for such an occasion to pamper their grand daughter, went to RMKV at once and ordered the mind blowing Cinderella “pattup-pavAdai Surprise!, they were put on a 21 day waiting list. They waited for a week, unable to withstand the pressure from DC, my father-in-law had to use his influence to get it done, it worked and we got it via DHL, when it comes to festival apparels Chennai Rocks!, and when it comes to pampering kids our parents rock, and when it comes to pestering parents , our kids rock!. Thanks to my In-laws for taking time to send this across.

Being in a new house this year, we went ahead and got us some new cloths, other than the fireworks this Deepavali we have everything covered,
1: New cloths
2. Goodies to munch: Jayashree has done tons of goodies to eat, that includes “Kaju Cake”, ThenKuzal and many more surprises.
3. Sun TV and KTV will be pampering us with special programs and loads of advertisements, think like this, Sun Tv is like a mother in law whom you cannot miss while KTV is her Twin Sister that we need to take care of, We get to deal with double power. Tons of cine and music based programs are in cards.
4. Though I am taking off, most Offices in DC are closed for Veterans Day. Good Deal.

There is one more special for Deepavali from Dhool.com . Raja Govindarajan and Balaji good friends of mine, have interviewed the legend SPB for this occasion, Balaji has already published transcript of the interview in Dhool.com. They will be getting out the Audio version of this interview. I had the great pleasure of recording and editing this interview in my studio; so take some time to check it out. For a change I will not be releasing a new song, been tied to my office for quite some time now.



Wish you all a very happy, colourful and safe Deepavali

Introducing dheivamE dheivamE © 2004, Designer collections for Deepavali.

“dheivamE dheivamE” Sloga(m)n Copy Rights owned by BB, designer collection copy Rights Owned by PP.

WOW MY TOP 10

[1] 1 Ton of Chick Shampoo
[2] 200 Lux soap
[3] 314 Harpic cleaning liquid.
[4] 420 one liter Pepsi bottle
[5] Bislery Water bottle supply for life.
[6] Life time supply of Saravana Sweets.
[7] 700 packets Cycle brand Agarbathi
[8] 10 VCDs - unreleased films of SarathKumar
[9] Latest Hyundai Car with 1 year free supply of petrol
[10] Finally, 1 year free subscription to Vikatan, Kumudham and Kalki.

Ps: Above is the list of free gifts that you will get, when you buy the current issue of Kungumam.

Ponting spills the Whine.

Ricky Ponting wants an enquiry on the Mumbai Pitch. He has called for Rahul Dravid to join him in his quest. Ridiculous!

Rewind a little, India in New Zealand 2002-2003, Indians faced similar situation. Every pitch in New Zealand were worse than the Bombay wicket. Gangully complained, for which the Aussie and the New Zealand press, mocked him for making comments on the pitch. They abused India to be Land of Local Heroes. Clever statements like “a good team has to play under any condition” were offered. Black Caps were given golden crowns. While Men in Blue were given needle and thorns, they were ridiculed for their poor show.

Today, Ricky Ponting and his men failed badly with their bat and they want to file an FIR on this pitch. At least in Gangully’s case, every pitch they played had uneven bounce and was totally unpredictable.

But today Ponting whines and where is the so called Aussie press? people, what shall we call this whining? Murali Karthick rightly put it, there is nothing called perfect test match wicket.

Unexpected rains on the first day, pitch started to favor more for the bowlers, both the teams played under the same condition. I think Ponting is going over board with his comments.

Another point to note here is Aussies batsman played reckless strokes to get out. For example Clarke and Gill Christ were out to a poor shot selection. The aggressive game plan of Aussies failed to work; I would try to learn from this rather than blaming the pitch. Playing in these kinds of pitch is also a feather in the cap. Indians played well; Sachin and VVS took away the game from Aussies. After all Aussies had to score 104 runs to win, they crumbled badly.

Mr.Ponting keep moving and stop whining. As far as Mumbai test is concerned, YOU LOST IT MATE, accept it.

Game Day, Final Test, 3rd Day,

Indians versus the Aussies, Mumbai, Nov 3rd 2004.
Sweet Revenge, Redeems the pride.

Remarkable victory! for the Indians

India started to bat and lost 2 quick wickets, 15/2 Sachin and the promoted VVS were cautiously dealing the Aussie pace men. Even though it was early in the innings, I was able to see a Sachin whom I have been missing for some time. I was able to see the peculiar body language and the temperament, his usual idiosyncrasies drove my sleep away,while it served as nightmares to the Aussies.Sachin started to play well, really well. This was a track where batting was kind of totally tough, and at 15/2 the pressure was really enormous.

Offense is best form of Defense, Sachin took the fight in his home ground, on the other end VVS though was shaky at first, soon came into his groove, his natural foot work started to appear, this does not happen so easily for an out of form batsmen.

Gillespie was whacked by Sachin, over yielded 14 runs, 3 comfortable typical scoring shot from Sachin. Seeing Sachin VVS start to chip in scoring strokes, soon the run rate increased drastically in just about 5 overs. Then came the “spinner”, 2nd ball , Sachin hit him 40 rows deep inside the stand over mid on, this was followed by another shot in the same area for a four, Mumbai crowed chanted “Sachin” and were screaming full throat to support their home town boy who was busy whacking the Aussies.

Soon the deficit was repaid, Innings defeat was avoided, Sachin and VVs have saved India but more to be done. Indians for the first time in the match started to count the lead that too with a big smile.

At this point of time, my brain started to think about the Blog, what should I say to those Sachin haters, I came up with this.


Now shut the #@$@# up.I am sponsoring one year free supply.

Sachin reached his 50 in 64 balls, Six mid blowing fours and a massive six. On a pitch which was totally on the bowler’s side, Sachin’s strike rate was simply remarkable. I was able to face read the Aussies, they started to feel really uncomfortable on seeing Sachin’s batting form. So did Sachin haters, yes!, the same ridiculous bunch.

While I thought everything was going well, Sachin took another risk and played a risky sweep shot, paid for it he was out caught, an excellent running catch by Clarke. Entire Mumbai was silenced.

Dravid walked in and VVS took over where Sachin left, VVS made very important runs for India. But the real surprise was Michel Clarke’s left arm spin, he wiped out the Indians quickly. He bowled well and opened the match for the Aussies.

105 odd to win, openers walked in, Zaheer khan broke at once, second ball Langer was out for a well cooked Mumbai Duck, was caught by Dinesh Kartik. Soon spinners started to take wickets at regular intervals, Murali Karthick was outstanding, so was Harbajan. Man of the match Murali Karthik bowled a clear line and adopted the same game plan used by Michel Clarke.

The Aussies one after another were sent to doldrums. They had no clue on spin. The important wicket was Gill Christ, Sachin took a nice catch, and after he took the catch I was surprised to see him so much animated pumping his fist etc.

Another major contributor this victory was Dinesh Karthik, he was brilliant keeping wickets against the spinners, he was 20,000 times better than that of Parthiv Patel.

Dravid’s captaincy was remarkable, good tight field placement and perfect bowling changes, he was very emotional and animated in the interview after the victory, and I felt his emotions were 100% genuine and valid to what they have been through.
Though Aussies won the Border Gavasker trophy, India finished the series on a very good note; they can now carry this memory to the test series against South Africa.
While the Aussies shall remember this bitter loss for days to come, if not we will keep reminding them, People remember Aussies have been bowled out for something less than 100,atleast twice now and both the times it was by the Indians. Wow!

I was totally happy to see Team India beat the Aussies; I have been following this series live missing sleep for so many days now, just an adherent fan of this game and this team. I have been mocked and teased by my friends for wasting money on this game, I think they have missed a great game, I simply did not. I have watched the tied test in Chepauk Chennai, it is still green in my head, [I also have the ticket with me], Like the tied test, the final Mumbai test was also one such game to remember. I think this final test made my cricket craze worth something, I would bore the world talking about this for days to come.

[more Gloating to come...]

Game Day, Final Test, 2nd Day,

Indians versus the Aussies, Mumbai, Nov 3rd 2004.

Indian batting collapsed once again!, Sachin, Laxman and the top order failed. While Dravid played the role of Chopra, he stayed on the pitch without worrying about getting runs. When the pitch is helping the bowlers, the best plan would be to go and strike ball, put some runs as quick as possible, sooner or later bowler or the pitch will get you.

When the bowlers are in control - Offense is the best form of Defense . This is a basic thumb rule, however who cares. The only Indian batsmen who would take this approach was benched for injury, “Captain Gangully”, Indian team missed him; Like Hayden, he would have slogged 30-50 more runs which would have made some difference.

Dravid continued his sloth bear approach, while others never seemed to have any kind of approach. They gave it up without even trying. Indians made 104, 4th lowest against Australia; last time we scored this low was sometime around 1947, that too in Australia.

Indians had 3 spinners; Dravid made a mighty mistake to open with Harbajan, bowling spin with a new ball is kind of very hard. He should have given the ball to Sachin to swing few overs, so that the shine goes away from the new ball, but Harbajan opened, struggled to get good grip on the ball, did nothing. Batsmen seemed to settle comfortably.

Zaheer Khan was bowling really well, he got the much needed first break thru, but in general our great fielders dropped catches for Demean Martin [Gautham Gambheer dropped Martin (on 11) in Sillypoint, a sitter actually] and our favorite Pakistani umpire let go a definition LBW for Martin. He went on to score a 50, Harbajan tried his best, was totally unlucky. Ponting never scores in India, this continued. He was upset for the LBW decision and showed a decent, however match referee promptly missed it and was seen in the kitchen picking up lunch left overs.

Kumble, yes he got five wickets but donated about 90 runs on a turning track where even a rookie spinner bowled well for the Aussies. Kumble bowled really short and gave lots of runs. Everyone hit him to every part of the ground. He saved his position by picking wickets, thanks to the pressure from the other end applied by Harbajan or Murali Karthick.

Murali Karthick bowled really well; he trapped Gill Christ as soon he came to bowl. I felt Dravid waited too long to get Murali Karthick, by then Gill Christ had scored a lot, Kumble was his primary raw material supplier – He supplied unlimited number of Donkey Drops at record time.

Indians had a luckless clueless day, Sehwag kept dropping and mis-fielding, while Chopra’s service was missed in the close in field. Kaif then took over and this came under control. Sachin was sent to some corner in the deep, at his request or his captains I really don’t want to speculate, I just feel Sachin should be involved more in the close in field activities.

The best find for the Indians - Dinesh Karthick; he rose to the occasion and did a great job behind the wickets. Ball was turning and skidding; he followed and gathered the ball very well. He got his first stumping in this process. The Patel chapter is over for now. We are saved until Mr. Clean More misuses his influence.

At close India started to bat, Aussies were 100 runs ahead, if the Indians lose their way as usual, who knows match might end by tomorrow evening. India needs about 200 runs lead to smell victory, considering the way they play these days this seems to be a remote possibility, mostly it would be an Aussie Wash. 3-0

Congratulations Senator Kerry. You are a gentleman.

Senator Kerry gave his speech about ½ hour ago; I was watching it on MSNBC, thanks to a late lunch break. It was very nice speech that respects his opponents and of all, he respected the country he lives in and its people and their values.

Just for a second I recollected how we are treated by our beloved party after an election loss in Tamil Nadu, most of us have free titles like “Goat pack” [Atu manthai] to what not.

Here the scene was totally different, it was saner and cultured. Here is a guy who spent about 200 millions on the campaign, losses a close election but he kept his cool and respected everyone in his speech. He gave President Bush the due respect.

Congratulations Senator Kerry. You are a gentleman.

The main task for Democrats now is to give a clear vision of their principles and values [if any]. I feel it is not reaching the common man properly, if you see except the east and west coast, rest of the country comes under GOP!.
And President Bush is ready for his second term!, Stocks markets in India did well after this news.

Game Day, Final Test, 1st day

Indians versus the Aussies, Mumbai, Nov 3rd 2004.

Off season Rain delayed the game start, finally India started to bat, Mumbai crowd were patiently watching the game with umbrellas [Kodai] while Indians provided the Aussies with 2 big “nanggodai”, India lost 2 quick wickets as usual we were are 22/2, Sehwag was dropped earlier but made sure he got out quickly, while new debutant Gautam Gambeer was out LBW, Indian openers were once again too cautious , “I see Gavasker people” .

Sachin and Dravid were batting really dull. Sachin survived a close LBW call, Bad light made umpire miss the decision. Soon, Umpires offered bad light to the batsmen and saved time for people to leave the ground before the Mumbai office crowd.
Indian team has 3 spinners and a pace bowler, which means Sachin, will be opening the bowling for India. Shane Warne broke his finger; hence Nagpur test would be last test in India. He would be 39 by next tour, retirement age for modern day cricketer except Anil Kumble who will be coming back and back and back until his teeth fall down naturally. That’s it for cricket

I was watching the election mela on CNN and Fox. All the exit polls and prediction including mine went wrong. President Bush wins the popular vote and he is all set for a come back, he will be declared re-elected very soon.

Michel Moore, his fans and other special interest groups should understand that 60% of US population simply don’t trust the media for their decision. For Democrats, it is time to think over their loss, find some logical reasons and soul searching for their failure.

Though too early now, I am more worried about the next election; there is no Republican today as popular as President G.W. Bush. Who will succeed him? this will be the major issue for Republicans in days to come; Assuming Vice president Cheney might, there are republicans who will not vote for him, so unpopular among many in the country, Republicans need to plan and build a good image of someone in their party before Hilary.R.Clinton takes over the next presidency, if she runs for the next election she will win.

finally,
Unless some drastic change in numbers occurs in Ohio nothing would change.
“Oh (io) podu” for GW Bush - 4 more Years!...4 more Years!...

The Convenient Effigy

Being a trained piano person, I opted to go towards electronic keyboards. Keyboards and Synthesizers are real musical power houses for any modern musicians. Today even guitarists use the guitar synthesizer and powerful effect boards.

Keyboard artists have access to various kinds of tones and musical tools under their finger tips. Often the tools are so many in numbers choosing the right one is an art by itself.

The problem comes in assumption, most people assume conveniently that they would get the guitar tone by selecting a general midi patch on keyboard and simply start playing it, they also seem to assume this is what most keyboard players do for living; I pity such base less assumptions.

Let me tell you, using the keyboard and playing music is an art; it is as hard as learning the so called natural instruments.

For trained guitarists, there is no real learning curve if he just changes his guitar however for trained keyboard players a new learning curve starts every time he changes the keyboard. Today’s keyboards are much harder to tame. There are lots of techniques that need to be learned and adopted.
Secondly there are many bands out there today who blindly assume Midi means step recording and easy canned music, they also go to an extent of propagating that music done using midi is inferior. For them get it loud and clear --- “Ignorance is bliss!” Basically only people who don’t know midi and its usage will pass such lame comments.

Midi is a set of protocols that is used to exchange music date between compatible instruments. That’s all it is. Sequencer, a software that layers various sounds using this protocol. Sequencer is something like a word processor, a word processor arranges words and paragraphs, a sequencer arrangers musicals phrases. A story writer does not get a story by just opening ms-word; he needs to think and imagine his material.

Some ½ boiled laureates will say word has spell checker to help you, spell checker does not put the word your thoughts in place, it just checks for spelling. It is mere a tool to enhance your productivity. Like wise, the sounds does not come in and sit themselves on to a Sequencer, someone has to compose, arrange it and play it in first place. In order reproduce it.

I was once mocked by a person saying I play using midi, the only way to clear this I invited this person to see how I compose and work, after seeing it live in my studio he changed his opinion right away. The perspective in which keyboard artist sees music is much different from a regular instrument player, a guitar player job ends if he produces a guitar sound. However for a keyboard player he needs to make others believe the sounds are coming from a real instrument, not a keyboard. I take great pains to understand the nuances and body language of other instrumentalist, this includes bass, sax, trumpet etc.

Now, you may ask instead you can get them to play, true, if I have them at my disposal I would love to get them play [If needed] however it does not work that way, it is often very hard to find a “good” musician. When I can play like the real player why do I need one? Keyboards players can mimic other musician’s methods and get sounds that are indistinguishable from the original. Playing methods are the key. Like a poor guitar player, a bad keyboard player will also sound horrible. I am not saying a keyboard player is a god sent angle etc, most keyboard players whom I know are really talented and they match every other artist who plays the so called natural instruments. But they don't seem to be treated in par with other musicians.
A Keyboard player is often assumed to be Robot.

So next time if someone boasts that we don’t use midi or electronics etc and preaches them to be inferior form of music, please don’t buy their claim.

Fellow musicians just to establish something on your side, think twice before you treat keyboards and midi as convenient effigies for you to burn. Playing every musical instrument is a talent, respect it. Treat the keyboard and its artists with same respect you get, we are not free effigies to be burnt.Remember after all on the stage today every other instruments and vocals needs electronics support.

First things first

First things first, the New England Patriots were finally beaten. The Rookie quarter back Ben Roethlisberger [a name that invites typo] and the Pittsburgh Steelers ended the NFL-record 21-game winning streak of the New England Patriots with a 34-20 victory. I was one among very few who predicted this to happen. I also predicted Green Bay would beat the Red Skins. Yes! Green Bay won. Today I am rich by $45

I thought about continuing more on the finger pointing story, however, it is not worth it, let me keep it short, Contrary to what Dravid mentioned during the presentation, Selectors have picked 4 new players for the Mumbai test, which includes the wicket keeper - Dinesh Karthick, hopefully at least this time the Indian think tank will find the exit door for Patel. Let us wait and watch the improvement it is going to make. How many were included as camouflage to the people and the press? Time shall tell.

Agarkar, a player who has the worst performance records under any condition some how finds a place in this team. How and Why?, few speculate it on Sachin, yes Agarkar was recommended by Sachin, but it ends there, I say this because, for example Sachin was pushing for Munaf Patel , till date selectors have ignored him, so the problem is else where.

My point is it is high time to send Agarkar home, with a grade 12 pension. Indian team can live without his services and further his “deletion” will put an end to the mockery for other all-rounders, most Indian commentators blindly calls him a talented all rounder. In my opinion it is a [bad] joke. Indian team really misses Balaji and Irfan. These two will team up well with the new ball.

Mumbai Test starts on 3rd November, Election night here, so I may have to switch between the game and the Election mela on Cnn,CBS(C), State Board, Fox, Dox,Box,PBS, RSS,XML,MSNBC, CNBC, Dont-see-NBC etc, where you will be exposed to various activties like

a) Election predictions via real time Graphs, Analytical Geomentry lessons, rapid fire talk shows.

b) Interviews from every other T,D & H, just for the reason they could spell
Electoral College or Democrats or Republicans without a spell checker,

c) Every other possible way to capture the occasion learnt from Sun TV.

All the best for your eyes, ears and the poor Televeejon.

I would not be surprised if John Kerry sings "Firstu kanna first...!".

It is Finger pointing time.

I was reading various reports in the press for last 1 hour during lunch break.
I was trying to find the “bali kada”

“Who shall we blame for various cricketing fiasco of our home team?”

John Wright Factor: If a NFL or NBA team performs as badly as India, first axe that falls will be on the coach. It is clear here the Coach is not able to use or control his resources to get its full potential. When it comes to a star studded line up like India, Team chemistry is very vital. Coach has to have the control. L.A. Lakers in spite of having stars were nothing until Phil Jackson took the reign. Coach plays a critical role to combine the resources in a workable manner. I think it right time for John Wright to be fired and get a new coach, my choice is to try someone like Dean Jones for next 2 years.

However currently the BCCI is ferociously fighting in court to find who will be guarding the cricket coffers for next few years, a group that is not able not decide its own leader , how are they going to decide on a new coach. Even God might check few things before he knows about this.

Parthive patel, in a recent column in TOI says he saw video clipping of his wicket keeping in Pakistan and does not find any difference now, so can we conclude you sucked there and here? Or He is a totally confused adolescent not knowing his boss?
It seems Kiran More , the now promoted Sr. selector [who you might remember as the honest Raj who complained about a local cricketer who offered him bribe],has given free tips to Parthive Patel. More is his god father who fought with Kirmani to retain Patel and [chased poor Kiri out into the woods].

Poor Patel cannot say no to him. While the team coach Mr. Wright has given some instruction that is contradictory to Kiran More’s golden advice. So this poor kid lost his focus and did not know whom to follow, trying to please both, he screwed up in his job. Apart from this two, he is also supposed to take commands from the Commander-in-chief, aka, Captain. Poor Patel was misguided and lost his place in my golu eleven and will be losing his place in the real Indian team. There is something to be learned from this, Can Selectors advice the players? Where is line of command stop? There also rumors that he has eye sight problem etc. Patel has to forget International cricket for time being And try after 2 years, he still has time for a come back

Top order and Sachin’s Form, Tendulkar's poor batting form is a very good target for his skeptics, who ridiculously feel he is given too much attention while there are other cricketers with similar batting capacitiesm are ignored. For me this is ludicrous, Sachin is the mordern days cricketing legend , for this achievement alone he is beyond compare. Period. He has not played for about two months, and he has failed in both the innings. I feel he has to start scoring at least to shut the skeptics down, Sachin factor is very important to the Indian team. I feel without him around, Indian team performance will be much worse.

Apart from Sachin, Dravid’s form, I consider Dravid to be another best bat who needs to be present and play well for India to succeed. I feel it is time for both of them to pickup and get going

VVS, I don’t know why he is given so many chances?, the way he got out in both the innings he should be made to carry drinks without pay until next season.

[to be continued...]

Game Day, Third Test, The final nail

the Aussies trash the Indians at Nagpur

“They are all set to win the game by tomorrow evening”. This was my “great” prediction!, a prediction similar to “it is going to snow in Minneapolis this winter”, Australia wins a cricket series in India, last time they did this when I was one year old, or 2 years before Matt Hayden was born. The dreaming Indian team gave up the match without much fight. Aussies injected the lethal dose slowly and steadily and won the game with pride.

Coming to Indian reply for the 500+ runs, Sehwag played quite well but it was a patience game he lost. Kaif and Zaheer khan salvaged some pride, Poor Patel, apart from his poor keeping form; he suffered another bad decision from the Pakistani umpire.

The top (of the line) batsmen in our team, Dravid, VVS and Sachin did not do much. Sachin coming back from a long injury break, played a cut short in the air was caught; Dravid was bowled while VVS once again played a reckless hook shot and was caught in the deep. It looked as though they have given up the game without even trying. Chopra simply could not play.

Aussies declared just 15 minutes before lunch, timed it perfectly to bowl one over and humiliate the weak Indian batting. But on the counter the openers survived the first over, while the insulting remarks from commentary box went waste.

During Innings break, Sanjay Manju was all smiling and told 500+ is too high and there is no chance for India to score. True, however his sarcasm in general denoted more bad taste rather than practical commentary.

After the victory, Slater went over board and tainted this as well planned assault which started right from the first ball in Banglore, he mentioned Aussies dominated the Indian from the word go in this series, forgetting there was test played in Chennai, where the Indians had every possibility to win.
Current situation is such that we need to digest this and more in days to come from Aussies press box (and the free “Alley Sonata” [sandhula sindhu] from Barry Richards].

Indian public witnessed an emotionally affected captain, Gill Christ, he was almost crying during the interview with Dean Jones. I felt like watching the Grammy’s. I thank god, my producer…etc etc [and later get caught in DUI].
Dravid walked in to talk to the “Sarcastic” Sanjay, but cleverly dealt his questions. We were outplayed and we have no excuse to offer. Simple! When asked about change in team selection, Dravid told nothing big would change until the top order bats for its full potential. Two or three changes in the team will not bring any drastic climate changes. Sanjay then pulled a faster one, he asked about dumping of the captaincy on him at the last minute and enquired about Gangully’s return, for which Dravid replied “you need to check with the “Physio” quickly walked away.

Martin was given a 120cc bike, the man of the match award, where the back and front wheel will shared by the umpires, while Martin gets to take the rest to Australia with him.

In general Aussie press will boast about their team for everything, with a valid reason now, their heads would automatically increase by 20,000 tons. It took them about 35 years to win a rubber on the Indian soil. Yes, they have every right be happy and proud, and as an Indian cricket supporter, I have every right to be behind my team for keeping the Aussies in the control for last 35 years.


Finally, after my spirited “ifs or “buts” the point here is Aussies have beaten our Sahara, or BCCI or the Indian cricket team hands down, we sucked badly through out the game for which we don’t deserve to win, my hearty Congratulations to the Aussies.

Next test, Mumbai here we come.

“Golu mela”, 2004

Starting last year, my wife and my daughter started to celebrate “Golu”, a festival where they arrange various dolls for display and invite family and friends, present them with traditional “vethalai & paku” and small token item as gift.

If you ask me, this is one of the best festival in the Hindu religion, basically being in a far away land from home, we hardly get to meet people from our community, this festival paves the way, my wife had invited about 40+ at least, many were Moms of my daughter’s school buddies, many from our neighborhood . This also included Americans.
It was 9 days [actually evenings] of people, people and people, when I went home, there would be someone visiting.

Last year during this time, my dad was here in DC, he went around finding old cartoons and giant size suitcases, my red color computer books and built the steps. I never went near to help them also. It was nice and compact for our town home.

However this year, a new house, so my wife intended to build real steps, the commercial ones sold in New Jersey area ranged from $300-$400. Simply it was too costly. So I decided to build it on my own, when in comes to wood work, Homer Simpson works better than me. In a scale of 1 to 10, I rank -20 in wood work.


I had no clue, to my shock and surprise, wood work is not that hard, with my brother-in- law’s help we built this “golu” steps for something less than $100.
Home depot sells some thing called raises, which are sides for the steps Each costs about $15, get 2 of them, and create a triangle to hold them , get 2 long wood planks [16 feet each] $15 each, cut them into 4 feet , hey! It was ready in 2 hrs. The raises were in even number so we added a ground level step, which does not feature in the photo.


Ps: We had got a doll cricket set from Chennai, the wicketkeeper was Patel, and I dropped him. He does not deserve a place even in “golu”,

Game Day, Third Test, 3rd day

Indians and the Aussies, Nagpur

If there is a God that controls cricket, he or she was on the side of the Aussies. When it comes to LBW Indians have been victims of poor umpiring and Aussies has always been fortunate to get away with daring umpiring mistakes.

Indian pacers pinned the Australian top order to a run rate below 2.00, Zaheer Khan and Agarkar bowled their hearts out for the first hour of the innings. The last time Zaheer bowled like this was in New Zealand.

Katich took a light year or more to score his first run. However he was finally out for 99 for 2, he got lucky twice, Zaheer had him plumb in the front when he was in zero, By all means this Leg before appeal can be used as LBW specimen for umpire training purposes.

Oh! Poor Indians, kept cool, may be afraid of being fined by match referee Mr. Ranjan “Biased” Madmax.

Second time, Kumble suffered the umpiring stinker, Katich was again out plumb in the front, but the umpire standing just 22 yards away missed it. How can he miss it, was he dreaming about something? ,

In the recent ”thuglak tamil” magazine, in the parody filled Q&A section, there was a question on Sehwag’s stinker decision in the Banglore test, for which the editor had replied that people fail to see the conditions at which umpires work, people fail to appreciate them for right decisions.

This is the first time ever I don’t agree with Mr.Cho Ramaswamy here. Umpires are there to do a job, and they are being compensated well enough to do the job, every other rule protect umpires from the players over reaction, crowd noise etc are part of the job, be ready to take it, if you cannot, "CHANGE YOUR JOB". The Umpire stands 22 yards away from the stumps, if he cannot see it properly from 22 yards, Listen, they cannot see from anywhere. Ridiculous!

I am very surprised why our beloved Cho fails to see the pressure faced by the batsmen or the bowler. The entire outcome of the match is bound to change because of daring umpire errors. Katich went on to score 99, had he been out on zero, who knows the way pacers were bowling things might have gone India’s way.

Whew!, Let us get back, finally! After back breaking sessions, the Cricket gods showed mercy on the Indians and justice was served Katich was out LBW to Karthick for 99. Thanks to the umpire who saw it right this time at least. Dubious decisions turn round the entire out come of the match. This is a fact.

Kumble soon started bowling his usual donkey drops and Patel failed to gather those drops. This incompetence continued all through the day. Dravid kind of over used Sachin, at a point of time he should have got back the pacers after giving them the much needed (short) rest.

In the Morning session, worried about the dagger hanging over his head, Patel was out to Shane Warne. The “all rounder” who could never bats a.k.a Agarkar walked in to score 15 and was impatient to stay further. It was just time before the Indian tail was chopped and digested by the Aussies. As expected by every one who follows cricket, follow on was not enforced, Aussies decided to bat India out of the game.

On the innings break, Sanjay Moonraker, started his sarcasm, this time his hate was on Chorpa, he mentioned “the technically preferred” opener failed again to score. People Do you remember how Sanjay Manju batted?, I remember, he is of the same kind who could stay on the wicket, play perfect technical cricket for 365 days and still score something less than 20. It is high time to remind him about it.

B(op)arry Richards, a great cricketer no doubt, however he needs to remember that he is being paid by the Indians for his services, at times he goes over board on commentary by using the “Ian Chappell” methods. Using few speculated news from the media, he has no right to insult the Indian team or its captain. It is not appropriate to display his smartness in the commentary box, his job is to report about the live action, Period. He is welcome to create a Blog and compete with me. Go over board on Gangully for his off field behavior etc. at your own cost, who cares;

The lead at the close was above 400, I am sure India would lose this match. I have no hopes of any kind, yes!, we do have great batsmen with great potential and technique , but the Aussies are very much capable of putting pressure on Indian batting lineup, with some luck from the cricket gods and Mr. Umpires , they are all set to win the game by tomorrow evening.

Game Day, Third Test, 2nd day

Indians and the Aussies, Nagpur

“In a test Match, the 1st hour belongs to the bowler, if you survive it, the next 5 hrs is yours.”

The above are golden words from the legend Sunil Manohar Gavasker, heard by another great batsman Dean Jones, who happen to mention it 12.5 times during his commentary.

I heard [the first time and ignored the rest.] it yesterday The point is, it was a great piece of advice, being the batting consultant and for the money he is getting paid, Sunny Gavasker has to do something or other right! , and team India for its respect to sunny, tried to follow those golden words but failed right royally. Why? In the above golden words, you would see something big is missing, a four letter word. “R U N S”

Agreed, as per the doctrine, the primary goal is to see off the 1st hour without losing your wicket, then stay the next 5 hours, but during this stay, the dam batsmen have to score RUNS.

Sunny did not mention it anywhere, our guys followed it blindly and did not trouble themselves to score runs. A batting goal to stay there for long period of time without scoring runs. Indians started to dig a stinking pond around them and trapped themselves in at the end of the day. At close of play, India were 146 /5 in 77 overs, a Run rate of “1.90”, even Ravi “kata podum” Shastri would feel ashamed. He would definitely feel he would have done better with his bat.

Indians innings started with real power, 5 fours from Sehwag within 12 balls India was 20 for no loss. Aussies however removed Sehwag out, Adam Gill Christ took a great catch to see him off, [compare this with our Butter Boy “Patel” who dropped vital catches and let the Aussies loose to score above 300.]

Dravid walks in, have you ever been to a slow cycling race? I have not but yesterday iu saw one. Dravid and Chopra started a great slow cycling competition and did not trouble the bowlers and the scores. They started to play for a draw in the 1sr hour for the 2nd day of a test. They followed blindly the “Gavasker” doctrine. Chopra never pushed for runs. However major contributor in this sloth bear innings was the acting captain Rahul Dravid. This time, the wall was really a stationary dry wall.

Dravid made 21 in about 140 balls, [about 24 overs.] Even 2 runs per over would have got him a half century, but a sloth is a sloth. Dravid and Chopra started to dig this dirty deep stinking pond, Chopra’s [and our] agony ended, he was out finally.

Sachin walks in, and has no other choice other than to continue digging the pond further deep. Finally was given a LBW, every other batsman in the world would have got the benefit of the doubt. But he was out. Dean Jones was screaming that it was poor decision, while Sanjay Manju started to swear it was a Fair “Dejition” , people!, it is high time to give Dean Jones the Indian citizenship card [that is to be forfeited from Sanjay Manju in a day or two]

Laxman walked in with his bow and arrow, did nothing, and was out as expected. Kaif and Dravid tried something very hard, over all it was uninteresting and lack luster cricket, imagine watching this dry wall at 3.00am, I gave up and dozed off for some time. But woke up to see Dravid was out, that too after wasting ½ one day international.

That’s it, Patel and Kaif started to play, sleeping seemed a better choice. Hope they set things right to save some pride. Even if Patel scores, he is all set to be dropped for the Bombay test.

Here is the comment of the day.

Deano: It is time for Gangully to try our every other player in the team for toss, find the lucky one and send him for toss every time. He has lost 6 times now.

Barry Richards: good idea, but make it everyone except Patel, because he would not be able to hold or catch the coin.

Let us keeping hoping India would improve.

Game Day, Third Test,

Indians and the Aussies, Nagpur

I reported in my Blog that Gangully was walking gingerly during 1st test, he some how recouped and played in Chennai test, however here in Nagpur, he failed the fitness and was left out. Few web reports have started to speculate this as he dropped himself out because of too much grass is on the field and similar yada yadas are starting to appear. Come on! Please give us a break, Gangully is known for his spirit, he will never buckle for this small grass issue. Also, his position is in real jeopardy, do you think he will let Dravid take over. Don’t speculate for the heck of it and portray Gangully as a coward.

Good news for many, Sachin is back in action, he seemed fully fit and energetic and was seen running around the field, totally involved in the game. Aussie star batsmen Deano Jones in the commentary mentioned that ticket sales have doubled and was sold out after Sachin’s selection, for which Sanjay Manjrekar , the EX-Indian-cymbal [Jalra] for Sachin said most seats are empty and speculated that to be fallacy , then Deano replied it is an mid working day, people would show up soon. I really wonder why Sanjay Manju hates Sachin so much in general.

Alright, Let us get to the cricket. At close Aussies were 362/7, the day was filled with good batting by Damien Martin scored 104, while LehMann supported him.

The highlight of the day was Wicket keeping, if you had draw an imaginary goal post behind Patel, goals score today by the bowler would be 10000 at least. Patel never seemed to gather the ball comfortably; at times he was looking the batsmen while clearly missing the line of the ball. His legs never moved, at one point bowlers decided to directly bowl into his gloves, anything 1 feet away from him was let go for byes.

For once he did a clever stumping to take out Shane Warne it was quick, however he missed many , that includes a vital stumping and a catch for Clarke. People, it is high time to drop him from the team. BCCI is only organization in the world which has incompetence as part of their job description.

Available post:Wicket Keeper,
Join date: At once,
Pay: a Lot .
Job description: Wicketkeeper
Responsibility: None.

The “must” list:
Carry Helmet for Short legs and Forward short leg, Need to appeal in Excess, Give one line encouragement words in various languages, show a baby face and talk to the batsmen. Help and support board member from time to time.
These are the tasks which employees are expected to perform to the full satisfaction of their superiors. Failing to do this will affect your job and will be fired.

The optional Tasks: Occasionally from time to time, Employee might try to Collect balls, stop byes, execute stumping, and take Catches. However, these are * NOT * enforced task. Failing to do these tasks will not actually “NEVER“ affect your job or position and will not be considered for your performance appraisal, Board has the right to reject and select and fire you regardless of anything.


The “Ag[ony]arkar” Factor: He sucked in the past, sucking right royally now and will suck forever, from yesterday, people, I have started to think Indian team has only 1o players. I wish my career as forgiving as Agarkars. Wow!. one more great example of incompetence being part of the job description.

Anil Kumble was back to his original form. If you know what I mean, Indians miss Irfan and Balaji. Few Good men today: Kartick for this bowling and Dravid for his prudent captaincy.

Tommorrow! India would bat; let us hope for the best.

Ps: For more on batting and score, you can read some web pages that cover sessions.

The Sun TV twinge

Any Hindu religious occasion, Sun tries to air so called special programs with 2 movies of which one is a popular movie and a first timer on Tv, in grand old Indian television history. At this rate soon “Amavasai” and “ekadasais” will be capitalized by them soon. However beware their parent group will be trashing people belief.

While watching Sun TV, I realized 70% of the time we are forced to watch commercials that serves us no good. Why should I worry about a store inauguration some where in the remote corner of Tamil Nadu? I really wonder if people in other parts of Tamil Nadu would worry about this store, I am sitting on the other side of the world, why should I care? Ridiculous, it becomes worse when this commercial is shown mercilessly for about 200000 times a day; agony is I pay $15 to get this BS directly via satellite.

People listen, if this continues soon we would all go to Wal-Mart and look for Cinderella patu “pavAdai” or Arasan washing soap. And Wal-Mart for its part would start importing “Arsan” soap and CNN’s Lou Dobbs will scream at Indian soap industry. He will claim Americans are now moving offshore [to India] for their laundry.

The “PKP” epidemic
“PKP” = Pudhusu kanna Pudhusu, now has changed to “F…K…F” , don’t mistake me for the F, though it does create such words in my mind, the “FKF” here is FIRST KANNA FIRST, it seems “kungu” has grossed a million in circulation. , yes! it can happen why not, when my counter below can reach 2 million without much advertisement they can do it no doubt, how did I do ?, I simply started from 9,99,999, I reach the target at once.. People, if you are looking for my counter, it is there, but it cannot display 1 million; There is also one more way to do this, during “Autograph” days [school days], when we play local cricket matches, simply to get a higher total we cheat and increase our score, for each run scored, a run is added as bonus, however most of the time umpire catches us red handed, but for ”kungu” I really don’t know.

Best joke is they show teens reading this book, are teens in Tamil Nadu become so much literature deprived? I like to meet those teens and offer my condolences. Tamil reading Teens, get it loud and clear, Dudes there are other good books like Sarojadevi , Debonair out there , Try them at once and maintain the teen integrity and sanctity.

Today morning researchers have found that number of the times this advertisement shown in a month is 200 times more than number of pages printed for this whole year.
PKP -- Yes you made the sales, thank you!, we got the message, you are the best book ever known to the mankind right from the days for “tholkApier”, now shut up and show us some other good program and make our $15.00 justifiable. It is time for PKP - POrum Kanna POrum.

ps:Next time when you go Wal-Mart please don’t look for Arasan soap. Its my plea to you folks;

Game Day Sunday!...

After watching red-eyed cricket for 4 nights, I was all set to watch the final days play, but the news is the match ends in a Draw. Everything was set for a memorable test match result, but the game got rained out. Umpires after inspection, ruled out no further play was possible, ground conditions were totally wet and was not suitable for play. The match was officially called off; the books would call it “No result”.

However, the test outcome produced few minor memorable moments, one major moment for the Chennai crowd. Centuries from Sehwag’s and Demean Martin, precision spin bowling of Kumble and Harbajan and the Shane Warne’s world record, over all 4 days of observing cricket.

Presentation was short and quick, Aussie skipper Gill Christ gave credits to the India Team for bouncing back and he mentioned that both the teams are equal on their potential, and the last days plays was a 50:50 chance. Our skipper, Gangully also repeated similar lines and was all set to move on to the next game. Gangully also joked about winning the toss sooner or later. Kumble was awarded the man of the match [it had some other crazy title for this series] for Rs 35,000, and a 125cc motorbike.

Oh! did forgot to mention the major outcome of the Chennai Test, "it was the Rain". Chennai people got the much needed rain.., this made me not to worry about my $131.00, there is always another game, I know how hard it is today in Chennai to get drinking water. Hope it rains more through Deepavali.

On other games, NFL: Sunday night, Vikings offense was totally ruthless , Pepper and Co managed to score points without Randy moss, a good sign to have more trusted receivers. However before injury, Randy moss's second TD catch was totally awesome. He had a great presence of mind to land both his feet before going out of balance. Vikes won!, Steelers pinned down the Cow-Boys, sweet, all teams that I have soft corner for won yesterday, I am sure India would have won!

Game Day, Second Test - Day 2.

Chennai, Oct 15th 2004.
Indians are ahead by 58 runs. Patel and Kaif put their heads down and are building a good little partnership. Patel was dropped on few occasions; both were kind of shaky at times, a city on a fault line.

Australian fielding was totally sloppy, missed many catches; it was so many that I lost the count. How can side with such a great proficiency in every department of the game, change over night? That’s pressure or that’s how Test Cricket is? I do not know.

The Chennai swarm was cheering for India through out the day, every run was cheered for, Noise level was quite high. Sehwag Continued his test cricket form went on to score a memorable 155. Watching him score was a pleasure, that too sacrificing my sleep for past 3 days. Congratulations to Sehwag!

I consider myself to be one among the most impatient people on this globe, If at all today’s science invents a pill to contain this impatience, In spite of having 10,001 side effects like dry mouth, diarrhea, head ache, body ache - I will be first one to buy it, but I have decided today I would go ahead and sponsor Sehwag a life time supply of this pill.

If he could have stayed there with some patience who knows, we could have seen another 300, for most of time in middle, he was really comfortable at rare occasions his usual “rush of blood” popped up, but batsmen on the other end did not miss the opportunity to come forward and warn him.

The World Record: Shane Warne crossed over Murali’s mark and became the highest wicket taker [Until Murali over takes him again and vice versa].
Shane Warne has been my favorite bowler from the day I saw him bowl leg spin. I can never forget the famous Banana spin, a ball that turns from outside the Leg stump to take of the off and Middle Stump. A countless number of Test Cricketers [English Especially] have fallen to this great delivery. Once in a while flipper, odd wrong ones and not to forget his great spirit to play the game, I have never seen him give up even when being trashed to all parts of the ground. Good example would be Vinod Kambli, he really hammered Warne every occasion they met, how ever today, Kambli, no where around, we don’t even see him in the commentary box.

“Form is temporary while Class is permanent”, Congratulations Shane Warne.

So to conclude, the question is will India pile more runs, though Patel and Kaif played really calm, this doubt keeps lingering around me, can they put on a tough fight? It does create some kind of doubt for me. Aussies just need a loose straw to bounce back. India needs to be 200 runs ahead at least to get something out this game. All said and done, we have three [or 2 more] more days of tough cricket ahead for us. Some how I need to find a method to sleep at work [as if I don’t do it now]

The “Hooey Gooey“ selection - Kaif vs. Chopra

Chopra: Total: 427 average: 25.12 Catches: 14

Kaif: Total: 141 Average:20.14 Catches:1.

The last time Kaif played Test cricket was against Sri Lanka on Aug 9th 2001., Just a reminder now it is Oct 2004, how can we even think of selecting a player who was asked to go out in 2001 from poor test cricket form? Is Indian cricket short of batsmen? Kaif’s has played in 8 innings, his scores are as follows: 12, 23, 37, 14, 17, 19, 14, and 5. No even a 50. Doest it sound Ridiculous! , Wait want to read something outrageous than the previous one, Let us now examine Chopra’s scoring trend. His debut was against New Zealand, he scored 42, followed by 31, 60, 52, 36, 4, 27, 20, 48, 4, 45, 2, 42, 2, 5, 0, 5 Even if you compare last 4 innings of Chopra (Total:93) and Kaif (Total:45), Chopra has scored more than him. Why was he dropped? Just for not scoring runs, a ludicrous Claim! Or for poor fielding, give me break, even catches he took is much more than Kaif. He is been remarkable in the close in field.

I agree Kaif comes down in the middle order to bat, while Chopra opens so his scoring is not as high as Chopra, yada yaya, the simple logic is to replace an opener, we need another opener, not a middle order guy. Please go get a specialized opener, don’t force and push middle order players to open instead, opening is a specialized position, it is a very costly spot. Yuvraj takes over opening slot for nothing, and the “form less” Kaif recalled filling his spot. Let me tell you a better strategy than selecting Yuvraj as an opener , simply recall Sunil Gavasker.

What a quagmire for Indian cricket, there is no single person in Indian selection board to take it over the head of Gangully! Remember, Gangully has already forced Dravid to keep wickets in one day games, in the name of 7 batsmen line up it that not enough?

By the way, what is the coach doing? As far as I know, a coach in Indian cricket team is a mere data entry operator, and he is never responsible for team’s action.

All said and done, Thanks to Anil Kumble for taking the Aussies on, he has provided some relief and match is now open to the Indians, It is high time for the batsmen to prove why they are in the team, if batsmen fails or not, It is Gangully responsibility to provide a justifiable answer for the “Hooey Gooey” selection of Kaif in the team.

Game Day, Second Test,

Chennai, Oct 14th 2004.

As far as this game is concerned, more than Cricket or to see India improve its performance, my wait was to watch the good old MAC Stadium and its ambience. The D Stand noise, aristocratic Pavilion Terrace, foreigner filled A Stand, small whispers of Tamil speaking TV Crews, It is around 2.5 years since my last trip to Chennai. DD coverage made it more nostalgic, camera panned and showed people at regular intervals, most of whom I really do not know who they are or where they are from, may be from Tambaran, Anna Nagar, Chrompet, T.Nagar, Triplicane, but some how all of them seemed very familiar to me, my eyes scanned through the cheering crowd to see “is there someone known to me”. I was thrilled to see high balloon over the score board, Triplicane buildings in backdrop and the train passing by in the near by Chepauk station. Watching this “Home” game from a distant land on the other side of the world in the wee hours is really a great feeling. I simply miss Chennai.

On to the Second test, you would have known by now Indians are on top. Aussies were bundled for meager total of 240, thanks to Anil Kumble, he was clearly out standing. The way he bowled was simply superb , I am a very detailed critic of Anil Kumble, usually if he gets 7+ wickets in an Inning, he would have scored a century along, meaning you would find a triple figure in the runs column. This time it was sweet, less than 60 runs. Way to go big Guy.

Gangully had an attacking field all through, a very big change in him. The flood gates opened when Harbajan got Hayden out. The game plan was to slam Harbajan, Hayden did this right from the word go, Hayden soon completed his 50 by launching one more SLV-6, MAC became a stand by SriHariKota. At lunch Umpire Shepherd was seen dancing in one leg in the pavilion, yes Aussies were 111/0. Great position,

I had no interest to watch the game further; I dozed off in my drawing room. However Sanjay’s MAnju MAnju nose cries on TV woke me up for the post lunch session, though I was still half sleep, I tried to peek at the score at regular intervals. India desperately needed a break through; Aussies were set to score 600+ easily.

The 1st Wicket: Hayden came out his crease and launched Harbajan was caught by Laxman., the real fair and balanced Chennai Crowd cheered for Hayden as he walked out. He made 58. Slowly one after another breaks, at times I thought I was dreaming. How ever what unfolded on the screen was for real. Kumble was taking wickets at will.
Best one I saw was the debut century maker Clarke, he never saw the ball well right from the word go, and he was trapped in front by Kumble’s “Soekly” Googly , he looked in vain for Billy “the Dancer” Bowden, No! He was gone, Shep raised his finger at once.

1st Session was dominated by “Sleep” and the Aussies, the following sessions were totally electric. Chennai crowd was going nuts seeing wickets tumble; But I was also soon bundled out by Mr. Sleep, Later at 5.30 am EST, got a phone call from my Dad, he woke me up and told about the match situation. I was up bright and clear. Soon Aussies were all out, about 40 minutes to close of play.

Kaif was preferred in place of Chopra, I really do not know what justification Ganguly has for dropping Chopra, Kaif did not add any value. Short leg position was specialized by Chopra, it was missing him dearly. As usual Pathan tried while Zahir Khan did nothing.

Patel’s keeping was totally shoddy, he failed a lot, thank heavens that he did not fumble catches. Think about this, how can a player without any kind of local game experience handle world class spinners like Harbajan and Kumble? WHAT IS THE JUSTIFICATION TILL DATE, it was clearly visible to every one, WHY SELECTORS ARE “BENT” ON KEEPING THIS GUY STILL IN? I would ask Patel to go and collect stamps before collection behind wickets.

Umpiring, Shep ruled not out to Kasprowicz, how ever this guy walked, a rare gesture from an Aussie, in general if an Aussie player is given out for a poor decision, a crane is required to lift them out. General practice is they simply never move and Ranjan “Madgale” will punish Indians for over appealing. But was nice to see Kasprowicz, but Mr. Shep who ruled him “not out” was left guessing. I felt Gillespie to be the most important wicket. India bowlers never wipe out the tail quickly, I expected him to stay and take the score to 350+, however, it was Kumble’s day, his critics like me often comment that he takes wickets between Adi and Amaavasai, Yesterday was one.

Yuvraj , the over rated cricketer of our times came to open with “Viru the Cautious Sehwag”. Viru has an above 50 batting average in test cricket but still has an axe above his head. Viru started of quite well showed no reaction punished bad balls, However Yuvraj the talented Indian never settled, he struggled a lot and was stuck on the helmet by McGrath, I request all the villain actors in Kodambakkam or to be Villains actors to check the smile he gave to Yuvraj after the blow on his helmet, Man! what a sinister smile, which gave the message “is your skull in place mate”.

Yuvraj was all set to get out, and played a poor shot to a wide ball from Shane Warne. Gill Christ took a very hard catch, Yuvaraj walked on his own. Shane Warne equaled Murali’s World Record. Then Pathan walked in as night watch men, Stumps on the first day, India 28/1. Hope we put more runs on the board.

Duh, politics is same where ever you are.

My Good friend Arun [If you are tamil blogger please note it, will be usefull] sent me this link, http://www.blogd.com when I read it, it sounded very funny to me, will sound ridiculous to the republicans, and will serve as a very good point for a democrat to munch about.

The issue is: “Was President Bush wired during the debate?! “ Here is what the report says “A technical expert who designs and makes such devices for the U.S. military tells Salon that he believes "the bulge" is indeed a transceiver designed to receive electronic signals and transmit them to a hidden earpiece lodged in Bush's ear canal”

Kind of funny to me, there were about 2, 00,000+ cameras, 400000 media experts along with the so called “fair and balanced” crew watching both the men talk about their own polices for the people.

How can such a media presence miss this? Also President Bush clearly knows the consequences of such acts. If he does so it will be ship load of substance for Democrats to talk about for rest of their life.

So what is next from the Republicans? Sen. Kerry used an Electronic voice for which he lip-synced. He used a device often used in Hollywood movies. A technical expert who designs and makes such devices for Jollywood films, tells to the “Fair and balanced news” that he believes Kerry's voice was a synthetic voice, generated from a Remote PC, Kerry did well to sync his voice, in fact that made Britney Spears jealous. He also noted that CA governor Arnold S...has been using this for ages.

Some ideas for both the parties
1. President used a "bit" sheet tucked inside his coat.
2. Sen. Kerry used Ganga Guide to answer his questions.
3. President rigged the tele-prompter thanks to Fox news.
4. Sen. Kerry got information on Morse code in this cell phone's vibrator.
5. Questions were sold on eBay, Both the candidate got them.

Duh, politics is same where ever you are.

ARE WE TURNING DUMB?

Just Google, you will find anything and everything in record breaking time frame. Google is one of the greatest Search engine today. You can find information on anything right from Pizzas to Pulavs to Paneer Kurmas to Rocket science. However, there is a down side to Google What!, I hear others saying “are you kidding, even this web site is hosted by Google? Do you know that?” Yes I know, but read below.

Few months ago I asked my junior team member to code a module. The estimated time for this task was around 40 hrs. Aka a weeks time at least. However this guy came up with the module in about 4 hrs and told me it is almost done, by evening it was complete. I was amazed by this speed of coding and asked him few changes in the module, for which he is coding for more than 82 hrs.

How? He was able to do it right the first time but struggled to modify it the second time? The answer to this is “Google” he just found a solution by Googling. Never wanted to use his ideas, Just “cut and past” the code he found, bingo it works, He never learnt the code, hey it works, that’s all it requires today, Sweet to hear, he just did what millions of others around the world are doing today.

How many computer programmers today really think about writing simple or complex modules or code snippets? Only a handful, these guys simply post them in their Blog or on their website, rest of the world has the power of Google to find it. No trouble no hassle.

If I want to find something as small as how to write a SQL connection string , I blindly “Google” and get the code, and add to my module, simply cut and past the code. “Very Very Convenient”, But few years ago this was not the case, I would get the concept of connection strings from a book and I will take pains to type the code myself, which in due course will stay in Brain.

But very soon human thinking capacity will diminish, yes, who needs it, hey there is Google, and it will get any solution for you in milliseconds. I think in about 10 years from now, human brains will be slower than what it is today; People will not put efforts to cultivate or learn through their Analytical skills in general, Google shall be one main contributor to this process. This might sound to be an over reaction, but think and see for yourself.

I heard on CNN, some universities have devised methods to spot student researchers that use Google to make their research easy and quick. I agree we need to Google for information; Google is the best, in my case it helps my music to be known to others. I love Google but at the same time I don’t prefer to over “Google”

ps: I Googled on the world "dumb" in google,
Check this