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...!".