My Bloglogue March 30th 2005

A report in Cricket info website, here is the link . This does not sound Sehwag like speech. He sounds boasting and I see his head to be little heavier than before. May be the press cooked it up and twisted it more than the reality. May be Tomorrow is April First! Who knows it might be a prank. I also hope this is to be a prank. It is perfectly ok for a player like Sehwag to have a heavy bat, but dude, heavy head, No Sehwag please don’t disappoint us.

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Many websites have been playing the Gangully hatred song for past week now, many old stale jokes used on Ravi Shastri or Azar is showing up again with a name change.
Any way, Here is a Srikanth original PJ.
Dravid sets out bat,
Every one in the dressing room says’: Best of luck.
Gangully sets out to bat?
Everyone : ? Best of Luck Duck.
Ok GOT IT, I told it was a PJ right. Seriously, Gangully has built this team and he should be given some more time before firing him. Any time you fire a CEO, the entire company can fall apart quickly. BCCI for the first time in history have not fired a captain in a short tenure. They have retained Gangully for long time now, main reason for India team doing well in recent past. What ever! I feel this to be a very normal behavior of cricket fans of India. We have booed Kapil to Gavasker to Ravi Shastri. So no big deal, Team India just needs 2 wins, they will be pushed back on the Pedestal once again.

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I happen to visit the Mumbai express website; Tamil part of the website has a song clip, Music: The man! Ilayaraja. Sounds like honey for musical bears!. The title song was interesting to hear however only for 30 seconds, hey! This is Raja! - One single grain of rice cooked certifies pot full of rice as cooked.Don’t click the Hindi Icon, No I am not a Tamil Watchman, The web page has poor navigation design. The web developer forgot to add a close or back link, You will be stuck with the mouse and will not know what to do. Still if you venture on to it, Here is GPS tip, you can use F4 to close or use back space to get back.The bug might force Kamal to learn Flash graphics and asp pretty soon, who knows His fans would say “he knows it already”. Waiting for Mumbai express on platform number 1 Hope it comes on time..

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Sad news, Schiavo Dies 13 Days after her Tube was removed. Parents of this lady have gone through a hell of a time; I wish God gives them energy to live a better life in days to come.

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Sania Mirza fans! here you go, there is web blog on her name Click here for Dharma Darshan and you are welcome to “BlogDrool” opps Blog Roll her site. Btw: Does anyone know that Indian Cricketing Eves are playing their world cup games?

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Finally Blogger is becoming very slow, infact “veriththanama” slow. Iy is testing my patience, It took me 30 train minutes to write this blog, but it took Blogger about a light year and plus to just load the upload page. Google!Ji What is the problem dude? Too many hits from India for Sania's Blog? or Are you setting us up for a paid premium service? Tomorrow “April fool Jayanthi” Good day Guys.

Relocation 2005

Tale of 2 players.

Dinesh Kartik must be sitting and wondering why the hell he was left out from the One day Squad? What should he do more, Ok, may be selectors have decided not to have a specialized keeper for one day games. After all Dravid can cover for a genuine keeper, he is been our “covering” gold for many years now. He knows to mimic keeper moves and will definitely make the batsmen believe that there is genuine keeper standing behind.

But I am wrong, they have included a specialist wicket keeper Dhoni, All the best to the youngster. Who knows he will be asked to carry drinks and be the bar tender on the boundary line. What ever, still Dinesh Kartik can carry the drinks and be the bar tender instead, by this he remains in the 14, and he can salvage some pride for his performance in the test series. Why was he left out? Poor Performance

Oh! you want to talk performance, Let us compare performance of the Indian captain Gangully and the Indian wicket keeper Dinesh Kartik. The answer is quite clear in Eastman color. Dinesh Kartik and Gangully played 3 matches and 5 innings each. Dinesh Kartik scored about 146 runs with an average of 29.20 he also scored a fifty and missed hundred by a whisker. Where us, Gangully managed to score 48 runs with an colossal average of 9.60, yes single digit, not even a “Janatha” pass like Gautam Gambeer [35.80]

Selectors can say “So what!”, you know Gangully won the 2nd test for us, at least he deserves to be in the team for the victory. Hey Mr. Selector you have missed a pumpkin here, in the same game Kartik played an important innings of 93 and gave a good batting support to Dravid. His keeping was also up to the mark like he stumped Yunis khan in the first ball, wasn’t all this considered as match winning performance?

My point is, if the elite panel of selectors feel poor about Dinesh Kartik performance, they have some serious soul searching to do, in all aspects first they need to drop Gangully. Though I am not for this idea, situation warrants. Today every TD and H stereotype Gangully that he does nothing other than arranging the field, talking to bowlers and appearing for the award ceremony; I agree he does look like an independent MLA with one seat, has no purpose other than a number count.

Why do we need him? This is the point of discussion for the press and the Blogs. In fact Times of India went ahead and created a forum called “Send hate mails to Gangully”? This in my opinion is not correct, in fact a ridicules idea. Yes, I do have soft corner for Gangully, Why? I have been following him from 1991-92. In my opinion, he is a good player and a captain or may be called a different captain. Why, He is in charge of top class players of the world and first Indian captain who dared to take the Aussies by their ego; His captain seat has been very hot during tours

Gangully started off with a disastrous Australian Debut tour 1n 91-92; He just played one game, I still remember his feet movement for the Aussie “chin music” it was in a sorry state, our collage discussion often conclude that even a 1st division league player would do it better.

Everyone was upset about his selection; he was dropped promptly for the next series, and was never heard again. Like other Bengal players, the quota system helped him on a recall. Lady Fate smiled at him, Siddhu walks out from the Indian team during the England tour. Siddu vs Azar, Sixer Siddu announced a premature retirement and said good bye to cricket.

His replacement Mr. Sanjay Technique Manju was ill, yep this is what we call Fate, Gangully got the call, he had to face the critics again but soon he shut them down. Gangully cracked a class 100 in lords, he proved to everyone that he is capable and he did not stop there. We all know the rest of the story. Gangully went on to be a successful player and captain for India.

Where did this potential vanish? May be he is not focusing? Taking his position for granted? My questions can be raised? My answer - too much freedom, Gangully enjoys too much freedom without any sort of control; a good candidate will deviate if abundant freedom is provided in their work environment. That’s what is happening to Gangully.

So why don’t we get another captain, in my opinion NO, this is the hard truth, there is no player in Indian team to carry the captain mantle other than Sourav; on paper we have a powerful side with lot of technical ability. Dravid is playing well, so we should not burden him with captaincy, some say Sachin deserves another chance, but I see Sachin as an executor rather than a manager. He is a tool, He is someone who can execute a plan not manage it. Same applies to Sehwag. By all means Gangully will be best person to lead India.

Instead of blindly dropping Gangully, I would enforce some control over this freedom; make him responsible for his actions; he should feel that he is responsible for the outcome of a match. Gangully simply needs a check. He has to realize that he is not bigger than the game. Gangully should get the words “No body is indispensable”. If this is done, he will get back into action.

Now, having been given another chance, Gangully should not assume that this free ride will continue, after all they are bunch of jokers. Hence I think in order to recharge his portfolio he should be scoring runs at least in 4 of the 6 one day internationals and win the series for the home team. Yes this the only way he can avoid the axe. If not I am sure the board of jokers, the Blogs and other cricket crazed fans of India will not hesitate to emulate Donald Trump to say “Sourav Chandidas Gangully - you are fired”

All the best to Sourav for the one day series, “final series or a come back series”, it is in his hands to decide, And for Dinesh Kartik, hang in there pal, you are not the first and the last to face the jokers, good thing is like Sourav had, you have ample time to make a come back.

Give me a break..

Yesterday, after the frustrating loss to Pakistan, being a news junkie I was surfing the web to get opinions on this loss. However I happened to stumble on many absurd and blind arguments and views. There are people who cannot take other persons achievement. I happen to read their views which seemed to blindly hate Sachin, they accuse Sachin by saying that he is playing for records. These folks did the same to Sunil Gavasker.

Let us take an example, you are climbing a mountain say 40,000 feet, the record set until then was about 25,000 feet, no human has set feet beyond 25,000 feet. Hence anything you climb above 25,000 regardless of reaching the summit or not, is treated as a record, right. Or let us go and blame the mountaineer and make an absurd statement by saying “he is climbing rest of the way for records?” The altitude which Tendulkar is flying today is very high. His achievements are well above anyone in today’s cricket. Yes it is the truth, get over it.

It took Sachin many years of reach this height after passing tough terrains and conditions. After playing for about 15 years, he cleared lot of mileage, he is now on a higher elevation where anything he does however small it is, seems to be an achievement for a common man. Whenever he goes to bat and scores even 10 runs or less, yes he is bound to pass a land mark because no one has been there yet, calling him selfish and playing for records is the most meaningless statement you could ever make on this great cricketer of India.

There are stick cartoons and animations in the world that blindly comments Sachin never helps India in winning a match. This is the next worthless statement. Scoring 25,000 in International cricket is an achievement and this 25,000 went to the India Team total, and not to a Bank account in the Cayman Islands. Can we say earnings made by Bill Gates till date goes to his personal account only and not to Microsoft’s growth? Bill gates is greedy about accumulating wealth hence he is using Microsoft to fulfill his ambition. Come on!

Please! do not doubt this great player India has ever produced. Please! do not give out cheap statements like playing for records etc, In my opinion after reaching higher elevations in world cricket, Sachin deserves better from his fellow country men.

My Bloglogue - March 28th 2005

We lost the dam game to Pakistan. We also lost the ICC ranking in this process. What a way to start the one day series?

The after match presentation, Sehwag – “Not a difficult wicket to Bat, I was determined to chase and win the game for India”. I wish rest of team had the same determination. But no, Gangully displayed his stupidity with a florescent highlighter.

The Indian captain made a stupid statement when asked about game plan. It seems their game plan was to keep playing; they were not worried about winning or losing. I would put this as the most ridicules theory I have ever heard from an Indian captain in the past 30 years. Assume we go to an exam in this fashion; I just want to keep writing regardless of the question paper. Will any sane guy do that?

This innings was a clear examination for the gloated Indian lineup that has a batsman who has better average in the second innings than the great Don, while another one just became the top run getting machine for India and a player with lots of potential but cannot bat. Frankly for the so called batting potential the Indians have on paper, I was really not ready for this loss, I believed that Indians would knock the runs and come out with a historic win.

But like dot com bubble burst, Sehwag was run out, Indians went into a dooms day scenario, I really do not know why the team lost hopes, we have more players with humongous statistics tagged to them. Who called for the hara-kiri? The Captain and the Coach failed to give proper instructions to the players? Sachin started off smoothly while Dravid was too cautious. But after Dravid’s Departure, Sachin walked into his shell and started to play tentative cricket. knowing about the great form of Gangully and VVS What else he can do?, VVS was not able take the pressure.

Ganguly’s batting form - any other player with that kind of performance would face the brutal AXE from the selectors. He had no reason to play poor and thoughtless strokes, in the first innings if he had scored some runs India would not be in this position. He played a reckless stroke and was stumped. This innings he lost his off stump to Afridi. He stood their not ready walk; he assumed the ball had rebounded from the wicket keeper. Gangully also messed the batting order, he pushed VVS ahead of him.

Elites in the biased commentary box were busy commenting on Gangully, it seems Gangully numerology consultant had told him do this. What ever is the crap; my take is our captain was worried about his batting form more than the game plan.The entire game plan seemed to be revolving around his [Gangully] batting problems rather than the team goal. People would have one more round to say Sachin did not save India again, I would say so did Dravid, VVS, Gangully, Dinesh Kartik and the residue.

They just had to play their natural game, and they failed because of their misguided captain, who did not have a game plan. This loss is clearly attributed to Gangully. Seriously If I was the selector I would say “Gangully you are fired”.

Inzi was animated all through and was seen arguing with the umpire for anything. IrFan had a bad decision; I hope Pakistani’s are penalized for their excessive appealing and sledging [Afridi and co in particular]

BCCI's part, Why don’t they use some thought process to help the home team. Being the home team we do have the liberty to pick grounds that favors the home side. Who the hell opted for Banglore, that too for the final test match? Indians have never won in this dam ground, the Banglore pitch has always been a POS, even the wall - Dravid, the home town boy has a poor batting average in this ground.

Why can’t BCCI schedule a better place like Chennai or Mumbai where Indians often have an upper hand than the visiting teams? I wish the curators in Banglore get this message - Please! Create a pitch that helps the home team. Period.
Frankly this ground would be another reason why I hate Banglore.

I am yet to recover from this, I hope we do better in the one dayers.

My Bloglogue March 25th 2005

Pakistan made lots of runs, thanks to Gangully for making poor decisions for India. Just like the first day, Balaji got Inzi on the very first ball he bowled on the second day. It was a well directed in-swinging delivery that trapped the Pakistani captain right in the front. Balaji gave some hope for the Indian, they were pumped up.

But all this energy were put to rest, Gangully makes a poor choice in getting Balaji out from the attack. Why? I am trying to find a good reason for this action by Gangully. Balaji was going great guns and he was the only bowler who had some venom in the attack. Gangully decided to continue with Kumble and Irfan. Irfan was totally disappointing and could do nothing to get a break through. Kumble failed to cook his lentils in his home ground. May be like most teams, Pakistanis might have a game plan in place to deal Kumble. However Kumble is hard to play on day 4 and 5. He might come back again and again and again.

Anyone been through a situation like this; assume Chris Tavera and Ravi Sastri both batting on 90s, and are fighting to draw the game. How would they play? The session between lunch and Tea, Pakistanis played most boring cricket that you could watch. May be Younis wanted to score a triple. But that should not bring the run rate to 1.8 and much lower. These 2 sessions provided me the valium I need to sleep, automatically along with the stadium crowd I fell asleep. This disturbed sleep continued until the newly named “Basavaapa street” aka Pitch at Chinaswamy stadium, started to work for Harbajan.

The off spinner started to get wickets at regular intervals. Whew!, where did this juice come from? [Thanks Ravi Sastri], Few Other Ravi’s commentating Jargons - milking singles, commanding position, good conversation rate.

Finally Pakistan were all out for a mammoth total of 570, with Vice captain Younis Khan scoring a record high score of 267. Harbajan also ended 6/153. Along with Harbajan, Kumble [0/159], Irfan [1/105] and Balaji [2/114] scored centuries.
Indians came to bat, The Sehwag motor company started to pump runs for India right from the word go. Abul Razzak suffered the most; Sehwag hit 5 fluent boundaries and a huge six of Kanneria over long on/off area. At close India was 55/0. Tomorrow is new day; I would watch out for this off spinner Arshad Khan. He seems really tight and good. India has to score about 450 in order to put some sort of fight in the game.

Most offices seemed closed today. Today is “Panguni utram” and of course Good Friday.

My Bloglogue March 24th 2005

PSP
The “Simran” [Sleek] like Play Station portable will be out today. Experts predict in about 2 years from now IPod will have same fate of its mother ship, Apple Mac. Sony has been very reluctant in getting into portable music players, citing copy rights problems. Most of their portable players had their own proprietary encoding which no CD maker cared to support. Finally now they have made a decision to embrace the format which is also a musician’s nightmare, MP3. PSP will be sold for about $250, $100 more than its rivals like Game Boy, Game Cube, Square and rectangles. On the game Boy thing they are yet to introduce a Game Girl, I took me about a week to convince my 5 year old daughter that Game Boy is also for Girls. Marketing guys for Game-Boy please wake up and it is time to get out a “girlie” version of this little monster gaming device. My name suggestions - Game-Dame, Game-Diva and these 2 names are patented to me.

Coming back to PSP, this has a 4.3 inch, 16:9 Wide screen TFT LCD that can handle 480 x 272 pixel, 16.77 million colors , a visual treat. This comes with a rechargeable info lithium batter similar to the ones found in Sony Digital Cameras. This device can connect to other [similar] devices via a IEEE 802.11b (Wi-Fi) or, USB 2.0 (mini-B) or Memory Stick Duo™ or a Infrared Port, using which network games can be played across 2 or more PSP. PSP also has built in stereo speakers.


Apart from being a gaming device, using this we can also watch movies and hear streamed music. Sony will be bundling its Spider man 2 in the initial release. Sony will be charging about $20 for a movie and around $45 for games. The launch bundle includes a 32mb memory stick. I think for $250 a piece they could do more.
How many will be ready to pay $20 to watch a movie like spider man on 480x272 screen? I really don’t know; Sony banks on this movie option more than its gaming. In about 5 years from now, Sony says this will evolve more and PSP will have a hard disk network connection with Broad band, live TV etc. Market segment for PSP is 15-35.

Patent Law
Indian lower house passed a patent law using which medical manufactures will be protecting their rights. I heard a news clip on the NPR yesterday morning while driving to work. First and fore most, NPR has a very liberal habit of giving free advice to the world and they don’t care about it in their neck of the woods. In USA even the toilet seat and its friend "paper" are patented. There are patents [/applied for] on everything your hands can feel or eyes can see, or ears can hear. There are even patents for many software modules we designed, this would a tiny 5 line code that traps a mouse right click with your middle finger.

With a situation like this here NPR managed to shed crocodile tears for the countries that buy generic drugs from India. It is the same western liberal media that branded or stereotyped Indian manufacturers as Copy cat drug makers few years ago. Best joke was as usual this news ended with a remark of “this will only benefit the rich”.

India is the largest supplier of quality generic drugs for many developing or underdeveloped nations. It seems in future this will be in jeopardy. I really don’t know the so called global impact, however I feel the rights of the medical manufactures needs to be protected. Who knows someone in USA might apply a patent for my favorite “சேனை கிழங்கு roast” and prevent me from cooking it on my own, I really don’t know what would be my reaction if this happens. Let me check how much it would cost me to get a patent for the above delicacy. Here in USA I can patent even my walking style , which is similar to a fully drunk crab that is walking out of a bar to take a cab.

3rd Test
Finally Pakistan scored runs and they seemed very comfortable yesterday in spite of 7 for 2 start. Kumble and Harbajan could do nothing other than watch runs flow, Pakistan can score about 700+ on this track. However we never know.

The latest news from Banglore is after the game concludes pitch will be named as “Basavaappa street”. Yes, the pitch was laid by Municipal Corporation of Banglore, it looked very much similar to Banglore streets; however there was not much traffic other than Inzi and Younis running at regular intervals. "dhanyavadagalu"

The Dappaankuthu [டப்பாங்கூத்து] Documentation.

At work, my pc speaker plays music, Mostly Tamil film songs. Some of colleagues step in and comment about music, most tell me that they are really fast, groovy and colorful. When someone stepped in yesterday, he heard “Dimsu katai” followed by M.Rasa. M.Rasa. He also made similar comments on both the songs.

With a big simile and the usual “Varatu Desi Tamilian pride” I started to boast about the dance sequence in Tamil movies, giving emphasis on M.R.M.R, he wanted to know more about the type of dance and music this song adopts. I boasted right royally that this dance was called as “Dappaankuthu” and had its roots from the great city of Chennai. I told them, I have witnessed this form of dance in movies, live in Usman Road T.Nagar, “D” stand of MAC stadium and every other corner of Chennai.

However these are my words, hey! has anyone documented this form of dance anywhere?, I need to find it, I set on a quest to find about Dappaankuthu documentation.

My quest was to find a written grammar and guideless for this art. For next 15 minutes, I goggled, Yahooed, Msn’ed, finally, Internet rocks Yes, I did find meaningful documentation about this dance, where in the “Wikipeida” and here is the abstract from Wikipeida.

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Dappaankuthu (டப்பாங்கூத்து in Tamil) is a type of dance performed on the streets of Chennai, India. It is usually performed in economically backward areas, and is commonly used to relieve emotional tension. It is therefore equally likely in both wedding processions and funeral processions.

Steps:
1. Take one step with your foot.
2. If you just brought your left foot forward, point your left fist to the sky and your right fist directly ahead, otherwise do the opposite.
3. If you bring your left fist skyward, look straight ahead or slightly upwards, otherwise look down at your feet.
4. The above three steps must be done simultaneously.
5. Bob your torso up and down once.
6. Repeat with the other foot.
7. Maintain a pace of one step every second, with a bob equidistant between every two steps.
8. Pelvic thrusts between steps can also be introduced to provide some variation

Please note that it is considered important to dance the way one feels during the performance, so dapaankuthu is not necessarily restricted to the above steps, though they form the major elements of this traditional art form.

Although any attire can be worn when you dance dappaankuthu, a lungi (colourful cloth wrapped around the waist; commonly worn) is most preferable -- ideally folded in the middle with the knot almost at your chest level which makes occasional glimpse of under pant or loin cloth possible.

It is considered polite to mark time by clapping and whistling loudly when someone else is dancing the dappaankuthu. Some spectators may also set off firecrackers near the dancer's feet if they themselves need to de-stress emotionally.

The actual link

My Bloglogue March 21 2005

India Wins as Pakistan fails to take the Kumble Attack. The way Gangully and Kumble trapped Afridi was remarkable. The entire commentating team was giving out the game plan while Amir Sohail sprinkled his bighearted opinions on Afridi, he was kind of sure Afridi will not get the ploy. Yes he was correct. Afridi was out. Frankly this time I really believed Kumble will wipe them out on the 5th Days, It is very hard to play Kumble on a 5th day Indian wicket. Everything fell in its place, the first ball stumping by Dinesh Kartik set the momentum for rest of the day.

“Discipline Dravid”, the batting technique of Dravid, I have no words other than to clap for him. The way he decides what to do with the ball is so significant, when asked about it he simply says , “based on the merits of the ball” , “concentration”, “meditation” but frankly all of them are understatements, I would call it as “raw god given talent”, it was so amazing to watch him make perfect decisions for past 5 days. I have not seen any other player do this with this perfection. He is in full flow now and I expect him to whack more runs in his home town.

Dinesh Kartik regains his lost confidence after his 93, other than getting crucial runs for India it boosted his wicket keeping drastically. If his form continues we might see another Kiri. Harbajan seems to have not settled with his action issues and BCCI failed here once again to protect its cricketer.

Steve Bucknor has apologized to Sachin for his poor decision; thank god match was won by India. Bucky seems to have got way again for his mistakes and this is not the first time. I agree this is a game of chance and Sachin was ruled no out in the first test. We need to take it with pinch of Kosher Salt. But when a player is penalized for his mistakes like excessive appealing or slow over rate, I think it is time for ICC to enforce similar rules on the Umpires.

It looks very stupid for the batsmen to walk out or a bowler watch pathetically on a decision when the entire world calls it a baloney. The 3rd umpire should be given the right to recall or like NFL we need the challenge option to get things straight. Wait! I hear, if you make such rule change the spirit of cricket will come into play, but I would go with the change rather than the stupidity of accepting ridiculous errors in the name of pressure. When a person could not see it from 22 yards, he is not fit for the job. Steve Bucknor should be dropped from the umpire panel. Intelligent creatures might ask “what about the right decisions”, hey! He is being paid for his services and he is expected to perform his duties.

I am looking forward for Banglore Test but need to catch some sleep before the game.
Thats all about cricket.

தாங்கலடா சாமி
I was watching the translated Tamil movies on KTV, “an Innocent man”, a well packed English garbage in Tamil, I really don’t know where we are heading, KTV and SUN TV have slipped to a very low level in their movie telecast. For some reason KTV and SUNTV have been showing the same set of movies. There must be something wrong in getting Tamil movies, which might be the reason they switched to Tamil dubbed Z grade English movies. At this rate many people may cancel these channels.

The Indian Rail Fan Club

http://www.irfca.org, how many has heard of this website. Do you want to know about Indian railways, hey! Just visit this website. You will be overwhelmed with information. So much information that you will be stunned by the phenomenal growth our railways has undergone since independence. This website is brain child of a group that called themselves as “Indian Rail Fan Club”.


The History of IRFCA, IRFCA was started by a group of rail fans discussing about Indian trains in the Usenet newsgroup soc.culture.indian,. From Aug if 1989, they to set up an electronic mailing list for themselves. The first incarnation of the list had just 9 members exchanging e-mail directly. Many of the members in those days were graduate students in many US universities. Hence the list was then hosted on various US university list servers around USA.

Over a period of time it merged with eGroups, then acquired by Yahoo Groups. During the first ten years or so (1989-1999) the membership remained small, at 50 to 100 members, and predominantly consisted of persons in the US, with some members in the UK.

With the spread of the Internet in recent years, especially in India, membership has been continuously rising. Currently [09/03] the list has more than 1300 members from twenty or more countries. The two biggest groups on the basis of members' locations are from India and the US. Due this decade long steady information growth, today this site contains elaborate information on trains, locomotives, train lines, maps, future development plans, retired locomotives, their production details that includes even the engineering drawings on various railway engine and compartments.
They have tons of video clips, pictures taken by their team of members about Indian railways. There are sections for Travelogues , History of Indian railways, Steam Engines, Electric Engines, Time Tables, stations and every other detail you want to know about the Indian railways.

Being a Rail Fan from my early child hood days I managed to see most of the pictures and video clips. It will take you more than 3 days to see all the pictures.
I was amazed to see the separate section for Chennai MG trains. I use Travel from Chrompet to Chetpat via the Meter gauge electric train during my school days in Chennai. I would often see the “Kanchivaram” passenger pass my train with sheer speed. I still remember the Maroon Engine for that train; I came to know that it is called YAM1 Engine from this website. When ever I hear this Yam1 whistle, it would remind me of my school days. Yes, it has a very unique sound and they have an audio section where they have sound clips from different engine and train sounds.You get up to date information on Engines, like where it was made it, when it was made and for what train zone it was inducted.

The most interesting read for me was about the SkyBus. SkyBus are like suspended train built indigenously in India by BEML, Madagon. These trains have a futuristic look and this will be inducted on the Konkan railway sector soon. They have pictures on sky bus cars, raillines, stations etc. If you don’t know about it, you are in for a surprise to read about these developments. Their updates are quite frequent and you need to keep checking it.

I was not able find information about the core team. They don’t have their core team members listed. However the team is doing a great job, instead of promoting their individual contribution they seem to concrete on their sole task - spreading the words on Indian Railways.

Right now the membership is free. frankly, I will not mind paying for this club. I request everyone to should join this group and know about Indian railways and its greatness.

The 10,000 Club

When the world began to realize “the Sachin potential”, first achievement an average cricket fan expected from him was the 10,000 run mark that would equal SMG, the only other Indian to hold this record. I still remember Sunil Gavasker reach 10,000 mark in Ahmedabad against Pakistan in 1987.


After more than 15 years today, at 4.10am EST 16th March, Wednesday, 2005, Sachin reached this land mark by flicking Abdul Razzak to the square leg area. He started his cricketing journey against Pakistan. He reached this land mark against them.

122 Matches,195 Innings ,21 Not out,10025 Runs,Highest:248*,Average:57.61 34-100’s and 40-50’s.

He reached this land mark in the same number of innings as Brain Lara, the only other player currently in action with that many runs. More over Sachin tops the batting average in the 10,000 club at least by 5 points.

Sachin is often compared with Vivian Richards, Especially by many “oldies” and “seniors” they give their esteemed opinion on Sachin, who the hell is Sachin, “அந்த காலத்துல நான் காலேஜுல பாடிக்கும் போது....”

Vivian Richards is great player, he totaled about 8500 runs in 121 Test. This 10,000 by Sachin was in 122 test matches. Basically the technology we have today plays a big role in every game; every coach today has facilities to track/watch a players batting in order to come up with a counter plan. Sachin is the most monitored cricketer today. My point is Today environment is totally different, it is twice competitive than before. Sachin has a combined score around 24,000 runs in both forms of international cricket. Seriously when thinking about it, no one can or should deny this mammoth achievement.

There are also Sachin haters whom I talk to every day, one of them told he scored runs because of team like Bangladesh, Numbers establishes facts. In this 10,000, Sachin has only scored 302 runs against Bangladesh; we need remember the balance 9698 came by playing against other top cricket playing nations. Most of his runs playing against Australia [1859 that includes 7 hundreds and 7 fifties], and he averages about 76.50 against England and 80.29 against Sri Lanka. His lowest averages is again South Africa 37.15,

Age factor: Lara reached this land mark when he was 35 years old, while rest completed this land mark when they were 37, Sachin, 31 years and 326 days. He is the youngest test cricketer to reach this land mark.

Chennai Factor: When it comes to my home town Chennai, his “par” was more than 100, Each time he sets out to bat in MAC, he would score a hundred. He has also scored most of runs in Chennai; He has played 11 innings in Chennai, and scored about 714 runs, with an average of 102. In Sydney Australia has a crazy average of 249.00, in Port of Spain WI he averages about 68.33. Finally Dhaka, let us not go there, it is about 250 and above. Do you know that Sachin has never played in the number 3 position for India?

Any way, to conclude I am sure like me there are many who are proud to have this genius of a cricketer during their times; no one can or should deny his achievement.
Congratulations to Sachin. I wish him all the best towards 15,000.

Misguided Commercials

Today we are in an era where anything and everything can be sold to the public by proper advertisement and commercials. Currently this country is on an extreme spree of prescription medicine commercials. Most of these commercials are totally adult in nature. Even the so called advanced and open society finds it very hard to face some these commercials.

FCC forces the TV channels to display appropriate TV ratings; this appears on the left corner usually when the program starts or resumes after a commercial break. Based on this queue we can choose program appropriate for our kids. The pity is this rating does not apply to the commercials shown. Viagara or similar product advertisements can appear during the so called family oriented programs.

Parents today’s apart from monitoring ratings, they need to make sure that their kids don’t get to watch these extreme advertisements. As if this was not enough I have also seen dish network placing a violent wrestling pay per view advertisement, a double dose. More than the program the commercials have become a night mare.
We see a bozo on the screen, he gives an odd, abnormal look at every man and women in the vicinity, he walks with a 200 feet wide smile around a swimming pool; suddenly he takes of his shorts in a swimming pool in front of many and displays something proudly. Thank god they don’t pan further below. Can’t they think of a less graphical message? A Liberal minded person might think what is the big fuss? Try sitting near a little kid during this commercial and get back to me.

I know people with kids who really get tensed during the commercials breaks. Most parents manage to flip channels right on time during commercials. Some time ago I was visiting a friend of mine, during the commercials he suddenly got agitated, in a soft manner from the kitchen, I heard a faint “t u r n t h e T V v o l u m e d o w n”, but I got it all wrong, I increased the volume instead, in 2 seconds this guy comes boiling at me and says his son just stopped asking about “cialis” “please for heaven sake don’t start another drug idea in him” . It seems few weeks ago he took his son to the doctor with flu and fever, his son not knowing the real meaning of the advertisement, he asked the doctor about “cialis” , Doctor was embarrassed and this kid continued coolly that he want to be like the person in the “smiling and happy look”.

Often in many house holds where there is 7 year to 10 year old kids, they have a special after commercials question hour. Dad what is this cream for? Dad what is pill for? Common cold or Flu;

Let me tell you, People! sooner or later a frustrated dad or mom is going to answer them.

Son this is what you use when you become a grand-p, this will enhance and empower your night life in the bed but watch it Son, after taking this pill this can stay there for a while, if it less than 3hrs , you need no worry, but anything more than 4 hour hey! You need to call your doctor at once, Son also apart from it, you can get brain tumor, brain clot, hyper constipation, dry skin, dry hair, dry head, TB, diabetes and few other minor complications, but the good part is at that age it will keep you really happy son.

Where are we going? What is FCC doing? They were totally angry with Janet when she staged the infamous WMF [wardrobe mal function]. I feel these commercials are more provocative than WMF.

Drug companies must choose other methods to find their “potential impotent customers”.

1st Test, now on to second test.

Chandramuki , Music Review.

Chandramuki Audio was out last week and has created massive records in CD sales. When it comes to Songs for super star Rajinee movie, it all about power! Powerful tune, background, singing - everything will come to play. Music: Vidhya Sagar, he gets his long awaited turn to compose for Rajinee movie. I heard all the songs on Raaga.com.

I was impressed by the first song right away, chududa chududa, SPB rocks, at 56 Man! This walking juke box kick ass with the same force he used to, a decade ago. In spite of little reminiscence from Aravua mesa[Dhool], This song is going to top many charts. This track has beats played using Roland Hand-Sonic and other modern groove boxes.

When Vidhya Sagar composes, we can blindly expect justification to the melody. There will be very less cacophony in the name of modern trend. Konjaneram proves this fact. This song based on Bagshree, Sri Ranji and all of its relations, is a very soft number.

Frankly the turn off in this song is Asha Bonsle. She struggles to sing, clearly a wrong choice. We cannot call a retired NFL quarter back to play for a game. He will be whacked alive, Ashaji for her experience she is too good, but for her age hey any new singer would take her on and do a better job. Sweetness in Ashaji’s voice is history to me. Madhu Balakrishnan sounds nasal, but reminds KJY in many places.

Ramkumar producer of this movie mentioned that Ashaji flew on her own expense to sing this track, appreciated, she has close ties to Sivaji production. But as a music aficionado I really don’t care, a nice song from vidhya sagar was screwed up.

Wait, I did find something better in this song. In my opinion, Vidhya Sagar’s weakest link is sound modeling, he picks backgrounds sound that often plays spoil sport. For Example in “Kana kanden thozi” from pArthiban kanavu, there will be a distracting “open hats” all through the song. The song would be same even if you remove the Hi-Hats because the melody had the potential to carry the song. But in this “finally” I hear some good sound modeling and control. He has worked for “Rajinee”, the drum grooves and backgrounds are “really tight and calm”. Nothing in excess or out of place;

Ok enough, let us move on to the next song, a folk number “Athithom”, SPB once again proves his class. The feel for the tune flows through his voice box automatically. I can clearly visualize Rajinee dancing for this number. Basically the backgrounds are “simply” music. The music gels with the melody so well, this song takes me back to the Golden days of Tamil music.

Koku: This is sung by a new voice [to me at least] called Rajalakshimi, I hear beat lags in the groove. May be the low streaming rate in raga was the cause. However once again I am sure I did hear a serious lag and rush in the loops used. A typical song for a selected location where Tippu and Manika Vinayagam chips in, by all means this would be a family song. I would skip the song after the pallavi.

Ra Ra : I really doubt this song is for this movie, Song was in Telugu totally has shades of “Kalayanavasantham” and “Hindolem” Sung by Binni Krishna Kumar and Tippu. Tippu covers the song well and does justice once again to the tune. This is a semi classical number. Second half starts of with some crazy sounds, I don’t get this why add such things to a nice tune. If at all this song appears in this movie, we need to watch and find a reason for this corruption, and some might be tempted to take a cigar break.

As I was thinking that “Rajinee” has not fallen for the 6/8 mania that is going around Chennai, Wait Vidya Sagar takes him deep into it. “Annanoda patu” by Kaykay, Karthik and Sujatha. The regular 6/8 number which reminds of fewthings that which I cannot write about it here, however this is a typical “new” Tamil song, to console yourself least the tune seems better than the other 6/8 numbers.

Finally, what change did Rajinee achieve by getting in Vidhya Sagar, I feel the first 3 songs have clearly filled the cavity that was created due to A.R. Rahmans disappearance.

VS has the talent to do it better, but it is the responsibility of the director to make the right choice. Given the super star factor coupled with song situations and the freedom the composer had Hey! let me tell you, songs are destined to be hits.

Of course! I will get the CD right away.

Mayavee, Tamil Music Album Review.

Finally, a bold step to review Tamil music albums. I know some of my comments might turn the tide on me and my songs, I am always worried about eating my own words, but “Hey enough” you can worry about it when you “really” do an album.

Mayavee, staring Suriya and Jyothika Music by “Devi Sri Prasad”, yes the same guy who made chick “chick shak shak dum | chick chick shak shak dum” background music with his throat on Sun Tv saptha swarangal.

I thought this guy was over reacting in the name of modern music. However, forgetting the past, I gave an “open heart” look on this album. Result - Yes this guy seems to know what he is doing. He does have scope for serious growth. First and fore most, he seems to have minimal inference or influence of music directors from the past.

Seetu katu Rani, Sung by Tippu and Sudha. Tippu does justice to the song, really a foot tapping start to the song. The first change to anupallavi is also quite nice. Lyrics - verbatim Jothika appreciation. I am sure this song will top the chart on Sun TV and KTV. Thanks to Devi Prasad for not choosing Udit , most music directors would be tempted.

Second song sung by SPB. Charan and Kalapana, starts similar to “pungatru un” [A.R.Rahman].Sounds like a Cliché love failure number.The female voice breaks in the middle coughing and male takes over. So you know the song situation now, Heroine might be a terminally ill. As usual I felt more there was more room for chords and counterpoints, hey it is director’s call, and this is not my kind of song.

“Tamil natil ellorkum ethirkalam nalla irukum”, thirunelvelliAlwa fame Sriram sings this duet. This guy has an awesome power in this voice. The power doubles when Mamadha Raajathee joins Yes, Malathi joins the duet. She is “female vocals power house” matching Sriram in every aspect. Apart from the vocals, the Drums and Indian beats are programmed quite well. Other instruments backgrounds are kept to very minimum hey who care, there is going to be a colorful group dance, if you search for counter points , bass and guitar licks in such songs, hey consult a doctor, you might have the ”Simon Syndrome”. This song is also a candidate for KTV and Sun TV shows.

Mayavee, yes the movie title, the opening “pitch free” vocals turns you off, but wait, the pallavi for this song it totally out of world. I wish he could have arranged it with greater care. All this is killed again and again by pitch free Arabic sounding hook vocals. Who ever sang this, forget singing may be, try for a job in BCC [Bird calling club]. Birds: Srikanth, we might sue you for this suggestion.

Definitely beats needs better programming, as I was thinking about the beats, right at the start of the 1st Saranam, the Boys fame “egirikuthithen” loop shows up. Raham & Co have used this loop so much it is very hard for me hear further. Same loop come in Sandakozi sandakozi from AyuthEzuthu and many more Rahman movies.
Drum programmers in Kollywood –for heaven sake – Get rid of the Roots of India sample CD. Enough! We are bored. Also what’s the deal on boring Mayavee Mayavee Mayavee hook? Singers: Ranjith, Devi Prasad and Chitra. Very Good and solid melody lines, good lead singers but nullified by poorly arranged score with irritating hook vocals.

Last song, the singer was puspavanam kuppuswamy, I use to wonder why the film industry been ignoring this wonderful talent, finally music directors have started to use his unique voice. He brings in the natural fluency in language and nativity to this track.

Finally, will I get the CD? Depends on the combination it comes on. Some songs are destined to be hits, thanks to the new 6/8 syndrome. Bottom line - a very good start for Devi Sri Prasad.

Coming up next might be “RAAM” On first go I felt it was an overrated music album

Game Day, First Test. 4th day,

zzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Yes., I could not control sleep for 4th night in succession. Dozed off at around 10.40pm. Shall watch the recordings tonight.I hope India wins this test match.

Game Day, First Test. 3rd [Sloth Bear] day,

Sehwag went on to score his next test hundred and much more;Dravid was cool as usual, he reached his fifty. Dravid took a blow on his head that might have made him think about it, it was rare sight for me to see Dravid take a blow on his helmet. Dravid watches the ball better than the TV Camera. But this time he misread the ball was struck on his head near the temple. May be shaken up by the hit he played an unusual careless shot after his 50, and was out caught.Dravid also never plays a reckless or careless stroke; every cricketer has to learn this from him. Dravid also holds a new record now. He is the only player with the longest tenure who has been never dropped since his debut. This clearly proves his importance and contribution to the Indian team.

Pakistan’s poor fielding agony continued they kept dropping catches; Gangully had 2 lives while Sehwag was dropped again.

Another highlight of the day was the poor “digition” - [Sanjay Manju says the word Decision] from Umpire Rudy Kirsten. Sachin was out to a bat pad catch. A well tossed ball from Kaneria took a thick inside edge and was caught in close in field. However umpire Rudy Kirsten failed to see it, and ruled not out. Replays showed the picture clearly, it was thick edge; I really don’t know how umpire missed this clear decision. I would like to appreciate Pakistani fielders for taking this poor decision well. They were really clam and did not make a big fuss about it. Frankly they cannot afford a free ride for a batsmen like Sachin. Any other team would have misbehaved for this decision.

Sachin went on to score a blasting 94, yes he missed his “record” breaking hundred. If you ask me Frankly, I was happy with it. I really don’t want “the record breaking score to be 100 for 1. He will get his chance soon. Some of the shots Sachin played were simply incredible.

Everything changed after lunch, for some reason run rate was reduced by half. Indians started to bat very slowly. Even Sehwag was playing slow and it became worse after Sehwag departure. Sachin and Gangully scored about 50 runs in 25 overs. It was really a turtle slow cycle race, Sachin and Gangully never bothered to check the run rate. They kept blocking the ball, reminding us “The Lord of the Block” - Commentator Ravi Shastri.

Like others I really could not guess the game plan. It looked as though Indians were playing for a draw. This (Ravi Sashtri + Chris Tavare) hybrid mix at 2.30am put me to sleep right away, I feel asleep automatically until a loud noise woke me up Gangully was out. VVS walks in and take over the sloth bear tree climbing.

For many this will be an easy Sachin bashing, people will speculate that Sachin wanted to score his record 100, actually he was no where close to his hundred when all this happened. I am sure the intent was not hundred, the reason I feel like this , apart from me being a golden “Jalra” for Sachin, I saw Gangully and VVS play in similar ass breaking fashion., What the heck is wrong with our game plan?. Or May be Pakistanis really bowled well.

VVS struggled against the tight bowling of Kaneria, but managed to stay there till close. Just before close suddenly came some aggression from no where, he played very good shots to accelerate the scoring. Dinesh Karthik started off well but was out caught. Irfan walked in and Indians were 135 runs ahead at the close. Game was stopped due to bad light. Heavy rain was in the forecast.

Game Day, First Test. Day 2,

India vs Pakisthan, Mohali, March 9th 2005
The Rain gods took over, and it was blessing for me take a nap especially after a tight day both at office and in my studio.

India started to bat with real fluency. We can clearly see why this team is right below Australia in many ratings. The best part was Sehwag, his gamesmanship it does not need my kudos, it is known, when he is batting, India would have a very healthy run rate, yes he blasted his way. At the close of play, Sehwag was not on 95 and Dravid was on 39 India were 184-1 in 40 overs, a run rate of 4.6

Pakistan fielders gave Sehwag 2 lives, for a batsmen like Sehwag I feel the 1st life itself is ridiculous because before the next one comes he would have a triple figure score to his name. But here they gave him 2, and second one was a sitter that displayed the incompetent fielding ability.

The day began; most in the commentary team including our beloved blade Sanjay Manju were busy chatting about the pitch conditions that could help bowlers. But in the first over Gautam Gambeer blasted a four followed by one more from powerful Sehwag, Both of the opening batsmen started playing ruthless strokes and took on every Pakisthan bowler with sheer power and ease. The myth of pitch swinging and helping the bowlers was put to rest. Frankly Inzaman and his team members did not know what was hitting them, basically no one had settled, this includs me and our commentary team.

Sehwag Blasted Naved ul Hassan while Gambeer whacked Sami.. Perfect start for India, Both the batsmen apart from slamming boundaries they were really keen to get quick singles. Like if Inzi moved someone close to save singles Sehwag would blast the ball and banish the fielders to the out field. Then the single gathering would begin, this was well planned batting strategy.

100 runs came very quickly, but the only bowlers who made some progress was Kaneria, he was bowling genuine leg spin, and he turned the ball quite well and mixed it up wrong ones and flippers. Gambeer had a rush of blood wanted to take on this genuine bowler, he perished and was caught in the midoff as he tried to lift Kaneria over the in field. Kaneria was unlucky not to get Sehwag, few close LBWs were also seen, but 60:40 chance. It is hard for me call Sehwag was lucky because apart from these catches the strokes he played were sheer power.

Dravid walks in, he starts to play as though he was batting for last 1000 hours. He was never troubled by the bowlers . He kept the score moving and made sure the ATM at the other end kept pumping money.

Fielding placements were kind of poor, Indians are strong off the pads, Aussies controlled this by placing at least 2 good fielders on the square mid wicket area however Pakistanis never had proper fielding placements, Dravid had a ball, reason his favorite scoring route was kept wide open.

Seeing ball turn so much for Kaneria, I wish Harbajan had played instead of the experience, the so called experience never turns or spins. But hey the experience would come back and back and keep coming back and never gives up - Right!
We need to score in the range of 600.

Dish network had hell a lot of technical difficulties and interruption; they blamed the provider. I really don’t know this, when a country like Greece could organize live pictures without interruption for the Olympics, I feel India can do a better job, having said this, I don’t want blame Indian telecommunication for BCCI’s inability to organize anything properly, having paid 250 bucks hey I need to proper coverage. Who knows BCCI must have sold the up-linking rights to a Banana company that is owned by someone known to them, we are here to pay $250 and take on the heat. I wish this technical difficulties and interruptions are put to rest.

Game Day, First Test , Day 1

India vs Pakisthan, Mohali 1st Test

I paid the money they asked; A nose bleed amount of $249.95 for the entire series. I see that it is being shown free in Canada. Took some antacids after hearing the good news from Kamesh aka , Kitkat. Romba thanks for letting us know. And I also know antacids are cheaper in Canada :)

Over to the game now, Gangully won the toss and elected to field; Most predicted this, Mohali wicket will have something for the bowlers. Irfan started of little erratic with super sized wides. However very soon he got back his rhythm, along with Zaheer, Pakistan was kept under control. There was great swing bowling moments in the first spell. First break through came from Irfan, a full length ball with a delayed swing, Butt played a lazy front foot stroke and lost his stumps. Just before this, he was distracted a little, he asked for batting glove change. 11 for 1. Crowd was cheering loud for the wicket.

Younis Khan walked in and survived some close LBW calls, however he did not trouble the scorers, Zaheer bowled a beauty that pitched on the leg and angled wonderfully to hit Khans pads. Plumb in the front, a definition. 30 for 2. Captain Inizi walks in. Indians were pumped up.

Taufeeq Umar, He was totally tentative but survived the swing festival. I wish he had purchased some of the local lottery tickets; he would have won millions, why? The amount of luck he had was quite high. Indians struggled to get this guy out. His technique was also kind of shaky. But had the grit to stay there and push for runs. He managed it quite well. He scored 44 and finally was bowled by Balaji.

"ஊஞ்சல்" Balaji: Actor Vadivelu often sings this line, "Swing in the rain" , yes, I saw it yesterday. Swing [ஊஞ்சல்] Bala returns with a bang. Balaji has changed his run up. He had slower run up before, now he runs little faster and bowls faster; he averaged more than Irfan on the speed clock. Balaji bowled accurately right from the world go, he was swinging the ball pretty well. After Kapil and Roger Binny I am seeing bowlers from India who could do justice to swing bowling. When it comes to bowling, Speed is secondary but accuracy with some serious swing you are destined to be the match winner. Balaji did it and got five, a great come back for his youngster from Tamil Nadu, he was wearing a wrist watch and the wicket keeper Dinesh Karthik kept asking him time [in Tamil] at regular intervals. “பால மணி என்ன” was heard twice on the stump microphone.

Inzamam , he is simply a great cricketer to watch, he makes it look very easy, the ball was swinging like a pendulum, but he never cared. He was cool and went on wit his natural game. While the other end was struggling Inzi started to hit boundaries at regular intervals, he proved his class quite well. He is the best Pakisthani Cricketer I have seen in the past decade.

Yuhana, well before the match began Pathan had already reserved Yuhana's wicket. Kartik took a faint edge, surprise! before umpire could raise, Yuhana walked!. Great gesture in sportsmanship, score was only 104 at that time, 104/4.

The wicketkeeper batsmen Kamran Akmal was amazing, he really played fluent cricket. He played second fiddle to Inzi to start with then took over the reign after his captain departed. He scored another 90 [again!] and was out bowled by Balaji. Some of the strokes he played were totally from the books. He was comfortable all through his innings. In fact I would promote him to number three. He has every quality a number 3 should have.

Inzi was out to Kumble, a close LBW call that could have gone either way, Inzi was given out. He had to go. Kumble bowling was predictable to the core. He donated runs in the process of nonstop donkey drops. He was bowling too fast for a spinner. He did take wickets however damaged had been done already by then. Zaheer also followed Kumble’s guidelines and donated runs. At close Pakisthan were all-out for 312. Pitch will swing in the morning with some moisture due to the cover sweating. Gambeer and Viru will have to face the music, if they see through the first session we have big score on the cards.

India Vs Pakisthan, We are all set.

We are all set for the power struggle again, Cricket Madness is on Air. India tees of with its arch rivals Pakistan in about 12 hrs. First Test at Mohali , they have 3 tests and 6 one day internationals.

Dish network will be bringing this live here in the USA, Pay per view, we need to pay for the game, how much? Are you ready for this? They want $249.99 + 1 dollar ordering fee. The 99 cents covers Sanjay Manju’s Boring Bonus.

Is this game of cricket worth that much of money? $250, [rounded off for math comfort] is about Rs. 11,500 [at Rs 46 for a Dollar]. We will be paying about Rs.1300 per match. Even the pavilion tickets in Mohali would be atleast Rs. 200 lesser. I agree that getting it here via satellites is costly. But today we have more number of satellites than crows. Why is this still costly?

My point is why is Dish Network charging so much? What else to say other than an excessive desire to acquire or possess more than its needs, A.K.A “Greed” BCCI’s Greed to make more money and Dish network’s Greed to exploit Desi passion for the crazy game. It is worth or not it is for the individuals to decide for themselves, I really don’t care. In fact I am thinking twice this time about swiping my credit card to get this craze live, that too at the wee hours.

Having said, there is a 95% chance for me to spend this amount tonight. But I am yet to decide because during the live coverage they pump in commercials, I don’t want to pay to watch KKKK - “King King Kabaab king” and totally “Nasal” Met life jingles. Hearing the MET Life “Nasalized” jingle at 12.00 midnight almost wakes the “poltergeist” out of my TV. If they promise to keep the commercials off limits I might consider.

Finally, what will be India’s prospects? Captain Gangully says “watch out for “VVS”, I think it is cue to VVS rather, if he doesn’t play well, he need to watch out for his place. Will Sachin play to his full potential or it will be again Dravid pulling the slow moving cart? Will Gangully score? Will Pakistan create an upset for worlds number two team? Umpire panel includes the controversial and notorious Steve Bucknor and Darrel Hair.

All set for a great clash.

OM

OM is a brand new fusion band from India. They are group of young musicians with very unique talent. They are out with their new album that contains musical Flavors from north, south East, West of India cooked nicely on a Western base. This is the maiden album offering from the group. The group comprising Shriram Iyer (lead vocals), K G Vishwanath (mridangam, ghatam, khanjira, djembe), Amartya Rahut (lead guitars), Amit Trivedi (keyboards) and K G Ramnarayan (ghatam, khanjira, djembe, percussion), show lots of maturity and professionalism. You can “hear” the album in music India online. Just to enhance your hearing experience, let me continue my review.

It is the song Man Ke Darpan Mein that got my attention right away. Why? It comes close near Shanker’s Breathless, hey wait that was a compliment, I was happy to hear the same freshness “Breathless” came with a decade or more go. It is long since I heard some arranged string sections in Hindi pop genre. Fluent flute, solid sax parts were honey drops that padded the melody well. Followed by Maula, this song sounded like a rock fusion with lead guitar phrase. My little musician brain wished for some serious vocals harmonies at least over the “sunZRA mela” lines.”Ok, Ok Srikanth that’s enough”, “alright”, Let us move to the best song [IMVBSO=in my very biased and subjective opinion], maulaMohana, I like the most in this album, it was very nicely done with wonderful “jathi” vocals over a very soft melody, they managed to eliminate unwanted “noise” that most composers are forced to use these days. The arpeggios [Korg Karma?] are put to very good use, lots of hip sounding arpeggios fills the aroma.

After the mesmerizing maulaMohana, it is followed by Piya, a slow number with good set of vocals harmonies. Here too again lots of prudent use of synth arpeggios that spins around the main melody. Samjhayun Kaise Mere, opens quite well, I heard few familiar sounds [Emu-planet earth?,] however the best part of this song are the BMX organ phrases. Very nice placement of raw organ sounds, frankly organ sounds over Indian melody is a rarity. I wish they had female backing voice in this track. “Why? Hey I need to show off my composer class right”. There was also the old-fashioned hand click sound panned hard to left and right.

Son Chiraiya - frankly on a sweeter note, this song reminded me of R.D.Burman, Why? lots of Bengali music phrases and trend in the composition. I see now why my good friend and vocalist Raja Govindarajan recommended me this album, “Bengali like compositions” - his musical weakness is simply 3 words, “Pandit Ajoy chakraborty” “Kudos” to the composer of this track. I wish I could learn some of the diversity we hear in this track.

Tum Tana: A “rAgam” and “thAnam” I would also call this as a club mix fusion, just some edits in few places with a Bangra loop, hey! pubs in New York city watch out for this foot tapping number dance number in the rag “Abheri”. Yes, this song was based on pure Abheri. Some one in the band used their Carnatic roots quite well.

Ok "Srikanth!","how come you are so appreciative and positive today? Are you in a good mood?” Wait, “do not rush, it about time to expose my musician brain", please allow me to grumble or nitpick a little, It is all for good.

The only factor that kept lingering in my head was the keyboards and drum programming, they could do it better, much better, I felt some lack of experience in programming. Sound modeling is the keyword or code word or password word in today’s fast paced pop music world. Proper sound modeling is must for any fusion music.

I agree on stage they play play it live, it is ok to go without much sound modeling on stage, but on a CD, an average "crazy fellow" like me hears the track about 200 times a week, If the sounds are not selected properly, after 120th run, it becomes boring.

”Oh no stop! Srikanth please prove your theory”, “very easy”, “my big boss A.R.Rahman”, any number of times you hear his songs it seems to sounds better every time. It gets on you slowly, True, accept it. Because his sounds catch your attention very slowly, their presence is established very slowly on you. Ok Srikanth “cut the crap”, What’s the problem here? Ok, here it is.

I had problems with the sounds they picked. Today sounds are vital for a composition. Basically if 60% of your music comes out of a synthesizer, it very important to choose proper sounds that exposes only 30% synth quality. This comes by practice. For such sophisticated vocals and melodies, I felt the sound they choose were kind of ordinary, especially the Dx7 bells sounds for chord, hey this sound is around for last 25 years now, frankly cling clung cling chords changes are kind of old.

My point is the band needs to have new set of sounds to their recording from their live shows. However, I am very sure they will get it get right in just few more albums. It is just matter of time, folks, that’s all. My Nitpicks ends here.

To close down my review In a nut shell, these guys have a great musical sense and music taste, for example the chords are not just placed as a formality, every placement shows they clearly know what they are doing, other than gripe on the DX7 bells, hats off to those prudent chord progressions.

I would buy this CD right away; Why? my ears are waxed up with the 6/8 syndrome, thanks to Tamil cine music, 9 out 10 songs from Kodambakkam are infected with this “Fast 6/8 Syndrome” bug, though in Hindi this album is fresh! music.

I would request people get it asap, please do it legally instead of downloading it from a website. In fact God willing I would love to produce an album in Tamil with these guys. , hey wake up day dreamer, that’s enough! Ok! Ok! I got carried away, Watch out! , this band is going to go places.

The False Superiority complex

Just because she has a good voice, she has no business to render great compositions such as "Nagumomu", "Sarasasamadhana" and other Tamil songs and even Meera bhajans in Michael Jackson style, ridiculing their sanctity and a classical tradition ridiculing their sanctity and a classical tradition which has been preserved for so many hundreds of years by devoted classical musicians. Read here..

I found the above review in the Hindu metro section. First and fore most I did not hear the songs or go to the concert hence I really don’t know how bad this show was, I don’t want comment on the show. May be it really misfired. This happens in many so called fusion shows. However I was surprised to see people nose crying.

You Don’t like You Don’t go.

In my opinion an artist has every freedom to experiment, if a majority likes it they are welcome to continue it, if not they will find it soon and change their experimentation. The above review seems to have bluntly and blindly discounted the musical and art experimentation freedom. And in this process reviewer has poorly compared the so called “Michael Jackson style”, this apart from proving that she has very poor knowledge on popular music, she hits the wrong note on Jackson fans. For his fans his music is good Right? Like you enjoy “Nagumo” in its purest form, hey there are people who enjoy “the way you make me feel” or “black or white”. First stop thinking that popular music is poor in music sense while Carnatic music is the divine sent pure sweet nectar.

Carnatic or Western - Music is divine for the musicians.

It seems the reviewer says it is time for someone to start protecting “the sanctity”, the reviewer has taken the rights to call for such protection, yes good idea, but first who owns it? That in itself is an unknown issue for now, hey! My point is if you don’t like experimentations and allergic to hear “nagumo” on modern grooves, you are welcome to walk out of it or stay home. Period.

Tell me this, where were you then? Recently I heard some old recordings of popular Carnatic singer with all respects due to him, I learnt one new thing, Lord Krishna was born in the "Nayar kulam" rather than "Ayar kulam", he sang thaye yesodha, where this was captured quite well. I feel first step will be to make sure every Carnatic musician pronounce the words properly instead of swallowing, twisting, pulling, splitting at their will, dragging and munching words. Another example is the Bharathi song, theeradha vilaiyatu pillai, 9 out 10 singers sing it as pengaluku “Koyatha” thollai, there is no word in Tamil called “koyadha”. What the hell is this all about? Now Can the so called “Tamil sanctity keepers” sue Carnatic musicians for these blunders? I have never seen any comment from the so called above mentioned self appointed guardian for Carnatic music. Ask our Telugu speaking friends, they will vouch tons for pronunciation goof ups.

I really don’t care what Susheela Raman did on the stage but I am little upset to see the reviewer spewing generalized and discriminate opinions on a different form of music in order to justify the form she loves. You are welcome to call Carnatic music to be pure, your opinion, but do not insult musicians from other form in this process. You don’t have the right. Curtail your Superiority complex.
And for The Hindu, if they really stand in the middle, they should have at least edited some lines.

The DC Weather Report Fiasco

It was Monday; I finally recovered from this Flu bug was all set to get back to work. As I woke up in the morning, I made the mighty mistake of checking the weather reports on the local TV. Wow! All the stations reported “team coverage” specials. Yes, they place 4 to 6 local anchor people in various important spots around the DC metro and provide live minute by minute information on something they refer as the “developing condition”, the important places includes city Salt storages, Metro stations, under bridges and every other place a reporter could penetrate.

It was 5.30 am; I looked out of my window to see there was no sign of snow, as if they read my mind, the reporter on TV warned that it was the “calm before the storm”. The weather report followed, the weather pundit first starts of by tracking this storm right from Hawaiian cost, he then explains how it devastated CA area, then how it moved to lower southern states , then reached the another tourist paradise, Florida. Finally it is now pushing across Carolinas, and on its way to pound DC metro with 7 to 10 inches of snow. You should see the animated dance on the green screen that displays a huge map. Lord of weather dance. To test my patience he walks around talking about the entire nation; he gives information about every other city other than Gaithersburg. Finally he predicts about 8 – 10 inches of snow.
The best joke is the lead new anchor acting out an artificial anger on the weather man as if he/she is god.
“Thanks Bob” but next time you say more than 5, hey! I am going to hate you.

Weather Pundit Bob: Hey that’s my job for you but you know what, I will give you some good news for the weekend after we come back,

“Anchor: better be good, we will be right back”.

After tons of early morning prescription medicine commercials, we get back to live show, The next teamster is on Air, She gives the sermon live from a metro station, it seems metro was working hard to keep up to this mammoth of a storm however metro rail would stop running ground service if the snow level exceeds 8 inches or more. Under ground service would continue on a 30 minute gap between trains. Wow! I was worried about his snow, what If I get stuck in the snow some where in DC and could not return home. Fear was spreading more than the snow and sleet, slowly based on these fearful weather predictions schools were shut down, and kids were to stay home.

7.26 am, I check out side and I see some flurries, the weather man once again reading my mind, appears from no where and says the snow has began in my area, I decided to skip work fearing the snow. Completely unlike me, I use to live in Minneapolis, MN, hence I really care don’t care much about the snow. But the weather man talk made me “assume” too many things.

11.40 am, the weather man spins a “doosra” by saying storm might move in some other direction, there might be a change in the weather. It might stay on the lower end.

2.45pm, a light puny little amount snow, by 4.30pm that melts and roads are as clean as cucumber, it is now 6.30pm, finally it starts to snow all thorough evening and about 3 inches of snow on the ground by mid night. That’s it.

I like to know how the weathermen get away every time after confusing people with hyped wrong predictions. Why was the schools closed? And who will account for the wasted amount of salt that was sprayed to keep the roads clean?, this so called precautionary slat spraying could crack the roads as well. Lesson learned - Never trust the DC metro TV, weather man in particular.

Frankly DC is one of the most guarded city in the world. For the city to function, they monitor every thing around the city. But a crate full of snow and a weatherman is enough to bring the entire city to a stand still.

Double Dooosra

This blog is 1 year old

Today, this blog is 1 year old, March 1st 2004, I booked this site,
However I started to write something only from April 18th 2004.
Just a birth day note, I request you to read My first blog

Last week, I was bitten by the flu bug, had to be at home for more than a week.
During the vacation, Oscar awards were given, I watched the show fully, and Chris rock was totally out of his gears. He went for the usual Bush bashing which I felt was kind of stale, and then he took over some of his fellow actors and told directors to “wait” for the proper actor, does this advice apply to the Oscar committee, and will they “wait” for a better Master of ceremony.

My point is if you get Chris Rock, you should give him the full court advantage, there is no point in restricting him like a tamed pony. I am sure he is much funnier than what we saw last Sunday. Hey, if ABC wants it to be a “G” rated Oscar, they are welcome to get their Mickey or Donald to host the show. However I don’t know if the Dressing up fiasco falls under this category of a family evening.

The E Channel had more than 5 hours of commercial free live coverage from the red carpet. They teed of right from how the carpet was made, which euro designer designed it, using what etc. a good chunk general knowledge was shared in the name of Oscar coverage.

The Red carpet walk, the so called fashion designers are ripping people left and right. I felt most women wore material similar to curtains in many homes. It looked to me that some of them got excess cloth; but being the so called “expensive designer wear”, the designers used all that was given to them; for most the excess cloth followed them like an anaconda.

There were many living and non-living things on TV talking about these cloths. What is a designer wear? Answer: Something that makes you look undressed or semi-nude? I don’t know what the big deal was. I think it was a good plan for rain, though it did not rain much as expected using just one of the so called designer wear, we could build a perfectly made 48x96 “shamiyana” and people could walk right under it without an umbrella.

The awards, Let me keep it short [bashing]. I really don’t know the deal on the movie “million dollar babe”, what is the big deal here? A grumpy old boxing teacher breaks the ice by tutoring a determined girl, just change the boxing teacher to Dance teacher; hey we might get “punnagai mannan” or may be Sripriya learning Karate in Billa. Come on! “Srikanth” Shut up, you don’t have taste for Oscar rated movies, and this movie is about Maggie’s Determination, Oh Yes! It was Revathy’s same determination that changes the mind of the grumpy teacher. What is the big drama about? I need to check with my neighbors Dog, I hope he had got the plot, I am sure he would have, they call him Oscar.