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.
11/2/04
11/1/04
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...!".
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...!".
10/29/04
It is Finger pointing time.
I was reading various reports in the press for last 1 hour during lunch break.
I was trying to find the “bali kada”
“Who shall we blame for various cricketing fiasco of our home team?”
John Wright Factor: If a NFL or NBA team performs as badly as India, first axe that falls will be on the coach. It is clear here the Coach is not able to use or control his resources to get its full potential. When it comes to a star studded line up like India, Team chemistry is very vital. Coach has to have the control. L.A. Lakers in spite of having stars were nothing until Phil Jackson took the reign. Coach plays a critical role to combine the resources in a workable manner. I think it right time for John Wright to be fired and get a new coach, my choice is to try someone like Dean Jones for next 2 years.
However currently the BCCI is ferociously fighting in court to find who will be guarding the cricket coffers for next few years, a group that is not able not decide its own leader , how are they going to decide on a new coach. Even God might check few things before he knows about this.
Parthive patel, in a recent column in TOI says he saw video clipping of his wicket keeping in Pakistan and does not find any difference now, so can we conclude you sucked there and here? Or He is a totally confused adolescent not knowing his boss?
It seems Kiran More , the now promoted Sr. selector [who you might remember as the honest Raj who complained about a local cricketer who offered him bribe],has given free tips to Parthive Patel. More is his god father who fought with Kirmani to retain Patel and [chased poor Kiri out into the woods].
Poor Patel cannot say no to him. While the team coach Mr. Wright has given some instruction that is contradictory to Kiran More’s golden advice. So this poor kid lost his focus and did not know whom to follow, trying to please both, he screwed up in his job. Apart from this two, he is also supposed to take commands from the Commander-in-chief, aka, Captain. Poor Patel was misguided and lost his place in my golu eleven and will be losing his place in the real Indian team. There is something to be learned from this, Can Selectors advice the players? Where is line of command stop? There also rumors that he has eye sight problem etc. Patel has to forget International cricket for time being And try after 2 years, he still has time for a come back
Top order and Sachin’s Form, Tendulkar's poor batting form is a very good target for his skeptics, who ridiculously feel he is given too much attention while there are other cricketers with similar batting capacitiesm are ignored. For me this is ludicrous, Sachin is the mordern days cricketing legend , for this achievement alone he is beyond compare. Period. He has not played for about two months, and he has failed in both the innings. I feel he has to start scoring at least to shut the skeptics down, Sachin factor is very important to the Indian team. I feel without him around, Indian team performance will be much worse.
Apart from Sachin, Dravid’s form, I consider Dravid to be another best bat who needs to be present and play well for India to succeed. I feel it is time for both of them to pickup and get going
VVS, I don’t know why he is given so many chances?, the way he got out in both the innings he should be made to carry drinks without pay until next season.
[to be continued...]
I was trying to find the “bali kada”
“Who shall we blame for various cricketing fiasco of our home team?”
John Wright Factor: If a NFL or NBA team performs as badly as India, first axe that falls will be on the coach. It is clear here the Coach is not able to use or control his resources to get its full potential. When it comes to a star studded line up like India, Team chemistry is very vital. Coach has to have the control. L.A. Lakers in spite of having stars were nothing until Phil Jackson took the reign. Coach plays a critical role to combine the resources in a workable manner. I think it right time for John Wright to be fired and get a new coach, my choice is to try someone like Dean Jones for next 2 years.
However currently the BCCI is ferociously fighting in court to find who will be guarding the cricket coffers for next few years, a group that is not able not decide its own leader , how are they going to decide on a new coach. Even God might check few things before he knows about this.
Parthive patel, in a recent column in TOI says he saw video clipping of his wicket keeping in Pakistan and does not find any difference now, so can we conclude you sucked there and here? Or He is a totally confused adolescent not knowing his boss?
It seems Kiran More , the now promoted Sr. selector [who you might remember as the honest Raj who complained about a local cricketer who offered him bribe],has given free tips to Parthive Patel. More is his god father who fought with Kirmani to retain Patel and [chased poor Kiri out into the woods].
Poor Patel cannot say no to him. While the team coach Mr. Wright has given some instruction that is contradictory to Kiran More’s golden advice. So this poor kid lost his focus and did not know whom to follow, trying to please both, he screwed up in his job. Apart from this two, he is also supposed to take commands from the Commander-in-chief, aka, Captain. Poor Patel was misguided and lost his place in my golu eleven and will be losing his place in the real Indian team. There is something to be learned from this, Can Selectors advice the players? Where is line of command stop? There also rumors that he has eye sight problem etc. Patel has to forget International cricket for time being And try after 2 years, he still has time for a come back
Top order and Sachin’s Form, Tendulkar's poor batting form is a very good target for his skeptics, who ridiculously feel he is given too much attention while there are other cricketers with similar batting capacitiesm are ignored. For me this is ludicrous, Sachin is the mordern days cricketing legend , for this achievement alone he is beyond compare. Period. He has not played for about two months, and he has failed in both the innings. I feel he has to start scoring at least to shut the skeptics down, Sachin factor is very important to the Indian team. I feel without him around, Indian team performance will be much worse.
Apart from Sachin, Dravid’s form, I consider Dravid to be another best bat who needs to be present and play well for India to succeed. I feel it is time for both of them to pickup and get going
VVS, I don’t know why he is given so many chances?, the way he got out in both the innings he should be made to carry drinks without pay until next season.
[to be continued...]
Game Day, Third Test, The final nail
the Aussies trash the Indians at Nagpur
“They are all set to win the game by tomorrow evening”. This was my “great” prediction!, a prediction similar to “it is going to snow in Minneapolis this winter”, Australia wins a cricket series in India, last time they did this when I was one year old, or 2 years before Matt Hayden was born. The dreaming Indian team gave up the match without much fight. Aussies injected the lethal dose slowly and steadily and won the game with pride.
Coming to Indian reply for the 500+ runs, Sehwag played quite well but it was a patience game he lost. Kaif and Zaheer khan salvaged some pride, Poor Patel, apart from his poor keeping form; he suffered another bad decision from the Pakistani umpire.
The top (of the line) batsmen in our team, Dravid, VVS and Sachin did not do much. Sachin coming back from a long injury break, played a cut short in the air was caught; Dravid was bowled while VVS once again played a reckless hook shot and was caught in the deep. It looked as though they have given up the game without even trying. Chopra simply could not play.
Aussies declared just 15 minutes before lunch, timed it perfectly to bowl one over and humiliate the weak Indian batting. But on the counter the openers survived the first over, while the insulting remarks from commentary box went waste.
During Innings break, Sanjay Manju was all smiling and told 500+ is too high and there is no chance for India to score. True, however his sarcasm in general denoted more bad taste rather than practical commentary.
After the victory, Slater went over board and tainted this as well planned assault which started right from the first ball in Banglore, he mentioned Aussies dominated the Indian from the word go in this series, forgetting there was test played in Chennai, where the Indians had every possibility to win.
Current situation is such that we need to digest this and more in days to come from Aussies press box (and the free “Alley Sonata” [sandhula sindhu] from Barry Richards].
Indian public witnessed an emotionally affected captain, Gill Christ, he was almost crying during the interview with Dean Jones. I felt like watching the Grammy’s. I thank god, my producer…etc etc [and later get caught in DUI].
Dravid walked in to talk to the “Sarcastic” Sanjay, but cleverly dealt his questions. We were outplayed and we have no excuse to offer. Simple! When asked about change in team selection, Dravid told nothing big would change until the top order bats for its full potential. Two or three changes in the team will not bring any drastic climate changes. Sanjay then pulled a faster one, he asked about dumping of the captaincy on him at the last minute and enquired about Gangully’s return, for which Dravid replied “you need to check with the “Physio” quickly walked away.
Martin was given a 120cc bike, the man of the match award, where the back and front wheel will shared by the umpires, while Martin gets to take the rest to Australia with him.
In general Aussie press will boast about their team for everything, with a valid reason now, their heads would automatically increase by 20,000 tons. It took them about 35 years to win a rubber on the Indian soil. Yes, they have every right be happy and proud, and as an Indian cricket supporter, I have every right to be behind my team for keeping the Aussies in the control for last 35 years.
Finally, after my spirited “ifs or “buts” the point here is Aussies have beaten our Sahara, or BCCI or the Indian cricket team hands down, we sucked badly through out the game for which we don’t deserve to win, my hearty Congratulations to the Aussies.
Next test, Mumbai here we come.
“They are all set to win the game by tomorrow evening”. This was my “great” prediction!, a prediction similar to “it is going to snow in Minneapolis this winter”, Australia wins a cricket series in India, last time they did this when I was one year old, or 2 years before Matt Hayden was born. The dreaming Indian team gave up the match without much fight. Aussies injected the lethal dose slowly and steadily and won the game with pride.
Coming to Indian reply for the 500+ runs, Sehwag played quite well but it was a patience game he lost. Kaif and Zaheer khan salvaged some pride, Poor Patel, apart from his poor keeping form; he suffered another bad decision from the Pakistani umpire.
The top (of the line) batsmen in our team, Dravid, VVS and Sachin did not do much. Sachin coming back from a long injury break, played a cut short in the air was caught; Dravid was bowled while VVS once again played a reckless hook shot and was caught in the deep. It looked as though they have given up the game without even trying. Chopra simply could not play.
Aussies declared just 15 minutes before lunch, timed it perfectly to bowl one over and humiliate the weak Indian batting. But on the counter the openers survived the first over, while the insulting remarks from commentary box went waste.
During Innings break, Sanjay Manju was all smiling and told 500+ is too high and there is no chance for India to score. True, however his sarcasm in general denoted more bad taste rather than practical commentary.
After the victory, Slater went over board and tainted this as well planned assault which started right from the first ball in Banglore, he mentioned Aussies dominated the Indian from the word go in this series, forgetting there was test played in Chennai, where the Indians had every possibility to win.
Current situation is such that we need to digest this and more in days to come from Aussies press box (and the free “Alley Sonata” [sandhula sindhu] from Barry Richards].
Indian public witnessed an emotionally affected captain, Gill Christ, he was almost crying during the interview with Dean Jones. I felt like watching the Grammy’s. I thank god, my producer…etc etc [and later get caught in DUI].
Dravid walked in to talk to the “Sarcastic” Sanjay, but cleverly dealt his questions. We were outplayed and we have no excuse to offer. Simple! When asked about change in team selection, Dravid told nothing big would change until the top order bats for its full potential. Two or three changes in the team will not bring any drastic climate changes. Sanjay then pulled a faster one, he asked about dumping of the captaincy on him at the last minute and enquired about Gangully’s return, for which Dravid replied “you need to check with the “Physio” quickly walked away.
Martin was given a 120cc bike, the man of the match award, where the back and front wheel will shared by the umpires, while Martin gets to take the rest to Australia with him.
In general Aussie press will boast about their team for everything, with a valid reason now, their heads would automatically increase by 20,000 tons. It took them about 35 years to win a rubber on the Indian soil. Yes, they have every right be happy and proud, and as an Indian cricket supporter, I have every right to be behind my team for keeping the Aussies in the control for last 35 years.
Finally, after my spirited “ifs or “buts” the point here is Aussies have beaten our Sahara, or BCCI or the Indian cricket team hands down, we sucked badly through out the game for which we don’t deserve to win, my hearty Congratulations to the Aussies.
Next test, Mumbai here we come.
10/28/04
“Golu mela”, 2004
Starting last year, my wife and my daughter started to celebrate “Golu”, a festival where they arrange various dolls for display and invite family and friends, present them with traditional “vethalai & paku” and small token item as gift.
If you ask me, this is one of the best festival in the Hindu religion, basically being in a far away land from home, we hardly get to meet people from our community, this festival paves the way, my wife had invited about 40+ at least, many were Moms of my daughter’s school buddies, many from our neighborhood . This also included Americans.
It was 9 days [actually evenings] of people, people and people, when I went home, there would be someone visiting.
Last year during this time, my dad was here in DC, he went around finding old cartoons and giant size suitcases, my red color computer books and built the steps. I never went near to help them also. It was nice and compact for our town home.
However this year, a new house, so my wife intended to build real steps, the commercial ones sold in New Jersey area ranged from $300-$400. Simply it was too costly. So I decided to build it on my own, when in comes to wood work, Homer Simpson works better than me. In a scale of 1 to 10, I rank -20 in wood work.
I had no clue, to my shock and surprise, wood work is not that hard, with my brother-in- law’s help we built this “golu” steps for something less than $100.
Home depot sells some thing called raises, which are sides for the steps Each costs about $15, get 2 of them, and create a triangle to hold them , get 2 long wood planks [16 feet each] $15 each, cut them into 4 feet , hey! It was ready in 2 hrs. The raises were in even number so we added a ground level step, which does not feature in the photo.
Ps: We had got a doll cricket set from Chennai, the wicketkeeper was Patel, and I dropped him. He does not deserve a place even in “golu”,
If you ask me, this is one of the best festival in the Hindu religion, basically being in a far away land from home, we hardly get to meet people from our community, this festival paves the way, my wife had invited about 40+ at least, many were Moms of my daughter’s school buddies, many from our neighborhood . This also included Americans.
It was 9 days [actually evenings] of people, people and people, when I went home, there would be someone visiting.
Last year during this time, my dad was here in DC, he went around finding old cartoons and giant size suitcases, my red color computer books and built the steps. I never went near to help them also. It was nice and compact for our town home.
However this year, a new house, so my wife intended to build real steps, the commercial ones sold in New Jersey area ranged from $300-$400. Simply it was too costly. So I decided to build it on my own, when in comes to wood work, Homer Simpson works better than me. In a scale of 1 to 10, I rank -20 in wood work.
I had no clue, to my shock and surprise, wood work is not that hard, with my brother-in- law’s help we built this “golu” steps for something less than $100.
Home depot sells some thing called raises, which are sides for the steps Each costs about $15, get 2 of them, and create a triangle to hold them , get 2 long wood planks [16 feet each] $15 each, cut them into 4 feet , hey! It was ready in 2 hrs. The raises were in even number so we added a ground level step, which does not feature in the photo.
Ps: We had got a doll cricket set from Chennai, the wicketkeeper was Patel, and I dropped him. He does not deserve a place even in “golu”,
Game Day, Third Test, 3rd day
Indians and the Aussies, Nagpur
If there is a God that controls cricket, he or she was on the side of the Aussies. When it comes to LBW Indians have been victims of poor umpiring and Aussies has always been fortunate to get away with daring umpiring mistakes.
Indian pacers pinned the Australian top order to a run rate below 2.00, Zaheer Khan and Agarkar bowled their hearts out for the first hour of the innings. The last time Zaheer bowled like this was in New Zealand.
Katich took a light year or more to score his first run. However he was finally out for 99 for 2, he got lucky twice, Zaheer had him plumb in the front when he was in zero, By all means this Leg before appeal can be used as LBW specimen for umpire training purposes.
Oh! Poor Indians, kept cool, may be afraid of being fined by match referee Mr. Ranjan “Biased” Madmax.
Second time, Kumble suffered the umpiring stinker, Katich was again out plumb in the front, but the umpire standing just 22 yards away missed it. How can he miss it, was he dreaming about something? ,
In the recent ”thuglak tamil” magazine, in the parody filled Q&A section, there was a question on Sehwag’s stinker decision in the Banglore test, for which the editor had replied that people fail to see the conditions at which umpires work, people fail to appreciate them for right decisions.
This is the first time ever I don’t agree with Mr.Cho Ramaswamy here. Umpires are there to do a job, and they are being compensated well enough to do the job, every other rule protect umpires from the players over reaction, crowd noise etc are part of the job, be ready to take it, if you cannot, "CHANGE YOUR JOB". The Umpire stands 22 yards away from the stumps, if he cannot see it properly from 22 yards, Listen, they cannot see from anywhere. Ridiculous!
I am very surprised why our beloved Cho fails to see the pressure faced by the batsmen or the bowler. The entire outcome of the match is bound to change because of daring umpire errors. Katich went on to score 99, had he been out on zero, who knows the way pacers were bowling things might have gone India’s way.
Whew!, Let us get back, finally! After back breaking sessions, the Cricket gods showed mercy on the Indians and justice was served Katich was out LBW to Karthick for 99. Thanks to the umpire who saw it right this time at least. Dubious decisions turn round the entire out come of the match. This is a fact.
Kumble soon started bowling his usual donkey drops and Patel failed to gather those drops. This incompetence continued all through the day. Dravid kind of over used Sachin, at a point of time he should have got back the pacers after giving them the much needed (short) rest.
In the Morning session, worried about the dagger hanging over his head, Patel was out to Shane Warne. The “all rounder” who could never bats a.k.a Agarkar walked in to score 15 and was impatient to stay further. It was just time before the Indian tail was chopped and digested by the Aussies. As expected by every one who follows cricket, follow on was not enforced, Aussies decided to bat India out of the game.
On the innings break, Sanjay Moonraker, started his sarcasm, this time his hate was on Chorpa, he mentioned “the technically preferred” opener failed again to score. People Do you remember how Sanjay Manju batted?, I remember, he is of the same kind who could stay on the wicket, play perfect technical cricket for 365 days and still score something less than 20. It is high time to remind him about it.
B(op)arry Richards, a great cricketer no doubt, however he needs to remember that he is being paid by the Indians for his services, at times he goes over board on commentary by using the “Ian Chappell” methods. Using few speculated news from the media, he has no right to insult the Indian team or its captain. It is not appropriate to display his smartness in the commentary box, his job is to report about the live action, Period. He is welcome to create a Blog and compete with me. Go over board on Gangully for his off field behavior etc. at your own cost, who cares;
The lead at the close was above 400, I am sure India would lose this match. I have no hopes of any kind, yes!, we do have great batsmen with great potential and technique , but the Aussies are very much capable of putting pressure on Indian batting lineup, with some luck from the cricket gods and Mr. Umpires , they are all set to win the game by tomorrow evening.
If there is a God that controls cricket, he or she was on the side of the Aussies. When it comes to LBW Indians have been victims of poor umpiring and Aussies has always been fortunate to get away with daring umpiring mistakes.
Indian pacers pinned the Australian top order to a run rate below 2.00, Zaheer Khan and Agarkar bowled their hearts out for the first hour of the innings. The last time Zaheer bowled like this was in New Zealand.
Katich took a light year or more to score his first run. However he was finally out for 99 for 2, he got lucky twice, Zaheer had him plumb in the front when he was in zero, By all means this Leg before appeal can be used as LBW specimen for umpire training purposes.
Oh! Poor Indians, kept cool, may be afraid of being fined by match referee Mr. Ranjan “Biased” Madmax.
Second time, Kumble suffered the umpiring stinker, Katich was again out plumb in the front, but the umpire standing just 22 yards away missed it. How can he miss it, was he dreaming about something? ,
In the recent ”thuglak tamil” magazine, in the parody filled Q&A section, there was a question on Sehwag’s stinker decision in the Banglore test, for which the editor had replied that people fail to see the conditions at which umpires work, people fail to appreciate them for right decisions.
This is the first time ever I don’t agree with Mr.Cho Ramaswamy here. Umpires are there to do a job, and they are being compensated well enough to do the job, every other rule protect umpires from the players over reaction, crowd noise etc are part of the job, be ready to take it, if you cannot, "CHANGE YOUR JOB". The Umpire stands 22 yards away from the stumps, if he cannot see it properly from 22 yards, Listen, they cannot see from anywhere. Ridiculous!
I am very surprised why our beloved Cho fails to see the pressure faced by the batsmen or the bowler. The entire outcome of the match is bound to change because of daring umpire errors. Katich went on to score 99, had he been out on zero, who knows the way pacers were bowling things might have gone India’s way.
Whew!, Let us get back, finally! After back breaking sessions, the Cricket gods showed mercy on the Indians and justice was served Katich was out LBW to Karthick for 99. Thanks to the umpire who saw it right this time at least. Dubious decisions turn round the entire out come of the match. This is a fact.
Kumble soon started bowling his usual donkey drops and Patel failed to gather those drops. This incompetence continued all through the day. Dravid kind of over used Sachin, at a point of time he should have got back the pacers after giving them the much needed (short) rest.
In the Morning session, worried about the dagger hanging over his head, Patel was out to Shane Warne. The “all rounder” who could never bats a.k.a Agarkar walked in to score 15 and was impatient to stay further. It was just time before the Indian tail was chopped and digested by the Aussies. As expected by every one who follows cricket, follow on was not enforced, Aussies decided to bat India out of the game.
On the innings break, Sanjay Moonraker, started his sarcasm, this time his hate was on Chorpa, he mentioned “the technically preferred” opener failed again to score. People Do you remember how Sanjay Manju batted?, I remember, he is of the same kind who could stay on the wicket, play perfect technical cricket for 365 days and still score something less than 20. It is high time to remind him about it.
B(op)arry Richards, a great cricketer no doubt, however he needs to remember that he is being paid by the Indians for his services, at times he goes over board on commentary by using the “Ian Chappell” methods. Using few speculated news from the media, he has no right to insult the Indian team or its captain. It is not appropriate to display his smartness in the commentary box, his job is to report about the live action, Period. He is welcome to create a Blog and compete with me. Go over board on Gangully for his off field behavior etc. at your own cost, who cares;
The lead at the close was above 400, I am sure India would lose this match. I have no hopes of any kind, yes!, we do have great batsmen with great potential and technique , but the Aussies are very much capable of putting pressure on Indian batting lineup, with some luck from the cricket gods and Mr. Umpires , they are all set to win the game by tomorrow evening.
10/27/04
Game Day, Third Test, 2nd day
Indians and the Aussies, Nagpur
“In a test Match, the 1st hour belongs to the bowler, if you survive it, the next 5 hrs is yours.”
The above are golden words from the legend Sunil Manohar Gavasker, heard by another great batsman Dean Jones, who happen to mention it 12.5 times during his commentary.
I heard [the first time and ignored the rest.] it yesterday The point is, it was a great piece of advice, being the batting consultant and for the money he is getting paid, Sunny Gavasker has to do something or other right! , and team India for its respect to sunny, tried to follow those golden words but failed right royally. Why? In the above golden words, you would see something big is missing, a four letter word. “R U N S”
Agreed, as per the doctrine, the primary goal is to see off the 1st hour without losing your wicket, then stay the next 5 hours, but during this stay, the dam batsmen have to score RUNS.
Sunny did not mention it anywhere, our guys followed it blindly and did not trouble themselves to score runs. A batting goal to stay there for long period of time without scoring runs. Indians started to dig a stinking pond around them and trapped themselves in at the end of the day. At close of play, India were 146 /5 in 77 overs, a Run rate of “1.90”, even Ravi “kata podum” Shastri would feel ashamed. He would definitely feel he would have done better with his bat.
Indians innings started with real power, 5 fours from Sehwag within 12 balls India was 20 for no loss. Aussies however removed Sehwag out, Adam Gill Christ took a great catch to see him off, [compare this with our Butter Boy “Patel” who dropped vital catches and let the Aussies loose to score above 300.]
Dravid walks in, have you ever been to a slow cycling race? I have not but yesterday iu saw one. Dravid and Chopra started a great slow cycling competition and did not trouble the bowlers and the scores. They started to play for a draw in the 1sr hour for the 2nd day of a test. They followed blindly the “Gavasker” doctrine. Chopra never pushed for runs. However major contributor in this sloth bear innings was the acting captain Rahul Dravid. This time, the wall was really a stationary dry wall.
Dravid made 21 in about 140 balls, [about 24 overs.] Even 2 runs per over would have got him a half century, but a sloth is a sloth. Dravid and Chopra started to dig this dirty deep stinking pond, Chopra’s [and our] agony ended, he was out finally.
Sachin walks in, and has no other choice other than to continue digging the pond further deep. Finally was given a LBW, every other batsman in the world would have got the benefit of the doubt. But he was out. Dean Jones was screaming that it was poor decision, while Sanjay Manju started to swear it was a Fair “Dejition” , people!, it is high time to give Dean Jones the Indian citizenship card [that is to be forfeited from Sanjay Manju in a day or two]
Laxman walked in with his bow and arrow, did nothing, and was out as expected. Kaif and Dravid tried something very hard, over all it was uninteresting and lack luster cricket, imagine watching this dry wall at 3.00am, I gave up and dozed off for some time. But woke up to see Dravid was out, that too after wasting ½ one day international.
That’s it, Patel and Kaif started to play, sleeping seemed a better choice. Hope they set things right to save some pride. Even if Patel scores, he is all set to be dropped for the Bombay test.
Here is the comment of the day.
Deano: It is time for Gangully to try our every other player in the team for toss, find the lucky one and send him for toss every time. He has lost 6 times now.
Barry Richards: good idea, but make it everyone except Patel, because he would not be able to hold or catch the coin.
Let us keeping hoping India would improve.
“In a test Match, the 1st hour belongs to the bowler, if you survive it, the next 5 hrs is yours.”
The above are golden words from the legend Sunil Manohar Gavasker, heard by another great batsman Dean Jones, who happen to mention it 12.5 times during his commentary.
I heard [the first time and ignored the rest.] it yesterday The point is, it was a great piece of advice, being the batting consultant and for the money he is getting paid, Sunny Gavasker has to do something or other right! , and team India for its respect to sunny, tried to follow those golden words but failed right royally. Why? In the above golden words, you would see something big is missing, a four letter word. “R U N S”
Agreed, as per the doctrine, the primary goal is to see off the 1st hour without losing your wicket, then stay the next 5 hours, but during this stay, the dam batsmen have to score RUNS.
Sunny did not mention it anywhere, our guys followed it blindly and did not trouble themselves to score runs. A batting goal to stay there for long period of time without scoring runs. Indians started to dig a stinking pond around them and trapped themselves in at the end of the day. At close of play, India were 146 /5 in 77 overs, a Run rate of “1.90”, even Ravi “kata podum” Shastri would feel ashamed. He would definitely feel he would have done better with his bat.
Indians innings started with real power, 5 fours from Sehwag within 12 balls India was 20 for no loss. Aussies however removed Sehwag out, Adam Gill Christ took a great catch to see him off, [compare this with our Butter Boy “Patel” who dropped vital catches and let the Aussies loose to score above 300.]
Dravid walks in, have you ever been to a slow cycling race? I have not but yesterday iu saw one. Dravid and Chopra started a great slow cycling competition and did not trouble the bowlers and the scores. They started to play for a draw in the 1sr hour for the 2nd day of a test. They followed blindly the “Gavasker” doctrine. Chopra never pushed for runs. However major contributor in this sloth bear innings was the acting captain Rahul Dravid. This time, the wall was really a stationary dry wall.
Dravid made 21 in about 140 balls, [about 24 overs.] Even 2 runs per over would have got him a half century, but a sloth is a sloth. Dravid and Chopra started to dig this dirty deep stinking pond, Chopra’s [and our] agony ended, he was out finally.
Sachin walks in, and has no other choice other than to continue digging the pond further deep. Finally was given a LBW, every other batsman in the world would have got the benefit of the doubt. But he was out. Dean Jones was screaming that it was poor decision, while Sanjay Manju started to swear it was a Fair “Dejition” , people!, it is high time to give Dean Jones the Indian citizenship card [that is to be forfeited from Sanjay Manju in a day or two]
Laxman walked in with his bow and arrow, did nothing, and was out as expected. Kaif and Dravid tried something very hard, over all it was uninteresting and lack luster cricket, imagine watching this dry wall at 3.00am, I gave up and dozed off for some time. But woke up to see Dravid was out, that too after wasting ½ one day international.
That’s it, Patel and Kaif started to play, sleeping seemed a better choice. Hope they set things right to save some pride. Even if Patel scores, he is all set to be dropped for the Bombay test.
Here is the comment of the day.
Deano: It is time for Gangully to try our every other player in the team for toss, find the lucky one and send him for toss every time. He has lost 6 times now.
Barry Richards: good idea, but make it everyone except Patel, because he would not be able to hold or catch the coin.
Let us keeping hoping India would improve.
10/26/04
Game Day, Third Test,
Indians and the Aussies, Nagpur
I reported in my Blog that Gangully was walking gingerly during 1st test, he some how recouped and played in Chennai test, however here in Nagpur, he failed the fitness and was left out. Few web reports have started to speculate this as he dropped himself out because of too much grass is on the field and similar yada yadas are starting to appear. Come on! Please give us a break, Gangully is known for his spirit, he will never buckle for this small grass issue. Also, his position is in real jeopardy, do you think he will let Dravid take over. Don’t speculate for the heck of it and portray Gangully as a coward.
Good news for many, Sachin is back in action, he seemed fully fit and energetic and was seen running around the field, totally involved in the game. Aussie star batsmen Deano Jones in the commentary mentioned that ticket sales have doubled and was sold out after Sachin’s selection, for which Sanjay Manjrekar , the EX-Indian-cymbal [Jalra] for Sachin said most seats are empty and speculated that to be fallacy , then Deano replied it is an mid working day, people would show up soon. I really wonder why Sanjay Manju hates Sachin so much in general.
Alright, Let us get to the cricket. At close Aussies were 362/7, the day was filled with good batting by Damien Martin scored 104, while LehMann supported him.
The highlight of the day was Wicket keeping, if you had draw an imaginary goal post behind Patel, goals score today by the bowler would be 10000 at least. Patel never seemed to gather the ball comfortably; at times he was looking the batsmen while clearly missing the line of the ball. His legs never moved, at one point bowlers decided to directly bowl into his gloves, anything 1 feet away from him was let go for byes.
For once he did a clever stumping to take out Shane Warne it was quick, however he missed many , that includes a vital stumping and a catch for Clarke. People, it is high time to drop him from the team. BCCI is only organization in the world which has incompetence as part of their job description.
Available post:Wicket Keeper,
Join date: At once,
Pay: a Lot .
Job description: Wicketkeeper
Responsibility: None.
The “must” list:
Carry Helmet for Short legs and Forward short leg, Need to appeal in Excess, Give one line encouragement words in various languages, show a baby face and talk to the batsmen. Help and support board member from time to time.
These are the tasks which employees are expected to perform to the full satisfaction of their superiors. Failing to do this will affect your job and will be fired.
The optional Tasks: Occasionally from time to time, Employee might try to Collect balls, stop byes, execute stumping, and take Catches. However, these are * NOT * enforced task. Failing to do these tasks will not actually “NEVER“ affect your job or position and will not be considered for your performance appraisal, Board has the right to reject and select and fire you regardless of anything.
The “Ag[ony]arkar” Factor: He sucked in the past, sucking right royally now and will suck forever, from yesterday, people, I have started to think Indian team has only 1o players. I wish my career as forgiving as Agarkars. Wow!. one more great example of incompetence being part of the job description.
Anil Kumble was back to his original form. If you know what I mean, Indians miss Irfan and Balaji. Few Good men today: Kartick for this bowling and Dravid for his prudent captaincy.
Tommorrow! India would bat; let us hope for the best.
Ps: For more on batting and score, you can read some web pages that cover sessions.
I reported in my Blog that Gangully was walking gingerly during 1st test, he some how recouped and played in Chennai test, however here in Nagpur, he failed the fitness and was left out. Few web reports have started to speculate this as he dropped himself out because of too much grass is on the field and similar yada yadas are starting to appear. Come on! Please give us a break, Gangully is known for his spirit, he will never buckle for this small grass issue. Also, his position is in real jeopardy, do you think he will let Dravid take over. Don’t speculate for the heck of it and portray Gangully as a coward.
Good news for many, Sachin is back in action, he seemed fully fit and energetic and was seen running around the field, totally involved in the game. Aussie star batsmen Deano Jones in the commentary mentioned that ticket sales have doubled and was sold out after Sachin’s selection, for which Sanjay Manjrekar , the EX-Indian-cymbal [Jalra] for Sachin said most seats are empty and speculated that to be fallacy , then Deano replied it is an mid working day, people would show up soon. I really wonder why Sanjay Manju hates Sachin so much in general.
Alright, Let us get to the cricket. At close Aussies were 362/7, the day was filled with good batting by Damien Martin scored 104, while LehMann supported him.
The highlight of the day was Wicket keeping, if you had draw an imaginary goal post behind Patel, goals score today by the bowler would be 10000 at least. Patel never seemed to gather the ball comfortably; at times he was looking the batsmen while clearly missing the line of the ball. His legs never moved, at one point bowlers decided to directly bowl into his gloves, anything 1 feet away from him was let go for byes.
For once he did a clever stumping to take out Shane Warne it was quick, however he missed many , that includes a vital stumping and a catch for Clarke. People, it is high time to drop him from the team. BCCI is only organization in the world which has incompetence as part of their job description.
Available post:Wicket Keeper,
Join date: At once,
Pay: a Lot .
Job description: Wicketkeeper
Responsibility: None.
The “must” list:
Carry Helmet for Short legs and Forward short leg, Need to appeal in Excess, Give one line encouragement words in various languages, show a baby face and talk to the batsmen. Help and support board member from time to time.
These are the tasks which employees are expected to perform to the full satisfaction of their superiors. Failing to do this will affect your job and will be fired.
The optional Tasks: Occasionally from time to time, Employee might try to Collect balls, stop byes, execute stumping, and take Catches. However, these are * NOT * enforced task. Failing to do these tasks will not actually “NEVER“ affect your job or position and will not be considered for your performance appraisal, Board has the right to reject and select and fire you regardless of anything.
The “Ag[ony]arkar” Factor: He sucked in the past, sucking right royally now and will suck forever, from yesterday, people, I have started to think Indian team has only 1o players. I wish my career as forgiving as Agarkars. Wow!. one more great example of incompetence being part of the job description.
Anil Kumble was back to his original form. If you know what I mean, Indians miss Irfan and Balaji. Few Good men today: Kartick for this bowling and Dravid for his prudent captaincy.
Tommorrow! India would bat; let us hope for the best.
Ps: For more on batting and score, you can read some web pages that cover sessions.
10/25/04
The Sun TV twinge
Any Hindu religious occasion, Sun tries to air so called special programs with 2 movies of which one is a popular movie and a first timer on Tv, in grand old Indian television history. At this rate soon “Amavasai” and “ekadasais” will be capitalized by them soon. However beware their parent group will be trashing people belief.
While watching Sun TV, I realized 70% of the time we are forced to watch commercials that serves us no good. Why should I worry about a store inauguration some where in the remote corner of Tamil Nadu? I really wonder if people in other parts of Tamil Nadu would worry about this store, I am sitting on the other side of the world, why should I care? Ridiculous, it becomes worse when this commercial is shown mercilessly for about 200000 times a day; agony is I pay $15 to get this BS directly via satellite.
People listen, if this continues soon we would all go to Wal-Mart and look for Cinderella patu “pavAdai” or Arasan washing soap. And Wal-Mart for its part would start importing “Arsan” soap and CNN’s Lou Dobbs will scream at Indian soap industry. He will claim Americans are now moving offshore [to India] for their laundry.
The “PKP” epidemic
“PKP” = Pudhusu kanna Pudhusu, now has changed to “F…K…F” , don’t mistake me for the F, though it does create such words in my mind, the “FKF” here is FIRST KANNA FIRST, it seems “kungu” has grossed a million in circulation. , yes! it can happen why not, when my counter below can reach 2 million without much advertisement they can do it no doubt, how did I do ?, I simply started from 9,99,999, I reach the target at once.. People, if you are looking for my counter, it is there, but it cannot display 1 million; There is also one more way to do this, during “Autograph” days [school days], when we play local cricket matches, simply to get a higher total we cheat and increase our score, for each run scored, a run is added as bonus, however most of the time umpire catches us red handed, but for ”kungu” I really don’t know.
Best joke is they show teens reading this book, are teens in Tamil Nadu become so much literature deprived? I like to meet those teens and offer my condolences. Tamil reading Teens, get it loud and clear, Dudes there are other good books like Sarojadevi , Debonair out there , Try them at once and maintain the teen integrity and sanctity.
Today morning researchers have found that number of the times this advertisement shown in a month is 200 times more than number of pages printed for this whole year.
PKP -- Yes you made the sales, thank you!, we got the message, you are the best book ever known to the mankind right from the days for “tholkApier”, now shut up and show us some other good program and make our $15.00 justifiable. It is time for PKP - POrum Kanna POrum.
ps:Next time when you go Wal-Mart please don’t look for Arasan soap. Its my plea to you folks;
While watching Sun TV, I realized 70% of the time we are forced to watch commercials that serves us no good. Why should I worry about a store inauguration some where in the remote corner of Tamil Nadu? I really wonder if people in other parts of Tamil Nadu would worry about this store, I am sitting on the other side of the world, why should I care? Ridiculous, it becomes worse when this commercial is shown mercilessly for about 200000 times a day; agony is I pay $15 to get this BS directly via satellite.
People listen, if this continues soon we would all go to Wal-Mart and look for Cinderella patu “pavAdai” or Arasan washing soap. And Wal-Mart for its part would start importing “Arsan” soap and CNN’s Lou Dobbs will scream at Indian soap industry. He will claim Americans are now moving offshore [to India] for their laundry.
The “PKP” epidemic
“PKP” = Pudhusu kanna Pudhusu, now has changed to “F…K…F” , don’t mistake me for the F, though it does create such words in my mind, the “FKF” here is FIRST KANNA FIRST, it seems “kungu” has grossed a million in circulation. , yes! it can happen why not, when my counter below can reach 2 million without much advertisement they can do it no doubt, how did I do ?, I simply started from 9,99,999, I reach the target at once.. People, if you are looking for my counter, it is there, but it cannot display 1 million; There is also one more way to do this, during “Autograph” days [school days], when we play local cricket matches, simply to get a higher total we cheat and increase our score, for each run scored, a run is added as bonus, however most of the time umpire catches us red handed, but for ”kungu” I really don’t know.
Best joke is they show teens reading this book, are teens in Tamil Nadu become so much literature deprived? I like to meet those teens and offer my condolences. Tamil reading Teens, get it loud and clear, Dudes there are other good books like Sarojadevi , Debonair out there , Try them at once and maintain the teen integrity and sanctity.
Today morning researchers have found that number of the times this advertisement shown in a month is 200 times more than number of pages printed for this whole year.
PKP -- Yes you made the sales, thank you!, we got the message, you are the best book ever known to the mankind right from the days for “tholkApier”, now shut up and show us some other good program and make our $15.00 justifiable. It is time for PKP - POrum Kanna POrum.
ps:Next time when you go Wal-Mart please don’t look for Arasan soap. Its my plea to you folks;
10/18/04
Game Day Sunday!...
After watching red-eyed cricket for 4 nights, I was all set to watch the final days play, but the news is the match ends in a Draw. Everything was set for a memorable test match result, but the game got rained out. Umpires after inspection, ruled out no further play was possible, ground conditions were totally wet and was not suitable for play. The match was officially called off; the books would call it “No result”.
However, the test outcome produced few minor memorable moments, one major moment for the Chennai crowd. Centuries from Sehwag’s and Demean Martin, precision spin bowling of Kumble and Harbajan and the Shane Warne’s world record, over all 4 days of observing cricket.
Presentation was short and quick, Aussie skipper Gill Christ gave credits to the India Team for bouncing back and he mentioned that both the teams are equal on their potential, and the last days plays was a 50:50 chance. Our skipper, Gangully also repeated similar lines and was all set to move on to the next game. Gangully also joked about winning the toss sooner or later. Kumble was awarded the man of the match [it had some other crazy title for this series] for Rs 35,000, and a 125cc motorbike.
Oh! did forgot to mention the major outcome of the Chennai Test, "it was the Rain". Chennai people got the much needed rain.., this made me not to worry about my $131.00, there is always another game, I know how hard it is today in Chennai to get drinking water. Hope it rains more through Deepavali.
On other games, NFL: Sunday night, Vikings offense was totally ruthless , Pepper and Co managed to score points without Randy moss, a good sign to have more trusted receivers. However before injury, Randy moss's second TD catch was totally awesome. He had a great presence of mind to land both his feet before going out of balance. Vikes won!, Steelers pinned down the Cow-Boys, sweet, all teams that I have soft corner for won yesterday, I am sure India would have won!
However, the test outcome produced few minor memorable moments, one major moment for the Chennai crowd. Centuries from Sehwag’s and Demean Martin, precision spin bowling of Kumble and Harbajan and the Shane Warne’s world record, over all 4 days of observing cricket.
Presentation was short and quick, Aussie skipper Gill Christ gave credits to the India Team for bouncing back and he mentioned that both the teams are equal on their potential, and the last days plays was a 50:50 chance. Our skipper, Gangully also repeated similar lines and was all set to move on to the next game. Gangully also joked about winning the toss sooner or later. Kumble was awarded the man of the match [it had some other crazy title for this series] for Rs 35,000, and a 125cc motorbike.
Oh! did forgot to mention the major outcome of the Chennai Test, "it was the Rain". Chennai people got the much needed rain.., this made me not to worry about my $131.00, there is always another game, I know how hard it is today in Chennai to get drinking water. Hope it rains more through Deepavali.
On other games, NFL: Sunday night, Vikings offense was totally ruthless , Pepper and Co managed to score points without Randy moss, a good sign to have more trusted receivers. However before injury, Randy moss's second TD catch was totally awesome. He had a great presence of mind to land both his feet before going out of balance. Vikes won!, Steelers pinned down the Cow-Boys, sweet, all teams that I have soft corner for won yesterday, I am sure India would have won!
10/15/04
Game Day, Second Test - Day 2.
Chennai, Oct 15th 2004.
Indians are ahead by 58 runs. Patel and Kaif put their heads down and are building a good little partnership. Patel was dropped on few occasions; both were kind of shaky at times, a city on a fault line.
Australian fielding was totally sloppy, missed many catches; it was so many that I lost the count. How can side with such a great proficiency in every department of the game, change over night? That’s pressure or that’s how Test Cricket is? I do not know.
The Chennai swarm was cheering for India through out the day, every run was cheered for, Noise level was quite high. Sehwag Continued his test cricket form went on to score a memorable 155. Watching him score was a pleasure, that too sacrificing my sleep for past 3 days. Congratulations to Sehwag!
I consider myself to be one among the most impatient people on this globe, If at all today’s science invents a pill to contain this impatience, In spite of having 10,001 side effects like dry mouth, diarrhea, head ache, body ache - I will be first one to buy it, but I have decided today I would go ahead and sponsor Sehwag a life time supply of this pill.
If he could have stayed there with some patience who knows, we could have seen another 300, for most of time in middle, he was really comfortable at rare occasions his usual “rush of blood” popped up, but batsmen on the other end did not miss the opportunity to come forward and warn him.
The World Record: Shane Warne crossed over Murali’s mark and became the highest wicket taker [Until Murali over takes him again and vice versa].
Shane Warne has been my favorite bowler from the day I saw him bowl leg spin. I can never forget the famous Banana spin, a ball that turns from outside the Leg stump to take of the off and Middle Stump. A countless number of Test Cricketers [English Especially] have fallen to this great delivery. Once in a while flipper, odd wrong ones and not to forget his great spirit to play the game, I have never seen him give up even when being trashed to all parts of the ground. Good example would be Vinod Kambli, he really hammered Warne every occasion they met, how ever today, Kambli, no where around, we don’t even see him in the commentary box.
“Form is temporary while Class is permanent”, Congratulations Shane Warne.
So to conclude, the question is will India pile more runs, though Patel and Kaif played really calm, this doubt keeps lingering around me, can they put on a tough fight? It does create some kind of doubt for me. Aussies just need a loose straw to bounce back. India needs to be 200 runs ahead at least to get something out this game. All said and done, we have three [or 2 more] more days of tough cricket ahead for us. Some how I need to find a method to sleep at work [as if I don’t do it now]
Indians are ahead by 58 runs. Patel and Kaif put their heads down and are building a good little partnership. Patel was dropped on few occasions; both were kind of shaky at times, a city on a fault line.
Australian fielding was totally sloppy, missed many catches; it was so many that I lost the count. How can side with such a great proficiency in every department of the game, change over night? That’s pressure or that’s how Test Cricket is? I do not know.
The Chennai swarm was cheering for India through out the day, every run was cheered for, Noise level was quite high. Sehwag Continued his test cricket form went on to score a memorable 155. Watching him score was a pleasure, that too sacrificing my sleep for past 3 days. Congratulations to Sehwag!
I consider myself to be one among the most impatient people on this globe, If at all today’s science invents a pill to contain this impatience, In spite of having 10,001 side effects like dry mouth, diarrhea, head ache, body ache - I will be first one to buy it, but I have decided today I would go ahead and sponsor Sehwag a life time supply of this pill.
If he could have stayed there with some patience who knows, we could have seen another 300, for most of time in middle, he was really comfortable at rare occasions his usual “rush of blood” popped up, but batsmen on the other end did not miss the opportunity to come forward and warn him.
The World Record: Shane Warne crossed over Murali’s mark and became the highest wicket taker [Until Murali over takes him again and vice versa].
Shane Warne has been my favorite bowler from the day I saw him bowl leg spin. I can never forget the famous Banana spin, a ball that turns from outside the Leg stump to take of the off and Middle Stump. A countless number of Test Cricketers [English Especially] have fallen to this great delivery. Once in a while flipper, odd wrong ones and not to forget his great spirit to play the game, I have never seen him give up even when being trashed to all parts of the ground. Good example would be Vinod Kambli, he really hammered Warne every occasion they met, how ever today, Kambli, no where around, we don’t even see him in the commentary box.
“Form is temporary while Class is permanent”, Congratulations Shane Warne.
So to conclude, the question is will India pile more runs, though Patel and Kaif played really calm, this doubt keeps lingering around me, can they put on a tough fight? It does create some kind of doubt for me. Aussies just need a loose straw to bounce back. India needs to be 200 runs ahead at least to get something out this game. All said and done, we have three [or 2 more] more days of tough cricket ahead for us. Some how I need to find a method to sleep at work [as if I don’t do it now]
10/14/04
The “Hooey Gooey“ selection - Kaif vs. Chopra
| Chopra: Total: 427 average: 25.12 Catches: 14 |
| Kaif: Total: 141 Average:20.14 Catches:1. |
The last time Kaif played Test cricket was against Sri Lanka on Aug 9th 2001., Just a reminder now it is Oct 2004, how can we even think of selecting a player who was asked to go out in 2001 from poor test cricket form? Is Indian cricket short of batsmen? Kaif’s has played in 8 innings, his scores are as follows: 12, 23, 37, 14, 17, 19, 14, and 5. No even a 50. Doest it sound Ridiculous! , Wait want to read something outrageous than the previous one, Let us now examine Chopra’s scoring trend. His debut was against New Zealand, he scored 42, followed by 31, 60, 52, 36, 4, 27, 20, 48, 4, 45, 2, 42, 2, 5, 0, 5 Even if you compare last 4 innings of Chopra (Total:93) and Kaif (Total:45), Chopra has scored more than him. Why was he dropped? Just for not scoring runs, a ludicrous Claim! Or for poor fielding, give me break, even catches he took is much more than Kaif. He is been remarkable in the close in field.
I agree Kaif comes down in the middle order to bat, while Chopra opens so his scoring is not as high as Chopra, yada yaya, the simple logic is to replace an opener, we need another opener, not a middle order guy. Please go get a specialized opener, don’t force and push middle order players to open instead, opening is a specialized position, it is a very costly spot. Yuvraj takes over opening slot for nothing, and the “form less” Kaif recalled filling his spot. Let me tell you a better strategy than selecting Yuvraj as an opener , simply recall Sunil Gavasker.
What a quagmire for Indian cricket, there is no single person in Indian selection board to take it over the head of Gangully! Remember, Gangully has already forced Dravid to keep wickets in one day games, in the name of 7 batsmen line up it that not enough?
By the way, what is the coach doing? As far as I know, a coach in Indian cricket team is a mere data entry operator, and he is never responsible for team’s action.
All said and done, Thanks to Anil Kumble for taking the Aussies on, he has provided some relief and match is now open to the Indians, It is high time for the batsmen to prove why they are in the team, if batsmen fails or not, It is Gangully responsibility to provide a justifiable answer for the “Hooey Gooey” selection of Kaif in the team.
Game Day, Second Test,
Chennai, Oct 14th 2004.
As far as this game is concerned, more than Cricket or to see India improve its performance, my wait was to watch the good old MAC Stadium and its ambience. The D Stand noise, aristocratic Pavilion Terrace, foreigner filled A Stand, small whispers of Tamil speaking TV Crews, It is around 2.5 years since my last trip to Chennai. DD coverage made it more nostalgic, camera panned and showed people at regular intervals, most of whom I really do not know who they are or where they are from, may be from Tambaran, Anna Nagar, Chrompet, T.Nagar, Triplicane, but some how all of them seemed very familiar to me, my eyes scanned through the cheering crowd to see “is there someone known to me”. I was thrilled to see high balloon over the score board, Triplicane buildings in backdrop and the train passing by in the near by Chepauk station. Watching this “Home” game from a distant land on the other side of the world in the wee hours is really a great feeling. I simply miss Chennai.
On to the Second test, you would have known by now Indians are on top. Aussies were bundled for meager total of 240, thanks to Anil Kumble, he was clearly out standing. The way he bowled was simply superb , I am a very detailed critic of Anil Kumble, usually if he gets 7+ wickets in an Inning, he would have scored a century along, meaning you would find a triple figure in the runs column. This time it was sweet, less than 60 runs. Way to go big Guy.
Gangully had an attacking field all through, a very big change in him. The flood gates opened when Harbajan got Hayden out. The game plan was to slam Harbajan, Hayden did this right from the word go, Hayden soon completed his 50 by launching one more SLV-6, MAC became a stand by SriHariKota. At lunch Umpire Shepherd was seen dancing in one leg in the pavilion, yes Aussies were 111/0. Great position,
I had no interest to watch the game further; I dozed off in my drawing room. However Sanjay’s MAnju MAnju nose cries on TV woke me up for the post lunch session, though I was still half sleep, I tried to peek at the score at regular intervals. India desperately needed a break through; Aussies were set to score 600+ easily.
The 1st Wicket: Hayden came out his crease and launched Harbajan was caught by Laxman., the real fair and balanced Chennai Crowd cheered for Hayden as he walked out. He made 58. Slowly one after another breaks, at times I thought I was dreaming. How ever what unfolded on the screen was for real. Kumble was taking wickets at will.
Best one I saw was the debut century maker Clarke, he never saw the ball well right from the word go, and he was trapped in front by Kumble’s “Soekly” Googly , he looked in vain for Billy “the Dancer” Bowden, No! He was gone, Shep raised his finger at once.
1st Session was dominated by “Sleep” and the Aussies, the following sessions were totally electric. Chennai crowd was going nuts seeing wickets tumble; But I was also soon bundled out by Mr. Sleep, Later at 5.30 am EST, got a phone call from my Dad, he woke me up and told about the match situation. I was up bright and clear. Soon Aussies were all out, about 40 minutes to close of play.
Kaif was preferred in place of Chopra, I really do not know what justification Ganguly has for dropping Chopra, Kaif did not add any value. Short leg position was specialized by Chopra, it was missing him dearly. As usual Pathan tried while Zahir Khan did nothing.
Patel’s keeping was totally shoddy, he failed a lot, thank heavens that he did not fumble catches. Think about this, how can a player without any kind of local game experience handle world class spinners like Harbajan and Kumble? WHAT IS THE JUSTIFICATION TILL DATE, it was clearly visible to every one, WHY SELECTORS ARE “BENT” ON KEEPING THIS GUY STILL IN? I would ask Patel to go and collect stamps before collection behind wickets.
Umpiring, Shep ruled not out to Kasprowicz, how ever this guy walked, a rare gesture from an Aussie, in general if an Aussie player is given out for a poor decision, a crane is required to lift them out. General practice is they simply never move and Ranjan “Madgale” will punish Indians for over appealing. But was nice to see Kasprowicz, but Mr. Shep who ruled him “not out” was left guessing. I felt Gillespie to be the most important wicket. India bowlers never wipe out the tail quickly, I expected him to stay and take the score to 350+, however, it was Kumble’s day, his critics like me often comment that he takes wickets between Adi and Amaavasai, Yesterday was one.
Yuvraj , the over rated cricketer of our times came to open with “Viru the Cautious Sehwag”. Viru has an above 50 batting average in test cricket but still has an axe above his head. Viru started of quite well showed no reaction punished bad balls, However Yuvraj the talented Indian never settled, he struggled a lot and was stuck on the helmet by McGrath, I request all the villain actors in Kodambakkam or to be Villains actors to check the smile he gave to Yuvraj after the blow on his helmet, Man! what a sinister smile, which gave the message “is your skull in place mate”.
Yuvraj was all set to get out, and played a poor shot to a wide ball from Shane Warne. Gill Christ took a very hard catch, Yuvaraj walked on his own. Shane Warne equaled Murali’s World Record. Then Pathan walked in as night watch men, Stumps on the first day, India 28/1. Hope we put more runs on the board.
As far as this game is concerned, more than Cricket or to see India improve its performance, my wait was to watch the good old MAC Stadium and its ambience. The D Stand noise, aristocratic Pavilion Terrace, foreigner filled A Stand, small whispers of Tamil speaking TV Crews, It is around 2.5 years since my last trip to Chennai. DD coverage made it more nostalgic, camera panned and showed people at regular intervals, most of whom I really do not know who they are or where they are from, may be from Tambaran, Anna Nagar, Chrompet, T.Nagar, Triplicane, but some how all of them seemed very familiar to me, my eyes scanned through the cheering crowd to see “is there someone known to me”. I was thrilled to see high balloon over the score board, Triplicane buildings in backdrop and the train passing by in the near by Chepauk station. Watching this “Home” game from a distant land on the other side of the world in the wee hours is really a great feeling. I simply miss Chennai.
On to the Second test, you would have known by now Indians are on top. Aussies were bundled for meager total of 240, thanks to Anil Kumble, he was clearly out standing. The way he bowled was simply superb , I am a very detailed critic of Anil Kumble, usually if he gets 7+ wickets in an Inning, he would have scored a century along, meaning you would find a triple figure in the runs column. This time it was sweet, less than 60 runs. Way to go big Guy.
Gangully had an attacking field all through, a very big change in him. The flood gates opened when Harbajan got Hayden out. The game plan was to slam Harbajan, Hayden did this right from the word go, Hayden soon completed his 50 by launching one more SLV-6, MAC became a stand by SriHariKota. At lunch Umpire Shepherd was seen dancing in one leg in the pavilion, yes Aussies were 111/0. Great position,
I had no interest to watch the game further; I dozed off in my drawing room. However Sanjay’s MAnju MAnju nose cries on TV woke me up for the post lunch session, though I was still half sleep, I tried to peek at the score at regular intervals. India desperately needed a break through; Aussies were set to score 600+ easily.
The 1st Wicket: Hayden came out his crease and launched Harbajan was caught by Laxman., the real fair and balanced Chennai Crowd cheered for Hayden as he walked out. He made 58. Slowly one after another breaks, at times I thought I was dreaming. How ever what unfolded on the screen was for real. Kumble was taking wickets at will.
Best one I saw was the debut century maker Clarke, he never saw the ball well right from the word go, and he was trapped in front by Kumble’s “Soekly” Googly , he looked in vain for Billy “the Dancer” Bowden, No! He was gone, Shep raised his finger at once.
1st Session was dominated by “Sleep” and the Aussies, the following sessions were totally electric. Chennai crowd was going nuts seeing wickets tumble; But I was also soon bundled out by Mr. Sleep, Later at 5.30 am EST, got a phone call from my Dad, he woke me up and told about the match situation. I was up bright and clear. Soon Aussies were all out, about 40 minutes to close of play.
Kaif was preferred in place of Chopra, I really do not know what justification Ganguly has for dropping Chopra, Kaif did not add any value. Short leg position was specialized by Chopra, it was missing him dearly. As usual Pathan tried while Zahir Khan did nothing.
Patel’s keeping was totally shoddy, he failed a lot, thank heavens that he did not fumble catches. Think about this, how can a player without any kind of local game experience handle world class spinners like Harbajan and Kumble? WHAT IS THE JUSTIFICATION TILL DATE, it was clearly visible to every one, WHY SELECTORS ARE “BENT” ON KEEPING THIS GUY STILL IN? I would ask Patel to go and collect stamps before collection behind wickets.
Umpiring, Shep ruled not out to Kasprowicz, how ever this guy walked, a rare gesture from an Aussie, in general if an Aussie player is given out for a poor decision, a crane is required to lift them out. General practice is they simply never move and Ranjan “Madgale” will punish Indians for over appealing. But was nice to see Kasprowicz, but Mr. Shep who ruled him “not out” was left guessing. I felt Gillespie to be the most important wicket. India bowlers never wipe out the tail quickly, I expected him to stay and take the score to 350+, however, it was Kumble’s day, his critics like me often comment that he takes wickets between Adi and Amaavasai, Yesterday was one.
Yuvraj , the over rated cricketer of our times came to open with “Viru the Cautious Sehwag”. Viru has an above 50 batting average in test cricket but still has an axe above his head. Viru started of quite well showed no reaction punished bad balls, However Yuvraj the talented Indian never settled, he struggled a lot and was stuck on the helmet by McGrath, I request all the villain actors in Kodambakkam or to be Villains actors to check the smile he gave to Yuvraj after the blow on his helmet, Man! what a sinister smile, which gave the message “is your skull in place mate”.
Yuvraj was all set to get out, and played a poor shot to a wide ball from Shane Warne. Gill Christ took a very hard catch, Yuvaraj walked on his own. Shane Warne equaled Murali’s World Record. Then Pathan walked in as night watch men, Stumps on the first day, India 28/1. Hope we put more runs on the board.
10/13/04
Duh, politics is same where ever you are.
My Good friend Arun [If you are tamil blogger please note it, will be usefull] sent me this link, http://www.blogd.com when I read it, it sounded very funny to me, will sound ridiculous to the republicans, and will serve as a very good point for a democrat to munch about.
The issue is: “Was President Bush wired during the debate?! “ Here is what the report says “A technical expert who designs and makes such devices for the U.S. military tells Salon that he believes "the bulge" is indeed a transceiver designed to receive electronic signals and transmit them to a hidden earpiece lodged in Bush's ear canal”
Kind of funny to me, there were about 2, 00,000+ cameras, 400000 media experts along with the so called “fair and balanced” crew watching both the men talk about their own polices for the people.
How can such a media presence miss this? Also President Bush clearly knows the consequences of such acts. If he does so it will be ship load of substance for Democrats to talk about for rest of their life.
So what is next from the Republicans? Sen. Kerry used an Electronic voice for which he lip-synced. He used a device often used in Hollywood movies. A technical expert who designs and makes such devices for Jollywood films, tells to the “Fair and balanced news” that he believes Kerry's voice was a synthetic voice, generated from a Remote PC, Kerry did well to sync his voice, in fact that made Britney Spears jealous. He also noted that CA governor Arnold S...has been using this for ages.
Some ideas for both the parties
1. President used a "bit" sheet tucked inside his coat.
2. Sen. Kerry used Ganga Guide to answer his questions.
3. President rigged the tele-prompter thanks to Fox news.
4. Sen. Kerry got information on Morse code in this cell phone's vibrator.
5. Questions were sold on eBay, Both the candidate got them.
Duh, politics is same where ever you are.
The issue is: “Was President Bush wired during the debate?! “ Here is what the report says “A technical expert who designs and makes such devices for the U.S. military tells Salon that he believes "the bulge" is indeed a transceiver designed to receive electronic signals and transmit them to a hidden earpiece lodged in Bush's ear canal”
Kind of funny to me, there were about 2, 00,000+ cameras, 400000 media experts along with the so called “fair and balanced” crew watching both the men talk about their own polices for the people.
How can such a media presence miss this? Also President Bush clearly knows the consequences of such acts. If he does so it will be ship load of substance for Democrats to talk about for rest of their life.
So what is next from the Republicans? Sen. Kerry used an Electronic voice for which he lip-synced. He used a device often used in Hollywood movies. A technical expert who designs and makes such devices for Jollywood films, tells to the “Fair and balanced news” that he believes Kerry's voice was a synthetic voice, generated from a Remote PC, Kerry did well to sync his voice, in fact that made Britney Spears jealous. He also noted that CA governor Arnold S...has been using this for ages.
Some ideas for both the parties
1. President used a "bit" sheet tucked inside his coat.
2. Sen. Kerry used Ganga Guide to answer his questions.
3. President rigged the tele-prompter thanks to Fox news.
4. Sen. Kerry got information on Morse code in this cell phone's vibrator.
5. Questions were sold on eBay, Both the candidate got them.
Duh, politics is same where ever you are.
10/12/04
ARE WE TURNING DUMB?
Just Google, you will find anything and everything in record breaking time frame. Google is one of the greatest Search engine today. You can find information on anything right from Pizzas to Pulavs to Paneer Kurmas to Rocket science. However, there is a down side to Google What!, I hear others saying “are you kidding, even this web site is hosted by Google? Do you know that?” Yes I know, but read below.
Few months ago I asked my junior team member to code a module. The estimated time for this task was around 40 hrs. Aka a weeks time at least. However this guy came up with the module in about 4 hrs and told me it is almost done, by evening it was complete. I was amazed by this speed of coding and asked him few changes in the module, for which he is coding for more than 82 hrs.
How? He was able to do it right the first time but struggled to modify it the second time? The answer to this is “Google” he just found a solution by Googling. Never wanted to use his ideas, Just “cut and past” the code he found, bingo it works, He never learnt the code, hey it works, that’s all it requires today, Sweet to hear, he just did what millions of others around the world are doing today.
How many computer programmers today really think about writing simple or complex modules or code snippets? Only a handful, these guys simply post them in their Blog or on their website, rest of the world has the power of Google to find it. No trouble no hassle.
If I want to find something as small as how to write a SQL connection string , I blindly “Google” and get the code, and add to my module, simply cut and past the code. “Very Very Convenient”, But few years ago this was not the case, I would get the concept of connection strings from a book and I will take pains to type the code myself, which in due course will stay in Brain.
But very soon human thinking capacity will diminish, yes, who needs it, hey there is Google, and it will get any solution for you in milliseconds. I think in about 10 years from now, human brains will be slower than what it is today; People will not put efforts to cultivate or learn through their Analytical skills in general, Google shall be one main contributor to this process. This might sound to be an over reaction, but think and see for yourself.
I heard on CNN, some universities have devised methods to spot student researchers that use Google to make their research easy and quick. I agree we need to Google for information; Google is the best, in my case it helps my music to be known to others. I love Google but at the same time I don’t prefer to over “Google”
ps: I Googled on the world "dumb" in google,
Check this
Few months ago I asked my junior team member to code a module. The estimated time for this task was around 40 hrs. Aka a weeks time at least. However this guy came up with the module in about 4 hrs and told me it is almost done, by evening it was complete. I was amazed by this speed of coding and asked him few changes in the module, for which he is coding for more than 82 hrs.
How? He was able to do it right the first time but struggled to modify it the second time? The answer to this is “Google” he just found a solution by Googling. Never wanted to use his ideas, Just “cut and past” the code he found, bingo it works, He never learnt the code, hey it works, that’s all it requires today, Sweet to hear, he just did what millions of others around the world are doing today.
How many computer programmers today really think about writing simple or complex modules or code snippets? Only a handful, these guys simply post them in their Blog or on their website, rest of the world has the power of Google to find it. No trouble no hassle.
If I want to find something as small as how to write a SQL connection string , I blindly “Google” and get the code, and add to my module, simply cut and past the code. “Very Very Convenient”, But few years ago this was not the case, I would get the concept of connection strings from a book and I will take pains to type the code myself, which in due course will stay in Brain.
But very soon human thinking capacity will diminish, yes, who needs it, hey there is Google, and it will get any solution for you in milliseconds. I think in about 10 years from now, human brains will be slower than what it is today; People will not put efforts to cultivate or learn through their Analytical skills in general, Google shall be one main contributor to this process. This might sound to be an over reaction, but think and see for yourself.
I heard on CNN, some universities have devised methods to spot student researchers that use Google to make their research easy and quick. I agree we need to Google for information; Google is the best, in my case it helps my music to be known to others. I love Google but at the same time I don’t prefer to over “Google”
ps: I Googled on the world "dumb" in google,
Check this
10/11/04
Super Man! actor passes away
I have been always fascinated by SuperMan! Sequels, I still remember watching them in EGA theater, Chepat. Christopher Reeve, who portrayed the "Superman" died today. He was 52, He has been living paralyzed in an accident, died of cardiac arrest on Sunday Afternoon. He was a real "Super man" to what he went through.
CNN reports here
CNN reports here
Simply Ridiculous, Sehwag fined 60% match fees.
“Simply Ridiculous”
Viru Sehwag fined 60% of his match fees, What is supposed to be dissent? Has anyone seen the stare McGrath and Gillespie gives at the umpire -- I call it, “what the hell you are thinking?” look for every other appeal turn down, don’t you think this to be decent?, The Batsmen just gets one chance and thanks! even that is doomed by umpiring errors.
Sehwag had clearly edged the ball, I saw it on my TV without reply. It was quite clear. I am wondering “Belly Dancer” Bowden must have been planning on how to signal a bouncer warning, the only umpire sign that he has not devised a dancing scheme.
Is it right for an umpire to perform tantrums on the field? Why ICC is not asking him, some say it is nice to watch and looks funny! Oh! Ya! .So if a player does such acts why is he penalized?, here is joke : ICC boasts that umpires are equal to judges in a court.
Sehwag’s career is in line here. His cricketing life for next few years is on stake, He has to score no other choice, so I feel it is natural reaction from a player to tell the umpire what happened. Though hypothetical to the core, it is possible, who knows he could have scored for us to win the game. Never know.
I am wondering how Mr.Bowden can miss such an easy decision, he had already let go Michel Clarke in the first innings. One mistake already for the game, How can he miss this? How he is going to be penalized for his poor umpiring error? ,
If Bowden had not made such a glaring mistake, Sehwag would not have reacted. I think Bowden needs to share this with Sehwag.
Some say we have the reply on our side and umpires don’t have them etc, this is not acceptable to me, hey, this guy is standing 25 yards from the batsmen, and he has no other job other than watch the ball and the batsmen? IF YOU CANNOT SEE FROM THIS DISTANCE, YOU CANNOT SEE FROM ANY DISTANCE. JUST GO AND CHECK YOU EYES AND COME BACK.
I am sure Bowden and Sehwag are cool guys!, They must have settled this by now. You got to move on, agreed. But ICC for its part has been always rude with Indian players; ICC needs to remember that their first class air fare is paid by Indian audience. Aussies were let go easily in the past, Ranjan madugalle is totally a biased guy. Period.
Our own BCCI does not care; they are busying fighting in court, which decides their head. ICC and BCCI, please "LEARN" how to organize and be organized from NFL. That’s all I can say.
PS: No-Moon [aka AmavAsai] day is showing up in my [MMI] moon-mood image, so I have the right to remain cranky!....for next several days. [and so on...]
Viru Sehwag fined 60% of his match fees, What is supposed to be dissent? Has anyone seen the stare McGrath and Gillespie gives at the umpire -- I call it, “what the hell you are thinking?” look for every other appeal turn down, don’t you think this to be decent?, The Batsmen just gets one chance and thanks! even that is doomed by umpiring errors.
Sehwag had clearly edged the ball, I saw it on my TV without reply. It was quite clear. I am wondering “Belly Dancer” Bowden must have been planning on how to signal a bouncer warning, the only umpire sign that he has not devised a dancing scheme.
Is it right for an umpire to perform tantrums on the field? Why ICC is not asking him, some say it is nice to watch and looks funny! Oh! Ya! .So if a player does such acts why is he penalized?, here is joke : ICC boasts that umpires are equal to judges in a court.
Sehwag’s career is in line here. His cricketing life for next few years is on stake, He has to score no other choice, so I feel it is natural reaction from a player to tell the umpire what happened. Though hypothetical to the core, it is possible, who knows he could have scored for us to win the game. Never know.
I am wondering how Mr.Bowden can miss such an easy decision, he had already let go Michel Clarke in the first innings. One mistake already for the game, How can he miss this? How he is going to be penalized for his poor umpiring error? ,
If Bowden had not made such a glaring mistake, Sehwag would not have reacted. I think Bowden needs to share this with Sehwag.
Some say we have the reply on our side and umpires don’t have them etc, this is not acceptable to me, hey, this guy is standing 25 yards from the batsmen, and he has no other job other than watch the ball and the batsmen? IF YOU CANNOT SEE FROM THIS DISTANCE, YOU CANNOT SEE FROM ANY DISTANCE. JUST GO AND CHECK YOU EYES AND COME BACK.
I am sure Bowden and Sehwag are cool guys!, They must have settled this by now. You got to move on, agreed. But ICC for its part has been always rude with Indian players; ICC needs to remember that their first class air fare is paid by Indian audience. Aussies were let go easily in the past, Ranjan madugalle is totally a biased guy. Period.
Our own BCCI does not care; they are busying fighting in court, which decides their head. ICC and BCCI, please "LEARN" how to organize and be organized from NFL. That’s all I can say.
PS: No-Moon [aka AmavAsai] day is showing up in my [MMI] moon-mood image, so I have the right to remain cranky!....for next several days. [and so on...]
10/8/04
GameDay, Day-III, India Vs Australia
Bangalore, Oct 6-10th.
Yesterday, I was kind of sure that India would not pass the 200 mark, I simply overestimated our "tail", tail enders proved me wrong. Patel, Irfan and Kumble played a determined game, and frustrated the Aussie bowlers. They did not fall for the traps. India was making a steady progress towards avoiding the follow on. But, India from 150/6 went on to score 246, around 30 runs short to avoid the follow on.
Surprise! Aussies did not enforce the follow on. It seems they had a different game plan or I call it “the Kolkata trauma” or may be they were worried about facing the music of Harbajan and Kumble in the 4th innings. Pitch will be turning more from tomorrow [picked from Sanjay Manju’s expert comments], but the fact is why worry when Kumble & spin is a known example of an oxymoron.
With a lead of 225 Aussies came in to bat and lost Langer at once to a beauty from Irfan, Langer however was not happy with the LBW decision, walked away shaking his head. Aussies were 0/1.
But very soon, Zeezee “made of clay” khan started to bowl his regular donkey drops and gave away too many runs. That forced Ganguly to get Harbajan into the attack, he started to turn the ball quite well at once, Gangully for change did not adhere to his astrologer, instead he placed a good attacking field. Not worrying about the runs or his astrologer.
Hayden was beaten couple of times, and then came the Run out, a direct throw from Harbajan found Hayden shot by 2 inches. Reply confirmed it, and he was out, a section of Bangalore crowd started to cheer at least to boost the morale of their fellow spectators, Harbajan’s reaction time to pick the ball and hit the stumps was less than a second, amazing reflex work from this determined Sikh.
Aussies were 65/2, Martin came him, slowly was threatening to settle down for a big score. Katich was also playing well, though Hayden’s departure slowed the scoring rate.
Katich chased a ball from Kumble was out caught by Dravid, according to TV statistician this was his 100the catch. Having got a quick wicket, Kumble suddenly went to his dumb mode,; he started to bowl faster and short. Nothing worked for him for next 30 minutes, however settled in a good line and length. Aussies were struggling to play our spinners. Lehmann never played spin well from the day he was conceived, his agony ended when he was out for 14. Aussies were 104 for 4, about 325 runs ahead.
At close of play Aussie were 127/4 with Clarke and Martin playing well. [355 ahead] For some reason DD did not show Clarke’s parents when he walked in to bat.
Tomorrow we need to wait and watch the boasted Indian batting lineup taking on the straight in line bowling of McGrath and co, and banana spin for Shane Warne. I feel the game is well poised for Aussies to beat India by 150 runs.
Beware: Ganguly walked gingerly all day, injury or something?
Bangalore, Oct 6-10th.
Yesterday, I was kind of sure that India would not pass the 200 mark, I simply overestimated our "tail", tail enders proved me wrong. Patel, Irfan and Kumble played a determined game, and frustrated the Aussie bowlers. They did not fall for the traps. India was making a steady progress towards avoiding the follow on. But, India from 150/6 went on to score 246, around 30 runs short to avoid the follow on.
Surprise! Aussies did not enforce the follow on. It seems they had a different game plan or I call it “the Kolkata trauma” or may be they were worried about facing the music of Harbajan and Kumble in the 4th innings. Pitch will be turning more from tomorrow [picked from Sanjay Manju’s expert comments], but the fact is why worry when Kumble & spin is a known example of an oxymoron.
With a lead of 225 Aussies came in to bat and lost Langer at once to a beauty from Irfan, Langer however was not happy with the LBW decision, walked away shaking his head. Aussies were 0/1.
But very soon, Zeezee “made of clay” khan started to bowl his regular donkey drops and gave away too many runs. That forced Ganguly to get Harbajan into the attack, he started to turn the ball quite well at once, Gangully for change did not adhere to his astrologer, instead he placed a good attacking field. Not worrying about the runs or his astrologer.
Hayden was beaten couple of times, and then came the Run out, a direct throw from Harbajan found Hayden shot by 2 inches. Reply confirmed it, and he was out, a section of Bangalore crowd started to cheer at least to boost the morale of their fellow spectators, Harbajan’s reaction time to pick the ball and hit the stumps was less than a second, amazing reflex work from this determined Sikh.
Aussies were 65/2, Martin came him, slowly was threatening to settle down for a big score. Katich was also playing well, though Hayden’s departure slowed the scoring rate.
Katich chased a ball from Kumble was out caught by Dravid, according to TV statistician this was his 100the catch. Having got a quick wicket, Kumble suddenly went to his dumb mode,; he started to bowl faster and short. Nothing worked for him for next 30 minutes, however settled in a good line and length. Aussies were struggling to play our spinners. Lehmann never played spin well from the day he was conceived, his agony ended when he was out for 14. Aussies were 104 for 4, about 325 runs ahead.
At close of play Aussie were 127/4 with Clarke and Martin playing well. [355 ahead] For some reason DD did not show Clarke’s parents when he walked in to bat.
Tomorrow we need to wait and watch the boasted Indian batting lineup taking on the straight in line bowling of McGrath and co, and banana spin for Shane Warne. I feel the game is well poised for Aussies to beat India by 150 runs.
Beware: Ganguly walked gingerly all day, injury or something?
10/7/04
Game Day, Day 2, India vs the "World Champs"
Yesterday I subscribed for the India and Australia series via Dish Network, this includes India and SA and 1 one day match between India and Pakistan. I paid 139.99 and $1.00 ordering fee.
Here we go, Aussies started the batting where they left on the previous day. Gangully opening with his speedsters in spite of the pitch report showing some cracks, I am not talking about Sanjay manju, I am talking about real cracks on the pitch, which in general supports spinners. However Gangully’s astrologer has devised another game plan for him, hence our “Gang” leader chose the celestial plan given to him by Pandit “some” ananda.
Zeezee khan was totally in effective, Pathan tried something along with him but nothing worked. Aussies were piling runs. Michel Clarke and Gill Christ played easily and tackled the lack luster Indian bowling attack. Indian player’s body language suggested that they had given up, and waited for the Aussies to make mistakes. Gangully fielding was so non-imaginative, why you have 2 gullies when ball not bounce above the shoe lace?!. I request BCCI to train Gangully’s “Josiyar” in MRF pace foundation.
After some “bush” whacking [ I changed to late night shows for a while], I came back to cricket when Kumble was given the ball, whew finally., The funny part here is the expert Leg spinner in the commentary lineup L.Siva, suggested the pitch had few rough spots that would help off spinner and there is nothing big for the leg spinners to happen. SivaSiva, Gangully must have heard it and promptly sent Harbajan on a walking trip to near by Kappan park. The spot was clearly visible as spots shows in ujalla commercial.
For Kumble, Gangully placed a defensive field usually seen in draw-aimed match plan. But Kumble was also whacked right royally by the Aussie pair, this really gave high hopes for India, Hey! Do not jump to conclusions; What I meant was few more matches like this, Kumble can be forced to retire, his bowling performance today gave hopes to other good spinners in the 1 billion (minus one) population. Bottom Line, he sucked right royally that too on track that helps spinners.
Kumble trapped Clark plumb, but umpire B(e) illy [Dancer] Bowden after a “kathakali” performance missed the definition LBW and asked Clarke to continue his great game. Our home grown walking valium Sanjay Manju in the commentating team was literarily in tears on this decision. He then questioned Mr.Bowdens rating of being the best umpire in the world citing another plumb LBW for Sachin in the Asia Cup he missed.
After this, runs were flowing, score was increasing, but be ready the Michel Clarke reality show is about to begin, he was in the so called nervous 90’s, or Indian team calls it “relief is on the way”, at least after the 100 he would get out by himself. Slater’s commentary and camera work gave the reality show a fresh look; in this well scripted show, Michel Clarke was portrayed as though he was the only century maker in the entire universe on debut. DD or Prashar Bharathi or Vivith Bharathi provided good screen play support by showing Clarke’s amma, appa, apamma, apappa, ammma , ammmapa and every other member of this family who had joined the touring party, it is a proud occasion for their parents no doubt, but DD coverage made it like a bore occasion. After he scored the century he was busy kissing anything he saw, his cap, his hand, his bat, his bat grip, his gloves, the ground, his boot, [and the umpire for missing the Lbw], seeing such a kiss-spree-reaction from Clarke, Gill Christ did not remove his helmet. Clark was 100/1.
Gill Christ simply Rocked!, his chords progressions oops sorry, his score progression was 6 4 4 6 every over, he along with Clarke dispatched India best bowler [as per the rediff article] Anil Kumble to all the parts ground.
I went to sleep after this. Not worth watching, this morning,
I did watch Indian batting quickly, I have recorded this agony
I saw India was 150/6 , WALLter Vetrivel" cooked a duck!. Shewag had some runs that will retain him for next 20 years. Will watch the rest this evening.
To conclude: The pitch will have lots of crack and pot [holes] on the 3rd day, I am sure Shane Warne will be very happy to see the crack and pot [holes], If you know what I mean. ;)
9/22/04
The Song Story
This is the title song for the short movie Stinking Cigar by Arun. Stinking Cigar produced by Eternal Rainbow creation was shot in NJ and is scheduled to be released in trigger street.com very soon. I take great pleasure in working in this project.
After reading the movie script, I felt creating simple theme music for the story will carry the mood in the story line all thorough, Director [Arun] also insisted on the theme music concept. After reading the script while traveling from Silver Springs to Washington DC frankly it took me about 20 minutes to get the melody line in my head. Same evening the basic track was laid and the projected theme music was kind of ready, a prototype version.
Arun and I had planned a song for the title credits. My plan was to embed this theme music as the “chorus” for the song. It seemed workable to the team. Before everything I have to find proper words for the score. I requested my writer Udhaya to come up with words that fits the mood, since Udhaya had already worked on the dialogues in the short film, he came up with the words very quickly, to my great surprise the chorus lines he sent in the first cut matched my theme melody 100%. Best part was, Udhaya had not heard my theme music; even Arun had not heard it till then.
I preferred them hear it only after I complete the arrangements. After this great coincidence, I started to feel more energy presence to complete the song. I created a basic groove for the track and started to record vocals with Alisha, Alisha has already sung in my composition, we did the “Bharatham” track, as of today downloads for this song ranges around 2500+. So I was really happy to work with her again. A great find for my composition, Alisha as usual did the track quickly; she and her dad Dr. Thomas took a rough mix of the track to review it.
On my side, reviews after reviews, I started to feel about my backgrounds, it did not jell the way I wanted, I was complaining to my peers and more to myself about this. I felt the beats and arrangements needed rework. So I took the drastic step to scrap out the existing arrangement, decided to rework this from scratch.
Alisha for her part, just like me a self critic, clearly told me she wanted to redo major portions of it. Thanks to Dr. T who created the energy to work again on this track.
During the long weekend when everyone was relaxing on their paid holiday, we recorded the vocals again, this version seemed to jell quite well, finally got it mixed, sounds were balanced and the date of release was set.Working on an English track is new to me; I have no prior experience of any sort, still was keen to learn this cross over music and wanted to try it out. I can also put forth some Indian music ideas over it. Arun provided a great arena to test this out, with Alisha’s and Udhaya’s great support, I was able to do this to our satisfaction, I hope people would welcome this and encourages us to work more. Please listen to this track and send your comments.
Srikanth.
This is the title song for the short movie Stinking Cigar by Arun. Stinking Cigar produced by Eternal Rainbow creation was shot in NJ and is scheduled to be released in trigger street.com very soon. I take great pleasure in working in this project.
| Daddy’s Girl
Original Sound Track from [Short film] Stinking Cigar by Arun Lead Vocals:Alisha Thomas,Words: Udhaya, Composed by Srikanth Digitally Recorded at Studio1234 Acknowledgements: Dr. Thomas, Arun, Jayashree Srikanth. All Rights Reserved © 2000, Sri Inc |
After reading the movie script, I felt creating simple theme music for the story will carry the mood in the story line all thorough, Director [Arun] also insisted on the theme music concept. After reading the script while traveling from Silver Springs to Washington DC frankly it took me about 20 minutes to get the melody line in my head. Same evening the basic track was laid and the projected theme music was kind of ready, a prototype version.
Arun and I had planned a song for the title credits. My plan was to embed this theme music as the “chorus” for the song. It seemed workable to the team. Before everything I have to find proper words for the score. I requested my writer Udhaya to come up with words that fits the mood, since Udhaya had already worked on the dialogues in the short film, he came up with the words very quickly, to my great surprise the chorus lines he sent in the first cut matched my theme melody 100%. Best part was, Udhaya had not heard my theme music; even Arun had not heard it till then.
I preferred them hear it only after I complete the arrangements. After this great coincidence, I started to feel more energy presence to complete the song. I created a basic groove for the track and started to record vocals with Alisha, Alisha has already sung in my composition, we did the “Bharatham” track, as of today downloads for this song ranges around 2500+. So I was really happy to work with her again. A great find for my composition, Alisha as usual did the track quickly; she and her dad Dr. Thomas took a rough mix of the track to review it.
On my side, reviews after reviews, I started to feel about my backgrounds, it did not jell the way I wanted, I was complaining to my peers and more to myself about this. I felt the beats and arrangements needed rework. So I took the drastic step to scrap out the existing arrangement, decided to rework this from scratch.
Alisha for her part, just like me a self critic, clearly told me she wanted to redo major portions of it. Thanks to Dr. T who created the energy to work again on this track.
During the long weekend when everyone was relaxing on their paid holiday, we recorded the vocals again, this version seemed to jell quite well, finally got it mixed, sounds were balanced and the date of release was set.Working on an English track is new to me; I have no prior experience of any sort, still was keen to learn this cross over music and wanted to try it out. I can also put forth some Indian music ideas over it. Arun provided a great arena to test this out, with Alisha’s and Udhaya’s great support, I was able to do this to our satisfaction, I hope people would welcome this and encourages us to work more. Please listen to this track and send your comments.
Srikanth.
9/16/04
ICC aka International Confusion Committe
I was reading an article in Rediff, by Prem Paniker , he was literally furious on certain restriction on the play field for the ICC Cup being held now in the UK.
It seems, no other food product other the sponsor’s products are permitted in the ground
The ticket contains a list of food products allowed ranging from chips to cookies. This is to protect the sponsors from the Ambush marketing. I don’t want to discuss if I agree with him or not, however his point seemed very clear.
In my opinion, ICC’s approach in this matter is rather unprofessional. Their new clause clearly invites trouble. Let us take NFL or NBA or a cinema theater here in the US as examples. They prevent this ambush marketing by not permitting any out side food. Hey! Rule is very simple; if you want to munch something while being entertained inside the arena you need to buy food at a premium price from the outlets run by the sponsors themselves - simply no outside food allowed, it you carry food, it will be dumped. No mercy to anyone. This rule does not apply to water.
The issue of not allowing outside food is clearly treated as a policy matter. Law clearly protects this if it is announced as a company policy well ahead of time. ICC known for its slipshod or careless behavior should have brain stormed this issue properly with professionals who are capable or have previous experience in planning such policies and events. I do not know if ICC has such policies, at the same time I would not be surprised it they have clause that is buried deep inside the policy pages known only to ICC office bearers. What else you could expect from Malcolm Speeds and Jagmohan Dalmiyas, in spite for their mediocre or no organization capacity cricket has come a long way, thanks to its poor aficionados, if not for their blind patronage, Speeds and Dalmias cannot have their first class air travel. It is time that ICC honors its real patrons "the fan" by improving the amenities and other facilities for the fans, instead of making a gaga over this ambush marketing issue.
[2 min interval]
PART 2
THANK YOU DISHNETWORK.
Hey! do you know I did not subscribe for this ICC cup? Right from 2000 I have been watching cricket via Dish network. All cricket matches were kind of affordable, but today it has reached a point that I cannot subscribe cricket on Dish network, basically Dish network and Kelly broadcasting system are the sole copyright holders for cricket telecast in USA. They want a greedy $250 for both Holland cup and ICC trophy. Seriously on all give and take, the real matches starts only after the minnows being eliminated. How can Dish network expect me to pay so much and watch games that are mere academic interests of ICC? I doubt if I will watch few games in the line up for free.
| How can dish network expect me to pay and watch Bangladesh vs. any country?
Frankly I don’t mind spending my time on the following alternatives. 1. Lawn mowing 2. SQL data back 3. Lotus notes programming. 4. Exercise. 5. Learn multiplication tables above 12. |
Agreed, I am cricket fanatic but not a fool. Do you know the entire NFL [American football] season on Direct TV is much less than ICC Cup? Ridiculous, with such high telecasting cost, ICC wants to spread this game around the world, a mere dream that will never come true. Only way to attract more people to watch cricket is easy access. Anyone would think twice to spend huge to watch an unknown game. Added to agony, listen to this, cricket fanatics like me who cannot afford a mammoth $250 were blessed by Cricinfo.org, they offered live unofficial commentary for $19.99 for all the games. The cricket chemicals in my body reacted at once and subscribed for this service. But alas few days before the tournament they sent an email stating that they cannot bring live commentary because of copy right restrictions and they refunded the money, they have promised now to bring the finals and India vs. Pakistan live for $5.00. [whisper: Hope dish network does not read this] I was denied commentary for other matches.
A relief came via BBC, BBC sport 5 promised live radio commentary via the internet, Hey don’t rush, KBS and Dish Network wanted more brutal punishment on people who failed to subscribe the ICC cup, they fought for copyrights and blocked commentary in USA. Commentary can be heard live in UK alone THANK YOU Dish network and KBS or who ever did this to all the cricket fans in USA. Hey! What the heck, football just began first week was simply awesome, for now, I am cured from this cricket mania.
9/14/04
Proof of Concept
Proof of Concept
I happen to watch a movie last Saturday evening in SUNTV, STAR, Staring Prashanth, Raghuvaran, Jyothika, Kodambakkam Dad (a.k.a) Vijay Kumar.
Here are some of the bits and pieces of the movie; Prashanth is a “thayagi” [not just because he is son of Thaygararjan], it seems he accepts petty thefts charges on behalf of others and serves jail terms for them. So the cops call him a “Thayagi”. I missed the movie from reel one; I was watching ESPN foot ball news. However I joined the movie action some where in reel number 5, where Prashanth helps a bunch of prisoners to dig a tunnel out of the prison. They build perfectly round tunnel that will make Sumerians and Egyptians jealous. I really don’t know what the jailers were doing when these thugs were busy digging a mini size “kolar thanga vayal”, added to the fun, area of the jail was about 20x20, [PCO/STD telephone booth] in which 10 prisoners are put together, even Abu Gharib prison seemed wider to me. [Abu Grape or Abu Graph or Abu Gooorp I really don’t know, you may want to check cable news for latest pronunciation].
Prisoners escape thanking the good hearted Prashanth, but the truth is Prashanth misguides them; the tunnel goes directly out to a manhole in a police training camp. The plan is they would get caught as soon they go out. Instead of wasting the time, Prashanth could have told the cops right away about the escape plan and earn one more thayagi credit; in turn we would have been saved from one more stupid cop comedy, after this BS, the gang leader vows to settle account with Prashanth [please book mark this]. Prashanth then goes out of the jail
(Pudsu kanna Pudusu , loud kugumam Advt. Followed by Aswini Aswini Aswini herbal oil and Padar thamarai cream I have never heard of this Tamil word “padaR thamarai”, need to call 1-800-kONar to verify its validity.)
Vijay Kumar in action sneaks out from Anna international Terminal, three thugs are very upset to see him escape. Gulf Air, Air Bus A320 lands in some airport, Vijay Kumar meets with Shadows Ravi who seemed to be the care taker of Vijay Kumar’s son, he is a spoilt kid and is being hidden from the evil world for some reason. It took me about 10 minutes to get this plot right. [Warning: Tube lights might take longer] But to have a son with such a bad acting and behavior, I would prefer Vijay Kumar to hide from the world.
Flash Back. [Pudsu kanna Pudusu , loud kugumam Advt., they promise to tell about Actors Pay scale]
Flash Back, Raghuvaran’s son is child prodigy swimmer called Lingeswaran, he is being kidnapped by Veerapan look alike. Vijay Kumar is the police chief who handles this case. He does not budge in for the kidnappers. In turn Veerapan Junior takes out the poor kid. Raghuvaran is very upset, he plans to kill Vijay Kumar’s son. You many ask this, how come Raghuvaran knows that Vijay Kumar has a son? , answer: Vijay Kumar’s son, about 5 years shows up in the dense forest pestering his dad to go back home. He must have come there for a vacation or something. So the point is in order to save his son from Raghuvaran he hides his son in some foreign country where gulf air flies. He also lies to his wife [Sri Vidhya] that son has been kidnapped. I am very sure that the person who comes as Vijay Kumar’s son must be the director or producer, unless other wise no one would even consider him. He simply goofs up, over acts and irritates. In this process he breaks about 10 glass bottles and I broke few in watching this agony.
Prashanth meets Jyothika they fall in love. [That’s all, how and where does not matter]
Police now pester Prashanth for more sacrifices [”thayagams”], but Prashanth sneaks out and goes into a wedding hall where he searches for his girl, the one and only Jyothika. He gets caught by Vijay Kumar, because he was doing some "Boys" type acts that should make Ananda vikatan say "cheeee" once again but instead -- Chhhhhhhhhhhuda Chhhhhhhhhhhuda (tamilA…oh oh) cup coffee , irritating Ananda vikatan advt. shows up.
After this, Police shows up and gives Prashanth a (T) certificate , they tell that he is a Scapegoat for others; Wow! VJK [please I cannot type this name fully anymore] gets a plan, asks Prashanth to act as his son, according to his plan Raghuvaran will take out this guy by mistake. Poor Raghuvaran, I think like Karna he can use only one bullet for his entire life time.
[Pudsu kanna Pudusu , loud kugumam Advt followed by SunTv news synopsis that boasts Tamil shall be made a Red language soon, one more time - PKP [Pudsu kanna Pudusu]. Researchers have found that in about 24hrs, the number of times PKP commercial shown is more than the actual number of meaningful pages in Kungumam.]
Poor VJ [sorry VJK is too long] shows a picture of his wife and Jyothika. At once he agrees to take the place, as his son, he enquires about Jyothika in the picture, it seems she is “mama ponnu” Jo’s dad is brother of someone in the family or I called it as P.Vasu’s theory.
Thank god she does not become his sister that too after 3 great songs by A.R.Rahman.
Ok that’s it. I guess the movie would have ended after the sun TV news.
And finally, the reason I called this article as proof of concept because this movie tries very hard to prove a concept. They prove a movie can be made without a screen play, story or a director. The only reason it is called as movie is it was made using a film role.
I happen to watch a movie last Saturday evening in SUNTV, STAR, Staring Prashanth, Raghuvaran, Jyothika, Kodambakkam Dad (a.k.a) Vijay Kumar.
Here are some of the bits and pieces of the movie; Prashanth is a “thayagi” [not just because he is son of Thaygararjan], it seems he accepts petty thefts charges on behalf of others and serves jail terms for them. So the cops call him a “Thayagi”. I missed the movie from reel one; I was watching ESPN foot ball news. However I joined the movie action some where in reel number 5, where Prashanth helps a bunch of prisoners to dig a tunnel out of the prison. They build perfectly round tunnel that will make Sumerians and Egyptians jealous. I really don’t know what the jailers were doing when these thugs were busy digging a mini size “kolar thanga vayal”, added to the fun, area of the jail was about 20x20, [PCO/STD telephone booth] in which 10 prisoners are put together, even Abu Gharib prison seemed wider to me. [Abu Grape or Abu Graph or Abu Gooorp I really don’t know, you may want to check cable news for latest pronunciation].
Prisoners escape thanking the good hearted Prashanth, but the truth is Prashanth misguides them; the tunnel goes directly out to a manhole in a police training camp. The plan is they would get caught as soon they go out. Instead of wasting the time, Prashanth could have told the cops right away about the escape plan and earn one more thayagi credit; in turn we would have been saved from one more stupid cop comedy, after this BS, the gang leader vows to settle account with Prashanth [please book mark this]. Prashanth then goes out of the jail
(Pudsu kanna Pudusu , loud kugumam Advt. Followed by Aswini Aswini Aswini herbal oil and Padar thamarai cream I have never heard of this Tamil word “padaR thamarai”, need to call 1-800-kONar to verify its validity.)
Vijay Kumar in action sneaks out from Anna international Terminal, three thugs are very upset to see him escape. Gulf Air, Air Bus A320 lands in some airport, Vijay Kumar meets with Shadows Ravi who seemed to be the care taker of Vijay Kumar’s son, he is a spoilt kid and is being hidden from the evil world for some reason. It took me about 10 minutes to get this plot right. [Warning: Tube lights might take longer] But to have a son with such a bad acting and behavior, I would prefer Vijay Kumar to hide from the world.
Flash Back. [Pudsu kanna Pudusu , loud kugumam Advt., they promise to tell about Actors Pay scale]
Flash Back, Raghuvaran’s son is child prodigy swimmer called Lingeswaran, he is being kidnapped by Veerapan look alike. Vijay Kumar is the police chief who handles this case. He does not budge in for the kidnappers. In turn Veerapan Junior takes out the poor kid. Raghuvaran is very upset, he plans to kill Vijay Kumar’s son. You many ask this, how come Raghuvaran knows that Vijay Kumar has a son? , answer: Vijay Kumar’s son, about 5 years shows up in the dense forest pestering his dad to go back home. He must have come there for a vacation or something. So the point is in order to save his son from Raghuvaran he hides his son in some foreign country where gulf air flies. He also lies to his wife [Sri Vidhya] that son has been kidnapped. I am very sure that the person who comes as Vijay Kumar’s son must be the director or producer, unless other wise no one would even consider him. He simply goofs up, over acts and irritates. In this process he breaks about 10 glass bottles and I broke few in watching this agony.
Prashanth meets Jyothika they fall in love. [That’s all, how and where does not matter]
Police now pester Prashanth for more sacrifices [”thayagams”], but Prashanth sneaks out and goes into a wedding hall where he searches for his girl, the one and only Jyothika. He gets caught by Vijay Kumar, because he was doing some "Boys" type acts that should make Ananda vikatan say "cheeee" once again but instead -- Chhhhhhhhhhhuda Chhhhhhhhhhhuda (tamilA…oh oh) cup coffee , irritating Ananda vikatan advt. shows up.
After this, Police shows up and gives Prashanth a (T) certificate , they tell that he is a Scapegoat for others; Wow! VJK [please I cannot type this name fully anymore] gets a plan, asks Prashanth to act as his son, according to his plan Raghuvaran will take out this guy by mistake. Poor Raghuvaran, I think like Karna he can use only one bullet for his entire life time.
[Pudsu kanna Pudusu , loud kugumam Advt followed by SunTv news synopsis that boasts Tamil shall be made a Red language soon, one more time - PKP [Pudsu kanna Pudusu]. Researchers have found that in about 24hrs, the number of times PKP commercial shown is more than the actual number of meaningful pages in Kungumam.]
Poor VJ [sorry VJK is too long] shows a picture of his wife and Jyothika. At once he agrees to take the place, as his son, he enquires about Jyothika in the picture, it seems she is “mama ponnu” Jo’s dad is brother of someone in the family or I called it as P.Vasu’s theory.
Thank god she does not become his sister that too after 3 great songs by A.R.Rahman.
Ok that’s it. I guess the movie would have ended after the sun TV news.
And finally, the reason I called this article as proof of concept because this movie tries very hard to prove a concept. They prove a movie can be made without a screen play, story or a director. The only reason it is called as movie is it was made using a film role.
9/1/04
Colossal waste
After a fortnight of Olympics, my fellow country men and women passed their usual nose cries via various medium on India’s performance in the Olympics. Many took their Blog/diary entries from 2000 and vented it out. [Condemning the government for not promoting “other” sports, Cricket was trashed for its popularity etc.] Few new Blog writers saved them to be used in 2008. The only silver medal winner was glorified with wealth of various kinds, this Indian wealth glorification made the super power ball winner jealous at times.
All said and done we are now back to our favorite sport “Cricket”, India started their overseas season on the wrong note by losing the Asia cup, then they washed their hands in Holland cup, after these two great preludes, our national pride, The SHAHARA India cricket team continued their vacation to the land of Lords and labkudasses, England.
First one day, India lost to England. India scored 170, was simply bundled out in 42 and with a hatrick. English scored those runs quite easily, top score, the Ex-Pat Indian Vikram Solanki.
As far as Gangully and co, it is one more match for them to play [very mediocre] cricket. For a change I did not subscribe to watch this live, thanks to BBC which provided live commentary on the internet. BBC commentary has never been biased in the past, this tradition continued again in this serious. BBC commentators were very happy to see England trash India; however they made very cautious comments and did not gloat about their victory. Sanjay manju and co should take a note of it.
Indian team a boasted lineup of seven batsmen managed to score 170 in 42, on a wicket which promised 250 plus. Shewag was out cheaply [oh! that is how he plays, you never know when he will click. But if he clicks that’s it he will trash all the bowlers.] Mr.Think Tank Captain, Mr.Lentil and Mr. Wall failed once again.
However Kaif scored a blue moon 50 and ensured his place in the team for next 30 years or until his retirement which ever comes first. Yuvraj Singh a promising talented overestimated player did not help Shahara India. Lucky Gavasker Jr after a painful 20, was happy to get out..
I have questions for the team STINK TANK,
Like Dravid being trained in wicket keeping for next 20 years,
Why don’t we train Laxman to carry drinks?
Why don’t we train Gangully to use his Brain?
Why don’t we train Kaif and the entire middle order in Batting ?
Finally
Why don’t we train Kumble to understand that there is life [for others] after his retirement?
Kumble was trashed to all parts of the ground, his final figures were 6.2 0 57 0. [sale promotion: 2 Noballs] Flint off simply smashed 3 sixes and scored 34 in 24 balls, the winning shot was a six. Sweet! Thanks to Anil Kumble. Oh ya, I hear sanjay manju and co saying he is an injured tiger, he will come back at you with vengeance and yada yada yada.. Dam this team. Further talking about this match in the Blog is a colossal waste, forget it. I think the only way India could score above 200 as of today is make Injured Sachin play book cricket from the pavilion
8/12/04
The Reckless Attitude
I was really surprised; In a shocking and absolutely a chauvinistic move, the Kannada film producers have gone for a resolution to ban movies of any other language other than Kannada for first 8 weeks of release. A Non-Kannada movie can be screened only after 8 weeks of its release in other states. Kannada people get to see Non-Kannada movies only after 8 weeks , when entire country gets to watch them much before.
The reason being the policy makers in the state of Karnataka recently reduced entertainment tax for non Kannada from 70% to 40%. It seems this will encourage distributors to screen more other language movies and they will not screen the native Kannada language movie. Hence to resolve this, Ban every other movie from every other language so that people are forced watch Kannada movies, regardless of the quality.
Today, Bangalore being a top cosmopolitan are one among top movie distribution hubs. By this ban, the most affected will be Tamil and Telugu industries, where the distribution is much wider than Kannada production.
Instead of fighting over false language chauvinism I would rather go and explore why there is no big market for Kannada movies. Many of my friends are from the state of Karnataka, most watch Tamil, Hindi and Telugu movies; they often tell me there is no great quality production from Kannada as in these languages. They feel for it but at the same time they don’t mind cross culture. Kannada people in whom I know are really broad minded.
For an Indian movie maker, if he or she has the censor certificate and permission, they have every right to screen any movies in place or location they want. I hope Kannada film personalities are still part of Indian Union, their talent does not grow by suppressing other Indian Talents,
I agree Tamil Nadu had problem in taking Hindi, however no producer in Tamil Nadu went for a ban for Hindi movies in the state. They did not sit and brood over Hindi domination. Talent cannot be suppressed, Tamilnadu gave Ilaayaraja, A.R.Rahman, Mani Ratham, Kamalhassan, the Rajinikanth phenomenon, and many more top film personalities with genuine talent are thriving in the film south Indian film industry. Same goes with Telugu, many top producers and super stars are from there. Both the industry work together today.
Moreover when Hindi industry went international, producers and directors in Tamil and Telugu improved drastically to match the standards. Today from an international point of view, Bollywood takes the first place in India, However Tamil and Telugu are closely behind Hindi in production quality. Hindi industry is facing a tough competition from southern ranks; this is a healthy competition where industries of all the three languages thrive.
I am very sure, if Kannada producers provide the same quality, natives of Kannada will go for watching Kannada movies. It disheartens me when I see a ban on movies produced in the same country by a fellow Indian.
Kannada movies makers need to improve in their production quality rather than insulting their country men.
I was really surprised; In a shocking and absolutely a chauvinistic move, the Kannada film producers have gone for a resolution to ban movies of any other language other than Kannada for first 8 weeks of release. A Non-Kannada movie can be screened only after 8 weeks of its release in other states. Kannada people get to see Non-Kannada movies only after 8 weeks , when entire country gets to watch them much before.
The reason being the policy makers in the state of Karnataka recently reduced entertainment tax for non Kannada from 70% to 40%. It seems this will encourage distributors to screen more other language movies and they will not screen the native Kannada language movie. Hence to resolve this, Ban every other movie from every other language so that people are forced watch Kannada movies, regardless of the quality.
Today, Bangalore being a top cosmopolitan are one among top movie distribution hubs. By this ban, the most affected will be Tamil and Telugu industries, where the distribution is much wider than Kannada production.
Instead of fighting over false language chauvinism I would rather go and explore why there is no big market for Kannada movies. Many of my friends are from the state of Karnataka, most watch Tamil, Hindi and Telugu movies; they often tell me there is no great quality production from Kannada as in these languages. They feel for it but at the same time they don’t mind cross culture. Kannada people in whom I know are really broad minded.
For an Indian movie maker, if he or she has the censor certificate and permission, they have every right to screen any movies in place or location they want. I hope Kannada film personalities are still part of Indian Union, their talent does not grow by suppressing other Indian Talents,
I agree Tamil Nadu had problem in taking Hindi, however no producer in Tamil Nadu went for a ban for Hindi movies in the state. They did not sit and brood over Hindi domination. Talent cannot be suppressed, Tamilnadu gave Ilaayaraja, A.R.Rahman, Mani Ratham, Kamalhassan, the Rajinikanth phenomenon, and many more top film personalities with genuine talent are thriving in the film south Indian film industry. Same goes with Telugu, many top producers and super stars are from there. Both the industry work together today.
Moreover when Hindi industry went international, producers and directors in Tamil and Telugu improved drastically to match the standards. Today from an international point of view, Bollywood takes the first place in India, However Tamil and Telugu are closely behind Hindi in production quality. Hindi industry is facing a tough competition from southern ranks; this is a healthy competition where industries of all the three languages thrive.
I am very sure, if Kannada producers provide the same quality, natives of Kannada will go for watching Kannada movies. It disheartens me when I see a ban on movies produced in the same country by a fellow Indian.
Kannada movies makers need to improve in their production quality rather than insulting their country men.
8/2/04
Duh!...We lost again.
All right, after a fortnight of cricket, To put it politely here we are for one more time as runners up. Gangully & Co walked out with a sad face after a customary speech in the awards ceremony. The team India is going to move on, crazy fans like me and Arun will crib about if for next two days in our respective Blogs. Duh!.
Why is Kaif still playing? Why Hemang Badani was never considered instead? And many more unanswered questions.
Why are we still having a soft corner for Dravid’s wicket keeping? How long this freight train load of BS is going to go on? Assume in our work environment, we are being assigned a new responsibility apart from the regular portfolio. We have 2 choices to make here, choose it, just go forward with the new responsibility or simply leave it if you feel the learning curve is too steep and taxing. What Dravid is doing is now hampering the Indian team totally. If he had accepted the responsibility to keep wickets, it is high time for him to honor it. His learning curve is around 50+ matches already, there is no way he can hide himself under the cover called learning curve. Yesterday he missed a vital run out. Any 1st division league wicket keeper would have got the run out. Dravid has to walk out of keeping if he finds it uncomfortable, period.
When it comes to argument of wicket keeping + a batsmen, come on, there is a talent from Chennai, Dinesh Karthik he is a promising wicketkeeper batsmen playing for the Tamil Nadu, he has about two centuries at an average of 41.13, in his 11-match Ranji career for Tamil Nadu, besides his performance and leadership [u19 vice captain] skills earned a place into the Indian ‘A’ team.
Parthiv Patel with a very poor or no domestic record, is very lucky to be in the squad on any grounds. First and fore most, he should be asked to play local matches before coming on the big league. Wicket keeping is not a joke, but this is how the Indian teams Think Tanks treat it today. Matches are won and lost because of the wicket-keepers; it is an on going 100% dedicated job. We cannot compromise it anymore. I hope "Team India" gets this loud and clear. Ironically main member of the selection committee for BCCI is an EX-Wicket keeper. Jimmy Amarnath's statement comes to my mind. [A Bunch of jokers]
At least for the next series I wish Dravid talks about it out openly and if he feels he needs to step down from wicket keeping, he should just do it. Get this guy Dinesh into the team. May be train Irfan Pathan to bat, when Ajit Agarkar is called as an all rounder, Duh! I am sure Pathan is also a talented all rounder in making.
During the awards ceremony the “straight drive” TV show hosts Sanjay Manjrekar and Ramezze raja were busy tuning their comments. For past few weeks, I was able to see how biased and sarcastic Sanjay’s comments were. He tried making sarcastic comments on other commentating group for ESPN, [Ravi Sastri , Harsha boggle and few more top cricketers]. He wisely called them Pundits, and ridiculed them. A personal vendetta?, because Sanjay failed to make it to the ESPN team? Or What?...
Coming to this sleepy commentating team, the “Torture” award goes to Arjuna Ranatunga, Ex- Sri Lankan captain. , Frankly! The commentary was as boring as his batting used to be, he was simply too dragging to hear. I still remember what Ian Healy told him when he asked for a By-Runner after scoring some runs. I really don’t see the reason why ARY choose to go with this non-professional commentators in first place
Arjuna was raving about the SriLankan performance. Duh! Actually If you see there is nothing big here, India simply failed their basics, , I am sure we would have won if we had our basics right., as potrayed by commentrators, Srilanka did not trash India with their big performance.
The pitch slows down! yeh! I heard it, but it is totally irriating for a cricket fan. It is boring to decide the match based on who bats first. After all Atapatu did this and took the cup..Duh!.
After the match Sanjay M and Rameez Raja were busy providing free advise to Sachin. Their golden words to Sachin were to rethink his game plan...yada yada yad..a… I felt kind of funny, Sanjay Majeraker has scored about 1900 runs while Rameez has scored about 5500 in this form of cricket. But now they are busy drafting out a career plan for a player who has scored more than double the number of runs than their aggregate. Duh!.
Hamara Bharath Mahan, Forget it! Holland cup is on the way for $99.00 bucks.
All right, after a fortnight of cricket, To put it politely here we are for one more time as runners up. Gangully & Co walked out with a sad face after a customary speech in the awards ceremony. The team India is going to move on, crazy fans like me and Arun will crib about if for next two days in our respective Blogs. Duh!.
Why is Kaif still playing? Why Hemang Badani was never considered instead? And many more unanswered questions.
Why are we still having a soft corner for Dravid’s wicket keeping? How long this freight train load of BS is going to go on? Assume in our work environment, we are being assigned a new responsibility apart from the regular portfolio. We have 2 choices to make here, choose it, just go forward with the new responsibility or simply leave it if you feel the learning curve is too steep and taxing. What Dravid is doing is now hampering the Indian team totally. If he had accepted the responsibility to keep wickets, it is high time for him to honor it. His learning curve is around 50+ matches already, there is no way he can hide himself under the cover called learning curve. Yesterday he missed a vital run out. Any 1st division league wicket keeper would have got the run out. Dravid has to walk out of keeping if he finds it uncomfortable, period.
When it comes to argument of wicket keeping + a batsmen, come on, there is a talent from Chennai, Dinesh Karthik he is a promising wicketkeeper batsmen playing for the Tamil Nadu, he has about two centuries at an average of 41.13, in his 11-match Ranji career for Tamil Nadu, besides his performance and leadership [u19 vice captain] skills earned a place into the Indian ‘A’ team.
Parthiv Patel with a very poor or no domestic record, is very lucky to be in the squad on any grounds. First and fore most, he should be asked to play local matches before coming on the big league. Wicket keeping is not a joke, but this is how the Indian teams Think Tanks treat it today. Matches are won and lost because of the wicket-keepers; it is an on going 100% dedicated job. We cannot compromise it anymore. I hope "Team India" gets this loud and clear. Ironically main member of the selection committee for BCCI is an EX-Wicket keeper. Jimmy Amarnath's statement comes to my mind. [A Bunch of jokers]
At least for the next series I wish Dravid talks about it out openly and if he feels he needs to step down from wicket keeping, he should just do it. Get this guy Dinesh into the team. May be train Irfan Pathan to bat, when Ajit Agarkar is called as an all rounder, Duh! I am sure Pathan is also a talented all rounder in making.
During the awards ceremony the “straight drive” TV show hosts Sanjay Manjrekar and Ramezze raja were busy tuning their comments. For past few weeks, I was able to see how biased and sarcastic Sanjay’s comments were. He tried making sarcastic comments on other commentating group for ESPN, [Ravi Sastri , Harsha boggle and few more top cricketers]. He wisely called them Pundits, and ridiculed them. A personal vendetta?, because Sanjay failed to make it to the ESPN team? Or What?...
Coming to this sleepy commentating team, the “Torture” award goes to Arjuna Ranatunga, Ex- Sri Lankan captain. , Frankly! The commentary was as boring as his batting used to be, he was simply too dragging to hear. I still remember what Ian Healy told him when he asked for a By-Runner after scoring some runs. I really don’t see the reason why ARY choose to go with this non-professional commentators in first place
Arjuna was raving about the SriLankan performance. Duh! Actually If you see there is nothing big here, India simply failed their basics, , I am sure we would have won if we had our basics right., as potrayed by commentrators, Srilanka did not trash India with their big performance.
The pitch slows down! yeh! I heard it, but it is totally irriating for a cricket fan. It is boring to decide the match based on who bats first. After all Atapatu did this and took the cup..Duh!.
After the match Sanjay M and Rameez Raja were busy providing free advise to Sachin. Their golden words to Sachin were to rethink his game plan...yada yada yad..a… I felt kind of funny, Sanjay Majeraker has scored about 1900 runs while Rameez has scored about 5500 in this form of cricket. But now they are busy drafting out a career plan for a player who has scored more than double the number of runs than their aggregate. Duh!.
Hamara Bharath Mahan, Forget it! Holland cup is on the way for $99.00 bucks.
7/15/04
Composer Talk – 2, Lyrics
The lyric personifies the soul in the song. The composition gets the complete shape from the lyrics. A good lyric has the capacity to inspire composers to create outstanding melody lines. There are many examples we can quote in film song.
But often composers don’t see lyrics eye to an eye. This is not a big sin. The reason being they tend to concentrate more on their musical composition. After all the music in the composition is the frame work that is going drive everything, hence in general these days lyrics are treated number 2 in a composition. Let me discuss on the tune for lyrics or lyrics for a tune issue.
Melody First: In my opinion a writer is asked to restrict himself by this approach. He has a preset boundary for his thoughts. He is forced to fit the words as per the melody lines, there might be better words for him to work with, but he is denied the opportunity to use them. What is the difference between a jigsaw puzzle and a painting? , a writer is treated as a person who assembles a jig saw puzzle; fit the word for a given template. A person just needs an aptitude to complete a jigsaw, there is nothing called creativity when you assemble a jig saw. Having said this, there are talented writers who are very much capable of writing wonderful lyrics to a preset melody line. However, the bottom line for them is they are governed by a boundary; their thoughts are kept within this boundary.
Lyrics First: In my opinion, a music composer’s has a wider palette than a lyric writer; the composer’s palette is more flexible, meaning a composer in general has more choices of melody phrases than a writer. A natural composer will have the ability to create tunes for any kind of lyric. His or her melody will complement the emotion generated by the lyrics much better in this approach.
The lyric writer is not bound by the melody and meter boundaries. They get to choose different words and express their ideas more clearly. I would recommend for new composers to try hands on prewritten lyrics. It is a good exercise, at times a challenging job to get a good tune.
Most of my songs in my website were written by Udhaya . In the past, he was working only with my melodies. The reason being I have tons of composition in my shelf so I decided to use them all. However, of late, I have started to work with prewritten composition. The latest one “gramiya kadalan” was composed for pre written words. My best method would be to work together with the lyric writer, both of them need to sit and do it together. Composer can get melodies for various lines from writer on the spot. However time and social constraints will work against this.
Here is an interesing observation, Last weekend Sridhar and I were in a composing session and Sridhar told me THAT there is relationship between “ponal pogatum poda” and ”nandavathil oru andi” [my previous release.] lyrics. The pallavi for the song “ponal pogatum poda“ has been phrased out first using the words from “nandavathil oru andi”. Yes, I played and checked it and found this.
The lyric personifies the soul in the song. The composition gets the complete shape from the lyrics. A good lyric has the capacity to inspire composers to create outstanding melody lines. There are many examples we can quote in film song.
But often composers don’t see lyrics eye to an eye. This is not a big sin. The reason being they tend to concentrate more on their musical composition. After all the music in the composition is the frame work that is going drive everything, hence in general these days lyrics are treated number 2 in a composition. Let me discuss on the tune for lyrics or lyrics for a tune issue.
Melody First: In my opinion a writer is asked to restrict himself by this approach. He has a preset boundary for his thoughts. He is forced to fit the words as per the melody lines, there might be better words for him to work with, but he is denied the opportunity to use them. What is the difference between a jigsaw puzzle and a painting? , a writer is treated as a person who assembles a jig saw puzzle; fit the word for a given template. A person just needs an aptitude to complete a jigsaw, there is nothing called creativity when you assemble a jig saw. Having said this, there are talented writers who are very much capable of writing wonderful lyrics to a preset melody line. However, the bottom line for them is they are governed by a boundary; their thoughts are kept within this boundary.
Lyrics First: In my opinion, a music composer’s has a wider palette than a lyric writer; the composer’s palette is more flexible, meaning a composer in general has more choices of melody phrases than a writer. A natural composer will have the ability to create tunes for any kind of lyric. His or her melody will complement the emotion generated by the lyrics much better in this approach.
The lyric writer is not bound by the melody and meter boundaries. They get to choose different words and express their ideas more clearly. I would recommend for new composers to try hands on prewritten lyrics. It is a good exercise, at times a challenging job to get a good tune.
Most of my songs in my website were written by Udhaya . In the past, he was working only with my melodies. The reason being I have tons of composition in my shelf so I decided to use them all. However, of late, I have started to work with prewritten composition. The latest one “gramiya kadalan” was composed for pre written words. My best method would be to work together with the lyric writer, both of them need to sit and do it together. Composer can get melodies for various lines from writer on the spot. However time and social constraints will work against this.
Here is an interesing observation, Last weekend Sridhar and I were in a composing session and Sridhar told me THAT there is relationship between “ponal pogatum poda” and ”nandavathil oru andi” [my previous release.] lyrics. The pallavi for the song “ponal pogatum poda“ has been phrased out first using the words from “nandavathil oru andi”. Yes, I played and checked it and found this.
nadavanathil oru andi, avan!
[ponal pogatum poda, intha ]
nalaru mathamai.. kuyavanai vendi...
[bhoomiyil nilaiyai vaazhandhavan yarada ]
kondu vanthan oru thondi
[ponal pogatum poda]
7/9/04
The Late Review, Concludes.
I remember reading Mr. Muktha Srinivasan’s book on History of Tamil film industry. In this he mentions that Tamil movie production lost its way during 70s. Most producers and directors were confused and totally misguided. There was huge dip in production quality. This movie proves this to be 100% true. Celluloid was taken over by Hindi movies.
I really don't want justifiy by saying Hindi movies were worse than this, so what, we were also a stinker.
What is difference between a stage drama and a movie? Movies like “Thirusulam” did not seem to distinguish the difference. This was an over acted stage drama shot on a 35mm. After all, movie making on the celluloid is an art of story telling where the director uses his creativity to screen play the story line using powerful visuals and emotions.
If you watch this movie, except for song that was shot outdoors, most of the shots were taken from a camera that was nailed to the floor. Artists come in front of the camera rather than camera covering them. Camera, the powerful visual tool was treated similar to a microphone on a stage drama. Out door! concept never considered, and camera angles and shots were totally academic. A dolly shot, tracking shot, moving shot, boom shot, crane shot, pan shot, tilt shot were all misused to the core. They were filled with one or two or three shorts [close up of persons], a stationary or a fixed short with a very tight close-ups. The most irritating one was the close-ups reaction shots; these kind of cheap shots were abundant in Thirusulam.
Yes, I do agree 100% to the fact Sivaji Ganeshan was the great actor of our times, he had the capacity for doing an entire shot in a master take, But he was misguided the directors of 1970s who clearly misused every artist’s potential. It was greatest period of depression in Tamil movies.
I was really surprised when few of my friends supported “Thirusulam” and concluded it was a great movie for its time, and my trashing was overboard. Woof! I don’t get it, how does the time factor play a roll here. Were people dumb during 70s? No I don’t think so, didnt' we all enjoy English movies of 70s ? How was West able to churn out top classics during that period? Let me name few from west! during that time Jaws , Star wars, Super man, The Exorcist, The Godfather, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Taxi Driver, Halloween, Saturday Night Fever, Silver Streak and many more.
To conclude, Thirusulam the movie had a thin story line with a “thick” cast. How can we be fooled by 45-50 year olds to be in their 20s? Adding to the agony they go dancing around trees and park bridges [aka varavathi dance].
To me it was a movie with “WIG” crazy casting, a great Wig exhibition, a poorly staged drama on a 35mm. mere waste of resources. However for many this was a silver jubilee movie, I don’t know how this was possible. May be this is what is called as the “generation gap”? No I don’t think so, I was born before 1970. Duh!. I still feel this movie was a joke.
Thanks for reading!....
I remember reading Mr. Muktha Srinivasan’s book on History of Tamil film industry. In this he mentions that Tamil movie production lost its way during 70s. Most producers and directors were confused and totally misguided. There was huge dip in production quality. This movie proves this to be 100% true. Celluloid was taken over by Hindi movies.
I really don't want justifiy by saying Hindi movies were worse than this, so what, we were also a stinker.
What is difference between a stage drama and a movie? Movies like “Thirusulam” did not seem to distinguish the difference. This was an over acted stage drama shot on a 35mm. After all, movie making on the celluloid is an art of story telling where the director uses his creativity to screen play the story line using powerful visuals and emotions.
If you watch this movie, except for song that was shot outdoors, most of the shots were taken from a camera that was nailed to the floor. Artists come in front of the camera rather than camera covering them. Camera, the powerful visual tool was treated similar to a microphone on a stage drama. Out door! concept never considered, and camera angles and shots were totally academic. A dolly shot, tracking shot, moving shot, boom shot, crane shot, pan shot, tilt shot were all misused to the core. They were filled with one or two or three shorts [close up of persons], a stationary or a fixed short with a very tight close-ups. The most irritating one was the close-ups reaction shots; these kind of cheap shots were abundant in Thirusulam.
Yes, I do agree 100% to the fact Sivaji Ganeshan was the great actor of our times, he had the capacity for doing an entire shot in a master take, But he was misguided the directors of 1970s who clearly misused every artist’s potential. It was greatest period of depression in Tamil movies.
I was really surprised when few of my friends supported “Thirusulam” and concluded it was a great movie for its time, and my trashing was overboard. Woof! I don’t get it, how does the time factor play a roll here. Were people dumb during 70s? No I don’t think so, didnt' we all enjoy English movies of 70s ? How was West able to churn out top classics during that period? Let me name few from west! during that time Jaws , Star wars, Super man, The Exorcist, The Godfather, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Taxi Driver, Halloween, Saturday Night Fever, Silver Streak and many more.
To conclude, Thirusulam the movie had a thin story line with a “thick” cast. How can we be fooled by 45-50 year olds to be in their 20s? Adding to the agony they go dancing around trees and park bridges [aka varavathi dance].
To me it was a movie with “WIG” crazy casting, a great Wig exhibition, a poorly staged drama on a 35mm. mere waste of resources. However for many this was a silver jubilee movie, I don’t know how this was possible. May be this is what is called as the “generation gap”? No I don’t think so, I was born before 1970. Duh!. I still feel this movie was a joke.
Thanks for reading!....
7/7/04
The Late Review, Continues...
K.R.Vijay, who was seen crying for the hell 10 minutes ago with Father Sivaji now talks in a motherly tone to the son Sivaji. I think during the shooting Vijaya must have locked herself in a room and laughed out loud. It seems son Sivaji was 25 years old, frankly on the screen the total was about 110 years, shared by both the stars. Young Sivaji scolds his father as a worth less guy and Vijaya whines that he will come back one day.
Meanwhile, Our “Jadamudi” Sivaji now in Kashmir, narrates his story to his niece [actually he was telling us the story] sends her to Delhi with his paintings; he sells paintings for livelihood. After showing the Delhi Airport sign, the lady goes in an ambassador car, she stops on the road to get a drink, “coconut water”, getting coconut water in New-Delhi, I was amazed, and to me this place looked more like “Thrisulam” near pallavaram, Chennai.
She is attacked by local “Tamil speaking” [note it] rowdies, they try to play mischief with her. But suddenly a Sivaji shows up [with a young looking wig] on his 70’s “Lambrata” scooter He fights, flying around like a bee kicks them all and makes them run. He then introduces himself to the girl, and buys her paintings.
In case you are confused by now, this is the same Sivaji, son of K.R.Vijaya few scenes ago.
Next scene, Major Sunderrajan, a criminal lawyer in his office; a person in a Red robe and giant size mustache [the wig on the head is now moved below nose] and a big knife shows up at his gate, it seems he is a bad guy, He utters some crazy sounds to expose his anger, I really don’t know how an actor of Sivaji’s status can do such act. He was as irritating as the hormone imbalanced (uncle) guy in “Kolangal” Tamil serial.
This comedy sequence between Sivaji and Major must have been the major factor for both of them to fail badly in politics. Everyone would have remembered this part and decided not to vote for them ever in their life, a pathetic display of overacting by renowned actors of TamilNadu. Wait , there is one more shocker, it seems the overly dressed Sivaji is the son of Major, he in a disguise and playing a prank on him. “Ada rama” , once again he is also 25 years old., I have never seen a son who looks much older than his dad, mom and his grandfather.
All this to show that this Sivaji is fun loving guy, a prankster with a young thin wig that has curved hair lock in his fore head, a rare occasion where you find Dennis Rodman handsome.
So till now 3 Sivaji are shown, Vijaya is fine with one and another one is growing up with Major, how he got there, you need to wait for climax.
A photographer who is also a smuggler and friend of “Jadamudi” Sivaji is introduced some where in the 4th reel, with help of local dacoits he steals a necklace from temple ; with all my logics right temple should be in Delhi. Son Sivaji number one tries to fight them out, how he came where he came from, please dont ask such questions, director wants him there he was there. But the photographer escapes with the booty. A group of Police goes after him,and vanishes in thin air. He goes to the guest house where the “Niece girl” was staying. He hides the necklace in painting, plans to take it later.
Meanwhile Son Sivaji [who is with K.R.Vijaya] meets this girl and they go in to kind of pseudo romance. After a song, the son gets a job in Kashmir and wants to go there. He is asked to carry the painting back to Kashmir on his girl friends request; she gives him a letter to her dad. Remember the painting that contains the necklace also goes with him. She requests him to join his dad as his manager. I really don’t know what the elder Sivaji is doing to have a manager.
The photographer guy is actually a mercenary for MN Nambi & Ga. He goes to get the painting, but he finds that son Sivaji has taken it. He goes after him to the airport and meets him. The airport looked like Shanthi theater ticket counter to me. The painting, Sivaji and the villain fly to Kashmir. After landing, Sivaji meets “Thenga” Srinivasan , a funny guy and a local guide. I think everyone carried same kind of box in the 70's Yes!..Box gets exchanged. Tenga takes the box that contains the necklace.
Next reel, Sripriya shows up in her so called modern dress. She starts to talk with her cat strangling voice to her grand father, played by Royal Grand father [asthAna thAthA] of Kodambakkam, V.K.Ramaswamy, who eventually owns the copy right for the word “MooDevi”. Sripriya does not want to marry anyone, but VKR wants her to get married, if not, he threatens her to write off his assets to charity. He gets an heart attack while talking to her, a doctor shows up, same doctor who helped K.R.Vijaya!. Beep Beep, My screen play GPS monitor was slowly trying to establish a link.
[might continue or I might stop it right here...
K.R.Vijay, who was seen crying for the hell 10 minutes ago with Father Sivaji now talks in a motherly tone to the son Sivaji. I think during the shooting Vijaya must have locked herself in a room and laughed out loud. It seems son Sivaji was 25 years old, frankly on the screen the total was about 110 years, shared by both the stars. Young Sivaji scolds his father as a worth less guy and Vijaya whines that he will come back one day.
Meanwhile, Our “Jadamudi” Sivaji now in Kashmir, narrates his story to his niece [actually he was telling us the story] sends her to Delhi with his paintings; he sells paintings for livelihood. After showing the Delhi Airport sign, the lady goes in an ambassador car, she stops on the road to get a drink, “coconut water”, getting coconut water in New-Delhi, I was amazed, and to me this place looked more like “Thrisulam” near pallavaram, Chennai.
She is attacked by local “Tamil speaking” [note it] rowdies, they try to play mischief with her. But suddenly a Sivaji shows up [with a young looking wig] on his 70’s “Lambrata” scooter He fights, flying around like a bee kicks them all and makes them run. He then introduces himself to the girl, and buys her paintings.
In case you are confused by now, this is the same Sivaji, son of K.R.Vijaya few scenes ago.
Next scene, Major Sunderrajan, a criminal lawyer in his office; a person in a Red robe and giant size mustache [the wig on the head is now moved below nose] and a big knife shows up at his gate, it seems he is a bad guy, He utters some crazy sounds to expose his anger, I really don’t know how an actor of Sivaji’s status can do such act. He was as irritating as the hormone imbalanced (uncle) guy in “Kolangal” Tamil serial.
This comedy sequence between Sivaji and Major must have been the major factor for both of them to fail badly in politics. Everyone would have remembered this part and decided not to vote for them ever in their life, a pathetic display of overacting by renowned actors of TamilNadu. Wait , there is one more shocker, it seems the overly dressed Sivaji is the son of Major, he in a disguise and playing a prank on him. “Ada rama” , once again he is also 25 years old., I have never seen a son who looks much older than his dad, mom and his grandfather.
All this to show that this Sivaji is fun loving guy, a prankster with a young thin wig that has curved hair lock in his fore head, a rare occasion where you find Dennis Rodman handsome.
So till now 3 Sivaji are shown, Vijaya is fine with one and another one is growing up with Major, how he got there, you need to wait for climax.
A photographer who is also a smuggler and friend of “Jadamudi” Sivaji is introduced some where in the 4th reel, with help of local dacoits he steals a necklace from temple ; with all my logics right temple should be in Delhi. Son Sivaji number one tries to fight them out, how he came where he came from, please dont ask such questions, director wants him there he was there. But the photographer escapes with the booty. A group of Police goes after him,and vanishes in thin air. He goes to the guest house where the “Niece girl” was staying. He hides the necklace in painting, plans to take it later.
Meanwhile Son Sivaji [who is with K.R.Vijaya] meets this girl and they go in to kind of pseudo romance. After a song, the son gets a job in Kashmir and wants to go there. He is asked to carry the painting back to Kashmir on his girl friends request; she gives him a letter to her dad. Remember the painting that contains the necklace also goes with him. She requests him to join his dad as his manager. I really don’t know what the elder Sivaji is doing to have a manager.
The photographer guy is actually a mercenary for MN Nambi & Ga. He goes to get the painting, but he finds that son Sivaji has taken it. He goes after him to the airport and meets him. The airport looked like Shanthi theater ticket counter to me. The painting, Sivaji and the villain fly to Kashmir. After landing, Sivaji meets “Thenga” Srinivasan , a funny guy and a local guide. I think everyone carried same kind of box in the 70's Yes!..Box gets exchanged. Tenga takes the box that contains the necklace.
Next reel, Sripriya shows up in her so called modern dress. She starts to talk with her cat strangling voice to her grand father, played by Royal Grand father [asthAna thAthA] of Kodambakkam, V.K.Ramaswamy, who eventually owns the copy right for the word “MooDevi”. Sripriya does not want to marry anyone, but VKR wants her to get married, if not, he threatens her to write off his assets to charity. He gets an heart attack while talking to her, a doctor shows up, same doctor who helped K.R.Vijaya!. Beep Beep, My screen play GPS monitor was slowly trying to establish a link.
[might continue or I might stop it right here...
7/6/04
The Late Review
For last 2 weeks I have the pleasure of KTV in my house. To get KTV we need to install the super dish, I went ahead and got it. KTV plays 2 movies a day with rest of the time filled with old and new Tamil songs or film based program. Saturday afternoon I happen to watch an old Tamil movie called “Trisulam”, Sivaji Ganeshan in triple role while K.R.Vijaya , Sripriya and one more female co-star whom I did not have a clue about.
This movie is said to have grossed about 400 days and copy rights were sold to all the south Indian language. The Kannada version is said to have grossed more than Tamil. So it should be good movie right! read further.
The movie opens with Sivaji and K.R.Vijaya singing a family song, a typical start for movies of the 70’s. The eldest Sivaji gets in nexus with 3 villains; M.N.Nambiyar, Ramdoss and one more person.
I think one of the Co-producer for the movie or his wife or his close relation should have had a wig manufacturing unit with lots of wigs unsold. Every character in the movie had a crazy wig. The director establishes the difference of age by placing these wigs on the character's head. Sivaji goes spell bound in triple role. Once again the only way we could distinguish three Sivaji’s is the Wig. Please remember that Wigs plays a vital role in the movie. M.N. Nambiyar comes with a reddish brown Wig while his associates decorate themselves with various colors and sizes of wigs. For some reason bad guys in Tamil movies always wear colorful wigs. I think instead of “Tirusulam” they could have named it “ThiruTopa”. [Toupee]
Senior Sivaji kills one of partner and escapes with his wife Vijaya, who is pregnant , while Nambi & Ga [gang] goes to the police. Meanwhile Sivaji and Vijaya board a train [Grand trunk express] to Delhi, the train matched the purple and red color of GT. As expected, Sivaji gets out of the train to get some water, suddenly the train starts to move away, Sivaji comes running to the train but stops as the platform is surrounded by police. Sivaji hides behind a telephone booth, while a police force of about 100 stands in front of every compartment.
I really don’t know how they can miss someone like Sivaji of 70s, that too with bright black giant size Toupee on his head, he was standing about 5 yards behind the police line. The train picks speed suddenly K.R.Vijaya screams, “enaaaaaaanngaaaaaa” and tries to jump out of the train, at this point I did not know where the police force went, they were standing right in the front just a minute ago. They could catch her and Sivaji red handed at that time. But the train rolls out while Sivaji cries, his body shakes, measuring a magnitude of about 7.1 on the Richter scale. He cries as though the train is gone forever to the Mars or Jupiter. Simple logic, next station is Basin Bridge Junction, [ps: in 70’s any train that leaves madras will stop in Basin Bridge]. Sivaji can always go there or may be Vijaya could have pulled the chain instead of crying. Or Police could have stopped the train and searched it fully. But, it is the 70s’s, no place for logic. The pregnant Vijaya is helped by a co-passenger, who happens to be a lady doctor.
After this emotional break away, Vijay gives birth in Delhi, she tries to walk away from the hospital with some “self pity” dialogues, The doctor gives her place to stay.
Time roles by, how do I know this?, I just assumed so, because Sivaji shown on the screen had a grey colored long size wig on his head. A “JadAmudi” with white side burns, meaning he is the father guy who has a niece, I don’t know how or from where he got the niece. She calls him "mama", so he should be his sister’s daughter. Or may be the stage is setup for Younger Sivaji to marry her.
[To be continued]
For last 2 weeks I have the pleasure of KTV in my house. To get KTV we need to install the super dish, I went ahead and got it. KTV plays 2 movies a day with rest of the time filled with old and new Tamil songs or film based program. Saturday afternoon I happen to watch an old Tamil movie called “Trisulam”, Sivaji Ganeshan in triple role while K.R.Vijaya , Sripriya and one more female co-star whom I did not have a clue about.
This movie is said to have grossed about 400 days and copy rights were sold to all the south Indian language. The Kannada version is said to have grossed more than Tamil. So it should be good movie right! read further.
The movie opens with Sivaji and K.R.Vijaya singing a family song, a typical start for movies of the 70’s. The eldest Sivaji gets in nexus with 3 villains; M.N.Nambiyar, Ramdoss and one more person.
I think one of the Co-producer for the movie or his wife or his close relation should have had a wig manufacturing unit with lots of wigs unsold. Every character in the movie had a crazy wig. The director establishes the difference of age by placing these wigs on the character's head. Sivaji goes spell bound in triple role. Once again the only way we could distinguish three Sivaji’s is the Wig. Please remember that Wigs plays a vital role in the movie. M.N. Nambiyar comes with a reddish brown Wig while his associates decorate themselves with various colors and sizes of wigs. For some reason bad guys in Tamil movies always wear colorful wigs. I think instead of “Tirusulam” they could have named it “ThiruTopa”. [Toupee]
Senior Sivaji kills one of partner and escapes with his wife Vijaya, who is pregnant , while Nambi & Ga [gang] goes to the police. Meanwhile Sivaji and Vijaya board a train [Grand trunk express] to Delhi, the train matched the purple and red color of GT. As expected, Sivaji gets out of the train to get some water, suddenly the train starts to move away, Sivaji comes running to the train but stops as the platform is surrounded by police. Sivaji hides behind a telephone booth, while a police force of about 100 stands in front of every compartment.
I really don’t know how they can miss someone like Sivaji of 70s, that too with bright black giant size Toupee on his head, he was standing about 5 yards behind the police line. The train picks speed suddenly K.R.Vijaya screams, “enaaaaaaanngaaaaaa” and tries to jump out of the train, at this point I did not know where the police force went, they were standing right in the front just a minute ago. They could catch her and Sivaji red handed at that time. But the train rolls out while Sivaji cries, his body shakes, measuring a magnitude of about 7.1 on the Richter scale. He cries as though the train is gone forever to the Mars or Jupiter. Simple logic, next station is Basin Bridge Junction, [ps: in 70’s any train that leaves madras will stop in Basin Bridge]. Sivaji can always go there or may be Vijaya could have pulled the chain instead of crying. Or Police could have stopped the train and searched it fully. But, it is the 70s’s, no place for logic. The pregnant Vijaya is helped by a co-passenger, who happens to be a lady doctor.
After this emotional break away, Vijay gives birth in Delhi, she tries to walk away from the hospital with some “self pity” dialogues, The doctor gives her place to stay.
Time roles by, how do I know this?, I just assumed so, because Sivaji shown on the screen had a grey colored long size wig on his head. A “JadAmudi” with white side burns, meaning he is the father guy who has a niece, I don’t know how or from where he got the niece. She calls him "mama", so he should be his sister’s daughter. Or may be the stage is setup for Younger Sivaji to marry her.
[To be continued]
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