50,000+ cricket fans went depressed today in Chennai, thanks to the clipper “depression” that sailed over Chennai. Third time in a row people of Chennai were denied from watching good game of cricket. When India was all set to beat Australia, the final day’s play was washed out, and then the washout New Zealand game, now one more to the list.
When it comes to good cricket, Chennai is already under the Set top box fiasco spell, now it is the turn of the weather gods; Mr. Varuna is really stingy when it comes to Chennai, but he suddenly decides to shed his charitable contributions over Chennai. Alas one more game gobbled by a depression from Bay of Bengal. It was kind of sad to watch people who showed up for the game busy cursing the rain god, the irony here is for past few years the city has been trying very hard to impress Mr. Varuna, he was their temporary enemy today.
Most went back home just in time to catch the evening quota of Tele serials that establishes Tamil culture and its heritage. This also includes reality shows called “News” where we get to see tamil men and tamil women with broom sticks cursing in pure Tamil about some one in full throat.
It is not very surprising to know that BCCI have no clue about geography in general. They don’t know even their own boss till date, so how will they know the north East Monsoon around the Coromandal Coast? A school kid will tell you that it rains cats and dogs or if not at least some rats in Chennai during October and November time frame. What is the point in scheduling a game during this period? Chennai does having a fantastic competitive stadium, so what? Our proud TNCA is always on the bad books of BCCI for political reasons; so we don’t get good games, if at all we get, it rains out. Out of 50,000, I hope at least 40,000 loyal cricket fans get their money refunded; the rest 10,000 allocated were OC tickets anyway.
Sitting on the other side of the world, I woke up this morning at about 3.55am, just to catch glimpse of my home town, when the camera pans I would look for someone I know. My little Banner which I made - "Rain Rain go away - come again another day" our little Sachin want to play! Went waste; Kolkota, here we come!
Good day.
Ps: Please donate your old geography books to BCCI.
11/22/05
11/21/05
Monday!
Over the weekend, watched a movie on DVD called 'Ullam Ketkumae’. I liked the movie for its theme and clean screen play. We have seen similar movies about collage love, fun etc, however the young cast in this movie made it more realistic. No “heroism” or “Chroma key” fights or “Punch Dialogues”, or “Teacher teasing in name of comedy” or “over loaded soft core porno” a set of simple love stories /infatuations that is knitted around college life. Characters in the movie can found in everyone’s school life. Harris Jeyaraj does a fine job in few songs however in every song he uses some weird language for the hook phrase, “Lieko Laima” was one such thing I am yet to understand. There were some impressive English lyrics too, however singing seemed too loud. I wish more movies are made in this manner and this movie would be really interesting if the running time is reduced by 60 minutes. Since the director has to cater for 3 hours, he had to include some dragging Tamil movie elements.
Yesterday evening saw “BABA the movie” on Sun TV, since this has been discussed I have nothing more to comment on this, however the end of the movie there was a note - “to be continued..” I really don’t know what the intention was, may be “BABA” becomes a post graduate, which is “ ” Thank god as Rajini fan I have Chandramuki to celebrate.
It is been raining in Chennai; one day might be washed out or a shortened game are in cards. India won the Banglore one day in style. Sehwag played a good innings to ensure his place in the team. Weekend I was also busy with few recordings and composing sessions. Yes! Another project in the pipe line already and things are starting to pick up. Expect some announcements end of next month.
Lieko laima – Have a Good day.
Yesterday evening saw “BABA the movie” on Sun TV, since this has been discussed I have nothing more to comment on this, however the end of the movie there was a note - “to be continued..” I really don’t know what the intention was, may be “BABA” becomes a post graduate, which is “ ” Thank god as Rajini fan I have Chandramuki to celebrate.
It is been raining in Chennai; one day might be washed out or a shortened game are in cards. India won the Banglore one day in style. Sehwag played a good innings to ensure his place in the team. Weekend I was also busy with few recordings and composing sessions. Yes! Another project in the pipe line already and things are starting to pick up. Expect some announcements end of next month.
Lieko laima – Have a Good day.
11/18/05
H1BEES NEWS
(1) Interview with Srikanth Devarajan, Shankar Nagarajan, and Srivatsa Srinivasan, the team behind the CD "H1-Bees by Srikanth" By Ada/AV team, UCLA International institute. Published on: 11/15/2005 -
Click Here.., Thanks to Ana La O' for the interview;
(2) The popular Indian Pod cast show – “A Pod Cast on Indian Music” has featured H1BEES which includes some of the old compositions of Srikanth. Srikanth/Shankar and Srivatsa spoke to Amit Varshneya, the host for the show.
Thanks Amit for featuring us.
Other news
============
(3) CD Baby Restocked our Cds ,If you have not ordered the CD yet, you can order it via www.cdBaby.com/srikanth
Have a good weekend.
Thanks.,
Click Here.., Thanks to Ana La O' for the interview;
(2) The popular Indian Pod cast show – “A Pod Cast on Indian Music” has featured H1BEES which includes some of the old compositions of Srikanth. Srikanth/Shankar and Srivatsa spoke to Amit Varshneya, the host for the show.
Thanks Amit for featuring us.
Other news
============
(3) CD Baby Restocked our Cds ,If you have not ordered the CD yet, you can order it via www.cdBaby.com/srikanth
Have a good weekend.
Thanks.,
11/16/05
********** An Update
After a month long empty “hundis”, ICC finally managed to get some doe in their coffers.
Harbajan fined 25% of his match fee. Jeff Crowe fined Harbajan for gestures against Ashwell Prince. It seems Harbajan pleaded guilty and fine was reduced by to 25%, this offense carries an 50% forfeiture.Duh! there goes the 6 star dinner for ICC members.
seriously, my question is: How come Crowe missed Mel's ill behavior and gestures to the Indian batsmen? But managed promptly to ticket Harbajan? May be the South Africans “caught the Crow” well ahead of the game. This is Ridiculous! Dear Banglorians if he is still around for the next game don’t give him Water.
Harbajan fined 25% of his match fee. Jeff Crowe fined Harbajan for gestures against Ashwell Prince. It seems Harbajan pleaded guilty and fine was reduced by to 25%, this offense carries an 50% forfeiture.Duh! there goes the 6 star dinner for ICC members.
seriously, my question is: How come Crowe missed Mel's ill behavior and gestures to the Indian batsmen? But managed promptly to ticket Harbajan? May be the South Africans “caught the Crow” well ahead of the game. This is Ridiculous! Dear Banglorians if he is still around for the next game don’t give him Water.
GPS Failed to work this time.
The flouring new Indian team lost its way and lost the game to South Africa. I really felt why there was a need to play an international game on a semi constructed stadium. Like players getting tuned by playing first class games the cricket pitch should also be tuned with few first class games. The pitch was an unpredictable slop with uneven bounce; the conditions suited the bowlers more in the first session. Dravid for his part lost a vital toss and as expected India was in trouble right away. Sehwag was tempted and he was out playing the same stroke for the millionth time. I think he never learns. In this process he also gave hopes for Dada.
Sachin might be the player with most number of dubious decisions against him. He was given out caught behind by umpire Hariharan. The ball clearly missed the edge and I really do not know how umpire could miss such decisions. Top order was tinkered once again. Kaif was promoted; it was matter of time before he walked back with a pale face. Dravid was bowled, I think Dravid could have come in at number three; Dravid has the technique to keep the bowlers checked on an unpredictable wicket. But! Keeping it short, thanks to Yuvarj, Harbajan and Ifran India had put forth a respectable score. Yuvarj’s century was worth millions.
Super sub: I really don’t what was the reason to pick Gautham Gambir as the super sub. Ok may be an extra batsmen, but already having 2 openers in the lineup, why not an all rounder like Suresh Raina? On Gambir’s selection - he plays or Sehwag plays.
South African batting was not “fantastic” or “mind sweeping”; the same old Modus operandi - dull mechanical mode. Smith was out plumb in the first over to Irfan. Everyone except the umpire got the decision right. Soon he started to play some strokes and hit Irfan quite well in next few overs. If someone complains about Sehwag’s footwork, hey! What about Smith then? Indian bowling was over all pathetic at stages. Harbajan did reduce the run rate though. However the most pathetic issue in this ordeal was the commentary team, Robin Jackman and Ranjith Fernando especially. Seriously at 12.00 midnight, agony multiplied. There was clearly a bias in commentating by the South African crew, while Mr. Ranjith was settling accounts. The new guy MEL was full of tantrums however South African commentating team appreciated every inch of it. If it had been “dada Ganguva”,oh wait!.. We term that as misbehavior.
Bottom line, India lost the match however gave a good fight, while South Africa did not win it convincingly, from 35-5 they managed to donate 214 runs in spite of unpredictable uneven track - they just won with an over+ to spare. 0-1 , I hope we recover in future games, BCCI should pick stadiums that really suite India. Home team advantage has to be exploited.
Ps: Boasting English team lost the first test to Pakistan!
Sachin might be the player with most number of dubious decisions against him. He was given out caught behind by umpire Hariharan. The ball clearly missed the edge and I really do not know how umpire could miss such decisions. Top order was tinkered once again. Kaif was promoted; it was matter of time before he walked back with a pale face. Dravid was bowled, I think Dravid could have come in at number three; Dravid has the technique to keep the bowlers checked on an unpredictable wicket. But! Keeping it short, thanks to Yuvarj, Harbajan and Ifran India had put forth a respectable score. Yuvarj’s century was worth millions.
Super sub: I really don’t what was the reason to pick Gautham Gambir as the super sub. Ok may be an extra batsmen, but already having 2 openers in the lineup, why not an all rounder like Suresh Raina? On Gambir’s selection - he plays or Sehwag plays.
South African batting was not “fantastic” or “mind sweeping”; the same old Modus operandi - dull mechanical mode. Smith was out plumb in the first over to Irfan. Everyone except the umpire got the decision right. Soon he started to play some strokes and hit Irfan quite well in next few overs. If someone complains about Sehwag’s footwork, hey! What about Smith then? Indian bowling was over all pathetic at stages. Harbajan did reduce the run rate though. However the most pathetic issue in this ordeal was the commentary team, Robin Jackman and Ranjith Fernando especially. Seriously at 12.00 midnight, agony multiplied. There was clearly a bias in commentating by the South African crew, while Mr. Ranjith was settling accounts. The new guy MEL was full of tantrums however South African commentating team appreciated every inch of it. If it had been “dada Ganguva”,oh wait!.. We term that as misbehavior.
Bottom line, India lost the match however gave a good fight, while South Africa did not win it convincingly, from 35-5 they managed to donate 214 runs in spite of unpredictable uneven track - they just won with an over+ to spare. 0-1 , I hope we recover in future games, BCCI should pick stadiums that really suite India. Home team advantage has to be exploited.
Ps: Boasting English team lost the first test to Pakistan!
11/14/05
Monday!
One more big time H1bees Buzz, H1Bees on “All Things Considered”.
Vatsa and I were on NPR on Sunday on “All Things Considered”; we spoke about the album and my musical ventures. I also did an impromptu composing for them, a simple melody on the Raga Amurthavarshini with little bass and drum parts.
It was a pleasure to talk to the NPR, Thanks to Tracy Wahl - NPR, for this interview. And thanks to my boss Craig Shaffer for permitting me to talk to them during working hours in my office. Yah!, I am still a dedicated computer consultant and not yet a full time musician.:)
You can listen to it here.
All things Considered
or
Inteview Site
Now back to Never ending Cricket Craze…
Great victory for the India team; we can enjoy this victory for one more day. I was browsing through some statistics in Rediff .com, surprise! I did find something interesting.
Record #1. Indian wicket-keeper Dhoni hit 17 sixes in the series. He established a new world record of most sixes in an ODI series/tournament.
Do you know who was holding this record before along with Jayasuriya?
Gangully - 16 sixes in 7 matches; He falls in 2 slots for this world record meaning 3rd and 6th position for his record is held by Gangully.
Record #2: Dravid and Dhoni had an outstanding Average of above 100, this is the third and fourth instances where Indian batsmen ending a series or tournament with an average of 100-plus while scoring at least 300 runs.
Do you who second person to have such a record
Gangully ICC Champion Trophy, 2000-01, Total of 348 – with an average of 116.00
It is a pity to watch a person with such batting talent being neglected out rightly from Indian cricket. I don’t want to take side and argue for Gangully. However I feel Gangully deserves another chance and on his side he needs to accept the fact “No One is indispensable”. I am sure he can do better in spite of the golden ducks in a recent first class game. I feel the pitch must have been a “clay” pond.:)
Good day.
Vatsa and I were on NPR on Sunday on “All Things Considered”; we spoke about the album and my musical ventures. I also did an impromptu composing for them, a simple melody on the Raga Amurthavarshini with little bass and drum parts.
It was a pleasure to talk to the NPR, Thanks to Tracy Wahl - NPR, for this interview. And thanks to my boss Craig Shaffer for permitting me to talk to them during working hours in my office. Yah!, I am still a dedicated computer consultant and not yet a full time musician.:)
You can listen to it here.
All things Considered
or
Inteview Site
Now back to Never ending Cricket Craze…
Great victory for the India team; we can enjoy this victory for one more day. I was browsing through some statistics in Rediff .com, surprise! I did find something interesting.
Record #1. Indian wicket-keeper Dhoni hit 17 sixes in the series. He established a new world record of most sixes in an ODI series/tournament.
Do you know who was holding this record before along with Jayasuriya?
Gangully - 16 sixes in 7 matches; He falls in 2 slots for this world record meaning 3rd and 6th position for his record is held by Gangully.
Record #2: Dravid and Dhoni had an outstanding Average of above 100, this is the third and fourth instances where Indian batsmen ending a series or tournament with an average of 100-plus while scoring at least 300 runs.
Do you who second person to have such a record
Gangully ICC Champion Trophy, 2000-01, Total of 348 – with an average of 116.00
It is a pity to watch a person with such batting talent being neglected out rightly from Indian cricket. I don’t want to take side and argue for Gangully. However I feel Gangully deserves another chance and on his side he needs to accept the fact “No One is indispensable”. I am sure he can do better in spite of the golden ducks in a recent first class game. I feel the pitch must have been a “clay” pond.:)
Good day.
11/11/05
TGIF...
The final game of the series, I got carried away in my earlier Blog and mentioned India was 6-1, however I still believe that my “typo” predication can happen.
India has to open with Sachin and Sehwag; basically this batting pair can create jitters even among good bowlers. I still feel the rotation policy should not be overused on the top order. Gangully and Sachin was one such pair in later part of 90s who created such Jitters.
Dravid should be back in command, and I want Sehwag to score some runs to boost his one day average, which is really mediocre. Or may be some one should tell him this is a test match, he might whack some runs then. Sehwag had recently mentioned that he is not worried about batting form, he is concerned about winning, frankly if this rule is applied to everyone Gangully should be given another chance. As mentioned in my previous Blogs his winning streak was pathetic only for last few years.
Today, Gangully’s return to the side is still a doubt. It is a pity to see a player who has a five figure aggregate to be left out for granted. However if anyone is to blame for this, it should Gangully himself. We need to agree that GanguDADA was a different Indian captain; the rest of the cricketing world simply assumes an Indian captain to be timid person. It was in this manner. Gangully certainly changed this equation in the cricketing world. He did follow Steve Waugh’s Sledging or sugar coated “Mental Aggression” Techniques. He did reply to the media with aggression etc. This is all good and different from other previous Indian captains.
But a captain, the CEO of the team has to set an example; this includes off and on the field. His fielding abilities were useless, and he was informed about this from various quarters, still he never bothered to improve. His running between wickets, he never grounds his bat, this is basics, and once again experts told him correct his weakness for which he never cared. Off the field, many have complained about him for not sticking to the schedule, not coming in proper uniform for Toss. These issues might sound minor to him however when it comes to the CEO post, it matters a lot for the post. Such minor issues have accumulated against him over a period of time.
Bottom line, one need to respect the “designation”, “portfolio”, if not the designation will not respect him/her.
In my 2 cent opinion, statically Ganguly has phenomenal scores and records, India should have this player in the squad. However he has collected a lot of speed tickets points and never cared to resolve them. This attitude will supersede the statistical value and make him look like a real bad boy. Only some superlative performance in domestic cricket can get him back into the team, until I feel he is done.
Finally, some H1BEES Buzzzzzzzz..
How would your name sound on French Radio?
Yes, my album effort was discussed in "Radio France". Radio France carried a 6 minute capsule talking about me, my album and my wonderful team of artist/marketing personals behind this effort. Shankar our Marketing/ProKGuru told me about his yesterday; Thanks to him, if not for Shankar we would have never known about this.
Le portrait du jour par Marc Kravetz
Srikan't et les H-1Bees
You can check their website here online.
Thanks to Radio France for this introduction and provding a link to h1bees.com.
Have a great Weekend.
India has to open with Sachin and Sehwag; basically this batting pair can create jitters even among good bowlers. I still feel the rotation policy should not be overused on the top order. Gangully and Sachin was one such pair in later part of 90s who created such Jitters.
Dravid should be back in command, and I want Sehwag to score some runs to boost his one day average, which is really mediocre. Or may be some one should tell him this is a test match, he might whack some runs then. Sehwag had recently mentioned that he is not worried about batting form, he is concerned about winning, frankly if this rule is applied to everyone Gangully should be given another chance. As mentioned in my previous Blogs his winning streak was pathetic only for last few years.
Today, Gangully’s return to the side is still a doubt. It is a pity to see a player who has a five figure aggregate to be left out for granted. However if anyone is to blame for this, it should Gangully himself. We need to agree that GanguDADA was a different Indian captain; the rest of the cricketing world simply assumes an Indian captain to be timid person. It was in this manner. Gangully certainly changed this equation in the cricketing world. He did follow Steve Waugh’s Sledging or sugar coated “Mental Aggression” Techniques. He did reply to the media with aggression etc. This is all good and different from other previous Indian captains.
But a captain, the CEO of the team has to set an example; this includes off and on the field. His fielding abilities were useless, and he was informed about this from various quarters, still he never bothered to improve. His running between wickets, he never grounds his bat, this is basics, and once again experts told him correct his weakness for which he never cared. Off the field, many have complained about him for not sticking to the schedule, not coming in proper uniform for Toss. These issues might sound minor to him however when it comes to the CEO post, it matters a lot for the post. Such minor issues have accumulated against him over a period of time.
Bottom line, one need to respect the “designation”, “portfolio”, if not the designation will not respect him/her.
In my 2 cent opinion, statically Ganguly has phenomenal scores and records, India should have this player in the squad. However he has collected a lot of speed tickets points and never cared to resolve them. This attitude will supersede the statistical value and make him look like a real bad boy. Only some superlative performance in domestic cricket can get him back into the team, until I feel he is done.
Finally, some H1BEES Buzzzzzzzz..
How would your name sound on French Radio?
Yes, my album effort was discussed in "Radio France". Radio France carried a 6 minute capsule talking about me, my album and my wonderful team of artist/marketing personals behind this effort. Shankar our Marketing/Pro
Le portrait du jour par Marc Kravetz
Srikan't et les H-1Bees
You can check their website here online.
Thanks to Radio France for this introduction and provding a link to h1bees.com.
Have a great Weekend.
11/9/05
One more victory, a reality check
Along with in-form injury return Kaif, Yuvaraj Singh finally got runs under his belt. Both saw India home to win the 6th one day, Indians are 6-1 now. Indian team fielding was at his best in this game. 9 out 10 of times fielders were able to hit the stumps directly. The run outs of Dilshan and Arnold were crucial to the game. Dhoni also came up with a lightning speed stumping to get rid of Jayawardhane.
An assertive Sehwag was leading the side with real enthusiasm and confidence; he kept attacking, after seeing the initial onslaught by Messer’s Jaya Suriya & Co, I was nervous about his decision to bowl first. It was a hardcore batting track. Most captains would chose to put up a high score, and then defend it. However Sehwag opted to bowl, after initial hiccups, his bowlers came good with tight line and not to forget some ridiculous batting display by Sri Lankans. Another interesting thing on Sehwag’s captaincy was his field placing, it seemed to be very unique; the region from point to cover was “defended” by 4 best fielders in the side, they just stood on the circle. They stopped everything and anything creating a virtual pressure for the batsmen, who then automatically perished by pressing the panic button.In fact all the fielders were placed just on/around the inner circle.
Sreeshanth was pathetic at the start, and kept bowling short and gave lot of room to Jayasuriya, however soon changed his line and foxed Jayasuriya. More than anyone the left hander R.P.Singh bowled quite well and earned the man of the match, getting four wickets on a “CowPoop” coated batting track is big deal. He deserves the award.
India’s batting order was modified once again. I see no reason why Sehwag took the number one slot. Sachin and Sehwag has to open the innings, this should not change even for experimental reasons. I don’t feel Gautam Gambir can take on new ball on a bowling track. Indians are 6-1; we were underdogs before the series started, the team went through commotion and changes in the team chemistry, however today the team seemed to have over come all the issues, and on the right path.
What is for Gangully in this? What is his future? His credit history for runs is still good on papers, but today the team does not seem to miss his batting or his captaincy tantrums. I really do not know if he would be considered even as player now.
Bottom line, under the new management Indians have won six games comfortably. Under this new management certain usual issues stands corrected. For example Fines, the ICC match referee fund did not get cash inflow till date. The dreaded “Over rate” fine has always been an issue for திருவாளர் Gangully. He often gets penalized by the match referee for time delay, over rate or failing to follow some ridiculous ICC code of conduct principle.
The over rate under new captain Dravid or captain-Sub Sehwag seems to be perfect Or may be we can speculate on this, had the referee been one Mr. Ranjan Madhugulle , at least ICC’s tea expenses would be covered. What ever, the team India looks more disciplined or looks just what the doctor ordered. We need to accept the fact that new Coach Dravid and every team members really want to establish some professional conduct and working ethics in the team. Along with the coach Dravid is ready to work towards such changes and experiments.
I wish the same level of sanitization is done for the BCCI Selection Committee. The latest fiasco by the Joker Bunch was Vikram Singh’s selection. He was selected but now sits out with an injury. What this means is, there was no clear communication between the player, the local board, or the Indian team and or the BCCI HR department, How can board select someone who has been declared unfit?, Joker bunch had no clue who is on the roaster. We cannot expect Kiran More and his cronies to answer any logical, rational questions in this matter.
Some one out there, please check with Ian Chappel, if he is free we can get him to head the BCCI selection committee.
An assertive Sehwag was leading the side with real enthusiasm and confidence; he kept attacking, after seeing the initial onslaught by Messer’s Jaya Suriya & Co, I was nervous about his decision to bowl first. It was a hardcore batting track. Most captains would chose to put up a high score, and then defend it. However Sehwag opted to bowl, after initial hiccups, his bowlers came good with tight line and not to forget some ridiculous batting display by Sri Lankans. Another interesting thing on Sehwag’s captaincy was his field placing, it seemed to be very unique; the region from point to cover was “defended” by 4 best fielders in the side, they just stood on the circle. They stopped everything and anything creating a virtual pressure for the batsmen, who then automatically perished by pressing the panic button.In fact all the fielders were placed just on/around the inner circle.
Sreeshanth was pathetic at the start, and kept bowling short and gave lot of room to Jayasuriya, however soon changed his line and foxed Jayasuriya. More than anyone the left hander R.P.Singh bowled quite well and earned the man of the match, getting four wickets on a “CowPoop” coated batting track is big deal. He deserves the award.
India’s batting order was modified once again. I see no reason why Sehwag took the number one slot. Sachin and Sehwag has to open the innings, this should not change even for experimental reasons. I don’t feel Gautam Gambir can take on new ball on a bowling track. Indians are 6-1; we were underdogs before the series started, the team went through commotion and changes in the team chemistry, however today the team seemed to have over come all the issues, and on the right path.
What is for Gangully in this? What is his future? His credit history for runs is still good on papers, but today the team does not seem to miss his batting or his captaincy tantrums. I really do not know if he would be considered even as player now.
Bottom line, under the new management Indians have won six games comfortably. Under this new management certain usual issues stands corrected. For example Fines, the ICC match referee fund did not get cash inflow till date. The dreaded “Over rate” fine has always been an issue for திருவாளர் Gangully. He often gets penalized by the match referee for time delay, over rate or failing to follow some ridiculous ICC code of conduct principle.
The over rate under new captain Dravid or captain-Sub Sehwag seems to be perfect Or may be we can speculate on this, had the referee been one Mr. Ranjan Madhugulle , at least ICC’s tea expenses would be covered. What ever, the team India looks more disciplined or looks just what the doctor ordered. We need to accept the fact that new Coach Dravid and every team members really want to establish some professional conduct and working ethics in the team. Along with the coach Dravid is ready to work towards such changes and experiments.
I wish the same level of sanitization is done for the BCCI Selection Committee. The latest fiasco by the Joker Bunch was Vikram Singh’s selection. He was selected but now sits out with an injury. What this means is, there was no clear communication between the player, the local board, or the Indian team and or the BCCI HR department, How can board select someone who has been declared unfit?, Joker bunch had no clue who is on the roaster. We cannot expect Kiran More and his cronies to answer any logical, rational questions in this matter.
Some one out there, please check with Ian Chappel, if he is free we can get him to head the BCCI selection committee.
11/8/05
Quick Update
H1BEES CD is now available world wide via CD Baby.COM, Click here.Very soon Tracks will also be digitally available on Apple ITunes ™, ITunes™ –Europe, MSN Music and many other popular digital outlets. Using the digital distribution mode, tracks can be purchased individually.
11/7/05
Monday
Music: Dr. Thomas invited me to attend the Washington post Scholarship awards on Saturday. Every year Washington post presents Scholarship awards to high school students in DC metro area for their talent. Alisha and Swathi were among the finalists. Alisha performed live “Daddy’s girl” a song written by Udhaya and composed by me. It was composed for the short film Stinking Cigar, directed by Arun. It was really fantastic to watch Alisha sing in front of 400 people; to me it was an amazing experience to hear my composition on the Warner Theater’s PA system, later people cheering for the track. Thanks to Alisha for choosing this track.
“Swathi Raman”, [She sang Thikutheriyadha katil in my H1BEES album]. She sang a Carnatic Number along with a Mirudangam accompaniment. For the entire evening all most 95% of the songs were in English, Swathi went ahead and choose a Tamil classical number, In her 3 minutes time slot she sang “thUkiya thiruvadi” , she managed to squeeze in little “kalapana swarams” with a mini “nerval” too. It was a great pleasure for me to hear the only Indian language/Tamil song for the entire evening. One more Indian high school kid played the “Dhol”, man he was amazing!
Having used both the voices before in my recordings, it was a proud movement for me to watch these teen singers expand their talent horizon. During the evening there were many fantastic Tap dance, Ballet dance and opera presentations, many talented kids performed mind blowing stuff. Congratulations to all the winners.
Weekend...
Circle the best answer,
Q) What would happen to a person if he is thrown from 3000 feet mountain cliff? He is about 200 pounds.
(a)[RIP] He Rests in Pieces
(b)He survives but with a skull, rib, shoulder, hands, legs, hip fractures and be in a coma for next year or two.
(c)In about 20 minutes he walks out from a 1970 Benz with his newly married wife.
If your name is NOT K.S. Ravikumar you would be thinking about choosing (a) or (b), and never ever consider (c), C is clearly illogical by any IQ standards. Yesterday I was watching Thalaivar’s movie “Muthu” and the above question is from the “chapter 22 – Climax”. In 1990-95 semesters, KS.Ravikumar chooses option C and passed the exam with flying colors. God only knows how? Taking about GOD, Sachin was rested for the 5th one day; India managed to lose an easy game in spite of 2 good knocks by Gambir and Dravid. Winning is a habit, I feel India has left an opening for the Lankan’s. Hope the team comes back with full force to maintain the winning streak.
Now Continue Your Monotonous Monday…
“Swathi Raman”, [She sang Thikutheriyadha katil in my H1BEES album]. She sang a Carnatic Number along with a Mirudangam accompaniment. For the entire evening all most 95% of the songs were in English, Swathi went ahead and choose a Tamil classical number, In her 3 minutes time slot she sang “thUkiya thiruvadi” , she managed to squeeze in little “kalapana swarams” with a mini “nerval” too. It was a great pleasure for me to hear the only Indian language/Tamil song for the entire evening. One more Indian high school kid played the “Dhol”, man he was amazing!
Having used both the voices before in my recordings, it was a proud movement for me to watch these teen singers expand their talent horizon. During the evening there were many fantastic Tap dance, Ballet dance and opera presentations, many talented kids performed mind blowing stuff. Congratulations to all the winners.
Weekend...
Circle the best answer,
Q) What would happen to a person if he is thrown from 3000 feet mountain cliff? He is about 200 pounds.
(a)[RIP] He Rests in Pieces
(b)He survives but with a skull, rib, shoulder, hands, legs, hip fractures and be in a coma for next year or two.
(c)In about 20 minutes he walks out from a 1970 Benz with his newly married wife.
If your name is NOT K.S. Ravikumar you would be thinking about choosing (a) or (b), and never ever consider (c), C is clearly illogical by any IQ standards. Yesterday I was watching Thalaivar’s movie “Muthu” and the above question is from the “chapter 22 – Climax”. In 1990-95 semesters, KS.Ravikumar chooses option C and passed the exam with flying colors. God only knows how? Taking about GOD, Sachin was rested for the 5th one day; India managed to lose an easy game in spite of 2 good knocks by Gambir and Dravid. Winning is a habit, I feel India has left an opening for the Lankan’s. Hope the team comes back with full force to maintain the winning streak.
Now Continue Your Monotonous Monday…
11/3/05
Game Day, India wins the Videocon cup!
Breaking my superstitions I went ahead and subscribed the games on willow.tv; my money did not go waste. YES, India won the game and the series with flying colors. Dhoni finished the game in style by launching 2 massive sixes to complete the formalities. India won the Videocon cup 4-0. Sri Lanka is yet to win in India in this tour.
It was a pleasure to watch many new faces in action; future of Indian Cricket.
Raina, he impressed me right away by his balanced and matured batting ability. The lefthander’s short selection was very prudent and did not want to give anything away. He was firm on his approach and made sure India won the game. Partnership between him and Dhoni was well organized. "Maro Maro" Dhoni played second fiddle while Raina took the lead. Raina is also an amazing fielder, a very promising future Indian team permanent. He was the “Supersub” and he replaced Srisanth.
Venugopal Rao, The youngster’s square cuts bought back reminiscence of GRV. The good old Gundappa’s style seems to have reborn, thanks to little man VenuGopal Rao, another good prospect for the future Indian team with solid batting technique.
Srisanth, he has a smooth run up with a crisp side arm bowling action. He was very impressive in the first few overs, he bowled a perfect line and length but very soon he lost his accuracy and started to bowl too many short balls and paid the toll. He can be tuned and share the new ball with Pathan.
Thanks to some fantastic swing bowling by my “man” Agarkar, he won the well deserved man of the match award,. Ravi Sastri once again talked about his all round ability during the function, this time Agarkar clearly mentioned that he prefers to bowl rather than bat. Promoted Yuvraj Singh started of with a bang played gleeful shots however perished to a superb catch. I feel Raina already holds a team travel ticket however he is still on “RAC”. Yuvraj has to perform to his full potential else Raina’s ticket would be confirmed.
Sachin played an ambitious stroke and “was bowled by VAAS”, Sehwag was very lucky, Lankans kept dropping him at regular intervals. He managed to stick around with the captain who played his usual cameo knock. I should also mention about Harbajan, he bowled a sensible line to keep the Lankan’s under control, 4-0, I am hoping for a 7-0.
Yawn!, I am very sleepy.:)
It was a pleasure to watch many new faces in action; future of Indian Cricket.
Raina, he impressed me right away by his balanced and matured batting ability. The lefthander’s short selection was very prudent and did not want to give anything away. He was firm on his approach and made sure India won the game. Partnership between him and Dhoni was well organized. "Maro Maro" Dhoni played second fiddle while Raina took the lead. Raina is also an amazing fielder, a very promising future Indian team permanent. He was the “Supersub” and he replaced Srisanth.
Venugopal Rao, The youngster’s square cuts bought back reminiscence of GRV. The good old Gundappa’s style seems to have reborn, thanks to little man VenuGopal Rao, another good prospect for the future Indian team with solid batting technique.
Srisanth, he has a smooth run up with a crisp side arm bowling action. He was very impressive in the first few overs, he bowled a perfect line and length but very soon he lost his accuracy and started to bowl too many short balls and paid the toll. He can be tuned and share the new ball with Pathan.
Thanks to some fantastic swing bowling by my “man” Agarkar, he won the well deserved man of the match award,. Ravi Sastri once again talked about his all round ability during the function, this time Agarkar clearly mentioned that he prefers to bowl rather than bat. Promoted Yuvraj Singh started of with a bang played gleeful shots however perished to a superb catch. I feel Raina already holds a team travel ticket however he is still on “RAC”. Yuvraj has to perform to his full potential else Raina’s ticket would be confirmed.
Sachin played an ambitious stroke and “was bowled by VAAS”, Sehwag was very lucky, Lankans kept dropping him at regular intervals. He managed to stick around with the captain who played his usual cameo knock. I should also mention about Harbajan, he bowled a sensible line to keep the Lankan’s under control, 4-0, I am hoping for a 7-0.
Yawn!, I am very sleepy.:)
10/31/05
Keepers’ day out!
Sri Lanka tried to prove why they were second in the ICC one day rankings. Sangakara started the proceedings and went on to score a ton, he carried the bat thorough the innings and was unbeaten on 138. Lanka set a target of 299 for India.
Seriously, with an in form batting line up, I believed we would chase and reach the target though with some struggle. However I never guessed even in my dreams, [yes it was about 2.00am] that India would do this in the fashion Dhoni played.
When Sachin was out cheaply, I was wondering, Pathan would show up however Dravid made one more surprise! Move - Desi “Dhil” Christ aka Donni was promoted to number three. He took about 40 balls to reach half century. It was his day; he went on to score the highest score by a wicket keeper. India won, Dhooni remained 183 Not out, the ball was sent out of the oval about 15 times via FedEx Ground and about 10 times via FedEx Air. The 10th trip did not bring the ball back, the game was over. Frankly I wish Sri Lanka had scored 20 more runs, Dhoni would have got his double hundred. In the later part of the innings, Dhoni was suffering from cramps, Viru ran for him. Cricinfo commentators were discussing about this innings with full excitement. It must have been “One heck of an innings [Thanks Madden] to watch.
Indians have won 3 games in a row; victories were achieved with command and class. For Lanka the only batsmen who seemed to have form was Sangakara, rest of the batsmen are really in poor form. Hope the team recovers and gives a fight in remaining one dayers.
Keepers’ day out: About 600 runs were made,of which 50% was scored by the wicketkeepers.
என் இனிய தீபாவளி நல் வாழ்த்துக்கள்
10/28/05
Great going!
My Match Review: Sachin! Sachin! IrFan! IrFan! Rahul Rahul! Team India Team India. We trashed Sri Lanka.
What do cricketing fans or maniacs get from these 2 games? Did it indicate anything? These 2 games makes me raise questions about Mr. Ex-Captain, for past few seasons, as a captain did he really do anything for the team or he did not bother to care? or The leaked Chappel's email did lot of good for Indian cricket?
How come a team that was in sheer disaster suddenly starts to play high level Cricket? How come a team that often struggled to maintain some consistency managed to win 2 games with authenticity? May be I am too early to celebrate or come to a conclusion, same happened against Pakistan. We won 2 and lost the rest, however this time I feel games against Sri Lanka a clear message is being sent by the new captain Dravid and the Coach. They are serious and care only about “Indian Cricket”. Few lucky Friends of mine who has Direct TV connection tells me that Indian fielding was at its best.
Various media outlets have been speculating Mohali dew conditions for past 2 days, true, during this time of the year D/N games are a mess. Like many, I was also assuming “captain who wins the toss” would bat and put a high score. Under such conditions batting first had better chance of wining.
However Dravid just did the opposite! And his decision was right on the money. In form Irfan Pathan did the magic from the word go; among Indian fast bowlers Javagal Srinath knows the knack of getting Jayasuriya out early, Jayasuriya often slashes over 3rd man, with proper line and length Srinath would often exploit this weakness, Dravid/Pathan & Co did the same, plan worked again. Probably India saved lot of runs by getting him out in the earlier overs. Pathan also got rid of Sangakara, a terrific player. I was half sleep when this happened, suddenly the commentator screamed in excitement, Dilshan was out the next ball. Sri Lankan under their new “Australian coach”, submerged deep into waters and never recovered. Pathan finished 4 for 37 runs.
Sachin in pumped up “form” and Sehwag on cards for a big score, 123 seemed too small. But knowing Indian cricket and its greatness for long now, I did have a fear. Usually in low scoring games, the game is wide open. "Wait till the fat lady sings" 2 or 3 quick wickets, Murali would eat the cake in full. And of course Indians have lost games in this fashion very many times in the past. But “Sachin” went onto score his next Fifty and more - saw “INDIA WIN THE GAME”.I hope Dravid and his men continue their aggression.
Ps: It is about time for Sachin haters to go on a long term hibernation, Alaska would be the best spot, you might have to share it with the Polar Bears or Gangully who was reported to be seen - walking on a glacier.
What do cricketing fans or maniacs get from these 2 games? Did it indicate anything? These 2 games makes me raise questions about Mr. Ex-Captain, for past few seasons, as a captain did he really do anything for the team or he did not bother to care? or The leaked Chappel's email did lot of good for Indian cricket?
How come a team that was in sheer disaster suddenly starts to play high level Cricket? How come a team that often struggled to maintain some consistency managed to win 2 games with authenticity? May be I am too early to celebrate or come to a conclusion, same happened against Pakistan. We won 2 and lost the rest, however this time I feel games against Sri Lanka a clear message is being sent by the new captain Dravid and the Coach. They are serious and care only about “Indian Cricket”. Few lucky Friends of mine who has Direct TV connection tells me that Indian fielding was at its best.
Various media outlets have been speculating Mohali dew conditions for past 2 days, true, during this time of the year D/N games are a mess. Like many, I was also assuming “captain who wins the toss” would bat and put a high score. Under such conditions batting first had better chance of wining.
However Dravid just did the opposite! And his decision was right on the money. In form Irfan Pathan did the magic from the word go; among Indian fast bowlers Javagal Srinath knows the knack of getting Jayasuriya out early, Jayasuriya often slashes over 3rd man, with proper line and length Srinath would often exploit this weakness, Dravid/Pathan & Co did the same, plan worked again. Probably India saved lot of runs by getting him out in the earlier overs. Pathan also got rid of Sangakara, a terrific player. I was half sleep when this happened, suddenly the commentator screamed in excitement, Dilshan was out the next ball. Sri Lankan under their new “Australian coach”, submerged deep into waters and never recovered. Pathan finished 4 for 37 runs.
Sachin in pumped up “form” and Sehwag on cards for a big score, 123 seemed too small. But knowing Indian cricket and its greatness for long now, I did have a fear. Usually in low scoring games, the game is wide open. "Wait till the fat lady sings" 2 or 3 quick wickets, Murali would eat the cake in full. And of course Indians have lost games in this fashion very many times in the past. But “Sachin” went onto score his next Fifty and more - saw “INDIA WIN THE GAME”.I hope Dravid and his men continue their aggression.
Ps: It is about time for Sachin haters to go on a long term hibernation, Alaska would be the best spot, you might have to share it with the Polar Bears or Gangully who was reported to be seen - walking on a glacier.
10/25/05
Sachin Inspires!
I was annoyed yesterday for not getting the game on the Dish Network. It was being shown live on Direct TV, The only person who has direct TV in my circle was my friend Vatsa, his VCR is broken! My “pulambal” reached red alert level , hence called Dish network! None had a clue. The automatic message recommended a WWF game for $45.99 instead. The only way was to get Direct TV in my home.
However as of 8.39am today, I don’t intended to get one more Dish on my roof top. Dish network though boasts about their so called “great” digital service, in reality they don’t really care about cricket, in fact about anything. They just need you to sign up for a year and keep their coffers filled very month.
The above lines are leftovers from yesterday’s pulambal’s.
Willow TV shows it on the internet for a price of $129.00; if you ask me, frankly I don’t trust my DSL connection; I feel it cannot take the load. Hence I went back to good olden days of listening to cricket commentary, Thanks to Cricinfo.org, I subscribed to their enthusiastic commentary.
Match result - India won! good start for the season, the new captain and Mr. Grumpy coach; To me I was very happy to see “my man” shine bright, from his long medical leave Sachin came back with a big bang, he sent SMS , emails, snail mail , “pura” messages to his “beloved” critics. He also sent a truck load “prasadams” to his life time devotees like me.
I had been stating this for long enough to all my friends, [most would kick me if I do it again];
A pleasant surprise was IrFan Pathan, he scored 80+ and even over took the little master; he slammed 4 massive sixes as per the commentators it was something not to be missed, however as a dish network subscriber, my fate I missed a great batting display. Damn Dish Network and damn NIMBUS! And boo to BCCI;
Nagpur is known for high scores, 350 was little more than I expected. Harbajan, whose selection was also questioned, claimed 3 wickets. India won by 152 runs, a good start for the season. If I am right, this the 9th time Sachin gets out at 90’s; if he had made them all, 47 would be the magic number!...oh there I go! AGAIN Singing Sachin Praise.! Hey! What else you expect in this Blog;
However as of 8.39am today, I don’t intended to get one more Dish on my roof top. Dish network though boasts about their so called “great” digital service, in reality they don’t really care about cricket, in fact about anything. They just need you to sign up for a year and keep their coffers filled very month.
The above lines are leftovers from yesterday’s pulambal’s.
Willow TV shows it on the internet for a price of $129.00; if you ask me, frankly I don’t trust my DSL connection; I feel it cannot take the load. Hence I went back to good olden days of listening to cricket commentary, Thanks to Cricinfo.org, I subscribed to their enthusiastic commentary.
Match result - India won! good start for the season, the new captain and Mr. Grumpy coach; To me I was very happy to see “my man” shine bright, from his long medical leave Sachin came back with a big bang, he sent SMS , emails, snail mail , “pura” messages to his “beloved” critics. He also sent a truck load “prasadams” to his life time devotees like me.
I had been stating this for long enough to all my friends, [most would kick me if I do it again];
Regardless of his form Sachin’s presence in the team is always a booster to the team in general.This match once again proved my “Jalraculor” or “ChingChakular” statement; without him we know how pathetic our team played in earlier tours this year. The start he gave ensured and inspired even the patient Rahul Dravid to play aggressive cricket. Dravid played a captain’s knock of 85 in about 64 balls. This includes a six! & 8 fours; by this innings Dravid also sent messages to his critics, [yes! #include “Sriks.h”]
A pleasant surprise was IrFan Pathan, he scored 80+ and even over took the little master; he slammed 4 massive sixes as per the commentators it was something not to be missed, however as a dish network subscriber, my fate I missed a great batting display. Damn Dish Network and damn NIMBUS! And boo to BCCI;
Nagpur is known for high scores, 350 was little more than I expected. Harbajan, whose selection was also questioned, claimed 3 wickets. India won by 152 runs, a good start for the season. If I am right, this the 9th time Sachin gets out at 90’s; if he had made them all, 47 would be the magic number!...oh there I go! AGAIN Singing Sachin Praise.! Hey! What else you expect in this Blog;
10/24/05
T-18 the India/ Sri Lanka series
It is about T-18 for the start of the India/ Sri Lanka series; until this minute I do not know which TV is going to carry it live here in the United States. Dish network has no news, while Direct TV when I checked it last time did not have any information. I am sure some websites will carry it live; I don’t prefer to watch the game on a 19inch monitor ½ asleep.
Cricket telecast rights is the main source of revenue for the BCCI, it is some what a similar to duck that lays golden egg for the BCCI. However BCCI due to its unprofessional outfit is all set to kill this duck. I would have spent about $1500-$2000 at least for cricket till date, and it is matter of time before I stop caring to watch this live. Why can’t BCCI get their act together and make sure every crazy fan like me out there gets it live at an affordable cost? If Dish network carries it, I know they would charge a nose bleeding bundle amount. Let me keep my fingers crossed.
There were various unfair questions on Sachin’s selection for last few weeks. When it comes to Sachin, even his sick leave is treated to retirement, a pity. Here is guy who plays for the country right from 16 years and he has been playing long enough to get into some kind medical conditions. Many have forgotten this, just before Sachin went on his sick leave, he had scored a brilliant century against Pakistan.
And more over “Team India” did not do big without him also; they lost at every outing at regular intervals, in spite of juggling the captains, replacing the coach, fiddling with the batting order, replacing the straps in the pad, changing inner gloves color, adding one more helmet or change the red color of holy “kunkum” used by Gangully & Co to blue. Mmm What ever! Nothing worked till date;
Sachin being in the team is vital for others to perform well. This fact needs to be accepted! Dravid has clearly stated that he is very happy and pumped up on Sachin’s return. Indian team has to pick up their momentum and prove the fact that they are not “mere local heroes”. Greg Chappel has to do something better, else it is not only Sri Lanka who would win, his pal Gangully would come out with flying colors.
Finally,
OPEN the charity organization which recently featured “Rasika” the music band out of Virginia have released a 2 set DVD that contains edited portions from the show, this can be got for a donation of $10.00 + Shipping. Please contact Kumar Thiagrajan (kumart@interamerica.com) or Chox Solaiappan (schocku@yahoo.com) to order your copies. I will try to get an audio clip from the show and upload it in my Blog soon.
Cricket telecast rights is the main source of revenue for the BCCI, it is some what a similar to duck that lays golden egg for the BCCI. However BCCI due to its unprofessional outfit is all set to kill this duck. I would have spent about $1500-$2000 at least for cricket till date, and it is matter of time before I stop caring to watch this live. Why can’t BCCI get their act together and make sure every crazy fan like me out there gets it live at an affordable cost? If Dish network carries it, I know they would charge a nose bleeding bundle amount. Let me keep my fingers crossed.
There were various unfair questions on Sachin’s selection for last few weeks. When it comes to Sachin, even his sick leave is treated to retirement, a pity. Here is guy who plays for the country right from 16 years and he has been playing long enough to get into some kind medical conditions. Many have forgotten this, just before Sachin went on his sick leave, he had scored a brilliant century against Pakistan.
And more over “Team India” did not do big without him also; they lost at every outing at regular intervals, in spite of juggling the captains, replacing the coach, fiddling with the batting order, replacing the straps in the pad, changing inner gloves color, adding one more helmet or change the red color of holy “kunkum” used by Gangully & Co to blue. Mmm What ever! Nothing worked till date;
Sachin being in the team is vital for others to perform well. This fact needs to be accepted! Dravid has clearly stated that he is very happy and pumped up on Sachin’s return. Indian team has to pick up their momentum and prove the fact that they are not “mere local heroes”. Greg Chappel has to do something better, else it is not only Sri Lanka who would win, his pal Gangully would come out with flying colors.
Finally,
OPEN the charity organization which recently featured “Rasika” the music band out of Virginia have released a 2 set DVD that contains edited portions from the show, this can be got for a donation of $10.00 + Shipping. Please contact Kumar Thiagrajan (kumart@interamerica.com) or Chox Solaiappan (schocku@yahoo.com) to order your copies. I will try to get an audio clip from the show and upload it in my Blog soon.
10/20/05
H1Bee News
My interview and an article Written by Subha J. Rao appeared on "The Hindu", dated Oct 20th 2005.
Few days ago, I spoke with Neki Bedi – [BBC ASIA NETWORK] on her show called "The Drive", went live at around 4.25GMT. BBC also carried an article about the album on their technologies section. Thanks to Clarke Boyd, BBC and Subha J Rao of the Hindu to covering about this album. Clarke Boyd also did a news clip on his very popular pod cast show and which was also aired on National public Radio.
Few days ago, I spoke with Neki Bedi – [BBC ASIA NETWORK] on her show called "The Drive", went live at around 4.25GMT. BBC also carried an article about the album on their technologies section. Thanks to Clarke Boyd, BBC and Subha J Rao of the Hindu to covering about this album. Clarke Boyd also did a news clip on his very popular pod cast show and which was also aired on National public Radio.
10/12/05
Yadayada.....
During the recently concluded the super one day series, ICC was boasting about experimenting technology for umpiring decisions. Field Umpires, if their regular pair of eyes fails to judge a decision would refer it to the third eye. This includes LBW, catches and every other decision. However in spite of 3rd eye, 4th eye and the 5th camera eyes, Ricky Ponting was trapped plumb by Ntini, other than the spectators, every other “ICC appointed” eye right royally missed it.
Most Umpires would not refer too much to the third umpire because if they start doing so for every decision, they would be mere coat hangers and a ball counter. ICC instead of wasting time on these worthless tactics, they could create measures to maintain a high level of umpiring competency and consistency. These are called “innovations” agreed but it becomes good only if they are used properly. It is like spending tons of money on an automatic motorized twin spinning damn tooth brush when you have 2 hands well intact and working to its full potential.
Murali will be playing in SCG, I think after about a decade or so. His stopped bowling in Australia after Mr. Hair called NO BALL for chucking. ICC has cleared Murali which means Mr. Hair was wrong in his initial judgment. Darrel Hair was never warned for ruling such a haste decision. However he is an Aussie hence ICC has a higher threshold for players and umpires from certain countries.
For past 2 days Media has been speculating Dravid to lead India for the Sri Lankan series. But BCCI has called it a ridiculous rumor. However the “BJ’s” are meeting in few days, they could have waited for Gangully to recover and met later this month. Looks like the speculation will come true. Sachin is back playing first class games, however he did not get any runs. Chappel has welcomed his return. Everyone wants him perform to stay in the race.
Head Line News, a news network channel run by India today/AAj Tak is now available live from India on Dish network. One week free promotional transmission is on now. The News casts are professional and as good as any news channel here. Live news! not a delayed news recording as show on Sun TV.
I watched an unbiased coverage on Headline news about the sad monster earthquake that has rattled Pakistan and parts of India. It was heart breaking and I could not take it further. When it comes to nature, human is no where. Most people who suffered this calamity were already under the poverty line had nothing for them. It is sad to see Nature being cruel to such people; it simply seized their only asset, “family and loved ones”. Hope relief efforts gets the survivors some peace of mind. More than that, at least now their government should take serious steps to protect people by enforcing rules and regulation for construction in these volatile seismic zones.
Finally, Last VijayaDasmi I officially inaugurated the recordings for H1BEES album in my studio, it is now 1 year since and I am happy to see its progress. Last week the album was featured on NPR/BBC. And many of my friends have heard it and took time to call me, thanks guys.
Most Umpires would not refer too much to the third umpire because if they start doing so for every decision, they would be mere coat hangers and a ball counter. ICC instead of wasting time on these worthless tactics, they could create measures to maintain a high level of umpiring competency and consistency. These are called “innovations” agreed but it becomes good only if they are used properly. It is like spending tons of money on an automatic motorized twin spinning damn tooth brush when you have 2 hands well intact and working to its full potential.
Murali will be playing in SCG, I think after about a decade or so. His stopped bowling in Australia after Mr. Hair called NO BALL for chucking. ICC has cleared Murali which means Mr. Hair was wrong in his initial judgment. Darrel Hair was never warned for ruling such a haste decision. However he is an Aussie hence ICC has a higher threshold for players and umpires from certain countries.
For past 2 days Media has been speculating Dravid to lead India for the Sri Lankan series. But BCCI has called it a ridiculous rumor. However the “BJ’s” are meeting in few days, they could have waited for Gangully to recover and met later this month. Looks like the speculation will come true. Sachin is back playing first class games, however he did not get any runs. Chappel has welcomed his return. Everyone wants him perform to stay in the race.
Head Line News, a news network channel run by India today/AAj Tak is now available live from India on Dish network. One week free promotional transmission is on now. The News casts are professional and as good as any news channel here. Live news! not a delayed news recording as show on Sun TV.
I watched an unbiased coverage on Headline news about the sad monster earthquake that has rattled Pakistan and parts of India. It was heart breaking and I could not take it further. When it comes to nature, human is no where. Most people who suffered this calamity were already under the poverty line had nothing for them. It is sad to see Nature being cruel to such people; it simply seized their only asset, “family and loved ones”. Hope relief efforts gets the survivors some peace of mind. More than that, at least now their government should take serious steps to protect people by enforcing rules and regulation for construction in these volatile seismic zones.
Finally, Last VijayaDasmi I officially inaugurated the recordings for H1BEES album in my studio, it is now 1 year since and I am happy to see its progress. Last week the album was featured on NPR/BBC. And many of my friends have heard it and took time to call me, thanks guys.
10/5/05
Game Day
Super Series Aus vs Rest of the world
ICC’s dream cricket - The Super series kicked off yesterday. Dish network had scheduled a 11.30pm start, however maintaining “their tradition” the actual telecast started only at 12.00 midnight. For 30 painstaking delayed minutes it was Kenny’ G sax! Music “Good Lord”
This game was played at the Telstra Dome, a gorgeous indoor stadium that has a floating roof and a capacity of 40,000 seats for Cricket. The capacity can be increased based on the event; it seems for a rock show they can hold up to 70,000. However the sad part was it was not even filled to its 25% capacity. Given the prelude and the hype for this game, it was a big let down by the locals. May be most preferred to go to work; but in the thin crowed I did spot Indians with giant size flags. “சங்கு சுட்டாலும் வெண்மை தரும்”
The rest of the world 11 [+ 1 super sub] line up was star studded. The Shaun Pollock was captain for the one day squad. The squad: Sehwag, Sangakkara, Kallis, Lara, Pietersen, Dravid, Flintoff, Pollock, Vettori, Muralitharan and Akhtar. Afridi was the super sub. There was a buzz in the commentary box about Andrew Flitoff. Australia had the same side except 2 new faces. Pointing won the toss and elected to bat. Dean Jones and Sunil Gavasker presented both the teams with the official cap.
I felt this through out the game. Over all the captaincy [World team] was kind of not up to the mark for the world 11. I don’t want blame Shaun Pollock right away. It is very hard to deal the chemistry of such a powerful lineup. However the basics never change, he should have got the spinners little bit earlier. Instead he continued the power play and went on with Flintoff. Flintoff was mediocre and his line & length was questionable. Gilly happily singing “apidi pOdu pOdu” whacked him around the Dome. Flint off sucked to the core. Who knows for his poor performance he would not hesitate to blame Pollock however we need to wait for his next book to know about it. Katich managed to score runs but was fragile all through. Finally Kallis got rid of Gilly.
Pointing walked in for a “Kathak Batting Fusion”. His major weakness of “shuffling” was once again exposed. If Gangu dada’s weakness is short ball, Pointing has the weakness to shuffle more than a Vegas poker dealer. Ball hit his pads more than Sangakkara’s gloves. Finally he was pinned down by the Pollock and Kallis, he lost his patience and lifted one to the roof, Lara took a great catch and the dance show thus came to an end. Martin walked in and supplied some food materials for the supper break. He was out for a Duck. In spite of good bowling by Pollock Vettori and Murali, Aussies managed to score 250.
The rest of game for rest of the world was totally out of sync. I felt like watching India playing. Other than Sangakkara no one played to their potential. At the end the powerful star studded team lost the game by 100 runs. Jack “the stubborn” Kallis took the day off. Our own “Dharmer” Dravid was out in an odd fashion while Lambasting Lara was careless. Pietersen hyped resume did not do any good, he was out LBW. Poor Afridi did not have Agarkar or Zahir to hook on to; he was out in no time. Flintoff tried to get some runs however unfortunately for him this is not England where anything over the inner circle is 6-G [granted]. This is Australia where the oval is real and he has to cover more square feet to get the maximum. He will get right sooner or later.
The world 12 fielding was also not up to the standard. Sanjay “the perfect” Majeraker mentioned that the world team did not have great fielders in the squad. This made sense. As mentioned earlier I also felt captain’s attitude makes the difference in the team constitution. I hardly saw any body language from Pollock. The guys were playing because they were asked to play. The whole squad lacked the spirit to perform. Pollock also cannot do much, given their merits it is hard for him to scream at a world class player.
Bottom line, McGrath and Lee were the main force that won the game for the Aussies. Their batting is still fragile. This victory will boost Aussie confidence and can also increase their ego levels. We need to wait and watch the second game; I hope the world team will have its chemistry in place. For now Aussies are one up.
This game was played at the Telstra Dome, a gorgeous indoor stadium that has a floating roof and a capacity of 40,000 seats for Cricket. The capacity can be increased based on the event; it seems for a rock show they can hold up to 70,000. However the sad part was it was not even filled to its 25% capacity. Given the prelude and the hype for this game, it was a big let down by the locals. May be most preferred to go to work; but in the thin crowed I did spot Indians with giant size flags. “சங்கு சுட்டாலும் வெண்மை தரும்”
The rest of the world 11 [+ 1 super sub] line up was star studded. The Shaun Pollock was captain for the one day squad. The squad: Sehwag, Sangakkara, Kallis, Lara, Pietersen, Dravid, Flintoff, Pollock, Vettori, Muralitharan and Akhtar. Afridi was the super sub. There was a buzz in the commentary box about Andrew Flitoff. Australia had the same side except 2 new faces. Pointing won the toss and elected to bat. Dean Jones and Sunil Gavasker presented both the teams with the official cap.
I felt this through out the game. Over all the captaincy [World team] was kind of not up to the mark for the world 11. I don’t want blame Shaun Pollock right away. It is very hard to deal the chemistry of such a powerful lineup. However the basics never change, he should have got the spinners little bit earlier. Instead he continued the power play and went on with Flintoff. Flintoff was mediocre and his line & length was questionable. Gilly happily singing “apidi pOdu pOdu” whacked him around the Dome. Flint off sucked to the core. Who knows for his poor performance he would not hesitate to blame Pollock however we need to wait for his next book to know about it. Katich managed to score runs but was fragile all through. Finally Kallis got rid of Gilly.
Pointing walked in for a “Kathak Batting Fusion”. His major weakness of “shuffling” was once again exposed. If Gangu dada’s weakness is short ball, Pointing has the weakness to shuffle more than a Vegas poker dealer. Ball hit his pads more than Sangakkara’s gloves. Finally he was pinned down by the Pollock and Kallis, he lost his patience and lifted one to the roof, Lara took a great catch and the dance show thus came to an end. Martin walked in and supplied some food materials for the supper break. He was out for a Duck. In spite of good bowling by Pollock Vettori and Murali, Aussies managed to score 250.
The rest of game for rest of the world was totally out of sync. I felt like watching India playing. Other than Sangakkara no one played to their potential. At the end the powerful star studded team lost the game by 100 runs. Jack “the stubborn” Kallis took the day off. Our own “Dharmer” Dravid was out in an odd fashion while Lambasting Lara was careless. Pietersen hyped resume did not do any good, he was out LBW. Poor Afridi did not have Agarkar or Zahir to hook on to; he was out in no time. Flintoff tried to get some runs however unfortunately for him this is not England where anything over the inner circle is 6-G [granted]. This is Australia where the oval is real and he has to cover more square feet to get the maximum. He will get right sooner or later.
The world 12 fielding was also not up to the standard. Sanjay “the perfect” Majeraker mentioned that the world team did not have great fielders in the squad. This made sense. As mentioned earlier I also felt captain’s attitude makes the difference in the team constitution. I hardly saw any body language from Pollock. The guys were playing because they were asked to play. The whole squad lacked the spirit to perform. Pollock also cannot do much, given their merits it is hard for him to scream at a world class player.
Bottom line, McGrath and Lee were the main force that won the game for the Aussies. Their batting is still fragile. This victory will boost Aussie confidence and can also increase their ego levels. We need to wait and watch the second game; I hope the world team will have its chemistry in place. For now Aussies are one up.
10/4/05
GOLU 2005
by Jayashree Srikanth and Sriya Srikanth
Stage 1: The steps are set. The concrete stones are placed near the base in order to raise the PKL to 2000LBS. [PKL=Playful Kids Load]
Stage 2: The rough looking Steps are given a clean set of dress. Carpet is protected with papers. The left and right will feature miniatures city /village and a music hall.
Stage 3: The steps are being filled.
Stage 4: Three zones are almost ready
Stage 5: Let there be Light
Stage 6: let there be some more light
Stage 2: The rough looking Steps are given a clean set of dress. Carpet is protected with papers. The left and right will feature miniatures city /village and a music hall.
Stage 3: The steps are being filled.
Stage 4: Three zones are almost ready
Stage 5: Let there be Light
Stage 6: let there be some more light
Miniature Town Ship
(Aerial view)
Miniature Stage
10/3/05
The Weekend
After about 2 months, this was the first weekend I spent at home. However 70% of the weekend was spent on helping my wife and my daughter in setting up their Golu 2005. They have 7 steps and 2 miniature townships built. They had got various miniature city and village props from Chennai. Golu 2005 officially kicks of tonight. I will upload some pictures once the full setup is done.
Flintoff's "Alley Sonata" [சந்துல சிந்து] came to an official end when Paul Russel, Chief of the Glamorgan county team for which Ganguly played this season categorically stated that “Ganguly is an outstanding professional who settled into the team and worked hard on and off the field”. He also adds that Gangully always came to team practice in time and did whatever he was told to do so. He expressed surprise about Flintoff's critical remarks in his autobiography. In fact, the team has the opposite image of Ganguly of what Flintoff has written. Bottom line, there was no hint of anything of what Flintoff has said. He was very friendly with the other team-members and used to often go out with them for dinner. I think Flintoff instead of using the current circumstance to sell his Book needs to get away from this cheap tactics and get a life.
The World Series cricket starts this week, Dish Network will be is bringing it live here in the US. The charge will be around $65.00.
Sachin recovered from his injury and announced that he is fit to play. He will be playing the Champion trophy. I happen to catch his interview on news broadcast. He was in his usual spirit. I wish he gets back into action quickly. Team India needs his services badly.
Rest of the weekend went on watching the NFL. Vikings the team I support, sucked to the core and lost to Atlanta; however losers of the week award goes to Kansas City Chiefs. In fact today we a new addendum released for the meaning for the word Losers
Losers: One that fails to win: the losers of the game.
a. One who takes loss in a specified way: (a)A graceful loser; (b)A poor loser (c) The Kansas city Chief ‘s way.
Philly Eagles came back from an 18 point deficit to win the game. In 3rd quarter Chief was shutdown. Something similar to Indian cricket team where Sehwag and Sachin give a great start but the rest “rests in peace”,
Good day.
Flintoff's "Alley Sonata" [சந்துல சிந்து] came to an official end when Paul Russel, Chief of the Glamorgan county team for which Ganguly played this season categorically stated that “Ganguly is an outstanding professional who settled into the team and worked hard on and off the field”. He also adds that Gangully always came to team practice in time and did whatever he was told to do so. He expressed surprise about Flintoff's critical remarks in his autobiography. In fact, the team has the opposite image of Ganguly of what Flintoff has written. Bottom line, there was no hint of anything of what Flintoff has said. He was very friendly with the other team-members and used to often go out with them for dinner. I think Flintoff instead of using the current circumstance to sell his Book needs to get away from this cheap tactics and get a life.
The World Series cricket starts this week, Dish Network will be is bringing it live here in the US. The charge will be around $65.00.
Sachin recovered from his injury and announced that he is fit to play. He will be playing the Champion trophy. I happen to catch his interview on news broadcast. He was in his usual spirit. I wish he gets back into action quickly. Team India needs his services badly.
Rest of the weekend went on watching the NFL. Vikings the team I support, sucked to the core and lost to Atlanta; however losers of the week award goes to Kansas City Chiefs. In fact today we a new addendum released for the meaning for the word Losers
Losers: One that fails to win: the losers of the game.
a. One who takes loss in a specified way: (a)A graceful loser; (b)A poor loser (c) The Kansas city Chief ‘s way.
Philly Eagles came back from an 18 point deficit to win the game. In 3rd quarter Chief was shutdown. Something similar to Indian cricket team where Sehwag and Sachin give a great start but the rest “rests in peace”,
Good day.
9/29/05
H1BEES News
Last week H1BEES the music album was featured on the Aaj Tak Hindi news channel, India. They featured the release function and my interview in their weekly program called “duniya”. The program was produced by Vidhushi Sinha of Voice of America/Aaj Tak.
Indian Express carried the Washington post article all over India.
TV Asia, USA featured the CD release in their community round up program. They covered the entire evening program along with my interview and interviews from others artists who worked with me in this album.
Urban India a magazine based out of NYC has a 2 page article on H1BEES.
Vatsa [Co-Producer] and I gave interviews to the NPR/BBC and few popular POD cast shows in the east coast. NPR Washington, DC had requested a copy of the CD; they might soon do a feature on the CD.
CDs available at:
www.h1bees.com TamilOviam.com DVD Unlimited Online South Indian Specialties,Oak Tree Road, Edison, NJ 08820 DVD Unlimited Stores - 1734,Oak Tree Road,Edison, NJ 08820 BombayBazzar,NJ Malabar Indian Mart, Gaithersburg, MD
Indian Express carried the Washington post article all over India.
TV Asia, USA featured the CD release in their community round up program. They covered the entire evening program along with my interview and interviews from others artists who worked with me in this album.
Urban India a magazine based out of NYC has a 2 page article on H1BEES.
Vatsa [Co-Producer] and I gave interviews to the NPR/BBC and few popular POD cast shows in the east coast. NPR Washington, DC had requested a copy of the CD; they might soon do a feature on the CD.
CDs available at:
9/28/05
Introducing The EyeWash...
The best remedy for Catch22 syndrome
"Side effects Warning"
1.Coach can be branded as a "fool" or a "liar"
2.Gloom feeling in the dressing room will continue
3.Poor and pathetic performance by Gangully will go unnoticed.
4.Team-India can be called as Scheme-India.
5. Distort the world cup dream
1.Coach can be branded as a "fool" or a "liar"
2.Gloom feeling in the dressing room will continue
3.Poor and pathetic performance by Gangully will go unnoticed.
4.Team-India can be called as Scheme-India.
5. Distort the world cup dream
9/26/05
தேவுடா தேவுடா
The Chappell’s email that was leaked to the press has created some serious controversies for Indian Cricket. I am not supporting Gangully or the coach here because I am confused to take sides.
Excerpts from the Email
1. At no stage did I ask Mr Ganguly to step down from the captaincy of the Indian team. But my confusion reaches it heights when I read the following lines in the email
On the basis of this and other observations and comments from players in the squad about the unsettling effect Sourav was having on the group “I suggested to Sourav that he should consider stepping down from the captaincy” at the end of the tour in the interests of the team and in his own best interests. Don’t you feel these lines contradict his first line of the mail? So I am really confused to see the culprit.
“The next day I enquired with a number of the players as to what they had thought of Sourav's retirement” , People, why in the world a coach would worry about captain’s retirement and his provident fund balance? It is for the Board to worry right? Makes me feel Mr. Chappel over did his portfolio. Chappel also goes on further and trashes the former coach of the side. “John Wright obviously allowed this to go on to the detriment of the team. I am not prepared to sit back and allow this to continue or we will get the same results we have been seeing for some time now.” Here is new coach, who is yet to prove his capacity goes around asking about the captain to other players and comments on his predecessor performance. When Mr. Chappell walked in, did he not give a clean chit on Gangully &Co? What happened suddenly?
The dirt pot is stirred further now; BCCI officials have started to finger point each other. Mr. Dungarpur complains or may be revealed yesterday that John Wright stepped down as India's coach because of Ganguly and Mr. Dalmiya's high-handedness. Wright spoke to him in private it seems. Duh! Why in the hell Mr. Dungarpur did not call the press and reveal this before? If Mr Dungarpur’s intention was to improve Indian cricket, why was he waiting for a favorable position to score points? The team manager Mr. Chowdhary for his part has a little statement supporting Gangully. He claims points made by the coach on Gangully missing the net practice was incorrect. BCCI apart from this mind blowing issue, they have their own internal problem in picking their office bearers.
Today, after the strong email dose from the Coach, the world knows how the Indian Cricket team and its board work. This is totally pathetic, BCCI apart from themselves being a bunch of jokers now have paved way for the players and fans to be called as jokers.
"தேவுடா தேவுடா ஏழு மலை தேவுடா....
சூடுடா சூடுடா BCCI பக்கம் சூடுடா
எங்காளு உள்ளங்கள் தகர டப்பாக்கள்
நீ கொஞ்ஜம் பட்ட டிட்டடா..." [Repeatu]
Excerpts from the Email
1. At no stage did I ask Mr Ganguly to step down from the captaincy of the Indian team. But my confusion reaches it heights when I read the following lines in the email
On the basis of this and other observations and comments from players in the squad about the unsettling effect Sourav was having on the group “I suggested to Sourav that he should consider stepping down from the captaincy” at the end of the tour in the interests of the team and in his own best interests. Don’t you feel these lines contradict his first line of the mail? So I am really confused to see the culprit.
“The next day I enquired with a number of the players as to what they had thought of Sourav's retirement” , People, why in the world a coach would worry about captain’s retirement and his provident fund balance? It is for the Board to worry right? Makes me feel Mr. Chappel over did his portfolio. Chappel also goes on further and trashes the former coach of the side. “John Wright obviously allowed this to go on to the detriment of the team. I am not prepared to sit back and allow this to continue or we will get the same results we have been seeing for some time now.” Here is new coach, who is yet to prove his capacity goes around asking about the captain to other players and comments on his predecessor performance. When Mr. Chappell walked in, did he not give a clean chit on Gangully &Co? What happened suddenly?
The dirt pot is stirred further now; BCCI officials have started to finger point each other. Mr. Dungarpur complains or may be revealed yesterday that John Wright stepped down as India's coach because of Ganguly and Mr. Dalmiya's high-handedness. Wright spoke to him in private it seems. Duh! Why in the hell Mr. Dungarpur did not call the press and reveal this before? If Mr Dungarpur’s intention was to improve Indian cricket, why was he waiting for a favorable position to score points? The team manager Mr. Chowdhary for his part has a little statement supporting Gangully. He claims points made by the coach on Gangully missing the net practice was incorrect. BCCI apart from this mind blowing issue, they have their own internal problem in picking their office bearers.
Today, after the strong email dose from the Coach, the world knows how the Indian Cricket team and its board work. This is totally pathetic, BCCI apart from themselves being a bunch of jokers now have paved way for the players and fans to be called as jokers.
"தேவுடா தேவுடா ஏழு மலை தேவுடா....
சூடுடா சூடுடா BCCI பக்கம் சூடுடா
எங்காளு உள்ளங்கள் தகர டப்பாக்கள்
நீ கொஞ்ஜம் பட்ட டிட்டடா..." [Repeatu]
The following segment is
sponsored by இதயம் நல் எண்னை,
Cycle Brand ஊது"வத்தீ..."
Ps:Kaif played well at number 3 position and was dropped; there are 2 major competitors for this position? If you know what I mean? “Which snake pit has what snake”, you never know. sponsored by இதயம் நல் எண்னை,
Cycle Brand ஊது"வத்தீ..."
9/23/05
Gangully a/c Dr - 2005
to Chappel A/c -2005
(Being the Account Settled)
Greg Chappel comes out with a strong message through an email. It is speculated that he has written 6 pages about Gangully’s behavior, according to him Dada is not mentally or physically fit to lead India. Wow! that’s a bold statement for a brand new “foreign” Coach to make.
Some might claim Chappel makes sense, my question to them but why there weren’t any issues with the previous coach? There was no complaining or even sarcastic hints from John Wright till date about Gangully or the team. Team performance was much better during his tenure. The whole environment was healthy.
On the other hand the day Mr. Chappel stepped into the Indian side the team lost his focus and started to see only defeats. We lost in a sequence to every little team. There seems to be no harmony in the team, team selection seems to be haphazard. I feel going by past records, Gangully has been leading the side for quite some time and he did not have any issues with the magnitude Chappel complains. There were complains but were mostly by the media and from the commentators box, Australian media and their band wagon of commentators in particular.
The BCCI, whose quorum can be termed as the world’s most unprofessional bunch, is clue less in this issue till date. They are busy fighting amongst themselves to pick their head. They will soon face the contempt of the court. Yesterday their AGM went into a dead lock and was adjourned ignoring orders from the Calcutta High Court. The board election was postponed to the year 3205. So we cannot look for proper or sane explanation from these people.
I wish Sachin recovers and gets back into the team. If you see until Sachin was around, let us not worry he scored runs or not but others played much better to their potential just to match Sachin’s standards. Sachin was a catalyst in the team whose presence was vital in the team’s chemistry. This is what I feel.
Gangully might be going through a bad patch or his final cricketing days, I don’t care, having been selected as the captain by the BCCI [or the bunch of jokers], it was not appropriate for a coach to ask the captain to resign just before the game. This was not a prudent move by the coach. This can demoralize the entire team and will power the opponents.
Gangully on his side was also childish when he opened the can of worms about this incident to the press. Media seems to be against Gangully, his hundred in first test was termed as “painstaking century in the Bulawayo Test” where he took 240+ balls to score 101. In the next test Rahul Dravid scored a 98 in almost same number of balls. But media never cared.
Having opened the can of worms Gangully has to face the repercussions, while I don’t trust Mr. Chappel’s claims about Gangully. Chappel is merely settling accounts with the Indian captain for his recent outbursts to the media.
As of now Indian cricket is doomed.
Some might claim Chappel makes sense, my question to them but why there weren’t any issues with the previous coach? There was no complaining or even sarcastic hints from John Wright till date about Gangully or the team. Team performance was much better during his tenure. The whole environment was healthy.
On the other hand the day Mr. Chappel stepped into the Indian side the team lost his focus and started to see only defeats. We lost in a sequence to every little team. There seems to be no harmony in the team, team selection seems to be haphazard. I feel going by past records, Gangully has been leading the side for quite some time and he did not have any issues with the magnitude Chappel complains. There were complains but were mostly by the media and from the commentators box, Australian media and their band wagon of commentators in particular.
The BCCI, whose quorum can be termed as the world’s most unprofessional bunch, is clue less in this issue till date. They are busy fighting amongst themselves to pick their head. They will soon face the contempt of the court. Yesterday their AGM went into a dead lock and was adjourned ignoring orders from the Calcutta High Court. The board election was postponed to the year 3205. So we cannot look for proper or sane explanation from these people.
I wish Sachin recovers and gets back into the team. If you see until Sachin was around, let us not worry he scored runs or not but others played much better to their potential just to match Sachin’s standards. Sachin was a catalyst in the team whose presence was vital in the team’s chemistry. This is what I feel.
Gangully might be going through a bad patch or his final cricketing days, I don’t care, having been selected as the captain by the BCCI [or the bunch of jokers], it was not appropriate for a coach to ask the captain to resign just before the game. This was not a prudent move by the coach. This can demoralize the entire team and will power the opponents.
Gangully on his side was also childish when he opened the can of worms about this incident to the press. Media seems to be against Gangully, his hundred in first test was termed as “painstaking century in the Bulawayo Test” where he took 240+ balls to score 101. In the next test Rahul Dravid scored a 98 in almost same number of balls. But media never cared.
Having opened the can of worms Gangully has to face the repercussions, while I don’t trust Mr. Chappel’s claims about Gangully. Chappel is merely settling accounts with the Indian captain for his recent outbursts to the media.
As of now Indian cricket is doomed.
9/22/05
Mixing a live Band -
Part 2
Meet the Vocalists
The orchestra can be accurate, perfect and very professional agreed, but every thing counts only if the singers rise to the occasion. Rasika is also blessed in this area. Apart from having a talented and dedicated orchestra, they have exceptional vocalist who carried the show well.
Priya Raman, this is the first time I am meeting Priya. She is a direct product from the 80’s and early 90’s era; Priya based out of NC, a senior member of the band gave a brilliant performance. Katril from “Johnny”, second song in the show was her highlight. She also sang perfectly my favourite song "pAratha nyabagam illaiyo" from pudiya paravai.
Raghu, Carnatic musician trained under TNS captured the audience with his vocal acrobatics. The song “oru naL poduma” was his highlight. Sapna Kartik, another senior member, “pAdava un pAdalai” was done remarkably well by her. I was surprised when she hit few lower notes while singing the famous “apidi podu” from Gilly, Tonality in her vocals was very unique and distinctive. Composer Srikanth has already taken a note.
Singing accurately is 40% of the task. Meaning basics are to be addressed first however 60% of the effort goes to the emotion, pronunciation, brightness or feel [what ever you call] the vocalists could produce. The next man I going to talk about is blessed with plenty of talent. As far as Rasika is concerned, Suresh Ramachandran is a new comer, however knowing him well I was not really surprised by the energy he got on the stage. Suresh can carry any song to a different height by his natural emotions and his stage presence. The show opener by him, devuda devuda clearly marked the beginning of a great show and indicated what is going to follow to the audience. His medley with other artists was real fun. The way Suresh and Priya sang “vanitha mani” from Vikram,man this was out of this world. This includes the opening dialogues. I would say this was the best song of the evening.
Kartik is a vocalist in the band, since Kartik is already suffering from heavy cold due to the intro I gave about him in the first part; I will let the album H1BEES do the talking about his singing ability.Prabodh, based out of Richmond, a naturally talented stage vocalist. He knows the knack to get the audience go along with him, though his Tamil pronunciations were questionable, he peeked well at the end.
The band had a new lady voice this year, Uma Ravishanker, her vocal range was quite high. When ever she went on higher octaves I had do some manual limiting. A great find for the band. Apart from the above Rasika had few part time singers Aswin, the mimicry guy and Guru.
Finally, I have to mention about the great “backing vocals” by Vatsa [Vatsa okva] . Vatsa was also the MC.
Priya Raman, this is the first time I am meeting Priya. She is a direct product from the 80’s and early 90’s era; Priya based out of NC, a senior member of the band gave a brilliant performance. Katril from “Johnny”, second song in the show was her highlight. She also sang perfectly my favourite song "pAratha nyabagam illaiyo" from pudiya paravai.
Raghu, Carnatic musician trained under TNS captured the audience with his vocal acrobatics. The song “oru naL poduma” was his highlight. Sapna Kartik, another senior member, “pAdava un pAdalai” was done remarkably well by her. I was surprised when she hit few lower notes while singing the famous “apidi podu” from Gilly, Tonality in her vocals was very unique and distinctive. Composer Srikanth has already taken a note.
Singing accurately is 40% of the task. Meaning basics are to be addressed first however 60% of the effort goes to the emotion, pronunciation, brightness or feel [what ever you call] the vocalists could produce. The next man I going to talk about is blessed with plenty of talent. As far as Rasika is concerned, Suresh Ramachandran is a new comer, however knowing him well I was not really surprised by the energy he got on the stage. Suresh can carry any song to a different height by his natural emotions and his stage presence. The show opener by him, devuda devuda clearly marked the beginning of a great show and indicated what is going to follow to the audience. His medley with other artists was real fun. The way Suresh and Priya sang “vanitha mani” from Vikram,man this was out of this world. This includes the opening dialogues. I would say this was the best song of the evening.
Kartik is a vocalist in the band, since Kartik is already suffering from heavy cold due to the intro I gave about him in the first part; I will let the album H1BEES do the talking about his singing ability.Prabodh, based out of Richmond, a naturally talented stage vocalist. He knows the knack to get the audience go along with him, though his Tamil pronunciations were questionable, he peeked well at the end.
The band had a new lady voice this year, Uma Ravishanker, her vocal range was quite high. When ever she went on higher octaves I had do some manual limiting. A great find for the band. Apart from the above Rasika had few part time singers Aswin, the mimicry guy and Guru.
Finally, I have to mention about the great “backing vocals” by Vatsa [Vatsa okva] . Vatsa was also the MC.
9/19/05
Mixing a Live Band…
Yesterday, I had an opportunity to sound engineer an excellent live music show in Chantilly VA. “Rasika” the east coast based Tamil music band gave their annual performance for the charity organization OPEN at Chantilly High school auditorium. It was a full house; the hall was filled with 500-600 people. It was a great team effort, I was really happy to be a part of the evening or as my friend Vocalist Suresh rightly pleaded to everyone to adopt him into the band. I think I would also do the same; these guys are fun to work with and have plenty of positive energy around them.
“Man of the match”, Kartik, yes the same Kartik who sang H1BEES title track.
Few have confused him with Play back singer Karthick in my album. The song I recorded with Play back singer Karthick was for a different album [Yes! one more big step].
If you ask me, Kartik is the first musician ever to play my compositions with full heart, soul and dedication. He made sure he got out all the nuances in my composition. The guitar solo in the 3rd section in track h1bees was played by him.
This was a great effort because the note placement in the track was more suited for a keyboard player and it is very hard for a guitar player to get the flow. But patience and practice paved the way, he did it right. He lives 60 miles from my house, still in spite of his very tight schedule, he had patience to drive down to the studio with his gadgets and do this for me. Thanks Q!
About 3 months ago, Kartik voted to get me on board into this wonderful band called Rasika, he requested me to join the fun and help them in sound modeling and engineering. Coming from a studio background, working on live mixes is a specialization on its own accord. Though I loved sound modeling and engineering I did think twice before saying yes.
I did not want to do a MIC testing 123 job, I wanted to give something extra in the mix. At the end of the day their efforts should not go waste because of my poor handling of sounds. But with Katik’s trust in me I thought I will do it. To live up to their standards I took the job with real seriousness. When working on live mix, unless the sound engineer knows the music, he/she cannot mix the parts in the right proportion. Something like cooking, if you do not know the ingredients and its proportion, the output will suffer.
Its my luck, 90% of the songs picked by the band were my favorites from the 80’s, I would quote my song 80s in Chennai “azagAna in isai isaigani thandida” So it was a matter of few hours for me to grove into this effort. In spite of my tight H1BEE schedule, I made sure I joined them in their rehearsal sections; took time to understand the chemistry behind the team.
The Band has 2 excellent keyboard players, Vilon Vidwan turned KeyB player Sundu and Mirudangam Vidwan Turned KeyB player Ajith [every weekend drove all the way from Richmond]. Both of them are very talented and played every little lead and counter points composed by Raja. They did not miss or mess anything from the original composition.
The guitar section consists Kartik [of course] Suresh, Pankaj and Sydney on Bass. Sydney pumped in breathtaking bass parts and was surprised when he told me that he has never heard some songs in the list. Suresh has a fantastic midi controlled electric guitar [Roland GTs], meaning he plays flute on his guitar, and he is a classical trained guitarists, even took lessons from my good friend Guitar Prasanna. Pankaj, he does not talk Tamil, but his guitar work was very honest. These 4 guys along with the Keys had worked for about 5 months almost every day to get the musical parts in place.
Drum and percussion: Das, - very skilled Drummer on a powerful Roland V drums kit. I have not worked with Das before, this was my first time, I enjoyed it, and Das being a senior musician was very patient to take my inputs on the drum mix. Das along with his friend Shyam are working on Hindi movies and progressing towards Bollywood at a rapid pace.
Next - Drummer Karthick – He plays Roland pads, and every other hand percussion including Bongos and “Tappe”. He rocks and makes merry. A very funny person filled with humor and energy. When he saw me at the rehearsals, called me "periya thalai is here we better do well", and I still think he referred to my age :) You got to listen to Karthick singing while drumming, yes! I heard it thru the over head mic that I placed for the cymbals. It was just fun talking and working with him. Just a note, Karthick’s wife Priya wrote the song Thedi Thedi in my album H1bees.
Finally, On Tabla - Pro player Topo. The way he played for “poo vee sem poove” is still ringing in my ears; he was totally authentic and very impressive.
The mix board that was given to me was a “Midas [Venice] 320” often used by pro bands like Elton John, NSync . It made me go WOW! When Bill, the sound guy told me that he was getting me a Midas.
This is a wide band! Already 16 channels on the mix board,
• 1- Bass
• 2 & 3 : drum 1,
• 4& 5 : drum 2
• 6,7,8 – Kartik [Electric, acoustic, and 12 string]
• 9,10 - Suresh [Roland GT’s]
• 11 – Pankaj
• 12 &13 – Sundu – kb [Korg Triton/Roland]
• 14 – Ajith – Kb
• 15 /16 Tabla
With this I will stop it here today, I wish to write about the singers and then I will give a narration of how I mixed this live show.
“Man of the match”, Kartik, yes the same Kartik who sang H1BEES title track.
Few have confused him with Play back singer Karthick in my album. The song I recorded with Play back singer Karthick was for a different album [Yes! one more big step].
If you ask me, Kartik is the first musician ever to play my compositions with full heart, soul and dedication. He made sure he got out all the nuances in my composition. The guitar solo in the 3rd section in track h1bees was played by him.
This was a great effort because the note placement in the track was more suited for a keyboard player and it is very hard for a guitar player to get the flow. But patience and practice paved the way, he did it right. He lives 60 miles from my house, still in spite of his very tight schedule, he had patience to drive down to the studio with his gadgets and do this for me. Thanks Q!
About 3 months ago, Kartik voted to get me on board into this wonderful band called Rasika, he requested me to join the fun and help them in sound modeling and engineering. Coming from a studio background, working on live mixes is a specialization on its own accord. Though I loved sound modeling and engineering I did think twice before saying yes.
I did not want to do a MIC testing 123 job, I wanted to give something extra in the mix. At the end of the day their efforts should not go waste because of my poor handling of sounds. But with Katik’s trust in me I thought I will do it. To live up to their standards I took the job with real seriousness. When working on live mix, unless the sound engineer knows the music, he/she cannot mix the parts in the right proportion. Something like cooking, if you do not know the ingredients and its proportion, the output will suffer.
Its my luck, 90% of the songs picked by the band were my favorites from the 80’s, I would quote my song 80s in Chennai “azagAna in isai isaigani thandida” So it was a matter of few hours for me to grove into this effort. In spite of my tight H1BEE schedule, I made sure I joined them in their rehearsal sections; took time to understand the chemistry behind the team.
The Band has 2 excellent keyboard players, Vilon Vidwan turned KeyB player Sundu and Mirudangam Vidwan Turned KeyB player Ajith [every weekend drove all the way from Richmond]. Both of them are very talented and played every little lead and counter points composed by Raja. They did not miss or mess anything from the original composition.
The guitar section consists Kartik [of course] Suresh, Pankaj and Sydney on Bass. Sydney pumped in breathtaking bass parts and was surprised when he told me that he has never heard some songs in the list. Suresh has a fantastic midi controlled electric guitar [Roland GTs], meaning he plays flute on his guitar, and he is a classical trained guitarists, even took lessons from my good friend Guitar Prasanna. Pankaj, he does not talk Tamil, but his guitar work was very honest. These 4 guys along with the Keys had worked for about 5 months almost every day to get the musical parts in place.
Drum and percussion: Das, - very skilled Drummer on a powerful Roland V drums kit. I have not worked with Das before, this was my first time, I enjoyed it, and Das being a senior musician was very patient to take my inputs on the drum mix. Das along with his friend Shyam are working on Hindi movies and progressing towards Bollywood at a rapid pace.
Next - Drummer Karthick – He plays Roland pads, and every other hand percussion including Bongos and “Tappe”. He rocks and makes merry. A very funny person filled with humor and energy. When he saw me at the rehearsals, called me "periya thalai is here we better do well", and I still think he referred to my age :) You got to listen to Karthick singing while drumming, yes! I heard it thru the over head mic that I placed for the cymbals. It was just fun talking and working with him. Just a note, Karthick’s wife Priya wrote the song Thedi Thedi in my album H1bees.
Finally, On Tabla - Pro player Topo. The way he played for “poo vee sem poove” is still ringing in my ears; he was totally authentic and very impressive.
The mix board that was given to me was a “Midas [Venice] 320” often used by pro bands like Elton John, NSync . It made me go WOW! When Bill, the sound guy told me that he was getting me a Midas.
This is a wide band! Already 16 channels on the mix board,
• 1- Bass
• 2 & 3 : drum 1,
• 4& 5 : drum 2
• 6,7,8 – Kartik [Electric, acoustic, and 12 string]
• 9,10 - Suresh [Roland GT’s]
• 11 – Pankaj
• 12 &13 – Sundu – kb [Korg Triton/Roland]
• 14 – Ajith – Kb
• 15 /16 Tabla
With this I will stop it here today, I wish to write about the singers and then I will give a narration of how I mixed this live show.
9/13/05
Thanks to Actor Srikanth.
Just few days before the release, popular tamil film star “Srikanth” visited Studio1234. He patiently heard all the tracks and congratulated all the artists. He really enjoyed all the numbers told me some of them were movie material right away. 
Srikanth had to leave to India for a film shoot; he was flying back when we released our CD. However he was kind enough to provide voice over promotions in various Indian languages for the album.
Thanks “Srikanth” for your time, thanks for making it to the studio in spite of your tight Schedule. Thanks to Sudhir who made this happen. We have new promo clip uploaded in the H1bees.comwebsite. If you have not ordered the CD, I request you to place the order today, Click here..
9/12/05
H1BEES
The Album was officially released by
Mr. Jason Chung.
Executive Director
DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES
Office of the Secretary
Governor's Commissions
Asian Pacific American Affairs
The first copy was accepted by
Dr. Pradeep Ganguly,
Deputy Director
Department of Environmental Resources
Prince George's County Maryland
President of MKK USA, Inc.
Following the release Mr. Jason Chung presented me a citation signed by the Governor of Maryland. This was a great honor; I did not expect this. He gave me a big 11x7 certificate with my named engraved along with state of Maryland’s golden seal. This was amazing, I felt really happy that I made this far.
Thanks to Mitra Kalitam from the wonderful article in the Washington Post. Our story also went on the Economic times and Times of India. Thanks to Mr. Chidanand Rajghatta. We are honored sir. TV Asia carried our interviews, thanks to Mr. Devasish Ray for making it for releae. Thanks to all the Bloggers who wrote about this album. Finally, thanks to everyone who made it for the release. Hope you guys enjoyed the evening.
Wait, there one More big surprises to come, after the memorable CD launch attended by family, friends and the Media/press, I came home at around 10.30pm.
Jamillah Knowles , Producer BBC Radio 5 Live called me to check if I would be available for an Interview on BBC Radio 5 Live, she gave me 10 minutes. I was thrilled! Accepted the call right away; It’s the BBC! , do you believe it, I was on air talking on the BBC!; the channel I am been hearing for past 30 years. I was on it!, they asked about my background, the album, the guys around me, and why did I make it to music apart from being a software engineer. It seems Rock music and Software engineering does not go together. They asked me to sing 5 lines of track from the album, I managed it to sing! They seemed impressed.
I am very happy today that we are getting lot of press. The album does deserve it, my team of musicians has worked along my side with their heart and soul.
Thanks guys!
Photos by Mr.Raman.
Mr. Jason Chung.
Executive Director
DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES
Office of the Secretary
Governor's Commissions
Asian Pacific American Affairs
The first copy was accepted by
Dr. Pradeep Ganguly,
Deputy Director
Department of Environmental Resources
Prince George's County Maryland
President of MKK USA, Inc.
Following the release Mr. Jason Chung presented me a citation signed by the Governor of Maryland. This was a great honor; I did not expect this. He gave me a big 11x7 certificate with my named engraved along with state of Maryland’s golden seal. This was amazing, I felt really happy that I made this far.
Thanks to Mitra Kalitam from the wonderful article in the Washington Post. Our story also went on the Economic times and Times of India. Thanks to Mr. Chidanand Rajghatta. We are honored sir. TV Asia carried our interviews, thanks to Mr. Devasish Ray for making it for releae. Thanks to all the Bloggers who wrote about this album. Finally, thanks to everyone who made it for the release. Hope you guys enjoyed the evening.
Wait, there one More big surprises to come, after the memorable CD launch attended by family, friends and the Media/press, I came home at around 10.30pm.
Jamillah Knowles , Producer BBC Radio 5 Live called me to check if I would be available for an Interview on BBC Radio 5 Live, she gave me 10 minutes. I was thrilled! Accepted the call right away; It’s the BBC! , do you believe it, I was on air talking on the BBC!; the channel I am been hearing for past 30 years. I was on it!, they asked about my background, the album, the guys around me, and why did I make it to music apart from being a software engineer. It seems Rock music and Software engineering does not go together. They asked me to sing 5 lines of track from the album, I managed it to sing! They seemed impressed.
I am very happy today that we are getting lot of press. The album does deserve it, my team of musicians has worked along my side with their heart and soul.
Thanks guys!
Photos by Mr.Raman.
9/10/05
H1BEES! On "The Washington post"
H1Bees made its way to The Washington Post.
CLICK HERE.....
Few weeks ago, reporters/photographers from the post visited my studio to interview me and my artists. Mitra Kalitam was the lead reporter who visited my studio twice. She interviewed me and my gang of musicians and producers. It was a great pleasure talking to her. She patiently heard our story, including how I was able to gather such a wonderful set of talent.
Jennifer Crandall from Washington Post dot com also visited and spoke to us about the album. She enquired about my studio hardware with great interest and was surprised to see me work on state of the art technology like Pro Tools etc. She was instrumental in making the slide show along with the post’s photographer Preston Keres with whom we had photo shoot that evening. When talking to him I came to know that he was from Davenport IA. We lived in Davenport around 1998, where my musical journey in this country picked up the initial pace. Mr. Keres served in the Navy for twelve years before joining post in 2003. He is a also the prestigious winner of Department of Defense’s Military Photographer of the Year for his coverage of Navy operations in Guatemala, Ground Zero rescues and the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake for DoD athletes., It was a real honor to work with him.
How in first place the album got their attention? ,
Apart from a catchy name H1BEES and my music, 1st - thanks to my little friend, Swathi Raman. Swathi is a very interesting personality. She is an aspiring classical vocalist, classical dancer and a “want to be” journalist. Swathi subscribes to an email group run by SAJA.ORG. She sent a lovely little email describing about this album to the Saja group. Mitra Kalitam [a member in the same group] got the email and called me at once, to keep the story short, Thanks to Swathi for talking time to help me.
Thanks to the Post and its reporters for this coverage. I have come a long way with my talented team, Thanks Kartik, Alisha, Swathi and others for working patiently with me, finally Thanks to my producer Vatsa who trusted my talent. Thanks Buddy!.
Guys we rocked! The world famous “the Washington post!” has covered about our album….Congratulations!
CLICK HERE.....
Few weeks ago, reporters/photographers from the post visited my studio to interview me and my artists. Mitra Kalitam was the lead reporter who visited my studio twice. She interviewed me and my gang of musicians and producers. It was a great pleasure talking to her. She patiently heard our story, including how I was able to gather such a wonderful set of talent.
Jennifer Crandall from Washington Post dot com also visited and spoke to us about the album. She enquired about my studio hardware with great interest and was surprised to see me work on state of the art technology like Pro Tools etc. She was instrumental in making the slide show along with the post’s photographer Preston Keres with whom we had photo shoot that evening. When talking to him I came to know that he was from Davenport IA. We lived in Davenport around 1998, where my musical journey in this country picked up the initial pace. Mr. Keres served in the Navy for twelve years before joining post in 2003. He is a also the prestigious winner of Department of Defense’s Military Photographer of the Year for his coverage of Navy operations in Guatemala, Ground Zero rescues and the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake for DoD athletes., It was a real honor to work with him.
How in first place the album got their attention? ,
Apart from a catchy name H1BEES and my music, 1st - thanks to my little friend, Swathi Raman. Swathi is a very interesting personality. She is an aspiring classical vocalist, classical dancer and a “want to be” journalist. Swathi subscribes to an email group run by SAJA.ORG. She sent a lovely little email describing about this album to the Saja group. Mitra Kalitam [a member in the same group] got the email and called me at once, to keep the story short, Thanks to Swathi for talking time to help me.
Thanks to the Post and its reporters for this coverage. I have come a long way with my talented team, Thanks Kartik, Alisha, Swathi and others for working patiently with me, finally Thanks to my producer Vatsa who trusted my talent. Thanks Buddy!.
Guys we rocked! The world famous “the Washington post!” has covered about our album….Congratulations!
9/2/05
9/1/05
Wish us good-luck
I am finally free, because the album post production work is complete and we are all set for its launch on September 10th. I have convinced my producers for a low price $5.99 + [applicable Taxes] + [applicable Shipping] for the album. This low pricing should enable more people to listen to this album.
Once the CD goes on sale, you can order the CD directly from TamilOviam web store. TamilOviam.com will be our online agents. For people in DC/VA/MD/NJ area we are still working to get it across to local stores around your area.
Please wish us good-luck - we just have about week to go for the product release.
TamilOviam.com has introduced a new webpage called Music, in which they have featured most of my songs. This is the first time you get to you hear all my song by a single click. Even my website does not have such features. Please visit this Blog Radio in TamilOviam. Thanks to Ganesh Chandra [GC] for taking pains to put up this page.
Finally,Congratulations to Arun. ManiaTV will be playing Arun’s short film ’Brailliant’ from September 16th .This will be featured in their show titled “Too short for Hollywood”. I did the back ground score for this funny little short film. This short film has no dialogues, and the plot is unveiled by clever shot placements and of course my background score. This was my first venture with Arun. Frankly, the honest effort put forth by every one has started to reap its benefits. Way to go guys.
Once the CD goes on sale, you can order the CD directly from TamilOviam web store. TamilOviam.com will be our online agents. For people in DC/VA/MD/NJ area we are still working to get it across to local stores around your area. Please wish us good-luck - we just have about week to go for the product release.
TamilOviam.com has introduced a new webpage called Music, in which they have featured most of my songs. This is the first time you get to you hear all my song by a single click. Even my website does not have such features. Please visit this Blog Radio in TamilOviam. Thanks to Ganesh Chandra [GC] for taking pains to put up this page.
Finally,Congratulations to Arun. ManiaTV will be playing Arun’s short film ’Brailliant’ from September 16th .This will be featured in their show titled “Too short for Hollywood”. I did the back ground score for this funny little short film. This short film has no dialogues, and the plot is unveiled by clever shot placements and of course my background score. This was my first venture with Arun. Frankly, the honest effort put forth by every one has started to reap its benefits. Way to go guys.
8/29/05
It is a Shame!
In the recent past ICC officials have interpreted and enforced the code of conduct rules and regulations without any uniformity or consistency. This trend continues, Rickey Pointing was guilty of serious breach and dissent in the recently concluded test match at Trent bridge cricket ground.
Rule book says arguing with an umpire's decision is a violation of code of conduct, technically called as Dissent, this cannot be tolerated. Anything more than a polite question to the umpires is heavily monitored and it could attract a penalty from the match referee. A rude gesture to an opponent and their officials in disgust is considered to the most serious misconduct in a cricket match. This warrants at least a match ban.
“Australian captain Ricky Ponting was booked for the above mentinoed charges” and his tantrums did not stop on the field, he went on to display his bad boy nature off the field to the opponent coach sitting in the balcony. But after all this, he just gets fined 75 percent of his match fee on Sunday, he is let go freely to continue his misconduct.
Let me rewind a little and check how ICC treats cricketers from South Asia.
April 9, 2005: Sourav Ganguly, India v Pakistan, ODI [on a Hot and very Humid day]
Charges: Slow over rate - Fined 70% of match fee Referee: M/s Chris Broad
April 12, 2005: Sourav Ganguly, India v Pakistan, ODI
Charges: Slow Over rate. Banned for 6 ODIs.
Referee: Chris Broad
Apr 5, 2005: Inzamam-ul-Haq, India v Pakistan, ODI
Charges: Abuse of cricket equipment or clothing, ground equipment or fixtures and fittings. Official Reprimand. Referee: Chris Broad
Mar 28, 2005: Inzamam-ul-Haq, India v Pakistan, Test
Charges:Charging or advancing towards the umpire in an aggressive manner when appealing. Banned for 1 - Test match. Referee: Chris Broad
Pakistan's Yousuf Youhana and India's Irfan Pathan after finding them guilty of breaching ICC's code of conduct during the BCCI platinum jubilee match at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Youhana was fined 75 per cent of the match fee and Pathan 50 per cent of the match fee.Their offence was a level two breach of Code which carries a fine of between 50 to 100 per cent of the players' match fee and/or a one Test match or two ODI match ban.
It is high time to put an lid on this double standard slip shot behavior of ICC match referees. The punishment awarded to Rickey Ponting is biased, too mild and cannot be accepted. Why Asian boards are dumb and dull headed? Are they running out of NaCl - Common salt.?
Rule book says arguing with an umpire's decision is a violation of code of conduct, technically called as Dissent, this cannot be tolerated. Anything more than a polite question to the umpires is heavily monitored and it could attract a penalty from the match referee. A rude gesture to an opponent and their officials in disgust is considered to the most serious misconduct in a cricket match. This warrants at least a match ban.
“Australian captain Ricky Ponting was booked for the above mentinoed charges” and his tantrums did not stop on the field, he went on to display his bad boy nature off the field to the opponent coach sitting in the balcony. But after all this, he just gets fined 75 percent of his match fee on Sunday, he is let go freely to continue his misconduct.
Let me rewind a little and check how ICC treats cricketers from South Asia.
April 9, 2005: Sourav Ganguly, India v Pakistan, ODI [on a Hot and very Humid day]
Charges: Slow over rate - Fined 70% of match fee Referee: M/s Chris Broad
April 12, 2005: Sourav Ganguly, India v Pakistan, ODI
Charges: Slow Over rate. Banned for 6 ODIs.
Referee: Chris Broad
Apr 5, 2005: Inzamam-ul-Haq, India v Pakistan, ODI
Charges: Abuse of cricket equipment or clothing, ground equipment or fixtures and fittings. Official Reprimand. Referee: Chris Broad
Mar 28, 2005: Inzamam-ul-Haq, India v Pakistan, Test
Charges:Charging or advancing towards the umpire in an aggressive manner when appealing. Banned for 1 - Test match. Referee: Chris Broad
Pakistan's Yousuf Youhana and India's Irfan Pathan after finding them guilty of breaching ICC's code of conduct during the BCCI platinum jubilee match at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Youhana was fined 75 per cent of the match fee and Pathan 50 per cent of the match fee.Their offence was a level two breach of Code which carries a fine of between 50 to 100 per cent of the players' match fee and/or a one Test match or two ODI match ban.
It is high time to put an lid on this double standard slip shot behavior of ICC match referees. The punishment awarded to Rickey Ponting is biased, too mild and cannot be accepted. Why Asian boards are dumb and dull headed? Are they running out of NaCl - Common salt.?
8/28/05
Ponting's theatrics,
Mr. Ponting, the captain who leads the world champs by example lost his cool! The so called “the divine” captain after being given out goes on to verbally abuse the umpire , opponents, and the English coach who was sitting at the balcony. Along with the home team coach every other Tom D & H sitting in that area were also blessed by Ponting’s golden sermons.
Why was he upset? Ponting was run out at a crucial juncture, thanks to a substitute fielder who did the needful. Mr. Ponting’s side story for blowing his own fuse was “England used Substitutes”; it was known to everyone that Simon Jones had an ankle problem and had gone to the hospital for X-Ray. There is surely no doubt England captain Michael Vaughan would have preferred Jones on the field to allow for another bowling option. England coach Fletcher had no sympathy for Mr. Ponting, and has told that the umpires and match officials were perfectly happy with the team's use of Pratt as a substitute. The excuse given by Ponting for his behavior is the lamest of all of the lame reasons put together. Even I had a better lame excuse for missing my Algebra classes. His team has lost its so called form and are being mocked for their initial hype, unable to bear all this poor Rickey’s fuse was simply blown.
Next question is, what will the match referee do? Good that Rickey’s last name is not Gangully, if it had been so, may be he played his the last game for Australia. For such behavior usually players from South Asia gets a definite life ban. Frankly what ever be the reasoning by Pointing, what he did is a disgrace to Aussie cricket and clearly shows that he cannot take failures. Pressure can change your behavior, and performance. If cricketing world is unbiased, Pointing should get at least a 10 match ban for this kind of behavior. After all Saurav faced a 5 match ban for a logistical issue of poor over rate.
All said and done, mostly Rickey would be warned because hey he apologized right!
Aussies could come back into the game draw it or what ever, the disgrace earned by their captain’s behavior has been already engraved and I don’t think this will be forgiven for sometime. Ponting let down himself! and his team.
Ps: This my 200th post!..I hope to continue Blogging.
Why was he upset? Ponting was run out at a crucial juncture, thanks to a substitute fielder who did the needful. Mr. Ponting’s side story for blowing his own fuse was “England used Substitutes”; it was known to everyone that Simon Jones had an ankle problem and had gone to the hospital for X-Ray. There is surely no doubt England captain Michael Vaughan would have preferred Jones on the field to allow for another bowling option. England coach Fletcher had no sympathy for Mr. Ponting, and has told that the umpires and match officials were perfectly happy with the team's use of Pratt as a substitute. The excuse given by Ponting for his behavior is the lamest of all of the lame reasons put together. Even I had a better lame excuse for missing my Algebra classes. His team has lost its so called form and are being mocked for their initial hype, unable to bear all this poor Rickey’s fuse was simply blown.
Next question is, what will the match referee do? Good that Rickey’s last name is not Gangully, if it had been so, may be he played his the last game for Australia. For such behavior usually players from South Asia gets a definite life ban. Frankly what ever be the reasoning by Pointing, what he did is a disgrace to Aussie cricket and clearly shows that he cannot take failures. Pressure can change your behavior, and performance. If cricketing world is unbiased, Pointing should get at least a 10 match ban for this kind of behavior. After all Saurav faced a 5 match ban for a logistical issue of poor over rate.
All said and done, mostly Rickey would be warned because hey he apologized right!
Aussies could come back into the game draw it or what ever, the disgrace earned by their captain’s behavior has been already engraved and I don’t think this will be forgiven for sometime. Ponting let down himself! and his team.
Ps: This my 200th post!..I hope to continue Blogging.
8/26/05
8/15/05
Aug 15th 2005,
My hearty Independence Day greetings to everyone. Every year I manage to get out a new score for this occasion, last year Bharatham (Vocals: Alisha Thomas] and year before last it was “adovme pallu paduome by Sundar Rao.
This year my schedule was dedicated to my next music album H1BEES. Entire team has put forth their effort in making this CD. However, today all of us are very happy that H1Bees is complete and currently in mass production. The CD is being Mastered, Designed and Duplicated by DiscMakers, the top CD manufactures in the country.
CD will be released officially on Saturday, September 10th 2005. We have planned for simple release function in which we will be introducing all the artists and people involved in the production. , CDs will be available for sale in the venue. The function will be held at Universities at Shady Grove Auditorium 9630 Gudelsky Drive Rockville, MD 20850
We are inviting our Family, Friends, Media and the Press from the DC/MD/VA metro area. If anyone visiting here during this time frame, please email me for the invitations [Srikanth at Srikanthd dot com], I would be happy to send it. You can also click here for the flyer.
We have priced the album low with fewer profit margins. This is to encourage people to buy original CDs. At this time I also request mp3 duplicators to keep this in mind before uploading it in their websites. Please respect the hard work for every artist. A three minute song takes about 3 months to Write, Compose, Record, Balance and Mix.
I kindly request people not upload it to any of the public domain websites. Though it is not really possible for musicians to curtail piracy, we do have legal team in place to monitor such bootleg activities. If needed, legal team will take necessary action and law will takes its own course.
Contrary to my earlier album Mahaakavi, in H1BEES I have utilized plenty of local [NRI] talents. All of them are highly talented artists and I am sure they will soon go to higher places.
This project has come a long way since conception. Some time during last fall, four of us, Vatsa, Kartik, Devesh and I planned on this venture. This grew up slowly but steadily. Today we just have few hurdles to cross, the count down starts for the entire H1BEES team and we are all looking forward the CD release. By gods grace I hope we impress many music loving ears. It is time for me to keep my fingers crossed. Thanks for all your support postings in my Blog. Without your support and encouragement we would not be where we are today.
Good day!
Srikanth
ps: A short 5 minute trailer for the album in production, should be out soon.
This year my schedule was dedicated to my next music album H1BEES. Entire team has put forth their effort in making this CD. However, today all of us are very happy that H1Bees is complete and currently in mass production. The CD is being Mastered, Designed and Duplicated by DiscMakers, the top CD manufactures in the country.
CD will be released officially on Saturday, September 10th 2005. We have planned for simple release function in which we will be introducing all the artists and people involved in the production. , CDs will be available for sale in the venue. The function will be held at Universities at Shady Grove Auditorium 9630 Gudelsky Drive Rockville, MD 20850
We are inviting our Family, Friends, Media and the Press from the DC/MD/VA metro area. If anyone visiting here during this time frame, please email me for the invitations [Srikanth at Srikanthd dot com], I would be happy to send it. You can also click here for the flyer.
We have priced the album low with fewer profit margins. This is to encourage people to buy original CDs. At this time I also request mp3 duplicators to keep this in mind before uploading it in their websites. Please respect the hard work for every artist. A three minute song takes about 3 months to Write, Compose, Record, Balance and Mix.
I kindly request people not upload it to any of the public domain websites. Though it is not really possible for musicians to curtail piracy, we do have legal team in place to monitor such bootleg activities. If needed, legal team will take necessary action and law will takes its own course.
Contrary to my earlier album Mahaakavi, in H1BEES I have utilized plenty of local [NRI] talents. All of them are highly talented artists and I am sure they will soon go to higher places.
This project has come a long way since conception. Some time during last fall, four of us, Vatsa, Kartik, Devesh and I planned on this venture. This grew up slowly but steadily. Today we just have few hurdles to cross, the count down starts for the entire H1BEES team and we are all looking forward the CD release. By gods grace I hope we impress many music loving ears. It is time for me to keep my fingers crossed. Thanks for all your support postings in my Blog. Without your support and encouragement we would not be where we are today.
Good day!
Srikanth
ps: A short 5 minute trailer for the album in production, should be out soon.
8/10/05
H1BEES Official Press Release. [for USA]
For Immediate Release Aug 10 2005
Indian Composer in Maryland Releases Unique "H1BEES" Music Album
Immigrants from India Share Their Story in Song in a New CurryRock Genre
Srikanth Devarajan, an Indian Composer based in Gaithersburg, MD is releasing his third album "H1BEES" in early September this year. Srikanth Devarajan is a computer engineer by profession and a gifted musician. After working with various forms of music for more than 15 years, Srikanth devised a new genre called CurryRockTM, which is a fusion between Indian music, Rock n Roll, and Pop music formats of the west.
Srikanth, and three other Indians with a deep passion for music, Srivatsa Srinivasan, Kartik Venkataraman, and Devesh Satyavolu, worked on the idea to release such a unique album since last year. Srikanth scored the music for all the seven songs in this album, which are performed by extremely talented local recording artists. Recording artistes who worked on this album include: Kartik Venkataramanan, Alisha Thomas, Usha Krishnan, Ramesh Chellamani and Swathi Raman.
The songs in this album portray several sentiments every immigrant goes through at different stages in life, home away from home. This is a journey of chasing dreams with a passion to succeed while remaining connected with one's remote family. This is a journey of independence from frugality and conformity. With songs in three different languages, this album resembles the multi-lingual, multi-cultural dimension of India and Indian immigrants.
Contacts:
Marketing and Events:Srivatsa Srinivasan [Producer]
contact3s@gmail.com
Technical Contact:
Srikanth Devarajan [Composer/Producer]
srikanth@srikanthd.com
Indian Composer in Maryland Releases Unique "H1BEES" Music Album
Immigrants from India Share Their Story in Song in a New CurryRock Genre
"Standing in line, papers in my hand,
All my answers, practiced and planned,
He asked, would ya ever come back home?
Yes sir, I will, but first give me that H1B!"
"Give Me that H1B"
Lead Song, H1BEES Album
Srikanth Devarajan, an Indian Composer based in Gaithersburg, MD is releasing his third album "H1BEES" in early September this year. Srikanth Devarajan is a computer engineer by profession and a gifted musician. After working with various forms of music for more than 15 years, Srikanth devised a new genre called CurryRockTM, which is a fusion between Indian music, Rock n Roll, and Pop music formats of the west.
Srikanth, and three other Indians with a deep passion for music, Srivatsa Srinivasan, Kartik Venkataraman, and Devesh Satyavolu, worked on the idea to release such a unique album since last year. Srikanth scored the music for all the seven songs in this album, which are performed by extremely talented local recording artists. Recording artistes who worked on this album include: Kartik Venkataramanan, Alisha Thomas, Usha Krishnan, Ramesh Chellamani and Swathi Raman.
The songs in this album portray several sentiments every immigrant goes through at different stages in life, home away from home. This is a journey of chasing dreams with a passion to succeed while remaining connected with one's remote family. This is a journey of independence from frugality and conformity. With songs in three different languages, this album resembles the multi-lingual, multi-cultural dimension of India and Indian immigrants.
Contacts:
Marketing and Events:Srivatsa Srinivasan [Producer]
contact3s@gmail.com
Technical Contact:
Srikanth Devarajan [Composer/Producer]
srikanth@srikanthd.com
8/9/05
8/3/05
7/29/05
Scheming at its peak.
In USA, Cable TV companies are notorious for their shady and shocking hidden charges. However all such practices seemed very minor when compared with Cable services TV in Chennai, India. The scheming that is going on in Chennai was really shocking.
The “SET-TOP-BOX” racket. This is a gadget that scrambles/de-scrambles TV signals. Using this box, cable broadcasters control your subscriptions, a Conditional Access System. Yes the same we find in most homes in the USA. What’s the problem here? In the US the Box is bundled with the deal and charges for box are small and are silently hidden. Subscribers are not asked to pay a huge down payment for this “made in China” gadget. Cable TV companies collect a small amount as rent for these receivers. You will find this some where low down in the monthly bill.
In Chennai, a set top box is required to watch channels like Discovery, CNN, or ESPN etc. Just like any other cable package here too the subscription packages are called Gold, Plastic and Clay etc. The highest package that brings in every satellite beam on the Indian Subcontinent is priced at Rs.205 + Basic Cable [Rs100.] + Tax = Rs.320. There are also sport packages for about Rs.32/Month, but the catch is you got to pay in full for a year. The Sun TV, Moon TV, winner TV Loser TV and other Tamil TV’s fall under Basic Cable that can be received without a Set top Box. If you read between the lines you will find how public is schemed in Chennai Area.
Order in which people are schemed:
Scheming number 1: Subscribers are forced to buy a set top box. Cost - Rs.4500 [about $100]. Cable companies will not rent this for you. They make sure no one else also rents it. There is no place in Chennai where you could rent this box. If you want to watch certain so called premium channels you need to shell out Rs4500 + Subscription + etc.
Scheming number 2: The monthly subscriptions are due on 5th of every month. They don’t mail you a bill. The amount is collected door to door by the cable guy. If the cable guy does not show up for collection, you get to face the consequences of missed payment. The service will be disconnected on 6th without any notice, and it will cost you Rs.200 to resume your service. It is your responsibility to keep track of the Cable guy and his whereabouts. The plight of senior citizens multiplies. Bottom line, Customers are being taken for ride at every given opportunity.
Scheming number 3: These pay channels comes with on the air Advertisements and commercials. Meaning, you pay the nose-bleeding amount not only to watch your favorite program, but you also need to pay and watch Jothika promote Heart-oil, or “Big B” sell milk chocolates. Often during cricket matches, the 6 ball an over rule is reduced to a 5 or 4 ball an over. The broadcasters make sure that viewing pleasure is as horrible as possible. While watching staring Tom Cruise on HBO India, appearance of “Big B via commercials” would be much more than that of Tom Cruise’s in the screen play.
Scheming number 4 : The scheming reaches it heights here, say you travel about 30 miles out of Chennai, close to Chegalpatu, you don’t need a set top box. Everything is available on regular cable. In fact entire India watches TV without this box. Chennai is the only city that has stupid set top boxes. Why? God only knows or may be may be someone interested should have imported these boxes in bulk and now they are trying to push it to the people.
I really don’t know what is the point in having a boasting media in Chennai?. When I was Chennai I saw a leading magazine, busy publishing a stale 19th century 3D photo concept and were feeling really proud about it. It is a pity that there is no soul yet in the press to rescue people from this day light corporate theft.
The set top box was introduced based on various projections; today not even 50% of the projections have been achieved. Many in Chennai decided to stick on to basic cables. Been reading various Blogs based out of Chennai for long time now and I have never come across anyone discussing this issue. Some might have, but who knows may be most could afford this money or really don’t care for TV. But visiting from another country I feel this issue is worth a discussion. People are being ripped right royally. Serious Bloggers should take up public awareness issues
instead of “I am using gopal palpodi” or “I ride a Segway to work” or “Blowing second line bagpipe harmony for existing press”.
There are people who do try to take up social issues on their Blogs, but we need more. Remember Blogs here in the west have the power to change the course of an election. It is about time for spending at least 10k of data a week for this purpose. People in Chennai face “heat”, “no water cry”, “and ridiculous traffic” and now add this - “Set Top Box racket”.
The “SET-TOP-BOX” racket. This is a gadget that scrambles/de-scrambles TV signals. Using this box, cable broadcasters control your subscriptions, a Conditional Access System. Yes the same we find in most homes in the USA. What’s the problem here? In the US the Box is bundled with the deal and charges for box are small and are silently hidden. Subscribers are not asked to pay a huge down payment for this “made in China” gadget. Cable TV companies collect a small amount as rent for these receivers. You will find this some where low down in the monthly bill.
In Chennai, a set top box is required to watch channels like Discovery, CNN, or ESPN etc. Just like any other cable package here too the subscription packages are called Gold, Plastic and Clay etc. The highest package that brings in every satellite beam on the Indian Subcontinent is priced at Rs.205 + Basic Cable [Rs100.] + Tax = Rs.320. There are also sport packages for about Rs.32/Month, but the catch is you got to pay in full for a year. The Sun TV, Moon TV, winner TV Loser TV and other Tamil TV’s fall under Basic Cable that can be received without a Set top Box. If you read between the lines you will find how public is schemed in Chennai Area.
Order in which people are schemed:
Scheming number 1: Subscribers are forced to buy a set top box. Cost - Rs.4500 [about $100]. Cable companies will not rent this for you. They make sure no one else also rents it. There is no place in Chennai where you could rent this box. If you want to watch certain so called premium channels you need to shell out Rs4500 + Subscription + etc.
Scheming number 2: The monthly subscriptions are due on 5th of every month. They don’t mail you a bill. The amount is collected door to door by the cable guy. If the cable guy does not show up for collection, you get to face the consequences of missed payment. The service will be disconnected on 6th without any notice, and it will cost you Rs.200 to resume your service. It is your responsibility to keep track of the Cable guy and his whereabouts. The plight of senior citizens multiplies. Bottom line, Customers are being taken for ride at every given opportunity.
Scheming number 3: These pay channels comes with on the air Advertisements and commercials. Meaning, you pay the nose-bleeding amount not only to watch your favorite program, but you also need to pay and watch Jothika promote Heart-oil, or “Big B” sell milk chocolates. Often during cricket matches, the 6 ball an over rule is reduced to a 5 or 4 ball an over. The broadcasters make sure that viewing pleasure is as horrible as possible. While watching staring Tom Cruise on HBO India, appearance of “Big B via commercials” would be much more than that of Tom Cruise’s in the screen play.
Scheming number 4 : The scheming reaches it heights here, say you travel about 30 miles out of Chennai, close to Chegalpatu, you don’t need a set top box. Everything is available on regular cable. In fact entire India watches TV without this box. Chennai is the only city that has stupid set top boxes. Why? God only knows or may be may be someone interested should have imported these boxes in bulk and now they are trying to push it to the people.
I really don’t know what is the point in having a boasting media in Chennai?. When I was Chennai I saw a leading magazine, busy publishing a stale 19th century 3D photo concept and were feeling really proud about it. It is a pity that there is no soul yet in the press to rescue people from this day light corporate theft.
The set top box was introduced based on various projections; today not even 50% of the projections have been achieved. Many in Chennai decided to stick on to basic cables. Been reading various Blogs based out of Chennai for long time now and I have never come across anyone discussing this issue. Some might have, but who knows may be most could afford this money or really don’t care for TV. But visiting from another country I feel this issue is worth a discussion. People are being ripped right royally. Serious Bloggers should take up public awareness issues
instead of “I am using gopal palpodi” or “I ride a Segway to work” or “Blowing second line bagpipe harmony for existing press”.
There are people who do try to take up social issues on their Blogs, but we need more. Remember Blogs here in the west have the power to change the course of an election. It is about time for spending at least 10k of data a week for this purpose. People in Chennai face “heat”, “no water cry”, “and ridiculous traffic” and now add this - “Set Top Box racket”.
7/27/05
Whew..do not want to waste time.
My Blog lost few entries yesterday; I was cleaning the template code, but messed it up and should have deleted something somewhere. I can trace it and get it from the backup but what the heck nothing is lost and not worth my time, instead I wrote another one. For 5 outsider + 45 self-comments a day this should do.
Indian team is in Sri Lanka, Greg Chappell on his first international assignment with this team. Team India managed to win their first practice game. Dhoni played in the middle order while Laxman opened the innings for India. In spite of mediocre performances the only reason I see “Laxman” in this tour is - it is being played in “Sri Lanka” [wink]. Surprise! Kaif got some runs. Nice to see some runs from the middle order. On the bowling department everyone expect Nehra were in good rhythm. Hopefully this form continues when the real game begins.
I never wrote about the ashes. The English after the hyped session beginning went down drain like a dead mouse. Aussies are still the world champs, this time their bowlers came good at the party. Been hearing radio commentary through BBC, the lineup has few Australians also, the commentary was fantastic and was like watching the game live.
When watching the games on ESPN, The intolerable commentator award goes to Michel Holding. His English accent seems to be worse than Sukwinder Singh rendering Veerapandiya Kataboomban dialogues. I wish someone on Sky-Sports gifts him a Tofel CD. Also someone should tell Mr. Holding that in a tournament involving more than 2 teams, the losers in finals are called “Runners up”. He takes the microphone during the award presentation and does a one hell of a standup comedy show. He bluntly calls the runners as losers, and makes sure he quotes this at least 10 times, - “politically incorrect”. His English commentary needs English subtitles. He often complains about player behavior etc, Irony is I have seen him misbehave with umpire in Chepauk, Chennai. If I remember right in 1983 when the West Indies team toured India [6th Test - Gavasker - 236*]. Holding was given LBW [of Kapil Dev], but he just stood there on the pitch and showed finger at the umpire. I kind of remember crowed booing at him when he walked out. Players seem to forget the past.
Gangully is gone into a denial mode. He has recently told that he is not on the Edge. [Duh!] 3 slips and an out swing will find the edge automatically. Poor guy! Gangs take the ESPN Job
Indian team is in Sri Lanka, Greg Chappell on his first international assignment with this team. Team India managed to win their first practice game. Dhoni played in the middle order while Laxman opened the innings for India. In spite of mediocre performances the only reason I see “Laxman” in this tour is - it is being played in “Sri Lanka” [wink]. Surprise! Kaif got some runs. Nice to see some runs from the middle order. On the bowling department everyone expect Nehra were in good rhythm. Hopefully this form continues when the real game begins.
I never wrote about the ashes. The English after the hyped session beginning went down drain like a dead mouse. Aussies are still the world champs, this time their bowlers came good at the party. Been hearing radio commentary through BBC, the lineup has few Australians also, the commentary was fantastic and was like watching the game live.
When watching the games on ESPN, The intolerable commentator award goes to Michel Holding. His English accent seems to be worse than Sukwinder Singh rendering Veerapandiya Kataboomban dialogues. I wish someone on Sky-Sports gifts him a Tofel CD. Also someone should tell Mr. Holding that in a tournament involving more than 2 teams, the losers in finals are called “Runners up”. He takes the microphone during the award presentation and does a one hell of a standup comedy show. He bluntly calls the runners as losers, and makes sure he quotes this at least 10 times, - “politically incorrect”. His English commentary needs English subtitles. He often complains about player behavior etc, Irony is I have seen him misbehave with umpire in Chepauk, Chennai. If I remember right in 1983 when the West Indies team toured India [6th Test - Gavasker - 236*]. Holding was given LBW [of Kapil Dev], but he just stood there on the pitch and showed finger at the umpire. I kind of remember crowed booing at him when he walked out. Players seem to forget the past.
Gangully is gone into a denial mode. He has recently told that he is not on the Edge. [Duh!] 3 slips and an out swing will find the edge automatically. Poor guy! Gangs take the ESPN Job
7/18/05
7/12/05
Few Chennai Clicks!
Sujatha
Karthik
My Musician Friends Praveen & Prasanna.
School [MCCHS] Reunion at GRT Hotels, T.Nagar Chennai
Mahesh, Last time I met him was around the 90s.
Vivek and RajaGopal
Group7/8/05
Power play.
Marcus Trescothick struck a commanding 104 as England won the opening match of the NatWest Challenge against Australia by nine wickets at Headingley. The English beat Australians easily. Hayden, Ponting failed to score [Again!].
In the current England squad “Flintoff would be the only player who would make it to Baggy green selection on merit “–this comment was made by an Aussie and today he would be thinking about those words. The Australian pride seems to have downward “slide”.
The new One-day rules are in place. The fielding limitations were increased to 20 overs. The first ten will be compulsory while the next 2 sets [set of 5 overs each] will be fielding captain’s choice. This will be called as “power-play”. Regular umpires will draw an imaginary circle to denote the commencement of such power plays while Billy Dancer Bowden will build a small house [oodu katuvar] to denote the commencement.
Next rule, other than carrying the sponsor’s drinks the 12th man gets to play. He can be asked to bat or bowl replacing an another player, meaning a selected players gets the boot in the middle of the game. Beware “Gangully saab”. PIO cardholder “Vikram Solanki” was the first player to be capped as a substitute. Aussies substitution was more calculated and complex. Still they lost the game badly is another story. The use of 'powerplays’ and 12th man substitution failed to have any significance in their first appearance in an international match.
Due to the gruesome Bomb blasts in London, status about next games in the tournament are unknown. EBC will meet to discuss London one-dayers.
In the current England squad “Flintoff would be the only player who would make it to Baggy green selection on merit “–this comment was made by an Aussie and today he would be thinking about those words. The Australian pride seems to have downward “slide”.
The new One-day rules are in place. The fielding limitations were increased to 20 overs. The first ten will be compulsory while the next 2 sets [set of 5 overs each] will be fielding captain’s choice. This will be called as “power-play”. Regular umpires will draw an imaginary circle to denote the commencement of such power plays while Billy Dancer Bowden will build a small house [oodu katuvar] to denote the commencement.
Next rule, other than carrying the sponsor’s drinks the 12th man gets to play. He can be asked to bat or bowl replacing an another player, meaning a selected players gets the boot in the middle of the game. Beware “Gangully saab”. PIO cardholder “Vikram Solanki” was the first player to be capped as a substitute. Aussies substitution was more calculated and complex. Still they lost the game badly is another story. The use of 'powerplays’ and 12th man substitution failed to have any significance in their first appearance in an international match.
Due to the gruesome Bomb blasts in London, status about next games in the tournament are unknown. EBC will meet to discuss London one-dayers.
7/4/05
“A Classical Adventure"
Yesterday I got a copy of the Tamil Maiyam’s “Thiruvasagam” [Composed and Orchestrated] by Ilayaraja, with - The Budapest Symphony Orchestra and Music Conducted by Laszlo Kovacs.Mixed and Mastered by Richard King [has recorded many Grammy winning productions].The CD available in Chennai does not contain the DVD. Only the Audio CD that was priced at Rs.150.This also includes a printed copy of verses/Lyrics of all the 6 Tracks. A simple package with logos of the Co-sponsors. All the tracks expect one, has been rendered by Ilayaraja himself.
Rather than calling it an album, I would call it as a “Classical Adventure”. More than a pleasure, music in this will be an experience. Any musical review on this will sound childish. This form of music has never been heard by Tamil folks till now. Frankly I really don’t know to review this or have the capacity to review such collections. Also as of now I really doubt if anyone could or would. Yes there will be many calling it ”outstanding” “excellent”, but all these superficial words used to glorify film music does not matter here.
In this “Classical Adventure” as of now best that I experienced would be the background arrangements, why? Only thing I was able to follow with my minimal western classical knowledge. The quality of the performance and the recording is simply fantastic. Scores set by Maestro are mind blowing and mind boggling, even sets non-western classical ears would appreciate it right away. The flow of music, sound timbre creates goose bumps in many musical phrases. In order to feel nuances in the composition it is better to hear using headphones or by using a serious music system that caters them properly.
As Mr. Sujatha told me, it does require proper mood to hear this work. Understanding the Tamil language would add sugar to the pie. I wish Mr. Sujatha translates the verses to Tamil spoken by lesser mortals like myself. I am kind of sure now that Europe would take serious note on this musical work and may be it is time to change their opinions on Indian composers writing western classical music.
Finally, this Classical Crossover or an Experience or an Adventure idea has opened a new department in the music side of my brain. It is just matter of time and I am sure many more would get inspired for such works and the future would thank Maestro Ilayaraja for this. “GO GET THE CD”
"திருவாசகத்துக்கு உருகாதார் ஒரு வாசகத்துக்கும் உருகார்"
Ps:I hope that people do not circulate bootleg MP3 copies and/or try to acquirer such bootleg versions, nothing more would dishonor this effort.
Ps2: I personally know Mr. Shanker Kumar & Mr. Sridhar Seetharam and many other NRI friends who have worked hard to collected funds and have contributed for this release. But it was kind of surprising to me that it never got mentioned. I know these guys would not mind, however from outside I feel when there are about 6 logos of the Co-sponsors bright and clear, Tamil Maiyam could have mentioned about NRI contributions towards the work. May be the US version contains proper credits. CD marketed by WelGate group based out of Chennai;
Rather than calling it an album, I would call it as a “Classical Adventure”. More than a pleasure, music in this will be an experience. Any musical review on this will sound childish. This form of music has never been heard by Tamil folks till now. Frankly I really don’t know to review this or have the capacity to review such collections. Also as of now I really doubt if anyone could or would. Yes there will be many calling it ”outstanding” “excellent”, but all these superficial words used to glorify film music does not matter here.
In this “Classical Adventure” as of now best that I experienced would be the background arrangements, why? Only thing I was able to follow with my minimal western classical knowledge. The quality of the performance and the recording is simply fantastic. Scores set by Maestro are mind blowing and mind boggling, even sets non-western classical ears would appreciate it right away. The flow of music, sound timbre creates goose bumps in many musical phrases. In order to feel nuances in the composition it is better to hear using headphones or by using a serious music system that caters them properly.
As Mr. Sujatha told me, it does require proper mood to hear this work. Understanding the Tamil language would add sugar to the pie. I wish Mr. Sujatha translates the verses to Tamil spoken by lesser mortals like myself. I am kind of sure now that Europe would take serious note on this musical work and may be it is time to change their opinions on Indian composers writing western classical music.
Finally, this Classical Crossover or an Experience or an Adventure idea has opened a new department in the music side of my brain. It is just matter of time and I am sure many more would get inspired for such works and the future would thank Maestro Ilayaraja for this. “GO GET THE CD”
"திருவாசகத்துக்கு உருகாதார் ஒரு வாசகத்துக்கும் உருகார்"
Ps:I hope that people do not circulate bootleg MP3 copies and/or try to acquirer such bootleg versions, nothing more would dishonor this effort.
Ps2: I personally know Mr. Shanker Kumar & Mr. Sridhar Seetharam and many other NRI friends who have worked hard to collected funds and have contributed for this release. But it was kind of surprising to me that it never got mentioned. I know these guys would not mind, however from outside I feel when there are about 6 logos of the Co-sponsors bright and clear, Tamil Maiyam could have mentioned about NRI contributions towards the work. May be the US version contains proper credits. CD marketed by WelGate group based out of Chennai;
6/30/05
Recordings in Chennai.
I already mentioned about my next music album H1BEES last month. During the past week I recorded a track for this album, lead vocals by Tippu and G.V.Prakash, yes the same little nephew of “my man” A. R. Rahman who sang the prelude “chikubuku chikubuku raile” in gentle man. He is a teen now and has great ideas within him.
Working with Tippu was fun. Tippu quickly picked the song in about 20 minutes and started to embellish the song right from the word go. G.V was keen and very technical in getting the proper notes for the song. As soon we played the instrumental track, GV was able to notate it and rendered the lines with perfection. Both the singers cooperated very well during the recordings and were ready to do more.
The track basically has a “Indianish techno+rock format”, or simply would call it “CurryRock”. The track is being balanced and mixed now. Sound engineer “Mujeeb Rahman” [same person who mixed my Mahakavi album 3 years ago], Mujeeb is the world fastest Nuendo user I know off. [Nuendo – is a pro multi-track audio software.] The way he manages the recording is totally amazing and matches not only my wavelength but also everyone’s. He knows every little short cut in the software, few of which only the developer would bother to remember. He puts them to use in full swing. My job became easy and it was reduced by about 70%, thanks to Mujeeb. This mix should sound totally new to many. I want to stay away from the regular cine music format. Hence I am trying out various new ideas. Hopefully everyone likes it. This song is about F1B grad students. My Director friend Sriram Ragavan wrote major portions of the Lyrics while I chipped in few lines. I also recorded a song with “Karthik“ In short Karthik is the coolest among the professional singer I have ever dealt with. It was really nice of him to complete my next track in a very short notice and time. I shall write more about this recording after the final mix down in my studio.
Finally, I think I should be among the first few composers to use the Teen G.V, mark it – this kid has a bright future ahead of him. I am a great fan of Tippu and Kartik, hence it was a great pleasure for me to have them sing my compositions.
Working with Tippu was fun. Tippu quickly picked the song in about 20 minutes and started to embellish the song right from the word go. G.V was keen and very technical in getting the proper notes for the song. As soon we played the instrumental track, GV was able to notate it and rendered the lines with perfection. Both the singers cooperated very well during the recordings and were ready to do more.
The track basically has a “Indianish techno+rock format”, or simply would call it “CurryRock”. The track is being balanced and mixed now. Sound engineer “Mujeeb Rahman” [same person who mixed my Mahakavi album 3 years ago], Mujeeb is the world fastest Nuendo user I know off. [Nuendo – is a pro multi-track audio software.] The way he manages the recording is totally amazing and matches not only my wavelength but also everyone’s. He knows every little short cut in the software, few of which only the developer would bother to remember. He puts them to use in full swing. My job became easy and it was reduced by about 70%, thanks to Mujeeb. This mix should sound totally new to many. I want to stay away from the regular cine music format. Hence I am trying out various new ideas. Hopefully everyone likes it. This song is about F1B grad students. My Director friend Sriram Ragavan wrote major portions of the Lyrics while I chipped in few lines. I also recorded a song with “Karthik“ In short Karthik is the coolest among the professional singer I have ever dealt with. It was really nice of him to complete my next track in a very short notice and time. I shall write more about this recording after the final mix down in my studio. Finally, I think I should be among the first few composers to use the Teen G.V, mark it – this kid has a bright future ahead of him. I am a great fan of Tippu and Kartik, hence it was a great pleasure for me to have them sing my compositions.
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