BVHK's world-view

TEDchoice

2012-02-03T13:09:00.003+05:30

While I couldn’t read the book, I did the next best thing – I checked out Sheena Iyengar’s TED talk on the art of choosing. I was surprised at how she drew such perceptive inferences from the experiments she had conducted. It would have been dull, drab data for her. How did she choose to ignore the dullness of the data and opt to, instead, get fascinated by the beauty of it? I was impressed.

The TED Talks present the same challenge that she talks about – information choice overload. While everyone says TED Talks are great, you ask them about how many talks have they watched, the number is usually in single digits (few will get to double digits). Most Indians would have watched Pranav Mistry’s demo of Sixth Sense technology or Hans Rosling on population growth – why? There was some Indian connection and more importantly, these got forwarded/shared on Facebook/Youtube. This tells me two things –

There are ‘Made to Stick’ principles at work in everything we do and
People don’t make the effort to check out other TED Talks because (surprise!) there are just way too many of them. It is the same jam sampling experiment that Iyengar talks about in her talk.

It might be a good idea to start a curating service for TED Talks –

You subscribe to the service. Share your linkedin and facebook profiles.
You give three areas of interest (from a set of say 7 areas that are thrown up automatically, based on mining of topics from your linkedin and facebook profiles).
You specify the periodicity of talks that you want to watch – once a week/fortnight/month/specific month.
You get a relevant link sent to your mail.

Wow! The simplicity appeals to me – I’d sign up for such a service. If someone can do this, great. If no one volunteers, I’ll start it very soon.

One 4 or Four 1s?

2012-02-02T12:12:00.003+05:30

Is it the rest? Is it the exercise? Is it the nice heavy breakfast? Is it peace of mind? Is it getting rid of the below-par, irritating co-workers? Is it refusing to watch the news shows? Is it the conscious attempt to stop getting into a self-righteous mode? Is it the watering of plants every morning?

These last few days I have been relatively more productive – definitely more than what I was in the last year. Why?

The best wedding gift we got was ‘Out of My Comfort Zone’ – Steve Waugh’s autobiography from Ramanand. There are couple of things that have remained with me –

After his first child was born, Steve Waugh was more determined to do well on tours because he thought only then, the sacrifice of not being with the family was worthwhile.
He spent some time trying to figure out what he did when he played well and tried to build the same conditions every day so that his chances of success improved – this could be listening to the same song or keeping the same red rag with him (Ian C would probably include the green rag as well).

I try to think of the first one whenever I’m away from home but I’m never on any mission so doesn’t become important but the second one – try as I may, I’m not able to figure it out. It is not as if I hate hard work – I know I can, if I buy into some bigger goal (usually for the good of others rather than for me). I feel my biggest problem is to find motivation and one that will stick! A few days ago, Niranjan talked about The Flow and I feel I need something which is challenging enough to even get me started.

One big challenge when I am in the mood is to figure out what to do? I usually get very impatient, knowing that there are quite a few projects/tasks which are waiting for my Afridi-esque (now it can even be called Sehwag-esque) form and try to do multiple things simultaneously and very soon, the form dies on me. (Cue: Start reading The Art of Choosing by Sheena Iyengar)

I have decided not to wait for those flashes of inspiration – if I keep rotating the strike, I will get the bad ball and then make it count.

What I have noticed is that when I’m in the mood, I do a few things right – like writing in paragraphs instead of the ghastly bullet points. I don’t know if writing is a cause or an effect – even if it is an effect, I don’t want to let the flow get wasted. And yes, I will try to write more often, without it feeling like a chore. If you are reading this, brace yourself. Hopefully, I don’t start running an RGV-style factory.

India's Blues

2012-01-25T11:53:00.002+05:30

11:52 AM : I fall for the temptation. Let's check the score on cricinfo.com. But while the page is loading (cue for cricinfo - stop those interstitial ads, they are irritating), I have a bet myself - what will the score be? I say 30 for 2; the inner me says 30 for 3. I win - it is 39 for 2.

I have read a few articles by noted columnists, former cricketers, some backed with data, some with hunches, some sponsored by big corporate clients. While I'm flummoxed by the Indian team's response, there are some observations that I have been trying to piece together for some time now. I'll point them out and someone can do the dirty job of putting together the analysis -
India's no. 1 Test ranking was a manufactured one with (multiple) series against SL, New Zealand,Bangladesh and home series against Australia, England. The only away series where India was faced with resistance was South Africa in 2010. It was not a great series for India and in spite of Steyn, Morkel, Kallis, this SA team is a well-disciplined team, not an Australia with McGrath, Warne, Ponting, Glichrist etc.
The period of 2008-2010 also saw a decline in most teams except for England with lot of retirements and general lowering of standards and consistency of performance (and so, results). So when India won series after series (mind it, series and not Test after Test), it looked good.
India came back in a few Tests - against New Zealand, against South Africa - this was similar to a Mohali Test long ago when New Zealand bowled out India on the first day for 80-odd, yet, India batted well in the second innings to force a draw. It was responsive wicket (not a hostile one); bowling was benign but incisive by Indian standards. What is my point? The comebacks seemed bigger than what they were because of the way we struggled early on. if there was steel, it should have been displayed by the lower order in the first innings itself - that's what great teams used to do in their heyday. How many times would teams get the top 4 or top 5 for 50 odd against Australia only to still stare at a total of 300+ in the early 2000's? Not just because of Gilchrist but because everyone chipped in.
This Indian side is one of the best ODI teams around - of all time. I'm not talking of 1 set of 11 players but a side over the last 10 years now. Forget the 2007 World Cup - it was a one-off. The ODI team has been up there right from the ICC Knockout tournament in 2000. When you play 5-10 Tests and 25-30 ODIs and your ODI team is so good, will you prefer to ride the wave in ODIs or work on weaknesses in Tests?
IIRC, the Test series in 2009 and 2010 were manufactured after it was pointed out to the BCCI that India was all set to lose the no. 1 Test ranking immediately after attaining it because India was not going to play many Tests in that year.
India has always followed this cycle of 2 years of too much cricket at home followed by 2 years of too much cricket abroad. I'm sure someone at BCCI (Srinivasan?) is thinking like a politician - "Let's ride out this series and then we are set for 2 more years of playing at home. No more Press conferences till then."

India will do well against SL and Australia in the ODI series; if they don't it will be blamed on hangover of the Test defeat; come back to India,IPL,better ratings, money keeps coming in. Anyone wants to compare this situation with the fortunes of the team managed by Capello? Would anyone other than Rooney from the English side manage to get on the bench of the Spanish or the Brazilian side? Yet, a Lampard, a Terry, a Ferdinand, a Carrick, (for God's sakes) even a Jones and an Owen are superstars that a World Cup organizing country cannot afford to not have playing till as late in the tournament as possible.

So, am I saying -

Stop IPL? No. To use the cliche, it was an idea whose time had come.
Drop the Seniors? Not at all. You do that and you'll start losing in 4 sessions.
Have a balanced spread of the tours ? Yes but only if you want to build a side which is good in all formats on different kinds of wickets. But would you compromise your financial targets from ODIs/T20 cricket to do that? I doubt it.
Have grassy wickets in India? Again, only a few spectators like an even contest between bat and ball. Match gets over in 75 overs, fewer commercial breaks, fewer ads, lesser money; no-go.

What about the game itself? I feel it is time to sunset Tests, ODIs and teams representing countries. Why? Just because India is not doing well? No.

The sport just doesn't have the critical mass to be called a world sport.
Tests take too long to be completed.
What it takes to have a good Test match - good wicket, technically correct players, patience, wily captains, knowledgeable crowds - are all in short supply and things are only going to get worse.
T-20 is more easily acceptable, understandable across countries, markets, customer segments.
If India doesn't do well in Tests (and I see no reason why India will do better in the next 4-5 years unless England, Australia and South Africa all lose 7-8 players each because of injuries), there is no commercial standing for Tests to continue. Indians are not cricket crazy - they are Indian-team-winning crazy.
Clubs all over can continue to play IPL like tournaments where players will still be able to exhibit how best to play a particular shot, a Warne can still show how a ripping leg-spinner can be bowled. The league which attracts the best talent gets the maximum revenue and thrives. The minute you involve countries, some not-so-logical things creep in - like having to play 11 Indians instead of having Chris Gayle open the batting (as he volunteered to do, against Australia in the current series).

Radical solution
Play Tests for an only-TV audience. This can be staged at your local maidan anywhere in the world. No staging costs; the players who still want it and these will be the players who really love it, play it; the match gets shown only when there is a critical mass of paying viewers. What this means is -
Test match played at Kaanta stadium in an Ordnance Factory Varangaon estate between two teams involving players like Dravid, Bangar, Ashish Chopra, Tendulkar, Ponting, Clarke. Only when there are more than 10,000 viewers who have agreed to pay $1 per day to view the match on youtube will it be streamed. The revenue goes into paying for the recording and hosting infrastructure; the players are anyways doint it for the love of it! Will it work?

Infinite Energy, Infinite Commitment, Infinite Zounds

2011-11-05T13:35:00.004+05:30

I'm sure everyone who reads this blog knows about Ramanand and knows what a great guy he is. Still, I thought the increase in my fandom levels should be made public - JR has been hosting a daily question blog called Infinite Zounds. He started it after I had left my job with Cognizant when I was working with him in the same team; my priorities had changed a bit, more work to do, having to pay for my own internet connection at work and other sundry excuses which can all be bracketed under laziness can be claimed as reasons for not reading Infinite Zounds every day but I have been following the progress. JR is now batting on 401* and I'm sure it will soon be the 500*.
Now anyone who has taken new year resolutions, weight gain/loss promises, de-addiction programs will know the commitment it takes to do something like this day in, day out for 400 consecutive days. I'll probably lose it after 3 or 4 days.
What JR has accomplished speaks of his commitment and devotion. So while Kanika should be very happy about this attribute and Dravid should feel the lessening of the strain of being the only active Indian to show such resolve, I see another person feeling very happy about this.

Now if someone can get JR to endorse and support the jan Lokpal bill, it doesn't have to be Anna Hazare who has to do all the hard work while others enjoy their in-flight meals. If only...

How to respond to an Amway attack?

2011-03-22T23:48:00.003+05:30

The next time someone tries to pitch Amway or Oriflame or any other Multi level marketing scheme to you, this is what your response should be :

This is great. I'll sign up with you. But you will have to do me a favour in return.

You must have heard that Watson, the computer built by IBM has defeated a team of Humans at Jeopardy. The age of Skynet (like how envisioned in Hollywood films like Terminator and Matrix) is not too far away. Given this, few like-minded scientists, mathematicians and anthropologists from different countries have got together to form a company secretly funded by billionaires Jimmy Bale, Sergey Page and Larry Brin. The idea is to follow the model of the most important intellectual asset of our generation - the wikipedia. Like the SETI program, my company has come up with DNA-42, a super computer that will be powered using the unutilized brain power of human beings. It is absolutely essential to add to the power of DNA-42 to overcome the eventual domination of Watson. The unique way of powering DNA-42 means that its power will always lie in the hands (heads!) of human beings and we will never become slaves of robots. The success of DNA-42 lies in how many people you will help sign up and how many your referrals will eventually help sign up. We will supply you a pair of electrodes connected to a USB storage device. All you need to do is, stick the electrodes to your head whenever you think you are using your mind the most e.g. when you are making a sales pitch. The excess 'power' that your mind generates will get captured in the USB storage device, which you can upload on a website. Eventually all this power will be used by DNA-42 and you will be part of the Resistance. So can you give me your postal address, all your email ids, phone number so that I can send you the pair of electrodes and your contact details will get added to the list being maintained by the Resistance. In case of an eventuality, you may be contacted to provide extra brain power.

Abhinav Bharat

2010-07-18T22:27:00.002+05:30

It was interesting to read in today's papers about the felicitation of the Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam at Kesariwada by the Savarkar Smriti Pratishthan in Pune.Nikam shared the dais with Himani Savarkar, among others. What made it interesting was the fact that I had just gone through the list of people who have been found to be involved in the Malegaon blasts, according to the investigations by The Indian Express in its The Sunday Story section - most of those involved were office bearers of Abhinav Bharat, including its working president. Guess who heads Abhinav Bharat - yes, you guessed it right - Himani Savarkar. Was the felicitation a future guarantee against a lawyer who might be prosecuting other terrorism-related cases in Maharashtra?

The nether regions – not sexy enough?

2010-07-18T22:24:00.001+05:30

Let me first get the confession out of the way – this post is about illegal mining. If you got conned by the headline into clicking on the link, well, that is half the point I’m trying to establish.
I read The Indian Express these days and find it to be a responsible newspaper which seems to have figured out the space that a physical newspaper needs to occupy in these times of sound-bytes, twitter, Digg and blogs. With the advent of these tools and platforms, the printed newspaper is rendered redundant for news like results of a match and the hike in petrol prices. Investigative pieces, analyses and interviews are areas which are in the purview of a good blogger but a journalist might be better equipped with the tools required to come up with such work. The Indian Express seems to be doing a good job of it with its investigative reports and feeds from The Economist.
Coming to the topic of this post, it is interesting to note the import (in fact, in some articles, they have been very direct) of these investigative pieces about the stance of the different parties. Apparently the Congress and JD (S) are asking for a CBI enquiry because they feel the Lokayukta will dig into how the Congress Government in 2002 awarded the licenses, how the JD(S) govt. in 2004 helped the Reddy brothers grow besides what has happened since those gundas became ministers in the BJP govt. The BJP is worried about a CBI investigation because they think the CBI will only indict the BJP and not the previous governments. There are larger issues for everyone – the Reddy gundas wield considerable influence over the Andhra politics. They apparently fund the latest yatri politician. I’m surprised that Jairam Ramesh has not intervened here till now. Illegal mining is as much an ecological disaster as it is an economic one (loss of tax revenue to the tune of 5000 crores!). The Reddy gundas have apparently also indulged in altering the boundaries of the state – that should worry the Union Home Minister as well as the Senas! The malaise of illegal mining has spread to neighbouring states as well. Goa, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh all suffer from this menace and no, I don’t think ban of iron ore export is the only solution to stop this.
The media response has been of similar nature as the Karnataka CM’s – instead of the main issues, he took offense that the protesting Opposition MLAs lowered the dignity of the House by ordering and consuming non-vegetarian food inside the House. What about the cannibalism that is happening in Bellary? Bellary – that is another fascinating story. Bellary was a Congress bastion till not so long ago. Strong enough for Sonia Gandhi to contest elections from there. Sushma Swaraj might have started interacting with the Reddy gundas during that time. In a matter of few years, the area has turned into a Reddy stronghold – so much so that they don’t fear their CM, the BJP leadership, the RSS or the gundas in the opposition. I don’t know of any constituency/area anywhere else that has politically switched so drastically in such a short time. Apparently they claim that Sushma Swaraj is a mother like figure to them. There is something fishy out there.
If you thought this was not really connected with the young vibrant India that you are a part of – this mining and corruption is not your India but more like Jharkhand or China in African countries, think about this young boy educated in a reputed b-school in Pune who owns a mine just outside Goa which he runs along with two local goons. This area is sexy enough for him but not for others… Why hasn’t this caught the attention of the news channels, the blogosphere and the twitterati? Swami Nithyanand and his victimless crime was a big hit with all these people, why not illegal mining? What makes a scandal sexy enough for our news channels? What does it take to get a hashtag on the Reddy gundas? If those elements can be identified which make a scandal stick, is there scope for a media agency which can make even an unsexy issue like mining stick (out)?
Is it the metallurgist in me that is sad that his area is not sexy enough – even when there is a Rs. 5000 crore scandal? Even cow fodder made more news than us.

Seth didn't ask for my right thumb

2010-07-08T14:09:00.002+05:30

I attended Seth Godin’s talk at the ISB, which was organized by Acumen Fund. Seth Godin has been an inspiration for the last three years and many major decisions that I have taken in life always begin with "What would Seth do in this situation?" Not that I know him well enough to predict what he would do but based on regular reading of his blogs for the last 3 years, I definitely know what he would like people to do. I have been calling myself his Ekalavya. Luckily he didn’t ask for the right thumb or probably I haven’t threatened his Arjuna…yet. Here's a blog post by Achyut Menon on the talk - there were few avoidable gaffes.
What did I gain from this trip to Hyderabad –
A great friend in Karthik, who hosted me in Hyderabad. At least a kilo from the yummy paranthas that Karthik’s wife Rupali made for us. At least one idea for Tender Leaves from Karthik’s boss.
Seth’s talk was centred around Shipping, creating value, overcoming the lizard brain and finding and leading a tribe – themes he has been talking about regularly on his blog. The way he put it together in a 1 hour-long presentation that hardly ever let the tempo dip was impressive. Asking him questions seemed odd to me – the whole premise of his talk was that there are no ready-made answers. You need to learn it all yourself. Yes, you might want to use his insights.
One important insight that he left us with was that he had probably started 140 odd projects and many were failures. What he learned from that was to not bet everything you had in your life on one single thing because you are bound to fail and if you bet so big that a failure wipes you out of the game, then there’s no point to it. I found that very practical and sensible.
Also, got a chance to catch up with two of my former quiz partners at the venue – Gurudatt and Srikant. So it was a fruitful trip – now up to Navya to like the cookies I got for her.

Start-up Lessons. Chapter 1 - What can you learn from Manchester United?

2010-05-28T15:17:00.012+05:30

What can a start-up learn from Manchester United, from Sir Alex Ferguson? After starting Tender Leaves, I may not have spent long enough but I think I can already teach you a thing or two about starting up and entrepreneurship. Start-ups are about dreams,it is your own Theatre of Dreams.
These are the top 10 lessons a start-up can learn from Manchester United -

1. Avoid Debt - The most important thing a start-up can learn from the Hate Glazers, Love United campaign is to avoid debt for as long as possible. Start with your own savings; have a back-up fund; have contingency plans.

2. Do it - The worst thing you can do to your idea is to waste time reading posts like this. Stop reading and start shipping. Okay - you are allowed to read these posts. Don't fall prey to Paralysis through analysis. Nike it - Just do the damn thing. Thinking and thinking and some more thinking and then some tweaking of your ideas/plans is great for marks in a term-paper. It will be appreciated if you are trying to get your date to have 'a cup of coffee'.

3. MAT instead of Business Plans - Don't waste time writing business plans. It is a waste of time. Use the MAT (Milestones, Approach, Tasks) approach to plan. SAF never wrote down notes for Solskjaer. You keep your feet on the ground and be ready to identify and grab your chance.

4. Be patient - it took many years for SAF to win his first trophy at OT. Your estimates are meant to go wrong - at least 80% of your estimates will go wrong 60% of the time.

5. Get a mentor - Get someone to mentor you or at least be your sounding board. Mine is drunk most of the time (Suketu started a micro-brewery Doolally; so he has to practise what he sells!) but you can also do an Ekalavya. If you like/need to get inspired/motivated and learn daily lessons of marketing/business/life, don't look beyond Seth Godin and Guy Kawasaki. If there is something they haven't touched upon, I can bet that you may not need to know it. They are your SAF.

6. Believe in your team - Get a team and trust them to get the job done. Yes, you will have your Eric Djemba-Djembas but if you persist you will also have your Darren Fletchers. I have been lucky enough till now to have only a Cantona and a Giggs in my team which means I have already made the biggest contribution to my idea.

7. Pick your battle-fields - Competing for the quintuple sounds great but you are better off competing for 2 or 3 trophies; if the quintuple happens - great, it doesn't - fine. You should have a squad of 30 to compete on all fronts. If you are a start-up, you may not have the squad.

8. Spend like the Scot - Don't spend just because you have the cash; I believe SAF when he says he has the cash to spend but the market is over-priced. The CR7 sale itself was grossly over-priced but then we were the benefactors. Imagine spending 40 mn euros +salary for David Villa. He is good but 40 mn!?! No way - remember we finished just 1 point adrift of the irritating moneybags of Chelski with just Rooney and Mr. OG. Always spend wisely.

9. Harvest your contacts - Use Linkedin, twitter and your alumni lists. Encash your credit with your friends/connections/followers. Treat them as your Carrington Park - continue to invest in them and they will deliver batch after batch of Fergie's fledglings; if not, they will definitely deliver a Macheda once in a while.

10. Always create value for your customer - There is no substitute to attacking football. If you score goals, there is always a chance of scoring one more than the opposition. Class is irreplaceable. Sir Ryan Giggs is still going strong!

You can think of more lessons? Please be sure to add your own in the comments. What should Chapter 2 of Startup Lessons be based on - Sachin Tendulkar, Michael Schumacher or Barack Obama?

For those who know

2010-05-28T15:11:00.003+05:30

I don't have that image but because of Velu, I have taken such positive steps in my life. 'Even' a Velu has good utility value if you know how to look for it.

If you don't understand this post, forget it.

Clothes

2010-05-28T15:01:00.003+05:30

I never get clothes that fit me. The 34-inch waist is too loose and 32-inch is too tight! The shirts that are on display are ones that I wouldn't be caught dead in. Don't they make good clothes?
I went on an expedition yesterday to Megamart - managed to get rid of more than 25 pieces of clothing - trousers/jeans/shirts/t-shirts - clothes that didn't fit, clothes that were gifted to me; clothes I somehow managed to never wear unless forced to, by Sirisha or the laundry man who wouldn't return the clothes on time. Now those clothes are gone - the wardrobe looks empty and good.
I face this problem at all department stores - Shoppers Stop/Lifestyle/Indiabulls and I find getting my clothes stitched to be a bigger chore than shopping for them. Am I the only one who has this problem with buying decent wearable clothes? And please don't recommend adopting the tastes of @sreedharprasad or @niranjanpedanekar so that I can happily wear purple,yellow,green et al. Is going to exclusive showrooms of individual brands the only solution for me?

A conversation with God

2010-04-26T15:09:00.005+05:30

This may or may not have happened. Any claims of resemblance to real or fictional characters have as much truth in them as suggesting that a certain family is involved with the co. founded by Alfred Nobel. As far as I'm concerned, this is fiction and nothing more.

ST: M Sir! I think I'll play tonight. After all, my pain is my destiny and I will achieve it.
MA: Hey! Where did I hear that one? If you want to recite AB's dialogues, you should be talking to my brother. Anyways, what is this talk about playing? You want to play a round of poker tonight? It will get late by the time we return and SKW has also left- to play Monopoly with his son.
ST: No, no. I'm saying I'll play the cricket match.
MA: WHAT!?!?!
Silence...
Ping pong of stares and counter stares as if Tony Pulis was eye-balling a referee.
MA: But you don't need to play. We have asked others to take care of things. We will give you a VIP seat again - and you don't even have to waste time with our corporate guests; you can come with your wife and son Sabyasachi; watch the match and leave. We will not even insist that you watch AR in his brilliantly designed attire for tonight.
ST: Is that so? Even AR has lost his bearings :( Damn. And even the performers are from Chennai! But no, I insist on playing.
MA: Ok; let me be honest with you - wait, frank is the right word; honest doesn't belong to my dictionary. We have arranged for, you know, a small matter of a few hundred crores on you not playing tonight - I know M well. That should fund the second plane for my wife; I had to dispose off the first one since they kept talking about my wife being 'air-lifted' on the news channels and all over the web and my aides just told me that it was not a good thing. I thought someone was conspiring to place 'stones' in the engine of the plane. So I immediately sold it off to an Andhraite in Russia. Later I realized that my wife was very upset with me - she didn't want to fly Kingfisher to Chandigarh every weekend. Moreover...
ST: Ah, same first name and all that...
MA: So you agree to bail me out of this situation I have got into, with my wife?
ST: Hello! I don't care about your domestic problems - kanda bhajji et al. Anyways, I came to just inform you. I need to go back to practise for tonight.
MA: You don't seem to get it.
ST: This tournament may not be played next year and I don't want to miss this opportunity.
MA: Exactly - that's the reason why I'm about to make so much.
ST: I'm playing.
MA: Ok. I resign. But I had already promised 10 cr. each to all the players and the staff during a meeting I held yesterday in your absence. What about that?
ST: What about that?
MA: If I don't get the money from the market, then you will have to pay that amount.
ST: Why should I pay? I never made any such promises. Isn't letting them play with me enough?
MA: Someone has to pay. If you won't, then I will have to think of something else.But will you agree?
ST: Ok - I need to have some net practice right now. I will agree to whatever you say. Let RS know. He will tell me later. Bye. See you later tonight.

MA: M, Need to change my bet - ST is playing.
M: Ohh! But that will not get you enough money. The whole country knew he would.
MA: Yes, I want to place another bet. Put a couple of my factories and two basins on this one.
M: Wow! That big! Are you sure? The bet has to be so incredible to allow for such money in the first place.
MA: I know what I'm doing. KP is batting at no. 8 today.

MA: Secretary, connect me to RS..............

Parenting shapes history

2010-04-03T12:04:00.003+05:30

I have always been fascinated by how parenting has been able to shape world history. The two examples that immediately come to mind are Aurangzeb and Indira Gandhi. The lack of fatherly love or at least the perceived lack of it was responsible for Aurangzeb turning into the tyrant that he was - with no consideration for the people, other religions and effectively destroyed whatever good-will Akbar had built for the Mughals - with other rulers as well as the aam aadmi.
It is very well-known that Indira Gandhi was an insecure person. Historians claim that the insecurity was a result of Nehru being away most of the time - in prison or at work and Kamla Nehru was ill most of the time. This was the insecurity that led her to be suspicious of all the regional Congress leaders when she became the PM in 1966 and depend on her chosen few like Haskar and her son(s). She slowly disbanded all democratic institutions and sycophancy became a much more important currency in the country than merit. This culture has been continued by her sons, daughter-in-law and all the opposition parties as well.
Imagine if Aurangzeb had had a healthy childhood - would a strong Mughal empire been so easy to pick for the British? Then would Nehru be an important figure in Indian history in the first place? If Indira Gandhi had been more trustful, would we have seen the debauchery of democracy in India? Would we have already been a soft as well as hard superpower?
What if...
What if George W Bush had not been so bent upon finishing his father's unfinished business?
What if...

Do you know of any other such examples?

The noisy neighbour

2009-09-20T23:01:00.003+05:30

The best part about today's match was not the super-vintage performance by Ryan Giggs; not the unexpected haul of two goals by Darren Fletcher; not the clever winner by Owen; not the fact that Nani didn't play; not the fact that Tevez didn't score but...Rio Ferdinand is done with his mandatory brain-dead moment of the season and we still managed to win that match. Ben Foster is soon turning into the true successor of Barthez! No wonder the United talent squads are looking for fresh talent across Europe.

Hi-at-us

2009-09-13T19:16:00.005+05:30

It has been ages since I posted anything on this blog. Not that I have been totally anti-social in all this while. I have been at it on Twitter - not the heights of @prolificd or as controversial as @tharoor or as sought after as @Swannyg66 but in my own small way - tweeting/re-tweeting and replying.
So lets get on to my favourite topics - all the topics that you, my loyal reader have been yearning for.
Cricket - Sachin Tendulkar - the Indian team starts and ends with him. Period.
Football - Cristiano Ronaldo has left the shores of England; life after Ronaldo is not that bad, after all.'We' now openly support the retro-active punishment meted out on the Eduardos of the world. What have they done to the game - diving et al. I don't think there will be a difference in our performance against the top clubs and ones like Spurs who are out there to win. I think we will struggle against the smaller teams which are out to defend a 0-0 score-line or are too physical - that's where you need a moment of magic, an opportunistic free-kick given your way (euphemism for the d-word) to wrest the game away from the Stoke Cities and Evertons of the world. Let's see how long the SRT of United, Ryan Giggs continues. With Owen Hargreaves set to return, things may after all get very exciting. Just keep Valencia and Nani for the Carling Cup games; they just don't belong and Carrick is ready to be sold.
Films - Watched Kaminey today. Liked it. I didn't understand why they kept saying you need to get your brains with you to watch this movie. Didn't find it to be such a brain-teaser! Priyanka Chopra has acted in a range of movies in her 6 (?) years-long career. I recall watching her first film in Ahmedabad which was an unmitigated disaster for me. She acts well.
Books - Last read was My Friend Sancho. Anyone who has followed my posts should know that I'm a big fan of India Uncut. No wonder that I liked the book a lot. It is a light read. You will finish it in one sitting. Written very well. Amit does an extremely good job of sketching the characters and you, at least I, could even put a face to the characters and that usually is my acid test for how well a book has been written.
Politics - While the BJP seems to be in self-destruct mode, Congress is in no position to take advantage of it. That's because the Ministers who actually have an opportunity to make changes which will result in the aam aadmi see the benefits of inadvertantly voting in Congress are not doing the things.Of course, this time round, they don't have a Shivraj Patil to undo anything good that the Govt. would have done in one change of his bandhgala but there is so much of reform and by reform, I don't mean controversial things like FDI/privatization but simple reforms which eliminate red-tape/bureaucracy/corruption in the government machinery. As of now, I see only Kapil Sibal, Kamal Nath and Sushil Kumar Shinde (surprisingly) to a certain extent trying to work towards the super-ambitious 100-day agenda. Sharad Pawar who had the portfolio best suited for his political career has IMO failed spectacularly, given the expectations we had of him. Maharashtra seems to be heading towards a hung assembly where the few seats that Raj T wins may prove crucial in forming the next government.

On a personal note, Navya almost became a shikaar of a Quick Gun Shanthi who insisted on treating her seasonal flu with Tamiflu syrup. We somehow managed to avoid Tamiflu and its side-effects. She is thrilled about becoming an akka in January '10 and we are all gearing up for it.
With that, I sign off for the day and hope that I won't be away for so long.

Modi in Maharashtra

2009-03-16T20:13:00.003+05:30

I have read some of the reports of Modi's speeches in Maharashtra and he is clearly missing the trick. I think the reason why SS didn't want Modi to campaign in Maharashtra was exactly this - he will surely get the aaghadi out hit wicket (continuing with the cricketing analogy). Even Suresh Dada Jain has found Pawar difficult to handle in Jalgaon. The best tactics for BJP-SS is to play the local game.The Assembly elections are going be held later in the year but BJP SS can surely gain lot of ground if it just focuses on the performance of the local MPs in each constituency. Why? Not because the Maharashtrian voter doesn't differentiate between local and national issues but because there is such overbearing inefficiency at the local level that they can push some of the youth voters to vote and vote against the sitting MPs and create a very good starting point for the Assembly elections. But if they are going to mock Pawar for making Pratibha Tai the President, he is not only mocking Pawar, he is also mocking Balasaheb who not only supported Tai but will go to any lengths if he sees a real chance to get a Maharashtrian elected as the PM. And when Modi talks like this, all Pawar needs to do is to brush him off as someone who just doesn't get things. There are so many things on which Pawar can lose his wicket - the state of the farmers in Vidarbha, the sugar mills in Western Maharashtra, the power crisis - things which he could and should have improved upon. I was reading reports of his whirlwind tour of Madha and other areas and was amused to find Saheb talking about those very issues - power crisis and agri prices. Because others are talking about irrelevant topics, he gets to talk of the important stuff and get away with not delivering on them!!!
I sometimes feel politics in India is so simple - you just need to be marginally smart and you will be seen as brilliant - well, that is true of our cinema, sport in general, literature and what not?

Pictures posted @ BVHK Ke Chhayachitra

2009-01-15T22:35:00.003+05:30

Some pictures from our trip to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Indonesia are up on my photo blog.

Opportunity

2008-12-01T21:50:00.002+05:30

This is the best opportunity for Arun Bhatia to re-launch his political career. If there was ever a time when the urban electorate would vote without keeping in mind the usual suspects like caste, money, populist promises, it is this. Arun Bhatia definitely has the best credentials in terms of never having bowed down to the politicians; always called a spade a spade; people don't want to choose from the same bad options that we currently have. Arun Bhatia, this can be your best chance. Go, sieze it. Choose one person like yourself for each Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha constituency in Mumbai and Pune; announce what you wish to accomplish and how; do door-to-door campaigning to take your message to the electorate and ask them for donations; mobilize the youth - the first time voters, the industrialists who visit the five star hotels and can influence the votes of their work-force. Start early and start well and not even Sharad Pawar will be able to affect your chances in Mumbai and Pune.

Go...go...go!!!

Insensitivty

2008-12-01T21:37:00.003+05:30

Smarting under the snub of the father of Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, the slain National Security Guard (NSG) commando, Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan Monday reacted strongly, saying had it not been the house of the officer “not even a dog would have gone that way”

I just hope and wish that at least one of the hostages that Major Sandeep helped save, if not the Major's colleagues from the Army, take the Kerala CM to task for this insensitive remark. When I say 'take him to task', I, for one, wouldn't be surprised if someone just decides to bump him off. All the other statements that have been made - Vilasrao Deshmukh's justifications, R R Patil's DDLJ stunt, Naqvi's male chauvinism and some other leader's stupid remark about how netas wouldn't be doing chaukasi themselves are all passe. Here is a man insulting a man who has just lost his young son just because he has snubbed him. Forget the fact that you are dealing with a martyr, if it had been your worst enemy and he had reacted in this way after his son't death, you would have just let it go because you know that the man is going through hell anyways and you wouldn't have raised a hue and cry even if you had been insulted. But you are not V S Achuthanandan; you are sensitive, you are sensible, you are civil, you are not a barbaric animal like Achuthanandan. #$%^ him.

Rohit Brijnath at it,again

2008-10-03T15:46:00.003+05:30

Super brilliant article by Rohit Brijnath.

English Premiere League

2008-09-25T11:14:00.004+05:30

Ok, I have not been as desperate about Manchester United winning as I usually am. There is probably a feeling of "I have achieved it all with my team and it is time to move on". yeah,yeah - I know this is what Cristiano Ronaldo should be saying, not me but I can't help it if I have that feeling, can I?
Anyways, I did start watching the matches from this weekend and following the progress (yes, finally it is a progress for United) and I think Manchester United will be leading the table on 30th November, if not before then.

TATA AIG

2008-09-23T11:48:00.001+05:30

I got a call from Tata AIG - for renewing my car insurance in November.

I: Renew to November mein karoonga, tab tak AIG rahegi kya?
Call Centre guy : aapne bahut achha sawaal poochha hai. lekin aapko to pata hoga, har ghar mein kuchh na kuchh problem to hoti hi hai. har ghar mein kaanch ke bartan aawaaz karte hain.
I: kaanch ke bartan awaaz nahin karte, toot jaate hain.
CCG: haan sir...main aapko bataana chahata hoon...

Just as I thought this would be the beginning of a great discussion, my phone went dead on me!!! Damn.

Guru Greg

2008-09-23T11:24:00.002+05:30

Hopefully the sight of Guru Greg does to the Indian team what his statements did to Lara in the ODI series during India's last tour of the West Indies.

BVHK ke Chhayachitra

2008-09-17T10:55:00.001+05:30

Added some pictures to my photoblog.

Wheel Smart Shrimati

2008-09-11T10:41:00.001+05:30

Check out this show on DD National - it is called Wheel Smart Shrimati. It is hosted by Annu Kapoor (What a phenomenal waste of talent). I couldn't watch it yesterday long enough to understand how it goes because Navya had to be told a story but it is clearly the Mother of all WTF shows. 4 women and standing on stairs and their mothers (MILs - I don't know) are also sitting and helping them out.These women are supposed to be heading to the centre from 4 directions and four men (very forlorn looking) are sitting in the centre with some sort of barricade separating them. The contest is about members of audience (again women) asking questions and the contestant has 30/45 seconds to give a solution. The two questions I heard were "Meri nanand ke bachche roz mere ghar aate hain aur mere bachchon ke khilounon ke saath khelte rehate hain. Main kya karoon?" and "Hamaare upar waale flat mein ek family hai aur woh roz bahut tez sangeet chalaate hain aur jor jor se baat karte hain. Main kya karoon?" Based on the agony aunt 'solution' the audience votes on whether they agree with the contestant or not. If more than 50% of the audience agrees, she wins some money and climbs up a step. Whatever I saw was enough to convince me that this is a JaDe project. Check it out.

Fedex delivered

2008-09-09T09:29:00.003+05:30

I just love it when a champion who is put down by everybody comes back to show his true class - to serve a reminder to people that they didn't make him the champion that he was(I'd say is) and there's no way that they are the ones who write him off. Great show, Federer. In fact, I was so sure about the result that I got up at 2.30 AM, considered switching the TV on and then thought it would be more fun to read about the match on the British websites. Nadal had to win the French and take that extra step at The Championships. There was a similar touch of inevitability to Federer regaining form before long. Although many consider this to be a disaster for him, he still made it to three finals and a semi-final in the Slams. If this had been Nadal, he would have been hailed as the champion-elect! So, we ought to give some margin for mortality when we talk of Federer!

And now - beware of the wrath of Roger Federer in the year 2009! The question to consider is what would the count be - 16 or 17?

Extra constitutional joke

2008-09-08T10:04:00.003+05:30

I just can't help laugh at Raj Thackeray's response to the State Government's Show Cause notice where he has invoked his rights accorded by the Constitution to every citizen of India. Even if I don't agree with his ways and means, I do see some merit in his stance at times and I definitely feel there needs to be a representation of all the sections of the society in a democracy and to that end, there should be this voice of dissent/rebellion and if his way is to take the law in his hands, then so be it. Of course, I'm ok with his being violent only if the Government is taking action against him when he gets violent. (You would argue that if the Govt. did take action he wouldn't have the guts to do what he does. But then, going by the same argument we should never appreciate the efforts of a Chandrashekhar Azad or a Netaji Subhas Bose! Even if you find comparing Raj T with Bose and Azad revolting, the underlying fact remains the same - use of violence to further their cause.) So getting back to Raj T - I'm sympathetic to the situation that a section of the society feels that its aspirations are being neglected and there is no other means of expressing protest other than resorting to violence because if there was no disruption of public service, you and I and the typical reader of blogs would have never even come to know of the said situation, let alone do something about it.
So, if Raj T is ready to be this voice of dissent and thinks he is representing the true concerns of the Marathi manoos, then he can't take refuge in the rights accorded by the Constitution of India. Azad and Bose never did that (Dear reader who thought I had lost my marbles when I compared Raj T with Azad and Bose - see I haven't lost them completely). So you want to be different, you want to talk crap, you want to dare people, you want to dare the Government to arrest you, fine but it is also time to be a MAN yourself.
If you think you want to save the interests of the Marathi manoos, go and gherao all the builders who give us these pathetic roads and continue to do so because they have bought some Ministers in the Government/PMC or is that off limits because they pay you as well?
If you want to make fun of 'our' Constitution, go ahead but don't be a sissy to take its help when you don't have the balls to go to the jail in support of your so called causes!

Sarah Palin

2008-09-04T10:45:00.002+05:30

Looks like she can surely outdo Pratibha 'Tai' Patil -and no, we are not talking about budget earmarks or pregnancies or her views on who her daughter should marry.

In June 2008, Palin spoke at her former church. On the topic of Iraq, she asked that people pray for the soldiers and that "there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan."

This is from her page on Wikipedia.
There was a huge furor in the Indian blogosphere over Pratibha Patil's comments before and after she had got elected as the President of India. Wonder why those bloggers are not commenting on these statements?

NITIE presents ENVISION

2008-08-18T10:45:00.002+05:30

I think 'reserving' seats in the finals of a quiz is preposterous. But then, I'm not participating in this quiz. Now that I don't have a high opinion of this event, I'll make sure I bad-mouth this event as much as I can - only to those one or two readers who bother about my opinion. The rest will still go to the event to make it a 'grand success'. Looks like the numbers work out in the favour of the organisers of ENVISION.

This is a mail I received through a quizzing mailing list -

2008/8/14 Nebulous <...@gmail.com>

Hi All BQC members.

EnQuizzitive - the B+E Quiz of ENVISION - NITIE kick's off tomorrow
with the prelims at 2200hrs.

Its open to all students and corporates. The corporate teams can be of
different organizations but the student teams need to be from the same
college.

We have reserved ONE(1) seat for the finals for BQC members. Here are
the terms: -

1. Download the quiz file for PRELIMS @ 2200hrs on 15/08/2008 along
with the .xls sheet.
2. Submit the answers by maximum 2300hrs to the instructed mail id.
3. ADD the word BQC along with your team name to be eligible for the
reserved seat.
4. People from BQC are allowed participate otherwise also.
5. There will be a maximum of 2/3 corporate teams for the finals out
of the total 5 on 20/08/2008

For other instructions, see

http://isem.nitie.net/Envision

The emphasis is mine.

Abhinav Bindra

2008-08-11T10:41:00.000+05:30

Super performance. Brilliant.

Suresh Swindler Kalmadi

2008-08-07T11:11:00.003+05:30

The woes have started. I have never been a big fan of the Olympic games and don't follow it that keenly. The only time I got interested in it was when I was watching King Carl fight for his last Gold in the Long Jump event in 1996. So I usually don't get depressed or saddened by the usual no-show of our sportspersons. I believe Suresh Kalmadi is the biggest swindler in the country and the amount of money that he wastes is just incredible. I really believe that if the amount of money allegedly 'eaten' by him and the amount of money wasted by him on sub-standard facilities and irrelevant expenses in the name of sports in the country and in Pune is calculated, he would easily put all the stars in our Parliament to shame. He is the reason for the worst ignominy we, as a nation face in front of the whole world.
So the first bad signs have started coming out - the kit provided to the contingent. If any of you have participated in any sporting events for your company or school or college or even a Government office (in most cases) you would have been provided with a better kit than what Mr. Kalmadi has provided to the team that represents India.

The three t-shirts supplied - one with psychedelic polka dots — are certainly not going to be on display when most of the athletes compete as they are clear that this is plain performance hindering gear. The single pair of red shorts has already been assigned to the dustbin by most and apart from mandatory appearances, the single track-suit is set to soon join it. In fact the best bit out of the kit, according to the angry Olympians, is a pair of casual Crocs footwear which has also disappeared from the package supplied to some as the concerned officials have probably held them back for their own use, they allege.
As it is, the small size of the kit (3 t-shirts, 1 pair of shorts, 1 track suit, 1 pant suit cloth, 1 blazer and a pair of Crocs) has already been the source of amusement in the Olympic Village amongst the other contingents. One athlete joked to this correspondent that perhaps the Indian contingent should have had a tailor along as no one really knows what to do with the pant-length cloth given.

The number of officials in the contingent is more than the participants and lest you forget, WE are paying for them. (Amit Varma - another one on where our taxes go.) I just can't accept that he has been heading the IOA for so long. It has to be some cruel joke. Why is sports administration considered such a big money making exercise and nothing else and I'm not referring to IPL here. I'd anyday take a Lalit Modi or a Sharad Pawar or a Jagmohan Dalmiya for a Kalmadi. And just in case you thought there weren't enough sponsors, read this and who the hell is Shiv Prakash? I may be a Naomi Klein fan at times (I admit I wear Nike/Adidas/Reebok) but I don't understand why we can't get Nike to provide us with a decent kit?
Damn. To hell with modesty, F&*^ Kalmadi.

Wimp

2008-08-05T10:44:00.000+05:30

"I'm not going to be a wimp and say I'm not going to do it. I'm going to accept this challenge and give it a go like I give everything a go."
Kevin Pietersen on being appointed Michael Vaughan's successor as England captain

Super - Now quotes like these will be a regular feature.

Sehwag

2008-08-01T12:14:00.001+05:30

This is what sets him apart - not just the fact that he refused the single to get to his 200 but also had the gall to try a reverse sweep off the fifth ball of the over. That's the Caribbean style of playing - hit it when you see it. That doesn't mean they don't bother about the team. I wouldn't play him in ODI cricket but in Tests, anyone who thinks of dropping him should go and get his faculties checked.

80.6 Muralitharan to Sehwag, 1 run

80.5 Muralitharan to Sehwag, no run, Aha! The reverse sweep but straight to backward point. What a guy!

80.4 Muralitharan to Sehwag, no run, driven to covers

80.3 Muralitharan to Sehwag, no run, goes back to cut a spinning off break to the off side and to cover point and he refuses the single! he doesn't want to expose Ishant . He could have taken the 200 , though

80.2 Muralitharan to Sehwag, no run, leans forward to defend the off break down the track

80.1 Muralitharan to Sehwag, no run, turns in from the off stump line and hits him on the pad. Going down leg and they don't appeal

Appeal to the reader

2008-07-24T16:54:00.002+05:30

The Food crisis is much closer home than what you may think.

I know Subsidies/PDS can't help them. I don't know what can be done. Do you know of NGOs who are working on basic health-care in villages?

These days, I have been thinking a lot about these - how do we tackle the challenges we face - water conservation/harvesting, food shortage, agrarian challenges, clean air! I want to do something but right now, I don't know what. The first thing that came to mind was to check if you know anyone who is doing something sincere and meaningful and then I can help in whatever way I can. I am not looking at making a donation, collect my 80G receipts and feel contented.

Let me know if you know someone. I'm not looking for typical JNU-jhola waala-Commies. I'm looking at long-term financially viable models which WILL work. I'm not looking at charities which will donate food on one day and say we have done our bit.
Come on, all the education and the intellect and we still can't solve these problems?

Krazzy Kidz: Hair salon for kids in Pune

2008-07-07T17:00:00.011+05:30

Getting kids (younger than 3 or 4 years-old) a hair-cut is usually a harrowing experience. The kids seem to hate it and one of the primary reasons is that they are usually constricted because everyone - the parents and the person cutting the hair are scared of cuts and bruises lest the kid moves unexpectedly. Also, the kid would never have been explained the whole concept of getting the hair cut and even if an attempt would have been made, the kids are too young to appreciate it. So, it is an event which involves lot of crying and howling. Getting Navya's hair cut has been no different. We had her head tonsured in Tirupati for the first time and it was slightly manageable simply because Navya was too young to create a lot of ruckus! Since then we have tried multiple avenues including one of my mom's friends who actually came over to our house to cut Navya's hair. Irrespective of who did it or how it was done, it always ended as a major crying exercise for Navya.
Recently Sirisha had heard about a new hair salon for kids and Dad also saw the 'board' of the place on the road during one of his Mystery Shopping audits. We decided to give Krazzy Kidz a try and the first thing Sirisha asked was if I will be allowed inside. Her objective was that I should be available if it is required to physically overpower Navya. We did try the place out on a Sunday and let me tell you - it is a great place for kids. The place has been decorated quite tastefully and appropriately. There are lot of pictures and paintings of animals on the wall which children should and do like. A Tom and Jerry cartoon show is playing on the TV. The whole ambience and the decor of the place is very child friendly and the children are bound to immediately feel at-home. The chairs on which the children sit for getting their hair-cut are those car like contraptions which you see in fairs et al. Those contraptions are mounted on the chair so the children love it even when they are sitting to get their hair cut. There are some chocolates on offer for the kids, which is probably expected, especially when all other things have been so tastefully thought.

So, such a great setting should be enough to ensure a good enjoyable experience for kids - isn't it? Make no mistake, all this would be of no use if the people are not good enough to complement the place. The person who runs the place, Ms. Manjiri Joglekar is a charming lady. Mangesh and Ms. Manjiri really know how to make the children feel at home. Believe it or not, throughout the whole session, not once did Navya hit a voice chord in anger ( modified phrase picked from Football commentary - that's the first shot in anger). She really enjoyed her time with Ms. Manjiri and I, who had gone to 'overpower' Navya when required, got trigger-happy to capture her fun-filled experience.

Sirisha and I quizzed Ms. Manjiri about how and why she decided to set this up and it was a simple case of filling a gap in the market. I think the reason why she is succeeding is that she seemed to like being with the kids and she was enjoying it as much as the kids themselves! In fact she told us that you can leave the kids for some time, get your job done and come back to pick up the 'dressed chick'. The rates are also very reasonable - Rs. 150/- for a 2 year-old's haircut. For the same amount that we paid in other parlours for a tear-filled traumatic experience, we got a great fun-filled gala time for Navya. So recommending this place to as many people as possible is a clear no-brainer for me.
Directions to the place - it is bang opposite the Datt Mandir next to Kamla Nehru Park.
Contact Number : 9922929922/ 9422015136
Business Hours : Mon to Sun : 10.00 to 8.00
www.krazzykidz.com

The Big W

2008-07-07T16:32:00.003+05:30

It has happened - What was just a possibility till last year has happened. Over and over again. Would you say this is the beginning of the end? Is it a disaster? I don't know. Yesterday , we were privileged to watch a brilliant display of grass-court tennis during the rain-breaks. That is, when they were showing Borg play McEnroe. If Borg and McEnroe played out two of the best finals in the long history of the W, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have gone one step ahead and served out, without doubt, THE best display in the men's final and I have watched the Rafter-Ivanisevic, Sampras- Agassi, Becker-Edberg, Borg - McEnroe, McEnroe-Connors matches.
The match had everything you wanted - great tennis, lot of drama, rain-breaks, wind, fading light, tie-breaks, breaks of serve. The only thing it lacked was an announcement of retirement! I was happy to hear Federer say he will be returning in 2009 and it would be interesting to see if he returns as the no. 1 seed and would he be the defending champion in any 'Slam?
Till then, just sit back and watch the replay of the finals - over and over again.

Ok..ok...enough

2008-07-07T15:40:00.003+05:30

I can empathise with General saab and understand the gravity of the situation because they may soon start posting my pictures for a similar post. I have decided to rectify the situation. Hopefully, dear reader, that wouldn't mean you will have to put up with my version of a poor man's Telljeeves!

Award functions

2008-07-07T11:16:00.001+05:30

This is a very good 'How Stuff works' post on film award ceremonies in India. Very well written and with a dash of humour!

Dead as a Dodo

2008-07-04T15:43:00.002+05:30

They should stop playing dead rubber matches in cricket. They are already playing on such lifeless pitches. On top of it, there is no motivation for either of the teams. Why waste the players' time? An alternative can be convert the dead rubber ODI matches as T20 games. The audience can get their money's worth and the players can get done with, without staying out for the full hundred overs. Harsha Bhogle has written about the contest between the batsman and the bowler not being equal and he was referring to Pietersen's switch shots. He has written quite a bit about it and I don't agree with it. I think the contest gets skewed in the batsman's favour because of the pitches and the shortened boundaries. They (I'm not sure who? I don't understand what is the locus standi of the different committees/bodies here - ICC/ ICC's Cricket Committee/ MCC ) should do something about the conditions rather than penalise an innovative batsman.

Oil oil everywhere...

2008-07-04T11:11:00.004+05:30

Naomi Klein has another thought provoking article here. Would Bush be the TIME man of this century like how Gengis Khan was?

Madame

2008-07-03T14:34:00.001+05:30

Please don't forget 1998. The embarrassment that followed the "I have 272" may happen all over again. Beware.

Landmark Pune 2008

2008-06-30T14:28:00.003+05:30

We were third in the Landmark Open quiz on Saturday. It did break the short streak that Ramanand and I had put together.
I had a good time teaming up with Niranjan and Ramanand after a long time. Three member teams are fun to be in. A detailed report of the quiz has already been put up by Ramanand on his personal blog which is very often mistaken for the official blog of the BCQC. So much so that I heard from Salil that it was included as a clue in a question asked by Arul Mani in the KQA Open Quiz!!!

Baldrick, indeed

2008-06-30T14:27:00.001+05:30

"Our gameplan is to win every game we play."
Australia's Baldrick, Michael Clarke, reveals their cunning plan

Jun 28, 2008

The quotes section on Cricinfo.com is highly entertaining.

Rocky Balboa

2008-06-30T14:12:00.004+05:30

I finally watched it and I liked it a lot. Don't you think Rocky - the character , Stallone - the producer of the series and any Heavyweight champion you can think of - all are the same. They have lot of it remaining in the basement and they need to reprise the halcyon days to keep their sanity intact.
And the real champions keep proving their detractors wrong - just like how Stallone did a fantastic job with Rocky Balboa!

The good old days

2008-06-27T12:08:00.002+05:30

I have recently discovered the value of social networking and am spending a lot of time on Orkut, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn looking for good reads. Good ole' Suketu directed me to this post by Tell Jeeves on Twitter and it is fantastic. He talks about the royal feast he had/has at his in-laws place! Reminded me of those days when I used to get the same treatment in Hyderabad. And then...came Navya and usurped me :)

Captain of England

2008-06-27T10:05:00.003+05:30

I think he is the flashiest captain England have ever had, since Ian Botham. Flintoff was good but Pietersen is uber kewl. If he brings to the captaincy half of the dynamism he shows in his batting, he will be the only match-winning captain in International cricket (though Shane Warne claims IPL to be international cricket, it isn't and you know who the best captain is, when you include IPL).

Big words those

2008-06-26T10:03:00.004+05:30

"It was a game that I think we deserved to win, but it would have been nice if it was played out in the manner that it should have been, and then the game would've seen the right result and the right win."
"We couldn't understand it up there. I'd like to think it's a decision that I won't ever have to make, but if I do, it'll be the right one."

Guess who spoke these lines?
I didn't watch the game but these words sure sound quite rich when they come from the Kiwi skipper. After all, it was the same team which appealed for a run out against Muralitharan when he was clearly not running but gleefully congratulating Sangakkara!

Talking about ethics and the 'spirit of the game' is quite convenient when the shoe is on the other foot. But the minute you try to take the moral high ground you make yourself an obvious target of scorn and sarcasm for all your past sins. The best option is to do what you believe in and not pom-pom it a lot, because if you try to make an issue of it, you are not doing it for yourself but for the press. I believe this holds true for everything in life. In the end you ought to be able to see yourself in the eye in the mirror - everyday! Big words those eh? - this time from me. :-)

Update : I see sane comments coming in from a former player here.

Elections

2008-06-23T11:24:00.003+05:30

The political scene is heating up - Mayawati has withdrawn her support to the UPA. Mulayam Singh Yadav is, naturally, cosying up to the foreigner. I believe our politicians don't bother much about the country and have incentive to serve only their own interests and how things work in electoral politics make it easier for them to serve themselves and not bother about anything else. Yet, when it is time for elections, I love to observe and get fascinated by the moves and politics of all our parties and leaders. I find it thrilling to watch the run-ins. None of the parties give us any realistic hope for making things better and I get frustrated with it but I just love following politics in India.
Some of my thoughts -
Politicians stand such a great chance of securing their chances for the next election by doing some good work in their constituencies. The present state is usually so bad that any work or in fact, any effort can make them look so good that they can build their personal brand and not wait for the party to 'click'. A Sharad Pawar will never lose in Baramati irrespective of which party gives him a ticket to contest because he has done so much. So few politicians realise this and try to drum up something only in election years. One Govinda Ahuja is going to get massacred in the next elections but I don't think he will even get a ticket. Yes, I have referred to a couple of big names but my observation will hold true for most of the 540 other seats.
The Congress was the surprise winner in 2004 but it was on account of some smart alliances across the country which were opportunistic as well. This time, some of those alliances are going to fall flat - how will they go to polls with the Left if they announce elections as a fallout of the nuclear deal fiasco? Congress didn't ally with the Left in 2004 but they did have an 'understanding' which will surely be missing this time. The Congress-SP alliance which will happen soon is clearly one of convenience. SP wants to have some political relevance so that the cases against the leaders can be influenced. Mayawati is surely and rightly drunk with power. I have predicted that Mayawati can become the Prime Minister by 2015 or 2018. I think she has cracked the secret of social engineering required to win elections in India. What can go against her - more cases of corruption, dependance of the party on one person, SP and Congress forming a permanent alliance in UP and somehow managing to wipe out BSP in UP (the chances of which are rare). Mayawati knows that it is in her interests to go alone in these elections and work for a national presence for BSP. This will be a quarter-final/semi-final for her.
Things in Bihar are going to be quite difficult for Lalu and Paswan - Lalu will still maintain his relevance but Paswan might get affected by the BSP wave in the plains. Nitish Kumar has done a good job till now and will definitely have a winning combination in the LS elections.
Maharashtra is going to be a difficult one for Congress this time - the seat-sharing between Congress - NCP and SS- BJP will have a very big role to play this time. I feel the bandakhors are going to play a very important role this time. Congress and NCP are already having some friction in the state. If the high commands agree to go together, it may not readily translate into coordination at the grassroot level. You also have the Rane factor this time.

To be continued.
I'll try to write about all the states and what my gut-feel says in the days to come.

Bracing for EPL

2008-06-23T11:20:00.002+05:30

Will he or won't he?
Will Scolari revolutionalise his Chelski team?
Will Rooney come back stronger and better after marriage? Will he compensate for the impending loss of a striker-cum-winger?
Will Deco arrive?
Will Lampard/Drogba leave?
Will Wenger reap the benefits of off-loading Adebayor?
Will SAF get back to putting the team above one player?
Will a team outside the current top-four lift the trophy in May 2009?

Jane McGrath

2008-06-23T11:17:00.002+05:30

I know almost nothing about her but I did feel bad when I read about the demise of Jane McGrath. May her soul rest in peace.

Another star son

2008-06-23T11:16:00.002+05:30

Shekhar Suman's son was launched in Haal-E-Dil and this review sums it up. Brangan's reviews are awesome.

Break-neck speed

2008-06-16T11:27:00.002+05:30

If you thought Race was racy, click here and try reading this post without going too fast! Such writing is what makes things go fast, not unnecessary twists and turns that we saw in the movie. And anyone who wants to learn how to take digs at yourself in style, this is how you do it -

Thats where we are - the filmvalas, always on the last page, unless you have other enterprising activities. Like declaring yourself as a farmer. Just for the sake of argument !

Amitabh Bachchan is a brilliant writer and how I wish he takes seriously to writing.

Brangan

2008-06-12T11:29:00.002+05:30

No, I'm not talking of a desi version of Brangelina (which is the image I form in my mind whenever I see/read the name). Rangan Baradwaj is on of the best writers/film critics that I follow. He has written a super brilliant post on Father's Day here. On that note, I should also link to his review of Sarkar Raj for my Dad who went and watched it on the first day because my mother had her friends come over to our house on Friday. He thought it better to spend the time watching Sarkar Raj in Jaihind and promptly wrote a letter to DNA (It is a newspaper :-)) expressing his satisfaction that he didn't end up going to a multiplex for that movie.
I looked up Father's Day on Wiki and I read that it is on June 15 this year - I already have got my gift this year. Navya celebrates her second birthday on June 15.
Also, on the same note, my previous post on Father's Day.

Hibernation

2008-06-11T16:36:00.002+05:30

This is good planning. But I still don't understand how it will save people from potential embarrassment of 'buying' the condoms.

England at Euro 2008

2008-06-11T16:17:00.004+05:30

Gary Neville has gone on strike and Hargreaves has just been beaten up. If you want to find out what the England team is up to at Euro 2008, click here.

Fox Father's Day

2008-06-10T16:26:00.001+05:30

This is such a sexist offer from Fox DVDs and so very true!

Thoughts

2008-06-10T16:01:00.004+05:30

The world's (read America's) biggest Banks and FIs lost billions of dollars in the sub-prime crisis. They need to make it up. What do they do? They create a situation where they can make a lot of money - on the scale that can compensate for the huge losses they incurred earlier. The losses they incurred was a result of their own 'perception' driven policies for doling out loans. It was a result of bad banking practices. What they are doing now is 'creative banking' but is affecting billions of people all over the world. The OPEC nations are claiming that they don't think this surge has got anything to do with the production capacities. But in these times, when media is used to justify a war against another country on totally baseless reasons by creating a frenzy, can a stage-managed global crisis be dismissed as a figment of one's imagination or just a conspiracy theory? Note that none of the consumers like the Auto manufacturers etc. have pressed the panic buttons yet. Yet, the prices are only going up - is this the last ditch effort by the Bush administration to shore up the American economy?
The Iraq war reminds me that, in my personal opinion, George W Bush should be tried for War Crimes just like a Milosevic or a Saddam. I see no difference in the actions of the three.

Predictions

2008-06-10T15:36:00.004+05:30

Just like my other prediction in tennis, I had a conversation with Hursh on 19/09/2006. When we talked about Formula One, this is what I had to say -

Hursh: raikonnen for schumi....what say

me: abhi to main kubica ko support karne waala hoon

It is time I started monetising my talents of spotting latent talent.

iPhone 2.0

2008-06-10T11:01:00.002+05:30

Whoever you are - a Developer, a Marketing buff, a Technology buff or a (potential) user (like me),you can rejoice - the iPhone 2.0 is here.
Watch Jobs' keynote address at the Worldwide Developers Conference here. It is being launched in many parts of the country on July 11th. It will be launching in India 'soon'. I can't wait.

The Orgasalarm

2008-06-03T15:00:00.000+05:30

This is one of the most viewed videos these days.

Thoughts

2008-06-03T12:38:00.002+05:30

There was a time when I (along with Amrish) was making my CV for the campus interviews in Engineering College and I was inspired by what Kaushal, another dear friend had written under hobbies/interests. He was convinced that thinking is an activity of interest to him and I was convinced by his definition that I too find it interesting. Our logic to include it in our CV was that you should mention things in the CV which will surely elicit the reader's questions and 'thinking' under hobbies just had to raise doubts in anybody's mind.
I remember a conversation with Ramanand at Marz-o-rin when he mentioned 'clubs' in ancient Greece where people would get together to just discuss and debate over (intellectual) stuff. I don't remember the exact words that he used but it was to this effect. (I think this was also the conversation during which I had told him about Sirisha. So you can excuse me if I don't remember his exact words - I obviously had other things on my mind)
The relatively free time I'm having these days to follow and comment on blogs like Seth's and Freakonomics which has made me think about things that I have thought a lot but never had the patience to put down in words. Believe me, this comment by Seth Godin really inspired me to make this blog 'worthy' of the visits of people like him. Not that all you faithful readers are not worth the effort but someone who is ranked #43 in the world's most important and influential business thinkers is sure to inspire me the same way a Warne inspired an Asnodkar. (I wonder why interacting with greats like Niranjan, George and Ramanand so closely for so long didn't have the same effect - familiarity, I tell you...)
Idler 41: The QI Issue that I'm currently reading.

These are all the reasons why I have decided to start posting some of my thoughts under the label 'Thoughts'. These are, I believe, philosophical or intellectual questions that have plagues my mind or these are the ones that I think I have an answer to! I'm hoping to post them on this blog for now and then if I gather the momentum that I hope to, I'll spawn a separate blog or even a new website.

Wish me luck!

Warne

2008-06-03T11:48:00.002+05:30

Well, this had to be posted, no?
India was always the country where Shane Warne could never scale the heights he so easily did against other countries. He was always handled with ease and Australia even lost the World Cup in the sub-continent in 1996. It is ironical that India is the country which gave Shane Warne an opportunity to show that he would have been the best captain of his time - good enough to rank alongside Imran Khan, Richie Benaud, Frank Worrell, MAK Pataudi, Ian Chappell, Mike Brearley and Mark Taylor.
He did it with the bat, with the ball, with his players, with opposing captains, he smoked in a no-smoking place like the Eden gardens, he spoke of leaving mid-way after the Jaipur blasts and finally he stage managed another escape act on the very day that was supposed to be Macgill's. He did it all.

What makes him special? I have been watching cricket for 24 years now and there have been very few bowlers who have made me sit up and watch with excitement whenever they came on - Wasim Akram, Shoaib Akhtar (I think he throws but he still excites), Andrew Flintoff, Allan Donald, Shane Warne. I'm sure Imran and Marshall had the X factor but I just didn't watch them 'live' long enough in their prime. There have been other great bowlers like Ambrose, Waqar, Kumble, Hadlee, Mcgrath but none of them have/had that X factor. I'm talking of the same X factor that a Viv Richards, Tendulkar, Flintoff, Martin Crowe, Lara, Gilchrist, Aravinda possessed which a Ponting, Dravid, Steve Waugh, Inzamam, Vaughan did not possess. It is the zing thing. It is difficult to explain in words. (Note I have mentioned Flintoff in both bowlers and batsmen)

Shane Warne belongs to that unique tribe and I'm sure he would have been the only one to have the X factor in captaincy in the last 24 years. Taylor was the best captain in this period but he was merely great, he didn't have the X factor that Warne possessed. (Note Flintoff's captaincy didn't have any x,y,z factor duringhis time with England but that could also be because he was leading Fletcher's team. It would be fun to see him lead a team of his choice like Warne!)

Seth Godin

2008-05-23T13:38:00.003+05:30

I heard about Seth Godin in some of the business quizzes that I follow, these days ( Yes, yes - nowadays I find them interesting). The first thing that struck me was that its a nice name. I somehow liked the sound of the name. I saw his picture and liked him more!
Today, I saw a link to his blog on the Freakonomics blog and decided to explore more. I have been floored by the first few posts I read on his blog. Now, his books are going to be on my wish-list and yes, I will be marking the three things that I'd change in myself after reading his books!
After you read through some of his posts you will appreciate that I'm doing some Word-of-mouth publicity for him.

New name?

2008-05-23T11:50:00.002+05:30

Is it time to change BVHK to BVHKD? When we ask Navya to tell her dadda's name, she says Harisss. When we ask her to tell dadda's full name and prompt her by saying Bhamidipati...she says Venkata Harisss Kumar dadda!!!
These days she is responding to "Ms. Cartoon"!!! She is a blessing!

Scary

2008-05-22T12:15:00.001+05:30

"We had a cause and that was very important because people with causes are very difficult for people to barter against. So I'm very, very proud. Sometimes you have to pinch yourself but the thing about me is that I don't get carried away. Tomorrow morning I will be thinking about next season. It drains away very quickly — that drug, that final moment, that save, it vanishes for me. I will be thinking about the future and looking into the players' eyes to make sure their hunger is still there. I won't be retiring."

Click here to find out who is saying this.

Rohit Brijnath - Excellent article on Mohammed Azharuddin

2008-05-21T14:07:00.003+05:30

Rohit Brijnath has done it again - he has managed to put in words what I have had in mind for a long time now. Azhar - I still get frustrated when I think of him and frustrated is the right word to describe the feeling. The 'Why' that comes to mind is because no one ever wanted to hate Azhar.

The irony of it

2008-05-20T14:31:00.002+05:30

The statue of Vladimir Lenin flanked by the two clubs that are synonymous of capitalism.

This is Bloody Brilliant

2008-05-15T10:35:00.000+05:30

Mango girl

2008-05-13T11:17:00.002+05:30

Some of you might remember my rant some time ago about Navya's dislike/hatred for mangoes even though she is a big fan of the 'bina guthali waala aam'. Few weeks ago, all that changed and now she is almost on a 'a mango a day' routine. And I didn't even have to listen to Himeshhh.

But something out of the ordinary did happen on the day she started eating mangoes. That was the day JR and I won our first quiz together in a long time. We had accepted the fact that we are the world-champions in coming second in quizzes after going through umpteen quizzes without any success (I remember only one PICT quiz which we won together) and we had done well/better with other partners. Now, JR and I have actually put together a string of three consecutive wins, including one in a Niranjan SS quiz (SS = Stockholm Syndrome). Now we have decided to participate in a quiz in Mumbai on Saturday and our past experience has been, well, not so nice. As JR put it - "It is a good place to end our winning streak so that we can start all over again from the next quiz :-)" I agree with JR.

But why am I writing about this in a post which should be all about Mangoes and Navya? This actually struck me after I started writing this post. if Navya's eating mangoes has anything to do with me and JR winning/losing quizzes together and if I see any change in Navya's eating habits after the quiz (which we, in all probability, may not win), then History will soon become History. Mark my words.

The timing may be such that we may not be able to make it to the quiz. I will keep you posted - on the quiz and on the mangoes front as well.

Football365 at it

2008-05-13T11:15:00.002+05:30

How Journalism Works
Writes Martin Samuel in The Times:

'Steve McClaren, the former England head coach, was helping Dave Penney, a friend, to coach Darlington last week. Do your own jokes, you know you want to.

'...And while the BBC's decision to employ McClaren at Euro 2008 was mocked, at least he will be there, watching the talent, spotting the innovations, taking the pulse of the game as played by Europe's best. It shows a man that wants to learn, and that surely deserves a second chance somewhere.'

Shift a few pages right in the paper of record, and you what do you find?

'A coaching masterclass with Steve McClaren.'

More...

Incentive Of The Weekend
From F365 on Saturday:

'Al Fayed has also promised the players a £5,000 Harrods hamper full of caviar, champagne and Viagra if they succeed in escaping relegation.'

That explains their late rising then. Although given that Mrs Danny Murphy is former Hollyoaks strumpet Joanna Taylor, we're not entirely certain why he needed to try so hard. If you will.

Optimist Of The Weekend
On Sunday The Observer ran their regular end-of-season feature where a fan of each Premier League club was invited to assess the season just past.

From Edgar Smith, the selected Derby fan's musings: 'We were at times outclassed'.

'At times' Edgar? 'At times'?!?

For more, click here.

I agree

2008-05-05T12:15:00.000+05:30

Read this from Ian Chappell.

Wow!

2008-04-30T11:05:00.002+05:30

This is an Angry (Young) Man and justifiably so. His posts are well-written; I have always been a fan of his linguistic skills, as well. Finally we see a Star lashing out at the media - not many people have dared to take on the media. He had and even now he doesn't seem to have lost any of the fire in him.

Time for me to practise what I preach

2008-04-22T10:26:00.003+05:30

How many times have I warned people not to take the class players lightly. Even if he was focusing on a career in poker, even if he has not been training for a long time now, even if he is there only for the money, he is still Shane Warne and he is one of the best. In the first game, I thought he was actually jogging in to bowl and was just trying to bowl top-spinners but yesterday almost all the tricks were on display. Yes, it gives me great pleasure to see a team having ill-behaved players like Sreesanth and Yuvraj (Singh not Gandhi) being shown their place. Why doesn't anyone learn from the world's no. 1 bowler who also happens to be the fastest and most competitive bowler in the world - Brett Lee? How many times have we see him sweat at any batsman and ask any batsman if he would be 'terrified' of Sreesanth more than Lee?
Now we will have the strange combination of Smith and Warne playing together. And I don't think Warne cares much about the ICC Code of conduct pledge that all the IPL captains are supposed to have taken. He will do what it takes to get his wickets - he also needs to learn from Lee.

An Open Letter to ESPN Star Sports

2008-04-21T16:59:00.002+05:30

Sir/Madam,
Please break the bank but do not allow broadcasters like SET Max/Zee Sports/ TEN Sports/ Neo Sports show cricket matches. Not only is the camera-work shoddy, not only is the commentary team puerile, not only is the broadcast of key moments (first/last balls of an over, an altercation between players) interrupted for showing ads but yesterday was probably the biggest advertisement for anyone accusing the IPL and everyone associated with it for being in it only for the money. Yesterday, Dominic Thornely, a batsman from Mumbai Indians got hit in the face by a Zaheer Khan snorter and SET Max immediately switched to showing ads - forgetting that the viewer might care more about the health of the batsman than watching those ads. Would you have expected Sky Sports (the money-making machine) or BBC to start showing ads when Eduardo was hurt? I distinctly remember the ad-breaks in F-1 being delayed because a car had crashed and they were trying to find out if the driver was alright. That happens because the money-mindedness is not so blatant and everyone - the broadcaster/viewers actually care as much about the sport's thrilling moments as the people who create them.
I'm watching IPL because I'm actually enjoying the format - it is a more severe test of skills and the best (read Test?) performers will actually pass the test in flying colours (red,gree,blue...). I'm not watching it to support SRK or Mumbai - hell, I end up watching English County cricket devoid of all international stars simply because there's a good contest on. I want the best broadcast for supposedly the best made-for-TV product that the administrators have come up with!!
ESS - please consider this as part of your CSR initiative but make sure you don't let SET Max win any more bids.

Yours sincerely,
Harish

The latest blogger in town

2008-04-21T12:35:00.004+05:30

Yes, the Big man has started to blog. We don't know if this is in response to others doing it and doing it very well or it is just a marketing gimmick by the minders/PR agents. It does have the feel of a blog - it sounds very personal and sounds very much like coming straight from the horse's mouth. There's no doubt that I have been a big fan of the man and will remain one. The reason for some disenchantment in the recent past has been simply because some of the associations have not been what you can possibly accept with your biggest hero but then, they are like any of us. Just because they play heroes in the reel world and carry themselves so well for most of the time doesn't mean they want to be pristine, spotless heroes for life. John Buchanan has devoted some pages in "If Better is Possible" on this and it is a good read.

I did post a comment on the AB blog ...

I became a fan when I sent an Inland letter addressed to “Mr. Amitabh Bachchan, Film Actor, Juhu, Bombay” asking for an autographed photograph and got a response!Watched almost all of your movies till before Mohabbatein multiple number of times, got inspired by the characters (not knowing what the script-writers do, in the making of a film..for a long time I thought the trick to escape from the hospital in Majboor was your own ingenuity)..I have used the scenes from movies like Deewar, Trishul, Kaala Patthar to get out of depression whenever things didn’t go well. Have been ragged at my quiz club for missing the questions on you/your movies. Have taken personal offense to articles that have been (in my opinion) critical of you. Yes - my warmth for you has gone down when I see you in conjunction with the politicians in SP but that’s your prerogative and inspite of all the love and warmth that we shower on you we obviously don’t/can’t/shouldn’t control your personal life. The only reason for the ‘disconnect’ with you on that count is that I(others like me) like you so much that we want you to remain as ‘clean’ (actually/purportedly) as you can possibly be. But whenever I see the fierceness with which you defend that friendship, in my eyes, you only grow in stature because I can think of many who would/could have given up on their friends because of all the controversies but it takes a brave man to actually stand up to the whole world to defend and stand alongside what you believe is right.

This does feel like having a direct line to you and that’s something that I have to thank bigadda for. Whoever thought of this brilliant idea and convinced you to do this - a big Thanks!

And yes if I see a response, I think it is time to confirm two stories that I have been telling people about AB to show how much I know about him - gleaned from arbit interviews and shows on AIR/DD - the one about his featuring in a funeral scene in Shakespearwallah as an extra which got edited out and the other one about Mahmood wanting and asking AB to sign Rajiv Gandhi in his movie (Bombay to Goa?) when Rajiv Gandhi once visited AB in Mumbai while he was staying with Mahmood's brother. If these stories get established, then I (someone reading this) can ask these in quizzes and not sound like Pornob!!!

Funding

2008-04-17T11:01:00.000+05:30

Who funds Dev Anand?

Godspeak

2008-04-08T16:16:00.000+05:30

Watch it here.

G-O-A

2008-03-11T10:50:00.004+05:30

For the sake of argument, let's assume -
1. Scarlett consumed drugs.
2. Scarlett was hanging around with those men off her own accord.
So does that mean it is ok for those men or whoever it was to
1. Rape a 15-year old?
2. Murder her?
I'm surprised that the Tourism minister is accusing the Police of deliberately manipulating the case and no one is surprised. The cops responsible for this should be arrested and the police top brass should be dismissed. I have read quite a few reports in the recent past about how Goa is deteriorating into a hell-hole with all the Russian mafia, paedophiles, drug peddlers who are becoming a permanent feature of this beautiful place. It would be a real tragedy if we lose Goa as well. I have always felt bad that the jannat on earth - Kashmir has not remained a safe enough place for Indians to visit regularly, there is trouble in the North East as well and now Goa. The Tourism ministry should be owning this and making sure that the Home ministry does its job properly. But then, that's the biggest problem with governance in India - no one takes ownership and no one wants to solve any problems.
I'm still wondering why the cops are trying to prove that Scarlett was not 15. Rape has been established. Whether she was 18 or 15 - how does it matter? It clearly looks like the man who has been arrested on charges of raping Scarlett will be released as soon as the cops are able to cook up evidence that she was 18. Murder is anyways passe in India.
I know there are worse such instances of police manipulation which take place on a daily basis. Why I'm surprised with this one is that it is a high profile case - with much more at stake because it is a foreigner and the Police still doesn't give a damn!

Cemetery full, mayor tells locals not to die

2008-03-10T12:20:00.002+05:30

I have not picked this from The Onion. This is on Reuter's!!!

Turtles

2008-03-10T11:59:00.000+05:30

They are so good.

FA Cup

2008-03-10T11:51:00.003+05:30

That's the beauty of the game. You may have all the money you ever wanted, you may have all the skills you ever wanted but what it takes to win in football is heart and as long as you have it (with some generous amount of luck) and have it more than your opponents, such line-ups will always be possible - Barnsley, Portsmouth, West Brom and Cardiff. No one would have bet on this line-up before the start of the season but that's what it is.
People might be tempted to go with Portsmouth since they are the only top club remaining but then who will bet against Barnsley - beating Liverpool at Anfield and Chelsea? That requires some skill. But Pompey did have LOADS of luck at Old Trafford.
It will take a brave man to bet on who will win at Wembley this year. One thing is certain - because there are none of the top teams, you will not see a repeat of last year's dull dreary borothan that Chelski-United dished out.

Outsourcing

2008-02-29T14:51:00.001+05:30

An interesting video...

Times Online

2008-02-27T15:48:00.001+05:30

I have nothing to say...Brits rock!

Summers

2008-02-20T12:47:00.003+05:30

I love the Summer season. I absolutely love the feeling when you can sleep with the windows open in the night and you can feel the nice breeze. While I grew up, summers were always associated with vacations and you could read a lot of novels from the library, play cricket everyday, watch lot of cricket on TV, and travel to places. So I used to always look forward to the Summer season. One of the biggest draws of the summer season -is Mangoes. Navya has started enjoying the frooti waala orange juice. So I am hoping that she will more than make up for the 1 season she lost in her life - to have as many mangoes as possible. If there is one thing in which I'd like to play the modern Indian parent and put pressure on our child by forcing our expectations on her - it is this. She just can't not like mangoes. She will miss out on the most enjoyable part of growing up in India.
And yes, you can quote me on this - if Navya says that she'll eat mangoes if I am ready to listen to Himmesshh every day, I will actually consider it.

Isn't it funny?

2008-02-20T12:41:00.003+05:30

Most of the socio-political revolutions would have started with someone trying to break away from the dictatorial,dynastic,feudal rule of a king/tsar/ imperialist government et al. But it is funny that when these revolutionaries come to power or even when they are fighting for their rights and have not yet succeeded, they try to have the same dynastic, feudal style of leadership and passing the baton. I have just completed this book on the politics in Tamil Nadu and it just shows how hypocritical all the revolutionaries end up being.

The good samaritan

2008-02-18T14:51:00.003+05:30

In the interests of the continuing (???) psychiatric well-being of some readers (e.g. Anand) it has been decided that there will be no posts on the happenings at the Old Trafford Stadium on Saturday. Some readers would have clearly noticed the almost apologetic tone in which one reader had reminded me the standings in the Premiere League. Being the good Samaritan that I am, I shall not talk of the number of attempts by the visiting side or the number of goals scored or of course, the number of goals that were scored by the home team. We shall also not refer to any of the excuses - yes, it was a disgrace - not the pitch, it was your team, Mr. Wenger.

Azhar's captaincy

2008-02-13T10:02:00.003+05:30

Well, how many of you would have appreciated Azhar's captaincy? I'm sure every spinner who played for India during his time enjoyed his captaincy - in fact every bowler for the fields he would set for them. I think most batsmen too did well under Azhar. I think the biggest plus point for most bowlers used to be the fact that the fielder in slips or somewhere in the ring was probably one of the two best all-round fielders of his time - Azhar himself, the other being Mark Waugh. Other than the match-fixing, what would you down as a fault in Azhar's captaincy - I can't think of any. He was one of the masters of the ODI game - brilliant fielder and excellent chaser, better than Bevan. He had so much going for himself, why did he have to do what he did? This will always remain the biggest let-down of my life. I have always felt personally cheated but somehow could never brand him an out-and-out villain.
Anyways why this post on Azhar? I read this interview of Mark Taylor and the first captain he mentions is Azhar!! Read the first part of the interview here.
Mark Taylor is one of my favourite captains, one of my favourite batsmen. I have always believed that Steve Waugh and Ponting required a score of 400 to win matches for Australia while Taylor could win them even when Australia was shot out for 180. He did that because he was tactically superior and because he played against better opposition. I can't recall too many games where the opposition has played well, to their potential, and Waugh/Ponting have managed to win those games. Taylor's captaincy used to get showcases in the ODIs better than the Tests but sadly, Cricket Australia cut short his ODI career. Shane Warne was in the same Taylor mould and would have done tremendously well as captain.

Nostalgia

2008-02-04T13:48:00.000+05:30

Holocaust of our times

2008-02-01T11:56:00.000+05:30

I'm a Vegetarian not because it is mandated by my religion/community but because I find the whole concept of killing a living being and eating it, hard to digest. When I read about bird culling to prevent the spread of Bird Flu, I always go back to images of Concentration camps. Aren't we doing the same thing? Hitler probably thought Jews were as bad to the Aryan community. We think the same of the Bird flu affected birds. If what Hitler did was inhuman how do we justify bird-culling? Can't there be a better solution? Can't those birds be treated?
I have thought a lot about the standard riposte by the non-veggies - aren't plants living beings? How do you justify eating plants? Well, try as much as I could, I don't get the same feeling of hatred for killing a plant as I do for animals. I hate trees getting cut - for other reasons but it is not the same as killing an animal which has thoughts, feelings, probably even business ideas - for all we know.

Ironic Buddha

2008-01-31T13:03:00.000+05:30

“My reason or logic fails to explain as to how books can pollute society,” Mr. Bhattacharjee said. “No civilised society can accept this and together, we must find a way out of this situation.”

Exactly, Mr. Buddhadeb - how can some lines in Ms. Taslima Nasreen's book destroy the 'secular fabric' of your state? No wonder an author of Ms. Mahashweta Devi's eminence says this about you. For all the 'hatred' that you have for Mr. Modi, the very fact that you are being compared should be reason enough for 'dying of shame' or at least turn in those damn cards.

The end of sledging?

2008-01-31T12:10:00.000+05:30

I read the complete text of Judge Hansen's judgement and I think it is excellent. There are some thoughts/notes that I found very interesting :

On the actual spark that managed to become a bush fire -

(14) Mr Symonds appears to be saying that he finds it unacceptable that an opponent makes a gesture that recognises the skill of one of his own team mates. In the transcript he stated:

“MR MANOHAR: You had any objection to that patting on the back?

MR SYMONDS: Did I have an objection to it – my objection was that a test match is no place to be friendly with an opposition player, is my objection.”

If that is his view I hope it is not one shared by all international cricketers. It would be a sad day for cricket if it is.

A remark on how Procter's Kangaroo court went about this. Wasn't Tendulkar's evidence dismissed by Procter?

(17) Mr Symonds accepted that Mr Tendulkar of all the participants was closest to Mr Singh. A viewing of the video shows that people were moving around but certainly Mr Tendulkar appears to have been closest to Mr Singh in the course of the heated exchange we are concerned with. Contrary to reports that Mr Tendulkar heard nothing he told me he heard a heated exchange and wished to calm Mr Singh down. His evidence was that there was swearing between the two. It was initiated by Mr Symonds. That he did not hear the word “monkey” or “big monkey” but he did say he heard Mr Singh use a term in his native tongue “teri maki” which appears to be pronounced with a “n”. He said this is a term that sounds like “monkey” and could be misinterpreted for it.
(20) Furthermore the note kept of the four hour hearing in front of Mr Procter is a mixture of précis and direct speech of parts of the proceedings, testimony and submissions that were noted down. The first page records appearances and the rest of a four hour hearing occupies less than five and a half pages. Given the informal nature of the hearing and the circumstances pertaining to it this is not surprising and is not a criticism. However, it seems to me in future that particularly for more serious offences under Level 3 and Level 4, it would be better if the referees were able to record a full transcript of the hearing in front of them. But what it meant was that the record was inadequate for the purposes of this hearing which is why I heard evidence from all parties.

I like this about Hansen

Mr Hayden and Mr Tendulkar in particular were impressive witnesses. But their evidence as to what was said by Mr Singh is completely at odds. Mr Tendulkar said there was offensive words in Mr Singh’s native tongue and he also heard abusive language in English between the two. Mr Hayden says he heard the words “big monkey” but could not recall for the court any other words that were said by either party. I remind myself that an honest witness remains a witness who may be mistaken.

Isn't this a damnation of the Australians?

As well it is not without significance that the Australian players maintain other than Mr Symonds that they did not hear any other words spoken only the ones that are said to be of significance to this hearing. This is a little surprising in the context where there was a reasonably prolonged heated exchange. Indeed Mr Clarke went so far as to say that he did not hear Mr Symonds say anything. Given Mr Symonds’ own acceptance that he initiated the exchange and was abusive towards Mr Singh, that is surprising. This failure to identify any other words could be because some of what they were hearing was not in English.

Even if Ponting and CA had not back-tracked, there was no way Hansen could have judged otherwise

(57) Given that is the view of the complainant it is hard to see how the requisite elements of 3.3 could be satisfied. However, given it is an objective interpretation that is not the end of the matter. I must consider if the “ordinary person” would have been offended in a 3.3 sense. That again requires a look at context. Mr Singh had innocently, and in the tradition, of the game acknowledged the quality of Mr Lee’s bowling. That interchange had nothing to do with Mr Symonds but he determined to get involved and as a result was abusive towards Mr Singh. Mr Singh was, not surprisingly, abusive back. He accepts that his language was such as to be offensive under 2.8. But in my view even if he had used the words “alleged” an “ordinary person” standing in the shoes of Mr Symonds who had launched an unprovoked and unnecessary invective laden attack would not be offended or insulted or humiliated in terms of 3.3.

(58) So on that alternative basis I would also have been satisfied that the requirements of 3.3 were not met. So as to summarise that ground. Firstly, Mr Symonds through counsel accepts he was not offended in a 3.3 sense. Secondly on an objective basis I do not consider the response transgressed against 3.3.

Here he states it clearly

(61) It can be seen that spirit of the game is an overriding consideration in the context of the Code of Conduct. Sensibly the Code of Conduct does not attempt to define the spirit of cricket. Frankly it is an amorphous term that would take a more elegant pen than mine to define. But it is not without coincidence that the game gave rise to the term “that’s not cricket” to refer to behaviour, that while not necessary illegal, falls below reasonable accepted standards. Of course the game has changed considerably since that term was coined. It has become professional and in each match much is at stake individually and collectively for players and teams. The game has become more widespread invoking, in some countries, a much higher degree of passion than in others. There are also cultural differences between players from countries with different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. But it seems to me that all players, officials and spectators instinctively understand what is meant by the term “the spirit of cricket”. It needs to be said that the greater good of the game is more important than the outcome of any particular match, no matter how important that particular game is to the participants. I have no doubt that the participants in this game have reflected long and hard since its conclusion. Their actions do not reflect well on them or the game.

(62) There has been considerable publicity relating to the allegations against Mr Singh and this appeal. Many reports have suggested that if the appeal is unsuccessful the balance of the tour would be called off or would at least be in jeopardy. Mr Manohar has assured me that that is not the position of the BCCI and it is no more than media speculation and exaggeration. I accept Mr Manohar’s assurance.

(63) Many people reading such media reports could well have thought that they were designed to pressure the Code of Conduct Commissioner into a predetermined result. In the event the result has been favourable to Mr Singh. But that is as a result of my consideration of the evidence and the law applicable to this case. This is a civil case and while in normal circumstances an adjudicator would not go beyond facts agreed between the parties in this case I required all the witnesses as to the exchange to give evidence and be cross examined.

(64) On a personal level I can say that I have not felt under any pressure because of such media reports. In any event as a Judge who has taken the required judicial oath I would never be influenced or succumb to any such pressure, real or imagined.

(65) Obviously the media have not invented these statements. They must be sourced from someone. To my mind such statements do a serious disservice to the game. The Code of Conduct for Players and Team Officials is a set of regulations put in place after input from and with the agreement of all ICC members. It is a robust Code designed to ensure a fair hearing for players. Code of Conduct Commissioners are independent of the ICC and carry out their appellant functions independently. It is incumbent on members of the ICC to abide by this process and allow it to run its full judicial course before making comments or taking actions. It is after all, as I have noted, a consensual code that those members have agreed to and should abide by.

And finally

It was not the ICC that reduced the charge against Mr Singh from a level 3.3 offence to a 2.8. That was my decision and my decision alone. I made that decision on the basis of my factual findings and my legal interpretation of the Code of Conduct. An interpretation I may add that counsel were by in large in agreement with. I also wish to disabuse the media of any notion that there was some “sort of deal”.

So this leaves me with a thought - Why isn't Symonds donating 50% of his match fee to the ICC coffers? Why don't ESPN sue Symonds for endangering the progress of the tour and consequently their revenues? I agree with Cricket 24x7 here - The BCCI should also sue Symonds for using offensive language against Harbhajan. I think once this matter gets to the childish levels that I just mentioned above, the players will realise what a fool they have been making of themselves. Mr. Sreesanth - do you 'get' it?

Freedom!

2008-01-28T12:38:00.000+05:30

Why isn't such energy directed better? Do these people think? A more pertinent question to ask- can they?

Novak

2008-01-25T17:13:00.000+05:30

Just in case you were wondering about the result of the second semi-finals, Novak beat Federer in straight sets. And I take every opportunity to remind my readers about this. Yes, this is where you heard it first - it was almsot an year ago that I first saw him and thought Wow! this guy can play. Now I'm a bit scared for my man because Tsonga is on song. Anyways, may the best player win.

Jo Wilfried Tsonga

2008-01-24T14:59:00.000+05:30

Well, I started watching his match with Nadal only after my cubicle mate, Saket asked me to, knowing how keenly I follow tennis. Earlier in the week, Saket actually went home early to watch Tsonga play. After seeing the first set against Nadal, I can see why.
Tsonga - he rocks. WOW!!!

Tsonga and Ali

2008-01-24T14:52:00.000+05:30

The way he is playing now, he can claim to be as good.

Tuvalu - An Inconvenient Truth?

2008-01-23T13:55:00.001+05:30

I'm sure every quizzer worth his KQA salt will know about Tuvalu. A similar hot favourite in recent times has been the Pluto question. It is sad to see a country like Tuvalu facing such existential challenges. This is clearly an off-shoot of our march towards progress. Of course, we need to keep moving but it is the lack of sensitivity to this issue which hankers me more than the alarmist doomsday predictions that Al Gore makes. Yes, Tuvalu was always on shaky ground but I'll feel sad if the fears expressed in this article come true an the last line is the thought which hurts most. That, to me, is an Inconvenient Truth.

For the children, the floods are fun. However, for them to lead their lives on these islands will require massive international support.
But with a population of just 11,000 people, will the outside world think it is worthwhile?

Happenings in the next week

2008-01-22T16:48:00.000+05:30

After a well-constructed hundred, Rahul Dravid at the Press conference at the end of the first day's play at Adelaide -
Scribe: What is your opinion on the selectors' decision to drop you from the ODI team?
RD: What about it?
Scribe: Do you agree with it?
RD: Well, what do you want me to say? I'm obviously disappointed but that's the decision the selectors took and I have to go with it. Yes, Prem - next question?

Media coverage in India
Aaj Tak: Rahul Dravid says he is disappointed. Are the selectors taking vengeance against the ex-captain?
Cricket Controversies, NDTV : Siddhu blasts Vengsarkar for not having any sense. "Experience is like a comb that life gives you when you are bald...." Let's have a public debate, Mr. Vengsarkar. If you don't turn up, you should go bald. If you do and I lose, well, I'll never show up at NDTV again. (Cricket Controversies might be shifted to NDTV Imagine)
IBNLive: Mr. Dewang Gandhi, our resident cricket expert is here to explain why it was a worse decision to sack Ganguly but yes, senior players should not be treated like this. I think I should still come back to the team. Sunil Joshi joins in and he agrees with Gandhi.

Meanwhile India TV, in Breaking News, reports that Rahul Dravid refused to have dinner with the team at the hotel where the team was staying and instead decided to spend the evening with his family at an Indian restaurant. Psychologist Dr. Kalra, the Head of the Psychology Department at the Jhansi University (The University is also famous for offering a PhD in detective novels written by Agatha Christie) says,"This is typical behaviour which we see in people who are getting old and such people should be treated very carefully. Although the captain Anil Kumble himself is older than Dravid, it will not help Anil in handling this tricky situation. He may have to eventually talk to Edward deBono for help."

The Age has a different take on the goings on and blames Harbhajan Singh for the apparent racial slur by the ex-captain. This is proof of how the Bhajji spirit has infiltrated the Indian ranks and now every Indian cricketer is deriving sinister pride out of showing disrespect to the Australian hospitality and culture.

Others in the blogosphere have found out that the Indian restaurant that Rahul Dravid visited is actually owned by the leading lady from Bollywood Shilpa Shetty. After this fact came to light, the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, has applauded Rahul Dravid's decision and is recommending him for a knighthood for his services to the British television and entertainment industry (as represented by the audiences of the show Big Brother and other British citizens residing in Southall and Birmingham and Manchester).

ODI team selection

2008-01-21T13:48:00.000+05:30

I don't understand why there is such a brouhaha over the exclusion of Ganguly, Dravid and Laxman from the side. Wasn't this expected? If we don't blood the youngsters now, when are we going to do it? I believe we now have a very flexible batting line-up where the only one who is going to be obdurate about his slot will be Sachin and it is actualy the best slot for him. All the others have done well as floaters and that's the flexibility that someone was talking about, some time ago. Now who was that? Someone who flies Kingfisher Business class to Jaipur.
Bowling-wise my concern is an over-enthusiastic Sreesanth who has become irritating to watch these days. He should take cue from RP Singh who has done a good job of leading the attack without having to resort to the verbals. I'm ok with the verbals (witty ones, not personal abuse) to get someone out - that is mental disintegration, in my book. But when you give send-offs and talk to people outside the boundary, that is because it has become personal for you. That's rotten, in my book.
This team has got the ability to win matches. I don't think it is good enough to beat Australia and Sri Lanka and win this series but I can't see Ganguly and Dravid making things any better. Australia and Sri Lanka have the edge simply because their young players have the experience as well and I'm talking of the finishers and the bowlers. Our finishers are going to be Dhoni, Yuvraj and Raina - they are as good as any but have either not done well in this tour or have not played yet. (Raina's stint as a junior cricketer is going ot be of immense help here) So we come to the bowlers - that's where we lack, in terms of quality and experience. So if Pathan, RP and Sreesanth play out of their skins again, we stand as good a chance to win as any. Dravid and Ganguly are not factors to be considered here. Do remember how Collingwood alone inspired the Englishmen to win the tri-series last year. My equivalent of Raina in the Indian team is Raina.

What is patently wrong is the way these decisions are conveyed to the players. After so many people saying it over the years why don't the selectors inform the players in advance? That sucks.

Greg Chappell

2008-01-21T13:47:00.000+05:30

Greg Chappell joins the list of public figures that I have 'spotted' at Airports. The others being Kuldeep Pawar and Raju Shrivastava!!!!

Heads of State

2008-01-17T14:03:00.000+05:30

What is with Heads of States romancing models these days? First it was Sarkozy. Now it is Chavez. To boot, Naomi Campbell has an interesting observation

Campbell is quoted saying Chavez is ‘not a gorilla, he is more a bull’.

Sigh.
By the way, I'm not sure how interviewing world leaders for magazines like GQ can be considered Community Service.

80.6	Muralitharan to Sehwag, 1 run
80.5	Muralitharan to Sehwag, no run, Aha! The reverse sweep but straight to backward point. What a guy!
80.4	Muralitharan to Sehwag, no run, driven to covers
80.3	Muralitharan to Sehwag, no run, goes back to cut a spinning off break to the off side and to cover point and he refuses the single! he doesn't want to expose Ishant . He could have taken the 200 , though
80.2	Muralitharan to Sehwag, no run, leans forward to defend the off break down the track
80.1	Muralitharan to Sehwag, no run, turns in from the off stump line and hits him on the pad. Going down leg and they don't appeal