Musings of a Confused Mind

I love Marvin.

For those of you who have the annoying habit of jumping to wrong conclusions, Marvin is my Macbook Pro and not a guy.

Leopard rocks. Again, do not jump to conclusions, Leopard is the Mac Operating System.

The reason for this announcement is the discovery of google blogger widget for Mac. It allows me to blog directly from Marvin without logging into blogger directly. It just provides basic functionality for now but I am hoping it will get better.

Past few weeks have been tumultous (once again).Why can’t I have a normal 9-5 life? Because I would hate it. I prefer things to be like this and a tad unpredictable.

A change of job, change of environment, adjustment to the new place. Let’s just say that the Piscean in me is at its most dominant in such situations.

And the next few weeks are going to be hectic again. Loads of work other than the office stuff going on. Next few weeks are going to be something to look forward to.

The upper management at my new job takes training of the associates pretty seriously. I have seen people groan saying "Not one more session on oral communication or written communication". What most people do not realize is that no two training sessions are the same as the personality of the trainer makes it different for each session. And learning never stops.

Two training sessions stand out from the rest:

1. Influencing Techniques: I realized how much my mom uses them consciously or unconsciously. Just as an example:
Mom: Son, get married
Me: Mom no. I am still a kid.
Mom: Ok then atleast get a haircut.
That's what my mom does to get me a haircut whenever I go home. Classic example of Influencing Techniques.

2. Leadership Development
Now I have a different view point of leader from most people. I believe Leaders are either born or become so because of the circumstances. One cannot train a person to be a leader.

I have had a fascination with entrepreneurs for as long as I can remember. Again, entrepreneurs, leaders, managers are confusing concepts.

Entrepreneurs by definition make for bad managers. A leader need not be an entrepreneur but vice versa is not true.

But as regular readers (if any) of my blog know, I really do not like discussing serious stuff. People assume I am not well if I talk serious stuff.

The thing that made that training session stand apart was a story of making split second decisions and making tough decisions. A story of leaders in the army. The story was “The Rope” by Capt. Raghu Raman. In hindsight, calling it a story/case study etc seems demeaning. So I’ll refer to it as “The Rope”. One can find it here

I am not looking forward to being sued for copyright violation. So the disclaimer that no word of “The Rope” belongs to me. “The Rope” is sole property of Capt. Raghu Raman. I would have liked to have his permission to share “The Rope” on my blog but I could not find any contact details for him. In case, he sees this, I request him not to sue me as I am under a huge debt already.

Jumping to the next thing I want to write about. The most abused word in English Language. SORRY. Do anything, just say a sorry. Repeat it and say Sorry again. A cab driver hit my bike from behind on one signal and said “Sorry”. Next signal, he again does it and says “Sorry”. The food delivery boy to my place messes up my order every day and says “Sorry”. A dialogue from Mr India comes to my mind "Soon people will commit murders and say Sorry".

For those who are not interested in sports, anime or movies, the post ends. Please leave a comment so as to motivate me to continue blogging once in a while. That is if you want me to.

Real Madrid win La Liga for the second time in a row. Yipeeee. The team needs just a more GOOD defender (good bcoz RM just sign defenders and not good defenders) and one CONSISTENT creative midfielder (consistent because Guti is not. And no I do not want CR7. I want Diego).

Euro 2008 is about to begin. Again, I am supporting Spain (I love their style of football. But then again I also love the game of Arsenal who have been trophyless for a while now). However, I think Germany and Italy are the strongest contenders.

RR win IPL against all odds. Goes to show how important the Leader of a team is. Gr8 show. IPL is here to stay. Atleast, it gives something to watch other than the K-serials.

Watched Strangers & Indiana Jones over the weekend. Strangers is a good concept but Indian Directors have something against making fast paced thrillers. It is too slow & hence, not gripping. Indiana Jones is ok movie. Not really as gud as earlier Indiana Jones movies.

Loads and loads of movies to look forward to this summer. The Dark Knight (Anticipation is driving me crazy. Batman movie directed by Chris Nolan with Joker as the villain. Look for a post on Batman in some time), The Incredible Hulk (Ed Norton plays the Incredible Hulk), Wanted (Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman. Promos look really good) and Righteous Kill (Al Pacino & Robert De Niro together for only the second time in Indian movie history. Need I say more?).

Time to sign off. Next post on Batman in a fortnight.

Blogathon Day 1, Sunday April 20 2008: Infrastructure-How can we improve the traffic condition in our city?

The city in this case would be Bangalore-The IT Hub of India.Just to give you an idea of the traffic condition in Bangalore, everyone in Bangalore - the auto wallah, bikers, car users, company transport users & so on curses the traffic atleast once a day.

Traffic conditions are not just a well accepted excuse for being late but are also used extensively as an ice-breaker in discussions.In you are at a party, new to your company or a first timer in Bangalore,just walk up to any random group and say "Man what traffic !!".You would be accepted immediately as a fellow sufferer and a long heated discussion on Bangalore traffic would follow.The car owners will say bikers are at fault.Bikers would say the issue is with bus drivers and auto wallahs.Bus drivers and auto wallahs would pass the blame too. All this is apart from the usual grovel on condition of roads,one-ways,lack of a public transport etc.So as evident, traffic conditions form a huge chunk of conversations across the city.

Everyone knows what the Govt should do.They should provide nice,smooth,8 lane roads throughout Bangalore.Sorry not gonna happen in the near future.Public transport i.e. Metro would take a few years to get completely operational.

However I would say that instead of these long term projects, Govt can take a look at smaller issues to take care of the bigger picture e.g. Parking Space.The Govt should take a cue from the West and invest on building parking complexes.Say we have one such parking complex in the vicinity of MG Road. All the space on Brigade Road, Church Street etc that is currently being occupied as parking for vehicles would get free leading to widening of roads for traffic as well as reduction in traffic.Ofcourse this would mean that public would have to walk for some distance.I for one would not mind it and I think many others would not either. Most of the techies in B'lore could use the exercise anyway as they spend most of their time on their desks.

Better roads automatically result in smooth flow of traffic and less congestion. Now roads like Airport Road, 100 feet Road, Banerghatta Road etc are amongst the better roads in the city.The issue starts once you leave the main road for a side street.Here the citizens can take an initiative with societies pooling in money to build the 2-3 km roads.Or corporates can undertake it as CSR (I am not really sure if it would come under CSR but I am assuming that building better roads for the society can be considered CSR)

However,having better roads is just one part of the solution.Airport Road, Marathalli Bridge etc are areas that have good roads but are forever jammed.

Let me take an example.I used to go for work by the company cab.The cab had a capacity of about 15 people but on a normal day around 7-8 seats were occupied. Many people living in the same area would come to the office late by their own vehicle. Here I believe the willingness of the citizens with a little incentive from the Govt. can work miracles.If people are willing to use the company cab by going office an hour earlier than their usual time (& coming early too), the number of vehicles on the road would go down.One of the reasons why people prefer their own vehicles is the cost effect. In case, going by the company cab comes out to be more expensive than personal transport, people would prefer personal vehicles.Govt subsidy/tax cuts for companies operating their own transport would allow the company to cut the costs and pass on the benefits to its employees.

Traffic congestion is a given at the time of office hours.Hence it would really be beneficial if companies at can co-ordinate the cab timings amongst themselves.Lets take the example of Whitefields.If one-third of companies EOD is at 6, next one-thirds at 6:20 and the last one-third at 6:40 and similar timings for morning cabs, the number of vehicles on the road for those 20 minutes would reduce and so would the congestion.

Finally, the most in-vogue solution of the day-Car Pooling.A gr8 idea.For those who are not aware of the concept, car-pooling is basically a group of people with same/nearby offices can co-ordinate amongst themselves to go daily in a single vehicle.That would save costs for everyone of them, reduce fuel consumption and bring down the number of vehicles on road.However car-pooling is a bit tricky to implement because of lack of info.However, an online application might be the answer.CommonFloor.com an online web portal dedicated to making lives better in Apartment Complexes is planning to come up an web interface for the same.Here I would like to add the disclaimer that the promoters of CommonFloor.com are my batchmates from IIT Roorkee.However this post is not motivated by any commercial interests or marketing gimmick.This is just being used as an example of how carpooling can be implemented.Following is a sample UI of the application being developed by CommonFloor.com

Similar applications or communities on social networking sites would go a long way in helping with car-pooling.

Lastly, I would like to emphasize the point that instead of looking at big solutions of a big problem, there might be a number of small solutions which can each make a little bit of difference.The overall result would surely be one step closer to solving the traffic problems of Bangalore.Howerver, most of the above mentioned solutions would need full support as well as initiative from the citizens as well.A dedicated group of people with maybe support from a NGO could do wonders for this.It is my sincere request that kindly let me know if anybody is aware of such NGO. Also, if there is a group of citizens working towards this or interested in working towards this, please count me in.

blogathonindia,
blogathonindia1

Reservation Quotas

Back after a long time. Seems like a different life. There have been too many happenings, so many changes.

It took some introspection on my part to answer the question, "Why dont I blog regularly?". I like writing.I havent been blogging very often, so it cannot be a case of "Writer's Block".The no of people reading my blog has never affected me, so why?

Guess its in the nature of a Piscean not to be too open.Maybe because I had decided that this blog would not deal with social issues,computer games,anime so on & so forth.However, that condition no longer applies.So I am hoping to blog a lot more often (fingers crossed).

So what have I been upto lately.I quit my job(That's why the change of blog title).Not that I got another offer or something.I just wasnt finding it fulfilling enough and frankly speaking it had become very monotonous.It just felt right to end that association.So I am now jobless by choice and on a sabbatical trying to get my life into perspective.

But the best news of the past 1 year or maybe longer is that one of the things on my bucket list is taken care of. Actually three if you count "Attending a live Iron Maiden Concert" and "Finishing a Death-By-Chocolate ice-cream all by myself".Now only about a thousand more to go. But getting back to the third thing......

The third thing was getting a Macbook Pro.Yeah people, I am now the proud owner of Marvin i.e. my new Macbook Pro. For those who cannot make the connection, the name comes from the Paranoid Android in Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy.C3PO and R2D2 were also close runners but Marvin's dry humor and sarcasm is unmatched.

However, this post is not intended to be about me.But being the narcissist that I am, couldnt help mentioning the few most important things.

Reservation. The buzz word for the past 2 years.Ever since Arjun Singh proposed 27% reservation of OBC, the nation (atleast the youth) have been up in arms."Dilution of brands","Unfair treatment" etc etc are the reasons being given.

Lets get this thing clear first of all. A nation which differentiates between individuals on the basis of birth might never achieve the true greatness it is capable of .Ability should be the sole criteria on which a person should be judged.Anything else race,sex,birthplace etc etc just brings down the standards and nothing else.

Not to say that I am against reservation.It is a well known fact that a discrimination in terms of opportunities has been there.If some people have borne the brunt of this discrimination, they fully have the right to demand preferential treatment elsewhere.

But as always, a good idea doesnt necessarily translate into a good implementation.Reservation has steadily become a way of gaining votes.

If I m not too wrong, there was a 22.5% reservation for SC/ST candidates in JEE 2002. Add 27% reservation for OBC and you have 49.5% reservation in IITs(I might be wrong here so any corrections are appreciated).So only about half the people in IITs would be able to say that "I am here on my merit, nothing else"? Now being an IITian I can say that the biggest differentiator between IITs and rest of the engineering institutions in the country is JEE.With a selection of about 8000 people out of 250,000, the IITs can very well stake the claim to having the Crème de la crème of the country (There is a minority who do get through on pure luck e.g. yours truly but that debate is for another day).Tampering with the selection process is pure blasphemy.So how about free competition for selection.Once a candidate proves himself to be worthy of a seat in an IIT, he can be given whatever the Govt wants.Low fees, all books, scholarship anything.

But if the Govt wants to continue like this, I have one request. Can we please have a heading on the gradesheets as well as the final degree which states the category of the candidate? If a candidate has the guts to mark a small circle on the OMR in the entrance form, he should very well have the courage to stand up for his decision.Sounds fair?
I am ready to bet that no candidate under reserved category will agree. After all, it would hit their credentials that they did not compete fairly which would translate into less opportunities to go abroad for further education,reluctance on the part of Private recruiters, so on & so forth.
Ohh wait, but the Govt is contemplating reservation in Pvt Sector too.They do have the best of minorities at their hearts.Who cares about the majority anyway.

SC (One of the few places in the country where logic & good of the people seems to prevail) has passed the bill with a few reservations (Pun unintended). The creamy layer cant take benefit of reservations. Totally agree. If one generation in a family has made use of the reservations for their upliftment,it shouldnt be allowed to do so anymore.
No reservations in post graduation.Again, agree. Once a person has gotten into top college for graduation on the basis of reservation,he shouldnt be allowed to use it for post graduation but this is where the loopholes begin.IIMs do not offer a post graduate degree. They offer PGDM i.e. Post Graduate Diploma in Management which holds its own against any MBA.BUT Govt might be able to claim that IIMs give out diplomas & force them to accept the reservation too.Lets wait & watch on this.
One observation on the part of SC that had me laughing was that the no of communities under OBC has steadily gone up since independence.So either the Govt discovers new communities which they didnt know existed OR the whole "India Shining" is a sham while in reality India is steadily declining in terms of social equality.

The statistic that I would really like to know is the
(No of Selections in general category)/(No of people appearing in general category) and
(No of Selections in Reserved)/(No of people appearing in reserved category)
to get a clearer picture.

All said & done, reservation in its current format is flawed. There are students in IIT Roorkee planning a "No CAT 2008" campaign. People think its their loss.I beg to differ.Talent will come out on its own.It doesnt depend on the institute, conditions or the country.And they blame us for Brain Drain....

As a sign of respect to my readers, no football (& no its not because of the fact that Real Madrid is out of CL), no cricket (not because of India's horrible loss) and no anime (not because Itachi Sama is no longer with us. R.I.P. Itachi sama.U'll always be in our hearts.sniff sniff)

Disclaimer: Couldnt help the last para.After all such things do define my blog.Topic might be serious but I hate being serious for one whole post.If some of that stuff is Greek to you, I apologize for spoiling ur serious mood

Harry Potter & Deathly Hallows: Unanswered Questions

Two of us, me & Shradz got together to discuss the unresolved questions in Harry Potter so far. Nice timepass. Here is the outcome of approx 4 hours of hard work.

The unanswered Questions:

1. The Horcruxes
Dumbledore says Voldemort would have 7 Horcruxes: 2 belonging to the founders of Hogwarts, 1 the diary in Chamber of Secrets, 2 that he has destroyed, 1 being Voldemort himself. That leaves 1 more.
Dumbledore mentions Nagini as being the last one. However, cant the last one be Harry? After all, Dumbledore did mention in Chamber of Secrets that Voldemort transferred some part of himself in Harry without intending to (that's how Harry became a parseltongue). If Harry is the last one, then he has to die to kill Voldemort.
Or could it be both Nagini & Harry? Nagini was present when Voldemort murders the servant in the opening chapter of Goblet of Fire. She can easily be a horcrux too.

2. Snape-Good or Evil
Snape murders Dumbledore in front of Harry. Surely that settles it. Snape is evil.
But is he?
Dumbledore, the gr8est wizard ever. Could he make such a big error of judgement? Everyone tells him not to trust Snape but he does. I dont think so.
Wht if Dumbledore knew that Harry will never become independent, never discover his true strength if he was there. Harry is too dependent upon Dumbledore? Add to it that killing Dumbledore would put to rest any issues with the loyalty of Snape towards the dark side.
Towards the end of Half Blood Prince- Dumbledore says "Severus, please" before Snape kills him. Now lets see hw tht is explained in Deathly Hallows

3. Harry Potter v/s LOTR: Is Wormtail to Harry Potter what Gollum is to LOTR
Its an open secret that Harry Potter is greatly influenced by LOTR.
Harry - Frodo, Ron - Sam, Dumbledore - Gandalf, Voldemort - Sauron, Death Eaters - Nazguls, Order of the Phoenix - The Fellowship
Now when Harry lets Peter Pettigrew go, Dumbledore says something like "Wormtail might do a great service to you someday" akin to Gandalf saying "Who knows, even Gollum might play a role in the quest". I suppose Wormtail is going to help Harry get Voldemort and maybe dying in the way.

4. Harry Potter v/s LOTR/Star Wars: Dumbledore/Sirius going to return
Gandalf comes back after dying
So does Obi Wan
Well does that mean one of Dumbledore & Sirius is going to come back? At the end of Harry Potter 5, Harry asks Nearly Headless Nick about how people can return as ghosts. Seems like an innocent conversation at the face of it but Harry Potter fans know that even a single, innocent meaning line can have hidden meanings. I think one of them is going to come back as a ghost to guide Harry.

5. Dumbledore's smirk in Goblet of Fire
At the end of Goblet of Fire, Dumbledore gives a smile when Harry tells him that Voldemort is more powerful as he used Harry's potter to regain power.Now why would Dumbledore smile on hearing tht? He should be terrified, stupified, petrified, mortified thinking of the repercussions of the Dark Lord being stronger than before. Was it just Harry's eyes, or Dumbledore being proud of his student for once or something else?

6. The Prophecy
Is there a catch in the prophecy somewhere? Something in the fine print?What if Neville is destined to kill Voldemort after all? I guess Neville is the character who is gonna die and would be responsible for downfall of the Dark Lord.

7. RAB
Who is RAB? Is he Dumbledore's brother? Or maybe Sirius' brother?

8. What's behind the veil in the Department of Mysteries?

9. Does Harry learn any unforgivable curses? Does Harry become a killer?

These are just the major questions. There is a lot of unanswered stuff.

Now I just love to make predictions. Most of them fall flat but that doesnt deter me. So here it goes:
- Harry doesnt die, Neville dies & is responsible for downfall of the Dark Lord. He becomes the hero & Harry can go on living a normal life.
- Sirius/Dumbledore make a return
- Peter Pettigrew plays a hand in the downfall of Lord Voldemort
- Snape turns out to be the good guy

Saturday, July 21. Morning 5 AM. My questions will be answered. Only Time will tell if I am eligible for the post of Divination Teacher at Hogwarts. Maybe I'll take Shradz too.

PS: Couldnt help the extremely cheesy ending.

The Bose Effect

Last weekend, I ended up in the Bose showroom with my flatmate who wants a new set of earphones to go with his N91. Now while he was taking a look at his earphones, I just drifted around taking a look at various Bose products & making a mental catalogue of gadgets I wish to own someday.Sorry but this is also not what this post is about.
And I saw something that defied one of my childhood convictions. The poster said "Necessity is not the mother of all inventions". That got me thinking and I realized that what the poster said is true. I mean people didnt need bulbs or electricity, they were perfectly happy with candles & gas lanterns. Are cellphones a necessity or a luxury?
However, my inner self also had a counterview.To quote Akio Morita from "Made in Japan",
people are not aware of what technology is capable of. Its upto us to show them what technology can do
Most inventions start as items of luxury and become an integral part of our lives later on. 24/7 net access, google, wiki, youtube would be a few examples.
Guess like most things in life, this also is in grey. But I still think that most inventions come from ingenuity of the inventor rather than out of necessity.
About the usual stuff starting with cribbing about life in Bangalore.Well, I finally realized two things about Bangalore.
Its next to impossible to find an autorickshaw driver willing to take you to ur destination on the first try.
A movie ticket on a weekend can be flaunted as a status symbol
Ohh and turns out my flatmate was "settling" for Bose earphones. Now he is going for some 10k earphones. (& here I thot I was being extravagent by spending 1300/- on my earphones)

I am back (Yet again)

Long long time since my post. I was so tempted to shift over to a new blog, claim that its a new beginning etc etc and that now I'll blog on a regular basis. But I have said such things in the past and now I realize one thing. Breaks from blogging are inevitable in my case, some self-imposed others because of situations out of my hand. The last one was a bit of both. I'll try to be more regular from now on (Have already made drafts for the next 3 posts) but cant promise.

While going through my previous posts(sounds self-obsessed but I do it at times), I realized that my past few posts have been kind of serious. So to make up for them, I thought why not another post dedicated to the God of pessimism, Murphy. As one of my friends commented, everyone looks like an optimist in front of Murphy(even Guns).

The biggest positives of Murphy's Laws are that they are so true and omnipresent.For example,

Whenever something bad happens(which has been more than usual lately), I remember that "If anything can go wrong it will go wrong at the worst possible time and in the worst possible sequence". So it wasnt in my hand. Things were gonna go wrong neway.

Whenever I am writing some code and decide to put in some enhancements, the working code bombs.My inner voice says "Nothing is so bad that it cant get worse".

Basically, Murphy's Law help in having a laugh if things go wrong and move on.

On my last visit to Blossoms(that accursed place), I spotted a book on 'Murphy's Law for Doctors". Decided to take it for my bro who is pursuing MBBS. Here are some of the quotes from that book. They make my day everytime I think of them. Hope they have the same affect on you.

Murphy's Original Law: If anything can go wrong, it will go wrong at the worst possible time and the worst possible sequence.

Laws Derived from the Original Law:

- If anything cant go wrong, it will

- Nothing is ever so bad that it cant get worse

- If there are 4 ways in which things can go wrong and you circumvent these, then a fifth way would develop.

- Anytime things appear to be getting better, you have overlooked something

- Most things get steadily worse

- When things go wrong, dont go with them

- Magnitude of a catastrophe is directly proportional to number of people watching and exponentially proportional to importance of the occasion.

- Probability of something happening is in inverse ratio to its desirability

- The Unspeakable Law: As soon as you mention something, if its good, it goes away
if its bad, it happens

- Negative expectations yield -ve results
Positive expectations also yield -ve results

- The less you do, the less can go wrong (This one I follow religiously)

- If what you are doing is working, keep doing it
If what you are doing is not working, stop doing it
If you dont know what to do, dont do anything

- Almost anything is easier to get into than to get out of

- If we knew what we were getting into, we would never get into anything

- Time it takes to rectify a situation is inversely proportional to the time it took to do the damage

- Those who can, do
Those who cannot, teach
Those who cannot teach, administrate

- To learn from your mistakes, you must first realize that you are making mistakes

- Hindsight is an exact science

- Do not believe in miracles, rely on them

- Law of inanimate Mobility: All inanimate objects can move just enough to get in your way

- Do not believe in miracles, rely on them

- If you need a straight line graph, obtain only two data points

- If reproducibility may be a problem, conduct the test only once

On a sombre note:
- Even the bestest of friends cannot attend each others funeral

- There are somethings so serious that you can only joke about them

But the best one goes to Mark Twain

If you do everything that your doctor asks you to do- stop smoking, stop drinking etc you still might not live a long time but it will certainly seem like a long time

Enough of plagiarism. At the same time, if you cant better something someone else has said already, why not use it with acknowledgements.

For the essence of my blog, soccer (grin). Last time around I was chided by Shradz on putting soccer gibberish on my posts. Soccer is the main article, rest all stuff revolve around soccer and not vice-versa.

Real Madrid winning the La Liga title - Sweet
First major title after 3 years of waiting - Sweeter.
Ending level on points with Barcelona but snatching the title from under their nose because of head-to-head record - Priceless

I know its cheesy & a bad take on the original MasterCard ad but cant help it. Now time to look forward to the next season. Soccer has a 2 months summer break (a few ppl would be glad, right Shradz ?) but that just means that I'll be focussing on F1 from now.

Shivaji released. Well I knew that ppl down South were movie crazy. Heard stories about movie stars being treated as demi-Gods. But this was my first time experiencing it. Everyone was going crazy. Ppl in my office have already seen the movie 4 times in its first week only. U have to c the madness to believe it. Want to c the movie myself but as expected no tkts are available.

Harry Potter 7 releasing in less than a month. Booked two copies- one for me, one for my bro. Thank God its releasing on a Saturday. Plan to go to Blossoms early morning, get my copy, go to CCD or Barista & read it peacefully in a single go with coffee. Looking for some company. Any takers ?

Turning 23

A month since my last post. Its not that I didnt have things to write about. Just too tired or maybe too lazy. Cant really decide between these two excuses.

The highlight of the past mnth has been the visit to Ahmedabad to meet family after 8 months. I have been away from home for the past 5 years but this has to be the longest separation till date. Its the separation from loved ones that makes one realize what they mean to you, may it be family, friends or someone special.

Ahmedabad visits are always fun. Spending time with cousins (and I do have a lot of them), teasing the one who is getting married next (not me in case you are wondering),being a kid again with mom around fussing over me and taking long walks with my bro.

But this is not all. Visiting Gujarat or Rajasthan for that matter, is like stepping back into the real India. Let me explain

Having spent 8 months in a super-metro like Bangalore (Forgive me, I spent 1 yr in Kota & 4 yrs in Rke. Even Indore seemed like a metro after that), I have become used to the hectic pace of life and living for myself only on the weekends. A popular ad says "Slavery is not dead. We’ve just stopped recognizing it". This is too extreme but the gist is there.

These places have stopped in time. People go about their work at their own pace, not hurrying, living every moment. I remembered a dialogue from a Hindi movie "Badi Badi khushiyon ke peeche bhaagte bhaagte hum chhoti chhoti khushiyon mein jina bhool jaate hai"

And these places are a riot of colours. I mean, a guy in a pink dress with small mirrors (wasnt me, so dnt visualize it tht way). But didnt look out of place. After all, gujju marriages are known for their pomp & splendour. My mom tried her best to get me into one of those traditional dresses. I tried to talk her out of it but couldnt and ended up having one for myself (not the pink one. But a light cream one,without the mirrors and no, I am not putting up pics of me in that).

After all these years, I have gotten used to living away from my family but doesnt mean I dont miss them. Guess its like my dad once said "Ships are the safest in shipyards but they are not meant for it". Add to it that my mom starts getting cranky after a week because of my habits. So its better I keep these visits short.

And plz plz dont think I am depressed or something. Would I swap this way of life for that? Right now I dont think I would. I love the freedom, the responsibilities that come this way. I like doing what I am doing. These are just some things that came to my mind in Ahmedabad.

Moving over to soccer. Every time I see a Real Madrid match, I think they cannot play worse than this. Alas! they prove me wrong every time in the next match. The El Classico, Barcelona v/s Real Madrid coming up on March 11. I just hope we are not humiliated or all those Barca fans I have been making fun of since Real Madrid beat Barca will never let me hear the end of it.

And I m turning 23 today (or tomorrow or maybe I m already 23 depending upon when you c this post). My dad mails me saying Happy Birthday, time to get u hooked. For God's sake, I m still a kid !!

A year ago, I was being bumped around, being made the target on which everyone is venting his fury. This yr its going to be only two of my flatmates who cant even pick me up. Miss those times, guys.

Nothing good ever follows
"We need to talk" in a conversation
"but" in a sentence

Retrospection

The worst thing we can do to ourselves is look back and ask the question What If ?.

Should we live in the moment or take a long, hard look at the future results before taking a decision?

But then isnt this some sort of vicious circle? If every decision we make is with an eye on how it is going to affect our future then why do we have to look back and ask What If ?

A confession though. I have always tried to be one of the In the Moment ppl and have lived on the philosophy of "Greedy Algorithm" taking decisions based what I wanted to do in the present rather than looking at the future. And so I have never had to retrospect.

But lately, the dreaded question has started to raise its head in my life too What If?.

Maybe, its not always good to live in the moment. And now faced with the choice of a lifetime - the harder way is to chase my dream however improbable it might be at the risk of a failure or the hard way which is easier than the dream. Heart says "go for the dream" and mind says "look at ur track record. U must be nuts to do the same thing over again and again".

Maybe, Some dreams should remain dreams only. To act as those unattainable carrots for us to chase.

Sigh, Life shld have a software like Butterfly Effect so we know where our choices might lead us.
But again, the uncertainity of what is coming next is what makes life interesting.

Funny, how 20 days ago I thot 2007 is going to be much better than 2006.

RM going down. 3 losses in the past 5 matches. Foolish President blasting his own players in public, a dictatorial coach. Another trophyless season is here.

Liverpool v/s Chelsea and Arsenal v/s ManU to look forward to this weekend.

Have been watching Boston Legal. Its the story of a Law Firm and its lawyers. Having been a huge John Grisham fan, I just loved the series. Season 1 is over. Now downloading Season 2. Something to look forward to.

2007

It takes one comment, one line to see a person in a totally different light.
It takes one incident to realize that u judged a community too early
Sometimes u realize that u r a different person then the one u thought u were.

I missed my customary New Yr Post. As always, better late than never.

Arrival of 2006 was celebrated with a few friends on the banks of Ganga in Rishikesh.2006 was supposed to be the year of transition from college life to professional life.
I had experienced the uncertainities, the problems, the home sickness etc that come with change earlier. And assuming that I was more 'mature' and hence more equipped to deal with these things meant I wasnt too worried. As Chandler would have said "Could I be any more wrong".

But I have to admit, 2006 hasnt been all that good to me. Last semester in college was gr8 but there were some fights & issues that I could and I should have avoided.

And after 7 semesters of cursing Roorkee and wanting to get out asap, I picked out the worse possible time i.e. the 8th sem to realize that I will miss Roorkee.

The first 6 mnths at Bangalore havent been the best. I mean 3 accidents in 6 mnths. CMH hospital shld have offered me Frequent Patient plan.

To add to all of these, loss of HrishiDa (My fav Hindi movie director of all time), Zizou (The Soccer God), Michael Schumacher (Any introductions needed ?) made it the yr when I have to find new idols. Still looking, but these boots r not easy to fill. And I dont even need to speak abt how RM has been performing.

I have had worse yrs but I have also had better ones. Now every cloud is supposed to have a silver lining. Maybe I just didnt c it this yr or I'll realize it in retrospection sometime l8r. For the time being, 2007 offers a new beginning, a new hope. After all, that's the reason why we celebrate New Yr.

And also New Yr means Resolutions. I guess I'll continue my last yr's resolutions only. So same resolutions for the second consecutive year. Now to c those resolutions, I'll have to check my post for 2006 resolutions, which is not a good omen. But lets hope.

Wishing everyone a Happy New Yr 2007

Anatomy of a (former)Chat Addict

Chat Addict - That's the nick name some ppl gave me. I have to admit that they were right to some extent. Some ppl say I still am but I know I have cut down a lot.
Reasons: Work pressure, Realization that I m wasting their time as well and bringing down the productivity of India as a whole or that my lead caught on the fact. Take ur pick

For chat addicts, the gchat feature was a boon. Yahoo doesnt come with an integrated chat & mail client feature and the chat msgs sent by someone just pop up out of the blue on the screen. As Murphy's Law goes, the msgs would pop up at the worst moment like when the lead is at ur desk and someone pings u "Cant believe that a lazy ass like u could be working". Agreed it could be a lot worse like "Heard ur lead is a jerk" but this one was bad enough.

Sometimes, u end up having totally arbit chats with friends. Like in a chat, the two of us started to come up with Hindi names for superheroes.

Superman = MahaMard
Spiderman = MakdiMard
Spiderman 2 = MakdiMard Dwitiya
Batman = BallaManav
Birdman = Chidimard
X-Men = Kaunmard

Another unusual thing was that because of my name, some random guy would pick up my id from somewhere, think of me as a girl and start eflirting. Well, if the guy is that foolish, I deserve to have some fun at his expense. Those 1 hr chats r the most fun ever. I still laugh when I go thru those chats in my chat history.

Having cut down on chats, I took the liberty to sit back and observe the status msgs displayed by various friends in the chat list.

The most common ones were lyrics from famous songs with Pink Floyd being the most popular. Comfortably Numb, Comfortably Dumb, We Dont Need No Education (status msg of student with exams arnd the corner) and a few more.

One friend went for shayaari status msg:
- Dil jit le wo jigar hum bhi rakhte hai..katl kar de wo nazar hum bhi rakhte hai..Wada kiya hai kisi ko hamesha muskurane ka, varna aankhon mein samandar hum bhi rakhte hai..

- Rabba mein itna bura nahin hota, agar tu bewafa nahin hota

Another popular category was that of ppl sharing their life experiences or just picking up quotes on life by someone

- Realize things before its too late. Have lots of friends before you are alone. Accept things rather than deny them. Love people before you lose them. Life comes just once. Love it while you live it.

- Friendship is not about how you forget but how you forgive. Not how you listen but how you understand. Not how you see but how you feel. Not how you let go but how you hold on.

- Perhaps the easiest way to lose something is to want it too badly

- Everything looks amazing when viewed from a distance, its the closeness to any place, situation, person or event that reveals its true ugliness, hopelessness, despondency or hypocrisy

- if only the doors of perceptions were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is...infinite

- It is better to fail in originality than succeed in imitation

Some words on deadlines

- Deadlines r like horizons. Look beautiful from a distance but trying to meet them is impossible

- Deadlines r like monsters who look like innocent children from a distance

But my personal favourite category would be cheeky, humorous status msgs

- I slept & dreamt that life was beauty. I woke up & found that life was duty

- Coming to office on Mondays is bad. Coming to office on Mondays with lots of work is worse.

- Intelligence chases me but I m faster.

- Booze is the answer. I forgot the question

- A man got 2 wishes from GOD. He asked for the Best wine and Best Woman. The next instant, he got the Best Wine and Mother Teresa next to him. Moral of the story : Be Specific

- Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names

My Second Fav status msg till now: If electricity comes from electrons.... does morality come from morons?

And the best one so far: FREE TUTORIALS on "How to SCREW an easy exam paper ?" ... Services open ... 24*7*365 ...

The usual stuff:
Watched Casino Royale on Sun. Surprisingly, Daniel Craig looked good as Bond. The story is a prequel i.e. James Bond doesnt have 007 status at the beginning of the movie. Apart from half an hr of stretched love story of Bond (which is the norm this yr for superhero stories - Remember Superman Returns), the movie was good.

Wanted to see Dhoom 2 this weekend. But all tkts for the weekend were booked on Mon. A week without a movie.

Went bonkers in Blossoms- a book store in Bangalore. Wanted to buy 10 books but decided on 6. Convinced my friend to buy 3 of them. But with loads of work, no reading for now.

RM win in La Liga but draw in CL. RM is having an average season at home. Hope it gets better with time. Real Madrid take on Valencia on Sun, cant wait.

Officially Engineer now.

Warning: This post might not be the usual post like the one on Murphy's Law or the previous post on Dentists. Instead, it might oscillate between philosophical to senti stuff.

Convocation- The culmination of a dream. Maybe the first real dream I had - To become a Computer Science Engineer from an IIT. Seems just like yesterday that I was at bansal's trying to remember the colour of fumes in chromyl chloride test and today, I am trying to get my code to work by any possible way.

But between that yesterday and this today, are the four years at IIT Roorkee. The highlights of those 4 yrs would be - the terror of ragging in the 1st semester, the false allegation of being the ragger in the 3rd semester, winning the bplan contest in 4th, Starting Chaos 2005 in 6th semester, the pressures of getting a job in 7th semester and establishing an Entrepreneurship Cell in the 8th semester.
These highlights were punctuated by seemingly never ending tests, quizzes & practicals. As I have quoted before "Experiences can be bitter but memories are always sweet"

After receiving the degree and coming back to Bangalore, I didnt feel the same elation that should come with the completion of the dream. Maybe this was one of those destinations where the journey was more exhilarating than the destination itself. In any case, I have to start looking for new objectives, new dreams. For too long, being a graduate was the only thing on the horizon. Convocation was the symbol to get over it and start moving ahead.

Alrite, enuff of the senti, philosophical stuff. Back to the usual updates.

Real Madrid beat Barca convincingly and I gloated to every Barca fan on chats, mails & SMS. 2 matches l8r Real Madrid lost at home to Celta Vigo and my inbox got full bcoz all Barca fans I had gloated to had the opportunity to get back at me.
|Sigh| Some people just cant use the opportunity to being the better ones by not gloating.

Schumi retired after this year's F1. Lost to Alonso but drove an amazing final race. Showed everyone who is the king. The media is divided with debates abt him trying to win at all costs, him being the flawed genius blah blah. Alrite just one question- Give an honest answer to whether you would have done the same thing or not, if u were in his situation. Schumi was not a superman although he certainly drove like one. Without him, F1 will never be the same.

Have been downloading lots of stuff lately. Podcasts, Movies, Movie OSTs, TV Serials and Documentaries. Just dont miss "The Departed" at any costs. Ranks right at the top with Scorsese's best. Dhoom 2 releasing this weekend. Some idiot already mailed me the suspense. Now I am in a moral dilemma whether to tell it to u ppl and spoil ur movie too or not.

Another Monday. Monday is the worst day especially if u r back from a holiday. The cartoon below captures perfectly what I plan to do every Monday but dont. Something stops me. Maybe my goodness or the knowledge that I will be able to use it only once (Cant have a virus on my PC every Monday. Not even the IT guys r that foolish). Saving it for when I need it the most.

Dentists

The unfortunate accident I had resulted in me requiring Root Canal Surgery and quite a few visits to a dentist. Now this wasnt the first time I was visiting a dentist but somehow Dentists scare me more than say Heart Specialists. The reason is simple:

Doctors use tools like scalpel which inspite of being dangerous looks elegant. However, dentists use tools which resemble more like tools from a carpenter's workshop.
When doctors operate upon a patient, the patient is in a sedated state. He cannot hear or see what's going.
In the case of a dentist, well firstly the injection in gums hurts like hell. After that u c the tools of terror like miniature saws, drills at work. One can close his eyes but can do nothing about the sounds of these tools at work which resemble a constuction site. The difference is that you know that the construction site is your mouth this time.

All said and done. The dentist was a very experienced one and didnt give up inspite of all my tantrums (although the bill told my the reason behind this). Glad to put it all behind me.

Planned a Goa trip on the 3-day weekend. Tried to take everyone I know but ppl didnt confirm till the last moment. Last moment, everyone else refused and we 3 who started the project were the only ones left. As we were waiting for others to confirm, all buses & trains got booked. So the trip is in jeopardy now. Seems like first mover disadvantage to me.It is so tough to ask ppl to relax and have a good time.

On the other hand, saw lots of movies. Pyaar ke side effects is a wonderful movie. Watch to know what guys have to suffer. Miami Vice, Bas Ek Pal can be left unless you have lots of time to waste.

Soccer season gets off to a gr8 start. RM joint leaders with Barca in La Liga. The defence looks solid with only one goal so far. But not celebrating yet. Knowing RM, they can go from extraordinary to ordinary in mins and the season has only begun. But now I dont have to take all those barbs from my other soccer fans. This is a new feeling after the past 2 seasons. Lets c how long it will last.

Goodbye Andre!

Tennis is different from most other games in respect that its an individual sport. In soccer, players might retire but the club is always there. Hence, whenever a tennis player retires, a void is created which takes some time to fill.

Last night, there were three of us watching Agassi v/s Becker in US Open. Agassi was 2 set down and was playing what would be the last match of his career. The whole stadium, in fact I think every Tennis follower was willing Agassi to win but it was not to be. No more Andre Agassi in action from now on.

First of all, I'll confess that I was never a die-hard Andre Agassi fan. Firstly, it was Pete Sampras
and now its Federer who rules in that respect.

But somehow its hard not to like Andre Agassi. The perennial underdog, firstly against Pete Sampras and then against Federer. The guy who has done it all & won everything in Tennis. A career spanning more than 20 yrs.

Sampras v/s Agassi was the rivalry of the last decade. It was fitting that they played against each other in the 2002 US Open finals after which Pete retired. Just two quotes that capture Agassi like none other

Pete Sampras:
"He's made me a better player. He's brought moments to my career that are like Borg and McEnroe. Those guys needed each other. I've needed Andre over the course of my career. He's pushed me. You know, he's forced me to add things to my game. He's the only guy that was able to do that. He's the best I've played."

Unknown:
"Agassi has known it all, the victories, the decline, the renaissance and victory again. His path through tennis is symbolic of life."

Just a thought from Sid. With the kind of genes that the children of Agassi & Steffi have, who will have a chance in front of them ?

Zidane gone. Agassi gone. There r rumors that next yr even Schumi might retire. Have to look for so many new idols.

Just an ending note. Saw "Lagey raho Munnabhai". Its an exception to the Law of Sequels. Even better than Munnabhai MBBS. We were laughing so loudly that the lady next to us requested us to tone it down so she could hear the dialogues. Munna and Circuit surely make it to Bollywood Hall of Fame. Cant think of any character other than Anand that I loved so much. Hope the series continues forever.

Sad but True

It has been a long time since my last post. The reason not being that there is a dearth of stuff but various factors. A major factor was as soon as I started writing, one or other of my friends would pop up on some messenger.

Another factor was the fact that I had an accident. Not one involoving automobiles but a mishap. Two weeks ago, I fell into a ditch while coming from office. Dark nite, no streetlights and open ditches. Makes me wonder how can India still be the second most populous country worldwide.

Coming back to the mishap, well the ditch was abt 10 feet but thankfully was filled with water upto waist height. And my friends had to pull me out. I had a few injuries, the major one being on chin requiring stitches but otherwise in one piece.

Just one observation. Quite a few auto rickshaws passed the scene but none had the time to wait and help. If the same case would have happened in Bombay or Delhi, there would be a crowd ready to help. Guess, one more reason to hate the rickshaw drivers.

On and on these have been a very sad 20 days. To top it, the last two days have been even worse. Hrishikesh Mukherjee, my all time favourite movie director passed away. I dont think I have still seen a movie which touched me like 'Anand'. Dialogues like

'Zindagi badi honi chahiye babu mushay, lambi nahin'

and the last scene when Amitabh is shouting 'Baatein karo mujhse, Baatein karo mujhse' still gives me goosebumps even after seeing it an infinite number of times.

Hrishi Da will always be immortal through 'Anand' and other timeless movies.

On Sunday, Schumi lost to Alonso, Real Madrid drew and Barca win. The worse possible results for someone like me.

One bright thought-Life can only get better than here. It certainly cant get any worse (atleast I am hoping it doesnt)

Tags

Tagged. I was thinking of writing a blog on podcasts and online puzzles but got tagged by Sid. Maybe later.

Although I believe in that blogs are ur own personal space but tags are a good way of knowing more abt other bloggers. So here goes the Tag

I a’m thinking about:
Should I call sick 2morrow and njoy a 5 day weekend ?

I said:
Real Madrid is going to win a trophy this season (I have said this every yr for the past III yrs too)

I want to:
Study Law someday.

I wish:
that college life would have never ended

I hear:
Maiden, Metallica, Pink Floyd and Movie OSTs

I wonder:
what will happen to Voldemort at the end of VII book

I regret:
Nothing

I am:
a Pisces

I dance:
Err does headbanging come under this category ?

I sing:
when I m listening music on my iPod

I cry:
When grown ups waste their time watching the Saas Bahu soaps

I a’m not always:
Sarcastic

I make with my hands:
Abstract figures when I have nothing else to do

I write:
what I think

I confuse:
waiters and visitors at a restaurant
friends and foes

I need:
a friend arnd to talk to

Now, keeping with the tradition, I have to pick up a few ppl and tag them to do the same on their blog. Being a supporter of free speech, I am not going to tag neone specifically. However, all the fellow bloggers who read this are requested to do this as I would love to know more abt them. Consider urself Tagged

Saw Omkaara the last weekend. Othello is my III fav Shakespeare play behind Julius Caesar and Macbeth. Movie would have been another sad love story if not for Saif. Never thought neone could take the spotlight away from Ajay Devgan's performance but its only the character of Langda Tyaagi that stays with you after the movie.

Kudos to Saif for making the role of Lago his own. Everything abt him is perfect - The reptilian smile, the scheming eyes and the wicked grin. Every actor has a role that defines his career.
Marlon Brando had Don Corleone,
Amitabh Bacchan had Vijay Verma (in Deewar),
Jackie Shroff had Gardish,
Rajesh Khanna had Anand

and now Saif has Langda Tyagi .

The i-Ching

Murphy's Law. The sole universal truth. Someday, Einstein's theory of relativity might turn out to be wrong, 2+2 might not make 4 but there wont be a day when Murphy's Law would be proved false.

I have already devoted a post or two to Murphy's Law. But for the uninitiated, I'll restate the original law:
Murphy's Law
If anything can go wrong, it will go wrong at the worst possible time and in the worst possible sequence.

This is the original law for which Murphy won the Lifetime Ig nobel last year(Visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ig_Nobel_Prize to understand its significance). Over the years, many more laws have been derieved from it. My favourite one being:
If everything in life is coming ur way, you are in the wrong lane
The complete list of such quotes is available through various books (worth purchasing) and maybe even online.

Over the years, Murphy's Law has been omnipresent in my life. It stays with me, even in Bangalore. Hence, I came up with my own versions of Murphy's Law.

Rickshaw Reality
The Auto Driver Law- If a rickshaw driver is charging you 100/- but u decide to walk for 2km and then take one, the next one will charge you 120/-.

Arrival of the bus you have been waiting for half an hour will be at the time when you board an auto and the driver starts to drive.

Destination Dilemma
Whenever you get lost, the first person you ask for directions will be another techie from out of the town

The first localite will tell you that your destination is 5 mins walk. After walking for half an hour, the second localite will say that the destination is still 3 kms away.

Training Truths
The fresher u feel in the morning, more boring will be the lectures on that day.

The toughest lecture of the week shall coincide with maximum no. of your friends popping up on various messengers.

Whenever you call the trainer to your PC for clarification, a few of your friends will send you msgs on YM for him to see.

Miscellaneous
The day you forget your iPod, Radio Mirchi decides to play 4 Kannada songs and 1 Himesh song during the half an hour cab ride to the office.

The day you make fun of the MD in cafetaria, he will be sitting at the chair immediately behind you.

And finally,
If you want to reply to comments on your blog, the word check will be a 6 letter word with letters merging in & out of each other like warwrt. On other blogs, it will be a 3/4 letter one like cat.

Saw POTC2 on Sun. POTC2 pales in comparison to the POTC (The Law of Sequels). The major difference being that POTC was a fun movie while the second is a more serious one. Captain Jack doesn't dominate the screen like in POTC. The presence of lots of slimy creatures acts as a turn off too.

Real Madrid gets Cannavaro, Emerson, Nistelrooy. Now all we need is a solid left-back and a creative attacking midfielder to challenge Barca. Cant wait for La Liga to start. However, no channel is going to show La Liga live. Instead, ESPN Star prefers to telecast the stupid EPL.

Another Ferrari 1-2. Mere 11 pts separate Alonso & Schumi with 6 races left. Go Schumi.

Beginning of another long week. 6 working days !! Seems like some form of Chinese torture.

The Other Side

Times of India reports
"More than half the attacks reported for 2004 were in South Asia, which recorded 327 incidents that resulted in 502 deaths. The bulk of the incidents were reported in the divided Kashmir state claimed by both India and Pakistan. "

The Mumbai bomb blasts being the last one in this series of terror attacks being faced by India. The bomb blasts have resulted in wide criticism of the Governement,the intelligence agencies, comparison with Israel/US etc. Instead of reiterating those things, this post shall try to look at the problem from a different perspective.

As soon as a terrorist attack occurs, comparisons to Israel and USA are the first ones to pop up. Let us take a logical look at these two before reaching any conclusions

Israel -
Surrounded by hostile neighbours, a hawkish Governement ready to take retaliate immediately, unflinching US support but the biggest difference "The neighbours cannot strike back except with more terrorist actions". Hence, Israel is in a perpetual cycle of terrorist attacks and bloody retaliations.

US -
No hostile neighbours, unrivaled military and economic might, ability to spend billions on intelligence operations and continue against international opinion

A hypothetical scenario:
The public outcry after a terrorist attack on India made the Indian Government take action against the terrorist camps situated in PoK (which incidentally, the Indian Government claims to be Indian soil). Against all international opposition, the Indian Governement launches missile attacks and commando operations against the terrorist camps. However, the attacks lead to civilian casualities and public demonstrations against the Govt in PoK. The public anger was further fueled by religious leaders forcing the Governement into action. The result was an all-out conventional war between the neighbours.

I suppose no sane person would want this to happen. I have seen forums and blogs asking Government to take action. Let me ask, what kind of action are we looking for? The only possible action is trying to prevent such attacks from taking place through intelligence operations. Before, someone starts harping abt the failure of Indian intelligence operations, let me ask a question - How many of us seriously think that its next to impossible to place bombs in Mumbai's local trains or in Delhi's buses ? Considering the ease with which this can be achieved on a regular basis (and I dont suppose terrorists have any shortage of resources to carry out this), the following quote surmises the dilemma of an intelligence agent

"Our failures are known, our successes are not"
- Al Pacino, The Recruit

The summary of this being that instead of just blaming the Govt and intelligence agencies, we should take a look at the options available to them.

I am tempted to include the usual info on sports etc but that would spoil the spirit of this post. Maybe next time.

The Weekend of many firsts

"Bahut kuch life mein pehli baar hota hai Mamu"

So goes the quote from Munnabhai MBBS. Well, this weekend was my chance of experiencing quite a few things for the first time.

No weekend, just Saturday
As long as I can remember, Sat was a fun day. In school, it was a half day and in college, it was a holiday. How we used to wait up for that Fri nite in college!!. But working life has different set of rules. During training, we have scheduled tests on Sat. This week was SQL but next week could be tougher than ever, JAVA.

Missing Lunch
After 6 hectic days of working, finally one day of respite-Sun. Even on this day, the guy who comes over for cleaning our apartment didn't let me rest. The door bell rings at exactly 7:30 am. I pull the covers over myself trying to ignore it and hope that someone else wakes up and lets me sleep. But my friends are even lazier than me. Result: I sleep in the afternoon and miss up on lunch. Must be a long time since I didn't eat nething b4 5pm.

Mud incident
We all have seen videos of rash drivers, who love to run through holes filled with rainy water and spraying the people walking around. Well, this was my first time to run into one of them. Me & Sandy had gone out for lunch and a guy in a Maruti 800 sprays us both. I had to suppress my instinct to shout something as ppl here might not understand English/Hindi but they sure know insults in both these languages. Ironically, the same morning I had seen a Michelin video on how next-gen radials would result in reducing the amt of water sprayed by such drivers.

Spelling Bee
Everyone must have heard of the Annual National Spelling Bee contest in USA. Well, this was my first time to see its finals on ESPN. The kids were mind-boggling. Last yrs runners up was Samir Patel, an Indian who was the favourite this yr. Then there was a 12 yr old guy who was ranked 22 last yr and had added 30,000 words to his vocabulary since then. 30,000 words !!!. I wont learn so many words even in my lifetime. Indian challenge ended at 4th position and the last 3 were girls. Finally, it was down to last 2 and they had to spell one word each out the 25 words for the finalists. They managed to go till the last 8 words. Finally, one of them made a mistake (just one letter wrong in a word that I didn't know half abt) and the last one got lucky. She got "Kundalini"(one of the 2 words I knew that nite, the other one being izzat) and other a word of German origin. Luckily she was German and was crowned the spelling bee.
Its an amazing show. See if u can get ur hands on it.

Otherwise, we were surfing channel and we realized one fact
ETC - Himesh
M TV- Himesh
V TV - Himesh
Zoom - Himesh
Its Himesh all the way this year. But I still think, the best music should go to RDB.
Another win for Schumi. The lead is down to 17 pts.
Madrid being associated with abt 50 players. Plz start buying. The speculation is killing me. With the Serie A scandal, the gr8est transfer market in soccer history is open.

Merci Zizou! For Everything

The two opposites of Zidane's Career - The volley for Real Madrid in 2002 CL Finals and the red card in WC 2006 finals


Every world cup has moments which become imprinted on one's mind. In WC 2002, it was Batistuta crying on the ground after Argentina's first round exit. In WC 2006, it was Zidane's head butt. One moment of madness leaving a blemish on one of the gr8est careers in soccer.

Initially, I hated Zidane. As a life long Brazil fan, he denied us the Penta in 1998. But it also sparked an interest in Zizou. I followed him on & off when he played for Juventus and in Euro 2000 but in 2002, Zizou came to Real Madrid-the gr8est club on the planet. 2002 was an amazing year and to see Zizou in action was surreal. Soccer has seen many players who can dribble but no one like Zidane. He didn't dribble, he became one with the ball and the ball refuesd to leave his feet.

Then came WC 2002 and France were favourites with Zidane at his best. But his injury resulted in French exit in first round. Euro 2004 was again supposed to be his last tournament for the country and France were the favourites but couldn't get pass the Greeks.

WC 2006 and nobody gave French a chance. Brazil led by Ronaldinho were the favourites (again) but unfortunately they ran into France and Zidane showed that Ronaldinho is gr8 but Zidane is God. Finally, the WC finals and Zidane had a chance to do something that not even Maradona had achieved - Win 2 world cups. But maybe he decided to show in his last match that he was a human too, that he had emotions. If only he hadn't done what he did.

Still, Zidane remains at the top alongside Pele, Maradona, Di Stefano as the most beautiful players to play soccer. In the forword to El Diego - The Autobiography of Diego Maradona, the journalist says "Our generation weren't told that Maradona was the best. We saw him in action." We can say the same thing abt Zizou.