Happy ending .... to the week

It's an awesome feeling when you finally solve the problem that's been persistently raising it's head at work and eating away at the back of your head when at home. Nailed it just before EOD today. The weekend should be peaceful.

And by the way, India have won the 2nd ODI against England, Suresh Raina doing the star turn after the Indians were in a spot of bother at 92 for 5, chasing England's modest 226.

MG & the Integra

That's what MG is driving around in at Danbury in the U.S. And here's me blowing my fuse everyday on the commute to & from EC. Somehow, I feel left behind, if not totally out .... of the rat race. Damn!

Coming soon ....

The Da Vinci Code - May 2006.

Dhoom:2 - Diwali 2006.

I can't wait ....

Tomorrow's a holiday, & a lot of the people in the ODC seem to have left early today. It's the most silent it's ever been .... I can hear the music super-clearly. Somehow, I like this kind of silence .... even though it seems almost eerie.

India vs England, 1st ODI of 7, Delhi

India 203 all out.
England 164 all out.

MoM : Harbhajan Singh 37 (highest batting score) & 5/31

England were 117/3 in the 20th over.

That was some performance!

Eight Below

This is one movie I wanna see .... soon. The reviews have been great & it stars Paul Walker .... who I don't think has lived up to expectations after 'The Fast & The Furious' & it's sequel, besides 'Into The Blue'.

Angels & Demons

Finished it in 5 days of commutes to & from the office. A superb read. Almost as good as 'The Day of the Jackal'. Found it to be better than 'The Da Vinci Code'.

Dan Brown is becoming a favourite.

Bang! Clang! Hiss!

I'm on chapter 25 of Angels & Demons & listening to the remix of Pyaar Humein Kis Mod Pe by Meet Brothers when there's a horrible screeching of the brakes that lasts for all of 2 seconds, culminating in the violent thud of 2 heavy metal bodies colliding followed by the sound of what seems like the sound of rolling metal. All of us in the bus are whammed against the seats in front & it doesn't take long to realise that we've been involved in an accident.

As everybody starts to disembark & check for injuries, there's a strange hissing sound & the people on the road, instead of gathering around the scene of the crash are actually moving backwards. It's then that someone utters the word 'gas' & people start to panic .... 1 guy in front of me even decides to check if he can jump out the window!

I'm the last to get off the ill fated 17D & see what has transpired .... our bus has hit the back of a 407 loaded with industrial gas cylinders. The impact has been so violent that the 407 has been pushed into the back of the truck in front of it .... a sandwich, so to say. 3 or 4 cylinders have rolled off and are now lying on the road amidst broken shards of the bus's windscreen, their contents leaking with a loud hissing sound. Needless to say, I get off the scene pronto.

Nope, that's not my imagination running riot .... this actually happened on the way back home yesterday near the Novell office on Hosur Road. Thankfully, no one got seriously hurt .... I myself have a busted upper lip to show.

Rise to the challenge .... please

The 3rd test against Englad is tantalisingly poised with India needing ~300 on the last day with 9 wickets in hand. It's a fantastic oppurtunity for the team to raise self belief within themselves by taking on the pressure. It's a daunting task, but getting to glory was never easy anyway .... so, all the best to the Men In Blue .... just do it, guys!

Thanks for the link Deepanjan!

Captain courageous

Rahul Dravid never made it to the top echelons of Indian cricket in the way Sachin, Saurav, Gavaskar & Kapil did. But what he has managed to do ever since he's begun playing for the country is seldom acknowledged & rarely applauded in the manner it deserves. Match after match, innings after innings, he's delivered .... & delivered when it mattered the most, when it was absolutely essential that someone raise their hand & do the job. The fact that his batting average for innings outside the subcontinent exceeds that for innings within it is testimony to this.

The reason I'm writing this is because he's been doing the rescue act .... yet again in the ongoing India vs England tests. India are 1-0 up at the moment with a surprise victory at Mohali in the 2nd test, but they are in trouble in the 3rd test at Bombay & the Captain is there again at the crease leading by example. Hats off to Rahul!

Incidentally, Sachin was booed off the ground yesterday after he fell for yet another poor score (1), & this time it was his home town crowd booing him! Even Saurav didn't have to face this ignominy ever. Sachin never delivers under pressure .... one can't even remember the last time he got India out of trouble .... & I think the people are realizing this, .... about time they did.

Random thoughts from the week/weekend gone by

Work has been piling up of late, & I've had to decrease my posting frequency consequently. I thought it wouldn't be a big deal, but when you get to hear comments like, 'I read your blog' & 'aajkal inconsistent ho gaye ho', you realise that there are people who take the effort to go through whatever inconsequential stuff you post & it's a great feeling. So, thanks people for your feedback & this is just to let you know that I appreciate it.

About the weekend then, Arnab got a performance bonus & told us so, a deed he must be cursing himself for having done, 'cause shameless party people that the 5 of us at # 77 are,a promise for a Saturday Night party had soon been extracted from him. Anupam is back from his France/Germany trip & that made the occassion that much more special. Dude got a World Car Catalog for me from Dubai (I'm laying hands on this kinda stuff after 10 years or so, thanks buddy). The evening was spent at Anupam's place where we got to have Pua & 'Hand Grenades'. Dinner was at Chung Hwa (the place serves real good Lamb plus you get to spot some real hot chicks too) followed by Ice Cream at 'that' parlour (still don't know the place's name). A nice enough evening, but at 1:30 a.m. Sunday morning, Praveen, Arni & me were wondering about the kind of lives we had, .... there we were, the 3 of us talking about inane stuff like this, while the whole world was .... you know, 'doing it'. Oh well, that's the life of a techie for you.

Sunday morning .... er afternoon, dawned with the smell of mutton wafting out of the kitchen where Sweta & Sid were hard at work. Anupam had promised he'd land up with some of the goodies he'd bought from Deutschland & what goodies, man! Ritter Sport Rum chocs (among other chocolates) & a whole bottle of authentic Mexican Tequila .... 3 cheers to Anupam bhai! 7 Tequila shots, several Rum chocolates & puffs of Marlboro Lights were through in an hour .... an hour in which I gained valuable insight into the boozing/fagging abilities of the fairer sex .... it's true, they stand shoulder-to-shoulder with us men on every count!We should definitely have more of us going onsite from now on .... if only for parties like these.

Minutes before the weekend drew to a close, Arnab said something that's been on my mind since then, 'ye sab maamla mein bahut time kabhi nahin hota hai' .... coming from an 'experienced' guy like him, .... I think I better start getting serious.

The whole country celebrates Holi today .... except for code slaves like me. It's the 1st time in my life that I'm working on a 'Holi'-day.

Anyway, Happy Holi to all!

F1 season 2006 is go ....

Alonso won the season opener at Bahrain (crazy choice, they should have opened in Melbourne as always). Kimi came in 3rd, but all's not well with my favourite team. Apparently, Kimi's not too happy with his car & Ron has even gone on record saying he can leave any day & that McLaren could get his replacement 'tomorrow'. Not a very good start to the year for the Silver Arrows.

What a match!

It's not often that I'm in the right place at the right time. Yesterday evening, Soumya & me happened to be at Denny's Pub .... & boy were we in for a treat. The reason, 'The Greatest ODI ever'! Following is the report in today's edition of The Telegraph .... I had to go for Ctrl+C & Ctrl+V because my words wouldn't have done justice to what happened yesterday.

Greatest one-day ever

Johannesburg, March 12: Cricket history was made twice in a day when Australia passed the 400-run barrier only to watch in shock as South Africa hit 438 for 9 to win with a ball to spare.

Before Sunday, the record for the highest runs in a one-day innings stood in the name of Sri Lanka who scored 398 for five in 1995-96 against minnows Kenya.

When Australia scored 434 for four, winning the toss and batting first, not even the most die-hard South African fan in the 32,000-strong Wanderers crowd would have dreamt of a finish like this to the five-match series that was evenly poised before today.

“Unrealistic” was the word South Africa captain Graeme Smith used to describe the total of 434 when asked at the presentation ceremony what was on his mind as his team began the reply.

Smith, who had hinted before the decider today that the Australians were “chokers”, set the pace as he opened the batting. He hit 90 but it was Herschelle Gibbs, with 175 in 111 balls, who set up the South African win. His knock put in the shade Australian captain Ricky Ponting’s stunning 164 in 105 balls.

Ponting, who had reacted angrily to Smith’s description of his team as “chokers”, was most gracious in defeat. Jointly awarded man of the match, Ponting declined it, saying Gibbs deserved the honour alone.

“We played really well and got an unbelievably big total but Herschelle and the boys have just been too good,” he said.

Gibbs said: “I think I’m going to keep smiling for a while — I’ll have no energy tomorrow. Cricket is getting bizarre these days with some of the scores made. We needed something like that from somebody and it happened to be my day today.”

Smith said: “We have got to come back down to earth. We’re all over the moon and want to savour the moment.”

Many records fell on the day, one of these held by India. When India beat Pakistan in Karachi in March 2004, that one-dayer yielded the highest number of runs of 693. Today, 872 were scored.

“I’m sure everybody here today had one of the greatest days of their lives,” Ponting said.

“It was a great game of cricket.”

American Muscle!

A listing of my all time fav American Muscle Cars ....

1969 Chevrolet Impala SS

1969 Dodge Charger

1969 Chevrolet Corvette

1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS

1971 Plymouth Barracuda

1979 Chevrolet Camaro

1982 Pontiac Firebird

Kailasa

Kailash Kher has always been on the radar ever since he came out with 'Allah Ke Bande' some years back. In the intervening period, he's kept up to form with songs like 'Yuhin Chala Chal' & 'Dhol Wajda'. Yet somehow, he's remained away from being considered among the ranks of the Bollywood playback frontrunners like Sonu Nigam, Shaan & their ilk, even though he has as much (if not more) talent than them. Besides, the fact that he's achieved so much in his field inspite of not being a trained singer speaks volumes.

Well, he launched his new album recently & I think it'll go a long way in taking his stock higher. Just listen to 'Teri Deewani' & you'll know why I'm saying this. He has sung brilliantly & the video adds to the impact. Finally, some quality IndiPop.

And if you're still wondering why I spelled his name incorrectly in this post's heading .... don't, cause that's the name of the album ;-)

Uh oh!

My entire body pains, my back's hurting, my right hand doesn't want to be anywhere near a mouse, I can't SMS using my right hand's fingers anymore .... & to top it all, I've slept for just 5.5 hours in the last 24. The weekend still looks so far right now.

This industry will be the death of me.

Justice is done!

The courts are handing out punishments with a vengeance it seems (which they should be doing anyway).

Close on the heels of the Jessica Lal retrial, comes news of Zaheera Sheikh's punishment .... 1 year in jail plus a 50k fine (which if not paid will cause her sentence to inflate by 100%) for lying under oath. And the icing on the cake is this .... all her assets & bank accounts will be seized & an enquiry ordered on her sources of income since the Gujarat riots.

I guess she won't be enjoying the fruits of her turning into a hostile witness anymore.

2nd chance for justice

The Delhi Police have decided to reopen investigations into the Jessica Lal murder case after widespread public anger over the blanket acquittals of the accused. NDTV had been running an SMS campaign asking users to send in SMSs if they wanted this to happen. I feel good to say that I sent in my SMS & it played a small part in pursuading the Police to go in for another investigation. It feels good to be part of 'People Power'.

Dead (Z)end!

Bajaj stopped producing the Chetak in Dec 2005 & now I hear that Maruti will discontinue Zen production after 31st March, 2006. In the space of 3 short months, 2 of the 3 vehicles in my house have gone out of production! Anyway, the Zen had been there since 1993, & it's sales had taken a nosedive in the face of competition of late .... so it's axing is not very surprising. One more bites the dust then.

Good Morning

It rained cats & dogs last night & this morning had Bangalore with the typical after shower look. Everything looked scrubbed clean & fresh with wisps of white cloud scattered across the cobalt blue sky. Plus, the sunshine seemed extra crisp & bright. No wonder Sting's 'Fields of Gold' has been running on my mind since I woke up.

ITS A DEAL. A VERY BIG DEAL.

That was the headline on the Times of India for Friday, the 3rd of March, 2006 after India & the US sealed the civil nuclear cooperation agreement.

It means India places about 65% of its nuclear reactors under IAEA safeguards 'in perpetuity' in return for 'perpetual' fuel supply guarantees. India also retains rights to deisignate any future reactors as civil/military. Plus, the indigenous fast breeder programme is out of the deal's ambit. I think it's a fantastic bargain for India.

If only the ignorant leftists & others against the deal were more aware of the facts. Put in the word 'Nuclear' anywhere & all that comes to most people's minds is bombs. That's a pity. What's even more of a pity is their not even making an effort to find out the truth behind it all. Regressive thinking has kept this country firmly entrenched in the ranks of underachievers .... it's time that someone held a mirror to these people.

Anyway, I hope Bush (who's played a stellar role in getting this through & who came across as far more capable than what he is presented as) manages to sew up the deal in the American Congress. India & the US have moved on to a new era in their relationship with this deal and I hope that this goes on to achieve even greater heights. I'd always wondered why these 2 countries which have so much in common couldn't get on with each other better .... well, it looks like that thinking is in for a change. Well done, Manmohan & his team .... more power to India.

1 of the things on top of my 'Hate List' is slow Internet connection speed (the kind I have to make do with at present). It absolutely gets my goat.

India vs England

The 2 teams are playing out one of the most boring & devoid-of-hype series ever. England have fielded their B-Team (almost), after half their players went back home courtesy injuries/personal reasons. Wonder why none of this ever happens during the Ashes? Anyway, I don't even feel interested in writing on the series any more. Maybe there'll be something to look forward to once the ODIs start.

Dubya's here

George W. Bush flew into New Delhi yesterday. Top of the agenda for him would be the Nuclear deal which allows India use of US civilian nuclear tech. I do hope it goes through, although not at the cost of the fast breeder programme.

They're saying that the U.S. & India are closer today than ever before. I think that's a good thing.

Looking good

2 actresses whose films I'm looking forward to.

Katrina's been around for some time but she's begun to get it right just about recently. Vidya of course is a classic talent .... that & those looks .... what a package! Time to move on from Preity Zinta & Rani Mukherjee then.