Revenge is sweet!

India beat the Windies in the 4th & last ODI of the series. And it was emphatic! The margin was 160 odd runs. India are a totally different side batting 1st.

Sachin topscored with a 100 off 76, Dhoni turbocharged the conclusion with 40 off 20. MoM & MoS both went to Sachin! Is he back? He IS the most successful player in the World Cup ever. And guess what's in March this year?

So, it's sweet revenge for the 1-4 series loss to the Windies last year.

Tata steels big deal, wins Corus as CSN withdraws.

Take that!

My late night call to Bunty yesterday found him in the middle of his honeymoon!

Shilpa Shetty wins Celebrity Big Brother.

Rahul Roy wins Bigg Boss.

Anthony wins MTV Roadies 4.

The last was the best watch, by far.

Fever 104 FM

There's been a surfeit of FM channel launches in Bangalore over the last year.

The latest to join the list is Fever 104 FM, promoted jointly by HT & Virgin. The mix of Hindi & English hits is quite addictive, I must say. The sound quality too sounds better than the others, the bass on my Sony headphones comes out as loud as that for high-bitrate MP3s. Plus, it doesn't seem to be afflicted the common FM channel malaise ..... yak-happy RJs!

However, it's early days yet ..... let's see how this pans out.

The 3rd India vs WI ODI was at Chennai today.

Robin Uthappa opened & got off to an explosive start rattling 72 off 41. After that it was all downhill ..... India managing 268 on a pitch that was good for a 100 more.

Predictably, the Windies got the win, led ably by their captain Lara.

Experiments are on to get the best 11 for the World Cup. But that shouldn't have led to this defeat.

Pritish left for Prague today. Dude's gone on a long term assignment. I probably won't see him again this year.

That means an end to the R K Motel outings with Soumya & gang. But wait, ..... Salil is planning to buy a car soon ..... so maybe we're gonna see even more parties than before. Heh heh!

Guru

Went for a movie after quite some time. Movies tickets in Bangalore cost a bomb & you gotta be pretty sure about the kind of movie you're going in for. So when Sid returned from Delhi (where he had gone for his visa stamping) after having watched it & recommended it, we made up our minds.

The movie has it's strengths (you wouldn't expect a Mani Ratnam movie to be lame, would you?), but falls short on the entertainment front. Abhishek acts really well throughout & Ash looks good in parts. Abhishek's last scene where he addresses the members of an inquiry commission brings forth memories of the great Lambu more than once. The songs are shot well, but totally serve to interrupt the flow of the narration. However, the surprise package of the movie for me was Mithun. Give him a good role & he delivers ..... super!

The movie ends with the kind of message that ToI is professing these days with it's 'India Poised' campaign. When Gurukant says, "Duniya se keh do, hum aa rahe hain", it makes one feel special ..... for the simple reason that it makes one realize that we are living at a time when the country (& it's fortunes) finally seem to be on the upswing, kinda like watching history being made ..... kya?

Call me naive, but that's what I'd like to believe.

The coming 3 weeks are gonna be really challenging, setting the pace for the months & maybe even the years ahead.

The 2nd ODI was a low scoring affair, but provided as many thrills as the 1st one, as India successfully managed to defend 189.

I think India has a very good record of defending low totals against the Windies, even then, the batting continues to remain a cause of concern.

MithunDa style .....

Boogie Woogie has been one of my favourite programs on TV ever since it started airing. Some weeks back, it featured Mithun as the chief guest on a Disco Special. Now, MithunDa is one of THE most unique actors ever to have emerged in Hindi cinema, a feat that has gone largely unrecognized.

However, Ravi, Naved & Javed here make sure that they pay the best tributes to this guy in their own inimitable style, harking back to the good ol' 80s. The song is a BappiDa classic, "Mausam Hai' from Suraksha. Just watch 'em go .....

ODI cricket is back & so is Dada!

It was the 1st of 4 ODIs featuring India & West Indies yesterday & it was total paisa-vasool ..... if you're a fan of big hitting, that is. The match saw the most runs ever being scored in a single ODI in India.

India batted first & managed 338 comprising of Gambhir's 69, Ganguly's 98 & Dravid & Dhoni's 60 odd each. Saurav's play brought back the glimpses of the mid & late 90s when he formed such a destructive opening combination with Sachin ..... the dancing down the wickets & the blasted sixes were a treat. Make no mistake, Dada is back & looks hungry ..... which can only be a good thing.

Dhoni was his usual wham-bam pulverizer style which looks super when it comes off. Dravid in contrast, was clinical but no less severe. Their partnership was very well paced & bought in 119 off the last 10.

The Windies though made a match of it & brought it down to the last ball. Some of the Indian bowling (Agarkar & Sreesanth) was appalling, feeding Chanderpaul (who got a mammoth 149) with short pitched stuff time & again.

However, it was all's well that ends well as India won after a long line of uninspired, insipid losses.

Though it is nice to see the team get back to winning ways, the bowling & fielding didn't look too good. These 2 departments need some serious work before the World Cup.

Meanwhile, there's a telecasting row going on over this series. Nimbus has the rights & is showing the matches on it's newly launched Neo Sports. DD is upto it's usual dadagiri, trying to get the feed, but so far Nimbus hasn't budged ..... which is good since DD cricket broadcasts are a nightmare with 4 balls per over & Krish Srikkanth on the filler show. God bless my cable operator for having the foresightedness to have bought the channel long ago!

German hotties

The 2007 Mercedes C Class is here .....



I still think the 2006 BMW 3 Series .....

..... looks hotter.

Bunty bhai gets married on the 27th this month. Bonny will, in all probability, be the best man. And I've succeeded in missing another of my cousins' weddings.

I'm back in touch with Jeetu. And Anjuman, and Deepa, and Sanket. Thanks to the wonders of the wired world.

Goings on

Ok, it was not for the Q3 results that those OB vans were in campus yesterday. They were here to cover the visit of some Brit who's supposed to be their next Prime Minister. Now, regarding this, there are two things that come to mind .....

1. What's with this sudden flurry of foreign dignitory visits to Wipro? One day it's the Portuguese prez & on the other it's the British PM-in-waiting. Quite high profile, those. I thought The Boss & the company were happy at letting the neighbours & their bosses have all the glory when it came to foreigners wanting to check out the Indian IT scene for themselves. But seeing how things are, it seems The Boss wouldn't mind a bit of publicity for himself either. Maybe there's an IPO or something coming out in the next few days. Anyway, I'd rather that the company kept the usual low profile it always has ..... else you risk becoming a dot on some crazed jehadi's radar. Not for nothing do they have armed guards every 10 steps over at Infosys. And .....

2. How come the British know who's gonna be their next PM? I mean you can never predict that sort of thing here in India ..... even 1 day before the elections! Maybe they've got some different succession policy.

Then there's this whole brouhaha over the 'racist treatment' meted out to Shilpa Shetty in Britain's Celebrity Big Brother. Going by how pathetic the Indian version of the same program is, I wonder why the Brits even care to watch it. But apparently, it's a huge hit there & viewership has gone up by leaps after this controversy. I've seen some of the clips on YouTube & anyone with the most basic common sense can make out that it's all being done for the camera. Still, Shilpa comes out of it all looking quite dignified & sensible ..... but then, who wouldn't, considering she was paid 3 crores to take part in the show!

And as far as reality shows go, gimme MTV Roadies 4 any day man! I've never followed a show like I've followed this one & it's been pretty absorbing stuff. Bani's profanities, Pooja's attitude, cool Anthony, confused Raj, the other people who got eliminated ..... Roopali, Sonam, Vishal & of course the Karizmas. And it's all handled very well by Ranvijay. The only sore point remains that goofball Gulshan Grover who pops up in every other episode trying to mean business ..... & 'trying to' is the operative word here.

OB vans from NDTV; TV18; TV Today & Times NOW are in the campus this morning. The Boss is probably gonna announce the Q3 results from here later today.

heh heh

The Portuguese prez came to the campus today to 'inaugurate' the Retail Learning Centre. Only thing is, that facility had been functioning since the last 6 months.

All hail the Great Indian Jugaad!

ToI (& most other papers) say that Bachchua has got engaged to that gold digger. What a waste of newsprint.

Toyota TF107

Toyota is 1st off the blocks with their new TF107 for the 2007 season. Note the 'Fly Kingfisher' emblazoned on the driver's sides.

I've shifted to the new Blogger.

ASIMO

It was a miracle when Honda got a robot to stand on it's feet like a human.

Then, they got it to walk like one.

But check out what they've taken it to now .....



..... this thing can run, dance, score goals & even climb stairs ..... amazing!

Apple iPhone

"No keys, the most advanced touchscreen ever" ..... "five years ahead of anything in today's mobile market" ..... trust Apple to come up with another revolution. I'm becoming a fan of this company.

Onsite chalo!

There is a sudden rash of friends going onsite.

Sandy & team are headed to UK; Sid will be off to Mexico; Neeral leaves for Seattle on Saturday & Praveen will soon be calling California home.

At this rate, I'll be left alone in Bangalore pretty soon. Oh, well.

Annnnd I'm back. The holiday stretched a tad longer than I would have wanted it to, but it was worth it.

It's only when you go 'home' that you realise how much you miss here at the workplace. The unconditional love of your dear ones, the familiarity of the home town, the dirt cheap but bloody awesome street food, the sparse traffic & the joys of driving/speeding .... I could go on & on, but it would suffice to say that the leave has left me rejuvinated.

Back to work then.