BMW India

.... began operations yesterday. The 3 Series is the 1st to be assembled.

Super 8s

The 2nd stage of the World Cup has begun & what a start it has been.

Australia powered their way to 322 against the Windies & the Carribeans couldn't even get close.

In the 2nd match, SA faced off against the Lankans & this happened .....

"South Africa needed a meagre four runs to win with five wickets in hand when Malinga finished batsmen as if swatting flies. He fooled Shaun Pollock with a beauty of a slower ball before hurrying Andrew Hall with a juddering yorker that looped up to cover. The first ball of the next over produced the hat-trick, the fifth in World Cups, when the set Jacques Kallis nicked to the wicketkeeper before a brute of a yorker zoomed past Makhaya Ntini.

No bowler in one-day history has managed four in four - Saqlain Mushtaq has managed four in five - and Malinga took Sri Lanka to the brink of an outrageous day-light robbery. Robin Peterson and Charl Langeveldt survived a nervy 11 deliveries before a thick outside edge flew off Peterson's bat to seal the deal. South Africa have laughed off the tag of 'chokers' but they were a hairsbreadth away from out-doing their previous stumblings. Sri Lanka made far too many mistakes but the fact that they got so close was a testament to their depth and variety. "

The standard of the game being played by teams like SA & the Aussies has consistently been high. This should be a good Super 8s.

Bangalore's been unbelievably warm over the last 2 weeks. Reminds of the summer weather back home.

Looks like global warming is catching up with 'the air-conditioned city'.

Now playing

Long time since I made a 'Now playing' post. Probably, 'cause of the dearth of good music. Anyway, here goes .....

What goes around ..... comes around - Justin Timberlake

I never liked Justin's brand of music .... even when he switched over to R & B. But this has got to be one of the best R & B tracks ever. And the lyrics add to the impact.

In Dino
Alvida

Soothing tracks from the film Life In a ..... Metro. Music by Pritam, but very unlike his usual produce. I hope they're originals, though. KK's voice on Alvida sounds so soothing after the recent overdose of Himesh.

In The Air Tonight Remix - Tupac feat. Phil Colins

Tupac's spin on Phil Colins' classic. Super! Discovered it through LimeWire.

I Ran - A Flock of Seagulls
Running Down A Dream - Tom Petty

Both from the GTA San Andreas soundtrack ..... awesome guitar riffs. Again thanks to LimeWire.

Tintin - the movie

Spielberg's finally got the rights after 25 years of negotiations. Cool! This, I'll be waiting for.

PS3 launches in Europe ....

.... & this is what MicroSoft had to say.

Done & dusted

It's probably the end of the 2007 cricket World Cup for India.

I feel like venting some spleen on Sachin & Dhoni, but what the heck ..... am not wasting my energy.

It's also the end of India's 'golden generation' of Sourav, Dravid, Sachin & Kumble ..... none of them will be there for the next edition of the World Cup. They couldn't do as much as they had the potential for.


Unfulfilled promises ..... the story of Indian cricket.

It's official now. Woolmer was murdered.

Sad. And shocking.

At World's End

The teasers are out, the final installment releases May 25th.

new Honda Unicorn

Honda acts ..... finally. Looks good ..... especially the 'Repsol' limited edition.

End of an era

IAF's MIG-23s were retired today.

India vs Bermuda - a string of records

From Cricinfo .....

• India recovered from their upset against Bangladesh and added one more to the several hidings Bermuda have received in the 2007 World Cup. Cricinfo looks at the stats highlights of the India-Bermuda clash at Trinidad.
• India's 413 for 5 broke the record for the highest total in a World Cup match. The previous highest was Sri Lanka's 398 for 5 against Kenya at Kandy in 1996. India's previous best was 373 for 6 against Sri Lanka at Taunton in 1999. Click here for the list of highest totals in World Cups.
• India's margin of victory by 257 runs broke the record for the largest margin of victory in ODIs. The previous record was Australia's 256-run win against Namibia in the 2003 World Cup. Sri Lanka also beat Bermuda by 243 runs on March 15.
• India pillaged 203 runs in the last 20 overs and 136 in the last ten overs. Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh added 122 runs off 62 balls for the fifth wicket.
• Malachi Jones became the first bowler to take a wicket with his first delivery in a World Cup when he had Robin Uthappa caught by Dwayne Leverock at slip.
• Virender Sehwag's 114 off 87 balls was his first century in World Cups, beating his previous highest of 82 in the 2003 World Cup final against Australia. He took just 81 balls to reach 100, making it the third fastest in World Cups. It was also his first one-day hundred since April 2005.
• There were five ducks in the Bermuda innings, equaling the record for most ducks in a World Cup innings. The three other instances were; England v West Indies at Lord's in 1975, Canada v Sri Lanka at Paarl in 2003 and Sri Lanka v India at Johannesburg in 2003.
• When Sourav Ganguly hit his second six during his 89, he equalled Ricky Ponting's record of 25 sixes - the most in World Cups - though Ganguly has played ten matches less than Ponting.
• Before his 57 off 29 balls today, Tendulkar had batted at No 6 only thrice, with a highest score of 36. The last time Tendulkar batted at No 6 was against Zimbabwe at Indore in November 1993.
• For the third time in four days Ponting's record of eight sixes against India in the 2003 final was under threat. First Herschelle Gibbs and then Brad Hodge smashed seven each against Netherlands and today Yuvraj hit seven before holing out while attempting the eighth.
• India's tally of 18 sixes equalled South Africa's record for most sixes in an innings. South Africa set the benchmark during their match against Netherlands on March 16.
• Dwayne Leverock's spell of 10-0-96-1 was the second most expensive 10-over spell in World Cups. The two most expensive figures are Martin Snedden's 12-0-105-2 against England in 1979 and Ashantha de Mel's 10-0-97-1 against West Indies in 1987.
• The partnership of 202 between Sehwag and Ganguly was the eighth double-century partnership in World Cups. Incidentally, four of the eight 200-plus stands belong to India. Click here for the list of highest partnerships in World Cups.

India vs Bermuda, India's 2nd game in this world cup.

India score 413 for 5. The highest ever total scored in a World Cup.

India finish the innings with 18 sixes, equalling South Africa's record for the most sixes in an innings.

It's the sixth instance of four batsman scoring fifties in a World Cup game.

And now, Inzamam has announced his renunciation of captaincy & retirement from ODIs.

The Great Bong captures the emotions aptly in his latest post.

Well the good old days may not return
And the rocks might melt, and the sea may burn

Im learning to fly but I aint got wings
Comin down is the hardest thing

Well some say life will beat you down
Break your heart, steal your crown
So I started out for God kno ws where
But I guess Ill know when I get there

Im learning to fly around the clouds
But what goes up must come down

Im learning to fly but I aint got wings
Comin down is the hardest thing
Im learning to fly around the clouds
But what goes up must come down

Tom Petty in 'Learning To Fly'

Bob Woolmer is dead!

This is turning out to be a strange World Cup.

F1 season 2007 is go

We begin with the Aussie GP again, like in old times.

Ferrari wins with Raikkonen at the wheel.

McLaren don't do too badly, occupying the rest of the podium.

Gut feel tells me, this is going to be McLaren's year. Go Silver Arrows!

You said it

"Playing against such teams can be a banana-skin, and you saw that today, with Bangladesh beating India as well. I think you can say that March 17, 2007 will be a historic day for cricket." - Bob Woolmer, Pakistan cricket coach, after Ireland beat Pakistan to send Pakistan out of contention for a place in the Super 8.

India too face an uphill task now. The loss to Bangladesh means they'll have to beat SL & Bermuda by a good margin if they want to get into the next stage. What rankles, however, is the ease with which they capitulated ..... it's a sad day for an Indian cricket fan.

1:56 AM & Bangladesh are on their way to a famous win against India. Not to be outdone, Ireland are probably gonna do the same to Pakistan.

It's minnows day today, for sure.

Iron Maiden

..... their 1st ever concert in India took place at Bangalore today.

6 6s in an over

4th day of the World Cup & we already have a world record ....

End of over 30 (36 runs) - South Africa 214/2 (RR: 7.13)

HH Gibbs 68* (36b 3x4 7x6) DLS van Bunge 4-0-56-0
JH Kallis 75* (84b 8x4 1x6) LP van Troost 1-0-12-0

29.6 van Bunge to Gibbs, SIX, He has done it! One-day record. No one has hit six sixes in a row. GIbbs stands alone in that zone. And the minnow bashing continues! Full and outside off and bludgeoned over long off
29.5 van Bunge to Gibbs, SIX, Short in length, on the off stump line and Gibbs rocks back and swat-pulls it over wide long off. SImply amazing. What a batsman. This is pure violence!
29.4 van Bunge to Gibbs, SIX, Wah Wah! Low full toss and guess where this went Yep. A slap slog and it went over deep midwicket! He is going to go for 6 sixes in this over!
29.3 van Bunge to Gibbs, SIX, Carnage! Flatter one this time but it makes no difference to Gibbs. He just stands there and delivers. This one also has been sucked over long off
29.2 van Bunge to Gibbs, SIX, Murder! Floated on the leg and middle stump line and Gibbs sends it soaring over long-off.
29.1 van Bunge to Gibbs, SIX, Violence! Gibbs charged down the track and hoicked it over long on.

No moment spent in the company of Rajan, Ramesh, Sathya, Bhargavi & Praveen is ever boring.

nifty Nifty

The highs & lows of the NSE are beginning to take a toll on my health.

ICC World Cup 2007 - 1st Match, Group D
West Indies v Pakistan
Sabina Park, Kingston, Jamaica, 13 March 2007

West Indies 241/9 (50 ov)
Pakistan 187 (47.2 ov)

Result West Indies won by 54 runs

Heartwarming stuff!

Sold!

007's favourite ride has been sold to some British & Kuwaiti investors.

ICC Cricket World Cup 2007

It's begun.

May the best team win ..... hope it's India!

Koi Ho Na Ho

I've always felt that Indian rock is not promoted the way it should be. But this .....



..... raises hopes. Good video, good voice, good riffs. Commendable.

With 36 billionaires, India has overtaken Japan's 24 billionaires, after two decades of Japan topping the Asian rich list.

So what does that make us? ..... a poor country with rich people?

It was 'Women's Day' today & all the females were getting roses on arrival at the campus!

First, they let them have all those tax exemptions & now this ..... how come there's never something like this for us men? .... like a cold beer or something once in a while .....

WC '07 is go ......

The warm up matches before the World Cup have begun ..... for Pakistan & the Proteas, it was literally a warm up as their hotel caught fire! ..... heh heh.

Anyway, the best performance in these matches so far has been that of Bangladesh, who put it across the Kiwis in a tense thriller. India also did well scoring exactly 300 & then beating Holland by 180 odd ..... a good start no doubt, but a sign of things to come? ..... let's see.

High Holi Weekend

Friday evening & C2 was in the party mood. Friday night, friends, chips, Bacardi & Kingfisher ..... what a start to the weekend!

Saturday & Soumya managed to get in touch with his firangi friend Will, who'd promised him a bottle of Tequila on his way back from London last year. Promise fulfilled, it was party time at Salil's place with Arvind, Shirke & Pandey Jee joining in. An early celebration of Holi with 'Lambu Special' song selection by Abhay; 'Chattisgarh Dhamaka' tales by Soumya (tales can't get taller than Diana Gun; Mystery of Ramdev Mistri & the Nag Panchami Snake Race ..... rotfl ..... Arvind pitching in with, "My Lord, ye point note kiya jaye!). Gr8 Saturday nite after a long time.

Today, 4th March 2007 is Holi. Should be good. But the maahaul in Bangalore leaves a lot to be desired. Back home, it would've been rocking.

My city is a 100 years old today!

I'm back in touch with Gev!