Rolling Stone - India Edition

The Indian edition launched this week.

Crusin'

This is turning out to be a totally chillaxed work-week.

Wave 1 got over last week & we delivered on schedule. Uma & Swami's insistence on quality code has paid off & UAT finished a day ahead of schedule since they couldn't find enough bugs!

The project seems headed for a 5/5. What's it between me & projects getting max ratings?

It's been an extremely windy day today.

Another match vs Oz, another controversy

This tour has been ugly & confrontational. And I'm glad because that's the only language the Aussies understand.

50!

Finally managed 50 in 1 day. It's taken 3 weeks roughly.

Operation: Blockade

Completed. Trivial, but lots of fun.

5ive - Let's Dance

One of ma favorite 90s videos. Watch it, it's worth it.

Indian Premier League

The players' auction took place today.

MSD predictably bagged the top prize of 1.5 million smackers from the Chennai SuperKings. Can kismet get any better for this guy?

Team compositions as of now are -

Jaipur Shane Warne (US$450,000), Graeme Smith (US$475,000), Younis Khan (US$225,000), Kamran Akmal (US$150,000), Yusuf Pathan (US$475,000), Mohammad Kaif (US$675,000), Munaf Patel (US$275,000), Justin Langer (US$200,000)

Chennai MS Dhoni (US$1.5 million), Muttiah Muralitharan (US$600,000), Matthew Hayden (US$375,000), Jacob Oram (US$675,000), Stephen Fleming (US$350,000), Parthiv Patel (US$325,000), Joginder Sharma (US$225,000), Albie Morkel (US$675,000), Suresh Raina (US$650,000), Makhaya Ntini (US$200,000), Michael Hussey (US$350,000)

Mumbai Sachin Tendulkar (icon), Sanath Jayasuriya (US$975,000), Harbhajan Singh (US$850,000), Shaun Pollock (US$550,000), Robin Uthappa (US$800,000), Lasith Malinga (US$350,000), Dilhara Fernando (US$150,000), Loots Bosman (US$175,000)

Bangalore Rahul Dravid (icon), Anil Kumble (US$500,000), Jacques Kallis (US$900,000), Zaheer Khan (US$450,000), Mark Boucher (US$450,000), Cameron White (US$500,000), Wasim Jaffer (US$150,000), Dale Steyn (US$325,000), Nathan Bracken (US$325,000), Shivnarine Chanderpaul (US$200,000)

Hyderabad Adam Gilchrist (US$700,000), Andrew Symonds (US$1.35 million), Herschelle Gibbs (US$575,000), Shahid Afridi (US$675,000), Scott Styris (US$175,000), VVS Laxman (US$375,000), Rohit Sharma (US$750,000), Chamara Silva (US$100,000), RP Singh (US$875,000), Chaminda Vaas (US$200,000), Nuwan Zoysa (US$110,000)

Mohali Yuvraj Singh (icon), Mahela Jayawardene (US$475,000), Kumar Sangakkara (US$700,000), Brett Lee (US$900,000), Sreesanth (US$625,000), Irfan Pathan (US$925,000), Ramesh Powar (US$170,000), Piyush Chawla (US$400,000), Simon Katich (US$200,000), Ramnaresh Sarwan (US$225,000)

Kolkata Sourav Ganguly (icon), Shoaib Akhtar (US$425,000), Ricky Ponting (US$400,000), Brendon McCullum (US$700,000), Chris Gayle (US$800,000), Ajit Agarkar (US$330,000), David Hussey (US$675,000), Ishant Sharma (US$950,000), Murali Kartik (US$425,000), Umar Gul (US$150,000), Tatenda Taibu (US$125,000)

Delhi Virender Sehwag (icon), Daniel Vettori (US$625,000), Shoaib Malik (US$500,000), Mohammad Asif (US$650,000), AB de Villiers (US$300,000), Dinesh Karthik (US$525,000), Farveez Maharoof (US$225,000), Tillakaratne Dilshan (US$250,000), Manoj Tiwary (US$675,000), Gautam Gambhir (US$725,000), Glenn McGrath (US$350,000)

I think Chennai & Mohali are looking the most balanced. I had great hopes for Kolkata, but SRK's ownership does not seem to have done them any good.

One thing is for sure, this is history in the making.

Jolly is all set to take forward the precedent set by his illustrious cousins in Daddy's family by marrying outside the community.

food I miss

Mummy's kadhi
Mummy's rajma
Mummy's omellettes

Partha's taal mishri that he used to get from Durgapur

Jaychand's dosa from school

Lakhi's egg rolls

:-(

My Name is Anthony Gonsalves

It's hard to believe that this movie was directed by the same person who helmed Shool. The plot had potential but banal comedy, indifferent performances & cliches galore let it down badly.

Team Outing @ Ivy Unwind Island

Awesome food & great company. It took a long time coming, but the wait was worth it.

ब्लॉगर, अब हिन्दी मे।

Damn, they can't get the spelling of the language right!

14th Feb

Rozen-e-Deewar

Copied this on a lark from Arnie's laptop. It's superb!

Microsoft Plus!

Awesome! I'm impressed.

Hard Boiled

An absolute orgy of violence. This movie is a sure classic for fans of the genre Woo specialises in.

Compared to this one, he's been pretty restrained in his Hollywood offerings so far.

Me thinks Woo should remake it for today's generation. Probably starring Matt Damon & Brad Pitt. How awesome would that be!

No Uma, no Swamy & no Kuppu.

A day comes, which comes but rarely when the Project Manager, his deputy & the Technical Lead all choose to skip work on the same day.

The team was like a class full of students who've suddenly realised they have half the day off. Thiru & me decided to leave early. And that means at 6 o'clock.

K.I.T.T. is back

This Sunday.

Check this out. It seems SRK is popular in Deutschland too!

Sunday

Mutton by Sid for lunch, India vs Australia on the telly with Ishant Sharma delivering a kick ass performance to help India put it across the Ozies. Perfect!

NFS Underground

Okay, i may be several years late, but this is a pretty cool game.

My favorite rides? These 2 .....


the Mazda RX-7 &


the Nissan Skyline GT-R.

MTV Roadies 5.0

The auditions got over last week. The journey began today.

More of the same.

I followed the 4th season & it seems 2007 all over again.

Indian Budweiser

Bud's Indian version was launched a few months back & Sittu & me decided to sample some today.

It's very light & my guess is it'll go very well with food or snacks.

But I'll stick to Kingfisher Strong for other occasions.

Cena is back

And what a surprise it turned out to be!

HHH, Cena & Batista were the last remaining 3 in the Battle Royal & it was a great finish with Cena winning.

Skoda Fabia

After having heard of it's 'imminent' launch for more than 2 years, it's finally here.

Saw one near home today. Looked impressive.

Working on a Sunday

Kishore ditched & I ended up the only person working in a wing meant for 150. Without AC.

2008 Mitsubishi Eclipse

The Eclipse facelift ....


..... looks like a straight 'lift' of the new Skyline's front.

Sad to see Mitsu doing this.

Inter-Not

The net has been down & almost out for almost a week now.

Coincidentally, 3 long distance fiber optic cables (FALCON, FLAG and SEA-ME-WE4) have been damaged one after the other in a span of 3-5 days near Egypt.

Coincidentally, all of them carry traffic between India & Europe.

Coincidentally, all of them are either fully or partially owned by Indian companies.

Shady? You bet!

Gaming time

The laptop has once again opened options for me to waste time gaming.

Operation Blockade; NFS Hot Pursuit 2; NFS Underground & GTA Vice City are favs for now. Coming up soon, GTA San Andreas & NFS Carbon.

Loud music ....

.... on the MP3 player can sometimes help get over the bullshit that life routinely dishes out. Besides shooting out your ear drums.

Now Playing

Boond. Haven't heard all the tracks yet, but Jal's latest shows promise, I'll be checking it out in the coming week. 'Sajni' is just awesome.

Race O.S.T. Atif's 'Pehli Nazar' takes time but grows on you like nothing else. Pritam continues his tradition of lifting, this time from a South Korean band, but the end result, as usual, is superb.

Aman Hayer's Groundshaker 2. The 1st Groundshaker was a landmark & Aman does an admirable job of following it up here. His only single on the compilation featuring Apache & Hard Kaur is very hummable.

Decided to walk to office today. Crossed a BMTC Volvo almost halfway through the route (jammed with vehicles throughout it's length). Reached Silk Board before it.