1 stormy hour

Big thunderstorm last evening. Prashanth did the right thing by leaving at 7, while I kept postponing even though not feeling well. The rain + wind started suddenly around 7:30 & boy it was something.

Bangalore had been abnormally warm since the last 3 weeks with no sign of rain & this, it seemed, was payback time for the precipitation department. The wind was howling in through the glass walls of the office, and the rest room doors wouldn't open because of the pressure!

Decided to have dinner at the office itself (that makes it breakfast, lunch and dinner, all at the office yesterday) & found out that part of the false ceiling of the top floor had been blown out by the wind.


The scene resembled the aftermath of a small bomb having gone off. There was a thin film of water spread all over the cafeteria floor.

Thankfully the rain had stopped by 9, and we came down to the lobby to find the 8 foot glass main door smashed to small bits & glass all over the reception area. Desisited from taking pics since there was a lot of security present. Outside the gate there was a 6 foot wide stream of water rushing down towards Silk Board. Akshay, Baishaly & me took the detour towards Total Mall & luckily found a 201 headed our way. Hopped on promptly for an uneventful but (God be praised) dry ride home.

Arni called up asking for candles, but there weren't any to be found in the shops that were still open. The area around the temple was like a warzone ..... very dark, no lights, branches & leaves strewn around & utility poles bent at crazy angles with their wires sagging to the ground. This was a result of a large branch that fell directly on a pole near Bharath Computers, snapping it into 2 and taking out all the poles in the vicinity.

The electricity had not been restored till this morning when I left for office. Hopefully it will be when I get home in the evening. But I'm still worried about the cable & broadband connections. Let's see.

EDIT: There was no power in the evening, but the BESCOM guys worked into the night under an irritating drizzle to get everything restored by 10 p.m. Yup, power, cable & broadband .... all of' 'em.

10 at 1 go

ISRO launched the PSLV C9 today deploying 10 satellites in a span of 16 minutes.

It's a world record!

Banned!

No, it's not Shoaib Akhtar this time. It's our very own Sardar Bhajji & he's outta the IPL for this year.

Most people say he deserves it after what he did, but I say, uski galti nahi hai yaar, after all ...... you know ;-)

Spanish GP

A Ferrari 1-2 with Hamilton bringing in 3rd for McLaren. Ferrari have looked strong in the last couple of races.

Fisichella was briefly in 8th place but couldn't hold on till the end. Else we might have seen Force India gethering it's 1st points.

My 1st pair of Lee Coopers.

Hot wheels

Some of the better looking designs launched recently ....


^Audi Q5 - Audi continues to amaze with it's design prowess. Aimed squarely at the BMW X3, this is a superb looker with Audi's amazing handling. Another winner for them.


^Cadillac CTSV - It's rakish and full of straight lines, but has presence like no other. Cadillac turns it on with the latest CTS.


^Opel Insignia - Stands out in a segment populated by the staid looking Honda Accord & Toyota Camry. The dynamism in the design is a touch of class.

Inspiring stuff

Knight Riders went down to their 1st loss in the IPL today. But it was against a team whose performance has been remarkable.

Rajasthan Royals, coming into the tournament as rank outsiders (as I'd written a few posts ago) have shown tremendous team spirit and determination. As Arni said, the other teams are better on paper, but these guys perform better.

And a lot of the credit for that has gone to their captain-cum-coach Shane Warne.

I've almost always viewed the Aussies from a nationalistic point of view (which means hating them most of the time), but here in the IPL we've gotten a chance to see them from a more neutral perspective. It's quite something to watch Lee's aggression or Hayden's domination or Warne's leadership skills. No wonder they've cornenered most of the MoM awards so far. Inspiring stuff indeed.

IPL - 1st few days

Something amazing happened at the Rajasthan Royals vs Kings XI Punjab game yesterday. Sreesanth playing for King's mouthed off at the Royals' keeper Kamran Akmal. This is usual for Sreesanth. What happened next though was anything but usual .... the crowd took offense (it was Jaipur, the Royals' home ground). And soon began the chants of 'Sreesanth hai hai' around the same time that the Royals were turning the game around while chasing a stiff target.

It took a very short while for the BCCI to get the IPL up and running. It's taking an even shorter time for regional support to develop among the general public. Why else would an Indian crowd hoot an Indian for having sledged a Pakistani?

Incidentally, the IPL has been grabbing more eyeballs than even the K-serials these days. This was The Telegraph on the Monday ....


.... after the Eden Gardens floodlights fiasco.

Thums Up

Sarfaraz & me decided to go out for cold drinks at 11 in the night after a heavy Chinese dinner. Bought a huge chilled 2L + 250ml free bottle of Thums Up. I was having a soft drink after a long long time. Sid spiced things up with his Jal Jeera mix.

Incidentally, Baishaly, Prashanth, Akshay & moi got together to play carom at the M3 rec room. That too was after a long time. 4-5 years maybe.

Krazzy 4

Okay timepass, bar the preaching at the end. Stuff like, "we're mad but society is madder still" & "tumhare jaise achche aur sachche logon ki yahaan kadar nahin" ..... wtf, if I wanted to be preached to, I'd go to church.

It has begun

Missed the inaugural ceremony (which reportedly was spectacular) because of another of those effing after office onsite calls. But managed to reach on time for the 1st match of the history creating Indian Premier League.

Kolkata Knight Riders vs the Bangalore Royal Challengers (I still can't get over the silly names). An unknown entity till this game, Brendon McCullum smashed & I mean S.M.A.S.H.E.D. the knickers off the Bangaloreans bowling, putting up the highest ever individual T20 score of 158(!).


The local boys were never gonna be in the game with the likes of the Dravids; Jaffers & Kallises & so it proved to be. They were all out for 70 odd.

What I gathered - sold out crowds & the atmosphere at Chinnaswamy was great. SRK supported his team all through with child-like enthusiasm. I didn't really know which team to support before this, but seeing the Kolkatan's performance (without stars like Chris Gayle & Shahid Afridi) today, I'm veering around towards them. This though, is liable to change as the league progresses. Also, it was great to see Ponting & Saurav sharing high 5s after the dismissals.

Hmmm ....

Kuppu wants me to take sole responsibility of something that beats anything I've worked on before.

Y.P. has plans for my marriage.

I ask a girl out for coffee & she says she can't cause she's got music class!!! WTF!

Payeng has decided to shut down his blog. It had become a habit. I'll miss him.

This post ought to be read with Atif's 'Hum Kis Gali Ja Rahen Hain' playing in the background.

Lots of Lindor in the office today as B's husband returned from Bahrain. She kept her promise, but I didn't get as many as planned.

One can never have enough of chocolates.

India 1 SA 1

It's been an evenly matched series. And the result reflects that.

IPL team logos

All the team logos have finally been revealed.









All pics lifted from Wikipedia - resolution as is.

My take -
Chargers & Daredevils look good.

Knight Riders & Royals are decent.

King's Xi & Super Kings are similar, both in name and logo.

Indians & Royal Challengers lack imagination.

Salil quits

Facing pressures on the home front, Salil resigned last week. He'll be heading back to where it all started, JSR in a month's time.

I feel sad for him since his next promotion would have had him become a manager. And I'll miss his always happy face & the friendly banter. Good luck buddy.

The Aye Pee El

Trust Mallya to do things in style. He's bringing over the Washington Redskins cheerleader squad to do duty for the Bangalore Royal Challengers in the IPL. I think SRK with the Knight Riders & VJM with his team will be top competitors for style points, if not for the on-field action.

Mumbai is owned by a pucca businessman, who seems to have no interest in the running of the team except as a means of pushing his brand. Preity's team appears lost in the woods, as does Hyderabad. Delhi is making noise with Akki as it's mascot. Good choice, that. Chennai has MSD, & will be top contenders just due to that fact. Jaipur, well does anyone remember that they exist even?

Action starts 18th April, but I'm still not clear on which team to support.

And what's behind this fascination with royalty when it comes to naming teams? Check this out, out of 8 teams, 5 have some sort of a connection to purple blood ..... Bangalore Royal Challengers, Kolkata Knight Riders, Jaipur Royals, King's XI Punjab & Chennai Super Kings! I thought the royals were asked to take a hike when the country became independent. Such a paucity of imagination.

Bauaaji

Studying at a school located just 10 minutes from it, Bauaaji used to be a favourite haunt of ours. Tales abounded of the 'drugs' available there & how the tea would be laced with Cannabis to make it addictive. And addictive it was.

At any given time of the day, one could see boys (always boys, very few girls, if ever) from the various schools in the area sitting under the trees near the stall. Students from Loyola, DBMS, Beldih Church and RV would be the usual suspects. Newly acquired 2 wheelers would screech & skid to a halt & orders would be barked for the customary cups of tea & the accompanying cigarettes. Yes, those were great days.

Turns out that we were not alone. Maddy & Imtiaz used to visit too.

Unfortunately, Telegraph reports that the place is facing closure. The article rightly calls the place an 'institution'. I just hope they manage to keep it alive and don't move it too far from the original place. Else the essence will be lost.

Bahrain GP

A Ferrari 1-2 as Force India manage to bring both cars across the finish line for the 1st time. Fisichella finished at 12th, ahead of McLaren's Hamilton!

And yes, McLaren had a really bad race. The cars were just not looking good.

Apple Safari

Read a favorable review in yesterday's ToI & decided to check it out.

The font smoothing takes some getting used to, but it's a nice change from the usual IE and Firefox. The letters come out bolded more and the speed is nothing like I've seen on the other two. 

The initial impressions therefore, are very positive.

Cloverfield

Liked it.

Shoaib is banned .... again

Okay, here we go again. S.A. has been banned by the PCB for 5 years. It effectively means an end to his career, but he's still smiling 'cause he'll get to play the IPL.

Last time something like this happened, PCB revoked the ban before people could get over it. Knowing them, I wouldn't be surprised if history repeats itself.