-- boss is on leave
-- parking lots are emptier,
-- trees don't have a leave left
-- next-desk colleague 'who-keeps-his-left-eye-on-my-screen' is working from home...
-- office front desk flooded with cookies n chocolates
-- a deadline to meet, but no mood to work.
-- as usual, 'm distracted,
-- thinking about spending next month back home doing nothing :-)
-- Weather Gods are doing some sort of experiment, it drizzles in morning, in noon sun shines at its best, in evening again drizzling resumes, and in night drizzling becomes rain n lots of rain accompanied with high-speed winds making howling sounds whole night..or till the time I sleep.
-- n I'm wasting time,
-- moments of nothingness
Or hmmm...ahhh......dunno.........crap!!!

Two wrongs make a right!! -- That’s the new BCCI mantra!
Failure of everyone in ODI series resulted in Dada's recall. :-)

'Bande poore nahi ho rahe.....'

When I was a kid, in our 'block' there used to be two cricket teams, one kinda 16+ and other one of say 12+ olds, whenever 'senior' team were short of guys they used to include some of us under- 12 boys to make count 11, though most of the time they used to place us at thirdman for fetching the balls from boundary :-( , but whoever got selected used to feel proud :-) .....

Exactly same scene is with Indian team, bande poore nahi ho rahe...so selectors decided to include Ganguly :-)
After all, atleast on papers his name looks better than 'Kaifs/Rainas/Mongias and Raos' :-)

**************
Time for a listing my Top 5 good , ok-types and bad movies of 2006

Top 5 good ones ::
1) Omkara
2) Rang de basanti
3) Lage Raho Munna Bhai
4) Khosla ka ghosla
5) Dor

Top 5 ok-types time-pass ::
1) Don - The Chase Begins Again
2) Yun Hota Toh Kya Hota
3) Darwaaza bandh rakho
4) Taxi No. 9211
5) Pyar Ke Side Effects

Worst 5 ::
1) Kabhi Alvida na kehna -- K Jo should be banned for 5 years.
2) Fanaa -- Lifetime ban is not enough for Kunal Kohli.
3) Phir hera pheri -- Priyadarshan, should be put under house-arrest to reduce 'confusions' in his life.
4) Baabul -- Director should be hanged/shot/buried/burnt and ashes should be dumped in 200 feet pit.
5) Darna Zaroori Hai -- RGV, someone please drag him out of his office and show him there is more to life than his make-believe underworld.

***********
Its tough to come back to work after 4 days at home,

-- Visited Mystery spot for second time, and coincidently visited the same place on same day last year too. Seriously this place should be renamed as 'Desi Spot', its soo full Indians and they should consider hiring a 'desi' guide.

-- Also updated my photoblog, and more snaps to come!!

Babul
Kabul
same day dekh kar kari badhi bhool :-(

Ravi Chopra should be banned from industry immediately, seriously I feel he should seek career in something like event management rather!!

*******
Kabul Express, -- a mediocre documentary movie, made with sole purpose of exposing Pakistan's much maligned dual-policies.

During whole movie, I mistook Salman Shahid for Goofy Paintal :-(
There is absolutely nothing to write about the movie, it was just plain documentary, that’s it.
*******

Yes, this place revolves ard , bollywood and cricket :-) at least these topics keep it going.
Lately work and other commitments kept me away from it, and our team's performance post-WI tour contributed a lot.

Now at last, some good news flowed, first win in SA, and justice being delivered in Jessica Lal case, and loved the way Judges quashed arrogant Jethmalani's arguments.

4 days, driving 1400 miles and covering :

• Disneyland
• LA Downtown
• San Diego Sea World
• Santa Monica State Beaches
• Hollywood Universal Studios

PURE BLISS!!

Will update the photoblog soon!

Hum to hai pardes mein des mein niklaa hoga chaand
apni raat ki chhat par kitna tanhaa hoga chand

Jin aankhon mein kajal ban kar tairee kaali raat ho
Un aankhon mein aansoo ka ek katra hoga chand

Raat ney aisa pech lagaya, tooti haath se dor
Aangan waale neem mein ja kar atka hoga chand

Chand bina har din yun beeta jaise yug beetey
mere bina kis haal mein hoga, kaisa hoga chand.....

-- Dr. Rahi Masoom Raza

*******
One year completed in Alien land!

Quick update

"Band bajeee padhi hai"

Don

Don ka review likhna mushkil hi nahi...na mumkin hai....kyuki kuch yaad hi nahi rehta :-)

Total masala, total yaari-dosti type movie, SRK recommending Priyanka, Arjun of his Temptation troupe..and Farhan giving work to his friends..

Music was on weaker side, Shankar Mahdevan's voice was medicore in 'Ganpati' song, someone with heavy voice like Rathod or Amit Kumar would have done a better job!!

And I'm 200% sure nobody can write a complete review or more than 10 lines about storyline!
All I can remember is that it started with Chunky and ended with Isha, with lots of useless characters like Kareena/Rampal/Om Puri and equally useless songs thrown in.
Almost all songs were picturized as stage shows; Kareena's number was worst and SRK 'Paan' song was best choreographed.

Only saving grace was the background music, coz that was remix of older version.

After KANK, and now Don, I'm convinced that SRK is no longer an actor, he is simply SRK in his movies not the character, but just larger-than-life SRK himself.
Its time he and his director-friends realize that and stop him from heading towards Dada's fate.

In all, a gamble that didn't pay off; still a risk-worth taking, a failed experiment by Farhan, anyways every time he cannot deliver a DCH or Lakshaya, but still he managed to remain in the elite league. From a 'male-bonding story' to a 'love-story in war-background', and to a 'classic-remake', now lets wait what he comes up with next!

Time to go....

No, no I'm not going anywhere; I mean its high time to drop 'SEHWAG, RAINA and PATHAN'.
Replace them with Gambhir, Mongia/Rohit Sharma, Zaheer Khan.
(Don't even think of bringing in Kaif, he is hopeless and strokeless)

******
It was our first diwali away from home, and it was kind of mixed one,
it was just like every first thing one does in life with all confusions n doubts and in the end feels relieved that things went on well. Well, we too took our lessons from it. Needless to say, home was terribly missed.

******
Read these though provoking words somewhere, so simple and so right.

Never tell anyone that you're: writing a book, going on a diet, exercising, taking a course, or quitting smoking. They'll encourage you to death. -- Lynn Johnston

No-no seriously no, I'm not trying to say anything ;-)

Another Tag completed :-)

When Aalapana tagged me here, I thought this is going to be really tough tag to complete, but surprisingly when I started doing, it took no time and really really enjoyed writing about my favourite music.
Thanks Aalapna for this wonderful tag.

Your favourite lyricist and the lyrics you remember the most....
"Shailendra"

"Sab kuch seekhaa humne naa seekhii hoshiyaari
Sach hai duniyawalon ki hum hain anaarii "

Your favourite song on friendship
"Diye jaltey hain, phool khiltey hain, badi ,mushkil se magar, duniya mein dost miltey hain "


Best song portraying life's emotions {zindagi se bhara hua,zindagi ke baare mein}
"Zindagi khwaab hai, khwaab mein jhuuth kyaaa...aur bhalaa sach hai kyaa "

Which song are you humming today?
"Jhuuthey nainaa bole saanchi batiyaan "

One song which brings tears to your eyes
"Luka Chuppi bahut huyi saamne aa ja naa..."

A song which gives you hope,reason to try again and again,a reason to say that life is beautiful:)
"Kisi ki muskuraahaton pe ho nisaar, kisi ka dard mil sake to le udhaar
Kisi ke vaaste ho tere dil mein pyaar jeenaa isii ka naam hai"

When you want to be with yourself,silent and content but with music,with song would that be?
" Yaad kiya dil ne kaha ho tum...."

If you have to express your love for someone with a song, which would that, be?
"Tere mere sapaney ab ek rang hain ...."

5 songs, which you listen to the most

"Yeh nayan darrey darrey...."

"Tere bina zindagi se koi shikwa to nahi...."
"Main zindagi ka saath nibhaata chalaa gaya...."
"Din Dhal jaaye haay, raat naa jaay...."
"Abhi na jao chhod kar ke dil ab...."

Ho gaya….

I am thinking about...home and mom
I said.....'hmmmm...'
I want to....be successful
I wish....sometimes
I hear....voices and songs in my head, in no particular order
I wonder....why I get bored so easily
I regret....times when I lost my temper
I am....in control
I dance...only in baraats
I sing....all the time
I cry....sometimes
I am not always....boring
I make with my hands....all sorts of cricketing gestures
I write....sometimes
I confuse....my boss by giving him 100s of ideas
I need....good sleep and peace

vs Harsha's 18 and song of the week :-)

At last I'm writing something, not just to keep it alive but keep myself motivated and interested to come back and do the cool tags passed by my oldest blog buddies!!

Well, last 2 weeks were hectic; or hectic 'd be an understatement!!
*****
Recently read here Harsha's 18 for 2007 WC, and before I forget I decided to jot down my list of 18.
Here it is::
1 Sachin
2 Sehwag/Gambhir
3 Dravid
4 Mongia
5 Yuvraj
6 Raina/(Rohit or Badri)
7 Dhoni
8 Pathan/Agarkar/Powar
9 Bhajji/MuraliKarthik
10 Khan/RPS
11 Patel/Sreesanth
I don't wanna go into details of why Rohit or Badri and why not Tej or Raghu; thats pointless like any other thing. My blog, my list. Period.

and here is Harsha's list
"Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Mongia, Mohammad Kaif, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh, Ramesh Powar, Anil Kumble, Ajit Agarkar, Irfan Pathan, Munaf Patel, RP Singh, Sreesanth, Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra."
*****
Aajkal song playing in my head is...
"Aye dil hai mushkil jeena yahan
Zara hat ke zara bach ke,
Yeh hai Bombay meri jaan"
and this para is in loop
"Beghar ko aawara yahan kehte has has
Khud kaate gale sabke kahe isko business
Ik cheez ke hain kai naam yahan
Zara hat ke zara bach ke, yeh hai Bombay meri jaan"

I'm delighted to see myself tagged by Arunima ..atlast got some thing to write :-) ....though I'm sure it'll turn out to be as boring as re-runs of 'krishi-darshan'.
***
Deleted my orkut profile, was kinda bored of it, and I think its for lot younger generation, as none of my school/college/pg time friend is active there, probably they too have found it boring/kiddish.
***
Completed 7 years at work :-) ,and I'm happy about it :-)
***
I feel major factor behind success of LRMB is the major-failure(in terms of mass expectations) of KANK.
***
If you are following 1993 Bombay blast trials and you've not seen 'Black Friday', then you are surely missing something.
***
Corruption, poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, crime, reservations, terrorism, pathetic health-care, riots, scams, overloaded judicial system etc etc...list of our problems are unending with no solution in sight, things are getting worse from bad.
Common man doesn't want to fight the corrupt system; infact is busy in making his ends meet and rightly so!!

All above mentioned problems are inter-woven, and if one digs further into each of them, why so much corruption/poverty etc etc...The root cause comes out to be is our ever-increasing POPULATION.

Everybody knows this but there is no law for curbing it, and here I feel common man can chip in by following a one-child policy for a better tomorrow, for inheriting a better India to the next generations!!

We had a wonderful weekend, probably best since we came here.
And on top of it, I took Monday off and slept whole day :-)
Well, we went to Lake Tahoe, which is exactly 200 miles away from our place, its beautiful and huge, so huge that it can take care of whole America's water needs for 5.5 yrs. !!
I was totally mesmerized by the clarity and color of water, it changes after every few miles, it was green to be begin with then turned sky blue. .turquoise green...purple.. navy blue!!

Will post some snaps soon!
*********
Song playing in my head.....in a loop, and its gonna take a while to change the track ..till then.....

ye nayan darey darey, ye jaam bharey bharey
zaraa piiney do

kal ki kisako khabar, ik raat hoke nidar
mujhe jeene do
ye nayan darey darey ...

Raat haseen ye chaand haseen
par sabase haseen mere dilabar...

aur tujh se haseen,.. aur tujh se haseen tera pyaar
tu jaane na
ye nayan darey darey ...

pyaar me hai jeevan ki khushi
deti hai khushi.. kai gam bhi
main maan bhi loon,.. main maan bhi loon kabhie haar
tu maane na

ye nayan darey darey ...

*******
Came across this wonderful article ..and 200% agree with it except #8.

12 Rules for Marriage

FWD:

Recently got these two mail forwards..and they say it all :-)

Nothing exciting happening these days, and 3 days weekend did no good as I had to work partially on Saturday and Monday. We had our share of fun in limited time we had.

******

Weather report of Delhi on the sidebar makes me smile, each time it mentions weather condition as 'HAZE' , I pity their satellite which provides that data :-)
Its not HAZE its pollution of my dearest city :-)

******

Result of the series looks pretty obvious by looking at the way Younis n Youhana are clobbering English attack.

Also dunno why they've Clarke in their lineup, he is plain useless guy with funny teeth!! Though Broad looks an interesting prospect, time flies I remember once how I used to
really like his dad Chris's and Athey's opening combination.

Treschothick looks out of sorts, may be he should have been made the captain instead of Strauss, or he is paying a price for abandoning India's tour citing first personal n later weird
fitness reasons.

*******

'Least said, soonest mended.'
or
'Most said, soonest benefited.'
or
'Least said, soonest benefited.'
or
'Most said, soonest mended.'

hmmm what’s your pick??

In recent days, after Ustad Bismillah Khan, world has lost another legend - Hrishikesh Mukherjee!!


All his films were meaningful, timeless, amazingly simple, providing fascinating insight into human relations!

My personal favorite 5 are::
Anari
Abhimaan
Jurmana
Anand
Anupama


And with his death, an era of innocence, simplicity and beautiful filmmaking has come to an end!

May his soul rest in peace!

**********

Weekend was as usual spent at its lazy best, roaming here and here at odd hours, sleeping/eating/sleeping at odd hours.

And also updated my photo blog!

Oh man !!!!! it was a long ordeal of close to 4 hours, and we were sitting on the seat number 1 and 2 of row number 1, that means just inches away from the screen B-(
From that distance initially it was hard to distinguish Rani from Kiron Kher but eventually eyes adjusted with a lot of help from Rani's scratchy voice.

'KANK' confirms one's belief that media in all forms(tv/radio/print/internet etc etc) is biased (read sold); and dances to the tunes of green color papers! (or cloth)

KANK is a 70 crore product of a rich stubborn KJo's whims, who is obsessed with SRK. Almost all scenes have SRK, and in almost every second scene somebody is crying.
SRK looks like old Veer Prataap Singh of Veer-Zaara who has just come out of his imprisonment, and is big time predictable.
Rani specializes in one-eye weeping, I wonder how she does that.

KANK is more like a TV serial, typical K types one, long, boring, and irritating, at times disgusting, specially that bed-store scene.

The whole concept was so unconvincing, it was hard to identify with any of those relationships.
SRK is whiny, Rani is weepy without a cause, damn in whole movie she is soooooo sad,
Right from the first scene Rani is sad, before marriage she is sad, after 4 years of marriage she is sad, and till the last scene she is sad ; even though draws no sympathy !!
Only God or KJo knows what was her problem or what was she seeking? And why the hell SRK falls for her??
AB and Kiron Kher are predictable and wasted, only saving grace was presence of Preity and Abhishek, both I feel gave one of the best performances of their career.

Well, KJo's movies are like defn of 'friction'(i.e necessary evil) B-(, you hate it or love it, but you gotta see it. But after this I'm sure I'm not gonna see his or his sidekick's next one.
I'm bored of watching same scantly clad models, same exotic locations, same designer sarees with minimal cholis, same SRK same expressions, same rich and loud punjabi family backdrop.

And neither his lucky mascot Kajol's nor even his own presence can save him from loads of criticism. He should better leave such subjects for Yash uncle only.

Who Shakespeare, what Othello...its all about Vishal's vision.

At last, got to see Omkara, though we were returned back by 'Omkara sold out' sign on Tuesday, but not this Sunday.

hmm something was missing but something was captivating, and on second thoughts it was lil more on captivating side.
Some of the scenes were sheer genius, one title-song in background of a fight sequence and obviously the last scene. Those were enough to set Vishal miles apart from other directors.

Anyone who has seen UP villages, village houses, and marriage ceremonies can instantly recognize the depth of research done by Vishal n his team.

Time to time he has come up with timeless melodies like in Satya (remember baadalon ko kaat kaat kar...) or Chaai chaapa chaai in Hu tu tu, and not to talk about Maqbool, and of course my favorite 'Macchis'.

Music of Omkara is not the kind which gives instant kick but is kind of that grows on you after every another hearing; and after watching movie reaches a different level altogether.
Each one of them is a gem, and reinforces the belief that after RD only Vishal can do justice with Gulzar's wizardary.

--- After a long time I liked Konkana's performance, otherwise to me she looks n acts same in her all movies.
--- Saif was good but his voice refused to match with the character at times.
--- And most natural performer was Bipasha, she was playing herself ;-)

Everything about it is good: - plot, acting, music, direction etc but unfortunately movie is not going to do as good at box office as it deserves to.

I'm sure everyone will like it and I'm also sure coz' of liberal dose of swearing and profanities will not go again to watch it with 'family' :-)

nothing can be more unsettling than a bad dream....and a recurring bad dream..!!

Must try!!

Movie:: 'Yun Hota to kya hota'

Music:: 'Mehfuz' by Euphoria, title song Mehfuz in particular!

Heres the link.. http://www.dhoom.com/mehfuz/songs.htm

Mercury is scaling new heights, and kept us indoor for the weekend, we could only go out on Saturday night to catch 10:40pm 'Superman Returns' show at a nearby IMAX theatre; it was my first movie at any IMAX. And ard 20-25 mins of 3D effects were enough to make me smile :-)

Though not a great movie but it had its moments....... like when Superman saves the crashing plane and places it in a baseball stadium :-) ;
Should not be missed if you liked superman comics once!!

I'm not much for Matrix or LOTRs type movies but definitely 've a soft corner for 'Spiderman' and 'Superman' kinda comics flicks. :-)

*****************
On Sunday watched 'Before Sunset' again, and absolutely loved it again!!!

Other movies watched during week::
Pulp Fiction
Reservoir Dogs

And movies didn't watch::
Philadelphia
Schindler's list and
Final Destination!!

*****************

Completed 8 months in alien land..., initially I used to call home daily, and sometimes twice a day, then started calling every alternate day, and gradually brought it down to twice a week!!!
And I just realized in past 2 weeks I called home just two times!!
Each n every time conversation is same, Dad asks about work, Mom inquires about health, and I talk about weather here!!!
Yes, weather has been changing...from foggy winters to insane rains to now fierce summers, but still.......hmmm.....nothing has changed, nothing will ever change!!!

Though most of it is already here….but still doing it just like that.....Now please don't think that I don't have anything better to do.... actually boss is away for a week, and today is first day without his towering presence (he is 7 ft, :-( I mean easily 6' 5"), though he gave me hell lot of work and I dunno kaha se shru karoun :-), so kinda enjoying my freedom, and till now I don't know what I'm gonna write in my end of the day status report :-)

1) My Accent: 100% Hinduatani.
2) Booze: noooooooo.....
3) Chore I Hate: Washing clothes
4) Dog or Cat: None, I hate them; bachpan mein our dog had bitten me twice, and padosi ki billi ate my pet tortoise on a Sunday afternoon! :-(
5) Essential Electronics: hmm...none actually..hmm on second thoughts ..Laptop
6) Perfume: Hugo Boss
7) Gold or Silver: none, though I wear 3 rings..'sab prabhu ki maya hai'
8) Home: Dilli meri jaan!
9) Insomnia: Ya movie was nice!!! ohh well, pehle neend bahut aati thi, ab neend hi nahi aati :-(
10) Job Title: India mein to tha but yaha to I'm still figuring out....
11) Living Arrangements: arrangement??? hmmm with wifey and lots of pizzas and coke!!
11) Number of times in hospital: lost the count!
12) Phobias: lot of them, don't know the fancy name for them if they have any!
13) Quote: " " {will come up with one someday}
14) Religion: hmmm, if given power, will make this world religion-less!! just imagine of whole world becomes religion-less half of our problems will go away and there will be lots of cool converted -- hotels n resorts!!
15) Time I wake Up: ard 7:45am on weekdays and 11am on weekends
16) Unusual Talent or Skill: none :-(
17) Vegetable I Love: karela :-)
18) Worst Habit: p r o c r a s t I n a t I o n.........
19) X-rays: twice or may be thrice
20) Yummy Food I Make: Dunno, otherwise would have filled number 16)
21) Zodiac Sign: Gemini
22) People tagged to do it: whoever is bored n waiting for his/her lunch break!

hmm..Depp or watever ...now its official 'Pirates of the Caribbean 2' has created a record for best opening week by earning ard $55 million!
And also I found it UTTER CRAP!!
Keira looks like a boy and Depp acts like both 'boy-girl' combo!
They just cashed on the success of Part-1 and fooled people to watch Part-2 which is nothing but a 'set-up' for Part-3.

******
WC'06 ended on a high note for me as my favourites in the end got what they deserved, and showed that cup can be won without any superstars and also showcased the power of defensive tactics. Though sad part was Zidane's bizzare act, no matter what was said to him, it was plain stoooopid on his part to end his career like that!!!

******
Very funny Peter!




******
I just don't wanna rant abt bomb blasts, kidnappings, terrorist strikes and all.....

I'm yearning to watch....'Yuva'..once more, again for the sake of brilliant brilliant direction (I do not understand fancy words like cinematography etc.)
-- that 'jail mein kabaddi' and that beach par 'deodorant/toothpaste' ki ad jaisa song..'Aey khuda..shukriya..meharbaaani....pal do pal kya miley mil gayeee..pareshaaanii......Anjanaaaa Anjaaaaani....'
*****

Well, on 2nd July, completed 2 yrs. in blogger's park!!
Kinda bored but chalta hai yaar....!
*******

Waiting for Sunday....two of my all-time favorites are clashing it out for Wimbledon title!!
And of course its gonna be Italy Vs France, and I support Italy any day!
Whoever wins, a new star 'Franck Ribery' has emerged!!

"Life consists of few days..few good and few bad days decide our whole lives"..so it boils down to decisions we make!!..hmm these or something like these lines from movie 'Riding in cars with boys' have been ringing in my head for past...say two months....simple lines, we all know abt it..but still.....

****

'Million Dollar Baby', another remarkable movie, that casted some sort of spell on me, it happened after long time, last time Shawshank Redemption did more than that!!

****
whoaa..world cup is in full swing...is seriously interesting n aggressive this time!!

World cup never fails to bring back memories..and hell lot of them....it all started with 'Mexico-86' WC, and the semfinal between Argentina n England was one of the my earliest memories of the game.

Surprisingly, Germany the most boring team is playing good aggressive brand of soccer....hmm..now Brazil is out of it, I support Italy like the way I did in Italia 90' though that time Baggio broke the heart.....thats another story.

****
Money does something to people, I always knew this but here daily I see this reality in its stark naked sense!!
There is nothing called 'bondings' or 'friendship', rather its all about using people, and making false pride and bank balance swell!

****

Noisy, be it watering plants or cleaning the streets with huge vaccum cleaners or manicuring the shrubs...all these machines have one thing in common they make a hell lot of noise, good enough to scare away the sleep for couple of days... disappointments in US..as wifey calls them!

****

Bravo n Sarwan, all set to create history in Sabina Park :-( ...dunno why such things happen with us.
****

Edited* -- Kumble did it!!! yessss.....!!!

Ahh..week that was.....Each day was as eventful as it can be.

Everything happened, celebrating my b'day, buying our car, working 12 hrs at a stretch on more than two days, renewing driving license, registeration n insurance work, watching Fanaa, Phir Hera Pheri, Chup Chup ke......

Fanaa = 'Fun' ja
Phir Hera Pheri = anything except Hera Pheri
Chup Chup Ke = It was like a TV serial, best part was Dumb Kareena Kapoor.

*************

For past 3 days we are listening to title song of Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna....it sounds like mis-mash of title song of 'Kabhi khushi kabhi gham' + 'Kal Ho Na Ho' with base beat of 'Kuch Kuch Hota Hai'.

Same day same post

Same day same post.
http://badmantalking.blogspot.com/2005/06/hap.html

Edited:: My B'day gifts :-)

Photo blog started :-)

Well, even after reading this and this, weekend was spent watching Da Vinci Code at nearby multiplex.
Different people have different views abt it, some say Tom Hanks looked totally bored or disinterested or director tried to show too many things in 149 minutes or the movie makes sense only for those who have read the novel.
To me, only thing that made sense was Audrey Tautou.

*****

And at last I've started a photoblog 'Stone Eyes'.

Doggy steps

Advertisement hoarding! -- Truely dogs here lead an envious life!

'Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths/ Enwrought with golden and silver light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet;
But I, being poor, have only my dreams
...Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.'

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WIFEY!

Sleepy
Hungry
longing for some good coffee...
.... I hate coming to work after 3 days long weekend!

4-1
:-(

Another loss, well its very easy to criticize when things go wrong, and I'm good at it B-(

Lets begin with batting order:
Openers:
We are not playing with regular openers, and Dravid's way of leading by example by filling in for an opener is somehow not doing any good to team.No doubt he is best player, most dependable player in both form of games but his position is ONE-DOWN, like I always advocate 'Opening' and 'One-Down' are the specialist position, and should not be fiddled around much.

Has anyone we ever seen Ponting opening the inning?? no, coz one-down guy regulates the inning, controls the flow of inning. He is the best man for them to do so.They rather prefer Clark or Katich to fill-in for an injured or out-form Hayden/Gilchrist, but never Ponting.

And in our case when Dravid opens, there is no one mentally strong enough to take-up the one-down slot. The policy of flexible middle-order is good, but having a floating one-down batsman is bad. I'm sure none in team knows who will go one down in next game. They have tried Pathan(in a low scoring game, another flaw in strategy),Raina,Yuvi,Dhoni,Rao,Kaif but no ever came close to batting throughout the inning and control the flow.

Another important position is ODIs is number 5, at number 5 there should be a guy who can play BIG shots guys like Andrew Symonds or Flintoff not like Kaifs or Raos who at most can score a double after wasting a dozen balls. Yuvraj is best suited for number 5 so that he can come start scoring from the first ball unlike Kaifs and Raos who take (only God knows how much) time to settle.

In current situation, without Sachin and badly out of form Sehwag, whole team depends on Dravid and Yuvraj, and with Dravid opening the inning, and a makeshift one-down batsman and Yuvi coming at number 4 makes the batting order looks very fragile in the event of Dravid or Yuvi getting out cheaply. As we all know, we do not have batting bench strength, so more or less we can only re-shuffle these guys here n there n Rao filling in for out-of-form Kaif or injured Yuvraj. It is only foolish to rely on Dhoni or Pathan each time. Top order batman should come forward take the responsibility of scoring.

Bas bahut ho gaya yaar, main khud bore ho gaya yeh sab likh kar...no worries, all is well at work and at home, bas aise hi.... ;-)

"Mann yeh baavra, tujh bin maane na...
Dhunde raat din kya, baavra..."

**********************

Another fine example of collective failure, 41 runs in last 15 overs I dunno how to react to this statistics.
First that one run defeat and now this spineless display, ridiculous.

Or deciding to bat first was a wrong decision in itself, that clearly showed that one-run defeat managed to dent their confidence.

Venugopal Rao is no substitute for Yuvi, and as I always say he along with Kaif are not one day players, they both need time and lots of time to settle down, and they settle down only when batsman from other end is keeping scoreboard moving, otherwise they both end up losing their wicket after wasting fair number of balls.

But again, question remains the same, WHERE IS THE BATTING BENCH STRENGTH??

I'm in real bad mood, so I might end up critizing Chappel's strategies, Dravid's captainship, Raina's immaturity etc etc, I better stop here, and hope they redeem themselves in Trinidad.

Attention Span

I clearly lack the normal attention span of 7 minutes normal human beings possess, in my case it takes me 2 mins or 3 mins maximum for my mind to wander in some weird wilderness.
However annoying this sounds but its true I'm pretty bad in paying attention.

Mostly it happens while attending the office meetings for some ultra-critical crisis, after 2 minutes of huffin puffin..I get lost.
And whatever I notedown on my writingpad seems a mountain to climb or just a cake-walk, and results in procrastination.

And the moment I leave the meeting room, I go blank, and after
settling on my desk I try to make sense of gibberish which I noted
down with sincerity of a third-umpire. After minutes of struggle, I decide to take a coffee break before further more deciphering the short forms I used during meeting, and checking of all mail accounts after every three minutes goes on without saying.

(for the record, this stands true only during official hours! Ok wifey)

San Francisco Snaps

Visit to San Francisco began with a ride on Cable Car.

View from Cable car; Famous San Francisco Sine-Wave roads...







First glimpse of PACIFIC from Cable Car.






At Fishermans Warf Appu n Wifey..waiting to board the ship.






While waiting, customary snap of the first ship spotted in sea.






Again killing time sitting next to submarine museum.






And birdwatching :-)




At last the cruise begins..




About to cross Golden Gate Bridge.




On wayback from Golden Gate Bridge, saw this..the Famous ALCATRAZ ISLAND PRISON




And this on prison wall caught my attention.

Weekly update

Monday::
Appu arrived from singapore.
Went to Fremont for dinner.

Tuesday::
Nothing as such, spent time nearby home, watched Darna Zaroori Hai in night.

Wednesday::
Went to San Francisco, took the cruise to Golden Gate bridge.

Thursday::
Watched Mission Impossible Part-3, first day last show.

Friday::
Went to Half Moon Bay to see sunset but weather played spoil sport, anyway drive till beaches on Pacific compensated well.

Saturday::
Appu's last day with us, dropped him to San Francisco In'tl airport.
In the evening went to Fremont.

Sunday::
Went to Elizabeth lake, enjoyed boating there.

hmm..now thinking of posting some of the snaps soon :-)

MI-3

Better than Part-2, but not as good as Part-1.

In all, Mission Impossible Part-3 is worth spending time and money.

What if?

God created this world and then moved off to do something else, probably interesting.

And here we are sitting on the land of a freaking revolving planet of a freaking so-called solar system.

There are millions of galaxies around, billions of stars, planets and what not.

And what if one fine day, out of curiosity the head of anyone of the super powers countries decides to blow-up the Earth?? Then what??
What??

Before I forget I have to write this down.(will capture it soon too)
My heart burns to see my sideburns or non-existent sideburns, through out my life I always maintained normal length, neither long nor short, and now suddenly there r no sideburns.
Lady simply asked my 'how do you like ur sideburns, and I replied short....'wooosh' in one stroke she removed their existence. And I continued the polite smile with 100 khanjars in my heart.

Now, I look like Mithun-da of mid eighties (minus a muffler).

*************

Movies seen
1) The Grudge
2) The Hunting

Movies started but couldn't finish
1) Bunty aur Bubly
2) Pyaare Mohan
3) Darna zaroori hai

Well, sometimes work and most of the times laziness kept me away
from blogging, moreover as Indian team is not playing any matches
so ..... :-)
Anyways I'm not interested in SA-NZ series, I find both teams
very very unattractive. And less said abt Aus-B'desh series
the better.
hmm I'm looking forward to Ind-WI and Pak-Eng series.
That'll be a real test for our new heroes.

***********

After we were through with all forms etc, friend who assisted me
in filing tax-returns, said..so now you are officially a 'NRI'.

5 mahine mein NRI, kya bakwaas hai. I hate these rules n
regulations and distasteful terminologies used.
Obnoxious.

***********

San Francisco
San Leandro
San Diego
San Mateo
San Benito
San Bernardino
San Joaquin
San Luis Obispo

no wonder here people call me 'SAN dip'

***********

Movies watched...

1) Hide and Seek
2) Bandit Queen

************

The King returns, I would love to see his exquisite cover drives, square-leg flicks again and again..., lets hope this time his captainship brings back the charm in Caribbean cricket.

"Yeh karein yaa voh karein aisaa karein vaisaa karein
Zindagi do din ki hai do din mein hum kya kya karein "

Another one on Cricket

No I won't be watching any movies in weekdays from now, may be will watch one or at most two on weekends only. Btw howz this 'Beneras'? any idea?? ;-)

*******
Again a major top-order failure, this has been a routine since Pakistan tour, but each time one player (mostly Dhoni/Yuvi/Pathan/Dravid) wins the match and that covers for the failures of others.


As I said earlier, where is the batting bench strength??

hmm..I feel Chappell’s policy of giving repeated chances to players is giving wrong signals to the senior guys like Sehwag n Kaif,

This policy has done a wonders for youngsters like Sreesanth, Raina and RP Singh but for seniors its not working.

Remember, Gambhir was dropped coz he was not able to convert is 20s n 30s to something big.

So, its high time Kaif n Sehwag should be dropped...but question remains where is the batting bench strength? :-)

*******

Just read on cricinfo that, Afridi has announced retirement from test cricket :-)
He says he wants to concentrate on ODI only, is he serious or its just another gimmick, only time will tell.


I think he is following the footsteps of Imran and Miandad(who took retirement a number of times only to make comebacks :-).

His love with Pakistan's captainship contender Younis Khan is an open secret :-)… so it won't surprise me a bit if he too is nursing ambitions of captainship.

After Weekend

Another monday morning, hmm..boss is back from NY, so loads of work expected in coming days.

btw, watched just 5 movies on weekend :-)

Sins - Crimes For Passions -- total bakwaas

Khamosh Paani -- very very touching movie, made with lot of heart.

Coma -- another nice thriller, worth watching.

Zinda -- another total bakwaas...

Aprahan -- hmm good one, somehow director couldn't end it properly, just like Gangajal.

Before weekend

Phewww..another weekend approaching, and I always approach weekend with lot of childlike zeal n enthusiasm, I love Sundays but only till 8pm, coz after that my mind starts making schedule for coming week.

Well, last weekend was fun, we watched Ice Age - The meltdown in the nearby mulitiplex, movie was fun, just perfect for a Saturday evening.

***********

Read a very interesting n though provoking one liner::-

"People who believe in love at first sight, can never stop looking."

and I think its true :-)

************

After a long time, after 3 years I played basketball, and still all muscles of my body are cursing me for that, right shoulder in particular.

**********

In my last post I made an incomplete list of movies watched in past 2.5 months, well, here I have nothing to do...so I end up watching movies on my dear lappy.
In fact here I think here majority of Indians are like that only, normally we people do not have wat we call them….'hobbies' or some other interests to pursue…...so we end up watching movies, more for the need of killing time.

And "A Cinderella story" is added too.

**********

At last weather is getting better now, otherwise since almost past one month RainGod was doing some sort of weird experiments, it used be bright in the morning, rainy in the noon and cold n windy in evening n nights, now its pleasant, living upto the name of city.

**********

Now sitting on 4-0 lead, Chappel can do some more experiments with the line-up, its high time they accommodate Venugopal Rao in middle order, and also give some rest to Pathan too.

**********

Yesterday visited a bookstore; it was another lil nice experience, though a bit hard to stop my impulsive self from indulging. I did fairly well, and promised it to return back on weekend with wifey.

Another list

Yesterday I made my baseball debut....of watching baseball game at stadium, went to McAfee Coliseum in Oakland to witness opening night of new season, first game was between New York Yankees and Oakland A's.
Stadium was full with capacity crowd of around 35,000 spectators, atmosphere was electric, everybody cheering for their team, n favorite players.
Thanks to my collegues Tim n Ryan who took pains of explaining me the rules and regulations of the game.

*********

Here's the incomplete list(can't remember all of them) of movies watched in past 2.5 months (courtesy wifey).


Kalyug
Family
Finding Neverland
Shawshank Redemption
Lakshya
Whole nine yards
The Girl Next Door
Mr. & Mrs Iyer
Yahaan
Mughal-e-Azam
Swades
The Butterfly effect
Forrest Gump
Scream
Beautiful Mind
40 years old virgin
Silence of the lambs
There's Something About Mary
Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her
A Perfect Murder
The Whole Ten Yards
Love Actually
The Terminal
Hyderabad Blues Part-2
Rang de Basanti
Sleepless in Seattle
15 Park Avenue
BluffMaster
Eyes wide shut
Taxi number 9211
Malamaal Weekly
Misery
Kate & Leopold
Water
Ice Age: The Meltdown
Being Cyrus

congratulationssss to Amit and Neelima...wait wait those two people are totally unrelated and those wishes to them are for two totally unrelated achievements :-)
**********************

hmm this sounds interesting to me.....or how abt this ...wat say?
*********************

Bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored and more bored I'm j u s t PLAIN b o r e d.
*********************

In Mumbai, in first inning we were 147/5, and Dhoni's patient 64 brought some respect to the total, and in second inning he couldn't repeat.
In Delhi ODI, we were again 142/7, then Harbhajan's knock helped to get pass 200.Earlier also in many matches in Pakistan, lower-order (Dhoni/Pathan/Kumble) batted well and saved the game.
There is something seriously wrong with the top-order here, but surprisingly where is the bench strength???

In bowling dept, there is healthy competition , guys like
Nehra
Balaji
Zaheer
VRV Singh
Agarkar
Karthik
Chawla
are fighting for place against Sreesanth/RP Singh/Munaf.

And there are guys who were treated as tourists but never given proper chance to prove their worth
SS Paul
Joginder Sharma
Gagandeep Singh
Amit Bhandhari
Youhanan
Iqbal Siddique etc. (Well, this topic deserves another post on it only :-)

But question remains where is the batting bench-strength????
where are the reserve batsmen??
Venugopal Rao??
or Mongia/Badani who both are in in their late twenties.
Well, name of Mongia/Badani reminds me of many other guys who suffered coz of 'including Captain Ganguly' in team.
List is endless....
Mongia
Badani
Sodhi
J P Yadav
Bangar etc.

..without reason...nothing..blank....silent....just like that......


"dil ko kyaa ho gayaa Khudaa jaane
kyon hai aisaa udaas kyaa jaane


kah diyaa mainne haal-e-dil apanaa
is ko tum jaano yaa Khudaa jaane "


..they say..happiness is 'relative'...to me seems to be a distant one.

****

We lost, again..in shameful manner again. Earlier we relied on Dravid to save a match, and now we expect him to win it....thats it I guess.

****

I'm not sad or depressed :-)

****

Bored.

Photographs

3...days to go.....

3...days to go.....boleto apun ki first marriage ki first anniversary .....
and we are all set for a rockin' time at Yosemite national park coming weekend.

Life is fun...last 13.5 hrs mein koi fight nahi huey...and nobel prize for peace goes to wifeyyy....

Atlast after 3 months of analysis n overanalysis we've purchased this...and fun is abt to beginnnn....

**********

-- Saw Taxi No.9211, waahiyaat movie, and {yaar....Sonali Kulkarni ko Nana ki wife nahi banana chahiye tha......}

-- Office is getting hectier by every day, deadlines..deadlines and more deadlines..., no worries, chalta hai.

-- BNP is atlast making some noise in blogsphere, well this whole exercise is obviously not for the offenders to read n reform overnight, its for us normal
people to come out and take a stand. I always knew abt this but now seems that each n every girl atleast once goes through this trauma.
Eve-teasing is not just a single problem but I think this is a amalgamation of multiple flaws in our system, loopholes in the judiciary. Well, time to take some
serious action. I know things are difficult, but not impossible, Lets stand for each other.

-- Maut kaa ek din mu'ayyaain hai...neend kyon raat bhar nahin aati

-- hmm bad weather at mohali, another one heading for a draw.

-- watever ...Sonali Kulkarni ko Nana ki wife nahi banana chahiye tha.....

Lately....

Lately, of many things I wanted to do is 'write something' here. I'm not a blog-absconder as wifey calls me.
I'm pretty much here....mostly in silent mode.

Well, now its almost 3 months here, and a lot has changed....probably for better. At the same time, life is settling down to a monotonous routine or I whine too much, or both.

We do not own a car or camera, we do not go anywhere coz` we do not have car, and we do not have camera so we do not go anywhere. And I'm lazy.

****************

hmmm...I have never talked so much with my parents in all my life as I did in these last 3 months, almost daily we talk, and daily our conversation goes like...

Dad: "theekh hai"
me: "haanji theekh hoon"
Dad: "kaam kaisa chal raha hai"
me : "haanji theekh chal raha hai"
Dad: "mann lagakar kaam karna"
me: "haanji..."
me: "...mummy hai?....baat kara dijiye" :-)

******************

Here it seems that wifey is on some sort of mission to make me gain weight in shortest possible time, her culinary experiments are in full swing, resulting in more dishes to be cleaned (by me). Did I mention she is obsessed with capsicums as much as Bubba was with the shrimps in Forrest Gump.

******************

Well, we too watched 'RDB' here, first day 3rd show. To read the review click on the 'next blog' link on the top, as it is everywhere :-)

******************

4-1, is music to my ears :-)
Lot has already been said abt Dhoni, Pathan, Dravid and Yuvi, but surprisingly nobody is givin any credit to Mr.Chappell.
For me it was Chappell's victory over Woolmer.

Love hurts.

Happy St.Valentine's Day.

Well, stage is set for Karachi test drama, now since RP Singh n Zaheer has performed with ball and Pathan performed well with bat n reasonably ok with ball, and karachi track is a sportive one so they have to decide either to go with same 11
or drop one fast-bowler n include Ganguly.
or drop Yuvi n include Ganguly.
or drop Bhajji n include Ganguly.
Well, the reason I'm stressing on Dada's inclusion is that since he stands no chance to be included on ODI team, so Dada ka farewell test to banta hai :-)

Any case, I wonder what goes in the mind of specialist openers cooling their heels in dressing room :-(

************

2 months completed.…..in alien land :-)

Missed home: 15,55,200 times.