Ek brahman ne kahaa hai ke ye saal achchhaa hai

Ek brahman ne kahaa hai ke ye saal achchhaa hai

Zulm ki raat bahut jald taleygee ab to
Aag chulhoon mein har ik roz jaleygee ab to

Bhookh ke maarey koi bachchaa nahin royega
chain ki neend har ik shaKhs yahaan soyega

Aandhi nafarat ki chaleygee na kahin ab ke baras
pyaar ki fasal ugaaeygee zameen ab ke baras

Hai yakeen ab na koi shor-sharaabaa hoga
zulm hoga na kahin Khoon-kharaabaa hoga

Os aur dhuup ke sadamein na sahegaa koi
ab mere desh mein be-ghar na rahega koi

Naye vaadon ka jo daalaa hai vo jaal achchhaa hai
Rehanumaaon ne kaha hai ke ye saal achchhaa hai

....dil ke Khush rakhane ko Ghalib ye Khayaal achchhaa hai

-- Sabir Dutt

Every morning when I open the door to pick newspaper, this view greets me, and after lots of dilly dallying I somehow managed to click it.

Though it is in its last days of fall, but nevertheless it makes pleasant sight.

You deserve......only what you earn!

Here I continue my love for making lists and continue the tradition of listing down BEST/Good/Worst among the movies I have seen this year.

Best - 5

1) Taare Zameen Par
2) Chak De India
3) Jab We Met
4) The Namesake
5) Johnny Gaddar

Good - 5

1) Cheeni Kum
2) Life in a Metro
3) Guru
4) Namastey London
5) Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd.

Worst 5

1) Partner
2) Om Shanti Om
3) Saawariya
4) Nishabd
5) Heyy Babyy

Recipe for happiness...... keeps on changing!

Repeating Mistake….Doubling misery!!

First mistake was to drop him from test-team, and second mistake was to include him again in 20-20 and subsequent ODI series, and now they’ve committed the BIGGEST mistake of all by again including him Australia tour.

They say, it is a risk and everyone is a risk.

Agreed role of an opener is evolving, sometime he needs to play fast, but his primary role remains same..to see the shine off new ball, build a platform from where middle order can further build the inning.

In case of Sehwag, he cannot play role of sheet-anchor, he cannot play defensively, and when he scores run he scores at a good pace, say he scores a quick fifty gets out, and that means still exposing middle order batsmen to new ball.

Agreed his century is different from other batsman’s century but how many time has he done that?

Once or twice??

Life is like........

...playing chess against a computer!

Update..sort of

Well, this week completed two years here.
Journey has been good so far, met numerous new people, and made some good friends.
Before I get carried away, let’s change the topic.

This thanksgiving long weekend we went to Las Vegas, unlike last time when we did some crazy futile mall hopping.
We learnt our lesson then, and planned our trip well in advance.

This was our longest road trip, we started on Thursday morning and reached Vegas by 5ish in evening, drive was a breeze not at all tiring. Though the drive back was a disaster, almost everyone was leaving Vegas on Sunday noon, in 6 hours we covered just 180 miles, and total back-journey took little more than 13 hrs, that is more than 4 hrs normal.

Well, in between, 3 nights (till early morning) were spent in various casinos, and that was some experience, straight-out of fantasy. In fact the whole place bears no semblance to sanity.

Its crazy crazy out there. All casinos/hotels are based on different themes, one where we stayed was based on Egyptian theme, it looked like a huge Pyramid, and inside be it restrooms or elevators…every nook and corner was studded with some form of Egyptian architecture.

All major ones are located on the main street, so rightly called ‘The Strip’, within a stretch of 3 miles; one can see the replicas of Eiffel tower/NY skyline/Brooklyn bridge/Statue of Liberty etc etc.
Inside they all smelt same, that same strange concoction of smoke and alcohol in various forms.

** I started this more than a week back, and forgot to finish, so again finishing it my trademark abrupt manner.

*********
Hmmm….btw, wifey cooks most fantabulous food whenever she is not in talking terms with me.

Don’t know if that’s a good thing or bad ;-)

Personal Vendetta

Despite being best ‘one-stop-know-all’ place cricinfo still manages to publish article laced with personal vendetta.

More I read Sanjay Manjrekar’s or Rameez Raja’s articles more I get convinced about their narrow-mindedness and their deep-root hatred and bitterness against Sachin Tendulkar and Yousuf Youhana.

In case of Manjrekar, in his all articles, discussions, he always manages to bring up issues against Tendulkar, and always goes out of the way to speak ill against him.

Same applies for Rameez Raja, no matter how good Yousuf Youhana performs, Raja always find a fault in him.

C’mon guys get over this, and accept how great these players are, and how lousy losers you both are. :-)

Saawariya

1) First thing first, I don't know why they named it 'Saawariya', just coz' Rani called the hero by this name.....or may be they wrote lyrics before deciding the name.
They should've called it something else...like 'Sapnon ka Shaher' or '3 raat ka intezaar', or "Iss Shaher mein Subah nahi"..... Or 'Gray'...or 'Blue'.

2) Heroine (Sounds weird no? :-)) -- Add lots of Sonali Bendre + a bit of Soha Ali + small traces of Suchitra Krishnamurthy = Sonam Kapoor......looks Jhaakas when filmed at certain angles ;-)

3) Hero -- Add younger version of Sanjay Dutt(of Rocky/Naam etc) + a bit of Sonu Nigam + lots of Neetu Singh (minus Rishi Kapoor if any) = Ranbir Kapoor.

4) Yes, though right at the begining SLB warns that it is based in a 'Khwwabon ka Shaher' that shaher looked much weird even by standards of dreams.

5) After HDDCS and Devdas, I thought SLB have some side-business of 'Curtains/Painted-glasses/fancy light-works (with specialization in Chandeliers), and after this movie seems that he has added 'Carpets' to his repertoire.

6) Don't know whether SLB was launching new actors or he was more interested in launching a new music director, damn, there were more songs than dialogues. I really felt bad for new actors; they were not bad but also not noticeable either.

7) Songs never contributed in narration, were out of sync with whole setting, and choreography in that 'Eid' song was so funny , dunno if that was intentional.

All songs sounded like they're sung with only 'back-ground' music, except 'Maasha-Allah' one.

8) And Sallu miyan was total miscast, is he turning into Pedophile or something? I guess someone like Sanjay Suri would have looked more creditable.

9) I'm still undecided, was that a drama/romance/comedy or nothing. I felt as if I've watched a musical play, played in some unbelievable sets.

10) Err, thats sums up my review, and about story I don't know if there was any, to me it would have suited more as TV show, something on lines of 'Darpan'/'Katha-Saagar'/'Chekov-Ki-Amar-Kahaniya' or more recent ones 'Gubbare' or 'Star Best Seller types'. All done under 1 hour.

Well, with all said, nothing wrong in making such movie, but now this will only help in making other pathetic movie by pathetic director a big hit.

Reset

Last evening was one of the times when we were too engrossed in our lives, and seem to be in control of one or all, that very moment GOD decided to tap on shoulder to remind us of HER existence, and "all" is not in our control; Last evening an earthquake of 5.6 on Richter scale, sounds moderate but was powerful struck Bay Area, and what makes it more scary that it was most powerful quake to hit the Bay Area since Loma Prieta in 1989.
It lasted for more than 30 seconds.

It occurred at 8:04pm, I was alone at home busy doing nothing, was busy with purposeless surfing, catching glimpses of GS Warriors - Utah Jazz game on TV occasionally, then suddenly everything started to shake like leaves....it was damn scary, I rushed out only to see parking lot shades swinging side ways as if they'll collapse any moment. Other people also came out of their houses, dogs were barking, suddenly birds were making weird noises. It’s tough to express the feeling of helplessness, tough to portray that moment of uncertainty.

I'm not ashamed to admit that it took me good half an hour to recover from shock;

I know, on second thoughts, it is easy to dismiss it as one odd experience, and it can happen anytime, anywhere and life goes on!!

As like they say, everything happens for a reason; an hidden reason perhaps......kind a 'reset' button, or indication to redo priorities, or see inside and around and appreciate what you've got.

**********
Strangely, our batting line-up consists of 5 openers, and looks like they all stand a fair chance to feature in same game, now imagine we're 3 down and still Sachin n Sehwag or Ganguly n Gambhir are on crease, will make it look like still openers are operating :-)

**********

All set for 'Jab We Met' tonight!!!

Weird Lyrics

Ya, I know standard of lyrics in hindi movies is rapidly going southwards, and though they're still accepted by audience, may be it's all about getting a immediate kick, rather than having something to relish in long term. Hmm.. commercialization at its crudest best.

Music of SRK and Farah Khan's latest movie cashes on this current trend, and its weird.

Farah Khan is no Deepa Mehta, her 'Main Hoon Na' was a big big torture, and most irritating part is the way she and her brother present themselves on screen as if they are biggest critics and know-it-all about cinema and all.

Lets leave Farah bashing for some other time, and coming to the point, last evening for the first time I heard the complete 'Dard-E-Disco' song, whole song is based on rhythm which is good n catchy...but lyrics are so weirdly funny specially these lines....

something something.........
abb phirta hoon mein, london, paris, new york, san francisco
dil mein mere hai, dard-e-disco, dard-e-disco, dard-e-disco

something something.........
dil tod gaya mujhse chhod gaya, woh peechale mahine ke chhabis ko
dil mein mere hai, dard-e-disco, dard-e-disco

Reminds of one the interviews of Late Majrooh Sultanpuri in which he quipped about present day lyricists....

"Aana milla diyaa….. jaana milla diya....aur ban gaye lyricist"

:-)

Something Fishy

Despite his numerous outbursts against the board, he was included in the side for one last time, and all he needed were just 20 runs to become Pakistan's highest run scorer ever.

And what he did, in first inning scored just 14, and in second he lasted just two balls, got out in most careless (sic) manner...and in end fell 3 runs short of breaking the record.

How can he be so careless, when he knew that he was recalled just for record's sake....still he played that way......may be current-record holder's son's father-in-law has something to do with all this tamasha :-)

Some rough calculations in support of above mentioned thought.

1) SA set a target of 456 runs to win.

2) At end of 4th day's play Pak was 108/1 in 31 overs

3) On 5th day Pak needed 348 runs from 90 overs at 3.86

4) Inzy comes to bat in 59th over of final day, score was 265 and Pak needed another 192 in 31 over at 6.12 runs per over.

5) Inzy needed just 6 runs to become highest run scorer, and he got out on second ball that too in a very very careless manner.

And excuse he gave for that shot was sillier, he said he wanted to play aggressively and win the game one last time.
For a moment agreed he wanted to win, but he could have easily made 3 more runs before playing 'aggressively' (read stupidly).

No sane person/team will try to score 6.12 runs per over on final day of play.

Watch this clip, and judge yourself, how he got out, and reacted in dressing room afterwards.

Good b(ye)hai - "Inzy"-Bhai ;-)

BCCI's inbox

Just got this as mail forward, and can't help putting it here :-)

Wooo hooooooooooooo............we're the WORLD CHAMPIONS :-)

Before start of world cup, I was a total pessimist about our team’s future, normally that either proves me right or pleasantly surprises me.

I was the one who hated this idea of Twenty-20, called it a money-making tamasha, and that first round bowl-out confirmed my belief.

But today, scene is totally different, I'm ecstatic beyond words, beyond limits, instead of having Monday morning blues; I've springs in my feet.

Though I’m not a total convert yet, but won’t mind as long as we are winning and there are no bowl-outs. And a victory against Pakistan is always sweetest :-)

Boyyyy, I’m missing home, missing all that excitement, thrill, meeting friends!!!

After thoughts::
1) What made them chose Afridi as man of tournament?? Umer Gul or Hayden had more compelling case. To me, Gautam Gambhir and RP Singh are the men-of-tournament
2) Mallik’s sheer senseless utterance in post-match presentation about Muslims of world etc etc was totally senseless and uncalled for.

Don't run before you walk!!!

As usual Over-Analysis

hmm we lost again, and again the problem was with batting-order, I guess now its time to say good-bye to good ole Sachin-Ganguly opening combination, though did exceptionally well in 150/160 games they opened together.

Actually, nothing against these two guys, they're the very much same, with same techniques, but I guess with age and 'other factors' there is a certain shift in their mindset.

Now they seem to curb their natural aggression, which is again good to some extent but only to some extent, beyond that means unwarranted pressure on rest of team.

It is an open secret that now Ganguly only plays for statistics, so that he can openly boasts that he is the highest run-getter after his comeback but if one digs deeply then its same story he scored runs at the cost of team's momentum, and always in lost cause (or which resulted that way)

But again, like friction, he too is a necessary evil, and cannot be done away that easily, and that leaves with only other option of dropping Sachin to number 4 slot, so that either he or Dravid play till the end.

Like, in all 3 game, India came up with 3 different one-down batsman, they tried to maintain the left-right combination on crease, which sounds good but is good if they make use of it. They simply planned second step before the first. And it'll be bigger mistake if they risk Dhoni as no.3 in next game.

Here's my eleven for next ODI

1) Ganguly - (should bowl 3/4 overs, if needed)
2) Gambhir - (he is a talented guy but a big flop outside sub-continent, he deserves backing and more chances)
3) Dravid - (best batsman should play at no.3)
4) Sachin - (must bowl atleast 4/5 overs, and play till the end)
5) Yuvraj - (and he along with Sachin n Ganguly must bowl atleast 11-12 overs)
6) Dhoni
7) Karthik
8) Chawla
9) RP
10) Zaheer
11) Munaf

*************
If Boney Kapoor can marry Sridevi, Tusshar Kapoor can become hero,and Manoj Prabhakar can become bowling coach of Delhi team, then at least I can blog about cricket here.

Ahh consecutive bad days.............

First, in singles I lost 6-2,5-7,6-7(5-7) , lost despite wining more games. and again yesterday in doubles we lost 4-6,6-2,5-7, same story :-( worst thing is that we were leading 5-1 in the final set, then lost 6 straight games....it can't get worse than that.

It's an awful feeling :-(

Same beemaari!

Some beemaris are incurable that includes my addiction to cricket.

Well, right now score is 27/2 in 9 overs, and just 7 runs scored in last 5 overs with loss of two wickets.
When Gambhir played 4 consecutive dot balls , right at that moment I told my friend that he'll get out on last delivery, and Gambhir proved that to be a simple prediction.

C'mon, something is seriously wrong with Indian think-tank’s mindset specially when they are chasing a big score. I don't think they ever come-up with a plan in their minds or they ever stick to it, if they had one.

This inning is shaping up in a typical mess which they create for themselves, they are not sure whether to attack or defend, and always caught in-between. Someone at cricinfo must do some research and tell us how meekly our batsmen start playing after loss of early wickets, they suddenly make monster out of ordinary bowlers and build unnecessary pressure.

Today, same thing is happening, Tendulkar's role is to keep wickets intact, Gambhir tried to curb is natural game, he blocked when he should have flashed and vice-versa.

Now, I'm 200% sure Sachin n Dravid will make it painful slow, and add huge pressure on Yuvi n Dhoni, before getting out after making 25-35 runs, and in the end either Karthik or Dhoni will score a 'place-saving' 50 or something, and we'll lose by 80-90 runs.

I better stop here.

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

And this tussle between ICL and BCCI is turning out to be big tamasha, and trouble is that both parties are equally BAD. And rebel players are simply escaping from pot but jumping into fire.

Again lesser said is better.

I hate cricket.

'Recently Seen movies'

'Recently Seen movies' section on left of this page, tells the story of my weekend, ohh yes, I saw 4 movies, 2 at movie hall and two at home.

Well, on friday night we went for 12-3AM show of 'Chak De India', it was very much worth going there so late, and coming back home ard 3:30am, it was one of the impulsive plan, ard 10 after finishing dinner I asked wifey....'Chak De dekhni hai..', and immediately we left home only to find 11pm show sold-out, but we gladly settled for midnight show.

If you like sports-themed movie, if you like SRK (even after KANK), then this one is for you, marks the return of SRK, he gave solid restrained performance.

It was a interesting presentation of a predictable storyline, well like I always say people like two kinds of movies...one with which one can relate with, another which are out and out fantasy be it over-the-top action thriller or some unimaginable sci-fi types.

To me, this brought back the memories of school days, our school was among BEST in India those days, infact hockey was the only sport our team was good at. I grew up watching(/playing) so many matches in Shivaji Stadium or going to 'stadium' (as we used to call it) was a daily ritual which I followed for don't know how many years.

Sometimes before some big tournament Indian team used to practice there, and watching them play in an empty stadium was so amazing, so unreal, all players were so approachable, forget media they never even required any security, no police nothing, and one can even go seat next to Pargat Singh or talk with Vivek Singh, Sujit Kumar, R.P Singh, Great Mohd. Shahid, Thoeiba Singh etc.

Hockey is a different world altogether.

It is heartening to see some director choosing this subject, and delivering it with perfection. Seems that after the success of Khosla ka Gosla, the stature of Jaideep Sahani has grown, and now he seems to have final word on his scripts.. not the director not the editor.

Best part about his writing is the language he uses, which is so refreshing, that sets the immediate connection, good to see people talking in normal-typical delhi-ki-language :-)

A welcome break from 'bambaiya-type' or 'heavy-duty' dialogues.

Now I’m so bored, don’t even want to think about Bourne Ultimatum.

And before I forget…., ex-girlfriend err...now wifey bought me this and I'm lovin it :-)

As old cliché goes “ When you've nothing to write about...then do photo-posts” -....then this place should have been converted into a full-fledged photo-blog long time back, , but since I already have one (which also is in grand-state of neglect,errr…...that’s another issue...)

Btw, after almost 1 month of hiatus, normal services resumed at home, we had our customary weekend-fight, and ended up doing nothing, just plain-nothing, no-outings anything, during such times we act like radio buttons, I mean we two can't co-exist in same area, i.e. if I'm watching TV then she is surfing, and vice-versa.

This has its side-effects too,
Since you are not in talking-terms that gives whole lot of freedom..Like doing... what you like :-)
And she ends up spending lot of time on phone which is OK except when calls are ISD.

Hmmm I can go on and on but this was supposed to be a photo-post, but don’t have one ready. Hmmm ….some other time.

Now I should take break from it, and do some work…..for a change.

****
Now my favorite part - cricket, flashback say ODI performace of past 1-1.5 yrs , definitely a bad period , we lost in WI, in DLF cup, SA thrashed us , of course WC debacle, but only guy who showed some maturity or responsibility, was none other than Yuvraj Singh, and in absence of Sehwag was rightly made deputy of Dravid, and then one freak knee injury forced me out of action for one of series, and all that resulted in elevation of Dhoni as Vice Captain.

And now just because of previous sequence of events they’ve preferred Dhoni over Yuvraj as Twent-20 team captain. That’s something baffling.

May be Board want to maintain the tradition of factionalism in Team, just like Kapil/Gavaskar, Azhar/Sachin, Ganguly/Dravid and in future Yuvraj/Dhoni camps.

1-0

Jelly beans, wtf and surprisingly nobody is making an issue out of it, to me its big issue something as big as ball tampering. Dravid or Borde must lodge their protest about it

What if, a ball pitched on one, would have gone anywhere, and that’s dangerous play and the way Tremlett bowls there was a fair possibility.

Anyways, in end 'Team' managed to win that too without a coach that should settle the debate about coaches.

***

Dil mein kuch jaltaa hai, shaayad dhuaan dhuaan saa lagata hai
Ankh mein kuch chubhata hai, shaayad sapana koi sulagataa hai

Dil ko foonko aur itna foonko, dard nikal jaaye
Zindagi sulgaao yaaro, gam nikal jaaye

Judgmental Tag

In the days like these, when a lot has been happening and lot hasn't been happening, when the boredom or work took precedence over blogging , came a very different sort of tag from no other than a very good 'old' :-) friend, ex-colleague, mentor, so not doing it was never an option.

It's all about the things/traits/people that force me to be judgmental about them.
Now, as I'm writing this, 'm realizing the how difficult this is turning out to be.

Well, sometimes I'm judgmental, sometimes I'm not, mostly it depends on my mood, and mostly I believe in giving benefit-of-doubt to others that saves me from lots of unnecessary tension but still on some days I'm not that kind.
So there's the list …..

1) I tend to get judgmental about people who overindulge in office parties, or at some else's expense, and do it to the extent of obscene proportions.
2) I get judgmental about people who don't take care of things which they borrow from others.
3) I get judgmental about people who don't adhere to basic norms of personal hygiene.
4) I get judgmental about people who don't return borrowed things.
5) I get judgmental about people who take way too much interest interfere way too much in others lives.

As I'm proceeding further I think I'm getting negative and negative only which is not good. Am I judging myself here. No? :-)
I'm a critic, or like everybody, have an opinion about everything, sports, politics, entertainment whatever, I'm always ready with some 'biased' opinion :-)

6) I'm judgmental about Sourav Ganguly, about almost all music directors, movie directors in positive way for some of them.
7) I get judgmental about people who break or try to break-in the queues on one pretext or another.
8) I get judgment about people who talk loudly on their phones at Public places.
9) I get judgmental about people who listen to Punjabi music.

Above 9 points sum up a lot, that’s fairly a general list, not in any particular order.
Well, now the tagging part, anyone who has been short of ideas or just plain lazy like me, can take this tag and kill some time bashing others :-)

********
Now, I can jump to my favorite topic ‘CRICKET’ :-) , at last Rain-Gods showered mercy on us and turned our team from a bunch of Unlucky Alis to Lucky Alis :-)

********
Btw, this blog turned 3 earlier this month!

such is life...perhaps

Trouble with having a 4 days vacation is that one is in more need of a vacation when it ends; especially if you were behind the wheels for close to 1000 miles in 4 days.

Past 4 weeks flew past as swiftly as past 4 days of road trip; parents, sister and niece came and now they’ll leave tomorrow and I feel guilty of not spending any quality time with them.

Long time back, hmm 10 years to be precise, I once said to a friend – “people have some talent to express themselves, some write good poetry, some are good singers, or can weave web of words to really mesmerize others, like‘ve a way or two to stand out and there are some who when asked couldn’t even tell directions properly even if they’ve been traveling on same route all their lives….” and perhaps I belong to second group of people.

It’s going to be same scene as it was when I came back after 4 weeks vacation at home, coincidently they too are leaving after 4 weeks here, it going to emotional, mom will cry openly, sister will cry quietly; Dad and I will not look in each other’s eyes.

.

Jaag ke kaati saari raina
Nainon mein kal oos giri thi....

Ruh ke bandhan khultey nahi hai
Daag hai dil ke dhultey nahi hai

Karvat karvat baati raina.....

********
Giving last over to Yuvi was strange, and more strange was not giving a single over to Sachin.
Hmm..something is fishy, I guess Dravid is trying to do away from over-reliance on Sachin.

Bad timing..bad luck :-(

Last evening, in elevator was reading all sort of wonderful graffiti etched on walls, and was wondering how people manage to maintain such lovely handwriting and write so long lines in a single go. And out of curiosity took out car-keys tried to poke on wall to see how much strength is needed to scratch and still write 'beautiful-readable' lines, I was too engrossed in my over-analysis, and suddenly elevator stopped at some floor two immaculately dressed prettiest of ladiez barged-in and gave those looks that I’ll never forget!!!

Bad timing..bad luck :-(

Ahh... before I forget :-)

Happy
Birthday
To
me!!!

Meet the 'new' COACH

Politics….politics and more politics!!!
Hmm….Whatmore jumped the gun that eventually backfired!
Dravid and gang want some ‘Phorener’ coach, and all oldies are opposing their demand, referring to Chappel fiasco. They want some Indian to take this post.

It’s very much clear that Gavaskar is the man calling the shots, first he heaped loads of praises on Chappel and then was first one to start questioning his abilities and made some nasty remarks. So kinda complete U –turn from his earlier stands.

And then he quashed Whatmore’s claims etc, and he brought in John Emburey out of nowhere; Gavaskar was one of my all time greats, and now he is losing respect, specially for his uncalled statements about David Hookes, and now all this politics to please his brother-in- law.

Amidst all this, I get this feeling that there is much more than to all this Ford-Emburey drama, something tells me next coach is going to be G.Vishwanath.

IMHO , any day an outsider is much better than any Indian like Kapil Dev or Madan Lal etc.., reason is simple we are very emotional people, and handling BCCI is also not an easy task, Indian coaches end up pleasing BCCI heads, succumb ling to zonal pressures and hell lot of other stuff.

Lets see, who is next in line, either its gonna be any other interim arrangement or G.Vishwanath all the way.

:-)

Cheeni kum hai,Cheeni kum hai
thodi thodi
tujhe mein hai kum
kum kum
hai kum kum

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WIFEY!!!

dheere dheere, haule haule,
dur dur hogi problem
humdum
o humdum

JAP

--- I'm a sports freak, though don't play as much I'd like to but still watch any damn sport they show on TV, ohh yes....no Golf plz, and my current obsession is NBA play-offs, first I was cheering for the local team Warriors, after their loss in Semis to Jazz, I'm hooting for Spurs to win Western Conference finals. That doesn't mean I miss Piston-Cavaliers’ action :-)
At times, delve too much and start discussing time-out strategies with wifey, someday I'm sure she'll break TV or my teeth or both!

--- managed to to catch some French open action before rain washed away the day, game between huge Serena and petite Pironkova, Pironkova ranked 95 fought hard for each and every point, and her forehand was fantastic, I guess she was lil low in stamina and that cost her the match.
Well, to someone who grew up watching Martina-Chris Evert contests, with occasional Pam Shriver or Gina Garrison thrown-in, this was an eye opener, man this game is changing so rapidly.....anyone can beat anyone!!!
Anyways my money is on Justine Henin lest some Russian babe derails her, though I sorely miss heartbroken Kim Clisters, and wanna write more about her but..... but ...wifey reads this blog :-(

--- in men's section, would like to see Baghdatis or Davydenko to spoil another Nadal/Federer party!

--- Ahh another nice guy bows out, may be just like Lehmann he too born in the wrong era!

--- Last night a family friend visited us for a 'planned' dinner, but his wife ended up cooking, while I enlightened him with intricacies’ of Basketball.

--- Well, wifey’s birthday is approaching fast, though to girls most useless gifts (flowers/teddy bear eeksss...) makes most likeable ones, I always advise people to go for them, but in own case as usual ‘m clueless, what to do….jewellery/fragrances/shades/literature…. ahh this world is too materialistic B-(

--- See, in this whole post, I didn’t mention a word about cricket :-)

da(RED)

da(RED)

I’ve this feeling that Yousuf Yohana aka Mohammad Yousuf will hang his gloves pretty soon.

Weekend well spent!!

We had fantastic time this weekend, Wifey's friends from Virginia were here, everything was just perfect from wifey's delicious meals* to 'Tonga'(horse cart for angrezez) ride in San Francisco.

Golden Gate Bridge was as freezing/windy as ever, met some strange characters at Fisherman's wharf; almost ran into a old colleague, but preferred not to say hi ;-)

******

My favorite team GS Warriors lost again in NBA play offs, they are 1-3 down, and now I don't think they can pull it off from here. Anyways Jazz are a better team!!!

******

Btw, Happy '39th' Anniversary mom and dad :-) , hahahaha..no one reads this , and also I can never say this to my dad :-))

******
My CEP exam is now less than a month away, so its high time to start studying seriously....that reminds me during school days I had this badge 'Get Serious' ...so 'Get Serious' :-)



* -- specially chaane-ki-daal stuffed allo-tikki were too good!

Random

These angrezes have a strange bemmari of shortening names, of males only.
Stephen becomes Steve, Timothy becomes Tim, James (hell which already is short) becomes Jim, Mathew becomes Mat, Michael -- Mike, Donald -Don.

There is this something abt them to shorten every male-name to 3 or 4 letter word. May be coz thats easy to speak but sometimes it becomes funny here in our office between all these Tim Toms Jim Don etc.., surprisingly females always have longer names and they prefer same however long they are. In fact females don't like their short names, trying calling Elizabeth just Beth or Jess to Jessica and see what I mean.

Its ok as long as this trend is limited to them but when they start renaming desis it start to sound weird...Jagadish becomes Jag, agreed their tongues can't bent that way to pronounce it right but still....its lil difficult to associate K.V.S.Pondhaisamy with Sam or Pon.

Also I hate it when desis live their fantasies of changing their names :-) , I know a lot of desis working in nearby Dominos with name-badge identifying them as Dave,Tez,Dez,Pete etc in reality they are Devinder,Tejinder, Preetam, Deepak etc.

********
Places I want to visit::

1) Calcutta
2) Venice
3) NY
4) Pune
5) Lansdowne

**********
-- I always feel like taking a long break after every meeting I attend.

-- I get very restless if I don't know the solution of a problem, and the moment I figure out solution I lose interest and don't feel like implementing it.

Fitting end to agonizingly long and boring world cup, only 3 matches out of 51, were competitive (though two of them hardly had any effect on table standings), and rest were hugely disappointing one-sided affairs.

********
Saturday night on a major freeway interchange a truck carrying 8300 gallons of petrol overturned and caught fire, resulting heat weakened the part of one overpass, crumpling it onto another. These huge trucks always scare me, yes they do, and I’ve seen many mindless truck drivers tailgating, speeding, and zigzagging on freeways as if they are driving a sports car.
Damn, now it'll take at least 2 months and 20 millions dollars to repair the damaged freeway, caused by truck carrying $30,000 worth of petrol. Now, probably Arnie will have to re-adjust his budget allocations, or will introduce a hidden tax, and living in a county with highest sales tax in US doesn't help either :-(


*********
Try this prank with your co-workers, press left alt + left ctrl + print screen on their computer while they aren't watching, press enter and see how long it takes them to work out how to reset it.

Need of hour :-)

There is always a distinct charm in an inning when a captain leads from front, takes all load on his shoulders and wins the game for his mates.

Stephen Flemming has done this many times, in fact he scored all his 8 hundreds while chasing.
Ponting/Waugh, Smith, Jayasuriya/Jayawardhane, Lara, Inzy have done this at some amazing consistency.

But in comparison, India never had one such leader, to some extent Kapil was only one in Indian History. (At least at some stage of his career, he led either by bowl or bat)

-- Under Kapil, either Vengsarkar/Azhar were mainstay of batting line-up,
-- Under Azhar, mostly Manjrekar was the main guy, later on Sachin took over forever.
-- Under Ganguly,Sehwag florished and Dravid established himself as THE WALL.
-- And now under Dravid, Yuvraj shows some glimpses of his potential.

Captains performance/form plays a huge role on the morale of a team, only a successful captain(with bat or ball) can infuse positive energy in his team, think of positive impact Ponting have on his team, likes of Clark/Symonds/Hodge/Hogg/Watson have now clearly become a better player rather than bright prospect.

On the other hand, imagine the plight of a dressing room where captain himself is struggling with his form/technique, in that frame of mind he cannot trust himself or fully trust some other guy to deliver, all that shows up in tactics in field, his bowling changes or field placements. A reluctance in approach of affairs becomes quite evident and has adverse affect on fortunes of the team.

Being captain of Indian side is not easiest of jobs, agreed, there is a hell lot of factors involved, maintaining good relations with BCCI bosses and with media are the foremost.
After all it’s the media hype which leads to public frenzy.

I feel it’s high time, BCCI decides for separate teams for ODIs and Test matches and of course with separate captains.

Tera saaya kabhi to bolega....
main suntaa raha parchaaiyaa!

Crazy or what?

Lara commited the biggent crime and took the final powerplay from 44 to 49 over, plus when Gibbs and de Villiars were well set, and later Boucher joined-in and they scored 77 in 5 overs.
Seems that WI and England are hell-bent to help SA qualify for semis despite their zero-carryover points and loss to B'desh.

Seriously, w/o India-Pak, this WC which was tipped to be most exciting or balanced, has turned out to be most boring in the history.

Except for 2 SL games, all matches are either 7 wickets or like 100 victories!

I don't know why English management is continuing with Vaughan, he is soo boring, he is not even 1% of what he was before his knee injury. Whatever, he never fitted for ODI formats, he is made for Test-matches only he should realize that and step-down, or take retirment from ODIs.

To me they look the most dis-jointed squad in this world cup,
it is hard to believe that it is the same squad which regained ashes in style, and later surrendered it in most embarrassing way.

In this WC, their problem starts from the top, both openers(Vaughan and Joyce) are worst than local club players, and that puts huge pressure on Bell/Pieterson/Collingwood.
Only its matter of time, overburden will start showing, which already has started to show its sign on Collingwood.

And another major factor in deterioration is their policy if selecting captains post-ashes, after Vaughan's injury they ignored ‘forever-vice captain’ Treschothik and appointed Strauss as captain, result - Treschothick lost interest in game, and withdrew himself.
Then they made Flintoff as captain, result Strauss's confidence and batting form bore the brunt.
And then again, re-appointment of cleary visible injured Vaughan resulted in loss of form of Flintoff.

First injuries to Simon Jones, Hoggard, Harmison and then their stupid policies in appointing captains has destroyed a well-balanced team.

Cricket...what else!

When I wrote this in May 2005, I hoped for 'beginning of golden period' of Indian Cricket, thing looked bright to begin with, but somehow script changed dramatically right after WI tour, DLF cup and Champions Trophy, and WC 07 turned out to be last nail in the coffin.

Though, it was on cards even before start of WC, and now with Tendulkar's outburst has delivered a final verdict.

Everything is in big mess; our board seems to be seriously competing with PCB in terms of generating controversies and creating uglier mess.
Every other day, one member or another is passing stupid comments and directly or indirectly blaming Chappell for WC debacle.

It all started with Ganguly's outburst against Chappell right in middle of a test-match, and Ganguly played his cards right after scoring a ton against Zimbabwe, taking cue from him Laxman also said few things, and in the end both were dropped. (But in current scene, Tendulkar's reaction to Chappell's 'alleged' resulted in opposite outcome, which clearly shows how big he is.)

Ganguly made a comeback without doing anything worth-deserving a place, he was recalled only coz Rainas/Kaifs/Raos/Mongias failed, and Yuvi got injured. Once back in team, he clearly played for himself, not for team.
If you ask me, we lost the World Cup during the phase when 'Ganguly-Tendulkar' played too defensively against Bangladesh, and set the pace and momentum of whole inning. In case of Ganguly, he played worst even against Bermuda, his inning included 70 dot balls, yes 70 i.e. almost 12 overs.

Sometimes, seems that media is driving India Cricket,

- first they published excerpts from Chappell's WC report which he'll present to BCCI in next meeting,
- and in 'leaked' report he blamed senior players for showing bad-attitude etc etc,
- in response to that Sachin made some emotional statements,
- then Chappell called all that media's imagination, and vehemently denied having written anything against anybody.
- then Chappell decides enough is enough and resign,
- now media is blaming BCCI for WC debacle.

All they care for is breaking-news or new controversy, though they are right this time but their 'timing' is as always ‘bad’.

Now question is, who is next?
No sensible foreigner will come forward, and even if one comes forward in lure of big money, let’s say King Richards, will never ever open his mouth and will end-up like a puppet in hands of BCCI.

Though dice is heavily loaded in favor of Sandip Patil as interim coach for next month's B'desh tour, anyways he is much better than Joker Amarnath the other contender.

I don't even want to talk about Rice-dealer's proposed league; he is a businessman to the core and just wants to exploit the current cricketing situation.

Bad timing everyone ‘Media/Chappell/Sachin/BCCI/Subhash Chandra’!!

After all cricket and life are all about timing.

Elephant in the way!!

Re-actions

Ganguly:: "I'm very happy with my performance, you look at my scores (so what if my strike rate was less than 50%), it did very well, my timing was excellent, I'm playing my best cricket...give me back the captaincy"

Uthapa:: "I don't know what went wrong, errr...I was asked to play my natural game, and I obeyed , they changed the rules nobody dropped my catches , I was good but my luck was bad"

Sehwag:: "I did meditation and took medication, and now it is clear that I'm better than Tendulkar; also I set-up the highest ever World Cup score"

Sachin:: "Surely this is most disappointing phase of my career I lost Airtel assignment to SRK and Chawanprash one to AB, now we have this one unplanned extra month in our hands, I'm hoping to make-up for the loses..."

Dravid:: "We played bad cricket, I mean such things happen when you play lot of cricket throughout year I means its a just a bad patch, we should focus on positives of this tournament, we achieved a world record of 413 in WC, also Sehwag is back in form, so I mean life moves on.."

Yuvraj:: "ohhh yaaar, run-out kar diya B!@#C@#$ Dravid ney, nahi SL ki to !@#$% "

Dhoni:: "We tried, I tried everybody tried, I'm devastated so is my under-construction home"

Agarkar:: "Ya, ya, I was selected as bowling all-rounder, but later I realized I'm selected as a batman who can bowl...I'm still confused..., my bowling suffered, my batting suffered, and whole team suffered......, I lasted three full matches without breaking down, and now I bowl just one wide and one buffet bowl per over..."

Harbhajan:: "Sab wrong hai, asaan match mein Anil bhai ko khilatey hai, mushkil mein mujhe aagey kar detey hai, even after playing 200 matches I'm learning to cope with pressure. Doosra daalne ke chakkker mein Pehla bhi bhool gaya...., koi nahi ji, we will win World Cup NEXT YEAR.

Zaheer :: "I'm very badly hurt, I was doing good whole team was doing good, I tried my best, but it was not enough, so I'm back, so at least Isha is happy....."

Patel :: "No comments"

Pathan:: "Thank God, my fitness saved me..."

Sreesanth:: "Dhin-chak..dhin chak....main bach gaya"

Karthik:: ".....please don't sack me...please....."

Sharad Pawar :: “We are happy our team followed the good-old Indian tradition of promoting peace and brotherhood…..Our this loss will help in improving our relationship with Pakistan, SL and Bangladesh which is a good sign for this region”

Chappel :: "When is the next flight to Melbourne dude?"

:-(

hmmm...if I say I'm not hurt then I'd be plain lying, It hurts and badly too.
But at the same time, this time there are no excuses at all, few days back I read some article on cricinfo , it was about 're-building' inning after early loses, Australia topped that list whereas India was in 9th position, that clearly shows irrespective of 'high-power' middle order we simply do not have in us to counter-attack.

If one observes, South Africa or Australia, these team never go into shell after early loses, at most they play it safe for a couple of overs and after that they start counter-attacking. No matter what the scorecard reads like Ponting or Greame Smith or any other player they just counter attack, but in case of India, batsmen make mountains out of moles, they all gooooo in deep slumber, they treat rookies as worldclass performers. Too much of defensive mould, sets the tone and they actually never recover from early setbacks.

Game against B'desh was another classic example of same, I think we lost the game during Ganguly-Tendulkar partnership, they were soooo slow and defensive in mindset that affected whole team.

I'm not a Ganguly fan, never was one; and will never be one either.
I still feel that he is just playing for himself, his big scores after his comeback do not affect the outcome of game, in wins it is always some-else's contribution. Ganguly is proving just a point to media/Chappel/More etc but he is not helping the team. He has been painfully slow, he started the rot in B'desh game, and even against Bermuda he was slow.

I'm sure, after world cup he'll blow his own trumpet and ask the media to check his averages and blah blah...

I always questioned the role of minnows in world, I always thought the only purpose of having them was to::

1) Players getting freak-injuries while playin against them jeopardizing their rest of tournament or
2) India losing a point against coz of rain-washouts :-(

This time Ireland, and B'desh has turned the tables much in favor other Super-8 teams, and I still stand by my words, its going to SL-NZ final, and NZ winning in a tight game.

Take my words.....

Take my words.....New Zealand will win the cup this time, their time has come to give-up dark horse tag which they have been carrying since time immemorial.

South Africa, Australia , Sri Lanka and New Zealand will make it to last four.

Fleming and his men will lift the cup in finals!!!

Shallow people, shallow thoughts, shallow actions, shallow souls, shallow words, shallow actions, shallow promises!!!

*********

Problem lies in batting order....

Mr. Woolmer, try this in next game (provided ban is lifted from Afridi); and while chasing interchange Malik and Afridi.
Simple :-)

1) Malik
2) Hafeez
3) Youhana
4) Inzy
5) Khan
6) Afridi
7) Akmal
8) Rana
9) Gul
10) Kaneria
11)Rao

TV at last!!!

TV, it was never my kind of thing to begin with; and here we spent last 16 months without it and without any regret or sense of missing anything.
In fact, I stayed away from it during our 4 weeks stay at home.

But now, only thing that made me go for it is...World Cup :-)
After spending a long time of 3 days deciding about one, and exhausting myself in whole process of research in terms of features and price, we decided to go for Panasonic 42" LCD.

And today in the store, we took an impulsive decision and bought a "better looking" Samsung 42" Plasma.

Next 45 days are going to be FUN, after that..I don't know what we'll do with that :-)

Btw, Happy Marriage Anniversary Biwi :-)

To home and back!!!

laaey hayaat aaye, qazaa le chali chale
na apani khushi aaye, na apani khushi chale

behatar to hai yahi ke na duniya se dil lagey
par kyaa karein jo kaam na be-dillagii chaley

kam hongey iss bisaat pe hum jaise badqimaar
jo chaal hum chale woh nihaayat buri chale !!!

I'm back after spending 4 weeks at home.

My Visual DNA

Read my VisualDNA™
Get your own VisualDNA™

Our fortunes solely lie on shoulders of Dravid and Sehwag, and on genius of Kumble, we win only coz' of some stupendous effort from any of these 3.

Somehow I feel, in last series intrusion of Vengsarkar has not helped their cause either. Selection of VRV over Pathan was a mistake, Pathan was doing bad with ball but he was best batsman till the time he was with team, and with ball too he can't be worse than VRV; also in last test selection of unfit Munaf over VRV and Harbhajan was again big big mistake and proved costly in the end.

Also use of Jaffer in onedayers was another mistake of Vengsarkar, and Jaffer looked totally out of sorts, his playing style doesn't suit one-day needs, and to adjust himself in oneday mould, he tried to play too many shots too early in his inning totally against his nature.
A string of miserable failures in onedayers took its toll in test matches too. In last match Jaffer managed to prove that he is made for test matches not for onedayers.

In the final test, blame lies solely on Tendulkar and Dravid, and on selection of unfit Munaf.

Picking Sehwag for the final test was a mistake, and dropping him for series against W.Indies would be bigger mistake. If like of Rainas/Kaifs can have longer run, then I'm sure Sehwag too deserves some backing.
Dada got picked up for test-matches just coz Yuvraj was unfit, and now Yuvi is fit, so team is again back to square one.

Seriously, fun is about to begin :-) when selectors sit down to decide team for upcoming 8 ODIs against WI and SL, and probably this team form the core of 18 guys who will go for World cup, so in a way all experiments will end, and time for picking a stable team has come.
Trust me, it's going be real tough to pick team at this stage, lets talk about them one by one.

Openers::
Sehwag, Sachin, Ganguly, Gambhir and Uthapa
Here, Sachin remains automatic choice, fight is for other slot, I feel Sehwag should get a nod ahead of Dada, and other two young guys, coz no more experiments now :-) and since our middle order is also too fragile so Dada can be accomodated there and he fits to be no.4 , when he comes to bat ball is old and he can tonkaway medium pacers n spinners. And if Sehwag continues to fail then Dada can open and Sehwag can play at no.4.
Without doubt Gambhir and Robin are talented guys but trying them just before WC won't do any good to anyone.


Middle order::
Dravid, Yuvraj, Kaif, Laxman,Dinesh Karthik, Rohit Sharma, Raina, Raghu and Badri

Here again, Dravid selects himself, and Yuvraj too can makes it without any issue other than his knee. Laxman's performance in SA was ok, but NOT good enough to have him in ODI squad plus his fielding is still a suspect, after all slip cordon goes off after initial 10 overs max. He can make to squad only coz of his vast experience and repeated failure of Raina/kaif and Mongia.
About Kaif and Raina, they are products of failed-experiments, I dunno why Kaif was included in team earlier that too at crucial no.7 where most of teams have big-hitters like Symonds etc, and Chappel & Dravid favour him coz of his hardwork at nets and Chappel wants to include him coz India has already invested 100+ ODIs in him, so Chappel wants to use Kaif's exp, but trouble is that even after playing some 100+ ODIs he still plays like a debutant, he looks so unsure and nervous at crease. And he cannot play BIG shots. Raina is again a classic case of putting too much hope/pressure too early on a ordinary talent, he is not Sachin Tendulkar who will start early and keep up with pressure. Raina needs more time in domestic format first. And he is not Micheal Hussey who can make it to squad only on basis of batting.

Again, playing debutants like Rohit Sharma, Raghu or Badri in big tournament again is a big big gamble, and should be avoided. And Dinesh Karthik's performance in SA has earned him lot of respect n fans, he made most of the opportunities, single-handedly won us our only 20-20 game. He is an excellent fielder too, and can also be used as Dhoni's backup.

WK::
Dhoni -- No doubt about his selection!

Seamers/Allrounders::
Agarkar, Pathan, Zaheer Khan, Sreesanth, VRV, Munaf, Joginder Sharma, Ishant Sharma, Rana Deb Bose,Ramesh Powar

Here again, with their proven record in WI and SA, Zaheer, Sreesanth and Munaf pick themselves. Pathan dilemma will surely give touch time to selectors, still I feel he'll be selected mostly coz he is a batting allrounder, whereas Agarkar was best bowler in the last WI series, so his experience of WI will help him to make it to squad. As pitches are slow in WI, so selection of Ramesh Powar ahead of young Ishant/Bose makes sense to me. And on basis of his solid 'all-round' performance in domestic season I feel Joginder Sharma too be get a recall.

Spinners
Kumble, Harbhajan and Murli Karthik
Here Kumble and Harbhajan are clear cut selections, Murli Karthik will lose out coz Sachin/Sehwag and Powar can bowl.

So here is my team for coming series and WORLD CUP 07

1. Sachin
2. Sehwag/Ganguly
3. Dravid
4. Ganguly/Sehwag
5. Yuvraj
6. Dinesh Karthik/Laxman
7. Dhoni
8. Pathan/Agarkar/Powar/Joginder Sharma
9. Sreesanth/Munaf
10.Zaheer
11.Kumble/Harbhajan

Ek brahman ne kahaa hai ke ye saal achchhaa hai

Ek brahman ne kahaa hai ke ye saal achchhaa hai

Zulm ki raat bahut jald talegii ab to
Aag chuulhon mein har ik roz jalegii ab to

Bhookh ke maare koi bachchaa nahin royega
chain ki neend har ik shaKhs yahaan soyega

Aandhi nafarat ki chalegi na kahin ab ke baras
pyaar ki fasal ugaegi zameen ab ke baras

Hai yakeen ab na koi shor-sharaabaa hoga
zulm hoga na kahin Khoon-kharaabaa hoga

Os aur dhuup ke sadamein na sahegaa koi
ab mere desh mein beghar na rahega koi

Naye vaadon ka jo daalaa hai vo jaal achchhaa hai
Rehanumaaon ne kaha hai ke ye saal achchhaa hai

....dil ke Khush rakhane ko Ghalib ye Khayaal achchhaa hai

--Sabir Dutt

Graffiti

Lighten up this year - Buy a bathroom scale that lies !!