It's been really a long time since I actually 'typed' something, lately I've been posting some song lyrics or some forwarded carton clip!

It's not that nothing worth writing is not happening, but truth is a lot is happening and I'm hiding all that.
(Wah wah that’s a cool “not-nothing-not” kind of sentence :-) )

Well, I guess I'm surprising myself but not writing about ongoing India-SL series or Mendis's or Phelp's exploits.

Or about Olympic ceremonies, like I'll be monotonously repetitive if I say China has set the bar way too high for other countries, no its not like that others can't spend 40 billion dollars to host a mega event, but they definitely can't manage that sheer number of individuals performing.

China surely has used their huge population to their advantage in a fantastic way.

Regarding actual games, I feel certain sports should be banned, yes completely banned, what kind of crap is that "synchronized swimming/ synchronized diving/ Rhythmic Gymnastics/ Trampoline"???

Well, weekend was spent watching movies some 3.5 in all, and that .5 comprises 1/4 of Kismet Connection (felt like crushing its DVD), and 1/4 of Phoonk (fell asleep); Other 3 movies are mentioned on the sidebar.

Ouch, this has turned out another rant-ish post, so that's the prime reason I should stay away from writing anything on Monday morning.

With that, I strongly recommend that all offices should declare half-days on Mondays and Friday, that is first half off on Mondays and second half off on Fridays.

One of worst feeling in the world is to win despite playing real bad.

Last evening, we won despite being down 0-4 in first set and 0-5 in third, and somehow managed to win 7-6 (9-7), 6-1, 7-6 (7-3). My partner played good but I was in terrible form.

Amazing astounding alluring mesmerizing…………..

AWESOME….. ROCK ON!!!!!

I’m absolutely in love with this song……”Phir Dekhiye…..”

Beautiful lyrics, awe-inspiring music…and wonderful voice!!!

Aankhon mein jis ke...
Koi to khwaaab hai

Khush hai wahi jo...
Thoda betaaab hai

Zindagi mein koi...
Arzoooo kijiye

Phir Dekhiye....

Hoton pe jis ke....
Koi to geeet hai

Woh haar bhi to...
Uss ki hi jeeet hai

Dil mein jo... geet hai
Gun gunaaa... lijiye

Phir Dekhiye....

Yaadon mein jis ke.....
kisi ka naam hai
Sapno ke jaisi
Uss ki har shaaam hai

Koi to... ho jisey
Apna dil.. dijiye

Phir Dekhiye....

Khwaab buniye zara
Geet suniye zara...
Phool Chuniye zaraa...

Phir Dekhiye.....

One should be well-versed in either Telugu or Punjabi to interact with desis in Bay Area.

Ahh..Wednesday....weekly status report day..and I wish to send this along with the report.

As expected it turned out to be best match in recent history. But unexpectedly climax script went wrong for die-hard Federer fans like me; He was supposed to win the title though not easily but in not more than 4 sets.

He was little scratchy in first 3 games of first set, in second set for first 6 games he was back in rhythm but in 7^th game some ‘noisy audience’ disturbed his concentration and he handed a easy volley into net and also ended up losing that game and next 3 games to lose the set.

It was hard to choose a winner in 3^rd set, and in 4^th set again his first serve started to trouble him and at the same time rescued him in 4^th set tie-break (also Nadal’s double fault at 5-2 helped), and in final set his first serve TOTALLY deserted him, he also looked little tired n jaded after splitting 12 games, and ended up losing.

In my opinion, he played at least 1 gear below his potential, whereas Nadal is in form of his life and played exceptional tennis.

In all, it turned out to be heartbreaking especially after his French open beating; here he was expected to win, and in spite of not being in his best form he still took it to last set and lost from there.

And on the same day, India lost another final, this time to SL, and again same story; from past so many years either Jayasuriya or Murli or Vaas do something special and this time along with Jayasuriya this Mendis fellow destroyed them.

**
Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, turned out to be routine college-romance kind of GOOD movie, with a very very silly ending, though people say there can’t be better end. Huh.

Names in it are really bad or dumb e.g. Rats/Meow/Bombs…..very irritating, and also who calls their parents peachy or pumpkin??

Songs are misplaced, but they are good enough to make you sit through out.

29-June-2008- Somewhere in North Cal.
Rarest of rare photo where we both are laughing in a same frame

buahahahaha

Today, I bunked office for couple of hours to play tennis B-)

Now the feeling of coming back has started to sink in. But still when some friends or relatives ask “ab kab aaogey” makes thing little tough.

Anyway, part of life. Chalta hai.
**

First 2 days at court were miserable, I lost on both days, plus buggers (my friends) misplaced my racket, so I had to play with some stupid racket.

Also I’m a bad loser. But yesterday normalcy restored and I won both sets with ease, and also I got my beautiful blue racket back.
**

It’s been ages since I had my 1-to-1 with my boss, and I really want to talk to him about couple of issues that have been bothering me and have started to affect my personal life as well. Though nothing major but still I feel like making him aware about how I feel about certain things. No worries, will handle it.
**

Today morning again I got late coz of Ana – Dechy game, it was a fantastic duel that lasted some 3 and half hours, though in end Ana won but she lost some respect as she disputed one of the points won by Dechy at a crucial stage and convinced umpire to go for a “RE”.
**

These days my brother-in-law is with us, he is here to explore possibilities with some universities for his MS, and he has this amazing quality of killing lyrics ,of any song without even realizing it. Yes any song, he cannot sing a line correctly, wait a line is too big for him; he can’t sing even two words correctly. I don’t know how he manages to bring weird words in between…for example yesterday he was singing “Khoon Chala” from RDB as “Khoon jala” and other day it was “Dheere jalna” from Paheli as “Dheere chalna” .
**

Its better to say nothing about ongoing Asia Cup.
Boss, yeh kya mazzak ho raha hai, Hongkong, UAE ko kyu bula liya, B’desh kaafi nahi tha kya.

I'm back, I'm back, I'm back..imagine that with echo effects just like any of K' serials.

Man, its tough, I mean real tough to even think about work after 40 days break at home, though I worked for almost 100 hrs from home, but this feeling of sitting in office surrounded/hounded by boss and colleagues is a different thing altogether.

B'day was strange as expected , till 4 in evening we were busy doing shopping (buying gift for wifey, (shouldn't it be other way round; lets leave that for some other day) ), and we had to leave for airport at 9pm, so did packing in record 1 hour (although later on did lots of reshuffling of stuff)
Whole journey was uneventful, and that was a good thing.

Now, each n everyone is asking about my trip and all, and I'm tired of talking the same thing again and again.

Last year 28 days past like 2 days, and this time 40 days vacation flew past like 40 minutes, and now after spending 2 hrs in office I feel as if I never left this place.

****
Yesterday, Turkey's win over Czech Republic was fantastic, somehow I had that feeling that they'll win, they looked very determined in second half specially their captain, and also world's best goalkeeper choose a wrong day to go off colour.

Customary Post

2007

2006

2005


aayee hayaat aaye
kazaa le chali chale...
apni khushi na aaye
naa apni khushi chale...

These days I’m leading a life of a retired person. It sounds fun but in reality it is not.
**
Well, its not TOTAL vacation time, I’ve to complete 120hrs (at least), initially I tried to keep track but not anymore. Though its not lots of work but thoughts of doing hazaar things weighs down one.

Recently read a perfect definition of a lazy – “Someone who is always wanting to do something and end up doing nothing”
Good, they didn’t put my snap next to it.

**
Its 1-0 Aussies, as I write this, WI's resistance ended by a bad call in the end.

**
Next 1 week is going to be lot more hectic, lots of traveling is on cards.

When I disclosed to my friends here that I’ll be going to India in May, they all collectively gave those ‘are you mad’ kind of look. They suggested in nice manner that May won’t be the good time to be in Delhi, and it’s much nicer in Feb or March.

Only thing, I can say to them is I’ve spent my whole life in Delhi, and I’m fully aware of each and every day of season there, forget about any particular month. I know its going to very hot, it will tough to adjust from 40 degrees Fahrenheit to 40 degrees Celsius but so what.

They are right in their opinion, but when thoughts of going home cross my mind, every other thing becomes trivial, so what if its going to hot, so what if we won’t be able to visit Jaipur as we planned after watching Jodha Akbar. So what.

And now as flying date is approaching, kaam utna hi badhta ja raha hai, jitna ki mera kaam na kar ney ka mann.

Mann bhi badi ajeeb cheez hoti hai.

Only low point of whole planning is that, I’ll be flying back from India on my birthday. Just imagine it’s your birthday, and you are busy with last minute packing, and in evening leave home.

That excitement of going home led to this blunder.

jlt

Hamid Manzil, Rampur Raza Library.

If you have slightest of interest in calligraphy, old and rare manuscripts then this is a must visit place. And for new manuscrypts , this is the place.

One distinct feature of this building is it's architecture, all 4 floors of surrounding minarets have 4 different styles.

Although I don’t have any such interest, but in Feb last year, we stopped there on our way to “Golu Devta Temple”, Almora.

Ahh, now don’t ask me, why suddenly after more than a year I’m talking about this, coz’ even I don’t know :-)

**

My very-short-attention span and multi-tasking disorder is hitting new lows. Be at work, or at home, I find myself juggling between at least 3-4 things. For example, while eating lunch/dinner, there should be something to read, old new paper, new news paper or any damn printed material, TV should be on, and when that becomes boring, TV goes on mute, I switch on some music and that’s also the time to make/take some calls.

Now I’m bored.

**

Bas 5 din 6 raatein aur and phir I N D I A.

Hmmm....
M (38-40) – is tight.
L (42-44) – is loose.

Why don’t they make size (40-42)??

***
So play off dream ended, and there’ll be questions why Baron was rested for whole second half in last crunch game. But I think Nelson was right in his judgment.

Anyways, Dubs overall improved a lot, lets hope they do better in next season, and take good care of Monta, he is too precious to be lost.

Argghhhhhh….today

"O sajniiiiii
seeneeey seyyy...
lag key tu
roneeeeeeeey dey...."

and yesterday it was
"teri aankhon mein hai halka sa nasha....."

......playing in my head ...........in infinite loop.

******
** Updated photoblog after a long time.

And if I don’t post this, then it will become 79th un-finished post resting in my outlook’s draft folder.

Well, as usual nothing much to say, but yes I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time(read two days); in fact for clock to strike 5, to be precise.

But right now it’s well over 5:30 but I’m still in office, though I stopped working a 2 in anticipation of 5pm, but …..IDE on my machine crashed. As I’m writing this from office machine, and two feet away my machine is making tired sounds as I’m re-installing Visual Studio and plethora of other things on it.

To cut the long story short, today is THE GAME and Warriors MUST win today to remain alive for play off spot. Though play off spots should have been decided by last Sunday but Nuggets lost 2 games under .5 teams, and that kept Warriors alive. Now its up to Warriors to step-up and make most of this opportunity.

Warriors with 47-31 are tied at 8^th spot with Nuggets, now those first six consecutive games they lost, and those six losses against Timber wolves/Bulls/Hawks/Bobcats/Clippers/Grizzlies are proving to be decisive factor for a play off spot.

Let’s hope they win today. I’m nervous.

********

Update – They've lost 105-114, so now they 99.9% out from play off race, and Mavericks won against Jazz, and ‘ve made to play offs.

Hmmm…… tough luck Warriors.

For next one month I don’t want to do anything which I don’t like …err lets make it to next 1 week, ok alright final at least next 2 days.
Done.
*******

After attending every other meeting, only thing that comes to my mind is -

“Barbad-e-Gulistan karne ko bas ek hi gullu kaafi tha,
Har shakh par ullu baitha hai anjaame gulistan kya hoga”

And my ALL other Indian colleagues here don’t speak hindi, so making them understand this urdu couplet is an another issue.

Uff. Frustrations. Frustrations Frustrations

"I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once." ~Jennifer Yane

Happy Anniversary Biwi!

I never thought I’ll be writing about this, but after so much publicity & noise and one cannot escape it. TV/radio/internet/newspaper/near coffee machine, everywhere all I hear is Hillary/Obama/McCain/Huckabee…Caucus/Delegates/Florida/Michigan/Super Delegates/Ohio/Texas …blah blah;

Though Obama is leading everywhere and there is pressure on Hillary to step down but still don’t know why, I feel Hillary will be representing Democrats.

I P L

Right from day one, I’ve never been a fan of Twenty-20, and I still believe that’s not cricket.

As I write this, I realize that I’m actually writing after a long time, not because I was too busy to write but truth is that there is too much to write. But again I’m no writer :-) hahaha use of word ‘write’ five times in 2 lines :-)

Hah…in between a lot happened from long 4 days weekend to a short two days trip to Tahoe, but heck I cannot write two coherent sentences about it, forget a travelogue-ish type entries altogether. So we started at 8pm in a rental Nissan Armada…hahahaha now I hate writing like this :-)

Wait, I think I started this post with my favorite topic CRICKET, lets not deviate from there, it (thought process, what did ya think?) all started with that crazy auction of players. Well, well nothing against players or money they are making, but yes I’m plain jealous and amused. Now just imagine what you were doing when you were 19. Hmm….I was playing cricket with tennis ball on a basketball court, and you? (Last line has nothing to do with Ishant Sharma.)

As I said in first line, I’ve never been a fan of Twenty-20, and I still think that this will not work in long term. Well, even this IPL sounds more tamasha than actual test of skills.

First of all it is not cricket, it is some freaking lottery where guys like Afridi or Utthapa will flourish.

To me, problem starts with naming of teams, why the hell they want to associate major cities with Teams, I cannot fathom the fact McGrath playing for Delhi, or Shoaib Akhtar for Kolkatta.

May be these names like Delhi Daredevils, Chennai Super kings or Bangalore Royal Challengers, and ensemble of stars will sound and look good in short advertisements but its hard to imagine individual cities actually backing up the players.

Imagine Afridi and Symonds of Hyderabad blasting Ishant Sharma of Kolkatta. How many Hyderabadis will support them?

Or Imagine Mumbai’s Malinga bowling bouncers to Bangalore’s Dravid, how many Mumbaites will back him?

Can these matches ignite the passion among people? Can people of cities actually feel elated when their team wins, or go in mourning when they lose? Can these matches create that ‘crazy’ excitement? Can these matches bring whole country to standstill?
Can these matches make students forget their next-day exams?
I’ve my strong doubts about it.

Other than that, composition of teams is ill-balanced; I know second round of auction is still remaining. Chennai and Delhi teams have 2 wicketkeepers, whereas Mumbai has none. Moreover only 4 overseas players can make it to final eleven, so that again defies the logic of buying foreign players in bulk.

Lets have a look at team compositions –

Jaipur (3 Indian , 5 Overseas)
Mumbai (3 Indian , 5 Overseas)
Delhi (4 Indian , 7 Overseas)
Chennai (4 Indian , 7 Overseas)
Kolkatta (4 Indian , 6 Overseas)
Bangalore (4 Indian , 6 Overseas)
Hyderabad (3 Indian , 8 Overseas)
Mohali (5 Indian , 5 Overseas)

This initial formation of teams clearly suggests that many big money-making overseas players will sit out.

This Modi’s brainchild is nothing but a pure business proposition with no intention of developing cricket or nurturing upcoming cricketers, and sole idea is based on exploiting our huge ‘idle’ population.

:-)

Happy Valentine's Day

"Poochtey hai...ISHQ se kya fayadaa..."
"Poochiye unsey...fayadey se kya fayadaa"

One word music review of Jodhaa Akbar

MINDBLOWING!

Javed Ali should get all awards for song ‘Jashn-E-Bahaara’.

Pledge -- Is it still valid?

"WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC and to secure to all its citizens:
JUSTICE, social, economic and political;
LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;
EQUALITY of status and of opportunity; and to promote among them all
FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation.
IN OUR CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY this twenty-sixth day of November, 1949, do HEREBY ADOPT, ENACT AND GIVE TO OURSELVES THIS CONSTITUTION."

What do you call a fish without an eye?

What do you call a fish without an eye?

Fsh :-)

Strange are the ways of BCCI, I wonder what pleasure they derive by announcing the team in middle of a series?

Though I don’t have any issues with dropping Ganguly (I know he performed well last year, only second to Sachin in terms of runs, though I always doubt if his runs really helped, lets not get into that now) , but now if one believes the reports that Dhoni was keen to have most of Twenty-20 victorious team, that in other words , he is kind-of instrumental in dropping of Ganguly, Dravid, and master of Aussie turfs Laxman.

Now what if these three score big hundreds in last test? What if Sehwag fails errr….again?

I’ve already started to imagine the chit-chat among slip cordon (comprising Laxman/Dravid and Ganguly) and wicketkeeper in next test.

So much fun, I say :-)

Biggest and Brightest of 2007

Biggest and brightest moon of 2007 was spotted on 25-Oct-2007 Thursday, and luckily I managed to capture it that day :-)