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"

:-)