Getting Colder!!

The un-seasonal spell of warm weather we were having has come to an abrupt end and i am reminded yet again of the cold Canadian clime, temperatures have started to hover in the -10 degree C to -20 degree C range(better than western Canada, which is under the grip of a cold wave, Edmonton recorded -33 degree C and that was without wind chill!!), but surprisingly no snow yet, just a few flurries here and there and few years back, we would have had snow banks 2 meters tall by mid December!!
Also its Christmas in 2 days, a happy and joyous Christmas to everyone! Feliz Navidad !

Finally!!!!

We won the first test, score line for the series reads 1-0, the boxing day test awaits....

Xmas Season!!

It’s Dec 17th, 8 days and its Christmas, the season of love? Happiness? whatever that means. Being in North America for a while one thing I noticed is that this coming week is the most hectic week in people's lives, malls which normally close at 9:00 pm are open 24/7, there's line up even at 3 in the morning with people getting last minute shopping done. Everyone here buys everyone else a present, whether you celebrate Christmas or not is just irrelevant, it’s a season of giving and taking i guess, cause people generally tend to expect gifts in return when u give something???? such a weird concept, I don’t think i will ever understand that, but i think its a part of life for people here something that goes beyond religion, culture etc, more like a seasonal norm i guess. What gets me raving and ranting is the fact that people spend so much this season, but mostly on themselves, I don’t think they understand what giving really means, for me Christmas would be giving something to someone who really needs it,,,, people who are starving, dying, but I guess that would be too utopian of a concept in this fast paced world we live in today.
Ok enough with this rant, on to more pleasant things, cricket:-), yes for a change I am happy with what the men in blue are doing, we might actually win a test in South Africa, still too early for predictions but I definitely am impressed with the showing in the first match so far:-), i read somewhere that a South African newspaper had a poll on the outcome of the series, and it was 1-0,2-0 or 3-0, all in favour of South Africa but that might just be reversed:-)(maybe some dreams are not utopian after all:-))

4-0...

The ODI series in South Africa concluded today with the Indians not winning a single game. I had expected a series defeat but had hoped we would pull off at least one win. The men in blue have been losing quite consistently of late and journalists, former cricketers, passionate fans have all expressed their opinions, why we even had a parliamentary debate over the future of the team. Saurav Ganguly and VVS have been recalled to strengthen our "weak" batting order. Reading through news sites and individual blogs, the common consensus seems to be that this is a good move and should be followed by sacking Greg Chappell as the Indian coach. My question is what will this accomplish?, the whole saga I mean, getting ganguly/vvs back,sacking chappell, maybe even getting dravid to step down from captaincy and making ganguly lead(thats a far cry).I don’t care about ganguly,chappell,dravid or whoever else the media talks about, i care about the Indian cricket team and because I do I have to care about these individuals because they represent the team. Bluntly speaking I don’t think getting ganguly/vvs back or even otherwise this team will accomplish much, maybe they will start playing better collectively win a few matches, reach maybe the semi finals of the world cup but that’s it. Greg Chappell will go home quite a few dollars richer, ganguly/tendulkar/lax/maybe drvaid will retire in a couple of years after the world cup all to be included in the list of all time cricket greats (well maybe not laxman), and where does that leave Indian cricket, frankly nowhere, this is what has been happening and will continue to happen. Great players are not hard to find, great teams are and great teams are not formed overnight. I am neither a cricket administrator nor a cricket writer, heck i don’t even get to see a lot of cricket but i do think that unless we work at grass roots level to change the "system" of cricket in India nothing will happen, not in the recent future not ever. We need a good domestic circuit (not something where an Ajay Sharma or V.Rao can score runs at will), better pitches (ever wonder why we never had a half-decent fast bowler) and good coaching staff at the domestic level (I think this is being looked into,i.e. the maharashtra,punjab boards have realized the importance of good coaching staff).I could continue this rant about what needs to be changed in the "system" but then again who really cares about me ranting!

Teams not doing too well!!!!

It seems like 2006 is not a good year for the teams i follow!, the men in blue are woefully out of form, lost the odi series in south africa already and i don’t expect a major turnaround in the test series either, the gunners are super inconsistent and the premiership challenge is all but over, hopefully they will secure a champions league spot for next season, the kings are not performing to their potential and i doubt they are genuine title contenders this year and finally the leafs, well i hope they make the playoffs this year. That sums up cricket, soccer, basketball and hockey. I sincerely hope 2007 is much better!
In other news, i finally got to see casino royale, will write a review on that soon! until next time!

Observation....

Over the years I have met different people and each individual has some traits which are unique, but some aspects remain common to one and all, me included. There have been some who were extremely ambitious, loved to thrive on self accolades and bask in the spotlight, others very practical, some too lazy or lacking ambition, some who just wanted to be like the ambitious and successful ones but were not there yet, yet others with nothing but dreams, waiting for them to be realized one day. Of all the people I have known over the years, myself included, I have noted one thing in common, we all survive for ourselves, we are all selfish beings but then again that’s human nature, we have to put ourselves first to survive. This brings me to the question of what a selfless person would truly be like. He/she who puts others before himself/herself? Does such a person exist; history has given many examples of people who are categorized as being selfless, Mother Teresa being one example that comes to mind immediately. But then was Mother Teresa truly selfless? Being a devout Christian she was trying to be a good human being, a good Christian, but why? Because her religion said so, because that is what God wanted her to do, wasn’t she a good person because God wanted her to be, her religion wanted her to be? but the good deeds apart, that brings us to the same question wasn’t she doing it for herself, maybe not on a materialistic level but rather more on a spiritual level. You do something nice for someone, feed a hungry person, give shelter to the homeless, help someone in need, you get satisfaction that you did something good, it makes you feel happy,,,, don’t you do it because you want to feel happy? Everything we do finds its way back to us one way or another....

Seasons!

Its chilly outside, I went for a walk during lunch and could feel the icy wind seeping through my pores, it’s below the freezing mark, no snow yet but it’s called for next week. The colours of fall never cease to amaze me, when fall arrives it brings with it an array of dazzling colours, leaves turn red, the air gets cooler, people are chirpier; pity it lasts for only a few weeks, then winter sets in, the leaves are no more , everything is a barren wasteland, frozen....people are cold, harshness prevails; then a brief spring, life comes back, the excitement of summer awaits; finally a hot and sultry summer, excitement galore, there’s a certain eroticism in the air, bonds are built, new futures sown up; and the cycle continues....

Assorted Fredericton Pictures!

And the Nobel goes to.....

How ironic, a few months back I came across the name Orhan Pamuk, read up a little on the Turkish writer, mostly about the Armenian genocide controversy and decided to pick up snow, for this is what the economist review had to say about it " The novel is an account of the tensions between Turkey's urban secularist elite and their long-derided (and vastly underestimated) Islamic-minded opponents. It is also a tragic love story, a thriller and, more broadly, a dark journey into familiar Pamuk territory: faith, identity, betrayal and solitude”. Having never read any of his works, I did not know what to expect and to be honest, the book was good, but that’s about it, so many writers around the globe write good books, but for it to be an extraordinary piece of literature it has to be special, something which you read time and again. Last night watching the news, I heard that Pamuk has been awarded the Nobel Prize in literature, which came as a surprise. I do not know what the ground rules for the prize are, but when it says "for literature" I am inclined to think it does stand for some extraordinary literary achievement. Pamuk's work does not justify his being awarded the prize, again to reiterate I have read only one of his books, but going through his bio on his personal site, I did not see any of his books having caused a major impact anywhere. On the other hand Pamuk has been an activist promoting the Kurdish cause, free speech and has spoken up against Turkish ultra-nationalism which is great but then my question is why is he being awarded the prize in "literature"??
Politics lays the ground rules for everything in this world and the Nobel prize is no exception,,,, how ironic is it that the French Parliament passed a law today that denying the Armenian genocide is a crime!
To conclude i do not know if the Genocide happened or not, if it did, then i think what pamuk/european governments are doing is justified and i admire pamuk for being outspoken in championing the Kurdish cause and speaking his mind out, but i honestly do not think he deserved the prize in literature because there are far more deserving candidates whose works were probably not even given a look!

But then again what do I know!

Small town life...!!

Its been 10 yrs for me in the land of snow and beavers (no pun intended):-)....Canada that is, to be more precise, its been 10 yrs for me in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Bet you have never heard of it, unless of course you are an erudite geographer. I did live in other cities because of job requirements but on the longest span of time spent in one city list, Fredericton comes in second for me after Bombay aka Mumbai where I spent my first 18 yrs. Coming from a city of 16 million or so to a town of 50,000 was a big change, I mean even villages in India have more people and here we have a capital city with 50,000 people out of which almost 10,000 are university students, so essentially i should say 40,000.Initially I thought it would be hard to adjust, not so much culturally but more so on the thought of adjusting to life in a place with more trees than people:-).But as time went by I think not only have i adjusted, but I don’t think i would be able to live in a big city anymore. Here are some of the advantages/disadvantages of small town life. Let’s start with the negatives (also i am being specific to Fredericton here, not trying to generalize; other small towns may have a distinctly different flavour to them)
1. Not a lot of 24 hr joints esp. eateries(we have 2 in town, for those who fancy a drink, most bars close at 1:00 am on weekdays,2:00 am on weekends, but most food places shutdown before midnight), also on public holidays nothing is open, the town is practically a ghost town.
Well that’s pretty much it actually, not more i can think of on the negative side.
On the positive side,
1. Get to breathe clean air, pollution is virtually non existent
2. No traffic jams, no overcrowded malls, movie theatres, though bars are packed most weekends
3.For a small town its definitely a technologically advanced town, practically all of freddy falls under the free wifi zone
4.Its safe to walk out on the streets even in the middle of the night, crime is virtually non existent, i think that’s more so because its definitely a white collared town, with only the provincial government and the university being the major entities.
The list of positives is definitely longer, but i have a meeting to attend, so have to run but yes small town life is not all that bad:-)

Chuck Norris

Top Ten facts:(Votes/Ratings below each one)
Chuck Norris' calendar goes straight from March 31st to April 2nd; no one fools Chuck Norris.
828 8.214
Chuck Norris once visited the Virgin Islands. They are now The Islands.
476 8.206
Chuck Norris counted to infinity - twice.
410 8.198
Chuck Norris' tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried.
765 8.193
Chuck Norris can speak braille.
446 8.184
Once, while having sex in a tractor-trailer, part of Chuck Norris' sperm escaped and got into the engine. We now know this truck as Optimus Prime.
308 8.166
Leading hand sanitizers claim they can kill 99.9 percent of germs. Chuck Norris can kill 100 percent of whatever the fuck he wants.
377 8.149
Chuck Norris was originally cast as the main character in 24, but was replaced by the producers when he managed to kill every terrorist and save the day in 12 minutes and 37 seconds.
465 8.133
Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.
326 8.064
Chuck Norris died ten years ago, but the Grim Reaper can't get up the courage to tell him.
295 8.061

Chuck Norris facts - by Chuck Norris himself

Chuck Norris facts by the man himself:-)

Update!

Been over a month since I last posted, could not post in September or rather was too lazy to post! As I have said before, my interest in keeping a blog is waning, was good while it lasted, I did blog every month for a year which in my case is an achievement of gargantuan proportions. Not much to write about, life drags on, doing some soul searching to realize my goal in life. Saw a movie last nite which dealt with fiction and reality getting so mixed up that its hard to distinguish which is which, I guess your life is what you want it to be, you believe in something and live life according to that belief, this belief maybe something right out of a comic book but for you its reality, cause you believe in it, kinda twisted but most of us do live our lives that way, far from reality yet so close to it in our minds, that we live the illusion of living the reality which in fact is a figment of our imagination.
Hmm that did not make much sense, I guess, I had to write something so I wrote, until next time!

4:30 am

Its saturday morning, its 4:30 am and here i am blogging,being an insomniac has its advantages i guess, you get to type away in the middle of the night or at the break of dawn,gee how wonderful:-). Anyway not that i can afford to go back to bed, i have to be at work in a cpl of hrs,another saturday at work!.No news as such on my front, life drags on as usual, except i was happy to hear that a very good friend of mine is getting married,all of a sudden out of the blue,well i hope he enjoys stepping into marital bliss and has a happy life ahead. Among other things,cricket in the last few weeks is being played outside the ground rather than on it, the game being more political than physical. The major players, pakistan, icc, ecb and umpire darrell hair, the ecb effectively bowed out so now its a triangular series between the other three,pakistan started off on a weak note, but seem to be gaining momentum and hair the opposite, the icc's performance has been mediocre so far but lets see if they come out with a googly, would be interesting to see who wins the tampering challenge, and takes home the trophy!
Well i guess, i better get ready for work, until next time!

Been a month!

Been a month since i posted something,has been kind of a hectic month, coupled with the fact that i was down with the flu for like a week. So nothing much to write about, except one good thing, they finally called for a cease-fire in the middle east, now it remains to be seen if both parties follow it, so much blood spilled over a piece of land, isnt that the case everywhere? any conflict is fuelled by occupation of territories backed by religious zealots!, i think religion is the root cause, wish all of us had one religion, simple solution to a complex situation, of course it should be a religion which does not prohibit, drinking,gambling and other social evils:-)

Proud to be a mumbaikar!

I have been here for over 10 yrs but as always i am mumbaikar(bombayite) first, and nothing better exemplifies the spirit of the city than the unity of the people in times of crisis, as you must have all heard, there were blasts in city on tuesday leaving scores dead and injured, but i wonder when these people will realise that you cannot break the resolve of mumbaikars, the city is back to normal and functioning as it should be and i salute fellow mumbaikars for this!My sister put it best yesterday when i was talking to her, she said she was proud to have born and to live in mumbai, and she said that she will back travelling to and fro from school.Here are some stories which tell u about the amazing city,the city never beaten and fellow members of the blogging fraternity who have done a wonderful job.!How the internet has helped!
Viva Mumbai!

Zinedine Zidane headbutts Marco Materazzi and gets sent off

Here's what happened in the final!

World Cup Poll

Polls closed, i had 31 responses, i guess it was 16 and 15 in favour of france,well Italy won! more to come soon!my views on the game!

Football Glory or Is it!

The world cup is in its closing stages, the finalists have been decided, Italy plays France for the ultimate prize in world football on July 9th. Italy/France, an unlikely combination for the final, sure they are good teams, but do they really deserve to be here? Were they better than the 30 other countries who played alongside? certainly debateable!.I was expecting a Brazil/Argentina encounter in the finals, by far the two most talented sides in the competition, but both failed to get past the quarter finals, Brazil never got going and Argentina were undone by a German team, fuelled by self-belief.Now back to the two finalists, Italy had a somewhat easy route to the semi-finals but they did play well against the Germans and due credit to them they are in the finals now. France on the other hand, had problems from the outset of the competition, the coach and "certain" senior players did not see eye to eye, but i guess winning changes all that and the more you win the stronger the self belief gets and the stronger that delicate coach-player relationship gets. It certainly will be an interesting game to watch, the final, more of a tactical battle, rather that outright offense which is what the Bra/Arg game would have provided, both the teams are defensively well marshalled, with cannavarro leading the way for Italy and Thuram for France.Matchups which will be interesting, Zizou vs Cannavaro, Totti vs Thuram. My prediction, well neither one is a team whose style of play i particularly like, but i am inclined to side with France, cause Zizou playing his last game, it does have a sentimental ring to it.
PS: Compare the Argentinian team with these two, is it even a comparison!ahh the ironies of the game
Argentina:
ABBONDANZIERI Roberto
AYALA Roberto
SORIN Juan
SCALONI Lionel
HEINZE Gabriel
RIQUELME Juan
MASCHERANO Javier
CAMBIASSO Esteban
RODRIGUEZ Maxi
SAVIOLA Javier
CRESPO Hernan

And Messi and Tevez off the bench!

World Cup Fever!

Have not updated the blog in a while, well to be honest i am too preoccupied with the football(soccer here in north america) world cup, well not that its a valid excuse, i am a lazy person after all, there's only so much one can do and all my energy is channeled towards the world cup, with a hope that Argentina wins!.Well by now you must have guessed which team i am supporting!I started following soccer way back in 1986 when i was all of 8 and Argentina won the world cup in mexico city(the famous hand of god incident).Well when i was 8 it was more of a causal thing watching the world cup, having a favourite team, somehow my interest in soccer waned over the years but after the 98 wc i am back to following it on a full time basis!, anyway, next game
QF: Argentina vs Germany Fri June 30, 12:00 our time!

Books I have read/liked/disliked/want to read!

What have I read?
These are the 25 most popular overall books at What Should I Read Next?

I liked it!

I didn't like it!

I want to read it!

The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - Douglas Adams

The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger

The Great Gatsby - F.Scott Fitzgerald

To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

1984 - George Orwell

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J.K. Rowling

The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

Animal Farm: A Fairy Story - George Orwell

The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien

Life of Pi - Yann Martel

Catch-22 - Joseph Heller

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

Lord of the Flies - William Golding

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut

The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card

The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien

Angels and Demons - Dan Brown

Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk

Take the 'What have I read?' test now!
Eight different categories to try!
Buy your books at Amazon US or Amazon UK

Lazy or Am I!

As time goes by my frequency for posting stuff here decreases, my interest in keeping a blog keeps waning, a feature so predominant in my life, i am interested in something for a few weeks, then gradually the interest seems to fade away, its a minor miracle i have been updating this blog atleast once a month! So whats new, hmm lets see, i saw 2 movies(x3 and the da vinci code),finished one book(shantaram) and finally, after a long long time went out on the weekend, had some fun, met a lot of interesting people!
In other news, the world cup starts in less than 2 weeks, june 09 to be precise, looking forward to that, in cricket India got thrashed by the windies,4-1, murphy's law had to catch up!

Change!

Why do people fear change so much? in every aspect of human life, changes take place but somehow we seem complacent or rather hesitant to accept those changes, even though we know deep inside that we will have to accept them eventually and then it becomes a part of our life, no longer a change, ever wonder why the initial hesitancy, maybe because of the fear that we may lose our pattern our rhythm, the way we like to live life,,,, intriguing! I’ll let u people think up some reasons for that!
Anyway no news in my life, dull and boring as usual, sometimes i get so lonely its unbelievable, sitting in a crowded bar with friends around yet the feeling of loneliness is eminent, wonder what am i yearning for!

My Avatar!

Doodle Bug!

Of late i have been struck by the doodle bug, all i do is doodle aimlessly, wonder why? a waste of paper i tell ya, i have been going through a weird phase in life right now, life does not seem to be meaningful anymore, a purposeless, dull existence, striving to make money, to enjoy life, with no sense of purpose. I have been thinking(hmm that’s a change, i think these days)about the fact that how does my existence matter, what have i done or rather what should i do that gives some purpose to my life, makes it more meaningful. The answer to the first part, i have not done anything so far in life which makes a difference, the second part what should i do? a number of options come to mind, but after giving it quite a lengthy thought i have decided, that social work or some sort of development work with an NGO especially in Africa would do the trick and i would be able to feel a sense of accomplishment. I chose Africa, because i think for most people on other continents, Africa exists only as the land of wildlife safaris, exotic game, extreme heat and decorative pieces which can be bought at the local "cultural" store. I discussed my dilemma and the apparent solution with some of my friends and most of them think it’s a pretty stupid idea, something which i would never be able to do. They presented some valid,some invalid points to justify their views, valid points being is it financially feasible for me (its not like i am a millionaire) to work dirt cheap(a little less than what i make now:-)), will i be able to quit my present lifestyle,which i must say i have been accustomed to for a while now, the invalid points being, one person cannot make a difference, what about marriage, kids, the whole shebang. So the debate rages on,till i find a solution!
P:S:- I finished reading the suketu mehta book,picked up "shantaram"(coming out as a johnny depp movie in '07) another book which is related to bombay,somehow i seem fixated with bombay thesedays!

Maximum City!

I suffer from ADD, hence I am not going to elaborate on my movie review of Capote, its been a week and I am past Capote. I find that the most creative time of my day is just before i fall asleep, there I am lying in bed trying to sleep, twisting and turning with my mind wandering from pillar to post, thinking of what I have accomplished or what i can accomplish, these thoughts range from me writing a book to my failed love interests and how things would have been different if circumstances were different, the mistakes i made and the mistakes i vow not to make in future, of course come early morning none of this matters, the thoughts are gone, i am in the present, trying to live my day. I am reading a book i picked up last week called Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found by suketu mehta, the author supposedly penned the book wandering the streets of Bombay interacting with vividly colorful people who make up Bombay, the city I grew up in. How much is fact, how much is fiction is beyond my knowledge but I like what I have read so far, Bombay a city with almost 18 million people ,filthy, polluted, I am loss for words describing how degrading the city is, yet its a city like none other, I love bombay for all it is, no one starves to death, the city provides everyone with some form of comfort, the gap between the rich and poor is humongous but its a stark reality which will never change, yet rich and poor all alike love the city! aamchi mumbai!, for those not familiar with the city, give this book a read, its not a tourist guide which paints a rosy picture, in fact many of you would probably never want to visit such a city, after reading the book, but then again life is full of pleasant surprises and let Bombay surprise you!

Capote!

Saw capote last night, it was a good movie, whether Philip Seymour Hoffman deserved an Oscar for the performance,that's a good question, i am not going to bother debating on the issue, as i do not have a great deal of respect for the Oscar’s, its all hype,,,,nothing more, of course i am not saying that PSH did a bad job as capote, he was excellent by all accounts, i just do not feel an Oscar can judge an actor's calibre, and hopefully PSH and other good actors feel the same way!, unlike Mr.Gladiator:-). Anyway back to the movie, before i watched the movie, i had heard about Truman Capote, knew him to be an author of repute who died because of addiction problems; i had never read any of his works or watched any movies for which he had written the screenplay. So leading up to the movie, i decided to get a copy of "In Cold Blood", give it a read and then watch the movie, now the book was excellent, what impressed me most was the attention to detail, and capote's ability to paint a clear picture which is imprinted in the reader's mind, the other thing i found interesting in his style of writing was his ability to keep the reader occupied throughout, constantly playing with choice words used. Reading the book one gets an idea of the kind of person Truman capote was, someone who was meticulous got all the facts right and generally an honest individual. The movie however paints an entirely different picture, capote and honest are something which are contrasting opposites of each other, it was as if he controlled the entire plot leading up to the book, like it was a pre-written script and he was merely executing it.
Will elaborate more in my next post, have to get some work done right now, oh also i am all of 28 now

Birthday Blues!

2 more days and I’ll be all of 28, God that sounds old! and depressing, but then on the flip side, I am still only 28 and have so much to achieve ,young ,vibrant, full of energy, now that sounds so much better:-). Now in 28 yrs what have I accomplished, hmm not a whole lot, a univ. degree, a few yrs of work experience, but then everyone has that these days, but the major accomplishment as i see it is my transformation from a spoilt rotten brat who got everything he wanted to a sober somewhat mature individual. Everything comes at a price though, i learnt that the hard way, lost the one person dearest to me and it made me realize so much, that itself was a transformation in itself, from blaming God to realizing that death is part of life, took a while but i did learn the realities of life.
Now for the future, what would i like to do?, well there are a lot of things that i really want to do but don't know if i ever will get a chance to do them, because of time, money or other such materialistic concerns, one example being, tour Africa and do something which actually matters in one of the war-torn countries,,,, maybe someday, as always i am optimistic!, another thing i would like to do, is fall in love, have a relationship with someone and make it last, now the Africa thing might even happen but falling in love seems like an utopian dream:-),the right girl, perfect compatibility? Does she even exist ;-),lol, who knows!

The Chappell Interview- My Take!

Recently India's " 'prodigal as some may call him'--- after the ganguly affair:-)" cricket coach Greg Chappell was in the news again. I think its on chappell's agenda to propagate some kind of controversy before the start of every series, which in a way takes the heat off issues on hand such as cricket:-). Here's interesting bits and pieces from the latest one in the Guardian.

On Ganguly:

For a while, the Ganguly issue - the captaincy passed to Rahul Dravid after it all came to a head during the tour of Zimbabwe - became all consuming. For the good of all, Chappell is keen to move it on from it now. Some years back, Ganguly had come to him for coaching. "I helped him with his batting then," said Chappell, "so maybe he thought I would be his mate and support him now. Certainly there is no way I would have got the job here without his influence. I'm sure he thought he would be able to run me as he did John in the latter part of his time as coach. But we clashed because his needs as a struggling player and captain and those of the team were different.
(I had mentioned earlier in one of my posts that chappell owes ganguly his post,it was common knowledge that most of the other members of the team wanted Moody, now this world is just not fair is it:-)
"I'm not the hard-nosed control freak that I have been portrayed. I'm thorough, a realist, a pragmatist and I'm honest. Much has been written and said, a lot of it misleading, but in essence I told Sourav that if he wanted to save his career he should consider giving up the captaincy. He was just hanging in there. Modest innings were draining him. He had no energy to give to the team, which was helping neither him nor us. It was in his own interest to give himself mind space to work on his batting so that it could be resurrected. He was not prepared to do that. What I didn't realize at that stage was how utterly important to his life and finances being captain was.
(Honest, dunno,i guess we'll know when some of the other members of the team not embroiled in controversy retire in like 10 yrs, as to how honest chappell really was)

"The controversy will carry on but I have learned if I can't be totally impervious to it then it is beyond my control. I have to let it wash by and say 'people have their reasons for saying what they do and I can't be distracted by that' and do what I believe in. At the end of my time, whenever that might be, the team and therefore I will be judged ultimately on the results we achieve, not whether I have been able to convince this or that member of the media that what we are doing is in the best interests of Indian cricket."
(You got that right Greg, i don’t care, if you create an entirely new team filled with "galli-mohalla" cricketers, i want us to win, i am the average indian cricket fan.)
Well, the latest news is that the BCCI has issued an official warning with Saurav complaining about the interview, but i am sure Pawar and Co. must be having a nice laugh over glasses of whisky:-), after all Jaggu had his time and his Black Labels now its time for the other party to party:-)

Bottom-line, my take on the whole issue, i don’t care, ganguly or no ganguly , chappell or no chappell,i want the team to win and winning is certainly a habit they seem to have picked up playing under chappell!

Regional Jingoism?

In my spare time(of which i have plenty, on days off:-))i try to read through blogs concerning India, humorous blogs, serious blogs,the lot. Of late reading the popular blogs, one thing has certainly come to the fore, regional jingoism, we as Indians are very protective of which part of the country we come from, our "identity" as many may call it,i mean living abroad when u are asked about your ethnicity, the reply comes "i am from India”, to most westerners synonymous with "Apu", who has gained immense popularity thanks to the Simpson’s .So for the westerners we are Indians, but gather a bunch of Indians together and in no time you will see groups formed which represent different parts of the country, of course i am not trying to generalize here as there are numerous exceptions to this, and personally living in Bombay (Mumbai)for a good part of my life i have never experienced such regionalistic fervor among my close friends but have seen enough to know that it exists and is rampant. Now about how i feel, i can equate this regional crap, as well as religious crap(that’s worse) with some kind of terminal disease and for something which has not had a cure ,I don’t know if it ever will. So why do I vent about it? i just happened to chance across a blog, by some fellow who calls himself the greatbong and thinks that all of india has anti-bengal sentiments, and he does so by equating the case of saurav ganguly to anti-bengali sentiments in india???? and he's apparently a very popular blogger? it boggles my imagination to see that him writing such crap(he does have a flair for writing it though, i do admit that)brings about so much popular reaction, i mean you have the bengalis going, yay we have a voice, the southies going screw you, bengal sucks southies are the best,the north indians saying, screw all of you we are the best and the maharashtrians going " amcha mulga sachin tendulkar" that says it all!!!!!
Seriously ever wonder why even though we are growing economically, will be a superpower soon, we shall always lag!

On a side note( as usual i like to end things with a side note), India managed to win the ODI series in pakistan 4-1 and are playing england in the first test!also another chappell controversy!!!!!(i'll post the juicy details soon)

Into My Own!

Two of my favourite poems by my favourite poet!-enjoy

Robert Frost------

Into My Own

One of my wishes is that those dark trees,
So old and firm they scarcely show the breeze,
Were not, as 'twere, the merest mask of gloom,
But stretched away unto th eedge of doom.

I should not be withheld but that some day
into their vastness I should steal away,
Fearless of ever finding open land,
or highway where the slow wheel pours the sand.

I do not see why I should e'er turn back,
Or those should not set forth upon my track
To overtake me, who should miss me here
And long to know if still I held them dear.

They would not find me changed from him the knew--
Only more sure of all I though was true.
--------------------------------------------------
THE ROAD NOT TAKEN


Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

-------------------------------------------------
On a side note, remember "2 legit to quit", dude has his blog now, chk it out:-)
http://mchammer.blogspot.com/

Perhaps the most famous photograph of the 20th century!

Or is it this photograph!

Realities of our past!

The only book i have read to date which somewhat chronicles life in concentration camps during ww2 is the Auschwitz by primo levi. I have read a lot about ww2 but did not have a clue about the extent of torture that nazis put the jewish people through, hitler,himmler,eichmann, these are familiar names, and i have come across them in books,movies,so on and so forth but one of the most perverse and sick individuals in the nazi regime was a doctor by the name of josef mengele, and i came across his name accidentally when reading about the Paraguayan dictator stroessman, here's more about mengele from wikipedia*
I shudder to think what the world would have been like, had the germans won the war!
Josef Mengele:
"It was during his 21-month stay at Auschwitz that Mengele achieved infamy, and it is for this period that he was later referred to as the "Angel of Death". Mengele was usually part of the medical delegation which met incoming prisoners, determining which would be retained for work and experimentation, and which would be sent immediately to the gas chambers.

Mengele had a morbid fascination with twins; beginning in 1943, twins were selected and placed in special barracks. Most of the children selected for these experiments came from the Roma being held at Auschwitz. Almost all of Mengele's experiments were of dubious scientific value, ignoring the lack of ethics involved, including attempts to change eye color by injecting chemicals into children's eyes, various amputations and other brutal surgeries, and in at least one case attempting to create an artificial conjoined twin by sewing the veins in two twins together; this operation was not successful and only caused the hands of the children to become badly infected. Another dubious experiment that he purportedly conducted involved submerging subjects into boiling cauldrons of water so as to see how much heat the human body could take before death. Subjects of Mengele's experiments were almost always murdered afterward for dissection, if they survived the experiment itself. Mengele also had several Jewish medical helpers. They were given the task of dissecting bodies and finding the causes of death.

Mengele also had an interest in dwarfs, founding the Lilliput Troupe, seven of whose ten members were dwarfs. He often called them "his dwarf family" and experimented on them often. He was fascinated by their structure, why they had smaller limbs yet a normal-sized trunk. They seemed vital to his research and he had them treated specially — they were allowed to keep their clothes, scarves and accessories they had from their home. Mengele even gave them make-up to wear on more than one occasion."

Disappointment!

The past 2 weeks have been disappointing and frustrating to say the least, bureaucratic nonsense delays even the menial of tasks,,,, the system especially in countries like India has degraded to such an extent that I sometimes wonder how it actually works,,,, also
being an ardent sports lover, takes its toll, especially when none of your teams are doing well. I follow a lot of sports, soccer,hockey,basketball and most of all cricket. As with any sports fan, I have my favorite team in each of these sports, most being club teams, with the notable exception being cricket and as a billion fellow Indians, India is my team in cricket.
Team India the present and future:
India is visiting Pakistan for a 3 match test series, followed by 5 ODI's, the test series ended up in the Pakistani's favor 1-0, the Pakistani's winning the last test at Karachi, was extremely frustrating to watch as from a vantage point of 39-6 we threw away the match, the batsmen were blamed for not putting up a fight etc etc, but the crux of the issue is that India has a tooth less bowling attack, which at its best is not capable of bowling out even the mediocre of teams in world cricket. The only place our bowlers can bowl well, are on tailor made pitches in India. A billion people and not one genuine pace bowler, how pathetic is that?,people attribute it to flat pitches,lack of infrastructure,etc etc, well then howcome our neighbours produce fast bowlers a dime a dozen!I had commented on the new look indian side previously in this blog, the whole chappell-ganguly saga, and a young side in the making, i am an eternal optimist and will continue to believe that this side will eventually find its groove and start winning on a consistent basis, it is too harsh to judge a team with a failure in one series,,,, but that being said, unless we find alteast 2-3 quality bowlers,the team with all its batting talent will get nowhere.
All that said Pakistan deserved the win, they outbowled,outbatted and outfielded us!
News Flash:
First ODI, india lose by 7 runs, D/L method, was close but the game only went on to justify my point about the bowlers!

2006!

Well we are well into the new year, nothing new in my life so far!!!!, but the new year has definitely brought a couple of pleasant surprises, a good friend got married recently, well it was all over and done with in 5 days, hard to fathom but some people are fast and furious:-). I have been busy with work over the past few weeks, so did not get time to do much, although i did manage to catch the screening of Munich, i definitely recommend the movie, though not a great fan of Steven Spielberg’s creativity (indy movies being the notable exception), i must say this is a must see movie, it is an unbiased characterization of events as far as i think and hopefully he will come out with more movies on similar lines. Other than that nothing more to report,,,, need to go home soon, been a while, but the first question that pops up when i reach home will be the "marriage" one, i guess dad needs to see some grandkids,,,, i feel there's quite a long way to go before that!,,,, until next time!